Happy Holidays!

Lots to celebrate this month. While the beginning of the month began with a great deal of sadness and stress, Mason and I are in Chicago on a relaxing winter vacation. We are fortunate to have the time to be up here with our families for two whole weeks; especially since we haven't been home since last Christmas (which is way too long in our books). So far we've spent time sleeping, eating, fighting traffic, and seeing family. Mason went paintball(ing) with our nephews Tristan and Rowan tonight, while I enjoyed a manicure with my sister Jill and then dinner with my parents and Jill. I can't believe that tomorrow is already Christmas Eve, but again just loving the time with family and friends.

We both just completed our halfway points in our masters classes (go us) and despite our busy schedules we've both managed to maintain 4.0 gpas in our programs. Mason is doubling up classes in January, and I'll be taking an action research class, not sure what that means yet, but I'm sure it will be stressful and time consuming. Either way it is comforting to know that at this time next year we should both be DONE with our Master's degrees. Glad I am working on it now because I'm not sure I would ever want to go back to school again after this.

I completed all of my Praxis tests that I need for a "permanent" certification in Louisiana, so I am glad that I can begin the process of getting that completed (ie pay the state more money for a sheet of paper). I was also chosen as the high school teacher of the year at my school, so that was pretty awesome! More portfolios to write and put together for the next level, but glad for the opportunity

Mason has worked really hard at work to "re-design" and update the in-flight guide that the B-52 crew members fly with. He has put in so many hours of work on this project over the last few months, and created a really great product (or so I hear) and I know he is anxious to get it printed and delivered to the hundreds of crew that will receive his hard work.

We have been slow about getting out a holiday letter; it's written but needs to be printed, mailed, etc...so we may get a copy posted up here soon. In the meantime- happy holidays!

Live each day as if it were the last

November came and went without a post. I'm behind on my goal to get all of our Japan adventure's posted before 2011. We'll have to see how things go in the next few weeks during the busy holiday season.

I promise an update about us soon, but for now I wanted to talk today's events. A student of mine was killed early this morning in a car accident. The driver of the car was a boy who graduated last year, and I didn't teach him, but I knew who he was and he was a great kid. The passenger of the car was one of my junior students. The driver was speeding, most likely had been drinking and drove off the road and hit a tree. Both were killed immediately.

As I said earlier on facebook, students become like your kids. You have those days where they drive you crazy, and other days you are so proud of them you can't stop bragging on them. I just can't ever imagine what the halls of our school will be like without this student there. He was truly an amazing person. Always the first to crack a joke, make you laugh, and outwit you. As he said, he was truly Big Dawg Status.

His mother is a teacher at our school, and I can't even imagine their loss. I've talked to some of my students today, and other teachers and it just doesn't seem real. I feel sad at the loss, and mad that no matter how many times you say don't drink and drive, people still do. I'm thankful to be at a school where I know we'll all be there for one another, and grateful for friends and family who love me and are there for me.

You'll be missed Evan.

Where in the world does the time go?

My intent for writing and keeping up with blog writing is good, but the follow-through has not been great. Time seems to get away from me all the time these days, every day. I want to finish writing about our Japan trip- which I WILL BE FINISHING at some point in the near future but until that happens; I figure I can at least continue to keep the blog up to date with current events.

Mason seems to live in Shreveport ¾ of the time these days and the other fourth of the time he lives at the alert shack in Minot, North Dakota. Mason and several other guys from his squadron have been going up North to help complete exercises and inspections while they are currently undermanned. He has one more trip scheduled for next month and then hopefully he’ll be in town for a few months. He just finished up his 5th Master’s class and is enjoying a week off between classes.

Meanwhile, I just completed my 4th master’s class, and feel as though this process of classes is never-ending. I guess the completion date is only a year away, but somehow the classes seem to feel longer and longer. School is going well- Drama Club has started up again this year, and the Junior Class is well on their way to raising funds for Prom. I apparently have earned some credits with my principal because she signed me (along with two other teachers) up for website training, and I’m not one of the webmasters for our school website. It was another thing added to my plate, but I think I’m doing a pretty good job at it, and it’s nice to have others asking for my help. This year we have some new programs going on at school, and while they are a lot of work, with this program (TAP) and my masters program, I feel like I am really becoming a better teacher.

Outside of school, I am still working at Sylvan, but only about once a week, which works out quite well for me. It’s nice being able to keep that up, mainly so I have the position in the summer, and some gas money, but only having to go once a week works well with my otherwise busy schedule. Our socials have been going well for the Officer Spouse Club (OSC). I am co-chair on the socials committee and we’ve been busy with our monthly functions. This week we had a quilting bee social, which was more fun than I had anticipated. We’re busy gearing up for next month’s silent gift basket auction and Decembers Tour of Homes (aka touring the big fancy colonel/ general’s houses).

