Dating again

Ugh!

That has been the near universal reaction when I mention that I might start dating again.  I share that opinion of the modern dating game.

Through this process, I've made a determined effort to keep my focus on the future.  Sarah and I had 18 wonderful years together, and nothing will ever diminish that.  I'm a loner by nature, and I could be happy on my own, but I would also like to share this life with someone.  If circumstances were reversed I wouldn't want her to remain alone, and I don't think she would either.

The first thing I had to figure out is that Sarah isn't an "ex".  Her memory will always be with us, and honoring those memories is critical for the development of our kids.  Her picture will always be in my home, I'm not going to purge mementos out of my home, and I will always look back on our years together with happiness.

Dating again means that I have to think about what kind of woman I would want to bring into my life.  Unfortunately I'm afraid that I will be hunting for a unicorn.  Someone who doesn't have any kids, is willing to take on mine, and doesn't want to have any of her own.  She would also need not be much taller than me, reasonably attractive, and oh by the way actually be attracted to me.  So I'm not asking for much.  😉

I was never the guy who dated a lot of girls, in fact I think I only dated three or four girls before I met Sarah.  I was older than 20 before I actually kissed a girl and when Sarah and I started hanging out, she was the one who kissed me.  Self confidence was not my strong area.  So, with all that experience, I'm somehow supposed to navigate the modern dating scene all over again.

Sarah was the only woman that has ever looked at me with true romantic love in her eyes, and I wouldn't be surprised if that fact will remain unchanged.  I'll never know what I ever did to make her fall in love with me, but I'm really glad she did.

Helicopter pilot

I passed my commercial helicopter pilot checkride this week.

I've dreamt of flying helicopters since I was in the Marine Corps working as a mechanic.  I never had the time or money to pursue my helicopter rating.  I focused on flying airplanes and always looked with envy at helicopter pilots.

I began training back in November with my discovery flight.  I was able to hover on my first lesson (not well, but not ugly either).   I started taking regular lessons in December flying two to three times per week.

I was more nervous for this checkride than any one I've been subject to for a long time.  I'm confident in my ability to fly just about any airplane, but the helicopter is a completely different animal.  Fortunately the FAA examiner was my old boss at Careflite so I knew that he would give me a fair evaluation.

The day was overcast and pretty windy, but the winds were directly down the runway and fairly steady so I went ahead with the flight.  I flew fairly well and was happy when I finally shut down and the checkride was successfully over.

Moving sucks

March and April have been incredibly busy with kids activities, Spring Break, and flight training.  So, I've been slowly moving our stuff to the new house each weekend.  My parents came down twice for a few days to help make some repairs, sort clothes, organize closets, and move some of the lighter items.

Last week after the birthday party we had reached to point where we needed to move the beds, and appliances.  I got the little boys bunkbeds moved with the help of our babysitter (not exactly "light housework") but was completely wasted by the end of the day.  At that point we were officially living in the new house.

I hired a moving crew to help out with the remainder of bulky items.  With their help, we got all the big items moved and we are finally all moved in.  There is still a good bit of unpacking and organizing to do, but we are in our new home.

I have until the end of May to finish cleaning out the old house.  Most of that stuff will be trashed, sold, or given away.

Andrew is 3!

Happy third birthday Andrew!

Yesterday we celebrated Andrew's third trip around the sun.  My parents had come down to help us move and stayed around for the party.  I invited Sarah's parents and my brother in law's family who were able to come as well.

We met at our new house and I cooked a simple lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs.  I got to enjoy cooking out on our back porch and filling up the house with people socializing.  All of my in-laws and other guests were very impressed with how the house looked.

Andrew had a little trouble with the concept of opening presents infant of an audience, but he figured it out pretty quickly.

My phone ran out of batteries when it was time to cut the cake, but Lisa managed to get some pictures.

Photo

All in all we had a great time getting the extended family together and breaking in the new house.

Snowbell

I have to put Snowbell to sleep.  She bit my daughter's BFF in the face last night, the poor little girl had to have a plastic surgeon fix her face so it wouldn't scar.  

Snowbell had been acting aggressive toward strange kids, but never threatened anyone she knew.  She was fine around adults or older kids, and was never aggressive toward other dogs.  Emily is over here so much I tell everyone that she is my extra daughter and has played with Snowbell often without even the slightest hint of a problem.  Snowbell treated her just like one of my own kids.

I never saw this coming.  The girls were cooking in the kitchen and I was trying to light the fireplace.  Emily turned toward me and Snowbell just jumped up and lunged at her biting at her face.  Emily didn't do anything to provoke this that I can identify.  She cried out "What just happened?" and was clutching her face.  I saw the blood and a big laceration on her right cheekbone.  I sent Laura to go get her mom and bandaged it up as best I could.

