I went to a wives' coffee this morning, and it went great. I met nice people, with nice kids Erin and Orren's ages, who aren't boring. You just can't ask for much better. These people are sane, and they're not the overly PC or overly dramatic crazy people I ran into all the time at Ft. Stewart. On the contrary, these people know that rank does play a role in determining who our peers are, and don't try to live under the delusion that a Staff Sergeant's wife in her late 20's or early/mid 30's should try to be best friends with a Private's wife who turned 18 last week. That was my biggest pet peeve about the wives I had known before, and it doesn't exist with these. That's good because Ft. Bliss has more young wives than any place I've ever seen, and at this point in my life, I have no interest in grasping at straws for polite conversation with 18-year-olds who think they're God's gift because their husband completed Basic Training a month ago. Not that there's anything wrong with those people, but I would rather know them in more of a mentor capacity. That's the way it's supposed to be, just as it is with our husbands, and these people think the same way as I do about this stuff. I cannot even tell you how relieved I was to find that out.
We're planning a girls' playdate very soon so that everyone with with daughters in Kidergarten and First Grade can all get together at a park and allow Erin to make some friends. Don't get me wrong, people with sons that age would also be welcome. It just happens that everyone with kids about Erin's age have daughters. Ironically, a lot of these people also have baby boys, so this is kind of a two-for-one thing for when Orren gets a little bigger and can do playgroups and stuff.
I'm going to love it here!!! Thak's hectic schedule won't be so hard if the kids and I have friends, and we're well on our way to that after this morning.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Reasearch and more research
I did some digging. I wanted answers to my questions, and I found them, finally. I found out that Thak's classes will be from 6-10 PM Monday-Thursday. He'll have Fridays off! That's so awesome! He will also have time to stop by home, get changed into his school uniform, and grab something to eat on the way to school. It takes 20 minutes to get there from here, and about 20 minutes from post to home, so there's about 20 minutes of downtime in between, which is good. The kids will at least see him for a few minutes those days. But FRIDAYS ARE OFF!!! That's great. It's also great because it means that there are only four class days a week that the Army can potentially mess up, meaning if Thak has to go to the field for two weeks, for example, he'll only use up 8 of his military days rather than 10, and since he gets 30 military excused days per calendar year, having one less day per week that will require one in the event of field training or TDY can only be a good thing. I don't know that I love the idea of him being at school until 10, but there is no choice.
This school is really expensive, too. Let's just say his two years there will cost nearly as much as we paid for my car, brand new, deluxe model, second year it was made... You can imagine, my jaw hit the floor when I saw that dollar amount. I didn't know HOW we were going to pay that, but then I did some googling. The Post-9/11 GI Bill pays ALL tuition and fees to any accredited school (including technical programs) in any amount up to that of the most expensive public university in the state. Thank goodness the VA had a chart of what that figure is for every state. For Texas, we're not even close to the max. Not even close. His GI Bill will cover this completely. Of course, that GI Bill doesn't kick in until August, so we've got to cover a few days of April, May, June, and July, and we will be reimbursed for that through the Army's Tuition Assistance Program. That will pretty much max out his yearly amount for TAP, but that's ok. The new GI Bill will kick in after that, and we still won't have to pay anything at all.
I'm glad to be getting this figured out. It's a lot, but it's going to work out. Somehow, some way, it's going to work out. The resources are there, and the ball is in our court. I'll be glad when he begins his classes, and getting them done. I'll be glad when all this is over, but I'm still really happy that he's doing it.
This school is really expensive, too. Let's just say his two years there will cost nearly as much as we paid for my car, brand new, deluxe model, second year it was made... You can imagine, my jaw hit the floor when I saw that dollar amount. I didn't know HOW we were going to pay that, but then I did some googling. The Post-9/11 GI Bill pays ALL tuition and fees to any accredited school (including technical programs) in any amount up to that of the most expensive public university in the state. Thank goodness the VA had a chart of what that figure is for every state. For Texas, we're not even close to the max. Not even close. His GI Bill will cover this completely. Of course, that GI Bill doesn't kick in until August, so we've got to cover a few days of April, May, June, and July, and we will be reimbursed for that through the Army's Tuition Assistance Program. That will pretty much max out his yearly amount for TAP, but that's ok. The new GI Bill will kick in after that, and we still won't have to pay anything at all.
I'm glad to be getting this figured out. It's a lot, but it's going to work out. Somehow, some way, it's going to work out. The resources are there, and the ball is in our court. I'll be glad when he begins his classes, and getting them done. I'll be glad when all this is over, but I'm still really happy that he's doing it.
ASE in 23 months!
