Brrrrrrrrr

Man it's cold. Steve, Nathan and Chuck took off for Florida early this morning, and are sending photos of themselves in t-shirts and sunshine. I'm not even pretending to not be annoyed. ;) Here are the Handsome Trio in Sunny Florida. The photo is only smaller because it was a little and lesser quality phone photo, not because I'm trying to make any kind of statement. lol They are right now at 30,000' on their way to Tallahassee to look at an airplane.

It was so cold today that my hands still hurt and my toes are still cold from a flight I took six hours ago. I kid you not. It was about 8 degrees F when I took the Citabria up. No idea on wind chill. I am not happy with my technique on something, so I was up practicing for over an hour, probably close to an hour and a half. I was in big fluffy coat, thick jeans, and big black gloves. I felt my fingers getting cold at one point, but ignored it because I was concentrating on what I was doing. After about 90 minutes I felt like I had hit that point where things were getting sloppier instead of better, so I did one more landing to end on a good one, and called it a day. Problem was, when I got up to the hangar and spun it around to push back in, I realized that my fingers weren't unbending from the stick very well. My hands started to burn as I was pushing on the plane, and by the time I got it all put up, I was literally clenching my teeth against the pain. I don't know how long it took for me to breathe normally, but the hands were definitely in not good shape. I ran cool to warm-ish water on them for awhile, and I swear I could hear my nerve-endings screaming in my head. Or maybe that was just me. I couldn't open a bottle of water, couldn't turn a key, couldn't bend the fingers. Apparently at some point they'd gone almost completely numb on me. So many little one-liner comments here my brain is on overload. "Nobody can accuse me of not focusing on the task at hand." being one. "You idiot, no wonder you got a little sloppier at the end, you weren't just tired, your extremities were about to fall off in chunks!" being another. My feet were not nearly as bad, but they were a little "block-like" too. I sat in my car with the heater going full blast, and it wasn't until an hour later (driving around doing errands) that I realized my legs were still ice cold under my jeans too, and I could feel it with my now warm but still sore hands. And yes, six hours later, my fingers are still sensitive and a little painful. Now, ladies and gentlemen, THAT is cold. And while the original problem I wanted to work on seems to have been mostly solved, I'm still not happy with something...however I'm thinking I'll wait for a day that at least breaks into the double digits before I go back up and work on it some more. ;)

Today was "Colts" day at Kaylee's school, so she dressed in blue and white to show support for the team. It'll probably be hard to see this, but they had faces painted in her class, the big #1 hand, all of it. One girl in pink and white Colts stuff. I, as much of a Colts fan as I am, not only don't have any Colts' paraphenilia, Kaylee doesn't even own a shirt of the right color! Something seems wrong with that...I may have to fix that. Of course the last game of the season is on Sunday, so it won't do her much good after that. I had to go with light blue and white.

Last night I finished updating my logbook. One of those jobs that if you don't keep up on it, you end up with a massive project. It took me a few hours as it was. I'm up to 4,892 hours of flight time...for whatever that's worth. Remind me to add today's flight. ;)

When I picked Kaylee up from school, she told me that one of the girls in her class was in a car accident. She thinks yesterday morning. Apparently the five year old girl was in the front seat of the SUV with no seat belt or car seat when the car was hit. She and the man who was driving her (not sure of relationship) were both taken to the hospital. She was declared to be okay but told she'd probably be sore for awhile, guy driving was in a bit worse shape, though not sure how much worse. You know, I am sure I have done things that others have clucked over, but...well, I'm just glad the girl is okay.

Kaylee and I made some cookies this afternoon, I'm updating this, and then this I'll go over Kaylee's Awanas stuff and take her in two hours, then I'm headed to the store for milk, something we are totally out of, something that is a life emergency to be totally out of. After that, I'm not sure! I need to get a deposit ready....that'll take awhile. :O

Winter

You know what, I really do dislike the winter. I like the looks of sunshiny days on white snow, but other than that, it stinks. Most days are short, dark and grey, to say nothing of COLD, and that's depressing.

Where was I? Oh yes.

I was right-it was this morning that I didn't want to get up. I was dragging. I made it up at 8:08 a.m. and was supposed to be out of the house by 8:25 a.m. I could've made it by myself, but Kaylee put me an extra couple of minutes behind. Good thing I take fast showers and don't exactly primp much.

Kaylee and I decided to do 100 kitty food pieces for her 100th day of school. The teacher thought that was pretty funny and silly, so Mission Accomplished. :)

After I dropped Kaylee off, I started doing my thing. I went to the post office to drop off some mail I needed to send out. I walked in, and on the wall where there used to be two slots that said "Kokomo" and "Out of Town", there were now two slots that just said "Outgoing Mail". I looked back and forth at those for about 45 seconds just to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me, while my sluggish brain tried to figure out which one was local. No luck. So I ask, and am told like the idiot I obviously am, that there's no need to distinguish between the two, because it's all electronically sorted now and they aren't separating the mail any more. Actually, that WILL save me some time, but I felt a little bit like that Polish joke. You know, the one where it has a piece of paper with the words "How do you keep a Polack occupied for hours? Turn over" on both sides. Oh well.

So I head home, and work on getting some checks out for SMA Support, and do some other computer work. It's a pretty good morning, I get a decent amount of stuff done. I head out to pick up Kaylee at 11:20, and go BACK to the post office to mail off those checks I just printed out. And this time I even knew I could put them in any slot I wanted. Headed from there to the insurance company to get proof of insurance for two different things. For once, no problem on an errand. :) Went from there and met Chuck, Judy, Nathan, Ty and Steve for lunch at Applebees. And from there, Kaylee and I came home. She's watching "Milo and Otis" and I'm updating this and procrastinating on doing any more actual work. I have plenty. I still don't feel like it. It's cold and windy and I feel like sitting on the couch with a fuzzy blanket, some hot chocolate, maybe a warm and quiet child, and a good book.

One Kaylee funny from the day. She was sitting on the couch watching her movie, and suddenly she yelled.

"Mommy!"
"What, Kaylee!"
"My legs are very hairy! I can feel it! You have to shave my legs!"
"I am not shaving your legs Kaylee, it's okay for little girls to have hairy legs."
"No it's not! I do NOT want to be a MAN-lady!"
"You are not a man-lady Kaylee, you are six, and six year olds don't have to worry about shaving their legs."
"Yes I will be! If you won't shave my legs, I'll be a MAN-lady!"
(can't help it, I'm laughing) "I promise you, you will not be a man-lady, and when it's time to shave your legs, I will help you."
"Okay Mommy, but I'd RATHER do it NOW because I can feel hair NOW and I do NOT want to be a man-lady."

*sigh* lol

The only reason I'm not having a bigger argument with her over pierced ears is because I just have to bring up the needle and pain words and she's quieted. For now. She wants to shave her legs at age six. She will only wear dresses, and I have to shove her in pants at point of threat when it's 6 degrees outside. She often pulls out her nail polish and will do her own nails-without spilling or being messy. She loves shopping. She is definitely not a man-lady. I, however, am feeling a sudden urge to go shave my legs. ;)

Speaking of man-lady, there's a movie line I heard on TV this morning, and I can't remember it properly for the life of me, but it made me laugh. Something along the lines of "I am more man than you will ever need, and more woman than you'll ever be able to handle."

Okay, time to stop procrastinating. Off to get some work done. Really.

And so on...

Sunday I slept in, and then went right back to work on Kaylee's room. FINALLY by the end of the day, I had her entire room picked up, clean, and all her clothing swapped out. The stuff too small for her in bins, the stuff her size up in the closet, and all well with the world. It took two days to do, but it's done. And I never want to do it again, so she'll have to stay this size. ;)

Really, that was pretty much my entire day.

Oh, except I stayed up until 2 a.m. to finish a novel I'd started this weekend. "The Book of Fate", an enjoyable read! So this morning when I got up at 7:30, I was feeling a little wiped, but not too bad. It'll be tomorrow morning that I don't feel like getting up. It's always the next day for me.

