Anniversary Adventures - Pima Air & Space Museum

Yesterday, Justus and I celebrated our anniversary by going down to the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona.  Justus was in heaven as we walked up and down the rows and rows of aircraft.  If you didn't already know, Justus is a huge fan of airplanes.  He knows all sorts of facts, stories, and tid-bits about each model.

Our wedding reception was at the Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force Museum at Falcon Field.  It was great to celebrate our anniversary with aircraft.

We even had the chance to take pictures for the Neil Young tribute band, The Neil Deal.  An awesome group of guys, who were sooo nice.

We also took advantage of the cut-outs for the kids.

We even found a plane with our anniversary as its number.

Justus found a plane he had not seen in person, the English Electric Lightning and demanded that I take his picture with it.

I also learned more about flight including the terms for pivot, yaw, and roll.  I practiced on a few simulators.  You can see me shooting down some enemy in the below shot.  The puckering was from making "shooting" sounds.

Justus got to "fly" as well.  

I took so many shots of aircraft and I am excited to go through them!  There were a lot of cool art / graphics that were inspirational.

The most inspirational was finding my favorite air-craft, the P-51 Mustang.  Can you see the excitement in my face!  It was a great day!

A little service...

goes a long way...

As an introduction to this post, I merely want to document some of the happenings in our lives and so this is in no way intended to be a "my husband is awesome" post.  Although, I think he is VERY awesome.

This past weekend, Justus headed out early to join a group at Veteran's Oasis Park.  One of the scouters in our ward organized a service project to fill in a half mile long ditch with dirt.  It was hard work, full of shoveling and back bending. 

You can see Justus in the picture below, in the far right hand corner, he's the one with a Camelback on his back.

Happy faces of volunteers (Justus in on the back row, right side)

Justus always makes the effort to go and participate at all of our ward's Eagle Projects. Sometimes I wonder why he goes out of his way, pushing off homework and lesson preparations. Then I remember that this is one of the reasons I fell in love with him. He loves to serve those around him without a second thought.  I am grateful for his example of service.

Nutshell

It is very polite for people in social gatherings to ask "what have you been up to lately?"  While it is very nice of people to ask and be genuinely interested, I am often puzzled as how to answer.  Ummm, nothing much...  It's no secret that Justus and I are "home bodies." We tend to jokingly describe ourselves as "boring."

So today I took a few moments and brainstormed a few responses to "save" for the next social gathering:

- Justus bought some new wheels and tires for his bike.  He continues to enjoy riding his bike to school and for exercise on his days off.  Recently he's been "building" wheels and is quite good at it.  If you need help with bicycles, give Justus a call.

- Justus survived another round of mid-terms last week.  We're hoping that we'll be able to say, "no more mid-terms" in the near future.

- I started a new quilt blog and am participating in a quilt group.  It's a wonderful group of ladies.

- I finished one of my first solo projects at work this past month.  It was crazy, stressful, and wonderful all at the same time.

- Our church had a cooking contest, a friendly competition of taste tests and trash talk.  Justus is an excellent cook, but the event conflicted with a huge week of mid-terms and projects at school.  Instead our family supported the event by "bedazzling" an apron for the winner.

Ssshhh Valentines Gift

Ssshhh! Ok, it's not really a surprise by any means, but I am really excited about the gift I got Justus for Valentines Day.

Justus loves rice and beans. He picked this up while living in Brazil for two years (serving a mission for our church).  Over the years of dating and marriage, he has told me several times how he dreams about having a pantry full of rice and beans.

So, in a small way, I am making his dreams come true.  I've bought serveral kinds of dry rice and beans and will wrap them up for him open with this note:

Think of the famous children's rhyme: Beans beans, they're good for your heart, the more you eat, the more you fart.  It's a small attempt to be funny.

Should I still play more with the rhyme?  Do you think it is funny?

Justus' Yam

This weekend I sent a quick email out to Justus' family with the subject: You know you're related to a dietician when...

 

We still participate in Bountiful Baskets almost every other week. This week we had a special treat: A huge yam! He felt like he was a cave man with a club. I know this is a silly post, but I loved this expression on Justus' face!

A little fun with the IRS...

Yes.  Over the past few months (almost a year) Justus and I were having a little fun with the IRS defending our 2010 tax return.  Between all of the paperwork that went in with our taxes, Arizona State University (ASU) managed to send up a red flag.  The IRS did not believe that Justus paid his tuition to ASU and therefore was not owed the education tax credits we claimed.  The amount owed plus interest accrued over two years was not easy on the eyes or stomach. 

So we played the bureaucratic games with the government.  We started with statements from our bank showing we paid, then we submitted statements from Justus' student account online, and then finally Justus spent several frustrating hours at ASU's cashier's/financial office to obtain a slip of paper showing payments received.  With the timing of it all, we ended up submitting this final paperwork just before Christmas. 

I was anxious through out the holidays and into January.  Justus had to keep reminding me that everything would work out and worse case, we could afford to pay the IRS what they claimed we owed.  Yesterday I checked the mail with much anticipation (like every single day since January 2nd) and was happy to find a piece of mail from the IRS.  Enclosed was a single piece of paper stating the amount owed: $0.00.  "Your issued has been resolved." Oh, happy day!

Bikes and Zombies

Over the holidays, Justus and I spent time in St. George, Utah for a wedding.  We were able to stay with Justus' brother, Jordan and his family.  On my birthday we rode bikes to the park and then played Zombie tag!  The grown ups were zombies as we chased the kiddos around the playground.  After some practice, Justus and Jordan are the best zombies, but Aunt Katie Kate still needs some work.  How does one take that criticism?

Safety first!

Jordan tries out Kayl's bike

The look of "you can't catch me"

A Zombie slide assault

Justus the Zombie

Whenever Justus and Jordan get together, all of the conservations seem to go back to New York and their memories from growing up there.  I love hearing all of their stories and seeing their faces light up. 

Thanksgiving

This year Justus and I made the trip out to visit everyone in New York for Thanksgiving.  We had a wonderful time with family and the craziness of New York during the Holidays.

Another take on "Muppets take Manhattan."  Kermit was the highlight of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Fun pictures during a stroll through Central Park after our Thanksgiving Feast!

Riding in the Haboob

These are the results of Justus riding his bicycle in the sand storm we had on Tuesday.  The pictures does not do justice for the amount of dirt and grime across his face.  We're happy he survived the storm and only had the dirt and tired muscles to remind him of it.

Breakfast Surprise

Justus made me breakfast last week. It was a hard-boiled egg with a sweet message written on it: "Justus heart Kate." Such a nice gesture needed to be documented. I liked how I had the fork in the background, but overall I needed to improve on the lighting.

Justus' Lego Adventures

It's no surprise that Justus loves Legos. He spends quality time with my little brother Ryan creating masterpieces. Over the years, Justus shared with me his many opinions on Legos, from their marketing/branding strategy, the video games, to the shear magnitude of endless possibilities of creations. Needless to say I was very excited when I learned that I could buy a customized small cup of Legos at our local Legos store. They call it their Pick A Brick Wall. It's similar to the idea of Jelly Bellies and being able to make your custom mix of jelly beans. Justus has received two custom mixes so far and enjoys them in his free time. Yesterday, however, I found something more perfect for him. In the back corner of the store I found a Legos grab bag! It was full of random pieces (and cheaper than the cups), which included 5o chairs (as depicted in the above photo). We've joked about building a mini theatre and then showcasing some of Ryan's Star Wars Legos in a future production.