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, […]

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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 […]

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Shelby is Busted

****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 the previous chapter, The Fork in the Road***** I love telling you the sweet, happy stories every week, but the truth is not everyone’s story is either of those things. When one tells a story, one must tell the […]

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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 […]

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Real Army Wives: Grim Reminders and My Guardian Angel

Real Army Wives: Grim Reminders and My Guardian Angel

*******This post is part of the series True Stories of Real Army Wives. This blog series takes place in 2003, at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. All names of current military members and their spouses are changed.****** To read last week’s post, click here. Several things happened as that summer ended. Ashley, a friend of mine from church and one of the first people I’d met in Killeen, experienced a tragedy. Her husband’s XO was shot and killed. That was […]

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Mil Spouse Problems: 13 Months, The Illegal Question, & the Cat

Mil Spouse Problems: 13 Months, The Illegal Question, & the Cat

This post is part of the series True Stories of Real Army Wives. To read last week’s post, click here. Alan was good about taking photos with a disposable camera and mailing me the cameras later on. I’m going to include a few of those pictures in today’s post. Wed., July 23, 2003 11:32 pm Oh! Well, I went to choir practice tonight. I left in tears. At the end of practice, Bruce announced that he saw on Fox News […]

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Decisions: Learning to Put People Before Logic

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay downpour lives for our brothers.

****This post is part of the series The Real Army Wives, appearing every Monday on storiesofourboys.com. For the first half of the book, click here. For last week’s post, click here.***** When I was 22, it felt like there were decisions to make at every turn. Sometimes I chose unwisely. I tried to make the best, most logical plans. What I learned that summer was that sometimes people and emotions count for more than practicality. Did you watch the Star […]

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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, […]

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Letters to War June 24, 2003: The Teaching Test Troubles

Letters to War June 24, 2003: The Teaching Test Troubles

******This post is part of the Real Army Wives series which runs every Monday on storiesofourboys.com. The series follows our journey through the 1st year of the Iraq war, 2003-2004. ********** June 24, 2003 Dear Alan, ……Operation Iraq is getting more news time now. The big issue is the mounting amount of coalition troop deaths since the official end of the war. Just this week there were at least 6 British troops killed, and American lives are constantly lost.

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