Jacksonville

*C is #3

Still Waiting

Now that I’ve let the cat out of the bag about my career aspirations, that’s about all the news I can give. This is a long and painful process that mostly involves waiting. State has requested some additional medical info from me, but I have to wait another 3 weeks before I can get the tests done, so I won’t even be able to submit that paperwork for consideration until the beginning of April. Then there’s always the chance that they’ll want more info/testing, so that process could continue to drag on. My security clearance seems to be chugging along (they redid the whole investigation – our tax dollars at work!), and I suspect I may hear news on that before I hear about my medical clearance. After those two items are done, I still have to pass through the Final Suitability Review before my name even goes on the hiring register.

I suppose all the delays are a good thing for now. I just got wind from the Yahoo Groups I belong to that State is canceling the May A-100 class altogether, most likely due to all of the budget issues. What does that mean for me? I have no freaking clue! My guess is that the registers will simply continue to grow with people, some of whom may have better scores than me which would put them higher on the list for the next class. Of course, when the next class will be held is also up for debate. I can only assume that State will have to hire at least at attrition rate (meaning that they need new blood to make up for retirees and those leaving the service for their own reasons); however, if there’s no budget and therefore no money…basically I have no idea when the next A-100 class will be or where I’ll be on the register once they resume. There is talk that they may cancel classes for the entire year! *sigh*

Of course in my real life (not the fantasy one I have in my head) I also work for the federal government, so the budget woes concern me greatly in that aspect as well. I don’t think I’m going to be laid off any time soon, but the longer this fiasco goes on, the more I have to worry about. Maybe I should have just stuck with the family status quo and gone into business for myself. At least then maybe I would feel like I have some control!

The World's Gone Crazy

Between the uprisings in the Middle East and the recent disasters in New Zealand, Australia, and Japan, it seems like the world's gone crazy. Husband thinks we're all going to die in 2012, but until we do, please consider going to the Red Cross and donating to your favorite cause. We used to live in Northern Japan (a few hours north of Sendai), and we have visited the area that was recently devastated by the earthquake and tsunami, and now the nuclear reactor business...It's very surreal to see a place where you spent so much time going through so much misfortune. Our hearts and prayers are with the people of Japan.

The Boy

Then

Now

*He's so not a baby anymore *SOB*

My Kids Are Badass

So, I have a number of ladies in my life that are or are about to become new parents, so I was thinking I should start writing more about parenting in general since I am so freaking awesome at it. You don’t think so? Well at least one of my kids has outlasted all of the others (that I know) – 12 years and no limbs lost - so, I win! Considering I get most of my parenting wisdom from here, here, and old episodes of Arrested Development, I think I am more than qualified to be doling out advice so here it goes. Kids are annoying. Yes, even yours. And even when you are the BEST PARENT IN THE WORLD your child will sometimes develop annoying or embarrassing characteristics. Take, for example, my youngest. Try as I might to deny it, it has become increasingly apparent that he is a One-Upper. He just can’t help himself. I’ve tried to teach him not to do it. I tried telling him it just makes him look like an asshole, but he just thinks that it’s funny that I said asshole. Case in point:

J: Mommy, I cut my finger in school today.

A: My too! My cut my finger, too!

J: It bled and my teacher had to put a bandaid on it.

A: My too! My too! My fin-er bed and put TWO bandaid on! No free! Free bandaid!

J: Look the bandaid is still on my finger.

A: Look my fin-er all gone.

Me: Um, you’re holding up your finger.

A: Dis fin-er not real.

Yesterday's conversation:

J: Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommmmy, mommyyyyy!

Me: What??!!

J: Tomorrow I’m going on a field trip!

A: My too, my too! My go in fee tip amorrow!

J: Well, I’m going to see a puppet show, and then we’re going to eat pizza!

A: My too. I go see poopin show and eee pizza, and then go to zoo and Disney and eveywer. My see bears and lions that poop on your face (because everything ends in pooping in someone’s face here at the Corner)

J: That’s gross

A: Dat awesome!

