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!