Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life

Julie

I Made Lofthouse Sugar Cookies

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I am addicted to Lofthouse  Sugar cookies.  This is why I try not to buy them because then I want to eat every single one of them!  I came across this on Pinterest…

 

This past weekend I decided to make my own!  I used the receipe from Authentic Suburban Gourmet and made some in pink, blue and green.

Lofthouse Style Frosted Sugar Cookies

Making the frosting…

Lofthouse Style Frosted Sugar Cookies

Frosting…

Lofthouse Style Frosted Sugar Cookies

The cookies…

Lofthouse Style Frosted Sugar Cookies

Blue ones 🙂

Lofthouse Style Frosted Sugar Cookies

Would you like a cookie?

Now I thought the cookies themselves tasted like the store bought ones but the frosting was a little different.

Still a really yummy cookie but not the exact taste of the ones you can buy in the store.

Favorite Military Homecoming Outfits

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Favorite Military Homecoming Outfits

So…who has trouble coming up with the right homecoming outfit?  I always do!  I want to look pretty and cute but never really know the best way to do that. A lot of wives spend hours if not days searching for the perfect outfit. The secret is, it really doesn’t matter what you wear because your husband will be so happy to see you and you will be so happy to see him. However, spending the time to find the outfit passes deployment days and getting ready for the event passes the hours right before you get to go pick them up.

Here are some ideas 🙂

 

I also have a board on Pinterest all about this! You can visit and see some great ideas of outfits you might like. Some will be for you, others for your child. Some are very fancy and others are more casual. Go with your own style, what you will feel comfortable with and have fun with it 🙂

Follow Julie Provost’s board Military Homecoming Outfits on Pinterest.

Army Wives Season 6 Episode 3 Recap

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Are you all caught up on Army Wives? If you are not there are a few ways to catch up. If you just need to watch episodes from season 6 you can do that by going to Mylifetime.com.  If you need to start for the beginning or catch up with another season you should be able to do that on Netflix.

I will be talking about Army Wives Season 6 Episode 3 the rest of this post so if you haven’t watched it yet, don’t read anymore 😉

 

 

Army Wives Season 6

 

First of all I am so very glad that Pamela told Roxy that she needed to be with her husband.  It was getting a little ridiculous with Roxy getting a bigger place so Pamela could stay with them.  I was wondering how long that was going to go on for.  That being said it was pretty sad to see Pamela leave.  I hate saying goodbye to people and have done it many times so I knew what that felt like.  I cried a few tears during those scenes.  Partly because I had been through it before and partly because Pamela was leaving the show.  I don’t know many details but the actress that plays her, Brigid Brannagh is going to be on a new show called Gilded Lilys.  So I am guessing that is why Pamela is leaving the show.  Either that or because Chase is no longer on the show it made sense to have her go to.

As for Roxy, I was irritated that she name dropped at the housing office.  She should know after being an Army Wife for 6 years now that you just don’t do that.  Shame on her!

As for the drama with the new lady, Jackie.  Part of me felt like Claudia Joy was just irritated over nothing but since it is a drama on TV we know there is going to be trouble with her.

Army Wives Season 6

As for the Roland and David story line, it was sweet to see David having fun but I guess there is going to be drama with the head of the center.

So what did you all think?

 

Here is the preview for tomorrow night!


 

Too Much Deployment

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Yellow Ribbons

I am sure by now you have heard about what happened in Afghanistan. An Army staff sergeant shot and killed 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children 🙁

There are a lot of reasons why people think this happened. Maybe he had been deployed too much, maybe he was having too many personal problems, maybe he just went crazy or maybe he just did something awful.

One of the first things I thought when I heard about this is that he probably had been deployed too much and for too long.

And he isn’t the only person to be in that position. There are a lot of Military men and women that have simply spent too much time over there. They are not given enough time at home. Not everyone can handle that although some can. What should the Military do about it?

Back in 2007, we were a part of a deployment extension. Our 9-month deployment got pushed to 12 months and then to 15. I still remember sitting with some ladies right after the news hit. We were in shock. We could not believe that our husbands were going to be deployed that long. Some friends of mine got pregnant on R&R and assumed that their husbands would be there for the birth. Not only did the husbands miss the births but they came home to 2-month-olds. My middle son was born in the middle of this deployment. Ben came home from R&R when he was 3 days old and said goodbye to him when he was about 2.5 weeks old. He didn’t see him again until he was 11 months old. I knew of other people that went over a year between R&R and homecoming. And then there is what happened up in Alaska. Some of the Soldiers had just come home, others about to leave for home and some still in Iraq.  All to be told that they were to spend four more months in Iraq.