This morning was an exercise in futility. Everything I did was closed or wrong or useless. I go to the post office--only to learn that I have to go back. I ended up saying "forget it" and will go back in the morning. I go to the Kids' clothing store, only to find them not accepting clothing for kids right now. So I go to the next kid clothing store, and they don't open until 10 a.m. It's now 9:40 a.m. So what do I do, sit there for 20 minutes? Nope. So I go to Fed Ex. Nobody is there. The door is open. I can't leave my stuff because it's meds and you aren't supposed to ship prescription meds. So I have to wait until somebody's there, get an envelope, do it myself, and then ship it. So I have to leave there having accomplished...you go it...nothing. I went out to Glenndale, where I actually DID get some work done. Got through my mail, my SMA Support stuff, ordered some supplies, organized some checks, threw out a bunch of trash, yadda yadda. Steve came back from a computer job and we hit lunch at Culvers (where I had a most tasty turtle sundae by the way). Afterwards I grabbed some Tolerex from storage, and went BACK to Fed Ex. Guess what? The guy there was new and didn't know how to do my international package. So I just left it there with my name and number until the guy who DOES know what he's doing gets back. Still nothing really accomplished, you understand. And my iPod battery died to boot, so I was left tuneless. I then head to Pizza Hut to give Alan his headset back. He's not there either, but at least I can leave it. I get asked a computer question while I'm there, but pretend to be completely ignorant of computers in order to save myself. I'm not hopping on that grenade today. I go from there back to the Kids' Clothing store, which is now open. I walk in hoping to deposit two bins and a large bag full of clothing. In order to do THAT, I have to bring in all of those clothes, while she goes through them one at a time to determine what they felt they could sell, and then they would give me Store Credit. No cash, just store credit. Problem #234, I'd never use it. And for that store credit, I could sit there for 2 hours while they went through everything item by item. Thank you, but no. So, once again, having accomplished NOTHING, I drive over to Goodwill, where I drop off two bins and one bag of clothing. I am feeling a little crabby at this point, so I insist on 1) a receipt that I will probably lose or never use for taxes anyway and 2) getting my bins back because those things are a pain to go buy and one of them wasn't mine. NOW my car is cleaner and I'm feeling SO much better that it only took me until 3 pm to actually DO anything.

I run home, and pick up Kaylee from school, and am now staring at some bills I need to send out for home and SMA Support, a deposit I need to get ready for SMA, some letters I need to write for both personal and SMA, and a lot of website work that I need to catch up on. I'll try to do some of that while Kaylee goes and takes a long bath...she loves her baths!

Kaylee. Let's see. She's excited because Friday is the "wedding" between the letters "Q" and "U" at school. She's mad that she doesn't get to be the bride, "U", but she's excited to go to a 'wedding' and has already picked out the dress she wishes to wear to the formal event. I kid you not. She wanted to wear HER wedding dress (from Halloween), but I had to inform her that it is in poor taste to outshine the bride at someone else's wedding. So she will settle for looking stunning in a flowery pink ensemble. ;) She also passed on the message from school that there will be NO kissing the bride at this wedding. "No kissing at this wedding mommy, don't worry." Good to know. lol

Tomorrow is the 100th day of school, and I'm supposed to bring 100 of something to school with her tomorrow. So what 100 things do I bring? How about her 100 hair bows that her hair is mostly too thin to be able to keep in? Or 100 Cheerios. Or 100 buttons? Pennies? 100 Kleen-x. Unused of course. A ream of copy paper? Man, I don't know. *sigh*

Okay, last load of laundry is drying now, last load of dishes is drying now, and I think I'll go get some more work done. And I need to catch up my logbook again too. Too much to do, too little motivation...Happy Monday!

Saturday...

Well, today was mostly a stay home and clean day. We got a lot done, which is good, and still have a ways to go, which is not so good. :)

I'm doing my least favorite job in the world--swapping out Kaylee's clothes. I detest that job. It takes all day long. I don't know how you people with multiple children get it done. Ugh.

I did switch out Kaylee's bedding with the Tinkerbelle sheets, pillow cases, etc. that I got for her birthday. She is quite pleased with her "new" bed, and that's always fun. :)

Later I went to the store and got some supplies, and it was starting to blow snow...felt kind of good though. And tonight it's chill-out time I guess. Read some more on some manuals. Stuff.

Oh, (my best friend Stephanie's husband) Todd was held up at gunpoint Friday at the bank where he works. Thankfully nobody was harmed, but I'm sure that was not an enjoyable experience for him!

And I guess that's it for me today...

Friday Fun

This morning after Steve left, he called me to tell me there were two rather large dogs wandering the neighborhood, and to watch for them. I thought "ah, they'll be gone by the time we leave." Nope. Actually, by the time we went to leave, they were wandering around our back yard. One was a large all-white albinoish Pit Bull with no coller. The other was a big brown mean looking something-or-other. I sat there and looked at them for a few minutes, not being a big dog fan in the first place, but they weren't leaving and we needed to in order to get Kaylee to school on time. So I put on my puffy coat and walked outside, which got their immediate attention. The stopped and just stared at me. I couldn't remember if you're supposed to avoid eye contact to not be confrontational and avoid attack, or to maintain eye contact to show no fear and keep them at bay. So I stared at them while I walked (as confidently as possible) and decided if they didn't like that I'd quit staring at them. They started walking after me, and I got to the garage-and they followed me, almost in. I thought maybe when the door went up and the car backed out they'd leave. Nope. They weren't aggressive, but they weren't passive either. They were a little on edge and tense but not attacking. I tried a firm "Go On! Git!" but that didn't work. Finally I parked the car close to our sidewalk, and went in and got Kaylee, and carried her out to the car with her in front of me and the dogs behind me. Big old mean looking dogs. When I got back later, they were gone. I'm glad I didn't have to run over them in the driveway-that would have been a big mess. ;)

After I dropped Kaylee off, I went out to Kokomo, and went flying in the Baron. I have flat hair, bad sunglasses, and no smile since I was trying to figure out which button to hit while holding it backwards, but there ya go, the wing of the Baron. :) I practiced a couple of approaches, and a couple take-offs and landings, flew for about one hour. It was nice! Then I pushed it back in, and went out to Glenndale for the Friday Lunch. We had about 36 people there today I think, which is pretty good. Chuck did a great job on the burgers as always, and the turtle pie was a nice top-off to the afternoon. ;)

Tonight we have company coming over, so I've been cleaning up some things around the house prior to their arrival, which should be any minute here. I'm updating now since I probably won't get to be online the rest of the evening. Thank Heavens It's Friday, right?

And so on...

Man, it was a gorgeous day today, and I REALLY wanted to go flying. Couldn't, but I wanted to. I may see if tomorrow works out, because I think the weather is moving in on Saturday. I was reading on line where some pilots asked the question "Why do you fly?", and there were all these answers about ego and money and the fun of it, etc. I know how I'd answer that question, and those aren't it.

I don't feel like updating today. I did laundry. I took Kaylee to and from school. I took Kaylee to gymnastics. I got a page of photos up at http://www.laurastants.com/funflying16.htm of last week when the boys were in California. I ate a giant candy bar for supper. I think somebody tried to push my buttons today, and I mostly ignored it, only feeling a flicker of annoyance instead of a rush of outrage. I read a book called "gods in Alabama" by Joshilyn Jackson and it was pretty interesting. A little deep at times, a little funny, a little sad. One line stuck with me, I can see it relating to so many moms I know. It went "When Daddy died, time got very slow. Every day took so long, and it was like Mama and me sat waiting around for the day to be over, but then the next day kept happening, and we had to wait through that one, too." I know so many people who can relate to that little paragraph.

Well, no clever closings. I'm tired. :) Night!

Wednesday...

