Sorry for the delay!

Oh man, I can't believe how much time has gone by since my last blog post! On the bright side I can say that I officially have a job as a library aid at the base library! It gets me out of the house every day for a bit and I have already met so many amazing people and it's only been two weeks! My coworkers are so great, and the patrons are really friendly. I am very happy with my library job! I do everything that you would imagine a library aid does: I can open and close the library, return items into the system and check out items, shelve books, handle interlibrary loans (somewhat), make library cards, etc. If you have a library question then just ask because I am a wealth of knowledge. On other news, I was so happy to skype with most of my family today! I miss all of them so much and it was really great to see them all. I was even lucky enough to meet my cousin Laurie's baby, Haley! She's already skyping, what an advanced little girl they have!

Dulce get's kind of bummed when I have to go to work and it's time for her to go in her kennel.

So let me review the last few weeks, since I have been neglecting my blogging duties. So first off, a few weeks ago Rick and I were so excited to go to the Oyster Bake and Crawfish Crawl that the base was putting on for the residents. Unfortunately, I think we set our hopes a bit too high for this event because we were slightly disappointed in the food we received. I guess we are spoiled with the seafood that we are used to eating at home. :( In the end we did have a great time though!

Our meal was looking at us!

That same weekend we went up to Austin and visited everybody up there for Ryleigh's 6th birthday party! We are very pleased to say that Dulce was an angel the whole ride up. We were slightly nervous that she was going to bark the whole time and drive us bonkers, but instead she just slept the whole 4.5 hour drive. Thank Goodness!



Dulce in her car kennel

Ryleigh's birthday was a huge success and all of the kids had so much fun, especially Ryleigh!

There was face painting and a magic show for the kids, although all of the adults seemed to enjoy the show too. Almost all of the girls got my little pony ponies on their faces. After spending a week with the Denzins in Europe, Rick and I can confidently say that we know a lot about My Little Pony. Ryleigh got Rainbow Dash drawn on her face, and Aubrey was a princess.  Ryleigh was even the clown's special helper for the magic show!

The party was so darn cute, and it was so great to see David and Amy!

It was especially exciting to watch Ryleigh open all of her presents once all of the kids went home. She really liked the cowgirl boots that were from Rick and I, and she was also really happy with the guitar she received from Uncle Larry and Aunt Judy!

 

Ryleigh even made up a song for us on the spot! Unfortunately, Ranger did not appreciate that we invited Dulce to the party. Dulce was a little too hyper and crazy for good old Ranger. The poor guy just wanted some peace and quiet! Rick and I had a great time visiting our family in Austin and we can't wait to go back soon!

Recently, Rick and I had a surprise visitor in our house, a gecko! While Rick thought this was the coolest thing, I was completely freaked out because it was in our bedroom! Rick tried to trap him and bring him outside, but failed and just dropped him in our room. We never found him, so I was very afraid to go to sleep that night. Oh well!

Another really exciting thing that Rick and I did in the past few weeks was go to a rodeo! Rick has been to a rodeo before, but this was my first time and so we were both really excited about it! The pace of the event ended up being a bit slower than we were hoping for, but it was still very entertaining. Also, thank goodness only a couple guys got seriously hurt! What a ridiculous sport!

One thing that I do love about Del Rio is that when there is an event going on, the whole town turns up for it! Since the nearest town is about a half hour away (not including Acuna which is in Mexico) and is actually smaller than Del Rio, everybody either does whatever the event of the weekend is or they go to San Antonio. Like last weekend there was a roller derby for the local team called Hell Rio on Wheels and by the time we got to the civic center, it was sold out! And this weekend was homecoming for the Del Rio High School football team and we weren't able to go to the game because we couldn't get there an hour before it started. Any later than that and you either weren't going to get a parking spot or the tickets were going to be sold out! Crazy!

Well, that is all for now folks! Stay tuned for another post this week as Rick and I prepare for my mom and Aunt Linda's arrival!

With Love,
The Mundys





Starting the Season Off Right!

Hello everyone! Happy first day of Autumn! Here at the Mundy household we thought we would start the season off right with some Pumpkin Ale that we picked up from the BX, which is a store on base that sells pretty much everything you could need! Yumm, is it good!