Mason and I were able to take a weekend off to go to the Super Derby a few weekends ago. We were bummed that we were only able to get to the horse races this one time, but still glad we made it out (and I'll brag that all my choices were winners!) Our last 20th spouse social was at a location called painting with a twist- essentially you get to drink and paint. The "store" supplies the painting materials and instruct you how to paint an image...I'm not Monet, but I didn't do horribly. I also hosted monthly book club (we read Eat, Pray, Love).

Well, this should get me started back up with the blog- more to come soon!

Roosevelt, Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, Kehs

We know we've been sucking at posting on the blog. It's not because we don't have lots of things to talk about, we've just been way too busy to keep up with ourselves. But here's a photo from my last flight (Minot to Barksdale by way of South Dakota). It's pretty small, but that's what Mt Rushmore looks like from about 5,000' up, hopefully some people on the ground realized we were there and enjoyed the random flyover...
Also in the last week, a new flying milestone for me. It was the worst weather conditions that I've flown an approach to landing in yet. It was raining with the ceiling at 400 feet and about 2 miles visibility (the lowest most approaches can go is 200' and 1/2 mile). It was also my first time ever landing the B-52 anywhere else besides Barksdale (we were at Minot AFB, ND).

And the days go by

Gosh, time has been literally just passing by so quickly. My hope was to have all the blog posts from our Japan trip completed before school started; obviously that goal did not happen. In the meantime I may be alternating between Japan and life- these -days posts for awhile.

This week starts the 4^th week we’ve been in school- can you believe it? This year our school went to a seven-period school day. I have a whole new respect for my high school teachers who taught different classes all day long on a nine period day. There are positives and negatives to this new schedule. Classes are shorter and we have the students all year long; however, that means I have seven preps and that’s a lot of kids in and out all day long.

So far classes have been going well. I have been the mean teacher assigning homework on weekends, giving projects, and calling parents. So far, all parents seem on board with supporting their students and me. I am teaching a theater class this year, which is a lot of fun and hopefully more students’ will want to join Drama Club. I’m going to try to have Drama meet during lunch this year, so I can spend less time staying after school. Sylvan has been working out well, as I’ve only had to work there one or two days a week so far.

I just finished my 3^rd master’s class, and thankfully have a two week break before the next class starts. This past class took a lot out of me- I was not very interested in the content of the class. Mason just started up again with his classes after taking a break since May.

Mason has been busy, as usual, with work. He has been flying once or twice a week and having sims and other projects to work on the other days. Just last week he switched “secondary jobs.” In additional to his military flying job, everyone has a secondary role in the squadron. Mason was working as the RA in the finance office- he of course was great at the job, but didn’t always get the credit he deserved. He’s now working in the OGV office basically keeping track of check rides and doing more important work for the overall mission. I’m sure he’ll write more about that later.

In our non-work lives we have been trying to relax, emphasis on trying. We’ve been quite the movie buffs and we went to see Shrek Ever After and Toy Story 3 on base, we sprung for real movies and went to see Inception in the real theater. Last night I went with some of my girlfriends to see Eat, Pray, Love. I’m reading the book for book club, and was hoping to finish it before seeing the movie, but I liked the movie anyway.

This year I am on the Socials board for the Office Spouse Club on base and we recently had our first tailgating kickoff party. We had over 106 people come to our event, and hopefully most of the newer people will join. I have a great time at the events and am sad that I’ll have to miss our daytime events.

Things are really busy, but hopefully everything will calm down shortly.

Off we gooooo

(I was trying to pack, while someone else thought they would take a nap)

Hard to believe it’s been such a long time (almost 2 months) since we wrote on the blog, but I guess we have been waiting for the mood to strike before we sat to blog on the great adventure—JAPAN! Our trip to Japan was amazing! I can’t imagine a more perfect time in our life to travel overseas and get a break from the daily grind of life. Mason and I looked into many different travel locations and decided on Japan because it was unlike anywhere we’d ever been and would probably get to go for a long time. We also felt it would be more friendly and accepting than somewhere like China (which was also in the running). Then the planning began and we had to decide if we wanted to venture to a foreign country where we didn’t know the language and tour ourselves. We ended up going on a small group tour (13 people) with the company Inside Japan. I have no doubt that if we traveled to Japan we’d go with this company again.

Mason and I flew from Shreveport to Houston (.75 hours) and then from Houston to Tokyo (13 hours). After flying for so long, I have no idea how Mason does this as a career. I guess riding is a lot different from piloting…anyways, we flew on Continental and the amenities were really nice all things considered. The plane ride there was overbooked, but after offering vouchers to enough people some spaces opened up and Mason and I ended up with an empty seat in our row. This was REALLY nice, and allowed us to “stretch” out as much as one could. Each seat had its own screen in the seatback and there were over 200 choices of movies and TV shows to watch. I think I watched 4 full length movies on the way there. This really helped make the time pass because the flight crew discouraged the use of light or having the windows open, so reading would have been difficult. We left Shreveport at 6am on Saturday, and due to the time differences we never saw night and arrived Sunday late afternoon in Tokyo.

