Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life

Julie

Dinosaur Deploys

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My next guest poster is Laura from Military Word of Mouth. She has a great idea for kids to help them through a deployment! I know my boys would have loved something like this 🙂

Lately, I have been going through things trying to get rid of some stuff to prepare for our next move. Probably, pretty soon our landlady will be calling to let us know that someone is coming over to see the house to potentially rent for next year. While going through a bookshelf, I found one of my son’s photo albums from last year.


It’s just a small 4″x6″ album that I found at Walgreens for like a $1.00, but to him it was priceless. You see it contains photos of his dinosaur on an adventure, and not just any adventure, but an adventure with his daddy. When my husband deployed last January, my son gave my husband one of his dinosaurs to hug whenever he missed him.

So, my husband took pictures of the dinosaur on his deployment adventure and would send them to my son either by email or by snail mail.


I can not tell you how much my son loved this, but when he saw the pictures, his face would beam. He even asked if he could bring the album to show and tell to share with his friends at preschool.

Having a parent deployed is such a hard concept for a young child to understand and accept. This is such a simple way to help ease their pain, if only for a bit. If your spouse is deploying shortly, ask your child if he or she would like to share one of his/her small stuffed animals. If your spouse is already deployed consider sending it over in the next package you mail out. Have your child be the one to put it in the box so he feels like he is helping his daddy miss home a little less. If your spouse doesn’t have a camera, throw in a disposable one.

Top 25 annoying Army Deployment Questions and Comments

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Stephanie has offered a guest post to me 🙂 She blogs over at Mama Clementine! She is a SAHM of four, been an Army Wife for 11 years and been through five deployments. Thanks so much for the post Stephanie!

Top 25 annoying Army Deployment Questions and Comments

annoying Army Deployment Questions
Rakkasan Deployment 2007
Matthew 11, Dylan 7, Lauren 5

This morning I was reading a post over atCaffeinated Catholic Mamaof how people have lost all sense of personal-space and privacy, either because of our over sharing techno culture or maybe just a general lack of manners. She gives her wonderful list of Top annoying and prying questions from absolute strangers, Here.

While writing in her comments I was thinking that for me, being such a Counter-Culture Mama, the lists of random rude questions and offending comments from those that it just does not concern, could go on and on…ad infinitum. So, I thought for fun, I would make a small project out of several lists of obscenely annoying Questions and Comments that I have gotten from strangers, all neatly compiled into categories. 🙂
What follows is a list of my TOP 25 way too personal, yet oh so popular questions and all to common comments, that I have received during my husband’s Deployments.
      1. Oh, is your Husband Deployed ?
      2. Do you Miss Him ?
      3. Is it Hard ?
      4. Will they send Him home for the Birth ?
      5. Is it your Husband’s Baby or Jody’s ?
      6. Does your Husband know you’re pregnant ?
      7. Do you know who the Father is ?
      8. What will you do / How will you have a Baby by yourself ?
      9. Why do you have / keep having kids if he is gonna be gone so much ?
      10. Your children are so young, If he gets killed, they won’t remember him.
      11. Why do you have kids when, He could get killed anytime ?
      12. Your so Lucky you live off the government, the rest of us have to work.
      13. If you didn’t live off the government you wouldn’t be able to afford all those kids.
      14. Maybe your husband will die and you’ll get all that money.
      15. You should take out some more insurance on your husband, because he has a good chance of being killed.
      16. But, just think of all that extra money at Tax time.
      17. I don’t know how you could do that, I could never let my Husband do that.
      18. (My Sister-in-laws fave way of relating to me)…I know just how you feel, my Husband was out of Town, on the road, for two weeks last month !
      19. How can you be Faithful for 15 months ?
    annoying Army Deployment Questions
    Deployment 2003
    Dylan 2yrs

    20. Do you worry about your Husband cheating on you ?

    21. You don’t think your Husband will wait a whole year do you ?

    22. Don’t you all just sleep around with each others Husbands anyway ?

    23. So, has your Husband Killed anybody yet ?

    24. You could have gotten out / why would he stay in / It’s his fault he is Deploying / So he’s getting out after this right ?

