Just a few things I've learned in the past 10 months...
1. There are only 2 seasons: Mild and Bitterly Cold. Please dress appropriately.
2. On a typical day the wind blows 30mph. During the winter (6 months out of the year) the wind blows 60+mph. Out of the north.
3. No need to buy a gym membership when you can shovel your driveway/sidewalks an hour a day 3-5 days a week.
4. It is perfectly acceptable to put "yet" or "then" at the end of a sentence. Any sentence.
5. Hockey is the only recognized religion.
6. Don't talk to the drunk Indians.
7. In case you didn't see it on the driver's licenses, licenses plates, quarter, street signs, 500 billboards, etc Mt Rushmore is in South Dakota!!
8. Winterize your sprinkler system BEFORE October 1st. (For you Southerners you have to blow the water out of your sprinkler systems and completely shut them down before winter so the pipes don't burst)
9. If it's January and 40 degrees, that's called a heat wave.
10. If you don't own a Harley or a Snowmobile you better start looking. Or find a friend that does.
11. During the winter months don't bother filling your fridge with drinks, just keep 'em out on the deck. They'll stay cold.
12. Snow Day=Blizzard. No exception.
13. Space heaters can be your best friend.
14. A "Wind Chill Warning" means that you can get frostbite if outside for more than 20 minutes.
15. MMMM...Buffalo...the other red meat
I'm sure I can add more to this one later (then).
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
January Update...only 5 days late
I'm not doing too bad at my New Years resolution to update the blog at least on a monthly basis. I'm only 5 days late :)
January was a whirl wind month! We spent New Years here in Rapid City with friends, both returned back to work and before we knew it January 17 or Deployment Day was upon us. The week of deployment was pretty stressful. Lots to do, pack and make sure we had done. Todd traveled from South Dakota to Maine to Germany to Kuait to their final destination in "Southwest Asia". It's been just about 3 weeks since he left and it's definitely taken some getting used to but I'm managing. Work keeps me busy as does marathon training, the dogs and the frequent social 'events' that the squadron organizes. Other than deployment, not a whole lot happened in January.
February brings the Austin marathon February 14 where I'll travel to Texas for 4 days to see family, hopefully a few friends and run another marathon. This one will be quite different since Todd wont be there and I've never run one completely by myself.
I'm also having 2 of my major projects that I'd like to get done while Todd is gone completed starting next week- finishing our garage and painting the inside of our house. The garage will be insulated, sheet rocked and painted which will be HUGE for the frigid winters up here! I know it's a cop-out that I'm not doing the interior painting by myself but painting is just really not something that I want to do. I have no motivation to tape, move furniture, drag out all the stuff and paint over 2,000 square feet of house from top to bottom. And I figure I work hard, we're getting some nice bonuses for deployment and tax return is headed our way so we can afford it. I'm REALLy looking forward to the non-white out looking walls we have now. The other big project that I'd like to get done is re-carpeting the upstairs but we'll see when that gets done. I'd also like to do some little things like add knobs to cabinets and change the door hardware. I think it would be nice to get our punch list of home repairs done before Todd gets home so that we can just enjoy life when he gets back.
The weather up here continues to be depressing- cold and snowy often. I've found that shoveling snow has come to be one of my least favorite chores to do and I find myself being being very jealous of my neighbors with their spiffy gas snow blowers. I think I'll write a book entitled "101 things they should tell you before moving to South Dakota". There might not be 101 things but maybe I'll blog about a few of them sometime.
Well that's all I have for January!
January was a whirl wind month! We spent New Years here in Rapid City with friends, both returned back to work and before we knew it January 17 or Deployment Day was upon us. The week of deployment was pretty stressful. Lots to do, pack and make sure we had done. Todd traveled from South Dakota to Maine to Germany to Kuait to their final destination in "Southwest Asia". It's been just about 3 weeks since he left and it's definitely taken some getting used to but I'm managing. Work keeps me busy as does marathon training, the dogs and the frequent social 'events' that the squadron organizes. Other than deployment, not a whole lot happened in January.
February brings the Austin marathon February 14 where I'll travel to Texas for 4 days to see family, hopefully a few friends and run another marathon. This one will be quite different since Todd wont be there and I've never run one completely by myself.
