New Year's Eve

It is a cliche to talk about reflecting over the last year or pondering goals for the upcoming year on New Year's Eve, but many times something becomes a cliche because it is actually valid. :) What I said last year is still the truth for this year: My family has been together and in good health, nothing tragic has befallen anyone I love, and we have been able to provide Kaylee with everything she needs and probably more than she should have of what she wants. Friendships have strengthened, learning envelopes have been pushed, interests have been kindled and waistbands have expanded. As long as we can keep learning, keep growing, keep going, and keep smiling, it is a successful year. :)

People laugh at people who make "Resolutions", but they shouldn't. Where would you be in life if you never made any goals, never set any course, never stopped to assess where you are vs. where you want to be and what it might take to get there? The only problem with "New Year Resolutions" is the same problem faced any time...when a person makes unreasonable or broad-stroke goals with no idea how to get from A to B, no progress checks along the way, and no timeline in which to do it. They aren't "resolving" anything, they are just stating what they want and hoping they happen to get there. They usually won't, whether it be a career goal or a self-betterment resolution, because life will follow the path of least resistance unless you deliberately turn it the way you want it to go. If you don't know what steps to take to do that and stop and check where you are on the goal now and then, it won't happen. So do I have any resolutions? Mmm, I would say I have a few goals I'd like to accomplish for the upcoming year, yes, some easier than others. :)

We spent the day quietly, playing, snacking, resting. We had Christmas Round II and enjoyed opening lots of fun presents. Lon took the 4-wheeler and most of the kids out on an evening run out to the big tree house, the horses, the common land, etc. At one point he hit a ridge and got some air Dukes of Hazard style, and of course Kaylee wanted him to do that again and again. They came back in red-faced from the cold, laughing, with bits of hay stuck in various places. Life is good.

We watched a movie until about 10:00 p.m., then turned on the Fox New Year's Eve show as the most family-friendly version. That and I can not stand Kathy Griffin. Her voice and her personality both are pretty much as anti-Laura as you can get. ;) We laughed at some of the texts that people were sending in, Rania sent in a couple from us, and we watched the ball fall on New York time. This of course is the proper time for us Kokomites too, but here in Franklin it's actually an hour early. Some of us watched the same ball fall twice, while others were satisfied with watching the experience once. They keep talking every year about this amazing ball, and this year it's 6 tons and 12' wide...and guess what--on TV it looks like every other ball they have every other year. Apparently you have to be there in person to "get" it. Of course, people were standing outside in 2 degree windchill temps for upwards of 12 hours with no bathroom capabilities, and if you leave you can't get back in for security. Does that sound like fun to anybody?? Most things in life I like to say "Sure, I'd try that once." Except that. Unless the amenities are better than advertised. ;)

We ended New Year's Eve by Deenie wandering around the house and finding a good place to hide for the new year while the rest of us went to bed full and warm and tired and content. Like I said, life is good.

Welcome to 2009. :)

Warmth

I know I've seen Kaylee around here somewhere. I saw her go blasting by on a 4-wheeler with her cousins, cruising up and down the hills, driving around in the horse pastures with the horses running around and the sun fading behind the rolling hills in front of the house. I know I saw her being chased by a black dog named Boomer that is about twice as big around as she is and just as tall. I think I heard her hiding from cousins. And "moving in" to her room for the rest of the week. Right now I have NO idea where she is, actually. It's dark outside and I don't hear them inside, so I am guessing they are somewhere doing something with the horses, perhaps. Life is good. :)

I was right-today started a little crazily. For one thing, Kaylee came into my room last night. I sent her back to her own room, but she went sounding like she was crying, so after a little parental debate I followed her and found out her ear and throat hurt. I gave her some medicine and let her snuggle, which meant I didn't get much sleep after that. SHE woke up feeling just fine. I woke up...tired. But hey, I was just glad she was okay. As for me, I'm fine too. No weird fevers or anything.

But getting ready to go in just a few hours meant a lot of stuff had to be done, from bank runs to store runs to getting the cat stuff ready and picking up the house for the cleaning people and to be gone (you know, all electrical equipment off and unplugged), packing all the bags and getting the car loaded and checking the weather for the trip and filing the flight plan and all that fun stuff. I had already left the house when Steve called and told me to bring a few more things, so I went back home and got them. Left the house again and Steve called to tell me he forgot one more thing. It's still at home. ;)

Our flight was windy but easy. We had the music going, Kaylee was dancing some in the back of the plane, everybody was singing along, and it was just a fun little trip. I had to look around and wonder how anybody could not enjoy a clear sunny day, getting somewhere in an hour and a half instead of six hours, above all the traffic and stop lights and construction...just free and clear and a straight shot to where we want to be. At one point Kaylee put up a blanket and had a little tent area back there to herself, and she would peek over the top and check in on us. In the beginning she had whined about taking the Baron instead of driving, as she usually does, insisting she doesn't like how it smells, and we informed her that a lot of people would LOVE to have the opportunity to travel like that, and that she should quit whining about it before she made herself not like it forever just because she had a bad attitude about it, that she would talk herself into something negative if she didn't watch it. Well, she turned it around! Halfway there she looked around and said "You know what, I love the Baron!" and she meant it. She started listing all the great stuff about it, from the faster travel time to being able to get out of her seat to the view. And she started asking questions. She asked what I was talking about when I'd get on the radio, so we explained it so she'd now know what we were saying and why. If we used lingo she didn't know, she would interrupt me and say "I don't know what that means. English??" And we'd fill her in. She was actually interested, too. Steve pointed out where he went to college when we flew over it, and where he worked at the ski resort, and she thought that was interesting, and it got us into a conversation on why there was snow there and nowhere else. The trip ended uneventfully and quickly, and here we were.

Tonight after some play time, the eleven of us went to the "Mellow Mushroom", which is an excellent Italian "specialty pie" (pizza) place in downtown Franklin, and when we got home it was just time to relax, make chocolate chip cookies (I think those are coming soon), play the piano, watch some tv and just...be. :)

Well, some of us made it home fine, while others of us sat in the car for 10 minutes sending taunting texts to the others, only to find out the ones they were taunting were already inside and comfy. Nyah nyah! ;)

One thing I keep forgetting to write about Kaylee. Yesterday Steve cooked a ham while I was asleep kind of ill, and he told Kaylee he wasn't sure how long to cook it or on what temperature. So she piped up with "Just a minute, Dad", went on to the computer, went to Google, typed in "how to cook ham", found a web page, pulled it up, and went back in and told Steve. I didn't know she knew how to do that.

Okay time to stop being unsocial-I'm enjoying listening to Morgan play "Come, Now is the Time to Worship" while I type though. :)

Uuuuugh

Today has been a busy run-around day for Steve and me both as we try to get ready to leave town. I got a ton of stuff done yesterday and today, from cleaning my inbox down from 100 to zero, taking care of a lot of SMA Support things, getting some shipments out, getting some checks out, getting some bills out, taking Kaylee out to play at the airport for a little while, etc.

It was on the way from the airport to the UPS store today that she started saying "Mommy, I feel sick." She does this in the car now and then, as I think she gets a little motion sick. So I rolled down her window back there to let the cold air in. She mentioned feeling sick again another time or two, and when I got to UPS she said she felt really sick. I hadn't known it, but she had been reading her fairy books in the back seat while we drove, and when she told me she'd been trying to read to distract herself from feeling sick, (eek), I told her I thought the reading had made her motion sick and that on the way home she'd need to just look up and outside far ahead and not read in the car. It takes awhile for the UPS people to get my shipments ready to go to some of these other countries, and by the way, over $400 to ship a small box to one of those countries (choke), and Kaylee sprawled out in the middle of the floor. I made her get up, only to have her start crying about how horrible she felt and that she had to go to sleep now. I let her go over to the corner, where she curled up on the floor hugging Deenie, and she actually fell asleep. What woke her up was the doorbell dinging-in the photo you can see the unit is plugged into the wall right behind her head. She jumped up, went pale, and curled up on the floor on the other side of the room and fell back asleep. She was quiet and out of the way and I couldn't make her stand there any more, and something was obviously wrong, so I left her alone. We get home, get cozy, and she starts screaming "Mommy! Help me! Help me now!" I go running in time to get her to the bathroom where she lost her earlier lunch. Poor girl. She was atypically a little late on some of it so I got to clean up her bathroom too. Poor me.

It's been a couple of hours and she seems to be doing better, so I'm hoping it was in fact reading-induced motion sickness. The only problem? I have a low-grade fever around 100 and haven't felt great since after lunch either, although I kept my lunch. ;) I was supposed to let Kaylee recover and then go back out and run a few errands before tomorrow, but instead I fell asleep feeling blah and woke up the same way.

Meanwhile, Steve's had one of those days in which you'd like to have a do-over. I'm not sure if he'd care for me to spell it out or not, but suffice it to say that everything that could go wrong, has, and he's going to be putting out fires into the weekend.

The cat threw up in our bedroom again, so I get to clean up people barf and kitty barf in one afternoon. ;) All in all, it's been quite a Monday. Steve is stressed, Laura doesn't feel well, Kaylee is excited to see her cousins once she recovered from whatever hit her, the cats are about to get nervous because we're getting our suitcases out, and we need some of our Christmas Glow back!

