Razorback football

Well yesterday was not a good day for Les and I, we got up with anticipation of watching a good Arkansas football game and we were treated to an absolute beat down. After watching the game it was obvious to anyone that knows anything about football, that we beat ourselves! We are in fact playing the 2nd most freshman in all of college football, so things like this are going to happen... but it still sucks. Well as Les and I were watching the LSU v. Auburn game it was announced that Ole Miss lost to lowly Vanderbilt with our old coach Houston Nutt at the helm, so it was pretty funny to hear of him losing to a team that they should have beaten! Hope that everyone has a great Sunday!

4 years...

Today is Les and my 4th anniversary... it sure doesn't seem like it has been that long! Well I am taking her to Quizzno's for dinner tonight, don't want to spoil her that bad. We went out for dinner last night, and low and behold upon returning home, was called out to go on a flight. Well I didn't get home till about 3 in the morning, but I was able to stop by Walmart and pick up a card.

Getting tired of going to Houston...

Well as all of you know, hurricane season is officially here... and it seems that I have been running a taxi service to and from ports of call in the Houston, and New Orleans area. On Friday I took a group of nurses down to Houston from Dallas, and I may have to go pick them up here in a little bit as I guess all of their work has subsided due to Hurricane "Ike" making a B-line to Canada over the weekend. These past two hurricanes have seen me at one time or another going to New Orleans and also to Beaumont, TX and of course to Houston. Needless to say when we were staying in New Orleans, some of the people there wanted me to go out to eat with them on Bourbon St. After being there for about 24 hours I can understand the reason why God has sent Katrina and Gustav in their general direction... I hope that I never have to go back and stay in that godforsaken town again! Well all else is well, had a pretty uneventful weekend due to the hogs game getting cancelled but thankfully "Ike" delayed the slaughter till a couple of weeks from now.

Fire season part VIII

Well I am headed back to Texas for about the millionth time it seems like. Well it was a pretty productive 2 weeks here, got some flying time done in the Cheyenne and I think that when I get back that is what I am going to continue to do. Today is the first day of school for Les, I think that she was a tad bit nervous... but I know that she will whip those kids into shape! I will write more when I get down to Texas and hopefully will get to take the digital camera and take some pictures.

Hello everyone...

Here I am... well I am still alive and well, just been a little busy and lazy recently when it comes to blogging. I got the news recently that our company was not going to be doing the cargo/checkrun to St. Louis for the time being... so I am going to be getting checked out in the Cheyenne (thats the big airplane) for the company. Then in about a week and a couple of days I will probably be headed back out to Texas for some more forestry flying. Hope that you all have not been as busy as Les and I have!

Leavin... on a jet plane

Well yesterday I found out that today will be my last day here in Fort Stockton, TX. Amazing as it may sound, I think that I am going to miss being out here in West Texas! The forestry service is moving the airplane and I to Grandbury, TX which is about 45 minutes from where I grew up in Kennedale, TX... so maybe mom and dad can come and visit me! Hopefully the move to the east will help with the extreme heat... its been 104+ the last 4-5 days or so.

No need to fire up the stove...

If I would have been in the mood for a hearty breakfast I could have cooked it out at the airport on the concrete. The temperature here in Fort Stockton got up to well over 110 degrees outside! But as the residents of Ft Stockton proclaim... its a dry heat. I don't think that really matters in the grand scheme of things 110 is 110 no matter which way you slice it. The days here have been long and boring recently but Saturday is my last day, so I have less than a full week left out here... thank you jesus. Well I hope that the weather has been treating all of you back in civilzation better than it has out here.

flying over Alpine, TX

here is a picture of my airplane... sitting outside the hanger.

here is a S.E.A.T. (single engine air tanker) @ Fort Stockton

Here's where I stays at during the day

Here's Lucky....

Here are some pictures of our new kiddo... after all the playing and picture taking today, Les said that he has slept non-stop since I left.... hope you enjoy the pictures.

FIRE....