I was able to speak with my mom today, and apparently it is a beautiful fall day up in New England. Well, that isn't really the case down here in Del Rio. Today our high is 91! It's not too miserably hot, but I am wishing that it felt more like fall. As you can see, the weather poops Dulce out!

This week was a pretty interesting week for us because the base is going through their biannual inspection. This takes a couple weeks and is a really stressful time for a lot of people down here. But, for some reason Rick ended up having the easiest week he has had yet. Go figure! He ended up working a different shift down at the T6 maintenance shop because they were undermanned, but they really didn't need him too much either. He also helped out the Fire Department with their inspection for a couple days by being a body that needed saving, which was a pretty easy job for him as I'm sure you can imagine!

A couple of interesting things happened to me this week as far as jobs are concerned. I finished and submitted an application for an entry-level electrical engineering position for the International Boundary and Water Commission down at Lake Amistad. Surprisingly, I was qualified to apply even though I am a mechanical engineer. Also, I ended up getting selected to work as a library aid on base. I figure that it will be good for me to have something to do other than applying for jobs and watching Dulce. Although she is pretty darn cute!

It is only a part-time job and I am actually really looking forward to starting next week! Yay for getting out of the house! I would like to thank everybody I texted the other day for agreeing to vouch for me for the ridiculously intense background check I had to go through to be a library aid. I needed somebody to verify all of the places I lived (including school), worked, went to school, and to prove that I existed for the past 5 years. I'm pretty sure that they will realize that I am not an alien. Or atleast I hope they realize this!

 I am also going to be tutoring a couple of students for different math courses at the local high school. When I saw the school was looking for math tutors, I was pretty psyched about it! I think I have 3 students signed up so far for tutoring hours next week. Not only will I get paid, but I will also be able to brush up on my math skills! Woot woot!

Other than that, I am proud to say that my husband has been enjoying my cooking! I started making a weekly menu in order to make the cooking easier on me, since I really have no idea what I'm doing. I go through my different recipe books, most importantly the recipe books my mom and my college roommate Haley made for me, and then make a grocery list based on what I need for the recipes. Here is the book Haley made for me as a wedding present!

I have been making many many trips to the Commissary each week because we run out of or simply don't have ingredients. Making a weekly menu is helping me only have to go on 1 or 2 trips to the Commissary. Trust me, it's an improvement!

Haley basically cooked for me and made sure I ate during my last year of college. If it weren't for her, at the very best I would not have eaten well at all, and at the very worst I would have starved. This week I cooked two of my favorite recipes from Haley's recipe book. I cooked Haley's asparagus and mushroom risotto as well as her stuffed peppers! Yum! I was looking forward to having risotto leftovers, but Rick got to them before I did. What a bummer!

I also cooked my mom's meatballs which came out soooo good! Rick and I almost decided to ignore the pasta and spaghetti sauce altogether in order to focus our efforts on those meatballs. Delicious!

Rick and I are really excited about our plans for this weekend! Right after I publish this post, I'm going to hop in the shower and get ready for the Oyster Bake and Crawfish Boil that is being hosted at the Club XL, which is the officer's club on base. My stomach is growling just thinking about all of the delicious food we are about to eat! Then, tomorrow morning we will bring Dulce to puppy school where we are hoping she proves to the trainers that yes we have been training this crazy dog. After that we are heading up to Austin for the weekend to visit my family and to celebrate my Goddaughter Ryleigh's 6th birthday! Eeek I can't wait for her to open up her present from us. Until I post again...

Love,

The Mundys

Why are the Mundys blogging?

In the words of my Pepere, well hello! Rick and I have decided to start a blog of our life so that we can easily keep our friends and family in the know on what's going on with the Mundys! Well, mostly I (Laura) decided to start this blog and Rick agreed that it could be a good idea. We both agreed that we don't want to bother every one on facebook all the time, and we also don't feel like we need everyone to know everything about us. For this reason, if you're interested, please follow our blog and we will keep the facebook posts to a minimum! Now, please don't think that we are going to become crazy bloggers who blog about every single thing that happens every single day. We will blog here and there if something interesting or funny happens that we would like to share with you all. It could be once a day, once a week, once a month, who knows! For this reason, we recommend that you insert your email address in the text box underneath the words "Follow by Email" on the right hand side of this blog. If you follow the prompts, this will allow you to receive an email whenever we write a new post, this way you don't have to constantly check the blog for updates. You'll know the second we create one! Now let's get started!