Tomorrow will start out a little crazy as we try to pull everything together so we can actually leave, and hopefully should end back in the company of loved ones. :)

Christmas Break Continues

Kaylee has had such a fun several days with Grandma & Grandpa. She disappears for hours straight, starts in on the playing from the moment she wakes up until we force her to go to bed at night. Last night we made her go to bed at nine and she was still wide awake at 11:30 p.m. in her room, quietly. Poor girl got the "night owl" gene in full strength, I'm afraid. It's her mind, and I can't get mad at her because I have the same problem. If she tries to lay there and do nothing, she can't, because she'll start playing a game in her mind, or thinking about crazy stuff...she'll come out and ask us these wild questions because while she was just lying there they popped into her head. I really can relate, but that doesn't make it any less important for me to try to get her to sleep at a normal hour, particularly when school is in session. But you can not force someone to go to sleep, at least not without drugs. We've even tried warm milk right before bed. You can't say "go to sleep or you lose TV privileges", at least not fairly. All I'll be able to do is wake her up extra early a few days in a row so she's good and tired and cranky and will hopefully pass out a little sooner at night-but that doesn't always work with her either. She's just one of "us", the Fraternity of Genetically Wired Night Owls. She's going to hate life as a teenager. :)

Grandma woke up this morning with sore muscles, which we were all pleased to inform her was from her introduction to the Wii. (Heh heh) Hey, she was getting pretty good at the cheer, and Kaylee is really close to mastering it too. The funny thing about Kaylee-she refuses to start on the one star difficulty level and work her way up. Nope. She has started on the four and five star "championship" routines, and has practiced them until she's almost got them. She took her new Nintendo DS game and worked it until she got it too. She will "give up" so easily on some things, but when she's actually engaged or interested in something, she will take no prisoners, dig in, refuse to quit, start at the hard level and push until she figures it out. I like that about her, and I want to tap into it to help her push past things she's not as interested in too. We all have to do stuff we don't like sometimes, and tenacity is a very good character skill to cultivate in life.

Kaylee is a very lucky girl to have grandparents, and more than one set of them, (and cousins too!) who will take the time to talk to her like the smart, sweet, real person that she is, and not just dismiss her as a "little kid". She is really quite interesting to talk to if someone just takes the time to listen. She is very blessed to have a Grandma who is able and willing to spend hours straight every day just playing with her. These times won't last forever-soon she will be old enough that she doesn't need/want to play Barbies or Fairies or Bad Guys all day with Grandma. So I'm glad for these times that she does get to have growing up with her grandparents and her cousins. It always makes me smile. :)

We watched the worst movie in the world last night. Steven Seagal used to have fairly decent action flicks, but the one we watched last night passed from cheesy into incomprehensible and pathetic. The plot line didn't make sense, more than half of the plot line's loose ends were left dangling, the fight scenes were so long and boring that my mind would wander, the guys would take 40 punches and be run into 5 glass objects/tables/mirrors and run away without a speck of blood on them, the shooting scenes went through enough bullets to stage war in a small country without actually hitting anything, and in the end this "detective" from Memphis quits his job via letter and pulls up in front of a house where he is met by a blond woman who seems to be his wife (leaving you wondering who the brunette was living with him in his apartment in the city to whom he showed not a speck of dismay when he found her killed in his room), a teenage girl that you don't know if she is a nanny or a daughter, and two little boys who call him "papa"...and they are all French/speak in French accents. And thus it ends. HUH?? I won't even try to explain what all the movie was missing, but Kaylee makes up better plot lines and can at least tie up all the endings. What a waste of brain space!

Hey Tanner-your Titans are losing to the Colts second-stringers. Nyah nyah. ;)

Well, tonight Grandma & Grandpa will be on their way home, Kaylee will be lonely and depressed, and I'll probably be doing some laundry and email catch-up. And Happy Birthday to Holly Davis! Sorry we couldn't make it tonight, but we'll raise a glass for you from here!

Life

The other night Steve set his cellphone alarm to go off at 3 a.m. so I would wake up and go move Deenie the Elf. See, when we went to bed, Kaylee was still wide awake. In bed, lights down, but completely unable to go to sleep. Since I was too tired to outlast her, I had to get up in the middle of the night to finally get in there. The only other option was not moving the elf and making the girl terribly sad, and I wasn't up for that just yet. I've never claimed to not be a sucker once in awhile. ;)

It is SO warm today that I have wandered around in a t-shirt quite comfortably, and loved it. The guys went out to the airport, and I considered going along since Kaylee and Mom are having fun playing together, but I thought such a nice day would just be a tease to go out to the airport if I couldn't do anything about it.

I saw Kim's Christmas greetings on my chat box, and went to her site, and it has left me all nostalgic. Her kids are growing up so fast; all of "our" group's kids are. We used to all get together about once a year when we could, but it's been a few years now. It gets harder as the families get bigger and schedules get packed out and we tried a few spreadsheets of available dates that failed because there wasn't one single weekend that everyone had off all at once. But I think we need to try again. :)

One of the quotes I saw reminds me again of a Christian lady who has had a pretty big impact, at least on a couple of us ladies. She came as a guest speaker when we were in college. Her name is Lucy Swindoll, and she was a breath of fresh air to us. She was the first Christian speaker we'd heard who was funny and silly and immature and said it was okay to be both a Christian and a human being, not a robot. She was mischievous and ornery and loved to just LIVE life. She made us laugh so hard it hurt. To a group of girls who wanted to do the "right thing" but had rather been under the impression that "the right thing" meant to be serious and pious and hands-folded and quiet, which was a little...difficult...for some of us, ;), Lucy was a stick of dynamite to our impressions of what Christianity "had" to be. You mean...a sense of humor is okay?? It's not bad to go have a good time? Irreverence to the establishment of life doesn't send you straight to the naughty side? It's okay to think for yourself, too? To have opinions that might differ from those of others? And SAY SO?? And that doesn't make you automatically wrong? Whoa.

I won't speak for anyone else, but I grew up going to Christian schools, church services Sunday morning plus Sunday School plus Sunday night services, Wednesday night church services, Awanas church services, chapel most every day in many of the schools, Bible class in all the schools, revival meetings once or so a year, church camp and so forth. In that time I learned many lessons and heard many excellent speakers and sermons. The only time I ever left a guest speaker's service and bought the actual audio cassette tape of their message? Lucy Swindoll.

She lives by faith, is a shining example of a Godly woman, and yet she's still a crazy, silly, sometimes annoying to others, fun woman. Times have changed and it's not such a shock to find that style of speaker any more, but back then...it was quite eye-opening. Barbara Johnson is another. She lost her first son in Vietnam, her second was killed by a drunk driver, her third son disappeared for 11 years, and her husband was critically wounded in a car accident, leaving him brain damaged. She writes comedy books, interspersing her story in such a way that you laugh one paragraph and cry in the next. She has gone through more than most of us, and yet her faith is strong as a rock and her sense of humor is undamaged. She finds joy in life and in God while most people would be blaming Him for taking away so much, so hard. Her story isn't unique, but she is one of the best to read in print because of her wacky sense of humor. I always find it a little ironic when I hear of people who feel their lives are just terrible, sad, horrible, depressing, bad, always worried and bummed about something, when their biggest complaints are fleas on the rump of real problems that are out there being dealt with by people with grace and dignity and humor. The old adage is true-you can't always control what happens to you, but you can control how you choose to handle it, what you choose to do with it, what you choose to let it do to you. I never claimed to be good at that myself, by the way. :)

Besides faith and joy, Lucy and Barbara both talk a lot about living your life, what a gift it is that has been given to you, and not wasting it. Maybe a little reminder from these two ladies would be a good thing as we come up on the start of a brand new, unmarked year. :)

"Life passes like a flash of lightening whose blaze barely lasts long enough to see. While the earth and the sky stand still forever, how swiftly changing time flies across man's face. Oh you who sit over your full cup and do not drink, tell me........for whom are you still waiting?"
~Hermann Hesse

Dancing Cheering Christmas Miracles

Watching a group of us adults figure out "We Cheer" and "Dance Dance Revolution" would have probably been highly amusing to anybody watching in the windows, but I think we've got it down. Slightly better directions would have been handy, but hey, we figured it out eventually. ;) I spared Grandma and just took photos of Kaylee cheering, but Steve got a full video of the both of them. As far as Dance Dance Revolution, nobody took a video of me doing that as far as I know, but it doesn't count because I wasn't dancing anyway, just figuring out what I was supposed to be doing. ;)

===========================================

Now for tying in Christmas and Flying (have I mentioned I'm getting really twitchy these days??): there was an article in the Kansas City Star that I sort of enjoyed; it is a true story, but is based off of the memories of a young, non-pilot lieutenant back many years ago. I'll provide the link, but basically so you don't have to read it all, three soldiers were on a mission to deliver a new car to a WWI legend who had fallen upon hard times later in life, and they were flying down in a small airplane with an instrument rated pilot. On their way home, they hit some bad weather-bad enough that it knocked out some of their instruments. The pilot asked them what he should do (uh, I have a problem with that) and basically they all thought they were going to die. They were in the clouds over bad, mountainous terrain, and he was just trying to hold the plane level as long as he could. Here's the rest of the story:

But then another unexpected light wrapped them. Not the ragged, terrifying brilliance of a lightning strike this time, but a softer, steadier shaft lancing up from below reflecting from the clouds on every side.