Well, today I dropped Kaylee off at school, came home and did a few small things, ran a couple of errands, went out to the office for awhile, met Chuck & Nathan and a bit later Justin and Steve for lunch at Culvers, came back and did some work, picked up Kaylee, did some more work at home, went over her Awanas verses, took her to Awanas, went to dinner with Steve at Hacienda, came home and worked on getting Kaylee's birthday pictures up on her site (they are still saving right now), and really had a very typical, very uninteresting day.

Oh, wait, I forgot one thing. One of the things I did this morning was take my car to a body shop to get an estimate on the accident damage. I'll tell you what, I wanted to turn around when I pulled into the driveway and saw the sign "Collision Cure; Body Werks". I Can Not Handle Cute Little Misspellings, whether they be accidental or on purpose. I can think of no good reason why their name is "werks" instead of "works", unless another company had that exact name already, in which case they'd be better off coming up with something different. So I'm a spelling snob sometimes, sue me. But it bugs me. But once I got inside, they had real brewed coffee with REAL creamer, not just powder, and a nice waiting area for kids to play, and they were fast and professional. They came up with a quote, printed out, listed out, in five minutes flat, and it was well done. It's also funny because it'll cost more to fix one and a half doors than it would to buy the car, so I'm guessing my insurance company will total the car...we should find out soon here.

Well, I'm kind of dragging tonight, so I'm going to head to bed maybe actually early for me for once. Kaylee's photos of her birthday should be live by the time anybody reads this tomorrow, so check out her site at www.kayleestants.com. :)

She's Six!

Well, my baby is six years old! You know it's coming, but STILL! I remember being six. I remember things I thought and felt. And now my daughter is that age, and it kind of weirds me out. She's a thoughtful girl, and happy, and mischevious, and fun-loving, and stubborn, and impulsive, and a true joy.

This morning she woke up to two surprises. One, a large coin from the Tooth Fairy in her pillow from tooth #2, and Two, a whole Tinkerbelle set-up in the dining room for her birthday. A banner, table cloth, presents wrapped and waiting, cups, plates and napkins, all Tinkerbelle. And the roses and balloons her daddy sent her in the middle of the table. She was pretty excited! I took her to school, and they did work for a couple of hours while I ran errands and got some stuff done outside the house. Then I ran to Marsh and picked up her Tinkerbelle cake, and it was beautiful!! Those guys did a fantastic job, it was an awesome cake for a little girl. I took it, along with plates, napkins, cups, candles, hats, party favors, and gift bags, to her school, and we had a school party. Half of her class was out with the flu, so I left goodie bags for them in their desks. (Apparently, at the birthday party for one classmate she was going to go to last Saturday, the birthday girl herself threw up at her own party, and every classmate who was at her party came down with the flu as well! Ack! That's one party I'm glad she missed!) Kaylee had a fun school morning, being Queen for the Day. Afterwards, I told her she could go anwhere she chose for lunch. Can you guess what she picked? Of course! McDonald's PlayLand! So, away we went. I even let her stay for a looong time. It was about three hours. And you know when I finally told her it was time to leave? When I started and FINISHED an entire new novel! And when I said "it's time", she just said "okay, Mommy" and came on down right away.

We got home, and I let her relax and watch a movie for awhile after a very busy day! Daddy got home before too long, and we had our little family party. I had gotten her a HUGE Princess balloon that sings a Happy Birthday song when you hit it, and we lit the candles on her cake and sang to her and ate and opened presents and goofed off for a bit. She loved her presents! She was so excited to open each one, and she was so happy with each one! She's a lucky little girl. :)

She's in bed now, and I've been reading over the operating handbooks for a couple of airplanes. Sometimes homework is FUN. :)

One sad note; there's a girl in Kaylee's class who is having some serious issues. She "tried to cut her hand off with a razor", which I found out was actually cutting her wrist, and she also bit her lip on purpose until it bled. She's acting out at school and at ballet where I see her every week. She is SIX YEARS OLD and hurting herself on purpose. Either for attention, or because she has a serious other issue, but either way, it's so so sad. Her mother had offered to take Kaylee to ballet for me in the past, and I'd always declined. These days her mother drops off her daughter at ballet and leaves without telling her, so that the girl looks around for her, doesn't see her, gets upset, doesn't listen or obey the teacher, and sometimes flat out freaks out. Last week I had to help her find and get on her tap shoes because her mom had left them there and just left and didn't tell her where they were. It's just sad. I'm not sure how deep the problems lie, but...did I mention she's cutting herself on purpose, claims it feels fine (I heard her say it today at Kaylee's party), and she's Six?? :( I've already talked with Kaylee about it, though try to explain THAT to an innocent child. *sigh* Anyway, enough sad. Today was a happy, good day, the birthday of my favorite girl in the world! :)

I'll get photos from today up at some point, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow...but Happy Birthday honey. You are a precious gift, and I love you SO much!

Kaylee

is better!! Her fever broke last night, her energy was up, her eyes were bright, and she was ready to roll! I don't know what she had that would spike her up to 103.7 and then be gone the next day, but whatever that is, she got it. Thank heavens! She's going to make it back to school on her birthday and have a fun birthday with her little friends there. She has Tinkerbelle everything, and I even got her Tinkerbelle sheets for her bed. When she wakes up, she'll have several presents wrapped up on the kitchen table, with a Tinkerbelle table cloth and a Happy Birthday banner. And at school I'm bringing a Tink cake and gift bags and party favors. She'll have fun, I'm sure. :)

Kaylee has also been harassing me for almost a month to pull out a loose tooth she has. It's actually kind of weird, she has two adult teeth that grew in BEHIND her baby teeth, meaning she'd have four teeth all in the same spot. It doesn't look very straight, but hopefully it's okay. Anyway, today I felt it and it was super loose, so I got out the pliers, and with one little yank, her second baby tooth was out. She didn't even blink. She also didn't blink when she bled through two napkins. Miss "Don't say the word 'blood!'" handles blood just fine when it's something that excites HER. She wants to see the Tooth Fairy SUPER bad, and I'm not quite sure how to get the tooth out of its location and get money in its place without her catching me!

In Kokomo, there is a company in town called "Patriot Insurance". Under the big word "Patriot", they had a sign that says "GO COLTS!" Just kind of funny to see Go Colts under a Patriot sign. I have no point for saying that other than it occurred to me while I was typing.

Kaylee's off to school tomorrow and I'm probably off to do last-minute prep for her school party...

We're Going To The SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!

Wow, holy cow, I almost don't believe it! We made it! Down by 18 points, coming back and winning it against our nemesis! Woo-HOO!!!! The Colts are headed to Miami!! I thought I was going to stroke out a few times during this game, but they did it! Peyton broke "the curse", and now if they can just take out the Bears, one of the best quarterbacks of all time will finally get the ring he deserves.

Whew. That was exhausting!

Weekend Warriors

Well, Steve and crew made it home today. They got to go glider flying, lots of eating and drinking, hanging out, flying, talking, etc. Steve had to show off his new fighter call coin, as if I need something physical to make me any more jealous. Sounds like a great time was had by all. :)

Yesterday Kaylee and Mom went to the mall to go shopping for Kaylee's birthday, while Ernie and I went to Kokomo Airport. I took out the Citabria for awhile and checked out the PCAS in it, and did a couple of take offs and landings. Need to go back up and do some more, but I didn't want to leave Ernie sitting there for any longer, and we needed to go pick Mom & Kaylee back up and get some lunch. Got home, and Kaylee wouldn't eat her lunch. Then she wasn't really playing very much with Grandma either, and THAT is unusual! Finally it came time for supper, and Kaylee didn't eat but ONE bite of her pizza. I sat her on my lap, and she fell asleep on my lap, and laid there for about an hour. I finally went and took her temperature--102.6. Yep. So a dose of Tylenol was on the way. This morning she woke up, and her temp was already at 102.5 fairly early in the morning. Mom & Ernie left a bit early for weather issues, and by afternoon Kaylee's temp spiked up to 103.7. And that's a temp taken by EAR by the way. Poor girl is burning up. She's slept a lot today, and I even napped with her once. She's putting out a lot of heat, not eating much. I'm trying to make her drink, but she's not drinking as much as she needs to either. She's burning off whatever she's taking in, since she's only gone to the bathroom once all day. But we're working on it! After her Tylenol, for awhile she gets feisty, and wants to play, talk, etc., and then she'll suddenly crash. Tomorrow will be the first day of school she has missed all year long. I am NOT happy with her fellow student, whose mom took her to school knowingly ill, with a bottle of antibacterial hand wash. Nice try, but thanks to her, MY child gets to be sick on her BIRTHDAY. And I'M not going to be able to avoid getting it either, most likely, considering she's been in my face and crawling all over me for days here because she doesn't feel well. Just want I want...So thanks a lot, to this mom.

