Shawna's 37th Birthday!!

It’s Shawna’s birthday! Or should we say it’s Shawna’s birthday week! She loves her birthday, and celebrates it all week long. We usually go on vacation during her birthday, so it was a little different this year; what should we do? How could we celebrate such a wonderful, momentous event?

How about a party? (Seems original enough – No one had ever done a birthday party before, right?) However, Sterling and Shawna’s friends have big ideas. We were able to “reserve” the patio at a local restaurant, and invited a few of our friends. We had 35 people celebrate with us – it was a fun time. (The food wasn’t great, but the friends were.)

After dinner, we went to the Gallup’s house for cake and ice cream. We celebrated Grammom and Grandpa’s 45th wedding anniversary, and Grammom read a poem she’d written. Then we sang “Happy Birthday” to Shawna (who turned bright red and starting crying – yeah, success!)
Happy Birthday beautiful!

Remodeling the Bathroom...Beautiful

When we bought the house, the standard option was for wall-to-wall carpeting, including the bathrooms. Shawna didn’t want carpeting in there, but it cost more to have tile instead of carpeting. So, we reasoned that we could use carpeting for a few years, let it get “worn out,” and then replace the carpet with tile (since we’d have to pay for it at some time.) Well, that time has come, at least for the first bathroom…

The project itself isn’t too difficult – but it’s all the “sub-projects” that take so much time. We had to rip off the old tile, which meant completely replacing the drywall around the shower before we could even begin. Same with the carpet, toilet, sink, you name it. With every step, we had to paint or touch up areas that were covered by the old fixings. We replaced our crappy toilet (lol, sorry, that’s a stinky pun) with one that’ll consistently flush the product.

So, although the workers’ (Sterling’s) estimate was only for a week, he had to leave on a trip before he could finish, and the bathroom had to wait for his return. Portions of the project were fun (and Shawna bought him a nice wet-tile cutter)! However, the minutia of the grout, sealant, caulking, painting, baseboards, plumbing, etc got to be a bit old. He enlisted Tyler, Kenzie and Bryson to help with some of the chores. The end result looks pretty good, but it’ll be some time until he starts on the next bathroom!

Bubble Boy...Not so Funny

Tiny bubbles…Tiny bubbles, in my brain, make me sad, make me lame… literally. Sterling had an incident while flying in January. He was doing one of his “routine” test flights in the F-15 and had a rapid depressurization up high. This is a fairly common occurrence, and he descended and landed immediately. He was on the aircraft oxygen and felt fine. However, about 45 minutes after landing he started getting a tingling sensation on the skin down his left arm and down his back, so he went to the flight doctor. They gave him 100% oxygen again and he felt better. Sterling thought, “Thanks guys, I feel fine,” but he was wrong. They immediately transferred him to the Macon hospital and into a dive chamber for 5 – 6 hours to dissolve any remaining nitrogen bubbles back into the blood.

The next day he had to go see a Neurologist to get cleared to fly again. Sterling was thinking it’d just be a “rubber stamp” and back to the skies. Wrong again! The doc said his left eye was acting goofy, and ordered an MRI to check for a stroke and/or brain damage since the symptoms were isolated to his left side… This got everyone spun up, Sterling included. The flight doc was on the phone with the Air Force experts in Texas, Shawna flew down that same day, and Sterling wondered if he’d just had his last flight in the F-15.

Well, we’re happy to report that everything is ok. There was no evidence of a stroke (although based on the symptoms, the neurologist said he probably had a very minor one). There also wasn’t any brain damage (no more than usual at least). Sterling had get some more tests done, and he had to wait a month for the experts in TX to clear him to fly, but he’s back in the saddle!

Weight Loss/Life Style Goals in 2009

It’s January 2009! Yeah! It’s that time of year for Goals, especially those of the weight-loss nature – drat! We both know that Weight Watchers works (say that three times fast) and we’ve done it before. However, this past fall Shawna had to have three different surgeries on her legs to remove varicose/damaged veins. She hasn’t been able to exercise since her first surgery in October, and won’t be able to start until a month after her last surgery in February. (Sterling was very sympathetic (or apathetic) and decided to also not work out until Shawna could again.)

So, in the meantime, it’s strictly calorie control – no fun. Shawna is tenacious – she’s an animal! Whatever she sets her mind to, she does! She’s already lost 8 percent of her body weight, and she looks yummy! Sterling has lost over 12 pounds, but it’s only 5 percent of his body weight.

This past week, Shawna got the early go-ahead from her Doc, and we’ve started running and exercising. Theoretically the weight will plateau for a little bit (since muscle weighs more than fat) and then keep decreasing. More importantly the inches will continue to come off.

We took “before” pictures, but we’re not posting them here – don’t want you to throw up on the computer… We’re getting ready for Triathlon season… tune in later this Spring/Summer to see how it goes!

