Air Force, Corrections - Merry Christmas

Well we met with the Air Force Recruiter. He was really nice and answered all of our questions that he could answer. Apparently he only really knew about enlistees and active duty but he gave us hope because showing us the officer pay was likely letting gold sparkle under our eyes. He gave us a number to call to get a hold of another recruiter who knew more about Officer training and guard and reserve. We called her when we got home and she told us that because my hubby has a degree in Sociology and Anthropology that the military would put those under “General” and thus not allow him an officer position except through enlisting, and we are not ready to enlist. However we are not giving up, we are talking to people we know and trying to get a hold of another recruiter to see if the answer is the same, or if we just need to re word our questions and requests.

My hubby did get in touch with a recruiter for the corrections facility in the area and is now signed up to do volunteering for them starting in January. Volunteering does not make money, but it is a foot in the door to the job area that my hubby really wants. He is still applying to every job he finds despite how exhausting the whole process is. No offense to my mother who reads this blog but everyone on my side of the family has been so un-supportive of this volunteering venture it is surprising to me when friends and random other people like my doctor say that we’re doing things right. I don’t mean to drag drama into the blog but part of being unemployed that is so stressful is this extra behavior from people that I love that make it much worse. We are doing the best we can. Saying “Tsk, that won’t make you any money!” doesn’t help. Also suggesting that we “just enlist into the military” is not only rude, but demeaning and causes more unnecessary stress and problems. Enlisting is a major life altering decision and should not be taken lightly by anyone. I saw a quote on facebook that said something along the lines of “My parents told me not to settle for a job flipping burgers and instead go to college, so now that I have a college degree and won’t settle for a job flipping burgers they are upset,” story of our life.

Aside from job stuff my hubby and I have been busy. We made cookies for our neighbors and delivered them. We made my mom’s fools toffee and more fudge. We got the wrapping done on the few gifts we could afford to get and have doing all the other household chores that need to be done. I have four of the six dining table chairs done, but I can’t start the fifth one until after the holidays so there will be enough seating for everyone. I cleaned out my brother’s room that had all my scrapbooking stuff in it because he came home from army medic school. I also filed for deferment on my student loans so I don’t have to worry about that expense until after one of us has a job.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, God Jul (Swedish), Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Boxing Day, Happy Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year! Perhaps my next blog will include my New Year’s resolutions. Much love to you all!! *HUGS*

More of My Babbling and Recalls

Thank you to everyone for all of your help!!! Since starting this blog we have gotten so much help from everyone! Links to jobs, employment agencies, ideas about where to look and who to talk to, it has all been very helpful! So far we still have not landed a job, but Charlie is going to start volunteering for the Police Department if they will have him. Also we might get to do some babysitting for a friend of the family soon which will help us too. We are truly blessed to have friends and family like all of you – YOU ROCK!!!

I would like to hear from people on what they think about self publishing vs. traditional publishing. I really want to get a couple of my poems made into children’s books but getting published traditionally takes so much work, and time and patience with the outcome possibly a far cry from what I want it to be but self publishing takes bucket loads of money even if it turns out exactly how I want. I have heard good things about both lulu.com and outskirts.com, but absolutely nothing about how to contact a traditional publisher. The websites are both self publishing companies, and lulu.com seems to be much more affordable. Also, I don’t know what kind of money can be made from self published books vs. traditionally published books, but my hypothesis is that neither makes much money, but traditionally published books might make more…If anyone has any advice at all – please post a comment! Thank you much!

I would just like to share that gummy vitamins are the best vitamins ever to be created for adult use! Seriously, if you need or want to take vitamin supplements for any reason (make sure to consult your doctor!) get the gummy ones! My doctor just told me to start taking vitamin D with Calcium because those of us that live in the north don’t get enough – apparently me in particular. Anyway vitamin D can only be absorbed if you take it with Calcium. They make Calcium with Vitamin D in gummy form, and though it doesn’t taste exactly like candy, it’s pretty close. I constantly forget to take any other vitamin that I have to swallow (like B complex for metabolism and energy sake) but I never forget to eat my gummy vitamins! Just a thought for those of you who take vitamins and forget to take them on a regular basis, switch to the gummies!!!!

