Week 2 of 11!!

Hey everyone!

What another great week here at Fort-Lost-In-The-Woods!!

This week we got the information for our first test in a couple weeks. We also got the rundown of what will be going on for the next few weeks here at training.

Here is my training schedule:

Week One: Briefing

Week Two: Chem and Bio Foundations

Week Three:  Decontamination and Radiation Operations

Week Four: HAZMAT (More Radiation) APFT (PT Test)

Week Five: More Hazmat, Start CBRN

Week Six: CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear), WTBDS (Not a clue what that is)

Week Seven: RAD (Radiological operations), WTBDS

Week Eight: CDTF, FTX (Field Training Exercise) prep, and APFT (PT test)

Week Nine:  FTX (Out in the field all week!)

Week Ten: CIF (Turning all of our crap in) Out processing, Graduation!!!

Our first week we spent a lot of the week in the class room playing the death by powerpoint game!! The objective of the game is to stay awake the entire time your Sergeant is talking about the things they are required to tell you, even though you have heard them about 6 times in your military career and you will hear them once a year for the rest of it! (YAY!)  I won by the way. I didn’t come close to falling asleep once in class.. Pretty proud (:

By the time I get outta here I will be HAZMAT certified up to the Operations Level, which is pretty cool I guess. When I get back, I can take one class (which I’m gonna try to take next summer ) It is the HAZMAT tech level, so I can be 100% certified as a HAZMAT emergency responder. That would be pretty cool to add to my resume. (I’m pretty sure I can just take a 40 hour class for that, so why not!)  

I’m pretty sure it is going to end up being one of those things that I never use outside of my military career, but it’s pretty interesting and the science involved is totally my thing.

Anyway, other than that, we had a drivers class (for the HMMWV!) and in case you didn’t see my facebook, I passed the test for my military license. I got to drive the HMMWV around the base for like 10 minutes and I will get to drive it again later on. (The sergeant told me I drive like a grandma, because apparently I drive too slow..)  

We also had a finance class all day today and I learned a lot of cool new savings things. I found out that most people should slowly start developing and saving in a separate account for an emergency fund (I knew this, but I didn’t realize how simple it would be.

She talked about taking 25 dollars from every pay check and put it into a separate account.  

She said your initial goal is to get enough for 2 months- worth of living expenses, which would be about $3,000 for us (approx.)

Since I get three paychecks every month and Sean gets two, we would put about 125 in the account every month, but how many people couldn't cut 25 dollars from each payday? I know we could.

So at $125 per month, we could have our initial goal of $3000 in two years.. Not too shabby. But then she said that after that your goal should be 6-8 months of living.. 6-8 months is the average time that someone is laid off without a job (maybe on the high end, but still a good number) This is in case one of you gets laid off, hurt, or extremely ill. This is money to fall back on when everything else seems to be going wrong. We could have this in 6-8 years, which yes, is a really long time.. but if you plan to put away your extra money that you can for the first couple years of saving for this and add interest every year, it will add up quickly.

Yeah, that's a lot to process, I know. But on paper it works out really well(:

I also decided that I would like to open up an account for just my military money. All of the money that I earn from the military every year will go towards vacations and holidays (ie Christmas). Accounts like this are a great way to not ruin your November and December budget EVERY year when you have to get all of the gifts and festive items. My military money would be such a great way to set it all aside in an account that I don’t touch all year! I plan to do this after I get back from AIT, when I am just getting drill pay.

Well, that pretty much summed up the 8 hours of classes I sat thru today in two paragraphs. We talked about a few other things, like buying a car from a dealer (biggest rip off ever!)  and military insurance (Great coverage!) but other than that… There was my day for you. (:

Woah, this has been another crazy week here.

I got my schedule for the first semester, I will be staying in Able Hall, which is the pretty nice one I guess. I am taking 5 classes for a total of credit hours.  Two psychology (with one lab) One English, one ethics, and woman and gender studies (with lab). I am probably the most excited about the woman’s studies class. I have quite the opinion when it comes to women’s role in society (the military just enhanced it even more) I can thank my mom for everything that she has taught me about being a strong woman and not letting anyone tell me I can’t do something because I am a woman!

[Thank you mom!!]

So there you go, there is my week for you.

Here we go, off for a crazy summer filled with working out, learning, and leaving with a ton of other females. Woo! Oh yeah, and going to bed at 8:30 on Friday nights!!  (last night, I was asleep by 8:15 I think..) It was great!!

Well, that really sums up the week!

Please, feel free to e-mail me instead of writing me letters.

If you have time to send me a quick email to chat and catch up, my email is Elylyons2013@gmail.com

It goes straight to my phone! I love getting the emails. 

Please, catch me up on what's going on back home! I miss hearing from a lot of you!!

There is my bunk, right after I got out of it. (It really needs to be made...) Below is my ruck sack that I will be carrying on my back as I walk. It is bigger than the one at basic, but it is so much more distributed on my back compared to the one I had at basic.