Tough, Busy, and Some Fun Times

The training hasn't become easier with time, in fact it is just the opposite. However, there have been some high points in the last two weeks. Most all of my time is spent studying or spending time with my wife and son, hence the absence of a post last week. Not to mention, my mother was in town last week, so I didn't want to take my ten free minutes to update my blog. I know, I know I am a selfish person.

Candi and I enjoyed having my mother in town for a week, but we quickly got the impression that she was here to see her grandson more than us. It first became apparent when she got in at 1:00 AM and as soon as we pulled in the driveway, she ran out of the car, through the door, and into JJ's room. She then proceeded to rip him from his crib and deep sleep and parade around with him, while kissing him twenty times per second. Ok, I might be embellishing things a bit, but she did enjoy seeing her grandson.

We spent time seeing some of the sights around here, to include Tombstone. Tombstone was actually better than we thought and well worth the hour drive. JJ watched the reenactment at the OK Corral and didn't even cry during the shootout. I guess he is already desensitized to violence...which is probably due to his mother always yelling and breaking things. Tombstone was worth the time and turned out to be even bigger and more interesting than we had thought. It is weird to see placards all over that state someone was shot to death right where you were standing. Then you go to the old cemetery and find out they were shot for things, such as wearing an "ugly" shirt or for arguing about how to raise cattle or about how to water a horse. I am afraid I wouldn't have made it very long back in those days...or I would have learned to keep my mouth shut with my "smart" comments.

On the work side, I had the worst flight of my career, to which I was told to quit taking the weekends off and study and really got scolded for going to Tombstone. I rallied though with the next flight, in which I got to shoot the gun for the first time. Something about sitting on 12 foot barrels while they are turning to spray out 50-70 bullets a second, is a pretty cool thing. The GAU-8 shoots 30MM and here is a picture of the shell of these death pills.

I am studying more than ever and now don't even take the weekends off. Hopefully it will get easier, but I really don't think it will for a long time. Anyway, I continue to study and work 12 hours a day and get to see Candi and JJ very little. I know Candi isn't a big fan of it, but it can only last three more months. Free time is at a premium, which is why I haven't posted for awhile and this is a compilation of three days of trying. Anyway, back to studying, but if you want to see pictures of the cutest baby ever, with the best mom ever, go to Candi's website.

Oh, and the weirdest thing is that we got snow yesterday morning. It quickly melted with a 60 degree day and was totally forgotten with a 75 degree day today. Tomorrow is supposed to be over 80...go figure. Until then, see ya!

A Better Week

This was a better week and on top of it all, we had heat and water. We actually had lots of heat, since we have been in the 80s the past few days. I had two flights this past week, along with academics. They were good flights and I had a lot of fun. We are in the air-to-air phase, which means we are "dog fighting" for lack of a better term. The Hawg isn't made for that, so it only lasts a few flights and then we are on to what the Hawg is good at...bombing and shooting stuff on the ground. I have one last air-to-air flight on Tuesday and will be "jumped" by bandits and have to fight two-on-one. Should be interesting!

We really enjoyed having my dad and step-mother here last weekend and now we are looking forward to my mother arriving at the end of this week. We are hoping she will want to spend some quality time with Jarrett because we could use a little time to ourselves. Candi made an early Valentine's Day dinner (since I will have to be at work at 4:30am on Tuesday) so we could enjoy each other's company. It was great, but it did involve me taking JJ into his room to muffle his screaming. Candi's romantic dinner was more of a hurry and scarf down your food so we can get the baby to quit screaming. It is still a bit hard for us to get used to, but we have found that you can't take the little things for granted. Little things like time together or only wearing one shirt a day. Candi and I have found we are wearing a lot of shirts per day the last few days; JJ likes to give back his meals.

Anyway, I need to get back to studying, which seems to be all I do. Here are a few pictures that Candi has posted on the website. Be sure to check out the rest at www.picasaweb.google.com/candijeremyp.

Great and Horrible Week

First things first, I am an initial/instrument qualified A-10c pilot. God really helped me pull it all together and I had a good checkride. I got a downgrade for one thing, but I still got my qualification. On top of that, on Friday, I got to do this!

Air to air refueling is crazy. Imagine all of your life being told not to run into another plane and then the same people telling you to go ahead and run into another plane...only softly. It was capped off by raging around the Mexican boarder at 500 feet. They introduced low altitude operations to us and it is where we will spend the rest of our lives....AND IT WAS AWESOME. Thanks to all for the prayers and support during that very stressful time. I am sure it won't be the last, but now we are on to the next challenge.

So that was the flying part, now of the interesting stuff. It got cold here. Second coldest ever on record and coldest since 1910. People and things here aren't used to the cold, hence the reason why everyone had frozen pipes and the city streets looked like a water park with geysers every 1/2 mile. The city's water department was not exempt and most of Tucson was without water for multiple days. To make matters better, the Southwest Gas Company had a break in a main gas line and we were without gas for a few days. When natural gas powers your heat and hot water heater, the absence of them makes you find a hotel room.

Fortunately, our gas was fixed late Friday night, so our guests (my dad and step mother) didn't have to join us in a hotel room. It has been nice to have them here and they gave us a treat that made all the week's experiences seem ok...they baby sat so Candi and I could have a night out together, without eating in shifts. Ok, so maybe a night out is overstating, but we had two and a half hours to ourselves. Of course, you know how fatherly I am, I kept calling every fifteen minutes to see how the little one was doing.

Candi is doing well and continues to work from home when she can. She has found that she needs someone besides an 11 week old to talk to and since I tell her "be quite so I can study" all the time, she has been relying on the other wives. She really enjoys their company and probably prefers them over me now, since some of them even cook for her/us.

Jarret is doing well and likes the fact that our visitors spoil him. I think the biggest benefit to having a baby was being able to see our family more often. They actually come visit us with JJ around. I think a baby is very similar to a family reunion, except you can say you will be out of town when the weird ones want to see you. Well, I better get back to being a good host and making sure they are getting the vacuuming done.