1st Year Anniversary!

I can't believe it's already been this long! Time sure has flown by with lots of ups and downs, but at least I have the best partner along for the ride with me! Due to the timing of Memorial Weekend and our anniversary, and my EMT class, we had to do a bit of re-arranging on our celebrating. The only "convenient" time I could do my last 2 ambulance shifts were on our actual anniversary weekend. I was so devastated and actually cried for a while about it! But, Stephen had a 4-day weekend for Memorial Day, so I took a day off work so we could celebrate our anniversary a week early, and actually have time to go somewhere and do something fun! So off to San Antonio we went!

We left Stitch with some friends on base, who have 3 young kids who love her! I did cry as we drove away. We've never left our little girl behind! By the time we drove a few houses down the road, I was over it. Aubri promised to send texts and picture updates throughout the weekend! Those were always nice to get! We headed to San Antonio, reading The Hobbit along the way. We arrived at our bed and breakfast a little before 3. It's in the King Williams District downtown, so there are huge, beautiful, historic homes all around. It was very pretty!

We hurried and got changed to go to the temple. Unfortunately, we missed that session, so decided to wait there and do some other temple work and go to the next session, which we also almost missed! But it was amazing! It was so nice to feel the peace and calm there! We certainly wish we lived closer to it so we could attend more frequently!

After the temple, we went to Red Robin, yum! And, well, that was very yummy! We used to go to Red Robin a lot in Colorado Springs, and so it's been a restaurant that we've also missed having around! We went back to the bed and breakfast to get changed again and walked up to the River Walk along the San Antonio River. The river was very peaceful with the crickets and birds. Then it started getting more crowded as we got to the popular part of the River Walk. We walked the full circle just looking at all the people, listening to the music, browsing the stores, and smelling the food. We did end up getting some famous Blue Bell ice cream banana split at a shop to share! It was very good! It made me crave ice cream for the rest of the trip!

The next morning, we had breakfast with the other guests. It also was very good! We got ready for our day and headed out. We walked around the King William District for about an hour, looking at the different houses. We came up with what we want our house to look like if we ever have that much money! We then headed back to the river, where we had a kayak tour planned! We paddled around for about 2 hours. It was a lot of fun! We saw a lot of water snakes, and ducks with ducklings! They were so cute! We had a blast doing that, and hope that we can go on another paddling trip, though maybe to Big Bend and add some camping to the mix!

       

 










After kayaking, we headed up north to an African safari wild animal ranch. When we were about 5 minutes away, it started down-pouring rain. We pulled over and waited for a bit, and it just kept getting worse. Dang. We decided to scratch that idea and do something else...shopping. Stephen's favorite thing! Honest. We found a big mall and got out and walked around. I would just follow Stephen, and he'd give me the clothes he wanted me to try on! I ended up getting 2 shirts and some cute pajamas/lounging around the house clothes. Stephen got 2 outfits, and he looks really good in them! Once I finally convinced him to leave the mall, we headed back to the bed and breakfast and got ready for a fancy dinner.

We went to La Foccacia, an Italian restaurant downtown. It was very cute, and the food was amazing! We got calamari appetizers, and I actually had a hard time eating it because it was still the shape of the squid...I mean, we pulled some of the breading off and there was a full squid sitting on my plate! I ordered a filet mignon, which was amazing! One of the juiciest and flavorful-est I've ever had! Stephen got a salmon stake which he enjoyed very much! Then we shared a crème brûlée for desert.

The next day, we went downtown again, this time to the Alamo. I've never been there, but it was pretty cool, a lot smaller than I thought it would be. After walking around there for a bit, we headed over to La Villita, a market place, with tons of little stores. Unfortunately there was a HazMat incident going on, so only 2 stores were open!



   

After that, we went to the Tower of the Americas. It has a big circle observation area thing about 800 feet up. And that's where we ended up having lunch, 800 feet above San Antonio! It slowly rotates giving a 360* view without having to move! Lunch was amazingly delicious! We got a shrimp and crab fondu for an appetizer, then I had chicken francese and Stephen had a rib eye steak. I've never eaten food that good before! I'm sure it's the most fancy food I've ever had!

