MY FIRST ETSY SALE!!

So I had my first etsy sale last night!!! Wendy has had a few of her things sell, but this is my first... This is what I sent out to Colorado!

I was so excited... I was jumping around!! I ran around and got it packaged up last night and put it in the mail box last night. They are safely on their way to Colorado, to their new owner!! I hope she loves them. She said she might be interested in ordering more, so I am on a stitch marker making mad rush!! YEA!!!







I am also hoping to get out to Albany, New York tomorrow to see my St. Cloud State Huskies play in the National Hockey Tournament. GO HUSKIES!!! I will be meeting our beloved Aunt Kathy.

I really hope it works out and the flights are good so I can get there... I am so excited!! YEA!!

Kansas City Here I come...

Ok, so I already went there... last week in fact. But here are the pics. Nothing dramatic happened which is always a good thing in Aviation. We went to Kansas City from Detroit. Dropped off 5100 pounds of metal sheeting, stamped out for Ford. Then we had to deliver 2 parts(all of 25 pounds) to Teterboro, New Jersey for Sprint so they could fix their cell phone tower. Here are some of my fave pics...

Here is the ramp at Teterboro... there is, I don't even know how many, millions of dollars worth of airplane in this photo... and that is about 1/5 of the planes on the ramp. Don't tell me there isn't money in NYC and surrounding areas.








Here is a multi Million dollar airplane... Gulfstream 5, or as we lovingly call it... a G-5. My first officer replied, "I would give my left nut to fly that airplane for the rest of my life." That is the love we have for these planes... they are phenomenal.




Here is a Citation 10. Another plane that I especially would love to fly. Ahhh.... smell the money of the people flying that thing!!!






And here is one of the helicoptor's in Trump's Fleet. Not his though. His is huge and all pimped out... this is just a baby!!






Last but not least, a view from my office on the way home... AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh

Here's a flickr link to see the rest of the pictures:(I hope the link works)

http://s78.photobucket.com/albums/j83/flygirl_1313/March252008/

The family just gets bigger....

So I am the oldest of the the grandchildren on both sides of my HUGE family!! My dad's youngest brother(Greg) and his wife(Anne) just added the youngest yesterday(Lydia, I am pretty sure)!!! Mom and baby are doing well. I just mailed the blanket I made for her today... so it will go out priority mail tomorrow and get them quickly I hope. It's a 29 year spread between the oldest and youngest! So crazy!! Here are the goodies that were in the box.(oh, and a little shirt with an airplane on it... I know, I know!)

Little green hat and matching booties for Lydia.


Little hat for Big Sister Kelanie!!



And here is the blanket for Lydia. Nice soft yellow in a pinwheel pattern... I love it!!
Oh and here is a picture of the Proud big sister from February.









Here is the newest addition:

Lydia Claire
March 15, 2008
4:07 pm
7 lbs, 1 oz
19" long


Here are both of them together!!!
Kelanie and Lydia

New stuff and brother update

Quick update on the brother. He called this morning to wish me a belated birthday. He felt bad... I wasn't worried. He's had a bit of a crazy week to say the least. I wasn't worried about a late phone call. I was excited that he called!! He is feeling great!! YEA!! Big sis is very happy!! He is still having fun and taking recovery very seriously. He is eating a lot of spaghetti in a can, shakes, smoothies, and ice cream!! He just sounds so good. One of the best things is that he has quit smoking!! Doctor told him it would take 2 to 3 times longer to heal if he didn't quit.

Well, Mr. Involved wants to be playing cricket and watching rugby... so he has quit, which he says has also helped him feel so much better. He is headed for the beach on Saturday(which is right now, since he is 14 hours ahead in the world!) He's so funny. When he is talking to the Aussie's, he gets the cutest accent... oh, the girl's are gonna love that, if he comes back to the states. He has spoke about trying to figure out a way to get a work visa and stay over there. He absolutely loves everything about Australia, despite the bad things that happened last week. He's a trooper. I wouldn't expect any less from him!! I'm such a proud big sister!!

Well, I found out that we are allowed to paint this one wall in the apartments I'm living in. So, now it is blue... I love it!! I think Wilbur(the fish) likes it too!!! So, much better then boring white!!

Oh and I made this for a little family member that will soon be a big sister!! Mommy is due on Easter and I think the big sister would like a little present when the new arrival gets all the attention. I think it is super cute!! And I crocheted it!! Yea for me!

Wow, what a crazy few days...

Well, lets start things off happily. Here is a blogiversary contest... go over and tell her I sent you!!

http://mariknits.blogspot.com/

Last Friday was a very stressful day for me. A lot of you may already know this, but here goes. (I got this news at 230am too) My brother Pat, is studying over in Australia for 5 months. Well, he decided to go home early from the club on Friday night and took the typical shortcut. Although, usually there is a group of them that all walk together. Well, being 6'4" tall and weighing 190 pounds... he prolly thought he would be ok(plus he had been out clubbing). Well, he wasn't...

