I know I have been out of the Blogging Loop for the past week or so and I apologize for that but my life has been a little chaotic. Where to begin....So, as some of my readers may know.. my husband is in the Navy. He has applied for this program called STA21 in which you go from an enlisted person working 5 days a week to an enlisted person going to school 5 days a week and being paid for it the whole time. At the end of your college degree you then move on to bigger and better things... OFFICER! Well, he is super awesome and has great potential at anything he wants to do. So, after months of preparing his package and getting things together and working his butt off, he had everything in order except for his High School transcripts and diploma. Well, we went to school in Florida and now live in VA, so getting them meant sending off for them. Not a big deal though... So we though.
So, at the beginning of June we went to Kinkos where there is a FedEx and shipped off a release form, our money order for 12.00, and a return label for over night shipping. The cost of shipping was $30.00 so we could have the over night priority shipping. It was sent off on a Friday and since the state of Florida is closed on the weekend it meant they would receive it by Monday at 10:30am. Not a big deal considering we needed these at the latest by July 31st. So, off our package totaling a value over $70.00 went to the state of Florida's department of Education. Knowing that the processing time was 2 weeks for Florida to get your records together we waited but then some family things came up and we forgot about it until around July 20th when we realized it hadn't come and we were getting down to the wire. So, we called Florida and they said they hadn't received a package from us! When we called FedEx they said someone had signed for it at the DOE in Florida on Monday at 1015am. This is where ti gets good. We needed those records fast! We had 10 days to get them! We could have sent, yet another, money order and return envelope but the DOE has a 10 day processing time through the mail and they aren't equipped to do over the phone or fax/email requests.
So, being the awesome great wonderful Navy wife that I am, I climbed into the car with my 3 year old, one bag, and some snacks and drove the 700miles to Florida to my parents house and stayed there and the next day, went to Tallahassee (2 hours away) and grabbed those records. For some reason, the DOE in Florida will do next day requests if you pick them up but getting them in the mail takes 10 days! Well, we got the records and the STA21 package sent off. Now, we wait. One thing I did learn from this experience.... DON'T trust FEDEX, the post office would have been wayyyyyy cheaper for the same damn thing, and being a good military wife extends further than the kitchen an laundry room. =)
