It's official...

...I am now a permanently certified Texas teacher (well at least until 2014) YEA!!!!

It is HOT HOT HOT

Again, another weekend FLEW by. I can't believe it's the last week in July; it seems like the time is flying by. Hopefully once school starts the school year will wiz into December. I think that Mason and I are both equally anxious/nervous about his assignment in December, but we're both recognizing that there is a long road to travel before we get there. Mainly for Mason, but it takes a lot on my part too. I think we've really had to work on our relationship, since with the military comes a lot of give and take; but I think that's we're both really growing and maturing in our relationship together and in our personal lives. Sometimes the military life (schedule) is really hard but I'm really glad that I have Mason to share my life with. I'm really glad that we were brought together, and we have this life together. Despite my (our) grumblings about this or that we're extremely fortunate to have all that we do.


Friday night, Mason and I were able to (finally) spend some quality time with each other. As I mentioned in previous blogs, Mason wasn't getting home until around 9:45pm every night, so this made it hard to have any time together. We had a nice dinner at Olive Garden, and headed up to the casino. We walked away $8.00 richer so that was a plus. Sadly to say Saturday was mostly slept away...I think we both caught up on some much needed sleep. Today we both worked on work. We had friends for a BBQ and they brought their 3 week old baby, so cute. Mason and I both chuckled when our friend Mike came in and said, "when I saw you walking out to the BBQ with a big plate of meat, I was so happy..."

When we weren't dozing off, we were hiding out in the air conditioning. Walking across the street to the mailbox was enough time in the heat for us. The temperature continues to be boiling hot...the thermometer read 110 degrees today in our backyard (not in direct sunlight.) I know that I comment on this almost every post, but I really just didn't really believe that it could get this hot in somewhere that wasn't a desert. I guess... We're just trying to stay cool...

Mason's still on late goes this week which is okay, but therefore means that the two weeks following will bring early early goes. (report time 6am)---wakeup is usually an hour prior. Yikes! I've been doing some lesson planning although not as much as I'd like. Tuesday I have to go into school so that might remind me that I need to get moving on the school work. Other than that, our house is spic and span and I've been playing around with different hairdos. I really don't know how people spend so much time on their hair; I'm lucky if I usually have my hair dry and up in a ponytail when I leave for school, let alone a perfect hair do...ah well...

Randoms

A random middle of the night (4am) post.

1. Here are some photos of us, most have been put up on here already though

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019827&l=af427&id=77800450

2. The military housing office recently changed their name from GMH (general military housing) to Balfour Beatty Communities...while most people didn't really care about this the recent neighborhood name change has brought up some discussion. We went from Capehart housing, to freedom estates...let's just say we like that as much as freedom fries.

3. Mason has the busiest day tomorrow- keep your fingers crossed he does well. Schedule for the day includes:
8am-PFT (physical training test_
8:55am-morning brief & standup
EPQ (emergency procedures quiz, in which they were told to study EVERYTHING)
11am- EP simulator ride
1430-Instrument flight
possible academics

The perks to this 12 hour day...it's Friday so he'll have the weekend ( or part of it) to recover.

4. I am (obviously) still bit by the insomnia bug. I've been catching up on sleep between 5am-1pm, so at least that's something.

5. It's still FREAKIN' hot here!!! 104 this week and weekend. Mason is pushing for an Alaskan move next...we'll see about that.

I love va-cay

I went to see the new "Mamma Mia" movie with my friend Kim today...it was great! It was the perfect chick-flick. Anyone who likes ABBA, Meryl Streep or Pierce Brosnan with no shirt on should defiantly go see the movie. I really enjoyed it. It's one of those, feel good movies. There's actually several movies on my to-see list, but I'm not sure how many I'll actually get to. Apparently I was so far behind, a movie I though was in theaters now (Becoming Jane) was actually released almost a year ago...oh well...

Mason had an exhausting day at pilot training. I feel bad that I can't take some of the work load off, or sleep some extra hours for him, but I try to do what I can on the home front. Mason didn't have to report until noon, but that resulted in him getting home at 9:30pm. Tomorrow he'll have more of a 10am-9pm day. Flying in the morning and having a simulator ride is as exhausting as two flights, he tells me. I trust that Mason is an excellent pilot, and each day he gets more and more confident, but I feel more "concerned" or worrisome when he flys the T38. I think that part of my worry is that there are way more T38 crashes. The crash that happened here a few months ago is still lingering. The crash happened on the student pilots 4th flight; Mason has his 4th flight tomorrow. I imagine I'll be more calm once I know he's safely landed. Meanwhile, Mason is scheduled to fly every day this week unless weather precludes it. The weather forecasts show 100+ all week.

