Pave Low

I was asked recently on facebook by one of my friends with whom I grew up, "MK, what's Pave Low? I've seen you mention it before but I don't know what it is." I'm not even sure now how I answered his question, but I've thought a lot lately about it. I don't know why I've thought so much about it except that perhaps it is because so many of the people I speak with on a regularly basis on facebook are Pave Low.

So what is Pave Low? Pave Low is a helicopter that Randy flew during probably the majority of his flying career in the air force. It was a helicopter used for infiltration/exfiltration of special forces, with missions being flown primarily under the cover of darkness. Randy was a flight engineer. Pave Low helicopters were first flown during the Vietnam Conflict and were retired in combat in Iraq last year. They will never be flown again. To experience the deactivation and reunion last year, which Randy and I were both able to attend, was almost surreal.

But Pave Low is so much more than just a helicopter...Pave Low is family. Randy shares a bond with his Pave brethren that I cannot even begin to describe. The wives share a sisterhood that is not duplicated...at least not on any level I've been a witness to. It is a family where the officer / enlisted lines are often blurred...never forgotten who is who, but also never forgotten that it took all 6 of them to carry out a mission...TOGETHER. Like every family, it is one that has experienced joy...and loss.

Recently I became reconnected with someone I had worked with while active duty...we knew who each other was but did not 'run' in the same circles. I had lost track of her shortly after she left the Air Force...which was shortly after her husband was tragically killed during a training mission on a Pave Low. Randy and I didn't begin dating until after this had happened so I was not connected to this woman through Pave Low. However, as everyone in the family is so fond of saying...and believing...Once Pave Low, Always Pave Low. I have thoroughly enjoyed being reacquainted with her...and sharing that bond of sisterhood even though we weren't 'Pave' at the same time. The same holds true for the former spouse of a pilot who left before I even entered active duty...she's become a great source of support on my bad days with the girls! She's a single mom of 3 teenagers and I tell myself constantly, 'if she can do it with 3 by herself, I can certainly do it too!' The support of the family, and knowing they are there, and share in a commonality that is too hard to explain to someone not in the community.

I'm not saying that my Pave family replaces my blood family...absolutely not! My two sisters are my two best friends! But it's hard to explain at times to them, it's hard to explain why Randy is the way he is and does things the way he does, to people who don't know first-hand. What is great about Pave Low is that you don't have to explain...they know, they understand, nothing has to be said.

So what is Pave Low? Pave Low is my second-family. Pave Low is a gift. Pave Low helped make my husband who he is today and I'm eternally grateful that I am blessed to be a part of something so magnificent, so wonderful.

And this is their song.

Its all the same, only the names will change
Everyday it seems were wasting away
Another place where the faces are so cold
Id drive all night just to get back home

Chorus:
I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride
I'm wanted dead or alive
Wanted dead or alive

Sometimes I sleep, sometimes it's not for days
And the people I meet always go their separate ways
Sometimes you tell the day
By the bottle that you drink
And times when you're all alone all you do is think

Chorus

I walk these streets, a loaded six string on my back
I play for keeps, cause I might not make it back
I've been everywhere, still I'm standing tall
I've seen a million faces and I've rocked them all

I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride
I'm wanted dead or alive
I'm a cowboy, I got the night on my side
I'm wanted dead or alive
Wanted dead or alive

Another update...so soon??? LOL!

Here I sit, it is 2:39 in the morning and I am wide awake. I've watched enough television to where I'm caught up on my shows on the DVR and now I'm bored with it. Randy is still awake too, flipping through the guide on the TV trying to find something interesting to watch...not sure what he's still doing awake though as he was up before I was this morning! He was a doll to let me sleep in a while this morning. I get up earlier than he does during the week, or at least this week I started to, so he got up with the girls this morning and made sure Peyton was let out. He even shared his coffee with me!!!

So why did I start getting up earlier this week? Because Emily started school! YEAH! We all went the night before class started to her Open House and met her teacher. I signed up to be her room mom as well as for the PTA. The first morning of school I walked her to her classroom...all the while she's telling me 'Mama, I'm not GONNA be a first-grader, I AM a first-grader!' I truly hope she has a fantastic year. It was so difficult moving here during the school year last December, we never really got to meet anyone. With her starting at the beginning of the school year, she won't be the 'new girl' anymore and I hope she makes some wonderful friends. I, on the other hand, am looking forward to meeting more moms!

