Kaylee funny

I almost forgot this--

The other day when we took Fall Photos, we were up by "Big Ben", which is a giant stuffed bull that is in a building in the park as a memorial to... well, a very big bull. Kaylee was staring at Ben through the window, and asked if he was alive, and I said "No, but he used to be. They stuffed him after he died." She thought that was pretty creepy-and frankly, I don't blame her. Anyway, she asked "why", and I said that some animals were stuffed as trophies after they died.

Fast forward to tonight. We're in the mall, and we are in front of the Victoria's Secret display for a few minutes in our line of kids waiting for candy. I catch her sneaking looks at the display, and I'm waiting for it. Waiting for the comment about the naked ladies, panties, or 'bras'. Nope, what comes out of her mouth this time is "Mommy, did that lady used to be alive?" She saw the full body model and thought that maybe after she died, they'd stuffed her and used her as an underwear model for Victoria's Secret! I informed her that they only stuffed and displayed (some) animals after they died, not ever people.

It was hard to answer her serious question in a serious way when all I wanted to do was bust out laughing in public. But hey, the logic is there you know, if you don't know any different! It's not really much of a reach; if you think stuffing dead bulls is weird but they do it anyway, well, why not??

Happy Halloween!

Well, that was a fun day! After I picked up Kaylee from school today, she spent some extra time with Grandma and Grandpa, because they will be headed to Florida at the end of the week. :( Then I got her dressed up as Tinkerbelle...we colored her hair with the spray stuff (pink and glittery), and I put it up in a "Tink Bun", and I had her wear tights to try to keep her legs a little warmer. The top half of her was just going to be cold no matter what--I brought a coat for her to wear, but she wouldn't hear of it because then you couldn't see her wings. Boy, girls start the "pain for beauty" thing early! :) We started off at Grandma & Grandpa's house, then hopped in the car and went over to the Rupp's neighborhood. Usually lots of lights are on in that area, but this year almost nobody was! But we went around a couple of blocks and gathered some candy. She did great marching up the steps and ringing bells and saying "Trick or Treat!" and "Thank you!" She got lots of comments like "What a cute little Tinkerbelle!" and "Oh my, aren't you chilly?" She's also still coughing from her allergies, so I just KNOW every mother I passed was thinking "Put a COAT on that child, she's already sick and you're letting her run around out here in the cold half naked!" But she's not sick, and she's hot-blooded, and she was fine. Really!

Anyway, after the door to door stuff, we hit the mall, where they have a "safe" indoor trick-or-treat time. There is a line all the way around the mall, and you go from shop to shop and get more candy. After we make it through there, we always stop at the "Villa" for a slice of cheese pizza and a drink, and people-watch. It's half the fun to sit there and watch all the costumes go by. She wasn't real thrilled with the bloody ones (she has a creep-out thing about blood right now), and she was fascinated by the "Devil" costumes. Otherwise we laughed at SpongeBob and ooohed at all the princesses and giggled at the human dice, etc. Finally we headed home. As we were driving up our street, I noticed a LOT more lights on in our own neighborhood than had been in previous years. So we parked our car at our house, and went back out for one more door-to-door hoopla, in the dark. This one house had these giant figures, and when you walked past them they started shrieking/moaning/howling. She jumped about three feet off the ground, spun around, stared at them, I burst out laughing and she looked at me like "WHAT?!?!" The door opened and the guy was there with candy, and she was still looking at those things like they were going to get up and grab her. I snapped her photo, she took the candy, and bolted off of the porch. She was brave enough to stay long enough to get her candy! lol

When we got home, we immediately got our candy in a bowl and waited by the front door with the lights on, hoping to hand out some candy of our own. We had about 45 minutes left of trick-or-treat time, and she waited the entire time, pretty excited to hand some out. She even went outside and yelled down the street for people to come. Unfortunately, we rarely get trick-or-treaters anyway, and we didn't get any that late. So five minutes after the holiday officially ended, I had to break it to her that nobody was coming. She was pretty bummed about it, but then we talked about what a fun day we'd had, how much junk she'd gotten, and how next year we would hand out candy early first, and THEN go trick-or-treating ourselves, so she could hand out AND collect candy. She liked that idea. :)

All in all, a Happy Halloween was had by all! The pictures are up on her site (of course!) at http://www.kayleestants.com/photosoct06c.htm

More Photos!

Well, today I got Kaylee out of school at 3 pm, then took her to the park, changed her clothes into nice fall clothing (she looks good in orange, gold, etc., all the colors I look Terrible in!). Then I took about 3 photos of her in the fall foliage...before my digital camera battery died. Now today is the first nice day we've had in awhile. It's 70 degrees and sunny. The temps are supposed to drop and the clouds come back after today. So I take her, run home, pick up our little pumpkins, throw the camera battery on the charger, and grab the old trusty film camera. Which also has a low battery symbol. No problem, I have extra batteries. Except I don't. At this point I'm losing my humor. I change Kaylee's pants (they were too big), and take the battery off the charger after only 30 minutes, and decide to get what photos I can before the sun sets and the battery dies again. Of course the light had already changed and clouds had come in, but by golly I got SOME photos in anyway! I am uploading them now to Kaylee's site, so you'll have to check out her page in a few hours. Amazingly enough, my battery lasted the entire time, until we were done doing photos anyway! That is one good battery I tell you, it goes for hundreds and hundreds of shots, with flash.

Anyway, got home, put Kaylee in the bathtub. She is coughing SO much right now. Anytime she plays outside in the fall, she gets this horrid cough. I don't want to suppress it ALL the time, because she needs to keep her lungs clear too. But I try to suppress it during school and at night while she sleeps, so that means the time I'm around her at home, I'm letting her cough and cough for a few hours. I hate that, but I don't want her to get actually ill either, beyond allergies and into something nastier. For now she's taking a warm bath with salts in it, and hopefully relaxing a bit. We were ALL up late last night. I couldn't sleep until 2 a.m. and then she came in, awake and coughing, and couldn't sleep either. I was wired, my brain kept going over some things, and my body wasn't nearly tired enough. Well, it is NOW! *Yawn* Four hours of sleep or so will do that to me...

Ran a ton of errands today...store, bank, post office, Fed Ex shipping place for SMA Support stuff, school, park (we played for awhile at the park too), Glenndale, yadda yadda yadda. Busy day!

Photos are on two pages-- http://www.kayleestants.com/photosfall06.htm and http://www.kayleestants.com/photosfall06b.htm. Kaylee had a blast today, as you can probably tell! :) We played in the park for awhile, took photos for awhile, threw sticks in the river for awhile, and enjoyed the 70 degree day for one of the last times until Spring, I'm sure!

This is so funny I had to copy it. It's from a November Mom's board (why am I on it when my child is January, you may ask? Because I am. There.) Anyway, this is from a lady named Josie, and I thought some of you who read this would get a kick out of it too. :)

"So yesterday they celebrated the Lord's Supper... the first time that Jaxon & Josh got to participate because in the Catholic church they had to have their First Communion, which we obviously did not do. (they do that in second grade) anyway, so they got to participate yesterday at the Baptist church. Jaxon was super excited. When the plate came around he tried to take handful of the crackers... at which point I explained to him to take only one and what it was representing... ie the Body of Christ as Jesus did with his disciples.... so then it comes time to eat it... Jaxon puts it in his mouth, literally gags, then says as loud as loud can be, "Momma I have Jesus stuck in my teeth!"

I lost it, I couldn't stop laughing nor could the Preacher. (doesn't help we sat three rows from the front!)"

By the way--Go Colts! Great game--they started off weak but that second half was exciting.

Secondly, hear me mutter as we turn our clocks back for Fall. It's now 12:38 instead of 1:38 a.m. Yeah, right. *sigh* Have I ever mentioned how much Daylight Saving Time ANNOYS me? (By the way, it's not Dayling Savings Time; I just read a rant about that elsewhere.) Whatever it is, I hate it. Although I admit to enjoying this so-called extra hour tonight.

Well, today "the cousins" went home. They just left not too long ago. Kaylee of course cried and pouted, and grabbed Roadie and some donut holes and pouted on the couch for awhile. I finally had her take a nap since she'd been up WAY past her bedtime last night. I think she's still in there playing, not sleeping, but at least it'll help her wind down a little bit. It's always hard on her when her cousins leave!

This morning we had a brunch with eggs and sausage and bacon and toast and little fruit cups and OJ and milk. Then everybody played outside for awhile--it's a little warmer today and the sun is out, it's really a very pretty day. If tomorrow is too, I think I'm going to try to get some fall photos of Kaylee. The problem is she'll be so tired from a full day at school, just like today she's so tired from the weekend. I don't want circles under her eyes or to have to fight her to smile. :) We'll see, but if we don't hurry, there won't be any fall leaves left to take photos with!

Last night, Rania, Morgan and Kaylee practiced and then performed a ballet dance for us. It was really lovely, so I made them promise to do it again today before they left, which they did. This time I got it on video. I wish I could put it up on my website. Maybe I'll get it on dvd form and then be able to do that. Morgan and Rania are very lovely dancers, and while this was Kaylee's first actual "dancing lesson", she did pretty well too! She looked very graceful, actually. Monday I'm going to finally go in and sign her up for the dance lessons--she's wanted them for awhile and I put it off, but I'm not putting it off any more.

Well, I'm updating the photos on Kaylee's website. I have new ones from her Pumpkin Patch trip a couple of weeks ago that were up, and now I am currently saving off the photos from this weekend on a new page at http://www.kayleestants.com/photosoct06b.htm The page isn't ready yet, but by the time anybody reads this it should be...

I'm cleaning up. You know, doing laundry, putting bedding away, putting the Futon back in order, vacuuming up dead leaves, picking up toys, that kind of stuff. Once you get things "in order" in your house, you hate to let it go to pot again--at least for a little while. I'd like a few days where the living areas actually look neat and straight before chaos reigns. :)

Going to hit some football here, check on Kaylee, relax a bit, maybe declutter some more toys; Go visit Kaylee's site for the new photos!

