Details

Kaylee cut her hair last week, and she likes it a lot.  In fact, she wants it to be even shorter, but the hair dresser almost refused to cut it any shorter, told her to start here.  They took 8" off of her hair!  She says she's going to go back before her last Senior photos and get it cut shorter.  She calls it her "every girl in school cuts their hair when they leave high school and head off to college, major life change, major hair change required" Cut.  ;)  She wants it up around her shoulders.  I think it looks really good.  :)

I took Kaylee and her friend Caitlin down to Indy to pick up Kaylee's dress the other day.  It looks fantastic on her, and they did a great job on the alterations.  Then we stopped next door at the cupcake place where I picked up probably 5000 calories worth of deliciousness in two cupcakes.  That almond wedding cake one is Just Amazing.

Kaylee went to her ortho appointment.  She was supposed to be done with "braces" by May.  Unfortunately they have "fine tuning" to do, and she'll be wearing them for 16 more weeks.  That's a lot, and she'll be in Oregon by then.  She told them that, and they said they'd just give her all the trays, hope that nothing goes wrong, and good luck.  *Sigh*  Her teeth do look really good though.

Grandpa Shaffer was buried today.  I couldn't make it out to Nebraska, but I sent on my condolences to the family.  Dad said that he'd just said that week that he was tired and done, and ready to go.  Less than a week later, he just didn't wake up.  Amazing, really, the human spirit. 

Steve leaves tomorrow afternoon for 3-4 days, to Arizona, with Nathan and Kevin.  So I'll be holding down the fort over here.  I've got flights most of tomorrow, from 9 am until 8 pm, with a break mid day.  The T-6 isn't far off from being done.  I wish it was already done so I could do a little flying in that one.  I have some stuff to get current in.

Kaylee has a week of Spring Break left.  Part of me feels bad that she's not in Florida like some of her friends, living it up on a beach.  The other part of me knows she has adventures coming up as is, and we're saving up the money for that.

Ann had some bad days, but I think is feeling better today.  Those antibiotics kicked her butt, unfortunately, but hopefully the sinus infection is gone and the antibiotics will be done in another day.

On to a busy week.

Wings Wednesday.

For some reason I was awake until 5 am this morning, and I got back up before 9 am.  So I'm a little wiped out today, but if nothing else hopefully I'll sleep like a baby tonight.  :)

At lunch today my Dad called to let me know that his dad, my Grandpa Shaffer, passed away this morning.  He'd been getting weaker, his eyesight was going, and he was having more trouble walking, but he was still mentally alert, chipper, himself.  He was doing fine yesterday on the phone, and then went to bed, in his own bed and his own home, and just didn't wake up.  He was into his mid-90s.  We both agreed that since all of us have to pass on at some time, that doing well into your 90s and just falling asleep on earth in your own bed and waking up in heaven is about as good as one could hope.  He was a good man.

I got another phone call around lunchtime, from my OBGYN.  My test results on the fibroid biopsies came back "normal", so nothing cancerous detected. I expected that, but it's still good to know for sure.  They wanted to know what I wanted to do next, about having them at all.  I said that for now, I don't want to do anything.  No major procedures at this time.

I am working on finding a photographer for the Spring Fling.  I had two options.  One option, I found out he's no longer doing photography at all.  Option two is very expensive, as opposed to donating it, like the first guy used to do.  So I don't know if we can afford that.  Now I'm not sure where to go on that one, so I need to talk to the other committee ladies.  This is coming up fast.

It's really busy right now, and getting busier.  The schedule is filling in quickly, and there are a lot of projects to work on in between lessons. 

This evening Kaylee and I went up in the Cub.  She's had a total of 2 hours in the Cub before today, and the last time we flew was almost 8 months ago.  She needed refreshed on a few things to do with the airplane, and then by the second takeoff, she was taking off as smoothly as anybody else.  She made one three-point landing that worked out great that I didn't touch, but I did talk a little.  Her taxiing on the ground, she can spin the Cub around and stop it dead straight just like she's been doing it for 10 years.  At least on grass.  I bet concrete might mess her up.  lol  But seriously, after 3 hours total time in that airplane, she's not far from figuring out the landing.  We're going to try to fly this upcoming week when the weather allows.  Her biggest obstacle is her own perfectionism.  I can relate to that.  :)

Kaylee sitting alone in the running Cub after I hand propped it. 

The two of us.  :)

Kaylee's view of the back of my head.  Ha.

This is a video of Kaylee taking off.  I trusted how she was doing enough to hold the phone in one hand with my other hand (and both feet) free to do as needed.  ;)   I wasn't watching the screen though, of course, and I kept turning it trying to make sure I got her in it.  Unfortunately, my hair blocks you from seeing her most of the time, but you get glimpses here and there.  I like how every time I see her, her head is straight, she's not trying to look around me.  She's doing it right best I can tell.

Back To It

First thing to do this morning was take Dulcie to the vet.  She was very unhappy about this turn of events, and I had a harder time than normal getting her into the carrier.  I thought we'd be in an out, but I was there from 10:40 am until 12:15 pm.  One of my favorite things is going to doctor appointments, and I've certainly been to a lot of them lately, and now I'm even going to the cat's.  We're going back in two weeks, too, so more good times to come.  ;)  They said her anal gland is still in bad shape and they want to do it again in two weeks, and again mentioned how sweet and calm she was about something that most cats do not handle well.  They also did a radiograph of her heart to see if it was enlarged (it was not), if there was fluid around her heart or lungs) there is not, or if anything looked off.  It didn't--he said in picture form anyway, her heart looked good.  She does not have congestive heart failure.  That's very good news, meaning she didn't need any daily meds or anything (it was a possibility).  It also was a couple fewer things that could be a problem for anesthesia.  Not a full picture, because she still has a pretty severe heart murmur, and they aren't sure why and can't fix that, but at least something.  He says he doesn't think her teeth are stopping her from eating, that she's holding her weight, and seems to be eating and drinking okay. So we have to decide.  Do we risk doing the dental surgery to fix her teeth before they get too bad, knowing that she may have trouble recuperating or even waking up at all from the anesthesia?  Or do we wait, monitor her weight and try to catch it in a timely manner this time if her teeth do start bothering her, and not do the surgery, with the risks that she may get weaker and not be able to handle it later?  *sigh*

