Weeks 12 & 13

Week 12

I have not written for a while and ironically there is not that much to talk about. Christmas was awesome and was a well needed break from Texas for all of us. As you all know we decided last minute to drive back to Utah and surprise everyone. We left Friday the 22nd in the morning at about 4:15. It worked out great and the girls were excellent for the 19 hour drive, which we decided to do straight through. We arrived in Utah that night at about 10:30, Utah time. The look on my dad’s face was priceless as he opened the door and saw us standing there. The next day we surprised the Rudd’s at their family Christmas party, it was great hearing Diane scream and seeing Paul cry, big surprise there. We all had a great time in Utah and enjoyed spending it with our family. We also got the chance to catch up on some movies as well as catch up on some good restaurants. The drive back to Texas was quite a bit more interesting. It was fine until we hit Alberquerque (however you spell that) which was hammered by snow (it looked like Denver) and we could barely see through the fog. So we decided to stay overnight and hope things were better in the morning. We woke up and went to the continental breakfast and watched the news which said that the freeways we needed to take were closed. However, I had to get back because of work so we decided to leave quickly and hope for the best. The traffic was horrible but luckily right as we were about to turn onto the freeway it opened up, although it looked more like a snowway (ha ha ha). Once we got out of New Mexico the weather turned good again and the temperature grew much better.
At work it was a short week, but we still managed to take 3 tests, 3 SIM’s and 2 flights. Oh well, that’s my life. Everything went well so I am fine with it.

Week 13

This week started out pretty cool for me…literally. Monday we had off for the holiday and that night the big ice storm rolled into town. Of course Texas freaked out about it and to my advantage class was cancelled the next two days. Which was fine because we would not have flown in that kind of weather anyway. So, it turned out to be a two day week. However, I still managed to take two tests, four navigation SIMS, and work nearly 30 hours. Next week should bring a lot of stress as well. They just came out with a new boldface and opslimits that we have to memorize by Monday and I am hopefully going to have my final-contact check ride. Also, I am scheduled to go cross country during the weekend. We are planning on going to Fort Worth and check out the plant where they build the F-22 and F-35, so that should be cool.