Today we buried Great-Grandma Stants. It was actually a beautiful day. Windy, but a beautiful fall day. The room was packed out, and the service lasted about an hour. There was a beautiful DVD of a bunch of her photos with friends, family members, etc., put to music, interspersed with video clips of her talking about her marriage, her past, her family. She was clear and bright and happy and humorous, and it was lovely to see her laugh again.

Afterwards we headed to the cemetery. It's the same cemetery where Devon & Sidney are buried, and we went into the same chapel where we held Devon's funeral. I hadn't been in there since the day we buried him 7 years ago, and I admit it hit me a little hard. I didn't even recognize the interior of the room, I hadn't realized it was so small, but I sure recognized the view exiting the door and out into the cemetery. I flashed back to wearing these same shoes and another black dress and being pregnant with Sidney and me standing up in front of the room and reading "I Promise" and trying not to choke on the "I would give anything if I could take your place" line and seeing my tiny little boy in a tiny little coffin and wanting to kiss his head like I always did and not wanting to kiss his head like I always did and hearing Morgan and Alonna sing "Jesus Loves the Little Children" and knowing there was a love note from them in a little bear's pocket that was next to Devon's coffin. I rememer watching the balloons headed into the sky, and I remember feeling rather calm--until we were leaving and I saw them starting to shovel dirt on his casket. I remember stopping and holding my chest and looking up and finding a ring of friends around me. They had no words, nothing they could do, they felt helpless and horrified and nobody wanted to be there--but they were, standing there in a circle around me, as if to protect me. And it did. I didn't shed a tear at Devon's funeral, but today while everyone else filed into the little chapel, I stood outside by myself around the corner for about 3 minutes and cried. A perfectly acceptable reaction at a funeral had anyone seen me, but they didn't. The last lady in saw my coat and came around and asked if I was coming in, and I smiled and said "of course" and I walked in behind my coat and glasses and refocused. Being inside the room, seeing where the casket was, it all felt like a little punch in the chest, like it just happened. I don't know why sometimes things aren't hard and sometimes they sucker punch you. I'll never figure that out--I guess that is just the way life is! There wasn't a graveside service, but I walked across the grass to visit the boys' headstones. Their great-grandma is now buried just a row east from them. Their Grandma & Grandpa Stants will one day be buried right next to them to the south, and Steve and I are to be buried right next to them to the north. They were surrounded by love in life and will be in death, even if just symbolically.

Today was about Ruth Lillian Stants, her wonderful life, her amazing example, and her incredible life full of people who loved her and whom she loved so well that each of them thought they were her favorite. Out of 5 children, 14 grandchildren, 39 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren, THAT is an accomplishment. "Well done thou good and faithful servant, welcome home."

After the funeral we headed to her church where we had a huge meal, and the cousins took one last photo in front of what was her home for 40 years. Then we headed back to our house and got comfortable, and several family members came over and stayed for the evening. We fed them pizza and salad and leftover mac & cheese and beans (beans and mac both homemade by Tre, thank you VERY much!) and chips and salsa and cookies and whatever we could scrounge. It has been a very busy day, a little emotional, but mostly in a positive way. Kaylee is still playing hard with her cousins, dressed in her little Tinkerbelle costume for Halloween, running like a crazy girl, happy as a clam. And she did terrific during the services today too, sitting quietly and fairly still for an hour straight. I was pretty proud of her....

Here's a picture of my little "Tink" today. Outside in the 50 degree weather with a smile and some wings. :)

Friday

This morning Kaylee was still off school for her Fall Break, so we slept in until 8:15 or so, which felt good! Then while she got ready, and then watched her movie, I finished cleaning the house. I cleaned and straightened the last three rooms I needed to get done-other than our own. It's a mess. But we won't go there. Literally. :)

I finished up barely in time to shower and head out to Glenndale with Kaylee for the Friday lunch. They had ham and cheesy potatoes and baked beans and chocolate pie, yum. We stayed out at the airport for a couple of hours, and then headed back home and kept on cleaning! Steve got home, and, we got ready and headed to Peru for Grandma Stants' viewing.

Throughout the day, Kaylee and I had several discussions about the viewing, about what she would see, what we would do. She was a little nervous about it, but mostly interested. I found out later she'd had several similar conversations with her dad, too. She likes to hear it several times from several different people just to verify her conclusions. Little scientist/engineer mind. "Prove it" kind of girl. She told me she was concerned about seeing Great-Grandma with blood on her. I let her know there wouldn't be any blood, that GG would look like she was sleeping. Kaylee: "How did she die?" Me: "She went to sleep and woke up in heaven. No blood." Kaylee: "Don't say blood any more or I'll shiver." Me in my own head only: "Well, YOU said it first!" Me out loud: "Okay." She wanted to know why we had to go "view" her body if she wasn't there. I told her it was a way to say goodbye and show respect to GG. I guess her father said to the same question "I don't know, it IS kind of weird, isn't it!" She is such an inquisitive, logical little girl, sometimes it is hard to answer her questions! She wants to know HOW and WHY everything works or happens, and I'd never even thought about it most of the time, let alone have an answer for her. I sure try though-I always want to answer her or find the answer if I can. An inquisitive mind is something that should be encouraged, not squashed.

Anyway. We arrive, and Kaylee and I walk in the room. She squeezes her eyes shut for a minute, because she's a little nervous about seeing GG. I walk her in the room, and she runs and gives Grandma & Grandpa Stants a hug. I take her around to the flowers first, and then to the photos of GG, and then ask if she's ready, and I hold her up so she'll be taller than the casket, and we look in at GG. Kaylee starts off a little uncertain, but quickly her natural curiosity takes over. She's fairly quiet at first, and then come the questions. "Why is she wearing glasses if she's not 'there' and can't see anyway?" "Where are her feet?" etc. I answer her, we walk away, and then shortly after she says "Mommy, can I touch her?" I thought about it for a minute, and then decide that would be okay, and I tell her what she'll feel, that GG's body is just a shell now, that she's not really there, and that the 'shell' will be cool and hard. We go back up together and she touches GG's hand gently, and says "Mommy, why does her hand feel so hard and wrinkly when it looks so soft?" I told her it feels wrinkly because GG was 98 years old and you are wrinkly when you are that old, and that it looks soft because they put makeup on to help make it look soft and natural. Then I explained that her hand was hard, because GG's heart wasn't pumping the blood and oxygen around to the cells in her body that keeps all of us soft and warm. So then Kaylee wanted to know exactly what happened when the heart stopped, and how you Actually Died when your heart stops. We talked about all of that. She wanted to know if GG's hair would still be soft, if she would know that we were there, if she could take the stuffed bear to heaven with her, and all manner of things. Finally she seemed satisfied and we walked away again, and she sat and talked and relaxed. She went up another time or two and reached in to touch GG, and she was at ease. When her cousins and Aunt Cathy/Uncle Lon arrived, she went back up to the casket with them. She was standing there just looking, and I was watching, and Steve and I saw her turn around and look very serious, almost sad. So I had her come back over to me. It took her a minute to talk to me, but finally she said with tears in her eyes "Mommy, I just want to say 'hi' to Great Grandma." I said "Go ahead, honey, you can go do that if you want to." "But Mommy, she's not HERE, she's in HEAVEN." "I know she is; why don't you close your eyes and talk to her in your mind, pray?" "I want YOU to Mommy. Will you please ask Jesus to give Great-Grandma a big hug and kiss from me and tell her I love her and I'll always miss her?" So we sat in the chairs in front of Great-Grandma's casket, and held hands, and I prayed out loud for Jesus to go give Great-Grandma a big hug and kiss for Kaylee, and to tell her that Kaylee loves her and misses her. Kaylee opened her eyes and smiled and the clouds were gone. The faith of a child is a powerful force.

We talked about who all would be in heaven with Great Grandma now, and Kaylee said she hoped GG would go give Devon and Sidney a hug for her too. As the viewing was winding down, Faith came and got me and said that in the other room was a table of Great-Grandma's jewelry that Mary (GG's daughter) was letting the women in the family choose from, one each. I said that I didn't want to take it away from any other fmaily members, but she said that GG loved me, that I was part of the family too, and if I wanted it, I could choose as well. I went into the room and waited until the other ladies were done, and then I picked out something that would mean something to me too, that I can keep in her memory. It's an angel tree pin. Gold and diamond little angels joined together. For Kaylee, Ann and I chose a light and simple gold rose pin. I wore mine tonight and Kaylee wore hers. I will keep hers until she is better at how she handles her jewelry, but then it will be hers, as will the angel tree some day.

Something that shows Kaylee's sweet heart. Not at first, but later. :) She came into the room with jewelry and was noticing the other pieces too, and she made a comment about how other people's jewelry was 'prettier' than hers. I took her out in the hall and talked to her for several minutes about how Grandma and I picked out the rose pin because we thought of her, that we knew she'd love it, that GG used to wear it, that it was a gift of love from many people, and that if she couldn't appreciate it at all, that I would give it back to Mary and allow someone else to choose it who Would appreciate it. She immediately got pretty upset, tears and all, and kept saying "I didn't mean it! I meant that theirs was pretty TOO, I didn't mean theirs was prettier! I just couldn't think what I wanted to say for a second, it came out wrong!" She went on and on and cried, and I told her it was okay, that I loved her, etc. Fast forward to afterwards when we are eating at Arby's, and she says to anybody she sees "See my beautiful pin? It's from GG!" She thanks me about 5 times for the rose. Fast forward to home, going to bed. "Thank you for my rose, Mommy." "You're welcome Kaylee, I know GG would want you to have something to remember her by." Fast forward to 30 minutes after she was supposed to be in bed. Out comes Kaylee, head down, tears running down her face. "Mommy, were you disappointed in me when I said their jewelry was prettier than mine?" I take her back to her room and we sit on her bed, and I tell her "Yes, I was a little disapointed at the time, but it's okay now Kaylee, I understand what you meant and how you feel, and I'm proud of you for understanding that it's important and special, and I'm proud of you for being a little sad because that shows that you care, but now it's okay. I understand, you apologized, I forgive you, and you don't need to be upset about it any more. I promise, it's okay. You have a good heart, sweetheart. You have a good heart and I love you. Don't worry any more, okay?" Finally she went to sleep, but she was upset over that for several hours straight. I am glad she has empathy, and a gentle spirit--usually! :)

Time to put the kitties to bed and then me! Tomorrow the graveside services will be held in the same chapel as Devon's were. I haven't been in there since his service...and then she is being buried in a plot just a row or so away from Devon & Sidney. So we'll visit the boys' graves tomorrow too...

