Christmas Time!!!

Wyatt and I spent most of yesterday afternoon/evening putting the tree up. Of course, we had to clean the living room really well before he would let me pull the tree out. This included moving the furniture to clean behind and under it. I was almost too tired to decorate the tree when we finally got to it, but then I started pulling out all of the ornaments and got excited to get them on the tree. This is the second year I have had an actual tree, other than the little 3 foot one I got for my room when I lived at home. There is a whole story to getting the tree.

Last year, I decided that I really wanted a big tree after seeing some ornaments at Wal-Mart that I loved. So, Wyatt and I looked everywhere to find which one we liked and was the best deal. We wound up really liking a pre-lit tree from Wal-Mart. We made the decision at the Wal-Mart on 71st St, but they didn't have any. So, we went to the next closest one, the one on 101st St. Guess what, they didn't have any either. We went to another one (I don't remember which one) and they didn't have any either. We were getting pretty irritated by now. However, each one we went to I found more ornaments that I liked. So I had plenty of ornaments, but no tree to put them on! So, we went to the Wal-Mart closest to my house. We found the box and Wyatt pulled it off the shelf. I was thinking that looked too easy; either it was really light or an empty box. Sure enough, it was the box for the display. We thought, "We'll just buy the display." So we asked and they told us they couldn't sell the displays. We had seen other stores selling their displays so we asked for the manager. He confirmed that they couldn't sell the display, but he did check to see where the nearest Wal-Mart was with the tree. He came back and told us the Pryor store had 2. We asked if they could hold one for us and he said that they couldn't. So we got back in the car and headed to Pryor. This whole time we hadn't had dinner because we were waiting until we were headed home. Needless to say, we were starving! There is a Burger King on the corner, so we stopped there and that was the best tasting food we had had in a while (of course it was probably because we were so hungry). So we made our way to Pryor and they had one!!!! We were so happy and relieved. Our search was finally over! So, we brought the tree home and even though we were so exhausted, we put it together that night! We stayed up until like 1 or 2 getting it all finished. It turned out so pretty.

This year, it was a lot easier - just pull it down from the attic and put it together. Of course, it would have been a little easier if I had put the directions with the tree. I know I kept them, I'm just not sure where. The tree is in 3 pieces and you have to make sure to plug the cords in the right place in order for all the lights to work. We were on the second layer getting it all fluffed when we decided we had better try the lights. So, we plugged it in and only the bottom layer worked. We had to take the second layer off and try to figure out how to get everything plugged in correctly. We finally figured it out and put it back together. Then on to the top layer. We got it all put together and then Wyatt disappeared to the office. So I started decorating it. It turned out beautiful again, if I do say so myself!! I have always loved black and white, so it is only fitting that those are the colors, plus silver/gray, I used on the tree. Here are some pictures:

The corner for the tree

My helpers

Tree Skirt
I guess I wore them out!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

My baby is home!

It was a long week, well atleast the second half. Wyatt left on Wednesday afternoon to go on a 4 day fishing trip with 5 or 6 guys from work. Needless to say, I missed him a lot!!! Mom came over Wednesday evening because we had a funeral to go to on Thursday morning, so atleast she kept me company for part of it. I've gotten used to coming home and having someone here, other than the dogs, so it was really weird to come home to a dark house (and a little scary!). It definitly made me appreciate the companionship I have in Wyatt. Even though we aren't always talking or doing something together, just knowing he is here or in the other room is a great comfort. I gave him a big hug and kiss when he got home and told him I didn't think he was allowed to go on another trip like that.... he just laughed. I'm sure I'll let him go again if another trip comes up... if he's good!

On a different note.... I worked A LOT last week! For those of you that don't know how my job works, I'll explain it. I am a flight instructor at Spartan. We aren't on salary, instead we get paid hourly, and only for those hours we are in the airplane. For example, each flight we schedule is a 2 hour block of time. Within that 2 hours, we have to brief the student on what we are going to do that day, then go fly, and then debrief when we get back to let the student know what was good and what needs work. We are paid off the hobbs meter in the airplane, which is only ticking when the engine is running. So, what usually happens is you only get paid for about half, sometimes a little more, of the time you actually work. I usually try for 25 paid hours a week, which usually requires 40+ hours of work. The ratio of what you get paid for to what you work can be helped by having students that go out on solo flights while you are flying with another student. Unfortunatly I only have 1 student who is at that stage in the curriculum. Another thing that helps is when you do a ground lesson because you get paid for the whole hour, but there are only so many of those in the curriculum. So, when the weather is bad, like today, I don't get paid unless I do something like a ground lesson. Also, when the weather is beautiful, you become a workaholic because you've gotta work while you can. It makes it hard not having a steady paycheck, so I've gotta save any extra I make for literally "rainy days". With all of that being said, I get paid for 37 hours last week!!!! Yippee!! That's probably one of the best weeks I've had since I came back from the airlines. Of course, it did require me to work 6 days and many of them over 10 hours, but I am thankful that I was able to get it in. Well, hope everyone has a wonderful week and hopefully these thunderstorms will clear out and I'll be able to have another good week!