I'm also having 2 of my major projects that I'd like to get done while Todd is gone completed starting next week- finishing our garage and painting the inside of our house. The garage will be insulated, sheet rocked and painted which will be HUGE for the frigid winters up here! I know it's a cop-out that I'm not doing the interior painting by myself but painting is just really not something that I want to do. I have no motivation to tape, move furniture, drag out all the stuff and paint over 2,000 square feet of house from top to bottom. And I figure I work hard, we're getting some nice bonuses for deployment and tax return is headed our way so we can afford it. I'm REALLy looking forward to the non-white out looking walls we have now. The other big project that I'd like to get done is re-carpeting the upstairs but we'll see when that gets done. I'd also like to do some little things like add knobs to cabinets and change the door hardware. I think it would be nice to get our punch list of home repairs done before Todd gets home so that we can just enjoy life when he gets back.
The weather up here continues to be depressing- cold and snowy often. I've found that shoveling snow has come to be one of my least favorite chores to do and I find myself being being very jealous of my neighbors with their spiffy gas snow blowers. I think I'll write a book entitled "101 things they should tell you before moving to South Dakota". There might not be 101 things but maybe I'll blog about a few of them sometime.
Well that's all I have for January!
Friday, January 1, 2010
2009: Year in Review
Since I effectively became the world's worst blogger in 2009 I'll start 2010 with a review of last year since I have failed to blog since October. I suppose I could make a New Year's resolution to blog more regularly in 2010, but if I actually say it's my New Year's resolution then I'll be sure to fail. So we'll just cross our fingers :)
~January & February:
Not a lot happened the first part of 2009. I started my second (and final) clinical rotation at Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene, Texas working with Early Childhood Intervention (ECI), the Wylie Independent School District and Outpatient pediatrics. Todd continued B1 qualification and the last weekend of February we ran the Ft Worth Cowtown Marathon.
~March:
I turned 25 in March and FINALLY, after 3 years of hard work FINISHED my Master's degree in Occupational Therapy! About the time I finished my internship we had finally gotten our orders to PCS to Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, South Dakota. The bad news of March was that I was officially diagnosed as having Celiac Disease. Although we had known since Christmas 2008 the official testing and subsequent results were found out in the middle of March.
~April:
Todd turned 26 in April and about the same time we bought our first house! God definitely had His hand in this one as we bought the house "sight unseen" and never actually stepped foot in the house until the day before we signed the papers. It's been a great house, everything we want/need and it's been fun actually being able to put our own work into a home. We still have quite the laundry list of things we'd like to do to the house but its coming along nicely. We took 3 days to move to South Dakota traveling up through Amarillo, Texas to see Palo Dura Canyon and eat at The Big Texan and then went through Colorado stopping at The Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs and Denver before making it to The Black Hills of South Dakota. We were welcomed with SNOW on April 24...which has pretty much set the stage for the weather up here.
~May:
May was a very exciting month. As we got settled into life in SD and Todd began his final stages of training in the B1 as a Thunderbird in the 34th Bomb Squadron. I first of all took and passed my National Board exams and became an official Registered Occupational Therapist (OTR). I finally walked the stage and got my diploma in San Antonio the end of May and shortly there after was also licensed to practice in the State of South Dakota! I was offered a job at the local hospital, Rapid City Regional where I started in Acute care, made my way to Inpatient rehab and am now working as the outpatient OT. I absolutely LOVE my job, my co workers and all that it has to offer. And finally, on May 31st we celebrated our one year anniversary!
~June, July & August:
We spent the summer enjoying the beautiful weather riding our road bikes, going hiking and mountain biking, running a few local races including a half marathon, a duathlon and a 50 mile mountain bike race. We were also able to make a trip to Minnesota to see family. We also had several visitors come stay with us that made for good times enjoying all that the Black HIll have to offer including The Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park to name a few. We learned the hills and found some favorite little cities we like to spend Saturday or Sunday afternoons in. We also experienced our first Sturgis Motorcycle Rally! A week long motorcycle rally that basically takes over the entire Black Hills for a week of craziness.
~September:
Todd left for 3 weeks of deployment training in Las Vegas, NV for an exercise called Green Flag that in a nut shell he spent 3 weeks completing "missions" directly related to what he will be doing while deployed. While he was there I got the opportunity to go out and visit for a weekend and experience Vegas for myself for the first time. It was fun, we didn't do any gambling but did go see the Hoover Dam and caught the "Love" show by Cirque du Solei (AMAZING).