I am absolutely heartbroken that the animal I love so much would turn one of our family like this.  I just can't trust her around kids again, if she would do this to Emily, then she will do it to anyone.  I consider it a miracle that she wasn't hurt worse, but it easily could have been.  

Here is some pictures from happier times

Spring Break 2018

With our new trailer, this spring break is a new experience and a good test run for our planned summer road trip.  There have been quite a few learning experiences along the way, but I can say that traveling with 5 kids in a trailer by myself is living up to my modest expectations.

We left Fort Worth Saturday morning and drove to Fredericksburg TX.  I arrived just before sun down so I was in quite a hurry to set up camp before dark.  We managed to check in, set up camp, cook dinner, and finish our smores in about 2 hours.  With some more practice I think we can get this done with minimal drama.  The kids favorite part of the campground was the giant pile of dirt near the campsites.

The next morning was the morning after time change, so we all slept in (a recurring theme on this trip).  When everyone was up and breakfast was done, we loaded up and drove into town.  We swung by Luckenbach and had to double back for our jackets because it had gotten quite cold and windy.  We had lunch at the Airport Dinner located at the municipal airport.

After that, we visited the National Museum of the Pacific War where we toured the exhibits there.  It was interesting reading about the battle of Okinawa since I had done some research about Grandpa Beadle's time there.

Monday morning, we planned on going to Enchanted Rock.  But by the time we got there the park was completely full.  So we ent back to Fredericksburg and ate lunch then visited the pioneer museum.  Clint and Laura each made a nail in the blacksmith shop.  Back at the campsite, the kids enjoyed playing on the playground and other activities.

Tuesday the plan was to wake up early and leave camp in time to make it back to Enchanted Rock as soon as the park opened.    That part of the plan worked perfectly, the problem was that almost everyone else had the same idea.  There was a mile long line of cars waiting to get into the park.  So we bypassed the park and instead headed to Perdenales Falls.  We got there before the rush and enjoyed climbing around the rocks there.  After that, we drove to New Braunsfels and of course we had to stop at Buccees for gas before setting up camp at the new RV park.

Wednesday, we went to the Natural Bridge Wildlife park.  Of course all the other families with kids on spring break were there too so there was quite a line.  By the time we got into the park all the animals had had their fill and were ignoring most of the cars.  We came back to the campground and enjoyed pizza for dinner before swimming at the pool till dark.

Thursday we explored the Riverwalk and the Alamo before meeting an old friend for dinner.  Lee Wright and I had grown up together in Beaumont.  He joined the Army shortly before I got out of the Marine Corps.  He now has a big family including a couple of foster kids.  We drove around San Antonio and visited all the spots I remember from when Sarah and I lived here.  San Antonio was the first place I really felt like we made a home together.

Friday we packed up camp and meet another old friend from San Antonio for lunch.  The kids hit the bookstore before driving out to Ft Stockton.  Driving on the highway while pulling this trailer absolutely murdered my gas milage, but we didn't have any other problems.

Today we got our swimsuits on and drove out to Balmoreah State Park where Laura finished her scuba diving certification.  This is the same place that we came to back in October and Clint had finished then, but Laura needed a bit more training.  I was really proud to see Laura finish up her training so we can just focus on enjoying our dives this summer.

For now, the trailer is a little worse for wear, but nothing I can't easily fix.  I think we've debuged most of the systems.  Tomorrow we will head home and back to school on Monday.  I've really enjoyed this spring break with the kids.

New house, New home.

I'm officially a homeowner again.  

We have been renting a nice 4 bedroom house in north Fort Worth for the past two years.  It met our needs and we have made a lot of friends in our neighborhood.  There are twenty kids on our end of the street and our kids can ride their bikes to school.  The house needed some work, but nothing I wouldn't be able to handle.

I decided early on that I would not be moving anywhere until the end of the school year.  The two options for where to live were to stay put in Texas or to move to Wichita KS near my parents.  After only a few months I decided that if I was able to handle the demands of my family here in Ft Worth then I didn't want to relocate to Kansas.  

I made the landlord an generous offer but he decided that he didn't wish to sell the house.  So I started looking at homes in our neighborhood.  I finally found one that will meet our needs but was still within our budget. We negotiated back and forth for a week, but finally settled on a price.  The house is in the same neighborhood and directly across the street from the elementary school.  It's close enough to Laura's best friend that they will be able to ride their bikes to each others house.

Now, I have to start working through my repair list.  I had to order some new furniture and make plans for which items we will keep, and what will be discarded.  We also have to move all of our belongings before our summer road trip.  I'll be moving things one room at a time over the next few months.  We will be out of our old home before the end of May.