Well the last time I was out here in Fort Stockton, I was completely bored... no fires, nothing to do. Not this time, out of the days that I have been here... there is only one day that we have not fired up the engines on the airplane. Only problem with all this flying is that I haven't been able to walk like I have wanted! Well I am on the ground here until 2:00 pm then we have to go back up for about 3 more hours. Sure wish that I was having a lazy Saturday at the house instead of all of this! Bye-for now have to go get a bite to eat.

Iphone here I come...

Well today I have done quite well on watching what I eat and exercising. I drank tons of water and I walked about 4 1/2 miles today! Needless to say there was a nice nap taken half-way through the day today! Well today was the third day here in Ft. Stockton and still no fires. Hopefully there will be something going on in the coming days, as sitting here can get extremelly boring and mundane. Got to go I hear Subway calling my name for dinner tonight, I think I will order the Jared special.

Seek Shelter....

Thats what the people in Fort Stockton are doing today, as I have returned today... Well I hope that everyone is having a good time back in civilization. I am out here in West Texas for the next 13 or so days on fire detail. My company did hire a friend of mine from Henderson and I think that he is going to take over for me on the checkrun to St. Louis, which should free me up to start flying the Cheyenne's for my company which I am very excited about! The temperature here is supposed to reach into the mid-90's today... not to fun if you ask me. But I am excited about one thing... while I am out here I plan to do good on my diet... if I can lose a vast sum of weight Les has promised to buy me an iphone, so here is to eating healthy while I am out here.

Back in St. Louis...

Well I am back doing the checkrun for a little while longer... but I am training up a friend of mine to take it over for me, today is his first day on the job. Well the flight up here was quite nice, all of the thunderstorms and nasty stuff stayed off to the east of us on the way up here. I am quite happy that my company recently purchased a new GPS for us to carry with us as it uses XM radio to depict the weather and thunderstorms... don't ask me how it does that, it just does it, thats all I need to know! When he gets trained up, I think that my company will be able to get me into their Cheyenne aircraft (they are the bigger, faster, more expensive airplanes) that we have! Well all else is well here and it feels good to be back from "the middle of nowhere" TX!

Demotivational Posters...

Momma, I'm coming home....

Well tomorrow my relief pilot comes out here to relieve me in Fort Stockton, I cannot put into words the sense of joy and happiness that I am feeling right now!!! You know if I was on fire detail anywhere else in the U.S.A. it might not be so bad. Why can't they have fires in Destin, FL or the somewhere in the Florida Keys? Well I talked to my Chief pilot a minute ago and it looks like I will be flying to St. Louis on Thursday and Friday and then I will have the weekend off, my parents are hopefully going to be coming down to celebrate my B-day. Don't think that I will leave my phone on, at all this weekend... I am turning it off all weekend, no phone calls from work, so if you need to holler at me, you need to do that before Friday evening!!!

Sincerely,
F.S.G.

Texas Rangers start off the new season with what else... a loss.

Well as some of you know, I am a die hard baseball fan and I was so pumped up yesterday that it was Opening Day of baseball season that I couldn't stand it... well my favorite team is the Texas Rangers and they haven't done much in the last 8-10 years. Well why would my expectations be any different then they normally are? Well with the start of every new season, comes bigger and better expectations, well the Rangers didn't fail to disappoint... they started the season like they have the previous 4 seasons, with a loss. Well thank goodness there are 161 more games to go till the end of the season. Sincerely, the Fort Stockton Giant.

No understando, mathmaticos...

