Now we are staying here indefinitely till DH can get a replacement at his command. And in order to fix that he needs to get his command to change his billet from an E5. Its rare in his rate for there to be an E5, and if there were - his command wouldn't want an E5 in his rate. Most people in his rate are E6 and above. So nobody in his rate would want his billet if its saying E5 in the system.

Till he gets that fixed, he can't find a replacement.

We're still slotted for Nevada but with his rate being so undermanned - they won't move him till he has someone in his place. Sometimes they can let a billet go unmanned, but they can't with his.

He says a few years ago they started getting rid of all the incentives and benefits to entice people to join that rate. When we did, he got a $60K re-enlistment bonus. We didn't get it all at once, 50% upfront and the rest is in annual installments over the contract term.

I'm sure everyone is wondering what happened to that $30K. Well, we paid off my Dad's PLUS loan he gave me, paid off our credit card debt, put new flooring in our house ($7K) cause the previous owner's cats had ruined it to the point we bleached the concrete slab underneath to get rid of the smell. Then we also bought kitchen appliances.

But surprise, surprise - we didn't learn by having our debt wiped out and managed to rack it up again. This is why I'm convinced the only way for me to get out of debt and STAY out is the slow, little by little, method.

So anyhow, they got rid of the incentives and started sending his rate to Iraq and Afghanistan a lot. So a lot of people in his rate either retired or got commissioned to Officers. Without the incentives to bring in new people to his rate... it causes a problem with his rate being undermanned.

I have to say I shouldn't have expected anything different from the military. A life with the military is a life filled with tentative plans and changing dates. If anyone can teach you how life can change at a moments notice - its the military.

For someone like me who would sit down in elementary school and plan out my entire life, its been a challenge - but a necessary learning experience.

Life happens when you're busy making plans.

So anyhow, thats that. We were supposed to list the house May 1st but now that is on hold (obviously) but yesterday DH brought the tree down and now he's struggling to get the stump out.

We have a 20 ft tree in our front yard that was put too closely to the house. The roots have been growing close to the foundation and with the prospect of us leaving, I don't want to have to worry about that.

We also have a small Japanese Maple that the previous owners planted right by the front door (Why I don't know). So the plan was to remove the big tree and replace it with the Japanese Maple. A landscaper quoted us $1000 but DH is certain to get the tree out himself. He brought it down okay, but the stump is proving to be a formidable foe.

We'll see though... he's from the "country" so he's removed trees in the past. Only difference is back then he had a tractor to pull them out. Here, we don't have a truck so he is probably going to ask our neighbor if they can help pull it out with their Jeep or ask someone from work.

Either way, its $1000 saved. Worst comes to worse, we will just cut the stump down and put mulch over it and put the Japanese Maple in the backyard.