Not forgotten...

In July 2015, we had a chance to visit the Flight 93 Memorial.  

The Visitor & Learning Centers were still under construction at the time and the Tower of Voices not even begun, so we only got to see the Memorial Plaza.

This says:

September 11, 2001 10:03am

United Airlines Flight 93 crashes into a field two miles

ahead of you, shattering the quiet of the Pennsylvania

countryside.  Those who rush to the scene look on in

disbelief at charred trees and a smoldering crater.  This

community, like countless others across the nation, 

is shaken by the crash and the unimaginable violence

and destruction al-Qaeda terrorists bring to the

Wold Trade Center and the Pentagon.  But as the day

unfolds, this ordinary field reveals a compelling story

of courage and hope.

This Memorial is a tribute to the passengers and crew

of Flight 93 and a place to explore this inspiring story.

You will journey through a landscape that still hints at

its mining past, on your way to a simple field that is

their final resting place, and a lasting testament to the

deeds of 40 extraordinary people. 

There's a name on each section of this wall. 

This boulder marks the end of the debris field and final resting place of the flight.

Also in 2015, my theme for the A-Z Challenge was Notable Women in history.   My "P" post was about Maj. Heather Penney whom I bet nobody knows about. 

It's my birthday!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

I just happened to get up early this morning and hopped online to check out this year's Yankee Candle Boney Bunch collection.  They always release it on the last weekend in August, so I consider that my birthday gift. 

Their theme is "Asylum" but it looks more like "Retirement Home" to me.

But that's OK.  I still found a couple pieces to get.   

Not sure where a little kid in PJs fits in the asylum theme, but he's cute. 

This holds 2 tealights and I'm hoping they really light up that porcelain and make it glow!

The ambulance is what I really wanted.

Anyhoo.  I don't have any expectations for anything fun today.  The Spouse is on call, so he won't want to go anywhere.  I'm 99.9998% certain I won't even get a card from him since he's been working from home and hasn't gone anywhere.  I guess that's better than every other year when I get the excuse that "he sucks and didn't stop at any of the 42 CVS or Walgreens he passes on his way home to get one".  And for the last couple weeks, Spawn has been working Saturday mornings so she assumed it would stay the same.  Nope.  Of course they put her on the schedule today for 3-10pm!  So I can't even go out alone & do anything I want, since I have to babysit BabyBoy.  Don't get me wrong - I love the little guy like crazy.  But sometimes I don't want to watch him!   And since he's crawling now?  He's all over the place. 

Shit.  I'm depressed now.

 

Not the classiest thing to post maybe, but you have to admit that it's funny!

Holy crap!  It's been a while since I posted!  

I started this post so long ago, look at what my first meme was...

It's still pretty appropriate.

Not a whole lot of excitement.  Work & babysitting & SAR training.   That's about it. 

Last weekend my SAR team hosted a SARTECH II course.  Saturday night, the Spouse & I went to the camp where it was being held, since we (the team) also hosted an ARRL exam session for people who wanted to get their technician amateur radio licence.  The Sunday morning, I went back out there, since they were having the "practicals" portion of the course and my sister needed to retest on her land navigation so she could get her certification (we took the course last September) and I went along for moral support.  

I sat with LT most of the morning, while he did took checkins & results from the evaluators out in the field.  I got bored & sat on the ATV for a while & he asked if I remembered how to drive it.....?  I'd only been on it twice, so he gave me a quick refresher & I took it out for a spin.  

She was NOT going to ride in my car with all those pickers on her! 

16 people took the course.  There were even 2 here from Texas & 1 from Indiana.

It's fun to do radio during K9 training.  It happened to be pouring down rain when I took this - sitting all comfy in our team trailer. 

This is the reason they cut training short that day!   That's a scud cloud, not a tornado FYI!

BabyBoy patiently waiting for attention.  Or a teething cracker.  Or some baby food!

He'll be 8 months old next week!  He's crawling and has one toof so far.  When he went in for this last check up on the 13th, he was 21 lbs & 30 inches long! 

Buddies!  Rusty is still really patient with him and has been grabbed & slobbered on many times.  He's only swatted once, but kept his claws in. 

I can't resist the Halloween nutcrackers at Michael's!

