Work with me here KitchenAid....

For the longest time I have been having difficulty baking cakes. They have been coming out a little tough and much thinner than a normal cake. Nana suspects that my oven isn't properly calibrated and I deduced that I was using the wrong attachment on my kitchenaid mixer. I had a friend come over for dinner last night and I made green chicken enchiladas and a mocha cappucino cake. I canged the attachment on the mixer and took the cake out a little early and taaadaaa!!! a masterpiece was born. Seriously it is kind of incredible! I made everything from scratch, including the frosting. It was so much fun to make but the real satisfaction is in the taste. But I have to say I'm pretty proud of the presentation as well.


I'm happy to say that with just a few adjustments the cake frustrations have come to an end!
* The picture is crooked because it was taken backwards on my laptop because I didn't have time to run downstairs and get my nice camera*

Kingsley Zissou, mommy loves you...

So, now that I am done with work and nana is back home I have been able to start a routine again. I have been able to get back to walking every day. It is so very hot here that there isn't really a good time to schedule it so basically I get up in the morning and see if the weather is tolerable and I feel the concrete and make sure it's not too hot for the pads on their little paws and if the conditions are ideal then we suit up and start our loop around the waterfront.

This is a picture of Kingsley Zissou pouting... like always.
Penny is spry and always ready for anything. It is a complete production getting them ready for a walk. Once I grab the harnesses she lets me put hers on without a fight, I swear she's the little angel. (well, when it comes to this) Kinglsey however, starts jumping up and down and basically screaming. He looks at me and then bounces on the window as if to say, "COME ON!!!! LET'S GO MOMMY!!!!" And then the fight to put his harness on begins. He flails himself on the floor and rolls around so that I can't really get a grip on him and then once the harness is on it's time to lock them together with the coupler. This again is incredibly easy with her, he runs all around the house frantically like he's afraid I'm not actually going to take him out. He bangs on the door as a reminder that I am supposed to go outside.
We finally got out and the weather was wonderful, for DC that is, and then he began to become exhausted. He has much more hair than most dogs and he gets very hot easily. Poor Penny has to be the little leader out there and drag him along the last stretch. This is hysterical to watch because they are literally fighting with each other. He is whining and she gives him a look like, "come on! we're almost there you big baby!" (funny fact is he outweighs her by 8 pounds... at least) We finally come through the door and this is what he does. She is still running around the house, ready for anything and the little one who was so eager to go for the walk is well..... a little tuckered out to say the least.

He always sprawls out in the most dramatic way on either the hard wood floor, the kitchen, or a vent if he can find one that's open. He cracks me up! He is a complete and total handful and as Nic says, "Kingsley Zissou, you are your mother's son." and fittingly Kinglsey responds with an indignant sneeze in Nic's direction. :) I can't believe that this October they are going to be two years old!

Farewell Texas with Academic Excellence

Today Nic graduates phase one and he does so with Academic Excellence. He will be graduating second in his class and kicked butt the entire way!
He graduates today and begins his drive to Florida this afternoon.
I am so proud of him and I can't wait to see him. He comes home this weekend for four days to pick up his orders, extend his contract with the military and out process from Bolling AFB. I am so happy for him.
He begins his clinical work in Florida at the end of the month.
Apparently, this is where the real fun will happen like delivering babies, and working on patients. All I have to say is, I hope Eglin and their sick are ready for a Sylvester Cowell tandem. :)
Love you babe!

On his way to Florida

We have recently encountered problems with Nic's retraining process in regards to him moving on to his phase two and essentially relocating. The clinic here has been careless with his case since the beginning and has made this entire process beyond difficult. When he was being med boarded there was a code that was put on his MPF (military personnel flight) profile that indicated that he was on a med hold. This code prevents you from being able to move about anywhere. You are not permitted to retrain or move, they cannot even generate orders for you while the code is still attached to your account. With that being said, once he was back from Texas the first time and he was returned to active duty status with no limitations he went to MPF and had the code lifted so that he could begin the retraining process and have orders generated to Texas for the tech school he is currently attending. Apparently once he was already in Texas the med group put the code back on his account. When I went to the office and asked why the only reason they gave me was carelessness. Seriously, this group of people here makes me cringe. I finally got the code lifted after a long week of back and forth and he has an assignment for his phase two everyone.