Well I went to Walmart here in town... I bought 2 postcards, and one pack of gum, guess how long it took to purchase said items... 45 minutes. I first off blew the cashiers mind, by handing her a gift card that I had, she tried to swipe it about 50 times, no joy on that. So I hand the lady $2.00 for the $1.39 worth of goodies and she procedes to type in $20.00 into her cash register. Well I thought there for a second that I was going to be making out like a bandit... I will most gladly take $18.21 in change in exchange for two dollars. Well after about another 20 minutes and what I can only gather as cuss words in espanol the cashier finally gets her manager over to my register to help us out. Yeah that didn't work either, the manager couldn't get it entered into the register either. She then procedes to cancel out the whole order and open the cash register to just go ahead and just give me my change and end my misery. She looks at her co-worker and what was said next baffles me... "just go ahead and give him the $0.71 you owe him in change." I corrected her and said that she only owes me $0.61 and this lady tells me that I am wrong. I know that I didn't study extremelly hard in college, but I am pretty sure I can do simple math. She has to get out a calculator to figure up the amount of change and finally figures out that I was right. If you come to our country and work here and live here, learn the language first and foremost (do not talk to all of your co-workers, customers, everyone in the store but me in Spanish, who knows you could all be making fun of me again, like you guys did in McDonalds.) then the other thing is to learn how to do math, and then have the common sense to question a native (thats me) about my mathmatical prowess!!! Well enough ranting for now, or until my next trip to Walmart.

Maybe I should join the circus...

Well the first day out here was quite boring... no flying, just sitting. To explain the title of this blog, I went to McDonalds for lunch yesterday, and couldn't help but notice everyone was staring at me! I went up to order my food and the hispanic lady behind the counter said to me "your are very big." I didn't know how to react, cause I thought that she was hating on me cause I am kinda thick. Well she confirmed that she was talking about my height and not my weight, which to say made me feel a little bit better... she must not have excelled in her English as a second language class in high school before coming to the "golden arches!" Well as it seems this town is about 105% hispanic and the folks here have never seen alot of tall gringos. Well I hope that today is better than yesterday.

On the road again....

Well I have been sent out to Texas again to do some work for the US Forestry Service. Only this time they sent me to a town that was more backwoods then the last one. I am in a town called Fort Stockton, TX.... don't bother picking up a map and looking for it, its not on there, mapquest couldn't even find it. Well I am out here for about 12 days and then back home... and lets all hope and pray that when I get back, I can celebrate my birthday (and Christmas) with Les, mom and dad in peace! You all will be getting plenty of blogs from me in the near future to pass the time here!

Hi everyone, just an update...

I have been back in Arkansas for about a week and a half now, and I am presently in St. Louis flying the checkrun. All has been well with Les and I, we finally have started to get settled into our new home... I think that I am done putting together furniture and hanging pictures and shades!!! Well Les and I are without internet at the present time because there isn't a service provider for our neighborhood yet. So I think that it will be a minute before Les can blog again. Hope that everyone is doing fine...

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Well for the 4th or 5th consecutive day we have been without anything to do here in Amarillo, as there has not been a fire in quite some time. Well last night Amarillo recieved about 2 inches of snow which has all moved out to the west of us. Well needless to say the snow sure does knockdown the fire danger! Well tomorrow I will be headed back to Arkansas at about 6 pm after a long and arduous day of sitting and napping and internet surfing here at the Amarillo airport. I can't wait to see Les, I miss her lots. Well Airborne is giving me Wed, and Thur off and then I will fly up to St. Louis on Friday evening since Airborne is again flying the check-run again. Hope that everyone had a good Monday and that your days were not to affected by the weather today!

Stole this from Lele's myspace...

1. Raised in: Arlington, TX
2. Planned baby: Yes, but I think that I was the last attempt.
3. Birth date: April 15th
4. Any siblings: none
5. Younger or older: again none
6. Hair color: brown, or whatever color hat I am wearing
7. Hair length: short
8. first school: Kennedale Elementary
9. Eye color: brown
10. Shoe size: 12
11. Mood: happy, like always, but really sad that I am not at home w/ the wifey
12. Smell: I like lots of smells, kinda hard to narrow it down
13. Height : 6' 3''
14. Lefty/righty: righthanded, but wish that I was lefthanded