We went today for a visit at the tech school Thak is going to be attending for his ASE certification. It's really nice. They partner with a lot of really reputable companies for the mechanics' programs. They are a partner with Matco tools (I think that's what they're called.... They're really good, though. Thak said so.) and every mechanic gets his own set of Matco tools upon graduation, which is important since you need to have your own tools in order to work in the field. Thak has most of that stuff already, but this way he'd have a set for work and a set for home, so it's great. The school also partners with BMW, Mercades Benz, Jaguar, Volvo, and Volkswagen to certify graduates specifically for those brands, and also with Toyota, allowing students to be certified to work on hybrid cars as well as regular ones. Thak has been talking for a while about being a BMW mechanic since that's where the best money is, and this school will allow him to be certified specifically on BMW (in addition to his general certification), and even will help place him with a BMW shop upon graduation.
I don't know if that's what he'll end up doing. Maybe he'll get in there and decide that instead, he wants to work on Mercades, or some other brand which requires its own supplemental certification, but the fact is that the higher end brands are where the real money is for a mechanic, and Thak is the type of mechanic that those types of owners will love. He is meticulous, clean, personable, intelligent, and damn good at what he does. He's the perfect person to work on high-end cars, and that's what he's been talking about doing. I support that fully.
Anyhow, we found out that this course will take him 23 months to complete since he's going at night. It would be 15 months if he did it in the daytime. 23 months puts us one month shy of his ETS date from the Army. That means that when he graduates, he will be on terminal leave, and be ready to be placed in a shop. Even if it ends up taking him longer than that, we've figured out that we will be ok if he gets out, and a couple months later, graduates and starts his civilian job.
This is a big commitment from all of us because it's going to take a lot of his time. Beyond the obvious, classes and such, there is the fact that he'll be trading his weekday Staff Duty shifts as they come up, for weekend shifts instead, so that could cost us as much as one weekend a month. It's worth it, though. This is our ticket out of this Army bullcrap, and we're pretty excited about it.
I don't know if that's what he'll end up doing. Maybe he'll get in there and decide that instead, he wants to work on Mercades, or some other brand which requires its own supplemental certification, but the fact is that the higher end brands are where the real money is for a mechanic, and Thak is the type of mechanic that those types of owners will love. He is meticulous, clean, personable, intelligent, and damn good at what he does. He's the perfect person to work on high-end cars, and that's what he's been talking about doing. I support that fully.
Anyhow, we found out that this course will take him 23 months to complete since he's going at night. It would be 15 months if he did it in the daytime. 23 months puts us one month shy of his ETS date from the Army. That means that when he graduates, he will be on terminal leave, and be ready to be placed in a shop. Even if it ends up taking him longer than that, we've figured out that we will be ok if he gets out, and a couple months later, graduates and starts his civilian job.
This is a big commitment from all of us because it's going to take a lot of his time. Beyond the obvious, classes and such, there is the fact that he'll be trading his weekday Staff Duty shifts as they come up, for weekend shifts instead, so that could cost us as much as one weekend a month. It's worth it, though. This is our ticket out of this Army bullcrap, and we're pretty excited about it.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Like father, like son
Orren was a very tired boy. This is the only way he will go to sleep. He has to lay on daddy. He was out two minutes after this was taken. In fact, he still is.
This week
I still have to find a pediatrician here. Orren will need his 4 month appointment in a few weeks, and I'm NOT taking him on post.
Tomorrow, we have the parent-teacher conference at Erin's school. Of course, there won't be much to discuss since she's only been a student there for a week and an half, but we can tie up the few loose ends which remain. We can also figure out what this Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of Texas is. She's supposed to learn it since they do it every morning along with the one to the US flag.
Thursday is extra exciting. Thak has an appointment at a technical school here in El Paso to get registered for the first of his courses which will ultimately culminate in him being ASE certified. ASE is Automotive Service Excellence. It's basically a professional mechanic's license in the civilian market. We don't know how long ASE certification takes, but we figure it can't be more than two years. Two years is what we have for him to do this, so we're going to get on board as quick as possible. If he gets everything squared away, he will begin his classes on April 21. Like I said, I don't know yet when he will graduate, but we'll find that out soon. It's going to be hectic for us as long as he's in school since he'll be working his usual long hours, and going to classes at night, and the school is on the other side of town, but we'll get through it. We always do. This is a big investment in our future. If he gets his ASE certification, there is no doubt that he will get out of the Army two years from now. There is still great demand for certified mechanics almost everywhere, so this is a great step toward insuring that when his ETS date comes around, there will be no need to visit the re-enlistment NCO.
Friday, Thak signs in, and officially becomes a Ft. Bliss soldier. He won't begin in-processing until Monday, and will go to his unit the following week. Then, and only then, will we find out what this place is going to be like. Actually, it will be August before we find out what it's really like, because in August, his brigade stands up, and he'll go to his battalion, and the motorpool thereof, and finally figure out just what it is that he'll be doing. He could be a generator shop foreman, he could be a motor sergeant, he could be a platoon sergeant. We don't know yet, and it'll be August before we find out. Friday gets us one step closer, though.