The vet ran so late, I missed lunch, and had to just drive through fast food and head right out to the airport for my students.  I had a guy at 1:30, and he's brand new, and the winds were gusting to about 25 knots.  He did really well with it though, and fortunately didn't mind getting tossed around the sky, didn't get sick or scared, so he'll probably stick it out and be fine.   :)

After him, I took up the Champ for its post annual test flight.  The other day the winds were gusting to 28 or so, around a 30-40 degree crosswind, and I'd smelled smoke, and figured it was just old oil burning off, but I just didn't feel right about it even though I'd pulled out the plane and was all ready to go.  Today, the winds weren't much lighter, but they were really close to down the runway, and they were a LITTLE lighter.  Just lighter enough that it didn't seem like such a workout or a potential problem in the works.  So I went up and did the test flight, checked out the few systems, and then got tailwheel current with four or five takeoffs and landings.  I'd have done more, but the 172 was taxiing out to do TOLS, and I didn't have a working radio, and I didn't want to interfere with the student, so I just stayed down.  And might I add, I greased every one of those landings on, too, like rolled them on, a couple of them so smoothly I felt the wheel rolling before any weight was on it.  I probably won't make a landing like that again anytime soon, they don't happen that often, so I have to enjoy them while I got them.  I also had to enjoy that Steve and his student got to see that last one.  I made it a wheel landing and taxiied down the runway with my tail up until I got to the intersection, to keep my speed up and get out of their way faster.  When they came in after their lesson, the student said something like "There's the show-off".  You're welcome.  :D  That felt really good, actually, to get up in the tailwheel and get current again.

Next up I had a checkride prep student who hadn't flown in over 2 months.  The winds calmed down while we flew, but they started off pretty stiff.  It was a good workout for him, and he got the workout all right.  He told me at the end he was wiped out and I'd beaten him up.  He's not wrong, and yet he had a good time anyway.  ;)

We didn't finish until 8 pm, and by then both Steve and I were starved, so we ran out to Hacienda for some Mexican for a late dinner.  I try to do the "don't eat after 7-8 pm" thing, but man that's tough with our schedules sometimes, especially at it stays lighter later.  It's still slightly light at 8 pm now.  If I tried to do the intermittent fasting thing, and had to push the times back, that would mean if I ate dinner at 9-10 pm, which we do sometimes, I wouldn't be "able" to eat until 3 pm for the first time that next day.  That's not going to work.  It's always something complicating trying to change habits or do better, eh?

Ann is I think doing better as far as the head and sinus stuff, but the antibiotics are giving her stomach problems.  Gotta have them and finish them, but pray that her system gets more used to them, or she finds the right food to eat with them to help combat that some.

Kaylee, on Spring Break, left the house at 10 am today to spend the day doing a "Spiritual Boot Camp" with Meredith through their youth group.  I'm not sure what all they did, but I'll ask Kaylee to tell me about it tomorrow.  Tonight she was filling out scholarship applications to help with her DTS coming up.  Oh, and she said "Now that I have some time off, I'm going to clean up my room.  It's way too cluttered and it's getting to me."  Steve staggered around like he was having a heart attack and I told him to quit making a thing out of it, or she might change her mind.  I asked her, "Don't you feel trapped in there with all that STUFF?"  She said she does.  She hasn't cleaned it up yet but I'm hopeful for the future hearing her say that.  We were starting to worry she was going to grow into a little Hoarders person with a disaster house when she no longer lived here.  Maybe there's hope after all!

Dulcie in her case at the vet's office, staring at me intently and hoping I will take her home soon. 

 

Kokomo from the air.

Progress

This morning I woke up super early, and kept waking up until Steve got up, then I finally got up at 6:45.  There's something wrong with that, but oh well.  Steve had to go out to Kokomo Airport to host the CAF's IN Wing event, plus he had meetings set up with a couple of people, plus he had a flight or two.  I went out to Kokomo a little earlier, to be picked up in an RV-7 (nosedragger, but otherwise nice enough airplane) by Dennis, to go up to Wisconsin to do CAF required groundschool for the T-6 and the PT-26. 

I put in a new pair of contacts this morning, as it was time for new ones.  I got out to the airport, and they had fogged over.  That's the best way I can describe it.  It's like the inside of a car window in the winter.  A milky fog.  I pulled them out and rinsed them off and stuck them back in, and within seconds they fogged over again.  I pulled them out again and tried again, same result.  Blinking doesn't help.  Dennis arrives and I get in the RV-7, and I can't see.  I mean, I can see shapes, but I can't read anything, it's all like I'm looking through almost zero/zero fog.  He has eye drops in his bag, so I try that, and it doesn't help.  I try taking my contacts out again and using the drops to clean and clear the contacts.  By this time, my eyes are red, and they hurt from all the pulling and poking at them.  We get there, and one eye is half clear and the other completely not.  I'm meeting all these guys for the first time, and I've now got most of my eye makeup gone, red eyes, and about a half hour later a headache started.  Assuming that was from not being able to see clearly for a long time.  Until about 1 pm I could only see out of one eye, sort of.  Then it started getting better, but my head was getting worse.  I took what I had in my purse to help with that, had to take my contacts out a few more times, and finally they stayed clear.  But the headache lasted and got worse until the end of the event.  It was pretty frustrating, and Google isn't coming up with anything that comes close to explaining that little phenomenon.  So I'm going to call Wal-Mart Optical and see if I can trade this type contact in for a different type, or maybe contact our local eye doc friend and ask him about it.  I can't be having that.  Good thing I wasn't PIC or I'd have had to just pop them out and dealt with it in a different kind of fuzzy but at least not fogged over way.  *sigh* 

The Ground schools were all right.  The guys were very friendly and welcoming, and I appreciated that.  I didn't even feel super out of place, which is unusual for me.  lol  About three of them knew me from Facebook, and that helped break the ice too.  One of them was joking with me about a smart alec comment I made to someone on FB, and how he actually laughed out loud, which he says he doesn't do much, so that was nice.  ;)   The actual ground school was really just going through a PowerPoint slide while he talked, and other people's interaction wasn't really appreciated, because it took up too much time.  So we sat and listened to the Ops guy talk for 7 hours, and took two multiple page quizzes at the end of it.  But it wasn't bad.  They have a few different ways of going about things.  Some I liked, some I didn't mind, some I disagree with.  I'm researching the two big ones I disagree with, well, actually Steve is researching them, because when I told him about them he got interested in digging in and finding the truth behind our differences.  Is what I'm doing an old wives tail, or is what they're doing not informed?  We shall see if we can find out.  If it's me, I'm willing to change.  If it's them, when I fly with their guys, I'm willing to educate them on what I learn factually, and then it's up to them.

