Saturday

Today Kaylee and I went out to the airport, where the roller was there for the runway. We got our turn to roll the taxiway area after lunch, and she almost fell asleep on me. If I had a place for her to actually SIT on it comfortably, she'd have been out cold. :) Chuck and I flew a bit in the Citabria, and I spoke to a couple of interested people today. Steve flew most of the day. Oh, and Kaylee wrote me a letter when I left to go fly with Chuck, while she stayed behind with Steve. Here's a scan of it, because nothing is funnier than seeing this in person:



Now in case you need a translation, since she's not big into spelling or vowels yet, the note of "i lv you dnt fly vre mtch" has a heart, then actually says "I Love You Don't Fly Very Much" Steve wasn't there and she decided she wanted to write me that note on her own. I was kind of pleased, it's one of the first notes she's written ALL on her own that you can really tell what she's saying. It also cracked me up that she gets jealous of flying sometimes. She doesn't want to go usually, but she doesn't want ME to go either. Doesn't work that way dear! :) But I got a laugh out of it!

The cats seem to be doing fine now. Their doctor appointment is Monday. Wish me luck-I'm taking them both at the same time, alone. At least only one of them still has front claws...

The answer to the question "how can you keep going?"

Posted on a November Mom's Board, story by Jim Stovall


There were two warring tribes in the Andes; one that lived in the lowlands, and the other lived high in the mountains. The mountain people invaded the lowlanders one day, and as a part of their plundering of the people, they kidnapped a baby of one of the lowlander families and took the infant with them back up into the mountains. The lowlanders did not know how to climb the mountains. They did not know any of the trails that the mountain people used, and they didn’t know where to find the mountain people, or how to track them in the steep terrain. Even so, they sent out their best party of fighting men to climb the mountain and bring the baby home.

The men tried first one method of climbing and then another. They tried one trail and then another. After several days of effort, however, they had climbed only several hundred feet. Feeling hopeless and helpless, the lowlander men decided that the cause was lost, and they prepared for their return to their village below.

As they were packing their gear for the descent, they saw the baby’s mother walking toward them. They realized that she was coming DOWN the mountain they had not figured out how to climb. And then to their amazement, they saw she had the baby strapped to her back.

How could that be?? One man greeted her and said, “We couldn’t climb this mountain! How could you do this when we, the strongest and most able men in the village, couldn’t do it?!”

The mother simply shrugged her shoulders and said,
“It wasn’t your baby.”

Today after I dropped Kaylee off at school, I headed out to the airport. Flew with Chuck in the Citabria to Sheridan, where he dropped me off and I picked up the Warrior and brought it back into Glenndale for its new home. Lunch was today, and we had BBQ Pork, Mac & Cheese, and a delicious cheesy-potato soup home-made by John Dale. Pumpkin and Chocolate pies for dessert topped us off. It was quite tasty! We got a roller until Monday so we can try to flatten out our runway--it is getting really rough!

I ordered a couple of cough assists today, sent out a large check for something else for SMA Support, keeping busy! Brad sent through an article they're doing on him in Canada for a mini-marathon he's running to bring in money for SMA Support. I thought it was a pretty good article--

"The U.S.-based SMA Support Inc., lent the necessary $20,000 worth of medical equipment -- no questions asked -- in order for Shira to survive at home until the provincial government could replace it. As well as boosting the disease's profile through the run, Fisher hopes to raise $25,000 for the American support group."

He's off to a great start so far! http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=bc1082a0-b66f-440f-af3f-395b15cbf724&k=98957 is the whole article...

Richard & Ann just got back, from being in Tennessee for Alonna's 16th birthday. I'll bet Kaylee is pestering them right now, but I'll let her for a bit. :)

Today I had to explain to Kaylee why wind makes moisture evaporate. She sucked on her finger and stuck it out the window, and wanted to know where the "moisture" went. I told her it evaporated in the air. Well, THAT'S not that easy to explain to a five year old let me say. Let me also say I'm kind of proud of her for asking questions like that. It never occurred to me to ask questions like that as a kid. It still doesn't. I don't care where it went. She does. And that's pretty neat!

I got my photos back from Gatlinburg. Man I love photos! Sometimes I can't decide if I want to be behind the stick and fly the airplane in stuff like this, or be behind the camera and shoot other people doing it. You sure can't do both. I guess I'll fly the plane, then have somebody REALLY good shoot the photos, and just get copies. ;)

Our BBQ Bash fundraiser is coming up! The T-6 has been confirmed and will be there for rides again, and THIS year I'M taking a flight in it too! We may get an F-16 flyover, which would be pretty cool! I know it's a big headache and a lot of prep work and planning for Steve and some others, but it sure is a lot of fun for a lot of people. I look forward to it! :)

Is there some reason I HAVE to put a title for each post? Let's find out.

This morning when I got up, after I took Kaylee to school, I walked on the treadmill for 2 and a quarter miles. It felt really good, actually. Why can't I remember that exercise tends to make me feel better? Duh. It was nice to do, and it was a good stress reliever. The other funny thing about exercise, at least for me, is that it then makes me want to eat better so as to not "waste" the effort. So when I took Kaylee to McDonald's for the Play Land time I'd promised her, I ate a salad. Of course later tonight I had graham crackers and frosting, but hey, it was a start.

I'm going to go watch Grey's Anatomy and relax for a bit...

Smiling..

Yes, I'm still smiling from Sunday. What can I say, that was too neat! I think about it, and I KNOW I'm lucky, and I know that some day I will look back on these days and remember them with the same feeling of amazement I get now. I felt that way about the Pizza Hut job too. It was very undemanding, non-pressure. I fly them where they need to go, it's often a short distance away, I usually have time on the ground to get work done or read a book or get online, I'm paid for the entire time I'm away (because I can't exactly work back at home if I'm in a different state sitting in an airport), and I got to use the plane frequently for personal use as well. I used to sit up in the pilot's lounge in Peoria and watch planes go by and land and think to myself "THIS is a fun job." The fact that they didn't WANT to fly when the weather was terrible made my job that much more relaxing. The stressful flights were few and far between, and it was and has been a terrific opportunity to fly, to build time, to earn a paycheck, and to enjoy it while I was doing it.

The flying I've been able to do lately, well it's that, and multiply it with a good percentage of "wow". I get to fly in airplanes I've heard "old" pilots say they'd give their left...leg...to get to sit in. I get to do things that never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd get to do. It's opened up a whole new world for me, made flying (something I've always loved anyway) EXCITING and new again. I'm back in "student pilot" mode, I'm always trying to learn, to keep up. And there is a possibility that the future will hold even more interesting and exciting things. For one thing, there is a really cool plane coming in the not-too-distant-future that I've been told I'll get to get checked out in and build some time in, and after that, if I master it, I'll get to step into something even bigger and better, and possibly even instruct in one or both. I'm nervous about it sort of, and *really* excited about it, and the things that would come after that because of it. Yeah, I'm vague, but it's not all a done deal for one thing, and for another, I hate to jinx myself. ;) I have a lot of hard work ahead of me, and I look forward to the challenge. I'm starting to have a couple of plans here for the future that I hope will work out. And even if they don't, I'm thankful for the great time I've had the last six months or so, the fun things I HAVE gotten to do already!

