Whew, it's done...well almost

Here is the before and after pictures.

History Books

So Lance is the first class of United pilots trained after September 11, 2001. It's like a historical event. One of the traditions of pilot training classes is that whoever gets the last seniority spot (decided by social security numbers) has to keep the "8 bowling ball" by his side at all times and its heavy! Because Lance's social security number starts with a 9, he is the proud carrier of the 8 ball. He walks around with that at all times when studying, training and hanging out with the fellow flight students. He hands it off to the next class mid October. But we think he will make history books for the first 8 ball holder since 9-11.

Happy Birthday Paul

We have had an insane week/weekend. On Saturday we went up to help our friend/contractor put in the floors at the condo....it was not going really well. Needless to say, we stayed up there until right before Marika's shower and then went up again Monday after work. So, normally on birthdays at the Houge household, we celebrate all week (I think we copied that idea from Jewish wedding traditions). Anyways, Paul only got one night of celebration because of our projects. But we had fun Tuesday night. Rafael and Lance celebrated with us. I made salsa, paul's fav hot dish and thai custard with coconut ice cream. It was eclectic in taste:) Rafael thought my birthday was a couple of days ago, too, so he brought me a gift, too. A good time was had by all.

Marika's Shower

Sunday was such a fun day....my EMU friends and I threw a shower for Marika. She is such a cute bride-to-be and very much in love. Her fiance's, Nathan, family came to the shower including his sister from Kansas. We had a tea party and played fun bridal games and enjoyed being girlie. Marika received some great "honeymoon" gifts! I cannot wait for Marika's wedding, too (it's on my birthday)!

Did I mention Paul is a stud?

Ok, so Saturday morning Paul gets up and runs a 10k race to raise money for an Air Force charity. He came back home with a 1st place trophy! Go Paul, you are a stud!

Cousins

Life has been crazy the last week and I am catching up on my online scrapbook. We have been enjoying Lance's stay. He has so many stories of life as a pilot, sometimes I am scared to fly when I hear about other pilots. No, he has assured us that it is safe. Friday night we went to a park and ate dinner with Lance, Jeremy & Kim and their newly adopted son, Aran. Pictured is Aran plowing our rug. We had a blast hanging out and cannot wait for my cousin, Joni, to join us for a weekend.

Weekend Blogger

Well, I am officially a weekend or post weekend blogger. First of all, Paul is a trooper! Paul has been training like a mad man for his Air Force Training Test. I mean like a mad man! He had to run a mile and a half in 10 minutes, do a large amount of sit-ups & push-ups and have a 32 inch waistline. Well, after his intense workouts..He passed with flying colors on Friday! My hubby is one inshape dude! After the test, then a long day at work, he drove up to the cabin on Friday and demolished the kitchen floor and prepped the main level for new flooring that will be installed this week. He didn't get home until 3am. We were up bright and early on Saturday to leave by 7:30 for adoption classes. After adoption classes he had to go to work for another 4 hours. Then Sunday he got up at 5am to set up the church (we meet in a school). We had lunch guest over & watched the broncos lose. Anyways, he is crazy energetic. I would have fallen over before the weekend started.

But we are having a great time this week. My cousin, Lance, (Joni's husband) just got a job as a United pilot and is training out here. He is staying with us. We love living vicariously through him...last night we drove by the simulators he will be training on...wow.