Final Oral Board

Well, he did it! Doug had his final oral board yesterday morning and is finished with with Nuclear Prototype School. The board lasted about three hours and he had lots of questions - but he did great and is relieved to have it all over with. This morning Doug went in to work to muster and they told him with the exception of a few things he needs to do for checking out, he can just muster by phone every day. Doug feels really relieved to have this done. We are both enjoying some extra free time and are now looking forward to making plans to get moved to Connecticut.

House Hunting in Connecticut

Doug's "weekend" fell on Thursday and Friday of this week. On Wednesday afternoon after Doug woke up from working a week of night shift, we drove over to Groton. We planned to stay on the base so we wouldn't have to drive over really early on Thursday morning to meet the Realtor. The drive over took longer than we anticipated with stopping for dinner and stopping to make several phone calls to get pre-approved for a mortgage. Luckily we made it to Groton around 8:30 so we had plenty of time to sleep and get ready to look at a lot of houses. On both Thursday and Friday we saw a few houses we both loved, a handful that we liked, and plenty that we weren't interested in at all. Since we were staying on base anyhow, Doug decided to stop by the navy housing office and see what information they could give us. The housing for officers is all new and we qualify for at least a 3-bedroom home. At this point we are leaning towards going with the base housing (it isn't actually located on the base in Groton, and is actually owned by a private company). Following Doug's Final Board we plan to devote more time to deciding for sure if we want to buy a house or if we think we will just go with the base housing.

My First Apple Pie

Well, fall is definitely here. Everything is beautiful and the weather is really starting to cool down. Last week we made a trip to an apple orchard. We have so many apples around I have been making apple sauce, and I made my first apple pie! I used Kathryn's recipe and the pie turned out to be delicious! I still have some kinks to work out because my crust didn't look quite perfect, but it tasted wonderful and I feel pretty good since it was my first pie ever.

Summer Quarter Complete

Today marks the end of my summer quarter of graduate work. I am excited to have this quarter complete and have sucessfully finished my first two classes. Between my visit from Alex and finishing work for my class, this has been a busy week and I haven't been updating the blog much. My plan is to start another class this next quarter. With the big move coming up, I will be looking at schools to transfer to in CT. More news to come.

Visit from Alex

My childhood friend Alex is here visiting right now. Alex arrived here on Tuesday evening and is staying until the 22nd. We are having a great time catching up and really enjoying our time together. It has been wonderful for me to have a friend around. Doug is busy at work getting ready for the final board next week, so he is relieved to see me so occupied. Today Alex and I headed over to Vermont for the day. It is definately fall in the northeast. The weather has been wonderful, nice and cool. Trees are beginning to change and are starting to look beautiful. I think that by the end of next week it will be very beautiful here. Updates have been slow as we have been busy having a lot of fun and enjoying fall.

USS North Carolina

The day has finally come! Doug has received his orders. Doug will be going to the USS North Carolina which is homeported in Groton/New London, CT. Although our first choice location was Washington, this will be a great adventure for Doug. The North Carolina is one of the newest submarines, having just been commissioned in 2008. The North Carolina is a Virignia Class fast attack submarine and will eventually be relocating to Hawaii. We are both excited to experience life in Connecticut and to make the best of this adventure.
Depending on when the North Carolina is moving to Hawaii, we may be looking at purchasing a home in Connecticut. Over the next few weeks we will have a lot of excitement. We are hoping to get a better idea how long we will be in CT, or if we will be leaving for Hawaii shortly. Based off of that we will have a better idea if we want to purchase a home. If so, we plan to visit the area next week so we can look at a few homes we have looked at online. One really great aspect of this is that we won't be staying in a hotel for the 12 weeks of submarine school, and we will only be moving once in the next few months.
So, information is as follows: Doug's final board is scheduled for the 28th of September. We will be leaving New York sometime if the few weeks after that and Doug will report to Submarine school starting November 2nd. Following submarine school, Doug will report to the North Carolina by the 2nd week in February.
There will be a lot of decisions to be made in the next few weeks, and lots of big changes for us in the next few months. Connecticut will bring a whole new adventure and life for us.

Quilt

My most recent project is working on a quilt called "My True Love Gave to Me." The quilt is lap-size and is very pretty with yellows, greens, and browns with a partridge in a pear tree in the center. I have enjoyed getting back into quilting as it has been over a year since I have done any quilting. I have finished the top of the quilt and am in the process of quilting it all together.

Birthday Weekend

Doug and I had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Thursday was my birthday and also Doug's last day of work for the weekend. Thursday evening we headed to Saratoga for dinner at The Olde Bryan Inn. The Inn has a great history that ties into the Revolutionary War so we loved reading about the history after having just been to the site of the Battle of Saratoga. Dinner was delicious - we both had prime rib - and it was a great start to the weekend.
Friday we headed up to Lake George to go to the Six Flags park. We enjoyed going on rides together and had a few good screams on the roller coasters. Being a fan of theme parks, it was a nice birthday treat.
On Sunday we decided to head to the Albany Area Scottish Festival. They had a lot of different events, great food, and all sorts of shops with Scottish goods. We shared a strawberry shortcake, found me a MacKenzie Plaid Scarf, and watched the caber tossing. The Scottish Festival was a great end to the weekend.