the excitment of getting a snow day

Before the days of the Internet and reverse phone calls, my mom would call us from work with news that she heard on the radio that we had "no school...snow day!"  Remember that excitement?  Well, for a pilot this excitement comes when crew scheduling calls and say "First Officer Stephen xxxx, I just wanted to give you the heads up that we bought back your pairing for tomorrow".

What does this mean in technical terms, I don't know exactly.  Ok, maybe I do know a little something about it.  I think trips are bought back from pilots so they can use these flights for training purposes...like if a First Officer is on IOE (initial operating experience) and they need to use the Captain since he/she is a check-airman...or something like this.  I am sure there are other reasons to get a trip bought back, but this is the only example that comes to mind.

What does this mean to me? Steve was supposed to leave for a 2-day tomorrow, but he doesn't now.  And he gets paid for it!  Hot damn!

He called me happy as a clam with a grin so big I could hear it in his voice...as a matter of fact I think he was doing a little happy dance, but there is no hard proof so I think he would deny that.

The last time he had a trip bought back was the weekend of Ben's baby shower.   We had this fabulous co-ed baby shower planned by family and Steve was scheduled to work.  I am seriously thinking about getting a life sized cut out of him, so that he could show up in the pictures.  Well, two days before the party he got his trip bought back.  What wonderful timing! 

Again, just because everyone loves pictures, here are some from our most fabulous baby shower. The party was about four weeks before I delivered.  Please note that pregnancy did not treat me well, so these pictures aren't too flattering of me.  I had very normal, healthy pregnancies, which is what matters the most.  But, I got large and swollen and had cankles...I am SO not like those celebrities that think pregnancy is the most beautiful thing.  Nope, not me...I didn't like being pregnant, and am happy that I don't expect to be pregnant again. 



We had booze at the party and Steve was surely enjoying it:

My fabulous sisters!