LOVE LIFE:
1. Do you remember your first real relationship? not really
2. Do you believe in love? yes
3. Shortest relationship? a couple of days
4. Have you ever been heartbroken? yes
5. Are you liking someone now? I love my wife
6. Have you ever fallen for a friend? yes Les
7. Are you afraid of commitment? no
8. Do you believe in love at first sight? yes
9. Longest relationship? Les and I have been together for about 8 years

THIS OR THAT:
1. Love or money? love, because money can't buy you that
2. Coffee or alcohol? coffee, but it has to be that flavored coffee
3. One night stands or relationships? relationships
4. Television or internet? tv, have to be able to watch my shows
5. Pepsi or coke? pepsi fan, used to drink a ton of mt. dew
6. Fun night out or romantic night in? romantic night in
7. Phone or in Person? phone, I talk on mine all the time... les said I am like a little high school girl when I am on my cell phone
8. Aim or myspace im? don't really use either

HAVE YOU EVER:
1. Have you ever been caught sneaking out? never snuck out the house
2. Have you ever skinny dipped? yes
3. Have you ever done something you regret? who hasn't
4. Have you ever been on a house boat? yes
5. Have you ever finished an entire jaw breaker? no
6. Have you ever colored your hair? yes, I bleached it blonde in college
7. Have you ever been streaking? no, but I have run through the house naked

ARE YOU:
1. Are you missing someone right now? my wife
2. Are you talking to anyone right now? no
3. Are you German? yes, Disch is german name I think
4. Are you Italian? no but they do have some good food
5. Are you French? no
6. Are you Russian? no
7. Are you Norwegian? no
8. Are you Indian? hope not, those people charge to much money on their toll-roads, just ask Les
9. Are you Irish? nope
10. Are your parents still married? yes

DO YOU:
1. Do you get depressed about things easily? no I am generally a pretty happy person
2. Do you live life to the fullest? sometimes
3. Are you comfortable with the way you look? not really, I am pretty thick in the middle, but that is all going to change, Les and I are turning one of our new rooms in our house to a workout room
4. How do you dress? T-shirt and jeans, I think that Les wants me to dress a little more....preppy but when the weight comes off, then we can talk
5. Are you scared of growing old alone? Nope, I have Les
6. What do you want to be when you grow up? I am already a pilot, so I would say, a dad
7. Favorite season? Spring
8. Are you a vegetarian? judging from my size, I would say "no" I do need to mix in a salad every now and then
9. Current song you are listening to? just the steady hum of the heater in this room here at the airport

Go Diego, Go...

Well we are here at the Amarillo and the what was on the T.V. when we got here... go, diego, go. Wish I was back home in Arkansas watching that with my neice. We are probably going to be doing some flying today, but just to patrol and look for fires and if we see one, go to work. Went and rented some movies last night, but I was pretty limited on the ones that I could get as I didn't want to get one that Les and I would want to watch together as I am a horrible person to watch movies with if I have already seen it. Just ask Lele and Les about watching the "Blair Witch Project!" I know that some of you that read this blog are probably overwhelmed by the amount of posts on this blog, but keep your eyes peeled there will be plenty more in the next couple of weeks.

Staypuff the Marshmellow Man...

Here is my gratuitious reference to the Ghostbusters movie. The wind was blowing so hard here in Amarillo that as I was walking to the airplane today my windbreaker inflated just like a hot air balloon! We got sent out on a fire about 73 miles south of here, it took 15 minutes to get there and about 40 minutes to get back.... talk about windy! Well I will be leaving here in about 30 minutes as at 6 pm we are done for the day. Our hotel is about 13 miles from the airport, so we have a little bit of a drive after getting off work tonight. I know that I have been hitting you with a barrage of new posts since I have headed here to Texas, but it really does help to kill the time that I am spending out here, missing my wife and our soon to be new home!

Same post different day...