While the weather here has been hot, we're fortunate to be in our house. Friends of ours who moved to Corpus Christi to fly T-44s, just got moved into their house and now have to evacuate due to the hurricane. They are hoping that nothing will be destroyed and that they can return to their home in time for her baby to be born, (she's due August 1st). Friends of ours just had twins...we are keeping all our friends with newborns in our thoughts and prayers.

As one of my personal achievements; I passed my third Texas Educators exams...so I've submitted my application for my "permanent" Texas teaching license. It's cool that I have two states down, and many states accept IL and TX licenses.

My next personal achievement will be overcoming insomnia...I've been bitten by the bug again, and although I'm not sleeping much during the day, I certainly am awake at night. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to focus on school planning. It's amazing how much time one person can waste surfing the net.

Light the burners baby, it's back to 12 hour training days!

I don't remember the last time I (Mason) posted so here's a quick recap-

I passed the centrifuge so I was good to go for pulling Gs in the T-38. We had a few weeks of academics that were boring, but yet still overwhelming. And last week, we hit the flight line! I got my dollar ride and then my second ride in the T-38 last week. In short, it's freakin amazing.

New aviation milestones:
Personal top speed: 500 kts
Most Gs pulled (in the centrifuge): 7.5 (That's like 1600 pounds of Mason!)
First time flying a pressurized aircraft
First time flying a jet with afterburners (sweet!)
First time flying an aircraft with tandem seating (one in front of the other)
First time flying an aircraft with a HUD (Head Up Display)
First time flying with a G-suit

It's a ton of new stuff to learn so I'm struggling to keep up on all the studying. But getting to fly this jet is a huge honor. Below, one Mason Kehs (Cadet Third Class at the time I believe), about 4 years ago, having only my private pilot license, standing in front of a T-38 visiting Champaign's airport.

And now... it's mine!

Everything in the plane happens a lot faster so it's hard to keep up. By the time you get into the training areas to do your practice, you've only 20 or 30 minutes of fuel to work with. The flights only last just over an hour and every minute is just one thing after another. It's difficult to get used to flying a "high-performance fighter-type aircraft" but it's a blast since every turn is treated like it should be a max-performance turn. There's no more floating around at 30 degrees of bank. If you're flying North and need to go South, you roll sideways, pull to the "tickle", roll right side up, and you're done. Wearing a G-suit is a little strange too but it's a good reminder to do your strain as the G load is increasing. Otherwise, you get so focussed on the parameters of whatever maneuver you're doing, you forget that you need to take care of breathing. The syllabus is pretty fast-paced so I've only got another 9 rides or so until I solo. And after that, the pressure just keeps on going. There's 5 phases in the T-38: Contact (basic aircraft handling, visual maneuvers), Instruments (flying in the clouds and shooting approaches into other airports), Formation (the basics of flying with another T-38), Advanced Formation (taking things to another level with more complex maneuvering), and Low level (two T-38s in formation, 500 feet above the ground, 400 knots, WAHOO!)

So that's all the good news, the bad news is that the stakes are pretty high around ENJJPT lately. After we finished the T-37 phase, we had one member of our class get retracked to T-44s at Corpus Christi, TX (which is the trainer for C-130s). It was pretty unheard of for that to happen, particularly here at ENJJPT. But then this weekend, we found out one of the two guys who had washed back a class during the T-37 phase is now also getting sent to the T-44. So that makes two classes in a row to have someone get sent there. It's definitely not a horrible fate to fly the C-130 (especially when compared the UAVs and U-28s), but it's just a hard turn for all of us here at ENJJPT who come in with big dreams of fighter this and fighter that. I'm trying to not get caught up with the assignments too much and just focus on the task at hand. All in all, I just feel really good about getting to fly the T-38 and I'm trying my hardest not to mess that up.

On the lighter side of life, Ellen finished knitting her hat

So now she's back to the needles to start her scarf. By the time she finishes that, maybe we'll actually be living somewhere where it gets colder than 50 degrees in the winter...