It was the kind of beacon that they could have had no reasonable hope of seeing.

With a cry of relief, the pilot banked sharply. And like a fireman spiraling down the firehouse pole, he followed that beam until they broke into the clear beneath the storm, and could see then the twin rows of green runway lights that promised there would be a tomorrow after all.

•••
It was utterly unaccountable. Call it a miracle. Call it anything you like.

The man at the little mountain airstrip — an angular, bearded country man — explained afterward that it was just a place used by fly-in hunters and occasional vacationers. He rarely was out there at all at night, and never in a storm.

But he’d been working on his gasoline accounts when he heard — or thought he did, through the rain tapping on his shed’s tin roof — the hum of an engine up there in a tumult where no small plane ought to be.

Just on the chance, then, he’d stepped outside and aimed a floodlight skyward through what he thought was a hole, or at least a thin spot, in the murk. And on a further chance, he’d switched on the lights along his short gravel strip.

That’s how, in the days that followed, the four travelers were allowed to keep their lives and have their Christmases — the colonel and the sergeant at their quarters on the base, the pilot at his home somewhere, and the young lieutenant at his in Kansas City.

It’s by such improbable luck that destinies are shaped, if one prefers to believe it is luck — not something more mysterious – that actually governs.

Feliz Navidad!

I was awakened this morning by a happy little girl jumping on top of me in bed, saying "Wake-ee Up-ee Mommy, it's CHRISTMAS! It's Christmas, Mommy, get up! Get up! Come on!" What beats the sparkle in the eye, the joy on the face of your child on Christmas morning? Not much I've seen or done. :)

We unwrapped gifts and then had a big brunch of eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes (the ladies had chocolate chips baked into theirs, the right way ;)), toast, orange juice and milk. The boys retired to the deck, Kaylee retired to the living room with Grandma to go play, Mommy cleaned up the kitchen and did the dishes, then came out here to put up the photos from this morning. :)

It is a quiet, peaceful day. As Kaylee said, "Happy Birthday Jesus!" Last week she said "It doesn't matter if it's the real day or anything, it's just the day we use to celebrate his birthday, and that's okay!" Yes, it is. If you take away any meaning to the season beyond getting presents, it leaves it pretty hollow. Getting presents is fun, of course, but Kaylee has gotten to see how much fun it is to give, and she loves making people smile. Of course she didn't mind getting either-after all, she is seven. ;)

I believe the rest of our day is comprised of eating, resting, playing, hanging out, watching a movie or two, listening to music, and relaxing. We made home-made hot chocolate, cleaned up, played with Christmas goodies and families. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Twas The Night Before...

Actually, right now Tis The Day Of. :) It's actually almost 1 a.m. as I write this, officially Christmas, and my child is still in her room Wide Awake, bedding on her floor, wearing a Santa Hat, chin in her hands staring out her door at the tree. She can not go to sleep. About 40 minutes ago she was in there squealing and jumping up and down because she saw me go by with some presents to put under the tree. That is going to be one pooped little kid tomorrow, but she sure is having fun. :)

I went to Wal-Mart and Meijer today for those few couple things I needed to get before tomorrow. Remember how on Black Friday I said all the shopping areas were pretty deserted when I went by? Not today, which is good news for retailers. :) It was a zoo out there, naturally. I got farther ahead this year than I have in previous years by shopping online, but thanks to the nasty weather I got a little delayed until today on a few items, so I had to grab my iPod and ear phones and battle my way through the (cranky-ish) crowds. There were fewer items left on the shelves than I remember seeing last time I went out on Christmas Eve too, but fortunately most of what I hoped to get was still there.

By the time I got home, I had been to the meat market (which was an animal house because they closed at 3 pm, had me pick up my order at 2:30 pm, and it was chaos in there), the post office, Meijer and Wal-Mart, an outdoor Redbox for videos where the chilly winds were blasting at 40 mph, McDonald's for a late lunch, Goodwill and the old location for Goodwill because I am now an old fogie and forgot they moved even though it's been what, a year or more? ;) I got home, unloaded everything, hiding Kaylee's stuff from her, and shortly afterwards Grandma & Grandpa Arrived!

Kaylee was just a little excited about that. Just a tad. As if that girl does anything "little". :) They played, we had a nice steak dinner, and they played some more. I had bought store-bought cookie dough so we could make and decorate cookies, but I got another one of those silly wild hairs and decided we'd do it all from scratch. I used to do it that way, but hadn't the last few years, so Kaylee walks in and sees the flour on the table and says "Mommy! Why is there flour spread all over the place??" We mixed up the dough, and I have to say, that was a really rich recipe. That was some good stuff-skip baking them, I'd just eat that dough. It makes the store-bought dough taste...pale...and I always thought it was fine. Anyway, that took quite awhile, mixing the dough, rolling it out, cutting out the cookies, decorating them all, baking them all, eating them all, uh, some, but we had fun and made a giant mess. I had flour on my pants, shirt, and face. I could even feel flour on my eyelids. At the end of it, I put all the finished products in plastic baggies to keep them fresh, cleaned up my kitchen for the fourth time today (this is why I don't cook much ;)) and kicked up my feet for a whole hour or so before delving into all the present-wrapping that needed done.

We sent Kaylee to bed at 10 pm (and 3 hours later she is still awake in her room) with strict instructions on not coming out. She left Santa a note, several cookies and a glass of milk which she had to refill since she drank his first glass herself. Meanwhile, I wrapped presents for about two hours. All to just be unwrapped in the morning, but the tree just looks more festive with stuff under it. :)

Kaylee busted me on Deenie the Elf. She faked me out-I didn't realize she was awake, and I was staring at her the whole time I went in there to get Deenie. She told me after the next day that she knew I helped Deenie move out of her room, because Deenie couldn't do it all herself. This caused her some tears earlier, before she told me, which made me kind of sad. She tried to trip me up too, see if I would lie to her. She told me she'd heard a squeak in her room on her bed that night, and I told her I was in there and maybe she'd heard me. She left a note on her doorknob telling me where to find Deenie, because now she knew I was the one who moved her. She'd ask me questions, and I was quite careful how I answered them, and it's a good thing, because if I'd lied to her, even about that, she would have been crushed. Fortunately I'm smart enough to be able to leave an impression without lying, and she came away okay. But she doesn't want to flat out tell me that she knows Deenie isn't real because she doesn't want ME to be sad at not being able to do something fun with her. Just like what she did with the Tooth Fairy. She's lost a lot of magic this year...and she's such a sweet girl.

Well, I am worn out! It was a good day, but man was it packed full and busy. I've got a few pictures from today of our cookie making stuff. Steve wanted to take a photo of me with flour all over, but fortunately I had control of the camera. ;) Once I get these photos up, maybe I can go check on the hyper child and see if she's succumbed to sleep yet so I can fill up her stocking and GO TO BED! :)

I pray you all have a wonderful, peaceful, blessed Christmas...

Quick Random Pointless Additions

I happen to be in the deodorant aisle last night, and I find not only the usual versions of baby-butt powder fresh, shower fresh and strong-flower spring breeze, but an amazing new array of scents. Now every morning you can swipe on and have your underarms smell like, and I am not making this up, "arctic apple", "brazilian cherry", "french lavender", "english bloom", "vanilla chai", "eastern lily", "southern peach", "tropical tango", "jasmine orient", "kuku coco butter", "hawaiian violet", "spanish rose", and "asian pear". You know what I literally could not find at the store? Unscented. :)

For anyone in Aviation Land... Five words: What Goes Around Comes Around.

Meigs Field Butcher Arrested in Blagojevich Scandal
One of the chief architects of the 2003 demolition of Chicago’s Meigs Field Airport has been arrested on federal bribery, corruption and fraud charges that include trying to sell the vacated U.S. Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama. John Harris, 46, was taken into FBI custody on December 9 along with Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. Harris joined Blagojevich in 2005 as chief-of-staff after working nine years for Chicago mayor Richard Daley in a variety of positions that included deputy commissioner of aviation. Harris was widely seen throughout Illinois as the state’s acting governor as Blagojevich became increasingly preoccupied with federal authorities investigating him since 2004. While deputy commissioner of aviation, Harris was the top city official overseeing the secret midnight demolition of Chicago’s Meigs Field on March 30, 2003, and was present when the bulldozers rolled onto the runway. A framed photo of himself at Meigs that night hung in Harris’s office and was said to be one of his prized possessions.

