7 months down and from the look of things only a few more weeks to go!
Here is what Tech training for the Cyber Transport Systems has looked like for us so far (This is all based on our experience and current knowledge):
It's broken down into three classes:
- IT Fundamentals November 30th 2020 - January 6th 2021
- Cyber Transport Systems January 11th 2021 - April 13th 2021
- Security Plus April 21st-
We got the next duty assignment & Short Sheet about January 21st 2021 to Beale, AFB with the reporting date as no later than May 31st 2021 but we'll be heading up to Northern California sooner than that.
This class only last about two weeks putting his graduation about May 5th! Supposedly he'll be taking the test on May 4th, so, as they say: May the Force be with him. It's the fourth, the Air FORCE, I mean... He's just GOT to pass, right?! Ha ha!
Out Processing:
The steps involved in out processing (everything you need to do in order to leave your current base) involves your short sheet, so named probably because it only has the basic things needed to be done, hence the "sheet" of paper is a "short" list of items to finish. This by no means, means it is accomplished quickly, just that it's a small list:
- TMO (Travel Management Office) Briefing (see below)
- Medical and dental - Da Beast just had to fill out an appointment slip with his Military Training Leader and then he could be relieved from his duties to go to the "appointment" where all he did was turn in his order to have them sign off that he was good and had no history that needed to be addressed. I placed quotations around appointment because all he did was drop off his paperwork to be signed off and then all he has to do is to go pick it up. If he had a pain or needed to have wisdom teeth removed like his friend had then he would have to have that completed before they would sign off for him.
- Out processing Pay briefing (Financial briefing)- This still needs to be completed
- Sponsor new location information briefing- This is done but Da Beast has a sheet that needs to be signed that it is finished.
This list then branches out into other items that need to be accomplished based off our your current situation before leaving base. For our family this meant additional TMO briefings more specific to:
- Leave in Route - For Da Beast he needed to talk to a few people at the TMO office about the route he will be taking to his next base since he is wanting to come home first. This meant he needed to detail out him leaving his current base, where he's flying home from, the city his home is located in, where we're driving to, where we are taking our mandatory break by 500mi/ 8 hours driven, and how many days of leave he can take and accompanied allotted travel days. After talking to this person we were able to figure out that he has two weeks between leave and travel days before we have to be at base. If you're able to follow along (bless you in this mess) that means with Da Beast's leave starting the 6th of May after his security plus graduation we will need to be to base no later than the 20th of May. He filled out some paperwork for this route that (although reliant on the actual completion of Security Plus) needs to be signed off on and then updated if needed, aka his days move around.
- Government Assisted Moves (Packing and moving your household items from one place to the next)- We have the tentative date of May 14th for them to come by, pack up our apartment, and move our things. Da Beast worked this out with a kind lady in the TMO office who had him fill out paper work to submit to their contracted movers who will then contact us to confirm an actual day for moving. From our understanding they then move our things from our apartment to a storage location on Beale AFB.
- Base Housing & Housing Application - This was only talked about in the TMO briefing but required us to seperatly go to the base housing website and submit an inquiry. They then called Da Beast with more information as well as sent him, you guessed it, more paperwork for the application process via email. Also in the email they detail what's included in the home, what you need to provide for yourself, and a little bit about the community and surrounding area. I don't know why but I was surprised by how similar it was to filling out applications for living in apartments. We are, as of the day this post is posted, 10th place in line for on base housing, but have to submit the application paperwork to secure that hold. If there is no home available by the time we move they do offer temporary 10-day housing we can move into and request more time if needed. They are expecting a good amount of families to be moving, or rather PCS (Permanent Change of Station), to another base in May so if we do have to wait for housing it shouldn't be for long.
Other items that need to be finished before leaving base:
- Any other out processing paper work and finalizing the above dates and routes
- Close out mail box 5 days prior to leaving (this is NEXT WEEK!)
- Be signed off on PT score
- Buy plane tickets
- Get rid of/sell/ship/pack up belongings
We wait, or rather I wait...some more. *insert fake and slightly hysterical laughter *.
I was planning on starting packing which I've actually been doing here and there to combat my antsy feelings of being together again but Da Beast was told specifically by the lady he talked to at one of his additional TMO briefings to NOT DO THAT. The company they contract with need to see all items to inventory them before they pack them and ship them. Who else automatically heard the conversation between Daniel Hillard and his new boss Tony in "Mrs. Doubtfire" just now?
They then take those boxes and pack them and ship them.
After you pack them?
You ship them. Lots of luck.
I'm not sure how I feel about it; On the one hand I'm happy to not have to pack, load, and move all our belongings but on the other hand it's how I usually process a move. It's a slow way of saying goodbye and transitioning from one place to the next. If I'm not supposed to pack what am I supposed to do? Especially for these next two intense weeks. Not necessary intense because of the content of them and the tasks to be accomplished but more because of all the hope riding on it. It's a lot of pressure for Da Beast, I'm sure, and I want to make sure I'm as much of a supporter as I can be. All of this amps up my anxiety and when that happens I like the busy work to distract myself but for me that was packing and now I have nothing. So what do I do? I try and make plans with others outside the home so I don't get fidgety staring at all the items that whisper "pack me! pack me!"
Humor mixed with complex feelings aside we're doing really good! I feel positive that Da Beast is going to pass and be home in a couple of weeks. I feel peaceful and excited about that leaving no room to doubt that that isn't true. In true anxious fashion, however, I still worry that I'm wrong and it's all just "wishful thinking" despite my strong feelings that it'll all be "perfectly fine". I have to remind myself that I am interpreting feeling. This doesn't mean it's exactly how it'll happen, it's how I guess it will happen based on the information I have before me. The best part of all of it ,and that I have to look forward to, is to look back and see exactly what God had planned for us. I get glimpses and can put together somethings with His help but when I look back on the event I can then see the whole inner workings of His work and how perfectly aligned it was and how I wouldn't have wanted it any other way, even if I thought it'd be something different.
