Updates

Wow. Is anyone still out there?

I apologize for the neglect. Most of you, however, are on facebook with me so you are more up to date than most :)

For everyone else here is a brief account of our coming and goings.

1. Christmas at the Hoyt's

I made some new ornaments : )

Vega is suspicious of the tree....

2. Snow!

The dogs were unimpressed....

3. Nate FINALLY gave me some deployment photos :)

The infamous "chicken" photo

4. The boat exterior is officially done and Nate had just enough time to get one coat of epoxy on the interior before leaving.

5. Our poor old dog Nacona gets some skin tags and various lumps removed prior to Nate's departure. There were so many we broke it up into 2 separate sessions to give her time to heal.

Session One was brutal.

Session two not so brutal....

Nathan's deployment a few days afterwards gave her plenty of reasons to pout.

6. .... and Nate left for his 3rd tour a few weeks ago. Here we are at Green Ramp before his flight left.

and there he goes...

36 days left...

and this year will FINALLY be over.

Last week an entire glass of water poured onto my Macbook laptop.

A few weeks prior to that I got a speeding ticket, ON FORT BRAGG.

*deep sigh*

Now I've got a letter informing me of my mandatory court appearance for the "United States of America vs. K. Hoyt " where, I have since learned, my license will be suspended.

Worst. Year. Ever.

At yesterdays Thanksgiving dinner, hosted by a close friend of ours, I reflected on what I could possibly be thankful for. In an effort to cheer myself up I will think about the things I am thankful for this year....

1. Nathan made it home safe from another deployment.

2. Our awesome house and a safe, friendly community.

3. Friends. So many friends from all of the places we've lived.

4. Forgiveness. Our closest friends have supported me through the worst tragedy and humbled me with their grace.

5. Nathan. His perpetual happiness is infectious. He is always up to something. I should go check on him.....

Looking forward, I have an appointment at the local Apple store tomorrow to have my laptop examined and a newly hired lawyer to go with me to federal court in December. My laptop seems to be fine aside from the screen being black, I've hooked it up to the TV set and all of our files seem to be there. My lawyer seems cautiously optimistic that he can have my ticket lowered to avoid suspension since I have no points on my license.

Even though I am trying to look at the bright side, I'm still counting the days.

The elusive garage

Most of Nathan's time at home is spent in the garage working on the boat. One coat of epoxy may take a day or more to set depending on the temperature (warmer is better) so to speed up the process the garage is made as warm as possible.

How does he do it?

Initially he purchased two space heaters but plugging both of them in blows the breaker. They also do not run on extension cords so he could only use one in the garage and that has not proved powerful enough to battle the dropping temperatures from outside.

The solution he found is two heat lamps at either end of the garage shinning onto the boat in addition to the space heater. Now the garage is the warmest place in the house and his epoxy dries fast enough that he can get a coat down and have it sanded before the weekend is over.

With all of this going on he was running out of plugs in the garage so he has one extension cord running back into the house from the garage through a cat door our landlord had previously installed.

This way the garage door can stay closed, containing as much heat as possible. Of course, this means that there is now an extension cord running through the door to the garage and into my kitchen. This is something new and interesting for the dogs and upon investigation they have discovered that...

there is a cat door going into the garage.

When Nate is in the garage the dogs lay crowded around the door waiting and listening to all of the noises coming from the other side of the door. Normally Nate would have a dog or two outside with him but the boat involves too much epoxy and it wouldn't be safe.

The solution?

Goose is the first dog I saw to figure out that the cat door was a little window into Nathan's world and the garage. She lays down and snuggles up to the door, pushes her head through and watches Nate work.

Not to be outdone, Stoli took it a step further....