20 Reasons I Love Being a Military Spouse

So while the cardboard boxes were still on the curb, I was sitting on my sofa setting up my wishlist for where we will move NEXT, a little less than two years from now. In the words of Jack Black on Jumangi, “I can’t even with this.”
And that’s why it’s important to have a list of why you love what you do…

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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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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 […]

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Alan’s Convoy Attack

The Convoy Attack True Stories of Real Army Wives Series

****It has been a few weeks since our last chapter, so let’s do a quick recap. I finally quit teaching, and Alan left Tikrit and moved to Ad Dawr.  At this point, we are 6 months into our first deployment, exactly halfway through it. So far, Alan’s unit had suffered 3 casualties. I also came up with this clever list of my expectations as a mil spouse. This is part of my ongoing series of the story of our first deployment, […]

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The Time of Our Sojourning in Georgia

When Jacob, as in Jacob one of the patriarchs of Israel, moved to Egypt during the famine, his son Joseph introduced him to Pharaoh. Jacob was already ancient, so Pharaoh asked him how old he was. Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my […]

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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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The Military Spouse of the Year Award

Kids’ papers often get turned in a day or two late. Sometimes things go missing for days before we find them at the bottom of a stack. My dining room table looks like…. Well, it looks like this: My four-year-old loves to paint just as much as I love to blog. This whole rule of disorder has been bothering me and also making me feel like a failure, so I decided to give up blogging. “I’ll do it on the […]

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Kids’ Names, The Cop, & Living a Life that Matters

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 chapter, click here.*************** Friday, July 8, 2003 Alan, Hey! I’m being bad. I’m in class, and we are watching a truly boring video. So I’ve been brainstorming children’s names for our future children. These are some that I have come up with. Tell me what you think, and try to think of some names to add to the list. 🙂 Girls: Gracie Elizabeth  (my favorite) Kathryn Jennings […]

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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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