~October:
Todd got his "call sign" in October, the name that he will from now on be referred to as long as he flies in the B1, SWAGR. There is a story behind it, but I'll save you and just leave it as call signs do not have good stories attached to them. We also went to a Family Life Ministry "Weekend to Remember" marriage conference which was a huge blessing to our marriage. The snow also started in October and winter officially began. We had very cold temperatures and lots of snow almost the entire month.
~November:
Weather wise, November was more bearable. We didn't get much snow and had "milder" (relatively) temps. We traveled to Boulder, Colorado and met some friends to see A&M play Colorado and have a weekend of fun. It was great seeing friends and watching some Fightin' Texas Aggie Football! (Even though we lost and had an overall bad season) We traveled to Texas for Thanksgiving visiting Fredericksburg and Austin and spent 5 days with my family.
~December:
December was quite the busy month! We had our squadron Christmas party early in the month. We traveled to Detroit and Columbus the week before Christmas to see Todd's family and celebrate Christmas. We got stuck in Minneapolis trying to get back to Rapid City due to freezing fog and ended up taking a charter bus back to Rapid City only to make it back 2 days before our first blizzard hit. I've always wanted a "white Christmas" but I didn't need a whole blizzard! That was quite an experience! We learned a lot about weather and snow removal during the 2 days we were stuck inside. Just before New Years we went to Spearfish, SD for 2 days and tried our hand at cross country skiing and snowmobiling. Both were a lot of fun. Snowmobiling is definitely an expensive hobby which I'm pretty sure is what motorcyclists do in the winter. It's certainly a whole different world. We stayed in a cute and cozy lodge in Spearfish Canyon (our FAVORITE place in the hills) and it was a nice little "get away" before Todd leaves. We spent New Years Eve here in Rapid City with friends and kept it petty low key.
So that was the year in review...in a very small nut shell. This past year we've had some big life changes and have had to learn a whole new lifestyle being in the north. Buying heavy winter clothing and learning about snow removal and how to prepare for blizzards has certainly been new. We tried and fell in love with many new outdoor activities. We were able financially to seen family and friends more this year even being so far away. We tried 4 different churches here but have finally found once I think we will call home that I hope at least I can get more connected with in 2010.
2010 will bring new challenges, Todd leaves for Qatar for 6 months in about 2 weeks and it will be the longest separation we've had since we got married and the first time he will get to do what he has been training for the past 4 years to do. As of today, Todd is also officially a USAF Captain so that was a good start to the new year. As for me, I'll be running the Austin marathon in February and hopefully will make it to a few weddings this spring in Texas but otherwise will stay here and work, work work.
I'll do my best to at least blog once a month this year. Unfortunately, the first 6 months of the year might be pretty boring since Todd and I won't even be in the same country! I'll also try to add pictures :)
Here's to a new year!
~January & February:
Not a lot happened the first part of 2009. I started my second (and final) clinical rotation at Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene, Texas working with Early Childhood Intervention (ECI), the Wylie Independent School District and Outpatient pediatrics. Todd continued B1 qualification and the last weekend of February we ran the Ft Worth Cowtown Marathon.
~March:
I turned 25 in March and FINALLY, after 3 years of hard work FINISHED my Master's degree in Occupational Therapy! About the time I finished my internship we had finally gotten our orders to PCS to Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, South Dakota. The bad news of March was that I was officially diagnosed as having Celiac Disease. Although we had known since Christmas 2008 the official testing and subsequent results were found out in the middle of March.
~April:
Todd turned 26 in April and about the same time we bought our first house! God definitely had His hand in this one as we bought the house "sight unseen" and never actually stepped foot in the house until the day before we signed the papers. It's been a great house, everything we want/need and it's been fun actually being able to put our own work into a home. We still have quite the laundry list of things we'd like to do to the house but its coming along nicely. We took 3 days to move to South Dakota traveling up through Amarillo, Texas to see Palo Dura Canyon and eat at The Big Texan and then went through Colorado stopping at The Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs and Denver before making it to The Black Hills of South Dakota. We were welcomed with SNOW on April 24...which has pretty much set the stage for the weather up here.