Lots more to come, but we had to start somewhere. I’m pretty darn impressed that we also ended up traveling overseas for two weeks with just two backpacks!!!

(Our luggage for Japan)

Back in the Groove

Wow! Sorry we've neglected the blog for so long, but we're back and will have lots of updates coming soon about the summer and our trip to Japan. It seems like every time we've sat down to write a blog post, something came up or there was something else we should be focusing our time on (school, masters, studying, etc...). Sad to say, our first post was at the beginning of my summer, and now this post is almost the end of summer.

I go back to school on August 2nd! I know, super early right! I'm really wishing there were some more weeks of summer vacation left, because I have been loving it! We started our summer with a trip to Japan (amazing!) and came home to Mason's hectic work schedule. He was heavily involved with inspections and exercises on base, so he was flying a lot and even spent a week TDY in Minot, ND. I have been working a few hours a week at Sylvan, teaching swim lessons to a friend's children, and working on my Masters classes.


Mason flew a lot as part of all the exercises and inspections on base- and thankfully that's all over (for now). This photo is a picture of Mason and his crew on a flight to Utah where they got to drop LGBs (Laser Guided Bombs) and JDAMs at a range out in the middle of no where. This was Mason's first time dropping that specific type of bomb. He took a short break from his Masters classes with our trip and all the work he's been doing, but will start classes up in another week or two.

This summer I also tried to take the opportunity to expand my cooking and try some new recipes and document them on camera. Some successful, and others not so much. We're trying a new eating/workout regiment, so hopefully we'll be able to post some big loses soon. :-) For those of you who keep up with us on facebook, know that Mason and are are huge dorks and have begun having our own "Top Chef" Challenges...clearly we don't have anything better to do. But we like watching the TV show Top Chef and so we stole some challenges and went for them. The first challenge was a blind/ nose closed taste test. Really difficult with the nose closed as it changes the way things taste. Mason won that round. For the second round we agreed on chicken as a protein and then each choose 3 other ingredients. All the ingredients had to be used to make a meal. All together we ended up with: chicken, wheat bread, cheese, potato, peas, strawberries, and corn. We both ended up making pretty tasty meals, but I came out ahead...we'll see what our next boring day brings.
(Our chef faces- grr)

Sayonara

Mason and I have had a busy few weeks. Mason returned from Alaska the beginning of May, to be home just in time for our 3 year wedding anniversary. :-) He went straight into the vault, where he basically spent 7am-6pm everyday learning about super secret stuff pertaining to the B52. He had to learn everything at work because everything was so top secret nothing could leave. He finished with that, and spent 4 days in the alert shack on base as part of a nuclear exercise. In the alert "shack" (more of a building), several flying crews and maintenance personnel spend a few days on alert, ready to go at a moments notice. Mason had a good experience, despite the lousy food, uncomfortable bed, and no electronics of any kind allowed.

With Mason being gone, and school finishing up- that meant time to play with my girlfriends. I'm very lucky to have friends who have me for dinner, let me play with their children, and get pedicures with. It's fun having so many great friends here, although I did dearly miss Mason. Somehow it was harder when he was 2 blocks away than several states away. School is out however, and I signed my contract for next year. I'm glad to be on summer break, although it's a short one. I've been working really hard to work ahead in my current Master's class so that I wouldn't have any work on our vacation.

Some recent highlights otherwise:
I tried crawfish for the first time at senior day at our school.We saw a HUGE alligator on base.
Drama Club play was a success, and there was even an article written about it (and me) in the local paper.
We went to the circus.
Mason loves playing with his fish eye lens camera
Lastly, we are leaving tomorrow on a two week vacation to JAPAN!!! We're so excited and happy to have the opportunity (thank you Air Force) to go on this trip. I'm sure that's what most of our blog posts will be about when we return. :-) So for now, sayonara!

Fights on!