Grace is enjoying her one-on-one time with mama again, not having to compete for attention...and I'm enjoying not hearing the constant screaming between the two of them over EVERYTHING. Grace and I have started doing workbook pages together, working on her letters and numbers. She loves having 'homework' every day and can't wait for Emily and daddy to get home so she can show them what she's done. The State of Florida's Pre-K program is only one semester long so she won't be starting school until January. We are going to start going back to Free Wednesdays at The Wiregrass, an outdoor mall about 20 minutes from here. It's a bunch of activities that is sponsored by the Tampa Moms Like Me group.

I've started working more on the house. This week I managed to get every room in our house cleaned except for the play room, the spare bedroom, laundry room and the master bedroom closet. On Friday I started working on our closet but put finishing it on hold until Monday when Randy goes back to work and Emily goes back to school. We still had boxes in there from the move that had never been unpacked...of clothes!!! I did get all of the hanging clothes organized though so now all Randy has to do is walk in there in the mornings and find his clothes for work all hanging together. My big project this fall will be to clean out the garage but I'm waiting for the temperature to drop at least into the 80s before I tackle that project! It's needs massive organization. I would like to build shelves to put the boxes up on and get a lot of the stuff off the floor. We'll see though. That's not a type of project I've ever tackled before...I don't know how well I'll get along with a power saw! LOL! I've never been great at keeping my house SPOTLESS, primarily because I'm a clutter-bug and don't throw anything away. But my resolution to myself, moving into this house, is to de-clutter it and get rid of things we don't need, don't want, can't wear or just flat out don't like anymore. Did I mention that after the first day in our closet, I have already managed to fill two big black garbage bags with stuff to get rid of??? I haven't even started on our clothes yet!

Our biggest news this week came on Wednesday with a phone call Randy received from his oldest, our son Ryan, who is currently serving in Afghanistan. He called his dad to let him know we are going to be grandparents again!!! Ryan is so excited that he's going to be a dad that he told me he's ready to call a press conference and announce it to the world! Jenny had just returned from her visit here the week before...which, by the way, was WONDERFUL! We had a fabulous time with her here. She was a little shocked by the news, they'd planned to start a family after he returns from his deployment, but nonetheless are ecstatic that they are going to be parents. We're so happy for them too!!! Ryan will return to England in February. Originally, their plans were for Jenny to join him in July after their wedding in California, but with the baby coming late-April, we're not sure what the plans will be now. They got married in December and Jenny has always wanted a big wedding but we'll have to wait and see what they decide to do.

Our son-in-law Efren, Katie's husband, deployed this week to Iraq and will be there for six months. It's unsettling for Randy and me (we don't count 'steps' in our family) to have our son and son-in-law both deployed at the same to the wars in the middle east. While Efren is gone, Katie is continuing to go to school to become a medical assistant...and doing very well, I might add. She plans to join us here in November for Thanksgiving.

We're headed to Disney next month with the girls. We haven't told them yet, going to wait to surprise them. Randy's birthday is also next month and I'm hoping the painting we had commissioned for him will be here by then.

Until next time.

Another update...

I'm sitting here in my new favorite spot...the table outside under the lanai with my laptop. I tired of playing Mafia Wars and Farmville/Farm Town on Facebook and am seriously procrastinating on cleaning up the kitchen so figured I'd update my blog again. I really need to get my butt in gear though...our daughter-in-law will be here tonight from California for 5 days! We haven't met her in person yet, only through conversation via Skype and all of us are looking forward to her visit.

The girls are playing on the floats with their beach towels...pretending to 'lay out' in the sun. I wish they would just jump in the pool and start wearing themselves out so they'll go to bed at night! LOL!

Other than taking care of the housecleaning, I'm also getting ready for a Southern Living At Home Open House I am hosting next Sunday afternoon. I finally decided it was time to see if I can do anything with my business. I don't know of any other consultants in this area, at least on this side of the bay, so there is a lot of potential. I just renewed my contract so I'm going to give it this year to see if I can make a go of it. We'll see what happens.

I went to the doctor yesterday to refill my medication for my ever-present ulcer and walked out of their with an appointment for a colonoscopy on Tuesday...YUCK! UGH! HORRIBLE! Yeah, the good ole prep that has to be done the day before...not too pleasant to endure but if it can help prevent me from suffering from the same illness that took my dad, I'll gladly...ok, maybe not GLADLY...but I'll do it. The doctor said there aren't any concerns, just that I haven't had one in 4 years and he wants me to go ahead and knock it out now. Fun. Fun. Ok, not fun.

A lot of catch-up...