Well, that's our day. A sick kiddo, a home daddy-o, a tired mommy-o, and a Colts game that is about to start in about 4 minutes here. The Bears just won over the Saints, and I think that's okay by me. It's THIS game that I'm nervous about. If the Colts get complacent because they have home field advantage (Ravens had home field advantage and a lot of hype and they ate it!), if their Defense loses the anger they had these last two games because people are focusing more on Peyton vs Tom, if the Colts can't get past the fact they've never beaten the Patriots in a playoffs situation...I just want the Colts to do this. Peyton deserves to go to the SuperBowl, and I want to see it! I'm actually nervous...

Well, I think I'll get some ice cream and sit back and try to enjoy the show. Crossing fingers...

F-F-F-Friday

Well, today was at least sunny again, if not freezing still. I headed out to Kokomo and sat in the Mustang for awhile and went over a few things. With a smile, might I add. I was planning on going up in the Citabria, but the Baron was still a bit in the way, so I had to pull it out anyway, and by then my hands and face were freezing, which you can kind of see by the red cheeks/forehead in this photo, so I just caved and took the plane that was already out. :) I took this photo myself with my phone, and phoned it to Steve & Chuck out there in California, as they've been sending me little snapshots of them doing stuff too. My iPod is in, my face is frozen, and I'm ready to go.

The winds were about 280 at 19 gusting to 27-ish. I went up and just flew around for a bit, came in and did some crosswind Takeoffs and Landings, flew over Glenndale, and came in. I drove to Glenndale where they were having their fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy lunch, and stayed there until it was time to pick Kaylee up. A guy who just got his license not too long ago and his taildragger endorsement recently was up with another guy (instructor) practicing in those winds in a J-3 Cub. Now THAT was crosswind TOLS practice. :)

I came home and Kaylee and I have spent a bit of time cleaning. Not as much as I needed to. Her room is an unmitigated disaster. Their room needs pillowcases, and their bathroom needs help. I will finish up their room and bathroom, but the rest of it is just going to be as it is.

We read a couple of books tonight (I read to Kaylee, she pointed out words she recognized), and now I'm going to get her ready for bed and then finish up the cleaning. Mom & Ernie should be here in 3-4 hours. Kaylee will be excited in the morning!

And that's about it for now!

Oh

And yesterday Kaylee had a puzzle to do where we cut out the letters to a bunch of sight words, and put them together. She was reading all the words to me, and I thought, "This would be good to put up on her website". So I get the digital video camera. Except I don't have any more blank dvds on which to record. So I'll use the old digital camera that does bad quality video clips. Except the battery is dead. Get out the other battery! It had 3 seconds of battery before it went dead. So I'll charge the battery and do it in an hour. Can't find the battery charger that fits that camera. So, no clips, no video cameras, nothing doing...very annoying to have all that technology and not be able to get a clip of my daughter reading!

Aaaack

Man, my head is KILLING me. Stinking headaches. This particular headache has now effectively fought off 8 Tylenol and 2 Excedrin Migraine pills in one afternoon. And caffeine. And chocolate. So my throbbing head and I are going to finish watching "Shark" and then go to bed.

This morning after taking Kaylee to school, I headed out to Glenndale. Took care of the mail and packages, and then sat there quietly until it was time to go pick up Kaylee. Got two phone calls the whole time, and Dale came in for awhile. Other than that, it was D e s e r t e d! Too quiet. Unnatural!

I took Kaylee to gymnastics this afternoon, and already was feeling pretty bad. In fact, I FELL ASLEEP sitting in a metal chair in a very small room full of very loud people. I was only out for about 30 minutes, until somebody's little kid grabbed onto my legs and messed with me, but out I was. In five minutes flat. In public. Now THAT is not normal for me. I don't think that's normal for anybody. I just could not stay awake, and my head was making me feel ill. So tonight I shall go to bed early (for me).

Tomorrow I'll go back out, maybe go flying first, weather permitting, then it'll be lunchtime at Glenndale. We'll seee how many people make it. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy. Yum. :)

Okay, me and my head can't concentrate any more. Night!

Wednesday...

Took Kaylee to school this morning, then immediately headed out to Kokomo Airport. It was a beautiful sunny day, clear skies, low winds, and BUTT cold. I got the Baron out, and flew it until 11:30, which is what, about 2 1/2 hours actually. I shot a bunch of approaches; VOR, ILS, GPS, autopilot, hand-flown, vectors, IAFs, and full approaches; the works. Figured out something cool on the Avidyne that I hadn't really figured out how to do before. Did take offs and landings, short field TOLS too. Those short field take-offs probably made any observers in the FBO building wonder. One girl on board, not much gas, (lightweight), cold winter day, 84 knot climb-out airspeed. That bird climbed like a Rocket. It was rather impressive. All I could see was whatever was directly above me. Blue sky. I could hear Chuck's voice in my head. ;) Used the 'go-around' function on the throttle quadrant. Messed around with the JPI. Flew over Glenndale though I don't think anybody was there. I finally quit when 1) I was down to 1/4 tank of gas, 2) I was starving because I'd skipped breakfast, and 3) I taxiied halfway up to the terminal on another take-off and landing, and realized I hadn't put my flaps up yet, and that I was tired and it was time to take a break. Put it away feeling pretty good about the whole thing. Other than the other day's trip to MIE, it was the first time I'D really flown the Baron since before it went for its annual; it's been a couple of months. Forgot some basic things the other day, so today it felt good to get a workout, and I feel back in the saddle again. At least for this week. :)

I ran and got a Subway lunch, then called up Justin, whose help I have greatly appreciated with a few things, and who I'd promised a final Seneca ride that I couldn't deliver on, and asked if he wanted a Baron ride. He made it to the airport in good time, and me rejuvinated by lunch, caffeine, a break, and enthusiasm, we went up. He's working on his Instrument Rating, so I showed him a fully coupled ILS approach via autopilot, with the bells on, and he "dug" that. We got a traffic "ding", so he got to see how that worked, and then a thin cloud layer moved in at 2000', (totally clear to the north of us) and we flew above that for awhile, which he'd never done. Opening a brief IFR flight plan, (cough) we even hit a small, isolated cloud for 2-3 seconds. I let him fly some, including a take off and landing, and I think he went home happy and I went home tired but satisfied. A good day's effort.

I came back and picked Kaylee up at school, took her to pick up "Cinderella", and then we played outside in the snow for awhile. She did a snow angel, and we had a snowball fight for awhile. For once I didn't take pictures-this time I just played, and we both had a fun afternoon! We came in, had some hot chocolate, and I let her watch her movie. Then we got ready for Awanas, and I helped her learn her verses for the night, and off she went to that.

Conversation we had in the car on the way to Awanas:

Kaylee: "Mommy, I asked Jesus for something and he said no."

me: "Remember, Jesus isn't like a Santa Claus, he won't just say 'yes'. It's like mommy and daddy...we can't always say 'yes' to you, but we love you and we want the best for you, and sometimes we have to say 'no' because we know some things you don't, and we have to protect you."

Kaylee: "So how do I ask Jesus something so he'll say 'yes'?"

me: "You just have to ask him honey, but you can't 'make' him say yes."

Kaylee: "*sigh*, okay Mommy."

