Balen's Good to Go

On Thursday's appointment at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), the new ultrasound shows that Balen's hip is just fine. The harness is off, and he knows it. He kicked all the rest of the day. Taking joy in the simple things of life. Abigail is coming around a little bit, still sassy at times, but she's learning that she has a part to play in this family, and that she doesn't get to daydream all of her life... That's the New Jersey portion of our family, on to Alabama... (where it's already averaging 95 during the day, and good 'ol Alabamie humidity. Yuck.)

As for me, SOS (Squadron Officer School) is time consuming, but fun at times. So far, our flight (14 people) was top in academics. We had our first test on Friday, and we had the highest average out of the entire school (502 people). I am partially responsible not only for my test scores, but my lightning typing skills combined with a PDA with a bluetooth keyboard ensures that nearly the entire lecture is captured for all to share. In the other areas we are progressing nicely. Conditioning (fitness) we are accomplishing maximum points, we have our first Communication assignment due on Thursday (a paper on a chosen country), and in Flickerball (a special AF designed sporting/discipline game resembling basketball and football) we lost by 1 point for various reasons. The biggest reason is that one of the other team's players complained that we were "running over them" and the ref's got overzealous on penalty calls. So our 8-2 lead over half-time turned in to a 9-8 victory for them. It was heartbreaking after starting out so well. Still, we only lost by one point, so we got some Mission Points (they got more). Finally, our first Problem Solving event was a puzzle we had to figure out a plan for, and then execute it in 15 minutes. We were the first team finished, at 4 minutes, 38 seconds (4:38). So we are likely in the top 10% for that.

So, overall, it's going well. Only 3 more weeks to go. I have a briefing I have to give to the flight about my job (the other students do, too) so I need to get back to work on that. Also, we do a team briefing to our Flight Commander (instructor type) about the status of our flight in all areas, and since I am the designated Team Leader (no one else wanted it) I open the brief. So more slides to prepare...

Love you all!