Latest Thoughts & Random Musings

Food For Thought

Someone posted this question on a fitness forum I frequent, and I thought it was really interesting. What if you could go back and live for a day in your 21 yr old body, what would you do? If I could live for one day in my 21 yr old body I would either be pregnant again (no thank you!) or just out-of-shape. Amazing that in my mid-thirties and after 3 kids, I am in the best shape of my life. Is my body perfect? The answer is decidedly no (thank you hangy stomachy thing). I will never have perky boobs again or a completely flat stomach (short of surgery), but I jump higher, run farther, and lift more than I ever could in my twenties. Oh, and to answer the question, I would probably get drunk and make fun of old people.

Not Food For Thought

In other news, we are flat broke. Okay not flat, flat broke, but I made a boo boo this month wherein I accidentally paid all of the mid-month bills at the beginning of the month. Unfortunately, the beginning of the month bills did not give a rats ass and still wanted to get paid thus resulting in a loss of any discretionary income whatsoever. In addition to being lame (!!) it also means I have started coveting many things which are now out of reach* like the Vitamix. Can you imagine? You could make soup in your blender! You can throw in whole fruit without having to peel or chop!! You could make super-dooper green smoothies!!! Aghhhhh! I am overwhelmed by its awesomeness. I am also seriously craving a TRX. Check out the tutorial. You can even use it with your kettlebells, my latest fitness craze. Me wantee!! Ugh, okay enough about stuff I’ll probably never get anyway because I just can’t bring myself to spend $400 on a blender (no matter how freaking awesome it is!!!!).

I’ve toned it down a bit on my workouts mainly b/c we were all hit with the pooping disease** around Christmas time. As most diseases go, it does not hit everyone all at once but instead infects only one family member at a time thus ensuring you have to take the maximum time off of work and spend the maximum amount cleaning*** So, in reality, this lasted us a good month. I was also obsessed with preparing for my oral exam, which caused me such nerves that I had very little appetite even if I hadn’t been pissing out of my ass (er, too much?). Anyway, boils down to, it’s just now that I’m starting to pick up my workouts again. As I like to do every so often, here’s my current workout schedule:

1 – 60min Circuit Training
2 – 30min HIIT, 30min Kettlebells
3 – Long cardio (60-70min)
4 – 60min Circuit Training
5 – 30min HIIT, 30 min Kettlebells
6 – Rest
7 – Yoga/Fusion/Pilates

On a lighter and totally unrelated note to anything I have written so far, you MUST go here …immediately…I’m waiting…no I mean right now. This post in particular made me laugh until I cried (be forewarned, close talkers, I lick!), which was unfortunate since I happened to be reading it at work.
Coworker: Um, Pu, are you okay in there?
Me: *snorfle laugh* Yeah, yeah. I'm just *SNOOOORT hahahaha* errrr, reviewing this project proposal.
Coworker: My project proposal?

I also discovered that although I have seen about 60% of our great country, I have actually only seen about 6% of the world :( Here’s hoping that will be rectified sooner rather than later.


visited 30 states (60%)
Create your own visited map of The United States 60%

visited 14 states (6.22%)
Create your own visited map of The World 6.22%


*Not that I would purchase them anyway since I am notoriously frugal (read: cheap) thanks to my Mama’s upbringing (she used to make us clothes…and ones for our Barbies to match…I can’t even hem my clothes…craziness!!
**Exactly what it sounds like
***Remember we still have at least two family members who have only a tenuous hold over their bowels when not inflicted with the pooping disease (again, not naming names)

SUP Ya'll

Stand Up Paddle Board, that is...






Forgot to add one thing to our "Out" list = TOURISTS!!!!! I know living here is awesome in the winter (just check out the pictures above; that was our entire weekend!), BUT there is nothing more annoying than having an additional 15-20min added to your daily commute because of all the idiots who've flocked to your neighborhood just for a visit. Drives me dingbats!

Another Week, Another Volleyball Tournament

Because I enjoy reminding everyone about how busy we are, here’s a recap of my week so far:

Sat – Sun: Volleyball tournament (leave house by 6am to get there by 7am, return home late afternoon, oh and squeeze in other kids’ dance and ice skating classes somewhere in between)

Monday: Work all day, pick up 3 kids at 2 different schools, drive 45min to C volleyball practice, entertain 2 small children for 1 ½ hours while trying to cram in homework*, drive 45min home, feed & put kids to bed, make sure C does homework (a current major problem here at Pu’s Corner), collapse in bed with clothes still on.

