B is for Brad

Are you sitting down? I'll give you a second to pull up a chair, sit down, and get ready...

Back yet? Ok, let's start. This is going to be long and boring and redundant, but here goes!

February 2011, Brad is talking to his CFI {certified flight instructor}, Thomas. Brad met Thomas in April, 2008 and they've been working together ever since. Thomas mentions that Brad should call up one of his old students. Brad gets the name and we find the guy {the internet is such a great thing for stalkers...}. Brad calls him up and the guy {Andy, maybe?} and is told he should come to Arkansas to meet him. Brad goes to Arkansas on January 30 and meets the guy. They hit it off so Andy calls around and takes him around to meet a few men "in the business" {the crop dusting business}. This turns into a job offer for Stokes Flying Service in Earle, Arkansas... in THREE weeks.

We immediately went into overdrive trying to figure out exactly how this is going to work {sidenote: what is this, exactly?}. In fact, we're one month into this "journey" and we'll still trying to figure things out. The major topics are: work, housing {current, AR, and future}, living in general??

Our first order of business was to clean out the Hinkle House. Yes, if Brad is going to be moving to Arkansas to work then I'm not staying in Hinkle by myself {with Amos, of course}. So, on Monday, January 31, Brad and I start cleaning out the house. This might not sound bad to some, but my loving husband is a pack rat. Yes, a pack rat. He had Christmas cards from his high school days along with a dozen or so pens/old baseball cards/pencils/notebooks/crap stuffed in every single drawer. This should have been taken care of sooner, but you see... Brad moved the junk straight from his parents's house to his rental house and straight from there to the Hinkle House. He thought he'd eventually go through it all, but eventually never made it here! So, we start with the living room and work our way completely around the house {living, master, bathroom, guest room aka Brad's junk room, and kitchen}. We either throw things away or put them together to load up in tubs and store.

This took all week plus he started cleaning out our shed/storage building. Basically, our idea was to clean out {donate, trash, give to family/friends} as much as we could. We'll basically only move necessities to our new place {more on that in a minute- who am I kidding? That will be another post!} and leave our house "staged". One reason is that I dont like empty houses. I have to see furniture in them if to get an idea of the layout and size. An empty room does me no good! Secondly, have you checked prices for storage lately? Wowzer! We're not sure how long it will take the house to sell so why not have free storage and help out potential homebuyers?

Let the calendar days begin:

February 5, Brad and I drove over to Earle, Arkansas to meet his new boss and to drive around the town. Our original plan was to buy a camper/trailer and move it to a nearby campsite. There were two to chose from. The first looked like it came from a scary killer movie and the second was almost as much as our monthly mortgage payment. This didn't start out well, but... we go meet Mr. Stokes {Denny} and he drives us around to show us the "town". We drive and drive and drive and get history lessons on pretty much every field and town we passed. I lost count of where all we went! We finally drove around his hangars. This man is very wealthy and has been in the business for a while. He told Brad that he could put his trailer next to one of their hangars... for free! Yep, no rent, no power bill, no water bill. The only "catch" was that Brad would have to keep an eye on the place since there are thieves around. Brad can handle that so we marked that off our list {our very long list}! Next we drove to Wynne {hello, fastfood and Wal-Mart!} and ate lunch at Mazzio's Pizza. Then he took us back to our truck. Brad and I did a little more driving around just to get a feel for the place and then it was back to MS {and hills and curves}!

February 7th, we rented a storage building and filled it about half full with storage tubs {seasonal decorations, hunting gear, etc} from the shed.

Yes, people, things do happen fast for us! :) We just move on along. No sense in taking our time with anything. Of course, we also had a 9 week engagement!

