Top Gun has been TDY for 2 weeks and gets home late, late tonight. He went to a 2 week trial course. It's suppose to help him be better in the court room. It's great training. He was able to participate in a few moot courts. But we miss him here!
I'm about to head to his office for a potluck lunch. I ask myself why am I going if he won't even be there, especially when I am so busy lately?? It's just a sign of how much I love the people he works with and I have a good time hanging out with them too. They do these kind of lunches fairly regularly and I think they are great!
Friday, September 24, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Homeschooling!!
A reader asked if there are a lot of families homeschooling. I will not use the word 'a lot' but I will say I was surprised when I found out how many families homeschooling their children that are military. Five of my friends at this base alone home school their children. Two of those families are JAG's. I am sure there are several more that I don't know. There are a lot of great reasons but one that seems to be consistent is just that, the consistency of their children's schooling. Moving a lot can be difficult for kids and if they're homeschooling it can be the one thing that stays constant. That is the favorable argument at least.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Once we interview how long til we find out??
There is a board that meets once every 2 months or so. Depending on when you interview during those 2 months will determine how long you have to wait to find out if you've been accepted into the JAG (contingent on you passing a bar exam). Unfortunately we don't know any more specifics on when the board meets. So say you interview a week after the board met you won't find out until 2 months later. But say you interview and the board meets the following week, well then you're a lucky one and could find out within a matter of weeks.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
When can you move, # of days AF gives you to move
Stacey,
Technically, you could move to your base as soon as your husband leaves for COT, however most don't move to the base until after COT or during JASCO (at least that is what our recruiter said). Because you'll have a few months between COT obviously you'll get to your base before JASCO but for those like Top Gun who did COT and JASCO back to back moving during/after JASCO is more precedent. I moved to our base while Top Gun was at JASCO b/c school for my kids was starting up. There is a down side to not moving together all at once though.
When you move you get up to 10 days to find and move into your new housing. But once you sign the lease you're expected to start working. Which means after not seeing Top Gun for 9 weeks, he met up with us at our new base on a Friday night and was at work on Monday morning. If we had all moved here together, we would of had up to 10 days to find a home. Some work the system. They'll find a house but ask the renter to not have them sign the lease until the 10th day so they can have all the days off. But say you get a house on base and there's one available immediately, then you'll sign a lease and have to start reporting to work even if you only used 2 days. The key phrase is you get "up to" 10 days.
As far as how many days you get to actually move to your new location, well that is determined on how far you live currently from your new base and if you move yourself. You get something like 350 miles a day to travel (don't quote me on the 350. I will find a definite answer for you) We had the Air Force fly us out but if we would have driven ourselves from California to Texas then we would of been given something like 6 days to get here. Then the 10 days would have started from our arrival date.
As far as base housing wait lists, just call up the base housing office and ask them. I was given what number down on the list we were and the odds of us getting a home weeks before I arrived to the base. You'll have to fax them a copy of your orders and what date you'll be there and they'll place you on the waiting list.
Technically, you could move to your base as soon as your husband leaves for COT, however most don't move to the base until after COT or during JASCO (at least that is what our recruiter said). Because you'll have a few months between COT obviously you'll get to your base before JASCO but for those like Top Gun who did COT and JASCO back to back moving during/after JASCO is more precedent. I moved to our base while Top Gun was at JASCO b/c school for my kids was starting up. There is a down side to not moving together all at once though.
When you move you get up to 10 days to find and move into your new housing. But once you sign the lease you're expected to start working. Which means after not seeing Top Gun for 9 weeks, he met up with us at our new base on a Friday night and was at work on Monday morning. If we had all moved here together, we would of had up to 10 days to find a home. Some work the system. They'll find a house but ask the renter to not have them sign the lease until the 10th day so they can have all the days off. But say you get a house on base and there's one available immediately, then you'll sign a lease and have to start reporting to work even if you only used 2 days. The key phrase is you get "up to" 10 days.
As far as how many days you get to actually move to your new location, well that is determined on how far you live currently from your new base and if you move yourself. You get something like 350 miles a day to travel (don't quote me on the 350. I will find a definite answer for you) We had the Air Force fly us out but if we would have driven ourselves from California to Texas then we would of been given something like 6 days to get here. Then the 10 days would have started from our arrival date.
As far as base housing wait lists, just call up the base housing office and ask them. I was given what number down on the list we were and the odds of us getting a home weeks before I arrived to the base. You'll have to fax them a copy of your orders and what date you'll be there and they'll place you on the waiting list.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Tiffany's Q's...food allowance, preschool, base services
The food allowance each month is for the military member only. Ours is about $250 so no it doesn't cover our family's food needs for a month. When moving you receive per diem for food each day of travel and that amount of money exceeds what you'll actually spend on food for your family unless you eat at Cheesecake Factory for all 3 meals! (Mmmm, I love Cheesecake!)
