1 week till I have my wings!

This week I spent a bunch of time filling out a lot of required pre-deployment paperwork.  There is only so much I can do at this point because I have no dates yet.  This Wednesday I should get my dates in so then Kristen and I can find out when we'll be moving and when I'll be deploying.  From previous experience (others who have received similar planes as me) I'll be getting out of Del Rio fairly quickly doing all of my "spin up" training for the deployment.

This week Kristen worked four days!  She got a little sick I think because she was around a bunch of kids.  You would think that we/she would take it easy this weekend but we couldn't....it was a "mandatory fun day" here at Laughlin. Haha.

This weekend our base had an MWS (Major Weapons System) day, which is basically like a career day in the Air Force.  We had over four hours of mandatory briefings on Saturday morning and then we walked outside to see a bunch of different airplanes and talk to the pilots to help us decide what planes we would like to put on our dream sheet.  Funny thing is  that I already filled out my dream sheet a few weeks ago and I got my plane a week ago. But such is life.  Mandatory briefing on a Saturday is a mandatory briefing on a Saturday.  So I went.  Kristen met me outside once the briefings were over with and we walked around all the planes.  Kristen went with me last year to the briefings part, because wives were invited which is very cool, but she elected not to go this year since we already know what planes I'll be flying.  Oh, and both of the planes that I'll be flying were not there.  Oh well.

Later in the day yesterday we went to OG-toberfest.  Which is a spin off of Octoberfest thrown by the Ops Group (OG) commander.  We went last year and we had so much fun with our class so it was nice to be there again with my class again this year.  Especially since we're all done with flying and we're all just waiting for our wings.  So the pressure is off for a while and we can all just relax and have fun.

This week I don't have to much going on in for the first part of the week.  I'll go in tomorrow and close out my gradebook.  They say that you don't graduate pilot training..., your grade book does.  So I gotta make sure that is all straight.  Then I don't have to much else to do until family starts getting in on Tuesday for the graduation on Friday.  I'm so excited that I have so many people coming to the graduation all the way over here in Del Rio.  It makes us feel loved.  Awesome!

Being in the military is awesome so far!  I think that my ROTC commander prepared us well for the challenges of UPT and my upcoming move and deployment.  I know that having this kind of job will and has forced me to miss some things in life.  I don't have a 9-5 Monday through Friday gig.  I have a 24/7 kind of gig.  Most times I'll have weekends and holidays off and sometimes I won't.  I am very appreciative to have a wife that knows my obligation and commitment to my job.  She is very supportive and understanding.  I pray that my family and friends will do the same with upcoming and future events.  This weekend I missed a good friends pre-wedding party, Kristin and Murph back in New Orleans. I want to give them a shout out on the blog here and hope that the party was a great success last night.  We'll see if my deployment dates will "mess up" me attending their wedding in a few days (Wednesday).