The Spouse is BabyBoy's favorite person!

I have a rain gauge out in the yard and send in a report to CoCoRaHS every day.  

There have been a whole lot of 0.00" reports and then....BAM!

My lawn was getting crunchy!

Some cool pics from the park at the end of my street.

Signng off for now - It's not even 9 am and have already gotten phone calls & texts from various family members!  Woot!

Happy Blogiversary to Me

OK, so it was yesterday, but it's hard to believe I've been on Blogger for 11 years!  

I was on Yahoo 360 before that and naively thought I would be able to continue accessing my old blog, but nope.  I should have exported all my content over like they said to but I didn't.  Apparently in 2009 they just deleted everything.  I'm sure there wasn't anything of quality on there anyway.  I don't even remember how long I'd blogged there. No loss!

BabyBoy with his first pair of shoes!  

He's still not sitting up much on his own.  I had to hurry to take this before he fell over.

July 8 was mine & the Spouse's 14th anniversary!  He sent me 14 carnations at work and we went out to dinner at Bad Brad's BBQ that night.  

I forgot that he likes to get me the "traditional" anniversary gift each year  14 is opals and gold jewelry.  Sadly, I don't really like yellow gold and I only wear necklaces if they're long since I have a thick neck.  He got me this pretty opal necklace (I'm wearing it in the dinner pic - you can see how tight it is) and it was uncomfortable.  So I put the charm on an earring so I could wear it!   

I was supposed to get a new crown shortly after the 'rona shutdowns happened so I wore a temporary for like 3 months.  Then I was able to get in to have my "permanent" one cemented in and it lasted just over a week.  It never felt secure or straight, so it didn't surprise me when it popped off.  The hole, however, did surprise me!  So I go back Wednesday for yet another new one.  Woot.  The dentist is NOT my favorite place. 

I took 12 hours of online Zoom classes for my wilderness first aid recertification but we had to do the practicals in person.  So here are a couple people from my team - in the witness-protection program, of course!  The guy sitting on the ground with the bandage around his head was our victim and he really wanted a picture to show his wife, so I took a couple.  He's one of the new members and it was really the first time I got to meet him.  He's going to be a good addition to the team.  And he's funny!

On the way home from wilderness first aid, the GPS took Sis1 and I past our favorite antique store - and the entire upstairs is all Halloween stuff, so we couldn't NOT stop!  

The only thing I bought was this 30" mermaid skeleton.  It was the only thing *so far* that I want for my cemetery. 

BabyBoy helping his Pawpaw change an outlet in the bedroom. 

Seriously, I don't know what moron wired this house, but my late Dad who was an electrician would be appalled at this mess!  We spent a good 45 minutes or so trying to figure out which breakers turned off which rooms. Ideally, there would be one fuse for each room.  We found odd things like the hood over the stove, the hall bathroom and front half our bedroom on one.  The laundry room and the back half of the bedroom on another, the living room and one socket in Spawn's room, etc etc etc.  We never did figure which one turned off the garbage disposal, and we had to have had it off before, since the Spouse replaced it!   

Oh I wish I could sleep like this!

So they decided that we need to attend K9 training at least once a month now.  Which is fine with me, I was going to start doing that anyway!  So I responded that I'd go last weekend.  I always scope out the route of where I'm going beforehand, in this case to see where I could stop for breakfast along the way.  Instead I found this....I had no idea there were nudist camps in Michigan!  So I posted this pic on the team app and asked if anyone had plans to go there afterward?  Then I got engrossed at looking at their website - I had no idea there was an American Association for Nude Recreation and they apparently have week-long conventions!  Interesting.  

I got to chill in a lawn chair with my radio and a clipboard and record all traffic from the teams going out searching and the "victims" themselves.  This sweet guy right here went out and found his victim using the scent they wiped off the handle of her car!  

About 2 hours into the training, we were watching this roll in.  They had me call all victims & teams in from the woods and we all got loaded up and were just rolling down the driveway out of the recreation area when the rain started.  I barely outran the rain all the way home, since it started to pour not long after I got home.  

I had to stop and grab this picture over the lake in the park.  Stunning!

Look at this face.....ADORABLE!

even if he just got done pooping here...

I'm going to sign off since the alarm goes off way too early in the morning!