By the time we flew home, the head was mostly better, and it was a beautiful flight home--the first time flying that day where I could actually see out the window.  We came home and ended up in the pattern behind 24B.  That amused me because we were in 23B. Also it amused me because we were way faster than the RG, and because Steve C didn't know it was me chasing him around the pattern.   :)

Anyway, I needed to get PT and T6 training done, and that is officially done.  So, a few more things to do.  I have to call Richard-head and talk to him about the "differences between the D and G model T-6s and other Operational Duties", and coming up this year I have to get another check flight in the T-6 from somebody.   The CAF has also started requiring a weight and balance be performed for every flight, and printed out and put in a folder.  Because THAT'S necessary and convenient.  So on a day where we're giving rides, we're supposed to ask everyone their weight, calculate the weight and balance, on paper, and put it in the folder with their Required Hold Harmless Agreement and Required Passenger Manifest sheet while I wear my Required Flight Suit, for all 11 rides of that day, before we go.  They keep adding more and more baloney to this, now to include 6 hours of ground training in every type aircraft plus 6 hours of CRM training.  I wonder how much longer they'll stay in existence.  Pilots will put up with a lot to be able to fly cool old warbirds.  But how much?  We may find out.

The WI Wing PT-26. I love their wheel hub covers

They have a flap on the seat so you can step on that instead of directly on the seat, keeping the dirt and oil and tears away from the actual seat.  Cool idea.

Flying home from WI

Dennis in the pattern at Kokomo

Last landing of the day, Sunset in an RV-7.

Blustery

Kaylee got her paper in on time, and got to bed before 1 am, which is the earliest she's made it to bed in awhile.  She is officially on Spring Break, as of today.  :)  Tonight she went down to Indy with some friends for a birthday dinner, and was horrified when her friend ordered her steak Medium Well ("Can't you at least make it MEDIUM if you won't do it properly at medium rare??).  We snickered at that.  She has good taste, eh?

I made another meal tonight, a pasta with cheese and sauce.  The only thing that didn't work out is the sauce.  It never thickened up like it was supposed to.  But the cheese was fresh Parmesan and mozzarella in blocks that I grated.  I had to ask Steve where our cheese grater was, because I assumed we got rid of it ever since the advent of shredded cheese in a bag.  But you know what?  That fresh cheese was A-Mazing.  The taste isn't close to what comes in a bag.  Daggone it, they're spoiling me.  That one wasn't a hard meal to make, other than something being wrong with how I did, or how they said to do, the sauce.  It should've been good, with garlic, olive oil, tomato paste, and cheese in it.  Instead it was watery.  Oh well.

Ann was feeling pretty poorly most of today, weak and dizzy and head pain from the sinus infection.  I know those are no fun, I've had one too.  I think she was starting to feel better by this evening though. 

The Champ needed leak checked (after an oil change) and test flown (after an annual), so I wanted to get that done yesterday or today, so we can get it back in service quickly, as I'll be gone all day tomorrow.  Thursday I was too busy with doctors, and it was cloudy and dreary anyway.  Today was bright and blue and sunny...and winds were blowing like crazy.  I waited until 6 pm, thinking it would calm down by evening around sunset, and that would be a pretty time to fly anyway.  I was looking forward to it, too.

I pulled out the Aerostar with the tug, pulled the Champ out of the back of the hangar by hand, stuck the nose into the wind and the tail in the grass, and chocked it.  The winds were still really blowing about 26 knots or so, and the airplane rocked back and forth, even into the wind.  Every time a wing came up I flinched, but it never went over.  Then I pushed the Aerostar back in place and locked up the hangar, because the Champ was going to go in a different hangar after the test flight.  I got my headset hooked up, figured out the radios, preflighted, fired it up, while the wind pushed it around, and smelled a terrible burning oil smell.  Like, not a little bit, a lot.  I was concerned, kept an eye out, but the wind was so strong that if there was any smoke, it was blown away too fast to see.  The smell stayed the whole time I was running, too.  I had also noticed the primer didn't seem to be squirting fuel, which was one of the things they were supposed to fix.  So I ran it for the leak check, shut down, got out, couldn't smell anything under the cowl (wind), and didn't see any oil leaking anywhere, so at least the leak check was good.  I called Steve and asked if they'd fixed the primer and he said probably not and to put it back away so they could do that.  Well, phoo, I have to open the hangar, pull out the Aerostar, push in the Champ, put away the Aerostar...it was a bit of a hassle, but I lived.  ;)

I debated taking it up for a flight anyway.  I wanted to go fly.  It was beautiful out.  The winds were close to down the runway.  But I didn't like that smell, even though I assume it's just oil burning off, maybe some spilled in there, and watching the wind rock the wings around with it sitting still, I thought.... Eh.  Discretion seemed the better part of valor there.  It's not like I haven't flown a tailwheel in 26 knot winds before, but today...today I didn't feel like it.  I haven't flown a tailwheel in like 4 months, it smelled funny, and it was gusty and seemed like way more work than fun, even just to taxi all the way down to Runway 32 without getting blown off a taxiway.  lol  So I just put it away like an old lady.

Finally got hold of Jordan B, he called me back, actually.  He wanted to let me know about the formation clinic they'd done in California, and that I might be interested in it.  I would have liked to have gone with them, as you need to bring your own group of people to get it done, but it does sound like a good deal if you can do that.  The group out there dedicates the weekend to serious flying for two to three days at $200/hour for plane and instructor both (which you cannot beat, anywhere, for this kind of thing), and at the end you have a checkride if you're ready to pass, and get your FAST card out of it.  He also said he could use another PIC in the C-47.  He's apparently forgotten that he already asked me to do that and even gave me all the materials, so I said I'd love to, and that I still have all the manuals and such, though I haven't looked at them in awhile now.  He also said we'd get the C-45 flying in.  But right now he's working on getting his C-47 ready to go over to Normandy.  A super cool trip, and he'll be gone in about a month, so right now he's swamped with it all.  I can only imagine the logistics and costs involved in this.