 


     

Once we made it back to our car, we drove up to the African Safari, since the weather was better. It's a drive-thru attraction. They give you food for you to give the animals, and you feed them out your car window, from  your hand! We saw a ton of different animals, and it was pretty cool!

 
 
 

On the way home, it started to rain really hard again, tons of lightning, and a tornado watch. But, we made it! Stitch was semi-excited to see us. She had a great time with the Yoder's and was sure going to miss playing with the kids all day! Monday, we just hung out at home, Stephen made me breakfast in bed, and we played games and read a book together.  It was such a fun weekend!

On our actual anniversary, we went up to San Antonio Friday night so I could be well rested to start my 2nd to last ambulance shift at 0645 Saturday. Once I was done for the day, we went to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner, Olive Garden! The next day, my crew let me off early once I finished all the requirements. We went to La Madeleine, a french cafe that reminded us a lot of our travels in Europe. We then were able to go home earlier than expected, and got to indulge in the top tier of our wedding cake!

Jessie's EMT Week

I have finally finished the academic portion of my EMT class! Since it's online, I actually have to read the textbook! :( Let me just say, it's over 1600 pages of material I need to know...not including the index or appendix or glossary or anything else, just the chapters I had to read.

It was broken into 40 chapters and different sections. There was the introduction section, human body (anatomy and physiology) and development section, basic EMT stuff (CPR, maintaining airways, treating for shock, patient assessments, etc), medical emergencies, trauma emergencies, special populations (pregnant and neonatal care, pediatrics, geriatrics, patients with special challenges), and the last section is something like EMT duties (lifting and moving patients, transport, vehicle extraction, special rescue, incident and disaster management, terrorism response, and ALS assistance).  It was normally pretty interesting, and I was able to do pretty well on the tests.

The next part of the class was to do the skills review. I went to El Paso to do this, since that's where the Training Academy is located. They just need to make sure that I actually know what I'm doing, and pass me off to perform the specific EMT duties.

It was a little scary driving over there to El Paso. It's about a 7 hour drive, and that's the longest I've ever driven by myself. The entire drive is along the boarder of Mexico, and the northern states of Mexico have been pretty violent. Stephen made sure I took my gun and it was loaded, just to be safe and make sure that if I broke down on the road, I'd be able to protect myself. I think that freaked me out even more!  Well, I made it safe and sound to El Paso. The program director, Lisa, is very motherly and protective, so she was constantly checking up on me to make sure I was making it back to my hotel safely. I also ended up on a few downtown tours of El Paso, and almost ended up in Mexico since I didn't have a map or GPS, and was just trying to remember where I'm supposed to go.

My first 2 days in El Paso was doing the skills review. This took place in their office downtown where they have all their equipment, a manikin, and a stretcher. Lucky for me, I was the only real student. They were training one of their advanced students to be an instructor, so the real instructor was teaching the student instructor how to teach me. It actually worked out pretty well because I felt like I didn't really have a lot to learn, more just see how to do it, and then do it. It all came pretty easy for me; most of it's common sense, and the rest is thanks to SABC (self aide and buddy care) with the Air Force. My instructor was very impressed with my skills and wants me to take the advanced course.  So, they tell us to plan on it taking 2-3 days to complete the skills review, but we finished in about a day and a half. As we left the office for the last time, my instructor told me I'm a natural, and if something happened to him, he would be more than fine for me to be his EMT.



After the skills review, I have to complete 24 hours of clinical rotations in the ER and see at least 9 patients. The ER there is a free-standing ER that's not attached to a hospital, so they don't see the gunshot wounds or unconscious people, but the people who are still sick and need to see the doctor, kinda like urgent care. My first 12 hour shift, we only saw 1 patient who had been in a car accident. Just 1. Since I have to see 9 patients, I decided to stay a few hours late since more people tend to come in the evenings. Lowe and behold, I stayed for 5 more hours and saw 4 more patients. It was really cool and fun to go in and out of all the rooms, checking up on people, watch IVs, assist with an EKG, give the reports to the nurse, etc. I had a really good time with it.

