Cassie Dull's Blog

Honorary Commander for Grissom Air Reserve Base

Cassie Dull — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:58:23 +0000

Last Sunday, I took my oath as an honorary commander for Grissom Air Reserve Base. I was one of seven selected for this awesome program, which provides community leaders with a rare, inside look at the base, its mission and its hard-working people. It’s one of the best military base community outreach programs in our country.

Each honorary commander is matched with key commanders at Grissom. I will be working with the Marine Corps Reserve on base, taking a look at the life of a Marine, learning more about the history of the Marines, and witnessing them in action. I’m excited to get to know these hard-working individuals as I interact with them throughout the year.

In addition to my focus with the Marine Reserves, I also get opportunities to learn about other units at Grissom as all seven commanders will come together several days throughout the year for activities in each command post. The one I’m looking forward to the most is the KC-135 refueling flight. I already had the chance to do this in August 2010, but it was such an exhilarating experience to see two planes connect at 30,000 feet that I can’t wait to do it again.

Stay tuned to keep up with my year as a Grissom Honorary Commander!

Col. William "Tim" Cahoon, 434th Air Refueling Wing commander, speaks at Honorary Commanders Induction Ceremony

Honorary Commanders take oath of office

Receiving my Honorary Commander certificate from Col. Cahoon

Grissom Marine Corps Reserve Honorary Commander

Honorary commanders take oath today – 2/12/2012

Grissom’s honorary commanders: Part 1 – 2/16/2012

Grissom’s honorary commanders: Part 2 – 2/16/2012

Pregnancy Update: 2 down, 1 to go

Cassie Dull — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:47:38 +0000

Third trimester starts this week! Eek! Pregnancy has been great so far, baby girl is growing, growing, growing, and so is my belly! Chad and I are both so blessed and excited for what’s to come. There’s a lot to process, and a lot of unknowns, but we take it day by day and learn something new about pregnancy and babies every day.

We had a great Christmas with family (despite my terrible cold that left me voiceless on Christmas morning – yuck!). Needless to say, grandmas, great-grandma, aunts and nieces are all very excited for baby girl and showered her with all kinds of pink gifts. Who can resist buying cute pink baby things?

We built the crib and changing table this weekend, so we’ve got a start on her nursery. And the boxes of other things are piling up across the house (why does such a teeny tiny thing require so much stuff?!?). One day, it will all come together. I hope.

Here’s some new belly pictures, our Christmas family pic, and the start of our little monkey’s nursery. Just 3 more months until this bun is done baking!

22 weeks

Christmas Family Pic (22 Weeks)

26 Weeks

Getting Rounder

Crib

Changing Table

We’re having a girl!

Cassie Dull — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:40:36 +0000

We went to have our ultrasound on Thursday and found out that our little one is a baby girl! She was moving so much and stretching and rolling around. We could see everything – her little fingers and toes, her tiny beating heart, and even her spine and ribcage. It’s so amazing to see how much she’s growing in there! I’m 19 weeks now and she’s about the size of a mango – 6 inches long and 1/2 pound.

Our Baby Girl's Ultrasound - 19 Weeks

I started feeling flutters the night before Thanksgiving. It felt like little sparks going off in my belly and I just knew it was our little one kicking away. I’ve felt her move more and more each day. I have to say this may be the most exciting part of pregnancy – starting to show, feeling those first movements, and finding out that it’s a girl all in the same week!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we had Chad’s mom and stepdad down here for the first Thanksgiving at our house. And we deep fried the turkey! And it didn’t catch on fire! It was the first time I had fried turkey and it was soooo good. And it only took about an hour to cook so no slaving in the kitchen all day for Thanksgiving. I can’t wait to do it again next year!

Thanksgiving with Fried Turkey!

We’re looking forward to Christmas with our families and reaching more milestones with our little baby girl. Next up: choosing a name and setting up the nursery.

Baby makes 3!

Cassie Dull — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 19:05:33 +0000

Big news! Chad and I are expecting our first kiddo in April! Today I’m 14 weeks and 3 days (about 3 months) and my due date is April 26, 2012. The baby is healthy and so is my pregnancy so far. We’re so excited and our families are all super excited, too! We feel so very blessed and loved and are looking forward to this new adventure!

Our first ultrasound - 8 weeks and 6 days. Our little gummy bear!

Stay tuned – I’ll be posting belly pics and more fun pregnancy stuff as the journey to 9 months continues!

Foo Fighters!

Cassie Dull — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:45:24 +0000

It’s official… Dave Grohl possesses the Pick of Destiny.

Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
September 22, 2011
w/Rise Against & Mariachi El Bronx

When I bought these tickets (as a surprise for Chad’s birthday) I didn’t really pay attention to who the opening acts were, but I was stoked to find out that Rise Against was opening for the Foo. I hadn’t seen them since Warped Tour ’04? At one point, Rise Against was my favorite band. Sadly, they didn’t play any songs from their most epic album, 2004′s Revolutions Per Minute. But as always, they put on one hell of a rock show.

