School Time

Miss Hope has been in school! For three days this week, I attended a class for Navy wives. Very educational. Very enlightening. I learned alot, but I am so glad it's over.

The only way I was able to attend what's called the Compass class was because they provided free child care. And snacks. And coffee. From 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, I had unlimited coffee and diet coke.... bagels...muffins....mini candy bars. Someone else watched Vitt and kept him entertained two doors down the hall.

One day I learned how to read my husband's pay stub. Just one look at a military pay stub is enough to cause pains in the chest region if you've never seen one before. There's pay for this. Pay for that. Then there's the take away. Uncle Sam hits the military member so that you can't ever forget him. It amazes me that not only do they own you body and soul, but if a computer or user malfunction over pays you (God forbid!)....it can wipe you out without any prior notice. Put it this way. If the military owes you X amount of dollars....they can take their own sweet time paying you back. If they over pay you? One fell swoop can make your family starve for a month. It's alot of ups, downs, sideways, and backwards that I can't even begin to explain.

I was one of the oldest there. There were so many 18-20 year olds. ~shakes head~ These are girls who mostly just graduated and got married. How sad. They have no clue how to do anything and just don't know how to go about learning HOW to do it. One girl told me she hadn't had a pap smear in 2 years because Tricare (military insurance) just overwhelms her. I have her number and will be calling. We had graduation Thursday, complete with cake and certificates. I was the first one called and I made sure I made my valedictorian speech. I wanted these girls to understand that it's okay to be married, but you have to take care of yourself!

And another thing. You women out there who get up each and every day? You get your kids ready while getting your own self ready to go out and work? You have my admiration. Because it literally kicked my butt getting it all straight. I had clothes done at night. We were put on a tight schedule so that no one had a nasty butt. I informed Fred last night that I was going NOWHERE today. Laundry waits for no woman.

And to think I'm probably going to volunteer for this program. Get the word out to other women.

Hey, it's free child care and unlimited snacks. Count me in.