Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Terrific Tuesday

We spent a wonderful few hours at Lake Ogawara yesterday. Jared snapped a couple of shots for me.

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This lake is on base. Well, part of it is on beach....it is actually quite a big lake. We called and asked Renee and Ricky to join us at the last minute. It was a fun break in the TLF routine. Renee, thanks again for dropping your spectacular plans and joining us at the beach.

We were invited to dinner at a family from chapel's home. Joel is the PAC (Parish Advisory Council) President and Mary is our RE Coordinator. We had a great time visiting, the kids gelled well, Jared corrupted their children by teaching them Mafia ::snort::, the meal was great....AND.... ::drum roll:: Mary and I discovered we were both alumni of Faith Academy.

I don't often run into former school mates. Faith Academy is a boarding school for missionary children in Makati, Manila, Philippines. I've been thinking of the Philippines a lot since the move here. It was a blast to find someone who I was connected to here in Misawa. Mary attended FA from K-6th grade and left in 1979....I arrived in high school in 1979, so we didn't know each other...but I did hear her older brother's names while at Faith.....

We found out that housing will allow us to stay in TLF for 60 days from Mike's arrival. The AFI's clearly state this is the case if housing doesn't offer you adequate housing and you can't find a house in 30 days. This means we will not be locked out of our rooms again until 14 Sept. We aren't sure what happens at that point.

Yes, we WERE locked out of our rooms yesterday. The housekeepers were surprised and let us in...and then housing came back and said we could stay until 14 Sept. We laughed, sitting outside our room, with all our beach stuff piled around us. LOL

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

11 comments:

Kim said...

I cannot believe they locked you out. I'm laughing too. Glad you and the kids could too! Can't wait till you get into your new home!! Do they have a completion date yet?

Renee said...

I would highly recommend that later next week, Mike put in an exception to AFI to remain longer in the TLF... the reason being "hardship" due to the stolen van, passports, etc that delayed the family's arrival... and ask for an initial extension to 60 days from when the family arrived.....

Debbie said...

Okay I am going to show my ignorance of military rules here - but don't they have to provide some sort of housing? And if nothing is available then don't they have to let you stay where you are until something is available? It just boggles my mind that our military families have to go through this? It seems like a nightmare!

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Kim - they don't TRY to lock us out, when our time is up the keys quit working....so they keep doing it and then feeling terrible...but we are known by name as the "Goecker clan" and they are being very friendly.

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Renee - that is just what he did last week. Except he didn't ask for it based on hardship but based on the official AFI....guess if they turn us down, he can try to resubmit it based on hardship.

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Debbie....it's confusing. They ARE required to put us up in TLF or in a hotel for 30 if they offer us base housing. We are allowed to turn down one base house and then we lose the TLA and TLF monies. If you turn down a base house you are required to find housing off base...and they DO give you an allowance to cover rent. Our problem is that they never SHOWED us a house, we never turned down a home...and in that case the AFI clearly states that if there is not adequate base housing we are entitled to 60 days of TLA while we secure off base housing. SO....they took 21+ of our days ruling on the exception to let us on base. THEN they said that we could move into the same size home off base, but we said we'd move into a bigger one as they'd already ruled that size home was inadequate for our size family. They don't automatically grant 60 days and we'd not even know about it but another Major in the same boat went and read it rather thanthe house brochure and there it is....SO Mike asked them to grant the 60 days and an extension due to the fact that they had nothing to offer us and we were delayed waiting for the extension. He heard that the 60 days was granted and would be up on 14 Sept. They didn't say a thing about the extension but he may write up for that seperately now....asking for it due to hardship and the wait for the extension....and on top of it all HE'S A CHAPLAIN, and it is not our goal to make enemies of the entire group which overseas housing in our first quarter here. ::snort::

Debbie said...

What a beautiful lake.

Okay, I'm not sure I would be laughing if we got locked out of our rooms, but I'm sure after all you have been through, this was minor.

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Debbie - it's been happening about every 3 - 10 days since the kids and I arrived. I knew it was simply another miscommunication between base offices. LOL

Linda said...

When is the house scheduled to be finished? I'm sure you've said, but I can't remember.

Cynthia said...

But, still... it's incredibly insane if you ask me. Our gov't can't figure out how to keep you from getting locked out of your living quarters, but they want to take control of my health care???? Sorry.... but that's just the way I see it.

Anonymous said...

Sis:

Agree with everything said above.

Nuts is what I say! I don't need government taking any more control of my life other than what it already has. Nuts!

Hard to imagine the non-efficient ways offices in the same department do not talk to each other.......

praying for you a lot concerning all of this.

love/prayers --- mom t.