The position I interviewed for

The interview was a couple of weeks ago.  They said they'd be willing to wait for me if I'm selected for the position.  I've heard nothing.  At the same time, I was referred to the selection official for another similar position, supporting the Deputy Commander for Nursing.  They weren't willing to wait for that position, and I've already received the notice that someone else was selected.  Nothing to do now but wait, and continue to apply for others.

Job Title: Secretary (Office Automation)
Department: Department of the Army
Agency: U.S. Army Medical Command 

OPEN PERIOD: Thursday, October 25, 2012 to Wednesday, November 07, 2012
SERIES & GRADE: GS-0318-07
POSITION INFORMATION: Full Time - Permanent 

DUTY LOCATIONS:  1 vacancy in the following location:
Tripler Army Medical Center, HI United States 

WHO MAY BE CONSIDERED: United States Citizens

About the Position: This position is located in HQ Tripler Army Medical Center, Office of the Commander.
- Salary includes applicable locality pay or adjustment.
- Currently authorized 12.25% Cost of Living Allowance; COLA is always subject to change without advance notice.
- Permanent change of station (PCS) expenses (i.e., travel and moving expenses) are not authorized.
- Defense National Relocation Program will not be authorized.
- Immunization screening will be required.
- Must be able to obtain and maintain a SECRET security clearance. 

Who May Apply: US Citizens

KEY REQUIREMENTS
Must be able to obtain and maintain a SECRET security clearance.
Immunization screening required.
Qualified typist is required (minimum of 40 wpm)

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DUTIES:
- Serve as Secretary and principal clerical assistant to the Chief of Staff/Deputy Commander for Clinical Services, Tripler Army Medical Center (TAMC).
- Receive telephone calls and visitors; respond to those inquiries which can be answered; refer calls on technical or policy matters to supervisors or subordinate staff members.
- Maintain supervisor's activities calendar; schedule appointments and conferences, providing briefs on matters to be considered prior to scheduled meetings; makes travel arrangements as needed.
- Compose and review correspondence; review all incoming mail including correspondence, reports, memoranda, hospital regulations, inspection reports, and other material related to the management of the hospital.   From brief verbal instructions or guidance, compose correspondence.   Maintain control records of incoming correspondence and action documents to ensure timely action in accordance with established requirements and deadlines.
- Obtain and present information, such as material for use in writing correspondence, reviewing actions, programming and planning, preparing for conferences, etc.   Assemble or summarize information for supervisor's convenience.
- Maintain files and records on health care administrative residents receiving training in the hospital.   Record and transcribe minutes for weekly conferences. Record and transcribe dictation for a variety of material. Establish and maintain subject matter and all other files, including personal and confidential files.
- Use word processing software and printing equipment to create, copy, edit, store, retrieve, and print a variety of standardized documents.
-- A qualified typist is required.

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QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED:
Specialized experience: To Qualify applicants must possess one year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade/level (GS-6).  Specialized experience is defined as experience in performing all of the following:  administrative duties for an office; maintaining appointments and schedules; compiling information and files; and preparing correspondence and other documents.

You will be evaluated on the basis of your level of competency (knowledge, skills, abilities)in the following areas:
Skill in office administration procedures.
Skill in preparing and maintaining office documents and forms.
Skill in compiling and summarizing information.
Skill in using various automated software programs (e.g., Word, Powerpoint, Excel).
Oral Communication.

Oh my gosh, $10 million for me?!

INSTRUCTION FROM FBI!! URGENT

This is to inform you that your payment of USD 10 Million Dollars from the Federal Republic of Nigeria has been released and ready to be paid to your via ATM VISA CARD. GET BACK TO US FOR MORE DETAILSFBI

Sent from: Robert Muller  

Army life on Oahu - where to live?

We've never lived there (although I've visited Hawaii twice), but I've been very fortunate to gather intel from others who have been there and done that.  I found an incredible message board, filled with military spouses who are living in Hawaii now or in the past, plus there are a few Facebook groups that have helped answer some specific questions.  They've given me tons of good advice (especially Karen!), and I've filled a OneNote notebook with information about everything I can think of.

First, the good news.

* The government knows it's much more expensive to live on Oahu than rural Pennsylvania, so we'll get more allowances to help cover costs.  The housing allowance is more than twice as much as we get here, plus there's the cost-of-living-allowance (COLA) that we'll receive.  In addition, whatever job I'm able to get also has a higher "locality" pay than most of the rest of the country, and also comes with a COLA.  Since my income isn't needed to pay living expenses, the higher locality and COLA amounts will help pay off car payments and such much faster.  Looking forward to that!