Forgot to post these, too...I've always loved Erma!
------------------------------------------------------------------

"My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint."
~Erma Bombeck

"After a year in therapy my psychiatrist said to me, 'Maybe life isn't for everyone'."
~Larry Brown

"I make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes."
~Sara Teasdale

This-n-That

I've been sitting here with a cup of Swiss Mocha coffee, which is a blast from the past, and enjoying being in my warm living room listening to the freezing rain pelting the windows. It was a very busy day of getting ready for Christmas around here. Kaylee was a great helper, putting away all her own laundry, picking up her room and the guest bedroom and bathroom, and even making up the guest bed from pillow sheets to comforter all by herself. She's getting so big. Unfortunately, just now she came out of her room with the dreaded words: "Mommy, I don't feel so good." Oh noooooo. Not two days before Christmas!! I'm hoping it's something she ate, or the fact that she's been awake past midnight for days straight (I can't make her fall asleep in there). She doesn't have a fever, but she says her head hurts. I hope it's a simple headache. I just gave her Motrin and will go check on her in an hour. Poor thing. She has been SO excited that her grandparents are coming tomorrow. She's been jumping up and down in my living room chanting "Grandma's Coming Tomorrow! Grandma's Coming Tomorrow!" :)

We took a break from working on stuff to head to lunch with our friends, one of whom had to stay home and deal with a water leak--bad timing in these temps! When I left the restaurant, what had been a clear but cold day had made a turn for the worse, and suddenly I'm walking across a slick parking lot with pellets of ice hitting me in the face. It was raining ice...beautiful. And I don't mean that aesthetically, but sarcastically. I made my way carefully home and ditched my plans of going for some last minute shopping needs. I can wait for tomorrow!

Kaylee played at Pixie Hollow with Tinkerbelle and her friends, Steve worked on some networking issues, we all put away laundry, and I ended up with a wild hair to clean out my drawers and closet. Five, count them FIVE trash bags full of clothes are headed to Goodwill tomorrow. Why was I hanging on to those two bikinis? Do you know how long it's been since I wore a bikini? (Those are in the trash bag, not the donation bags. ;)) Sweaters, jeans, shorts, blouses, skirts (yes, I owned skirts). If it was "I have a dream" small or hadn't been worn in the last year (or four), it is outta here. What's worse is that my closet and drawers are still full. This is because I had enough clothes for everything from Mini-Me to Maxi-Me and everything in between. But at least most things are well organized again and I've gotten rid of what I definitely don't need. There are some very warm things headed to Goodwill, so hopefully someone will be able to use them this time of year.

If Charlie read my blog, I would be giving him a raspberry :P for being one of the few people who can get away with making comments like "Typical woman-get her talking and you can't get a word in edgewise!" to me due to the length of my letter to the editor that he saw today. But Charlie doesn't read my blog, so I will just have to type this here so I remember to sock him when I do see him again. Mental note made... ;)

Oh, and before I go, Happy Birthday, Judy! :)

Potential

Well, this is the first good news/progress I've heard in awhile! There has been progress made over these last couple of years as far as connecting on the Hill with politicians and getting a small amount of funding towards SMA out of Congress, but this is one of the first things I've seen since the mouse model and some of the clinical drug trials that I thought sounded like real progress. Other disorders that present with the same or less frequency in the population receive sometimes twenty times the amount of funding towards a cure, even though scientists have publicly stated that SMA is the most likely disease to be cured...if they had the money. That's why we have small parent-run groups who dedicate themselves to fundraising, and they have been the impetus that has gotten the ball moving over the years. Everyone knows that the first step towards fixing a problem, any problem, is understanding exactly what the problem is and how it works. The fact that scientists just recreated SMA in human cells and can now study it and test potential drug treatments on these cells so much more accurately and effectively is a Big Thing. I hope to hear progress soon (as soon as these things move, anyway)!

This reminds me-when I talk about "working from home", it is a short cut meant to spare you all from any additional mundane trivia about my day beyond that which you already have to bear. ;) But just in case you are inexplicably curious, it consists of, depending on the day, a whole lot of internet/computer work. With my bank runs comes entering deposits (it gets very busy this time of year for SMA Support as people send in last-minute tax-deductible donations prior to the end of the year), balancing accounts and sending out acknowledgments. I may be having a conference call or email with other groups on plans for a conference in the future and my role in it. I may be going through my snail mail piles for home or SMA and dealing with the contents. I may be working on collaborative efforts in the political arena of SMA, helping set up mail-ins for Congresspersons and Senators. I may have been working on updating websites, setting them up, going through and maintaining by spam removal. I may be getting together a shipment (something I need to do now, actually). A lot of time is spent answering emailed questions such as "if I'm a carrier can I get SMA too" and "where do I go for testing" and "one child has it will my next child have it too" and "what can I do to stop this". I go through applications for services/supplies requests. I moderate a grief support group and a fairly busy chat group. I may be searching for a good place to purchase equipment, or calling in another standing order for someone on a monthly need. I may be accepting equipment from one place and finding it another home. I may be printing off checks to mail out, or looking for the best deals on certain machines. I may be looking into the latest research information or just checking on how some families are doing. Winter is very hard on these kids/families. I may be researching flying information on a particular topic, studying something I need to refresh myself on or learn. Or returning work emails or calls. Some days are busier than others of course, and Kaylee has her stuff that we do each day for school and after-school activities and just plain ole being "mom". It's very common for me to still be working on stuff when most people are in bed. And I often get behind, too. But now you know what trivia I am sparing you from on a daily basis when I write "worked from home for awhile" or "nothing exciting happened today". :)

So, what did happen today? Nothing exciting. I froze my rear-end off, ran errands, will be going to the store late in the evening to try to avoid the crush of people, ate lunch at a freezing cold restaurant with friends, played with Kaylee, did some house stuff to get ready for Christmas like bedding and laundry and picking up, and...worked from home for awhile, which I will be doing until probably pretty close to bedtime... :)

Wind Chill

Winter hit "officially" today, but I think it's been an uninvited guest for at least a week or two already. Currently our temperature rests at zero and our wind chill at twenty below zero. The wind every once in awhile is so strong that you can feel it shake the house. I sure am grateful for my warm insulated house and my warm insulated garage to keep my family and car both nice and toasty.

We are just getting ready for Christmas and enjoying some family time...

-------------------------------------------------------------------

"It is good to act as if.
It is even better to grow to the point where it is no longer an act."
~Charles Caleb Colton

Cheerfully

I was watching a TV show last night, when across my screen marched R. Lee Ermey, playing the role of an old farmer whose son accidentally poisoned people with a bad pesticide on their farm's fruit. Mr. Ermey is better known as "Gunny" from "Mail Call" off of the History Channel, or also the "Gunny" from the movie "Full Metal Jacket". I enjoyed being able to point at the screen and say "Hey, I met that guy a couple of times, and he used Chuck's camper's bathroom, and I got to watch him do the show on the Mustang with Nathan, and stuff." In fact, here we are with Judy. :) Ah, good memories.There are still 77,000 people without power in northern Indiana thanks to the ice storm, but in our area it's clear and just fine, at least until this weekend gets here.

So, today was Kaylee's first basketball game cheerleading at half time routine for the year. This first one was for a girl's basketball game that started at 1:30, and we had to be there at noon. The girls were a little shaky on their first time out-two of the girls fell off their pyramids, but there were adults there to catch them prior to them hitting the hard gym floor, thankfully. (You laugh, but cheerleading has the highest injury rate out there of any sport.) Kaylee did well. She does a running cartwheel in the routine and she hit it nicely. Dale and Althea were at the game as well, sitting right by the floor. When Kaylee and the girls lined up, Dale spotted her and said her name until she turned around, and the look on her face was funny when she recognized who he was. She gave him a big smile. :) I took a video while Steve took some photos. The video is too big to put online as is, but you can see the photos anyway. Kaylee had a good time. :)

Steve and I were just kind of shaking our head over all the ties to the community we spotted just while we were there. First, that's the gym where his school played all their games. He was in the band, and pointed out where he sat, etc. We saw Dale there, and I also saw one of the people I used to fly around all the time for hire. But then we saw the program or whatever you call it for the game. A good portion of the advertisers in there are either friends/acquaintances of ours or have flown with either Steve while learning or myself for business. Then Steve saw that one of the girls who was a cheerleader back when he was in high school was there and is now involved in the cheerleading team there and has a daughter who is currently a cheerleader. We saw that two kids of someone I used to fly around are now halfway through highschool, one playing on the team and one a manager with the team-and when I met them they were younger than Kaylee. I used to let one of them sit up front and fly with me because she was interested and her parents didn't mind. Everywhere we looked around there were ties to people and places we knew, at just a girl's basketball game. It was a little weird, really, but not in a bad way.

When we left there, we drove on over to a small Amish store just to the north. They didn't have electricity in the store, so it was a little dark in the aisles of the building-they had gas-burning lanterns that they'd light in the aisles for night operations, but they close at 4 pm, probably because it does get dark. We got some truly home-grown foods and a few other things, and by the time we left we were starving to death, so we stopped at a little restaurant by Grissom Air Force Base. It's just a little "greasy spoon" style restaurant, but the food was really good. Kaylee had fish and cottage cheese, and that was some really good fish. Everything just tasted fresh and home-cooked, and we've decided we'll have to go back some time. :)

Tomorrow we're supposed to have a wind chill of 17 below zero, winds gusting upwards of 40 mph. Ugh. Seems like a day to stay indoors after all...

