Tagged....sordof

Marni said she was tagging anyone so I guess I qualify in that.

10 YEARS AGO.....

I was a young wipper-snapper of 20. I was serving a mission in Fortaleza Brasil at the time, and although I didn't was about to be made a District Leader which I would remain for the rest of my mission. As my mission grew to a close I remember looking back and thinking how fast the time had gone. Now looking back at that time I think it must have been slow compared to the last 10 years which has just flown by.

5 PLACES I HAVE VISITED....

1. Brasil (twice since getting home from my Mission).
2. New York City (for our wonderful Honeymoon).
3. Mexico (only Nogalles so it probably doesn't count).
4. Disneyland with my Beautiful wife...and friends).
5. To most of the Continental United States (for family vacations as a kid).

PLACES I WOULD LIKE TO VISIT...

1. Hawaii (I would like to even live here).
2. Michigan/New Jersey.
3. Brasil again. (you can never get too much of a good thing and no one will kill you).
4.Disneyland...again and Disney World.
5. Europe...especially Itally, Scottland, Irland, England, France with Timothy and others places too.

5 Things on my TO DO list...

1. Homework, Homework, and more Homework.
2. Help Marni more at home.
3. Get ready (especially physically) for Basic Training.
4. Graduate College.
5. Get other things in order before May so Marni doesn't have too much to worry about while I am gone all summer.

3 BAD HABBITS...

1. PROCRASINATION!!!
2. "Do What?" Marni says I say that too much and it makes no sense.
3. Hard time pulling myself out of bed in the morning (I guess that will change this summer. :)

5 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT ME...

1. I enlisted in the Air Force Reserve less than a week ago. Of Course if you have read my blog at all you know that. But you may not know I have wanted to for years, to some extent for my whole life.
2. Although I always use lack of money as an exuse, I think part of the reason I have not graduated yet is fear. Don't get me wrong, fear or no fear without money it is impossible. However I think I am afraid that I will spend all that time and money getting through school and not be a good enough pilot. I think I am a good pilot but I am not the typical arrogant (cocky) pilot, so I guess I am afraid those types may get jobs ahead of me. Stupid I know.
3. My biggest fear in life is being alone. Probably being from a big family I am use to having plenty of family around. I guess I am just afraid that will change.
4. I like "chick flicks" almost as much as any other kind of movie.
5. I HATE cold Winters. I love Utah, just not the winters.

-Sorry could really think of things people don't know about me,...at least that I want people to know. :)

I now Tag....Alison, Amy, Mom, and Timothy.... The last three because I don't think Marni, Alison and I should be the only ones in the family with Blogs. We want to read about your lives too, and see pictures.

A St. Patty's day to Remember

So if any of you have read Marni's blog you know that yesterday March 17th will be a day you remember forever, especially for the next 6 years.
I enlisted and was sworn in to the Air Force Reserve yesterday. I don't feel any different yet, probably because nothing has really changed yet and won't until May 6th when I go to Basic. But technically I am now in the military.
We got up and started getting ready to go to Hill Air Force Base in Layton. We didn't have to be there until 11am but with getting Lilly ready to go and everything we actually had to get up earlier.
Marni's Mom rode down with us and of course her dad was and brother were already there since they both work there. Then My dad, brother's Jonathan and Samuel all came up and met us there. Jonathan said is was only because they were already in SLC but I know they like me. I feel bad though because I told them to get there at 11am as well and they had to sit there for about an hour while I went over and signed paperwork with the recruter and got fingerprinted and everthing.
Then finally we went to Marni's dad's (Jim) office across base where I was sworn in. If you were unaware while looking at Marni's blog that is her dad swearing me in. Then I just has one more paper to sign which made it all official.
I don't remember feeling nervous at all but aparently I was because Jonathan commented on how my had was shaking when I was getting sworn in, and I kept having to wipe my fingers off when I was getting fingerprinted because they felt like they were sweaty.
So now I guess the next picture of me in an Air Force environment will be when I am in uniform as well.

