The Real Army Wives Series: Merry Christmas To Iraq, 2003

***This post belongs to a series of posts detailing life as a 22-year-old military wife, back in the beginning of the War on Terrorism. To read it from the beginning, start here. To read the  chapter before this one, click here.*** Christmas arrived. I could ignore it in my sadness over not having Alan with me, or I could embrace it for the fact that it was still Christmas. Truthfully, it was not a sad time anymore. I had Elsie, Kayla, […]

» Read more

Inside the Saddam Hole, December 2003

Alan and other members of his unit went over to the hole and took photos the next day.

Saddam Hussein was discovered on December 13th, and for you youngsters, Saddam Hussein was the President of Iraq from 1979-2003. He was a notorious figure due

» Read more

When They Touched Us

The Real Army Wives Series When They Touched Us

Friday, Oct. 17, 2003 Alan, Hey! I’m in Houston, Texas! I’m sharing a room with Elsie. We left Killeen around 3:30 this afternoon. It’s Cloe, Elsie, Kayla, and myself. We all rode down in Cloe’s little 2-door Civic! it was a tight squeeze, but we’re having a lot of fun. We got here at night, so we haven’t gone anywhere yet. And don’t worry, we aren’t planning on spending much money at all. Tomorrow we’re going on a tour of […]

» Read more

The Fork in the Road

****This post is part of my series on Real Army Wives. This series follows my husband’s first deployment to Iraq in 2003, but it’s the story of the wives back home more so than the men at war. Click here for last week’s post, Alan’s Convoy Attack.***** Mon., October 6, 2003 Alan, I’ve had a week off now to think about what it is I should be doing. I really still want to be a physical therapist. The only reason I […]

» Read more

6 Ways to Save Your Marriage During Deployment

****This post is part of the series Real Army Wives on storiesofourboys.com. This series chronicles the story of our first deployment, back in 2003.**** Once Alan had been gone for 6 months, and we were finally able to communicate regularly, we found that we began to bicker–even from continents away. We were having newlywed problems, whether we were together or not. Alan was anxious to move us forward towards our goals in the U.S., yet he was stuck in a […]

» Read more

The First 3 Casualties From Our First Deployment

***This post is part of the Real Army Wives series, which appears each Monday morning on storiesofourboys.com. Click here for last week’s chapter. In this series, all names of service members and their wives are changed. However, names of the fallen soldiers are their correct names.*** Preparing for the Worst We all supposedly knew going into this that they wouldn’t all come home, but I never dwelt on that bit of information. Call it a defense mechanism, I don’t know. Being happy […]

» Read more

True Stories of Real Army Wives: My First Teaching Job

my very first teaching job. True Stories of Real Army Wives during deployment

Sun., Aug. 10, 2003 Alan, Hey Babe! Tomorrow is my first day of work. In case you haven’t yet gotten my previous letter, I got hired by Graham Elementary School downtown yesterday! Yay!! I’ll be making $32,000 this year. It’s a state charter school serving mostly low-income students, but it’s located in a church. Yeah, it’s different, but I’m excited about it. I’ll be teaching 3rd and 4th grade in one classroom, all subjects. It’s going to be tough. School starts […]

» Read more

Military Finances: Newlyweds on 2 Separate Continents

military finances for newlyweds on 2 continents-- Real Army Wives

*******This post is part of the series, The Real Army Wives. For last week’s post click here.******* Guest Post from Cloe Real Army Wives: The Mystery Checks Today’s post is written by a good friend and fellow real Army wife of mine who is the inspiration for the character, Cloe. You can read more about her on this post. When I mentioned this to Alan, he said, “Oh yeah, Rob! That dude had to shave his face twice a day.” Oh, […]

» Read more

Real Army Wives: Sarah, Short and Cute

***This post is part of the series The Real Army Wives. For last week’s post about The Coffee Group, click here.*** Okay, you may or may not get my title reference there to the children’s book, Sarah Plain and Tall, which you should totally read to your children. It’s such a great book. I still vividly recall the day I met Sarah. (I even have some adorable photos of Sarah…..but I left town for Hurricane Irma and didn’t pack my photo […]

» Read more
1 2