    25. Using up my time by going on a long rant about how you feel about the war and whether or not we should be “Over-There”

    ….and the ***** Extra Credit Bonus*****

    So Wow, it is Just likeArmy Wives on The T.V. Show

    100 Postcard Giveaway from Uprinting.com

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    How would you like to win 100 postcards from Uprinting.com?

    You can use your own artwork & photos to come up with a pretty cool card.

    Uprinting offers postcard printing as well as other online printing services such as brochures, calendars, business cards and more.

    This is going to be a quick giveaway! It starts right now and will go to Thursday June 2nd at 8pm Central time.

    One winner will receive:

    100 Postcards
    5″ x 7″
    14pt Cardstock Gloss
    Front Only printing
    2 Business Days Print Turnaround Time
    Restriction: Limited to US residents 18 years old and above only.

    To enter:

    Mandatory: Please leave a comment about who you like to send snail mail to 🙂

    Extra Entries: Follow me on GFC (1 entry)

    Tweet about the giveaway (1 entry per day)

    Follow Uprinting.com on Twitter (1 entry)

    Make sure to answer the mandatory question and leave 1 comment for each entry. Winner will be chosen by Random.org on Thursday night.


    This giveaway is sponsored by UPrinting, no monetary compensation was given and I will receive postcards for hosting.

    For more information about postcards, please visit UPrinting online printing services.

    Memorial Day Pictures

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    In May of 2009 my friend T and I had just hit the 6 month point of a year long deployment. We both wanted to go to the US for the summer and decided to try Space-A. I got to my in-laws house right before Memorial Day. We visited a local cemetery that was having an event. It was emotional to see so many people from the area together to remember those who had lost their lives.

    I think it is very important for all Americans to not just look at Memorial Day as a day to bbq, find a great deal and have a day off. Those things are great but each and every American must remember the sacrifices that our American military has paid over the years. I know most Americans do think about this on some level. How could you not? But it is really important that it is #1 in our minds. That we remember that our freedoms are not free. We need to remember that on Monday there are wives, husbands, sons, daughters, moms, dads, sisters, brothers, grandparents and friends missing someone who paid the ultimate price.

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    All these photos were taken at the Santa Rosa Memorial Park in Santa Rosa, CA

    Joining Forces For Military Families

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    America has been involved in two wars for 8+ years now. Many military families have been through deployment after deployment during this time. We are two months into our 3rd deployment and I can feel the weight of the last two. And I know I am not alone in this. Many other families are going through the same thing. I am not sure when these rapid deployments will end. When there can be YEARS between them. I have been praying this can happen for a long time now and I just have to hope it will. They tell us we will get two years between deployments now. But really? I am not sure I can believe this. Especially since things are going on in other places in the world besides just Iraq and Afghanistan. And although I hope for years I am preparing myself. We just started this deployment and I already have to mentally prepare for a fourth which could happen just a year after he returns from this one.

    I was so happy to see this website Joining Forces. This is a national initiative started by the First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden.

    The website says this, “1% of Americans may be fighting our wars, but we need 100% of Americans to be supporting our troops and their families. Mrs. Obama and Dr. Biden are asking Americans to get involved in any way they can.”

    This needs to happen! Deployments are not going away. And the more deployments families go through, the more support we will need. I hope all of America can help in some way. While part of our family is off fighting in a war, we need to know that America cares and respects that. Over the last 5+ years that we have been a military family we have seen such wonderful support from friends and family. Thank you all so much! Your support means more than you will ever know.

    So no matter what your political beliefs are, no matter if you support the war or not, check out that site and find a way to help a military family 🙂

    Where To Travel To

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    travelingAfter our cruise in December 2009 & our PCS back to the states we knew we had to take a break from doing so much traveling. We are still in that break. One because of not having the extra money to do it and two because we have a small baby, plus Ben is deployed. I know there will be a time when we can travel again. There are a bunch of places I would love to go…even if I don’t get to go for a long time. I just love to see different places, take lots of pictures and I just love staying in a hotel. I know a lot of people hate them but I love doing it. I also fell in love with cruising excited to go on more cruises in the future.