Well I am finally here in Amarillo, I arrived here this morning around about 10:30 am or so and man is the surrounding coutryside flat! We (my air attack guy and me) just got back from lunch, there is a cute little resturant just next door to the place were are sitting at. I have a feeling that later on in the day there will be a few fires to fly on, as the winds are gusting up to about 38 kts or so. I had to say goodbye to my mom and dad this morning, I know they were sad to see me go, but it was good to see them even if it was only for one evening!

moving.... to the home of the 72 oz. steak

Well I found out a little while ago that my division of air attack is moving to Amarillo, TX. I will be spending the night here in Abilene but will be taking a 197 mile trip to the Northeast tomorrow. I have heard that Amarillo has some mean steakhouses but they won't be getting any business from me, as I am not a big steak fanatic! Well today has been a busy day, we have been flying since about 9:30 this morning and will be done here on this fire at about 7:30 pm or so. My mom and dad came down from Dallas/Ft. Worth to come see me, but I will only be able to hang out with them this evening as I will be moving about 4 1/2 hours away! Everything else has been going well, just alot of flying and alot of fires.

Windmills galore...

Well I went flying on my first official day here working for the Forestry Service. The one thing that I can't get over is the amount of electricity producing windmills that they have here in Abilene. We went on a flight about 95 miles to the west of Abilene, TX there was a small fire that was out there but the ground crew had it already under control, and on the way there we must have seen hundreds of these huge windmills and there were alot of places that looked like they were building more daily. Well today is going to be exciting, as I think that there will be a high danger of significant fire activity, due to high winds and low relative humidity! Went shopping at the mall yesterday and bought some jeans for about $9.00 at Steve and Barry's. I have been kicking the idea around about getting Les a pretty sweet present, any ideas??? I think I know what I want to get her, but suggestions would be helpful!

I would walk 500 miles.... to Walmart

Well this morning I woke up about 5:30 am and I was in need of some personal hygiene products, as the airlines won't let you carry any liquids that would amount to anything these days. Well after talking to the guy at the front desk of our hotel, he said that it was a little walk around the way over to Walmart, so I started my journey. Well after about 2.5 miles I finally arrived at my destination. Well I arrived back at the hotel with enough time to shower up and go downstairs and eat breakfast with the guy that I am going to be flying with. This guy is from Idaho, and he is the definition of a mountain man... all bearded up and rugged looking, no not like Sawyer from Lost rugged. I think that he and I will have a good time flying together as he is very knowledgeable and is pretty easy to get along with.

Where the deer and the antelope roam...

As all of you already know, by reading my wife's blog, I have been sent to Abilene, TX for assignment with the U.S. Forestry Service. And some of you also eluded to the fact that I need to get Les a gift for all of the work that she will no doubt be handling all by her lonesome! Hopefully I can get her something from down here that may be a little bit meaningful, but probably not! Well in 13 days I will be able to head on back to Arkansas, not to the old stomping grounds of Sheridan, but off to our new humble abode in Haskell. I sure wish that I didn't have to come down and do this work down here, as I need to be home and helping to work on the new house! I know that there will be plenty of work to do when I return home... lots of boxes to unpack and things to be stored in the attic. I will try and work on my blog more then I have been, I guess I don't write stuff all the time cause I don't want to bore all of you with constant updates on what part of the U.S. I flew to that given day.... but I will write random blog posts more often then I currently do. Well gotta run I think that we are going to go to lunch here in a little bit.

8 seconds, thats nothing!

I used to think that bull riders had it tough, staying on a raging bull for about 8 seconds seems pretty amazing. Well my flight to St. Louis tonight was bumpy to say the least. I got to the Little Rock airport and as I was sitting in the airplane there was so much wind blowing that I thought that it was going to achieve flight without the engines on. The wind as most of you who read this already know, was pretty strong and gusty tonight!!! The max wind gusts at Little Rock were in upwards of 50 knots (60+ mph). Well after climbing through 3000 ft or so it smoothed out and was a pretty nice flight (only took 1 hour 5 min). Well the winds at St. Louis were not anymore forgiving as they were gusting up to 42 knots, but they were right down the runway. Well the landing and flight was a success, or else I wouldn't be posting this blog. And I just got off the phone with the flight service station (they give me the weather for the flight) and it looks as if I will have a tailwind on the way back since the front has passed through the area, woo hoo. Only thing I would have done differently is maybe bring along some long underwear as it is about -5 degrees Celsius outside!