~May:
May was a very exciting month. As we got settled into life in SD and Todd began his final stages of training in the B1 as a Thunderbird in the 34th Bomb Squadron. I first of all took and passed my National Board exams and became an official Registered Occupational Therapist (OTR). I finally walked the stage and got my diploma in San Antonio the end of May and shortly there after was also licensed to practice in the State of South Dakota! I was offered a job at the local hospital, Rapid City Regional where I started in Acute care, made my way to Inpatient rehab and am now working as the outpatient OT. I absolutely LOVE my job, my co workers and all that it has to offer. And finally, on May 31st we celebrated our one year anniversary!
~June, July & August:
We spent the summer enjoying the beautiful weather riding our road bikes, going hiking and mountain biking, running a few local races including a half marathon, a duathlon and a 50 mile mountain bike race. We were also able to make a trip to Minnesota to see family. We also had several visitors come stay with us that made for good times enjoying all that the Black HIll have to offer including The Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park to name a few. We learned the hills and found some favorite little cities we like to spend Saturday or Sunday afternoons in. We also experienced our first Sturgis Motorcycle Rally! A week long motorcycle rally that basically takes over the entire Black Hills for a week of craziness.
~September:
Todd left for 3 weeks of deployment training in Las Vegas, NV for an exercise called Green Flag that in a nut shell he spent 3 weeks completing "missions" directly related to what he will be doing while deployed. While he was there I got the opportunity to go out and visit for a weekend and experience Vegas for myself for the first time. It was fun, we didn't do any gambling but did go see the Hoover Dam and caught the "Love" show by Cirque du Solei (AMAZING).
~October:
Todd got his "call sign" in October, the name that he will from now on be referred to as long as he flies in the B1, SWAGR. There is a story behind it, but I'll save you and just leave it as call signs do not have good stories attached to them. We also went to a Family Life Ministry "Weekend to Remember" marriage conference which was a huge blessing to our marriage. The snow also started in October and winter officially began. We had very cold temperatures and lots of snow almost the entire month.
~November:
Weather wise, November was more bearable. We didn't get much snow and had "milder" (relatively) temps. We traveled to Boulder, Colorado and met some friends to see A&M play Colorado and have a weekend of fun. It was great seeing friends and watching some Fightin' Texas Aggie Football! (Even though we lost and had an overall bad season) We traveled to Texas for Thanksgiving visiting Fredericksburg and Austin and spent 5 days with my family.
~December:
December was quite the busy month! We had our squadron Christmas party early in the month. We traveled to Detroit and Columbus the week before Christmas to see Todd's family and celebrate Christmas. We got stuck in Minneapolis trying to get back to Rapid City due to freezing fog and ended up taking a charter bus back to Rapid City only to make it back 2 days before our first blizzard hit. I've always wanted a "white Christmas" but I didn't need a whole blizzard! That was quite an experience! We learned a lot about weather and snow removal during the 2 days we were stuck inside. Just before New Years we went to Spearfish, SD for 2 days and tried our hand at cross country skiing and snowmobiling. Both were a lot of fun. Snowmobiling is definitely an expensive hobby which I'm pretty sure is what motorcyclists do in the winter. It's certainly a whole different world. We stayed in a cute and cozy lodge in Spearfish Canyon (our FAVORITE place in the hills) and it was a nice little "get away" before Todd leaves. We spent New Years Eve here in Rapid City with friends and kept it petty low key.
So that was the year in review...in a very small nut shell. This past year we've had some big life changes and have had to learn a whole new lifestyle being in the north. Buying heavy winter clothing and learning about snow removal and how to prepare for blizzards has certainly been new. We tried and fell in love with many new outdoor activities. We were able financially to seen family and friends more this year even being so far away. We tried 4 different churches here but have finally found once I think we will call home that I hope at least I can get more connected with in 2010.
2010 will bring new challenges, Todd leaves for Qatar for 6 months in about 2 weeks and it will be the longest separation we've had since we got married and the first time he will get to do what he has been training for the past 4 years to do. As of today, Todd is also officially a USAF Captain so that was a good start to the new year. As for me, I'll be running the Austin marathon in February and hopefully will make it to a few weddings this spring in Texas but otherwise will stay here and work, work work.
I'll do my best to at least blog once a month this year. Unfortunately, the first 6 months of the year might be pretty boring since Todd and I won't even be in the same country! I'll also try to add pictures :)
Here's to a new year!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Wow! It's been a while!
I've sat down to blog t least a dozen times and it seems like something come up!
