New “Shop PWC” link

Well, after much thought and consideration, I decided to open a Cafe Press shop for Pilot Wives Club. It’s going to be your one stop shop for getting all of your Pilot Wives Club gear! Previously, I when I ordered merchandise for you all, I was having to store the items and mail them out myself. As a busy mother of four (and one on the way), I just didn’t have the time or means to do that anymore. Plus, Cafe Press gives us tons more options for loot!

Also, for some custom made designs by yours truly, go here. Here’s a little preview:

So, head on over here and here, check out the merchandise and then make your Christmas List!

Catching up

Well, this blog has been so neglected. When I originally planned for this blog, I naively thought that I would have help with the content. Surely other wives would want to put a message out. Besides, so many pilot wives have personal blogs, it will be easy peasy to find someone to help, right???? Well . . . not so much! And so, here the blog sits all lonely and uninformed. I’m ashamed. I really should be banned for ever owning a blog again. Can the blog forgive me? Can you, the readers (all two of you) forgive me for the neglect? I really do have good intentions on blogging and keeping everyone informed. But, life - well, life just really gets in the way. And when you’re married to a pilot, there is a lot of weight on your shoulders to hold everything together while he’s gone. And I try . . . but some things get dropped along the way. Four kids . . . well, that’s enough to wear anyone out, not to mention my other responsibilities. (que pity party)

Anyhow . . . ALL of that to say, I’m sorry. And I’m really going to try to do better. So, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here are some things that you need to know:

1) I’m working on an order for long sleeve Pilot Wives Club tshirts. I’m hoping to open up ordering the week of November 13th or sooner. Price estimate is around $18 or $19 plus shipping.

2) Our next Pilot Wives Club chat is scheduled for November 19, 2011 at 8 p.m. central. If you’ve never attended, you’re missing out on a GREAT time. RSVP on our private page under events.

3) It’s open enrollment on benefits at several airline companies right now. Be sure to poke, prod and remind your pilot to get that information for you so that you can be informed!

4) If you’re not a “fan” of our Facebook page, please head on over there and “like” us now!

5) We’re now at 1,130 members — thank you to all of the members — your participation is GREATLY appreciated!

Hope to see all of you at the chat!

Thankful Tuesday

Happy Thankful Tuesday!  Here is what I’m thankful for today:

• I’m thankful for my mother, who picked my two older children up from school yesterday, took them to a fun picnic, kept them for the night and took them to school this morning.
• I’m thankful for my other set of parents (in-laws) who are making a 13 hour drive to come visit us on Wednesday and spend time with my 4 little monkeys.
• I’m thankful for friends who let me vent when I need to and recognize when to listen and when to give advice.
• I’m thankful for a huge group of pilot wives that understand the challenges of raising children with a part-time husband.
• I’m thankful for an awesome God — who in the midst of a frustrating moment shows me that I can still receive a blessing.
• I’m thankful for the smell of a newborn babies head. Is it just me or does that smell seem to calm a frazzled mama! Someone definitely needs to bottle that smell.
• And I’m thankful for a wonderful husband who rarely angers me — BUT when he does, he looks for a way to apologize and make up for it!

What are you thankful for today?

Stay tuned . . . tomorrow, you can read about the REAL drama of being a pilot’s wife!

Pilot Wife Law #4356: When the Pilot is away, someone is going to get sick!

Ugh!  This is the Pilot Wife Law that I absolutely hate!  It never fails that the day the pilot is supposed to fly out, someone in the house is going to get sick.  However, in my case, it was all three children at.the.same.time!  Yes, you heard me — THREE children.  I’m talking about ear infections, croup cough, snotty nose — you name it and that germ took up residence in my house.  And the pilot, well he just jet-setted himself right outta here without a second thought.

Now, you may think I’m being a little hard on the pilot, BUT he NEVER has to deal with this type of situation.  Don’t worry - eventually I’ll start my list of “events that the pilot never has to deal with!”  But, that’s a whole other post in and of itself! 

I’d like to take a moment and thank the makers of Infant/Children’s Tylenol and Ibuprofen — mama finally got some sleep.  After a good dose of some antibiotics, my girls (atleast two of them) seem to be on the mend — just in time for the pilot to fly back in.