This weekend is Easter, and on Saturday, if the weather is nice, I'm trying to talk Thak into going to the botanical gardens in Las Cruces, NM. It's cheap to get everyone in, and it's fun to walk around there. I think the kids will enjoy it, too, because it'll get them out of the house. Plus, Erin loves flowers, and is fascinated by how different the plants are here than they were in Georgia, so this would be good for her. We can actually learn the names of some of these things!
Sunday, we'll probably get the kids all dressed up, do a little egg hunt in the backyard, and eat chicken and dumplings. It's become my standby holiday meal. It's cheap, I'm good at making it, and there's always plenty. You can't beat that.
Well, that's our week. I'll take pics and post them throughout. I'll try to get some of Erin's school, definitely a lot of the botanical gardens, and Easter.
Tomorrow, we have the parent-teacher conference at Erin's school. Of course, there won't be much to discuss since she's only been a student there for a week and an half, but we can tie up the few loose ends which remain. We can also figure out what this Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of Texas is. She's supposed to learn it since they do it every morning along with the one to the US flag.
Thursday is extra exciting. Thak has an appointment at a technical school here in El Paso to get registered for the first of his courses which will ultimately culminate in him being ASE certified. ASE is Automotive Service Excellence. It's basically a professional mechanic's license in the civilian market. We don't know how long ASE certification takes, but we figure it can't be more than two years. Two years is what we have for him to do this, so we're going to get on board as quick as possible. If he gets everything squared away, he will begin his classes on April 21. Like I said, I don't know yet when he will graduate, but we'll find that out soon. It's going to be hectic for us as long as he's in school since he'll be working his usual long hours, and going to classes at night, and the school is on the other side of town, but we'll get through it. We always do. This is a big investment in our future. If he gets his ASE certification, there is no doubt that he will get out of the Army two years from now. There is still great demand for certified mechanics almost everywhere, so this is a great step toward insuring that when his ETS date comes around, there will be no need to visit the re-enlistment NCO.
Friday, Thak signs in, and officially becomes a Ft. Bliss soldier. He won't begin in-processing until Monday, and will go to his unit the following week. Then, and only then, will we find out what this place is going to be like. Actually, it will be August before we find out what it's really like, because in August, his brigade stands up, and he'll go to his battalion, and the motorpool thereof, and finally figure out just what it is that he'll be doing. He could be a generator shop foreman, he could be a motor sergeant, he could be a platoon sergeant. We don't know yet, and it'll be August before we find out. Friday gets us one step closer, though.
This weekend is Easter, and on Saturday, if the weather is nice, I'm trying to talk Thak into going to the botanical gardens in Las Cruces, NM. It's cheap to get everyone in, and it's fun to walk around there. I think the kids will enjoy it, too, because it'll get them out of the house. Plus, Erin loves flowers, and is fascinated by how different the plants are here than they were in Georgia, so this would be good for her. We can actually learn the names of some of these things!
Sunday, we'll probably get the kids all dressed up, do a little egg hunt in the backyard, and eat chicken and dumplings. It's become my standby holiday meal. It's cheap, I'm good at making it, and there's always plenty. You can't beat that.
Well, that's our week. I'll take pics and post them throughout. I'll try to get some of Erin's school, definitely a lot of the botanical gardens, and Easter.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
House phone
So I subscribed to Vonage during Thak's 3rd tour, after we ran up a few cell bills which rivaled the car payment, and then never got it set up properly, so we weren't using it.
We got here, and Thak decided to go ahead and try to set it up himself. Of course, it took him all of two seconds, and it worked fine. I just got on with them and got us a local El Paso phone number. We'll probably go ahead and send out a mass text to everyone tomorrow with our new home number, but just in case I forget to do it, if you want out home number, next time you talk to me or Thak, ask for it. Our cell numbers are still unchanged, and will remain so until we have gotten all our deposits back from our place in Georgia, and finalized everything with our move. Probably sometime next week, or the one after, we'll be changing our cell numbers. Look for a text about that also.
We got here, and Thak decided to go ahead and try to set it up himself. Of course, it took him all of two seconds, and it worked fine. I just got on with them and got us a local El Paso phone number. We'll probably go ahead and send out a mass text to everyone tomorrow with our new home number, but just in case I forget to do it, if you want out home number, next time you talk to me or Thak, ask for it. Our cell numbers are still unchanged, and will remain so until we have gotten all our deposits back from our place in Georgia, and finalized everything with our move. Probably sometime next week, or the one after, we'll be changing our cell numbers. Look for a text about that also.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
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