What a day! Well, it ended much better than it started. :)

When we got up this morning to a low, scuddy, rainy, cloudy day, Kaylee played with Roadie while I got ready, and then we headed out to do errand. I stopped at the pet store for a bed for Roadie and litter box containers for Dulce. The place didn't have EITHER ONE. What kind of pet store...anyway. So my next stop was the Halloween store for Kaylee's costume this year. May I just say-Wow.

I walk in, and of course there are severed heads and bloody eyeballs displayed around, which Kaylee knew were fake and "silly". Fine, we're in a Halloween store. So explain to me why the Halloween store had 10 aisles of grown-up costumes, one aisle of baby costumes and one aisle for kids? Whose holiday is this, anyway? They had gorilla feet and "Naughty Nurse" high heels for adults, but didn't carry a single pair of princess shoes for kids. They had whips, they had feather dusters for the French Maid, they had every skimpy outfit you can imagine. And they had about 10 outfits for little girls, total. I couldn't believe it. I'm walking past aisle after aisle of cat woman and maid and nurse and bunny and 'sexy witch' and a wall I didn't even go past because I had Kaylee with me. She looked at a black playboy bunny outfit and said "What is she supposed to be, mommy?" I said "She's a bunny, honey." Kaylee says "Well that's a silly looking bunny!" Yep, we'll save that conversation for later. So if you want an adult costume, I can tell you exactly where to go. If you're looking for a costume for your child, well, you'll have to tell ME.

So after Kaylee picks out Tinkerbell, one of her 10 choices, and no shoes or tights to go along with it, and some pink and sparkly hair spray colors, we head to the next pet store, where finally I fine a pet bed and the litterbox things I needed. On the way home, I stop at a pumpkin patch and Kaylee picks out a huge pumpkin for us to cut open and cook the seeds, etc. I can hardly lift the thing! Another stop at the grocery store, for milk this time. We get home, unload the car, test out the hair color spray on a SMALL area of the back of her hair, and stick her in the tub to see if it DOES wash out like it claims. (It does). I try to clean up some more, and end up literally lying on the floor for 45 minutes, mostly asleep. That was weird. I get up, clean, and then take Kaylee out to Kokomo airport where we met up with Nathan & Tre and Jamie & Gwennie and some friends of theirs and their three children. We had burgers, chips, hung out, relaxed, let the kids run around and play like crazy (which they did). Got home around 9:30 pm or so, Kaylee crashed in bed, and I'm feeling like crashing myself!

Kaylee's air purifier arrived today, and I set it up in her room, only to hear the fan rattling. It shouldn't rattle. For that much money it REALLY shouldn't rattle. Not sure what to do about it. Shipping it back is such a pain, and I want her to have it and the rattle doesn't bother her. But it bothers me. And it shouldn't rattle. Humph.

Tomorrow I have a few hours to clean up that front room and bathroom and Kaylee's room. Wish me luck. ;)

Thank heavens, Kaylee slept like a baby last night! All night long, and she woke up in the most cheerful, pleasant, helpful mood. She woke up smiling and happy and sweet. Ah, sleep is a wonderful thing!! I took her to class today, then headed home and began a cleaning march. I only got through the living room and kitchen, and then Chuck called and I got a good invitation to lunch with him and Nate and Bill D. at Applebees. I even ate soup and salad, not too bad. ;) Headed back home and picked up and cleaned a bit more until it was time to get Kaylee at 3. We were home, hanging out, when I got a call from someone who wanted to do a quick flight in the Warrior for a final check-out, so I packed up Kaylee and we headed out to Glenndale. On our way out, I started going over her Awanas verses. We only had about 15 minutes practice on them. While I was with the pilot, Kaylee stayed on the ground and looked at her book and hung out quietly like a big girl. After I flew, we had 15 more minutes to study verses before Awanas started. She ended up knowing 7 verses, or 4 sections. I was really impressed. She would have earned a patch and a jewel. However, she said they ran out of time for verses tonight and she only got to say two of her sections. She was pretty upset about that, because she was ready to go, and she didn't get her jewel because of it. But she did get the patch, and I told her that next week she could say the others and get her jewel. I also told her how very proud of her I was, what a fantastic job she did learning all those. Because she DID do a terrific job!

Before bed tonight she got a warm glass of milk and a small cookie, which seemed to top off a very nice day we had together! I hope she gets another good night's sleep. Tomorrow and Friday she is off of school for Fall Break, and tomorrow I'm going to try to straighten up the front room and guest bedroom, and go to the pet store, and hit the Halloween store hopefully, and then that afternoon head out to Kokomo Airport to have dinner with/hang out with/let Kaylee play with Jamie, Nate, Tre, and Gwennie. Another busy day coming up!

Dulce was definitely not over Roadie being back. She avoided us all today, until this evening, and she attacked Roadie once, keeps hissing at her. Roadie is smart enough to avoid her right now, since she can hardly walk, let alone fight. Poor little bugger...

By the way. I got Roadie back today. I took Dulce in to the vet for a 3-week follow-up set of shots. She was NOT happy about that. Just walking into the office she was shaking and meowing so miserably. It was really sad. And I had to pry her into-and out of-the cat carrier. Last night she was so loving and sweet and cuddly, it was like she was extra happy. I wondered if she was extra happy because Roadie was gone. Today, we get home, and Dulce is SO happy to not be at the vets, and she's rubbing on me, until she sees Roadie is back. At that point, Dulce stops, stares at her like she did when she first came, hisses at her, and runs off. Then sits across the room and stares at Roadie all afternoon. Growling several times, not happy at all. It was kind of weird, like she'd never seen the cat before in her life. I can't decide if she's stupid, has bad eyesight, or if that's normal. Roadie was only gone for 24 hours! So Dulce is back to being a bit unhappy at the whole thing, and suspicious, and not cuddly and purring like she was last night. Roadie's feet hurt her, she's being very delicate on her toes, but otherwise she seems to be doing okay. I hope she takes to the new litter okay. It's this "Yesterday's News" litter with big smooth absorbant pellets that won't get into her wounds/stitches like the little "gravel" litter stuff could. The nurse was telling me that she had a cat whose paw she picked up after surgery and just picking it up caused it to start oozing pus. I raised my eyebrows at her, and she said "Well, if that happens, call us." Oh REALLY?? I wouldn't have thought of that! And hey, while I'm at it, thanks for the mental image of that one. Anyway, so both cats are home, neither are feeling real well, but that should be the last visit for a year or so.

May I also say...thank heavens I didn't pursue my original college major of Veterinary Medicine. The theory is fine. The science is kind of fun. The animals are cute. But the reality is NOT for me. Just walking in the door, the overpowering odor of terrified animals hits you in the face. I hate it. I hate going, I hate taking my pets, and I can't imagine working there every day for 50 years. When we got there today, there were puppies back there just Screaming. It was horrible. One of the nurses up front asked the guy waiting on his puppies if the noise bothered him. He said "no, I've heard it before." I said "Well, it bothers ME." I don't know what surgery they were having, but she said they were in surgery, and it was obvious there wasn't any anesthesia. When they came out in a box, they were all passed out asleep, occasionally whimpering, and they were tiny tiny puppies, obviously newborn. I thought "My gosh, it's 2006, can't they anesthesize these poor babies before they cut off whatever they were cutting off?" (Tails and/or ears, probably). Whatever it was, it was horrid. I may have been the only unhappy person in the room listening to a box full of puppies scream and cry in pain, but it was enough to tell me I definitely almost chose the wrong profession. I looked around that office and pictured myself in a white coat back there checking out the animals, and I literally shuddered for a second. I really care about the pets, the animals, and I'd love to help them if I could, but not like that. The life I live now, the airplanes, the flying, the schedule, the airports and trips and challenges and fun, THAT is what I was meant to do. And again, I thank heavens that my life's path headed this direction instead of that one. Veterinary medicine is a wonderful profession, it's just not MY profession.

It's an interesting thought process though. The "what if's". Had I stayed in Vet Medicine instead of dropping out and going to flight school, my entire life would be something else, in every way. I'd never have gone to Vincennes at all, and everything that I learned there (I don't mean school), I'd never have met Steve, I most likely would have spent my entire life without ever hearing of SMA, because the odds are against marrying another carrier. I have a feeling my entire personality would be a lot different. And I think I'd have been truly miserable as a vet. In fact, I bet most people I know now would laugh at the idea of me as a vet, just like a few of them have laughed at me being a secretary. Hey, I was very good at that, thank you! (Not laughing because it's a bad job, laughing because I seem like a bad match for it. They didn't know me when I was actually polite, which is obviously required to be a decent secretary!)