In the spirit of Holiday gluttony my hubby made fudge for the first time by himself and it turned out delicious! We’ll probably have to make another batch for Christmas because this one is disappearing quickly. We’re also making Fools Toffee and Cookies. Cookies are for the neighbors, but the Fools Toffee I’m not giving away so easily, especially since the people that usually get some as a gift we won’t get to see this season, and it would melt in the mail. More for me! I mean us….

Here's some recalls to beware of from:

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prereldec11.html

Children's Pajamas Recalled by Bella Bliss Due to Violation of Federal Flammability Standard

In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Bliss Collection LLC dba Bella Bliss of Lexington, Ky., is voluntarily recalling about 2,300 Children's Henley Pima Cotton pajamas. The pajamas fail to meet the federal flammability standards for children's sleepwear posing a risk of burn injury to children.

Club Car Recalls Golf Cars Due to Fuel Leak and Fire Hazard

In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Club Car LLC, of Augusta, Ga., is voluntarily recalling about 600 golf cars. The fuel tank seam can separate and allow fuel to leak, posing a fire hazard.

Nautilus Recalls Schwinn Elliptical Exercise Equipment Due to Fall Hazard

In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Nautilus Inc. of Vancouver, Wash., is voluntarily recalling about 10,000 elliptical exercise trainers. The foot plates can detach from the machine during use, posing a fall hazard.

Halloween Projection Flashlights Recalled by Nygala Corp. Due to Fire and Burn Hazards

In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Nygala Corp., of Teterboro, N.J., is voluntarily recalling about 10,000 Halloween Projection Flashlights. The flashlights can overheat, blister and melt, posing fire and burn hazards to consumers.

That’s all for now folks! If you have any questions or comments or advice as usual let me know via comment or message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can! Thank you all for your wonderful support!! Much love and best Holiday wishes!! Remember, the root word of Holiday is HOLY!!! = )

Catch 22

Some pertinent information that I left out of the other two blogs is our majors. Hubby graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology and Sociology and I got a BS in Family Life, with a minor in Women’s Studies. I also would have had a minor in psychology except that one of the required classes that I needed to complete it was taught by a professor who wouldn’t work with me or help me at all – his class was ‘online’ but the work load and time commitment was probably at least double what the credit hours said it would be. I had to drop his class or die from anxiety attacks, and I chose drop the class. Of course, this is the same professor who ended up shooting his girlfriend and then himself the end of this summer.

Anyway both my husband and I have rather general degrees and the question we are always asked is “What do you do with a degree in that?” The answer I like to give is “Whatever we want.” However it’s becoming more like “Whatever we can get.” Family Life and Women’s Studies sounds like a whole lot of wasted time and money, but I do not regret a single dollar or second spent. The choice I felt faced with in college was “Specialize” or “Generalize” and both have their ups and downs. Specializing in something like “dietetics” would be awesome, I’ve always been interested in nutrition, except that if I got all the way through college and found out that I didn’t actually like it that much, tough. However, generalizing may not make me awesome at any one particular thing, but I have a well rounded idea about many different things. I have not closed myself off to any opportunities – or so I hope.

 I’d also like to explain that majoring in Family Life does NOT mean that I learned how to cook, sew, iron, tend babies, and be a domestic housewife. A degree in Family Life includes classes in sociology, anthropology, dietetics, finance, psychology, and development. A minor in Women’s Studies means I took sociology, psychology, anthropology, English, and development classes which all explained what being a feminist means, how women have always fought against unequal treatment and still are, how women are abused, manipulated, discriminated against, itemized and mistreated in the past, present and what can be done for the future. These classes opened my mind and my heart to all discrimination and mistreatment of all peoples considered the “minority” and that alone is worth more to me than money.

My husband also went the route of generalizing instead of specializing I believe for many of the same reasons as I did. Anthropology is the study of human culture, and sociology is the study of groups of people. So presumably a job where he works with people, for people, around people, or near people would suit him just great. Essentially these degrees make him well rounded, open minded, understanding and accepting and what employer would not want that?