I don't even know where to begin on the updates. Last I blogged I was about to run a 1/2 marathon in Spearfish which turned out really well. I didn't train very seriously and ended up doing better than I anticipated. In regards to running, I'm planning on running the Austin full marathon in February so I just started training for that.
During September Todd went to Las Vegas for about 3 weeks for Green Flab which is air to ground combat training for deployment (i.e practicing what they will actually be doing in Iraq and Afghanistan) I went out to visit the first weekend they were there for a few days and had a blast! Neither one of us had ever been to Vegas and we took in a Cirque du Solei show and had some great food and fun times.
When Todd got back from Green Flag we were looking forward to the crisp fall weather and getting in some nice early fall outdoor activities....and then Oct 1 came around and we had 30 degree weather with snow for over 2 weeks! The weather has been awful!! We've set record highs and lows for this time of year and have already had several inches of snow! CRAZY! I truly hope that it's not shade of things to come this winter
We're now in the middle of October and work is still going great for me. I just started training in outpatient therapy and will hopefully make the full transition come early November. Todd is just flying like crazy and getting ready for deployment. We have an unofficial date of January 20 being the deployment day with them coming home "sometime in the end of July" so everything between now and then will be getting ready for deployment.
I'm sure I've left out a lot of details over the past 2+ months since I updated last but that's where we are in a nutshell :)
I don't even know where to begin on the updates. Last I blogged I was about to run a 1/2 marathon in Spearfish which turned out really well. I didn't train very seriously and ended up doing better than I anticipated. In regards to running, I'm planning on running the Austin full marathon in February so I just started training for that.
During September Todd went to Las Vegas for about 3 weeks for Green Flab which is air to ground combat training for deployment (i.e practicing what they will actually be doing in Iraq and Afghanistan) I went out to visit the first weekend they were there for a few days and had a blast! Neither one of us had ever been to Vegas and we took in a Cirque du Solei show and had some great food and fun times.
When Todd got back from Green Flag we were looking forward to the crisp fall weather and getting in some nice early fall outdoor activities....and then Oct 1 came around and we had 30 degree weather with snow for over 2 weeks! The weather has been awful!! We've set record highs and lows for this time of year and have already had several inches of snow! CRAZY! I truly hope that it's not shade of things to come this winter
We're now in the middle of October and work is still going great for me. I just started training in outpatient therapy and will hopefully make the full transition come early November. Todd is just flying like crazy and getting ready for deployment. We have an unofficial date of January 20 being the deployment day with them coming home "sometime in the end of July" so everything between now and then will be getting ready for deployment.
I'm sure I've left out a lot of details over the past 2+ months since I updated last but that's where we are in a nutshell :)
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Sturgis & Mountain Biking
July 31-Aug 9 marked the 69th Annual Sturgis Black Hills Motorcycle Rally. The anticipation of this event has been accumulating over the past several weeks. Stories of things that happen during the rally are just crazy-bad accidents, hospital census skyrocketing, thousands of motorcycles covering the streets, crazy weather... most of which happened. For those that don't know, Sturgis is a smaller city in the Black Hills about 40 min. away from Rapid City. Other than the annual rally, you pretty much pass through the town on I-90 without giving it a passing glance. Oh but when the rally comes to town... Sturgis Rally is Meca for motorcyclists, it's like their Christmas. Todd and I hope to get a motorcycle towards the end of his deployment to enjoy next summer and we can only imagine how awesome a leisurely ride through the winding roads of the Black Hills will be! We started our Sturgis experience last Sunday when we went to Hill City to mountain bike. (Insert where mountain biking goes into this blog post) Todd has had a mountain bike forever but broke it in college and has not gotten it fixed since. Pensacola and Abilene did not exactly serve as pristine mountain biking locations, nor did they have the means to fix a broken bike. The Black Hills on the other hand is a mountain bikers paradise-thousands of trails of all skill levels are hidden throughout the hills just waiting to be biked or hiked. You could seriously ride/hike a different trail and never repeat the same one! So last Saturday we went to one of the several local bike stores that specialized in mountain bikes to get his bike fixed and, of course, ended up walking out with a shiny new Kona mountain bike for me! After church we made our typical drive out to Hill City and took to a couple of trails to break in the new and newly repaired bikes. All of the surrounding cities to Sturgis are also taken over with bikers during the rally so being in Hill City sparked our desire to head to the rally. We took the scenic route from Hill City to Deadwood and into Sturgis with hundreds of bikers all around us taking in the beauty of the Black Hills via motorcycle. There are two distinct parts of the rally-the downtown "rally" and "the legendary Buffalo Chip". We decided to spend that Sunday afternoon at the rally and then the following weekend (this current weekend) at "the chip". The rally part was really cool. Thousands of bikes lined the 2 main downtown streets of Sturgis with hundreds of vendors set up selling food, shirts, bike stuff, etc. It was a great place to people watch and check out the many different motorcycles. There are many bars in Sturgis so the night life is really hopping during the rally (we didn't go to those). This Friday we made plans to go out to the chip and see Buckcherry in concert. The Buffalo Chip is a huge camp ground where they bikers camp out during the rally and enjoy concerts at night all week. We went with another couple and had a blast-again-another great people watching spot. The weather however was CRAZY! A huge hail storm came through just before we got their dropping golf ball and baseball size hail over Sturgis making it look like what can only be described as a war zone. Tents and cars where destroyed and one guy even got knocked unconscious! So we camped out, had some fun, got really muddy, didn't get much sleep and left the chip around 9am Saturday and decided we could now check that box.
