Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life

Julie

Did You Know Kroger Has a Military Discount?

by Leave a Comment

Does Kroger have a military discount?

Grocery shopping is not fun these days. The cost of everything seems to have gone up, and what used to be affordable now feels high-priced. As military families, we do have choices. We can shop at the Commissary, which gives us an average of 22% savings over regular grocery stores, with plans to raise that to 25%. However, the Commissary isn’t always the easiest place to shop.

For us, it takes anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes to get to the Commissary. We like to go a few times a month, but Kroger is much easier to shop at regularly. Luckily, there is a way to save money there as well, at least in the Fort Campbell area.

Kroger in Clarksville, TN, and Hopkinsville, KY, offer a 10% military discount on Wednesdays. This discount is available to active-duty military personnel, retired military personnel, National Guard members, and reserve personnel, as well as their dependents. You just need to show your military ID. They might even ask you about it if you shop there on a Wednesday.

Military Life is Hard and It’s Okay To Say So

by

Military Life is Hard and It's Okay To Say So

Military life is hard and it’s okay to say so!

When I started my blog in 2009, I did so for a few reasons. I was a bit bored but more than that, I wanted to share what I was going through. I knew I couldn’t be the only military spouse that felt the way that I did. I was at the end of our 2nd deployment, missing my husband, and just waiting for the day he would be home.

One of the first things I noticed when I started getting into blogging was the online military community. Other bloggers and readers who had been through what I had been through and who understood what military life was like. Over the years I have met so many military spouses online that are looking for tips and encouragement to get through their deployment or whatever else military life has thrown at them.

Over the years I have heard some people say that military life isn’t hard or that because life is more difficult for other people, we shouldn’t even talk about what we are going through. They say that we should only speak of the positives of this life. That talking about the negatives isn’t good.

While I agree that if you only talk about the bad, this life is going to be even harder, but I also know that military life is hard and it’s okay to say so.

Military Life is Hard and It's Okay To Say So

Here on my blog and in my online communities, I understand that not everything is going to be easy. I understand that some days are just going to be quite horrible. But you know what? There are a lot of benefits in sharing our stories, in letting others know what we are going through, and talking about when life gets hard.

You are real

Things changed for us as soon as my husband joined the Army. He was gone, for months. He wasn’t always there like he was before. He had more rules and regulations than he did in civilian life. Everything changed for us. And life got a lot harder.

Military life brings deployments, pcsing every few years, and life changes you would never have thought about before. You might give birth without your husband, they might miss your son’s first day of kindergarten or even high school graduation, and they might not be around when you need them the most.

So when someone talks about how hard military life is, they are being real about their experiences.

Real about the changes this life will bring, real about how difficult some seasons of this life are, and real about what’s going to happen during their spouse’s career.

Being real about military life also means talking about how wonderful living in Germany is, how amazing homecoming will be, and how you would never have met the friends you did had you never become a military spouse.

Whether you are going through a difficult time or having better milspouse moments, being real about your life is a good thing.

Because we all know it is

Although I am sure there are some who get through the years of military life and don’t even seem to feel the hardships some of us too, this has not been the norm.

Every day I hear from military spouses who have just started a deployment, are in the middle of a deployment, or are struggling through the last few months of a deployment. All of them are looking for ways to make it through, to find friends who know what they are going through, and to figure out the best way to handle their current situation.

At the end of the day, we are all on our own military road. Some roads will be bumpier than others, and that’s okay. Some will have it much harder than you do and some have it easier. That doesn’t change the fact that you are dealing with your own set of challenges that are unique to you and your family.

So we can help one another out

When we don’t share our struggles, we can’t help one another out. When we stay silent, we don’t know who needs that extra set of hands or who needs a listening ear. When we all act like we have everything together, we can overlook those that are falling behind, and that isn’t a good thing for our military community.

While we don’t want to spend all of our time as a military spouse walking around with a pout on our faces, we can stop and recognize when things are a little too much to handle on our own. We might need to reach out to a friend, to a professional, or change a few things to make our lives a little easier.

Military Life is Hard and It's Okay To Say So

So we know we are not alone

In the end, sharing our milspouse struggles helps others know they are not alone. When I share about my deployments, I hope that others can take comfort in knowing they are not the only one going through what they are at the moment. When I talk about the deployment ache, I hope that others can say, “Yes! That is exactly how I feel too.”

When you are struggling, knowing you are not alone can go a long way in figuring out how to make life better for yourself. Whether the struggle is deployment, miscarriage, divorce, infertility, the loss of a family member, a sick child or something else.