While Kaylee was gone, I watched a movie called "Invincible" with Mark Wahlberg. It was actually a pretty neat movie, based on a true story. Very inspirational and I enjoyed it. The scene where he takes down his opponent inside the 15 yard line and then points to all his friends in their Eagles seats almost made me feel like clapping in my own house. Which I didn't, because that would be weird. But I did grin. You go, boy. Being a girl and an occasional sap, and a total sucker for obvious feel-good underdog stories, I couldn't help but like it. His ex-wife left him a note that said something like "You will never be anybody, you will never make any money, and you will never become anything." His father who loved him very much told him not to risk trying out because "a man can only take so much failure." He struggled with believing them, and I think that's probably fair to say of most people. Some people are blessed and don't suffer many fears or doubts in trying anything, and some people are scared of changing what they eat for breakfast. The rest of us fall somewhere in between. It's easier to let a dream die a slow death of "it just hasn't happened but it *could* if..." than it is to put it out there, give it a shot, and risk learning in one big slap that it isn't going to be. Fantasy beating reality. We humans are masters of self-delusion, and it's just a lot easier on our psyche to think about what could have been than it is to go balls to the wall and run the risk of having it crash around our ears in a loud, embarassing, final thud. I do think that in the end of our lives we'll regret less what we may have made mistakes on, and more what we never even tried. Of course, as the famous Teddy quote goes:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."~Theodore Roosevelt

Anyway, this guy had no college (or college football), only 1 year of highschool football experience, he tried out for the Philadelphia Eagles, and his heart and character combined with natural skill got him into the NFL. I'll bet that's one risk he feels turned out well for him!

So after the movie, I pick up Kaylee, and on the way home in the car, we have this conversation:

Kaylee: "Mommy, am I written in the Book of Life?"

me: "Do you remember asking Jesus in your heart?"

Kaylee: "Yes!"

me: "Then you are written in his Book of Life."

Kaylee: "Mommy, can I do anything to make him erase my name?"

me: "No Kaylee, if you love Jesus and ask him in your heart, you'll always be his child."

Kaylee: "But Mommy, what if I believed in Satan?"

me (thought to self, holy cow, this is another one of those difficult conversations!): "Well, Kaylee, believing Satan is real isn't bad, it's if you wanted to listen to Satan and be like him, and hate Jesus. But you don't feel that way, do you?"

Kaylee: "No, but what if I DID? Would Jesus erase me from his Book of Life?"

me (gulp): "This is a tough question that many grown-ups don't agree on Kaylee. But some would say that if you chose to worship Satan, you'd never been a child of Jesus to start with. Others would say that you would hurt Jesus but he wouldn't erase your name."

Kaylee: "If my name's already there, then I AM a child of Jesus, and I DO believe now. So if I believed in Satan instead later, then my name won't get erased?"

me: "Wow, look at the time, and that pretty icicle!" No, not really. okay. Me out loud in an attempt to be what I hope is reassuring: "The Bible tells us that nothing can take us away from Jesus forever once we are His." Now me in my head: "I'm not sure, honey. I just don't know the answer to that question..."

Kaylee: "Mommy, I have a secret. Is it okay if I don't tell you?"

me (thinking, oh man, what?!): "It's okay if you don't tell me as long as it's not something bad that I would need to know."

Kaylee: "It's okay to tell you. Mommy, I don't think fairies are real. Are they."

me to self: ("Well, at least it was the end of the other conversation, you know, the one where I ran out of answers about 4 questions ago?! Stay tuned for the next round where she asks me about something else light and easy like why God allows bad things to happen to good people!")

So...

Here I was, fat and happy, when I get this photo sent to me from Chuck's cellphone on board the Cheyenne. *sigh*

Is that gorgeous or what?? Okay, NOW I might be a little jealous... :P I could live up there, right there, with that view. That is, if I had my own private refueler, plenty of food and drink, and a private relief tube. And maybe highspeed internet access...The "Boys" are descending now, have about 30 minutes to go before they arrive in Rosamond. :)

I saw this "acceptance speech" that "Ugly Betty" gave at whatever awards were last night. It shouldn't annoy me, because she seems very sincere, and yet it still manages to do just that. Everyone on tv is so moved because she talks about giving a new definition to the word 'beauty' because of her "unattractive and large" character, and people love "Betty" even though she's not beautiful. However, naturally, she didn't show up at the awards with one big eyebrow, huge glasses, big braces, and dumpy dress. No, she was glammed up, expensive jewelry, perfect hair, sleek dress, perfectly even, white teeth, speaking to a room full of anorexic, beauty-focused people. Hello, anyone but me see the irony here?? (Inconsequentially, she's also about 3 sizes smaller than I am (in real life). While I don't (usually) have one eyebrow, I do have glasses and freckles and several pounds on "Ugly Betty". And I sure wouldn't look that good on stage. So is it supposed to make me feel better that SHE is the definition of "ugly"??) I know she wouldn't be expected to go on stage looking like her character any more than any of the other actresses. But it still hits me as just a tad hypocritical to show up looking like a million dollars while telling the beautiful people in tears that 'looks don't matter'. End rant.

Last night Roadie burned her tail in the candle I had going. She never even realized it. I smelled something burning and pulled her tail out of there, and felt a pretty big singed area, but it was just fur, not skin. She never felt a thing, but she sure licked the burned fuzz off that spot for quite awhile. Sitting there on the couch with her tail stuck right in the candle top. Duh. ;)

This afternoon I took Kaylee to McDonald's Playland, and we stayed for almost two hours. She always manages to find a little friend or two to play with, and if I don't move fast and get her out of there when they leave, she'll find a new batch to hook up with. lol She just lights up and goes to town when she's there, and she NEVER wants to leave. I think she'd want to bring her Tinkerbelle blanket and her pillow and sleep inside the thing and wait for the next round of kids. I'm glad she has fun. Tonight it's bath night, then we'll work on her school homework, then maybe a little Awanas homework, do devotions, eat supper, and bedtime for Kaylee. And as for me, I'm not sure what I will do. My plan for today was no flying, but get other stuff around here done. I've gotten some, but not all. I have until Friday, then I need to be ready for company :) and Steve will most likely be back sometime on Friday too, I think...

Quotes for the Day

One to make me laugh, one to make me smile, and both to make me say "True!"

The first is probably the only thing ever to come from this show or person that doesn't annoy me to death. So Cheers to Red Green for saying something that most of the world (including myself) should actually pay attention to!

"If your mind goes blank, don't forget to turn off the sound."
---Red Green

I read this one on an aviation forum and I like it...author unknown:

"The sky isn’t my limit, it is my playground."

I woke up this morning around 6 a.m. Now that's just nuts. But I couldn't go back to sleep. My mind engaged, and once that thing starts (finally) spinning up, it's like a gyro, I just can't stop it. So...at 6 a.m. I started thinking about Steve's trip, about what I need to get done this week, about the flight I took yesterday and what I did right and what I did wrong, obsessed over it briefly, planned a few things for Kaylee, tried to talk myself into going back to sleep...no luck. I laid there and pretended though. Steve got up and got ready to go, and as he was leaving, I gave up and got up, and I looked out the window to see a white world. It had snowed! Our first real snow of the season! Sure is pretty.

For once Kaylee was still sleeping when it was time to get up, so I went into her room, and she was buried under a mound of covers with her wild hair sticking out everywhere, and it just made me laugh. I gave her a little kiss to wake her up, and she opened her eyes and gave me this huge, sweet smile, and I thought to myself that everybody should get to start their day off having somebody that cute be that happy to see them. When I whispered to her that it snowed last night, she shot out of bed like the Energizer Bunny she is, and raced from window to window, oohing and ahhing at everything she saw covered in white. And she got to wear her Barbie snow boots for the first time all year! She was a happy girl. Holding her hand, watching her laughing and dancing around in the snow, so excited, if that doesn't make a person happy, nothing will. :)

The boys did get off the ground today, headed first to Santa Fe, New Mexico for lunch and fuel, and then on to California. They have some serious headwinds today, so it'll be a 4 hour flight just to Santa Fe. In June when I went, we got all the way to California in about 5 hours flight time total. I think. I can track them on FlightAware, so I happen to know that right now they have 2 hours and 32 minutes to go to Santa Fe, they are doing 266 knots on groundspeed, which would be really good if they were in anything but the Cheyenne, lol, and they're at 20,000'. And Chuck just called me from the satellite phone on board the plane, the bugger. lol

It was snowing and low ceilings this morning, but now it's a beautiful day here...