* I don't understand why, but we're allowed to receive our housing allowance at the same time we're paid temporary lodging expenses living in the hotel.  While we're living in the hotel, we'll be able to bank a significant amount of money!  That'll come in handy, especially since we're shipping our second car and the dogs on our own (and yes, it's probably more expensive than you're imagining).  The hotel time is not unlimited, however.  If the housing office doesn't foresee houses becoming available for us in the near future after our arrival, we won't have the option of living on-post.

Then the bad news.

* The waiting lists for on-post housing are long and complicated.  I'm not convinced that anyone, even the people that work in the housing office, know exactly how families are chosen for houses that come open.  *laugh*  There's a priority list, and rules about family size and number of bedrooms, but reading others' stories about how many kids they have, and how long they've been waiting, and all the rest of the details, just makes no sense to me.  We're allowed a three bedroom house.  As a Master Sergeant, there are certain neighborhoods they'll place us.  After that, we wait until it's our turn and they offer us a place.  If I understand correctly, we're allowed to turn down one offer and remain on the list.  If we turn down the second offer, we're on our own to find a place off-post.  More on that below.

* Only some of the neighborhoods we're approved to live in are zoned for the same schools as the hotel we'll be living in when we get there.  This means that if we move into a house in a different neighborhood, Kaden will have to change schools, only weeks or months after we get there.  I'm not thrilled about this idea, and I know some families have chosen to hold their kids out of school until they know where they'll be living to avoid this problem.  I don't like that idea either.  The neighborhood I want to live in is zoned for the same elementary school as the hotel, so we plan to start the boys in school soon after we get there and hope for the best.  Justin's middle school is the same for any of the neighborhoods we might live in, so he won't be affected unless we end up having to live off-post.

* We have three pets.  If we live on-post, we're only allowed two.  If we live off-post, we'll be limited to houses that allow both cats (Mo) and big dogs (Tank, a 75 lb lab, and Dozer, a 55 lb boxer).  Many houses don't allow pets at all.  Many don't allow cats.  Many don't allow dogs, let alone two big dogs.  Since we're hoping to live on-post, we asked Darrell's mom if she'd be willing to take in Mo.  She said yes, thankfully.  I think Mo will like her house better anyway, as Tank is way too interested in her.  So, we have "only" the two dogs to worry about.  Looking at potential rental houses, most that do allow pets either allow only small dogs (under 20 pounds), or only one, or only outdoors, or other limitations that don't work for us.  If we end up needing to look off post, I think we'll find it extremely challenging to find someone to rent to a family with two large 50+ pound indoor/outdoor dogs.  There are many school districts I'm not willing to live in, which limits our options drastically.

* If, as stated above, the housing office says we're out of luck waiting to live on-post, we'll have to find a place off-post.  We have to turn in a list of places we've looked at, and reasons why they won't work, every ten days to continue to receive the temporary lodging expenses.  No pressure!!  And, we're limited on what those elimination reasons can be.  While we can certainly turn down a place because we don't like it, that's not an acceptable reason for the list.  Bad schools?  Not an acceptable reason.  They don't allow pets?  Not an acceptable reason.  Only one bathroom?  Not an acceptable reason.  And of course, there's no list of acceptable reasons supplied to us - just reasons we're not allowed to use.  I'm really (really!!) hoping this never comes to pass.  There are only a couple of places I'm willing to live in (good schools) and the rental market is tough in those places.  While our housing allowance is fairly high due to Darrell's rank, we still have the dogs to worry about.  This has the potential to be stressful.

So, here's hoping we will be offered a place on-post, and in the neighborhood I want!!  And quickly, but not too quickly, as I'd love to save up some of that extra money!!  =)

OCONUS PCS from an ROTC gig

Apparently not too many people move from an ROTC position to an overseas assignment.  We've been running into challenges through the entire process.  I'm not complaining about specific people as almost everyone has been super helpful.  It's just that no one really seems to know exactly what needs to be done and who we're supposed to contact to take care of things.

Normally, a PCSing servicemember lives on or near a military installation with all the offices needed.  This is not our situation.  We live outside Erie, PA.  Our closest military installation is Ft. Drum in upstate New York.  Driving there to handle simple paperwork is not preferred.  Darrell's brigade is at Ft. Dix, New Jersey, and Cadet Command is in Ft. Knox, Kentucky.

Usually, Darrell would attend a levy briefing that brings all of the people to one location to explain what needs to happen, the paperwork that needs to be submitted, and which offices the paperwork needs to be submitted to.  Darrell didn't get a levy briefing.