As of today, there was only one fatal motorcycle accident (the lowest ever), only one really nasty storm (but it did rain everyday), and a really busy emergency room at Rapid City Regional (but overall hospital census is still pretty low). Pretty successful rally in my opinion.
Coming up next weekend will be the Leading Ladies 1/2 marathon in Spearfish, SD about an hour away where we will spend the weekend. We are very excited to finally make it up to Spearfish because it is in a canyon and is supposed to be a beautiful part of the Black Hills. And in case I don't blog next weekend about it, Todd verifies in the B1 the week of August 17.
More fun times in the Black Hills... to bad summer is coming to an end and the snow is just around the corner :(
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Fasten your safety belts...
It's going to be a long one! Not really, hopefully.
I'm not really even sure where we left off...I think it's been over a month since I last updated! The last trip we took was to Minnesota to see Todd's family for a mini Saksa family reunion. It ended up being a horrible weekend for us to go and we actually only spent about 27 hours in Minnesota! But it was good to see family, especially Teresa since she lives in Russia and only makes it to the states about once a year. Todd also made a trip out to St. Louis in June for John Strube's wedding (Corps buddy/roomate for those that don't know the name). I wasn't able to attend because it was a Friday wedding and I had just started my job and didn't need to ask for the time off yet AND it would have been REALLY expensive for us to both go. Other than that we've been here in Rapid City... so I guess I'll make my headings again =)
Todd's Work
Only one word can describe work for Todd... BUSY! He has a new job in the squadron "Life Support Officer". I'm not 100% sure of what all that entails but in a nut shell he is the liaison between the squadron and the enlisted guys that take care of all the life support equipment, etc for flights. So he has to sit in on the occasional meeting and give an occasional brief. When he's not doing that he's probably flying... at night. It seems scheduling likes to make his week as off as they can as he usually flies at least once during the night often in the middle of the week so it's practically impossible to have a normal schedule at that point. As I type this Todd is actually at an air show at Minot AFB in Minot, ND. Over the next few weeks he'll make some trips to swap planes and go to other air shows. The rest of the squadron will be going to "Red Flag" next week for "war training exercises". Todd's not going because while he is now "mission qualified" in the B1, he is not "verified". Verification will take place in mid August and it's basically a week long, 12+ hour days "final exam" if you will for the B1. After that the Air Force will be 100% OK with letting Todd fly in the B1 without an instructor and let me actually drop bombs that kill people and blow things up. Shortly after he verifies he will also get his call sign which is a pretty big deal. September will find Todd at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, NV for "Green Flag", a mini version of Red Flag for about 3 weeks. We're really hoping that October will be a slower month so we can actually spend some time together and see more of what this part of the country has to offer because November will begin "spinning up" for deployment where the squadron will begin some intense training/planning to get ready for deployment in early January 2010 which will likely include another "surge week" where they will fly missions 24 hours a day for 7 straight days (because thats how they fly air support in the Middle East). The other big thing coming up before deployment will be Todd's promotion to Captain in mid December!
I think that's about all for Todd's work... that was A LOT of use of quotation marks by the way!