It's 10 a.m. and the day hasn't really started yet, but you wouldn't know it by this post! Ha! I went to the post office, stood in line for 15 minutes. Did my thing. Went to Fed Ex to do my thing there. Found out that they can't ship anything, even a letter, to a PO Box. Since when?? I've seen Fed Ex packages shoved into PO Boxes before! But one of mine was returned for that, and another I NEED to overnight today they wouldn't take for that reason. So...when I go pick up Kaylee, guess who gets to go BACK to the Post Office. *sigh* Man, stuff like that annoys me.

Okay, time for breakfast and a plan for Post-Picking-Up-Kaylee. :)

Welcome to the World

Gabriel Stephen Carlson!

He arrived at 8:23 pm on Monday, January 15th, weighing in at 7 lbs. 2 oz. and 20 3/4" long, with lots of dark hair. After 12 hours of labor, he was taken by C-Section to keep his Mommy safe (gestational diabetes, fever, narrow canal, etc.).

Congratulations Stephanie and Todd!! And thank you Mrs. Young for sending the photos out right away! I'm an "aunt"! :o)

MLK Day

Well, everything was closed today as far as banks, schools, and post offices, so that made my day eaiser. :)

I had a serious case of insomnia last night, and was up until 3 a.m. Which explains why I'm so tired at 10:47 p.m. when normally I'm quite awake up past midnight. Anyway.

This morning after I dragged myself out of bed, I got Kaylee ready, and we headed to Applebees for lunch. Leaving lunch, I went with Nathan in the Baron to MIE. It was IFR, about 5 miles and 400-500' at Kokomo, and better at Muncie with 9 miles and 800-900'. Picked up a little icing on the way out, not much to note, but got to play with the icing equipment on board and was happy to note it all worked properly. Nathan brought the Cheyenne back and Kaylee and I came back in the Baron. Picked up more ice on that trip. Kaylee was a good girl and sat there very quietly all the way home. :) I have to go practice some more approaches. That wasn't bad, but it's been awhile, and I need to do some more...

Thursday I'm flying to Oshkosh...and Wednesday I'm probably going to fly around and get some practice in, weather permitting.

Steve leaves around 8 a.m. tomorrow for California, and hopefully the guys have a great four day vacation. :)

Thanks...

I walk out of the bedroom this morning, and Kaylee runs up and gives me a big hug.

"Mom, did you throw up?"

"No! Why?"

"Because it smells like it."

Watch me run to the bathroom to brush my teeth...

Lazy not so Lazy Day

Well, today we finally got our Christmas stuff FULLY put away. We just had the tree and tree stuff left, but that's actually the bulk of the work. Finally it's all back in the garage and in storage, waiting until next December to taunt us into getting it all out again. What a pain that is. I like it up, and I like it down, I just don't like PUTTING it up or down.

In case you're wondering about the chat box on the left, it's just a place to leave little comments. You just type your name in and type in your message and it appears. I don't think I really need it, and I don't know that anybody will really use it, since if I'm on line I tend to email, and may not sit and hit refresh on the chat box in case somebody is on it. But I'll leave it for now and give it a look for awhile. :)

I think I got all the laundry caught up so Steve can pack tonight for the California trip. I think he's leaving sometime tomorrow morning, though we haven't heard for sure yet. I'll be thinking of 'the boys' flying into neat places, looking at cool airplanes, enjoying the warm desert air, clear starry skies, a nice outdoor hot tub, and good company! I hope everybody has a good time. :)

As for me, I have such fun plans for this coming week too. *eh-hem* yeah right. lol A hair cut, some cleaning, some studying, a little exercise, a months' worth of SMA stuff I am behind on, probably a McDonald's Playland adventure for Kaylee, and maybe a trip to Books-A-Million. Weather permitting I'm going to try to get some flying of my own in while Kaylee's in school. Hmmmm, I wonder if the Twin Beech has a checklist in it?? Nobody would care, right? ;) You know, I'm suddenly feeling the urge to shop for room furniture too... (it's a Nathan joke).

Well, Kaylee's in her room not napping but at least being quiet for 'rest time', Steve's in the recliner definitely napping, and I think I'm caught up for the day. Just watching the Chicago/Seattle game and having a Diet Coke and a Hershey bar in the peace and quiet. Life is good. ;) One more game for the Colts and we're actually in the SuperBowl. Man, that would be amazing...

Go Colts!!!!!!!!!!!

They won, they did it, and didn't score a single touchdown in the process. lol Hey, neither did the Ravens. Now that was fun!! One game at a time...nobody thought they'd win (other than here in Indiana of course!) Ah, I enjoyed that.

This afternoon, I watched a movie I haven't seen since I was 14-16. I watched it with my best friend, Stephanie at the time. "Youngblood" with Rob Lowe. It was SO weird, I haven't seen it in almost 20 years, and I'd only seen it a couple of times, and yet I remembered the entire thing. When the movie was over, I even still knew all the words to the closing song. I had taped it off of the TV with my little hand-held recorder, and the TV came on and interrupted it, so I only knew the song up to that point. Here I can't remember what I was supposed to do today, but I can remember a silly movie and song from 19 years ago! Patrick Swayze was in it too. A young Patrick and a young Rob, it was a trip down 1980 something memory lane! :)

Did some laundry today, and other than that, have accomplished exactly nothing but a shower. At least I got THAT far... :)

Making up for Lost Time

Let's see. I haven't been much in the mood to post lately, and haven't been on my email much or anything else for that matter! Busy? Something!

So let's see if I can make up for it with this one. ;)

Today was Friday lunch at Glenndale. That's not something worth discussing any more since I say it every Friday, except for one small note. The meal today was corn bread and ham & beans. I find cornbread kind of dry (unless it's drowning in butter) and ham and beans grosses me out. But you know what WAS in abundance this week? DESSERT. So I got my plate, and got nothing but dessert. Chocolate fudgy brownie with nuts and icing. Cherry chocolate cake. Little brownies with butterscotch and coconut and chocolate (I love those things). Later I even went back for another brownie. And that was my breakfast and lunch. It's good to be a grown-up!

I considered my caloric intake of breakfast plus lunch and figure I didn't go too far over on calories even if nutrition was...a joke. Hey, life is good when your dessert table is full. In fact, I told Chuck I've been eating like all three of the little pigs put together these last few days. I have been craving junk like it is going out of style. So to counteract it a bit, I walked the runway this morning before lunch, which is about one mile. It was pretty easy going up the runway; the winds were pushing at my back up to 25 knots. But once I turned around to head home, I got a face full of some pretty pushy winds. I thought if a treadmill had that feature, you'd really get a workout! When I got home this afternoon after picking Kaylee up from school, I still felt over-sugared, so I did hit the treadmill. Ended up doing two miles on it. Felt a little better. ;)

At the office today, the boys were discussing The California Trip. Remember the trip I took in June with Chuck and Nathan and Tre to California, and Judy met up with us in Vegas? Well, Chuck and Nathan and Steve are going back out to California, probably leaving Monday and coming back Friday (or so) depending on planes, etc. Kaylee and I will be fending for ourselves for about a week while "the boys" go do their thing. And in case a stalker is reading this, I'm armed and dangerous and actually a rather good shot, not that it matters much with a shotgun. Don't try it. ;)

