10-27-06 POW

Hello all!
We made it through another week. The warm days are going away and all the trees are starting to change color. It's really beautiful! I checked on Ryan's tree and it's still pretty green. I'll go over there next week and take a picture. It always has so many colors.
Happy late birthday to Billy! It was yesterday and now he's officially 35 years old. Feels good, right B? Ha! You wish it was only 35! However you spent the day, I hope it was a good day. The girls wanted me to put this picture in, even though it's not a recent one, so here it is in your honor. I had to dig for a while to find it. It is from Thanksgiving 2003!



Alyssa wants to grow her bangs out. I don't have a problem with it, she just wants to keep them hanging in her eyes. We are experimenting with assorted "hair restraint devices" so be patient. Lately she has chosen these elastic headbands. Doesn't she have beautiful eyes? I told her that I always knew they were there, I just couldn't see them. She also mentioned wanting to get her ears pierced. That one floored me. This from the girl who SWORE she'd "never get her ears pierced and never have kids". Let's see, if wait until she's 18 to get her ears done, maybe she'll wait until she's 25 to have kids...

Sidney has made friends with the rich neighbors, John and Harriet. John drives a Porsche, is a CPA in his own firm and dabbles in a few other businesses. Harriet stays home and .... well... does whatever she wants. They are both VERY nice and I've known John for 13 years. Anyway, they fly down to one of their "other" houses (this one's in Florida) once a month and Sidney was chosen to be the cat sitter for Taylor, their 14 year old cat, while they are gone. Sid has to go over there twice a day to feed her and empty her litter box. Get this: Sid gets paid $10 a day to do this! Heck, I'll do it for $10 a day and I don't even like cats that much! They pay in advance, too, so Sid now has $90 in cash for 9 days of work. If you figure out that it takes all of 5 minutes each time she goes, times 2 times a day times 9 days, that's $1.00 per minute that she works. Gosh, I wish I got paid $1.00 a minute!

Tomorrow is the big day. The Halloween party!!! Alyssa has been doing some odd jobs to raise money for it (Lys and Hayley each had to raise $20) and they finally made it. They mostly raked leaves, but once they walked a dog for money. It was a golden retriever puppy that is 8 months old. I think you can get the visual: Alyssa being pulled down the road by an overly energetic puppy with "freedom" on its mind! It wasn't pretty. No surprise, the dog got loose. Sidney and all of the other neighbor kids finally caught it. That was the last dog she tried to walk! I won't be here for the party but Hayley's mom said she'd take lots of pictures. I'll be in Houston for the weekend for a 50th anniversary party. Do you remember the lady in the wheelchair and the man standing next to her in my wedding pictures? They are dear friends of mine and I'm flying down to celebrate their special day.
I hope you all have a nice weekend. I'll write again after Halloween!

Take care,
Amy and the girls

10-19-06 POW

Hello everyone! I'm back!
In case you forgot, last week Brent and I were in ABQ for the balloon fiesta. Joyce came out here to live in my house and watch the kids (by the way: happy birthday - again!) and we hit the skies for NM. The weather was great the day we got there, but it rained the next two days. Blue skies for Mon-Fri, then more rain for the last weekend. Mom and Jim drove out on the last Friday and stayed until Sunday (thanks!) to see the beauty that I've never been able to capture either in words or on film, but found themselves in the rain/wind also. No, I'm not talking about the beauty of the topography. It doesn't please me even one little bit and I'm sorry if those of you who live out that way are offended (ha!). I need my trees and green grass!!!!!