Back to studying now, if no later, I'll post again when I do my contact checkride. Keep your fingers crossed!

My Classroom

This is how I set-up my classroom for the upcoming school year. I'm so HAPPY with how it turned out. I have so much extra space and it's going to be great! My theme is Under the Sea with Mrs. Kehs---My classroom is at the top of the stairs.
I draped the blue fabric so it would look like water. The cubbies, the frogs will have their names on them.

Dog days of summer

Since school got out I've felt the need to get my classroom all set up asap...I'm not sure why; I think the sense of being "ready" for next year is something I need to feel so I can sleep at night (literally). I've been trying to get to bed at a reasonable hour to avoid insomnia and sleeping all day. I've been okay, except the past two nights, I think I just get anxious for others. Anyways-My classroom is mostly all set up, this years theme is "Under the Sea with Mrs. Kehs." I rearranged the room and by doing so ended up with a lot of "extra" space. I will be teaching 21 3rd-4th graders as of right now, so I'm excited about that. I love teaching 4th grade the most since I get to do lots of writing with them. I've managed to stay away from school this week so far, although I have to go in tomorrow for a meeting. I'll put up pictures this weekend, if I can remember to take my camera tomorrow.

Other than that, I've been relaxing at home. We've had a break in the temperature, and been lucky that ever few days the temperature drops from 11degrees, to the high 80s... I've been trying to work out every day, since there is really no excuse for me not to. I've got a few household projects underway, mainly sorting and dumping old papers, but it's giving me the feeling of doing something.

Last Saturday, Mason and I went to a flight changeover party for his class. Half-way through the T-37 phase of training, after everyone has their first solo in the "tweet" there is a solo party, and the IPs (Instructor Pilots) get to make fun of all the stupid mistakes the students make. At the end of the T-37 training there is a changeover party with the new class and this time the students (Mason's flight) get to make fun of the IPs. It involves lots of beer and gag gifts. Mason got one of his IPs a shovel, since he's always digging himself into holes....It was a fun time.

Mason's been VERY busy since he started the second half of training with the T-38. This is his fourth week with the T-38. He's been in academics, and had several simulator rides, but has begun the long days. He's been working 12 hour days, plus studying, and working out for his PT test (which finally got set for Tuesday, after being pushed back multiple times.) He's enjoying everything, although finding that there is a lot of new information to learn. (I'm sure he'll post soon.)

You may have heard us refer to "H flight; " that was Mason's flight in the 37s...he's now in "M flight"--or Mob Flight...that means a bigger and better air conditioned flight room. :-)

Today Mason has his first flight in the T-38. There is some added pressure since in the T-38 the seating in the cockpit is tandem seating, so the instructor can't just reach over and flip a switch that may have been overlooked. I try not to think about the possibility of anything bad happening. So, he should be taking off as I write this...yea! Mason pointed out to me that after today he'll only have 10 flights until his first checkride, but we'll just take things one day at a time.

I have a feeling that once he gets into a flying routine, December's graduation will be here before we know it.

Happy 4th of July!

Mason and I had a pretty relaxed 4th of July. We did our grocery shopping at Walmart :-) and had a BBQ (just the two of us). It was nice just to spend the time together since life's been very demanding lately. On base there were some activities for their "Freedom Fest;" I was mainly interested in hearing the Air Force Band, Tops in Blue. We were lucky enough to be able to hear the music from our backyard, so we spent the later part of the evening sitting outside in our rocking chairs enjoying the 85 degree weather. We could also see the fireworks display from our driveway, talk about low key.

Some of our friends took carpet from someone who was moving out, and gave us extras so we carpeted our bedroom yesterday evening. The carpet needs some deep cleaning...so that will be tomorrow's project. This was our 3rd week in a row taking away no winnings from the casino, but hopefully our luck will change. Our friends Mike and Megan had their baby yesterday so that's really exciting. Mason knew Mike from ROTC, and now they live down here. It's nice to have close friends here.

Yesterday was my last day of summer school but I'll probably go back within the next week or so to set-up my classroom for next year and do some mass photocopying while I don't have to fight anyone else to use the copier. I'm pretty sure I'll be teaching 3rd/4th again next year, but I might be switched to 4th/5th last minute. Mason has Monday off, so that's a nice treat. But he has a lot of studying to do. He should begin flying in another week or week and a half, so lots to learn before then. Although he did get 100% on his first systems test. Yea Mason!