Tomorrow I fly in the back of an RV to go to T-6 and PT-26 required annual ground schools up in the Wisconsin Wing for the CAF.  Dennis is flying, I don't think the back even has controls, and he asked if I cared if we went over the water (Lake Michigan) or land.  And he said he has a brand new engine with 30 hours on it going great.  Considering an engine is way more likely to poop out in the first 500 hours than any other time after that all the way to 2500-3000 hours, I'm not going to take that as much of a positive as he did.  I said "LAND, please.  I like land."  Don't wanna die of hypothermia and disgust in Lake Michigan's very cold waters out there in the back of an RV.  Or in anything else for that matter.  ;)

Steve's hosting some stuff out at Kokomo Airport tomorrow most of the day, and Kaylee is Spring Breaking.  Here are some photos of the blue sky and the Leah Marie (Champ) today.

Doctors & Birthdays

When I was at CVS this afternoon picking up antibiotics for Ann, the pharmacist said "Birthday?"  I said "Yes it is!"  She looked at me funny and I said "Her birthday is 3/21/33.  Today."  So Happy Birthday to Ann, 86 years old today, and celebrating by dealing with a sinus infection and fluid in both ears.  I think she might be starting to feel a little better this evening, especially with knowing what's wrong and a way to go about fixing it.  That always helps!

Kaylee was up until 5 am working on a huge paper that's due by midnight tonight.  After being up until 5 am she only got halfway through her paper.  She's back to working on it now, and has to have it submitted in the next 4 hours.  Good luck to her.  I made her pasta and pizza and have tried to keep her focused as best I can.  She's kind of in trouble on it.  I hope she gets done on time.

It was a busy day.  I had a couple phone calls first thing this morning, including setting up a doctor's appointment in April for Ann, who had been feeling dizzy.  Then I had my own doctor appointment.  I got there at 10:15 am for a 10:25 am appointment.  I'd filled out the paperwork online, but they wanted me to fill out even more paperwork once I got there, which I did.  They didn't even get me back to the room until around 11:40.  And then I sat in that room, with nothing but a t-shirt and a sheet on, until after noon.  I was there for over two hours, which did not make me happy.  Eventually she came in to do the procedure, and I have to say, that really, actually, legit hurt.  I had to hold my breath and grit my teeth, and then the "observer" said "Don't forget to breathe.  Take deep, slow breaths."  I didn't really want to, I wanted to hold my breath, so that way nothing moved and would hopefully not hurt as much.  When she was finally done, she told me to sit up slowly and they'd have me sit there awhile to make sure I didn't faint on them.  I'm not going to do that.  So, this part gets a little detailed, so skip if you don't want to know personal stuff. 

She said that I have at least three fibroids, pretty good-sized, and that because of them, my uterus is swollen to the size of a 10 week pregnancy.  They are causing me some side effects, and her answer to those side effects was all different forms of hormones.  Depo Provera, IUD, etc.  I have declined any treatment that includes hormones.  My hormones are doing all right and I have zero desire to mess with them.  There are risk factors of various things with that.  Weight gain, emotional and mental issues, cancers, headaches (like I need THAT), and I've known people who were messed up in very severe ways from Depo.  So like I said, I said no thanks, I'll just deal with the original side effects.  I was in there for a biopsy, so they took samples of cells, and will be testing to see if they are "pre-cancerous, cancerous, or non-cancerous".  When they get back to me with the results, then we'll discuss options.  She said that fibroids always have a possibility of becoming cancerous even if they currently aren't, so that it's generally not a bad idea to go ahead and just remove your uterus just in case.  A hysterectomy would of course put me into immediate menopause.  She said that I'm probably almost there anyway.  I said "I don't have any symptoms of that yet, and my  mom and grandmother were well into their 50s."  She scoffed at that idea, and her face was actually pretty funny when she said "You're 47 years old and no signs of menopause?"  Lol  Nope.  She assures me that it'll probably happen within the next couple of years.  We'll see.  So I told her I don't want to go for a hysterectomy either.  But there are other options.  First, of course, we have to find out whether there's cancer involved or not. I'm not expecting there to be, for the record.  If there is cancer, of course that changes the game.  If not, they could do an "ablation", which would basically burn out the inside of the uterus. That sounds kinda painful, to be honest.  I have to look up what exactly that means.  Or I could leave it alone, but they keep growing and there's a chance they could morph into cancer.  So anyway.  One step at a time.  First step, biopsy results.  Then we'll go from there.   The procedure left me not feeling the greatest.  Sore, cramping, bleeding, etc.  I took some Tylenol and ended up busy enough the rest of the day I didn't have much time to dwell on it anyway.

When I left the doctor's office, I had to run over to the store, and on the way home, Ann texted that she could use some help.  So we talked for awhile, then I re-called the doctor and changed from an April appointment to a today appointment.  We went right out to the doctor's office, and it was a pretty thorough appointment.  We were there until after about 4 pm, and they said that there is fluid in her ears.  That fluid could be causing the dizziness.  They also said she probably has a sinus infection.  So she has some new medications to do for a little while here, and will hopefully be feeling better pretty quickly once she starts the antibiotics tomorrow.

Steve had a flight then a meeting tonight, so when he got home around 9 pm, we went over and brought a little birthday cake.  When I picked it up originally, it tipped sideways and smashed on the side.  When I saw that, it made me really sad for a second, I guess the straw that broke the Laura sadness for a second, and then it made me laugh, because it looked sad, but was going to be fine.  It tastes the same, and it seemed appropriate that it did that today I guess.  :)  Anyway, it was a fresh strawberry torte cake, angel food, strawberries, whipped cream, and it was good! 

So as I finish this, Steve is working on the computer on billing, Kaylee is panicked trying to finish her paper in the next hour and 40 minutes, and I'm finishing this and going to bed for a hopefully less eventful day tomorrow!

I tried a different "dinner delivery" service.  They ship you the ingredients you need, but it's a more simple meal than the other one, which was good, but almost gourmet, and took way too long to do.  This was peas and chicken and mashed potatoes, but it had a good sauce, was low calorie but still tasted good.  The only negative is that it said it would take 20-30 minutes.  It didn't.  I mean, they give you potatoes you have to peel, cut, boil, mash, etc. and that's one thing that takes 30 minutes or more all by itself.  But it WAS pretty good.  And I do like the low calorie but tasty along with them just sending me a box of all my fresh ingredients.  Even fresh garlic and fresh ginger.   The biggest problem with them is that they send three meals per week, every week.  I had a coupon for $20 off a box for two boxes, so I got the two boxes at the discounted rate then shut it off.  So I'll need to cook 5 more meals in the next couple weeks.  We'll see how hard they are.  Cost-wise, they're also only $4.99 per serving, plus shipping.  So it's not bad. I won't have time to home cook all the time, but now and then it's nice to have it sent to me so I can fix something tasty and healthy.