When you struggle, knowing others have been through what you have been through can help you see there is a way out, that there are things you can do to make life better, and that you don’t have to walk through all of this on your own.

What do you know when you feel you are struggling? Who do you turn to for extra help?

More on Military life…

Stop Saying That We Knew What We Were Getting Into

To the Military Spouse That Does Not Live in a Military Community

9 Things That Can Hurt a Military Marriage

Morgan Freeman Served in the United States Air Force

by Leave a Comment

Whether you know him from his roles in Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption, or more recently, Now You See Me, you are aware of Morgan Freeman’s exceptional acting abilities. In addition to his vast acting accomplishments, Morgan Freeman also served in the military. In the US Air Force.

Joining the Military

Morgan Freeman was born on June 1, 1937, in Memphis, TN. He was the son of a teacher and a barber and moved around a bit as a child. He lived in Mississippi, Indiana, and Chicago.

When he graduated from high school in 1955, he turned down a partial drama scholarship to Jackson State University to enlist in the Air Force. While serving, he was an Automatic Tracking Radar Repairman. Morgan Freeman served from 1955 to 1959 and rose to the rank of Airman First Class.

His Acting Years

Although he had his first acting role in a school play at the age of nine, it was after his military service that he moved to Los Angeles and began taking acting classes. His first Broadway debut was in 1967 with an all-black version of Hello, Dolly!

In 1971, he starred in a PBS Children’s TV show, The Electric Company. His first credit in a feature film was also in 1971, with Who Says I Can’t Ride a Rainbow. However, it was in 1989, when he appeared in four movies, Glory, Driving Miss Daisy, Lean on Me, and Johnny Handsome, that he really started to gain popularity.

The 88-year-old actor then went on to star in memorable roles in the 1990s, such as The Shawshank Redemption, Se7en, and Kiss the Girls. In total, Morgan Freeman has 152 acting roles, 23 producing roles, and two directorial roles on IMDb.

Most recently, you can find him in the TV show Lioness, as well as the Now You See Me: Now You Don’t movie, coming out later this year. He has been married twice, although now divorced, and has four children.

Image Credit: Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

How a Small Duty Station in Germany Shaped My Military Spouse Experience

by 2 Comments

How a Small Duty Station in Germany Shaped My Military Spouse Experience

Nineteen years ago, I boarded a plane with my 18-month-old to join my husband in Germany. He had been over there for about 4 months, and we were finally joining him. The time apart was quite a whirlwind for me as I adjusted to the way the Army did things, which was slower than I would have liked.

The flight over was long. The leg from Chicago to Madrid was the toughest. My son’s car seat wouldn’t fit and he didn’t sleep a wink. Finally, as we sat down on our short flight from Spain to Germany, he crashed on my lap.

We met my husband in baggage claim at the Frankfurt airport, sleepy and in a fog. Unless you count trips to Mexico as a teen, this was my first experience in a different country. This was my first experience in Europe. This would be my first experience on an Army post.

A few days later, I was walking my son in a stroller around the post. I stopped and just took everything in as a group of soldiers marched by. Up until a few months before, we had been a civilian couple, raising our son in a civilian family. But all of that had changed.

As the months passed, I began to feel more comfortable with my current situation. We were stationed in Schweinfurt, approximately two hours from Frankfurt in Bavaria. I was 26 years old, and the interesting thing was when my mom was my age she also moved to Germany, as a DoD teacher near Ramstein. I grew up with photos and souvenirs she had collected during her time there. I was so happy to experience some of what she did, but as a spouse instead of a teacher.

I made friends pretty quickly as our FRG was very active. There was also a deployment coming up and all of us could feel it. So many of us had little ones and soon after we got there I discovered I was pregnant with my second little boy. There was a lot going on and a lot to take in.

After we had been there for about five months, my husband deployed to Iraq. We assumed he would be back within a year, or even nine months. But that was the deployment that kept getting extended and he finally made it home after almost 15 months.

During that deployment, I learned so much about myself. About who I was as a mother, a wife, and a military spouse. It was my “welcome to this life” baptism that I didn’t really fully understand until much later, after moving back to the states and experiencing more deployments.

Our little community in Schweinfurt was something so special and different. For one thing, the post was pretty small. We only had about 3,000 soldiers. Compare that to Fort Campbell which has around 29,000 soldiers. Pretty much every soldier, unless you were on Rear D, was deployed. Most of the soldiers went to Iraq and some to Afghanistan. But the reality was, the post was made up of military spouses, going through a very long deployment, far from home.