EGLIN AFB FLORIDA!!!!



Nic has always wanted to live on the beach and is thoroughly excited about this next assignment. It is only for six weeks but he is stoked! Too bad the beach will be full of oil but you can't have everything you want in life right? :) It is actually kind of weird because we always kind of figured he would go to Eglin and talked about him going to Florida since the beginning. It's almost like we wished it into existence. Hopefully that really works because we have been talking about going to Travis AFB for a while now. :)

This is a picture of the hospital where he is going to get to begin the more serious portion of his training. As you can see, it is very nice. I am so happy for him, but more than that I am proud of him. He is kicking some serious medic butt. The two of us are complainers in a jesting kind of way. We like to joke about everything but in all seriousness we don't like to seriously complain about our situation because that doesn't help. I always tell Nic, " be the change you want to see in the world" - Ghandi and I am glad that he is going to help med groups all over the world be better than the one that has caused him so much grief.

My little life saver!!!

This was Nic when he began his Air Force career as a member of the Air Force Honor Guard. It was roughly 5 years ago. My mom used to call him Fly Boy and while at a museum he took this picture just for her. Well a lot has changed since then. He became injured after one month of performing funerals at Arlington National Cemetery. He was facing medical discharge and he beat that. He was constantly under pressure for his position in the Honor Guard because he was unable to perform the mission of marching in funerals but he helped the Air Force immensely when he organized an entire peripheral. He created the Flag Support Center. He also wrote a book that showed how he organized this unit. This book is now being used in every other service as the standard for all Honor Guard units, base and service. I am so proud of him. He recently left for training on 2 April 2010 to train in Aerospace Medicine and become a Combat Medic. He has lead his class in test scores since the beginning and now he has officially passed his National Registry test. Today 25 May 2010 my husband, Nicolas Sylvester, is now officially an Air Force Medic! This is a picture of their coin for their job.



Here is a little description of what his job is all about.

Provides field medical care in contingency operations and disasters. Performs basic life support and triage in emergency situations. Serves as member of primary emergency medical response to in-flight emergencies and potential mass casualty scenarios from on- and off-base incidents. Operates emergency medical and other vehicles. Loads and unloads litter patients. Frontline preventionist who identifies potential health risks and provides preventive counseling. Participates in contingency or disaster field training, exercises, and deployments. Assists flight surgeon with aircraft mishap and physiological incident response, investigation, and reporting. Augments search and rescue flying squadrons. Performs critical care duties. Provides nursing care for patients in various intensive care units. Assists with patient examinations and special procedures including mechanical ventilation. Assists with cardiovascular and neurovascular procedures and hemodialysis. Prepares patients with special equipment transfers.

Can you believe it? Watch out everyone... this guy can now save your lives with much more than self aid buddy care. When we were first dating he would tell me stories about warrior week in basic training and how they gave him basic knowledge to save his battle buddy. Such as how to help someone if they have a pencil in the eye. He would explain the process in a very excited way and it made me laugh. To this day he is so pumped when he tells the process. I am happy to say that thankfully he is now able to bring much more than a pencil in the eye to the table.
This guy on the little car is now nationally certified to save your life. :) You go babe!!!

