Prepare Yourself.

A lot of pride and love comes along with being a military wife. There is no way you can prepare yourself for the hardships you will face. Since the Army's motto is "Hurry up and wait", the only thing you can really do is just take things how they are and take them a day at a time. I am prepared for next deployment because I have been through one. I KNOW that my husband may have to stay at work a few days or weeks at a time while he should be home. I KNOW the army comes first. I had expectations that some things would happen. Having somebody tell me to my face that my husband and our fellow soldiers are just overseas killing women and children...I did not expect. Maybe if we were still in the middle of Vietnam I could expect that, but not in today's day.
The media doesn't show everything. The media only shows the attacks, the deaths, and the bad things happening. In war people die. Civilian and military. I don't know what Afghanistan or Iraq is first hand, but I live with a man who experienced it. The year he was in Afghanistan, he did not fire his weapon once. (I'm not by any means saying that there is no killing going on because there is.) What most of America DOESN'T know, is that Afghanis and Americans are working TOGETHER to help build a better nation. They DO want us there. Below are some pictures my husband took during his tour. You can be the judge of the pictures if you think that those people hate us. Just the other day an insurgent (sp?) killed a young child because they told the father that if he didn't supply them with a vehicle and weapons, they'd kill his son. We are doing what we can to STOP those evil people and to help those children live better lives so they can grow to be successful and NOT terrorists.
One thing I will always live by now, is if you don't like this great nation we live in, please feel free to live. We are not a communist nation and nobody is making you stay here. Ask yourself what you are contributing to the country. If you can't think of one thing, I feel bad for you.

Talk to a soldier, be in his/her shoes. Thank them. You have the right to your opinion about this war because of them.

Memorial Weekend 2011.

Hardiness , valor,strength, and bravery, peace and honesty, Vigilance, Perserverance, Justice, truth, and loyalty. What do those those words represent? If you're completely puzzled or you think you have an idea, they represent the colors of the American Flag. Good Ole Red, White, and Blue.

Growing up, I've always been patriotic. Being an Army Wife I feel even more empowered to express the way I feel about our country. Yesterday, Jeff and I went downtown to the Special Operations museum where they had 700 flags put out to represent some people in the service. The ground leading up to the museum had engravings of servicemen who had died protecting our flag, our country, us. One of these engravings in particular hit something deep down that filled me with emotion. I just wanted to break down and cry. I don't remember what his name was...but he had died in a Black Hawk crash in 1993 in Somalia. When we came home later that day we popped in the movie "Black Hawk Down." Seeing an actual memorial for this brave man and watching the movie to see what he went through was devastating. War in general is always devastating. Being stuck home on the sidelines when something is going on, we try not to think about how horrible our husbands, our brothers, or even our sisters go through or witness. I know it's nothing compared to the "real" thing but it really made me think. It also made me appreciate our troops even more. Back home there would always be parades and festivities going on to celebrate these men and women. Back home there is no active military base or "military towns". People show their appreciation however they can but it's completely different than being in a military town. In the museum a good majority of the volunteers were veterans. The Vet that I had spoken to, I shook the man's hand and told him "Thank you". I try to thank veterans when I can, I do it because I mean it. After yesterday, I think the Veteran had know I meant it because a whole lot of emotions came with it. After you thank a Vet, the expression you see on their face is always timeless. The world stops and you can feel the joy that they feel.

When Jeff was deployed, my mom had put a single candle in the window so that he could find his way home safely. I ask all of you to please do this until tuesday morning so that all of our soldiers still deployed find their ways home safely. I also ask you to do this for all the brave men and women who have fallen. They gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Please remember the true meaning of Memorial Day and show your patriotism by thanking a veteran.
God Bless the USA.

Make A Wish

For those of you that know me, I've always been really big on helping people. I started doing volunteer work at the age of 13. It was mandatory at my high school in order to graduate. But the more I did the work, the more I appreciated doing it. It makes you feel good and it makes you feel like you accomplished something. People are always talking about change and making a difference. You can make your difference TODAY.

