Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all those who are serving our country at home and around the world!  We are enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving Day in a very chilly Dallas.  We went to an amazing buffet at the Gaylord Texan hotel and then made our way through ICE! which was Peanuts themed this year.  It was a great day.  Now we are settling in to watch some football as the kids watch Marmaduke.

It is weird to say, but we hope this is our last Thanksgiving in the States.  We are sooo ready to start our new life being world wide available.  Until then, we will enjoy our time visiting family and soaking up every minute of fun we can. 

A new Tutor

So my French class and my private tutor have both wrapped up and I am feeling okay about my progress.  I would say I am probably a solid 1+/2 at this point.  My private tutor was really doing nothing for me, so I am cutting my ties with her.  I approached the teacher of the class I was taking and she has come up with a private tutor plan that I think will really work.  She is really going to challenge me and focus on international news events.  Hopefully it will help.  We are going to meet twice per week via Skype so I will be forced to keep up daily and get the work done!  There are many days I feel like I am not going anywhere with this language, but then I watch a TV show and I can actually make out some of what they are saying.  I could never have done that 2 months ago.  I need to keep powering thru, but it gets difficult with a full time job, four kids, a wife and a very old house that continues to ruin every free weekend we have :)

Problems Solved

So it only took a few more days of ridiculous e-mails, but it seems all my kids now exist in the eyes of DoS and they all have their names spelled correctly.  In addition to all that, they have all been cleared to travel the world, medically speaking.

I have no idea where things are in my security clearance.  My boss has brought it up three times which is really frustrating because I keep telling her that this may not even happen (at this rate it won't) and I fear that the security process may have hurt my future promotion possibilities.  I'm sure this is something everyone who has entered the FS has experienced.  Maybe it won't.  I just don't know.

Everything else is going well.  French is moving along s.l.o.w.l.y.  I am trying to measure it by weeks.  Tonight I couldn't attend my class because my family has one-by-one dropped with an obnoxious stomach flu (I had the pleasure of it last week) and my wife is off to bed early after a long night of vomiting.  Anyway, I wrote my teacher (in French) and told her I wouldn't make it.  My e-mails are always one or two sentences.  She writes back a lengthy note, but I could read and understand the whole thing.  That is good.  I'm afraid my hearing comprehension is not as good as my reading comprehension though.  This is probably normal, but I wish the hearing would catch up.  I need to get into some conversational groups, but haven't had any luck finding any. 

Oh well, I will keep pushing on.

What's in a Name?

So the past week I have gotten a taste of what life might be like working for the government and it is very interesting.  The first issue surrounds the spelling of my daughter's name, oddly enough.  Everything we have submitted on my daughter and received from DOS on my daughter has had her name spelled a specific way.  The correct, specific way.  Last week I submitted her medical clearance paperwork.  Yesterday I received an e-mail stating that her paperwork was received and her medical clearance is in process.  The only glitch was that I noticed her name had been misspelled.  She has a "v" in her name and for whatever reason, it had been changed in the MED e-mail to an "r."  I, kindly, send an e-mail back thanking them for the information and letting them know that they misspelled her name in the e-mail (several times).  This seems straight forward enought, right?  NO!  Two days and a total of nine (I think) e-mails later and I am no closer to having her name changed to the correct spelling.  The HR side of the house has her name spelled correctly.  The MED side of the house says that HR has the name spelled incorrectly and they cannot change it in the MED world until HR updates it.  HR again states that it is correct (and it is!) on their end.  As of right now, I am at a loss of what to do because the problem remains "unsolved" at this point.  I feel a bit like a ping pong ball back and forth and I just want to say "CHANGE IT ALREADY!"  This really isn't that difficult. 

Onto problem #2.  I have four kids.  3 boys and 1 girl.  I submitted the medical clearance paperwork on all the kids last week (which started problem #1).  In addition to the e-mail with my daughters name spelled incorrectly, I also received an e-mail stating that nothing could be done with my sons' paperwork because they are not listed as dependents (EFM's) in the HR database.  I should speak with my HR rep to correct the problem.  Easy enough, right?  I speak with my HR rep who informs me that all of my children are listed in the HR database.  She responds via e-mail to me and the MED world with a picture of the database showing all the kids listed (also showing my daughter's name spelled correctly, but these are just details, right).  MED world responds to me that they cannot seem to pull up that information so it must be wrong on the HR side.  I should speak with my HR rep again.  Okay??  I again speak with my HR rep who states AGAIN, that everything is correct on the HR side (which it is!) and this is a MED problem.  So here I am again with the ping pong feeling and at a loss of what to do.  We are five days (3 business days) into this issue with no solution in sight.

So I might have four kids or maybe just one.  The one kid I definately have may have one name or maybe it is another.    So far everything for my wife is in order and she has received medical clearance.  I guess she gets to come along and keep her name. 

Is life in government really this difficult? Je ne sais pas!