I'm back from Alaska and I am NOT liking all this heat and humidity. It was a nice 40 to 50 degrees every day in Alaska. Just when it was starting to get warm enough for their giant mosquitos to come out, our time was up at Red Flag Alaska. I did some hiking and explored Denali National Park (where Mt McKinley is) a bit, but I guess the bears were still in hibernation. I had two main objectives for my trip: see a moose, and see the northern lights (aurora borealis). I ended up only achieving half of those. Because of the time of year, it just never really got dark enough for a good night sky. Even from the time we showed up to the day we left, the amount of daylight had increased by an hour. It really didn't get dark until 11pm or so and even at 2am, you could still see a bit of light from the "sunset". It took a little getting used to since your body definitely wants to keep going when it's light outside, even though it's late at night.
But the other objective was a big success. The very first weekend we were there, I went with some other people to Denali in hopes of seeing all kinds of wilderness. And after a whole day of nothing, coming through the gate back on base, we see a moose just standing outside the fence line at the end of the runway! And then, as we continued towards the lodging, we saw another one at the visitor center! It turned out that base was the place to go for moose spotting. They seemed to get more bold as the weather got warmer too. By the end, I saw one standing outside our lodging building one morning around 5am. There were lots of reports of lynx around Denali and the range near base but no luck on that.
As for the flying, the sky was full of vipers, eagles, and raptors (planes that is). It was pretty funny (and awesome) getting to go to Red Flag because back in pilot training, I always pictured it as a fighter-only sort of deal. And although the fighter mentality still runs the show, the bombers end up being the key part of the mission (because we're the ones who take out the important targets after all fighter jocks finish their air-to-air party). As a new pilot, it was really helpful to see how the whole mission goes from start to finish and how all the players fit in. The whole concept of Red Flag is to provide pilots with their first handful of sorties that are as close to a real war scenario as possible to increase our odds when the time comes. And they like to say that the Red Flag scenarios are often more difficult and intricate even than most real missions are.
I actually got picked up to go to the exercise because the other squadron here on base didn't have enough copilots to make up the number of crews that they were trying to send. So although it was a shame I didn't get to go with my own squadron, it was really lucky that out of all the pilots around, I got to go. Because the squadron sent so many crews, I only got to fly a couple sorties in the exercise, which was less than I was hoping. But it was definitely worth it.
It was also nice flying on a hard crew (so to speak). Even though I've been out of the FTU for a few months now, this was my first time getting to fly on a jet with only 5 crewmembers (no instructors or extra guys trying to rehack their currencies). Some other firsts/landmarks for the trip: New personal highest altitude (42,000'), first time flying with a survival vest on (along with long johns and a winter jacket - I got pretty sweaty as usual), first time shooting skeet (I've learned that any place that has lots of wildlife, also has lots of people with guns), first time flying with and against fighters on a sortie. It was also the first time I fly the B-52 anywhere besides Barksdale. That's pretty unremarkable for most planes, but in the BUFF, we really don't touch the ground at many other places besides the home station.

I didn't get to fly a B-52 there or back (we had a chartered 737) which was sort of a bummer. I was looking forward to my first time flying in international airspace (through Canada). But I heard that when they flew as a three-ship home, they fly by Mt McKinley and got some good photos with the jets. As for my photography, yes, I have been going fisheye crazy. With the new lens Ellen got me for our anniversary present, I've been taking super wide shots everywhere (mostly in the plane). I'll do my best to keep it under control for the photos we take in Japan.

Next up on the flying agenda: the vault. Can't say much about it, but I'll be done with it after this week and then I'll be in the next category of qualifications which means I can take part in lots of exercises and inspections (not necessarily a positive thing...).

TDY (TOO much to DO Y'ALL)

(Our house in Spring. Mason took this shot using his new fisheye lens, courteous of an early anniversary present from Ellen)

Mason has been TDY (temporary duty) assignment for the past two weeks, and has one more week to go in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska. Although Mason is in the 20th Bomb Squadron at Barksdale the other squadron (the less cool one) needed an additional co-pilot to go with them to Red Flag Alaska; Mason was the lucky one to go! Those of you who have been following along in our adventures from the beginning have read about past TDYs (IFS, SERE, etc...) this one is probably one of the cooler ones in my opinion. I mean it's Alaska!It has been an interesting experience for me this time because there's been a different sense of "missing him." Despite the halfway point breakdown last night, this has been a mostly tear-free TDY, which makes me feel good because I know that I can manage things at home while he's gone. Truth be told, I have the best friends and we've been partying it up almost every night, so missing Mason hasn't been a focal point of the past two weeks. Mason will certainly post a blog when he returns telling all the ins and outs, but for now here's one of the photos he's sent.

(Mason on top of some "frozen waterfall thing" in Alaska)

Here on the homefront I've been crazy busy! I started my online Masters Program in literacy and technology a little over two months ago and I just completed my first class with a 99% A. I don't think I've ever worked so hard. My next class starts next week, and I've already read some of the text books, so I'm hoping that will give me a slight headstart on some of the work load. The week of the 12th was state testing followed up with prom on Saturday night. I was suckered into taking the Junior Class this year at my school and basically was in charge of prom. There was a little stress the week before in dealing with picky teenagers and decorations, but overall the event turned out great. I had a blast!

Yesterday we took students who had no discipline problems at all to the
(Me with some of my Senior Drama Club members at Prom)

Louisiana Boardwalk. This was an awesome trip for me because I didn't have to drive to school, I was instead able to drive a short 10 minutes and have a great time with the kids. We played glo-in-the-dark mini golf and then let the kids shop or go to movies. It was a great end of the week treat, because this week seemed to go on forever. May 6th is our play, The Wizard of Oz, which I also directed, so I'm looking forward to that being over and then I can slide into summer.

