Change is in the air, particularly in the Guthrie household.
For anyone who didn’t see my Facebook newsfeed recently: Neal applied for admission to the university program that would allow him to become an officer (the program is called UTPNCM). More specifically, he wanted to become a Training & Development officer, which would ultimately mean that he would help to develop training programs throughout the military. We didn’t have high hopes that he would get in this year as there was only one posting for the entire country. Of course, we don’t know how many people applied, but he was told that his chances were slim.
Slim or not, Neal was accepted! It’s a good move for both him personally and for us as a family. It should be a bit more transferable to the civilian world when he does retire from the military than being a radar technician as he is now (and will hopefully translate into a higher paying job when he retires from the military). It’s also a desk job and involves no sea time at all, which means we don’t need to worry about those dreaded long, 8-month deployments (or a series of smaller deployments, for that matter). It does require more frequent moving – typical postings are 3-4 years, but we think that even with the additional training that will be involved in this change, he should only have about 10 or so more years of required service time, so unless he stays in longer, there shouldn’t be TOO many. Plus, it’s a chance to see different parts of the country, which is an exciting idea as well.
But here is the kicker. One of the only universities offering an education degree that is acceptable to the military for this particular trade of Training & Development Officer (TDO) is University of New Brunswick (Fredericton). Essentially it’s because many universities offering education degrees only offer programs focusing on teaching kids in elementary, junior high, or high school, rather than adults. UNB offers an Adult Education program. Neal only needs to go for two years because he already has a science degree, plus the courses he took with the military at Memorial University in Newfoundland and Royal Military College.
We thought there might be a chance he could do the program from here because, particularly since he doesn’t need to do any courses outside the Adult Ed program, all the courses are offered as either online or by teleconference (the online courses are ONLY available online; in other words, you can’t take those ones in a classroom. The teleconference ones are available either by teleconference or by attending a physical class). The military pays for almost all of the costs involved in moving us, including our house-hunting trip, legal costs of buying a new place, etc. so we had some small hope that they might approve us staying put while he completes the program. Even if this would be granted, we knew that chances were very good that in two years, we would be moving somewhere else; but at least it would give us two years to get everything ready in the house.
Unfortunately, we found out that that’s not possible, and today Neal (finally) got the posting message confirming a move. I am disappointed, because it does involve a lot of work to get a house ready to sell (which is what I’m stressing about the most). I also enjoy where I work, so it would have been nice to stay there a bit longer. But policy is policy, so there you have it. We need to be in Fredericton by September.
It’s do-able. In my darker moments, I sometimes forget that. But I know we can do this. Many weeknights after supper, I do something related to moving. I brought a car load of “stuff” over to the Salvation Army one night to help clear things out, and I know I’ll have more to bring over. Other, cheap things that no one is going to buy have gone into the garbage and we’ll continue with this as we go. I washed some of the windows (OMG we have a lot of windows!). I’ve started to cut down some vine-like weeds that grow up in the back by the fence. We bought paint for the kitchen and dining room, and this Deck Over stuff we’ve seen advertised to freshen up our deck. We had some drainage done in the back to deal with the high water table properties around here have to contend with, and at the same time, those same guys built a new front porch for us.
Lots and lots and lots to do, but if we work steadily, we can get it done. Now that we have the posting message and therefore we are closer to being allowed to list the house for sale (you’re supposed to do it through the relocation company), I’m hoping that we will have the house ready to be listed by the end of the weekend. We will still have things to work on as we go (paint the shed, paint the deck, paint the kitchen/dining room), but we’ll list it anyway once we get a few last things we have to finish because, quite frankly, we don’t have a lot of time to sell, and although it seems to be improving slightly, the market isn’t the best around here right now. That is what I’m freaking out over the most – the fact that we NEED to sell our house in order to buy a new place in Fredericton (ie, in order to have the down payment required); otherwise, we’ll have to rent in Fredericton, at least until we sell this place. But I’m trying to remain positive and hopeful that we’ll sell quickly and for a decent price.
The idea of a move is sad – I love Halifax, and my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces are here. This is where a lot of life events happened to me – I moved out on my own when I came here, started my career as a paralegal, met Neal, got married, had Claire… There are a lot of memories here. But, although I know I’ll be sad when we go, I know that our plan is to end up back here someday. Either with a posting of Neal’s, or as a “retirement” move (military retirement, which if all remains the same, should be in roughly 9-10 years). I think that Fredericton will be fun, because it’s a university town, and it’s close to Neal’s family (they’re in Saint John, which is only about 45 minutes away). Thankfully, we have an office there as well, and although I’m not guaranteed a job there, our HR manager has been in some unofficial contact with that office to mention that they have someone who is moving to Fredericton, and apparently there is some interest in Fredericton.
Just… cross your fingers and toes and pray for us to have a quick and good sale of our house!
