"Be a lifelong student. The more you learn, the more you earn and the more self-confidence you will have." – Brian Tracy

It’s been nearly 1 month since I earned the Technician Class amateur radio license. I’m scheduled to go back to Forest, VA on Sunday January 10 to take the General Class exam. I’ve been on the radio, almost daily since the FCC issued my first license.

The Technician Class license is fun, and if you just want to chat on the radio locally, it works really well. You have privileges on multiple bands / frequencies, but there are so many more opportunities as you upgrade your license.

I’ve tuned around on a few HF bands with my Dad, and brother. My Dad, WB4FLM introduced me to 40, or 80 meters and let me scan around and listen to a few QSOs, CW, even some AM stations as far away as New York and Kentucky! My brother, W4NJE introduced me to PSK31, aka. digital radio. He has a laptop connected to his radio and uses the soundcard of the computer to transmit messages over the radio. While we were on the air we heard from an operator in Cuba, and made contact with a person in Mexico.

I don’t have an HF radio, so it may be a while before I’m actually on the air, at least from home. Of course in my case, as in the case of many HAMs, I’ll be without a decent antenna and that makes all the difference.

I’m still working on my wife, Sarah to study for and get her Technician license. I think she will, one day. She actually committed to testing with me on January 10, but admittedly, I didn’t get her the study material.

73′s, and good luck to me. I’ll report back on my test results in a few days.

As a family we decided to put together a newsletter to send to all of our family and friends. Unfortunately we don’t have addresses or email for many of you, so we’ve decided to post the newsletter online. If you haven’t received a newsletter in the mail, please email us so we may update your contact information in our records.

View / download in PDF format.

The BRUINGTON Family
Annual Newsletter
2009

Dear Family and Friends,

This has been a challenging, rewarding, unexpected, and life-changing year for our family. Among many, many other things we have moved three times and held four jobs (collectively), attended school (elementary and college), and had a wedding!

many, many other things we have moved three times and held four jobs (collectively), attended school

(elementary and college), and had a wedding!This has been a challenging, rewarding, unexpected, and life-changing year for our family. Among many, many other things we have moved three times and held four jobs (collectively), attended school (elementary and college), and had a wedding!

Sarah Helene (Crawford) Bruington and Stephen Boyd Bruington
were married on November 28, 2009 in Rocky Mount, Virginia.

Earlier this year, Jennifer finished second grade with high marks and began a fun, relaxing summer. In August, Jennifer started third grade at Rocky Mount Elementary where she is part of an Accelerated Reader program. She loves her friends, teachers, and cafeteria lunches. Jennifer is doing well in every subject, and showing steady improvement in math. It’s hard to believe she will be nine in July; she is already quite a lady.

This has been a uproarious year for Sarah. Towards the end of the summer, Sarah hitched a trailer to her car, packed them both to overflowing, and began the two thousand mile journey from Utah to Virginia. She has experienced a whirlwind of changes, but handled each of them beautifully. In January, Sarah was a single woman, living in Utah, and working for T-Mobile. As of December, Sarah is a wife, step-mother, living in Virginia and working as a stay-at-home mom.

Stephen has also been privy to life’s curve-balls this year. He spent the first half of the year living in Utah, and moved back to Virginia in June. Stephen started the year as a student at Virginia Western Community College, but had to withdraw from classes and wait for a better time to finish his degree. He has worked for three different companies this year, including McDonald’s. Stephen is currently working for UnitedHealthcare, and is licensed to sell health insurance in all fifty states.

Mendy, the family dog is a thirteen year old black lab. She is full of spirit, but struggles with upper respiratory problems. Mendy has given the family a few scares this year, but she is alive and healthy.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and hope you are able to spend this holiday season with your friends, family and loved ones.

It is important to us to be a part of your life, but we may not have your contact information. Please send an email to

thebruingtons at gmail.com.

