Dreamliner Takes Flight

Today was a big day for me. As most of you know, I work for Boeing. Most of you probably don't know what I do there. I am a structural engineer or a stress engineer, depending on your lingo. I am responsible for the analysis of the pylon to wing structure for the 787 propulsion program. In the simplest terms, my job is to make sure, through detailed analysis and testing, that the engines stay attached to the wings during flight and can safely break away from the plane in case of a crash. I have been working on this for over three years now. After 2 years of delays, the 787 finally took it's maiden voyage today. Thousands of Boeing employees watched this event from the flight line. I was one of them. In a year, airlines will begin receiving 787's for their fleets and some of you may get to fly on one. Hopefully I will get to fly on it this year to support flight testing activites.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi6q54Fd308 - CNN Video From the Paine Field Tower

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GqB0Jp5ESk - Boeing Employee Video from the Flight Line

So much has happened..

We are doing great, couldn't be happier. But the last couple of months have been extremely busy and we've made some pretty big life changes. As you know, we are engaged but we haven't picked a date yet. We have narrowed it down to the august-september 2010 timeframe. We have decided it will be in NY, where most of Emma's family is. Lastly, we know it's going to cost us a bit of money, though we are going to keep costs down as much as we can. In addition to that, we planned on buying a house next year too. So, we decided it would be in our best interests to save money by renting out my condo and living together in Emma's apartment while we looked for a house through Redfin. Our goal was to find one and buy it before the "First-Time Homebuyers Tax Credit" ended, since Emma qualifies as long as we buy before we are married. Well, long story short, we are buying a new construction house in Seattle. It will be finished on February 26th and we are super excited!

I moved out of my condo the week before Thanksgiving and moved in with Emma after putting most of my stuff in storage for the next few months. The move went quickly because I had some buddies from Boeing help out. Everything was moved from my condo (and those who know me know I have a ton of stuff) and into the truck and from the truck into storage in under 2 hours. That was a record breaker. Then Emma and I spent the rest of the day cleaning the condo and making good will trips. We spent the next few days turning Emma's apartment into "our apartment". My renters are moved in and loving their new place. I miss the sunrise cascade view and the kitchen the most but our new home will more than make up for those things. Less than 3 months to go!

After successfully negotiating for our home, we had to start picking out finishes, upgrades and options to make it "ours". This week we finished that process, chosing everything from the carpet to the color of the grout. We decided to put in wood floors ourselves because it would be so much cheaper than having our builder do it. Other than that, we left some smaller projects to complete that will save us some money. Suprisingly we had no problem coming to agreement on the finishing decisions. Emma and I liked the same stuff for the most part. Now we wait...

Last week our agent set us up with a photo shoot through redfin. We aren't sure if we will be the next cover models of their website but in the mean time, we got professional pictures of us for free. Actually, we were paid to do them. So without further ado... pictures.

Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend

I knew I couldn't propose to Emma in a traditional or predictable way. She is way too special and she would know what I was going to say before it came out of my mouth. So I decided to do something a little different. Christa, one of our close friends, had been traveling in Africa for the last few weeks and came home on thursday night. We all went out and chatted and had ice cream together. The next day I decided to take off work and spend the day with Emma and Christa, just hanging out. We ended up at Emma's house and Christa suggested that Emma show her the anniversary DVD I made for her a month ago, since Christa hadn't been around to see it yet. I went into the kitchen to make a margarita for the girls. They enjoyed the DVD and had a lot of laughs and nice things to say about it. When it got to the "end"... or at least what used to be the end of the DVD there was a lot of new stuff that Emma had never seen before. I'll leave it up to your imagination.. or you could watch the DVD for yourself.

I attached it to the blog. If you have a cable modem you should be able to play it quickly. It is split into two parts because it was a little too long to put on youtube in one piece. We are also sending out copies to family so they can be a part of our lives, even though they live so far away.

Emma was in shock, it took her a long time to even stop looking at the TV. I got down on one knee and proposed to her. She lovingly accepted. It took awhile for her to even look at the ring, she was just so happy. Christa and I were in tears, but Emma was just in shock. Christa took some pictures of us right after this happened. Emma was still shy about showing the ring, she's not a material girl (but it is exactly what she wanted... a one of a kind symbol of our love for eachother).

Pumpkin Carving

Emma organized a wonderful fall harvest party for BPP. There were tons of people there, live music, food, and activities. Everyone had a great time. It was a lot of work and she is glad that it is done. She recruited me to run the pumpkin carving station, one of the many activities that were available for families to do. So I decided to carve Emma. I was told to post these pictures, they are the only ones we have of that day.

Mount Pilchuck

On a whim we decided to climb mount pilchuck which is a mountain visible from my condo in Everett. We woke up and had a hearty breakfast and took off towards the hills... the cascade mountain range that is. The climb was cool but sunny. The views were spectacular, mountains all around us. We spent some time at the top, relaxing in the sun and then made our way down the rock. Next on our 'to climb' list is the slightly taller Mount Si.

Happy Anniversary

That's right... Emma and I have been dating for a whole year now. I planned a surprise weekend for us. We started out by having a romantic dinner at the space needle. Then we stayed at a bed and breakfast on Bainbridge Island that was in Better Homes and Gardens magazine. We relaxed in a hot tub had a great breakfast the next morning. The owner of the B&B let us pick some honeycrisp apples off of her trees in the garden. Then we walked around the shops downtown and headed back over to Seattle to see "Wicked" from the 4th row at the Paramount. It was an awesome play.. but an amazing weekend!

San Juan Island Weekend Getaway

A couple of weekends ago we went to stay at Emma's friends cabin on San Juan Island. What a beautiful place. The sunsets were amazing, we saw Orca whales and had a great kayaking trip. The cabin was very nice and was right on the water. Kate, one of Emma's friends cooked for everyone there the whole weekend!