As far as restaurants on base, there are only fast food type places to eat on base. Some bases don't have any restaurants or places to eat at all. We are located at a training base with thousands of airmen so they need to have eating facilities on base for them. There are cafeteria's for the trainee's but we are not allowed to eat there, too bad b/c it would be cheap. ;)
As far as preschool goes there isn't anything at our base that is free. They have organized playgroups and day care options but at our base there is no preschool program. However, the elementary on base offers free Pre-K 4 but that is ran through the state. I hope this info helps!
As far as restaurants on base, there are only fast food type places to eat on base. Some bases don't have any restaurants or places to eat at all. We are located at a training base with thousands of airmen so they need to have eating facilities on base for them. There are cafeteria's for the trainee's but we are not allowed to eat there, too bad b/c it would be cheap. ;)
As far as preschool goes there isn't anything at our base that is free. They have organized playgroups and day care options but at our base there is no preschool program. However, the elementary on base offers free Pre-K 4 but that is ran through the state. I hope this info helps!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The Colonel's Wife
The head boss of the JAG office on base is the SJA (Staff Judge Advocate). Ours is a Colonel and his wife is, well, unique. Some people don't know how to read her because she's a self proclaimed anti-social lady. I happen to go to the same church as her too. We share a passion though and that is we both love to be active. We even did an adventure race together a couple months ago. We biked, canoed, and ran together. It was a blast!! We're doing a bike race this Saturday morning too. Anyways, she doesn't throw parties or do get togethers like apparently quite a few SJA wives do but she is GREAT. Why you may ask? Because she watched my kids for a night while Top Gun and I escaped for 24 hours. It was just what we needed! See, I told you she is the best. Who needs monthly socials when she'll watch my kids for an overnighter?!?! Generous lady indeed.
Speaking of the need for our escape, Top Gun has been working crazy hours lately. Whenever they are set to go to trial or have a court martial be prepared for your spouse to work big firm hours. He would come home for dinner and then leave around 9:00p.m. and not get home til the wee hours of the morning. One night he got home at 6:45a.m. the following day and left for work at 7:25 a.m. He has lost weight b/c he hasn't even stopped to take his lunch break and as mentioned isn't getting enough sleep. In the past year this is the first time it has been this bad. Normally when he has courts it doesn't take so much out of him for so long. The late hours normally only last a week at most. But this case kept dragging. A lot of it has to do with his perfectionist attitude too if you ask me. But we got away and it was what both of us needed. At our hotel while we were swimming a stranger asked us if we were on our honeymoon...hah....we've been married for 8 years. It was a compliment b/c we felt like we were on our honeymoon!!
Speaking of the need for our escape, Top Gun has been working crazy hours lately. Whenever they are set to go to trial or have a court martial be prepared for your spouse to work big firm hours. He would come home for dinner and then leave around 9:00p.m. and not get home til the wee hours of the morning. One night he got home at 6:45a.m. the following day and left for work at 7:25 a.m. He has lost weight b/c he hasn't even stopped to take his lunch break and as mentioned isn't getting enough sleep. In the past year this is the first time it has been this bad. Normally when he has courts it doesn't take so much out of him for so long. The late hours normally only last a week at most. But this case kept dragging. A lot of it has to do with his perfectionist attitude too if you ask me. But we got away and it was what both of us needed. At our hotel while we were swimming a stranger asked us if we were on our honeymoon...hah....we've been married for 8 years. It was a compliment b/c we felt like we were on our honeymoon!!
Friday, August 6, 2010
www.ahrn.com / Military only housing search website
Congrats to Amy and Tiffany for getting their assignments this week! I remember looking on the Internet for days trying to find out all the information I could on our current city. Each base has their own official military website. Essentially it's the name of the base followed by .af.mil/
Tiffany here is Kirtland's
Amy here is Offutt's
Also, if you are contemplating living off base there is a GREAT website only available to military families to search for housing. You have to register but then you'll be able to search homes for rent/sale in your new area. The website is www.ahrn.com Remember all homes listed are also owned by military members.
****Another website from a reader is http://MilitaryForSalebyOwner.net
Tiffany here is Kirtland's
Amy here is Offutt's
Also, if you are contemplating living off base there is a GREAT website only available to military families to search for housing. You have to register but then you'll be able to search homes for rent/sale in your new area. The website is www.ahrn.com Remember all homes listed are also owned by military members.
****Another website from a reader is http://MilitaryForSalebyOwner.net
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)