A Pilot & A Preschool Teacher

            It has been almost two years that Kyle and I have been married and we are thankful for where we are at in life. We live in a beautiful neighborhood in a guest house perfect for the two of us. We are also near my family and I love that we can spend a lot of time with them. I think Kyle doesn’t mind it so much ;) Most of our days are spend at work, but through our jobs we are learning a lot and both doing what we love—Kyle gets to fly airplanes and I get to work with adorable children.

            Kyle works as a flight instructor teaching students to fly single-engine Cessna planes. If he is not out flying he may be with a student in a simulator plane, teaching a ground lesson to his student, or teaching with a power point in a class full of several students. A lot of his students are Chinese students who have to know English, but they are not always easy to understand. But because he has worked with them a lot, Kyle has learned how to communicate with them and understand what they are telling him. I’m impressed! Kyle’s days off rotate (so he does not always get weekends off). And his schedule changes every day. He also does not find out his schedule until the night before. It is so frustrating because it makes it so hard to make plans when we don’t know what his schedule will be (I try to be thankful that he at least has a job). He does not want to be a flight instructor for too much longer though. But he is building up his hours which could help when he applies for other pilot jobs that require a certain amount of hours flown. We are not quite sure what kind of pilot job we want him to have, but we do not think working for the airlines is the direction we want to move toward. A job that he could go to work and come back every night would be ideal… but being in the field of aviation we are not sure we could find something like that easily. And another ideal would be for us to not have to move too far away from our families (especially for when we have our own children). We may not get those ideals, but for now we will keep praying, looking for opportunities, and waiting.

            I work as a preschool teacher’s aide. I have time in the classroom with kids, but I also help out the director in the office. My work day feels like it is non-stop moving around, except for the time the children finally take a nap. That is the most peaceful part of the day! Right now I spend most of my time in the two-year-old classroom. I tell people that I used to think I was a patient person, and then I got put in the two year old class! I have to pray that God gives me patience every morning. It is so tiring with them. We teach them to stay seated for activities, to share toys with others (since they think everything belongs to them and only them), to not hit or push or kick or bite, to use their words instead of crying and pointing, to drink from a cup with no lid, to use crayons and paint brushes, to use the toilet, to eat with utensils instead of hands, etc.  We teach them all of those little basics that start when they are two. And we constantly have to redirect, redirect and redirect! And by the time they finally learn these things, they graduate into the three year old class and we have to start all over with a new set of young two year olds! But as many challenges as there are working with two-year-olds, there are blessings. They are all so adorable and I love to listen to the way they say their words. After a long day with the twos and doing some paperwork or other things in the office, I get to work with the four year olds. And what a big difference in maturity those two years make! Four year olds actually listen! They can sit quietly in their seats, they can watch you and follow directions, you can explain to them why they need to behave certain ways, etc. And they come up with the cutest little stories and sayings. They also make us teachers feel so loved when we walk into the room. I love getting hugs from them.  I love my job!

            Eventually I would love to be a stay-at-home mom. When Kyle has a job that allows that, we would like to have children. But for now I will continue at the preschool and Kyle will continue as a flight instructor unless another opportunity comes.

 The white plane is one of the planes Kyle has flown with his students. He and a student recently flew the plane to Oklahoma to return it to the place it was rented from. The F-18 in that back is a plane that Kyle could only dream about flying ;)

This is one of the views from Kyle's "office"... I mean, from a plane he flies. This was taken while he was flying over Newport.




I would love to post pictures of my adorable preschool students but I would have to get permission from their parents first.

My First Post--Looking Back on Our Engagement

Ok, here goes my first post. It shouldn't be too hard since I am going to copy and paste a story that is special to me :)

After Kyle proposed to me on October 5, 2009, so many people were asking me how he did it. So I decided to write a "Note" on Facebook to tell about it. The following is what I wrote back then:

Kyle and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary today (or yesterday, Oct. 5th, since it's past midnight already). We had school most of the day, so we went out to dinner after Kyle had a flight lesson. He took me to Tom Ham's Lighthouse and we enjoyed our dinner with a beautiful view of San Diego all lit up at night! And the moon decided to come out from the cloud it was hiding behind :) We had a great time.

Instead of taking me home, Kyle said he had to pick something up from school before taking me home. So we went to school and he grabbed my Bible that he had asked me to bring earlier. We “happened” to pass by the significant rose bushes that we call “our spot.” Back in November we were sitting on the bench by the rose bushes and that was the first time Kyle told me he loved me, and I said it back

So, back to where I left off… We were standing in front of the roses and Kyle asked me if I still had that rose petal in my Bible that I saved from the first rose he gave me. I got excited and grabbed my Bible from him. I found the pages that it was in between and picked up the petal. I didn’t even see that there was a big note placed in between the same pages. So I go on explaining to Kyle about how the petal is chipping but it is still pretty even though it’s not in as good shape as it was… then I saw the note that said “I LOVE YOU!” So I said “ooo!” (or “oh!” or something like that I don’t quite remember…) and picked it up. There was a ribbon attached to it, and tied with the ribbon was a beautiful ring!!!! I squealed and Kyle asked me to marry him and got on one knee. I was soooooo excited that I said yes so fast, followed by several times of saying “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” Because I said it all so fast, Kyle didn’t hear me say, “yes” lol. So he asked me, “Did you say yes?” And I replied “Yes! Of course! Absolutely!”

And that’s how it happened It’s been hard to stop smiling since!       

     So that is the story of how Kyle proposed to me. And 8 month later, on June 5, 2010, we were married!

We have been married for 1 year and 7 months and it has been wonderful! God has blessed us so much and we look forward to what He has in store for us.