Kaylee had a fun day today! She went to AWANAS tonight, and had learned two sections. One was the Spark's "Motto", and the other was John 3:16, something she'd learned last year but had forgotten. Last week her team had come in 3rd out of 4, which really wasn't that good, and she said that she lost all the races. So this week I had her wear pants, and tennis shoes, and told her to try her best to run super fast and help her team win, but that as long as she did her best, I'd be proud of her. So she went there and earned a bunch of points for her team by bringing her dues, her handbook, having two sections memorized, and she ran as fast as she could. She got beat a few times, but she also won a couple too. She came running up to me afterwards and said "Mommy! My team WON this week! I made my team WIN!" (I explained it took ALL of them to win, not just her, but that she Helped her team win.) She got a prize for her team winning, and she was so proud. I like to see the pride of accomplishment. Not the "I'm the queen" pride-before-a-fall pride, just the pride of doing something well. YOU know. :)

The cats seem to be doing fine. They have a new thing going now, where the little cat will leap at Dulce, and they will end up chewing on each other's heads. Dulce will usually fight her off and the little one will hunker down flat in submission, but then she'll come right back for more. Crazy little thing. It sounds terrible, you can hear them growling and chewing and yelping at each other, which is different from the fun playing they'd been doing the previous few days. Their relationship seems to change a lot! We've decided we'll probably call the kitty Roadie. She has her first Veterinarian appointment at Oct. 2nd, along with Dulce. So they'll BOTH hate me again. But...they both need it.

Guess that's it for now!

Trash Can Boogie

This morning I get up, get Kaylee to school, run a few errands, get home and Steve had left me a message to take the trash out maybe if I got to it in time. I run out and pull the can into the alley, and leave again to finish off other errands. About two hours later I went looking, and my trash was still full, but the other three I checked down the alley were empty. I figured I must have missed the garbage truck, so I haul the can back in. About 15 minutes later I hear the garbage truck. I race outside, and it has already passed my house and is four houses down and they don't back up. So I missed it altogether after all that. Oh BROTHER. :)

Helped Kaylee with some home work, worked on some stuff, and fought off a headache all day. So I think I'll upload my photos to Kodak, and then lie down and maybe rest and watch "Smith". An early bedtime for me tonight I think!!

Now THAT was fun!

I'm home, and I'm TIRED, but I'm still up too late. Of course. :)

Well, Saturday night, Kaylee came into our room at about 2:30 a.m., which was only about 30 minutes after we'd gone to bed, and I hadn't gotten to sleep yet. She was coughing, snuffling, and having troubles with allergies. So I got her medicine, and I waited until 3 something a.m., and she still was kicking moving around, climbing on me, not able to sleep, etc., so rather than fighting her to go to her own bed, *I* went to her bed! Unfortunately I was up too long, and I couldn't get to sleep. I don't know exactly what time I finally passed out, but it was very early in the morning. I was still sleeping when Steve came in and told me Nathan had called twice. So I called him back from Kaylee's room, and he said he was ready to give it a shot to get into Gatlinburg Airport, wheels-up in about an hour. I hadn't packed yet, but I boogied and got up, showered, packed a small duffel bag (the Mustang doesn't exactly have a huge storage area), and away I went. Luckily he was delayed a bit by having to go get a jacket, so I got there first. I got the tug started and got it hooked up to the tow bar, the first time I'd done that, but then he arrived so I had him pull it out of the hangar.

I hopped in the back to perform my duties of GIB (Girl In Back), hooked up the GPS, the parachute, the seat harness, etc. and away we went. The weather was beautiful here for once, but the weather in Tennessee was NOT looking the best. Sure enough, we got FIFTEEN MINUTES out from Gatlinburg and had to turn around and stop in London, KY. There was just a wall of white, no visibility over the mountains there. We waited in London for awhile, where a "Murphy's Law" thing happened. Nathan was trying to get gas at a "serve yourself" pump. It takes 5 minutes to enter all the info it wants, so he hooks up the grounding cable, does all that, gets the pump over to the wing...and nothing happens. So he has to go re-enter all that info. On his way over to re-enter the info, the grounding cable snaps off and zips back up onto the spool. About 10 minutes later he Finally could get the pump working. He was beginning to be not so amused. :) After about 90 minutes-2 hours there, I went to look at radar, and it was actually worse. The showers and storms were growing again instead of diminishing like they had been. We decided (after staring at that for 20 minutes) that we simply were not going to make it. So about 20 minutes out, we had to decide to go all the way back home. He called Mint and the guys down there and told them he wasn't going to make it in. We took off, and looked around, and gee, it looked kind of clear, actually. So he asked if I wanted to go "take a look", and I said "sure". It was totally clear behind us with nothing coming in there, so we had a definite "out". The clouds moved in, but the rain stayed away--but I could see a big cell right on top of Gatlinburg, which I told him. I thought there was no way. There shouldn't have been a way. We kept going, and got within THIRTY SECONDS of the airport--within 2-3 miles. We could SEE the runway. But there was this scud layer right over it. And rain should have been on top of us but wasn't. So we circled repeatedly, and every go around we could see the runway even better, because of a hole in the clouds that was moving. Finally we had our opening, a full shot at the runway, and we took it. We came on down, and on base I heard on the radio "1451D, are you with me?" and Nate came back and said "Yes I am". Later I found out the response to that was something along the lines of "Holy...!" Nobody thought we were coming, didn't think we'd get in. When we landed, everybody stood outside clapping, which was fun. We barely got out of the plane when down came the rain. The Mustang got soaked, but we were just glad to have been able to safely arrive and not have to head home! There was a pilot briefing that covered what time things would start the next day, what positions planes were going to be in, what film shots they wanted to capture, safety rules, etc. which was pretty interesting. That night we wiped down the plane, put it up in the hangar, and eventually headed back to the cabin on the mountain at Gatlinburg. A beautiful cabin like the one we stayed at with the Wild family, same area even. We had a fish dinner that was fresh-caught by the cook, and it was really good. Later I took a soak in the Jacuzzi bath tub in one of the suites. Now THAT was nice. :) Afterwards I laid in bed and listened to mellow tunes (James Taylor, Billy Joel, etc.) on my iPod until I got tired enough to go to sleep. It was only 10:30 when I shut everything off. And before anybody passes out at the early bedtime (especially since it's 1:30 a.m. now), we had to get up at O-Dark-Thirty.

I set the alarm which someone thought would be funny to put clear across the room for 6:00 a.m. And from about 4 a.m. on, I woke up every 15-30 minutes trying to make sure I woke up before my alarm went off. I just knew it would be loud and scare me to death, so I kept waking up most of the night. Finally I got up and shut it off at 5:53 a.m., and got ready for the day. We left the cabin at 6:30 a.m., before the sun was up, and headed to the Gatlinburg airport.

When we got there, the Gunny and his "Mail Call" crew were just arriving, introductions were made, and then the crew got to work installing a "Lipstick Cam" in the back seat of Nathan's Mustang so they could capture footage of Gunny in flight. There was another pilot briefing to fine-tune the details, and then after some minor repair to the sound system in the Mustang, they flights began. I stayed on the ground and watched, took photos, hung out, chatted a bit, enjoyed the fresh air, LOVED the sound of those engines.

Nathan took the Gunny up twice, once before and once after lunch. After lunch they went up and did some Fighter Pilot moves (some aerobatics) and Gunny came back with a smile. I doubt they'll air it out of respect for other stuff, but I heard him say that was the best plane/plane ride he'd ever had. :) They got some excellent photos and film footage too, I saw some of the photos. Nathan gave Gunny a P-51 jacket just for him, and then the crew did interviews with the pilots and Gunny one at a time. They also did an interview with Frank Luckman, an actual WW II fighter pilot who used to "drive" the P-47's. He is one sharp man, too, and very kind. It was an honor to meet him.