So after that 17 hour shift, I went back to my hotel and slept for a bit, then woke up and was back in the ER 9 hours later, for a 10 hour shift. Unlike my first day shift, this time we saw 7 patients, which kept us busy. The doctor who was there was also very helpful and would let me assist and see different things that I normally wouldn't have had the opportunity to. I got to assist with an abscess removal, and wow. I actually left the room to go sit down before I'd pass out! I went back in a minute later and was good to go from there! The doctor said I should've just sat down next to the patient so I could continue watching! haha yeah right! After that shift, I'd been in the ER for more time than is required, and had seen the proper number of patients.

The next two days I spent on the ambulance. The first day was again, slow. We had 2 patients in 10 hours. Also, the ambulance company I was riding with is mostly a transport company, so they take people from the hospital to another hospital or nursing home or some other similar facility. Most of our patients were older and had a lot of medical problems. My second shift was a lot more fun. I had a fun crew and we were all girls and the same age, and we were also the only ambulance from this company for the whole day. We ended up with 9 patients in that 12 hours! Some mentionable patients include the lady who was schizophrenic, a morbidly obese patient (who was almost dropped when we tried to lift her), and a possible stroke patient. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it!

Then I was back on my way to Del Rio. All that's left is finishing up my last 2 shifts on the ambulance, and taking the final exam! I can't believe I'm almost done with my EMT certification!

Stephen's First T-6 Solo!

Stephen's version:

So pilot training started just over 2 months ago.  I've really enjoyed it.  The first 3 weeks was academics and that wasn't too bad.  Then we hit the flightline.  We work consistent 12 hour days and we normally have a flight or simulator every day.  The first 12 flights are just basic rides practicing aircraft control, simple turns, learning departure and arrival procedures to our runway, how to land safely, etc.  The days can be long, and tiring, but you get to fly a jet (almost) everyday, so I definitely can't complain.  It's been sad not seeing jessie as much, but we knew this is how it was going to be.  And everyone says that this first year of pilot training is the toughest.
Well at the end of those first 12 rides we get an opportunity to solo the jet.  And today was my day.  You go up with an instructor (IP) and fly a couple of patterns to make sure that your patterns and landings are safe and then you land, the IP gets out, and then you start up the plane by yourself and get to fly for abut 30-40min.
I remember everytime I've ever soloed an airplane.  My first was a glider in fall of '08 at the Academy.  I was scared out of my mind.  Next, was the DA-20 at IFS in October of '13.  I was nervous, but excited.  Then there was this one.
First off, I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised when one of my buddies showed up with Jessie at the side of my jet before I started it up.  That was so great getting to see Jessie before I took off!  I love you, hon.
The T-6 is a $5M, 1,100 horsepower turboprop jet aircraft.  So SIGNIFICANTLY more powerful than anything I'd ever flown before.  For a reference, we fly around the pattern at 230mph, and land at 100mph.  I taxied out to the end of the runway, got clearance to takeoff, and did so.  As I was climbing away from the runway, I just yelled out "heck ya!!! in excitement.  It was awesome!  Then I remembered I still had my gear hanging, so I cleaned up really quick before I oversped the gear and made my first solo in the T-6 really short.
I flew a few patterns and just had a blast.
My final landing that day, is, to this day, my best landing ever.  That self-preservation instinct kicks in and it really helps out.
After I landed Jessie and a couple of my friends met me at the jet again.  This time to make sure that I got dunked, as per tradition.  I didn't really put up I fight.  I was still on cloud nine.  I got thrown in and gave Jessie and big wet hug, and even the stinky, cold water couldn't dampen my mood.  It was a great day!

Jessie's version:

I had pre-arranged with my boss to take a slightly longer lunch today so I could go watch Stephen solo. He was alright with it as long as I make up the missed time later this afternoon. I was actually getting kinda nervous about it! It's super exciting but gosh, I sure hope he wasn't going to crash or have some sort of malfunction! Then I'd have to run out onto the flightline and EMT him!