February 11th, Kenny, Brad and I drove around looking for FEMA trailers. We figured that would be better/bigger than a regular camper and we were right. Those things are nice {ugly on the outside though} and is all he needs. The bedroom has room for a queen, although I'm not sure a queen would really fit. It also has a built in night stand and tiny closet. The couch makes a bed and then he has a booth with a kitchen table, full size sink and microwave plus a 3 burner gas stove AND a pantry/closet, room for 2 twin size bunks and then the bathroom. The bathroom is tiny and it realllly makes me feel for the people that lived in them after Hurricane Katrina. The shower is tiny! Think about the thousands of families that lived in them! Sorry, off track... so we find one in Booneville and buy it! So, Fema Lema gets moved to Hinkle and before long I'm inside and sanitizing and cleaning and freshening up.

February 12th, Brad introduces me to what is known as "the dump". SHOOOEEE that place was a sight to see. I had no idea, no idea at all. Everyone should go at least once. We had several things to haul off. {I'm sure people think we had a junky house with a junky shed and junky porch, but that's not the case, I promise!} One friend met us on the road and called to say how much we resemble The Clampetts. Wasn't that nice? :)

Thursday, February 17th was Brad's last day with Taylor Heating & Air. He had worked there full time over 10 years and this summer would have been his 21st summer. Yes, he was 9 years old working in the summer carrying tools and supplies. {Maybe this next generation should take a hint! It's not child labor, it's work ethic!}.

February 18th... well, that's the day Brad drove the big white Dodge pulling Sweet Fema Lema and I drove Brad's red truck to Arkansas. We hauled her over and set her up. We made two trips to the hardware store {yes, a small, dark, dusty and musty hardware store} and two trips to the next biggest town, Marion. We stayed the night in Lema and I drove home Saturday. Brad had to WORK! Afterall, that's why we moved him over there! They let him off Saturday afternoon and he came home. We did a few last minute things around the house and he left out again Sunday.

February 26th, I drove over and we celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary in Wynne, eating at a crab-leg buffet, Kelley's. More on this later. I'll do an actual post about our anniversary! Brad came in with me the next day so he could fly Snoopy {our plane} to AR. Mr. Stokes is going to let him keep it there for free and use it as a ferry between his hangars and his plane dealership in Hayti, MO. Yes, the man is partner's in his own plane dealership.

February 28th, we celebrated our anniversary again at McDonald's. Actually, in the drive thru. I had the best Big Mac {happy anniversary to me!}. I'm sure Brad was thankful when he asked "what do you want to eat for our anniversary tonight" as he picked me up that I said "a BIG MAC". :) I'm a cheap date.

He's been in twice since then and we've just done random things and tried to get our to-do list finished up. On March 15th, he came in and met with Thomas for the last time for a while. They had one last lesson, then on March 16th, Brad took his Commerical Pilot License Exam and passed!!!! Whew! So let's see... Private Pilot {check}, Instrument Rated {check}, Commercial Pilot {check}. Next up is the Spray Certification. That is next week, I think. Basically they sit in class all day and then take a test.

I'm sorry, would you like to know what Brad is doing working in Earle, Arkansas? I guess I should have put this at the beginning, but my mind isn't working right these days. I have no idea why?! :):) Brad is on the ground crew. Think of it like a pit crew for NASCAR. The plane come flying in and Brad does what needs to be done then the plane flies off. This happens about 100 times a day. They have four planes going right now. Sometimes they all work the same hangar and sometimes they are in different places such as Earle, North Earle {this is Brad's hangar}, Crawfordsville and Parkin. You can't start out flying so you basically start out at the bottom and build up. Right now he's learning the ins and outs of auger trucks, mixing chemicals, plane mechanics, etc... Since this is a seasonal job, he will work there from February to November. We'll know then what his next step will be. So, don't ask until then! HA! You wouldn't believe how many times we get asked and the truth is we just do not know yet. He may or may not get hired on as a pilot with Stokes. He might get a job in MS or another town in AR, who knows?! I sure don't. I'm just playing it by ear... of course, I would tell you more, BUT... that would be under "C is for Cassie", now wouldn't it? :)

I've been typing this on and off for a couple of days now. I refuse to proofread it as a whole so look over the ramblings and misspellings {since spell check isn't working} and please know that I only capitalize and use an apostrophe when I want and not when I need too...

Happy Thursday!! I never thought this day would get here!