After Nate took up a couple of the Producers of the Mail Call show, he gassed up and it was time for us to head on home back to Kokomo. I got to be the 'autopilot' for the trip home, which was much fun, of course. :) It flies very...smoothly. I don't know how to put it. It's very responsive, and it feels so different...like you are going slowly, until you look at your GPS and realize your ground speed is 249 knots. Something else! And I will grin at the roar of that engine as long as I can hear it!

On our way into Kokomo we did a pass at Glenndale to say hello, caught every bug in the county on the plane in the process. Got back to the hangar, unloaded the plane, put it away, and cleaned it up...got a drink and dragged ourselves to our respective homes. And Nathan gave me a Mail Call token that's pretty neat too, I'll have to take a photo of it...

Oh, the show will air as the last show of the 8th season, this spring! It's the 100th show. They'll be giving us a dvd of the show probably in December (which I can't believe!) and also a dvd of a lot of the raw footage they took of the ground, interviews, flight stuff, etc. I stayed out of the way for most of it, but they did film the Mustang taking off with me in the back at the end, so maybe it'll leak into the raw footage if I'm lucky. :)

The pictures I have are uploading at www.laurastants.com under "Fun Flying Photos". Four new pages, with just a few more to come. Some are "just" flying shots for those not interested in that. There are also people shots, etc.

All in all, that was a rather exciting 24 hours! Now I need to hit the bed so I can pretend to get up okay tomorrow, early, for Kaylee's school. *Yawn*

On Our Way!

Nathan just called, and we're headed out to give it a try. I hope the weather works out so we can get all the way down! We may be back Monday evening, or Tuesday afternoon, not sure yet!

P.S. on Kaylee Stuff

I keep forgetting to mention this. While we were at Mt. Comfort this year, camping in the RV, one night Kaylee ran to the door, pulling on it, crying that she had to get away, get out, right now. I went to get her, and it took me a few moments to figure out she wasn't even awake. She was having a walking 'terror' of some kind about fire. She was scared that the RV was on fire, and she had to get out RIGHT NOW. Nothing I said or did calmed her at all, even holding her and trying to rock her, she'd calm for a second and then she was scared all over again. Finally I just put her back in bed, and she drifted back to sleep. She did it again a little less ferociously the next night. I have to tell you though, it really creeped me out looking in her eyes and seeing that they were blank, while she's freaking out and scared. That was definitely not a pleasant experience. SHE didn't remember a thing, but it felt a bit like a horror movie. She'd done that one other time, also in that RV, also about fire. She's never done it at home, at least not that we know of...

The other thing is, I got a nice note from her Kindergarten teacher tonight. It said: "Kaylee is doing Great! She is so on the ball. She told me she wants to be a teacher, and the next day she put herself to work helping T stay on task. She has been so helpful and kind to him which has really helped me! T is very sweet but can be a bit distracted so Kaylee helps him by pointing out where we are and helping him get the correct things out of his desk. Yeah Kaylee!"

I appreciate hearing that she's doing great and on the ball, but I really appreciate hearing that she has a kind and helpful heart. :)

The Day Off

Well, it was mostly a day off! I started off the day shipping out three different stacks of SMA Support stuff, going out to the airport to pick up some stuff, bringing Steak & Shake lunch home for the family, going to the grocery store and getting some snacks, cleaning up the kitty litters and the trash and the kitchen. And then...I ran out of steam. I picked up my new book, I sat down, and I pretty much read my book the rest of the day. Ahhhhhhhh. Yes, I had too much to do to do that, but I was supposed to be gone anyway, so I might as well enjoy the day. And it wasn't ALL relaxation, I got a few things done too!

Kaylee is on a roll. She was messing around with my rear end, and finally I said "quit that!", and she laughed and said "But Mommy, I like your bum bum, it's so squishy!" Great. So now I'm droopy AND squishy. If nothing else, it may be easier to not have that next bowl of ice cream. Nah. I need to comfort myself somehow, right?!

*sigh*

Ego Buster

Oh, and while I'm at it!

Nothing like having your five year old take the wind out of your sails, so to speak. Yesterday morning I was getting dressed, and Kaylee came into my room, sat down next to me, looked up and said in all innocence, "Mommy, why are your bras so droopy?"

(Side note. I've explained that the bra is the undergarment, not the body part, but she still calls them bras, and it's kind of funny. Or was until yesterday anyway...)

Now I will tell myself that she meant mine as opposed to hers, not mine opposed to an 18 year old beach bunny she saw on TV...

Stop laughing!

Aaahhhhhh, phoo

Lots to cover!

First, I'm not in Tennessee. The weather is NOT cooperating, and the P-51 isn't an IFR-over-the-mountains kind of plane. As of now, the odds are that we won't get to go until Sunday or Monday--if at all. I am particularly bummed about that as I was looking forward to a weekend retreat with friends in a really cool mountain cabin in the Smokies, to say nothing of the P-51 trip there and back. But if it isn't to be, it isn't to be. No Gunny Show maybe. :( *sniff*

Kaylee has started her Fall Allergies. Sniffly nose, sneezy, cough from drainage particularly in the morning and at night, slightly runny eyes. Poor thing, I wish she'd gotten MY lack of childhood allergies. One thing of mine that would have been good for her to inherit. She had a test today--counting to 100 by 10's and by 1's. She did both just fine, and got a Hershey bar that had a wrapper on it that said "I counted to 100!" She was pretty proud of herself, actually. She's also already starting to request what I pack in her lunch. She wants a peanut butter and jelly sandwich now. Not because she ever eats that much of them, but because other kids in her class have them and she wants them too. Lunch peer pressure. Sheesh. Her school is doing the cookie fundraiser again this year. I admit I really like these cookies--they come pre-made and pre-frozen in pre-shaped little balls and all you have to do is bake them, and they are quite tasty. Now that may take some of the fun out of eating the dough after you make them, but it doesn't stop me from eating the dough before I bake them, Salmanella warnings and all. Good stuff, man. Anyway, if anybody wants cookie dough, let me know. ;)

I got back 290 photos today, from Mt. Comfort, Indian Hills, etc. and got them all separated amongst the people (Chuck, Nathan & myself mostly) and even got mine entered into my photo album today. I am all caught up on photos! That's been a LOT harder since I'm getting 150 of them back at a time instead of a roll of 24 back at a time! The digital age is killing me there, but I love it even if it's too much. Usually I don't keep photos of just airplanes any more, unless they have people or places in them I enjoy, but I kept several Gnat photos, because I was in it and because it's gone forever now and because it was a neat little jet.

The cats seem to be working their way out of things. Dulce starts going after Junior after awhile, and eventually I'll put Junior on the deck more to give her a break than Dulce. Junior will attack Dulce or jump at her, Dulce will chase her down, Junior will flop on her back with her paws up by her face and basically yell "I give up!" Dulce stands there and growls at her, then moves off and stares at her waiting for the next move. Other times they get along at an uneasy truce. I'm just relieved that Dulce is back to her normal self with US. We're going to probably decide after the weekend whether or not Junior stays, and if so, I'll take her to the vet to get shots, and see if she's old enough to be fixed and declawed. I hate declawing, but our leather furniture can't stand many more holes, or should I say STEVE can't stand many more holes. :)

I have SO much to catch up on, if I don't go anywhere this weekend I should work. But if one gets a weekend off, it's sure nice to take it OFF. We'll see...

I had a nice day with Kaylee today--I baked her brownies with M&M's in them, and got her a surprise DVD of "The Twelve Princesses", a new Barbie movie. Usually I make her save up her money to buy stuff she wants, but this time I didn't want it to take her forever to get it, she was so excited. She already has watched it and wanted to watch it twice in a row. I'll make her wait for, oh, maybe tomorrow, so I can get some stuff done. :)

I also sent off a letter to request an F-16 Fly-over for our BBQ Bash! I hope some of you reading this can come! It's coming up the 2nd weekend in October already! That should be fun, it's always fun, and a headache at the same time. But it's our fundraiser for SMA Support, and we can sure use all the funding we can get. Cough assists at $2500.00 a pop, ya know??