Today Kaylee got her second quarter report card back! She improved from the first quarter, where she'd already done pretty well. This time she got an "Excellent" in Bible, Phonics, Reading Sight Words, Numbers, Writing, and Music. And she got "Satisfactory Plus" in Art and Group Play. That's a step better in both writing and in Group Play. And in Conduct, this quarter she got all "Excellents". And so far she hasn't missed a single day of school all year! Her teacher wrote that she is very happy with her progress, and that in the next 9 weeks they will be working on writing sentences and reading skills. So, go Kaylee! :)

Frankly, I get a lot worse in "Writing Skills", "Art", and "Group Play" than Satisfactory Plus. lol I remember being in second grade and getting a "C" in writing--the first "C" I'd ever gotten, and bawling and being absolutely horrified...and there not being a darn thing I could do about it. My handwriting stank, what could I say!! And Art?? Let's not go there...I am hoping Kaylee got more of Steve or my Mom's artistic abilities than mine. lol

Well, I'm getting twitchy again. After this weekend, probably after the boys leave for California and Kaylee's in school, I'll probably take whatever plane is available and go get some flying in. I haven't flown the Baron myself in several months, so that would be nice, but if it's gone, I'll steal Chuck's Citabria. Heck, I'll have 5 days or so, maybe I'll take 'em both for awhile, weather permitting of course. Maybe if the clouds permit I can get some actual approaches in too...

I also really ought to clean up Kaylee's clothes. And the rest of the house would be nice while I was at it. But man, that is just no fun. I think I'm a terrible housewife. I mean, really. I ought to clean it up really good once, and then hire somebody to come in once a week or maybe twice a month to maintain it after that. I hate messy houses, but I hate cleaning it...

Colts game tomorrow! I'm half afraid to watch. I just *really* hope they keep it moving, that their Defense comes out to play again, and that Peyton doesn't get intercepted 3 times this time. *Fingers Crossed*

And I think that catches you up on me! At least what I'm willing to talk about! lol

I hate January

It's depressing. It's not as depressing as February, but it's still depressing-except for Kaylee's birthday. :)

Yesterday I went up with Chuck then Steve in the Baron, then took the Bellanca up for about 30 minutes by myself. Did some fairly aggressive maneuvering in it to try to give it a good workout so the mechanic could decowl it right away and check out a possible oil leak. I also shot an ILS, but those are amazingly easy when you have to look outside the whole time anyway as a single pilot. ;)

I took Kaylee to Awanas where she said all the books of the New Testament for her book, and she was pleased to be done with that section...

Today Steve and Nathan are flying Ernie home in the Baron, after Ernie drops off the 180 back here. Something many people will be very glad to see more than a year after it left here! Chuck and I got booted out of our transport jobs this week! *sigh* ;)

This morning I am having some serious trouble with my guestbook. SO FAR, in a ONE HOUR time frame, my smasupport guestbook has been hit with 163 spams. I've had to delete them ONE at a time!! I've been sitting here getting NOTHING done just to keep those 155 spams off of my guestbook. I can't stop them, I can't shut it off, and I can't sit here all day deleting 20 spams at a time every 15 minutes. Or so. It's horrible. I'm probably going to have to shut down my entire guestbook, because I can't have this...

Well, time to go pick up Kaylee, having accomplished nothing and finding myself in a rather unpleasant mood...

Today...

Kaylee apparently had a much better day at school today, and did a better job sitting still and listening. Yeah! :)

After I picked her up, we went to Glenndale for lunch, and I basically didn't do a whole lot of anything! I didn't want to stay home, because I have WAY too many things I need to be working on, and I'm not in the mood.

This afternoon, Kaylee and I did her "Tuesday Together Time" (aka homework) for class tomorrow, and then met Steve and Chuck at Ruby Tuesdays. I love their crab cake burger! Very tasty!

See you tomorrow!

More Manic Mondays

Well, I don't know about 'manic', but the alliteration sounds good anyway. :)

This morning after dropping Kaylee off, I went out to Glenndale to help Steve with the billing for the month. We have a new Quickbooks, and it makes it SO much more efficient than the old version, I'm SO glad we have it. I owe Justin for that one I think. I basically did that until Chuck called-time to go to an early lunch at Applebees (since Muncie no longer has a restaurant!). Mental note to self: Steve will not be allowed to order the Bruschetta Burger any more. 'Nuff said.

After lunch, we headed to Kokomo, and Steve and Chuck sat in the back of the Cheyenne while we headed to Muncie to drop the plane off there for some repairs and pick up the Baron which is finally done and home. (Woo-hoo!) It was a clear day, a bit breezy which made it feel even colder, but a pretty day to fly!

Around 2:30 we landed and they let me off so I could go pick up Kaylee at school, and they went back up and played around some more with the Baron's fuel settings, TAS, etc. You know, I have to say, it's a weird transition for me. One minute I'm sitting in a couple of multi-engine airplanes, thinking about fuel flows and lean of peak and JPI unit usage and power settings and GPS approaches and killer landings ;) and the next minute I'm taking a particularly whiny today five year old to ballet and listening to the Itsy Bitsy Spider at full volume with 16 pairs of tap shoes very loudly keeping time (sort of). Like I said, it's just an odd transition to me. Like I still have one foot in another world mentally or something!

Kaylee's teacher talked to me after class today that Kaylee wouldn't sit still in class today. Apparently she jumped around, wouldn't listen, etc. She was that way the rest of the day too, and I put her to bed early! She had circles under her eyes, and was acting like she does when she's exhausted. She winds up until she crashes. And once she was in bed, I didn't hear a peep out of her even though it was almost an hour early, so I think she really needed the rest.

Tonight she asked me to pray for her again to have good dreams. So I did, and when I was done, she sniffled and said "Mommy, that was so sweet, it makes me want to cry." She was serious. She's a sweetie!!

Time to get a snack I do believe! Hot chocolate...

Sunday

Saturday morning, Steve got up and flew to Kentucky with Nathan and Chuck and Holly and her friend Greg. They were there and back in just a few hours, and we met up for lunch at Applebees...

Last night I couldn't get to sleep or stay asleep. We were up until past 2 a.m., and then I kept waking up every couple of hours. I took about 4 Tylenol throughout the night to fend off a headache that kept wanting to grow. Kaylee kept coming into our bed even when I took her back to her room--apparently she couldn't sleep either. And I woke up this morning with two cats and one kid all lying flat on top of me. Monkey pile on Laura. Can't stand that!! I kicked everybody off, and wanted to sleep in, but thought I'd be better off just getting up and starting the day. I did end up taking a small nap this afternoon, and crashed pretty hard! We cleaned up a lot of the Christmas stuff, and I hit the pet store and got another litter box with a hood for Roadie on the deck. We still have our tree up, but the deck is "put away" and most of the loose Christmas stuff around the house is put up. So what's left is pretty much the tree and ornaments on it...the house does look better since we picked up a bit.

Tomorrow is a busy day. Kaylee's school, she also has ballet, and I think Nathan and Chuck and I are going to go pick up the Baron tomorrow at Muncie, situation permitting.

Here's to a better night's sleep for all of us!

Whatever

Yes, I've missed a day, and I can't think of a single interesting thing to say about yesterday. It has passed, and that's about all it has going for it. lol Okay, I did run errands while Kaylee was in school, and afterwards took some meat, cheese and bread out to Glenndale for Friday's lunch. Then we all hit Mike's Pizza for lunch...

Today...well, I did the usual suspect of errands, then ran out to Kokomo Airport to let Duane C (he flew the T-6 at our BBQ Bash for the last couple of years) into Nathan's hanger to pick up something he'd left, and I'd invited him to lunch at Glenndale while he was here. We'll make this a prayer request list--Duane's mom has had a series of strokes and they are currently testing to find out why, so there's one for the list.

We all hit lunch at Glenndale, and it was pretty packed out for a gloomy and rainy day! I left around 2:30 to go pick up Kaylee from school, and she and I hung out here until about 5:30, when Steve got home, and we all headed out to Nathan's house to help move his daughter Holly's stuff into storage units. Prayer #2-Holly has a benign brain tumor, and will be having it removed soon. It's benign, but any time you have brain surgery, it's not exactly a cake walk. She's lost her hearing in one ear, has poor balance, and is going through a lot of weight loss from the tumor.

