Returning home

I wrote 328 posts over the course of nine years and then I hit a wall. A couple of years into regional carrier life and every thing was so routine that it just seemed like there was nothing to write about any more.

Since my last post, in March 2015, some things have changed, for better or worse, and some things have not, also for better or worse. I’m still working full time as a hospital social worker and continue to work with parents and babies in a NICU setting. A continues to fly for his regional airline with 10 years of service behind him. Our oldest son M, known as Kidzilla, is now 15 and in high school. He resides with his dad and stepmom on the west coast. Our middle son S, known as babyzilla, is soon approaching 7. Our youngest son C is 2 this month. And our new, sweet baby girl Peeps is 2 months old. Yes, we’ve added TWO more children since I last posted. Obviously, things are a bit hectic around the house at times. One of our saving graces is that A has bypassed upgrading to Captain several times in order to remain a senior First Officer. This has allowed him to bid schedules that work for our family and allow him to be gone home when we need him. There has been a significant impact on our finances from doing this though. A was pretty much forced to upgrade by his company due to mergers and will be going for training in the spring. He bid it out as far as possible to remain home for Christmas and Spring Break.

This past May I took my first flight in 7 years. It was the first flight for both S and C as well. We all flew to California on short notice due to the unexpected death of my father. We did spring for regular fare tickets because I couldn’t handle the stress of non-reving on top of everything else. Holding a 19 month old on top of a 28 week pregnant belly while two legging it across the country was no simple feat, but we did it. We had always put off visiting California because the logistics of traveling there and then to the rural area where my parents lived just seemed overwhelming (and expensive!), but we made it work. It was interesting to be there again after 7 years away. There was much to talk about and rediscover- the traffic!, our extended families!- and several new experiences for the boys- mountains! snow! Giant trees! At some point we will travel out there again to spread my fathers ashes in the park he loved.

A was voted in as FO union rep at his base much to his surprise. While walking around the grocery store one day in early spring, he got a call from the local (base) committee saying that his name had shown up as a write in on several ballots for FO rep but they didn’t have a willingness to serve form from him. Someone had staged a write in campaign to get him elected without his knowledge. He didn’t even know about it! His name went on the official ballot and he was elected without any kind of campaigning. Although it adds to his business and strains his barely existent time management skills, he does enjoy the position. And now that his airline is headed into merging and other future possible changes it helps cut down on all the rumors he brings home because he is the first to know the truth of what’s going on.

Hopefully I can start a new season of blogging, this time as an experienced wife. I have found that with the rise of Facebook there is a lot more one to one, immediate support and less following peoples lives long term via blogs. Most of the aviation wife bloggers I used to follow have dropped off of blogging and haven’t posted in years. A lot of blogs start and disappear after a few posts and there are very few long termers out there. It’s good to be back and hopefully I still have some followers out there.