Each step of the way has been extremely frustrating.  Darrell has literally spent hours on the phone, just looking for the name and phone number for the person he needs to talk to.  Examples:

* Exceptional Family Member Program - the Army doesn't want to send dependents to a place that cannot support physical, mental, or educational needs.  Therefore, all dependents must be screened by an EFMP coordinator.  We all went to the doctor and got physicals, filled out some other paperwork, and faxed everything to the EFMP office at Ft. Drum.  They looked it over to make sure it was completed correctly, and sent it to an office on Oahu.  Since none of us need to be enrolled in the program, the approval came back quickly.  This allowed our names to be included on his PCS orders.

* Once we received the orders (which of course required more paperwork to be filled out and sent to his brigade who forwarded it to Cadet Command to actually publish them), we were able to start the household goods moving process.  This is now handled almost completely on www.move.mil.  However, before you can get started, you have to create an account and get log-in information.  But before I could do that, I had to get my laptop set up to use a card reader.  That was probably the easiest step in the process.  Once we were able to log in, I had to contact their help desk to find out why it wasn't working.  Ah, my pop-up blocker was on.  Why didn't they say that might be a problem?  Ok, fixed that, and ah, there's the screen we need.  Filled in all the info, selected the appropriate Ft. Dix office to approve everything, and submitted.  Only, wait - they want us to go through Carlisle Barracks?  That wasn't a choice.  Another few hours on the phone, and Darrell finally gets a name and phone number to someone that listens to our situation and agrees to help us find the right place to send this stuff.  Ok, great, there's the right fax number.  Signed and sent.  Sweet.  Still need to verify that the dates we've selected for pack-up and pick-up have been accepted.

* Now we need to move US.  The dogs are on our dime, so I won't get into that for now.  What the Army would prefer we do is drive our POV (privately owned vehicle) to the nearest Vehicle Processing Center and then fly from the nearest airport to that VPC.  Only that's not what we want to do.  I haven't seen my California family in a very long time, and since they're in the right direction, and because we want to ship our second POV as inexpensively as possible, we're going to be driving across the country to California, visiting people for a few days, and shipping the Rav4 from the west coast.  We're in luck, there's a company that ships from Oakland, great!  We happily make plans to ship the car and fly us out of Oakland.  Only wait - the Army can't fly us from Oakland because there's no Government VPC there.  Urgh.  They want us to fly from LA or San Diego.  Not interested in that, thanks.  It's about the same cost to fly the four of us from OAK to LAX as it is to drive down there, plus two nights at a hotel (because we'd need to drop the car off at the shippers, and there's no way to guarantee we could fly the same day as dropping off the car), yada yada.  So, we'll ship the car from OAK (we're paying for this one, so we can ship it from wherever we want), fly from OAK to LAX, get our bags from baggage claim, drop them off at the desk, go through security again, and then fly from LAX to HNL.  Yeah, that'll be fun.  The finance folks on this end are saying it'll almost all be on us to pay for, but I've been assured by many who've already done it that the Hawaii finance folks will cover the drive expenses.  We'll see.  Either way, we're doing it the way we want.

* And that's just the big stuff.  There's been many other this-and-that paperwork, phone calls, emails, waiting, and frustrations involved.  Fortunately, this isn't our first move so we're aware of how it all needs to happen.  I can't imagine having to do an OCONUS PCS right out of training!

Our last winter for years

We were so excited about snow last winter.  We moved to lake effect land and the average snowfall for the area is way more than we're used to.  Here's the data for the last 15 years or so – averaging 165 inches:

1995-1996       200.5 inches

1996-1997       187.5 inches

1997-1998       126.5 inches

1998-1999       150.5 inches

1999-2000       132.5 inches

2000-2001       245.0 inches

2001-2002       114.0 inches

2002-2003       220.0 inches

2003-2004       173.0 inches

2004-2005       169.0 inches

2005-2006       136.0 inches

2006-2007       165.0 inches

2007-2008       130.0 inches

2008-2009       182.0 inches

2009-2010       139.5 inches

2010-2011       150.0 inches

Imagine our excitement!!

But then?  Last year?  94.3 inches.  Yeah.  Better than anywhere else we've lived, but certainly not 165"+, and somehow Darrell was out of town for two of the three decent snowfalls.

So far this year?  1 inch.  With nothing expected the next ten days.  One inch through mid-December??!  What's that about??

We're all hoping to get walloped this winter, as it's our last chance for snow for the next few years...  Be careful what you ask for, people say.  Hell yes, I'm asking for it!  

Bring.

