Teacher in Detention

Hey Y'all-

Things have been going by so fast...I can't believe it's almost MARCH!!! I re-decorated my classroom ala Disco, and we've put some new rules in place. The new system seems to be working well for most, but I have had to be at school last Saturday and today with a child for detention. It's not too bad, I give them a list of things to clean around our (small) school, and I get all my papers graded and copied for the next week, and then I usually have my detainee staple...works for me. There's lots of pressure right now though, because we have our state testing March 5th, and I am STRESSED about that...we are going into hardcore test practice these next few weeks. I also have to take down ALL my posters. Unlike Illinois, where you can keep up information you use all year for the test, in Texas we have to take all our posters down. I think I'll just cover them up.

This weekend Mason FINALLY got to go on his cross country flight. He was originally scheduled to go to Denver last weekend, which got canceled due to WF weather. He was scheduled to go to St. Louis this weekend, but used his back-up to San Antonio due to SL weather. We talked briefly, and all I know he arrived, but there was a credit card charge for dinner...so I'll assume he's fine. Meanwhile, friends of our from IL, moved here. Mason was in ROTC with Mike and we've been spending time with them. Last night Mike, his wife Megan, and I went to the assignment night.

This assignment night was like any other...there is a new special operations plane (the U28) that is being given out since so many of the F15s are grounded. After a briefing a few weeks ago, Mason determined this assignment would be worse than a heavy (carrier plane), but only 2 per class were supposed to be given out. Last nights drops included: 6-U28, 4-A10, 2-B52, 2-F15E, 5-F16 (some were guard and Norwegians), 1-German Tornado, 2-FAIP (instructors), and 1-b1...overall kinda crappy, but we all still say the chances of getting an awesome plane here at ENJJPT is WAY better than being at another pilot training base.

Tonight, my friend Juli from work, and friend Megan are going to an "Around the World" dinner hosted by the NATO countries. Basically it's like a HUGE buffet of delicious food from other countries from what I hear, so I am excited about that. Mason and I decided Monday we'd start back on the diet/exercise plan...

Well, for now I'm off to file taxes, and wash dishes. By the way, it's a balmy 70 degrees in Wichita Falls today. :-)

More ups and downs

I think the last time I posted was after failing and passing my contact checkride. Since then, it's been a rush of instrument training. We also start advanced contact (aerobatic maneuvers) which is awesome but it's hard to study for two completely different topics at the same time. We've also been doing academics for navigation which we don't fly until after instruments and advanced contact. So the push for new material just keeps going. Only about 3 months until we're finished with the T37 phase all together! woh.

I took the final exam for navigation today and got 100%. So that was the good for the day. The bad is that last weekend on the way back from hanging out in Dallas with some other couples, I got a speeding ticket. And so because of that, I have to report in to my squadron commander (not good!). Not too brutal of a counseling session, but it's just one more shitty thing to have on the record.

I double-turned today with an advanced contact solo in the morning and and instrument sortie later in the morning (I'm back on 5 am days now). I pulled about 5.5 Gs on my solo while doing tons of cuban-eights and split-S, etc maneuvers. It's pretty fun but halfway through the flight, I had to just cruise straight and level around my area for a while to let my body catch up. As for the instrument ride, most of it went well until I got back in to the pattern and had to do a normal straight-in approach to landing. It had been so long since my last contact sortie, I totally blanked on some basic maneuvers. So thanks to the speed brake, I was able to fix up my mistakes and catch up with the jet.

A couple weekends ago, a bunch of us took a motorcycle ride up to the Wichita Mountains. We ended up having 6 of us so it was a pretty fun ride. Half of them were Italian so I had a little bit of a hard time keeping up with them (they're used to taking turns way faster than me and leaning the bike over as far as it goes - I chicken out). And we went up to the top of Mt Scott there so it made for a great view. And since it was a beautiful day, there ended up actually being like 20 other bikes there on the same day.

This weekend, I'm scheduled to do a cross-country flight to Scott AFB (St Louis). It's a weekend-long deal (half training / half fun). The weather is looking a little snowy though so we might end up doing San Antonio instead. Either way, I've been planning for it for a long time so I just want to get it done. There should be about 4 people from my flight going so it'll be a good time.

Lastly, Ellen got her birthday present early. After begging for a few months now, she finally got her Tivo. It was supposed to be a surprise but getting packages in the mail when you live together just makes things a lot more tricky. Now we can finally fast forward through the commercials to see the end of all our "Deal or No Deal"s.

It's 3 in the afternoon and I'm exhausted so everyone knows what that means - it means there's still time for PT "yay".....

WHEW!

Well, it's not quite Friday, but I was aghast when I saw that we hadn't made a post all month! Things have been busy, stressful, and exhausting. This week felt like everyday was Monday. Mason has been "working" from 8am-8pm this week, which makes for later evenings of dinner and studying. I've been putting in 7am-6:30pm most nights, so similar hours. We both kinda plop down when we get home each night. Last night we joked about what if we were to switch places for the day, but decided that he'd hate children by the end of the day, and I'd cry all day long from people yelling at me.

Despite weather briefs from our families home in Chicago, the weather here has been nothing to complain about. Here or there a day where the temperature drops to the 20s or 30s, but we've been having mostly 60s and some 70 degree days. Moving season seems to be in full swing, and we benefited by picking up someone else's perfectly good plastic patio set (a table and 5 chairs). They need a good wash, but were definitely a good curbside find. I went to my friend's house for a Pampered Chef party on Tuesday night, which was a fun girls night out. I think that we are planning another girl's night out with people from work this weekend.

Jill's birthday was yesterday, and I can't believe my baby sister is already 17!!! That makes me feel really old...Mason has made it clear that Tivo is not on the giving list for Valentine's Day, so I've been pushing for a March 6th delievery date, however, I still don't think he's quite going for it...oh well.

Dinners burning, and I have to get work done for my kids tomorrow...we have our Survivor book challenge tomorrow...so I've got to put that together...