Friday Again

I woke up this morning to Kaylee's school being cancelled for the day. The weather wasn't really all that bad, since the ice storm lost a good amount of its punch, but schools were on a 2-hour delay, and her day was out at 1 pm anyway, so the administrator just decided to cancel the whole day rather than make everybody come in from 10:30-1 and then go back home. Worked for me. I crawled back in bed slept until Steve insisted on talking to me before he left for work. He kept talking to me, then he finished and I was still lying there eyes closed and unmoving, and he said "you're going to have to give me some indication that you heard me." I said "I got it." and he went away but by then I was awake. I'd been in such a heavy sleep, too. Ahhhh.

Kaylee and I went out to Glenndale and spent most of the day, until it was time to go run the usual errands and come home. It's a quiet day, nothing new or interesting, and it ends with Kaylee hiding Deenie the Elf and me trying to find her so I can move her again to prove she's still coming alive at night. Oh, that does remind me. Today Kaylee came up to me upset, holding the bottle of "snowflakes" that you sprinkle on Deenie at night so she'll go do mischief. She said "This bottle has a LABEL on it. It was BOUGHT. It's not REAL. Somebody BOUGHT this." Then she flat out asked me if Deenie was real. I told her Deenie was as real as she made her, and Kaylee let it go at that. She's so sad at the thought of it not being real. *sniff*

She is looking forward to seeing her grandparents though. :)

----------------------------------------------------------------

"A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself."

~Alexandre Dumas

Bah...Then Christmas Spirit

Have you ever known someone who just seemed to suck the good out of everything around them? One of those people who, no matter what, can find something to pick on or complain about or make fun of or dismiss or find something wrong with? Of course you do, because unfortunately they are out there in enough numbers that I bet most of you had at least one name or face just pop into your head right now. You know-the ones you could take to your workplace and they would find your station disorganized and dreary. Or to your home and they would be disdainful of the decor or the age of your flooring. Or introduce them to your friends and they'd find fault with things about each of them. Tell them about a fun place and they would find reasons why it was dumb. Do a good project and they'd have a way to have done it better. Even though perhaps sometimes they don't have a leg to stand on themselves. Yes, them. I tend to try to avoid "stinking thinking", particularly on my blog. It doesn't do anyone any good and even I don't want to read it later, let alone the few of you who do come here to read what we're up to, so I'll limit it to this paragraph and keep on trucking. I've said it before, but it never hurts to repeat--I have been blessed with some fantastic friends, both here in Kokomo and scattered across the states. Friends with good hearts, sharp minds (well, most of them ;)), and caring attitudes. Friends with vastly different skill sets from mine, and a few similar to mine. But they all have one thing in common-my trust. I am safe to be with them, to let them into the various aspects of my life, and know that the only time they'll be poking fun at each other is in pure fun. That they respect me and my life as I respect them and theirs. I feel grateful to have that; the few times I run into one of the above "them", it doesn't take me long to remind myself how very sad it is to spend one's life in a constant state of negativity, pessimism, nit-picking, distrust in everyone and pure dissatisfaction and conflict. I don't know how people can stand to live that way, and I don't want to know how, either. So again, I greatly appreciate my friends for being who you are even when you're at my six. (Er, back.) :)

This morning when Kaylee woke up, she was stumbling around tired until she got to her chair and found Deenie The Elf waiting for her. She hasn't seen Deenie in a year, so she collapsed on top of her and just said "Deeeeeeeenieeeeee!" and hugged her for a good while. Now Deenie needs to make a few messes before she leaves again after the New Year. That elf has been the most fun for Kaylee, for what will be the 3rd year now. :)

I wasn't sure if we were on a school delay today or not. Most of the local schools were, but we had a field trip today. I went ahead and took Kaylee, and found that 2 of the kids in her class didn't come in because they thought we were on a delay. Fortunately the roads weren't bad at all, so the delay didn't seem necessary to me anyway. (However the Ice Storm Warning we have in effect starting 4 pm and going through 9 am tomorrow does not sound good for the last day of school.)

Anyway, at 10 am I went back to Kaylee's school and picked up her and two other girls from her class to take them on our field trip to a local nursing home. We were meeting up with another group from the Kokomo Co-op, a group of moderately to severely disabled kids. Each of our kids paired up with one of the children from the Co-op, and we went from door to door singing carols and handing out gifts and cards to all the residents. We wandered all the way through the facility, and in three different group areas our group of Kaylee's school kids stopped and sang carols for small groups of residents. I saw a lot of the residents who loved having the kids there, and some who looked sad at seeing the kids. These kids did a wonderful job, and I was proud of them. Not because they sang, but because when some of the adults would talk to them, they would stop and answer and smile and hand them a Christmas decoration and tell them Merry Christmas and use good manners. I took photos, but not really of the kids with the residents because it didn't feel right; I didn't want to be intrusive.

Nursing homes are...hard...for me. Like most people I suppose. It isn't for the reasons you might think. Mostly it's just so hard for me to walk into a place where you can feel the hope is gone. But this home was very nice. It was warm, clean, quiet and cozy, lots of space, full activity calendars, and attendants with kind eyes. You can tell, you know. You can see by the light still in the residents' faces and the gentleness in the faces of those helping care for them. I saw one thing that hit me on the Alzheimer's ward, which is softly labeled "Memory Care". A tiny, tiny woman was lying sideways on a couch, covered in a blanket. The kids were singing, and she didn't react, but the lady on the couch next to her was lit up like a small child at Christmas, literally. She was clapping and just grinning and so happy to see and hear the kids. One little boy afterwards came up to the women on the couch, and the happy lady took the card and just stared and stared at it, enthralled, while the other woman didn't react at all to him trying to hand her a card. So he laid it on her lap and left. Shortly afterwards, his mom came back over with him and his sister and sat on the floor in front of the couch, held her hand, and just softly talked to her until she was aware. As soon as they left, you could see her fade away again. That area has doors that only open from the outside without a key, but on the inside they had painted a bookshelf scene. It just appears to be a caring place and a good facility with good, gentle staff. They handled the disabled children so well too. One little guy in a wheelchair was so excited that every time the kids would start singing, he would start yelling in excitement. Another had Autism, and the noise level was so overwhelming for her, but the staff and her teacher were right there helping. Several of the residents had their rooms decorated up in full Christmas splendor, and a couple handed out candy to all the kids after they finished caroling down that hall. A lot came out of their rooms, dressed so nicely, just to smile and wave and say hi to all the kids. One gave away little wrapped gifts to all the girls. I got "my" three girls back in my car and they all opened them at once to find nice cream or burgundy pillar candles on a gold-rimmed glass dish. Very nice! The kids liked going around and singing to people who loved to listen, they all did well being paired up with a perfect stranger of a child to stick with who was different than they are, and they all had a memorable experience. When we left there we all went to Wendy's as a group, and school was over for the day, but probably not the learning.

I spent the rest of the day running around until about 5:30 p.m. I hit every bank we've got (3), had to go to the post office twice, ran to the deli to pick up some nice sliced meats and cheese for tomorrow's lunch at Glenndale among other things, hit another store that was having a sale on a particular beverage Steve & I wanted, all that good stuff. Kaylee was pretty patient with it all, but of course I put her music on in the car via iPod, and since music soothes the savage beast... :) She also had gymnastics, which is her last activity until next year. She was shocked when I told her that, until I mentioned that "next year" starts in 14 days. Yes, that trick does get old...

And, right now "CB Guy" is interfering with my wireless keyboard and mouse again, making me type this one letter at a time, sometimes hitting the same key ten times before it'll go, so I'm going to get out of here before I find myself completely without that Christmas Spirit I had earlier, dressed in camouflage and headed to his back yard to visit his antenna with something very sharp. Shhhh. ;)

Polar PJ Day

These are the last few days before Kaylee's Christmas Vacation, and they are winding down with a few fun days. Today was Pajama/Polar Express Day, and the kids got to bring their sleeping bag, pillow, slippers, and wear pajamas while having fun snacks and watching "Polar Express". She had a great day!

I didn't have a bad day either, particularly since the icy roads this morning meant another 2-hour delay, only this time I slept like a rock and woke up feeling quite refreshed. I got my stuff done for the day, helped Kaylee learn a few sections for Awanas, etc.

The weather really stinks, and it hit us earlier than it usually does. I was supposed to have a night flight tonight with a student, but when I checked, the runway, taxiway and ramps there are all covered in a sheet of ice. No braking. I decided that flying off a skinny runway at night with a student in nothing but a sled didn't seem like a good time to me, and passed.

Have I mentioned how much I love winter?

*sigh*
----------------------------------------------------
"The biggest quality in successful people, I think, is an impatience with negative thinking…my feeling was, even if it’s as bad as I think it is, we’ll make it work."
~Edward McCabe

"Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence."
~Lin Yutang

Slippery...

