New Uniform

I just received my new flight suit. (well, new to me, not new though).  Since I am now a senior, and have a rated slot I was issued a flight suit for my new uniform.  A few weeks ago I flew to Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio for a Class I flight physical.  They ran so many tests.  The testing lasted 8 hours a day for 3 days.  They did chest x-rays, dental exam, dental x-rays, EKG's, color blind test, depth perception test, hearing test, a 4 hour psych evaluation, urine and blood test, a ton of eye tests, etc.  Luckily the Department Of Defense paid for my ticket, but I got over 5,000 sky miles.  I was extremely nervous to go to the flight physical cause thats where a lot of people get disqualified.  It can take up to 8 weeks to hear back the official word if I passed or not, but the doctor said not to worry about anything.  They have to send all the results to Head Quarters, and Head Quarters has the official say wether I pass or not, but I unofficially passed.  Now I just have to hope that enough people didn't pass and I get bumped up to a pilot spot.  My commander is thinking that I will find out in the next month or two if I get bumped to pilot, however it could happen any day until I graduate in April.

Here is me in my flight suit.  Currently I am on track to become a Combat Systems Officer (CSO).  This Job replaced Navigator, but they do so much more than navigate.  The flight suit is so comfortable, and I will get to wear one wether I'm a pilot or CSO.  The only place they train CSO's is in Pensacola, FL.  We have been looking a lot online about Pensacola, and the more I learn about CSO's, the more I have decided that I won't be too disappointed if I don't get bumped to pilot, however I still really want to fly.  If I get bumped to Pilot I will go to training in either Florida, Mississippi, Texas, or Oklahoma.  I'll keep you posted.

Bi-Annual Review

I am horrible at updating this blog, and its been a long time.  In fact, last post I made the spring semester was almost over, and not the fall semester is about to start. Yikes, where did the summer go?

This summer I have been working like Crazy washing windows all day, losing weight by swimming and running a ton, and seems like thats about it.

I've been camping a few times this summer, but I couldn't go as much as I wanted because up until mid July there was still snow in the mountains.

On June 4th, 11 of my friends and I did the "Dirty Dash."  It is a 5k race at Soldier Hollow.  It was fun.  The entire race was through the mud, and a bunch of obstacles.  By the end everybody was way muddy.  we were able to get a group picture.

As part of our multiple hiking/camping trips, Amanda and I hiked up to some hot springs in diamond fork Canyon.  It was 3 miles up, and was way fun.

We have had a lot of fun adventures with our dog.  In this picture, We were able to crawl back behind the waterfall.  It was pretty neat.

Another trip I went on was hiking King's Peak, the tallest mountain in Utah.  It is 13,528 ft.  Me, Apollo, and 3 other friends hiked up 8 miles to the base camp at Dollar lake.

This was our view of Dollar lake right outside of our tent.  It was awesome up there.  Very beautiful.  On tuesday we hiked up to the summit.  It was 16 miles round trip from our base camp to the summit.  Very difficult at times.  Apollo made it the entire way up, I was very impressed.  The last mile is very steep, and you have to jump from boulder to boulder, but he made it up like a champ.  Everybody that saw him going up and down were very impressed he had made it.

One more adventure we had was hiking up to the Timpanogos Cave.  It was more of a hike than anticipated, but after doing kings peak it wasn't too bad.  The cave was pretty cool.

All in all, the summer has gone by way too fast, but it has been a good one.  I wanted to do a lot of fun things this summer, since it is my last here in Utah.  I love the outdoors, and I will definitely miss that about this state.

catching up

I know, I know.  Its  been nearly 6 months since I've written anything.  Deal with it.  I will try and remember all the things that have happened since then.

Thanks giving
Christmas
New Years
Valentines day

Which brings us up to our move at the end of february.  Our old place was getting WAY too expensive with utilities.  Our Gas bill alone for january was $190, Electric was $160, then internet, water, trash, etc.  It was ridiculous.  So we started looking around at new places and found a 3 bedroom (legally its only a 2 bedroom cause the windows in the third are too small to be called a bedroom, but its big) for more than $100 a month less in rent, and a ton less in utilites.  We just got our first set of bills for our new place.  $50 for Electric and $25 for gas!  Wow, what a huge difference.  We are happy with our move.  We just had a bunch of friends from the ROTC come help and got us all moved in in just a few hours.  But first we had to paint the new place cause it needed it desperately.  It was a pain, but it looks 100% better with new paint.   So Amanda has had fun decorating, etc.

I also found out about my pilot slot.  I didn't get it :( However, I did get a navigator slot (now they call them a Combat Systems Officer cause they do a whole lot more than just navigate).  Also, I am on a very small alternate list for pilot, so as people get medically disqualified I get bumped up to pilot.  From what everyone tells me its about a 90% chance I will get bumped to pilot.  Even if I don't, I'm excited to be a CSO.  It seems like a pretty cool job.  Don't get me wrong, I'd rather be a pilot, but if that doesn't work out I won't be too dissapointed.  Also, with a CSO/Pilot slot comes a top secret clearance.  So they have been investigating me and going around talking to everyone I know.  So you might get a visit from a federal investigator.

With our new apartment we are able to have a dog.  So we got one.  It has been really fun.

His name is Apollo (after Apollo Creed from the Rocky Movies).  He is 7 months old now (he was six when we got him) and is a boxador (boxer/lab mix).  He's very loyal and an awesome dog.  He loves being around people.  We have him potty trained now and things are going great.

To wrap things up, I got a job a few weeks ago washing windows again for a company called Alpine window washing.  They set up all the appointments and do everything, all I have to do is wash.  Its pretty nice, and they pay pretty good.  Its all according to how fast I wash, but so far I've been averaging about $15-$20 an hour.  I mostly just got a job to pay off the loan on my truck.  Also, today I received a half tuition scholarship for next fall/winter semesters.  That will be very helpful because I don't qualify for any grants this year.

And thats our life in a nut shell.