Rank

I don't think I have mentioned this before, and I am not trying to make myself sound good, just let people know all my years of school has not been for naught.
Normally when you enlist in the airforce you start out as an Airman basic (E-1). However then eventually you get promoted to Airman (E-2) etc. However bacause of the amount of College credits I have I will get an automatic promotion to Airman First Class (E-3) then as soon as I finish Tech shool I will be promoted to Senior Airman (E-4) again because of college credits. Then WHEN I graduate, I will have an opportunity to get into an Officer training thing. Anyway I'm sure this is boring, but just in case anyone was wondering. All this means really is a difference in pay.

If you didn't read the blog before this one you might find it more interesting. I just posted it too.

More Info

So I have a little more info for anyone who is interested.
I I mentioned in my last blog, I will be enlisting and getting sworn into the Air Force Reserve on Monday. Also for those who have not heard I found out when I will report to Basic Training and Tech school.
I will go to Basic Training at Lockland AFB on May 6th. I will finish that on June 20th then report for Tech School (also at Lockland which I may be spelling wrong, but it is in San Antonio if you are wondering) on June 30th. Now you may be thinking to yourself, that is nice that you get a 10 day break in between but unfortunatly that is not the case. Technically I will report directly to Tech School after basic, but I guess they have a 10 day grace period incase there are people who need an extra week to pass basic. To be honest I do not fully understand what this means, but the recruter is suppose to explain it to me on Monday. Then I have 5 1/2 weeks of tech school meaning I will finish on Aug. 8 2008. Which obviously means we will not make it to the reunion and Baby blessing, unless of course it were possible to change it which I talked to Amy about already. However it changing it would prevent anyone else from coming don't change it. Marni and I really want to go, but have talked and decided that we will just go to Michigan and visit who ever is there after I get home, unless of course the Michiganites are tired of visitors in which case we will come some other time.
I will let you know if I learn anything else.

Enlistment

We are almost there. I decided on a job. I will be doing the Air Transportation job. This is also good because with this job I get a sign on bonus an a Kicker which means I will get about twice as much from the Montgomery GI bill which will help a lot with school. I spent a good portion of the afternoon yesterday on the phone with my recruter so he could finish up my Securty clearance stuff. And I should hear back either today or tomorrow to know the exact dates of my Basic Training and Tech School.
Then unless something changes (Which I hope it Doesn't) I will be down on Hill AFB to officially enlist and get sworn in on Monday, March 17th at about 11am. Family and friends are welcome to come for that, but it will probably not be that big a deal to miss for those of you who can't make it.

So Air Force here I come!

Q & A

Well to in the interest of keeping you updated and to answer some of moms questions I figured I would post this.

There were quite a few jobs I was interested in and was having a little trouble picking one, then they were drastically narrowed down for me.

Some of you may know I am "Shade Blind". In case you are unaware, shade blindness is I guess a mild form of Color blindness. Rather than have colors you can't see, with shade blindness there are only some shades of some colors you can't see. In my case it is some shades of pinks and greens. But colors I can see.

In both Air Force and Flight physicals you have to take a color vision test because some jobs including being a pilot require that you be able to see colors. With my flight physical after failing the color vision test I was given a secondary test just to verify that I was in fact able to see colors and so there was not a problem. With the Air Force it is pretty black in white, they look at it as being color blind or not, no in between. So in my case they label me as color blind when I am not but don't let me prove otherwise (maybe this is something I can get changed some day).

Well because of this there are jobs in the Air Force that require color vision and even though I can see the colors, as far as they are concerned I am not eligible to do those jobs. So my ASVAB opened it to basically any job and the color vision limited it back down.

To make a long story short about 90% of the jobs are no longer available to me. Which sucks because there are some of them that I would like to do, but I guess it makes it that much easier to choose since I now have less to choose from. After 3 years on the job I will have the opportunity train in something else. Maybe by then the rules will be changed and I will have more jobs open to me.

