Better late than never, right?
Well, we survived Kolt's first two week deployment. He left the day after Christmas for an Island in the Southern Bahamas. His schedule down there was duty, work, off & on the days he did work they were usually only half days. So he spent his time off spear fishing with some of the guys he was deployed with. He used some Christmas money to buy some new spear fishing stuff before he left and his plan was to eat a lot of fish while he was down there. They have to bring all of their own food so he thought this might cut down on cost and the amount of food he had to buy and pack. He speared a few lobsters and some mutten snapper, tiger grouper, and trigger fish. Any time he wasn't working or swimming in the ocean was spent in his "hooch" watching movies because the Mosquito's were so bad that it was absolutely miserable going outside. They all ran out of bug spray within the first week and Kolt said the island itself was really ugly and run down. He didn't have any cell phone service but they have wifi so he could only text (iMessage) people with iPhones and he could only call me through Skype calling. A couple days before he came home he ended up getting sick and found out he had Ciguatera fish poisoning. So now he is on light duty at work and can't fly at all and is supposed to be deploying to another island in the Bahamas at the end of the month.
Brinleigh and I stayed busy and the time flew by for us. When Kolt left there wasn't anything hung on the walls and none of the rooms were really decorated or fully put together. So I made it a goal to do at least one thing every single day to start decorating the new house. It is slowly coming along but it's taking me a lot longer because I've decided to really start learning about interior decorating and my style and taste has changed so I'm not so quick to just put things up right now. I'm kinda working room by room, scouring Pinterest and researching ideas and tips.
Other than trying to decorate the house, Brinleigh and I didn't do much else outside of our normal routine. The Ringling Brothers Circus came to Tampa the first week of January so I took Brinleigh to that. I hadn't been in years and it was a pretty good time. She seemed entertained during some parts and bored during others.
Other exciting news in the Foreman household.....
The cuts came out today for the November service wide test that Kolt took to promote to second class. He did excellent on the test, placing #3 on the list of all the AET3's that tested. So we have been crossing our fingers and hoping and praying that they would promote at least three of the AET3's. It's never guaranteed that they will promote a certain amount of people if any and each rate is different. We found out today that they promoted 11 AET's to second class, which means..... KOLT IS PROMOTING!!!!! This is a huge relief for us for several reasons. First and foremost, Kolt HAS to promote by a certain date in order to stay in the Coast Guard, so this promotion wasn't only wanted but he needed it to keep his job and he only had a couple more chances since they only test twice a year. And second, it's a big pay raise, which we really really need right now. So we were super excited when we got that news today.
Less exciting news...
When I was hired at Target it was for a seasonal team member position and last week they asked me to stay on permanently. So I don't have to worry about getting let go anymore now that the holidays are over and I have a permanent part time job! My hours have been cut drastically but that works out perfect for me since I only want to work a couple days a week now anyways.