It.

On.

Once we get there...

Once we get there, we'll pick up the truck from the port (hopefully it'll get there before us - Darrell is driving it to St Louis in late January) and drive to the hotel.  We've reserved two rooms with a shared door - THANK GOODNESS - and we'll be there until we get a house.  We're hoping to live on post, and there's absolutely no way to know how long it'll take.

Darrell will sign in from the airport (required) and I have no idea how quickly he'll go through in-processing.

The hotel is zoned for the same schools as the housing area we want, so the boys will start school within a few days of our arrival.  I think we're good to go on paperwork and immunizations and such.

The dogs will have arrived before we left Pennsylvania and will remain at a kennel until we get a house.  We'll visit often and hope we get a house quickly.  They won't have to stay in quarantine since we've already worked through that process - they'll be released to a pet mover company we've hired to pick them up from the airport and take them to the kennel.

My car should arrive a few weeks after we do.  Our household goods could take as long as two months.  If we're lucky enough to get a house before our stuff gets to the island, Army Community Service has "aloha furniture" we'll borrow in the meantime.  Basic beds, table, couch, dishes - you get the idea.

I've been applying to jobs for weeks now.  I've had one interview so far, but have heard nothing about that position, nor any others I've applied for.  Once we're about 30 days before arrival, I can apply for participation in the Spouse Priority Placement Program (info here).  Hopefully, I won't be too long without a job.

Upcoming move...

We're still waiting for the Army to purchase our tickets from California to Hawaii.  Until that happens, we can't finalize the plan.  For now, though, the draft plan is as follows:

Departure Day-4 - packers box up our stuff
DD-3 - movers pick up our stuff
DD-2 - my last day at work, Darrell cleans the house
DD-1 - the boys' last day at school, Darrell takes the dogs to the airport (not sure which one yet), I observe the packers taking the stuff we're sending to storage, the carpet cleaners take over in the afternoon, and we pass the keys back to the landlord (we're sleeping at a hotel)
DD! - 11 hour drive (not including stops) to St Louis, hoping to get there in time for Pantera's Pizza!
DD+1 - stay the day visiting with family
DD+2 - lunch at HuHot on the way out of town, a six hour drive to Manhattan, and La Fiesta for dinner!
DD+3 - eight hour drive to Colorado Springs
DD+4 - stay the day visiting with family, Elephant Bar for lunch?
DD+5 - 10 hour drive to Salt Lake City
DD+6 - 12 hour drive to Petaluma
DD+7 - stay the day in Petaluma, drive to Suisun City
DD+8 - stay the day in Suisun City, drive to Santa Cruz
DD+9 - stay the day in Santa Cruz, drive to Aromas
DD+10 - drive to OAK, rent a car, drop the Rav4 at the dock, drive back to Aromas
DD+11 - drive to OAK, drop off rental, fly to LAX, fly to Honolulu

The Army won't fly us straight from OAK to HNL, but we sure as heck don't want to drive down to LA after already driving across the country.  So, we'll fly from OAK to LAX on our dime.  Whatever...

It's exhausting just thinking about it.  I'm very much looking forward to visiting with family and friends I haven't seen in a LONG time, but dreading all the miles and hours and sibling bickering, and road food, and unpacking and repacking the car, and....  *sigh*

But then?  We'll be in Hawaii.  Could be worse....

Tank update

Tank has lost a lot of weight. He started looking like a beer barrel with legs - no hips, no waist, no shoulders... He's down at least 15 pounds, with probably another 10 or so to go. He's our laid back dog. A bit pushy when his dog-brother is getting attention, but otherwise he's as easy as it gets.

Our next duty station

Since Darrell was promoted, he couldn't stay in the position for which we came to Pennsylvania.  Months later, we're on orders to Hawaii.  We leave soon.  Lots left to do, and a long trip ahead of us - but who's complaining?

We're now doing a snow dance.  Last winter was rather disappointing, nothing like we were expecting moving to the snow belt.  Since this will be our last true winter for several years, bring on the snow!!

A two dog family...

On February 25th, we welcomed our latest canine friend into the family.  His name is Dozer and he had a rough life before he came to live with us.

Almost ten months later, he is no longer afraid and hasn't had an accident in the house in about a month.  He's learned how to get our attention to let him out and we've learned to crate him while we're gone.  Fortunately, he enjoys his crate, as he goes in there to lay down even when the door is wide open.

He's awesome.  Still has some issues with jealousy (when petting Tank) and food nabbing (don't leave ANYTHING w/in reach!), but we'll keep working on those.

Our boxer boy, Dozer: