Week 3 Pilot Training, Birthday Celebrations, and Giving Back

          Brenton is now in week three of pilot training and doing very well. He has received 100% on every test except his last one which was a 93%.. yay for academics!! He starts phase II in just a few weeks and that is when he starts flying and things will get tough.. I know he will do great though! I received the spouse calendar for UPT and found out that his track select ( this is when he finds out whether he is going fighter/bomber or heavy) is September 27. Only about 7 months off, its crazy to think about! And this time next year, he will be graduating UPT and we will find out just exactly what it is he will be flying.. fingers crossed for planes that are at good bases!!

           This post cannot go without mentioning the crazy weather we have had here. First let me tell you, two Fridays ago we had FOUR tornado warnings.. crazy!!! Four days later.. we had two more tornado warnings. This week, we have had none.. but its only Monday. In fact, we are supposed to have severe thunderstorms on Wednesday and another possible outbreak of tornadoes..  all I have to say is the weather is never boring here. Oh, and it is starting to get very, very warm.. its been in the mid 80s here for a while now and I expect the 90s to come at any time.. and then the triple digits..  needless to say, it is going to be very hot here soon!

           My birthday was amazing! We ended up celebrating three times, which was fine by me :)  The perks to lots of studying in pilot training. We celebrated early, the Saturday before my birthday and went out for mexican with friends. That was a lot of fun! Then, Brenton and I had cake and I opened gifts from him on my actual birthday. This past Saturday, we celebrated one last time by driving to Birmingham to go shopping! This was very exciting as I have said many times before, we have to drive an hour to the nearest mall and that isn't even that great. Birmingham was the exact opposite of Columbus. There were soooo many shopping areas and a huge mall.. we had a great time and even stopped by the Cheesecake Factory for some yummy cheesecake!
Below is a pic of us from celebrating by going out for Mexican.. I could have done without the sombrero..

I mentioned in our last post that we have finally found a church down here that we really like. We are still continuing to attend and plan on attending regularly for the rest of the time we are here. I found out that they serve at a soup kitchen every third Thursday of the month and last Thursday I went with them and helped serve. It was a wonderful opporunity and I met some great people from the church and it felt so good to be helping these people.  I also decided last weekend to volunteer to help clean up Columbus. It was called "Clean Sweep Columbus"  That was an experience let me tell you. I was assigned to a not so nice area in Columbus and had to pick up trash. There was so much trash it was ridiculous. Surprisingly I found little to no empty beer cans, most of the trash was drug paraphenilia, candy wrappers, and empty fast food cups and bags.. hmmm I think I have found why MS is one of the fattest states.     My next volunteering is this weekend with some other wives on base.. March for Babies. It is a great cause, the money raised goes towards funding programs to help moms have healthy full-term pregnancies, it also funds the research to help find answers to the problems that threaten our babies.. (miscarried babies, babies that are born stillborn, and pre-mature babies)  I haven't been able to raise a whole lot of money, but I guess every little bit helps and I will be walking.. I think it will be a great time and its such a wonderful feeling knowing that we are helping others in our community.

As of now, that is all to report from the Jones household.. hope everyone is doing well and until next time, take care and God bless!



UPT Start: Yes it is finally here!

            So April 1 marked six months of us living down here in MS. Thats half a year, how crazy is that?! It really doesn't seem that long. Well.. after six very long months Brenton will finally be starting UPT (pilot training) tomorrow. No more casual job of just locking and unlocking doors and getting to spend the rest of the day together, nope.. its back to reality. It won't be too bad as we are very accustomed to busy and hectic lifestyles. I think thats the reason why we have had such a difficult time finding things to do these past six months.. Before moving down here, our minds were constantly focused on only two things: school and work. I think we were actually too motivated and determined.  As I have said in older posts, we have learned a lot these past six months. A lot about life, one another, and our marriage. You have to make time for fun and relaxation, life is too short not to. While I am a little bit sad that pilot training is beginning and we will be losing the time spent together that we have been used to, I am very excited too! This has been Brenton's dream for as long as I can remember and it makes me so happy to see him get to fulfill his dream.  Take a look below and see just what phase 1 academics has in store for him..

                   While Brenton is fulfilling his dream, I am working on mine as well. Second session of classes starts next week. I am enjoying this break between sessions and trying to be as supportive as I can for Brenton. Pilot training is not easy, and I want to do everything I can to try to make it easier for him. If that means making mexican every single night for dinner, well.. then we will have mexican every night. But, I am still going to try and make time for myself.   I did start an exercising program today! I was supposed to start it in November, but due to some health issues wasn't able to. I am very excited about it and while I was very sore afterwards, can't wait until my next work out on Wednesday!

                  A year ago today, we had to bury our first pet, Kermie. It was so sad and we miss him terribly! I think he would have really liked it down here in MS. Lots of room to roam in the house. Not too sure he would appreciate all of the planes flying over our house all the time though. RIP Kermie! 4/20/1999- 4/4/2010 

                 I  think thats all to report from the Jones household. April is going to be a very exciting and eventful month for us and I can't wait!