PCS update #2

Very cool - they sent a mobile workshop to build size specific crates so our oversized, delicate items won't get damaged! Didn't expect that!

DH survived ODS!

Well, DH is now in Florida at his first day of work, which is not really saying much since he is there for one day then received permission to fly back here to help me drive down there.

I wasn't even at ODS and it was a huge learning experience for me. We didn't really get to talk much for the first 3 weeks he was there, but as time went on they got liberty and we were able to talk. He did a lot of cool things like pretend to jump off sinking ships and practice fire fighting. He spent a gadzillion dollars on required uniforms and seems to have made a lot of really great friends. Everyone seems super positive and friendly and DH is just in love with the Jacksonville area. I was really mad at first when we got stationed there because it wasn't on our list, but it turns out DH will be at Jacksonville and Mayport and he loves the area so far. I'm excited to see it! Hopefully the hotel in Mayport will not give us any trouble. They had us fax over Charlie's vet records and they were pitching an argument about Charlie being 41 or 42 pounds and their limit is 40. DH has been trying to get a hold of them for a week now no see what is going on and they haven't called back, so... Whatever! It's their problem. :) I wouldn't mind getting an unavailability waver and then staying in a super nice, pet friendly hotel in town (although the convenience of being on base is gone, at that point).


Right now... The packers are here!!! My first PCS! There is a crew of about 4 people that are doing EVERYTHING. it's pretty nice but it's also frustrating because I want to help but I can't really do much! Last time we moved I did all the packing and my back hated me for weeks afterwards. Im sure at the end of the day, I will really appreciate not having to do anything.

Charlie's in his crate in the car so he doesn't get away, I'm tucked away at the moment upstairs giving the packers room to move and all is going well! Hopefully more updates later!

ODS

Well, DH left for ODS (Officer Development School) on Saturday.  He hasn't been able to talk much but from what he's said, he really seems to enjoy it.  I think it'll be a great experience for him.  His roommate sounds super nice and I'm excited to hear more about it when he gets back.  Other people who are finishing up the school now said he won't be able to call me probably until next week.

People keep asking me if I'm okay.  The truth is, I'm fine being by myself.  Whats weird is seeing his shoes, clothes he left in his hamper and the garbage!!!  DH always took the garbage out.  It's weird doing the sleep/eat/work/eat/rest/eat/sleep routine by myself when for so long it hasn't been that way.  Although, I'm looking back to my time at grad school and I guess I did this for 2 whole years!  That seems like forever ago.

DH's time off was approved to come home between ODS and NJS (Naval Justice School).  It was originally in his orders to fly straight to Florida from ODS, but they cleared him to come home.  We'll have to pay out of pocket for his airfare back to Illinois but I'll be funded for our trip to Florida (since he's already been funded technically through his airplane ticket to Jacksonville).  We'll probably walk away with a little pocket money from the whole thing. 

ODS graduation is next month, and I'm hoping to fly out to it but I'm not sure what's going on with me. I found out I have to have my wisdom teeth taken out and I may have to do it after I'm done with work after Dec 8.  I'm afraid to buy a plane ticket for Dec 14-15 if my gums are going to be bleeding profusely.  We'll see.

We also found out that for the month off between schools he'll actually be stationed in Mayport. Then, in April, depending on where there are spots open, we could be living in actual Jacksonville or Mayport.  Which is different than the original thought that we'd be in Jacksonville for the month in between and then permanently in April. More changes....weeee... (not)


All in all, things have been fine here aside from some bizarre scheduling taking place at work.  DH seems to be doing well.   Only 31 more days to go! 

Got the orders!

DH got his orders today.  Looks as if it's written in gibberish.  Will probably spend a good chunk of the day tomorrow setting up accounts and deciphering what everything says and means.  I think I have a pretty good idea behind all the policies and allowances we'll be eligible for, but we will update the blog when we have a better idea!

No choice is our choice. We're Florida bound.

Well, we found out yesterday what our options are in terms of bases to live at/by.  We get to choose from Pensacola or Jacksonville, both of which you may notice was not on our list of places to live.  I was pretty disappointed yesterday because I geared myself up to live at any of those other six places.  I am better now but am still struggling with change.  I can deal with change if I know about it in advance and have time to psych myself up for it, but this came out of nowhere.  We were sure we'd get somewhere in our top six, but I guess not.  They want DH to do some prosecution work instead of just general legal services to enlisted folks.  He'll get some great experience and I am coming to terms with it. 