smooth skills

So yesterday was the second test of a series of three that will nationally certify him to be a medic. It is difficult waiting for results seeing as how he only has access to his phone for a small portion of the night. I raced home and grabbed the phone and called Nic as soon as I could. I figured he wouldn't be able to answer his phone but he did and the first thing out of my mouth was , "did you pass?!?!" and he thankfully said, "duh". :) I was so excited for him. He is doing such a great job. All of that excitement was cut short because he had a lot to do last night. He had to finish studying for his national test this morning and watch LOST of course. I personally, can't stand that show. I tried to watch it for him but I couldn't get in to it but he is obsessed with it. We chatted for a little bit, about half an hour and then he went to bed early.
Today is the day. I have been waiting for this moment for him for a long time, about three years. After he passes this test he will have a certifiable skill in case, god forbid, something like the medical board rears its ugly head our way once again. However, he has been waiting for this moment since he was in junior high. For as long as I have known him he has wanted to be an EMT. I am so happy for him.

Oh, and sidebar he would like all of us to answer "saves lives" when asked what he does for a living. And when asked what his job is in the Air Force I have been informed that either "combat medic", or "certified badass" will suffice, for now... :)
Good luck to you today Nic!!!

nic's skills

Since Nic got to Texas everyone has been telling him about the horrors of the block three stage of training. Well, he's been in the thick of it for about two weeks or so. This week he has the big test. Yesterday he had a block test, which he got a score of 85% on and today he has his skills test. While practicing for the skills test yesterday the only criticism he got was "Sylvester, that was great. But some advice, you are a big guy and you're just a little well, rough with them. You should be more gentle with your patients, especially when they have supposed spinal injuries." :) That made us both laugh pretty hard. Today he takes his skills test and tomorrow he takes the big test. The test that will national certify him to be an EMT. I am so proud of him and wish him the best of luck.
Prayers please everyone.

Another CLAYSON!!

When I first moved to Washington, DC I was very lonely. Nic went into the Education Center one day and saw that there was a job opening at Webster University. He spoke with a woman that was super friendly. She asked for me to stop by and bring my resume. I was hired shortly thereafter and Gretchen and I were pretty much instant friends. Her husband deployed to Afghanistan shortly after I began working there and Nic was always busy with his Honor Guard functions so we had a lot of girl time to ourselves. We went to Medeival Times for Nic's 22nd birthday and it was great!!!



We also spent a lot of time together through work, naturally. She taught me a lot about the world of Education and made sure that I had a fun working environment. A few times every year we go to a soup kitchen in downtown DC and feed the homeless. This was my very first time at S.O.M.E (So others might eat)





Eric and Gretchen moved to Alabama around this time last year. Right before she left she was at the point in her life where she was ready to stop working a be a mom. She and Erick were just waiting for their wishes and timing to align. Almost instantly after she moved to Alabama she became PREGNANT!!!!





She was hysterical with her phone conversations and her posts through her blog and on facebook about her irrational fears. I told her to throw out those creepy books and get a new doctor. :) Her husband Erick, also made for good conversation because he was constantly eating and complaining of sympathy pains. Yesterday at 1:01 pm little Elise Alexandria Clayson finally made her grand entrance. She is 7 lbs and 3oz (or 13 the posts on her fb are conflicting :)) and she is 20 in long.

We have all waited for you for such a long time Elise, but your mommy has been dreaming of you her whole life.

I am so happy for the Clayson family!!! another one to add to the brood!! :)




Now the fun begins... :)

A little Nic update

Well he has officially been gone for two weeks tomorrow and he has already accomplished so much. He has a rigorous course schedule which includes tons of homework but he is totally rocking it. He takes tests on a pretty consistent basis, about one every one to two days. He has yet to score anything less than a 93. Yesterday his spotlight was a little bit overshadowed by Nicholas' birthday. It's a little difficult when the two Nic(k)s you love have a big day, the same day. Nicholas turned 18 and Nic passed two tests in one day which completed his block one and two and is now in the dreaded block three and he is now officially CPR certified. So a little warning everyone don't even fake a choking attack around him. Before he would forcefully try to save me with his warrior week training and would make it exponentially worse so now with his actual certification there is going to be no way from keeping him away while he abruptly will try to "save your life".