Oh, one side note on Kaylee. I learned something new about her today, from her teacher. Kaylee has a desk on the end of the tables, instead of in the middle of the other kids, because...wait for it...she doesn't like to be touched. When she's at a table with kids to her left and right, and they touch her or bump into her or their stuff encroaches on her stuff, she gets agitated and uncomfortable. So her teacher after about 9 weeks conceeded that this is simply the way she is, that it's okay, and allowed her to have a seat at the end of the table, where she said Kaylee said, and I quote, "Look Mrs. R., nobody can touch me here!" This took me completely by surprise, because Kaylee is very physical and affectionate to people that I've seen. She's very physically affectionate to her teacher, to us, to her little friends, in fact she sometimes "hangs on" people she cares about. Since I'm not there when I'm not there ;), I didn't realize that in groups she likes to keep her own space. And I thought, holy cow, of all the things to inherit from me. That is EXACTLY how I feel about being touched and bumped into and encroached upon by the vast majority of the planet. So I totally relate to how she feels, I understand it, but I kind of wish she'd gotten her dad's more outgoing and physically relaxed personality, for her own sake. It's not fun to feel uncomfortable in situations where most everybody else IS fine and comfortable. Small rooms, lots of people, loud talking, someone holding your arms or wrists or right in your face or resting hands on you, talking people on top of other talking people, being ran into or crowded or bumped into, hats, scarves, turtleneck shirts, zipped coats, motorcycle helmets or anything over my head/face, they just leave me with an almost panicky feeling sometimes, like I can't breathe. And I've heard her say that before. "I can't breathe, Mommy!" So that was an enlightening conversation. I guess some things you can't really learn about your child until they are around someone for a period of time who isn't their parent/grandparent. I'm glad to know it now though, because I think I can end up helping her a little bit on managing the feelings as she gets older. I usually do pretty well any more; in the last probably six months I can only think of about twice that I had a problem like that where I couldn't hide or control as well how it was affecting me. The thing is, I don't think that's something she'd have observed from me, I think it's just how she is too. The only thing I know of that I've said or acted on in front of her in that regard is how she sometimes has a tendency to smother me, get RIGHT in my face with her face, and I can only take that for a little time, and then I can't do it, and she knows it and she does it on purpose sometimes just to "bug" me as she calls it. But I don't think she could translate that into all this, especially without us knowing about it at home. Anyway, it's not a big deal, it's just interesting to me, since like I said, I had no idea until today! The teacher also said she's a loving and sweet little girl, eager to please, and a terrific helper. :) She's a good girl...I'm very proud of her!

UGH.

Kaylee woke Steve up at 2 a.m., and then woke ME up at 4:30 a.m. She was having trouble sleeping again, and she was coughing. Steve gave her some medicine and at some point I gave up and went to go sleep in HER bed because she wasn't in it. And then she had to get up and go to school. After school, I took her to Glenndale because I had a flight. Well, we hit lunch first. I brought her dvd player and a movie for her to watch, and she hung out during the day. After I got done flying (the Warrior, a checkout), we went out to eat at Mike's Pizza with Justin and his wife Beth. We ended up not getting home until almost 9 pm, and by then her eyes were SO tired. So she crashed in bed, not even wearing pj's. I hope she sleeps hard, sleeps well, and sleeps all night, for BOTH our sakes!!

By "Grandma Stants", I should clarify, I actually mean Steve's Grandma, or Kaylee's Great-Grandmother, Ruth Stants. She would have turned 99 on her next birthday!

Sunday was mostly spent as the day of rest it's intended to be. I did do a bunch of laundry, cleaned out the kitty litter boxes, that kind of stuff, but while I kept busy most of the day, other than watching the Colts game for a few hours, it didn't seem like too much work.

By the way, Go Colts! 6-0, just like last year. They'd better not choke on their playoff game again this year, or I'm going to quit watching!

This morning, Kaylee woke me up when it was still O-dark-thirty. I had to get up early anyway, so I just did, and we had plenty of time to get ready. I took Kaylee and Roadie to the vet clinic at 8 a.m., left Roadie and took Kaylee to school. Her teacher is ill today and had to go home and have a substitute there, and one of the boys in her class was sick, and yet still there today. *sigh* The teacher said his mom had said "He's been coughing all night, and he's sick, but he just Wouldn't stay home today!" Excuse me, whose choice is this?? Thank you for exposing MY daughter to it, and thus me and Steve and anyone around us. As if WE want this. UGH people. Anyway, I drop her off, get on my phone and call for a weather briefing to Kalamazoo, MI, and file the flight plan, hit Kokomo airport, get my maps and such ready to go, and when Nathan arrives, we all head out. Chuck and I in the Baron, Nathan in the Cheyenne. He only arrived about 10 minutes before we did, and it only took us 34 minutes to get there. We did have to circle around because we couldn't see the airport visually at first (bad visibility right over the airport, snow showers, etc.) We spotted the airport right about 2 miles out or less, and were at 2500' and pulled the power, the gear, the flaps, and headed down to make a very nice landing. Found out later Nathan had done the same thing in the Cheyenne--found it at 2500' just a couple miles off the end of the runway. While we were on the ground, we hit lunch at...Callahan's I think it was called. Good soup! Then we hit the Kalamazoo Air Museum. Really, that's a great place. I said it before, I'll say it again. Love the murals on the walls, the floors, the displays, etc. Very well done. We headed back to the airport, Nathan filed out of Kalamazoo, and we headed out. Got up to 14,000' on the way home for a few minutes before it was time to start stepping back down. Picked up a trace amount of rhyme icing on the way down, no big thing. Broke out of the clouds plenty high. It was another one of those days where it is gray, cold and depressing down below, but you break through the clouds, and the sky is blue and the sun is shining and it's just gorgeous!! I Love those days! It gives you a bit of a sun smile most other people don't get to see for the day. :) Landed, put planes away, unloaded a giant grill (well, I just watched. Wasn't sure if I should help-which I'm always willing to do-or just stay out of the way as the probable weakest link, but the four of them seemed to have it okay), had a chocolate muffin and diet coke to refresh, and headed home to pick up Kaylee. It was a good flying day, I enjoyed the company, the planes and the trips!

Kaylee's TIRED now!! She's trying not to be grumpy but it's hard for her, waking up that early and having that busy of a day at school. Hopefully she'll sleep well tonight and NOT wake me up at o-dark-thirty tomorrow! Tomorrow we pick up Roadie, drop off Dulce for her follow-up shots, and go to the Halloween store to pick out a costume for Kaylee. :)

Boy is my house a mess-not most of it, but the laundry is in terrible shape. Oh, most of it is clean, it's just in piles all over my room. I need to fix that tomorrow. *sigh* I hate laundry. Not washing it, not drying it, just putting it away.

Went out to Glenndale at lunchtime with Kaylee. Didn't do much of anything this time, just flew the C-172 briefly to test out Chuck's new toy-a traffic alert system. It's portable so can go in his Citabria or in the back of the Mustang. And we found some traffic, and it worked quite well, even spoke in our headsets things like "Obtain a Visual!"

Learned the other day that one of the guys who flew with us at Glenndale, a former "Flying Squirrel" (Boyscout Aviation Program we hosted at Glenndale) was killed in Iraq when his Humvee went over a bomb. Thinking of Nathan Frigo's family and friends...

This morning at 8 a.m., Grandma Stants went home to heaven. She'd been ready to go, from what I understand, and she certainly lived a long and fulfilling life. It's still hard for those left behind, and my prayers are with Richard and Ann and all of her family. Services are next Saturday...

Lots of Stuff!

Kaylee's Diary

Kaylee has asked over the months for a diary. I'd always told her "not yet", because she couldn't really write in it, and that's what diaries are for. Well, she showed me! She brought out the Priness diary she did have, and she said "Mommy, I know diaries are private, but would you like to read mine?" I said "Sure, honey, show me." So she opens it up, and page by page it tells a story. She drew a picture of she and I together, and a smiley face in the corner, and told me that I make her happy. On another page, she drew a sad face in the corner, and then drew a depiction of Dulce the cat, and herself throwing something at Dulce. She told me she'd thrown a fuzzy at Dulce (many months ago) and that it scared Dulce, and that made her sad. Another page showed Dulce outside in the grass on a leash like we did a few times over the Spring. And so on. The page she did last night, she drew a happy face, and three objects. She told me that what made her happy was melty cheese, losing her first tooth, and her home. Tonight before bed she did another page. The three things that made her happy today were her $ from the tooth fairy, her quarter with a peach on the back of it, and her glass of chocolate milk. Now if that isn't what a diary is, nothing is! So I told her I would be happy to get her a diary, and she could draw whatever she feels and thinks and did. It just never occurred to me to think outside the box of "writing" in a diary. But it occurred to HER, and that makes me glad!

The Tooth

Last night we went to Kaylee's friend Maggie's house, along with Chuck & Judy (Maggie's dad is Chuck's son. Got that? lol) The grownups played Dominos (haven't played that in YEARS, and it was a different version using trains and starting off with the double 12 and working your way down to double zero, and after 13 games, lowest points wins, and it was fun!) while the kids played. I won by the way. By a pretty large amount, actually. ;) Anyway, we got home pretty late, and Kaylee crashed hard. I waited until I KNEW she was out, and then I sneaked into her room to slip her the Tooth Fairy Money. She never twitched. This is good, because normally just walking into her room wakes her up, and I didn't want to get "busted". So this morning, I'm getting ready to take a shower, and I hear "thud thud thud thud thud" as she is Running across the house from her room. So I grab a towel and come out and find her, all messy-headed with her little mind working overtime, holding up her Tooth Fairy money. She was pretty excited about the whole thing, and that was cute. She had to show her teacher and her little friends at school, and she had to bring the actual tooth to Maggie's house to show her too. It's funny, she's really vested in believing in the Tooth Fairy, even though she knows Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny are pretend. So if she wants a little Tooth Fairy Magic, by golly she can have it. I've not told her the fairy is real, I've not told her she's not real, I'm just letting her believe it if she wants to, and she does. It's kind of cute, actually!