There was a lot of stuff in there, but we got it done! Headed to pizza king for some supper, and headed home. I got home and realized my cellphone clip was in my pocket in its spot, but my holder and cellphone were GONE. No idea when it came off or where or how the whole thing came off the clip. Greeeeeat.

Prayer #3, my grandma had a malignant tumor removed from her bladder (ouch). She seems to be doing well, but...

Prayer #4, that we don't kill Roadie, who has continued to pee all over our house. Okay, don't pray for that, because I actually want to kill the little rat. This isn't going to work. She's going to be living on the deck, if she's lucky.

My friend Heather just gave birth to a very healthy and large baby boy she named Benjamin, her and her husband's fifth and final child. He's a cutie--congratulations Heather Mike!

Tomorrow Steve is flying with Nathan to Lexington, KY in the Cheyenne, and Kaylee and I are "To Be Determined". :)

Night!

Back to Life!

Today was Kaylee's first day back at school. She wore a new pretty (soft and warm) dress, and as soon as we walked into her classroom, she jumped up and down and said "I'm SO glad to be back!" She is really tired right now, partly I'm sure because she was up and raring to go at 6 a.m. this morning, much to my chagrin, and partly because it's her first full day of school in two weeks. Tonight is Awanas too, so she's going to be a busy girl today and hopefully she'll sleep well!

This morning as she was getting ready for school, she stopped and said "Mommy, am I still in Kindergarten?" I said "Yes, why?" She said "So I will still be in the same school?" "Yes, of course." "Oh good, because I thought maybe I was in first grade now and would have to go to a new school today!" She was very happy to see her "old" teacher!

I got my first batch of Christmas photos back (printed out) and some of them are pretty cute. I like holding them in my hands and not just looking at them on the screen. You get a better idea of the photo somehow.

Hey, I almost forgot, I actually got hit on today by a stranger. I'd take it as a compliment, but he was a rather goobery kind of guy, so I'm not sure if that's such a compliment. He did however compare me to a Colt's Cheerleader, so I'll either hope he was there to pick up his prescription glasses while he was at it, or be annoyed at the cheese factor, or just take it as a compliment. ;)

Man, I ran around like crazy today. I took Kaylee to school, came home for about 45 minutes, then I drove around the rest of the day. Most places I drove to twice, in fact, which REALLY annoys me for time management! I drove to the post office--success there. One trip and I was done. Drove from there to Best Buy to return some dvds. It was 9:35 a.m. The store was closed. Sheesh. Drive to Meijer. Get hit on by goober, make a return for Cathy, pick up a few groceries. Success. Drive BACK to Best Buy for round two. It's now 10:05 am and thankfully they are open. I'm out of there by 10:08 am, which for some reason just annoys me more because I could've been done so much earlier. Back to the house to unload groceries, then on to Glenndale to pick up some stuff. Went from there to Kokomo Airport to drop off something at one of the airplanes. Get a call from Steve while I'm there and he needs me to bring jackets from Glenndale back out to Kokomo for him. So I drive BACK to Glenndale, call Chuck, meet up for lunch at Arby's, then drive back out to Kokomo. Hang out there a bit with Steve and Nathan, then drive home to pick up Kaylee at school. In other words, I drove from 9:20 a.m. through until almost 3 pm, with only two breaks-lunch and the airport hangar. I used up a quarter tank of gas, and most of my morning in the car. How exciting of a day is THAT!?

Right now I'm taking Kaylee to Awanas, meeting Steve for dinner, and when I come home tonight I totally have to finish unpacking. This is ridiculous, I just don't feel like unpacking any more right now!

Tomorrow my friend Heather is going in to have her baby boy Benjamin! Scheduled C-section. Her fifth child, fourth boy. Lots of prayers and well wishes to you Heather! Can't wait to 'meet' him!! :)

Home again!

Well, we walked in our door about 1 a.m. to find the house still in its normal chaos. That's a good thing by the way! No kitty poop anywhere it wasn't supposed to be! At least not that we've found so far. Which tells us seemingly that Roadie likes having a second litter box. We'll see, I've been keeping an eye on her today once we dumped the second box. We're not keepign it in the middle of our kitchen. It got litter all over, so at 1 am I'm sweeping the kitchen floor then vacuuming up kitty litter. Not amusing. But better than finding a plethora of cat poo everywhere!

This morning, Kaylee slept in until 9:30. Boy did she need it, too. She's STILL tired, and in fact I put her to bed like at 7:30 tonight, and she went right to sleep. Tomorrow is her first day back to school, and it's an all-day day, so I hope she isn't going to be TOO grouchy. Hopefully she sleeps well tonight. She asked me to pray for her to have good dreams tonight, and not bad ones. Poor thing, I wish I could cure that for her forever. *sigh*

Once we got up and running, I started in on laundry, unpacked a few bags (still have a few to go, too!), cleaned up paperwork, threw away trash, just did some general cleaning and upkeep. With plenty to go, of course. Then we headed to Applebees to eat lunch with Chuck, Steve and Nathan. Ah, it's good to be home, too. :) The boys headed out to Kokomo while Kaylee and I kept working on the house, ran to the post office to pick up our weeks' worth of behind mail and to the office to pick up some packages that went there, etc. Kaylee got a big soaking bath in, which made her happy, and she wanted "Life" cereal for supper which made ME happy. ;) I did it too, with minimal amounts of guilt!

Tonight I've been working on my photos! They are done saving I think. So go to Kaylee's site. There are two pages of photos, http://www.kayleestants.com/christmas06b.htm and http://www.kayleestants.com/christmas06c.htm both have new photos. Lots on the page, so be patient while they load! I have over 100 photos, so it's hard for me to pick. I may have to put the rest up at my laurastants.com page under family photos--another night perhaps. We'll see! For now, this one is in my top favorites list. Who can't laugh at an angry ballerina, besides the angry ballerina, of course! At least her toes are still pointed. lol

Last day in TN

Well, it is the first day of the new year and I will be writing 2006 until at least May...

We woke up this morning to scuddy clouds and icing. In the airplane we were in, the icing didn't seem like a great option. We could have gotten through/above it okay in Tennessee, but we'd have had to climb up to 10,000' to stay above the clouds/ice in the Kentucky/Indiana area, and we wanted to stay low still for Kaylee's ear. She says it is still plugged, but man it's hard to tell. So we waited until the clouds lifted enough to let us go under them, stay out of the ice, and stay low enough for Kaylee's ear to not pop too much. Meanwhile we enjoyed some tasty food, and I watched Michigan get creamed for awhile in the Rose Bowl. Kaylee got to ride the horse Bean that Alonna and Morgan help take care of, and she did it bareback. She did great, listening very carefully to instructions from her cousins. Steve took a video of it. I'm going to see if I can figure out how to get video clips back on Kaylee's site now that we have a dvd digital video camera! But not today. :) Kaylee mostly played her poor cousins to the bone, but they sure are great sports about it!

When it was good enough to leave, it was around 7 pm, and Alonna and Morgan came with us to the airport which was about an hour away. We also lost an hour coming home thanks to the time zones, so we walked in our door around 1 a.m. Kaylee was SO exhausted she passed out in the plane (pretty late, actually), and stayed asleep hard. She didn't wake up when we landed, talked, unloaded the plane all around her, pushed the plane into the hangar and lowered the door, took her headset off, talked to her--nothing. Finally Steve got her up and and went to me and by the time I got her in her car seat she was back out. That was one pooped little girl. It was good to be home even if it was late, because it basically gave us an extra day here at home. Since the banks, post office and schools are closed on the 2nd, we have time to try to unpack and catch up a little bit.

So...ladies and gentlemen who were waiting with bated breath, we made it home over gross (stuffed full airplane!), tired but safely. ;)