Michelle's Work
There hasn't been much change in work for me but that won't last long. I've been working in the main hospital in what we call Acute care. I basically see patients who are 1-2 days out of hip,knee or back surgery most commonly or other surgeries secondary to car accidents of something like that. I also see patients right after they've had a stroke or other medical incident that has resulted in decreased function. This is not my ideal setting for OT but I've enjoyed it for the most part. I really like my co workers and my supervisor and have had some great (and not so great) patients. In about 2 weeks we have another new OT starting and she will be training in acute and I will move to the Rehab hospital (which is attached to the main hospital) and will be in inpatient therapy which is quintessential occupational therapy. Patients go there once they are medically stable post stroke or surgery and are capable of participating in and tolerating 3 hours of therapy a day (between OT, PT and Speech). These patients are those who are trying to get back to independent living. I am excited to get to this part of the hospital because you truly are getting a person their independence back. I'll be in the Rehab hospital until probably October-ish and then I will FINALLY move to Outpatient therapy which is where my heart really is! I'll be taken under the wing of our Certified Hand Therapist (CHT) on staff and will begin a mentorship with her to start working toward my own CHT (which takes 5 years of practice + 2,000 hours in hands+ one REALLY hard exam). I'll still work in the other areas from time to time but I should stay in outpatient for a while once I get there. I really can't complain about my job. I absolutely love it and feel blessed that I get to wake up and do something I absolutely love every day. My days and weeks fly by because it's a job that always keeps you moving. Oh, and finally getting paid to work ain't too bad either ;)
Everything Else
So when Todd and I aren't super busy with work we try to get out in the hills as much as possible and bike, run, hike or just see one of the many state and national parks up here. This area has SO MUCH to offer! It's kind of interesting because this part of the country truly only gets about 3-4 months of good summer weather so when the weather is nice (and it has been AMAZING!) on the weekend people just flock out to the hills to go camping, fishing, hiking, biking, running, WHATEVER! as long as it's outdoors! I honestly kind of dread the fall/winter and being stuck indoors so much. Todd and I do have plans to get into some winter outdoor activities (like cross country skiing) so we don't go crazy! We recently purchased new Specialized road bikes and have been getting out on long rides quite frequently. We actually started attending an Evangelical Free church out in the hills called Rimrock Church and we take our bikes with us to church and go riding afterwards.
On the subject of church... we had been attending a grass roots kind of church that met at a local coffee house and we really enjoyed it but felt that there wasn't much room for spiritual growth so we started visiting Rimrock and LOVE it! The teaching is solid, the worship is awesome, they have a young marrieds Sunday school class we go to and they will be starting several Bible studies this fall we hope to get involved in. If you want to check it out the website is: www.rimrockchurch.com
We still have a long list of places we'd like to see/things we want to do so we'll see if we get them all in this summer!
That is all the happenings in the Saksa household (I think). We're just taking everything week by week right now and hoping to get some travel plans laid down as the holidays will be here before we know it and then deployment will quickly follow! I'll do my best to keep the blog updated!
Love to all!
I'm not really even sure where we left off...I think it's been over a month since I last updated! The last trip we took was to Minnesota to see Todd's family for a mini Saksa family reunion. It ended up being a horrible weekend for us to go and we actually only spent about 27 hours in Minnesota! But it was good to see family, especially Teresa since she lives in Russia and only makes it to the states about once a year. Todd also made a trip out to St. Louis in June for John Strube's wedding (Corps buddy/roomate for those that don't know the name). I wasn't able to attend because it was a Friday wedding and I had just started my job and didn't need to ask for the time off yet AND it would have been REALLY expensive for us to both go. Other than that we've been here in Rapid City... so I guess I'll make my headings again =)
Todd's Work
Only one word can describe work for Todd... BUSY! He has a new job in the squadron "Life Support Officer". I'm not 100% sure of what all that entails but in a nut shell he is the liaison between the squadron and the enlisted guys that take care of all the life support equipment, etc for flights. So he has to sit in on the occasional meeting and give an occasional brief. When he's not doing that he's probably flying... at night. It seems scheduling likes to make his week as off as they can as he usually flies at least once during the night often in the middle of the week so it's practically impossible to have a normal schedule at that point. As I type this Todd is actually at an air show at Minot AFB in Minot, ND. Over the next few weeks he'll make some trips to swap planes and go to other air shows. The rest of the squadron will be going to "Red Flag" next week for "war training exercises". Todd's not going because while he is now "mission qualified" in the B1, he is not "verified". Verification will take place in mid August and it's basically a week long, 12+ hour days "final exam" if you will for the B1. After that the Air Force will be 100% OK with letting Todd fly in the B1 without an instructor and let me actually drop bombs that kill people and blow things up. Shortly after he verifies he will also get his call sign which is a pretty big deal. September will find Todd at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, NV for "Green Flag", a mini version of Red Flag for about 3 weeks. We're really hoping that October will be a slower month so we can actually spend some time together and see more of what this part of the country has to offer because November will begin "spinning up" for deployment where the squadron will begin some intense training/planning to get ready for deployment in early January 2010 which will likely include another "surge week" where they will fly missions 24 hours a day for 7 straight days (because thats how they fly air support in the Middle East). The other big thing coming up before deployment will be Todd's promotion to Captain in mid December!