On the SMA Support front, Steve and I have decided not to do a Gathering anytime soon, for sure not the 2006 or 2007 years. For several reasons, some practical, some personal. I feel relieved to have that decision over with, and I feel right about it. The Gatherings were terrific, and I think they brought a lot of good, and if I wanted to just "build a business" larger I'd keep them going, or they will be taken over by another organization with more money and manpower, and I know it; but that's not my final or real goal. I started this organization to help families get what they needed for their children, or support them or inform them in any way I could, with whatever I had. When I am at peace is when I am doing that. Sometimes it is good to just get away, re-center yourself, re-evaluate everything about you and what you are doing and who you are. I've made a few mistakes in the last year that I'd avoided up until now, and don't plan to revisit any of them again. I guess I learned a few lessons from them though. Life lessons are rarely pleasant or cost-free, or they wouldn't be worth anything. The good and bad news about people is, we're all human. A person is not defined by their best moment, or their worst, but by their day to day actions, thoughts, dreams, hopes, fears, motives, beliefs and deeds, over Time. Character will show in the end.

“If a man has any greatness in him, it comes to light, not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of his daily work.”— Beryl Markham

Thursday Hum Drums

Man, what a draggy day! I have too much to do to be this tired!

Let's see. Kaylee has her first math test tomorrow. It's counting to 100 by 10's and by 1's. I had her practice them tonight, and she got them no problem. Last night we did homework where we cut out photos of helpers and glued them to cardboard, and then she wrote under each one what they were. She did cutting, gluing, identifying helpers, and all the writing. I helped do a few of the cuts and pastes and told her how to spell each of the words. She got a Plus sign and an "Awesome" on it. She is enjoying school so far, and she has friends, and she's doing well, and she's happy, and that is what is important in life, that our daughter is growing up secure and happy and healthy and bright-eyed. :)

The cat saga is a bit better. Cathy, thanks for the advice, and Mom too! Today I ended up keeping them separated most of the day, loved on Dulce all evening yesterday and all day today, and she was soon back to her almost normal self. Then I let kitten in, but kept loving on Dulce. I hadn't even read the advice yet, so I'm glad it ends up being a good thing! Finally, they sniffed each other out and started fighting, and I didn't interfere as long as nobody had the other down and chewing. Dulce came out on top, chasing little kitty around, but not hurting her. That probably made Dulce feel like she wasn't threatened or booted out of her own home any more, and she's been doing great today. She still stalks and hisses at the kitten, though I keep them separated a bit more now to help keep some peace; but now she's staying in the open, loving up on us still, etc. Oh, the little cat also had laid in Dulce's bed, so I washed it and kept kitty out of it and Dulce seemed happy to have her bed back too. I wouldn't like to be booted out of MY bed either. So anyway, they may actually work out together after all, we'll have to see. :)

Tomorrow I'm supposed to leave for Tennessee in the Mustang to stay in a cabin down there and be in on the taping of "Mail Call: SNAFU" show with the P-51. But the weather for tomorrow AND Saturday does not look good, which makes me wonder what's going to happen. I may or may not be here tomorrow to update, but I'll write about the adventures when I can. My camera battery is fully charged and ready to go!

Attack of the Killer Dulce

Well, she had her fill today. Dulce means "sweet" but I certainly found the ugly side of her today! She flipped out on me when I tried to hold her and calm her down, and she ended up chewing up and clawing up my right arm and hand. She was like a Tasmanian Devil, just crazy. I'd take a photo of my arm but I can't take a photo of my own arm and Kaylee's in bed and my battery is dead anyway. But she got me good before I could let her go. She has since spent the rest of the day hissing at ME if I get anywhere near her, even if the little kitty isn't anywhere around. She has spent the day hiding under the futon, and hissing at Kaylee or me if we get near her. It's kind of sad, really. When we came back from AWANAs, Dulce came out, started to come towards us, then it was like she remembered, and she hissed at us and ran, and we haven't seen her since the rest of the night. Oh, once I got her to come out by shaking the kitty treat bottle. She ate the treats, hissed at me, and ran back under the futon. It's kind of depressing. Little kitty also got into the aggression a bit more today, for the first time flattening her ears and hissing at Dulce the one time they were in the same room at the same time. Here's a photo of an annoyed kitty. Anyone who has any tips on how to make Dulce feel secure and stop hissing at and hiding from us would be appreciated.

This morning I flew the Seneca to Muncie to pick up Nathan. Then this afternoon I took Kaylee to her first night of Awanas. She's now in Sparkies. I actually Remember being in Sparks myself! It was a bit of a hassle...we don't attend that church, so there was no way to find out when it started or anything about it. It's not very user friendly, but we got it figured out and she only missed the first week. Her friend Riley from last year was there again this year, so that made Kaylee happy to have a friend already. Now she has to learn the Pledge of Allegiance, John 3:16, the Sparks song, the Sparks Motto, and something else by next week if possible, and if she does she "gets" to buy her Sparks book and uniform. They also are doing the circle games starting this year. I remember those too! Her team was "yellow" tonight, and they came in 3rd out of four teams. Ouch. lol Later they start learning verses for "jewels" which I think she'll actually like, minus the learning part. She's not fond of memorization, which is NOT like I was, but hey, she's not me and she has other skills I didn't have. :)

While she was at Awanas, I took Hardees supper to Steve out at the airport and we hung out for awhile and ate and talked. His student got there around 7:30 pm, and we brought up the kitty, and he said he might have an owner for her. A family whose cat had just died, who has two little girls and who would probably want another kitten, especially a sweet one. I think it might be best--I don't really want two of them, especially if it is going to be war around here and really especially if it's going to be this big of a problem for Dulce. But when I told Kaylee of the possibility, she went about hysterical on me. We've warned her all along we may not keep this one, but of course she's going to be attached. I guess we'll have to see, see if Dulce can come around and be okay, or if she's going to become a permanent hiding out, angry, hostile cat. Which would be really sad considering how sweet and friendly she's been so far.

I've also cranked out a fair amount of work today, so that's good! Made five phone calls (I hate phone calls so when I do them I do them all at once when I work up the energy to do it), paid some SMA program stuff, sadly including two funeral expense helps...tonight it's house bills.

Ouch, I have a little kitten climbing up my shirt, claws and all right now, eating my hair. OUCH. I've had enough of claws for awhile!

Didn't I just talk about Irony?

Well, welcome to more irony!

Today, Nathan's Gnat finally flew off into the sunset, and a semi trailer came up and everybody loaded the semi full of Gnat parts, wings, etc. Well, when the truck pulled up, on board I think from under the engine compartment was a kitten who had been hijacked by the truck. Eric, the guy helping the new Gnat owner, was actually the one to find the kitten, and the kitten spent the rest of the afternoon in Nathan's hangar, relaxing, exploring, having fun. Nobody wanted to just put it in the corn field and leave it (except maybe Chuck) because she was a pretty sweet cat. If she'd have been wild, it wouldn't have been a problem, but as it was nobody wanted to desert such a young kitten in the corn fields or take her to the animal clinic. So, she came home with me. The rest of the day, Dulce has been huffing and puffing and hissing and growling at her. Meanwhile, kitty couldn't care less. She'll follow Dulce and Dulce will follow her. They'll sniff at each other, but the kitten hasn't shown any aggression, or even fear for that matter, towards Dulce. Dulce isn't a big cat, but compared to this one she is, and she could have her for a snack except the kitten still has its claws. :) Dulce is definitely NOT happy, but so far they are managing okay. One problem. New kitty doesn't know how to use a litter box. She's peed on a carpet right in front of the litterbox, and under the couch. I put her on the deck with her own litter box and I set her in it so she'd see it, and hopefully she will pick it up out there. We can't have cat pee all over. Kaylee is of course excited, but she was also concerned about how Dulce felt about it, which was rather sweet of her. This is a little thing, and we're trying to decide on a name. So far "Hitch" because she hitched a ride, or "Roadway" because that's the name of the semi she arrived on. Any other ideas? I don't actually know for sure that it's a girl, I can't tell for sure yet...