I'm seriously ashamed that I have not updated this thing since February!!! UGH! However, in my own defense, it's been a little busy around here. Like I said in my last post, I ended up on the planning committee for my 20th high school reunion. Never in a million years did I dream it would take up so much of my time. I signed on to plan the dinner and create a Memory DVD...and wound up doing so much more. The DVD was AWESOME! I received more than 1000 pictures from classmates and created 17 different videos...starting with our kindergarten pictures from 1976 and ending with current photos of classmates and their families. I created a special video in memory of a classmate who passed away almost 13 years ago, a memory dedicated to those in our class (8 of 65, although I found out later there were actually 9) who served in the military, 3 videos of current photos, 2 videos of family photos, 1 video of photos that were taken around my hometown...not to mention a video of grade school photos, 2 videos of high school candids, 1 video of senior photographs, 1 video of high school dances, 1 video from our graduation and for the life of me, I cannot remember the last two. I even created a video of photos taken at the reunion dinner after I got back home. The dinner was a great success, everyone seemed to have a wonderful time catching up and I've heard nothing but positive feedback from all the hard work and effort put forth by Lauri Ramsey, Tammy Monier and myself. I ended up helping Lauri create memory books. We made 27 books that were 108 pages each. We 'scrapbooked' them, inserting all the clip art and past-and-present photos of classmates who returned their questionnaires. It was a long and tedious project, one that took us a lot longer to complete than we had anticipated, but thanks to the last-minute help from my younger sister Stephanie, the books were finished the night before we went to Henry.

The girls and I left on the 29th of June to make the long drive to IL. We spent the first night in Murfreesboro, outside of Nashville, and I have to say, they were real troopers! We spent the first few nights in IL at Tom and Stephanie's with the boys, where I got to see Seth play a baseball game but unfortunately left before he hit a triple with 2 RBIs! Steph and Leann took turns taking care of the girls for a couple of nights while Randy and I drove to Henry for the reunion. The girls and I had picked up some fireworks in TN - you know, the GOOD kind - that Tom enjoyed setting off the night of the 3rd of July where they were having an early 4th celebration listening to the tunes of DJ Cupcake, aka Seth Gajdorus (my nephew), at some friends of theirs. That night was my reunion dinner and I was truly pleased at the turnout of classmates. I'll try to get some photos posted on here, they are also on my facebook page, as well as the final video I produced. On the 4th, Tom and Steph drove to Henry with their 3 boys and our 2 girls and spent the night with us. Mom and pops also drove down for the day. We had a great time seeing old friends, running into people we hadn't seen since leaving Henry 20 years ago. Of course the carnival was a blast for the kids, and as always, Henry put on a magnificent fireworks display.

We returned to mom and pops' house on the 5th where Leann, Rusty, Julie, and their kids Jeremy and Paige, joined us for a cookout. The kids had a great time on the water slide, the parents had fun just relaxing and catching up. On Monday night all the kids returned to mom's house...we had 7 kids for 2 days and nights with a full moon...NEVER again! LOL! None of the kids were bad, they were just hyped up with being together and of course, the effects of the moon! We ventured out on Tuesday and took them all to see Up! What a great movie! Although what wasn't great was the phone call I received during the movie from Randy (he had flown home that day) telling me he walked into our house which felt like an oven. We'd been having problems off and on with the a/c since Memorial Day weekend and had numerous service calls to try to fix it...apparently it wasn't fixed. So, I had to try long distance to get a service tech back out there to find out what the problem was and get it fixed. (To make a long story short...it ended up not getting fixed until after I returned home, but I'll tell that part of the story later.)

On Thursday, mom and I took the girls into Chicago to the LUSH store. That night I hooked up with Stephanie and her family and went to see NASCAR qualifying at the Chicagoland Speedway, then later went to Julie's parents' house and hung out for a while with Rusty, Julie, Leann, Jules' parents and some friends. The next day was quiet at mom's house and then I went for dinner with my dear friend Kerrie while mom and pops took the girls to an outdoor production of The Wizard of Oz. While I was at dinner with Kerrie, I also got to meet NASCAR driver Robbie Gordon...and picked up a free hat and t-shirt for Randy. Saturday we were supposed to meet up with my aunt and cousin and family but plans fell through so mom and pops took the girls back home (and later to pops' favorite store, Barnes and Noble) while I met up with Tom and Stephanie, Seth, Toni and Aric Ende, Cory and Jenny Ende, and Matt and his boys for some FUN tailgating at the track before the Sprint Cup night race. I managed to find Randy a Bill Elliot t-shirt, Jeff Gordon t-shirts for the girls, and see Joey Logano up close at the #20 Home Depot trailer. Tom's parents even came by to say hi. But that's where the fun for me ended...and no, it wasn't the Beer Pong because I only played one game! I got a splitting headache and ended up leaving the race before it was even half over. It would have been more fun if Randy had been able to be there anyway.