Of course, I have to.  We have to give them our choice by Monday.  They sure don't give you a lot of time!

I think we're learning towards Jacksonville.  We've found nicer houses and we think maybe because it's a bigger area that there will be more to do and more people around our age.  I'm looking at houses right now because we don't want to get an apartment.  Our townhouse now has spoiled us.  It certainly isn't the best thing on the planet (in fact, we wouldn't even buy it on our own) but there's no way we could go back down to an apartment. There are some really nice apartment complexes though, in Jacksonville.  Like.... super nice ones.

I found a house that I'm really hoping will work out, though.  It's a little outside of Jacksonville in a smaller town which'll be nice.  The best part: it has a freakin' awesome pool, with a water fall, and a cabana outside!  The owner still pays for all pool and yard maintenance fees.  AND it's within our housing allowance so we wouldn't have to pay anything extra.  I also found an INCREDIBLE, HUGE house but it's around 1800 a month so we'd still have to pay about 450 and probably a ton in utilities.  I'd totally get this house too but we don't really need a huge house for just the two of us (and of course the dog)

So this house that I found is so cute, I think it'd be perfect for us because it's 3 bedrooms, has dark wood (laminate, but it'll suffice) floors, the pool, kitchen and bathrooms are ceramic tile, and it's owned by a military family so they know our situation, too.  It's big enough for us to make the extra 3rd room into a computer room or into, IN A COUPLE YEARS a baby room.  We don't know how long we'll be there (prob. 2-3 years) so that room could be just about for everything.  We don't really have to worry about schools cause we won't be there that long but it does have good schools from what I've read.  It's not a huge house which will decrease our utilities too which is nice.  Don't want to get my hopes up but it says the house is available starting 11/2011 so maybe they'd gladly take a quick offer for a December move in date.  We'll see!

I'll probably sit on the computer looking at places all day cause that's how I am currently coping with moving to a new place. Knowing what's out there makes me less anxious and I can deal with it better.  Plus, it's better than watching KU get their butts kicked by KSU. Ew.

Papers submitted

DH submitted all his paperwork today and he was told everything looks good.  They should be in touch "shortly" to discuss duty stations.  If I've learned anything, it's that "shortly" can mean tomorrow or in 2 weeks!  Hopefully it'll be sooner rather than later. My mind is racing with the different situations that we could come across.  This time tomorrow we can be planning our move to Italy or Japan.  Or, we could be planning our move to Virginia or Connecticut.  Regardless, in about 2 months we will be moving. Again.

I'm pretty sick of moving, but at least this move is paid for by someone other than ourselves.  In the past 7-8 years, I think we totaled our moves between us at something ridiculous like 18 times.  I realized how funny it was then, that we chose a life that would move us around every 2 years.  Of course, DH only has a 4 year commitment and then 4 years in in-active reserves, so we don't have to do this for the rest of our lives.  But who knows, we may love it!

Until we get more info, we're trying to live life as usual.  DH is at the dentist and I'm watching the Good Wife on DVR .  Currently debating switching from Netflix to Blockbuster.  Also thinking about the stuff I have to buy at the store next week and when I'm going to get DH's birthday present.  I'm also researching military significant other boards and seeing what other people are saying.  They've all been loads of information, but I'm still trying to find stuff that more directly relates to officers rather than enlisted folks.

Also thinking about how glad I don't have to fill out all the paperwork DH does :)

Pre-JAG

In this blog, I'll refer to hubby as "DH".  I've learned that for security reasons I should probably avoid specific details about names and such.  DH is the term military significant others use for "Dear Husband".

I'll start off with a little of our history.  After graduating from law school, the economy was so terrible and lawyers were being laid off left and right, along with the rest of the country.  People who kept their jobs weren't leaving them, so after applying to a billion places, one of the only places to offer DH a lucrative job opportunity was the government.  DH accepted a job as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) with Social Security.  On the east coast, this is a pretty prestigious opportunity, but apparently people in the midwest haven't gotten the memo, but that's aside from the point.

