Life Gaurd

My Hubby helped save a life yesterday.

I get regular, incredibly detailed descriptions of his flights. While I could never land a plane, I've begun to understand when he starts talking "flaps 22, gear down, chop and drop" (basically it means it was hard to get the plane down to land because of a difficult set up.) Honestly because of the immense technical details, I tune most of the conversation out. But yesterday's description garnered my full attention.

Before taking off on his first flight of the day, he was informed that he was given "Life Guard" call sign. This sign is given to planes with critical body parts aboard. While he's transported a few eyes and even a liver once, this was his first time flying with a human heart in his cargo bay.

Usually most of his stories are riddled with descriptions of annoying people: this Air Traffic Controller wouldn't clear them to land, that Ramper was totally lazy and wouldn't answer the radio, the Gate Agent was late, etc. Hubby's description of when he was Life Guard was much different. Everyone got out of their way, bent over backwards to help smooth the way. At one point he said "it would be awesome if everyone treated every flight as if it was a Life Guard."

He landed, watched as they transported the organ to another plane for a continuing flight across the nation, and went on with his day. But I could hear the touch of pleasure in his voice as he took pride in helping someone live. Just by doing his job.

How often does one get a chance to be a Life Guard? Hubby did nothing special, not really even different than the dozen of other flights he performs in a week. But by being there, just doing his job, he saved a life.

Do I do that? By just doing my job, have I helped someone else? Hubby has no idea who the recipient is, no idea even where the heart will end up. What actions do I do that could change someone? How can I behave, help, guide, just be there to help someone else.

Even more than that, what about all the other people that didn't fly the plane but made it easier. They just treated with respect, and did their job the best they can. To find joy in your job, to do the very best no matter what. What a hard thing to do when all around us we are told that we "deserve" better, that we ARE better, that this is beneath us.

I work. I work hard. I do not get a paycheck for my job. I do not always find satisfaction in my job. I do not always do my best job. There are times when I just want to give up, run away, be someone else for a few days.

But I don't. There is no way to know when me just doing my regular job will make the difference in someone's life. Just to be there could make me a Life Guard too.

That's enough to inspire me to get back to work. I do love my job, just as Hubby loves his. But sometimes you just need to feel like you can make a difference.

And now I remember that we can.

Shamless plug for a giveaway

Not here, but here. Oh, I can't even express how much I'd love to win this one. Have you ever heard of Silhouette? No? Well, I'm sure you've heard of Cricut. Picture that, only 100000 better. No cartridges to buy, can use any font on your computer, awesome downloads.

Thrifty Decor Chick is giving one away. Love that blog!
Of course, there are way too many other people wanting this too. So don't bother entering (that way I've got a better chance!)

JK. Go check it out.

Super excited!

Ok. Bit of randomness today. But I'm so excited by my super deal today that I had to share.

My local Joanns is closing. And I'm stoked about it. Normally this would cause me some major bummage, but not this time. You see, it is honestly the smallest store I've ever seen. You can barely fit a cart down the isle, so if you're trying to pick out quilt fabric, you've re-created rush hour down I-5 in LA. But, in just a short 5 more weeks, they will move across the street and like quintuple their space or something!!! A VERY needed upgrade.

Anyway. Everything is on super sale. I needed some cross stitch stuff, so I thought I'd see what they had left.
Things were pretty picked over, so I only managed to get one color. And then I wondered over to the home decorating fabric.

Oh. Wow.

Everything was on sale, 40% off. And then an additional 75% (!!!) off of that. You did have to buy the whole bolt, but still. I've really thought about re-covering my $10 wing back chair, but it's so low on the priority list because of the price of fabric. But I got this beautiful sage green fabric, for less than $10! I think there should be just enough to do my chair.

I also found the first fabric for my boy's room too. And I let my kids pick out some silly buttons (for only a quarter, you would too.)

So here's my loot:
All for 15 bucks. I saved over $70. And I am super happy now.

Girl's room project update.

Enough squares for my 2 twin sized girl quilts. Hard to tell from the piles, but Girly-Lou's will be slightly more pink, and 'Lil's will be slightly more green.

One day at a time, this room is SLOOOOOOOOWLY coming together!

How to turn a 2.5 hour car trip into a never ending saga

The official guide.

Step one: procrastinate the 6400 things that need to be done until a maximum of 24 hours before it's time to leave. Including the 87 loads of laundry so you can actually pack for this 4 day trip, shopping for "sanity savers" (aka treats for the car), and thorough cleaning of your kitchen so that ridiculous never ending ant trail you finally conquered two days before doesn't re-appear.

Step two: Add in the need to drive 30 minutes in the wrong direction to pick your husband up from the airport. Also helpful to not even be loaded in the car when he calls to inform you that he's already landed.

Step three: Live somewhere so that the easiest entry to the freeway is right next to the mall. Then plan on leaving around 2:30 on a busy Saturday afternoon. This will make the 1.5 mile drive from your house to the entry at least 15 minutes!

Step four: Finally get on the way. Drive 5 miles over the speed limit, while obsessively watching that "estimated arrival time" on the gps so it will slowly click down one minute at a time (because arriving at 6:07pm is sooooo much better than 6:14).

Step five: Hit . . . . something on the road which causes your tire to explode.

Step six: Chant "Stopthecarstopthecarstopthecarstopthecar" as you finally manage to actually stop. the. car.

Step seven: be insanely grateful that this happened when your hubby was in the car so he can take care of it.

Step eight: manage to have lost the lug wrench/jack handle sometime in the last 3 years so there is no way to change your tire.

Step nine: pray.

Step ten: 3.7 seconds later, have an exceptionally nice man stop by to help.

Step eleven: wait 45 minutes for your hubby and the nice man to drive the 10 miles to the closest town, find a new lug wrench, and drive back.

Step twelve: be happy you have enough gas to keep the car running so no one dies from heat stroke, and the kids can watch the silly squirrel movie instead of driving you crazy. Also be happy you decided to fill one bottle with water so you can actually feed your screaming baby.

Step thirteen: finally start driving on that flimsy doughnut to the closest town. Be happy that there is a superwalmart so you can actually buy a new tire ('cause who else is open 4 pm on a Saturday?). Wait a hour or so for the new tires to be put on.

Step fourteen: Decide to walk to the burger king for dinner while waiting. It will help add to the saga if the said burger king is much further away than you realize and also in the opposite direction than you start walking. Not to mention carrying that 2400 lb infant seat.

Step fifteen: Agree that hubby should just walk back by himself to pick up the car while your offspring play on the tiny play place.

Step sixteen: Have Hubby decide to buy a "cool" new jack, and then spend 30 minutes tying up some strange flapping plastic piece on the wheel well.

Step seventeen: Finally get back on the road 3 1/2 hours later.

Step eighteen: Drive remaining 90 minutes.

Step nineteen: Get really, desperately needed, wonderful, restorative hug from your mom that makes the whole saga worthwhile. Also: have an amazing baby that manages to sleep 10 1/2 hours the last night of the trip. Saga is now complete, and life is good.