So I went back to mom and pops, yes - completely sober - and decided to just get a good night sleep before heading out with the girls on Sunday morning. Well, those plans changed around 4:30 am when Grace woke me up and promptly threw up all over the place. So much for leaving. She was sick most of the day until pops was an angel and went to Stephanie's for some anti-nausea medicine. By early-afternoon it looked like we were home free...until early-evening when Emily got sick. Bring on the medicine! Fortunately she didn't experience the bug as badly as Grace did because she got the meds early on. So we set off Monday morning for Tennessee where we spent the night with my mother-in-law, Judy. Tommy, my BIL, came over for dinner and hung out a while too. Judy loaded me up with stuff she's been cleaning out of her house and the girls and I left there Tuesday morning, with a brief stop in Warner Robins to have lunch with Paula and Kinley, Angela, Shelby and Gavin, and Katie and Liliana. We made it home that night...and I crashed...in a hot house.

And then the flu bug hit me. Randy was awesome and stayed home the next day, I think it was almost lunchtime by the time I got up. And when I got up I immediately grabbed my phone and started raising 90-kinds of Hades about our a/c...the contractor, the home-warranty company, the contractor again...UGH! Back and forth it went for a couple of days...which also included numerous phone calls with my BIL Tom (who's an HVAC guru). The original company who had done all the work since Memorial Day finally backed out and said they couldn't do any more...so back to the Home Warranty company I went to get a new contractor. Now mind you, this is 8 o'clock on a Friday night. It's not easy finding a contractor in this area who works weekends...at least not one who's affiliated with our home-warranty company. My bi***ing paid off though because they finally got someone out here Saturday morning who spent all of 2 minutes looking at our unit to tell us the compressor locked up and the whole unit needed to be replaced. Ok, no worries, we have a home warranty, right? Monday morning I received a call from them and was told the total cost would be about $3000, of which we would have to pay almost $1600...fees for things that weren't covered like the new line set, disposal of the unit, a new concrete slab, etc., etc. This is where it gets fun...NOT! Our compressor/condensor/outside unit was a 10 SEER, R-22 unit. Our air handler/inside unit is a 13 SEER, R-22 unit. R-22 units are not going to be made anymore after the end of this year and parts for them won't be made anymore after a couple of years. So, we had to make the difficult and painfully expensive decision to just upgrade our unit so that #1 - the compressor and air handler would match (the same SEER) and #2 - they would no longer be R-22 but instead R410A freon, the safer freon according to the EPA. Going with a higher SEER would also decrease our energy usage, something I'm all for after having 2 months of electric bills over $400! So the next week we had the new units put in...but I'm still waiting on them to come back and patch the hole in the ceiling where they first put their foot through and second, had a leak that soaked through the hole.

Enough about that! Randy asked me if I would finally get us moved in this house now that the reunion is over and vacation has ended. I spent a few days while he was in Atlanta de-cluttering the house, am currently working on re-arranging the girls rooms to put them in one room with the other room a play room, I fixed our dryer that had been inop for about 8 months, and re-hung the hall closet door. I finally got all of the boxes out of the dining room that were on the floor but now need to clear out the boxes that are on the table. My goal this fall when the temperature drops is to get our garage cleaned out. Katie came with Liliana at the end of July and spent several days with us, then Leann came last weekend, and Ryan's fiancee Jenny will be here Saturday night. We're having friends over for dinner Friday night.

The girls absolutely love having the pool and it's really beautiful with the new tile and surface we had installed in March. They swim almost every day and now that I'm not working on the reunion, I'm in it almost every day with them. Emily goes back to school the 25th of this month, I'm waiting to find out about Grace. My mom will be here for a day or so in November, she has a conference she goes to every fall that's being held in Tampa this year for oncology nursing. Katie and Lily will be here for Thanksgiving and Tom and Stephanie are hoping to come down for a long weekend in December. I have a few more friends who want to come down...Laura, Brian and Jenny...hopefully they'll be able to make it too. We won't be going to IL next summer as our vacation plans will take us to California for Ryan and Jenny's wedding, which the girls are in.

Ryan is currently en route to Afghanistan for 6 months and by the end of this month, Efren should be en route to Iraq for 6 months. Please keep them both in your thoughts and prayers.

Until next time...and I'll try not to make it as long before my next post...