Last night I attended my first event with our new squadron. There was a potluck at the squadron and I got to meet some other families in the 20th. I was afraid to go at first, but I busted out of my shell and decided to go even without Mason there as my buffer. This weekend is the airshow on base, and I had a great time today. Luckily my friends let me latch on to their family most of the day, but I think we all had fun, and I obtained the annual airshow sunburn. One of my students was actually there and got sworn into the Air Force today, so that was pretty cool for me to witness.

(Me with a handful of my students at the Boardwalk)

This week brings more girls' nights, a squadron spouse dinner, play practice and more. I'm ready for Mason to get home next weekend, and then the one month countdown to Japan begins!

(I was at the Air Show...more photos on Facebook!)

A picture is worth...a lot of laughs

The set-up (Easter bunny missed out on the photos)


Mason looking thrilled to be going on an Easter Egg hunt, especially with the super cool Easter basket (it's a plane)


Mason looking for an egg, but not seeing it. I can see it, can you?



Mason smirking because I am laughing that he is missing the egg in the most obvious spot


He found it after like 5 minutes...geez

Hoppy Easter

This weekend brought little rest and lots of work, despite the fact that some of us are still on Spring Break. I am very thankful to also have tomorrow (Monday) off as well, something about going back on Tuesday, just makes everything more awesome! Mason has a week left before he leaves for Alaska, so he spent a great deal of time this weekend working ahead on Masters papers, and studying B52 information so he is prepared for flights this week and then all the flights at Red Flag. He did however manage to squeeze in a motorcycle ride, and an Easter Egg hunt (the bunny came while he was on the motorcycle ride), and even date night on Friday. I am super lucky that he agreed to spend the night seeing Dear John. I don't think the movie was as good as the book, but it was a good Nicholas Sparks chick flick.

I spent time this weekend making sure all my lesson plans (for the rest of the school year) were all in order, and that I myself worked ahead for my master's class. The work wasn't that fun, but getting ahead was really nice. Last night, I tossed and turned dreaming of all the things that could go wrong with prom (April 17th) and our play (May 6th). I think I got most of the issues under control, but still have this helpless feeling that I am forgetting something huge- and I am still in need of SOMEONE to make our balloon arch...anyone?

A new project I began as part of my Masters class was an Educators Blog. So, any teachers, or anyone interested in checking it out and posting a comment on the blog would really help me out! The link is: http://kehsclass.blogspot.com Check it out, and let me know what you think.

There are no pictures for this blog, because I'm too lazy to go downstairs, get the camera, and upload pictures of Mason on his Easter Egg hunt, but I will have those posted soon.

Goodbye Mustache March, Hello Armpit April

Any military wife can surely see the humor in the title of this blog, as we loathe March. March in the Military is Mustache March (or Molestache March as is it more commonly referred to). Some of the wives and I thought that if we endured a month of sleazy looking husbands with gross mustaches, they should endure a month of armpit hair...well not really, but they thought it was funny. (BTW, no need to offend anyone with an ongoing mustache, those are normal).

Other than springing ahead into April minus the mustache, we've had BEAUTIFUL weather in the South. The days have turned to 70-80 degree sunny days, where you can't help but to be outside. I've been enjoying life and home this week, while on Spring Break, and the hubby has been enjoying life from about 35,000 feet. Spring Break came at the perfect time for me, and I have been enjoying every moment of it, especially all the time I can see friends! Mason has been very busy, and flying at least twice a week (usually late day/night). He's not too upset about it, because he's gotten to drop tons of bombs (and I mean literally tons of bombs.) Plus, he has the opportunity to go to Alaska for three weeks later this month to be a part of Red Flag Alaska! It's awesome, and I'm totally jealous he gets to go to Alaska, but I know he will have a blast. (So, if any one wants to come be my prom date, or come for the Air Show at the end of the month, I'll be here solo)

We haven't been adventuring much, after all the excitement of the last two hikes, but we've been fortunate enough to be able to take frequent walks, and enjoy dinner out on our patio before the summer heat rolls in. No crazy April's Fools jokes played today, but it has been exactly a year since we moved to Barksdale- crazy!

The husband who tries to give his wife a heart attack

I love my husband dearly. He's a wonderful, amazing man, but sometimes I think he's trying to kill me.

Mason and I are trying to find more fun ways to work-out. The weather in Shreveport is beautiful (70s and sunny) and our window between cold and 100 will not last long. As you can see from the last post, we've been enjoying the East side of base which is a wonderful nature reserve area. Since we've moved here we have had a list of "must-sees" before we move, especially since we were told so many of the animals were spotted on base. On our last hike we were able to add several to the list, hogs and live armadillos included. That meant, that the alligator was left on our "must-see" list. Well, on yesterdays hike we got to see our gator.