In other happenings, I’ve been diligently working — in my spare time — to update this site, the private site and schedule an event or two.  I’m excited to bring back Pilot Wives Club “Girls Night In”.  If you’re a new member to the site, you’ve just GOT to attend.  I can’t disclose the happenings of the previous events . . . however, let’s just say that some people may or may not drink too much wine and act a little silly during chat!  In any case, it’s great fun and you get to know quite a few pilot wives.  Check out the private site for details. 

Well . . . I hear a coughing child that I must attend to.  Y’all pray for me!

Headed in a new direction . . .

Well, as you can see, this blog has been rather lonely for months.  What can I say?  Life is busy.  Managing three kids, three real estate properties, several blogs and websites . . . and well, there you have it.  Not enough of me to go around.  So, in an effort to keep this site going, I’m consolidating.  This blog will now become my own personal blog.  My account of living the life of a pilot’s wife.  So, get ready to know me and my family!  From time to time, I will call on other pilot wives to guest post here.  But for now, this is where you’ll find me.  Now, here comes the disclaimer:  please keep in mind that I have three children ages 5 and under and I’m currently 23 weeks pregnant with child #4.  That in and of itself is a full time job.  I’m going to ease into this thing slowly.  So, you may not see a post everyday from me.  BUT, I will do my best to try and keep up. 

Check back tomorrow for my first REAL post . . .

The importance of wind…

I came across this quote while researching other quotes to include in a project I am working on…

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” ~ Henry Ford

Being married to a pilot, I felt it rather poignant since my life is steeped in aviation…

I feel the need to expand on this quote. So, here’s my take on it -

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. Sometimes the wind changes directions and comes at you from the side and the ditch on the side of the runway is waiting to swallow you up. Even if you do get in the air, the wind will try to push you off course. It takes great skill and determination to overcome the crosswind and fly.

Taking the wind analogy a little further, we can say that sometimes the wind changes directions and comes at you from behind, seeming to travel with you, but throwing you off your rhythm. This sudden change can even flip you over if you are not prepared.

A day with no wind is a joy. You can accomplish the act of flight with little effort. You don’t get knocked around in turbulence. You can sit back and enjoy the ride.

On the other hand, there is the challenge that comes from flying on a windy day. When you meet the wind head on, the airplane jumps at the opportunity to get in the air. Trusting in your abilities, you will be surprised at how fast you climb! It may not be entirely comfortable, but you can take heart in knowing you accomplished something that most cannot or will not do. You flew!

As pilot wives, we handle our fair share of adversity. We learn to live independent lives when our pilots are away. We learn to incorporate our pilots back into our lives when they return. We raise our children mostly alone. We sometimes go through life’s events (births/deaths) alone. We cope with the loneliness and the feeling of being overwhelmed. It is not an easy life. But we take a page from the flight training guide that was shared with us by our pilots - point the nose into the wind and fly!

Aviation in Alaska - An Introduction

There is a running joke in my family that I won’t let my husband be a “Fire-Bomber” – thanks to the movie “Always” – but I will let him be an “Alaska Bush Pilot”… For some reason, that seems to make a lot of people laugh…

Alaska has such a large area, with the majority of it’s towns and villages inaccessible by roads. Before aviation was introduced, everyone got around by sled dog or boat, depending on where you lived. The aviation pioneers that started flying up here had their challenges. Most of them died doing what they loved. Some of them helped to innovate new ways of getting around the state. Aviation is such a necessity here. Most, if not all, of the villages have airports, or are in close proximity to an airport. Small but dependable air-taxi services dot the landscape, providing the necessary support to the villages. Their duties range from mail and freight delivery, taking passengers “in to town”, medivacs, and so on… It’s no wonder this is the area that my husband wanted to start his commercial career in.

My husband started flying for a Part-135 Airline in Juneau, Alaska. He was taught how to navigate “Southeast Alaska” by one on the best pilots in the state. When we needed to start accumulating “actual instrument time”, we moved out in the bush, to Iliamna, Alaska. There, he flew to more remote villages, to places where the town surrounded the airport. Where there were no tower services and the way to announce your presence is to buzz the town. We had our personal airplane with us in Iliamna, and it came in handy. We would fly to Anchorage to do our shopping every 2-3 months, and hit Costco, Wal-Mart and Safeway – the staples of remote living. Living out in the bush is not for everyone, and it wasn’t for me. We moved on to bigger and better things, taking us back to the “lower-48” and then out to Hawaii.

