Why We Didn't Want to Recruit Close to Home

Many times when a Marine gets selected for Recruiting Duty the first thought is, "Can I Recruit close to home?" While this may work for some families, I will try to explain why it wouldn't really work for us.

I can't say I was surprised when my husband received his orders for Marine Corps Recruiting Duty. Honestly, I saw it coming a mile away. Sure I had hoped he wouldn't get recruiting, but every six months I would check the list to see if his name was on it.

Our First VA Loan

We have multiple pets so when we came out on recruiting duty we were forced to purchase a home. To top it off the housing allowance for our area was low compared to the rental market.

Some of the houses we looked at to rent in our price range were, um, not very good to put it nicely.  Here is one of the houses we looked at. Now, in my defense it looked much nicer in the photos that were posted online! Needless to say we politely passed on this gem of a home! And yes, the trees really are growing THROUGH the fence!

What a Day

Mike is away at his monthly meeting. He left yesterday around 4pm to drive to his command group. He was in a meeting all day long and the day. I woke up this morning not feeling well.  I swear when he is out of town everything goes downhill. Let me tell you about my day.

I went into the garage to change the laundry over and there's a huge water mark on the ceiling. I went into the attic and the air conditioner is leaking. My phone is broken so I couldn't even call the repair man. I shot Mike an email and he won't be able to deal with it until tomorrow. Wait, it gets better.

Family Visit

My mother-in-law is visiting us for a month and we've been spending time as a family. The children are so happy to see her.

Summer is halfway done and Mike is working to get his recruiters back to a normal schedule. So far they are working from 8am to 6pm every night. Wednesday nights they work until 8-9pm because they have a poole function. 

Happy Friday......?

Friday started out as a nice day that ended with Mike getting his butt chewed. But let me start at the beginning so you'll be able to follow the entire story.

Hectic Week

It's been a hectic week this week. Mya started another week of camp with the Art Museum this week. It goes from early morning to evening. That means we've been up early to get ready and have breakfast before she goes to camp. It also means that I've been going to the gym every morning which is a huge improvement. 

Mike's actually been after me because he's paying for my gym membership and I haven't been going. It's just  that going to the gym every day takes up a huge chunk of time. Not the actual gym part but the drive over and back and then showering and changing. Okay, I'm whining and making excuses... But still...

Father's Day

Father's Day was nice. I'd say great, but Mike didn't want a big fuss this year. He lost his father early this year and this was his first Father's Day without him. We miss Miguel very much. So Mike didn't want much to do this year. But he did get to do whatever he wanted.

He had to go in to work in the morning, so the girls and I went to church without him. We met back at the house afterwards. Mike got home late as usual so we ended up eating lunch without him. I have to admit I was a little annoyed that he was late and we got into a small argument. Mike took a nap as did the girls so it was a quiet afternoon.

A Beautiful Day

Today was so much fun! We all had a great time and got to spend time together as a family. Mike got home at 7pm last night and I picked him up from work. He was wearing his cammies, so I stopped and bought him an outfit at Sam's Club. I snagged a pair of Nautica shorts and a Polo T-shirt for $30. I told him it was his early Father's Day gift. I wouldn't have purchased him an outfit except that I was no where near the house and was already one street away from his office, so instead of wasting gas I just picked him up some clothes.

Another Lonely Night

The week is almost over and I'm ready for the weekend. It's been a long week. Mya attended a day camp all week through one of the local churches. She was able to learn about tennis and then did some martial arts training. She really enjoyed it, but the camp runs in the afternoon. The bus picked her up at 12:50pm and then dropped her off at 5:45pm. This disrupted Lily's sleep time and she's been grumpy and off schedule. It also means that she hasn't been sleeping well at night either.

Mya, on the other hand, has been absolutely thrilled. She comes home excited and happy, talking so fast I can barely understand what she's saying! It's good to see her so happy. I just wish that the camp would have been in the morning not till later in the evening.

Just another day in the life

Another day of summer vacation. This week has been off with Memorial Day on Monday. My schedule is all off and we are still trying to get into our routine. Now that Mya isn't in school during the day we are all adjusting to her being home.


Mike woke up early this morning to leave go to his Headquarters. He has a retirement ceremony to do tomorrow; he's standing in the formation. Today was practice and tomorrow is the real deal. He had to leave early this morning. To top it off, MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) called this morning. One of his poolees had a problem with his package, so they called to talk to him. I was awaken at 5:30 this morning. The phone also woke up the baby, so I only dozed on and off as she tossed around on the bed.

Memorial Day Weekend

It's Memorial Day weekend and the end of the school year here. My oldest finished 3rd grade on Friday and we went out to celebrate. We had dinner and then came home and had a family movie night. Mya really loved it and so did Lily. We watched Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakual and Lily was dancing to the music. The kids had a blast and Mike and I had fun watching them.

Yesterday Mike had to attend a High School Graduation of his poolee's (The young men and women who have contracted to join the Marine Corps, but haven't left yet). So he left at 6pm last night and was gone for a few hours for that. I put the kids to bed myself and waited for him to get home. We watched the Hit List which was really good before falling into bed.

Starting His New Job

It was not easy when my husband, Mike started is new job as a Marine Corps Recruiter. The hours were very long. His office was in a mall. and the mall didn't even open until 10am. So he had to be in at at 8:30am to get started and have his morning meeting with the other recruiters and his SNCOIC (Staff NCO in Charge or his boss). From there he would leave out of the office and visit schools or walk around and try to make contact with young men and women. Many times he would not leave the office until after 7pm.

Searching for Our New House

When we arrived at our duty station, we began looking for places to rent. We did not want to buy a home, as we are only going to be here for three years. Every duty station we had been to we were able to rent a home for under our housing allowance and still have money left over for utilities. We were surprised to find that was not the case here.

Moving to Our New Home

When my husband, Mike got back from Recruiter's School I was thrilled to see him. As excited as we were to see him, we didn't have much time to enjoy his company. He flew into North Carolina on Saturday night and we went out to dinner to celebrate. I remember he brought me sand from the beach in San Diego in a CocaCola bottle. He said that he wished I was there, but since I couldn't go he brought California back with him.

Welcome to Recruiter's School

When Mike got the news that he'd be going on recruiting duty we weren't surprised. We knew that the team was coming to our area and we knew he had made the list. See all Marines need to complete a B billet to progress in their career. Well, they don't really have to, but then they run the chance of not getting promoted or being swept away on recruiting duty at an inconvenient time. 

You may be asking "What is a B Billet?"