Option 1: Brandon gets a job in airport operations
We actually came really close to having this option pan out. Right before Christmas Brandon applied for a great airport management position. He was fully qualified for the job and the pay was awesome. The only downside was that it was with the South Valley Regional Airport (AKA Airport #2) in West Jordan - as in the West Jordan that is right next to Kearns which is where I grew up. Now I have nothing against Kearns or West Jordan, but I wasn't exactly doing cartwheels at the idea of moving back to my home town. I kept saying, "I'm willing to move ANYWHERE in the country, and I'm possibly going to move back to where I grew up? Heavenly Father really has a crazy sense of humor doesn't he?"
But the job was a great opportunity and the pay was great so I was willing to entertain the idea. Brandon and I started looking at housing options in the area, and I tried to ignore the high prices and the fact that I already had memories associated with every neighborhood.
All through January we had high hopes for that job. Brandon did really well in the interview and rocked the little test that they had him take. But alas, it wasn't meant to be. The city decided to promote from within and Brandon didn't get the job. They did mention that they would be hiring more people within 3 to 6 months and that he was welcome to apply again - but we really didn't want to wait that long.
Brandon had also applied to similar positions throughout the country, but hadn't heard anything back yet.
Option 2: Brandon gets a job with the FAA
Ever since Brandon decided to get out of the Army people have been asking him what kind of a job he wanted. And our standard answer has always been, "Go work for the FAA." It made a lot of sense, this is what he wanted to do before the Army and now that he had Army experience and Veteran's Status he should be a shoo-in, right?
He applied for many jobs with the FAA and probably had a pretty high chance of getting one. However, any chance of getting hired by the FAA in the near future disappeared with President Trump's Executive Order for a hiring freeze in every Federal Department. Guess what that first F in FAA stands for?
So for all intents and purposes we aren't depending on a job offer from the FAA any time soon.
Yeah, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is affected by the hiring freeze too. Thanks Trump.
Option 4: I find a good paying, full time job and Brandon stays home with the kids permanently
This option isn't entirely off the table yet. But it seems a little premature to consider Brandon's career options at a complete dead-end. His talents, combined with his Veterans Status, mean that he can get a good paying job. It's just a matter of finding the right one. And unfortunately I don't make enough money to support a family of six. Maybe in a few years, after I have some more experience, I could do it, but for now Brandon is probably able to make more than me.
Plus I can probably find a job anywhere. So it makes sense to find a specialized position for Brandon first and then I can find a flexible job nearby.
Option 5: Brandon goes to flight school for a third time, and gets commercially rated in either airplanes, helicopters, or both.
Which brings us to Option 5. Six months ago if you had told me that Brandon and I were seriously considering going back to flight school AGAIN I would have laughed in your face. Flight school makes absolutely no sense because it really doesn't help us out. Sure Brandon is within just a few hours of getting his commercial airplane rating. But that doesn't mean that he can go out and fly 747's for Delta as soon as he finishes it. It just means that he can fly airplanes and get paid. He would still have to get a Multi Engine rating and build up at least 500 more hours before he could even think about applying for a small airline. And assuming he was able to do all that he would get paid about $16,000 his first year. Um no.
Which brings us to Option 5. Six months ago if you had told me that Brandon and I were seriously considering going back to flight school AGAIN I would have laughed in your face. Flight school makes absolutely no sense because it really doesn't help us out. Sure Brandon is within just a few hours of getting his commercial airplane rating. But that doesn't mean that he can go out and fly 747's for Delta as soon as he finishes it. It just means that he can fly airplanes and get paid. He would still have to get a Multi Engine rating and build up at least 500 more hours before he could even think about applying for a small airline. And assuming he was able to do all that he would get paid about $16,000 his first year. Um no.
And yet that's where we were. We figured he could get his commercial rating while waiting for the hiring freeze to end. Brandon started talking to people about how to get back into flight school. He discovered that the Post 9-11 GI bill would pay for flight school which was good, because I was NOT going to put another cent of our own money into paying for flight school. He looked into getting any of his helicopter flight school training to count, but unfortunately it wouldn't. Still it would give him a leg up if he decided to do helicopter training.
We figured he could do his training at the Ogden Airport and we'd continue to live with his parents. Everything seemed to be lining up nicely.
Except there was one problem.
We weren't very excited about this plan.
I work up on Friday February 3rd with a feeling of sadness. I wondered if maybe we'd used up all our miracles back when Brandon was trying to get selected as a Warrant Officer. Who were we to expect to continue to be lucky? I started to think that it was time to face the music and just settle for whatever we could get.
At that moment a powerful thought came into my mind. I know that it was Heavenly Father telling me something through the Holy Ghost. The thought was, "miracles have not ceased."
This reminded me of two scriptures from the Book of Mormon:
Moroni 7:29 And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men.
and
The thought and the scriptures gave me hope and comfort. I still had no idea what we were going to do, but I did know that miracles had not ceased. We hadn't used up all our miracles. There was no such thing as using too many miracles. We could still work to make our dreams come true.
That night Brandon and I sat down for a long talk about our plans for the future. Brandon made hot chocolate and we started talking. We didn't really had a set goal for the conversation other than to try to figure out something. At some point I tossed out the idea of becoming an Aircraft Mechanic. I brought it up because it seemed like 80% of the available aviation related jobs were mechanic jobs. I wondered if Brandon was interested in getting his A&P (Airframe and Powerplant) Certification so he could be a mechanic. I'd asked Brandon this question before and he'd never really responded one way or the other. But this time he said, "Yeah, I've kind of always wanted to get that certification."
