Happy Halloween! Mu-ha-ha

Kaylee dressed in an orange shirt and black pants with white, yellow and orange skulls on them for school today. It IS Halloween after all! After I dropped her off, I came home and worked. I got my kitchen mopped and picked up, quite a bit of laundry, the floors vacuumed, the living room picked up, and the candy ready for tonight. After lunch, I worked on websites and emails, paid bills, sent off some checks for SMA Support, did that kind of work until it was time to pick up Kaylee from school.

On my way to her school, I was sitting at a red light, when I caught movement with my peripheral vision. I glanced over, and immediately jolted/jumped, because I was eyeball to eyeball with a giant clown-ish head with a really wide, really wicked, really evil looking grin. The shoulders under the head laughed as it watched me jerk in a bit of shock. He'd deliberately pulled up really close to my car then waved his hands until I caught it out of the corner of my eye-then he made sure I'd see him dead on. It was creepy, he was successful. Happy Halloween!

I stopped at the post office and the ice cream place next to it that is closing for the season as of November 4th, then we went home and relaxed for a few minutes before getting dressed. Well, KAYLEE got dressed-I don't do costumes (in public), remember? ;)

There was one close call. I only had the one can of red hair color spray, and I used it all on her, and she could still see blond in a few places. But what I didn't realize is that the coloring spray was really a hairspray too. I had her flip her hair upside down so I could spray it there, and when she flipped her hair back over, she looked like the Bride of Frankenstein in Fire Red Hair. It stuck out EVERYWHERE. I was afraid if I combed it, I'd knock all the color out of it, but I had no choice, since Ariel the Mermaid can't go out with seriously bad Bed Head Hair. :) Luckily I could do a light comb job and at least smooth it out, without losing too much of the color.

She wanted to hand out candy this year, so I told her we'd do that for the first hour, then go trick-or-treat on our own for the last two hours. We waited for 45 minutes before even one kid came to our door, but finally a family with two kids showed up, Kaylee handed them their candy, looked at me and said "Can we go do it now?" Suuuure. I took her outside to take a bunch of pictures, then we walked our neighborhood first. Next we headed over to the Rupp's neighborhood and stopped and chatted for a bit before heading on for more candy (naturally). We went through a couple of blocks there, then drove to Russiaville to stop in on Chuck and Judy. :) You know, I was really impressed-Russiaville goes all out! There was an entire herd of children wandering around those streets. There were kids Everywhere. They blow away Kokomo for participation, that's for sure. Even the fire house and funeral homes and other small businesses in town were lit up and passing out candy. It was kind of neat to see. It was also neat how friendly everybody was who handed out candy to Kaylee, both in Kokomo and Russiaville. Everybody stopped and talked to her, asked who she was, talked about her costume or her hair, complimented her on how lovely she looked, etc. She had a lot of fun.

After we left Russiaville, it was dark, and we headed back to the church where her Awanas group is held. Usually it's Wednesday nights, but tonight they had an outdoor trick-or-treat setup instead, and it was probably the neatest thing I'd seen for this kind of function. They have two parking lots. One they left open for visitors, and the other they blocked off, filled with SUVs with open backs, all decorated for Halloween, and handed out candy at each vehicle. All the participants with their vehicles were dressed up in costumes, and there were five rows of these SUVs. At the end of the line, they had free hot chocolate and donut holes for everybody, which was greatly appreciated in the cool temps. They also had several games to play, and a magician who was there telling Bible stories put to magic. It was fun, and the kids and adults alike were enjoying it. I even ran into an airport guy out there, whose wife was in one of the vans handing out candy. He was dressed as the wizard Mickey Mouse from Fantasia, and it threw me to see him in unfamiliar surrounds, but it was nice. :)

After that, Kaylee was finally satisfied, so we headed home, where she ate a bit of candy, changed into pajamas, read to me, then collapsed in bed and was passed out in a matter of minutes. Usually she's like me-awake for a good hour-but not tonight! That was one tired puppy. I mean mermaid. :) I've got Kaylee's Halloween Pictures Up on her Site, and am going to go enjoy CSI New York.

Here's one for you to enjoy on your way out for the night...
Wow, LOOK at all that CANDY!

Halloween Safety

For you Former or Current Scary Movie Buffs...edited a bit. :)

As we all prepare for the upcoming Halloween season, please take a few minutes to read these simple rules to help keep everyone safe.

1. Don't assume the telephone calls are coming from another house.

2. When it appears that you have killed the monster, NEVER walk over to check and see if it's really dead.

3. Don't go into the basement to check the power when the lights go out.

4. When you have the benefit of numbers, NEVER split up and go it alone.

5. Don't fool around. Especially if you've noticed a few of your friends are missing!

6. If you're searching for something which caused a loud noise and find out that it's just the cat, don't stand their sighing with relief, GET OUT!

7. If appliances start operating by themselves, don't check for short circuits; JUST GET OUT!

8. If your companions start acting oddly, GET OUT!

9. If you find a town which looks deserted, there's probably a good reason for it. Don't stop and look around.

10. If at any time the house or place you're staying in asks you to get out - DON'T argue.

11. If you're running from the monster, expect to trip or fall down at least twice, more if you are of the female persuasion. Also note that, despite the fact that you are running and the monster is merely ambling along, it's still moving fast enough to catch up with you.

12. Stay away from certain geographical locations, some of which are listed here: Amityville, Elm Street, Transylvania, Nilbog, the Bermuda Triangle, or any small town in Maine.

13. If your car runs out of gas at night on a lonely road, do not go to the nearby deserted-looking house to phone for help. If you think that it is strange because you thought you had 3/4 of a tank, just quickly off yourself instead. You are going to die anyway, and will most likely be eaten, which would be much worse.

14. Beware of strangers bearing strange tools. For example: chainsaws, staple guns, hedgetrimmers, electric carving knives, combines, lawnmowers, butane torches, soldering irons, or band saws.

15. If you find that your house is built upon a cemetery, now is the time to move in with the in-laws. This also applies to houses that had previous inhabitants who went mad or committed suicide or died in some horrible fashion, or had inhabitants who performed wicked practices in your living room.

16. Don't run upstairs when being followed by someone with a knife.

17. Do not walk outside whenever you hear something knock over trashcans.

18. When the monster falls in the hole and you turn your back on the hole, don't JUST SIT THERE.

NOW HAVE A HAPPY AND SAFE HALLOWEEN!!

Today's Shenanigans

I had a little trouble getting up this morning. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact I couldn't put my book down until 1:30 a.m. I was SO close to finishing it, but I still had about 45 minutes' worth of reading to do, which meant 2:15 or so, which would have been nuts on a Monday night. So I just went for slightly crazy instead of completely bonkers, and stopped where I was. *sigh*

I did some computer stuff until about lunch time, then went to Muncie with Chuck, Steve, Nathan, and his friend Roger, in the Cheyenne. It sure was a pretty day to fly. I rode in the back this time-only my second time back there I believe. It's odd being in the back, but it's very comfortable. There's even a little table you can pull out and connect a laptop and watch a movie, or whatever you like. Seats are comfy, and you have more room than you do up front in the cockpit. He got me on the takeoff though, pitching up at what felt like an unnatural angle from back there. I twitched and my head snapped around and then I saw Chuck sitting there "chuckling" at me. :) We got back with just enough time for me to hang out for a few before leaving to go pick up Kaylee at school. We were out of some necessities, so I stopped at the store on the way home and stocked up. Running out of toilet paper is NOT a good plan, you know.

When we got here, I made Kaylee play outside for awhile because it's a beautiful day and we won't have a ton more of those before Winter sets in. Dinner, homework, bath, and in a few minutes we'll do her reading and memory verse before she heads to bed, and I head off to finish my last 45 minutes of book. I really should unpack a few things and clean up a few things first, but can't I do that later after I find out how my book ends? I may even eat Ice Cream while I'm reading. It's GOOD to be the grown-up sometimes. ;)

Tuesday Top Ten: Ten Things About Halloween

Hmmm, any ten things I feel like about Halloween. Former costumes, memories, whatever. This actually may be harder than you think, since I didn't really "do" Halloween as a kid! And Halloween these days is more geared towards adults than it is kids. Anyway, okay...

Top Ten Things About Halloween:

1. Candy. I don't mean from when I was a kid, I mean now. I only buy the candy I like, so when we have a bunch left over, guess who has to eat it?? It's a rough job, but somebody has to do it...