What a lovely view this is, huh? I was definitely not driving and taking a picture at the same time, because multi-tasking in a car on snow/ice is bad...but if I had, this would have been the view going down the road. Right now we've got freezing drizzle coming down and making everything a nice sheet of ice, with a couple of inches of snow to go on top of it. Greeeeeat. I am thankful to be in my house, warm and dry and comfortable!

Well, everything I feel like talking about, I don't feel like talking about. So I'll catch up to you tomorrow after The Great Pajama Day.

Monday Mishaps

My lack of sleep from the night before caught up to me, and this morning was a little hard to get moving. Fortunately, when I got up and checked, I found that Kaylee's school was on a 2-hour delay for bad roads, so I crawled back under my warm fuzzy covers and knew I had two hours extra. Not a bad way to start a Monday! Kaylee slept like a rock too. Unfortunately, once I was up and checking the website for delays, I was awake and didn't make it back to sleep until about 20 minutes before we had to get up for good. But it was a bonus time anyway.

After I picked Kaylee up from school I ended up going to the post office to pick up a package, and on our way home I pointed out a car that was all crunched up, front and back. Kaylee said "Wow. Maybe they just don't have the money to fix it, Mommy. Or they haven't had time yet because it just happened." That's different from the way she used to react to a banged-up car, which was "I'd be so embarrassed, I'd never drive a car like that!" I'm glad she's maturing and coming up with positive instinctive reactions to people and situations and not automatically negative ones. It's a minor thing, of course, but it is a small indication of her kind and accepting inner self, and I enjoy seeing that.

My frustration today came from working on a newsletter and trying to do a mail merge that is successfully evading me. I've wasted several pages of printing and several hours of figuring out what "master pages" are and why they won't work with mail merges, and why I choose two-sided printing and it still prints the pages separately and the program has crashed 6 times in the midst of my work and I Am Not Having Fun. There are really only a few things that will get my blood pressure up, and wasting my time on this stuff is definitely one of them, particularly when I know it's not hard, just unfamiliar. I've even gone through the help pages, that's how annoyed I got. Ah well, I'll take a break, take Kay to Cheer, then hit it again. :)

I also had the pleasure of getting an email today that is fortunately rather rare, from an angry ex-spouse who is angry at me because their former spouse put up a website dedicated to their child who passed away from SMA. This particular person wanted "all references to me and my child removed immediately." The sole reference to this person was their name listed in a public, online obituary. I've had a few like that, but only had one such person threaten a lawsuit. My response of how pathetic I thought it was that they would use their deceased child as a battering ram to hurt their spouse and the fact that if the spouse wanted a memorial site for their own daughter or son, there was no copyright or court order in existence that could force them to not do so, usually shuts them down. The one with the lawsuit threat, I suggested they go ahead and try it and see how far they got. They didn't get far. They left nasty messages for each other on the child's website, which I removed immediately. I then suggested they work out their issues amongst themselves and leave their child-and me-out of it. I know people in grief will do angry, irrational things, but I have a very hard time with it when they are taking something good, done out of love, in honor of an innocent child they both loved who died, and try to turn it into a weapon. It's disgusting and just very, very sad.

Anyway, I had this pretty good batch of quotes hit my inbox today, so for my search function later and your pleasure now if you wish...

----------------------------------------------------
"Those who wish to sing always find a song."
~Swedish Proverb

"We can secure other people's approval, if we do it right and try hard; but our own is worth a hundred of it."
~Mark Twain

"To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time."
~Katharine Hepburn

"The great lesson...is that the sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one’s daily life, in one’s neighbors, friends, and family, in one’s backyard."
~Abraham Maslow

Conked in Kokomo

Last night I was sooo sleepy when I finally laid down, but as soon as I was ready to drift off pleasantly to sleep, my mind engaged. I started thinking about the party, the people I'd seen, talked to, what we'd talked about, food, then I started thinking about flying this that and the other, even going so far as flying a pattern in my head, which is slightly nuts when you are trying to go to sleep, and then I thought about...well, you don't care what I thought about. But I watched the whole night go by, completely unable to shut off. So around 5:30 a.m. I gave up and got up, came out onto the couch and grabbed my book and just read. Around 8:30, Kaylee came stumbling in, saw me on the couch, stretched out next to me and on top of me, and passed out cold. She was so warm and cozy and sweet, I read and watched her sleep and read and watched her sleep until finally I was so tired my book wasn't making sense any more. Of course as soon as I put the book down and felt that "I'm sinking into a drugged sleep" feeling, Kaylee was awake and running around within 15 minutes. I dozed for awhile on the couch, but didn't really want to go out because if I sleep too much I won't be any good tomorrow. I finished my book, am watching a Colt's game while Steve & Kaylee take a nap, and feel a little bit like I drank too much Nyquil. All fuzzy and far away. So something tells me nothing much of importance will happen to report today. ;)

It was enjoyable cuddling with her while she slept though. She's getting so tall, so mature, and our times of cuddling are slowing down a little. But for a little while this morning, she was soft and warm and calm and little and I could feel her heart beating against me, just like I used to, and it made me smile.

Of course right now she's piling pillows and blankets on her dad, walking on the treadmill, and making a disaster area of the living room, which she will be very unhappy to clean up in a few hours. Hurricane Kaylee is back. As it should be. :)

Wild Aviation

I ended up sleeping in much later than I intended, but I have to admit it felt pretty good. Apparently I needed my beauty sleep. :) Most of the day was spent quietly at home, and I got about halfway through my new Patricia Cornwell book. At 6 p.m. the three of us went over to the Wild's house for an airport Christmas party. I saw people from the Kokomo, Sheridan and Glenndale airports all there, about 85 people in all, which was great. I got around to spending time with most of the people there right up to the point that a chair opened up at a table, and from there on out I didn't much get up and wander around and chat lest I lose my good seat. ;) I think it's fairly unusual for a local aviation community to have so many participants at an off-airport function, and I thought that was great. A handful of us were left at the end, sitting around the counter with the host/hostess and watching a military aviation movie on the tv behind the mirror. When it was time to go, I went upstairs and hunted down my daughter, who literally grabbed onto the railing of the stairway saying "I don't want to go home! I don't want to go home! Don't make me go home yet!" We get her in the car, she buckles up, and promptly tries to go to sleep. Steve and I said "No! You can't go to sleep! You can't sleep yet! You have to wait! You wanted to wait!" She didn't really have a very pleasant response to our teasing her about it, particularly when Steve turned around and shook her and she growled out something like "Don't bother me!" I'm guessing she sleeps in tomorrow. :)

I brought my camera, but left it in my purse which I left in my car so I wouldn't have to carry it around. Otherwise it would be nice to put up some photos-but I didn't see anyone with a camera, so I guess we're out of luck this time. Ah, well. A lot of people told us they had an enjoyable time, so maybe we'll be able to do it next year...

Let the Weekend Begin

I woke up this morning with a pounder of a headache. So I dropped Kaylee off at school, came home and popped what ended up being a total of five Tylenol, crawled in bed with a pillow over my head, and waited for it to leave. It took over 3 hours before it was manageable, and by then I still carried that lightheaded 'off' feeling with me to the airport. Luckily, after a little lunch I was mostly back to myself. After lunch I came home and ended up crashing again though. Those headaches suck a lot out of me, and I have a very high pain tolerance still, so that says something about them. It's...nice...having realistic family and friends though. Steve asked me if I was okay when I came in, and I said "yes, don't I look okay?" and he said "No." and walked away. Duane mentioned he could see pillow marks on my face, which is true because I had a pillow under my head and one shoved over top of my head too, to block out all light and noise. At least a girl always can count on her friends and family to let her know when she's looking her..."best"... ;)

I got Kaylee from school, came home and rested again, and we had company over for the evening. Nothing too exciting today!

Jocund Thursday Thoughts

Another cold gray day in Kokomo. By the way, the news just did a segment on how Kokomo was listed as Forbes' 3rd fastest dying city in the U.S., something pointed out to me yesterday too. Kokomo is of course an auto industry city, with Chrysler and Delphi as the main employers in town, so the current problems with the automakers are having an impact in our area. Kokomo's mayor came on and let everyone know why Kokomo was hopefully going to be fine regardless, but you have to admit, living in a city listed as the "third fastest dying city in the US" is slightly disconcerting.

So I went shopping. At least I already know most of you reading this realize this was not to make myself feel better but out of some form of necessity. ;) Kaylee has a book swap at school that I needed to buy a kid's book for, and I was really underwhelmed by the choices at a big place like that this year. Every other year I've been able to find a plethora of kid books that were neat, but this year...I spent a ton of time in there just trying to find something decent. The book store is at the mall, and I had about four other things to do while I was there. It took me awhile, it was busy and people were a little cranky, but I endured and got done just in time to go to lunch, so that worked.

