Leave No Man Behind

An interesting (and scary) look at how veterans are treated especially those on medical release. Plus a great interview with Audrey Prenzel.

We Pay Rent

We live in military housing. It’s also known as PMQs, Qs or RHUs.

A lot of people think we don’t have to pay to live here but we do. WE PAY RENT to the Canadian Forces Housing Agency (CFHA).

The rent for each RHU is determined by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

CMHC evaluates the size and state of the house. They evaluate the local market then set the rent at the equivalent to what a mortgage would be for a similar house in the civilian world.

The only difference between renting a civilian house and renting a military house is that the rent fees are taken directly off the military member’s pay at the source.

Disadvantages:

• We can’t change the colour of the walls.
• We can’t refinish the basement.
• We can’t do extensive landscaping.
• We get assigned a house or choose from one of the few that are available.

Advantages:

• We don’t spend money on redecorating.
• We don’t spend money on renovations.
• We don’t spend money on landscaping.
• And just like a civilian rental home, we don’t pay property taxes.
• There is no long term lease. Rent can adjusted on a per day basis so if we move in the middle of the month we only pay for the days that we live in the house.

I think the advantages out weigh the disadvantages.

What do you think?

Imposed Restriction

So it has been over six months since I posted last. I can’t believe it has been that long but I guess time does fly especially when you’ve been busy. We’ve been VERY busy so I’ll try to give you a quick run down of what has been happening.

The main reason I’ve been so busy is a little thing called Imposed Restriction or as most people call it – IR.

IR is where the military member moves to the new location and leaves the family at the old location. My husband moved to Toronto to work at the Canadian Forces College and the kids and I remained here at CFB Trenton.

I know to many civilians this might seem crazy and this isn’t our preferred lifestyle but we did take into account many factors. If your family is considering IR, read on and see how we made our decision.

The Job

My husband’s job entails a fairly busy weekday schedule and nothing much to do on the weekends. This would allow him to come home almost every weekend.

Living Away From Home

My husband chose to live on rations and quarters. This means he has a room, similar to a hotel suite with a small fridge, coffee maker, microwave, toaster and kettle. He can eat 3 meals per day in the Officers’ Mess. Simple and easy for him.

Commute to Home

On the train, it takes 1h50 to travel from Trenton to Toronto. The cost is less than $100 per trip. The cost of the train home every weekend is less than owning a second car. Taking the train is also significantly less stressful than driving.

Children

With one kid almost done secondary school and the other almost ready to start secondary school, it wasn’t the best time for them to change schools. Also, the school here in Trenton has less than 300 kids from Jr. Kindergarten to Grade 12 – it is almost like private school! The kids know all the teachers and the teachers know all the kids. The big bonus is that our kids walk about 200 meters to school.

In Toronto, the schools are very large and the kids would not receive the one-on-one that they receive here. In Toronto, they would very likely have to take a school bus every day through Toronto traffic.

The children also have extracurricular activities they enjoy here in Trenton – ones that we could not find (or afford) in Toronto.

My Work

After being here for over 2 years, my business is doing really well. I would have to start again from scratch in Toronto. Something that I would not be interested in doing.

Disadvantages

It has been hard these last few months being a single parent all week. Between work, school and activities, sometimes I feel like I’m never home (actually I’m often NOT home which is why I have had such a hard time posting on this blog!) Also, I know the kids miss Daddy and vise versa.

Overall things are working out well but if the commute were any longer, we would have moved.

 

Have you done IR? How did it work out? What was your decision making process?

 

 

Change of Command Ceremony

It was just a short 23 months ago that I wrote about the Change of Command Ceremony where my hubby took command of the Canadian Forces Land Advanced Warfare Centre (CFLAWC). Today I attended another ceremony where he handed over the unit to another commanding officer.

Even though the program was essentially the same as it was 2 years ago, for me the event was quite different as this time we were saying good-bye to co-workers and friends we had made.

Although we’re sad to be leaving the unit here, we’re starting a new chapter in our lives that will I’m sure be full of happy surprises.

We’ll never forget our friends and experiences with CFLAWC and we wish them all the best as they go ALL THE WAY!

Long time no blog

So if you’re wondering what happened, here’s a quick run down of the past couple of months.

We successfully moved into the new house. It took about 2 weeks to get things in order. As I was still teaching at the local community college it took a little longer than usual. The basement still isn’t set up the way I want it but…

About the time the house was almost in order, I took on a full-time corporate client and I’m working there until the end of July.

Unfortunately my husband is on holidays for the month of July and starts work in August just as I’m finishing.

The kids are going to be enjoying some local day camps (golf, equestrian and sailing) over the summer.

Hopefully things will slow down soon.

Army is crazy! I love it!