2. Traditions. Kaylee *loves* traditions, and I enjoy watching her get excited over them each year. They are nothing big. We just go shopping for her costume and accessories, we carve a pumpkin and make pumpkin seeds that she doesn't eat all of, we go to ours and a friend's neighborhood and trick-or-treat door to door for about 4 blocks total, and we usually go to one indoor place with tons of candy (usually the mall, but probably not this year). She also wants to be able to hand out candy to kids, and loves to wait by the door for it to ring. Unfortunately, we rarely get any trick-or-treaters, and last year we had NONE while we were there, which bummed her out. She waited by the front door way past time with her bowl of candy as you can see by the bottom three photos of this page. I can get away with saying "Boy, she's cute" on my own blog, can't I? lol

3. Grumpy Old People. Mom, you did just fine, it was her fault, so don't feel guilty! :) Okay, for the story: I was a very sensitive little girl. The first year I got to actually go trick-or-treating instead of just handing out the candy to everybody else, I was with a babysitter, I was ecstatic to be going, and I went to a few doors before I got to this white house down the street. An old lady opened the door (Old to me then, I have NO idea how old she really was), looked at me, and asked "what are you supposed to be?" I told her quite happily what I was, and then mentioned proudly that my mommy had made my costume. She looks at me, frowns, says "Well, she didn't do a very good job now, did she!" drops a grape sucker in my bag, and shuts her door. I'm left standing there...devastated is the only word I can think of. I was done. I wouldn't go to any more doors, and I cried for...a long time. My babysitter valiantly went door to door, ringing it, getting candy and putting half of what she got in my bag. (Which back then you usually only got a piece or two per door.) Finally she took me out to a friend of hers, and she said to me "Laurie, I promise you, she won't make fun of you." We get there, she knocks on the door, her friend answers, and I hear her whisper for a minute, and then she brings me around, and her friend drops this huge load of candy in my bag and compliments me. I felt pretty miserable and sad, but as a self-centered kid, I had no idea how that would affect a mom. I was mad at that lady for saying something mean about my mom's work, and I was hurt that she was so mean to me, but now, imagining somebody doing that to Kaylee, I'd want to go back to that house in person and have a calm but serious Come to Jesus Meeting with the bitter angry woman on why she finds in necessary to destroy a child for no good reason. And hope she apologized on her own before I had to help her do so. So today I feel almost as bad for how it probably made Mom feel as I do how it made me feel! But that was like...30 years ago, so it's way past time for either one of us to have bad feelings about it at this point. ;)

4. Costumes. Not for me. I never really did dress up for this 'holiday' and I still don't. But Halloween is the time where kids can pretend to be whatever or whomever they want. It's their way of expressing themselves, of having a little fun, of getting to feel beautiful or scary or clever. Kaylee has been a Hershey Kiss, Barney, a Unicorn, a Barbie Princess, Tinkerbell, and now a mermaid. Next year she'll probably want to go as a Goth Princess or something. :P

5. The Time of Year. I just love the Halloween "feeling". The cool/cold nights, the stark moon and sky, the beautiful fall colors during the daytime. It's the last Hurrah before winter, and it's a pretty one. :)

6. Pumpkin Patch. I really like taking Kaylee to a pumpkin patch, watching her choose which pumpkin is going to get to come home with her, seeing what criteria she uses, etc. She even names the thing. Then deciding what to carve into it, scooping out the goop. We just have a lot of fun with the pumpkin thing each year. Having a nice candle-lit Jack-o-Lantern is just kind of perfect Halloween Fun.

7. Scary Movies. Well, I have to confess two things to people who may have known me at different times in life. First, I used to absolutely love scary movies. They didn't make a scary movie I didn't watch for a long time. So as a bit older of a kid on through early adulthood, Halloween was one of my favorite times because they'd play on the great scary movies on TV, and the video store and theaters always had a rash of new ones. Don't ask me why I liked them, I don't know. Perhaps I was warped by that angry bitter woman when I was a kid. ;) My second confession is that I don't really like them any more. They don't scare me, I just don't really see the point of watching them any more. It serves no positive or useful purpose to watch Saw III or whatever. I just have better things to put in my head or better ways to waste my time now days I guess. But every once in awhile I find I do have to watch "The Shining", because it was a tradition. Brenda V. and I used to watch it Every Halloween, with food and drinks, up way past our bedtimes, scaring the pants off of ourselves. Nobody beats Jack Nicholson on that, *nobody*. One of the scariest dudes I ever saw.

8. Hayrides. Kaylee has gotten to go on one short one, but mine were better. I remember a couple of Halloween parties I had as a teenager that had terrific stuff. Well, not the time that Jeremy about sliced his thumb off carving a pumpkin in front of all of us. That was bad. But the hay rides were great. You'd sit up on the hay wagon and get towed through the woods where stuff would be buried or jump out at you. The hand coming out of the ground that started wiggling, the ghouls that would swing down from the trees. If you made it through, the wagon would pull up to a huge roaring camp fire and we'd roast marshmallows and sing songs and have hot cider.

9. Other People's Decorations. I'm not very good at decorating myself, but I do enjoy driving around and seeing all the stuff in people's yards. I even take Kaylee's picture in front of them sometimes. So from all the people like me who don't do that, thank you to those who do, and who help make it a more festive holiday for us all.

10. I dunno. Halloween is kind of a non-event to me personally, other than Kaylee loves it and I like anything that will make her eyes sparkle. :)

The Coaster Monster, The Green Monster, & Quotes

At one point yesterday, somebody asked Kaylee something about a roller coaster, and she responded with "Oh yes, I'm a Coaster Monster!" You know, she may some day change her mind and decide these things are nuts--with her, that potential certainly exists. And that's fine, of course! I'll always have my own personal amusement of these last two trips to parks, regardless of whether this "adrenaline junky" thing sticks with her or not. :)

She fell asleep so hard last night that she was in the same position this morning when I went to wake her up as she was when I put her to bed. I kissed her forehead, and she opened one eye and said "Why are you waking me up?" I said "It's time to get up for school honey." She rolls over and says "The night was Too Short!" Of course I said "Yes, it was! But we still have to get up." I ended up carrying her out to the kitchen to eat breakfast, where she revived somewhat. Welcome to Mondays, dear. ;)

As for me, I'm working on house stuff; kitchen, laundry, unpacking, yadda yadda, until lunch, then it's Applebees For Lunch, and some work until it's time to get Kaylee and take her to ballet and cheer, where she learned her 'dance' and got a mini candy bar for her success. She showed it to us tonight at home, and it's short so far, but cute. :) It was an Arby's night for dinner too!

On the way over to cheer, Kaylee told me a little story:
"Mommy, so many kids in our class, Not me, but so many kids in our class eat their boogers, that"

Kaylee!

"NOT ME, Mommy! But enough kids do that Mrs. D. showed us a picture of a little boy who eats his boogers, and his teeth are rotted out and his gums are the wrong color, and it's all from eating boogers."

Ummmm.

"Why are you laughing, Mommy? It's not funny!"

Please don't ever tell that story to anyone else Kaylee, okay? I'm serious...

"Okay. What's so funny?"

Nothing. (I'm imagining Mom reading this is what's so funny.)

A little creative of Mrs. D, admittedly, to make kids think that the nasty habit would rot their teeth and ruin their gums. And funny, yes. But to be honest, that's not the way I'd do it. I didn't feel like I could tell Kaylee that this wasn't true yet, because I didn't need her going to school and parroting that back to all the kids and Mrs. D., and I doubt at this age I could trust her to keep that to herself. But I prefer to stick with the truth with her, because when you're caught in a little fabrication like that, kids eventually lose faith and trust in what you tell them. I'll probably wait awhile then just let her know that Mrs. D. was trying to scare kids into not eating the hard-fought spoils from their nasal diving, but that last time I checked, boogers didn't rot your teeth. Sheesh, the things I end up having to discuss with her! LOL

"The secret of patience: Do something else in the meantime."
~Author unknown

"Loving a child doesn’t mean giving in to all his whims; to love him is to bring out the best in him, to teach him to love what is difficult."
~Nadia Boulanger

"If it is desirable that our children be kind, responsible, pleasant and honest, then those qualities must be taught--not hoped for."
~James Dobson

"To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind."
~William Hazlitt

Our Adventure at Cedar Point

Cedar Point has been voted the overall "Best Amusement Park in the World" for the 10th year in a row, and has never been ranked less than 2nd place. They have a ton of coasters that have placed in the Top 10 world-wide for height, speed, drops, etc. It's a pretty neat park.

When we woke up Sunday, it was the perfect day for an amusement park. Cool, sunny, light winds, no rain. Now *that's* what we were waiting for! We walked over to the gate, and the park was not busy at all. There was only one ride that had about a 45 minute wait; the rest we hit we were in within 30 minutes or less, and some we just walked right on. Today was the last day that Cedar Point was open; after tonight they close until next season. (We joked that they were closing after today to do all that maintenance on their rides that they so desperately needed to do. The more I thought about it though, the less I thought it was probably a joke!)

Kaylee was chomping at the bit to do a roller coaster, so the moment we walked in the gate, we headed for the "Magnum XL 200". The "5th best steel roller coaster in the world." We got on almost immediately, and it was a humdinger of a ride. A 209 foot drop, lots of drops and lots of "air time". The woman in the seat in front of us turned around and said to Kaylee "Do you like this kind of thing?" Kaylee responds with "Oh yes! I love it!" The woman says to me "My daughter freaks out if she goes more than 5 feet up. How OLD is she?" Kaylee answers for herself that she's 6 3/4, and the woman shakes her head in amazement before turning back around. When the ride was over, Kaylee was yoo-hooing and whee-hawing and the lady turned around and gave her another smile of amusement before we headed off to the next event. :)

Next we went to the "Corkscrew", which goes through several loops. Now Kaylee can say she's been inverted! It was a quick ride, over soon, but it was a lot of fun!

We went on quite a few roller coasters. There are 17 in the park, and we couldn't even get to them all in one day. Well, that and the minor inconvenience that Kaylee simply isn't tall enough to go on some of them. But we've come to the conclusion that the height restriction is not about the rides being big, bad or scary, because the "Millennium Force" is one mother of a coaster, and she could ride it. Some of the others were much less interesting, but they had a 52-56" height restriction. Probably because of the seating systems and how you would have to fit in them like in the standing coaster, or because of the g-forces in the Dragster. (Now THAT was a scary looking ride, even to me.) She is now right at the 48" mark, so what we did after several times of her being measured and always being accepted, but closely, is take her to the office to be "officially" measured and given a red armband that says "48 Inches" so she could get right onto any ride 48" and below without the measuring. We went on a wooden coaster (that wasn't nearly as violent as the wooden coasters at Holiday World, thankfully), that has the longest drop for a wooden coaster.

But my favorite was the "Millennium Force." It sports a 310 foot drop (at what feels like a vertical angle) and goes 93 mph. Oh, it has a bunch of other big (almost 200') drops too, and a few almost inverted moments, but really, it's that first drop. On this picture, the background hill, the sloped one is the trip UP, the one that seems to go very close to straight down is indeed DOWN. :O Kaylee couldn't wait to go on this ride, and I was nervous that this would be it, the one that would scare the pants off of her and terrorize her for roller coasters from now on. I mean, this is an intimidating ride for adults. Yeah, who was I kidding? On most of these rides, as we'd get to the top of the hill, I'd take one hand and put it on her leg or offer to hold her hand. She'd never needed it. This time, we got up 310 feet, the cars started accelerating up the end of the hill to start going over that huge drop, and Kaylee says to me "Hold My Hand!" I looked at her, looked over the edge, and said "I can't!" We fall at almost 100 mph, at what feels like straight down, for over 300 feet, swoop into a knife-edge, and I look over at her and she's grinning. She puts her arms up over her head, and she goes over three other large drops, lots of turns and sideways things, with her arms UP. I just laughed and laughed, watching this. She was the smallest person on almost all of these coasters, by a good margin. She didn't look like she belonged on there, but after this Millennium, I knew if that didn't scare her, nothing else at the park was going to bother her in the least.

Even Steve went on all these rides with us by the way. After the first one, he was having a good time too, and he had his arms up on several of the coasters too. I actually loved sitting behind Kaylee on these coasters, because she put her arms up on every roller coaster she went on except the first one, and one that was all indoors and almost completely dark. You know, the first time you ride a coaster in the dark, it is unnerving. You don't know where you're going, if you're dropping like a rock or turning sideways or what. Even though she doesn't like the dark, THAT didn't scare her either. But I would just laugh sitting back there watching this little bitty thing with her arms stuck up in the air on all these rides. It was just too funny. I even snapped one photo of it (to the right), but you can't really see her arms up, because I was sitting right next to her and I couldn't lean far enough away to get the view. And yes, I know you're not supposed to take photos while you are riding a roller coaster, but I do things like that. And I take video of aileron rolls while I'm trying to do them. And I take pictures while being put through the aerobatic paces in a Mustang. What can I say. ;) Here she is, smiling, arms up, going on some really fast ride. :)

Anyway, we went on a bunch of stuff, including a giant Ferris Wheel. Kaylee was a little annoyed at some of the coasters she wasn't allowed to go on, but there were so many that she *could* do, she was pretty content. The one ride she wanted to do that she was not tall enough to do is called the "Top Thrill Dragster". I told her I wasn't sure *I* was tall enough for that one. It's won a bunch of awards. It takes you from a dead stop and accelerates you immediately to 120 mph, shoots you vertically up 420 feet, then drops you Straight Back Down. Well, it does corkscrew a few times on the vertical downline. Um, Yeah. She begged and begged to go on that, but she was short by 4", and frankly, I'm not real sure about that one. It doesn't even have a shoulder harness. Nothing like having a nice lap belt/bar when you're vertical and not in charge. :O

Eventually our day was up, with many rides that will have to be left for the next visit next year. We stopped for pizza, then piled into the car and headed to the airport. Kaylee and I took off first, and it was a beautiful day for a flight. The sun set shortly after we took off, so we had a lovely sunset/night flight home. We stopped at Burger King for a late evening snack, and made it home a good hour or more before Steve. She went to bed pretty quickly, and I think she will sleep like a rock tonight! It was a busy day full of walking, riding, flying, and fun. I didn't take hardly any photos; I'm not sure if it's because I've taken so many pictures lately that I'm not in the mood, or if it's just kind of hard to take meaningful photos at an amusement park when you go from one ride to the next where you really can't have your camera out, but for whatever reason, I just have about a dozen photos.

(I was also amazed at how small those roller coaster seats really are. Really, I am not a huge person, but it surprised me at just how tightly I fit in there. One poor lady had to exit a ride when they couldn't get the bar down. :( I later looked it up on their site, and they say guys over 6' 2" and 225 lbs and women over 200 in general won't be able to go...and I wondered again why 225 pounds of man works but only 200 pounds of woman? Distribution?? Seriously, I don't get that.)

Anyway, now it's good to be home, and it's time to jump back into Monday's Manic Schedule! :)

The Saturday That Didn't Go As Planned (but still worked)

Saturday dawned cold, ray, cloudy, windy and rainy. Not exactly pretty weather in which to fly or enjoy an amusement park. Steve was taking a young man on an IFR cross-country for training, and his family decided to make a day of it, so we did too. The original plan was to go Saturday morning early, spend Saturday at Cedar Point, OH's Amusement Park, spend the night in a nice hotel right there at the park, go back to the park for awhile Sunday, then fly home Sunday evening. But Mother Nature didn't cooperate very well, and we collectively decided that riding roller coasters in 50 degree temps with wind and showers just wouldn't be that much fun, so we waited until Saturday afternoon to take off and head over.

Steve and three others flew over in the 172SP, and Kaylee and I packed up the Bellanca with our stuff for the day and flew over together. It was IFR most of the way, but we did end up breaking out on top of the clouds-barely. We were skimming the tops of the clouds, and it was clear skies above. Very pretty. Kaylee loved it. She even took a little nap with my map covering her. When I got to Sandusky, it was still IFR there, and I had to shoot the VOR approach in, over Lake Erie. One of the few times I had to shoot a full approach instead of getting vectors in, which is I suppose good practice. :) Anyway, I broke out of the clouds over the water, and Kaylee looked down and said "Okay, NOW I'm nervous." I said "why?" She said "Because I feel like we're going to land in the water and I can't swim very good yet!" I said "Trust me, I'm not landing in the water." Her response was "I'm still nervous. I can't really swim!" At this point I had to tell her we'd discuss it later, because it was also rather windy up there and coming in to land isn't the best time to have a conversation. :)

I had left before Steve by a good hour, and it took the 172 about half an hour longer to get there than it did me, so Kaylee and I had plenty of time to sit at the airport and hang out and wait. The rest of the group drove over in a van, and it was going to take them about 5 hours. Kaylee and I had a drink and a snack, and a conversation about flying. I asked her if there were things that concerned her that she wanted to talk about with flying. She immediately asked about turbulence. I explained what that was and told her it wasn't going to hurt her, and she used her left hand to make a fist and her right hand to make an airplane, and she said, "It's like the plane is going to hit the bump like this, then go up and upside down and crash." So I explained how the wings flew and why the plane wouldn't do that. Then she said "What if the engine quits and we crash in the water or the ground?" I explained what happens when the engine quits, and in more detail of the air flow over the wings and how the plane can still fly without the engine and how you'll descend, but you can control it and choose where to land, etc. She said "Okay, but what if the engine quits AND your wings break?" I had to reply honestly with "If that happened, the airplane couldn't fly any more. BUT..." and I went into the maintenance and how the wings are checked for safety, and how on a preflight we make sure everything's okay before we go fly, etc. Then I said "Do you have any other questions, things that bother you about flying?" and she said "Yes I do! What if you're flying, and the door comes open, and you're turning that way? Will I fall out?" I mentioned her seat belt, so she added "What if my seat belt is off?" I explained how she'd have to push against the door and all that wind is pushing the door closed, not open, and I would quit turning right away, and I'd grab her, and she could grab her seat, and hang on, etc. She was satisfied at that point, ate her snack, and all was well, but she had more questions than I figured after all this time of being in planes. :)

Steve and Mitch (and crew) arrived in the 172 shortly thereafter, right at the same time that Mike and Pam arrived in the van, and we were off to the hotel to check in and eat dinner. You could see the roller coasters from the airport runway, and our hotel was on park property, walking distance from the gate. We went over to a TGIFriday's, where I had some very good Mahi Mahi and a vanilla bean cheesecake for dessert. This hotel where the TGIF was had a really cool Halloween set-up. They had portraits along the walls that looked like old-day sepia family photos, but as you walked past them, they were really holograms, and they'd turn into monsters. It made for a Stephen King-like "The Shining" style hotel corridor, and it would be creepy if you were alone at night or something.

After our late dinner, during which Kaylee *literally* fell asleep sitting in the booth leaned against Steve, we all went back to the hotel and crashed for the night, stuffed and tired.

Friday

Kaylee and I slowly got ready this morning, then wandered out to Glenndale before lunch. It was ham and beans and cornbread, one of Steve's favorite meals. Neither Kaylee nor I were very hungry. :) After lunch I headed to Fed Ex to ship off a few things, then to CVS where Kaylee got angry that I wouldn't let her buy more toys, then on to a Dry Cleaner. Thankfully, they do indeed clean King sized comforters. We walked in and I asked them if they could handle the big king-sized comforter, and she said yes, and asked me if there were any spots or anything on it that she needed to know about. Kaylee pipes up with "I puked on it!" (Thank you, Kaylee!)

We came home for a little bit, then went back to Glenndale to hang out. Maggie came out and the kids played until Maggie's birthday party started. They got on a mission and took all the pop tabs off the cans in the 'pop can recycle trash' area, since so many people forget to pull their tabs and put them in the tab spot, which goes to Riley Hospital for Children as a fundraiser. They also played telephone for awhile with a piece of yarn/string in between two cut-open Coke cans. Haven't seen that game in awhile! :)

Judy and crew fixed a delicious meal and even Kaylee ate almost an entire plate full-I even had two helpings. It was cute watching Kaylee watch Maggie open her presents-Kaylee was so excited to see Maggie open the presents she got for her, because she'd picked them out herself based on what she liked and thought Maggie would like. She had such a happy, eager look on her face, it was sweet. She also enjoyed watching her open everybody else's presents, and she went up to Althea later and said "Maggie really liked the $10 you gave her." I thought that was kind of her, because Althea wasn't in the room when Maggie opened her envelope. :)

We stayed until I think somewhere after 8 pm, then headed home so Kaylee could read her book to me and head to bed. She was sleepy enough she didn't argue at all, Steve passed out in his chair, and I tried to pass out on the couch but knew I'd be exhausted tomorrow if I took a nap at 9 pm, so I got the laptop out instead. *Yawn* I didn't put up pictures of the other people there except Maggie, but I do have pics up of Kaylee now. :)

Well, tomorrow we're supposed to fly to Sandusky, Ohio for the weekend. It'll probably be IFR, there's a 50% chance of rain, and the wind gusts are supposed to be around 40, so it should be a Lovely Trip. ;) Steve is going with a student on a cross-country and the young man's girlfriend (hope she doesn't mind very turbulent air travel!) :O. If Kaylee would let me, I could fill the 4th seat in the plane and Kaylee could drive over with the rest of the family and the kids, watching a video the whole way. Or she and I may take the Bellanca over. Or we may drive over together; there are a lot of factors in play. We're going to go visit Cedar Point, a large amusement park over there in Ohio. I went there once or twice as a college student, and they have some serious roller coasters/rides over there. I'm going to make sure Kaylee is 48" before we leave the house, and we'll see what she's in the mood to do when we get there. I can tell you the one thing I'm not going to do while I'm there; just Reading about these makes me feel queasy right now. Hopefully Kaylee will enjoy herself and her last two days of Fall Break. :)

Kaylee's Girly Day

Today was Kaylee's Special Day Round Two. Actually, she and I have both had fun on these days she's had off of school. She deserves some extra pampering after all the weekends spent away from home, her patience at airshows, and her busy school schedule lately. :)

So this morning we headed off to The Mall. We just got in the door, and she saw one of those photo booths, and said "Can we Mommy?" Suuuure. I swipe my credit card for the $3 (I didn't have three ones, what can I say!), we pose, it takes four pictures, we pick our favorite, and it says it is printing our large Portrait. Suddenly the Pink Screen of Death comes up and it says "Machine Is Temporarily Out of Service. Please call 1800whatever)." I tell Kaylee it ate our photo and that I'm sorry, we won't be able to get it. She is kind of sad, and before we walk away, I decide...why not. I decide to call the company. As I'm getting out my cellphone, a woman working the store next to the defunct booth comes out and says "That's too bad, those were really cute pictures. We could see them out here. Here, why don't you use this land line so you don't eat up your daytime cellphone minutes." Well, that was really nice. :) I call, I report the machine down, and tell them it ate my $3. The lady on the other end took my name and address, and they are sending me a check for $3, which I should get in about three weeks. Now, if I put another $2 with it, I can go buy that Cafe Mocha I've been in the mood for lately. But hey, that wasn't the point. ;)

Our first store stop was Bath & Body Works. Again, the whole time we were there, there was an abundance of very sweet, very helpful, very following-ish salesladies ready to help us discover all the joys of the B&BW products. Again, I know it's their job, and they in fact did a very thorough job of it. I DID come out of there with a spearmint lip gloss I didn't intend to buy, because a sample was handed to me and I liked it. So...there ya go. :) Kaylee walked through, smelled body sprays and lotions, found what she liked, and I purchased for her a lip gloss, a body spray, a bubble bath and a hand soap so that she will quit using my stuff, and a $3 hot pink hair band just because it was "too perfect, Mommy!" What can I say, sometimes I'm a sucker too. Especially for just $3. ;)

We then wandered down to the Regis Hair Salon, where Kaylee got her hair washed, cut, and styled. The hairdresser/stylist suggested layers for her hair to help it have more body, used some goop to keep Kaylee's bangs out of her face the way Kaylee wants it, cut off all the dead ends, and evened out everything. Her hair looks a decent amount shorter, but hopefully it is somewhat healthier, and it DOES look cute. It looks like more of a big girl hair cut. I like the layers in the back. I also think it's interesting that Kaylee has stuck with her guns on growing her bangs out. She does not want bangs. At all. They drive her nuts as they get longer, but she knows she'll have to let them get long for a very long time before they don't hang in her face any more, and she's willing to do it just to lose the bangs. So, Okay, no bangs it is! Here are two photos of her new Do. One right out of the salon, and one a bit later in the day. :)

The hairdresser also said Kaylee has a natural wave to her hair, and we could probably make it curlier with "product". Considering I'VE never even really used "product", other than massive amounts of Rave Hairspray in the 80s, she's got me there, but I may mess with it a bit for her, since Kaylee has wanted wavy/curly for a long time. ;)

We stopped next at the other end of the mall where they had another photo booth thing. This one just does the normal strip of four mug shots, so we did that, and it didn't eat our money and we got our pictures. Since it is very long, I'll post it at the bottom of this message, for your reading ease and viewing pleasure. We had fun doing it, as you will be able to tell!

Finally we got hungry, so we headed to Target (now that there is NO food in this mall otherwise), where they have a pretty thorough little food court, and Kaylee had organic Mac & Cheese, a fruit snack, an organic yogurt stick and organic milk to drink. (These were her choice by the way). After we restored our tanks, it was Time To Shop. Kaylee had some money with her, and she judiciously decided when to spend it and on what. She got a little bottle of purple/pink slime for $1.00, a little Pet Shop pet thing, and a Tinkerbell Make-up kit, with little bag, nail polish, lip gloss, wand, etc. Meanwhile, I found a box of magic (growing) rocks. I've always wanted to do that and never have, so I bought them for myself. Of course I'll do them in front of Kaylee so I can pretend like the exercise was totally for her learning and educational benefit, which hopefully it will be, but the fact of the matter is, I think they're kind of neat myself. I also purchased a pair of white tennis shoes, and when I came home I threw away the pair that had the holes in the soles, and I threw away the pair with the broken laces and big scuff marks. Everybody should be disappointed now that there is little to pick on concerning my footwear. ;)

When we were done with Target, we had one place left to go-the Halloween Store. See, Target didn't have a red wig or any hair coloring stuff for Halloween, and Kaylee (says she) needs red hair to complete her Mermaid Costume. So we went to this Halloween store across the street from the mall. This store had 5,000 black and blond wigs, a blue wig, a pink wig, a red devil wig with horns, a strawberry shortcake wig, pigtail wigs, even a silver sparkly wig. But noooo red wig. What, they see no benefit to being a red head at Halloween?? Come on! Anyway, so instead we got the red hair coloring spray stuff, and there were only a couple cans of that, too. Apparently red isn't very popular at the moment. While we were there, I tried to avoid the Adult Aisles, where they had the goriest stuff and the overtly sexual stuff, but I missed one. We went down this one that had kid stuff on the right side, and when I turned around Kaylee said in a slightly horrified voice "Eeeeew, Mommy, is that REAL?" and I look down and she's poking at a brain sitting in a bin surrounded by 'blood'. She then instituted a conversation about brains and blood and was vaguely disturbed for a few minutes, but quickly recovered.

Next came gymnastics, so we ran home, relaxed for a few minutes talking, and then she got dressed and we headed off to the gym. Home in time to do our reading, put away our stuff, play with her stuff for a little while, and she's in bed while I'm uploading (what else!) PHOTOS From the Day. :) We've had a fun couple of days, and tomorrow it'll be Glenndale Day. Lunch out there (beans and ham...ugh), and then later a birthday party for Miss Maggie! In between we may come home and work on picking up a few things around the house-I started today and it's much better, but that front room could use some attention.

And thus goes our Day II! Here's the photo strip from the mall. Enjoy. ;)

It's A Kaylee Day!

Today was Kaylee's first day off of school for Fall Break, and it was a "Kaylee Day" to celebrate her time off and reward her good report card. So the first thing we did after getting ready in a leisurely way this morning was run a few errands and then head to Chuck E Cheese. Kaylee had a ball, spending tons of bucks in tokens on games and barely eating her pizza. :) Right before we left, she even got to give Chuck E. a hug, which made her smile. She ended up with 307 tickets, with which she got a Princess Crown and two gooey Caterpillars. We stayed just under two hours, and she left with a bounce in her step.

On our way home, I stopped at her former school, because for once they were there when Kaylee was 'available' too. We walked inside, and the teachers and kids saw us and came running out into the hall yelling Kaylee's name. She got lots of hugs, and her former Kindergarten teacher had tears in her eyes and kept commenting on how tall Kaylee is getting. She was like a rock star! Kaylee was so happy to see everybody, and she wants to go back. :)

From there we came home, and it was time to Carve The Pumpkin! Whoo child. I had bought a little book of templates this year, and Kaylee chose the Spider just because she knows how much I detest spiders. I'd never done anything like this before, I always just carved a regular ole jack-o-lantern face. First of course we had to clean out the inside of the pumpkin, and boy did Kaylee go to town on that! She did great, scooping out the strings and goop and separating the seeds from the guts. From there I taped on the template, then used the little puncture wheel tool to "punch in" the pattern into the pumpkin skin. That took awhile by the way. So I take the paper template off, but I can't even see the pattern in the pumpkin. Hmmm. Ah ha! I took some flour and spread it around, and the flour went into the tiny holes, and wa-la. Next I took this tiny little saw blade that came with the book, and it seemed so wimpy that I thought for sure it would snap. Nope, that thing sawed through that big pumpkin no problem-and I didn't even cut my finger off. Unfortunately, this whole process was not anything Kaylee could help with. So that takes some of the fun out of it. No way am I letting her saw on the pumpkin yet, and following all those little lines was tricky for ME, let alone her. At one point, when I was punching out part of the pumpkin that was supposed to be punched out, I snapped off one of the spider legs too. I was rather upset by that, since I'd been working on this pumpkin for almost 2 hours already. Kaylee asked me what was wrong, and I said I was bummed because I cut off a spider leg. She said "Let's get a new pumpkin." I briefly considered an unpleasant response, but managed to keep it to "No way sister. Besides, I think I can fix it." :) I made up my own extra leg and fit it in there. My spider is no longer symmetrical, but by George I think you can tell it's a spider anyway. I have to tell you, I kind of like it. I'm kind of pleased with how it turned out, crooked legs and all. Kaylee likes it too, and she's pleased to have chosen something that grosses me out. :)

After a stop at Kokomo Airport to help update the avionics on the 172SP, I stopped at the Shell station to fill up and wash my car. Interestingly enough, Kaylee who has always liked the car wash was not as thrilled this time. As we started going in, I turn around to smile at her, and she has a frown on her face. I said "What's wrong?" And Kaylee looks me in the eye and says "It feels like we're going to die." I said "Die?? Why would we die?" She said "See all those huge brushes and stuff moving around? They look like they are going to make it so I can't breathe." Oh my. I have that same feeling in a car wash, and I usually have to focus inside the car until it's past the windows--but I've *never* said that to her. She's always enjoyed them and I've always pretended it was fun too...

We left there and I took her to Dairy Queen for a big old chocolate ice cream cone, to kind of top off her special day, as ice cream is her favorite treat. :) We came home and studied for her Awanas meeting and she ate dinner...I took her to Awanas, after which I headed to dinner with Steve and Chuck. When I went to pick her up, she was completely excited because her team had won again, and that's rare. I mentioned that this was indeed "her" day, and she said "It sure is!" As we pull into the driveway, I said "And guess what Kaylee, you don't even have any homework to do!" She laughed out loud and said "This day just keeps getting better and better!" Then I said "AND, you don't even have to go to bed for another 30 minutes." Her response was a quiet, contented "Even Sweeter." She's so funny.

It's also Steve's Day! He got a new toy, and it IS pretty neat. It's a new Samsung phone that has a flip-out keyboard so you can easily text, and it has voice texting, where you can just say what you want it to send, which is I think is pretty cool. That really would make it easier to send a quick text while driving or something. The camera in the phone is good enough to print out the photos, and has an auto flash when needed, AND it can hold up to 2 Gig of MP3 songs/music. Steve's been messing with his new toy all evening! I should be getting mine in November when my contract is up. :o)

Well, here are our photos of Kaylee's Day today. Tomorrow there will be even more, I'm sure, as we go to the mall and back to the school to meet up with Mrs. R. to finally be able to give her the kid hand-print quilt that I haven't been willing to give up just yet, and Friday Kaylee gets to go to a birthday party for Maggie. A fun week!

Parent-Teacher Conferences and Stuff

I didn't sleep well last night at all, so I was pretty draggy most of the day-felt like I had sand in my eyeballs. It doesn't help when it's also cold, gray and rainy. Ah, the depressing days of Fall. I can't wait for the bright watercolor sunshine days full of color again. :)

I deposited checks for SMA Support and the airport, and made it to the post office. We went to lunch at Culvers today, and I actually had and liked the Boston Clam Chowder. Went back to Glenndale for awhile and tried out Dale's new couch-I couldn't really sleep, but I relaxed for awhile anyway. And yes, his couch is as comfortable as it looks! :) Dale just had hip replacement surgery yesterday morning. The whole surgery took 33 minutes, and today he was walking with a walker for 250 steps and counting. He called, sounding perfectly chipper and alert. That's just amazing. What we really found funny was that he told his wife right before he went into surgery, that if he died in the surgery, they owed Steve $85 and to pay him. LOL That's Dale!

Then it was time for Kaylee's first First Grade Parent Teacher Conference. She's out of school from Wednesday through next Monday now! She's looking forward to a day of Chuck-E-Cheese, a day of pumpkin carving, a day of Shopping, and we'll see what else. :) Anyway, the conference went fine. There are 3 reading groups in the class, and she's in the "top level" reading group, she's doing well academically, and the teacher said she listens and obeys instructions well, does her work well, and interacts with the other kids well. She said if Kaylee has anything to work on, it's that she sometimes talks too much (yes, that still makes me snicker), but the teacher leaned in and said "But I really don't consider that an issue." She also said that when Kaylee is reading, when she comes to a word she doesn't know, instead of patiently sounding it out, she get frustrated almost right away and quits on the word. I've seen that too at home, and that *does* bug the teacher a lot. The last "thing to work on" she said was that sometimes Kaylee gets in a hurry and gets sloppy on her handwriting. Yeah, that was me too. Still is, in fact. lol Anyway, it was a positive conference, and Kaylee's doing well...

Tuesday Top Ten: Ten Things About School

I think the others are doing Ten Things They Want To Lose, but I'm going to do the one I never got around to last week. This is supposed to be any ten things about school. Things you like, things you dislike, whatever. So, for your reading boredom:

Ten Things About School:

1. Fundraisers. While I know that schools need money, and I sympathize with their plight of trying to provide quality teachers and supplies to as many students as possible, I detest the fundraisers. They don't stop. There are literally over six fundraisers going on at Kaylee's school right this moment, and they pressure the kids (and of course the parents). I think everybody else takes it all in stride, but this is bad for me. It was bad when I was the kid doing it, and it's just as bad if not worse as the grown-up. I'd spend a good portion of my savings account right now towards a fundraiser aimed at research on a way schools can exist WITHOUT putting us all through all the fundraising.

2. "The Cool Kids". It starts early. In fact, it was brought up at our Parent/Teacher conference today. There's a particular girl in Kaylee's class, who after going on a field trip with that class, I have nicknamed "Queen XXXX" in my head. She's the little adorable blue-eyed blond with dangly earrings and perfect clothing who holds court over the entire class and any adults she's around. She chooses who can sit next to her, who can eat with her, and in fact who may speak to her. She befriends someone when they have something she wants, and then dumps them for someone else 'better' who comes along. And all the kids flock to her, wanting to be one of the ones she 'chooses'. Sound familiar? Yes, we all know or knew people like that, didn't we. But she's SIX YEARS OLD. And I really, really am saddened when Kaylee comes home and tells me stories that made her feel sad or unwanted. Steve, myself AND the teacher have all talked to Kaylee about it being okay to not be best friends with everybody, and that if a person doesn't treat you well, they aren't a good friend, etc. Not a fun life lesson, though I know we all went through it, and in some cases still do. :(

3. Friendships. On the flip side of that coin, when you are in school eight hours a day, five days a week, 9 months of the year, when you DO find those good friends, it makes all the difference. You have someone to hang out with, swap stories with, back you up when you need it, get you in trouble with the teachers when you start laughing during class, write notes to, eat lunch with, complain about homework to, whatever. For me, I never had a lot of friends, but other than in Junior High, I usually had one close friend, which makes life a lot easier even when the rest of school is...difficult.

4. Learning is Fun. It's fun to learn new things, to see Kaylee come home with new skills. I LOVE listening to her read to me, I love seeing her do math equations with the greatest of ease (she just Whizzes through her math papers...it's her highest score on her report card of 98%.) I love talking to her about nouns and pronouns and having her pipe up from the back seat "Oh, didn't you know that Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun?" I love watching her mind expand, and I have answered some questions I didn't even know existed to ask. School opens that door for her.

5. Field Trips. They're really pretty neat. I don't always enjoy going, because, well, I'm not good with noise and mass quantities of kids and noise and unruly behavior and noise. But they ARE kind of fun. And they're nice to be able to get out of the school environment and still learn stuff.

6. Homework. Uggggh. You know, I thought it was bad when I was in school; now I feel like I'm BACK in school. There are spelling words, Bible verses, reading words, reading assignments, math papers, and English papers to do. Thankfully, Kaylee is pretty good about doing her homework without muss or fuss, and she's fast at it too. But some days it IS a battle, when I have to figure out what the teacher wants, the directions aren't clear, and Kaylee "doesn't remember".

7. Projects. This could go with #6, but I think it deserves its own line. Dreaded Projects. I Don't Even Want To Talk About It Projects. Parents Are Really Competing With Each Other Projects. I Am Distinctly Unhappy About Projects.

8. The PTL. That doesn't stand for "Praise The Lord" as the network show, it stands for the "Parent Teacher League", where parents and teachers are in league together, the better to torment those of us not on it. :) I have a great respect for the parents who can dive into the projects, the parent-teacher league, the classroom moms. I honestly do, because it takes more than I have.

9. School Programs. Can't help it, I'm a sucker for these. I love them. I love watching my little darling get up on stage with everyone else's little darlings and sing, talk, act, whatever they are doing up there. I think the programs are terrific, and I'll bet this school does a terrific Christmas program that I look forward to attending. :)

10. Graduating. Personally, I quite thoroughly enjoyed every school graduation I attended. I enjoyed graduating from high school. I was rather pleased when I graduated from flight school. And I was mostly relieved when I graduated from Purdue. Graduating is the best thing about school! You work hard for years and years and you finally did it! I can't stand the thought of Kaylee graduating yet, because she's six and she's just begun. But some day I'm sure I will be quite proud to watch her receive her diploma too. :)

Monday in Missouri

This morning was beautiful-clear skies and it was supposed to get up to 74 degrees. (It didn't!) After dropping Kaylee off at school, I ran out to Glenndale to pick up some supplies and Chuck, and headed over to Kokomo Airport. We flew the Baron to Fulton, Missouri while Nathan chased us in the Cheyenne. We took off about 15 minutes before he did, and landed about six minutes after he did. The winds were not helpful, to say the least. We had about a 30 knot headwind down at 10,000', and Nathan had a 100 knot headwind up where he was, so he came down to 28,000' and still had a bit of slow going for the Cheyenne. Somewhere in Missouri, the clouds came in, and the forecast for where we were going took a turn for the worse. Nothing horrid, but lower than it was 'supposed' to be when we got there. Let me throw in a plug for the Avidyne. That is a *wonderful* aviation tool. In the past, you'd find out what the weather was at your destination about when you got there. These days, I can check on the weather hundreds of miles out, and make plans and adaptations for what is going on. Or at least prepare. In this case, I went from what was originally just going to be a VFR visual approach to unexpected instrument conditions of 800' and 2 miles, with only a non-precision approach available at that field; but I knew that in enough time to be able to get fairly comfortable with the (weird) approaches, the missed approach procedures, the nearest precision approach, etc. Gotta love technology! Nathan got to the approach first, so while he was shooting the approach, center made me hold on an intersection out there. Hadn't had THAT in a long time. A third airplane was right behind me, and HE had to hold while *I* shot the approach. And center couldn't hear you on the ground, so in order to cancel your IFR and allow the next 'guy' to shoot the approach, you had to land, and call 1-800-wx-brief or the direct line and cancel your IFR there. So when Nathan hit the ground, he made a radio call and asked for someone to pass on his cancellation to center for him. A guy did, and I was subsequently allowed to leave the hold and shoot the approach. So as soon as I landed, I did the same thing so the guy behind me could come on in and not wait for us to shut down and make a phone call. Later I talked to him a bit on the ground, and he appreciated that. ;) It was a little funny having a group of stacked-up airplanes in IFR holds at nowhere, Missouri. It was also an odd airport. They had three runways, but they were all little. You could put two of those together and have Kokomo's runway practically. Anyway-Chuck did most of the flying on the trip, by hand, and did a nice job as always. :) When we came in to land, we had a decent crosswind, and the wind over the trees at the end of the runway caused some interesting currents. An all-around interesting and kind of fun flight. But when we got out of the plane, it was FREEZING there. I was shaking in my t-shirt.

We left out of there in the Cheyenne shortly thereafter, leaving the Baron there to get some engine work done. It was an uneventful and fast trip home. We hit at least 400 knots groundspeed at one point. Gotta Love That. At least I do. ;) Back in the traffic pattern at Kokomo, the traffic was telling us there were FOUR other airplanes out there. We Never spotted any of those guys! Now that's pretty bad. One guy saw us, and the rest weren't a factor for our landing, but it bothered us both that we never saw any of the other planes out there out of four. That's just sad. When we landed, the weather for Kokomo had gone downhill too. It was cold, cloudy, and spitting a little. Yuck. Depressing.

We put everything away and then went to lunch at Applebees. It was a late lunch, but we hadn't eaten all day, so we were too starved to wait. When I finished my shrimp, I went and picked up Kaylee from school, and thus began the rest of the day. We went home to change and have a snack, and then change into ballet clothes. In ballet class, they are now working on a 'bar', which is new, and looks actually rather ballerina-ish. It's cute. I may have to sneak a picture. We left there and headed right to cheer practice, where Kaylee wore a Colts Cheerleader outfit-appropriate considering the Colts game tonight. (Which they are currently winning quite thoroughly in the 4th quarter, thank you.) She got done with cheer at 7:30 pm, and it's now dark, colder, and actively raining. (Blah). I stopped at Arby's for dinner, then it was home and she had to do her homework, which included some pages from the Friday she was sick. *sigh* I left two pages for her to do tomorrow morning before school. She'd had enough for one day.

Bedtime for her, Colts Game for me (after entering checks for SMA Support and answering a few emails.) And thus goes Monday!

More Miscellaneous Nothings

Steve and I were watching "Viva Laughlin" the other day, because nothing else was on, and it was okay until he suddenly broke into song. We kind of looked at each other with our eyebrows up, and figured it was just a silly fluke. Until a bit later in the show when he broke out into another song. And then Mellanie Griffith broke into song. It was somewhere during the second song that we realized this was a "Musical" and a TV show. Later the next day we saw a TV interview where someone claimed that the general public was ready for a musical tv show. While I do think it will have an audience, I'm not sure how ready the entire general public is for it. I guess we'll see. I think they'd be better off singing on their own rather than singing along with the sound track, since I don't think anybody sounds that great when comparing them to the original artist--they just sound like the rest of us singing along to our radio, not like Olivia Newton John in "Grease" or something. Maybe that's what they are aiming for...a whole "new" kind of TV musical show.

I read the new Nicholas Sparks book "The Choice" today. I thought it would be about a woman choosing between two men, but it wasn't; it was about a man who had to make a choice on whether or not to pull his wife off of life support after she became comatose for an extended period of time after an accident and subsequent brain injury. She had made him promise that should something like that ever happen, he would pull the plug after 12 weeks, because she'd (as a doctor's assistant at a hospital) seen another family destroyed in that situation. Kids gone bad, husband became a shell of a man who came to resent his wife who was not dead but mostly dead, lost his job, his home, his hope, his money, his everything. She didn't ever want her family to go through anything like that, so she made him promise. But he truly felt that she WOULD wake up, and the accident that put her there was his fault, so he couldn't stomach 'giving up' and being the one to actually "kill" her. Twelve weeks pass, and he has to make the choice. Nicholas Sparks is pretty good about getting you into the head of the characters you are reading. I can say that, because while it wasn't with a spouse, we had to make that decision too, with our son. I'll be 80 years old and remember that decision, that moment. Sparks did a good job with it as far as I could relate anyway, from the hope that it won't actually happen to the nausea and shock and horror and fear and weird calm as you make the best choice you can for the one you love. I won't tell you how the book ends though, because that would be mean for any readers of this blog who might want to go read the book. ;)

Well, tomorrow's a busy day; Kaylee back to school and other activities, me getting some bills and checks out and the other normal Monday stuff. Back to "reality".