Today I flew to Muncie at 9:30 a.m., and showed the Designated Examiner the plane. He flew it on to New Castle and flew with the FAA guy there. Meanwhile I took his truck, went out to breakfast, and then sat there for 2 1/2 hours waiting for him to get back. He finally gets back, says they only flew for 20 minutes or so, and I'm wondering what on earth took so long then, that left me sitting there for a very long time. I wasn't too happy about that--my time is worth as much to me as his time does to him. Ya know? But anyway, it's done now, and as soon as we get the Baron fixed, we can finish up Steve's checkride, then Chuck's.

The examiner, and a few other people too, are trying to convince me to get my ATP license in the Baron too. It would help the examiner keep his Baron certification for another year, basically. The only problem is, I have no need for an Airline Transport Pilot license and don't have the desire to take the nitpicky and long-winded checkride. The manual for the written and oral alone for that one is HUGE. No, thank you...

Oh, about fixing the Baron. The Examiner came in and asked me if I'd had trouble with the right engine. "Noooo" I reply. He said that on the ground, the right engine wouldn't stay running unless you turned a fuel pump on. I'd never had that problem and I'd just flown the plane over, so I told him so and that I'd check it and have Nathan look at it when we got back. So I go out there, go to leave, and my right engine won't stay "lit". I test out a few things, and it dies even at higher RPM's. All else is well, and when adding full power or in cruise flight the plane is fine, so I determine that I can get home safely, and go ahead and bring it home, only for Nate to say he's going to have Muncie look at it. Ha. I could have just left it there, but oh well, the crosswind landing was good practice. ;)

Guess that's it for now. I can't believe tomorrow is Wednesday and we leave Friday and this whole month is just SCREAMING by. I am sooooo behind.

It's just another Manic Monday...

Actually, it wasn't that manic. :)

I dropped Kaylee off at school, ran errands, came home and worked. Around lunch I met up with Steve, Chuck & Terry Newby at Applebees and ate, then headed out for a few more errands, and yep, back home to work. Did all our laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, got the trash ready, cleaned up a lot of my emails, shipped out 4 things for SMA Support, including to Australia this week. Picked up Kaylee from school and took her to Target where I returned a lunch box I'd gotten for her that we didn't like, and ended up buying TP and stuff we needed for the house while I was there...and maybe a fairy thing for Kaylee too. What can I say.

I finally caught up all my photos in my album--at least the photos I HAVE. I still have to get back from Kodak my photos from Mt. Comfort Airshow, the jet flights over Labor Day weekend, and a few others. Something like 250 photos coming on their way to me now. And THIS Friday is the day I head down to Tennessee with Nathan and Chuck to do the Gunny video/show in the P-51. Talk about photos! What am I going to do with all these photo albums?? Kaylee is only five and we're already flooded with photo albums! But I want the photos printed out, not just on my computer.

And man am I looking forward to this weekend. A couple of trips in the Mustang always works for me, and the cabin where we're staying looks super nice. I only wish Steve could go with me...

Tomorrow morning I fly over to Muncie to pick up the Designated Examiner so he can get "checked out" in the Baron with the other FAA guy.

Ummm, I guess that's it for now! I caught up on a lot today, but I have a lot more to catch up on yet. Maybe tomorrow afternoon...I can hope!

Sunday...

This afternoon, I went out to the airport and flew around by myself for a bit. Chuck and Nathan were at the hangar along with some guys who are there to buy the Gnat. Steve and Kaylee came out a bit later, and Steve took a flight student up. Then I took Ty up in the Baron for a bit again, and the rest of the afternoon we just hung out. I listened to my iPod and relaxed and wiped down the planes and watched the kids. Kaylee got to ride her bike around, play with Jamie, just relax and have a nice afternoon into evening. Finally we all headed out to Outback where I had a delicious steak with a pilot for the Gnat, the pilot-to-be for it, the mechanic for it, Nathan, Jamie, and my family. Just a nice family day like we've been trying to enjoy more of lately! And it was good...

Saturday

Well, today Steve headed off to work while Kaylee and I ran to the store to pick out his birthday cake. She picked out the cake she wanted (a colorful fun-fetti cake), and she picked out the frosting (a sprinkle confetti cream frosting), and she picked out the candles she wanted (which as you can see spell out "Happy Birthday".) She had a lot of fun picking this out and making the cake for Daddy and licking the bowl very clean. We weren't done frosting the cake when Steve got home early--so she locked the door and locked him out of the house until we got the cake finished up. She gets so excited at birthdays no matter whose they are!

After that, we got ready and headed to Rochester for a family reunion kind of thing with the "Simmons" side of the family, or Steve's mom's side. I don't know most of them but they were very nice. We flew the Baron into Rochester airport and Dave Hughes picked us up there; we ate a restaurant in town there, and had excellent waiters for the size of group we had. Afterwards Dave & Dawn & Richard & Ann drove us out to the airport again. It was night time now, and we hopped in to get going. Steve took both flights today to keep getting in some practice before his checkride. We were on take-off roll when this critter came across the runway and just kind of stared at us. Fox or Coyote or something. So Steve had to abort the takeoff. I'm sure people wondered what on earth we were doing when we had to taxi back around and take off again After the runway cleared from the wildlife briggade. :) It was a nice calm flight home. Steve & Kaylee wiped down the Baron, then we headed home, ate some birthday cake, and now I'm going to go lie down. I've just been POOPED lately!!

Oh, the PartyLight fundraiser has been extended some, so anyone who needs candles or other home stuff can order by the below post, for a few more days here, with the proceeds to go to SMA Support. :)

*Yawn* Night!

Happy Birthday to Steve!

Well, he's the big 47. Not 48 like HE thought, and not 46 like his friend thought. So I guess it averages out okay. ;)

He spent his birthday on a check ride with the FAA for his multi-engine license. We've spent from Monday on working on this...Monday through Wednesday was the ground stuff for the oral exam part of it, and Thursday was the only day we had to practice the flying, before the checkride today. NOT a good plan in general, but the weather just didn't cooperate to let us go any sooner. So Steve, Chuck and I spent the last pretty much week together out at Nathan's hangar studying, and the last couple of days, flying. Well, he got his oral done succesfully, but the flight part has been postponed, which in the end will be of benefit anyway since that gives us time to finish prepping him properly for the test. Monday I have to fly our local examiner down to Indianapolis so he can fly in this particular plane with an FAA guy from the Indianapolis Federal office. Gee, what every pilot dreams of doing--flying around with an FAA guy or examiner in the plane with them!

Not.

Ah, well, it'll be fine. I'll act like it doesn't bother me having a 13,000 hour FAA examiner in the plane with me and then as long as I get him there and back home safely and without any screwups, all will be well. No problem, right? ;)

I think I missed out on getting candles for a fundraiser through the Partylight fundraiser. I wanted some, I need some, and the deadline was today. Doggone it. Well, my house ran out of milk (a staple for Kaylee's existance) too, which tells you I'm REALLY behind.