The thing about this is that even though this was in 2007 and even though Ben has been deployed two more times since then, that 15-month deployment still stings. That was just too long of a time to have a husband deployed. Too long to have him in a war zone without any break. It was hard to them, especially when they hit the year point. They should have been getting ready to go home but they still had a few more months to go.

HomecomingI pray so hard that we never have to go through something like that again. When your husband joins the Military, you know they will be gone but you are still human and super long deployments just break you.

And now, it is 2012 and I think, “How did I get through that?  How did I go so long without my husband?”  I guess somehow you just get through things because you have to.

When I hear stories like the one up above I want to ask the Military to please make things a little easier for everyone. Please try harder to give people longer periods of time at home. Try your best to avoid sending anyone there over a year. And please, help those that are having trouble after deployments heal before they have to go back for another tour. I hope that is not asking too much.

Family Blog to Army Wife Blog

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Soldier and baby

Back in February 2004 I found out I was pregnant with my first child. I am not sure where I heard of blogging but thought it was a good time to start  a blog.  We lived about 9 hours from my family and figured it would be a good way to keep them updated.

Welcome to our Pregnancy Journal. Figured we would use this to keep our family and friends updated on our pregnancy. We got the pregnancy confirmed on Feb 4th, 2004. We think our due date is Oct 15th…so somewhere around then we are going to have a baby. We plan on giving birth at the Women’s Health and Birth Center ….which is about 5 minutes from our house. We have our first appointment with the Midwife tomorrow and we are very excited about it.- This was my very first blog post ever!

I blogged at this blog for a while. My family saw the posts. My friends saw the posts. That was it. I was not aware of any type of blog community. I don’t even know who was blogging in the Milspouse community in 2004. Let me know if you were 🙂 In 2005 when Ben left for Germany I started a new blog mostly just for him. He was going to be away from us for a while so I figured it was a smart thing to do. Easier for him to look at a blog post then deal with pictures in an email. When I moved to Germany and had to say goodbye to my Lexington friends I was glad to have the blog. Some of them had blogs too so that was nice.

Around 2007 was when Myspace got popular and then in 2008 I really started to use Facebook more and more. I felt like I was repeating myself. I would post a status on Facebook and then went to blog and felt like I was just repeating myself. Blogging was no longer fun for me. I pretty much gave it up.

Then in 2009 I had this awesome idea to start an Army Wife blog. I think I had come across Bohemian Transplant’s original blog and loved how she was blogging about her life and how she was connecting with other spouses as well. After three failed attempts and a Twitter account I had finally found the Milspouse Blogging community.   I wanted a place to share about what we had been through with the Military.  I knew when Ben first joined I would have really enjoyed reading blogs about the Army life.  I started commenting on other blogs, they came back and commented on mine and things started to change. I was no longer blogging for my friends and family. I was blogging for anyone out there who wanted to read about our lives in the Military, our deployments or anything else I decided to blog about.

These days I look at Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family in other parts of the world but I have my Army Wife Blog to talk all about our lives as a Military family. I can connect with others and it has been such a great experience for me. But how does one get from blogging just for friends and family to something more? How do you make that jump?

I really think the key is the Milspouse Blogging community or really any blogging community that fits with your blog. Just started commenting on other blogs that are similar to yours or that you really enjoy.  Become active on Twitter.  I know Twitter seems a little weird and scary at first but I promise it isn’t. I am Armywifejulie on Twitter and would love to connect with you if you join 🙂

Blogging can be such a great thing.  Especially if you are dealing with a stressful situation.  You learn quickly that you are not alone and this make life a little easier.  Plus who doesn’t love finding more friends?

Do you have a blog? Do you want to start one? What is holding you back?

 

Don’t forget to enter my Army Wives Kindle Fire Giveaway.  Just a few more days left to enter 🙂

Army Wives Season Six, Episode One & Two, My Thoughts

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Did you all get a chance to watch the first and second episodes of Army Wives Season Six yet? If you haven’t…please stop reading this post! I wanted to talk about the episode but I don’t want to ruin anything for you 🙂 If you would like to watch it you can do so online here!

Army Wives Season 6

 

Army Wives Season 6

I had my Army Wives party and got to watch episode one with some of my friends. Afterwords I had them write out what they thought. It was interesting that we all kinda thought the same things.