Painting Away

Well, we finally all got motivated enough to paint our kitchen wall. We'd painted the opposing wall several months ago, and just never got around to finishing the job, until today. I've got one coat left to put up, and Steve is finishing the trim now. It already looks much better. :) Kaylee helped cover the areas of red we'd put on there before, giving them two coats prior to my rolling the wall. Steve does all the trim work by hand, without tape or other tools of assistance. I'm always mildly amazed that he can run the paintbrush right up against the lines and wood and not get smears all over the place. He's dead on. He does this job, because should that be my job, we'd have paint all over all the woodwork. I could maybe do it for a foot or two, but then I would get tired, or bored, or whatever happens to me when I get clumsy. Funny, I can hold an airplane steady for a long time--but not a paintbrush. Huh. Well, maybe it's just a "what you know" or a practice thing. Or maybe I'm just smart enough to know not to be good at that job. ;)

Nah...I willingly admit I stink at it. I do the wide open spaces with the roller, and still have been known to hit a ceiling or wood trim. I took a few pictures of painting, which you can see at the bottom of Kaylee's page.

Kaylee's doing great-she acts perfectly normal and healthy, and I think she'll be in fine shape to start school tomorrow after having a couple of days off to recuperate.

The Little Mermaid

Kaylee woke up bright and early and chipper around 5 a.m., unfortunately for us, but she was doing great...until she had breakfast. Then she ended up feeling sick again, so we cancelled the weekend away for good.

We needed some stuff at the house; I figured the one place I could get it all from a few groceries to house supplies to a costume was Target, so I headed there shortly after noon. Wow, you forget how packed out a mall can be on a nice Saturday morning when you never go there. Somehow, I got a parking spot Right in front of the door though, and I thought that was a good sign. :) I found what we needed and a few things we didn't need, then wandered down (with cart and all) to the Bath & Body Works, where I needed to pick up some spray for Kaylee (yes, I said for Kaylee) and some soap for us. The store was Packed to the Gills, meaning I had to leave my cart in the entrance way, which was just begging for something to be stolen out of it. But it's a small store, meaning I was never far from it, so I went with it and tried to smell the new stuff they have there and decide what to get. But three different saleswomen came up, and there were people everywhere, and I just left without getting anything. They have a website; I can't scratch and sniff the screen, but at least I know what I already like, and I can do it in peace and quiet.

Steve got all the trees and bushes trimmed outside, and Kaylee really started perking up in the afternoon. She started eating, and drinking, and using the restroom, and hopping around, and talking non-stop again. :) This time it seems to have stuck--she really does look perfectly normal at this point. No fever or anything. I'll cross my fingers that her "bug" has left the building!

She had told me she wanted to be a mermaid for Halloween. It occurred to me today that it was in the October 20 range, and Halloween was coming up fast, and we didn't have a costume. So I found a mermaid costume at Target and brought it home for her to try. Fortunately, she really likes it, and wore it most of the afternoon. She wants to dye her hair red again (NOT gonna happen, although I may find a red wig or some of that spray we used last year that DOES wash out), and other than needing a pair of shoes for her, she should be good to go for Halloween. I'm even early this year! Last year, about 2 days before-hand, I dragged her to a Halloween store that had pretty slim pickings. I've got a picture of it, but blogger won't let me load it right now, so you can see the photos on her website anyway.

I've spent the day straightening up and cleaning and doing laundry (even putting it away, somewhat), and several rooms of the house are in decent shape. Kaylee has been keeping her room pretty picked up, so all in all it's not too bad.

It's only 7 pm, too; the day is young for us!

Update

Well, things were looking up this morning. Kaylee didn't eat much, but she'd drink water, and she was fairly active, talkative and cheerful. She kept me busy. By the time lunch was over, she still wouldn't eat, so we made Jell-O molds in the shape of Jelly Beans, and she ate a few of those before claiming she was stuffed. Later that evening I still couldn't get her to eat any more, so we made chocolate chip cookies, and that did the trick. She ate two little ones, and then said she was still hungry, but wouldn't eat oatmeal or bananas, so I convinced her to have some Cheerios. That's all the food I got in her today, other than two bites of chicken pasta casserole before bed.

Some time around 4 pm, Kaylee laid back down on the couch, and passed out for over an hour and a half. I was watching her sleep, and I could see her cheeks getting that flushed look; sure enough, by the time she woke up, she had over 101.7 F fever. Her head has been hurting her all day, even with Tylenol or Motrin. The rest of the afternoon went downhill for her. Her energy dropped, her temperature rose, her appetite dropped, and she complained about her head hurting a lot. She perked up again shortly before Steve got home, after another dose of Motrin, and we played CandyLand. She'd only been in bed for 10 minutes when she came back out crying, having thrown up again--for the first time since 6 a.m. :( So...I'm hoping we all get a little better rest tonight, but I won't hold my breath just yet.

The Day That Wasn't

Yesterday on the way home from the Pumpkin Train, Kaylee's teacher told me about a girl in the First Grade class who had the flu so severely that she ended up in the hospital with dehydration and out of school for over a week. I thought "eek!"

I expected Kaylee to come to our room around 2am when the storms hit, but instead she came in when her stomach attacked. She made it to the restroom from a dead sleep just in time to lose everything she's eaten for the last week, violently enough that her little legs were just shaking. She came in and laid down with us, and then proceeded to throw up almost exactly every two hours, all night long. After the first time, she was too shaky to get out of bed, so after changing our bedding at 2 am, we brought in a pan for her. After that, the poor little thing could mostly do nothing but dry heave, and we all know how much fun THAT is. It's odd, she was perfectly fine yesterday and last night, absolutely no hint of anything, and then this. Oh, and her temperature is reading normal so far. No fever. So, no flu I guess. I don't know, but she claims that her head hurts, her throat hurt really bad last night, her stomach really hurts, and she "can't walk"-says her legs are too wobbly.

Today was supposed to go something like this: Drop Kaylee off at school, pack bags, have lunch at Glenndale, fly to Fulton, MO to drop the Baron off for its engine work, get picked up by Steve and Kaylee in the Bellanca, go on to Cape Girardeau and spend the weekend with Mom & Ernie and enjoy a fly-in at Painton Airport down there.

Today is going to go something like this: Stay home with Sick Girl, do bedding laundry, pamper Sick Girl, try to get her to eat and drink something that can stay down, and re-evaluate tonight/tomorrow...

Miscellaneous Previously Forgotten Things

I can't help it. I like this picture. I tried to not post it, for days, but I can't help it, it's just been staring at me, waiting to be posted. Sorry. But nice hose work, boys. :)

Tonight we are getting nailed with storms. Actually, even this morning we lost our power at the house. Kaylee was at the kitchen table when the lights went out, and she freaked. As I was running in there to let her know the dark wasn't going to kill us today, Steve yells: "HEY KAYLEE! You think You're scared, I'M stuck in the Bathroom!" Made me laugh anyway. :) There are several lines of severe storms moving through, with big thunder and all. I'm surprised I haven't seen a six year old come flying out of her room on a tear yet! Well, I'm sure she'll wait until the 2 am storms hit to do that...

This next picture requires a little bit more explanation. See, several months ago, I thought to myself that I could really use at least one nicer outfit that fit, that I could wear to places where one dressed up just a bit. I put it off for quite awhile, but finally caved after yet one more unsuccessful venture to my closet one evening, and off to the store I went. I wandered around for quite awhile at various places, and I have to say, it was...eye-opening. I really really hope that nobody is offended by this, but this photo is a representation of most of the dressier clothing that I saw in about every store I visited, and, well, um, it is so far past "not my style" that I can't even see the "not my style" line. I was just hoping to find a nice dressy blouse that would go well with black slacks, or maybe a whole outfit, but this is what I found instead. Blouses and dresses and skirts and slacks outfits and all manner of clothing...in what is apparently the style of the moment-wild and bright and patterned. I went home empty-handed. Again, I mean NO offense to anyone who can pull this off, I'm sure you look lovely in it. But Really, can anyone who knows me imagine ME clothed in:
Okay, stop imagining it now...I can hear you snickering. Oh well, at least I'll be comfortable while I'm being terribly un-fashionable.

The Pumpkin Train

This morning we had to get up early, because it was Kaylee's School Field Trip to the Indiana Transportation Museum where they have the "Pumpkin Train". I had agreed to be a driver and chaperon, so we showed up five minutes early and were ready to head to Noblesville. The teacher passed out driving assignments, and a little girl named Jessica rode in the back seat with Kaylee, and the teacher decided to ride with me. For the hour and a half round trip drive. I'm such a conversationalist, particularly early in the morning during the rain with no music going. :)

It was supposed to be nasty all day, and it Wasn't. We sure caught a break with this one; it didn't rain on us once and we were outdoors most of the day. Wheeeew!

