Random Monday morning ramblings

***Just a quick note. This is just my ramblings, I am NOT seeking assistance in any way from anyone, I do not want, nor need any charity, there are people out there way worse off than I am, help them, not me. We will be just fine :) ***

Well, the holidays are upon us. No matter how I work the budget, it doesn't seem I'll be home for Christmas again this year (sorry to my family who reads this). We don't have a Christmas tree, but I have a super idea for one, I'll go into that in a bit. Because of some last minute changes to our pay and some unforeseen things this year, our gift fund has depleted so it's going to be a slim Christmas for the girls, but that's OK, they are still young. As you know, I made Ebbie's Halloween costume, completely from scrap fabric that a loving freecycler gave me, bless that woman. I still have a ton of fabric left so I'm going to attempt to make curtains for the rest of the windows in our house. Because of our lack of money, I've had to be creative with getting items to decorate and such. Freecycle in itself is awesome. Along with that, it's amazing what higher rank military people will throw to the curb when they are moving! Some people are SO wasteful! Here were my latest finds:

• 3 curtain rods brand new still in the packages
• 2 very large heavy wooden mirrors, gorgeous but need to be refinished
• a folding suntanning style lawn chair, still had the tags on it (YIPPEE!!!!)
• A hallway runner that was clean and in perfect condition, purdy little thing :)
• A flowered area rug in gently used condition for Ebbie's room. Has a few stains but nothing major.

I also, just yesterday, received 2 large black trash bags of fall/winter/spring clothing for girls which I split according to size between me and my neighbor. Both of our girls are hitting growth spurts and well, yay for the military for not giving us a cost of living increase in pay. Anyhoo, the clothes were in SUPER condition for the most part and will be great for school, so thanks Raven! See, this is where I begin to ramble.....

For years now, about 4 1/2 of them, we've lived here in the commonwealth of Virginia. And for the 4 years prior to moving here where we are now, I had virtually no close friends, it was hard to get anywhere, hard to do anything, and everything was just a struggle. Moving here into this military housing, though it has it's downfalls, has probably been the best thing for me. I've become part of a helping, sharing circle of friends. Every day I meet someone new in my neighborhood. Now, when I go grocery shopping, I see people that I know, not just nameless faces that I may have seen before. Now I have people to talk to in person when things just aren't going right. Also, with this circle of friends, we have a hand me down system. Seems most of our kids are not the same size. One person will pass something on to the next person with a child about that size, then they, in turn pass something to another neighbor for a child of the next size down, etc. And because most of us have multiple kids, we end up with the stuff back lol. But because of the hand me down system here, everyone takes really good care of the clothing to pass on. Ebbie has gotten some really cute outfits from a couple of our neighbors and I will not even go into how many clothes she just got from Raven yesterday. Granted, some of them she won't be able to wear till she grows more, but still, she's got something to grow into now and that's more than she had before. All that said, the holidays still look grim.

Who really WANTS to give their child wrapped up hand me downs of clothing and toys for a birthday or for Christmas? No one does, but some do because it's the only way they can give them a Christmas. I had to once with Ebbie, though I sacrificed a bill to buy a couple of "new and shinies" to give her as well. This year looks to be like that. It looks as though I'll be cleaning out Ebbie's room and placing stuff in my closet to clean up and wrap for Izzy, and Ebbie..... well, lets hope some nice freecyclers come through for her. Most of our holiday budget is for food and well, you know how important that stuff is. But here's where my craftiness comes in to play :) So for our christmas tree, I'll be getting a large piece of white paper. I will quickly sketch out a tree on it (i'm no artist so this should be interesting). Ebbie and I will then paint/color it. Izzy is going to have fun with finger paints while Ebbie and I have fun with glitter, glue, paint, etc. We are going to MAKE a decorated tree :) Besides the fact that it will take up less space and won't topple over onto our increasingly mobile toddler, it's a great family project! I've even figured out a way to put a string of lights on it lol. And just think of the ease in taking down the tree! What I'm going to do as well, and this may seem packrat-ish, is take a small box and put everything in that after the holiday is done and label it with the year. They will be my scrapbook boxes. Later on, MUCH later on, I will create a family scrapbook and include these items along with the kids school stuff. I think this is a great idea for a family tradition. I'm excited about it lol. No bugs from a live tree, no watering, no fake tree parts falling off the tree, no fluffing the tree, no falling tree..... I see no problem with this LMAO.