I haven't settled for sure on a job but I am leaning heavily toward one in Air Transportation. Which is basically in charge of everything and everyone that goes onto or off of an Airplane. So will get to work with airplanes a lot, and have travel opportunities. I will let you know what I decide for sure.

Yes I am planning to continue pursuing my flight career, and the extra $ I get from the Air Force will help me with that.

No, there is not a deadline on getting everything in. I do want to do it soon, because I would like to report to Basic Training in May and it all has to get scheduled in advance. I will keep you posted on this as well.

Feel free to let me know if anyone has any other questions.

Decided

Well to make a long decision short we have decided what I am going to do, sortof. I have decided to go in the the Air Force Reserve. That being said I now have another choice to make and that is job choice within the Air Force.
As part of the process deciding what do do, I went down to Salt Lake last Thursday/Friday to go to MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) which was basically to take the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) and have a fisical. The ASVAB was to help determine what jobs I could qualify for, and the fisical was to make sure I qualified to join at all. I passes both.
Not to toot my own horn but I got a really good score on the ASVAB. I got an overall of 96 out of 99. I guess the average score is about 40. Basically what this means is I can choose any available job in the Air Force.
So Friday I stopped to talke to the recruter still unsure if I would even join but curious what some of my job choices would be. There were a lot in about every area you can think of. So now that I have decided to enlist, I just need to decide on a job.
I want one that will translate to the civilian world, one that will pay more than I currenly make so we will not have to live paycheck to paycheck while I finish school, and that could maybe help to pay for it, and ofcourse I want something that I actually like.
Once I decide on that and finish up my paperwork I can actually get sworn in, but I would not report to basic training until sometime in May after I finish up this semester.
I will keep you posted.

The Choices

My job pays enough to pretty much get to from one pay check to the next. Financial aid pays about enough to pay for tuition and books. Leaving no money to fly and right now no fly means not graduation.

So to continue what I was saying before, I figure I have one of 3 choices...

1st, I could borrow money from a 3rd party student loan place (other than from the financial aid office on campus) take it and finish all my flying and be done soon. The down part of this is when you borrow money you have to pay it back, and with a lot in loans already waiting to be paid back when I graduate we are trying to avoid piling up any more, and it would take a lot. The plus side would be I could get done and graduate already.

2nd, I could graduate in something other than my major. As I said we get enough financial aid to pay normal tuition. On the plus side I could actually graduate and be done with school,..sordof. I could get a better job possibly making more $, but then I would have to go back to school to finish up the flying and still might be faced with the dificulty in paying for it.

3rd, Join the millitary. By this I mean more specifically the Air Force Reserve. With this I would have all my tuition paid, plus get some money each month from the montgomery GI bill while I am in school, plus a possible sign on bonus depending on the career field I went into with them. Plus I would get a monthly check for my 1 weekend a month and 2 weeks per year. As with the others there are pros and cons of this as well. I will start with the cons. I would be away from my family for 6 weeks while I go to basic training. Then I would have to go to tech training which more than likely would take me away from them again (in some cases your family can come with you, but usually not). I would ofcourse have to take a millitary leave of absence from school to do all this, obviously prolonging my graduation that way as well. Those are pretty much the main cons, at least the ones I am having a hard time with. For the Pros, some of them are listed above as far as getting school paid for etc. All though this would not completely solve the problem of not having money to fly, it would help pay for some of it at least. (I still need to find out more on what I can get $ for and exactly how much) Plus while I am training they would pay me, or basically I would get paid to go to school. Then after training is complete I would be able to use that training to help me get a better job in the civilian world while I finish school so maybe I would not have to be living pay check to pay check.

Now I just need to decide what is going to be best for our family. All this is just a summary of what I have been thinking about while trying to make the choices, so feel free to let me know if you have any questions.