Moving Time

Wow, the last little while has just flown by.  We are in count down mode for the move.  And by countdown I mean we're moving this weekend.  Movers come on Thursday and Friday to pack up the house and then we're off.  After 3 years of living here in San Diego we're moving cross country and starting a new adventure.  Are we nervous?  Sure, but we look at this as a fresh start and new adventure.  Neither of us have lived outside of the west so this will be new in so many ways.  I look forward to getting to meet more people and even some navy wives that I've gotten to know in the last year or so through my support sites that I've joined.  So here's to a new adventure coming our way.

Kindergarten

Yesterday was Kaden's first day of kindergarten and what a day it was.  This week the school day is cut short so that all kindergarteners can be assessed to see where they are at as a student.  Well yesterday after school Kaden got tested and the results just blew me (and Jay) away.  He tested in the top 5% of all kindergartners and is 2nd in his class for the test results.  We are just shocked with the results, and its all a good thing.  This morning Kaden's teacher told me that part of why he tested so high was because he can write his name and knew his numbers (beyond 10) and the alphabet.  With the alphabet he knows upper case and lower case as well as the phonics of the sounds that each letter can make.  This is such great news for us and gives us such high hopes for him to have one successful school year. 

Orders are here!!!!!

After the issues we went through we got word that Jay's appeal went through and was approved.  Well since then we've been waiting on those hard copy orders.  Today they came.  We got our original orders and we couldn't be more excited.  We're going to Norfolk, VA and will be on the Ike.  There is a lot to do in the short time we have between now and moving next month, but luckily we're having the navy move us so that is one thing we don't have to worry about.  It will be crazy around here and with the move, but it will be worth it to start this new journey in our lives.  Norfolk, here we come.

An update of sorts

Things have been.....well incredibly stressful and crazy over the past few days.  On Tuesday Jay called and delivered quite the blow, his orders were suddenly rejected.  After waiting for a month just to find out when we were moving and suddenly it all fell apart.  Reason: Kaden's EFMP cat 5 status.  Now here's the kicker about this: it was all baised on a lie.  You see when Kaden was diagnosed with autisism and given that status (EFMP is a navy term to help families of special needs/medical needs get the help they need 1- you can live anywhere to 5-only specific bases are you allowed to live) we were told that there are only 2 bases we can live at: San Diego and Norfolk, VA.  So to suddenly hear that the detailers are taking back his orders (which he had no choice in as it was) and it was because he is a level 5 and can't live in Norfolk we knew in an instant they were lying to us.

The stress began in an instant.  We knew we needed to fight back on this one.  You see, we've felt for a few months now that it is time for us to move.  We've prayed about this and have felt strongly that moving this year was going to happen.  So when Jay got the verbal orders of Norfolk, VA everything felt right.  We just needed those hard copy orders which would tell us when we were moving.  Then Tuesday happened and we're now fighting to get the very orders Jay was given.  This has not been an easy thing for me personally to go through.  Jay's currently underway and so we're trying to figure everything out via e-mails (which is a nightmare right now) and 1 phone call.  Tuesday night things started coming together in a way that I know I didn't see coming.

We have amazing friends, Robyn and Jared, and they just happen to also have a son on the EFMP as well as the autisim side of things.  Jared and Jay both work on the Nimitz and so we've gotten to know them quite well.  When we got this bad news I called them up.  I already knew, just from my FB page that we had been outright lied to and that we were going to fight this, but Jared gave us the direction we needed.  I spent several hours Tuesday night scanning and sending in mass e-mail all the documentation I have that shows how much Kaden has improved and how moving will not hamper him, only help him.  Jay e-mailed me that night to tell me that his chief is now involved and together they are filing an appeal on this decision.  Then last night happened.

Jay called to get further information from me and then told me what is going on with his end.  He has "an army of Khakis" helping him through this process.  His Chief, Master chief, Senior master chief and many other chiefs are helping him with this appeal and fighting on our behalf for us to get those orders back.  They are putting him in contact with the right people who can help him get this pushed through and making sure that we don't get rejected again.  So as of this morning the appeal was filed and we're now waiting to see what happens.  We feel good about this and pray that we will get these orders back.  We know its time for us to move, for the good of our family we need these orders to be re-enstated.

New Orders!!!!!!!

Today we got quite the shock of our lives.  We got our new duty station orders.  They are for the Ike in Norfolk, Va and we move in 2 short months.  Yeah, got to love the short amount of time the navy gives you to get a move ready for cross country.  Luckily we've been feeling that we would be doing a big move this time around and now we know just how far it will be.  We're quite honestly in shock over this news.  We'd been joking for weeks that we'd get assigned to VA, never thinking it would come true.  Yeah that's what I get for joking around.  We're now going to be doing a very big move.  The cool thing about this particular move is that we'll be close to most of the Teerlink family and get to know them better.  It will deffinantly be different to go from living in the west all of our lives to going clear cross the country.  But let the adventure begin, its going to be one wild ride.

