For those of you who don't know, today is a very big and exciting day for Rick and I. Tonight is what is called "Drop Night" or "Assigment Night" which is when Rick and I will find out the plane Rick will fly and the base we will live at for at least the next 4 years. As I'm sure you can imagine, this makes us insanely excited and anxious! A week or two ago we got Rick's dream sheet which listed all of the different base/plane combinations that we could possibly be assigned. We had been stressing out about what this list would look like pretty much since Rick started T-1's. Will the list be filled with bad bases and planes? Will the planes that Rick wants be on the list? etc. Luckily for us, we got arguably the best list yet this fiscal year! There is no "terrible plane" on the list that Rick would be devastated to fly. Actually, there were a lot of really cool planes that don't always show up on the lists. It was our job to rank every single option from our most to least desirable combination. Check out our dream sheet!:
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| This is before we filled in the left side with our preferences! |
Ultimately, Rick and everybody else in his flight have been ranked best to worst pilot based on academics, flying tests, daily ride scores, and commander's ranking. This ranking as well as their dream sheet are submitted to the instructor pilots whom ultimately make the decision of which plane and base we will get. The past few weeks have been awful with all of the jokes and teasing. Many of us are very worried about FAIPing (First Assignment Instructor Pilot) which means that you stay at Laughlin AFB for another 4 years and teach the future generations of pilots how to fly. Of course, this wouldn't be the end of the world, but most of us have enjoyed our time here in Del Rio and are ready to experience a new location.
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| Rick finished flying for undergraduate pilot training! |
Rick and I cannot wait any longer to find out what the next four years of our lives will look like. After today, then we will look forward to Rick's Graduation which is when he will get his wings and become an official Air Force Pilot. Soon after that Rick will go to SERE which is survival and resistance training in Washington state. Once he returns from SERE we will probably temporarily move to his plane's school house, which is the location where everybody is trained up on the specific plane. Then, we will finally move to our next base. 2014 is going to be nuts for us, and it all starts today.
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| We are afraid of the future! |
For those of you whom don't know, I was able to teach at Del Rio High School for the first semester, but then had to give my notice because of our upcoming departure from Del Rio. I have so much respect for all of the teachers out there after this experience. To sum up teaching: you know you are a high school teacher when you care more about how your students do than they do, you are a professional who is treated like a child by administration, and you can never stop working in order to stay up to date with grading, posting the grades online, making copies, making lesson plans, etc. In the end, I met some really great teachers, and I had so many great students but I am not interested in teaching high school math again! Here are some pictures of my classroom:
Teaching at the high school level takes the right type of person, and it definitely isn't for me. It has made me so determined to find another engineering job at our next base. Take a look at some of the little surprises my sweet students have left me throughout the semester:
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| Ok so this wasn't sweet, this was just weird! |
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| Two of my students cooked me this traditional Mexican meal in culinary class because they didn't want me to leave without trying it. |
For our last few months here I will be volunteering my engineering services at the Civil Engineering Squadron on base in the hopes for some insight on how it is to work as an engineer at an Air Force Base, as well as some recommendations. We will see how it goes!
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| Sorry, just a cute picture of our napping dogs. |
Other than that, we were lucky enough to have my brother out for a visit earlier this month. He is actually heading off to Basic Training right now for the Army National Guard for the next few months. We were so happy that he got a chance to visit us at Laughlin AFB, because by the time he finishes Basic Training, we will hopefully be moved out of here! Here are some pictures from Steven's visit:
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| Iww, they shot a duck. |
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| Cleaning up the duck so they can cook it and feed it to the dogs. |
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| Playing fetch at the dog park! |
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| We met up with Uncle Larry and Aunt Judy in Fredericksburg! |
And here are some other photos I would like to share:
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| Rick was in a friend's wedding! |
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| Us and the Warfields! Gotta love Jeremy's mustache! |
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| Watching Ohio State football with the Warfields. |
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| Leche in her football outfit. |
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| Gotta love them cuddling in their kennel! |
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| Waiting for us to drop food while cooking. |
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| Leche looking cute in her sweater. |
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| And Dulce in her sweater. |
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| Do I have too many pictures of Leche? |
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| Probably. |
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| Rick and I at the Student Squadron Holiday Party. |
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| Rick and I at an ugly sweater party! |
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| I got to meet up with Anastasia and Tracey during Christmas break! |
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| Rick and I at a friend's wedding in Phoenix. |
Ok, I just looked at the clock and I don't even think that time is passing. Could 7:00 PM come any slower? Gahh! Be looking forward to our drop night photos sometime next week. Eek! I can't wait to find out where we are headed!