Right after I picked Kaylee up from school it was time to take her to gymnastics. Today was a particularly unpleasant day at the gym. The poor mom sitting next to me had three children under the age of three with her, and she was very patient, but the youngest threw up down the back of her, the middle one screamed the entire hour, and the oldest was bored and wanted to go home. Their 5-year-old sister was in doing gymnastics. Meanwhile, a poor little thing inside the gym threw up all over the gym floor, too, and her mom wasn't there to take her home, so she had to sit on the floor in the gym and wait, sick, for the rest of the hour. The woman behind me talked the entire hour, at a volume probably made necessary by the screaming baby, but the whole room was a part of her conversation, willing or not. I had the new Patricia Cornwell book with me, but even I'm not that good at drowning out chaos, particularly when I'd have to move for the restless little guy next to me to go back and forth and back and forth. When it was time for us to go, the place was so crowded that we couldn't even get out, which is not a feeling I do well with. At all. I was very glad to get home.

Tomorrow is home made chili for lunch at Glenndale, which I look forward to. I've had Duane's chili before, and he does an excellent job of it. What is better on a cold gray winter day than a hot bowl of homemade chili? :)

Still Alive

I didn't do anything today; how's that for interesting? I had a board meeting, I had lunch, I wrote a letter, I went to the post office, I got a Christmas gift ready, I helped Kaylee memorize 3 sections for Awanas tonight, I did a load of laundry, yadda yadda yawn. :)

Tuesday's Stuff...

This morning we woke up to dark and rain. Kaylee and I ran to the garage, and as we got in the warm car, Kaylee said "I sure do love our Chrysler. Well, except for one thing. I wish it smelled different. It smells like...airplanes." She informed me she liked the new car smell much better. I think I may stop at one of the auto stores and buy a can of new car smell just to make her laugh today. :)

(Or maybe I should buy a can of old airplane smell, or 100LL fuel smell, and spray it in her room instead. Nahhhh.)

As we were on our way to school, Kaylee mentioned saving up her money for a pink limo, which brought up the song from Hannah Montana ("You get the limo out front..."), which brought up of all things Billy Rae Cyrus and mullets. Kaylee asked me if I knew that Hannah's dad was Billy who used to have his own career and had a mullet. She asked me if I knew what a mullet was. I said "Yes, it's all business up front and all party in the back." She paused and said "Oookay. I mean, it's all bald up front and all long in the back." I said "That's what I said." Pause. "Okay, Mom, you're weird." Yes, dear, get used to it. ;) Anyway, the point is that after that, she sighed and said "I always wanted to live in the olden days." I know there was a little bit of an incredulous tone in my voice when I said "What, you mean back in the 1980s??" She said all wistfully "Yes, I wish I could have lived way back then." HAHAha! Ha! Holy Moly...

We got some Christmas shopping done yesterday! From the comfort of our living room. See, this is why you need to Christmas shop EARLY. Avoid the last-minute crush of the stores. I still have a few more to do, and we're not doing cards this year, but we're almost on top of this Christmas stuff! Almost...I've got a bit more to do tonight, hopefully, along with the fun "bills" stuff and some laundry. Oh, the excitement. ;)

p.s. The Arby's mint chocolate shake is gross. Don't bother. McDonalds has a much better one around St. Patrick's Day every year. Just a little FYI.

Hum Drum

This time of year, my daily trips to the post office become "when I have to go" trips to the post office, because the lines of people waiting are literally backed past the doors. Today I had a package slip, so I stood in the line for almost 20 minutes to pick it up. The cars are usually backed out of the driveway/parking lot too, but I just park at the bank next door and walk up the snowy bank and get in long before the people waiting in their cars for a spot to open up do. Waiting in line is such a waste of time. If I'm going to waste time, I at least want to enjoy it. :)

I left the post office and went to the Verizon store in order to pick up a screen protector for my new phone. I walked in the door, was met by a saleslady to whom I said "Hi, I need screen protectors for my LG", and heard immediately back "I'm sorry, our computers are down and we can't do anything right now." They couldn't sell me a $9 package of plastic because their computer was down. I would complain about it, but I already did over lunch, so I won't make Steve read it again. ;) Anyway, after lunch I went back and their magic electronic boxes made it possible for them to figure out how to sell me what I needed after all, and we were both happy. My phone touch screen will hopefully remain pristine a bit longer, too.

A more enjoyable thing from today was actually my gas stop where I filled up my car for $20 again for the first time in a VERY long time. $1.45 a gallon is just almost downright exciting!

Not much going on today, it was just...Monday!

Trips and Memory Lane

It was a good leisurely day. My only piece of business was to go down to Sheridan to go over and sign off a student for their last solo cross-country flight. It was blasted cold out, but at least there was no snow blowing, the sun was shining, and from inside some place warm anyway, it looked nice enough. ;) There were several "Glenndale guys" there along with a couple of Sheridan folks, so I hung out for awhile and "visited" while my student headed off. When I left there, I went into town and got my mail from yesterday and stopped at the store for some stuff before coming home and getting cozy for the evening.

I enjoy walking into the front room and seeing the twinkling Christmas tree glowing in the room. Last night I carried Kaylee sleeping out of her bed and onto the futon up front there and wrapped her up in blankets and let her sleep out there by the tree, with Christmas music playing on her Hello Kitty cd player. She sneaked into my bed early this morning, kissed me on the cheek, wrapped her arms around me, whispered "Thank you.", and fell back asleep against my back for about an hour. It was sweet, and I knew just what she meant. I still remember laying on our couch as a kid, wrapped in a blanket, staring at the giant colored lights on our 3' fake tree on an end table that still looked glamorous, listening to our Christmas records, until I fell fast asleep right there. It's a good, peaceful memory and I am happy to pass it on to my daughter, too. Her tree may be bigger and her music may be able to "repeat" without getting up and moving a needle, but the warm, cuddly feeling is exactly the same, and that's the important part. :)

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

First we had to move the treadmill out of the way so we could put up our Christmas tree. We moved it across the house, and I have to admit that was the most exercise I've gotten with it for awhile...something I ought to remedy. :)

It pretty much took most of the day to get the Christmas stuff out, but now that Kaylee is older and much more enthusiastic about decorations than we are, it goes much faster with three of us working at it. Kaylee put up a lot of the around-the-house decorations, and she unpacked and set up the Nativity scene as well. Usually, when I arrange it, I set it up so that the figures are all the way across the whole bookshelf top that they are resting on, and arrange Mary, Joseph and Jesus somewhere in front of them all. I came back when Kaylee was done setting them up, and it looked like they were all just in kind of a ball in the middle of the shelf with tons of empty space on all sides. I started to rearrange it, spread it out, make it look a little more balanced/artistic, and then I realized what she'd done. She put baby Jesus in the center, and then she took every single other figure there; his parents, the wisemen, the angel and the animals, and she put them all in a circle around Jesus, all looking at him. You know, that seems fairly appropriate to me. I left it just as it is. :)

So, the snow is blowing, the tree is up and lit and decorated, the Christmas candles are out, the giant hot chocolate Christmas mugs are in the cupboard, and we have officially reached the Countdown to Christmas as far as Kaylee is concerned...

Naturally I put up some photos of the process, mostly of Kaylee since the rest of us weren't very photo presentable. ;)

A nice dinner of fish and veggies followed by a relaxing evening is the plan; have a good weekend!

Dark to Dark with Spots of Sun

Last night we learned that a trip to Florida was on the agenda for today, so I got the house ready for its cleaning, Kaylee's stuff ready for school, mail ready to go out, and some flight planning stuff for today, and went to bed a little earlier than normal. I have GOT to reset my inner alarm clock though! I used to be able to wake myself up within about 2-5 minutes of my alarm going off, but these days I wake up off and on most of the night until it's time to get up, or like last night, I'll wake up an hour early. So my brain engaged at 4:30 a.m. and said "You're going to have to get uuuup sooooon." :P (Chuck thinks I must have forgotten to reset it for DST.) When I left the house at 6 a.m., I looked up and saw tons of stars out, and it was a balmy 10 degrees. It was very pretty, but there's just something that feels wrong about heading out to start the day while looking at the stars. I got to the airport first, so I got the Baron out and called in for fuel, and shortly after Nathan and Chuck arrived, we got in and got out of there.

I flew the first leg, and we watched the sun rise on a cold but beautiful day. The heater in the Baron works quite well, thankfully, so we just relaxed and enjoyed the view. A light cloud deck moved in under us, and with the sunrise it made for a beautiful view. The mountains were next, poking up through the clouds like islands. I landed in Athens, Georgia where we got snacks, drinks and fuel, and prepared for the next leg of the trip, and they had an airplane hanging from the ceiling with Santa Claus and his bag of goodies piloting it. I kind of got a kick out of that. :)

Nathan took the next leg, into Kissimmee. Florida is always kind of a hoot to fly into and out of. They're quite busy, of course, but they also do things their own way. They don't follow the east and west rules of altitudes. Instead, they run their altitudes north and south, which are opposite of what you "should" be flying at for any given altitude. They also have just a couple of corridors for all that traffic to go through while avoiding a bunch of airspace they don't want you to go through, so there is always a ton of reroutes and changes to your path... Today I was a little surprised because they flew us right over the top of Disney World. There's a TFR there (Temporary (yeah right) Flight Restriction) meaning you aren't allowed to fly over Disney below 3000' any more. With Air Traffic Control permission or guidance or whatever, you can though, and they sent us right over the top of it at 2500', which was low enough for me to spot many Disney "features".