This was the quote in my email today, made me smile, because I completely agree.

"Happiness? The color of it must be spring green."
~Frances Mayes,
professor, writer and "Under the Tuscan Sun" memoirist

This Saturday I have CAF groundschool training in Wisconsin.  I'm flying up with Dennis in his RV-7, and then we do PT-26 training in the morning, break for lunch, have T-6 training in the afternoon, fly home that evening.  Long day.  Before I went, I had to do a 3 hour online training course and take a test online.  Well, it didn't take me three hours to do the online thing, and I got a 100% on the quiz, so I'm all good.  I printed off my completion certificate, and as long as they let me just be quiet and observe most of the time there in a group of people I don't know yet, I'll be in good shape as far as finishing up the CAF's requirements.  There is also a flight review requirement, but I'm not due for that until Fall.  So, that was progress today anyway.

Last week I turned my long winter coat in for cleaning and repair, sewing up the pockets.  I went to pick it up today, a week later, and the coat had been cleaned, but the pockets weren't fixed, so I had to leave it there again.  I hope it doesn't take another week.  I also hope I don't need a long winter coat any more.  ;)

Tomorrow morning I have to go to another doctor's office, this time for them to take a sample for biopsy of a or the fibroid(s).  So that should be fun. 

I'm hoping to fly the Champ tomorrow and get tailwheel current and test fly it.  Not sure if the weather will allow, but we'll see.  Jordan tried to call me tonight, I tried to call him right back, he texted and said he was sitting down to eat and would call back, and 2.5 hours later I haven't heard from him.  I was hoping he was calling to get me down there to go flying the Twin Beech soon, of which I need 25 hours and needed it months ago.  He went with a couple other people I know and got his FAST card out in California.  He was supposed to help me with that too.  He was also supposed to get me checked out in the C-47.  I've actually emailed and harassed him more than I ever have anyone, something I can't stand doing. So far, he's a great guy, but actually following up on any of his promises...not so much.  I'll hope he does eventually.  He's taking the C-47 across the ocean to a big event there, and I'm kinda jealous about the whole thing.  I feel twitchy, like opportunities are passing me by and time is passing too fast.  Except I'm not really thrilled about flying over an ocean in an old warbird, honestly.  Even one with Two engines.  Lol

But I do need to progress on something soon.

Schedules

The Kokomo Tribune sent a reporter to Hello Dolly, and they took 60 photos.  I don't know how long this link will stay valid, but you can see the photos, including lots of Kaylee, HERE.  She was also on the front page of the actual paper, bottom half, with her photo, name and everything.  So cool!  How many high schools in towns of fewer than 3,000 people get the next town over's reporter to come out to their musical and put them on the front page?  How neat is that?

I stayed busy today, on the phone making and rearranging appointments for myself and the cat, dealing with students, emails to send to coordinate CAF ground school in Wisconsin vs Minnesota vs Indiana and all the parts involved with that.  I had a flight this afternoon, and a meeting this evening, and along with other errands just kept hopping all day. I have some things to finish up tonight, but I'm more relaxed. 

Kaylee got a 100% on a government quiz, and she said she didn't have to study for it, because the quiz was over legal stuff, and even if you didn't know what it was, the words used would give it away.  She thanked me again for giving her a broad vocabulary.  She was amazed that her friends didn't know what various words meant, words that seem normal to her.  Her friend Meredith made fun of her the other day for saying something was "cumbersome".  Kaylee said "What??  It's not heavy or too heavy to carry.  It's just...awkward.  You know, cumbersome!  It's the right word for that!" She thanked me for always using weird big words around her, and she also in passing said "Oh, I know I have an amazing, fantastic family."  She was bemoaning some of the things some of her friends' families put them through.  I'm grateful she is aware, not that we are awesome, but that she, and we, are very, very blessed.  I am grateful...regularly.

I have a student who said they can only fly on Sundays from now until May.  It's my one day off.  I compromised with them, I'll go every other week, but I'm not going for over two months without a single scheduled day off.  I need my Sundays to myself.  I offered for him to go with another instructor, but he wants me.  He came from Dustin, who told him not to go with anybody but me, so I guess I can't be bothered that someone wants to stick with me.  ;)

Down

Kaylee was out until 2 am at a friend's house, and everyone was, as expected, very sad to see it all end.  This has been a fantastic experience for her, and I'm happy that she's been able to have these experiences in high school.  She's had a great run so far.

I got up a bunch of pictures HERE.  I wanted them on my own page and not just on Facebook, so thanks to Justin for helping me get them up.  :)

I haven't accomplished much today beyond dishes and cleaning up some emails, photos, videos, files, etc.  Didn't get my exercise in, didn't get out and about, just mostly resting up.  Kaylee slept in fairly late, then had to go back out to the school to do clean-up of the props, sets, etc.  All hands on deck!

I have to really focus on Spring Fling stuff now.  I am getting too late on ordering stuff for this that I'm in charge of, and it'll be a bad deal if I don't get it locked in soon.  But I have to go to a place and talk to the owner and ask for a discount and try to set up all the games for all the kids, and I don't like anything about this.  Her graduation is in a few months and we have to do a big party, too, and we're not set up for that, either.  :o

Dulcie was supposed to have tooth surgery tomorrow, but Steve goofed up and a student scheduled him, but he has a meeting in Indy, so I have to take his student, he has to go to that meeting, and Kaylee is in school and can't take Dulcie.  So we have to reschedule tomorrow. 

Now if I could get rid of the munchies, and get a good night's sleep, it's a busy week ahead of us.  :)

Hello Dolly

Well, the production is over, and everyone has survived.  Kaylee is out right now with her cast mates and close friends, crying that it's over, eating cake and having a cast party at the church, and then likely an after party too.  I'm thinking they're going to be out super late tonight, because nobody wants this day to end.  She's going to be seriously bummed out for a few days after this.  She's put all her focus and energy and heart into this production.  Now that it's over, she has to ramp up towards the Spring program, and graduation, but really, to her, this was the Big Thing.  She was already crying when she came out after the show tonight, and so were a bunch of the other kids.  A big emotional let-down for them for it to be over.  Watching her up on stage is always fun, but this time she had a bigger role, and she just keeps growing up and looking like the woman she's about to become.  It makes me feel weird and sad and happy and proud to see a picture of the three of us, where Steve and I look kind of old, and she is the young, vibrant, beautiful...adult. 