Report Card

Kaylee also got her first Kindergarten Report Card today, the end of the first Quarter/9 weeks. Mrs. Rivers commented that: "Kaylee has done very well! She is at the top of the class. During the second nine weeks I will focus on Kaylee working to "fine tune" her skills. She is capable and confident!" For her grades, there is "U" for Unsatisfactory, "S" for Satisfactory, and "E" for Excellent. Kaylee got five "E's", in Bible, Phonics, Reading sight words, Numbers, and Music. She got "S+'s" in Writing and Art (cutting/coloring). And an "S" in Group Play. Under Conduct, she got good marks for Attentiveness, Cooperation, Obedience and Responsiblity. She did get a "needs improvement" in one area--Effort. And that is where it all ties in together (except the group play), and again makes me kind of laugh. It's back to MY tendencies as a kid. She doesn't take her time on her work, which got her that "effort" mark, as well as the S+ instead of "E" on Writing and Coloring. She doesn't take the time to do them to her best level, she does them quickly to get them done. I told her how proud I was of how well she did, and explained all the things her teacher said she did "excellently" on. Then I told her about the S+s and what they were, and told her that was good too, and I knew that she could turn the S+'s into "E"s by taking her time and doing her best work, because we all knew she could do it if she'd slow down a bit. At first she was a little pouty and said things like "I can't do it right". Now the last thing I want to do is make her think she can't do something well enough to please me or anybody. But she can't fool me, I AM her on this one. lol So I told her that I was always proud of her when she did her best, and if she did her best and got an S+ than I would be very happy and proud of that. But that when she DID slow down and do her best, her papers showed it and that I knew she could do it. That we ALL have to learn and do better at things, that we can't all be perfect at everything we do, let alone right off the bat. (Physician, heal thyself). So anyway, while I'm having trouble doing some of this with a straight face, I hope I did it right--in a positive, encouraging way. I think they need parenting classes to help you figure out how to handle a fragile ego in a young child. Encouragement without...pickiness. Constructive input without "you can't please me" syndrome. Something like that. It's kind of weird seeing myself in my daughter's shoes! Oh, one other thing on her report card--she didn't miss a Single Day of school. Not one absence. Not too bad! :)

In The News

I found the news to be terribly tear-jerking today. First was a story on Nightline about a woman who taught ballet to physically handicapped little girls. These little girls have Cerebral Palsy or other diseases that keep them in walkers or wheelchairs, and this lady does Physical Therapy with them by teaching them ballet. They call it "making these little girls' dreams come true...every little girl wants to be a ballerina and now they can." Each little girl gets an aide to help them move their arms and legs in the dance moves, and they get to dress like the ballerina, and dance. Another quote was "These girls used to sit on the sidelines and watch their sisters dance, and now their sisters are watching THEM." Seeing the huge smiles on the faces of these girls, some I saw with trachs, or AFO's, etc., man, it just brought a tear to my eye. It was beautiful. The second news story was tear-jerking in a horrible way. A 7 year old little girl was a flower girl in a wedding for her aunt. On the way home from the wedding, while riding in the limo, a drunk driver in a truck careened across the road and hit the family in the limo head on. The driver of the limo was killed. Five other family members were wounded, but the 7 year old girl was not just killed. Her mother picked up her body from the floor of the wreckage and found her decapitated. Now if that isn't one of the most horrible things I've ever heard...it makes me want to cry just typing it out again. What a horrid, horrid, horrid thing. The drunk pickup driver was convicted of two counts of murder for it, which is very rare, but I'm glad he's going to prison for murder. He chose to drink and drive and the consequences are horrific. To have to live with that image of your daughter in your arms, I can't begin to imagine, and I don't want to. I quit watching the news after that one tonight. Uncle.

Flying

Today at 10:30 am I went up in the Warrior for a check-out flight and BFR with a pilot new to us. The runway was dry enough to go, but not exactly prime condition. We avoided the mud puddles for the most part. The funny part was how long it took to get rolling on takeoff. Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought so-I guess several of the guys were out watching us take off. Slowly. lol I wanted to hop out of the plane and push it for awhile after we added full power and just kind of sat there. But it went very well. The gentleman in the plane complemented our airport, our website, and me as well, so that is always nice to hear. Afterwards we had lunch at Glenndale: hamburgers, beans, scalloped potatoes, etc. Very good, though the tiramasu was the crowning glory for me! There were at least 25 people there today I think, so that's a pretty good turnout for a lunch. The reporter I was supposed to fly with today ended up cancelling, so we're on for Next Friday this time. If we ever get it done, that is! Chuck, Nathan and I take the Baron to Kalamazoo on Monday for its annual, and it'll be down at least a month. When it gets back we're going to finish off Chuck and Steve on the multi. In Kalamazoo we're planning on hitting the museum and lunch, and flying home in the Cheyenne. Monday is the same day Roadie goes in to get her claws taken out. Busy day coming up!

I know I'm forgetting something, but since I'm forgetting it I can't remember what it is, and I'll end now and remember as soon as I hit "publish". ;) I'll close with something Kaylee just said a minute ago. She was drinking her chocolate milk before bed, and she said "Ahhh, now THAT'S what I'm TALKIN' about!!" Ha ha!

Scissors

As I said yesterday, Kaylee had a note sent home that she had her scissors removed because she cut her hair at school. The conversation went something like this:

Mommy & Daddy: "Kaylee, you don't EVER use scissors on ANYTHING except the exact paper your teacher tells you to. You know better than that!"

Kaylee: "But Mommy, Darian told me to!"

Mommy: "It doesn't matter what Darian says, YOU made the choice to cut your own hair, and you knew you shouldn't, and you did it anyway. It's not her fault you did it, it's your fault. It's right to say 'no' to people who tell you to do things you know you shouldn't. Don't ever do that again! Do you understand?"

Kaylee: "Yes."

I think she said that just to get me to stop talking about it. I know these things because I remember doing that.

So today her teacher comes out and tells me that yesterday Kaylee was sitting right in front of her, and Mrs. R. told Kaylee "no", to put her scissors down, to which Kaylee replies with "Darian told me it's okay" and proceeded to cut her hair right in front of the teacher. I was actually pleased with how the teacher handled it; removing the scissors and making her not finish her project at school, sending a nice note home to let me know, having the consequences be she finishes up her project at home instead of school and losing her scissors, etc. It let BOTH teacher and I reinforce the lesson, together, but it was done in a positive, helpful way, not a shaking-your-finger-and-being-snotty kind of way. I appreciate that!

Success!

Finally! Kaylee's loose tooth was so loose that you could see the root and it wiggled all over. So she decided she wanted it out today. It was her idea to tie a string to the tooth and pull. Which I tried for 15 minutes before giving up because I couldn't get the string down around the root and keep it there. Every time I'd pull, the string would slide off. And my fingers are too chubby and slippery to get any kind of grip on it. I had the video camera running the entire time, so there may be some comedy in that particular section. She was brave at first, got a little nervous when a few tugs kind of tweaked her a bit. Then she wanted to try the string on a doornob and I had to explain that the string wouldn't stay on her tooth with the door any more than it stayed on with me pulling. Then she said "Well, do you have any SMALL pliers??" So I went to the toolbox and found a pair of small cutting thingies, washed them with soap, and away we went. The first tug it slipped off, so I grabbed the tooth sideways, and one good tug later, out it popped! Her eyes got big for a second as she wasn't sure she liked that or not, and then she got all excited. Even when there was B-L-O-O-D (spelled out for her delicacy sake.) she was fine with it, dancing around, showing off her tooth. I put it in a little glass container that says "My First Tooth" on it, and she's been carrying that around ever since. In the photo you can see the hole, it's in the front center of her bottom row of teeth, and the grown-up tooth is already in place behind it! After we got the tooth out, she got excited about the Tooth Fairy. Then she frowned and said "I have to stay awake and see her." I jokingly said "She won't let you see her!" And she got a little upset and said "But then how will I know it's not YOU putting money under my pillow??" I said "Would that be so bad if it was?" She said "Yes! How will I know if she's real if YOU put the money under my pillow??" She even asked me to lock my bedroom door so I couldn't come out and put money under her pillow. Well, this is going to be tricky! lol

What is a mom to do when loose teeth kind of give her the heebie jeebies but she's acting like it doesn't so that the first tooth loss experience isn't a creepy one for her child? She wiggles the tooth in all directions and imagines it's a stick in a very little airplane. She pulls hard enough to make sure to get the job done instead of tugging lightly out of squeamishness. And finally, when it pops out with a sucking noise, instead of turning away and saying "Eeeew!" she responds with "We Got It! Woo-Hoo!" to the look of uncertainty on her daughter's face as her daughter decides what SHE thinks about the whole thing. I'm not squeamish about blood and guts, but something about the teeth moving all over the place gives me the creeps. And they have HOW many to lose before they're done??

My baby lost her first tooth today and didn't shed a tear even though it took 15 minutes, string, and pliers, and bled for a few minutes! *sniff*

You know what else can help with hitting slumps? A decent coach.

Today I dropped Kaylee off at school, and immediately headed to Glenndale for a flight in the Warrior. At least that was the plan. The runway had other ideas. All the rain we'd gotten lately made things rather soggy, and the end result was putting the plane back away without going anywhere. So I ate some powdered sugar donuts, had some coffee, did a bit of computer work, loaded up a couple of chairs, and watched the men move tables around. Around 11:30, Chuck and I headed out to Kokomo to fly the Baron. We stopped at Arby's and picked up lunch for ourselves and Steve, and ate lunch out at Nathan's hangar. Then Steve headed off to do a computer job, and Chuck and I hit the skies in the Baron for the first time in what feels like ages! Chuck flew for awhile, then I flew for awhile. I did three take offs and landings to get current, and it felt pretty good. The skies were overcast and gray--until we put the plane away and got back to Glenndale, at which point the skies cleared up and the day looked much prettier, of course. Murphy's Law and all that. I ended up having to cancel my 4:30 flight as well, but got some other things done.

Got home in time to work on Kaylee's Awana stuff with her. She did all five sections tonight by the way. :) Smart girl! While she was at Awanas, Steve and I went to Red Lobster for dinner. I had these Lobster and Scallops things that were grilled, and they were really good! The thing is, it's been about 3 hours since we started eating, and I am STILL full. But it was all quite tasty--the shrimp cocktail and stuffed mushrooms and all!

Came home to a note from Kaylee's teacher that she had to cut out her seeds at home, because she'd cut her hair with scissors at school and gotten them removed from her. A lecture on that followed, and there was no permanent hair damage either, unlike her last "bangs" episode a few years ago.