Tuesday: repeat (except J has piano, so factor that in, too)

Wed : No volleyball, yay!

Thus: repeat

SO…yeah, we’re busy. Anyway, I prefer to not get political here, but one of the blogs I follow (an FS guy who is also ex-army, so kinda the exact person I aspire to be!) had a really interesting commentary on Indecisive Wars. I won’t say any more than that! :)

It’s been a while since I did our Ins and Outs here at the Corner; let’s see where we stack up now…

Things that are In:
- The colors pink and purple
- Annoying your sisters
- Hitting your brother in the face (see above)
- Puzzles
- Spending money on volleyball paraphernalia
- Hanging at the beach (forecast to be 80 degrees here for the foreseeable future, yay FL!)
- Green smoothies!
- Having Mom do everything

Things that are Out:
- Dairy (we’re testing to see if J is lactose intolerant)
- Gas prices!!! (have I mentioned how much time we spend in the car traveling to and from volleyball events?)
- Diapers
- Pooping in the potty (at least for 1 family member…I won’t say who)
- Homework
- Needles (everyone had to have massive blood drawn for our medical clearances…very traumatic for the under 12 set)
- Having Dad do everything

*In case I haven’t mentioned it to some of you, I’m back in school…again. What can I say, I am a glutton for punishment!

Why I Wasn't Free to Skype This Weekend

And 2 full days of this:

(C is #3, btw)

Tidbits from the Corner

J: Somebody was smiling at me
Me: Did you smile back?
J: I don't know. I can't see my face.

Me: So are you talking about what's happening in Egypt in class?
C: Huh?
Me: Don't you guys talk about current events at school?
C: Mom, I'm in the sixth grade. I can barely keep up with what's going on in iCarly.

Yay For FL

...just sayin'...

My OA Experience

I wrote this up for the FSOA Yahoo Group, but I figure I should post it here, too. This was 1st attempt at the Oral Assessment, and I passed with a 5.6. Adding in my SCNL and veteran bonus points that means I should be pretty high on the register when all my clearance stuff come through.

I arrived in Atlanta on the afternoon of the 20^th with plenty of time to get checked into my hotel and scout out the location of the OA. I had prepared a strategy for all three sections based on the information I gathered in the files of the FSOA Yahoo Group, but it ended up flying out the window the minute we sat down to do our GE. One of the other individuals in my GE was very assertive and assigned everyone their roles and also grabbed the paper they dropped in the middle of the table. I found that just being myself (and being very organized in my presentation) were probably the key factors in passing this section. Personally I feel being calm, collected, and most of all *collaborative* are the keys to passing the GE. You must speak up (it’s been said a hundred times, but they can’t assess what they don’t see), but be polite, interested, and above all make sure to be the guide towards consensus. If you are not used to speaking in public, I highly recommend finding a study group or just practicing with friends and family. I often participate in meetings like the kind the GE is meant to represent (although we don’t generally have such time limits), so I felt very comfortable speaking in front of others even on a topic I wasn’t very familiar with. Also, I recommend learning how to structure a briefing (since that’s what your 5min presentation really is). None of my other GE members passed that day, and I would venture that not being well organized was a part of that (again, that’s just my observation).

CM was the second section for me, and since I am a pretty fast reader and typist, I did not find the time constraints to be too bad. In fact, I finished with about 20min to spare, which I think was my downfall in this section (I did not pass CM) because I started to second guess myself, went back and started changing my original memo which caused it to go over the 2 page limit. Then I started editing the crap out of it to keep it within the 2 page max, and I think I ended up weakening my overall recommendation. In studying for the CM, I would highly recommend practice, practice, practice. If you are not a fast reader or typist, these are things you can improve through practice, especially if you have several months between the time you pass the QEP and take the OA.