All I can do is to level my view with His to the best of my ability.
Sometimes this isn't all that clear because the what I feel like I "should" be doing isn't the same as what I "need" to be doing. I've been a student of this concept of thought for awhile now but this past month took that up a level. I guess I was ready for more challenging puzzles than the ones I had already solved.
This thought process started back almost ten years ago when Da Beast and I were first married and I was assigned to visiting teaching (now called ministering) and I knew how it "should" be done: contact, lesson, "let us know if you need anything", and report. I didn't like this method and even talked about it in my blog post: "A Friend...Indeed" back in 2018. I believed that I was to make friends, not tasks. I followed what I felt prompted to do rather than what I thought "should be done" because that's how it's "been done".
The next major thing I've implemented into my life for the past few years that may seem "wrong" based on the way things have been done before is I don't fast on fast Sundays. I still combat the thoughts that I "have to" because it's a "fast Sunday" and that's "my duty" but through a very invigorating conversation with my husband we discovered together that it was more important to be "prepared" to fast than to fast just because it's the first Sunday of the month. If we woke up that morning and thought "ah dang it I forgot it was fast Sunday" we wouldn't fast. Instead we made fasting a part of our daily lives. What I mean by this is we kept it out of our heads and put it in our hearts where we felt it was meant to be. We thought about about our prayers and struggles we were making and when the time was right and we felt we needed that extra strength, extra courage, or just to show sincere gratitude we would set the time to fast and we would do it, more often on a random Sunday than the first Sunday, but it's been during the week too. These lessons on true intention seemed easy compared to the two I've had this month alone.
The first one was while I was reading Isaiah and using my "Understanding Isaiah" book as a companion study. I had just poured my heart out prayer where I had some deep concerns and the moment I started reading I was having other thoughts flood my mind. Thinking I was just distracting myself from my "more important work" I pushed the thoughts away over and over trying to read. After about the third time of reading the same first sentence I decided to let my thoughts roll where they wanted to. What I discovered was God was trying to answer my prayer. I was trying to put aside my direct and personal inspiration to study my scriptures! This still blows my mind because I know the importance of studying scripture but I was so determined to do so it actually became a distraction for what God wanted to tell me. Once I listened and wrote down what He said to me there was a pause and I would then be able to read my scripture which was then filled with more depth than usual. More thoughts would come and again when they stopped I'd read some more. This repeated until I was finished studying and the inspired light had left after accomplishing what it needed to do. I had just learned another lesson on what I "need" to be doing verses what I "should" be doing.
The most recent one was during General Conference weekend. Like all conferences before I set up the kids tent and got out the Melissa and Doug's 'Let's Explore S'mores and More Campfire Playset' for our "Conference Campout". This has been a perfect way to get the kids excited about conference and to let the kids play and listen to conference while I watched it and took notes. For whatever reason it didn't work out like that this past April 2021 general conference. The tent was flat before the first Saturday session ended. After I took them to the park to spend all their energy they had their reserve energy to fight right next to me on the couch so I couldn't hear anything in the second session on Saturday. I struggled, pushed through, and felt as though I was being told of all the wrong things I was doing during that afternoon session for Saturday General Conference. I was doing the "right" thing. I was doing what I "should" be doing so why did I feel so angry, frustrated and defeated? For the rest of the weekend I just went through the motions of watching General conference when all I wanted to do was re-watch the first season of 'the Chosen'. Instead I did what I felt like I should be doing and felt guilty for not having had my heart in it or really being able to pay attention to much of it. It wasn't until a few weeks, conversation, and re-watching one of the talks that had left me feeling the most guilty again that I realized that watching General Conference that weekend wasn't what I 'needed' to be doing. The way I knew that it would have been an alright decision for me to have made was the activities I wanted to replace it with: spending time with my kids and watching a TV show about Jesus and his ministry. That weekend those were the things that I "needed" and possibly what my kids needed too. I wouldn't have been "giving up" watching general conference after the first session on Saturday to some justifications I would have been following inspiration for my family and I and when it was time and I was ready I would follow further instructions to watch the general conference talks I needed. When I had re-watched the first-time-around-guilt-inducing talk it had transformed into a comforting call of action right before my eyes. It really showed me that day that attitude is everything and to not beat yourself up if you're not "in the right attitude" but rather follow the steps to get there and do what is "needed" not what "should" be done.
A bonus lesson that is only a conceptual thought as of now is that "there is no such thing as time". I've thought about it from time to time (ha ha...punny) but it hasn't really formed into much, at least not yet. Some thoughts I've had are as such:
- We may live in physical time but the spirit has no time.
- If we are working on God's time and we give our time to him than anytime is a good time to do what is needed. This means there is no inconvenient time to serve someone, there is no such thing as "too early" for a message from God (anyone else wake up at 3am with no reason as to why?), and there is no "wasting" of your time because there is a reason and lesson for all of it.
This isn't to say we throw everything out the window to do whatever we want because somethings are "too hard" or we just "don't want to". This isn't to say that we throw schedules and planning out the window either. What it IS saying is that when our time is God's time we will be where we need to be when we need to be there and often times we won't know why that is until we're there. This includes things we "should" be doing and the schedules and plans we uphold ourselves by.
Just with a more leveled heart and true intention to fly the straight course home.
XOXO
Megan
Next Post: My Nations Call Pt. 1