We really liked that David was now apart of the Burton family. It is so sweet to see them together and happy. We thought it was great that Michael decided to not take the Pentagon job so that Claudia Joy could work as a Lawyer. We also thought that it was nice to see Denise and Frank take Molly to Jeremy’s grave site for her birthday.

We thought that the scenes about waiting on orders and missing friends once you PCS was very true to life. Most of us had been through that personally. It is hard to wait on the Army and hard to say goodbye to friends once you or they have to PCS.

We all pretty much felt like Roxy’s accident scene was really unbelievable. We were all pretty much shouting, “Don’t leave him in the car!” when she left Finn in the car. But I guess you never really know how you are going to react in situations like that. We found it frustrating Roxy wasn’t taking the offers for the bar more seriously. I would think that if you were an Army wife, knew your husband was PCSing and knew you had to get rid of the bar that if someone was offering to buy it you would take them up on it. But as the episode showed she was having a hard time accepting the PCS.

The cliffhanger at the end of episode one got us! We couldn’t wait to see the next episode!

Army Wives Season 6

I watched episode two with one of my friends last Sunday. We loved the scenes with Jeremy. It was also sad knowing that what she was dreaming wasn’t what happened. It was sweet to see Jeremy act like a big brother and see the family grow up. At one point I wondered if that would continue all season. Just having Denise in this other life. But at the end it made sense that she was drawn to staying with her son but also drawn to be with her daughter and husband. I thought they showed this well and in the end I was very happy to see her wake up and be alright.

We knew once they started talking about how badly Ft. Hope was hit that they were going to keep Ft. Marshall open instead. It was the logical thing to do. Although in real life the Army doesn’t always do the most logical thing. We also felt bad for Claudia Joy. She thought she was going to have her chance to forward her career but in the end she has to stand by her husband and wait a little longer.  The Pamela story line was a little confusing to me.   Her house might be unlivable but it didn’t seem like she was thinking about heading to California earlier than planned.  Instead she ends up at a shelter.  I guess if I was in her shoes my first thought would be that we would need to leave and head to California earlier than I thought we would.

I think this is probably going to be a very interesting season! Now that Ft. Marshall isn’t going to close I wonder what other situations they are going to have to deal with? I wonder what Army Wife will be gone forever? And do they mean gone forever gone or emotionally gone or what?

What did you think of the first two episodes?

Since it is Saturday we only have one more day to wait to find out what happens next!  It airs Sunday night at 9/8c!

And don’t forget to enter my Kindle Fire Giveaway!

Army Wives watching Army Wives

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Lifetime sent me an advanced copy of the first episode of season 6 of Army Wives.  Well I knew I couldn’t just sit and watch it by myself and I needed some girl time.  I invited some friends over, we had a potluck and watched the first episode of Army Wives season 6.  It was so much fun!  I knew it would be a fun night and we all had a blast!  A bunch of Army wives watching Army Wives. Afterwards I asked everyone to share what they thought of the first episode.  I am not going to tell you what everyone said but I think it is safe to assume that you will enjoy the episode as much as we did 🙂  I will write another post after it airs to talk about what we all thought 🙂

It was obvious to us that us Army girls go through a lot of the same types of issues and it was so helpful to be able to talk about some of them together.  I think getting through the harder parts of the Army life is much easier when you know you are not doing it alone.

 

Don’t forget to tune in on Sunday March 4th  at 9/8c on Lifetime 🙂

And if you haven’t already, make sure you enter my Kindle Fire giveaway 🙂

 

 

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Army Wives Season 6 Kindle Fire Giveaway

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I am VERY excited about Army Wives season 6 starting on Sunday.

It is going to be a good season, I can tell. I was able to watch the 1st episode last weekend and my friends and I all thought it was really good! We can’t wait to see the next episode!

Please make sure to tune into Army Wives Sunday March 4th 9/8c. It is a two hour long episode. YAY!

Who else is excited to see what all the Army wives are up to this season?

Now to the giveaway…because Lifetime is awesome they are letting me giveaway TWO Kindle Fires with Army Wives branded covers to the readers of Soldier’s Wife, Crazy Life.

Kindle Fire

How cool is that?

Army Wives Season 6

Good Luck everyone! And make plans to watch Army Wives on Sunday evening 🙂

Use the Rafflecopter to enter 🙂


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: Lifetime is providing the Kindle Fires for the giveaway! I was not compensated in anyway for this post.