Some of you might say, what's so bad about that...and really that was the cool part of the hike. It was the last part of the walk, just before we got to the car, we decided to look in the lake one more time. We were lucky enough to see a gator. We're guessing it was probably 4-5 feet, but hard to tell since it was in the water. It was pretty awesome! Shortly after Mason found an animal skull (which is now sitting besides me, as this obviously have to become office decor).

Now you still might be wondering what it so bad...well, the walk was in a new area we hadn't been to before, but it was mostly a path surrounded by river/bayou. The bushes along the path weren't too thick but the birds and squirrels darting through them were enough to keep you on your toes. I was walking along the path and heard a noise next to ma and looked over to see the squirrel that was likely in the bushes next to me...OH NO...SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!! I have never run so fast in my life. Mason was just kind of standing there, trying to take in what happened. I just took off, I was partly shocked that I was even able to make out that it was a snake because it blending in very well, but Mason stayed back and took some pictures. This made for a very tense walk afterwards as every little noise now, surely had to be a snake...ugh!

So, being the kind husband that Mason was, he stayed up (was forced to) while I couldn't sleep from snake dreams last night.

Snort snort

This weekend, we went hiking on the East side of base and we hit the jackpot in wildlife spotting. Actually, Ellen took the prize this time for being the first to spot almost everything. It had been raining here a lot so the trails were still pretty muddy but the weather was perfect this weekend. Our first encounter was when Ellen saw two hogs about 20 feet in front of us, just off the trail. She had tried to get my attention but I was focusing on getting around a muddy spot in the trail. But when the two hogs picked up on us, they started running across in the branches. So I only saw the second one. It got both our heartbeats up pretty good. Then, just after a couple turns, Ellen spotted another one off in the distance. But this time it turned out to be a couple hogs with a set of babies. There were about 5 of the babies, pretty much hairless and all waddling around in a pack. In this picture, you can only really see the one adult in the center.We were pretty satisfied at that point, but things got even better. Again, Ellen was the first to spot it. An armadillo was just off the trail about 6 feet. It realized we were staring at it pretty quick, so it started trying to walk away. But I was determined to get a good picture so I followed it for a while. After moving through some prickly bushes, it stopped behind a log. When I got closer, I saw that it had gone down into a hole. I thought about getting closer to try to look inside, but I took heed of some warnings I've heard about how mean armadillos can get. It didn't matter though because further down the trail, I spotted another one! This one seemed a little more alarmed of our presence, so it sprinted over to this little ridgeline. It jumped over branches pretty high to get there. And when I caught up to the ridgeline, he was already long gone in some hole. It was like in the movie Fugitive, where the guy is at the end of the tunnel so you think he's caught, but then he jumps off into the dam.

The only big catch we have yet to see on the East side now is an alligator. So maybe they'll come out in the summer to get some sun. It was a pretty successful hike. Neither of us fell into mud this time, but Ellen picked up some good scratches on the legs. I got some nice photos and have been messing around editing those. Now that the weekend is over, Ellen's back to work and I'm back to sitting around waiting to be scheduled for a flight. I got a sim last week, so that was good to get back into the mindset. I've been trying to take advantage of the time to study but it's hard to retain it when you're just reading through the manuals. I would work on Masters stuff but I'm in between classes right now. Ellen, on the other hand, took the plunge and signed up for a Masters of her own. She's already started her first class with Walden University. It sounds like after this course, she'll be taking two at a time. They provide all the course textbooks as well, so that's nice. I think she's excited to get going on it, but she's also realizing how picky some classes can be as she reads through the grading criteria and discussion boards.


There's a lot of other stuff I probably should update here, but I just wanted to get the hog story out there. We got lots of beads at a Mardi Gras parade, it actually snowed here (and stuck), we signed up to take a vacation to Japan in the summer, yadda yadda...

Weapon System Qualified

I am now a qualified B-52 (co)pilot. I'll be joining the 20th Bomb Squadron now, moving out of the student world (although the training never really ends). The next big landmark in terms of qualifications would be to upgrade to Aircraft Commander (move from the right seat to the left seat). I've heard that usually takes about a year but we'll see. Graduation from the 11th was pretty low key. They had a nice static display of a buff with some weapons and an A-10 as well. The ceremony basically consisted of a quick slideshow, shake-take-salute, put on the leather jacket, and we're done. The leather jacket is a tradition in the Air Force since it marks the achievement that you have become qualified in a weapon system, as oppose to just graduating pilot training and being an unassigned Air Force pilot.

