Flees.net

20 Jul 2023

New news, news, and not so new news

Lots of things going on...
Kelley's new job moved us to Peoria, Illinois about a month ago. Our house is big and sweet and mostly set up and unpacked now. The town is small with virtually no traffic which is a nice change from San Antonio. The only thing I don't like about the change is that I miss our pool. I loved having a pool. Maybe we'll have one someday again, but it is going to be a minute. Peoria overall is great, and I think we'll be happy here.

That job I had lined up at Liberty Mutual lasted about 6 months before it was eliminated in a major restructuring at the company. Far from being sad about it, I am relieved, as I feel like I needed more of a break after 26 years in the military. So now, I am going to work on my game, Awesome Theory Idle, and projects around the house until maybe January and then we'll see where my head is at.

Whew, it has been a bonkers year so far but it looks like things are slowing down, finally. Time to take a breath and enjoy life.
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1 Apr 2023

Caterpillar likes me!!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, finally, I have found an employer where the feelings are mutual and we want to work together. I will start work on April 17th at Caterpillar Logistics Inc. as Trade Compliance Analyst IV. The current plan is to move to Peoria, Illinois no later than September 30th. Stay tuned for updates as this plan becomes more clear.
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5 Dec 2022

Intermission

My retirement ceremony has come and gone - hard to believe it was already 5 weeks ago! I might get pictures up someday. More importantly, I have a job lined up at Liberty Mutual starting on January 3rd and until then I get to just chill, which is beyond amazing. I'll be doing a lot of work on The Awesome Theory Idle game that I am making as well as chores and projects around the house.

It has been a very eventful six months since I last posted an update and the next few months are bound to continue to through surprised and curveballs at us. We're ready, the future is bright, let's go!
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19 Jun 2022

I am back baby!

The past two years took a hit to many people. We are all dealing with our own situations. I certainly struggled, but I am glad to share that I am back more like my normal self. I am working out and have that extra motivation to do more than eat, work, and sleep. Not every day will go smoothly. The key is to not let life control you. It takes a fight to live your life and be a blessing to others.
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17 Jun 2022

My Military career is coming to an end

Where does the time go? We've been in San Antonio for nearly 3 years and it is nearly time for me to retire from the military and transition into a new career elsewhere. This is a little daunting, as my last non-military job was at McDonald's 26 years ago.

Fortunately, the military has a program called Skillbridge which allows me to intern for a company for a while before I get out while still being paid by the military. In the coming weeks, I'll be doing interviews and I should know what company I'll be interning for by the end of July. The 29th of August is when I'll start, which is just over 10 weeks from now! Crazy!

Other than that huge item, things are mostly uneventful. We love our pool and spend a lot of time in it. We love our dog, L3go, whom we adopted in December. I look forward to what the future brings and I'm ready for the next chapter!
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28 Nov 2021

We're still here

It has been 15 months since I posted anything here, but the site is still alive and so are we. I have two main excuses for the long absence: first, college - I just finished up my Master's Degree and so that is out of the way, but it did mentally exhaust me for a long time. Second, I am finally getting back to working on The Awesome Theory, this time as a web-based idle RPG game. You can check it out via the Awesome Theory link at the top of the page - it is not near release-ready yet, but I've been working on it for a bit over a year now and it is really coming along.

My goal is to work on this site a bit over the holidays to get it caught up with photos and what is going on with us and such. We have some potentially big news coming down the pipe, but we're still a little in the dark about our future. Stay tuned for some potentially mega news soon!
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26 Apr 2020

NEW BOSS

I have worked at Metso now for 6 months. It has been a roller-coaster of events. My fist boss was fired in November just before Thanksgiving. This week, it became official that I have a boss who is giving me hope for the future. I had to delay returning to college due to the heavy workload. The goal is to begin in November. I do not know what the future holds, but I start each day with hope that I can be a good influence on others through my discipline and determination to do a good job.
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9 Apr 2020

Corona Virus (what else?)

Wow, even before the coronavirus came along, 2020 was already a horror show for a variety of reasons. Now we're here, over 3 weeks into near isolation, working from home, doing school, and basically in a time warp of weirdness. What day is it? We're watching a bunch of movies in our office while working, but other than what movie we're watching, the days are very similar and bleed into one another. The crazy part is that this may last 3 more weeks or even longer.

It is certainly not all bad. We are lucky to both have our jobs and remain financially secure. It does make school easier because I have less work to do. Our dog must love it because he hardly ever has to go in his crate anymore. Our cars are getting less wear and tear and we'll get an insurance rebate. We're still healthy and we have enough toilet paper. It is going to be ok, but man this sure is weird.
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21 Jan 2020

OK, 2020, that's enough!

