Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life

Julie

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 Back and 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!

Fun Ways to Work Out at Home

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Fun ways to work out at home

 

I just had my birthday and received some money.  I decided to buy a couple of games with it.

1) Wii Fit Plus– I bought Wii Fit back in 2009 and had a lot of fun with it.  But it was getting a little boring.  The reviews on the Plus looked good so I decided to buy it.    This is what I really like about it:

* Option to just get your weight/BMI instead of always having to have it check your balance too.  I mean that’s cool every once in a while but not on a daily basis.

* Multi Player-You can each take turns playing some of the games.  The boys and I did this for a little bit the other night.

* You can weigh babies and pets and set up profiles for them.

* Fun new exercises.  They have a bunch of new games/exercises to try.  Cycling is my favorite so far but hasn’t tried them all yet.

* Set up workout plans.  You can choose from preset plans or create your own strength training/yoga workouts.

You don’t have to rebuy the whole system if you have Wii Fit.  It will just important your Wii Fit information for you.

2) Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout for the Xbox Kinect–  I am really enjoying the workouts on this one.  It is either Bob or Jillian and it will tell you if you are doing each of the exercises right.  They also will ask if you are doing ok and you answer them vocally.   You can choose how long you want to workout too.  What I don’t like is that when I was trying to do a body scan it kept saying I was 5’4 and I am really 5’9.  I couldn’t get it to scan me right.  I also had the hardest time trying to customise my character simply because of having to use the Kinect to do it.  I wish when it came to stuff you have to enter there was an option to use the controller.  It also might be that I just need to play with it more and get more comfortable with the hands-free stuff.  You can also enter your calories or any other outside exercises you have done during the day.

I am going to switch off with these 2 programs and Dance Central to do something every day.  I haven’t given up on the 30-day shred but I haven’t done it in a couple of days so I will be getting back to that too.

What do you use to work out at home?  It can be so hard to get to a gym when you have little ones around.

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CSN Stores Review Lipper International Table and Chair Set

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I was contacted by CSNstores to do another review for them.  This time I picked the Lipper International Table and Chair Set in green.

I had been wanting to get a little table and chair set for the boys for while now.  When I saw this one on the website I thought it would be perfect.  The boys love it!  I love it!  It is such a pretty green and together with the white makes it look really nice.  You can also get it in blue and pink.

The table dimensions are 18.75″ H x 22″ W x 20.5″ D and chairs are 22.875″ H x 10.5″ W x 10.75″ D

My husband put it together and said it was pretty easy to do so.

There was free shipping on this item and I got it a few weeks earlier than they first told me I would so that was really nice.  About a week after I ordered it.

Once again, another happy experience with CSNstores.

I was provided a $65 credit for CSNstores in return for this honest review.

Chili’s Restaurant Review and Giveaway

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Chili’s Restaurant

I was recently contacted by Chili’s Restaurant to do a review & then giveaway a gift card on my blog.

We were able to go to Chili’s last weekend.  What a fun start to Ben’s Christmas break!

Ben and I ordered off the “2 for 20″ menu!”  Have you heard of it?  You pay $20 and you get 1 appetizer and 2 entrées. You do have to order off the list they have.

We went with the Chips & Salsa for the appetizer.  Then Ben got the Cajun Chicken Pasta and I went with the Chicken Fajitas.  It was SO good.  Writing this post makes me want to go back and have some more!  Ben also enjoyed his pasta.  The amount of food we got was great.  I was very happy with it all.

Chili's Restaurant

Yummy!

Chili's Restaurant

Cajun Chicken Pasta

Chili's Restaurant

Chili's Restaurant

Chicken Fajitas

Chili's Restaurant

Chips and Salsa

Chili's Restaurant

Our server was awesome!  Very friendly and made sure we were taken care of too.  The bigger boys each had a kid’s meal and she brought them extra chocolate milk.Chili's Restaurant

Chili’s latest promotion is“Shout Out To Eat Out Take 2 Get 2,” Participants simply need to upload a photo of who they’d like to take to dinner on shoutouttoeatout.com to be entered to win 2 $20 gift cards to Chili’s. Gift cards will be given away to a lucky winner every day until January 15th.

Now for the giveaway!  One reader of this blog will win a $20 gift card to Chili’s Resturant.

The giveaway starts right now and will go until Wednesday January 5th, 2011 @ 11:59pm Central time.

To enter answer this question…

If you won, who would you take to Chili’s with you?

For additional entries…

* Follow Me on Twitter http://twitter.com/ArmywifeJulie (1 entry)

* Follow Me with Google Friend Connect (1 entry)

* Blog about the Giveaway (3 entries) Make sure to leave me your blog post link in a comment.

* Tweet about the giveaway: “Win a $20 Giftcard to Chili’s at Julie the Army Wife  @armywifejulie” (1 entry per day)

Good Luck!

I was given 2 gift cards of $20 each from Chili’s.  One to use for my review and one to giveaway.

Tour of Duty Preparing Our Hearts for Deployment by Sara Horn

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Tour Of DutyI am excited to share with you a book review of Tour of Duty Preparing Our Hearts for Deployment by Sara Horn.  Since becoming an Army wife in 2005, I am always on the lookout for a good book about our life & how to get through it.  I was excited to see Sara Horn had come out with a new devotional book on deployment.

Deployments are such a part of our military lives but getting through one can be very difficult sometimes.

I have been through 2 deployments and I felt like this book touched on so many of the thoughts & feelings I have experienced during the separations.  Included in each chapter are verses, questions and even “Tips for Military Wives.”  I think this book would be an awesome Bible study and would love to do it with a group of ladies someday.

I also will be rereading this again when we start our next deployment.  There were some parts that I read where I knew it would be very helpful to go back and read during the middle of a deployment.  The chapter called “Facing the Giants” especially as it deals with those what ifs or worries we all seem to go through when our husband is deployed.

Another thing I really liked about this book is her comparisons to biblical characters and what they have gone through in their lives.  It makes you realize that although our struggles might have looked different, they dealt with a lot of the same emotions we might deal with right now.

One more small thing, I really really liked the cover of this book.  Something about the pink on the green 🙂

The book has a Facebook page and you can buy the book from Lifeway 🙂

I received a free copy of this book from Sara Horn for this review!