So anyway. I'm hoping that in some way, our Christmas will still be fulfilling and fun. I will miss the family however (hint hint, we're only 3 hours away people, come visit!).

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Now here's my dilemma. I'm going back to school. I'm doing a certificate program. I've been thinking about doing this for a couple years now but haven't had the money, or time, or whatever (procrastinator extraordinaire) to get it done. I'm doing medical transcription. I have 2 options. I can get a student loan for $3K and do the course and get all kinds of great little perks, or I can do it through the military and do it free. Now here's the 2 differences:

Military Program:

• Free if dh does a certificate program as well
• I would have to buy the foot pedal and headset
• Access to the website to take my certification course online after completing program
• 12 Months to complete course
• FREE

Paid Program:

• Free laptop
• All items supplied, headset, foot pedal, books
• Access to website for certification, AND free certification
• 18 months to complete course
• 24/7 student assistance plus access to student forums
• LIFETIME job placement assistance (they set up interviews with their partners till you get a job, then do it again if you need, anytime)
• costs $2276 right now with "economic disaster discount" (LMAO)

Now dh is trying to get me to do the military one, he is telling me "We have enough debt!". He's not seeing that we would still have to pay out of pocket. Now, I did convince the guy to include my headset and foot pedal. But the other perks do not exist. I would have to scour for a job. I would have to pay in 2 years to get certified (the program registers you, but you need 2 years of job training to be certified), you get less time to complete the course. My thoughts are this, and they are probably slightly skewed because of my stubbornness but..... : We are paying off all debt besides cars with our income taxes. That frees up almost $500 a month. I have 18 months to complete the course, so if I should get a student loan, it could be up to 19 months before we pay the first payment of the whopping $30. They give me a free laptop, which I would use specifically for school work. I would be able to take it with me and do work in the Dr's office, sitting outside, whatever,...... or run to my room and hide from the kids when they are being too loud. This is a very useful tool! All my stuff would be supplied without me having to have a tantrum. LIFETIME JOB PLACEMENT ASSISTANCE. The way they explained that to me is they have signed on with a large group of partners in the medical field. When someone finishes the program with an 85% accuracy rate on average, the partners agree to interview them and take them on as an employee. So the school would set up several interviews, I would get a job from jump, I would get a PAYCHECK from jump, and then after 2 years of steady working (so many "hours"), I would be able to go to this website (different one than that the military provides actually), take the online certification test, and they would mail me my certification bumping me up from registered transcriptionist to Certified Medical Transcriptionist, which also raises what people will pay you. Now I do understand wanting to avoid more debt. Fully understand that, but somehow, I really like the program that's non military. It seems more oriented towards getting you into a career instead of just giving your spouse a hobby while your man is at sea. Doug is not happy that I am seriously thinking of going against his wishes for this, but ...... Is it selfish that I want to have a career at home? Something I can do to FINALLY do something financially for my family? So we can NOT have anymore holidays like this one coming and all the prior ones since we've been married? So we can DO things that involve leaving the house because we can actually AFFORD IT? Is that really selfish? I see it as doing something for my family, and also, (fingers crossed this never happens) in the event my marriage should fail or something happens to Doug, I could still provide a decent life for my children and still be able to be home with them to help with homework, chaperon field trips, etc because this career allows you to work when you want and still get paid. Why don't all house wives do this? I can't help but want the paid program, especially since it's one of 2 of the paid programs, there's standard, which is almost like the military's, then there's professional, the one I've listed everything for. I still think I'm gonna go ahead with the paid one. I want a career, not a hobby.