More Details about Lots of Stuff

Hey it's time for another catch up post.  I feel like I've mentioned a few of these things either on this blog or on Facebook, but it's time to talk about all of them a little bit more. 

First up let's talk about the super big awesome news that I announced on Facebook last night.  

I got the Yellowstone job!!!!!!

At the end of my last post I talked about how I was fully qualified for the job, but that actually getting an offer depended on whether or not they had an RV spot for us.  It was looking like they didn't have a spot or that we wouldn't know for sure until April 1.  I pretty much gave up on the Yellowstone plan.  

I started applying for nice normal jobs in Pocatello with the plan that we'd move there as soon as I got a job or the kids finished school - whichever came first.  

On Sunday I fasted for help with finding a job.  I was hoping for some sort of job in Pocatello, but instead Heavenly Father has bigger plans for how my family is going to spend the summer.  On Tuesday I got a call from the accounting lady with Xanterra resorts in Yellowstone telling me that she'd been able to get an RV spot for me.  

I was so excited.  We are going to live in the Canyon Village Campground which is just across the street from the Canyon Village area where I will work in the controllers office.  Canyon Village is only a few miles away from the impressive Yellowstone Falls.  I was secretly hoping that I'd get assigned to this place.  I can't wait to go for evening walks along the canyon rim trail.  

I start right before Memorial Day which is perfect because that means the kids can finish up the school year here in Utah.  Though I will say that Charlotte was really looking forward to doing home school in Yellowstone if we'd been assigned a place that opened earlier. 

I'll work until the middle of August.  Then we'll have just enough time to get squared away in Pocatello in time for Brandon and the kids to start school.

Right now we have a lot of little things to work out.  The most important thing is finding an RV.  We have some that we'll look at on Saturday.  Once we have a home everything else should fall into place.  

I should probably address the whole, "do you really think your family can live in an RV for 2 1/2 months" question that I know you are asking.  Well I don't know if my family can do it, but I do know about 5 other families that have done it.  Back at Fort Rucker we had several friends who gave up their on-post housing to go live at the RV park on Fort Rucker.  At the time I both admired them and thought they were crazy.  I couldn't imagine living in a tiny space while dealing with the stress of flight school.  But we aren't in flight school anymore.  And now I'm thinking it would be pretty fun. And with all of Yellowstone as our back yard who can complain about living in a 25 foot home. 

Okay let's talk about other things.  

Life here in Utah is starting to feel normal. This house is actually starting to feel a little like home.  And I'm feeling a lot more like myself.  A large part of that is due to the fact that Brandon and I realized that I was probably super Vitamin D deficient and so I started taking vitamins.  That's helped a lot.  

I decided that I needed to take pictures of some of the little things going on around here. One day we will look back on this time and smile when we see these little moments. 

Here's Derrick playing with his train.  He loves to lay on the floor and watch the train drive by.

 Veronica LOVES her pumpkin shirt.  She wants to wear it just about every day.  She loves to yell, "Mom! Look! Pumpkin!"

 Here's a picture I took while we were getting a tour of the ISU campus.  The twins loved our tour guide and talked to her for most of the tour.

 When we were all done checking out the campus we checked into our hotel and changed into swimming suits.  We haven't swam since Veronica's birthday so we were all looking forward to swimming in the pool.

 I didn't take many pictures, but we had a lot of fun.  We were the only ones in there and it was really great to do whatever we wanted without worrying about over-cautious life guard blowing their whistles.

 On Tuesday we checked out of our hotel and then headed over to the Museum of Clean.  My mom and dad went here a year or two ago and they told me it was great and that we should go.  I was pretty skeptical, but I figured we might as well check it out.

Well, as much as it pains me to admit it, my parents were right.  This museum was amazing. The have a giant ark on display right in the lobby.

One of the museum workers took us on a tour.  He turned on this vacuum to suck all the dirt off the kids.

 My mom had told me about this and after I told the girls about it they started asking about going to the "Sucky museum."  Sucky is not the right way to describe this museum though.

 They had a whole little children area where the kids could play.  I was so surprised to see Veronica actually PLAYING with the toys.

 Lydia tidied up the whole doll house and was so proud of her work.

 The kids played with the toys for a long time and then we continued our tour.

 There were so many fun things to do.

 Our guide showed the girls this old fashioned scrubbing board and wringer.  They were able to wash socks and hang them on a clothes line.

 Everyone got a ride on this trashcan chair.

 We thought this re-purposed tub was cute.

 Derrick couldn't get enough of this pump that actually had water coming out of it.

 Here are the girls pretending to take baths in tubs.

 Downstairs the kids were able to try out floor buffing machines.

 They pretended to dive for sponges.

 Of course everyone wanted a turn to take their picture.

 Even Derrick wanted to do it.

 At one point the kids could dress up like chimney sweeps.

 So far we'd had a tour guide through all of this.  Then he let us go up to the third floor where the kids could play with some more hands on things.  We all loved this vacuum that sucked rags through a tube.

 Derrick and I had a lot of fun playing with it over and over again.

 Then it was back downstairs to play with the pump some more.

 Charlotte and Lydia went back to the wringer.

 Isn't this so cute.

 Derrick also loved this "game" where you sorted recycling and then pulled a lever to see it all fall out so you could sort it again.

 Charlotte built a pyramid.

 Lydia pretended to do laundry.