Regardless, it paid well, had decent hours, and gave him the opportunity to really see how our government works.  After his two years, where he worked as a claims representative (the person you see when you go into a SS office), as an attorney in the Office of General Counsel (OGC), as an operations supervisor in Champaign, IL (where he supervised claims representatives; he joined me down in Champaign for a while while I was going to graduate school), as a disability policy specialist (he worked in a regional office where he analyzed data and policy and provided support to field offices), and as a group supervisor in a hearings office (managed the caseload for decision writings in the hearings office), he was guaranteed a job offer at one of the spots he did a rotation at.  We thought he was definitely a shoe-in at OGC because he did really well there, made a lot of friends within the office and had a law degree.  He had a great, well-rounded view of the system at that point and thought that his experiences would make him an asset to the office. 

Within weeks of our wedding (October 10, 2010), they ultimately decided to send him to Hammond, Indiana to be a supervisor in an office.  No law job. No law experience. Nothing even remotely related to his law degree.   But, we had no other job offers for him so he had to take it.  It was a still great pay and great benefits, so this was going to be a stepping stone to other things in the future.  This also meant we had to move from Chicago to Indiana in like, 42 seconds because we had this thing called a wedding coming up. 

Equally as awesome, then they told us that he actually wasn't experienced enough to take the job there, so we were going to have to move to a different place.  They decided that sending him to the northern suburbs of Illinois for six months and then down to the southern suburbs of Chicago permanently was a better idea.    How are we supposed to find a place to live, you may ask?  We settled where we are now because it was midway between the two places.  DH continued to look for jobs but was content with where he was.  He enjoyed working with all of the employees and did find the job rewarding when he helped people that actually needed it.

DH applied for the Air Force in November of 2010 to be a Judge Advocate General (JAG), which is basically a lawyer for the Air Force.  We found out in January of 2011 that he was not chosen, but was told he can reapply for consideration, which he did.  We waited and waited and then found out that they decided not to choose anyone for that board.  He considered the Navy and applied for JAG in February or March of 2011.  For both Air Force and Navy, had had to fill out an initial application and go in for an interview.  The two interviews were vary different but he had a special feeling about the Navy one and told me that he thought he nailed it.  I had good feelings about it too.

On April 20th of 2011, we got notice that he had been chosen as an alternate.  We were super excited but tried our very hardest not to get out of control with it because there was still a possibility that he wouldn't get in.  We dodged questions left and right from friends and family because we couldn't give them any answers.  We knew absolutely nothing about the process other than what was told to us in very brief emails or phone calls. 

He got in touch with his recruiter in early May.  He had kept in contact with his recruiter and was very diligent about completing everything on time, if not early.  We wanted to make sure he had the best chance of making it past the alternate stage.  I contacted some people on Facebook that I saw had similar situations and they helped with information as best as they could, but each situation is very different.  I also spent hours on the Navy's facebook page, on message boards and found any little information I could.

DH was coming in as a Direct Appointment which is more competitive than the other option, students coming out of law school, because they only let in like, 5-6 people a year.  He had to start preparing all the paperwork for the medical review to make sure he didn't have any underlying diseases and whatnot.  DH  had a knee injury in high school, so DH spent the next two months trying to get in touch with his doctors from back home to say that there were no longer any records regarding his knee surgery.  It took forever, but he finally got them and it didn't seem to pose a problem for the Navy because it didn't impact his performance at all.

There were more forms for him to fill out in July and he took the physical around then also.    He had to be there at five in the morning and was there with people who were enlisting.  He was the only officer that was there that day.  He had to fill out a bunch of forms and then had to do drug and alcohol testing.  He then saw an actual doctor and performed a typical physical exam.  He had to take a hearing and vision test and do some blood work.  Then he had to basically get naked and they measured his height, weight and sent him into anther room where he waited for a mass (20 guys) flexibility and strength test. The whole process took him about 7 hours.

In about 2 weeks, his recruiter got a letter saying he had physically qualified.  They send everything down at that point to say that he'd physically qualified.  It's mid-August at this point.  He filled out some additional paperwork.  Then we waited. and waited. and waited.