Mom & Ernie made it up for the play, and our friend Sharon, and Cathy and Rania, too, all for Friday.  On Saturday, Ann and Steve and I came back, plus AE came out, and Michelle B, who brought her friend Sarah and Sarah's whole family.  Super cool and we appreciated everyone's support for the play!  I also saw Les Willis there, and Gary Pratt, some airport guys.  So neat to see everyone come out to see a production that looks like a professional production, coming out of a small high school in a town with a population of 2,396.  It's just...amazing.  The dance numbers are intricate and precise, the choreography is great, the costumes and set are professional and detailed, seriously, the whole thing is just fantastic.  It's worth your time to go to this even if you don't know anyone in it.  If you do, it's just even more fun.  :)

I have like 400 photos.  Seriously, 400.  Good luck to me figuring out which ones to post.  I've got a Looooot of good pictures.  ;)

For now, here are photos of us all afterwards.  Cathy took these, because both Steve and I forgot our phones on Friday, which I don't think has ever happened before.  Ha.

Here are some family photos.  :)

Steve, me, Kaylee, Mom (Patty), Ernie

A closer one, 3 generations.

Another three generations, other side!  Me, Steve, Ann, Kaylee

 

Me, Steve & Ann

This was her telling me to scoot my face in closer, like Steve did.  :D

Kaylee with her "beau" from the play, TJ (left), and her other friend Drew.

Ann, Kaylee & Sharon G

Kaylee with Grandma & Grandpa Chiles

Aunt Cathy, Rania & Kaylee

Steve, me, Ernie, Patty

Ann & Sharon

Mom & Daughter.  :)

Grandma & Granddaughter

Pie Day

Happy 3.14 Day!

My whole body kind of hurts, but I'll live.  :)  It's been a non-stop day.  I woke up this morning and started trying to put the house in order, something I only waited until the last minute on because I ended up working the last two days.  Kaylee's stuff is a mess, and she had spread out into 4 rooms that were all a mess.  Our cleaning people decided not to come back after Steve told them Saturday wouldn't work for us, even after he's tried calling them back.  So it was time to hit the house.  I got as far as I could before lunch, and then Kaylee had sent a text asking if we could help her with a bunch of stuff she needed.  She needed a whole list of things, at several different places.  She needed me to pick up her packages at Glenndale.  I needed to go to the flower shop and pick up some real, nice flowers for her for opening night.  Steve needed me to run a package to Kokomo Airport.  I had to go to the store for us and Kaylee's stuff.  And I had Hall Monitor duties tonight from 5-10 pm, where I'd be the responsible adult, with another lady I thought, for the 140 kids in the hallways at the musical practice tonight.

So I leave lunch, and I have a route planned out to be most efficient, with the first stop just down the road at the flower shop.  But Steve had asked if it was flowers for one night or two. I thought it was just for one night, but now I'm not sure. I text another mom, who doesn't answer.  I bite the bullet and ask Kaylee who says "I don't know".  But while I'm waiting on all these responses I can't do anything, so I bypassed the flower shop and go to Glenndale.  It's on the other side of town, and I walk in, and neither Steve nor Kaylee's packages are on the table.  Wasted trip.  I leave there, let them know there are no packages, and go to Books A Million to pick up little screaming toys Kaylee wanted to give as gifts.  My membership has expired so I got to spend $25 for that on top of the 5 toys she requested.  By now I have figured out that Mom 1 isn't going to answer me and Kaylee doesn't know on the flowers, so I'm just going to go do it, and I drive back across town to the flower shop and place that order.  Then Steve tells me people have been putting packages on his desk to protect them from a guy with sticky fingers.  So I drive back across town to Glenndale, where there are now some packages on the table, that weren't there an hour ago, and a few more on his desk.  Kaylee then texts me and asks if I'll pick up 6 instead of 5 screaming toys.  I let her know I've already been there, and she's lucky, but I happened to pick up six of them anyway, one of each, instead of five, and figured she'd do something with them.   I need to go to the store next, and our few supplies were easy, but Kaylee needed gift bags and lady fingers and very specific odd things that I had trouble finding.  I never did get lady fingers, even though the website said the store had them.  Another store didn't have them either.  So I just got cookies and they'll have to deal.   I got home and got everything put away, sent out a work email, and then it was time to go be a hall monitor.  I am running out of time, so I drive rather fast to get to Kokomo Airport to drop off Steve's package there, then run to the school and get there right on time, and I'm the only adult there for the night in the hallways.  At the end of the night I texted and asked the lady who set it up for me to be there, if I was to clean up or what, that the other lady hadn't come, and she said she told the other lady not to come because she thought Steve was coming.  She never even verified that *I* was going to be there for sure, the last thing she said was this other lady would be there so it was okay if I couldn't make it.  She's lucky I did, or there would have been nobody.  So for 5 hours I'm solely responsible for 140 teenagers, to keep them all in two hallways while they wait for their turns to be on stage.  Thank the Lord it's Eastern.  One girl fell and hurt her wrist.  A couple kids got loud and started running.  I had to scoot a couple girls out of a hallway they weren't supposed to be in, and stop another from going outside.  But other than that, it was uneventful.  Several of the kids knew who I was and talked to me, and I to them.  The kids all had jobs afterwards cleaning up, and they left the place swept and clean, which was amazing.  But that's a long night, you understand, sitting on a student's plastic chair on a hallway, or walking up and down the hallways to get some exercise and let myself be seen so they'd behave.

Kaylee had said there was one more package coming into Glenndale at 8 pm.  So when we got out of the rehearsal, I drove back out to Glenndale.  There was nothing there.  I text her and she says "Oh, everything came together in the one package!"  She had beat me home, because I waited for her in the hallway but she never showed, and then I went to Glenndale when I figured out she wasn't coming.  That was my 3rd trip to the airport in one afternoon, two of which were unproductive.  This kind of thing does not please me.

I get home, and sweep the kitchen, vacuum the front, guest, and back living rooms, take out all the trash and recyclables, and finish making the guest bed.  I'd done laundry earlier, cleaned the sink, you know, the house stuff.

Steve has helped with the bathrooms, and he's been swamped with taxes.  What he's doing is due tomorrow, and he has three or four of them to do, including a big one.  It's 11:20 pm as I type this and he's still working on it.  I have a few more things to do myself, but I'm So Tired.  Getting up so early two days in a row and being on the run all day today, ending with 4.5 hours of being in a hallway with 140 kids, I'm just wiped out.  I was about to be deathly unpleasant to be around earlier, but I fortunately managed to avoid getting there, barely.

