Canines & Bipeds That Follow My Blog:

Friday, January 16, 2009

Alaska Air & A Beautiful Voice

Sara Groves has been one of my favorite artists since I first heard her on my car radio while I was driving to work. I was on the graveyard shift at Alaska Airlines and Calvary Satellite Network came in beautifully in the late night hours. I'd go out in my car on my "lunch break" (at 2am??!!) and listen to the radio and read from the living translation of the Bible. It was an oddly serene time. My time with Alaska was mostly constant work. I took the job to pay for our daughter's college and to afford her the ability to fly home from Seattle when she felt like it. It worked out great because Jessica took full advantage of the flight privileges for the full time I worked there. I jumped at every hour of overtime that they offered so I could get her college paid off as quickly as possible, which I actually did before she graduated. I met my dear, dear friend, Cathi while there and had one of my most devestating life experiences while there...the fatal crash of Flt.261 on Jan 31st,2000. Many emotions are connected to my time with Alaska. The Lord got us through it all. The pay wasn't that good, but with all the hours I put in, it accomplished the end result of paying off Trinity & of course,the standby flight privileges. Also enough to pay for her wedding. In that same time frame Patrick's work gave him a lot of overtime,so we just plugged away and did what we had to do & knew that the grueling hours would eventually come to an end.And they did! Mission accomplished. Pat would already be at work by the time I got home,then after unwinding I'd sleep during the day. I'd get up before he got off his 10 hr shift and we'd have dinner together & have a little time to chat. Then he'd get ready for bed & I'd take off for a 10 hr (or longer) shift. Usually my days off would fall in the middle of the week, so that was kind of crumby and also we had to rebid on our shifts every 3 months and that was also a real headache until you earned some seniority. Because of our flight privileges Patrick got to fly up to Jess' college several times to get her situated and build her loft bed each year and we visited her off and on throughout the school years too. We never would have been able to do all the gallivanting around we did if we were purchasing tickets to fly. It was really the perfect job for our needs. When I had my cancer surgery in Jan. 2002 Jessica flew home every weekend for 6 weeks to help us out and check on me. What a blessing that was.Anyway friends,enough background. Today I'm giving you some links so you too can enjoy the beautiful voice of Sara Groves. I hope you enjoy it. (I can't figure out how to actually get the youtube photo to be showing,so I'll just let you click on the http's.) May God richly bless all who are visiting my blog today.Tell someone you love just how much they mean to you. love, Cassie
See, young Cassie tells young Patrick how much he means to her while skiing at Sunrise!

14 comments:

John Going Gently said...

Hi cassie,
re Ben Button film....you have to remember that we live in darkest rural wales...most films open here later than in the cities!
wil let you know when I see it
regards john

Molly the Airedale said...

Sara has the voice of an angel! Thank you for sharing and thank you for this posting! It was wonderful!
Let us know how you liked the meatloaf!

Love ya lots,
Maggie and Mitch

Cassie said...

Thanks John. I look forward to your future review from darkest rural Wales!

M & M ~Agreed! Your welcome & will report back on how Sweetie Pie likes the meatloaf.

Busy Bee Suz said...

What wonderful, hard working parents you both are. You have set a great example for your kids (and others) that hard work, dedication, they do pay off.
Sounds grueling....blessings to you.
Oh, love the picture, fer sure. :)
Suz

reliv4life said...

I love the picture!! what is the height difference with you two? Oh my, I never heard of her, but I lOVE the links and think I will visit itunes and download some stuff! It is really good!!
I love your AK story, it is so true how God always provides what we need.

Jen said...

Totaly enjoyed your story here!
You and Patrick are a reflection of being good parents and dedicated to you jobs of being one.
Sara Groves is new to me-beautiful! and I will have to check her out more....Fer sure. :)

Cassie said...

Suz ~ Golly,that was nice of you to say.Thx.

Michele ~ That pic was b4 Pat grew his fabulous mustache.He is a foot taller than me.He's my BIG fella! Glad you enjoyed Sara too.

Jen ~ Some day maybe I'll post a detailed story about why I went to Alaska Air.Short version:b4 they ever even had any opening I told folks I was going to work there after we got Jessica all settled into her freshman year at Trinity!Isn't Sara Groves voice like an angel?

Noah the Airedale said...

Hi Cassie, Baby Rocket Dog & Hootie,
It's great to meet you all and thanks so much for stopping by our blog. We're really glad you did.
We've had a read of your blog and are really enjoying it. We'd love to add you to our bloglist. Hope that's ok.

tailwags
Noah Willow Tess & Lucy

Cassie said...

Noah & Pals ~ Thank you for joining us.We like your blog too!Come back often.I keep learning new things I can do with this blog stuff so am always tweeking it;<)

Shelley said...

I'll have to play the music later (I'm in a coffee shop later) but I'm sure i"ll like it! Boy - weren't you a little ski bunny in the day! And how great that you were able to take advantage to see your daughter thru your job at the airlines.

Cassie said...

Shelley ~ Yup, I was a real Picabo Street before I chunked out & got decrepit!! I horsed around so much with the ilike music setup that now you have to listen to it through the video feature.Enjoy!

kel said...

I'm new here.. just found your blog through Eagles View... and I saw you have an airedale! I do too!! Ours in a female, named Daisy! We have a pug too and they are best buds! a weird match, but it works for them!

Connie said...

Cassie, I tried to post a comment here yesterday, but I think my computer ate it. I enjoyed hearing this music. I can help you with the youtubes. At the youtube site, to the right of the video on each page there are two lines of html code. One is labeled as the URL and the other is labeled Embed. To make the video appear in your blog, this is what you do. Copy the code that is in the box next to the word Embed. Then paste that code that you copied into your blog where you want the video to appear. Save it and publish it from there as you usually do to publish a post on blogger. Voila! The youtube is on your blog. If you don't understand these directions or you need more help just email me. :D

One side note, some of the videos on youtube say that embedding has been disabled. Those videos you won't be able to post on your blog, and you will have to just do the links instead like you did here. Hope this helps! :D

Cassie said...

Kel ~ Thx for stopping by. I visited your blog & am currently trying to think up a clever BO ditty. Hey,post some Airedale pics!

Daisy ~ Wow.Thank you for the tutorial.I've xferred it to my word files and will try to use it soon.