If you have not already done so, visit our wedding and engagement photo galleries online at stephenbruington.com/wedding, and stephenbruington.com/engagement.

With love,

Stephen, Sarah, Jennifer and Mendy

View / download in PDF format.

This seems to be the busiest time of the year, hands down. In spite of all the running around, it’s nice to take time together as a family to begin, and carry on important traditions; our family is doing just that!

Sarah and I were married on November 28, 2009 which makes this our first Christmas as an “official” family. Although we first started talking early December last year, we spent Christmas 2,000 miles apart in UT and VA, respectively. (Read more about our story, aka. The Beginning)

Yesterday Jennifer, Sarah, Laura and I left the house in search of a Christmas tree. I’ve always wanted a (fraser) fir tree, but was never so lucky as this year. We found a tree for a reasonable price of $34.95 just up the road from our house. It didn’t take long to find the perfect tree, get the bottom trimmed and loaded onto the car. We came home and attempted to set up the tree, but we were 2 branches too many on getting it to fit in the stand, so we waited until today and finished installing the tree in it’s stand.

Laura has been part of our early Christmas activities for which we’ve been very grateful. This evening we finished the tree setup and began to decorate. Sarah showed us a great way to place the lights; she started with a few hundred, and I finished with another strand or two. In total, I believe we have 600 lights on our little tree!

Jennifer was excited to begin decorating with ornaments, but we held off so she could setup the  advent calendar. My Mom, aka. “Grandma” made a wall-hanging advent calendar which we’re using to keep track of the number of days to Christmas. We had to play catch-up tonight and place 15 ornaments on the advent tree. Jennifer had fun counting, adding a few more, and counting again. We told Jenn that her job will be to post the ornament each morning before the bus takes her to school.

Once the advent calendar was updated, the 4 of us began putting real ornaments on the real tree. Jennifer was so excited. Laura was very helpful. Sarah was instructive. Stephen was patient. We had a good time, and look forward to more family activities this Christmas.

Stay tuned for our First Annual Family Newsletter.

A few months ago, Mrrrh and I went horseback riding. I had posted about this trip before, but [again] lost the post / data in migration. I wanted to re-post a few thoughts on the experience and re-post the pictures I still have.

Mary has been a horse-enthusiast all her life. Everyone in our family knows that, if there’s one thing with which Mary’s has been consistently obsessed, it’s HORSES! Having said that, I don’t mean to poke fun. She’s wonderful with horses, and finally, after many long years was able to have her own, Buksbary Sas’ N-Justice (sp).

I was fortunate to be able to go riding with Mary. She humored me and my repeated requests for pictures. We had fun, and were able to ride for about an hour. The horse she had me ride was, shall we say “temperamental”. There were a few surprises, but nothing dangerous or impossible to overcome.

I appreciate Mary’s enthusiasm and admit that I had a wonderful time. Since our ride together I’ve been back with my family and had my wife, Sarah and daughter, Jennifer both riding Justin as well.

When I was a kid, our family visited Bruington, VA to attend a funeral, or some other activity – I can’t really remember now. I remember seeing our name on the road sign, under which my brother and I stood for a few pictures.

Our family isn’t famous, in fact you could literally blink and miss the place. I don’t know that it even shows up on a map, but it’s neat to see ’Bruington’ on a VDOT-issued sign marking the area. :)  There’s a church, and a large cemetary, but other than that Bruington, VA is virtually non-existent.

A few months ago, Sarah decided to take me somewhere. I believe we were visiting VA from UT, or she had come to visit after I moved back, but I digress. She wouldn’t tell me where we were going. She kept the map and acted as Navigator as I drove 3 1/2 hours from Rocky Mount to Bruington.

I posted about this trip a while ago, but in the course of migrating and relocating I lost it, so I wanted to jot a few notes and re-post some of the pictures.

Thank you Sarah for taking our family there. It was sweet of you, and although it was a quick trip, with nothing really to see or do, we had a good time as a family for which I’m grateful. ImL