OPSEC: And why we take this so seriously

This post is mainly for friends and family who may not realize that the rules I'm always talking about are very, very important to not only Jay's safety but mine as well.  Those rules are known as OPSEC: Operational Security.  So this post is deticated to helping you all understand why I write things the way I do and why I am very cautious about how I speak. 

OPSEC rules:
1). Do not post exact deployment dates or redeployment dates


2). Do not reveal camp locations, location of port visits, including nearby cities. After the deployment is officially announced by Military officials, you may discuss locations that have been released, normally on the Country level.

3). Do not discuss convoy routes (“we travelled through Takrit on our way to X”)

4). Detailed information on the mission, capabilities or morale of a unit

5). Specific names or actual nicknames

6). Personnel transactions that occur in large numbers (Example: pay information, powers of attorney, wills, etc)

7). Details concerning security procedures, response times, tactics

8). Don’t discuss equipment or lack thereof, to include training equipment
9). Don’t speculate about future operations
10). If posting pictures, don’t post anything that could be misconstrued or used for propaganda purposes. A good rule of thumb is to look at your picture without your caption or explanation and consider if it could be re-captioned to reflect poorly on coalition forces. For example, your image might show your Soldier rescuing a child from a blast site, but could be re-captioned to insinuate that the child being captured or harmed. (it’s happened!)
11). Avoid the use of count-up or count-down tickers for the same reason as rule #1
12). be very careful if posting pictures of your loved one. Avoid images that show significant landmarks near their base of operations, and black out last names and unit affiliations

13). Do not, ever, post information about casualties (coalition or enemy) before the official release of the information.

14). Do not pass on rumors (“I heard they’re coming home early”, etc)

15). Posting information in regards to a ship or sub or any other Navy related material that could be of sensitive material, must be posted with the link from the media.
16). When discussing deployments or underways please do not say the EXACT amount of time leading to or counting down (Example: 4 months until he is home). Please put ' x months, x weeks, x days' (Example: x months until he is home). This is the correct way.
17). Duty section/turnovers/etc can be used for malicious intent. Please me cautious in posting in depth information.

http://www.opsecprofessionals.org/ar...SEC_Rules.html

This is the short and sweet version of what Jay and I must follow each and every day of our lives.  If you want a better understanding of the rules and are on facebook there is an OPSEC page you can go to.  As the saying in the navy goes: Lose lips sink ships.  And please we know you love us, but don't ask us for information that neither one of us are willing to share: like deployments, underways ect.  We wont put our lives or the lives of those Jay serves with in that type of danger.

Independence Day weekend

I grew quite concerned over the weekend when I noticed that most people were saying "Happy 4th of July" instead of recognizing the day for what it is: The day we declared our Independence from Brittan in 1776.  It was the day we said no more tyranny, taxes without representation, oppression and declaired that we have the right to "life, liberty, and the persuite of happiness".   So I did one thing that even Jay said was the right thing to do: posted on my FB page the Declaration of Independence.  Then came monday when I hear an alarming statistic that only 76% of this nation even knows why we have this holiday, let alone who we even declared our independence from.  What has happened to us as a nation? 

I spent a lot of this weekend teaching my kids about the founding of this nation and the Declaration of Independence.  It is time we as parents teach our kids our history and who our Founding Fathers are, before it becomes to late.  We are repeating history because we didn't learn from it.  Since I've come to realize that the schools no longer teach our history correctly, sorry but the founding fathers were not racist and not all of them were rich, I will take the time to teach my kids about this great nation and why we have the freedoms we have.  This weekend was my kick off weekend of teaching my kids about our founding documents. 

Our weekend was relaxing and in some ways very enjoyable.  Jay took me on our first date in over a year Saturday night.  It was the first time in well over a year that I had left the house without the kids, and boy did I need it.  All we did was go see Eclipse, but that was still a very enjoyable date.  Sunday we did the typical bbq and fireworks.  Only our fireworks were watched from the flight deck of the Nimitz.  I still love being able to watch 3 different fireworks shows going on at the same time.  We got some amazing video from that night.  Monday was a day Jay was given off, which we both needed especially after the previous week and all that had happened then.  Our next door neighbor offered to watch the kids and we were able to go on another date.  So this time we went to "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and had dinner together.

That had been another nice day.  Since then its been life as usual for us.  We are STILL waiting on orders, so family please stop asking, and its getting a little annoying.  We know we have a very high chance of moving, but its a matter of where and when.  We know that the ship we go to will be in need of the specific type of tech that Jay will be going to C school for, but even that is up in the air.  Waiting for these orders is becoming a major pain.  Without those orders we don't know when Jay will go to C school or what his new ship will be.  Such is life in the navy though.  Hurry and wait is the mantra, and unfortunately the waiting is always a pain.  Hopefully soon we'll know what is going on and then we can stop feeling like we're in limbo with life.