Christmas Eve five and a half years ago, my cousin James was born. He was a great baby, but something wasn't right. After multiple doctors visits, they diagnosed James with Pompe's disease. For those of you that don't know what Pompe's disease is here is a little information:

Glycogen storage disease type II (also called Pompe disease or acid maltase deficiency) is an autosomal recessive metabolic disorder[1] which damages muscle and nerve cells throughout the body. It is caused by an accumulation of glycogen in the lysosome due to deficiency of the lysosomal acid alpha-glucosidase enzyme. It is the only glycogen storage disease with a defect in lysosomal metabolism, and the first glycogen storage disease to be identified, in 1932.
The build-up of glycogen causes progressive muscle weakness (myopathy) throughout the body and affects various body tissues, particularly in the heart, skeletal muscles, liver and nervous system. (Wikipedia)

James has been in and out of the hospital every since he was a baby. Doctors told my family that it is very rare for children with Pompe to live past the age of three. James will be six this winter. This child has showed everyone in my family what love really is. I look up to my aunt and uncle so much. It takes two very strong people to raise a child with a disability. The strength these two have is amazing and unbelievable. I hope and I pray to God that I can be as strong as them both. Enough with the mushy stuff. James gets to go to school, he gets to play with his brothers, and he has one heck of a personality. He can't walk, but he makes you appreciate the small things in life. One of his favorite things to do right now is to go for walks. My family takes turns pushing him in his chair around his house. James will put his little hand out and knock all of the magnets off of the fridge. It's cute and you can see how much joy he gets out of that. The smallest things.

This past April, Make a Wish foundation paid for James to go to Disney with his family. He has a blast!! His favorite ride was the Jaws ride. I've always heard really great things about make a wish, but seeing what it can do for a family is totally different. There are hundreds of thousands of children with disabilities and diseases that Make a wish helps every day. I think it's time for us to show our appreciation. This summer, my Uncle Rick is doing the "Make a Wish ride". It's a bicycle marathon that will probably end up with hundreds of people breathless and puking their brains out. Just kidding. Ha. Anyways, below is a link. Please check it out. Any donation helps, whether it's one dollar or twenty. "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

Donate to Make a Wish!!!

Homesick.

The last couple days I've been pondering what I should write about next. The only suggestion I recieved from people was to write about how REAL army life is different from the tv show. Well, this is about to be as real as it gets...

I'm sitting here listening to "Home" by the Foo Fighters crying like a baby. My husband and I PCS to Hawaii in 10 weeks. He started clearing the other day and things are finally starting to move along. Now that everything is in the works and we have the paperwork, it feels real. It feels real and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I miss home. When will I see home next?
I haven't seen my dad since christmas (he does work in Alabama, so he's not home much). My mom is visiting in just a couple weeks. I don't know what all started this mood though. It could be my little sisters birthday thats coming up. She's going to be twelve. I remember being twelve. It was the most difficult age I had to deal with. I lost a lot of my self esteem when I was that age. I felt the lowest of lows. I don't want that to happen to her. I want to be there to protect her. I want to be there for all my siblings. I used to protect my brothers. Now they are all bigger than me and they try to protect me. I love them all to death. I miss weekends with my mom. All the kids would be gone and it'd be just her and I. We'd watch movies together and just talk about everything. I miss random days with my dad. He'd come home from work early and he'd take me shopping. It's the little things. I feel like I took those for granted. Kids growing up always talk about how they can't wait to get out of the house. We want to be able to feel that freedom. The freedom is great. But I constantly feel like a huge chunk is missing out of my heart. I grew up being so close with my family...after Jeff and I leave I dont know when I will be able to see them again. Three years. A lot can change in three years. 15, 17, 20, 21. Thats how old my siblings will be when we get back to the states. I wont be able to buy my oldest brother his first beer. I won't be able to take my other brother to get his first tattoo. I wont be able to take that first drive with my youngest brother. And I wont be able to take homecoming pictures with my sister. It breaks my heart. I have to keep telling myself that I KNEW what I was getting into.

There you have it. Real live Army wife life. It's time for me to put my big girl panties on now.

First holiday away from "Home."

Easter 2011 was my first holiday away from everything I've known. Growing up, my siblings and I would wake each other up at the crack of dawn just to find our easter baskets. Mom was always great with holidays. It was always too cold for her to hide the eggs, so she would make do with the plastic eggs hidden around the house. After we would go through our baskets, we would get dressed in our best and go to church. Then around noon we would head to my grandma's house and spend Easter with the rest of our ginormous family.

This year since it was just myself, Jeff, and the dog, I had bought a couple baskets and some little gadgets from the dollar tree. I had to play bunny this year. I hid Bella's basket and let her find it. It was so cute. Jeff and I got ready for the day and went to church. It was a beautiful service. Afterwords we got some lunch at Golden Corral (I had never been), it was amazing! We also decided to go for a drive. So we took the dog and went to a couple lakes on post. It was a beautiful day and it was just filled with love, even though it was only the three of us. When we got home, our neighbors came over and we all watched "Passion of the Christ." I had seen the movie before but I was a child and I never really understood. After watching it again, I feel like I found the true meaning of Easter.

Life is beautiful. Life is short. Jesus died for my sins, and yours, whether you believe or not..

Twister..in real life.

As most of you have heard by now, yesterday 16April 2011, tornados ripped through the east coast. North Carolina got hit really badly. As of right now there are 22 confirmed casualties and many many injured. The whole state is under a state of emergency. I decided that tomorrow I am going to red cross and am going to volunteer as much time as I can to help these victims.

Growing up in Michigan, we do get tornados every now and then. However, none are really "deadly." Michigan does a test every first saturday of the month with the "tornado sirens." I didn't hear this down here. Yesterday morning and Friday evening everyone kept talking about how horrible and severe this storm was going to be. Myself along with others didn't think anything of it because back in the fall, we were supposed to get hit with a hurricane. The end results in this hurricane was sprinkles and sunshine. The weather yesterday was kind of over cast, the sun peaking out here and there and pretty humid. It started sprinkling a little bit and Jeff and I had decided to go to Sonic because I am completely obsessed with Route 44 sweet teas..extra ice. As soon as we pulled into the sonic booth, the power went out. Oh great, I thought. I looked behind me to look at the major road, all the traffic lights were out. We decided to leave and head home. Within the .2 miles of driving back home we saw almost two accidents. We get home and sit on the porch because it starts thundering a little bit. The neighbor had her little boy out playing in the rain with his spiderman rain boots and yellow poncho. Then is started to pour cats and dogs, and when I say cats and dogs, I mean elephants and velociraptors.  (Oh yeah and we lost our power too at this point) So we're sitting out on the patio, and we hear this loud thunder that didn't stop for almost 20 seconds. It was loud and kind of sounded like a train. I don't know if this was the tornado or not. But it scared the heck out of me! We went back inside, the power turned back on and the sun was out. The crap? I get online as fast as I can and I hear about two tornados. One in Fayetteville/Ft Bragg and one in Sanford which is like twenty minutes from me. I thank God that this thing passed us. I see pictures, watch the news, see videos, and hear stories and it breaks my heart. I haven't volunteered in a very long time so tomorrow my goal is to get down to red cross and do WHATEVER I can.

Those of you that are in any of the areas that got affected by these tornados, God bless you and your family.
For information on how you can help visit: Highland Hills Red Cross

Tell time like a soldier.

I hate using military time, being around so much it sort of starts to grow on you. Here's a little help on learning military time.

If it's past noon, add 1200 to it. Example: (1:00pm)  1+1200= 1300

If you watch the show Army Wives, they're not 100% right on everything. If it's before noon, it's ZERO and then the time and not OH. Example: 8am...0800 (Zero eight hundred)