A commercial came on TV for Dove, "Campaign for Real Beauty". It showed a normal looking girls' face as she was made up, hair fixed, photographed, then the photograph was seriously edited, until it turned into this gorgeous face. And it said something like "No wonder our view of beauty is so distorted." Kaylee was watching with me, and I said "You understand they are saying that the pretty girls you sometimes see on ads or tv aren't really like that, they have bumps and lumps and marks and stuff too, they use the computer to make them look better than they really look." And Kaylee said "Yes", and then went "there" on her own. She said "We're all different, and that's okay. We all have a little bit of pretty in all of us, don't we mommy?" Yes we do, honey! I thought that was kind of deep for a little kid. She said "You're pretty because you have long curly hair and you're sweet. And I'm pretty because I have little freckles and blond hair and because I'm me!" I said "Yes, and because you're smart and funny and have sparkly eyes and a great giggle and a sweet heart!" It was a nice tv moment. So thanks, Dove. ;)

Today I took a break from the office and worked from home. Mostly I did about 50 loads (slight exaggeration) of laundry, which is still piled up on my kitchen table, and the dishes, and straightening up the living room, etc. When I picked Kaylee up from school, we read books and memorized verses for Awanas. That reminds me. She is ready to say 5 sections tomorrow, and we just started tonight. She is REALLY picking up on memorization fast lately. I think she just needed some practice, and once she got going, she's going like gangbusters. Okay, like I used to. She wanted to do more, but we couldn't because the next section is them attending the sunday school two weeks in a row and you can't skip ahead. But she's going to knock off five sections (a total of I think 6 verses) at once unless something happens, and that's pretty good for a five year old I'd say! I thought it was pretty cute when she said "But I WANT to learn more, Mommy!" I don't want to limit her, for sure, but I suggested we stop there to retain what she'd learned since she can't do the next ones until the Sunday School thing is over anyway. Once that is done though, I won't stop her from trying to learn as many as she wants to of course!

Oh yes, back to today. Bank, post office, cleaning, website stuff, emails, *yawn*. I took the day off from flying or work stuff, and tomorrow I've got two flights in the Warrior and maybe one in the Baron.

In baseball, from what I understand, the batters occasionally get in a "hitting slump." You know, one of those time frames where they can't seem to connect with the ball like they used to, where the more they start thinking about it the worse it gets?

So what is the baseball players' secret to dig out of the slump? Go back to basics? Just keep swinging? Relax and forget about it?

Seriously, I want to know! Who has a baseball "great" quote? And I thought nothing about baseball would ever interest me!! lol

Oh, and here's a link to our local paper, the Kokomo Tribune. They're doing an article on "Glenndale Days", but for now they just have up a couple of photos in a slide show at http://www.kokomotribune.com/local/local_slideshow_288181332. :)

The Day After

Wow, we woke up like drugged people today. I didn't move last night. I didn't feel Dulce lying on me and sticking her nose in my face (which normally drives me crazy). I didn't see the bathroom light shining in my eyes when Steve got up. I heard my alarm go off like it was under water. I was O-U-T. Problem was, so was Kaylee. That girl wouldn't get out of bed for anything. So we're already 20 minutes late to school, something I've never done before. I've been 5 minutes late, but that's not very frequent. Usually I'm right on time to five minutes early. So 20 minutes late isn't too good. We walk in, and I hear the words "pumpkin". I get a freeze chill down my spine as I realize today is "Pumpkin Patch Trip Day" with the school. Thankfully the trip wasn't planned until 10:15 p.m. I ran home, packed our lunches, hit the post office, etc., and then went back to the school at 10 am to take Kaylee to the pumpkin patch.

She was so excited, even though she was so tired. We drove out there, and met up with her class, and had a nice time. I've got the photos up at her website www.kayleestants.com. Check them out! Along with some September ones I just got up too.

One funny side-note, on our way there I stopped at McDonalds to pick up something to drink, and she said "Mommy, I like 1% milk the best. 2% milk tastes like a cow that didn't get mixed up very well." I laughed out loud and said "It tastes like a COW?" And she said "Yes, like a cow that didn't get mixed up well. It's okay, but I like 1% better!" Oh man, she doesn't know what she's missing and I almost feel badly for making her drink that weak 1% stuff!

She was excited to pick out the perfect pumpkin, and all the way home she said "This pumpkin said 'Kaylee, pick me!' and it's the perfect size, Mommy! Perfect!" So, she's pleased with her choice. :)

I took her from the patch straight to Glenndale. Chuck and I counted left-over shirts and jackets and hats and sweatshirts from the BBQ Bash, and I don't think I did much else. Oh yes, Nathan called and said the Baron was done. So we headed out to Kokomo to take the Seneca to Muncie to pick up the Baron. It was a fairly smooth flight over, and Kaylee did a Great job in the back. In fact, I think she fell asleep. Got to Muncie, I dropped off Chuck and Nathan, and Kaylee climbed up front and fell back asleep before I even took back off. I was tired enough to understand! I flew to Sheridan so Jeff could look over the plane, the left engine and the smoke issue, and Nathan & Chuck landed after me to pick us up in the Baron. It was lightly raining the whole time, so the ramp was kind of slippery. A crooked park job bugs me. So I set the parking brake, put a chock (small wooden block to prevent planes from rolling) under the wheel, then got back in and took off the parking break (for when Jeff towed the plane), and decided to move the plane a bit to straighten it out. Moved the chock straight back about 2 feet, pushed the plane to the chock. That worked well, so I did it again. I was almost straight, so I did it a third time. Only this time I slid on the pavement, the plane wing hit me in the head, I fell over, couldn't reach the chocks from that position, and the plane rolled backwards a few feet down the slanting ramp, towards a bean field. I briefly considered throwing the fleshy part of my thigh in the way of the wheel to stop the plane from rolling, but a quick look backwards and the thought process quickly went "It's wet, there's a good amount of grass, the plane isn't rolling quickly, there's nothing really to hit, and the plane shouldn't get damage", along with "the plane weighs over 2 tons, that might hurt", so I flattened myself out on the pavement as the rest of the wing went over my head, and let it roll, rather than sticking my leg in the way. The plane came softly to a stop in the grass just a couple of feet away, I got off the ramp (with a wet rear end and wet knees-one with a small flesh wound-whee) and chocked the wheel again, fired up the plane and taxiied it back into position. Other than a sore knee, a sore head, and a distinct feeling of fury at myself, all's well that ends well. It was "wonderful" having an audience for that little bit of comedy, yes, that's the first time something like that's happened with me, and no, I'm not going to try that again.

I did get the Mail Call cd's and shirts today! I've looked through a couple, and there are SO many photos. And so many good ones! I'm trying to figure out which ones to put up where. :)

I also had a borderline 'bad dude' headache all day. Advil didn't touch it, nothing did until I got home and medicated a bit and laid down for awhile. The knock on the head didn't help, but my head hurt before I did that. I'm just glad it's gone now!

The BBQ Bash was a lot of fun, and we're finalizing the profit for SMA Support now. Probably should know a total in a few days! And the SMA Auction is officially over, with a profit of $3,865.00 for SMA Support! AND, Brad & Shira's marathon fundraiser has brought in over $7,500 so far with more on the way! Amazing!! My thanks to everybody involved in helping us do this! It DOES make a difference, you know!

Okay, I think that's it! Tomorrow I'm going to stay home and get stuff done around the house. Dirty laundry, dishes, house, Kaylee stuff, and maybe website stuff if I can. I finally got Kaylee's site updated tonight...Night!

BBQ Bash, Day Three, Over And Out!

Well, we made it another year! Sunday dawned very pretty and clear, with calm winds, and chilly. We headed out to the airport, where we had church services, with a pianist, music, message, communion for those participating, and all. I was *really* draggy most of the morning thanks to one lousy night's sleep last night. Man was I dragging. I couldn't get tired until 1:30 or so in the morning last night, and then I kept waking up, and I woke up again around 5:30 a.m. and pretty much stayed half awake the rest of the time. Kaylee came into our room at some point wearing a bunch of glow sticks, and I couldn't sleep in the wee hours with those blasting my eyes either. So by the time it was time to get up, I was not feeling too whippy on the sleep front.

After the church services, the parachuters came in and did their morning jump, and we watched the giant American Flag come down from the sky in a clear, calm day. It was lovely, as always! Those guys do a great job, every year. Then we started up the rides, and I was surprised at how busy the rides stayed all day long. Usually it's just Saturday that gives us busy rides, but this year Sunday was booked up. Duane in the T-6 ended up giving 28 T-6 rides in two days, which is amazing. The man never stopped for food, breaks, bathroom, nothing, he just kept putting them in and cranking them out. And we owe him and Tom Woods a lot, because those rides at $80/each brought in a lot of money for SMA Support! We also did 110 regular airplane rides, 7 RV-6 rides, 12 Stearman rides (and five Seneca rides).

Unfortunately, right when the skydivers were getting ready to take me up, and possibly Judy for a tandem skydive, the clouds came in again, too low to jump under and too thick to jump through. And there the clouds hung, the rest of the afternoon, until they had to give up and go home. Now this is two years in a row where as I was trying to jump, the clouds came in and prevented me from doing it. They said I could come back any time to Flora and they'd take me up, but it's not the same as doing it at the BBQ. And I can hear my mother's sigh of relief all the way from here!

I started off giving rides in the Warrior today, two different families, then Mike Wild took over for me. The rides got backed up by at least an hour, and we waited for awhile, but they STAYED backed up with people waiting for a long time to get their ride, so I took up two more families, this time in the Seneca. I can take five people at a time in the Seneca, where you can only take 2 or 3 people at a time in the others. So it helps move things along a little bit. When I fired up the Seneca, the left engine had some brief smoke action going on, so I have to get that checked out. It all read fine on the guages, and performed fine. After the last ride in the Seneca, I did a runway check at Glenndale, then took the Seneca back to Nathan's hangar, where Chuck and I put it away (barely, because the tug was alllmost dead), and Chuck flew me back to Glenndale in the Citabria. We did one more runway check in the Citabria (nicely done, Chuck!), came in to land, and it was time to put stuff away, clean up, recover from the weekend.