Online applications are the reason why we still don’t have a job I am pretty sure. All of the major companies are switching over to online applications it seems now. They don’t even have the paper version any more. I really do not understand why they have done this because they now can’t tell if the person applying has good hand writing or enough sense to write in blue or black ink. Honestly though I really think the online applications are hurting us. Resume paper was invented to give the person applying a better chance at getting a job, useless now. In fact, if there is an online application the person applying may not even get a chance to submit a resume and that makes it even more difficult.

 Good news is that the Police Departments for the most part are still taking the paper applications and resumes. The PDs in this area are always accepting applications, so my brilliant idea is to apply once a month so they know how badly we want the job! There is of course the possibility of them disqualifying us for putting in so many applications…but there is no warning anywhere about that and at this point it certainly can’t hurt. Right?

We have even begun looking out-of-state for jobs. Now, the reason we moved in with my mother after college is because the thought at the time was that once we have a job, then we can get a house and have kids. When we have kids I’d really like to be near my mother. I also felt like God had called me back to the area. We had had plans to go to Seattle, Hawaii, or Portland but none of it felt right. Coming back home it turned out my little brother left sooner than anticipated for Army boot camp, then a friend of mine found out some terrible news and suddenly it was clear to me why we needed to be in the area for reasons more relevant then future children. So considering now to leave the area makes me a little sick. Moving costs money and we won’t find anywhere to live for as little as we’re living with my mother, and that is money we don’t have. Supposedly though there are jobs outside of Idaho, perhaps even law enforcement jobs. So there is our Catch 22.

Now if anyone has any questions, comments, ideas or concerns about anything at all just leave a comment or send me a message on facebook and I will address your thoughts as promptly as I can. I hope everyone is staying safe and warm this month. Love to you all!

Round Two

Okay so I’d like to start off with a funny and I have to share this because it’s hilarious. So my husband was telling me for the second or third time how an airplane flies. He was explaining about how the air goes over and under the wing and I show all my emotions on my face so he stopped explaining suddenly and asked why I stopped listening to him. He said “Some day when we have kids and they ask how the airplane flies, what are you going to tell them?” I said “I will tell them that God picks up the airplane and moves it across the sky and sets it down at its destination.” While explaining verbally I was also physically explaining with my arms in the motion of picking up a toy plane. My husband then asked “Well what will you say when they ask why planes crash sometimes?” This is what I said, again also physically moving my arms as if moving a toy plane, “When children are bad that makes God angry, and when God gets angry HE THROWS THAT PLANE TO THE GROUND!!!!” But I will have to learn to say this without laughing hysterically or smiling. If you read this and did not laugh, read it again out loud, yelling that part I put in caps – if you don’t laugh then you need to eat a brownie.

The job search continues. I did get some suggestions from the last blog which were very much appreciated however I feel as if I must explain further our situation. P.O.S.T. which is the Police Officer Standard Training, costs a good $5,000 here in Idaho, which is a whole lot of money. (My apologies to friends I told it was $13,000 because I was wrong lol) We owe on student loans, not to mention we have no job and make no money so paying for P.O.S.T. is not an option. What we are hoping for is that the police department that someday hires my Hubby will pay the way, which is what they normally do I believe. So while going through P.O.S.T. would significantly increase one’s odds of getting hired by law enforcement, and really is a very good idea, it is not affordable to us. = (

However we are seriously looking at the military. We contacted a local Air Force recruiter and made an appointment for the middle of December since apparently that was the soonest he could meet with us. On one had this is very appealing. Hubby might get a signing bonus, he’d go in as an officer, plus they would cover insurances which are a big bill for us right now, perhaps pay for housing, give my hubby the work experience he is lacking, and the GI Bill might even pay for P.O.S.T. if we have to pay for that ourselves some day. Plus that’s a regular pay check in a prestigious vocation with the possibility of promotions. On the other hand Officer training is 12 weeks long and I think I might die without him – thinking about him being gone for that long brings about a horrible depression in which I cry like a baby with colic. Then he would also be eligible to be sent overseas for no less than 6 months, and I cannot even begin to comprehend that. Thinking about this has given me a new respect for military wives; how you all do it I do not know. I’m pretty sure I’d need counseling if this is the path we go. I know this all sounds very selfish, that’s because it is, but I can’t help it. My hubby and I have been attached at the hip since the day we started dating in 2007. We haven’t been apart since then for more than two weeks – and not quite that long even. The plan right now is to talk to the recruiter, get questions answered, take their test and go from there. The biggest issue is that the Air Force is not taking very many people any more. My hubby is very smart and fit with a squeaky clean record and has zero tattoos so hopefully they will consider him. Here’s the clarification we need this so if the Air Force says “Yes” we will probably also say “Yes”. I will keep you all updated on this.

