This time last year I was making a couple of flights a week. We flew the Navajo low, in the mid 10,000s and could see the trees changing colors. I enjoyed those flights. I liked that type of flying. And the scenery below could almost compete with the vista out ... and up.

A lot has changed with this year. Good stuff. As a person I have gotten stronger ... and calmer. Not more laid back, because that wouldn't have been possible - lol - I would fall over were I anymore laid back. Calmer in the sense of not worrying about things I cannot affect ... or maybe shouldn't try to.

My big dog is a Great Pyrenese. I believe they were bred to herd and help tend sheep. Several of my children run - sometimes together - and I would like the dog to get that kind of work out occassionally. He's in great shape, but he just doesn't get it ... he wants to put the runners back with the walkers ... he wants to keep the flock together. It's his instinct. He is not a distance runner. He looks around at me like what should I do? Let them go I say.

I have five children - four of them adult - if you can think of a fifteen year old as an adult (pretty close most days). I am totally good with them running their own races. My husband has sounded the starting gun several times now! I like it that they are the kind of people I enjoy sharing time with. I like them quite a bit. I am feeling like they can venture in to their own fields without the big bad wolf getting them ... I worry about them less ... I couldn't love them even just a bit more! This morning Three left without a lunch. He is 6'4" - 220 pounds of running out the front door. If he doesn't think a sack lunch is important enough to see to himself ... he may be right.

I didn't want to spend what comes next for me ... a full time mom/homemaker ... as I have seen many of the women around me do. I wanted a challenge ... something I've always dreamed of and set aside in favor of the people I love ... and now it is possible for me to accomodate both ... or all. My husband and I have built some runners ... I'm starting to remember how much fun it was to discover a new trail myself.