Things got pretty exciting towards the last bit of the FTU. We got to do a live drop of 9 bombs in a test range out to the West. It was nice it was a pretty straight-forward mission (no AR or patternwork). The scenery along the way was a refreshing change from the flat brown (or white this time of year) midwest too. It was a formation flight so in total, we dropped about 7 tons of explosive goodness. The range officer wasn't able to spot all 9 of our bombs when they hit, so per the rules, we had to descend down and send a crewmember back to visually check the bomb bay. Since we weren't technically qualified yet, one of the instructors went back there while we set up an orbit. We had to descend low enough for the cabin to depressurize but flying in an area where the elevation is around 4,000' (not including any mountains) made the orbit pretty intriguing. We had the ground about 4,000' below us, a pretty solid cloud layer about 1,000' above us, and we were in a valley where some of the mountain tops were through the clouds. With all the reflection of the snow on the mountains and the grey of the clouds, it was easy to see how guys going supersonic, pulling Gs, and rolling upside down could lose bearing of which way is up.

Our last flight of the program turned out to be a humbling one. The original plan was to fly a 2-ship at night to train in low-level operations. The day of the flight, we had thunderstorms all over the midwest and clouds everywhere else. So with a lot of replanning at the last minute, we stepped out the door with a new route, a new tanker location, and the idea to work out a bomb run plan once we got airborne. On takeoff, we were #2 and we lost lead visually in the clouds pretty quickly. Soon thereafter, the nav lost sight of him on the radar. On top of that, the radios started all going to static because of the weather we were flying around. So here we are chasing after lead with little clue as to exactly where he is and we could barely talk to them on the radios. As this is happening, we start seeing quick flashes on either side of the plane. Then, lightning (or "St Elmo's fire") starts crawling up the windows in the cockpit. It only lasted a few minutes, but it was pretty amazing. I had always heard of it with airlines but this was my first time ever seeing it with my own eyes. We managed to rejoin with lead eventually but the rest of the flight pretty much remained at the same tempo. Our autopilot failed so one pilot was always devoting their attention to just keeping the jet on parameters, we were in and out of the clouds all night so one pilot usually had eyes locked on the barely visible lights of the other jet, and we were doing most of the flight from the opposite seat in order to get gradebook items signed off. The flight ended with me in the left seat doing circling approach in the rain. There were a lot things we could have done better and a lot of struggling to get the whole mission done, but I probably took away more from that flight than any other flight in the program.

I'm excited to get going with my active squadron but the tempo is a little slow right now since most of the squadron is deployed. Until they get back, it will be hard to get a sense of what the "normal" ops are like. So for now, I'll keep investigating and planning for our big trip that we're hoping to take in the summer. Right now, Japan is the primary destination. It wasn't exactly Ellen's first choice of getaway spots, but I think I'm starting to convince her. She's been busy herself busting butt at the gym. She read in a magazine about how it takes 21 times to make something into a habit. So with being fit on the mind, she set out to go the gym 21 days in a row. And she did it! She's not sure what she's going to challenge herself to next in order to keep the ball rolling but we're proud of her pushing herself to workout so much. Maybe next she'll climb a mountain or run a marathon or swim across the English channel. After all, if we can't afford to fly to Japan, we'll have to get there somehow.

Last for this post, Ellen gave me the idea to make a video with all the different planes I've flown since I've reached somewhat of an "end" to all the transitioning from each platform. Almost all of the pictures/videos were either taken by Ellen and I or have me in it. It's 10 minutes long and includes tear-jerking music of course, so enjoy...

Back from the winter!

We’re Baaaaack Well, we didn’t end our blog…we’ve been on winter hiatus I guess. I don’t think I could even try to talk about all the things that we’ve been doing in the last month and a half, but I’ll try to pick out the highlights.

I finished off the winter semester strong. This semester I am teaching English II (sophomores), English III (juniors), and a Bible as History and Literature class which is mostly seniors. I am really enjoying myself this semester. I was beginning to get down on my teaching last semester because I felt like I wasn’t getting to the freshman. I tried to spend a lot of time over winter break making better lessons and getting more prepared, and so far this semester has gone better; although the students are slightly more mature. I have some juniors who think that I am killing them with papers, but I like to think I’m preparing them for life. We’ve been continuing to raise money for prom, and that’s been going well. Drama Club started practice for “The Wizard of Oz.” We have a small cast, but really excited kids, so I’m getting excited about that. I’ll also begin tutoring some students that need remediation for their state tests on Mondays after school. I haven’t been working as many hours at Sylvan, but I am still tutoring there 1 or two times a week.

I’ve been very fortunate to have great friends here at Barksdale. We’ve had girls’ night out about 2 or 3 times a month and it’s a blast. I hosted the last one and it lasted until 11pm (on a Thursday). Unfortunately about half of the great girls will be moving to Minot in the next 2 weeks when Mason’s class graduates, but I’m becoming closer friends with the girls staying here. We’re also very fortunate that our neighbors who share our duplex are great. We’ve had dinner a few times, and we’re very happy that we’ll be sharing the duplex the next few years.