Let's see. Next weekend Nate is doing a talk at a local airport on building warbirds, during a breakfast, and we plan on going to that just to harass...I mean support...him. The weekend after that I'm heading to Tennessee in the P-51 with him and Chuck & Judy for the taping of the Gunny's show/video. In fact, I believe Gunny is staying in the (large) cabin with the rest of us that weekend. Somewhere in here Steve takes the flight portion of his checkride which will take up a day, and then after Tennessee I believe Chuck and I are going to hit it to prepare him for HIS multi-engine checkride.

And away we go...

Irony/Funny II

One more thing I find both funny And ironic. Kaylee gets a lot of papers sent home, work they've done throughout the day. Writing, math, etc. So far, she's been pretty proud when she gets a "+" sign, which is like an "A". A check plus symbol is like a "B", and a check sign is for basically could use improvement. So far most of her papers have been either plus signs with occasionally a check plus. She's had two papers that were sent home with a check on them, and a handwritten note by her (wonderful) teacher. Both times I've read this note, I have inside felt the total irony of it. It says "Slow down! You can do wonderful work when you take the time!" Holy cow, it's my own report card... I always did well, but I'd get bored, or impatient, and just want it over with, and get it done. And she has that same tendency, Lord help us all. And now I have to get on (nicely) my child and encourage her to slow down and do her best when that is something *I* don't do very well either, to this day!

Do you think God sends you children who will force you to better your OWN habits as well? Impatient children for the impatient people, mouthy children for mouthy people, picky eaters for picky eaters, and so on? Then a parent can truly understand why they need to work on these things that their children do that drive them crazy or aren't the right way to be, but that they'll have to work on it themselves too if they want to have any hope of successfully helping their children become better people, better students, better whatever?

Wouldn't surprise me. Anybody who thinks God doesn't have a sense of humor hasn't looked around lately. :)

Ah, Irony!

Well, technically let's make that one funny and two ironies.

I watched Akeelah and the Bee yesterday. I wanted something positive, inspirational, maybe funny, light-hearted, with a good message, etc. Well, I got it. It's by no means a hard-hitting movie, but I enjoyed it for exactly what it was. One part that made me laugh (and which won't translate nearly so well into an anecdote) is when Akeelah was at the televised national finals in Washington DC for the bee, and this snotty kid just got up there and spelled some huge word super fast, and it was her turn, and she too of course got some monster word; her ganster wanna be almost friend was sitting on his couch at home watching the TV, and he yells at the TV something like "Come on, Akeelah, Kick his Butt! B-U-T-T spells BUTT!" Yep, okay, I can't explain why that cracked me up. All those big words then this 20-something gangster guy from a ghetto cheering on an 11 year old girl in a spelling bee and spelling/yelling "butt" to the Tv. Told you it wouldn't translate well into an anecdote. But it made ME laugh anyway.

Now onto the irony. Just a few days after I make a post mentioning a friend who used to be a friend but now isn't, I get a card in the mail from her! Now I haven't heard from her in probably 10 years. I have no idea how she found me. And even more ironically, she was the one I thought was the one case of a friend I had that later had animosity. Well, this letter was just as friendly as can be, so apparently there's no lingering animosity after all, at least on her part. I'll have to decide if I'm over her reading my mail and making me do all the housekeeping or not yet. ;) She was one of two people I'd ever actually yelled at in my entire life. Here she is writing me, asking how I'm doing, giving me an update on her life, and I'm sitting here totally surprised, because I hadn't even thought of her in HOW long until I tried to think back on friendships gone by the wayside--obviously about the same day she was writing me for the first time in a decade. The odds of the timing on this are pretty big, but they happened just like that. Weird.

The other irony, well, I think I'll leave that one alone for now. I changed my mind about sharing. It's a woman's perogative, after all!

Lately I've gotten several emails and read several positive posts from families in the SMA area of life, and they have no idea that hearing positive things from them means a lot to me right now. I've not sought them out or anything, of course. And they don't read this, so they don't know I'm saying it now, either. :) But it's been helpful for me to keep the big picture.

Man, I feel like the world is spinning so fast that it's throwing me off. I blink and it's the middle of September. I am back in August, thank you. It reminds me of Steve saying the first time he flew the Cheyenne, that they took off out of Kokomo and by the time he caught up to the plane, they were already in Muncie. You look back and you've traveled so much farther than you thought was possible in the time span. Well, here I am mid-September, and I'm behind on everything, which has been the usual state of affairs for months here, but now I feel almost lost, too! I look around at what needs done and I blink and 3 weeks have gone by and all my shoveling hasn't put a dent in it. I NEED A MINUTE! I need a few days for everything to stop. I want to spend one day doing NOTHING but reading a book. Then I want to spend a few days doing nothing but catching up on shipments, checks, thank you's, websites, and dispersements for SMA Support; another day doing nothing but catching up on the house, school, work stuff. And then I want another day to do nothing but relax. And THEN let the world start spinning again. Thank you!

Well, by 9 a.m. today I'd helped Kaylee finish her homework, made and packed a lunch, gotten her to school, dropped off airport bills (two weeks late) at the mailing place, went to the post office for that, dropped off Akeelah and the Bee back at the video store, shipped off three items for SMA Support at the Fed Ex place, and stopped at McDonald's for some caffeine. Now after updating here, I need to work on some tax stuff for SMA Support, and then at some point today Steve and I will be working on the multi-engine stuff again pretty hard.

And so it goes!

Share the Light Fundraiser

(From Andrea...for more information, or to get an email invite, email Andrea at kpax@charter.net! And hurry, it ends Friday!)

Dear Friends,

After an excellent August of spreading awareness and fundraising, let's keep that energy going! I'm hosting a "Share the Light" fundraiser. My friend, Sandy Roberts, a consultant for PartyLite, is donating 25% of sales to SMA Support. All you have to do is buy wonderful candles and beautiful accessories to decorate your home or give as gifts. We're going to run the fundraiser from September 1st through September 15th. Access to the catalogs is online, by invitation. I'll be sending the invite separately. Because PartyLite is usually an in-home sales party business, it will look like you are being invited to an event at my home. Simply click the "Sorry, I cannot attend" button in the invitation email and follow the link to browse the online catalog. When you know what you want to order, you can call or email Sandy (Phone 908-362-9368, sandyroberts@gmail.com).

Payments can be made by check, credit card or PayPal. All orders will be shipped right to your home. (Allow up to 6 weeks for delivery.)

You're welcome, heck encouraged, to invite friends and family to make purchases as well. If you'd like paper catalogs, just let Sandy know.

I am hoping to raise $500.00, so I hope you'll help "Share the Light!"

Sincerely,
Andrea
864-845-8816
kpax@charter.net

Study Study Study!

Today was study day, for sure. Well, the next few days will be. I'm helping Steve & Chuck prepare for a checkride, and it's been so long since I sent anyone through for anything multi-engine that it's a refresher course for me as well on a lot of this stuff. Steve's checkride is coming up quickly, so we are in a cram session now. We both took today off, along with Chuck, and went out to a hangar without a phone or computer, and worked from 9 a.m. through about 6 p.m. with only one break for lunch. Then we got home, and around 8:30 p.m. or so, Steve and I by ourselves went over a few more things, until 11:30 p.m. We'll be doing that until the checkride, most likely. My brain hurts, and I'll bet his does too! Lots of work to do still, and lots of work accomplished. We don't even have the Pilot's Operating Handbook in hand to go over performance charts and some of the numbers, and we don't have the plane to practice in, but hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday we'll get the plane and info back and be able to finish prepping for this checkride. After Steve, it's Chuck's turn. Steve is the guinea pig, and after he goes through I'll better know how to prep Chuck for a smoother check ride. :)

We were practicing in a hangar, and it started storming, and water just came pouring in under the doors. I haven't seen much like that in awhile, it was a mini flood. When we left, there was standing water in the grass and stuff too. THAT was a hard batch of rain.