If you’ve never been to a Foo Fighters concert, go! These guys are not kidding around when they say they will play a fully-energized, face-melting, crowd-surfing, straight-up rock show for 3 hours. If there’s one band left who has passion and drive for what they do and for the fans who support them, it’s the Foo Fighters. I love Dave’s energy and the way that this band somehow manages to make a crowd of 10,000 seem like an intimate concert.

For the thousands who were scratching their heads during “This Is a Call,” saying “Is Dave singing about fingernails?” Yes, he is singing about fingernails! Do yourself a favor and catch up on 16 years and six albums worth of Foo Fighters history.

Florida Vacation!

Cassie Dull — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 20:09:16 +0000

Sun and Sand!

Getting some sun!

Chad at the Beach

Grilling

Trying to take a pic with no sunglasses

Going to the movies

Driving home - Sunset over Nashville

Indy 500 100th Anniversary

Cassie Dull — Mon, 30 May 2011 21:08:42 +0000

This year’s Indy 500 race was the 100th Anniversary and my first time attending The Greatest Spectacle in Racing! This race is one of the greatest highlights of our city – you can go anywhere in the world and tell them you’re from Indianapolis, and they’ll respond with “oh, yes, the Indy 500!”

Of course I was cheering for #67 Ed Carpenter – a fellow Butler University grad and a Park Tudor grad! What a great race he had! Ed stayed in the top 10 for all but a few laps, and even led for 3 laps under caution! Congrats to Ed for finishing 11th!

My second pick was the eventual winner Dan Wheldon, whom I had met during my days interning at Radio Now downtown. I thought he was a very nice, down-to-earth guy, and not much bigger than I am, but then again you have to be tiny to fit in those cars. Congrats to Dan for driving into Victory Lane!

Mom, Dad, Uncle John & Aunt Sarah at the Indy 500

Tribute to our Troops

Pace Cars

Ed Carpenter

Danica Patrick

View all my photos and videos from the 100th Anniversary Indy 500.

My backyard turned into an ice rink!

Cassie Dull — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:35:38 +0000

Central Indiana was blanketed with a sheet of ice this week while the rest of the Midwest was buried under 2 feet of snow. Icepocalypse as we called it, caused 3 days off school, lots of accidents, cabin fever, some creative outdoor activities, and some great pictures. Here are some photos and videos that I took, all of which are posted on my Flickr.

Ice pellets

Icicles dripping down the bushes

My dog Jude

Chad sliding down the driveway

Me sliding down the driveway

How to make your own recipe book

Cassie Dull — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:22:15 +0000

I made my own personalized recipe book as a Christmas gift this past holiday season. It took some time, but it was really quite simple.

As I made some of my favorite recipes throughout the year, I snapped some snazzy shots of the finished products. Then I gathered all of my recipes and photos and started to create a photobook with my favorite online photo store, Snapfish.

If you’ve never made a photobook before, it’s incredibly simple. You can choose different sizes, hardbound/soft cover, number of pages, different themes and layouts for each page. You can truly make it your own. Just upload your photos, choose your layouts, and drag and drop your photos onto the pages.

Here is my finished recipe photobook.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=1AbtW7Vs0bs3KQ

(Note: If I said I love Snapfish, why is this photobook in Shutterfly? Because I love a good deal. I did make my gift recipe books in Snapfish, but after the holidays, Shutterfly sent me a discount code for a free 8×8 book, so I made another one. I chose to link to the Shutterfly book because it doesn’t require you to log in like Snapfish’s share feature.)

Endings, Beginnings and Continuations

Cassie Dull — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 19:44:02 +0000

I really hate to be another one of those bloggers who writes about the end of the year/beginning of the new year, but I hope this post has a little bit of a different spin on the subject. I think it’s important to reflect not only on amazing new moments and endings, but it’s also important to think about the good constants that remain in your life.

Last week, I had one of the best Christmases ever. My brother and sister-in-law finally brought home little Mia (JingJing) from China. After almost 5 years of trying to adopt, they welcomed Mia to her new home and new family in the States on Christmas Eve. JingJing is 4 years old and was living in an orphanage for a little over a year. Christmas marked the end of her days as an orphan and her new start as part of a family who loves her. She is so adorable and sweet, but she has a quite suspicious little laugh. I’m so happy to have a new niece for Christmas!

With December also comes my birthday, which started with an earthquake. I took that as a wake-up call and enjoyed a great day with my love. I feel like this birthday was more of a mile marker than past birthdays. I think this is going to be a great year. I think this year is going to bring many changes and opportunities, and I’m less fearful than I was before. I’m feeling optimistic and open to new challenges.

Above all, I’m really grateful for the constant good energy in my life. I’m very fortunate for my family and friends and all that is present in my life right now. This morning, Chad and I went to breakfast at Best Bet, and it marked one year that we’ve been ritually going there every Saturday. It may sound ridiculous to some, but something as simple as a tradition of going to a diner every Saturday morning and being greeted by everyone when you walk in the door brings me joy. And I look forward to continuing that tradition, as well as starting new ones.