USAirways

Yesterday the plane crash of USAirways into the Hudson River was a site to see. What a miracle that everyone survived! How amazing!!! After working many years at the airline we have seen our share of horrible crash's and devastation from them and it saddens your heart. It's rare to have a pilot and his crew to walk away alive. What hero's! Michael and I anxious to hear the stories of the survivors and the first hand accounts from the pilots and crew of what they did, and how they did it. Of all things USAirways has had it share of losses which has shaped our life to what it is today. The airline was good to us back in the day, if it was not for the airline we would have never met. It did help us make our early dreams come true.....getting married, our house, traveling, and being able to provide for our children. Today we say to each other a lot "those were the days". And as you know the hard economic times seemed to really start with the downfall of the airlines at least we felt it did. The problems with the airline started to affect us and our family when Sky turned 2, that was 12 1/2 years ago. Then September 11th did us in. Then towards the end the 2 year long commute for him to Charlotte.
28 years after Michael followed in his father's footsteps when it was a dream job and hard to get, Michael had no better choice but to take the money and run, so he retired. I guess what I'm trying to say is that USAir has a special place in our hearts, and praise God for saving those people from disaster. They're lives will be changed forever and those haunting few minutes of the thought of facing death was overcome from God's saving grace. God is good!
The top photo is Michael and Sky in the cockpit of 737 when she was 2.
The bottom photo is when Michael worked at the new hanger that was built because USAir was expanding in Indianapolis at least that is what they thought.(it closed only after a couple of years after it opened)Michael came home for lunch that warm day in December to see his baby and wife. "Those were the days"

The Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby

This past Saturday Ridge competed in his 1st derby! We think he did awesome.

Ridge came in 3rd out of about 25 cars. And won 6th overall ( out of about 60 cars) He won 3 of his 4 heats.

We were there for hours. The competition was fierce and exciting. We had a really good time. ( Especially because he was winning!) Michael already has ideas and plans of how to make it even faster for next year.
The making of the car...

Ridge drew Michael a picture of how he wanted it to look. So Michael whittled it out for him.(we decided that you just can't give a 7 year a big knife so Dad helped.)

They said it was a roadster. And it looked to me like the ZZtop car, at least that is what I called it. Ridge picked out his colors and painted it and I helped him with the flames on the sides. He wanted the number 24 on it. ( Jeff Gordon his favorite) And he had a star on top of it. Ridge really loves cub scouts, he looks forward to it every week

Christmas Eve 2008

Our Christmas Eve was filled with tradition every year we wrap, make reindeer food, wrap, make cookies for Santa, wrap, OMG we went to wal-mart (that was not tradition but the day before it was raining ice so we could not get out the roads were really bad! I know people who wrecked they're cars) We went to Candlelight service at MPCC. Came home feed the reindeer and Michael read the "Night before Christmas". Michael and I had some yummy drinks! Vanessa went with us and stayed all night to join in on all the festivities. Of course it took Ridge over an hour to fall asleep, in the mean time Michael fell asleep so Vanessa I helped Santa do his work.

Christmas morning 5AM! Ridge go back to bed! I convinced him it was the middle of the night and about 6:30am he fell back to sleep then woke up at a reasonable time of 8am. Then there were lots of screams of delight when opening presents, did I mention that wrapping paper was flying! What a great morning and Christmas day! Rock band has been a hit it's been on all day, and Ridge has been taking breaks to put the lego's together! Merry Christmas Everyone!

xoxoxo Sonja

Once a year Michael goes shopping with me and of course it's Christmas shopping. So....we get ready, hop into the SUV in our warm garage, drive to our 1st of many stops, as we are walking through the parking lot of Target we have discovered that we are entirely under dressed just in our shirts no jackets we look at each and we run, yes run! to the door we get inside after gasping for air, as you know cold air is hard to breath in, let alone the fact we are winded from running. OMG it is freezing like only 7 degrees with a windchill of -20 below we had know idea and for those of you who know me you are wondering how did I miss that weather forecast. Needless to say we returned home to retrieve our coats, hats, mittens and scarfs. Then the rest of the day he dropped me off at the door of the stores. (how sweet of him)
Shopping with men is for the birds, let me tell you. For a month now as I have ventured out to try and buy Christmas presents ahead of time Michael would say "we have allotted a certain amount of money, once you hit that number you're done." And I graciously said alright. Then I would venture out again and he would again remind me. Well, to stop the reminding I got a piece of paper and kept a running tab of what I was spending down to the dollar. Well again I went to hit the stores and again He reminded me! This time I pulled out my paper and handed it to him to show him we were good! Yesterday as we shopped together his theory went out the window. He was sucked in on the idea that the children should have a lot to open thus at this point I was reminding him of his number! Oh my... I was constantly curtailing him of his spending and for those who really know how it is around here, I'm sure your jaws have dropped and hit the floor. We did shop until we dropped and we froze but had a fun time. Christmas morning will be good! Santa loves us! I will write on Christmas day and add pic's too...stay tuned. Merry Christmas everyone : )

Yea! It's Christmas break and I'm looking so forward to spending time with my children...we have lots of activities planned to celebrate Christmas. xoxoxox Sonja