The good news is that Cathy and Rania made it in tonight, and as far as I know, tomorrow all I have to do as far as errands is pick up Kaylee's flowers, and go to Kaylee's play.  I always have stuff to work on and do, but I think I'm in decent shape now, finally!   And I really am looking forward to going to the play with everyone.  I know they'll all love it!

Now, aren't you tired reading that too?  ;)

Peace out and goodnight.

Ole Saint Louie

I walked in today and told Steve that I am all out of early mornings.  So yesterday I woke up at 3 something a.m.  Today I didn't have to get up until 5 am, but I ended up waking up at 4 am.  This time I stayed in bed until it was time to get up, but I never really got back to sleep.  I was awake yesterday.  I felt it today.  Two days in a row is too hard on this middle aged lady. 

The trip was looking like it was going to be sketchy.  I had rain over a lot of the route, and a line of thunderstorms too.  There was turbulence and wind shear reported, high winds at pattern altitudes, just all around ucky.  Night IFR in moderate rain and turbulence.  Except it was a non-event.  The rain didn't pound so hard that it made me cringe, and I went around the thunderstorms just fine.  The wind shear was there, but it was smooth and calm wind shear.  I was getting 53 knots wind at 2000', and you could see it shoving me across the ground.  I was the guinea pig for a lot of people today, the first one through an area.  ATC requested pilot reports from me, and the tower when I landed want wind vector reports and ride reports and wind shear reports when I landed.  Apparently not a lot of other people had flown through that area of weather or landed there yet by 7 a.m. their time.  :p

While I was in St. Louis, I took a car and went to a place called "Peacemaker Lobster and Crab".  It was a fresh fish market, with a block of ice and oysters right there by a bar, but it was also hipster style, in a swanky area with brick buildings and wrought iron fences.  Everything inside was distressed to look old and beaten up, but was actually all brand new.  I had a lobster roll, and that sandwich and chips was $30.  So I had a water.  lol  It WAS really good though.  Worth it.  Especially since I don't pay for it.  They know I'm cheap in lots of ways, but I like to eat good food now and then.  So far today, that's all I've eaten, too.  I'm still full.  Which is weird.  It wasn't that big!

The guy I took to St. Louis, I warned him that we had to be out of there by 3-3:30 pm St. Louis time, because 1) a line of really nasty weather was moving in then, and 2) I am going to be home for Parent's Night for Kaylee's musical.  He wasn't able to get done today, so he spent the night there, and I was sent home a little early.  That was a good thing, because I beat out the worst of the weather.  Again I was a guinea pig though.  I provided a PIREP ride report on my own when I went through a round of "moderate rain" they were warning me about, but it was smooth, windy, and the rain was below me, so they used my PIREP to help other people trying to get through that area several times.

So I was home in time for Parent's Night.  I took my camera and my zoom lens and I took 340 pictures.  Heh.  I've not yet begun to get through them and I'm SO tired I won't get through them tonight either.  All I can say is, you guys will love this.  Kaylee's not in the first two acts, and then she's in pretty much the rest of the show.  She's always in pink, and her character is a bubble head, which she does way too well.  :)  Friday is opening night, and she's looking forward to it, and bothered at the thought of it being over with at the same time. 

Tomorrow I have to be a hall monitor, so I will try to get some photos up tomorrow of this, if I can get through them.  In the meantime I have the photos from today's trip.

My weather.  You can see where I started going "nope" and going through the gap to the south.  :)

St. Louis before the sun is really up.

Yes, I'm on base for Runway 12L, taking a photo out the right side, while hand flying with the left, with nice fierce winds.  It doesn't take long to snap, you know.

These are what the forecast was.  It ended up less exciting than it looked.

Downtown Arch

The rest of these are from the Peacemaker restaurant on the inside.  Their glasses were green glass bell jars.

The menu, nothing else.  Blow this up and look at the salads.  Heh.

Behind me is the oyster bar, in front of me is the row of tables with buckets and crab hammers.

The other side of the restaurant, with photos of fishermen blown up and framed on each wall.

The outside of the restaurant.

Kentucky

I was supposed to get up at 4:45 a.m.   I woke up on my own, and glanced at my fitbit without putting my glasses on.  I thought it said 4:30, and I thought...eh, close enough.  I can't go back to sleep for 15 minutes anyway, so I got up.  I told Siri "Turn off my 4:45 alarm".  She said "Okay.  I have turned off your 4:45 a.m. alarm.  Don't go back to sleep!"  I thought that was funny, I'd never heard it say that before.  I take a shower, wander in, grab my makeup and a cup of coffee, sit down, look at my phone, and it's just now 4:05 a.m.  I got up at 3 something in the morning!  Doh!  At least I wasn't late...

I was a little concerned about this morning's flight.  We were going to Knoxville, Tennessee, and when I woke up the area was covered by fog.  The ceilings and visibility were lower than the minimums, and there wasn't an airport within 75 miles that was above minimums.  The forecast was for "fog".  There was a chance, as it kept flirting with minimums, then going back down.  Both on board were aware of the situation, there was an airport 75 miles away that we could possibly get in, though getting a car there was still a question, and I had enough gas to get there and all the way back home if need be.  So we take off, and it's beautiful here, and clear.  We get closer to Knoxville, and poof, the fog which was forecast to be there until 9-10 am, was cleared off the airport by the time we landed at 7:35.  When does THAT ever happen?  There were still pockets of fog around, but not at the airport.  Well, thank you very much!  The sun hadn't even come up yet when we touched down, but there was a nice sunrise happening and D and I took some photos of it to enjoy.

I ran into town and had a homestyle breakfast at a little diner off the beaten path, as I like to do, and it was really good except for the coffee, which tasted like it had been scorched in someone's dirty sock.  Three creamers and two sugars couldn't tame that stuff.  The food, though, was excellent.  :)

I got the plane fueled up and paid for, and we were out of there around 12:20.   Nice strong headwinds home, but it was severe clear.  We had a really nice flight.

When I got back, I topped off the plane for tomorrow's flight to St. Louis, leaving at 6:30 am.  At least that's another half hour I can maybe sleep in from today.  :p  I ran out to Glenndale, got gas, got dinner, and went back out to Kokomo to fly with a student.   Unfortunately the person who had the plane before we did forgot to get back on time.  Like by an hour.  So my student, who hadn't flown in a month and had driven 90 miles to get here, I took him up in the Aerostar.  It gave me some currency in it, and gave him a flight he loved, so other than missing out on revenue today from it, it was otherwise a win/win.