During the first part of the deployment I was pregnant, and as I got closer to the birth, that was my main focus. My amazing mom came out planning to stay two months over the birth and after to help. I can’t even tell you how much this helped me. My son was born just four days before his due date and three days before my husband made it back to Germany for R&R.

During those two weeks, my dad came over to join us and we had a nice family Christmas together. My parents left us for a week to travel and we had a week as a family of four before my husband had to head back to Iraq. That week was truly amazing. I can’t even tell you about what he did, other than sorting out my son’s birth certificate, but our family needed that time.

R&R was over, and my husband and I woke up before dark to take him to the train station to head back to Iraq. My husband stood over my son’s crib and said goodbye, thinking he would be back in about five months. In the end, he didn’t get back from another 11, missing almost his whole first year.

My dad headed home soon after, and my brother came to visit which helped with the after R&R letdown. In February, my mom and brother had to head back home, and soon after I ended up in the hospital with my two-month-old for RSV. I was so thankful for my military spouse friends who stepped in to help me during that week.

Winter ended, and it started to warm up a bit in Germany but our husbands were still deployed. We, spouses, worked hard to stay busy, and spend time together. We had Monday mornings at the coffee shop, we met for lunch and met up at the park once it was warm enough to do so.

During those 15 months, I found myself in a tight-knit military community with almost all of us going through the same thing. This isn’t something you find in a lot of places, but this was my introduction to the military world. I didn’t realize at the time how different it would be at a stateside post when units were all coming and going at different times.

I learned through other military spouses, what they had been through in the past, and the lessons they had learned along the way. I learned true independence as I would go so long without being able to talk to my husband, and just had to figure everything out by myself. I realized what was important about parenting and what to let go of so that I could be the best mom for my kids.

The military was 100% in our face during this time. Yes, you could go off post and I did. I enjoyed walking my kids around in the double stroller and visiting all the different German shops. I was able to travel even more once my husband came home, going on a few USO trips.

But still, the military ruled so much about my life then. From where I got most of my groceries, to where I got my mail, to where my son went to preschool.

When we moved to the states, I found this wasn’t the norm. But it definitely shaped my military spouse experience.

Looking back, I am so glad I had the experiences I did. I was a part of history. I was a part of the military community. And learned so much along the way.

The Army has left Schweinfurt. If we were to visit again someday, we would find the area a very different place. I think they have knocked down most of the housing and there is no longer any American military presence. But the memories will stick with me forever.

The Halloween party we had when I was super pregnant. The Thanksgiving potluck we military spouses had while leaving computers on in hopes that a husband or two would log on. The time after R&R as I thought we were in the final stretch of the deployment and then learned we had so much more time to go.

The lonely nights we made better by spending time together while our kids played. The tensions that arose during a super stressful situation. Homecoming day, when the deployment was finally over, and we could get back to almost normal life while knowing we were now different people.

All of us were going through something so difficult but we had to find the strength to make it to the finish line and we had to do it together one day at a time. I will never forget those years, even if some of the details are fuzzy all these years later. I am thankful for being able to experience life overseas, and I am even more thankful for all that I learned while I was there.

Arriving at that small Army post in the middle of Bavaria as a brand new military spouse is something I will never forget.

Save 30% On Shoes With the Adidas Military Discount

by Leave a Comment

Save 30% On Shoes With the Adidas Military Discount

Clothing, including shoes, can get expensive. Finding a good military discount is a plus. At Adidas, you can save 30% on shoes and sports clothing for men, women, and children. Save 15% at their factory outlet stores as well.

History of Adidas

Adidas was born in a small town in Bavaria, Germany. In a laundry room, of all places. Adi Dassler began making sports shoes after his return from World War I in his mother’s laundry room. It was in 1924 that he went into the business with his brother, Rudolf, which they called Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik. The company created shoes for different athletic events and gained popularity when US sprinter Jesse Owens wore them in the 1936 Summer Olympics.

The brothers ended up splitting up the business due to a personal rift in 1948. Rudolf’s company became Puma, while Adi’s company became Adidas. During the 1950s, the company experienced growth as soccer players adopted their lightweight, cleat-equipped shoes. They expanded into clothing in the 1960s, as well as soccer balls.

The company has undergone numerous changes over the years, and today you can shop online, in one of their stores, or at their factory outlets.

The Adidas Military Discount

The Adidas Military Discount is available to active-duty military personnel, as well as their spouses and dependents. Yay! Veterans and retirees also qualify. In addition to the military, the same discount is available to medical professionals, first responders, nurses, and teachers.