 We'd been in the museum for almost 3 hours which is probably a record for us.  The girls were back at the wringer again and we were all having a great time.

 When suddenly Lydia came running over to me with her finger bleeding. Charlotte had accidentally run it through the wringer.  The man at the front desk pulled out a first aid kit and we patched Lydia up as well as we could, but it was bleeding pretty bad.  It was a terrible way to ruin such a great morning. We were all kind of sad that it had to end that way.

Back in the car we drove over to a grocery store and Brandon ran inside to buy bigger band-aids, hydrogen peroxide, and neosporin.  He also bought bread and jelly and some treats for lunch.  He came back to the car and we had a quick in-the-car-lunch followed by a quick in-the-car-trauma assessment of Lydia's finger.

From what we'd seen of her finger in the museum Brandon and I were worried that we might have to include a trip to the hospital on this get-to-know-Pocatello weekend.  I was almost certain that her skin needed stitches.  Lydia did not like the idea of getting stitches so I said a quick prayer with her while Brandon went into the store.

When we took off the bandaid we were relieved to see that Lydia was "just" missing the top layer of her skin all around the fingernail area of her left index finger.  Since the skin was missing there wasn't any place to put stitches anyway.  The bones and muscles seemed fine so we just cleaned off the area with hydrogen peroxide (and lots of screaming from Lydia and Veronica who was freaked out by the whole thing) slathered the neosporin on and bandaged the whole thing up.

Over the next few days Lydia watched in amazement as her finger gradually got better.  She also was pretty happy about the fact that she got a box of baidaids that were just for her.  It's the little things that make kids happy.

Shifting gears again let's look at some pictures from my phone. These are from my commute to work. A few Fridays ago we had fresh snow fall over night and that meant there were TONS of people on the mountain.  There was a line of cars just to turn off of Trappers Loop onto Snow Basin Road.

 The cars snaked all the way up the mountain.  I think I was in line for something like 30 minutes.  Usually I can drive this part of the road in 5 minutes.

 When I finally got to the parking lot I was put in the lowest possible area.  There were cars all around me when I got to work, but they were all gone by the time I got done with work.

 One Saturday we went to the mall so the kids could ride the train there.  We were hanging out at the little kid playground when Ashley, my all time best friend since I was 9 years old, went walking by with her kids.  Remember Ashley's a fellow Army wife too.  She'd spent the last few years in North Carolina and Korea.  Both of us were so excited that we actually live in the same state again and can randomly run into each other.

 After hanging out with Ashley for a minute Brandon and I took the kids over to the train area.  Brandon had brought the kids here a few weeks earlier and had taken them on the train.  This time it was my turn to go on the train with the kids.

 Last Saturday I had to work (my counterpart needed Saturday off so he worked Tuesday for me which is how we were able to go to Pocatello for two days.)  Brandon took the kids to the Ogden Train Museum for the model train show.  They were also able to go into the train museum.  We have some many pictures of the kids in this caboose.

 The little train was running this time so they kids were super happy about that.

 The kids loved all the model trains that were on display.

 And they got to ride this little train for just $0.50 a ride.

 Isn't that the cutest thing ever?

 They were all really happy.

 After the museum Brandon took them to a car wash because the car was DIRTY. And then they rearranged the seats because some people were getting sick of sitting right by each other.

 On Sunday I wanted to take more pictures of the cute little things the kids do.  Here's Lydia with rocks that she picked up on a hike the day before. (Oh yeah, Brandon took the kids hiking too.)

 Veronica has been playing with these metal bobbins non stop for a least a week.  She loves to pretend that they are people and she'll have the baby kiss the mommy goodbye and things like that.

 Here's Derrick with all of his train stuff.  He loves trains so much.

 Charlotte is something  of a building genius.  She's always making something new.  This day she'd created a tree next to a river with clouds in the sky.

 And I felt like I might as well take a picture of myself.  I gained a little bit of weight over Christmas, but lately I've been really good about the foods I choose to eat.  And I eat vegetables every day.  It's starting to pay off.

 Every once in a while I see Charlotte and Lydia doing absolutely cute stuff like this.  Completely unprompted, and completely cute.

 And then I tried to get Veronica into the picture and she could have cared less.

 On Monday Charlotte came home with some pictures of animals from a story called "And Bear Snores On."  She colored the pictures and put them on wooden sticks.  She build a set with the piano bench and blocks.  Then she put on a play for me.  I was so impressed by her drive and her building skills.  This girl is amazing.

Well that gets us caught up for now.  I'm so excited for the future.

The Rich Purnell Maneuver

I'm finally ready to tell you about the next adventure that Brandon and I have decided to embark on.  It's something that neither of us originally planned to do, but now that we've thought about it, it makes perfect sense. Before we talk about our new plan let's go over the list of life plan options that Brandon and I have been working off of since he decided to get out of the Army.

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.

Option 3. Brandon gets a job with FEMA

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.

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 

Mormon 9:15 And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed, of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.

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. 

So yeah, that's our plan right now.  Brandon is going to go to school to become an aircraft mechanic.  He starts with the Fall semester this year and will be done in the summer of 2019.  We are going to move to Pocatello as soon as I can find a job up there. We are still working out the details of childcare and everything, but I'll probably work full time and the kids will be in school/have a babysitter until Brandon gets home every day.  It's going to be an exciting two years full of challenges and opportunities. I can't wait!

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.