Weird Things You Didn't Know About Me...

Here are some unusual things about me that you may not know...

1. I have Adult A.D.D. the reason I know this, I was watching T.V. one time and they had a commercial come on and it said, "Do you forget things, Does your wife tell you something to do and you don't do it?" See I do that, I have it. Les said it is just A.L.A.S. syndrome... (Adult Lazy A%* Syndrome) she is probably right.
2. I play video games, which annoys my wife immensely, to my defense they are mostly sports games, football and baseball which are my two favorites. I try to tell Les I play them to keep my eye-hand coordination in top condition for flying.
3. I don't have much of a temper... I can't remember the last time I was trully upset. But when that does happen, watch out cause I could just snap, Les said when I really get angry it is pretty scary.
4. I sometime talk in my sleep, to which Les starts asking me questions... thanks Les. Recently when I was studying every day for my checkride she tried to get me to wake up after about only 4 hours of sleep and I started reciting Federal Aviation Regulations to her as to why I couldn't wake up for 6 more hours due to need 10 hours of consecutive rest after completing a flight.
5. When I was in high school, I got picked up for shoplifting... Well that taught me quite a few lessons, if you don't have the money to buy it, you don't need it.
6. I am paranoid when I go flying.... not in a hearing a voice way, or a someone is out to get me way. But a did I check everything way, I always check and recheck myself to make sure that I remembered to flip every switch and set every dial correctly.
7. I have an obsession with hats, I wear one pretty much all the time... which probably means by the time I hit my mid-thirties or fourties I will be bald like me dad.
8. I was an eagle scout, which means I like to go camping. Les on the other hand does not, unless we can buy a pop-up camper trailer... so that the snakes can't get her.
9. I don't mind washing/drying clothes... I hate to fold them, but I am getting better I think.

Well that wraps up the things that you may not know about me... hope you enjoy. I won't be tagging anyone due to the fact I am probably the last person to do this survey.

Sit down this is gonna be a long one...

I know that some of you get tired of me going so long between posts... sorry about that, I just don't want to bore most of you by talking about flying. Well this has been a pretty fun-filled and exciting past couple of weeks in regards to flying. Well lets start out on Thursday of last week, I got all comfortable in my airplane, heater on, auto-pilot on, all was good... till I came in to land in St. Louis... I reached over and put the landing gear selector in the down position and low and behold that action was not accompanied by the standard whirring sound and subsequent thuds known as the gear coming down!!! Well for all of you reading this post, this includes Les... don't panic, there are other ways to put the landing gear down. Well after flying around for about 8 minutes east of St. Louis I got the gear to come down (you turn a little hand crank about 55 times counterclockwise, in case any one wondered). This was followed by an uneventful landing, well when I got on the ground I was then able to reset the circuit breaker and the flight home to the Rock went off without a hitch. Ok that brings us to Friday, if anyone needs a reminder that was the day that the weather was pretty bad and icy... Well when you are flying an airplane ice is a very different animal then it is on the ground, for every 1000 ft in altitude you gain the temp. decreases about 3 degrees. This means that it could be 50 degrees on the surface and below freezing at about 6000ft. Well Friday came and I was supposed to go out to Little Rock and fly the airplane that I had been flying back and forth nightly to St. Louis to Hot Springs in exchange for an airplane that safely fly through known icing conditions. Well when I arrived safely at the airport, that plane had about a half inch of ice all over it. Well I started to do my best to remove the ice from the plane, when it started to sleet again. So as fast as I was taking ice off the plane it was getting right back on the places I had already polished smooth. Well there were a couple of jet pilots sitting inside Central Flying's building that got a pretty good kick out of my attempts at ice removal. I asked the lady that works behind the front desk to have my plane put into a heated hanger at this point to help let the old girl thaw out. Well that night on the flight to St. Louis we picked up some ice... but thankfully our plane had a heated windshield and props and all was fine. This weeks weather doens't look any better as, there will be rain and snow in the forecast for the St. Louis area... so heres to hoping that the weather starts to warm up as I like flying alot in warmer weather without the worries of encountering icing conditions.

