Monday, February 28, 2011

Opposites Attract!

For those of you who know us (Jenny & Mark) well, you'll know that while we are similar in many things and have a relatively harmonious relationship the majority of the time ... the things that 'float our boats' are in completely different areas!
Jenny loves anything crafty ... and small town America is a GREAT place if that's what you enjoy! You may remember this time last year she took a quilting class where she learnt the basics ... well almost exactly a year later she finally finished her first quilt (see above), one she completely designed from scratch (probably why it took so long!!). Mark on the other hand is a real boy when it comes to tools ... just as well considering his current profession ... so when Croham Road Baptist Church gave us some money from their Ambassador Gift Day at the end of last year ... Mark was super excited to be able accrue some more, much needed but expensive tools to his collection (see below). He will use these daily, both here training in the States and later when we're working in an MAF operation somewhere else in the world! Thank you CRBC!!
One similarity we do share is that we love to hang out together ... something that we haven't had a chance to do as much as we'd like, in fact we haven't had 24 hours off together since Abigail was born ... one of the downfalls of moving away from family and having to build up a new circle of friends and surrogate family! As we'd had a bit of a yucky January and with Bubble due to arrive in just a couple of months time, Jenny got really sneaky and planned a surprise overnight getaway! All Mark knew was to take last Friday afternoon off work ... and the rest had been plotted and planned to perfection ... a night in Columbus with yummy restaurants, 'proper' shopping (you have to understand when you compare London to Coshocton, there is a HUGE difference!), a lie in and some quality time together ... while Abigail was having a whale of time back at home with a couple of Jenny's lovely friends and their families!! Thank you Laurie, Kristin and the rest of the Gettles for having fun with our little munchkin ... we owe you big time!! Below is the only cheesy shot we took in front of the hotel, so that we can look back and prove that it actually happened!!
After some mummy and daddy time on Friday and Saturday ... we enjoyed the brighter spring weather today (Sunday) as a family, at Lake Park! We went for a walk, fed the ducks and had fun in the playground ... strange when you consider that Friday morning was heavy snow and today it was all melting ... even though the lake was still mostly covered in ice, except for around the fountain!! See below a few wintery yet spring-like shots we took while we were out!
The weather was warm and the sun was shining ... two posers needed their sunglasses to play in the park ... one thing we love about an Ohio winter ... the sky is often clear and blue and sunglasses are definitely an all year round accessory!!

Friday, February 18, 2011

More of the Mundane!

Hooray ... after the ups and downs of January, we're really happy to report that February has just been normal and boring ... and we're so pleased about that too! We're not so happy that the snow has almost completely disappeared ... although the majority of the population would disagree with us! This time last year we were still in a foot of snow having fun ... winter has been completely different in our second year here with ice storm warnings and wind advisory's in place of the heavy snow we had hoped for once again!! Here are a couple of photos taken at the beginning of the icy few days ... the second shows a tree not covered in snow but with each branch completely caked in ice, it was quite something to see in person!
Mark's back is almost 100% again and he has been in the hangar as usual come snow, ice, rain or shine ... keeping up with his regular tests and working on the aircraft. As you can see he was pleased (?) to get his hands back on his tools and get on the job again after the prolonged break in the New Year!
More news from the hangar ... the 'Senior Apprentice' is the one who is the furthest through their training ... and the holder of the 'Senior Apprentice Wrench' (for the non-Americans, read 'Spanner'!!). Last week Paul Jones (below, right) completed the required hours towards his A&P Licence and will take his final tests in the next few weeks ... and so passed over the coveted wrench to Andy Porter (below, left), another MAF UK apprentice. Andy has now taken on the 'Senior Apprentice' role and become the holder of what is renamed the 'Senior Apprentice Spanner' while in the hands of a Brit! All being well the next handover will be from Andy to Mark towards the end of this year!!
On the home front ... apart from a 24 hour sickness bug for Abigail we've all been well!! Jenny has now reached 30 weeks in her pregnancy and for those who've been asking ... you can see below she has quite a big belly right now (although very pleased that so far she has only put on a third of the total weight she did with Abigail!!). All seems to be ticking along well and we've sailed through all the checks and tests we've had ... now every two weeks ... Abigail comes along to 'look after mummy' when she gets checked and enjoys listening to Bubble's heartbeat!! She keeps randomly telling us 'I love Bubble' ... hopefully she'll be as quick to say that when they take over the house and rock her world in a couple of months time!!!

Sunday, February 06, 2011

My New Bed!

Abigail here for a change ... I thought I would tell you my exciting news!!! I'm growing fast and lots has changed in the last couple of months ... the most recent thing for me at the moment is that last weekend Mummy and Daddy bought me a new 'big girls bed'!!
Naturally I wanted in on the action ... and had Daddy's tools out of the box before he realised what was going on!! Then we set to unpacking the bed in the middle of the living room floor ...
Once all the bits and pieces were out ... I was quick to lend Daddy a hand putting it together, especially with his 'noisy' drill ... and tell him exactly what he was meant to be doing!!
As soon as it was all assembled I was very quick to test it out ... it was a little hard but I couldn't wait ... Monkey liked it too!
It got a bit more comfy when we got the mattress ... but it was still in the middle of the living room ... I was too excited to wait til it was moved into my bedroom!
Finally Mummy and Daddy took advantage of a few minutes when I'd jumped off to put my new bed into my room ... check out the little shelf for my books at the end so I can read them without having to get out of bed!! I also love the fact that there's more wall space to display my masterpieces now too!
As soon as my bed was in place I made myself at home with my books and didn't move for quite a while. Earlier on this week I wasn't very well and it was great to be able to just flop in my lovely new bed!
Now a week on, I'm still quick to head to bed when it's nap-time and bedtime because I love my 'big girls bed' ... just thought I'd tell you all about it too! ;o)