It was beautiful down in Florida, of course. I stepped out of the plane and could smell warm plants and summer again. I'd left Kokomo when it was ten degrees. It was something like 55-60 degrees warmer than that in Kissimmee and ooooh, it felt good. I'll bet nobody in Kokomo could say they stepped outside and almost broke a sweat today. ;) We had lunch, I watched a T-6 flying around out of there (they have a warbird center there) then we divided and conquered. Nathan and Kevin took the Cheyenne home and Chuck and I took the Baron. We left at the same time, and I heard them on two frequencies before they blasted us out of the water. :) Of course the Cheyenne could go non-stop and arrived in less than 3 hours, and we stopped in Athens again to refuel. As we were getting ready to leave Athens, we looked up the Cheyenne on FlightAware and found they had something like 16 minutes to go before they landed at Kokomo. So we ended up about two and a half hours behind them...

We got to watch the sun go down on this leg. We landed back at Kokomo in official darkness and extra oober coldness, put everything away, cleaned up the plane's insides, and boogied on out of there to go home. I arrived at the airport in the dark at 6:30 a.m. and got back in my car to come home in the dark at 7:00 p.m. :) We had some great scenery for the day though, and the air was still and smooth. It was a nice trip.

When I left Kokomo, I was wearing a t-shirt, a sweatshirt, and a thick jacket. When we landed in Georgia, I took off the thick jacket. When we landed in Florida I took off the sweatshirt and walked around in a t-shirt and enjoyed myself a great deal. We were in the air on the way home when somewhere over Kentucky I reached back and put back on my sweatshirt, and upon landing at Kokomo I was back to full bundled mode. Alas, but at least for awhile I got to enjoy a little warmth, sunshine, good company and an office with a great view. :)

Oh, I took pictures today. They're just in-air shots of the sunrise, clouds, mountains, and sunset, nothing that interesting probably, but I'm putting them up anyway...

Chattering

My teeth, that is. I woke up this morning to something like 18 degrees. It is currently 19 degrees as I type this. Yuck. I took Kaylee to school in my pajamas and a coat (never going inside, of course), came home, laid back down on the couch, asked Steve for a blanket, and took a 45 minute nap. While not exactly my usual operating mode, it worked today.

Speaking of going inside, you know I'm not exactly overly worried about what I wear, but I DO see moms who walk their kids inside the school while dressed in pink cloud saggy flannel pajama bottoms, hair uncombed, no make-up on, etc. Maybe I'm more old school than I thought, but if I appear dressed like that, I'm staying in my car with my sunglasses on regardless of weather and not chatting with anyone. I think it was Chuck who reminded me not to get in an accident on my way home then if I do that. Uh, I would be really embarrassed. Anyway...

Ah, just a typical day of getting stuff done. Errands, lunch, work around the house, pick up child and take to the afternoon function, home to make her do her chores, dinner and a bath (for her, that is), and so forth. Not much of note in there. Well, I stopped at Walgreens to drop off some film (yes, FILM) and pick up some makeup. Today I picked up what I thought was a lipgloss, because as winter sets in, my skin gets dry, like most people's, and that helps. I put it on, and suddenly my lips were tingling like crazy. Apparently I got a "lip plumper" on accident. I looked in the mirror, but I still didn't have Loretta Switt or Angelia Jolie lips even after the application of the stuff. I don't know if I'm supposed to like that tingly thing or not, but I vote 'not'.

Oh, that's about it for the day. I was going to talk about somebody's stinky feet (NOT mine), but decided nobody needed to read about that. ;) Tomorrow is Friday and then on to what is probably going to be a "putting up the Christmas stuff" weekend. I think I just heard a groan from my other half...

Barney Stamps Past Quotes

(Yes, I know that makes no sense. I am not feeling creative!)

I love it when what goes around comes around! Apparently the teachers all got together at the end of the day and put all the kids in the whole school into one room and put on a movie for them to watch while the teachers decorated a tree and a room for a Christmas party. So Kaylee hops in the car and tells me this, and then said "It was a Barney movie, Mom! It was terrible! The snowman was a guy in white clothes and a plastic costume and his lips didn't move. I had to watch that for two hours! I would rather rub up against a tree and lose all my clothes than have to watch Barney!" HAhaha! I told her she used to like Barney, and she said "Yeah, when I was TWO." I said that with all the kids together, they had to watch something everybody could watch, not just the older kids, and she responded that it was terrible at her age to have to watch Barney. So I got her by saying "Imagine how I feel! I was 33 years old and I had to watch Barney with YOU!" That gave her the giggles the rest of the way home. ;)

Me? I just worked today. Read up on some instrument stuff for flying. Picked up a few things around the house. Ran errands. Stuffed all the envelopes for the end of the month billing, and now that our bulk mail place is out of business, went to the post office with a box of ready-to-go envelopes so I could buy stamps and stick them on one at a time. Oh well...at least I got little Christmas stamps to give people a little Christmas Cheer when they open their flight school bill for the month. ;)

We had a lovely lunch with 8 of us at Half Moon today, and I had been there a good 30 seconds before I realized that the guy across the table was someone we knew way back when I first came to Kokomo. I'd flown with him several times and we had a couple of adventures, but I hadn't seen him in years. It's always kind of strange running into people you knew way back when!

Kaylee has Awanas, Steve & I have dinner, then it's time to hunker in and stay warm for the evening with a bit of hot chocolate and cool whip. Sounds good to me, anyway!

A few quotes from the last week...
--------------------------------------------
"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."
~Thomas Jefferson

"Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy."
~Dean Koontz (one of my guilty pleasure authors)

"It is worth a thousand dollars a year to have the habit of looking on the bright side of things." ~Samuel Johnson

"Man must be arched and buttressed from within, else the temple wavers to dust."
~Marcus Aurelius

And in the winter motif:

Tuesday

I got my new phone charged up, switched over, all my contacts added, my old phone cleaned off, and ready to play before I went to bed last night. I really like it, it's easy to use. I just have a few things left to do like put up the photo of my choice for the exterior screen. You know, important stuff. ;) The outside touch screen works well for calling and texting similarly to how I used to, and the inside keyboard is nice, big buttons, easy to use, etc. So far I give it two thumbs up.

I drove the Jeep out to Kokomo this morning because I knew the back roads were going to be slick. The schools were on a two-hour time delay for bad roads, so Kaylee got to sleep in a little bit, much to her pleasure. The airport itself was cleared off pretty well. There was a light dusting of snow, but they'd been out there since we left yesterday around 4 something working on the runways and ramps, and it was in pretty good shape. We landed at Muncie and I was pleasantly surprised that the "braking action poor with snow and ice" originally reported ended up being not there. It was fine. Nathan hopped out to get in the Cheyenne, we fired up, called the tower and found the field had changed to IFR. The practice won't hurt. We both sat in our respective planes and used our cellphones to call and file a flight plan, and as soon as my new phone sent me a text message from FlightAware that my flight plan was there, we left. I have to tell you, technology can be awesome. In the old days you'd have had to go inside, call on the phone, and probably wait 15-30 minutes and not know if your flight plan was ready to go or not until you asked for it in the plane. Anyway, the photo is my first new cellphone photo, of me sitting in the Baron waiting for my flight plan to come through pointed out at Nathan in the Cheyenne doing the same thing. Ah, it's a lovely winter wonderland, isn't it? ;) See what I mean? Even the sky is white. Have I ever mentioned I'm not that fond of the winter? I didn't mind the flight home IFR though; it was quick and yet it was a decent day to hand fly a real-ish approach.

I got home in time for Kaylee to go to her delayed school, and when she came out of her room to go, she was dressed in black pants with multi-colored polkadots, a horizontally striped shirt with pea green, blue, gray and white, and hot pink floral socks. It was...stunning. Usually I let her go even if something isn't quite perfectly matching, but that was a bit (lot) much for even me. So she goes back in her room and comes out wearing the same striped shirt, but pink shorts. SHORTS. Take a look at the above photo. Anyway. So I send her back in one more time, and finally she makes it out with gray pants that DO match the striped shirt and will not give her frostbite. At this point she's now mad at me, and I think I'd be tempted to let her wear those shorts and deal with the consequences of her choice if her school wouldn't possibly call Child Protective Services on me. ;)

When I picked Kaylee up, she had a box full of bags-she had gone Christmas shopping at her school. They set up tables for $4, $3, $2, and $1 items that the kids could buy, and I set her up with some money and sent her to school. Originally she was going to buy three presents. She ended up with ten of them. She went shopping crazy. She also bought one for herself, and then she realized that she was one present short for people she wanted to get. She started to put her own thing back, which she's wanted for the last two days, just so she could make sure she got a present for them. Then she realized if she got one thing for the couple to share instead of one each, she could let them know she was thinking of them AND still get the thing she wanted for herself too. So she did. Not a bad compromise for someone her age.

Steve and Nathan are heading out to watch a Purdue game over in Lafayette tonight, and Kaylee and I are hanging out here. We keep trying to get Steve to wear his IU stuff to the game, but he just doesn't seem interested for some reason... ;)