The third section for me was the SI. I passed this section, although I came out of it with mixed feelings. I have to say, BEX is good! One of my self-assessed strengths is that I am very good at reading people, and they were very hard to read! They definitely played the good cop/bad cop, and I came out of there feeling like one of them loved me and the other one hated me! This was not the case as the “bad cop” assessor was the 1^st to congratulate me on passing the OA, and she was very, very nice. So don’t be nervous about the reactions you get from BEX, just do your best, stay calm and collected, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Some of the questions they ask are very complex and it will not hurt to ask them to repeat all or part of the question (but it will definitely hurt if you don’t give a full answer). I had prepared the most for this section (since it is one you really can prepare for since you are the one who knows yourself best), but most of my preparation went out the window as soon as the questions started rolling in. My best advice on this section is to speak from the heart. One of the questions was not something I had a ready answer for, so I spoke about my son’s disability and some of the challenges I faced as a mother, and I actually got a little choked up during my answer. I was a little worried that letting my composure slip would cost me points, but now I think it may have helped since it was clear that I was passionate about what I was talking about and I made sure that the concepts were directly relevant to how I would serve as a FSO.

Once that section was over, the waiting began! It wasn’t too bad since we were a relatively small group, and they actually shortened the day so that we were completely done by 3pm. Still that wait to get the results is just excruciating! Luckily, I took the OA with a fantastic group of people (I was really surprised that there weren’t more passers as there were some very accomplished people in there with me, including 3 lawyers and a congressional aide), so we killed the time by telling stories and laughing, we were a very jovial group! I can’t say whether there’s anything to the last man standing concept, but in my case I was the second to last person called, and the other passer that day was the last person called. One of my SI assessors walked me down the (very long!) hall where I found a group of assessors standing around waiting for me. Then everyone began to shake my hand and congratulate me for passing the OA; I was in such shock, I didn’t even know how to respond! I had a lot of paperwork to fill out since I am married with 3 kids, so I ended my day at about 4:30pm. Now I just have to wait for all my clearance paperwork to go through to find out where I stand on the register. I already have a TS/SCI clearance through another agency, but the DSS members who took my fingerprints and released my SF-86 were unsure whether that would have any bearing on how quickly my DoS clearance would come through.

Just as an FYI, all this means is that I have some more waiting to do before we find out when/if I'll be called up for an A-100 class (like boot camp for FSOs). These classes are only held a few times a year, and you have to hold a high enough spot on the register to get the call (meaning that even making onto the register doesn't guarantee you a spot!). I'll stay on the register for 18mos and if I haven't received a call by the time the 180mos is up then I have to start the whole process over again. I think my score is pretty good, and I have a very good shot at getting the call once all the paperwork is completed (could take 4-6mos) so hopefully the wait won't be too long. I guess we'll find out! :)

I'm Back

Yeah, I know it’s been a while. Sorry ‘bout that. To recap the last few months: went to sister’s wedding in France; traveled in Italy w/Hubs & parents; hosted Thanksgiving w/parents, cousins, & aunt and uncle; had s-kids here for X-mas break; started the New year with 1 kid in club volleyball, 1 kid in dance, gymnastics, and piano, and 2 kids in ice skating. Whew! Oh, also new: I received a conditional offer of employment from the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer.

What? What’s that you say? You had no idea? Well, that was sort of the point. I started this process back in June of last year when I took the 1^st of many, many steps by passing the written exam known as the FSOT. Actually, the State Dept website explains this whole process a lot better than I could, so here’s a link to their version. I didn’t want to say anything about my interest in becoming an FSO until I knew it could in fact become a reality instead of just a big, fancy fantasy in my mind. Now that I’ve passed the last step…more waiting! I now have to get medical clearances & have DoS recognize my DoD security clearances, then pass the final review before my name officially goes on the hiring list. Luckily with my decent OA score and all the bonus points I get for my language & being a veteran, I should be pretty high on the list once I make it there. What does this all boil down to? Probably no job offer for at least another 6mos or so.

Anyway, now that I have made it to this stage, I feel like I can start talking about everyday life stuff again. We’ve been in limbo for the last 9mos waiting to see if I’d even make it this far, so it is a big sigh of relief to get back to life as usual. I promise to start posting lots more inane, everyday stud and keep this blog updated. Can’t let the last 5 years go to waste! :)

Updates, Updates

I meant to link the butterfly experiment in my last post, sorry about that!

Life continues to be incredibly busy. I worked my reserve weekend this past weekend, and now it is already our last full week with the s-kids. School starts in just two weeks, and we've still got all the school shopping left to do, plus family pictures (we haven't done one since before I was pregnant with A, so I figure we're due!).

To tide you over until I can find the time to post again, here's some pics from our Disney trip last week (kids loved it, hotter than hell, sooo many people - there's our vacation in a nutshell, lol)