This has to be one of the longest weeks on record...

Well this has been a pretty trying and extremely long work week. It all started out on Monday morning, I couldn't sleep, kept waking up that evening from the same messed up dream you know the one that ends when you roll over then as soon as you drift back to sleep you pick up right where you left off... whats up with that? Well Les took my temp that morning and it was 102, well after some ibuprofen and some shut eye I went to work flying to St. Louis. Not a good idea, should have stayed home and rested, but I felt the incessant need to head to work and do my job. Well the next day I felt a little bit better and went flying again, well I probably should have stayed home this night as well... but all was well and didn't feel anymore negative affects during the evening. Well Wed. rolled around and I was all better, went flying and the flight went well... only problem was that the long week was taking its toll on my brains ability to remember important information, such as, me leaving my wallet in the plane early Thur. morning and me driving back to Sheridan without it! Well after my return trip to Little Rock to get it, I got home at about 5:30 am, just in time to hear Les's alarm clock going off. Well I actually get Thursday night off, but I have to head out to South Carolina at 6:00 am by airline flight on Friday morning to pick up an airplane and fly it back to Hot Springs that afternoon. Then on Saturday, Les has her cheer competition, that I am actually looking forward to, it is alot more fun to watch when I actually know what to look for when they are cheering, you know the running man, cartwheels, etc... Then after that competition is over Les and I are heading out and going to Texas (6 hour drive) to visit my parents and have our X-mas with them. I think this week would have started out alot better had I had more cowbell...

Les finally went flying with me... and now my back hurts!

Well Les honored her promise to me that she would go flying to St. Louis and back after I passed my recent checkride. Well the entire flight I was sitting the same position attempting to be still so as not to frighten her and now I am stove up from the flight on Friday night! Les did quite well only a couple of times did she freak out... I should have told her that it was me that turned down the lights in the cockpit. She was pretty glad to be back on the ground in Little Rock when we landed, so much that she kissed the ground at the airport after we landed. I sure hope that I didn't scare her that much and that she goes flying with me again, it was alot of fun.

I Passed my Checkride... and all gods people said amen...

Today at 7:00 am I took my part 135 checkride in Little Rock... and passed, thank you Jesus! At the present time I am sitting in St. Louis after just finishing a flight and I cannot describe to you the amount of relief that I feel after completing my test and flight this morning. One of the main reasons I haven't been able to blog in quite some time, was due to being waist deep in textbooks and charts! Les and I are able to move forward on the purchasing of our 1st home something that she and I are both fired up about. Now I can finally say that I will be the bread winner out of the two of us, something I didn't think would be a reality about 1 year ago. Les and I both agree that maybe failing this checkride was the best thing that could have happened to me... I am frequently refered to as a coaster, doing enough just to get by and had I passed the 1st time there would be alot of information that I would not have learned that could have affected my flying career in the upcoming future. The previously mentioned failure helped me to realize I had to get myself in gear and not let my family down... so after alot of hard work and continious prayer it all paid off! I promise to all of you who may still read this blog that there will be more blogging in the near future as I will have alot free time to get on here and post random things about aviation that will all bore you to tears, so stay tuned, I am back...

And a good time was had by all...

This New Years Eve was a blast... Les and I invited Lele and Mabe, and Michelle and Eric over for a little party to ring in the new year. The evening was filled with laughs and story telling and I don't think that I have laughed that hard in a long time. If you want to know what all the rucus was about you just need to ask Eric about his theory on Kansas women. This is definately something that we should do again, but probably at a bigger venue as our apartment is the size of a postage stamp. I sure hope that everyone had a great beginning to the new year like Les I did.