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Courage

Married to a Geardo

Yes, it's already been established that Air Force Guy is a Geardo.  I think he might be the King of the Geardos, in fact.  Or at least the heir apparent.  In any case, the man has never met a piece of gear or equipment he didn't feel that he absolutely MUST HAVE NOW.

So I'm sure you can imagine the near accidents that ensued when, at a stop light near a local shopping center, AFG noticed two banners near the road that blared "5.11 TACTICAL GEAR NOW HERE".

With judicious use of the horn, some pantomimed begging and gesturing, and the luck of fifteen leprechauns, AFG managed to skate across three lanes of rush hour traffic and into the shopping center in question.

Lost In Translation

If you are a regular reader of SpouseBuzz you may or may not know a few things about me.  Lest I lose YOU in translation too, let me tell you two things.  First, my husband is deployed.  Second, we are in the middle of an international adoption.

That, apparently, is a combination ripe with frustrating possibilities.

Please Define "Mid-"

Last year when my husband deployed, he was supposed to leave in mid-May.  He left May 6th.  That's not "mid" in my book.  This year he's supposed to leave mid-July.  I said I'd believe it when I see it...

You Might Be a Military Family If...

Everyone in the family has their own personal Camelbak...

Did You Know?

Post 9/11 GI Bill Options
Veterans Benefits Guide Available
Tool Aids Vets GI Bill Decision
Relief for Military Homeowners
Army Offers Crisis Resources
CertifiChecks Update
Wounded Warrior Resource Directory

More Updates

Fit Club: It's Working!

Thank you, my Fit Club friends.  I don't know which is the magic key, reporting to you, or the food journal, or dropping the beer for white wine spritzers, but something is working!  I'm rapidly pushing towards the half-way point of my fitness goal for DH's deployment, and I've only been really serious about it for about three months.  I'm so excited!

On the downside, I haven't been exercising much.  I think I'm just inherently lazy, plus we are so busy, and I've been sick.  (Ugh!)  But I have been walking a good bit and swimming a few times a week, so I haven't been sitting inside and watching TV every day.

How is the summer affecting your fitness plans? 

The Beginning of Not The Same

I realized as I was sitting in a completely empty house on July 4th with no working knowledge of our gas grill that, perhaps, I should just admit to myself that this is our first of "just not the same" days that we will meet head on this year.

My next thought?  I knew a place I could go where I would not be the only one doing this today.

Just Spaghetti?

Last night we had the d'Arc family over for dinner while they were in town, which was a lot of fun.  I made homemade spaghetti and meatballs for our dinner.  In bed at the end of the evening, I asked my husband if he'd enjoyed his dinner.  "Yeah, sure, it was fine," he noncommittally said.  Only fine?  That didn't seem like the praise I was fishing for.  "Well," he continued in a bored and sleepy voice, "I mean it was just spaghetti and meatballs."

To which I huffily and half-jokingly replied...

I rolled three kinds of raw meat mixture and made homemade tomato sauce for hours yesterday.  Not to mention the salad and the from-scratch cookies.  How about this: how about you spend the next nine months eating DFAC food and MREs, and then we'll see how you feel about my "just spaghetti and meatballs."

I hope he gets all Beef Franks MREs all deployment long...

The Hostility in this Household Must Stop!

I love having my husband home and not deployed. I really, really do. But, I've found things around the house are always a little different when he's home. Specifically, there are several items in the house which seem to prefer that my husband be far, far away from home. They like me. They do not like him. When he returns, they suddenly disappear. I'm not sure what he's done to them, exactly, which causes them to perform their vanishing act. 

But they do. And it's getting to be problematic.

Pre-Deployment and the State of my Rear End

A few weeks ago Butterfly Wife posted on her blog a question - should she change her blog name to Does This Army Make My Butt Look Big?

What a timely question (and I nearly died laughing reading the newly proposed title!).  Just the last few weeks I've been wondering something close to that myself - Does this pre-deployment make my butt look big?  I'm pretty sure the answer is yes.

For the record, I'm not blaming anyone, any entity, or anything outside of my own self for the state of my rear (and arms, and legs, etc ad infinitum).  I know darn well that I made the choice to eat that, not do that exercise, and so on.  However, I also figured out last go-round that pre-deployment certainly makes it a lot easier to throw caution to the winds!

In a nutshell, knowing that the love of your life is going to be gone for a year (or more) and with the beginnings of anticipatory grief making themselves heard, who can say no to just one more trip to Baskin Robbins when the husband says he'd like to go just one more time?  Of course, it won't be the last time, but I pretend not to realize that...

Fleece? This Is New...