It is natural to look at the start of a new year or decade and think that this is a new start, things will be better. Well, 2020 has not been that so far. Among some other minor things, Kelley started the year with a significant cold of some sort that lingered well into January. And then our beloved youngest cat, QB, who first showed signs of something amiss in December, passed away yesterday. This has left us heartbroken, but we will persevere.

I prefer to think of these things are remnants of 2019, since they started there. This is the way of hope. Things will get better, and they haven't been all bad, to be sure. San Antonio has been good to us and our jobs are getting better. There is light ahead and we will strive towards it.
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19 Nov 2019

So, San Antonio

We've been in San Antonio for about five and a half weeks now and it simultaneously seems both more and less than that. We received our household goods about four weeks ago and the place is really starting to come together. Our Christmas tree is up for the first time in years and stuff has started going up on the walls.

We're also settling into our jobs. Mine is pretty low key and easy at the moment and Kelley was dropped into a dumpster fire, so she is a little stressed out. The hope is that it will get better sooner rather than later.

We've found a church, several new awesome places to eat, and will begin exploring San Antonio next month by going to a Spurs game and hitting the Riverwalk. We're looking forward to our life here!
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21 Sep 2019

A matter of days

It is now only a matter of days until we move out of this house and then a few more until we begin our journey to San Antonio. Just yesterday we had a BBQ here for Kelley's work section which was our last event here. Now the teardown and preparation for moving begins in earnest. We already have a house in SA, Kelley has a job, and everything is looking great. Our only struggle is going to be the three day, 23+ hour drive to get there in two cars. Exciting, scary, stressful, busy, bonkers, you name it! San Antonio, here we come!
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28 Jul 2019

It is starting to get real

Over the past two months, we've had some things to distract us from the upcoming move to San Antonio - we went to Virginia Beach and then took a week trip to Traverse City for the Cherry Festival. Now we're approaching two months until we move and there are no trips or big events in the way. Just thoughts of moving and what needs to be done. It is exciting and stressful. We've started looking at houses and have seen some truly amazing ones. Hopefully, we'll be blessed with an amazing house in a good location with a decent commute.

We know with reasonable certainty when Kelley's last day at work is, when our things are getting packed up, when DJ's final out will be, and when we will depart town for good. We know what hotel we'll be staying at for a few days before we leave town. Other things we don't know, but this is a good start.
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2 Jun 2019

San Antonio? Yes!

In an unexpected upset, we're moving to San Antonio this fall! From the last update, you would have read that we thought it was going to be DC, Alaska, or Georgia, but we got a better result than any of those places! It is about time we got a break as far as the military is concerned.

I am going to be a squadron superintendent, which is the job I most wanted, so everything is coming up great so far. Kelley will have to find a new job again, and that is stressful, but she has always succeeded upwards in that endeavor so I don't doubt she will again. It is going to be an exciting time for us and this might just be our last military move!
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24 Mar 2019

Moving or not?

If the question of whether we are moving or not seems familiar, it totally is. We anticipated moving a year ago because of the promotion I received, and when we ended up not moving, it looked like this year we'd move, instead. That still might happen, but it might not. The waiting, either way, is annoying though. If we do move, our three most likely locations are Washington DC, Augusta, Georgia, and Anchorage, Alaska.

Honestly, we hope we don't move again this year. Kelley is killing it at her job and none of those three places are locations where we think we would like to retire, and since our next move is likely our last military move, a place that fits where we might want to leave after military life would be nice. We're both still doing the school thing, which still sucks, but we're almost halfway through so I guess it is too late to quit! Hopefully, we'll have for sure news on this development really soon!
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11 Nov 2018

School sucks

If you look around this site, it becomes clear that over the last 6 to 9 months updates have waned. Pictures of the month are behind, blogs and news posts are infrequent, and no features have been added. I started my Master's Degree program just after Thanksgiving last year and while the first class was cake, since then it has been a real drag. Kelley started her own Master's Degree program in May and that has made both of our lives seriously school-focused since.

We about to hit our Thanksgiving break (9 days, yes!) and then start a new class. Also, we'll get 3 weeks off for Christmas. I hope to use this time to get things done around the house and recalibrate my life to be more productive even when I am in school. I have other website projects besides this one and I want to make consistent progress - I can't put it all aside during school because I still have 2 years left! I look forward to accomplishing more soon.
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