And then we pulled out our phones to see if Google could tell us anything about what it took to get the certification. We learned Brandon's best bet was to go to a college. We learned that there were only two places in Utah where he could do it. One was the Salt Lake Community College. I was kind of okay with the idea of going there - even though I still didn't like the idea of living in the same area where I grew up and playing insane prices for housing.
The other school was Utah State University which elicited an immediate "oh heck no" from both of us. I may have also involuntarily shuddered. There was no way we were letting Utah State have one more dime of our money - even if the GI Bill was paying for it.
For a minute we seemed like we were back to square one. But Brandon said, "I wonder what we can find in Idaho." Now that may seem like a crazy thought, but you have to realize that Brandon and I have always liked Idaho. It's been at the very top of our list for where we want to live. We like the rural atmosphere. We like the low cost of living. We like that it's close to family. We like that it's pretty. We like that it's similar to Utah - but different enough to be interesting. So looking at options in Idaho made perfect sense.
Lo and behold Idaho State University in Pocatello Idaho had an amazing Airframe and Powerplant Certification Program. And suddenly we were excited about our plan and our future. For the first time in months we felt in control of our future again. We weren't waiting for the Army to make a decision, or some hiring manager to call us. We were making plans and we were able to act on them.
We started calling this plan this "Rich Purnell Maneuver." This is a reference to a part in the Book/Movie The Martian. Here's a quick synopsis for those of you who haven't read the book or seen the movie. All the scientists are trying to figure out a way to save Mark Watney who was left on Mars by accident. They have several plans that either don't work or will take too much time. A low ranking employee comes up with an idea to use the spacecraft which is bringing the other 5 astronauts home to go back to get Mark Watney. Here's the scene where he explains his plan.
It's a risky plan - especially for the other 5 astronauts. It will extend their time in space by nearly two years. But ultimately its the plan they choose.
Brandon and I saw some similarities to our plan. There would be five family members affected by Brandon's decision to go back to school. The certification program would take two years - that's two years that we wouldn't be able to settle down permanently. And it's a little risky, but it's also worth it.
Over the past three weeks we've worked on making our plan a reality. Brandon applied to Idaho State and was accepted. He got his Post 9-11 GI Bill paperwork done. That will take care of tuition, books, and give us a housing allowance. On Monday we took a road trip up to Pocatello so he could meet with his adviser in person, and so we could take a tour of the campus.
Brandon had let the our tour guide know that his family was coming on the tour. I think she was expecting some high school kid with his parents. So she might have been a little surprised to see a married, 30 something year old with four little kids. She didn't let that phase her though and she gave an excellent tour of the campus. Here we are in front of our new mascot - the Bengal Tiger.
We had a lot of fun seeing the campus. The kids were excited about the bowling alley and the movie theater in the student center. Brandon was excited about the climbing wall in the fitness building. I'm excited about the equipment rental at the Outdoor Recreation Center.
Brandon really wont spend much time on the main part of ISU's campus. His classes will all be at the Pocatello Airport. After we finished our tour we went out to the airport to see what that is like. Here's Brandon in front of the building. (He was really excited about being there, but his annoyance at the cold is the expression that won out on his face in this picture.)
A lady hooked the kids up with some coloring books and colored pencils. Then she took Brandon on a tour of the facility and gave him an idea of what the program will be like. It's a very hands on instruction program that will take place from 8:00 to 3:00 every day. Brandon will have to learn and demonstrate competency in various skills. The first three semesters will focus on airframe (the outside of the plane) components. The last two semesters will focus on power plant (the engine) components.
Derrick spent most of the time looking out the window at the "beautiful airplanes." I think that's a sentiment shared by everyone in this family.
Oh and I probably should mention the little Yellowstone plan that I brought up on Facebook last week. See we really had a sixth option for what to do with our lives. Only this option was so absurd that I didn't put it on our list. That option was Travel around the county and be youtubers. This idea got cooked up at the end of our perfect Tenneesee/Kentucky Road trip last fall. That trip had been so wonderful that we were trying to figure out how to do it permanently. Brandon and I semi-seriously promised each other that if we didn't have real jobs by the next summer then we would just get an RV and spend the summer traveling. I never really considered the fact that we might not have jobs by the summer, but surprisingly that's what things are looking like now.
I'm not sold on the Youtube idea, but I still kind of like the perpetual vacation idea. And so as I was applying for jobs in Pocatello I decided I might as well apply to work in Yellowstone for the summer. Xanterra Resorts had accounting positions available that are identical to what I do right now for Snow Basin. I figured I could work there and we could have an epic summer living in Yellowstone as a family before heading to Pocatello for school in the fall. So I applied and heard back a few days later. I'm totally qualified for the job and if I was single I'd have it in the bag. However, things are a little different when a family is involved. If I was single - I could just live in the dormitories that they have for employees. But since I have kids I'd have to live in an RV at one of the RV spots. Those get assigned out to returning employees first. So I've been waiting to hear back if there is even a spot available for me. Right now it's looking like a no - which is kind of okay considering Brandon and I don't even own an RV yet. I'm not giving up on the job, but I probably should start focusing on Pocatello anyway.
Even if the Yellowstone plan doesn't work out I'm happy that I even considered it. Less than a month ago I was feeling like maybe Brandon and I should quit dreaming and just settle for the first semi-decent job that came our way. Instead I was reminded that miracles still do happen and that we still can make big plans.
It's good to be excited again. I'm looking forward to putting this plan into action. And of course I'll keep you posted along the way.