Kaylee was in school until 3 p.m., and then she stayed with Grandma & Grandpa until 6 p.m. She said she had a great day in school, and when I dropped her off, I heard the other kids in the room say "Oh Goodie, Kaylee is here!" Now that's a nice way for anyone to start their day. To have someone out there glad to see you! We should all be so lucky! :)

Two more little girls passed away from SMA this week. The dad of one of them wrote me, saying thank you for some help the last year, and he was so kind and gracious out of his own loss, it tears you up. A man who is burying his daughter telling me how thankful he is for SMA Support, asking me to keep it going for others that will come in the future...what kind of grace does it take to think to send a message like that at the worst time of your life? I don't know, but God bless him and his family, I wish I didn't know what they were going to be experiencing in the months and years to come. I wish there was some way to be able to actually HELP people going through the loss of their child, beyond just saying you're sorry. But it's a solitary journey, one even a spouse can't take for another. When a child dies, I am first hurt by that loss, and then I am hurt for the family, knowing what kind of life-long impact that will have on each of them....

Well, I'm pretty pooped tonight, I think I'm going to head to bed at 11:30, which is pretty early for me. Tomorrow starts another day...

Lazy Sunday

I woke up this morning around 9, and Kaylee and Steve were up and at them. Had a lazy breakfast of scrambled eggs Steve made for me, laid on the couch and watched TV with everybody for awhile, including the new Barbie movie--12 Dancing Princesses. Kaylee was SO excited that a new Barbie movie is out, she wants to go buy it and is hoping she has enough money saved up. After the movie, she spent some time dancing around the living room, and some time karate fighting, and we had a snack of graham crackers and cake frosting. I haven't gotten out of my pajamas, combed my hair, or put on my face. It's now 4 p.m.

Today...today is a Lazy Sunday! :)

Saturday's Time Out

Saturday, Kaylee and Steve woke up early and headed out to Indian Hills for an early breakfast. I tried to sleep in, but somehow didn't manage to do it very well, and was up by 8 a.m. myself, on a day when I could have slept in as late as I wanted! Not sure how I managed THAT one. :)

Anyway, I headed out and got there around 9-ish, and there was already quite a crowd there having breakfast. We just hung out and relaxed, all day. We ate, all day. We watched airplanes do low passes (I mean aborted landings) all day. Once the sun started setting, Charlie lit up a fire and we sat around it. At the end there they were trying to burn up some logs/wood, and that fire was HUGE. It was burning my legs from quite a distance away, which was impressive.

Kaylee had Jamie there to play with all afternoon, and they managed to repeatedly get into trouble with either rocks, dirt, water, or some combination of all three. But they played hard all day, got dirty, and had fun. Kaylee crawled up on my lap when the fire was lit, and she actually passed out, outside, in front of a bunch of people, which she simply doesn't usually do. She was exhausted. I held onto her for a LONG time while the fire burned, and snuggled while she slept. Cool night air, hot fire, snuggly girl...it was a great day. :)

Oh, and Steve and I also made sure we harassed Ty some more about not getting a ride in the P-51 or the Gnat. Yet. It's just mean, but it sure is fun...ha!

Photos are uploading now, Fun Flying Photos, top of the list! I'm pooped, it's late, and tomorrow is another day. Night!

Ah, Friday!

Friday is a good day. Today I took Kaylee to Kindergarten with a dozen donuts and two dozen home made muffins we'd done together, and about an hour later her grandparents arrived and they had a special day. They did a craft with a poem and handprint, and the grandparents made a pumpkin on paper thing, and then took her to lunch afterwards. She wore a pretty purple dress and had a purple butterfly ponytail holder in, and looked quite grown-up!

Then they dropped her off at Glenndale where we were, and we stayed there until...3 pm or so I think. Around 2 p.m., Nathan came blasting through (literally) in the jet. What a rush, even just to see it going down Glenndale's runway. Then by the time he pulls up, he's thousands of feet in the air in just seconds. Man I love that thing. There are only 10 Gnats currently flying in private ownership today, a friend of mine discovered. While she was at school, I went out to the airport, flew the Citabria a bit and worked out some kinks. I took my iPod along and listened to some tunes while I flew around and did some take offs and landings and just general messing around. Now that's the way to relax. Or as I call it, "de-twitch". The whole world is smaller from up there.

Then this evening, Steve, Kaylee and I all went to Indian Hills, a small privately owned grass strip not far from us, and had a big campfire, a steak dinner, some Mike's Hard Lemonade, and some good company with local friends. Kaylee ran around as always, barefoot and messy. What better way to be a kid than a cool summer evening by a fire, barefoot and dirty and snacking and happy? :)

Charlie started a fire with some kind of flame device that sounds like a jet engine, which is definitely a guy toy. I couldn't believe that thing. And I thought *I* was a pyro!! Geeez! Right around sunset, a trio of Citabria-like airplanes took off and gave us a little show, a couple of low passes in formation flight, etc. That's always fun too!

I've got some photos uploaded now at www.laurastants.com, the fun flying pages have been updated. And after I send this through, I'm going to work on uploading the few photos I took tonight, too. Here's one for ya. Kaylee watching the three arplanes taxi in after landing after their show for us. :)

Thursday...

You know, I don't have much energy to report about Thursday. I took Kaylee to school, ran a couple of errands, picked up Kaylee from school, helped Kaylee bake some chocolate chip and blueberry muffins for Grandparent's Day at school today, snuggled with my girl, emptied the kitty litter, worked on the computer, enjoyed a conversation with an old friend, didn't enjoy a conversation with what I'd guess I can sadly only call former friends, and just spent the day mostly home doing home stuff.

I was trying to think of people in my life who used to be friends and then weren't. I can think of Cathy back before I got married, but she just kind of disappeared after she got married and had a couple of girls. There was Melissa, who was my roommate who stole stuff, refused to clean anything, and read my mail. (We just had Snail Mail back when I was in college, none of this fancy computer stuff!) I think she qualifies as the one from my past who was a friend for a year and then there was actually animosity between us after that. Jenny who moved to New Orleans and then disappeared on me, whom I have often wondered if she's okay. Karen I guess, though I was never close to her on a personal level so I don't think that qualifies. Oh, a couple of play group moms who also faded out of our lives as time passed and the kids got older. But really, I am fortunate, I am blessed in my friendships. I've known my best friend (other than Steve) for literally my whole life, we played together as babies and came together again as best friends at 13 years old and ever since. I've known most of my other close friends since the beginning of 1990. I've made a few new friends along the way the last ten years too. I don't make a lot of close friends, but I'm fortunate in the ones I do make. I am thankful for their grounding influence, for their honest advice in a loving and constructive way. Now going through the loss of a friendship, I am even more thankful not to have experienced it before at that level.

Anyway, that was my Thursday, and the start of my Friday. But now the computer is going off, I am heading to the airport, I'm going to work a bit, play a bit, hang out a bit, enjoy the sunshine and cool temps and light breeze and good food and good companionship. Kaylee is currently enjoying Grandparent's Day at Kindergarten, and she dressed up so pretty for them, and I know she'll enjoy the special day. They're going to take her to lunch afterwards, and then bring her out to the airport with me, so I'm sure I will hear all about her adventures this afternoon. She's a sweetheart, that's for sure, and I'm a lucky lady.