    This is my wish list of places to see…

    1) Hawaii. I was able to visit in 2000 but Ben has never been and I would love to go with him and my boys. I think it would be a lot of fun. But who knows, maybe we will get stationed there someday?

    2) Scotland, England and Ireland. I can’t wait to visit these places! We didn’t get a chance to go while in Europe so it is one of the first places I want to go when we can afford to do so. I think it would be such a fun trip to make when Ben retires. You can Space-A over there too.

    3)Australia. I am not sure how we will be able to get over there because it is SO expensive. But it is on my list for sure. I am in the middle of watching The Boys Are Backand it makes me want to go even more. I would love to spend a whole month there! And maybe see New Zealand too.

    4) The Baltic. When we were on our cruise we kept running into people who had been on the Baltic cruise and said it was amazing! So this one is on my list too. Thinking it will be in the far far future though.

    5) The USA. All 50 states. I think I have visited 27 so far. But I really want to see all 50 eventually. Not all at once…but eventually.

    What is on your travel list? Are you getting to visit anywhere fun sometime soon?

    Right now I just hope we can get out to California for Christmas so nothing too big in my plans but that is ok. There should be time for that later.

    The First Day they are Gone

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    The First Day they are Gone

    The First Day they are Gone

    The first day they are gone really sucks. When they leave in the early morning vs afternoon/evening, the first day is even harder. Why? Because when they leave later in the day you have less of a first day to get through. You can come home and go to bed and then before you know it, you are on day two. This is such a little thing but the time of day makes a big difference.

    The first day they are gone you walk around your house in a daze. You want to be out doing something but you don’t want to at the same time.

    The first day they are gone you see something you bought together at the store and looking at what you bought makes you cry. You see their dirty laundry and the pile makes you cry. You would give anything for them to come home and add more dirty laundry to the pile.

    The first day they are gone you realize you can toss that almost empty bottle of shaving cream because no one is going to be around for a while to use it up. And then you cry because no one will be around to use the shaving cream up.

    The first day they are gone you sometimes forget and then remember quickly that they are not coming home that night. That you will be on your own for dinner, bedtime and you will sleep alone. Earlier in the day, you can almost pretend they are just at work. After dinner, you can’t do that anymore and reality starts to set in.

    The first day they are gone you wonder what he is feeling, what he is doing, where he is at. If he is scared or how much he is missing home. If he cried too even though you rarely see tears in his eye. If he wishes that at that moment, he had chosen a career that never took him from home.

    The first day he is gone you try to figure out how you are going to make X amount of days. You wonder how you will be both mom and dad and how you will handle life when your children realize daddy won’t be coming home at night for a while. You know solo parenting is difficult and here you are having to do everything once again.

    The first day he is gone you are hit hard with how hard this military life can be sometimes and how strong you will have to be to make it through the deployment.

    The first day they are gone sucks, it really really sucks and you pray the second day they are gone is a little bit better. Because after day one is over, you are officially in deployment mode and you have a long road ahead of you. But at least, after day one is over you know you have one less day to get through until they come home.

    Want a Guide for the First 30 Days of a Deployment???

    Valentine’s Day Cards at Tiny Prints

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    I was contacted by Tiny Prints to do a review of their Valentine’s Day Cards 🙂

    I ended up picking out 3 different cards. 1 for the baby and 2 for the older boys.

    Valentine's Day Cards at Tiny Prints

    Valentine's Day Cards at Tiny Prints

    Valentine's Day Cards at Tiny Prints

    Valentine's Day Cards at Tiny Prints

    They are pretty cute! I love the size too. 3.50 x 2.50 inches. They are all customizable. I could have put pictures in all 3 but just added one to Joshua’s card. The ordering process is easy and a lot of fun. And they make sure that you are getting exactly what you ordered. I even got a call to double check a line on one of my cards.

    They have so many cool designs to choose from. It was hard to decide. If you still need some Valentine’s cards, go check out Tiny Prints. They are awesome 🙂

    I received a credit for cards at Tiny Prints in exchange for this review!