Mason completed his checkride last Thursday! He passed with flying colors. He was originally supposed to have his checkride before winter break, but due to an inspection on base, they had to postpone the flight. He was most nervous about completing his 5 minutes of Air Refueling (AR), but he did great; although, I hear they were making fun of him for the amount of sweat he was producing after the AR track. And last week, he also did his M9 pistol training. He shot the M9 at Field Training in ROTC but other than, he only has gone shooting a couple times with friends who have guns (common down here). So he was happy when he came out of the class with an expert rating. He has two more flights in the program. He’ll be flying those 2 formation flights next week. One of the flights his crew will get to do a live bomb drop in Utah. This means he gets to drop “for-real” bombs. After that the class will prepare a real world exercise to fly in the simulators as a big final project. His graduation is set for February 5th. It’s not as big as the one at Sheppard, but I’m very proud of him. Check back here for pictures!

Christmas and Hanukkah was a fun time for us this year. I didn’t think about the fact that I hadn’t gotten more Hanukkah candles after last year, and so we didn’t have enough for all 8 nights. The South isn’t really big on having Hanukkah items for sale, so we kinda stretched the candles for Hanukkah this year. For Christmas we had the challenge of decorating our house with lights and all the goodies that we got last year after Mason’s assignment night. Unfortunately the lights didn’t work as well on the outside of the house as they did at Sheppard, because the gutters are too high since we’re in a double story house. We managed to get the house looking okay, and it wasn’t too hard. We bought our real 5 foot tree this year which we had fun decorating and lighting up when we were home. It also made for an exciting night with our firepit last week when it came time to get rid of the tree…

Mason and I were very lucky to get to go to Chicago for winter break again this year. We had a great time seeing family and friends, and eating great Chicago food. Mmmm…pizza, buffalo joes, and Thai, oh my. Although it did actually get quite cold in Louisiana, we were happy to go to Chicago to see the snow. Christmas isn’t Christmas without snow. Some of our trip highlights were obviously Christmas Eve and Christmas, seeing our high school friends, and going to the Lincoln Park zoo with our 3 nephews and Mason’s sister. Santa was very generous this year and filled our stocking with goodies. To go with our new Black Friday TV my parents got us a sweet sound system to rock out with. I got Mason a pull-up bar that attaches to the house, so he can get buff, and he had a sweet purse made for me. He took one of this flightsuits and turned it into a purse with patches and all. I think the best part of it was that he actually remembered that I wanted one (something I mentioned 2 years ago) and that he took the time to plan it all out.

We broke up the trip into two days each way. On the way to Chicago we stayed overnight in Champaign, which was pretty empty due to the holiday. Although we found a place that was open that had deep dish pizza, so it was well worth while. On the way home we stayed at Little Rock AFB. The base has C-130s, but not much else. The stay wasn’t quite as nice as other AFBs since they stuck us in one of the older needs-to-be-condemned buildings but it was better than driving all the way through.

Mason and I aren’t sure when we’ll get to go on vacation again, but we’re thinking that we are going to try to take a huge trip in the summer to a foreign location. We’ve been playing with the idea of China, Japan, or maybe Australia. I think at this point Japan is in the lead. Meanwhile we are enjoying the warmer weather (60-70s) in Louisiana. Mardi Gras is coming up and is HUGE down here. We got to try our first king cake. It’s essentially a sweet coffeecake-like cake with really sweet colored frosting. Inside there is a tiny baby and whoever gets it has to buy the next cake. Mason got the baby.

Since being home we have been trying to minimalize the stuff in our house, so Mason’s been selling our things on Craigslist left and right. And after we took down all the Christmas stuff, we also re-arranged our downstairs. We really feel like we have more space, which we’re excited about. It’s nice feeling like we have more space in rooms that are awkwardly shaped. We might decide to paint or add carpeting later, but for now we satisfied our extreme home makeover cravings. Since Mason got me the perfect Christmas gift I felt that I had to also get the perfect 25th birthday present for Mason. Some of you may not understand the awesomeness of this present, but with the help of a friend who lives in Canada; I was able to give Mason 6 bags of BBQ Doritos. Mason’s mentioned BBQ Doritos from the time I met him. They don’t make them in the US (not since the one time Mason had them on a vacation to Nawakwa 10 or so years ago), and so I was able to have them shipped. He loves them, but is struggling to make them last.
(New on the left, old on the right- that's Dr. Quinn on the tv by the way)

Despite the Doritos as a gift, we’re on a new workout regime and I’m trying to go the gym 21 days in a row. I’ve read that it takes 21 days to make a habit, so I want to get back into the workout swing of things. Currently I’m on day 6 of 21, and then I’ll take a day off and get into a regular pattern. At school we also started a Weight Watchers group. One of the teachers is a leader, so we began meetings after winter break. My goal is to lose 100 lbs, by my birthday next year. Whew, I think I can do it. Mason’s been really supportive and a gym rat with me, especially since he has to take his Air Force fitness test again before he graduates. Here’s to 2010!