The past few weeks have been full of research and planning. When we were back at school, Ryan was struggling for a while because he didn't know what he wanted to major in. Then one day at church it hit him - Let's join the Air Force! It was a prompting Ryan was quick to receive and eager to follow. He has been thinking about joining the military since high school, but could never bring himself to do it until now. He says having me as his wife makes him stronger, and I like to think he's right. He definitely makes me stronger! So on a leap of faith, we drove to Rexburg and picked up all our stuff from our old apartment and checked out.
We spent two days packing and cleaning, and it was surprisingly fun! The excitement of our brand new life-changing decision had us feeling pretty giddy. We felt like we were being absolutely crazy... After Ryan felt prompted, it was no more than four days before we acted. That means not only heading to Rexburg, but dropping his classes and withdrawing from BYUI. It was scary, but both of us felt like it was the right thing for us to do. All this happened a little over a month ago, and since then we have continued to pray and seek for guidance from our Heavenly Father. It's been not only a very spiritual experience, but a strong bonding experience for Ryan and I. Making big and scary decisions together has a way of bringing people closer together!
Now we are in the process of researching specific jobs and choosing which ones Ryan would like to do and exercising to prepare for basic training. I try to exercise with him whenever I can. It's been fun to get in shape together! We try to go swimming every morning, and then Ryan usually lifts weights or something extra when he gets home from work. Aside from that, he's taken the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery), and got really good scores! That means he's mentally qualified for pretty much any job he wants. Some jobs have extra physical requirements that are pretty intense. All he really has left is to go to MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station), where they will do some medical evaluations to determine his physical qualifications. This is also where he presents his list of jobs he would like. They ask for a minimum of six, and right now we have seven or eight that we like.
After that, he signs a contract and his time in the Air Force officially starts. If I'm not mistaken, this is also when he's put into the delayed entry program, which is a time for preparing physically for basic training. He will go to basic training depending on when one of his job choices becomes available (he will get whichever becomes available first).
Basic training lasts eight and a half weeks, and then his family gets to attend his graduation ceremony! Then he comes home for a couple weeks to work for his recruiter, and then he's off to his career training. The advanced career training can take anywhere from one to six months, so depending on how long that training is, I'll either rent an apartment wherever he is, or I'll go and visit him. I can't however, visit him while he is at basic training. He will be way too busy, and not really allowed any distractions of any kind. So I'll be here in Poulsbo for that time keeping busy!
My plan for keeping myself busy while Ryan is off at training is to finish up my associates degree online. I'm really excited for it! I'm finally gonna have a degree! My bachelors degree will eventually follow, but for right now it will be nice to have something a little more substantial than just a bunch of random college credits. And the way it's worked out, almost all of my classes count towards my General Studies degree! I was worried that I took to many electives, but now I can rest assured that none of my time has been wasted. I'm very excited :)
Update on Roxy: She is so adorable it hurts! Her sniffles are gone, she is at a healthy weight, and she is getting more playful and "spunky" (as Paul puts it) every day!
We spent two days packing and cleaning, and it was surprisingly fun! The excitement of our brand new life-changing decision had us feeling pretty giddy. We felt like we were being absolutely crazy... After Ryan felt prompted, it was no more than four days before we acted. That means not only heading to Rexburg, but dropping his classes and withdrawing from BYUI. It was scary, but both of us felt like it was the right thing for us to do. All this happened a little over a month ago, and since then we have continued to pray and seek for guidance from our Heavenly Father. It's been not only a very spiritual experience, but a strong bonding experience for Ryan and I. Making big and scary decisions together has a way of bringing people closer together!
Now we are in the process of researching specific jobs and choosing which ones Ryan would like to do and exercising to prepare for basic training. I try to exercise with him whenever I can. It's been fun to get in shape together! We try to go swimming every morning, and then Ryan usually lifts weights or something extra when he gets home from work. Aside from that, he's taken the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery), and got really good scores! That means he's mentally qualified for pretty much any job he wants. Some jobs have extra physical requirements that are pretty intense. All he really has left is to go to MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station), where they will do some medical evaluations to determine his physical qualifications. This is also where he presents his list of jobs he would like. They ask for a minimum of six, and right now we have seven or eight that we like.
After that, he signs a contract and his time in the Air Force officially starts. If I'm not mistaken, this is also when he's put into the delayed entry program, which is a time for preparing physically for basic training. He will go to basic training depending on when one of his job choices becomes available (he will get whichever becomes available first).
Basic training lasts eight and a half weeks, and then his family gets to attend his graduation ceremony! Then he comes home for a couple weeks to work for his recruiter, and then he's off to his career training. The advanced career training can take anywhere from one to six months, so depending on how long that training is, I'll either rent an apartment wherever he is, or I'll go and visit him. I can't however, visit him while he is at basic training. He will be way too busy, and not really allowed any distractions of any kind. So I'll be here in Poulsbo for that time keeping busy!
My plan for keeping myself busy while Ryan is off at training is to finish up my associates degree online. I'm really excited for it! I'm finally gonna have a degree! My bachelors degree will eventually follow, but for right now it will be nice to have something a little more substantial than just a bunch of random college credits. And the way it's worked out, almost all of my classes count towards my General Studies degree! I was worried that I took to many electives, but now I can rest assured that none of my time has been wasted. I'm very excited :)
Update on Roxy: She is so adorable it hurts! Her sniffles are gone, she is at a healthy weight, and she is getting more playful and "spunky" (as Paul puts it) every day!
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