I think that's about all for Todd's work... that was A LOT of use of quotation marks by the way!
Michelle's Work
There hasn't been much change in work for me but that won't last long. I've been working in the main hospital in what we call Acute care. I basically see patients who are 1-2 days out of hip,knee or back surgery most commonly or other surgeries secondary to car accidents of something like that. I also see patients right after they've had a stroke or other medical incident that has resulted in decreased function. This is not my ideal setting for OT but I've enjoyed it for the most part. I really like my co workers and my supervisor and have had some great (and not so great) patients. In about 2 weeks we have another new OT starting and she will be training in acute and I will move to the Rehab hospital (which is attached to the main hospital) and will be in inpatient therapy which is quintessential occupational therapy. Patients go there once they are medically stable post stroke or surgery and are capable of participating in and tolerating 3 hours of therapy a day (between OT, PT and Speech). These patients are those who are trying to get back to independent living. I am excited to get to this part of the hospital because you truly are getting a person their independence back. I'll be in the Rehab hospital until probably October-ish and then I will FINALLY move to Outpatient therapy which is where my heart really is! I'll be taken under the wing of our Certified Hand Therapist (CHT) on staff and will begin a mentorship with her to start working toward my own CHT (which takes 5 years of practice + 2,000 hours in hands+ one REALLY hard exam). I'll still work in the other areas from time to time but I should stay in outpatient for a while once I get there. I really can't complain about my job. I absolutely love it and feel blessed that I get to wake up and do something I absolutely love every day. My days and weeks fly by because it's a job that always keeps you moving. Oh, and finally getting paid to work ain't too bad either ;)
Everything Else
So when Todd and I aren't super busy with work we try to get out in the hills as much as possible and bike, run, hike or just see one of the many state and national parks up here. This area has SO MUCH to offer! It's kind of interesting because this part of the country truly only gets about 3-4 months of good summer weather so when the weather is nice (and it has been AMAZING!) on the weekend people just flock out to the hills to go camping, fishing, hiking, biking, running, WHATEVER! as long as it's outdoors! I honestly kind of dread the fall/winter and being stuck indoors so much. Todd and I do have plans to get into some winter outdoor activities (like cross country skiing) so we don't go crazy! We recently purchased new Specialized road bikes and have been getting out on long rides quite frequently. We actually started attending an Evangelical Free church out in the hills called Rimrock Church and we take our bikes with us to church and go riding afterwards.
On the subject of church... we had been attending a grass roots kind of church that met at a local coffee house and we really enjoyed it but felt that there wasn't much room for spiritual growth so we started visiting Rimrock and LOVE it! The teaching is solid, the worship is awesome, they have a young marrieds Sunday school class we go to and they will be starting several Bible studies this fall we hope to get involved in. If you want to check it out the website is: www.rimrockchurch.com
We still have a long list of places we'd like to see/things we want to do so we'll see if we get them all in this summer!
That is all the happenings in the Saksa household (I think). We're just taking everything week by week right now and hoping to get some travel plans laid down as the holidays will be here before we know it and then deployment will quickly follow! I'll do my best to keep the blog updated!
Love to all!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Sorry for neglecting the blog!
I'm really not trying to neglect the blog but I feel like if I'm not working my free time is spent doing the other 100 things I need to do plus the 1000 other things that I want to do! There's nothing new really going on in South Dakota but I will try my bestest to update soon!
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