Captain Justiniano

The last five months have kind of been a blur. I've tried posting on here a couple of times, but I had technical issues and gave up.

There are a few things I might try and catch up on, but in the meantime, I'm going to mostly just pick up with what's going on.

Yesterday Rob "pinned on" his new rank. Guy & Cooper did the official pinning. Candidly speaking, promoting to Captain isn't really that big of a deal - every officer does it in time (2 years), unless they royally screw up. So, it's not a huge occasion, but an office meal is pretty much expected. With the new rank comes a raise, so that's cause for celebration enough.

I take in treats here and there, and they've always been appreciative. I thought I could cook them a meal that they would enjoy (kind of a large feat, considering we planned for at least 30 people). We provided pork taco fixings, rice & beans (both made by Rob), guacamole, had watermelon, chips, and a few little extras. Most people have a meal catered, and we chose not to because we thought they'd enjoy it, but I was afraid of looking cheap, so I added extra stuff just to make sure we didn't have that appearance. A lot of people also do an after hours party with an open bar. That's not something that we want to do, so we did lunch and that worked really well.

Rob's parents came in support (nice that they work about 10 min from base). Rob's dad retired after 20 years in the Air Force, and his mom even served in the Air Force, so it means a lot to them, I think, to be able to see their son choose this as a career (so far - for now - we'll see).

The office is really great with the boys. We had one ABU (Air Force Camo Uniform) that we bought when Rob started with the Air Force 2 years ago (too cute to pass up), so we added sleepers and a larger uniform to our collection for this fun occasion. Rob's office loved it, and so did everybody that saw them while were were around the Medical Clinic. Link was sleeping when I took the photo below--I'll have to take more with all 3.

Oh, and I made cookies - With one special Captain Justiniano one. Since moving to Dover I've discovered a sugar cookie recipe that both Rob and I love. More of a post on that later. We made about 50 of these cookies - and the "we" here was two of my good friends that I've made since moving here last August, and I. On Monday they brought their kids over for over 4 hours, and they were amazing help - as we shuffled the kids and the baking. So grateful for their help, or I probably would have been working on those cookies 'til 1 am, or so.

Congrats to Rob! Who knows how long we'll keep going with this. The Major that did the ceremony said some really great things about Rob and his work. One of the things that I've appreciated most about this move to Dover is that Rob's worked really hard to do a great job at work and still be a great family man. He's always one of the first ones in the office in the morning (one hour early almost every day) and he works through lunch most days so that he can get home when the office closes. I truly appreciate and am grateful for his devotion.