Man it felt good to be back in the air.

Indianapolis at 6 am, no hint of light in the sky, at 15,000' and climbing.

The next few are just of the start of the sunrise...

The sun still isn't up yet but you can see where it will be.  The mountains are over there, and fog is still in the valleys below.

Knoxville Airport, with fog visible in several places...just not the airport itself!

The beautiful flowers Kaylee gave me for my birthday.

Sunshine!

So it's the Monday morning after my birthday.  Kaylee gave me some beautiful yellow flowers, and a brownie dessert, and a card where she wrote about how much she loves me and what I mean to her.  Steve didn't prompt it, so that was even sweeter.  :)  I'll try to get a photo of the flowers in the sunshine tomorrow.

My Monday morning started off at the imaging center, to do a mammogram.  One of my favorite things to do.  When I got there, they wanted my insurance information, said it "wouldn't go through", but that's what they had on file, then came around with two more sheets of paper where they on one again had me fill out...my insurance information.  The same thing they'd just had me give them at the desk.  I love that kind of thing.  ;)  When I got in, the lady doing the scan said "I see that you had an abnormal scan, and then a rescan, and an ultrasound, and they requested a 6 month follow-up."  I said "Yes".  She said "You didn't come back in six months."  I said "No."  She looked at me.  I looked at her.  Not sure what else she was waiting for me to say, a reason, an apology, but bottom line was no, I didn't go, you're right.  I'm here now.  She did the thing, warned me that she needed to do it tightly because of how dense my tissue is, and said I ought to talk to my doctor about 3D mammography which can see better than even what they have, but that insurance doesn't usually cover it.  After she was done, she sent it off to the radiologist, who checked it over and got back to her within 15 minutes that nothing on the scan had grown or changed, and I was good to go for the next year.  So, that's good news.

After lunch I shipped off a nebulizer for SMA Support, and then had a flight out at Kokomo in a Grumman Cheeta.  He's in the midst of checkride prep, over 80 years old, and it's taken him awhile, but he's getting close!  He only had a few things that needed worked on; like I said, getting close!  It was nice to get almost 2 hours in the sunshine in the air today.

Home in time to write several emails, answer a bunch of questions, prepare for a flight to Tennessee tomorrow, get my exercise in, do some house things, all that good stuff.  I'm headed to bed shortly, as I'll be getting up at 4:30 am for my flight in the 340 tomorrow.  I still haven't flown myself in ages though.  Today was instructional where I sat there in the right seat, and tomorrow Dustin's flying and I'm going along.  But at least it's in the air.  I'll get my hands on something for myself soon enough.  It's been several months.  The weather this week is going downhill after tomorrow, but early next week I may get a chance to get the Cub out, if the temps stay up where they are supposed to.  In the meantime, I need to get to bed.  Did I mention getting up at 4:30 am.  I'll be on the ground in TN before the sun actually rises.  *sigh*  Hey, paycheck is good.

Springing Forward

I'm not even going to complain.  I'm adapting.  It does no good, and the later light during the day is kinda nice.  Since I don't have to get up early right now very often, I don't see the down side as much.  ;)

Kaylee was up until 2 am working on homework, and then up early this morning to be at school in order to try on costumes for the musical.  Most of hers fit pretty well for once, she says.  She has three different outfits, and she says they are all pink.  LOTS of pink.  And that she looks like a little girl in them.  She's supposed to be young and frilly and ditzy, so the all pink helps. 

She got home in time for us to drive down to Carmel with her dress and shoes and leave it there for alterations.  It's way too long for her, and not quite tight enough around the bust, so they're going to take care of that, and the lady there knew what she was doing.  She was a true tailor, not just a simple alterations person.  She was asking us questions that neither knew the answer to, so finally I just said "We trust your judgment on that" and she lit up and appreciated that.  She certainly knew better what to do with a prom dress than either Kaylee or I.  The alterations were expensive, too, but what are you to do, just hack it off yourself and safety pin the back?  It sure is pretty.  I hope she feels like a princess during her prom.

There was this cupcake shop right next door, Flying Cupcakes, which are gourmet cupcakes.  She and I couldn't pick, but finally we got a cupcake to take home, and it was impossible to choose.  German chocolate cupcake with a big pile of appropriate frosting, strawberry pineapple, lemon, chocolate carmel, I got a wedding cake one with almond cake, Kaylee got a Twinkee one, just...so.many.choices.  Red Velvet.  They were amazing and I'm lucky I don't live close enough to that to go back very often.  The calories have to be astronomical.

When we got back home, Kaylee was wiped out, and I was a little sleepy too.  She crawled up on my chair and promptly passed out for an hour and a half nap.  Meanwhile, thunder rolled, rain streamed down, and the wind blew everything sideways.  It felt like Springy Winter.  A few days ago sub freezing temps, and today we had thunderstorms several times throughout the day. 

Steve, Ann, Kaylee and I drove to Cicero and ate at 10 West for my birthday.  I had a crab stuffed salmon which was really tasty.  They had trouble with our order though. Steve's 9 oz steak was overdone and tasted burnt.  They gave us all whipped sweet potatoes instead of normal potatoes.  And they put Kaylee's steak with Steve's potatoes and Steve's steak with the wrong potatoes, and it just was all messed up.  But we got it figured out and solved.  Everybody's food was good except poor Steve's steak.  He told them, said he didn't want anything, just wanted them to know, and they discounted his steak, except they discounted Kaylee's smaller, cheaper steak instead.  They had trouble all around.  lol  But I regretted nothing, myself, it was good, and we had a nice time out.

Kaylee's Spring Break is in a couple weeks, and she has no plans.  I half-heartedly said I could see if I could solo her in the Cub.  She said she'd like that, and said she actually likes flying the Cub, because it's more like real flying and not technical and a bunch of learning procedures and stuff, but just fun flying.  We agreed it might be kind of cold and we might need coats, but if the weather lets us and she doesn't go anywhere, we may try to get her through to solo.  Everything else is in place legally.  That would be cool.  :)

Now I'm pooped and heading to bed to hopefully sleep like a zombie.  I'm really tired again lately!  Need some sleep...

Here's Kaylee getting her dress pinned to be altered, today.  She's standing on a pretty tall box, in her heels, and the dress is still draped over the floor.  :)