Background:

First off, I thought it might be helpful to give you all a little background info. as to what we have been up to since our wedding on June first! Rick and I were lucky enough to go backpacking through Europe for about 6 weeks where we explored parts of Spain, Gibraltar, France, England, Germany, and Italy! After that we had about a week until we had to start the 37 hour drive from Swansea, MA down to Del Rio, TX. Needless to say, we did not drive straight down to Del Rio. We ended up stopping for a bit in Nashville and Graceland which were a lot of fun, and we visited with our family in Austin for a few days as well. Then, on July 27th we finished the drive down to Del Rio. Just two days later, we found the sweetest little abandoned puppy near the border of Mexico. We adopted her, even though we were staying at the Ramada hotel until we were able to move into our house on August 6th. I know what you're all thinking, this was not the ideal time for us to adopt a puppy, but it was love at first sight for us and we have had no regrets since! Her name is Dulce and we have now had her for almost 7 weeks. She is just a huge bundle of love! Except when she's in terror mode (i.e. the middle picture below).

As planned, we moved into our first house on August 6th and we received all our stuff on August 10th. We are finally comfortably moved into our house, although we still have about a million little projects. Rick has been working on his office a lot lately, unpacking and organizing, etc. This will be the place that he does all of his studying during pilot training, and the place where he can escape from me and Dulce. Although, he does like having us visit!

So, what's going on with Rick?

Rick is currently in APT (awaiting pilot training), so Laughlin Air Force Base (AFB) has basically given him a job just to keep him busy until he starts his Initial Flight Screening (IFS). He is currently working at the T-6 maintenance shop, where he helps make checklists, marshal planes in and out, and whatever else is needed. He has been enjoying his "casual" job for the most part, except that he has to wake up so early (my husband is NOT a morning person).

In November, Rick will be in CO for a few weeks for IFS. This is basically when pilot students begin to get weeded out if they can't handle flying planes. It lasts anywhere between 3-6 weeks, depending on how quickly the student learns and passes his flights, as well as the weather in CO. We have already had a bunch of our friends leave for IFS and even return, and they didn't seem to think it was too difficult.

Then, in January Rick will begin his Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT). This is a 52 week training course during which time he will learn how to fly for the Air Force, and it will conclude with learning the plane that he will fly for his military career, as well as our next base assignment. Until then, he plans on relaxing and enjoying not having to study all the time. However, pretty much once UPT starts, he will be pulling 12+ hour days. I guess we'll take it as it comes.

And what is going on with Laura?

Not much, unfortunately. I am having a lot more trouble finding jobs than I had anticipated. To be fair, I haven't been looking all that long, but it has still been pretty frustrating. Besides unpacking and working away at writing thank you cards for the wedding, I have been applying for jobs. Ideally, I would get a job that isn't too far away, although I have applied for jobs that are 1 hour and 20 minutes away. I have a couple positions I am waiting to hear back from, and I have a job that I need to apply for today, so all hope is not lost by any means. It's just taking me longer than I expected. Other than that, I have been adjusting to married life very well and I have been training Dulce. Oh, and I've been doing my fair share of baking for the guys at the T-6 maintenance shop.

Other updates:

You may be interested to hear the story about the hutch that is behind me in the above picture. Rick and I were able to afford this hutch because we won $260 at bingo a few weeks ago! We were the big winners! We figured we would spoil ourselves a little bit, and we went to the Crossroads Mini Mall to purchase our hutch that we absolutely love. And no, the horns above our hutch are not ours, they are our friend Bryan's. If you went to our wedding then I'm sure you remember Bryan, he was the groomsman that was a dancing fool!

Well, that is all I have for you today! I'm sure our future posts will not be this long, I just wanted to spend a bit of time introducing this whole blog concept and catching you all up on what has been going on with the Mundys! I hope you enjoyed our first post!

With love,

The Mundys