The next thing we heard was in early September.  A person from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) contacted him about an in-person interview about his security clearances.  They scheduled it very quickly and he completed it that week.   I had been in occasional contact with a woman whose husband was a student alternate and she told us that shortly after her husband completed the OPM interview that he had been offered a commission.  This kept us hopeful, but once again, we didn't want to freak out with excitement quite yet.

Then came October 3rd.  DH had received a couple of phone calls from his recruiter but he was at work so he couldn't answer right away.  He called back, and it was then that he found out he had been offered a commission.  He obviously accepted, and was sworn in on October 5th.

That brings us to the point we're at now.  This last Friday, October 14th, we received notice of 12 different places that are available for first tour JAGs. We had to rank our top six.  We stayed up until almost 1 am last night picking the places.  We were on travel websites, base housing websites, privatized military housing websites, rent.com, homes.com, etc, etc, etc and so on and so forth.  We looked up reviews of all the bases, looked at the cities websites, etc, etc, etc, and so on and so forth.

I've always wanted to go to Japan, one of the options, but I nixed that one after finding out that they keep your dog in quarantine for like 6 months upon arrival in Japan because they are a rabies free country and I guess that's the incubation period for rabies. The other choices were San Diego, CA, Bremerton, WA, Norfolk, VA, Pearl Harbor, HI, Groton, CT, Mayport, FL, Jacksonville, FL, Pensacola, FL, Naples, Italy, Washington DC, and Great Lakes, IL.   We also eliminated Great Lakes, IL because part of the reason we wanted to be in JAG was the opportunity to experience something different.

After hammering it out, we chose Naples, Pearl Harbor, San Diego, Mayport, Groton and Norfolk as our top six choices.  DH's going to submit his paperwork tomorrow, October 17th, and then it's a waiting game for him to receive his orders.  We've run through a million scenarios on our head about why they would either send us or not send us to any of those places.  But, in the end, it's where the Navy needs him most that matters.

DH will have to go to ODS (Officer Development School) for five weeks starting November 13th.  It's basically like a boot camp.  Then he has a break for about a month where we'll be moved to wherever our first tour is and DH will start his work there.  Then he'll return to Newport , RI for Naval Justice School (NJS) I can go with him to that one, but I can't go with him to ODS.  I'll stay here and continue working, with my last day being December 8.

The problem I'm currently dealing with is where we're going to be when he's at NJS.  I won't be able to work if I go with him for that whole time because it'll be hard to find a job I'll have to leave in 2-3 months.  I'm okay with not working.  The problem is that DH may have to stay in Officer's Quarters or some other Navy mandated place.  I can stay there too,  but they don't allow dogs.  I'm going to have a panic attack if I have to leave Charlie somewhere else while I'm in Newport.  I know wherever he is, he'll be loved and cared for, but I don't know how comfortable I am being a new city completely by myself all day, in a hotel with no dog and nothing of my own.  I really want to be able to stay in a an extended stay hotel that allow dogs.  There are plenty of places but they're all expensive.  The Navy gives us an allowance for housing (BAH) but since we basically move into our first tour location in December, that money will presumably go towards our place there.  I don't imagine that they give you two BAH, one for your tour location and one while you're in Newport.  DH obviously doesn't have to pay for wherever they put him during NJS, but if he chooses not to stay there (if that's even possible) I don't know if they'll give him an allowance to stay somewhere else.  I found a couple of vacation/temporary rental houses for about 1000-1300 a month that I wouldn't mind staying in (and we're not paying for housing, ourselves, anywhere at that point because we get the allowance) so it'd almost be like we're still paying rent here in IL, it's just for a house in Newport.  Plus, that's less than we're paying here anyway, but we'll see how that works out.  We still have to wait for his orders so we can get some more clarity from the situation.  

Until we get more information, we're kind of void of information.  This has been the worst part about the whole process.  I'm hoping that writing this blog will help us digest all the information and can serve as a tool to our friends and family who are curious about the process too.  I also hope that maybe it can help people that find themselves in similar situations in the future.  We weren't able to find much information and it made us kind of nervous not knowing what was coming next.  If we can help just one person ease their fears, I think that'd be really awesome.

I think that's about it for now.  We'll see what happens next.