Hawaiian Shirts

I'm just about to leave for work, but I felt the need to get my blog on real quick like.

First of all, have fun in Texas this weekend Chase. I hope your interview goes well. It may not be your first choice in workplaces, but you'll get to where you want to be. Also, if you're interested, I know the FAA hires a lot of engineers to work in air traffic control centers. They do things with the radar, satellites, and communications. I don't know exactly what, but I do know there are positions for engineers. Also, Texas is awesome. Sure it might be sweltering, but at least you can legitimately wear a cowboy hat on a regular basis! And that has to count for something right? Plus, there are some epic hunting opportunities in Texas, and land is cheap. So buy a huge ranch, plant some exotic beasts on it, and let me hone my archery skills.

And now, the real reason for my posting. Yesterday I had the opportunity to tour the Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC, or Center) here in Anchorage. The Center is the facility that handles all the planes in the middle of their flights. It's the third of three air traffic control positions, and the one that I am trying to get when I graduate. Anyway, on my tour of the facility yesterday, I couldn't help but notice that the atmosphere was WAY less intense than I thought. Dudes were talking to each other, then would contact the occasional plane, I saw some controllers eating snacks (one of my favorite things to do), while others were just hanging out, making sure their sectors didn't have any airplane crashes. At the end of the tour, I was talking to my teacher and told her how excited the trip had made me, and that I was ready for the workforce; "Just get me a Hawaiian shirt, and I'll report for duty tomorrow" I said. She laughed. But I was serious. I know exactly how Chase feels, I am pretty much fed up with school. We have been going to college (with a short break for military service for me) since the Fall of 2004. It's now 2011, and we're still in school!!!! Aaaggggghhhhhh, get me out of here. But I know it's necessary so I won't stab anyone, but I'll keep it in mind.

All right, I best be off. I gots to get salesman on. Those guns and knives need some selling.

I shall be in touch

Come back to Texas...

Mac's calls for keeping in touch hit the spot.  And I know that I am not the greatest about staying touch but we are all moving and I think that we can use this blog to stay relevant each others lives.

So Provo hasn't changed much if any of you all were concerned about that.  BYU is still here with loads of students all around.  And they are driving me nuts.  I really feel ready to leave the school atmosphere for awhile.  And everyday I get more tired of doing schoolwork all the time.  This last week I got a bit of a break though (that's only cause I got super sick).  So last Sunday in sacrament meeting I started feeling bad and getting a headache.  By Sunday School I was fighting to stay coherent, so Jennifer forced me to go home.  At home I had a big fever and little appetite.  I figured I sleep it off and went to bed at 8pm.  That didn't help much the next day, and so I stayed home and slept most the day.  Tuesday I tried to go back to class but that was a really bad idea.  When Jennifer got home she forced me to the doctors.  There we found out that I had pneumonia.  That wasn't the best timing but my teachers were really nice about the whole thing.  So now I am still on antibiotics but I feel infinitely better.

Well there are two big pieces of news from me.  First is that we will be going to Texas for a job interview at the end of this week.  It is with a company called National Instruments, and they make computer hardware for reading instruments into the computer.  My job would be mainly designing the housing for the units, meaning that I would ensure that they are protected and don't overheat.  Right now it probably isn't the most interesting but it is the best offer yet (but there have been no other offers).  So we may find ourselves in the Lone Star State for a few years.  We'd only be about 4 hours from Jed and his family, so we wouldn't be totally without family.  Nothing is for sure yet but we are definitely considering it.

The next big piece of news is that ... it's a boy!!!  We had the ultrasound last Thursday, the baby is on schedule for the 10th of March and is looking very healthy.  We are very excited and now get to duke it out over the name.  She is putting her foot down on Bear, squashing it out of the picture that is.  But there are names that we both do like, but we are not in any big rush to choose a name.

So that is an update on me.  I'll keep you guys informed on Texas, and let you know how my trip out there goes.

Busy, Busy

Its good to hear from you Mac. This friday i will be visiting Mac and Jaime in Alaska. I am stoked. It may be freezing, but we shall no doubt have a wonderful time. So, Chase is pregnet, Mac is trying, Hank is Hank, and i need to get on my theoretical horse :) Life is good for me. I live in good old Lehi. What makes it awesome is that I live next to Cabellas.

Football season just ended. Copper Hills went 3-7. Not too great by my standards but, they went a combined 1-19 the two years prior. Hopefully we can improve to 7-3 or 8-2 next year. I now have 2 weeks to recoup, then its off to Wrestling season. I'll be coaching back at Skyline. We are ranked 5th in the preseason 4A rankings. Not too shabby. Our goal is to take region and improve on that 5th place ranking. So, i have two weeks off, then im pretty much swamped til valentines.

It looks like teaching in China is out as an option. I have too many things here to run away for six months. The state board of education finally is processing my teaching license. I should have it completed by the end of the school year. This means that, come May, ill be a licensed teacher with a masters. Hooray!!! USC is going well. My graduation date is May 20th, 2012. It will be nice to have all that completed, but lets be honest. Ill probably find something else to pursue.

Well, that's enough for today. Talk to you all soon.

Greetings From the Great White North

Alaska, the final frontier, these are the voyages of the starship USS Little Godzilla (thats my tiny 2wd Toyota!)....Something about boldly going where no man has gone before, star date something, I don't know.

Anyway, as you all know, I would like to be kept up to date with the goings on in your lives, and it's only fair that I share whats up with me.

To begin, Alaska is awesome, albeit the strangest place I've ever been. Tucker can vouch for me on this, Alaskans are strange Jose's. It's hard to explain why it is so weird up here, but it almost feels like it's ten years ago. Red Box came up here just 2 years ago, and Verizon doesn't even exist north of the Lower 48. It's pretty archaic. But like I said, it's amazing. In my private pilot ground school class we are working on maps right now, and every time I open the Alaska one I'm blown away by how immense this place is. The state is 1/3rd the size of the whole contiguous United States, it would take years to even get a grasp of what there is to do here.

I don't know how long we'll be here, but I am trying to convince Jaime to let us stay and work here for awhile. I will be graduating in December 2012 and I found out that at that time, there will be tons of positions opening in Alaska, Hawaii, and Guam. So those might be where I submit my name to work when I get done here. I voted on Guam, but Jaime isn't so hot on that idea, and she wants to live in Hawaii. So let me know what you guys think.

We are not pregnant yet. We just passed the one year mark of trying to have a kid, and it's starting to get to me. I know it can take awhile to conceive, but I didn't know how taxing it could be emotionally. So keep us in your prayers, and we name the kid after one of you...

Anyway, I better sign off. I have a test in my aviation history class in a few hours and I didn't study as much as I wanted to. So adios mi amigos, I shall talk to you laters.

mac