This picture was taken by some of the customers we took up one morning. We were setting up off site (you start off the field at least one mile away and try to fly in) and the sun was coming through the top. It made for a very pretty picture. They were really nice people and very gracious. If you can click on this picture to enlarge it, notice the chalk ovals in the grass. These were part of the competition. On one of the days that we start off site they put tall poles in the center of these circles. On top of each pole they put an envelope. One contains $1000 cash, one has a $7,000 watch in it and another has keys to a Honda motorcycle. Sounds easy, but over 700 balloons are trying to go after the same thing! On other days they place large red "X's" within 10 miles of the balloon field. They are marked on the map and the pilots try to fly over one of them and drop a long streamer. They are weighted like the ones you see in a football game when there's a flag on the play (a football reference...are you proud of me Cheryl?? Ha!), but they are about 3 feet long. They have a sticker on the end with the pilot's balloon name and number. Whoever comes the closest without landing BEFORE the attempt wins a prize also. After you attempt to either grab and envelope or drop a flag, you land somewhere. This picture was taken by our passengers. You can see us running to catch them before they hit a tree. I'm in the back, my head closest to the white Jeep. When we land in neighborhoods we usually solicit help from the little kids who are watching. Anything to keep
off a fence or out of a tree. This is our crew. Clockwise from Brent: Brent, Pam, Wayne, me, Alisa, Mike, Brandon, John and our pilot Tom. Mike is not really the crew - he's the station manager for Continental at the ABQ airport. He's a really great guy! Pam and John live in LAX, Alisa (Pam and John's daughter) lives in DEN with Brandon (boyfriend), Wayne lives in Houston and so does Tom.

Since we are the official airline of the ABQ balloon fiesta we, once again, had the great honor and privilege of taking up the flag on Wednesday while the Star Spangled Banner played. It was so beautiful, it brought a tear to my eye and gave me chills. All 700 balloons had to wait as we were the first balloon to launch. It was quite a sight! It's a little hard to roll up the flag while you're in the air, but they managed. Here are just a few shots of a typical day. I never got tired of looking at them! Each time I thought I had picked out my favorite one, another one would float by and take its place. I could put hundreds of pictures in here but the website wouldn't hold them all! Each crew member took pictures and we are all supposed to burn them to CD's and mail them out to the others. When I get them all put together I'll put them all on a CD to share with you. They are so beautiful!
That's all for now. I got back Sunday night and I've worked 10-14 hours every day since then with no relief in sight. We have the International Home Furnishings Market in town and we are slammed at the airport!! Also, as if it wasn't busy enough at our little 'ole airport, Mr. George Bush brought his GORGEOUS 747 here yesterday. Don't you know I was out on the runway with my camera (it helps to know the airport cops....)! Ha! Gee, Heather and Billy have never seen this plane. Yeah, right! Have a great week!

10-5-06 POW

This will be a short letter because I am strung out on anti-depressants.... I MISSED THE GRAND OPENING OF OUR NEW TARGET!!!!! You know, it's going to take many years of therapy to get over this. How could this happen?!?!? I remember watching the bulldozers clearing the land one day and then it happened: they hang the banner that said "New Target opens October 8". Out of respect, I pulled over in the car to observe a moment of silence. That was truly a blessed day. OK, now, look at your calendars. Is it October 8 yet?!?!? NO!!! So WHY did it open on the 3rd and WHY wasn't I informed PERSONALLY of this rather important change? Alyssa rides home with Hayley and her mom on Tuesdays from GOFAR (running club) and apparently they went to the grand opening. You know: gift baskets, live music, lots of free stuff.....Alyssa is grounded for a month for not telling me.

In happier news, I had a birthday. Thanks again to all of you who sent cards, letters and gifts. It was a nice day, except for the fact that I had to get up at 3:15 and go to work. Sidney, however, was quite the busy beaver while I was there. She and the neighbor boy got all of the decorations out and hung them all over the dining room and kitchen. It was really nice to come home to! I ended up going to lunch with friends, dinner with Brent and all 3 girls and then came home for chocolate birthday cake. It was a great day (except for the part about getting older!

On to Alyssa's speech. She got up in front of assorted teachers, students and parents and calmly read her speech. I don't know this first hand because she FORBID me from going (I think she was afraid that I'd bring the camera...which I would have!). Instead, I got her while practicing at home.

Well, she didn't win. Her friend Timothy won and I was proud of her for being happy for him. She said he'll do a great job and that his speech was better. He apparently did his as a rap song (and I use that word loosely) and won over the crowd. Alyssa's was quite dry, as political speeches tend to be, but was still met by clapping and cheers from the crowd. At least she tried.

I'm off to ABQ tomorrow so there may or may not be a POW next week. If I can get my camera to communicate with Brent's laptop computer I will try to send one from out there. We'll be back on the 15th, hopefully with tons of stories to share.

Have a good weekend!

Amy and the girls