The “bigger and better” jobs were fun for my husband, at first. Then, he got bored, going to the same place, at the same time, along the same airway, every day. He missed the challenges of flying in Alaska; of getting to meet your passengers face to face and become their friend; of getting to do the occasional “back-country Canada charter”; of going to familiar territory, but different places every day. It was then that we decided to move back to Alaska.

We returned to Juneau. The airline my husband used to work for is no longer in operation, so he works for a company out of Bethel, on the other side of the state. He commutes for the first half of the month, and then gets to come home for the second. He is back to servicing a large area of small villages. We have found our little niche and we are not moving again (I hope). Where else in the world do you have such a reliance on aviation, such a stable corner of a vastly changing industry?

With the stability, there is a sense of concern. This is Alaska, where anything can and does happen. Systems that pilots use in the “lower-48″ are practically useless here. Due to the rugged terrain, radar only works at high altitude. Even with advances in satellite tracking and advances in Capstone (a terrain and aircraft avoidance system pioneered in Alaska), I worry when he doesn’t check in on time. In Bethel, he doesn’t have cell phone coverage, so I have to wait for him to get home to the pilot house to call me. I could do without the days where he waits until 9:00pm to check in…

Living and flying here has its challenges, but I don’t think I would trade it for anything.

Petitioning for a Day Off

My husband, like so many pilots, is a double pilot. Double pilot? What’s that you ask - you’ve never heard of that?!? Well, that’s because I’m making up my own pilot’s wife lingo.

We kindly interrupt this blog post for a Pilot’s Wife Lingo lesson . . . (que chessey gameshow music)

Double Pilot is a pilot who works two jobs. Example, My husband teaches flight instruction for the military and also flies commercially.

Ok, now that we’re on the same page . . . where was I? Oh yes, double pilot. My husband is a double pilot. What’s my point? I guess my point is that we NEVER have a day off. He’s my relief - so if he never has a day off, well, then neither do I.  When he’s not flying commercially, he’s flying for the military. His days off from his commercial job are spent serving our country teaching flight students how to fly helicopters. Which, I could say, is admirable. However, I am the wife behind the pilot who desperately needs a DAY off. While I am super blessed to have the opportunity to stay home and parent our three children, I also wear many, many, many hats. And my job . . . well, it almost NEVER involves sitting in a restuarant ALONE enjoying a nice quiet dinner. Heck, I’m lucky most days to get to have a sit down dinner. Three children under the age of five years old — now that’s a handful and half. And if I’m being honest, I rarely complain. I usually suck it up and go about my business, swirling in the mass chaos that IS my life, trying to get an unimaginable, impossible amount of tasks completed. But today, ladies . . . TODAY is my day when I just about snapped. Today is the day when I realized my human constraints. Today is the day that I realized I CAN’T do it all. And I’m mad. I’m “spit fire” mad. Because I don’t want help. I don’t want to ask anyone for help. I want to be able to “do it all”. I mean, isn’t that what were expected to do? I guess going from a working environment to being at home, I’ve just never adjusted to that scenario very well. And I do so much here, that the pilot, well . . . he’s come to expect a lot. Everytime I push myself and I do more, more becomes expected. Not only from him, but from others.

What’s the solution, you ask? Well, I’m doing some soul searching. I’m going to do some list building. And I’m going to start setting realistic goals for myself. Some things are going to fall by the way side and that’s just going to have to be the way it is for now. Unless someone has some sort of secret about cloning.

Tell me ladies, anyone else ever had this feeling? And if so, how did you organize the chaos?

Stay tuned for more of my infinite wisdom . . . I’m sure there is more to come.  Lucky you!

I live off of this stuff . . .

I thought I’d share this freebie with my readers . . .

This definitely gives a new meaning to “bring your child to work with you” day

“Child Directed Traffic at NY’s JFK Airport, Air Traffic Controller Suspended”  Foxnews.com

An air traffic controller at New York’s Kennedy Airport was suspended for allowing his young son to radio instructions to several pilots.  Read more . . .

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