Sweet Little Man

After dropping Terry off at his house last Saturday upon arrival back in The Valley, I was only a few miles away from my sister's house. Since I knew it would be another few weeks before I had a chance to see Evan, I decided to crash their garden box-building to say hi to my favorite local nephew. He is always so cute and loveable, and I knew he would make me smile!

My phone had died throughout the day, so I couldn't call to warn them of my approach. After nobody answered the door, I walked to the side of the house and showed myself through the open gate to the yard. Nobody gets rid of me that easily! I found T'liese and Joe building their first garden box in their new HUGE back yard. It looks amazing and will bring lots of grown goodies in no time! Though it was nice to see the future garden location, my main objective for popping in for a visit was to see Evan. He warms my heart.

I only stayed for a few minutes...long enough to kiss on him and chit-chat with my sister. Evan cut his first tooth this past week, and I got to see it after tickling Evan and making him laugh. I sure love the sound of his laugh. When I brought my camera out for some pictures, he really thought it should be in his hands instead. Look how determined his face is! Future tech geek like his Daddy?

Thanks for letting me surprise visit, Sis. Evan is just the sweetest kid! I sure do love him.

Complete Surprise

I knew the moment I met him that there was something incredibly special about my husband. He is thoughtful, generous, and a very good listener, among a million other positive attributes. As we creep up on our two-year anniversary next week, I have been reflecting even more on how great John truly is. I like him. And after a miserable week on the road, I was pretty anxious to get home for a hug and kiss to make everything better. It's amazing how long six days can seem sometimes!

And this is what I walked into yesterday when I came through the door. The cabinets. Almost done with their three coats of polyurethane protective coating. Stained to match the rest of the cabinets in the kitchen. He's been working on them all week, from the time he got home from work to late in the night. No easy task, for sure, but especially for a man with a bad back! I stained the kitchen cabinets before we moved in, and it was quite a project! It took me eleven days of non-stop work, but I am sure a humid week didn't help by prolonging the drying times. I decided to delay the remaining cabinets throughout the house until we got moved in and settled. I wanted to enjoy a clean home for a few weeks before I made a mess yet again. However, with me being back at work every week these past two months, it has been difficult to plan when I would be able to finish the two bathrooms, the hallway pantry, and the dining room game storage cabinets near the fireplace that were still the old lovely oak that I hate so much. We knew we were going to stain the rest of them when we had a chance, but it has been impossible to get it done in the short amount of time I am home on Saturdays. I was shooting for December...hoping I would be home a few weeks for the holidays and could knock them all out. I was dreading it...it's a big job and creates a mess all over the place. I didn't want my December to be in an uproar because of cabinet doors covering the floor. The Christmas Tree should never have to compete with other wood!

Though I wasn't able to call him to complain because my phone was off all week, John was very aware of how crappy everything was going for me at work. He decided to do something spectacular to make up for it by finishing the cabinets himself. It certainly worked! When I came home and saw him bending over a bunch of gorgeous stained cabinets with a paintbrush in hand, I burst into tears! It was just what I needed to forget the horrendous week and enjoy some time with my sweetie for the day I was home (I landed Saturday afternoon around 2:00 PM and am leaving Monday morning at 6:00 AM).

He is so good to me. I am blessed to have such a wonderful man as my husband. John never stops at trying to make me happy, and he is the best thing I could have hoped to find. I am one lucky lady to be his. Did I mention I don't have to stain a million cabinets now? I don't think that aspect has quite sunk in. Oh sweet, sweet bliss. He thinks he will be done later this week after he drills holes for and installs the handles to match the kitchen as well. His Dad is also down for a few days, and they are working to build me a beautiful buffet for our dining room! John wants to give it to me for our anniversary. I'm pretty sure he's a keeper.

Frazzle Rock

Do you ever experience a week when nothing seems to go right? You finally overcome one marathon problem, only to have another one pop up the very next day? Unfortunately, that describes my week perfectly. I am on the road, visiting Canada this week with Boss #2. We broke down before we even took off on Monday. Thankfully, the Hawker Beechcraft Service Center is located on the field. After waiting all day for a part, we were finally on our way to Montreal. I crawled into bed at 3:28 AM, rather exhausted but glad we had the problem resolved. I always take it personally when my My Baby breaks and is the one preventing the Bosses from getting their work done. The week progressed, with us experiencing minor breaks along the way. Other than an annoying stuck mic on my control yoke, making it pretty tricky to make radio calls to ATC, these problems have been bearable. I've been keeping a squawk list of things we need fixed next time we are down for maintenance. It simply went from bad to worse when we arrived at our destination last night.

After we landed, I was resetting the trim for the takeoff position as part of the After Landing Checklist. When the needles on the indicators weren't moving, we decided to investigate further and found that the pitch trim and rudder trim indicators seem to be having a temper tantrum. It's certainly a no-fly situation, since we can't go up in the air without knowing what the trims are doing on the airplane. It's been murder today trying to get wiring diagrams from Wichita (they wouldn't give them to us so I got instant help from our guys in Mesa) and tracking down a mechanic with United States Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) ratings who was willing to work on the plane for us. Even if we find what's wrong today, it's probably too late to get a part here all the way from Dallas (thanks, Customs). So we are stuck here until we can get it fixed, with anxious passengers constantly asking when they can leave for our next destination. We were supposed to leave hours ago.

The icing on the cake? After taking awesome pictures all week, one thing that truly makes me happy, I lost them all today as I uploaded them to my computer using a new method. So I can't even prove to you how silly this week has been because there is no photographic evidence. All ninety-four pictures...lost. Yep, it's been that kind of week. I'm kind of nervous wondering what's going to go wrong next.

Let's see. End on a happy note. Um.....the fall foliage is beautiful here in Canada. If you don't mind admiring the leaves on the ground.