5 guys jumped him in the shortcut through the neighborhood. They broke his jaw in 2 places, 2 black eyes, sore ribs, brusied and banged up. They took the money from his wallet($150) and 4 of them started to take off. Well, the 5th one had a bit of a problem with my brother... when the 5th guy jumped out and hit Pat first, Pat laid him out flat on the ground with one punch. Well that guy was super mad and gave pat a couple of extra kicks and that is what shattered the jaw. Well, he eventually found a taxi after a few minutes (about 20 or so, he thinks) and they took him to his dorm where all his friends were at this point. They got him to the hospital and he got some pain killers. They couldn't do much else for him at that point except wait for the swelling to go down and take a catscan and x-rays on Monday.

Well, this whole situation was very hard for me. He is 15 hours ahead of me in the world. I can't jump on a flight and get to him quickly. I feel like I am closest with Pat. There are 4 kids in our family and we are all close, but I feel closer to Pat. We used to speak almost everyday before he went overseas. So I have been missing him horribly since he left. I took care of the younger 3 after my parents divorced and unfortunately, to my young siblings dismay, I sometimes regress back to feeling responsible for them or like I need to give them advice when they really don't need it. I have tried very hard not to do that to them anymore, but sometimes it slips. That was one of those nights. I just wanted to give him a hug, I wanted to be there..... pause for wiping of tears.... The thought of those 5 scum sucking sacks of chicken shit beating on one person just pisses me off to my deepest depths. What a bunch of sonnofabitchs?!?!? Sorry for the language, but who the HELL do you think you are!?!? What a bunch of gutless bastards. Ok, I feel better.

Well, My mom filled me in at 230am... I didn't fall asleep and quit crying until about 430am and thank god... Pat called me at 630am!!!! ARGH!!! I was so happy to hear his voice. He actually sounded pretty good for the situation. He told me that besides having family with him, he wouldn't rather be with any other group of people in his life. The friends that he has made over there are the best, loyal ones he has ever had in his life. he said when he got back to his apartment there were about 40 people waiting for him. He is one of those people that sucks people into him. He has a personality that will charm anyone! He doesn't even realize it either... but this made him see how much people gravitate to him. He told me that his phone holds 200 numbers and his is full. He just meets people and they fall in love with him and his amazing personality. He said that almost every person in his phone either called or stopped by to say hi!! He was pretty excited about that. He said anytime he wanted anything about 5 people would jump up and fight each other to get him whatever he wanted! He said he felt like a king!!

So he went to the doctor on Monday to get catscans and x-rays. Well, they weren't sure if he would have surgery in Lismore or in Brisbane(a bigger city) until they got the results from the tests. Well, they did it in Lismore on Tuesday. Pat called mom after surgery(it went GRRREEAAAT!!) and said he felt so much better he couldn't believe it. The jaw was displaced about 2/3 of an inch!! So once they went in and put in titanium plates, rods and screws he felt better. They also had to remove a shattered wisdom tooth and a cracked one on the other side. He said within hours his swelling was down about 75% and the pain was manageable. YEA!!

pause for more tears...

It may not sound so bad to some, but when you cannot get to someone who is so important to you in any kind of timely or financial matter, it is hard. I'm so thankful to God that he has good friends and a great U.S. supervisor over there to watch over him and help him. Christine(the U.S. supervisor of the kids) went to Pat's appointment on Wednesday morning to discuss how he will function over the next 6 weeks while his jaw is wired shut. Pudding and yogurt and shakes only last so long. He will need someway to get nutrition during that 6 weeks and Christine was gonna get the info so we knew what was up. Haven't heard at this point but will probably hear tomorrow. whew... Thanks to those that read that madness... sorry to bore you but I needed to type it out. It made me feel better. So thankfully, he is doing well, surrounded by great people, and is staying in paradise. Someone asked me if pat was going to come home. What?! That is not Pat's(or my style) We roll with it and keep on truckin!! Why leave paradise now? Might as well recover on the beach!!! hee hee. I hope you all have a good day. I have some surprises to post for tomorrow, but you'll have to wait... I must say goodnight! Oh Pics!!


Here is Pat and Peter. Pat is on the left(the one in Australia) and Pete is on the right. This is 3 years old, but they look similar.




This one is really old, but this is the four of us at Thanksgiving about 5 years ago. Pat, Me, Peter and Sara sitting in front... Good looking group huh??? My wonderful Fam... Mom is taking the picture!! :)

Defeat the Winter Doldrums Prize Package

So I got my prize package today from the wonderful women that ran our Defeat the Doldrums swap.


