Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Your Questions Answered

So I am finally getting around to answering the questions about our family and our lives in the military!! Just to warn you, it is long.  We are headed down South tomorrow so I made it one post instead of two!  I hope everyone has a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!  If you are traveling, be safe!!!




1. What is the hardest thing about being a MilSpouse?
Deployments are always a given!!  But I knew deployments would be part of the life when I said, "I do."  What I didn't expect was David being forced to cross train from a career field that he loved and he was awesome at....... to a career field that he is very unhappy in.  The past 2 1/2 years have been our roughest in the military.  Things are finally starting to turn around, but he is now STUCK with this career with 11 years left to go.  However, we are very lucky to have a job and a roof over our heads.  At least that is what I keep trying to tell David!!  :-)
Now that Tyler is getting older, she has a hard time when her best friend PCSes or wanting to live closer to our family.  But she also understands how pretty awesome it is that her dad is in the military and she is so proud of him.  She told me that he was her hero while he was deployed.  I could not have been any prouder of her than I was that day.

2. What is the best thing about being a MilSpouse?
I love this question.  I seriously cannot see myself being a civilian wife!!  I love moving every 3 years.  I am getting the itch to move again, but we are going to try to stay here for as long as we can.  I have an amazing group of military friends that are stationed all over the world.  These women are the only people who know what you go through as a military spouse.  I never dreamed that I would live in England or Utah.  The military is also paying for my school! WOOHOO!!!  And as much as I complain about base housing, it is FREE!!!!  And back to the deployments, the homecoming is always worth it and it makes our marriage that much stronger.

3. What advice would you give a new MilSpouse?
Find an amazing group of military wives for support.  There will be times when you want to vent or complain.  I have been accused many times of just bitching and should be thankful that I know David will come back home from deployments.  The truth is, it sucks when they are gone.  How do you know 100% that they will come home.  Hell, I could be killed in a car wreck before he comes home.  Not to sound like Ms. Debbie Downer, but nothing in life is certain.   So find someone that is going through the same thing.
Be flexible.
COMMUNICATE!!!!  Communicate with your spouse when they are home, TDY, or on deployments.  They need to know how you are feeling when they are gone, and the same applies when they are home.

4. What is the funniest nickname you have for your husband?
HHMMM, I don't really have one for him.  I have always called him babe!  Boring, I know!

5. What is the funniest nickname he has for you?
He doesn't really have any funny ones.  He calls me Ash, Ashley Boo, and Baby.

6. What is your worst "OMG, I'm a horrible parent" moment?
OMG, I have those daily!!  I always feel like a horrible parent when David is deployed or TDY.  It breaks my heart when he has to miss something and I know that I cannot be both of us.  David has missed quite a few of Tyler's birthdays and Easters.  Luckily with her birthdays, he would leave just a day or two before hand so we would celebrate before he left.

There was the time that Tyler rolled off the bed.  And the time that I was holding Landon's hand while he walked up the stairs and he tripped over his feet and fell down the stairs.  I feel guilty when I am really busy with school and stressed and I am not a 100% mommy.  However, I always make it up to them!  I always feel like a horrible mom when they get their shots!!  I seriously cry!!  Ok, not so much now that they are older.

7. What is your proudest "mommy" moment?
Tyler came home one day from school and said that her school was raising money for March of Dimes.  I asked her if she knew what that charity was and she said they raised money for babies who are really sick.  She started to tear up and said that she wanted to donate all of her tooth fairy money to give to the babies.  Later that night she pulled a tooth.  She got so excited because that was another dollar she was going to be able to give to the babies.  Turns out the tooth fairy only had a twenty dollar bill that night.  Tyler got the $20 and a note from the tooth fairy saying it was her donation to March of Dimes.  Tyler was beyond excited that the tooth fairy gave her that much money to donate.  She never thought twice about keeping the money to buy her something.  She has a huge heart and I am so proud of her and I know great things are in her future.
Landon has been our child that has been very late in meeting all of his developmental milestones.  He has been in therapy off and on since he was 14 months old.  Within the past 6 months, Landon has made HUGE strides and has overcome so many barriers.  He has impressed the heck out of his therapists.  He is such a hard worker.  The poor guy has severe food allergies, eczema, and asthma.  It is like the poor boy cannot catch a break.  But our Landon man is a fighter and has a personality out of this world!!
I cannot be any prouder of the two amazing children that God gave to me and David.  We are truly blessed.

8. If you could choose to be stationed anywhere... where would you go?
Somewhere east coast, like the Carolinas or Virginia.  I am a stateside kind of girl.  We have done the whole overseas thing.

9. If one of your children came to you in high school and said, "I'm not going to college, I'm joining the military." What would you say?

Honestly, I would probably handle this better than David.  I do not think that college is for everyone.  I wasn't ready for college when I was eighteen.  Plus my child can do an enlistment in the military and then they may be ready to go to school after that enlistment and they will have their GI Bill to pay for school.  I will be a supportive parent as long as they are not trying to live at home mooching off good ole mom and dad.  LOL!

10. What is your idea of a perfect day?
I would say somewhere away from the base with David and the kids.  Maybe a vacation at the lake.  My favorite moments are memories we are making as a family.

11. Let's say you get to pick David's job. Would you pick something else or stay the same?


I would pick what my brother is doing.  He is in an apprenticeship program to become an electrician.  It is a 5 year program where he goes to school once a week and works as an apprentice during the day.  I can really see David doing this job.  He loves anything that he is using his hands.  THat is why he loved his job that he signed up to do in the AF.  

12. What are some of the biggest differences in living in England and living here?



- The pace of life is really slow.  
- Stores shut down at 6:00 P.M.
- In the summer, the sun does not go down until after 10:00 at night!  
- No Sonic
- Pizza Hut is amazing in England.
- Chinese and Indian food tastes 10x better in England.
- They serve lemon with their coke.  You also only get 2 pieces of ice and that is only if you ask for ice.  This southern girl was about to DIE!!
- No cold sweet tea in England!
- I ordered a glass of water one time and they brought me a glass and a bottle of carbonated water.  OMG, I spewed it all over David.
- The gardens in England are beautiful!!  I have thousands of pictures of all the gardens.
- The markets are the best.  You can buy a beautiful arrangement of flowers for a couple of pounds.  
- The history!!!!!
- Guys in England are more metrosexual!  Just sayin!!! My redneck husband stuck out like a sore thumb!
- The furniture is more modern.
- Tiny cars!  No 4 Wheel Drive Trucks in England!
- They were into texting before I even knew what a text was.  This was in 2001!  
- Obesity is RARE in England.

Ok, I could go on an on about the differences.  Maybe I should make that a post one day.  I take for granted that not everyone knows how different it is to live overseas.  I cannot imagine living in Japan.  We were supposed to PCS there instead of England.  I don't think David would've made it!!


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4 comments:

  1. Yay, thanks for answering my multitude of questions! I'm doing the same thing on my blog for my 100th post... so if you'd like, you can grill me next!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chuck asked me to ask you, "What abt flakey bars"

    ReplyDelete
  3. .... check out my blog. I may have something for you ;)

    -Wifey

    ReplyDelete
  4. LOVED reading this!! Wow learned so much about you!

    Hope you and the fam had a GREAT New Year's darling!

    :)

    ReplyDelete

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