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By Alyssa, June 25, 2010 8:57 am

Everybody hates Human Resources, civilian or military.  We affect pay, screw up promotions, and delay paperwork.  Prior to joining the Adjutant General Corps (AG), I served as an Air Defense Artillery officer and vowed to never forget the frustration Army human resources caused me and my soldiers.  It seemed to me the other officers I met in the human resources field dubbed themselves the “red pen of the world”.  These “professionals” (I use this term LOOSELY) had no concept of what it was like outside of the office.

I put off attending the Captain’s Career Course for over six years until I realized this fall I needed the graduation certificate for promotion to Major.  I walked into the class at the beginning of the month with a bias, and I’ll admit, a little smug.  Two weeks with a bunch of AG paper pushers?  Ugghh.  Get me back with the warfighters.

Imagine my surprise when I let down my guard and hung out with a few of my classmates.  Sure, there were “red pen killers” in the class, but they made up the minority.  Most were just like me.  Self-taught human resources soldiers just trying to pass and get back to the real Army.  I met postal officers that risked their lives to deliver mail outside of the guarded bases in Iraq and human resource experts that used Army regulations as a guide to help their unit, not a road block to hinder actions.

I write this post to apologize to my classmates.  Before attending the Fort Jackson course, I disassociated myself with other Army Human Resource managers.  I let a few bad apples affect my view of the branch as a whole.  These last two weeks erased my prejudices.  The leaders I met want to influence change and improve the role of the commander’s adjutant. I’m honored now to call these fellow AG paper-pushin soldiers my friends.

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By Alyssa, May 21, 2010 9:16 pm

Sure enough, right after buying almost everything I needed to prepare my garden and our landscaping, I found out Home Depot now offers a year-round 10% discount to military members.  Don’t start jumping and clapping for Home Depot though.  After some research, I found out the only reason they adopted the policy was because Lowes started it.

Here’s the official statement from Lowes dated 10 February 2010:

Lowe’s Companies, Inc. announced today it will expand its support of the military by offering an all day, every day 10 percent discount to all military personnel who are active, reserve, retired or disabled veterans and their family members, with a valid, government-issued military ID card.

All other military veterans will receive the discount on the Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Veterans Day weekends.

I couldn’t find an official statement from the Home Depot, but when I asked tonight buying the last of my garden material, the clerk said that they honored the same policy.  I know Home Depot provides career opportunities to veterans and military spouses so I can’t be too hard on them.  Please comment if you know of any other national businesses that offer year-round savings to military members.  It would be nice to know about these types of things BEFORE I hand over my cash!

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By Alyssa, February 11, 2010 7:19 am

Never, I repeat, NEVER post the words, “I’M” and “PREGNANT” on your website, especially if you ARE NOT pregnant.  Doing something that silly just might get you text messages, a couple comments, and a call from your mother-in-law within minutes of posting.  I’m thankful my parents don’t have Internet at their house and Hubby has grown accustomed to my mishaps.

Have no idea what I’m talking about?  Go ahead and click here.

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By Alyssa, February 10, 2010 10:46 am

Courtesy of Dave Ramsey's website

I’m excited.  Nope, beyond excited.  We could potentially be DEBT FREE BY JUNE!

I think June would be fitting as it was June in 2008 when we started this process.  I was pregnant with Zeke when we first attended a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace class. Close friends raved about the material and we decided with our upcoming life changes (another baby, leaving active Army, final move to Denver) that it wouldn’t hurt for us to attend the 13 week course.  Hubby and I felt like we were fairly good stewards of our income before the class.  We started the course with minor credit card debt, car payments, and a small loan.

It would take more than this post for me to explain the results of going through all 13 weeks.  Hubby and I agree that the course could easily be called the Dave Ramsey Financial Marriage Counseling study.  The material helped us get to the root of our problems with finances, why and when we spend, and ended up improving our marriage as we improved the way we managed our finances.  Not only that, the class completely transformed how we look at money.

Even before we finished the 13 weeks, we sold numerous household items, a car, and our house.  Amidst selling and buying a home, we paid off over  $15,000 of our consumer debt (all debt except a home mortgage).  Using the course steps, we secured an emergency fund, and started our “debt snowball” so that by the time I left the Army, we had paid off over $30,000, almost all of our debt. I tell you this not to brag, but to encourage anyone that is considering changing the way they handle their money.  We were amazed at how our cash budget and extra work (overtime pay, odd jobs, etc.) amazingly added up to major debt pay-offs.

We are so close to the end of this step in our financial process that I can’t help but feel giddy.  After I left active duty and we went down to one income, our debt payoff when from a fire hose to a faucet trickle.  I started to feel discouraged that we would never be debt-free.  Crazy that I wasn’t satisfied with paying off $30,000 the year before.  I guess my hopelessness had more personal roots.  When I left the Army, I agreed with Hubby that as soon as all of our consumer debt was paid off, in other words his school loans were paid off, that we could try to have another baby.  At the beginning of this year, I reasoned that we probably wouldn’t raise enough until next year with his income and my small Army drill contributions.

Man was I  wrong!  Foreseeing no major catastrophes, it looks like our tax return and my Army training this spring will pay everything off within the next few months.  WITHIN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS!!  I’ll keep you updated as we get closer to the goal.  I can’t wait to call Dave Ramsey and yell, “WE’RE DEBT FREE!”  Oh, and “I’M PREGNANT!”