First we broke into groups, and each group got a tour of the facilities, the trains and their various cars, and an explanation on how everything worked, from message delivery to track switches. It was a bit of info overload for six year olds, but they did a great job being polite for the entire hour plus; enough so that our group's guide actually mentioned how polite and well-behaved our kids were. Honesty, it was a bit of info overload for me too, and I'm 35. But he was very passionate about trains and their history, and I did my best to show interest.

When we went on the tour through the passenger cars, I about didn't make it. I think I'm getting worse as I get older, not better. But we were all crammed into this dark narrow steel/metal corridor with walls small enough my shoulders almost brushed the sides, with lots of small children being (at this point) loud and chatty and excited. The guide kept stopping and pointing out the tiny sleeping quarters, and talking about polishing shoes and about toilets available and how lush this was for the times, and I'm feeling my heart rate and breathing both accelerating. I could not wait to get out of there and get back in the open air. The worst part was I couldn't even get out if I wanted to, I was blocked in by lots of people with no room to go around, so to get out I'd have had to make a scene and herd everybody out in front of (or behind) me. Of course you can't think about THAT at the time unless you want to end up in LRSchool's Hall of Shame for Most Embarrassing Parental Behavior on a Field Trip, 2007. ;)

One thing that kept my mind on something else was another parent, who was a murmurer. Do you know anyone like that? The guide would be talking his spiel, non-stop, and this sweet, super nice mom was talking the whole time with him. Murmuring comments. "Oh yes, I see that." Or "Oh my, how frightening", or "Mmm-hmmm, I sure do." I don't mean this irreverently, but it was a bit like a church service where people talk back to the preacher when they get fired up. It was...distracting at least.

After the tour was over, we stopped for a snack, then loaded up on the Pumpkin Train. Because it was supposed to rain, they stopped at the pumpkin patch first, and the kids all got to pick out a pumpkin. The rule was, "If you can't carry it yourself, you can't bring it home." First stop there was a mini petting zoo, where they had fluffy baby bunnies and a baby goat available for the kids to handle. The kids mobbed the animals, but luckily, best I could tell, everything survived the onslaught. :) Next they sent us into a pumpkin patch, but the first round of kids came out screaming, covered in burrs. I found a little humor in it but I kept that to myself, and we all headed to a safer and less prickly pumpkin patch, where Kaylee found her pumpkin. I said "Kaylee, that's pretty big; remember, if you can't carry it, you can't have it." She looks at me, hoists it up, walks for awhile, then says, "See, I can too carry it. Can I have it?" I laughed and said 'okay', at which point she says "I CAN carry it, but I don't really want to. Will you carry it for me?" Ha. I know Steve is laughing at that one.

After the train ride, the kids got to play on a playground for about an hour, which they all enjoyed of course. It was an interesting playground too, with stuff on it I have never seen before. I'd describe it but I doubt anybody cares, so just trust me, it was interesting. ;)

We got home just in time to hit McDonalds for dinner, change clothes, and head right back out to gymnastics. Kaylee is now in bed at 7:30 p.m. by her own choice. Now THAT hasn't happened in...ever?? Thankfully she had no homework for tomorrow! But we ARE flying to Missouri tomorrow I think. :)

Oh, Pumpkin Patch Pics up on Kaylee's Site. :)

Upside Down

Since we went on the roller coasters, Kaylee has told me several times that she wants to go upside down in an airplane too. Well, we have an airplane available in which you can indeed (legally) go upside down. The problem was, other than riding along while someone else did them, I hadn't actually done aerobatics myself in many many years, except spins and spin training with students now and then. Today I was planning on staying home and working on stuff at the house, but when I looked at the weather, it was beautiful, and I finally had that extra push to go out and take up the Decathlon, so that's what I tried to do. It was buried behind an ultralight in the hangar, but I got the ultralight out of the way. Next I tried to get the plane out, but I was too close to the door and another plane in there, and I ran into trouble. Luckily two gentlemen came to my rescue and helped me get it out. But I wasn't good to go yet-it was out of gas. *sigh* Right about here I seriously considered not messing with it any more, but I was on a mission now. Put gas in it, and finally I was ready to go. It took me almost that long to get strapped into the parachute and the seatbelt system, which is the main reason I don't fly that plane very much. It takes more effort to get IN it than it does to fly it, but I suppose if I did it more often I'd get faster at it. :)

I put in my iPod and listened to some great tunes while I took off and climbed up pretty high, wanting to give myself enough room to get out of anything I might get into. :) I started off with spins just to get in the swing of things. I did about five of those, then moved into the aileron roll. The first aileron roll I did was textbook, perfect-and then I couldn't recreate it after that. The other five I did were kind of sloppy. After an oblong loop and almost an hour flying, I decided it was time to head back for the day. While I was at it, I tried to video a couple of the maneuvers. The spin video didn't turn out very well, but I got an aileron roll video, which is up on my site under "fun flying videos". Like I said, it's hard to hold a camera and do stuff, particularly if you're already rusty, but I wanted to see it from that angle, so I gave it a shot. Here's a snapshot as I was rolling into the maneuver.

I think if nothing else, I'm ready to at least take Kaylee upside down--she won't have a clue if it is an airshow worthy maneuver or not. ;)

When I got down, Chuck, Nathan and I went to Culvers for a quick lunch, then headed out to Kokomo. I hopped in the back of the Baron while Chuck flew us over to Huntington to deliver a check; the next leg I hopped up front and we flew to Muncie, where Nathan picked up the Cheyenne. For our last leg of the day, I flew home. Well, first we went by Glenndale doing a little runway check, and THEN I headed back to Kokomo. I make my radio call for entering crosswind, and I hear Nathan pipe up with "Cheyenne 37KW is on crosswind for 14 behind the Baron." I spin around, looking for the (much faster) airplane behind me, and see nothing. There's also nothing on my traffic monitor, which means Nathan turned off his transponder so I can't see him. I call downwind, and he calls downwind behind me. I'm making a tight pattern, trying to get down and out of his way, but I still can't see him. It isn't until base that I suspect he's messing with me, and after I land I find out he was about 20 miles out, and yes, in fact, just messing with me. Paybacks...

We landed in time to wipe off the bugs, fuel up the plane, put it all away, and head out. I had driven Chuck out, so I took him with me to pick Kaylee up from school, and we all enjoyed a big old shake from Steak N Shake on the way out to the airport. Brought her home to change clothes, took her to Awanas, and then headed to the Half Moon with Steve and Chuck. A busy day, but a good flying one, the last one for a few days anyway. Shortly after we got home, the skies clouded over and it started getting nasty, which is a preclude for the weather to come. We're supposed to get storms tonight and most of tomorrow, which stinks since Kaylee's field trip for school (to the Pumpkin Patch) is tomorrow...

Tuesday

This morning the sun supposedly came up, though we never really saw it. It was rainy and cold and overcast. Nathan was supposed to go over to Muncie in the Cheyenne and I was supposed to pick him up in the Baron, so we waited for the worst of the rain to pass, which took most of the morning. Around 11:30 I got the "Come get me" call, and Steve, Chuck and I headed out to Kokomo to grab the Baron. Unfortunately the Avidyne was out of the plane getting updated at Muncie, so we didn't have all our gizmos to play with on the IFR way over there, but we didn't need it. For my records, I did a VOR/GPS 20 approach (with the nice WAAS vertical guidance) coupled to autopilot going into Muncie, and hand-flew the ILS 23 back into Kokomo. It had been awhile, so it was a good day to practice without it being "too" low or scuddy. Naturally we had to have lunch while we were already there. Muncie makes a great grilled grouper sandwich (or blackened if you like spicy), and a good chicken salad croissant too.

We got back to Kokomo and got fueled up and put away, and I had to leave to pick up Kaylee. I step outside, and it's mostly blue sky. Figures! I guess it stayed IFR just long enough to let me get somewhat current in the clouds first. :)

Kaylee got in the car after school and started crying right away. Apparently her kitty necklace that she had purchased at the Feast of the Hunters' Moon broke at school...the head was still attached to the cord, but the body was broken off. The visual was disturbing to her-so I told her we'd try to glue it back together, but I'm not overly optimistic. It's green stone or something like that-I'm not sure you can glue that with any success.

A few errands for the day, like the store (where I forgot one of the main items that brought me to the store in the first place), the post office (nada), the bank, and paying a bill in person, and I think I'm in and home for the night. I slept miserably last night and I've been wiped out most of the day. Sitting down now at home finishes off the last of my energy reserves. *Yawn*

This morning Richard & Ann got on their way to Florida. They gave Kaylee a doll, and she's been carrying around the doll all day long. Safe travels to them, and a warm winter in the land of sun, storms and mold! :)