Wednesday Flies By

It's amazing how fast these days are going. I thought once Kaylee got in school, I'd have all this free time to work, to catch up, to take care of things. And so far, that has NOT happened. Of course a crash took up a few days, and a few other things have taken up even more days, but I have so much to do...and this week is already into Thursday! Unbelievable.

Today after I dropped Kaylee off at school, I got a call, and Nathan was ready to fly the Baron and the Gnat over to Muncie for repairs. So I drove over to Kokomo and got the Baron out and ready, and then Chuck arrived and we got the Gnat ready. We got gas, and Chuck took off driving his truck with the jet tow-bar in the back, I took off in the Baron and Nate took off in the Gnat. Chuck got to Muncie about 20 minutes after we did, and we ate lunch. That Gnat is so much fun to watch fly. It's so...little...that it LOOKS even faster than it IS, and it IS fast. Anyway, when I got home, it was about 3:30 p.m., and Kaylee was home from Kindergarten already (with her grandparents). She played some outside, picked pears, I took a phone call or two, worked some, and finally made Mac & Cheese for a nutritious supper (not). I'm trying to clean out emails and haven't made much progress. But I hope to be able to be back on track with most things quickly.

"Once in a while you have to take a break and visit yourself."
Audrey Giorgi

"The best index to a person's character is
(a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and
(b) how he treats people who can't fight back."
Abigail van Buren

Funny

Well, Steve got a card from a flight school student/friend today, that actually made us both laugh. On the inside he had written:

"You know, surprisingly enough, there are no 'I'm sorry you crashed your airplane but I'm glad you are okay' cards."

You know, that's probably true, I doubt there are any cards that say that. But if there were, I'd buy one for Stephanie. She and I like to send goofy cards back and forth in the mail, cards that make you go "hmmm", cards that have no purpose other than to see if we can make the other person read it three or four times, blankly, before we start snorting over something that's not really funny. Like raisins in the steps. Right Steph? :) We haven't done that in awhile--I may have to make a trip to Halmark...

Back to Life

Wow does my head hurt. It's hurt since I woke up, but I took some meds and it went away--right up to when I took a flight this morning, and ever since my head has been pounding no matter what I've taken. I try not to waste my Imitrex, but if this doesn't let up soon I'll have to go to bed early or take the migraine meds so I can get ready for tomorrow. Anyway...today it was back to life again. Kaylee couldn't hardly get up this morning for school, I was carrying her around to wake her up! I dropped her off, stayed home and worked on some emails, until I had to pack it up, hit the bank, then take a flight. It was a lesson with someone in the C-172, and I found out it would be her last flight, as she headed out to California for college. She even gave me a little fuzzy owl with a Captian Laura Wings pin on it, which was sweet! We flew around and just enjoyed her last flight, and she managed to grease on her last landing for awhile, which is a nice way to end a flight.

Afterwards I grabbed some lunch, picked up Kaylee, and took her over to a friends' house, where she got to do a little play date. They got along very well, had a fun time, and I enjoyed talking with "Grandma" too. We got home in time for some supper, some time to play with Kaylee before putting her to bed, doing dishes, a little computer work, and now me and my headache are going to go lie down for awhile. Oh, I'm also waiting to be able to upload the pictures from the crash and the trip it took home through the backroads. Here are a couple of us taking the plane down the road...

Labor Day Weekend...

Well, I have all the photos up at http://www.laurastants.com/funflying7.htm but so far because of the website/email issues we are having, I can't upload the photos. Hopefully soon they will be up though. :)

After Steve's...excitement...we decided to get away for the weekend and just have a relaxing, fun time. I wasn't actually planning on staying overnight in the trailers, and even got halfway home the first night. I had to turn around because I forgot to take Kaylee's bag out of the Jeep, and once I got back there it was so late I knew I wouldn't get any work done at home anyway, so I decided to stay there--and I never made it home the rest of the weekend. I even had to bum a towel off of Dawn and bum a shirt off of Chuck, but we managed! It ended up being a much needed break. It wasn't so far from home that you had to worry about travel and gas and all that stuff--we were only 30 minutes from our house at most. But it was far enough away that we didn't have internet access, didn't have scheduling phone calls, no work flights, no phone interruptions. We just hung out, flew some great airplanes, ate food, sat by a fire at night, roasted marshmallows, let the kids run (and bike and scooter and play) freely until way past their bed time, and just had a family time away with friends.

I got to go to Sheridan and pick up the Seneca, finally! I haven't flown it in almost seven months, and it looked strangely familiar and yet very unfamiliar at the same time. Two landings later and it was old home week again. I flew it some to get some hours on it after the maintenance. Did a pass at Glenndale, several take offs and landings. One night, Steve, Kaylee, Judy and myself went up in the Seneca. It was at sunset, it was as smooth as glass out, the sun was glowing orange and red and bronze, and it was just a beautiful, beautiful night. We did fly over the field where Steve hit the beans, so to speak, and we flew over some friends' houses, and the airport, and just had a nice, relaxing time. One night, Nathan was up in the Baron with Steve and Chuck and I were up in the Seneca, and we did some formation flight. I just held it steady and Nathan brought the Baron in TIGHT on the wing. Then they pulled away from us, and did a low pass over Glenndale, so I followed and did the same right behind them. We were just having fun, and it's nice to fly for fun sometimes too, not just for work. Today I took up the Baron with Chuck, and Steve and Nate went in the Bellanca. I powered way back so they could keep up, but I wasn't quite slow enough for them I found out later. Anyway, I did a pass over Glenndale and lost sight of them--come to find out, Nate had done a fighter pilot move and dove down at me so that when we hit the runway we were in formation again for the pass. Very cool. Then this afternoon both Steve and I got to go in the jet. It's a British jet, called a Gnat. It's small, but it's FAST. It can go up to Mach 1.2 I believe. I went first, and that take off felt pretty peppy, let me tell you. We got up to like 15,000 feet in no time flat. He let me fly for awhile, and let's just say it's more sensitive than anything I've Ever flown. I had two fingers on it and I was still wobbling the thing back and forth for awhile. Just the lightest touch sends it whichever direction you want. I lost altitude at first. I wobbled left and right at first. Finally I relaxed, looked outside more than inside, and got the hang of it a bit. What a COOL thing. I feel so blessed. How many pilots get an opportunity to fly in a Mustang? Or a Gnat? Or a Cheyenne for that matter? No matter what happens "tomorrow", I got to have these amazing experiences...

We stayed until late on Monday, and then finally packed up the trailers, and came home. Kaylee is Exhausted, but she had a blast, and I loved watching her have a blast. What a rough life for her--to ride bikes super fast, and scooters, to learn how to drive a golf cart, to fly in airplanes, to sit by a camp fire, to have a buddy, to get to stay up until 11 p.m., to run free in a fenced in area that seems huge when you're 5, even to get to watch cartoons once in awhile when the kids needed a break from each other. It was a good Labor Day of non-labor, just relaxation and reflection!

While we were there, I learned one more thing--the end of September, we get to go down to Tennessee to be in a taping for the "Mail Call: SNAFU" show! I don't know if it'll be a video or a tv show or what, but Nathan's P-51 Mustang is to be in the show, and I get to be GIB. (Girl In Back). We'll be down there 3-4 days or so, weather permitting, and that's pretty neat too! I don't usually watch "The Gunny", but he sure had a following at the Mt. Comfort Airshow, he had a line of people waiting for his autograph every day we were there. I think it's most excellent, another wonderful experience in the aviation world. I can't wait!

Now it's back to the other 'real life'. Work, school, and SMA. A few more catch-up things here and then I'm off here early for the night, I hope!