I went and picked up Subway for him for lunch, and then headed to base. I got to the predetermined location (that Stephen gave me in coordinates) and only had to wait a little bit before meeting up with some members of his flight. We waited around for a bit and then saw him taxi back to his spot. We went up to his plane, but instead of just finishing his solo flight, he was actually just about to start it! This was going to make my lunch break much longer if I were to stay, and I told him I probably wouldn't be able to. I kissed him good bye and good luck , gave him a salute, and off he went!

I talked to my boss and ended up staying, though he didn't know that! I hung out with some members of his flight and listened to them talk about pilot training and the different people in their flight and stuff, but we all kept looking and watching for a red tail to taxi by with no IP in the back seat.

Finally after about 40 minutes, we saw a red tailed T-6 go by with no IP. We walked out to their parking area, and looked around and couldn't find him! Turns out it was a different guy! We waited a bit more and he finally came back.

I was so proud of him! Especially since I didn't have to go all medical crazy on him! Let me just say, Stephen in a g-suit, hot and sweaty, and all military, walking around the plane doing a checklist and stuff is super sexy!  He got thrown in the dunk tank, and that water is NASTY! So gross! He walked back into his flight room, still dripping wet to go do his debrief. :)

Nasty Water!

Don't touch me!!!

Stephen Starts Pilot Training

Well, Stephen started pilot training about 2 months ago. I was really hoping that he would be willing to write a few paragraphs about pilot training, but I can tell you that blogging is very low on his priority list!

Stephen's pubs

After being washed back a few classes, Stephen finally started academics mid-February. Academics are about 6 weeks long. They have to study all about the systems in the aircraft, about how flying impacts the physiological aspects of the body, survival, and other stuff. Many people call it "slack-ademics" because there isn't a ton that has to be learned immediately, so the tests are also easier. They haven't gotten the full fire-hose of UPT quite yet.



The good thing about this was I was starting my EMT class that exact week, so we were both hitting the books. Even though this was the "easy" part of pilot training and he didn't have as much to learn/prep every night as he does now, he still spent hours studying extra material to get ahead. Whenever I would finish my chapter for the night, that's when he would stop his extra studying. It worked out really well!

By the time they hit the flight line on March 31st, he was already way ahead in his studying and was able to start concentrating more on preparing for his flights and chair-flying. He has been doing an amazing job! He has gotten multiple comments from his instructors about how well he flies and his natural abilities. The only bad thing for him with flying is he's having some airsickness problems, but he's working them out and learning how to deal with it!

Stephen's ultimate goal for pilot training is to be able to fly the B-1. That's what he's wanted to fly since he was about 10 years old. Though, the more we learn about other aircrafts, they cooler they sound. I feel like we knew a decent amount about fighters and bombers before starting pilot training. But, having talked to more people who fly "heavies", we aren't exactly sure now what we want to fly in the end. One of the "heavies" Stephen is thinking about flying is the C-130. It was originally designed as a transport aircraft, but also is used in search and rescue, airborne assault, reconnaissance, refueling, and firefighting. That's a pretty cool mission!

In about 4-5 months they will be done flying their current aircraft, the T-6. They have what's called Track, where between 3-6 of them will get to fly T-38s and the rest fly T-1s. The T-38 prepares them to fly fighters and bombers. It's highly competitive, but once in the T-38 program, it should be relatively easy to get to fly bombers once finished! The T-1 will lead to the heavy airframes. Obviously we'll have to wait and see how Stephen continues to do in pilot training and what he tracks, and then we'll decide more about what airplane to fly!

Jessie going back to school!

Well, I saw on facebook one of the other wives down here at Laughlin posted about a scholarship that's available to military wives whose husbands are considered "of low rank" (such as lieutenants!). It will provide up to $4000 towards an education/license/certification in a portable and high demand career field. Since I already have my bachelors in Geography, if I was accepted, I could go back to school and study another topic that I'm somewhat interested in.