I got 2 balls of Sugar n Cream in the Strawberry colorway. I also got a journal to keep track of my projects and stuff. I also got a skein of Cotton Ease in Berry! I'm so excited!! I can't wait to get my stitch markers, which are coming straight from the maker! Thank you thank you thank you!

Defeat the Winter Doldrums Swap Package!

So I came home at 8 am this morning to a wonderful surprise waiting for me!! I have been participating in the Swap for about 5 weeks now and learning a lot about a lot of people. I have been posting the weekly topics and chatting it up. My partner got her package after a particularly bad day in Washington, and her response to me made my head swell and glad I did the swap. Thanks for the head swelling email!! We are planning a duo post here sometime... you'll have to watch for that. Check out her blog:

http://knottykittyknits.blogspot.com

She is a super cool woman, so go pay her a visit! Here is what I sent her:







Onto the goodies that I got!!!

My wonderful partner sent me a load of great stuff! There are obviously 2 great dishcloths, which i think I will be using for face cloths, because they are so soft and wonderful!! There are 2 delicious bath bombs that you drop into the tubs that fizz and smell yummy and I just might have to indulge tomorrow!! She also sent me mento's... Did I blog about these? I might have put them in my questionnaire for this swap... THEY ARE MY FAVORITE!!!! I love them... and I ate them already. She also sent me the awesomest little chocolate things. They are little skinny squares of chocolate, which is perfect for me. Just a little bit is perfect for me! I grab a little square and yummy chocolately goodness!!

I also got a great bar of soap called Brazilian Mango Grapefruit. Oh, it is soooo yummy!! The smell is just awesome! I'd love to put a scratch and sniff logo here, but technology isn't quite that good yet! There was also a pineapple lip balm... i use it all the time... wonder where she got it... I might be in love with it!! I got a thing of hot chocolate, which is great to beat the "duldrums" of winter and make it feel nice and cozy if only for a few minutes!

Oh and then there is the yarn... She sent me 3 skeins of yummy goodness... have I said yummy enough times in this post? It was oh so fun to open this up... I was like a kid in a candy store. The blue and pinkish skein is Dream in Color Baby yarn... I'm going to find a wonderful lace shawl pattern and knit it up for myself!! I'll be sure to share that with you. The 2 smaller skeins are Hempathy... made from cotton, hemp and nylon I think... she said it makes great face cloths, so I'll be doing that very, very soon!! Thanks so much to my wonderful partner, who is also in Washington! Small world! Check out her blog:

http://florafaunafurandfiber.blogspot.com

Thanks for everything!! I love it all.

Memphis, Freight and Blizzards, OH MY

So as previously posted, I was in Memphis. On Wednesday night, I went to Marlowe's with my first officer. The cool thing is they pick you up in a pink Caddy! Check it out!!!

They have some pretty good BBQ, which is super good in Memphis. I'm sorry but the north just doesn't do bbq, like the south does!! I love doing down south, they cook some mean bbq!!






Well, on Thursday night, I put on my pj's, shut off the lights and was just getting ready to go to sleep... *do, do, do, do ,do* (that is my pager going off) I get up at 1250am and call work. Trip to Kansas City, up to Pontiac, MI and then back to Willow Run. So off we go. The bad part is that the reason we got stuck in Memphis for 4 days to begin with is a Blizzard in Detroit area. Guess what?? One was moving in... AGAIN!!! So we moved as quickly and as safely as possible. I flew my second trip as Captain, which was really cool. :) I flew the first leg to Kansas City and picked up 3 boxes(all of 120 pounds worth) of wiring harness'. The first officer flew the next leg into Pontiac. We got there as the snow started to fall, that was at about 630 am.

We threw the freight into the waiting truck(after i went and pounded on his window, twice, to wake him up, he must have been sleepy) I wasn't screwing around. I wanted out of there before the blizzard hit!! So we head for Willow Run... at 3000 feet and it's only about a 15 minute flight. The weather dropped quickly. It went from pretty good to pretty shitty really quickly!!! I was flying and the first officer was getting weather and talking to approach, etc. We got in and the weather was blowing!! There were drifts on the runway, so the braking action was fair. Yes, fair is how we rate braking action: Good, Fair, Poor and Nil... Nil is NOT good!!! We don't even try that stuff. So here is what the tower looked like from my airplane when we got on the ground...
We landed at about 745am. Talk about a long night! By the time i finished paperwork and headed home and went to bed it was about 930am... talk about screwing up your sleep schedule!



Yea, it sure wasn't cool!! Well, it was cold, but not great. Although, it is a super adrenaline rush to fly into an airport in crappy weather, coming off your first trip and getting it on the ground safely and efficiently!!! We love our jobs cuz we like the rush! That is a reason we are pilots. My mom hates to hear my stories sometime. Maybe I'll do a series of my favorite stories from flying sometime. Some scary(even for me) and some just plain old fun.