Trying my hand at free shit.

So there's something called the Heroes at Home program. It's given through Sears, and it's one of the most misunderstood yet anticipated programs that pertain to the military. It's been going on for about three years now, but we have never applied before. The first year, we didn't know about it (and I was too pregnant to care anyhow), and the second year, we were under the impression that it was restricted to lower ranking families than us, and even upon finding that it wasn't, saw it as somewhat our obligation to step aside and let those who need it more go ahead and get it (Even if we hadn't thought that, it wouldn't have mattered. When we found out that it is not rank restricted, it was past the deadline to apply anyhow.)

This year, someone mentioned it to me yesterday, and I figured, why not. Our friend Diaz got like $300 from this program last year, and so did a lot of other people we know. It's pretty much a scramble for one of 20,000 slots, among which the donations collected from private individuals will be distributed equitably. Every year so far, it's come to around $300 that each family has gotten. This is distributed in the form of gift cards that are redeemable at Sears or any Sears affiliate (I know K Mart and Land's End are two other stores besides Sears that take them. I'm not sure what others do.) Since you can get most anything at these stores, that's a pretty good deal.

I asked Thak about applying for it, and he was hesitant at first, but I said that literally nobody else was thinking like we were, like letting the people who needed it more get it. Everyone else was just going for their share of the free shit, so what do we gain by sitting back and not even trying to get a slot? He saw it my way, and thank goodness he did because seriously, we have two kids, one of whom has a birthday on Christmas. You cannot tell me an extra few hundred wouldn't come in handy. Hell, if the amounts given are the same as they were last year, that would entirely pay for our kids' holidays and birthdays if we spent the same as we did last year. That would be insane! Can you imagine? Free Christmas?? In what universe does that exist?!

So anyhow, I did what every other wife of an Active Duty soldier anywhere on the planet did, and stalked the webpage last night, waiting for the registration form to go live. It went live last night at about 10 pm, which was midnight Eastern time. I filled it out, and then realized it said that registrations open at 9 am Central Time today. Hmmm... I called the 1-800 number, and got no answer. I would have to wait until after I dropped Erin off at school today to find out.

I got back from dropping Erin off, called again, and was told that I had to resubmit the form. By this time, the site was bogged down with so much traffic (it was about 9:30 am Central by then, 8:30 am Mountain, my local time) that it took me twelve attempts to get the page to load in the first place. Then when I filled the form out and submitted it, I got a blank screen. I tried it again, ended up filling the thing out three times, hitting submit, it taking five minutes for the page to load, and then getting a blank screen rather than any confirmation that it had gone through, so I don't know if it did or not.

I then decided to see what the webizens of military wife land were saying about this (because seriously, every time there's free shit, you know the boards are buzzing!) and I found that what the operator who I talked to, who told me to fill the thing out again, may or may not be right. Some people filled it out when it first went live, like I did, and were told they were fine, and would hear by email if they got in or not. Others, like me, were told to resubmit, so the bottom line is that they have absolutely no idea what is going on with it, and it's anyone's guess whether or not we got in. I don't know if the form we sent in which definitely went through, counted, and I'm not sure if the forms we sent in when it definitely would have counted, went through. We'll find out on the 27th.

Anyhow, I happened to mention this to D, and he told me about even MORE programs to get free shit at the holidays. Now, I will say people like him need these programs. He is a Sergeant with four children. Big families need this stuff. I've got no beef with that at all. It's all funded by private contributions anyhow, so it's not like it's coming out of anyone's pocket who didn't give it of their own free will. Even so, I don't think I'd feel right taking even more, so I think I'll leave it at this. I hope we got our registration in on time, and that it went through, that we are one of the first 20,000 to get through. If we're not, though, it's ok. We won't stress about it. I hope we're chosen, though. It would be cool.