My husband's been to Iraq twice, so this will be his first trip to Afghanistan.  I realized something when he was packing over the weekend, something that hadn't yet crossed my mind: Afghanistan has seasons.

It was strange to see my husband packing a duffel of cold-weather gear to be shipped ahead of time.  Cold-weather gear for deployment?  This is new!  But this is a place where, apparently, summer temperatures can reach 115°, while winter temperatures in high altitudes can fall to -15°.  And we still don't know exactly where he's going, so he better be prepared for anything.

Sadly, packing cold-weather gear essentially more than doubles the amount of stuff you have to hump...

Appreciating the Little Things

I might be the only one, but even when my husband is home, I often feel like I'm in charge of everything.  Paying the bills, buying the groceries, organizing our six thousand doctors and dentist appointments, getting the babysitters, buying the clothes, writing the Christmas cards (or not) - you know the list.  However, during the last five months I've discovered quite a few things that are clearly "not my department."  For example, we went camping over Memorial Day weekend, and I thought that we needed to buy a tent.  One of my kids said, "Um, we have a tent.  Two actually."  I was completely surprised - I just have never paid any attention to camping stuff.  I just show up.  Ditto for grilling dinner at the pool  The first time I had to pack a cooler to have dinner at the pool, I realized that my husband has always done that.  Pretty much all of it.

Of course, I've forgotten some of my discoveries, but it has been enlightening.  Lawn mower, Christmas lights, yard fertilizer, air in car tires:  not my department.  It has probably been good for me to realize how many things my husband does and I'm clearly not giving him enough credit for his contributions.  So, to my husband:  Thank you.  (And since you are so good at these things, you are welcome to take over anything else you would like.)

Did You Know?

Exchanges Offer Firestone Car Centers
Air Force Modifies PCS Policies
Volunteer Mentors Sought In Texas
AAFES Helps Deployed Troops Call Home
Army Focuses On Flu
Website Opens For Post 9/11 GI Bill
AHRN Housing Referral Network

More  

Now That's Can't Be Normal!

A few weeks ago my husband brought home a piece of paper he received after his records were reviewed when he transferred into a new detachment.

The piece of paper said (paraphrased):  Your qualification on the Uzi has been revoked because you have failed to requalify within the required amount of time.

After several hours of having seen that paper and not noticed anything unusual about it, I realized that the fact that we had that paper in our house and didn't see anything unusual about it was probably *not normal.*

On the other hand, it is OUR normal.  Just like moving every few years, decorating our house like  Middle Eastern Applebee's, and eating copious amounts of delicious Afghan food.  It's very odd to my family and quite a few of my friends from "before", but it is our normal.

In fact, I realized that a lot of the things that are "our normal" are so, well, normal for us that I never even notice they might be off until a socially awkward situation develops (see also:  ruck - humping; misuse of).  Since I'm all about preventative measures to avoid embarrassing situations (like it ever works for me), I'd like to hear things you've discovered about the military that don't always translate to the outside world.

What's your normal?

The Knock

Air Force Wife Liz writes about "the knock."

Back in the states it was 5:26 am on Monday May 11th and I awoke to "the knock". This is what every single military wife lives in fear of. I never thought I would get the knock.

Thursday May 14th I left Shreveport with my escort Brian (fellow EOD guy who literally had just come back from Afghanistan 3 days earlier) We had to go to DC to get an emergency passport for me to get to Germany. Then Friday night we left DC and arrived in Landstuhl, Germany Saturday morning. I got to the hospital just as David was coming out of surgery.

We left Landstuhl Sunday afternoon on a C17 military aircraft and arrived back in DC Sunday night. We were taken by ambulance to Walter Reed and have been here for the past week and a half. 

Liz maintains a blog to keep family and friends updated on her husband David's condition. She also says blogging is "therapy" for her. Liz and David have a long journey ahead of them. I love the Martha Washington quote Liz has on the blog:

The greater part of our happiness depends on our disposition and not our circumstances.

Reading through Liz's blog, you get the sense that she lives that quote. If you're the praying sort, Liz and David could use your prayers, and your support.

 

Can't You Act More Torn?

My husband's dedication and wholeheartedness are qualities that I admire most about him.  When he does something, he does it fully.  That especially goes for his job, which he takes very seriously.  It's one of the things I love most about him, one of the things that drew me to him in the first place, but sometimes it is a hard quality for me to accept.

My husband is the type of man who goes in to work over block leave.

I Love It!

What an awesome idea for military families. Great photos, too....

Mechanic Fail or no I cannot fix teh washing machinze

I am not sure which # life lesson I am on today.  I sort of like to advise anyone who reads SpouseBuzz, to become the anti-me. 

Today was one of those days.