We got the money organized, I picked up chairs, scooted a ladder around and took down all the decorations from the ceiling, cleaned up the office and main room, hauled out these three big tubs filled with ice and water that were keeping drinks cool, moved the Warrior and helped put it away (twice), helped Jim put away the Champ, etc. Judy and Chuck and Justin and Rose and George and Steve and several others really helped out too, cleaning up, which I greatly appreciate! And finally, as I was about to take a nap on the floor, I went home. :)

One more BBQ Bash successfully completed! A fun time, a safe time, a fundraising time for SMA Support. Whew! (Now I'm off to go count the money and see what our initial total is.)

BBQ Bash Day Two!

Today was the main BBQ Bash day, and it certainly dawned sunny and bright! And unfortunatly, windy, too. Thankfully not as windy as yesterday, but windy enough to keep attendance down a bit, probably along with the Grissom event that was happening on the same day. A pretty strong direct crosswind doesn't stop everybody, but it does dampen a bit. It also messed with us because it kept changing from NW to SW, meaning we had to keep changing from using Runway 36 to Runway 18. We're just pretty lucky it was a clear day, windy or not windy! And the pilots and crew handled the changes well.

The day went pretty well for the flying part--nothing TOO exciting (exciting isn't always good!). I got there at 9:15 a.m. and walked in to eat breakfast, and there was none! We'd sold out of breakfast darn quickly! So I had a Diet Coke for breakfast. Mostly during the morning I talked to people, met up with a couple people, helped out here and there, nothing major. The skydivers came in around 11 a.m. Then I got to go up in the Stearman. That's a taildragger biplane. Larry did the takeoff, then let me fly for awhile, and I enjoyed getting the feel for it for a bit, just flying around. There is something neat about an open cockpit. It's not meant for talking to each other, and it's a little chilly this time of year, but it sure is pretty, and it feels very...free...to be open air.

After lunch, Nathan and Alan and I headed out in the car to go to Kokomo, for Nate to pick up the P-51 to buzz Grissom with, and for me & Alan to pick up the Seneca and take it back into Glenndale. I took off out of Kokomo just in front of the Mustang, and I waited. I figured he'd come sneaking up on me, so I kept looking for him, but didn't see him after a few minutes, so I decided he must have gone straight to Grissom, no fooling around. Of course I should have known better. Right when I quit looking, and started to head off to Kokomo to practice a landing, here he comes off my left side. I enjoy seeing the Mustang up in the air, that's pretty neat! Alan & I checked the runway for deer, then came on around and landed. Not too long after that, I met up with Heather Mike and family, who came out for a little while! She and I and Isaac and Katie went up in the 172, and got bumped around a bit on the bumpy day, and everybody did great! Kim Neel, you'd have loooved the ride today, getting tossed around a bit. :) It was great to see them, though too short of course. :P I also got to see Sarah Bristol and Emily! They stayed in Michaele's house while they were gone to Alabama. I kept wanting to get Sarah up in the plane and it kept falling through on me. I guess we'll have to do another visit soon, instead!

Shortly after that, I met up with a young man named Chad, and took him and his girlfriend up in the Seneca. We pre-arranged this the other day. After we'd been flying for awhile, he kneeled a bit in the back seat of the Seneca, brought out a ring in a box, and proposed marriage. She accepted, and after a few minutes I turned around and got a thumb's up, and took a photo of the couple for their memory book. Now that was fun! Not too often you get to do something like that, you know?

I brought them back in, got a little bit of gas, and took up Nathan's daughter Gwennie, and the young lady who I guess sometimes watches the kids for them, and Justin G. in the front with me. We flew over Tipton, looked around, did a low-key low pass, and came back in to land. Not the best landing of the day; I guess I'd used up my nice ones. lol I parked for awhile after that, and they started getting ready for dinner. Duane (T-6 pilot) passed on a message to me to be ready to go after he gassed up and I could go to Huntington with him, so I shoveled some food in and was ready. :) We took off out of Glenndale; actually, he let me take off, with some help on the right rudder; my first ever T-6 experience after all these years of having a T-6 out there! I got to fly to Huntington, and make the landing there, with some expert instruction and a nudge or two in the right direction, of course. We did a wheel landing; from the back you still lose sight of the runway at some point before you get to it, and have to use peripheral vision, kind of like the Mustang. Only I could actually see better in the T-6 than the Mustang, I could sit up higher, and that's nice. In fact, I could see better from the back of the T-6 than I could the Super Decathalon too. I could get used to that! It's a fun airplane to fly, and it's actually easier than the Mustang to fly in the air too. I guess on the ground it's got a wider wing and a more narrow wheel base, making it a little trickier to land. Anyway, I did the takeoff out of Huntington, and flew back to Glenndale, and Duane gave the field a deer check and landed, at dusk. The runway lights were up, the sun was down, and it was a pretty evening!

The rest of the night we spent hanging out, talking, relaxing, handing out colored glow-in-the-dark bands to the kids, etc. It was a fun day, at least for Kaylee and for me! Everybody else worked their tail off, but by George I was smiling when I went home and I'm still smiling now!

And the fundraiser seems to be going pretty well for having a lesser turn-out than last year, too!

Now it's 1:30 a.m. and I have GOT to go to bed! After all, tomorrow I jump out of a perfectly good airplane-on purpose. ;)

Day One:

The winds were howling. It's a little hard to have an aviation event when the winds are too strong to fly people around. It was okay, we still had people come in for the pizza and soup, but we couldn't give a single ride today. I had to cancel the reporter's ride today, too. It's okay because it's "just" Friday, but if these winds don't die down for tomorrow, the whole event is in trouble.

Ty and I went in the Warrior today and flew to Anderson to pick up the C-172 that had the interior fixed a bit. We took off out of Glenndale, and were immediately beat up by the winds and turbulence. The whole way there you couldn't push buttons on the panel or anything without getting tossed around. The tower cracked jokes with us as we were turning final, about our groundspeed and the winds, and let us know the gusts had recently been up to about 40 knots. When we got the 172, I got in, and on my taxi down Runway 18, I could feel the wind pushing me over. Just taxiing, with my aileron correction in. I thought, whee, this is going to be FUN. Ty landed first at Glenndale, and I came in behind him, and somebody else came in behind me. The only three flights into Glenndale all day. I had flown a C-172 maybe once in the last six months, so that was a nice refresher course. ;)

We had pizza at six pm, and chili, and soup, and then we watched the move "One Six Right" which is about Van Nuys Airport in California, where Nathan and Chuck and I flew in in the Cheyenne this Spring. Really neat airport, and seeing the documentary on it again was pretty neat!

Mom & Ernie got here around 9 pm, and we headed back home around 9:30. Kaylee's in bed, mom's in bed, and I'm in comfy pants. And REALLY praying for a calmer, warmer day tomorrow! Please!

Wow.

That's all I have to say. And I'm not even the one doing the most work on this upcoming event. Steve and Chuck and several other people are just HOPPING right now. Non-stop, in fact. My part has been fairly small so far, and let me tell you about today.

Dropped Kaylee off at school. Hit the post office and mailed off some things and picked up our mail. Went to Glenndale's bank and got $500 worth of change for the BBQ; quarters, dollars, fives, tens and twenties. Made a deposit too. Went from there to the grocery store where I picked up things like toilet paper, considering our last roll was on the roller! Ran to the mall, picked up two things there. Went to Lowes to pick up four furnace filters for our house (and ended up getting the wrong ones so guess who gets to go back tomorrow). Went home, dropped off what I'd picked up so far, and called and asked Richard & Ann if they could pick up Kaylee today. Headed back out to Glenndale. We ate lunch, came back, and I hopped in Chuck's truck and drove to ADI to pick up our four huge boxes of t-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets and hats for the BBQ. Stopped at Sam's Club but didn't end up buying anything after all. Stopped at Staples and picked up four For Sale signs for airplanes and a bunch of AA batteries for walkie talkies for the event. Went back to Glenndale. Worked on three or four typed-up lists of people, volunteers, etc. for Rides, Golf Cart, Fuelers, that kind of thing. Went home, picked up Kaylee, tossed her in the car and headed to supper with Chuck, Judy and Maggie (and Steve). Got home, faced the mess in the house. Cleaned up the kitchen and living room. Created over 50 badges for the volunteers to wear at the event to show they are "official" in their capacity. Am printing them all out now-double sided, of course. Edited and printed out 50 copies of the itinerary for the event. Also caught up on most of my emails and one website. Tomorrow I have to cut out all the badges and get them in their holders, and fly with a reporter, and maybe pick up an airplane from Muncie, and I have no idea what else.

And like I said, I'M not the busy one in all this. Steve and Chuck are spinning. So, we're holding onto our hats until this thing gets going. Hope for warmer weather and calmer winds than today, please!!

Last night right before I went to bed, I checked Kaylee's backpack. Should have done that earlier. She had homework to do, a fall collage, and it was due the next morning. I couldn't do it myself obviously, since it's her project and I'm just supposed to help. So I woke up extra early this morning, and we got the collage done just in time to head to school. It was still wet, but by George it was done. Half her class didn't get it done she said, so I was glad we did, even if it was kind of last minute. Okay, very last minute. Mental note to self--check backpack early on in the afternoon!

This afternoon I taught Kaylee the Sparks Awanas "Song", which she recited perfectly tonight and finished her introductory packet, meaning I could now buy her uniform (vest) and book. But they are giving us more homework. I don't mind going over her verses, but they are making us sign a thing that she studied them for 10 minutes each night until next week. Now, she doesn't NEED to study them for 10 minutes each night for a week. She studies them the afternoon of, and she's fine. But if I don't do it, she won't get the "points" to help her team win, and I can't lie about it. Even taking out the moral aspect, she'd know she didn't do that and that's not the example I want to set...and she'd say "no I didn't" to her leader, being truthful like we taught her. So I have to spend 10 minutes a night going over something she doesn't need to go over. Which annoys me.