Bryson's 12th Birthday

Bryson’s 12! He has had an amazing year, and had big changes as he transitions from a child to a young man. He was also ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood, and is very thrilled to be a Deacon and in Young Men’s. He is making great strides and growing up nicely! We celebrated his birthday the weekend after Christmas break, so he could have a party all for himself.

Bryson, Jamie Gallup, and Ashley ready to eat some cake!

Sandy Gallup made his birthday cake, the “all-spark” from the movie “Transformers.” (Sandy is a professional cake decorator.)

New Year's Eve at Disney World!!!

Ok, Disney World is our home away from home, except it’s a lot more expensive and the food doesn’t taste anything like what Shawna makes for us. Nevertheless, we had been told to go there to see the Christmas decorations, since “It’s absolutely beautiful!” So away we went.
On our drive out of Missouri, we literally drove out of an oncoming winter front, including freezing rain. We were able to get out from under it after a couple hours of driving. However, it caught back up to us, and rained buckets when we were in IL and KY. (We’ve had a lot of rain on other drives to DW too, hmm.) Then on the drive home, there were crowds of football fans all heading home after the Florida bowl games! It was bumper-to-bumper until past Atlanta. We didn’t stay at a Disney hotel, nor did we eat on their dining plan. However, we thought it was great! Our room was bigger, with queen beds, and we ate better meals (at IHOP and Outback) than the counter services at Disney World.

The decorations were very pretty, especially the extra lights they had on Cinderella’s Castle! They even had fake snow (a sort of bubble bath) falling down Main Street. (Ashley and Brandon were trying to catch it on their tongues like real snow – yucky!) They also had hats and noisemakers for everyone. (Hats – Yes. Noisemakers – No.) But probably the nicest thing was the cooler weather. We’ve never been except in the heat of summer, and it was nice to be there and not always be sweating. We didn’t feel as tired as we do in the summer. However, since the kids have school, we’re stuck with the summer visits, (unless we take them out of school…hey, that’s an idea.)
The fireworks were truly incredible! They’re like the 4th of July in two regards: they both have the same show a day early, and the fireworks come up at the same time from all around you. We’ve seen both, and they’re spectacular! On the 30th there weren’t very many people, and we had a front-row view right in front of the Castle. On New Years Eve however, they were at maximum capacity by 11 am. We couldn’t even park there, and “had” to go to Epcot for most of the day. In the evening, we went to customer relations, and asked if Magic Kingdom was still full. They said no, and allowed us to transfer our tickets (and gave us Hopper privileges) and go there. When we arrived, the park was still full, full. (We witnessed a lot of family meltdowns that day.) However, since we know the system, we were still able to ride a fair amount of rides before midnight. Then, pushing both kids in the double stroller, and with Summer and Shawna as secondary blockers, we managed work our way “up-stream” through the crowd (since DW must leave walkways open for crowd control/emergencies, etc.) and arrive right in front of Cinderella’s Castle and Main Street just as the fireworks started! Sterling and Shawna just giggled about it, since people had stood in those places for many hours to get a good view. Brandon and Ashley even got out of the stroller to see the fireworks this time, although they kept their hands on their ears.
After the show, we went back to the rides, which were deserted. (Most everyone went straight for the exits – silly.) We rode a bunch of rides until just after 1 am, and decided the kids were getting tired. As we excited the park, there were still hordes of people waiting to board the ferry and monorails to leave. So we walked a short distance to the Contemporary hotel, boarded the next monorail, and left without any wait! I think our DW experiences are much different, and happier, than the average tourist, which is probably why we keep going back…

The fireworks were completely surrounding us! You can see the Christmas lights on Cinderella’s Castle.

Look we’re actually wearing jackets! It was beautiful weather! You can also see the fake snow (the white spots in the photo) falling around us. It was an artificial winter wonderland with my sweetie pie!

Ashley and Brandon like the fireworks, but they don’t care for the noise. Summer helped out a lot, and we were very excited she was able to come with us this year.

Three beautiful girls, having a party and hanging out at the home of a Million Dreams. Depends on who you’re with, I’d say. My dreams have already come true!

Christmas Day 2008

“Santa came! He did, I saw it.” It seems every year, no matter what roadblocks or instruction we give to the kids, there is always one little munchkin who quietly rises, ignores the warnings, and goes and peeks at what Santa may have left for all of us. This year was no different, although Ashley claimed she was trying to prevent Brandon from seeing the presents. Needless to say, we don’t have any pictures of them with the initial shock/surprise of Christmas morning, but they were pretty excited when they came running into our room while we were sleeping…

Sterling has the official duty of passing out the presents in such a way that no one goes too long without opening a present, and everyone finishes during the same round too. Plus he has to make the Christmas Bread – there’s so much pressure!

Grandpa and Grammom overlooking the production from the comfort of the couch.

Here’s a shot of the shredded wrapping paper and opened boxes from the morning’s festivities!


Shawna has the smile of satisfaction of another Christmas well-planned and executed. She’s the primary shopper, and does a fantastic job of giving everyone the joy of Christmas, both in presents, and with the love and spirit of the season!