13 July 2010

Stumbling










So I have total mom-mush brain today. Gah! Lack of focus is not even adequate in describing the way my brain is functioning today! I have three children under the age of two here today...thankfully right now by some miracle they are all sleeping at the same time! I could be doing a hundred thousand other things like updating pictures, working on picture books for my son while they’re on sale, or catching up on episodes of tv shows that are piling up in the DVR...you know the important things. But the house is quiet so I thought it would be a perfect time to work on some homework and laundry, you know like the actual important things! But I’ve just been sitting here stumbling around the internet looking for useful information about noise pollution and radon and city ordinances and other crap related topics. But somewhere in all of that I took a blog break and stumbled upon Household 6 Diva  which lead me to stumble upon Wife of a Sailor also. The hubs always asks me if I know these people when I look at blogs and he just doesn't understand that you don't have to know someone to know them in blogland!  Being a military wife and all it entails is something only another military wife would understand. So I started snooping er, I mean admiring a few of these new blogs I stumbled upon because I suddenly started to going “me too!” and “oh, I’ve so been there” and “I can totally relate!” And it made me want to join in on the fun of this MilSpouse Friday Fill-In because maybe there’s a military-spouse-stay-at-home-mom out there who will stumble upon my blog and could use a dose of feeling normal in a world where it can be so easy to start second guessing your feelings and thinking you’re crazy the longer you live the military life! MilSpouse Fill in Friday is already on week #3 so I’m going to get caught up and then continue on every week with them! If you’re interested, thanks! And if not, thanks for stopping by anyway and please come back because I’ll have some new pictures and family updates again soon.

Week #1 questions were:
1. How did you and your spouse/significant other meet?
I actually think that he likes to answer this question more than me. We were recently asked this by some newer friends we’ve made and he completely took over telling them with excitement in his voice going into details I thought he would have completely forgotten by now! But he’s not here and he doesn’t typically do the blogging with me so all you’re gonna get is my boring in-a-nutshell-rendition of what happened. We met at a college apartment party through mutual friends and we ended up talking and seeing each other a couple times in the few weeks before he left after just joining the Army.  I was 19 and just enjoying the college lifestyle and let it go.  I later moved in with someone and he went to Korea and then deployed to Iraq.  Two years or so passed and I ended up moving back home with my mom and thats when I found this square of paper with a name and phone number scribbled on it.  So being the random person I am, I called it and he answered but after he said he had no memory (he blames it on the explosions!) of me, I really thought that would be it. A couple weeks later he called me back and we got together to see each other again. And thats when our long-distance relationship journey began to soon include a five week engagement and a wedding before his next deployment! Here we are 4 years later...

2. What is the best thing about being a MilSpouse?
The opportunities. we are now on our second duty station and preparing to pcs again at the end of the year to the third. if it weren’t for the army, I highly doubt i would have ever lived in Colorado, missouri or especially alaska! i’ve also been given the opportunity to be a stay at home mom.  the deployment pay gave us the opportunity to pay off debt and save enough to take an amazing honeymoon.  my husband is now taking classes debt free and i can also use some of his g.i. bill for school if I wish to. thanks to v.a. we own multiple properties and thanks to tricare we are medically debt free. the opportunities to shop tax free and have spousal preference when applying for certain jobs. sometimes i have to remind myself about all these great opportunities when other aspects of military life get tough but i always end up looking forward to the new opportunities that are to come in the next 13-ish years. 

3. What is the hardest thing about being a MilSpouse?
there’s not one specific thing for me thats the hardest. there are a handful of things that are sometimes hard to deal with, for sure, but thats typical of any lifestyle! something for us is missing family things...birthdays, ball games, holidays, get-togethers, etc.  our son is now almost 2 years old and we’re trying to start some of our own traditions since its very unlikely that we will make it to the same events back home every year. I just worry our kids will feel like they’ve missed out on growing up with their cousins and every time they make new friends we or they end up moving away. also, i’ve found that my spouse having been affected by multiple deployments can be very hard. the sleepless nights, the memory loss, the hearing loss, and all the other physical and ptsd related issues can be terribly straining on a marriage. I would give up all the disability pay at retirement time to be able to have the same man we send off to war come back to us a year later, but it just doesn’t happen that way.


4. What is your favorite dish?
Cheesecake. really, I could eat a good cheesecake with each meal everyday. i’ve actually done it before, amazing. when I was younger we traveled by train and everyday that we were on the train i had cheesecake with each meal. mmmm...

5. If you could change one thing in this world, what would it be?
i would change that people always want to change things...and i’m not saying i’m not guilty of wanting to change a few things now and then, but I think we would all live more simply and be more appreciative of the things that change naturally by believing everything happens for a reason.




Up next, catching up on weeks #2 and #3....


{Emily}

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