Block three is notoriously the most difficult portion of his schooling. I believe that this entails his EMS certification as well as a deadly amount of textbook information. He is proud of himself for consistently passing his tests which build his confidence. This is just what he needs to help him through his block three portion of school.

If anyone would like to send him anything I have his address and would be happy to share it. It would mean a lot to him for him to get anything to remind him of family. He is doing well but it is still rough for us both. So anything, a phone call or card would be great!


I thought this picture was appropriate. It was taken in Redondo Beach when Nicholas was still underage and Nic hadn't even proposed to me yet. We just celebrated one of our two year anniversaries on the ninth so this definitely shows how long it has been... Wow, time really flies...

Don't let the picture fool you... they're in love :)

TD- why?

sooooo... Nic left for his six month TDY on Friday.
It was rough. He had his alarm set for 5:00 but he turned it off so that we could spend some time together. As he was doing some last minute packing he wanted me to stay and chat with him. I had been doing a great job at holding it together but if I stayed and watched him pack I wouldn't be able to hold on much longer so I tended to the dogs. He stayed on the couch and watched the news with me until I basically kicked him out. The waiting was terrible. He said goodbye to the dogs who cried which broke my heart. Then with a slightly tearful goodbye... he was off. Friday he drove all the way to Tennessee. Once he got to Nashville he attempted to check into a hotel where he had reservations. He looked at his room and he asked for a refund because not only were they planning to charge him more than they quoted him but Nic said it was scary. Now for Nic to say something is scary I can only imagine what that place looked like. So he went across the street to a much nicer hotel and crashed for the night. I was lucky enough to have a girls night that night to take my mind off of everything that had happened that day. Besides Nic leaving I was attacked by a dog. I informed the owner of the dog's menacing attributes only to be met with... surprise... OPOSITION... go figure.. well at least I had the scratches, bruises and bite marks to prove it huh? lucky me.
Finally on Saturday I had a girls day all by myself. I walked the dogs, got my nails done and did a little shopping before church that night. Church was great. Sunday morning was nice as well I had lunch with some neighbors but Sunday night was a long one. I think the dogs just figured out he wasn't coming home right away and they were testing my patience until 3 in the morning. Nic made it to TX where he set up his room and is preparing for class to start tomorrow. I have been swamped with homework and housework and work work :) the dogs are finally starting to mellow out. hopefully this lasts through the night. more updates to come....

Tech School- Aerospace Medicine and my life

So Nic officially got the job he wanted and his retraining process is now fully in motion. He got official orders and a report no later than date. He is to be in Wichita Falls TX at Shepard AFB on April 6, 2010. He will be there for his phase one which lasts 3 and one half months. After that he will have to finish the remainder of his school OJT ( on the job training) at one of five Air Force medical training hospitals. There is one at Andrews AFB right up the street but I doubt that we will be so lucky to have him home so soon. After he gets back then we will begin his out processing from Bolling AFB and we will move to our new base (which we do not know yet) once he comes back. I spoke with his supervisor about the time frame for our orders for the new base and she said we should know by at the very earliest two weeks before he leaves and the very latest two weeks into his tech school, so it's coming up fast. I am itching to know where we are going so I can begin my portion of the move... EVERYTHING! :) I was told that it is extremely likely that we will get one of our first five CONUS (Continental United States) picks. Aren't you impressed with my extensive jargon? Our bases are: 1. Travis AFB (San Fransisco) 2. Vandenberg (Santa Monica SLO area) 3. McChord AFB (Washington state) 4. Scott AFB (Illinois) 5. Eglin (Florida) We also found out that if Nic calls and chats up the unit there he will increase his chances for acceptance at his choice base. We are just trying to get everything together. It is the typical hurry up and wait game. I have already looked at the housing on all of the bases and for right now I am very happy. As long as I leave the negative energy and the humidity behind I will be as happy as a clam. so now... we wait.... :)