Perks of being a Pilot's Wife?

On one of the pilot's wives websites I occasionally haunt the question was posed: "What is the best thing about being a pilot's wife?" Too be honest I read it and laughed, thinking there is a perk of this? Oh wait the perk must be that we are forced to try and pick his vacation week(s) a year in a advance, or maybe the fact that he's not home for holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, oh and his schedule changes month to month so that makes it impossible to plan anything! Not to be to negative or anything, shockingly I have been accused of that :) Other than the fact that it's a job and keeps us comfortable (after first year pay in which he could work at Taco Bell and make more), perks? what perks?

Yes, he can sometimes swing it so he has 5 or so days off in a row which turns into 3-4 days at home.

Yes, sometimes I'm happy he's leaving because he occasionally drives me crazy! But we spent 24/7 together for a few years while he was having knee and back surgery. I have found he drives me MORE crazy when he's home for 3 days, changes my routine, moves my stuff, then leaves.

Yes, we get to non-rev.....please remember this post
So it is a perk but really not as great as everyone would think.

I think the BEST thing about this career (and being a pilot's wife) is that my husband LOVES his job. Absolutely LOVES it. Which isn't something most people (or even me) can say. He wouldn't trade his job for anything. So I think that's the best "perk" of being a pilot's wife!

Holidays and the Pilot Schedule

So I love the holiday season; starting with Halloween --> Thanksgiving--> Christmas. What I don't love however is John working for an airline that time of year. The biggest reason for this is planning, something the airlines love and hate to do. What you want vacation? Well you need to plan that a YEAR in advance, but wait you want to know when you are working next month....oh we won't tell you that until the middle/end of the month before!

It's super frustrating...take for instance Christmas, the schedule for December was supposed to come out on the 18th, with trip trades starting the 20th. Now though the computer dumped the bids so the schedule came out on the 20th with trip trades on the 23rd. This makes it really hard to plan, as we are going to Chicago. Since we are going home (Chicago) everyone wants to know what/when/where were going to be there, no one quite understands that we don't know yet. I understand from their perspective everyone is crazy busy and wants to make plans...so do I!! But alas that isn't in the cards as the wife of a pilot.

Road Trip Pictures!!

So over the past 2 weeks we have been on a road trip of sorts! John changed bases and we were driving his car cross country to his new base. So the first night we stayed in Dallas and ate at Bass Pro which was awesome! Plus we got a great crew rate hotel near the airport :)


I think this pic was taken in Mississippi? We were going to stay the second night in Mobile AL but just ended up eating dinner there instead!


So we made it to John's parent's house in FL for the third night. This was my awesome wine find at a local Russian store, very yummy!



Since we were in FL we could not possible pass up the opportunity to take a drive up to Disney on John's days off. It was the International Food and Wine Festival at Epcot, and also Christmas time! Food and Wine Festival was awesome (how many times can I use that word in this blog? but it was!) They had all the normal countries in Epcot then they had booths from other countries ranging from South Korea, to South Africa, to Sweden, all had little samples of local food and wine/beer.



Picture is kind of bad but you can see John with his Christmas hat on in front of the Food and Wine Festival sign at the entrance to Epcot. Along with a cruise boat and of course an airplane.



So we caved into the Christmas spirit (if you can't be happy at Disney I don't know where you can be happy!) and bought matching hats this is us in "Germany" so far it's the closest I've come to actually going to Germany unless you count a 4 hour layover in Dusseldorf!


So we decided since we were already there to fork over the extra money to go to "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party." It wasn't cheap (nothing in mouse world is) but I was SOOO Happy we went! You had to buy a separate ticket, and at 7 pm they threw the "normal" guests out and we literally had the part to ourselves! They had the Christmas parade at 2 separate times so we decided to go to the later one, and while the first one was going we went on almost every ride in the park and walked on to them, it was amazing! The also actually had "snow" on mainstreet, it was some kind of bubble/soap mix but it was pretty cool!

Train station at night at Disney...notice no people in it, we were almost the last people out of the park!

I loved the Castle at night with the Christmas lights on it, so pretty!

While we were there we stayed at Disney's Boardwalk which was (again) Awesome! It was pretty $$ but we had decided this was our Christmas present to each other. The best thing about the Boardwalk (besides being the Boardwalk) was the location, there is a back entrance to Epcot that is a 5min walk from there it was perfect!



And of course we ended our trip back at the new base....not to bad a scenery eh?

Happy Birthday Flop!

So we are on vacation and it's a pain to post new blogs on the little computer...but Floppers birthday is October 31 (he's 4ish) and this is my favorite picture of the Flop. It wasn't taken on his birthday but I think he looks like a king!!