Speaking of things that annoy me, I have been hit up by three different people/groups who have tried to make us attend their church in various ways, one just pushy, two of them kind of...blackmailish. One was outside of Kaylee's school--a guy tries to convert me in the parking lot of one church to get me to go to his church. In an overly cheerful, pushy, won't-let-it-go kind of way. Another is Awanas. They give you a sheet and your child is supposed to attend Their church twice in a row in order to get the next jewel in their crown. Not any church. Their church. And if you don't go to their church and do it, not only do you not get the jewel, but you then don't finish the book properly, don't get other awards, etc. So you pretty much are forced to attend their church for half a month if your child attends their Awanas. Or disappoint your child or put them at a disadvantage. Now, I understand about "missions" and about "go ye into the world and preach the gospel". I understand about "outreach" and trying to bring more families into the church. But I am finding some of the tactics used to be off-putting, not welcoming, and I'm ALREADY a Christian. Were I not, I'd probably be more annoyed than I already am.

Kaylee has a grown-up tooth growing in behind her baby tooth on the bottom center. Just now that baby tooth is starting to wiggle, and she's excited about that! She keeps asking when it will fall out, and wiggling it. She asked if it would fall out when she was playing, and I said I doubted it, it wasn't loose enough. It is kind of bugging her, the new tooth pushing through while the old one is still there makes it a little hard for her to eat some things, she said. So my baby is finally going to lose her first tooth, one of these days anyway!

Had Texas Roadhouse steak tonight, and boy was that good. I'm STILL full. I enjoyed eating out with CFI Ty and Multi Chuck and Hubby Steve. :) Got a few things to finish up tonight, and a busy day tomorrow! (And I'm not missing any homework due tomorrow this time!)

Did you ever have one of "those" days? Of course you have, we all have. Today was one of "those".

Mostly I spent today working at home. I ran a few errands, but nothing big. You know, post office, computer store, airport, another office, video store, school, fast food stop for supper. I sure drive a lot each day!

Took care of some SMA Support stuff. Purchased some pulse oximeters, shipped out some formula, and went on the hunt for some bipaps I need. Bad news there. Bipaps are no longer going to be able to be found on-line at a cheaper price than the main DME (Durable Medical Equipment) places sell them. The problem? This is up to a ONE THOUSAND PERCENT mark-up. They charge thousands of dollars. And now I won't be able to get one for a reasonable price--and these are the cornerstone of care for the kids with SMA using Dr. Bach's protocol. But we are a small organization, I'm not going to be able to buy bipaps at these prices forever. So I'm on the hunt, I'm going to be contacting two of the main manufacturers and see if I can make some headway on getting a discounted price directly from them. Hey, I thought it was impossible before, and Emerson helped me on the cough assists. You don't get what you don't ask for, right? Man I hate this stuff though. I don't even know how this is LEGAL. The Sherman Act alone should make this not legal for them to do, to force people to not sell at a discount price but to make them all charge exorbitant prices at huge markups just to not "hurt" the DME's who are selling them at a huge mark-up. What kind of world is this. *sigh* I'm going to be contacting my congresspersons to at least see if I can make a stink about it. A few other families are doing the same. If you'd like to do it too, call or email your Senators and Congresspeople to make them aware of the situation. In the words of Andrea, one of the ladies who helps us at SMA Support, "Tell them how appalled you are. Be sure to use the phrase "in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act" and express your confidence that they will do the right thing and ensure your continued support on future Election Days. If you're not sure who your Congressmen/Senators are, go here:http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ Type in your information and your reps names and contact info will pop up."

If for no other reason, it may be bipaps today, but what will be price-fixed next? There are laws against it for a reason.

This afternoon, Kaylee watched the newly released dvd of "Little Mermaid". I was sitting there smiling, and all of a sudden the song "Part of Your World" came on. For a moment I couldn't think of why that made me sad, and then it hit me. Little Taleah English. She had SMA. Just a few days before her birthday, she died while watching this movie at home-they found her as the credits were rolling. And the words to the song have always been poignant to many of us.

I wanna be where the people are
I wanna see, wanna see 'em dancin'
walkin' around on those feet
Flippin' your fins, you don't get too far
Legs are required for jumpin', dancin'
Strollin' along down the street
Up where they walk
Up where they run
Up where they stay all day in the sun
Wanderin' free, wish I could be
Part of that world

When's it my turn?
Wouldn't I love
Love to explore that shore up above
Out of the sea, wish I could be
Part of that world.

So here's remembering you today, Taleah!

If you want a silly movie, predictable, kind of cheesy, and yet still amusing and decent in its own right, get "Stick It". It's a gymnastics movie kind of like the cheerleading movie "Bring It". My favorite part was when the girls started deliberately 'scratching' their routines in order to finally get some fair judging. I kind of enjoyed that, personally!

I went through some old photo albums over the last few days, starting off as a joke to find me in the peach prom dress. I found it all right. What else I noticed--I looked the same from about 15 years old on into adulthood. My hair went from long to short to curly to straight (though not really in these pictures I'm putting up today), but in general my face looked pretty much the same at 16 as it did at 27. I didn't change much at all-until after Devon's diagnosis. The biggest difference after that (besides my weight) was one that somebody else spotted too...my smile. Here I am on my 18th birthday...dangly earrings and blue eye liner. Yep, welcome to the late 1980's. lol. And here I'm 24. To see me at 34, well, come visit. ;)

The quality of the photos isn't the best, but you get the general idea. Oprah had a guest on who had written a book about how your neck never lies. That you can lift and suck about anything else, but there is no "neck job", and the neck never lies. That made me laugh until I looked in the mirror. Okay, it still made me laugh...but you know what else never lies? The eyes.

Time to get Kaylee in bed and get ready for tomorrow! I have some bedroom cleaning to do before Mom & Ernie arrive for our BBQ Bash weekend! :) The weather for our fundraiser is NOT looking promising. Cold and cloudy. We'd never been weathered out of a Bash before, and I sure hope we don't start this year. It's always a blast for most people (except maybe Steve and my mom, for different reasons!) and I REALLY hope we can have a good one again this year, despite the coldness!

Oh, look, they're HUGGING!

Or...maybe that wasn't hugging. This is how these two seem to spend their time these days. They seek each other out, chew on each other's heads, jump on top of each other, and wrestle. I think they're playing right up to the time Dulcie gets ticked off and starts growling and hissing and flipping her tail around. And yet, Dulcie hunts Roadie down just as much as Roadie hunts down Dulcie. Crazy cats. On the positive side, this is making Dulcie more active than she's been in a long time, and she's eating like a horse and getting some good exercise. ;)

By the way, welcome to the new look of the blog. It's a beta version of something they are doing here, and with it I could make the blog private except to subscribers that I invited here. I was planning on it, until I found out everybody would have to log in every time to read the blog, and THAT'S a pain. So...apparently I switched for no good reason other than to make me stay up too late again tonight. Ah, well. *shrug*

You know what, I sleep MUCH better now that Kaylee's been staying in her own bed even all through the morning. She used to come into our room at some point in the wee hours of the morning, but the last few weeks she's been staying in her room until I come get her or she wakes up at a reasonable hour and comes out. And boy do I sleep better! We have a King-sized bed, so it's not like there's not enough room. But she lays on my hair. And kicks Steve. And tosses around. And it's too early to get up. And okay, it's kind of nice to snuggle a bit in the mornings. But did I mention how much better I'm sleeping lately? Ahhhhhhhhhhhh

Today I was scooping out Roadie's litter box, and Kaylee came out and said "Eeew!" I said, "You know Kaylee, this is going to be your job here. They are your cats, and you can take care of them." She said "No way! I'm not touching that stuff!" I said "Oh yes you will. I had to do it as a kid. Your cousins have to do it. You're going to do it." She said "But YOU found Roadie, not me, so YOU should take care of her litter." I said "Yeah, well YOU found Dulcie." Kaylee snaps back with "Fine, I'll take care of Dulcie's litter and you take care of Roadie's." I must reply with "You can't do Dulcie's, she has a special plastic thingy. I will take care of Dulcie's, and you will take care of Roadie's." Kaylee moans and says "But Mommy, Roadie poops a lot more than Dulcie does!" I laugh and reply that they "go" about the same amount, you just don't see Dulcie's because her litterbox is self-cleaning. Kaylee is totally disgusted with the idea of cleaning out the litter box. Me? I just think it's funny. The circle of life comes around, my dear. I had to do it, so by George YOU have to do it, and some day you can make YOUR kid do it. And smile, like I am!

In fact, she asked me today "When do *I* get to be the mom??" I said "When you grow up and get married and have kids of your own." She said "That is a LONG time to not be in charge of anything Mom!" I said "You're in charge of lots of stuff, and if you do a good job with them you will get to be in charge of even more stuff." She wasn't very appeased by that.

I took her to school today, started in on my pile of laundry, got the dishes done and about half the laundry, picked up, then headed out to the office. I was there until about lunch, met up with Steve, Chuck & Nathan at Applebees for lunch, had myself a great old headache going. It's been here all stinking day. Not quite a migraine because Chuck gave me some Aleve that held it at bay for awhile, but I felt when the Aleve wore off. Anyway, went home after lunch and worked on laundry and the computer until it was time to get Kaylee. Got several websites caught up finally, got several emails caught up, got quite a bit of SMA Support stuff caught up. Now the BBQ Bash is coming up this Friday-Sunday, and we are going to be swamped until about a week after it's over!

Kaylee misquote: We were on our way to kindergarten this morning, and she sings from the back seat "Happy Trailings To You..." (instead of Happy Trails to you). And last night on the radio she caught the words to a song repeating in the background and decided to try to sing along. "There's gonna be a party tonight, a party tonight..." In reality it was the Eagles--"There's gonna be a heartache tonight." It was funny and I like the Eagles-but I still shut it off!

I'm going to hit "Headline News" on Leno and then hit the bed finally to kick this headache!