So what do the jobless do if they don’t work? Well aside from cleaning and cooking, grooming the dogs, facebook, blogging, running errands and doing laundry I have been refinishing my mother’s kitchen chairs. I have 3 out of six done. I plan on also reupholstering an antique chair of hers with lessons from youtube.com – since those are free. In addition I have been catching up on scrapbooking. This summer I completed my honeymoon and wedding albums.  Someday we’ll have jobs and perhaps kids and I won’t have time like the rest of the world to get those done. Most of my supplies for scrapbooking I’ve accumulated through donation from my friends and family and to them I say “THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!” Otherwise that hobby would not be feasible.

So this blog has gone on long enough and if you are still reading I salute you! Happy Monday everyone! Remember to comment if you have anything you like to say, suggest, or ask! <3

First Timer

Welcome to Val's first blog ever!


A friend suggested I write one, and I like to try new things so here I am! Previously I disliked the idea of blogs and refused to read anyone's blog, so if this doesn't get read I won't be surprised or upset. I will do my best to avoid high drama, and all too personal exposure of things no one wants to know - or cares to.

So I'm a newly wed, as long as that extends to having been married for a whole year now! My husband and I are newly graduated from the U of I - GO VANDALS!!!! And we are unemployed living with my wonderful mother for a very small rent. My husband wants to be a police officer, and I would really like to publish some of my poetry as children's books. We have one car between us, and live a ways from town so public transportation is not an option, therefore, only one of us can work, go figure.

My husband has taken a police test for one department and told that they had no openings. However this was to be expected in this economy. We had heard that department was "political" and only certain people got into that department as it were anyway. He has applied to several other departments in the area including the sheriff's department and detention center and we have heard nothing from anyone at all. If anyone has any tips about getting on with a police department please leave a comment!

Because the police department jobs have been so bleak he has applied to all kinds of stores in the area but no one has called for an interview. We have been looking since May, and still nothing. If anyone has any insider tips, please leave a comment! <3

For anyone who has ever tried to figure out how to publish a book of any kind, and those that have succeeded - what a difficult process!!! Where to begin is so hard to figure out, then when one researches how to get published it is soon discovered that the chances of getting published are slim to none, even more slim if you are not famous, or haven't been published already, or have an illustrator in mind. Then there's the task of actually finding a publisher who publishes your genre, AND will let you contact THEM, since apparently most companies prefer to invite authors. Of course there are the self publishing companies, but it costs Thousands of dollars  to do that, and being a newly wed, newly grad, with no job that is not feasible. Any tips on this - please leave a comment!! <3

I could also talk about what it is like to be back in with my mother after having had lived on my own up at college for four years. That might be dipping in to too much drama and personal issues that no one really cares about or wants to read though. Honestly though, it's not so bad. My mother is a beautiful and kind hearted woman, and she invited us to live with her. We pay rent, clean the house, take care of her dogs, do the yard work, run errands, cook dinner sometimes and get along the majority of the time. Of course my husband and I desperately want a place of our own to customize and run as we prefer, but I can't think of a better or more logical place to be right now. If anyone wants to hear more on this subject - or less - or has any questions - please leave a comment and let me know!

So as for buying a house and having kids...well...Buying a house might not happen for quite a while seeing as banks want to see you've held a steady job for 3+ years and being unemployed at the moment, with no interviews....But once we have a job, I think "Rent-to-Own" might be the direction we go...As for kids, well that won't happen until we have a house of our own hopefully.

I can tell my issue writing blogs is going to be sticking to one subject...So if anyone has anything they'd like me to write more or less about please let me know. Or if you have an idea to make this more entertaining... Let me know what you think!! <3 Much Love!! <3