The main issue with living in Del Rio is the location. It's far away from anything, especially any type of quality school. So, with a little research, I found an online school that accepts this scholarship and every program is scholarship qualified. I looked into the different programs, more focused on the medical field. They had things like lab technician, pharmacy tech, billings clerk, admin, etc. I had decided on pharmacy tech because it would be useful knowledge to have even if I never do it for a job.

I started the scholarship application process and got signed up on the website. There, they had a master list of all the career fields that they deem to be needed and mobile, along with all of the programs accepted, and at what schools. I saw on the career list that they had EMT/Paramedic! I have been seriously looking into an EMT program for the past 18 months or so and had even done the prerequisites in Colorado already. I was going to do one program here in Texas, but the distance was going to be the issue, along with the clinical/ambulance rotations, so I never did it.

I looked into the accepted EMT programs and found an online one based out of Texas! I contacted them immediately, completed the scholarship application, and got it all approved in the course of 2 days! So, the academic portion of the course is online, then I have to travel to either El Paso, or Austin for a skills review, and then we'll have to figure out if I can to the ER and ambulance rotations here in Del Rio. The school said they will try to work with me. But they're pretty sure at the very least, they could get something out of San Antonio, which would also be good.

I'm super excited about this opportunity to go back to school and continue learning a new topic that I'm interested in! It's going to be crazy though having to remember how to study and manage time and do tests again! But the timing couldn't be better...by the time I got my textbooks and all registered for my class, Stephen finally started pilot training! Now we're study buddies!

The Twinners

Well, it didn't take long for us to decide it was time to get another pet. Even though we're still mourning the loss of Shadow and Nikki, we decided that we needed to fill that void. We waited at least 2 days before we headed to the pound to adopt the next member of our family. I went there during the day before Stephen was off work, and found 6 that I wanted! I was able to narrow it down to about 4 or 5 before Stephen got there. Unfortunately, he had a hard time picking as well! In the end, we settled on 2 that had caught our eye. They were both female 6 month old puppies, who had been picked up together, and there was no way that we could split them up!

We ended up bringing home Lilo and Stitch! We really don't know their stories, but based on behavior, Stitch seems to be the one who was in charge of their little pack and probably without a home longer, and Lilo seems to have come from an abusive home because she is super skittish and submissive. They are super close and take care of each other.

We got a web cam hooked up so we can watch them playing outside in their pen. It's super cute to see what they're up to! At one point, they were fighting over the dog bed. Lilo was on the bed and Stitch wanted the bed, so Stitch ended up pulling the bed across the pen with Lilo still on it! And let me just say, Lilo weighs over 30 pounds! Once it was where Stitch wanted it, Lilo took a nap, while Stitch stood as guard, and then after a while they switched.

We got some pretty bad news when we took them to the vet. They both had a ton of worms, and all types of worms, Lilo having it much worse. The vet's fear with Lilo was that the worms might have already gotten into her blood stream and to her heart, which is fatal, but only time would tell.  Both puppies also were covered in ticks when we picked them up. Not just little ticks, but adult ticks that were huge and green. So gross! They didn't check for any tick diseases though because they normally wouldn't start showing up on puppies this young. It also appeared that Stitch was hit by a car: her pelvis is broken in 2 spots, she has broken ribs, and some blood in her bladder.  They are going to need a lot of love and care!

Unfortunately, about a week after taking them to the vet, Lilo passed away. We were once again super sad, and sorta freaking out. We took Stitch into the vet to get checked and have them run some additional tests. We convinced them to check for tick diseases, and of the 3 fatal ones, she has 2. She immediately started an intense antibiotic treatment.

A few days later, Stephen had decided to bring Stitch to the park for lunch. We notices that she was super pale. Her mouth was completely white and she couldn't hold herself up. We immediately took her to the vet. Her platelet levels were practically non-existent. They immediately started treating her, gave her a blood transfusion and ended up keeping her for a couple days. They said that if we would've waited even 1 hour more before bringing her in, she would've died. But, she pulled through with a strong will and desire to live! She is back at home with us and has made us feel like a family again!