The discount is for 30% off both in-store and online shopping. You can also receive 15% off at their factory outlet stores. You will need to be verified with ID.me. There are some exclusions on specific brands, such as Disney and Human Made. Please check the details for a complete list.

Looking for more military discounts? Check out The Military Spouse’s Directory Of Military Discounts!

All military discounts are subject to change at any point. Please visit the Adidas website for the most up-to-date information!

Save 30% On Shoes With the Adidas Military Discount

The Fabulous Knott’s Berry Farm Military Discount

by Leave a Comment

Whether you’re stationed in Southern California or visiting, you’ll want to take a trip to Knott’s Berry Farm. This fun amusement park, located in Buena Park, California, offers a fabulous military discount.

I grew up going to Knott’s Berry Farm and especially enjoyed the times we went during school breaks when most other kids were not off from school. We could walk on the rides! I’m not sure that’s even possible today, but I do know you can still have a fun day at the park.

History of Knott’s Berry Farm

The Fabulous Knott's Berry Farm Military Discount

The history of Knott’s Berry Farm dates back over 100 years to 1920, when the Knott family relocated from Central California to Buena Park, Orange County, in search of a fresh start. Walter Knott and his cousin, Jim Presten, an experienced berry farmer, leased land, and Walter began farming berries.

By 1923, he had built a roadside stand on Grand Avenue. The family bought their land in 1927 and built a home with a permanent berry market. They also had a nursery to sell plans as well as a tea room. They called it “Knott’s Berry Place.” Little did they know what it would eventually become.

Berries, Pies, and Jam

Walter was able to buy more land and make a name for himself. In 1932, Walter met Rudolph Boysen, who experimented with berries. Walter was able to get some of Boysen’s cuttings, which were a combination of a red raspberry, blackberry, and loganberry. He planted and cultivated them, and in 1934, he was able to introduce the new bosenberry and sold it in the tea room.

The berries, jam, and pies did well. It was then during the Great Depression that Walter’s wife, Cordelia, had an idea. She started making chicken dinners for her tea room guests. She also served them salad, rhubarb, biscuits, vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy, with berry pie for dessert. She charged them $ 0.65 for the meal.

As you can imagine, word spread about their delicious meal, and so many people started coming to the tea room that they had to keep expanding it until it became an actual restaurant that seated 350 people. Even so, people still had to wait.

To give the people something to do, Walter and Cordelia’s daughter, Virginia, set up a card table selling small gifts, which eventually evolved into a full-sized shop that is still in operation today.

The Fabulous Knott's Berry Farm Military Discount

Ghost Town is Born

It was due to the success and long waits that Walter built a Ghost Town in 1940, inspired by his mother’s journey in a covered wagon to California in 1868. People started coming to see the Ghost Town on its own. Walter hired actors to populate the town and amuse the guests.

Ghost Town expanded in the 1950s with the addition of the Calico Saloon, the Ghost Town and Calico Railroad, and the schoolhouse, which was a favorite of mine as a kid in the 1980s and 1990s. They added amusement rides such as the Calico Mine Ride, which opened in 1960.

Enclosing the Park

In 1968, they enclosed the park and began charging $1 to enter. They also expanded beyond Ghost Town and created Fiesta Village, inspired by the early days of California. On July 11, 1969, my favorite Knott’s Berry Farm ride, the Calico Log Ride, now called the Timber Mountain Log Ride, opened. It was the first log flume ride in the United States.

They continued to add rides and lands to the park, including Montezooma’s Revenge, a favorite of mine as a teenager, and then Camp Snoopy in 1983. There have been many more changes during the years, new rides, attractions, and even a water park.

I have been able to take my own children a couple of times, and it has always been such a fun day!

The Fabulous Knott's Berry Farm Military Discount

Knott’s Berry Farm Military Discount

Knott’s Berry Farm offers several ways for military families to save money.

Military Tribute Days

Military Tribute Days are in November and December of each year. Active-duty military personnel, retired military personnel, and veterans can receive discounted admission tickets to Knott’s Berry Farm. The tickets were $25 last year. You can purchase one for the service member, and five for family and friends. You can buy these online or at the ticket booth.

Regular Knott’s Berry Farm Military Discount

They also have a regular Knott’s Berry Farm military discount. Currently, in 2025, the price is $57 per ticket. Active-duty and retired military personnel, as well as first responders, can purchase up to six of these tickets. They are available online only. You must be registered with ID.me.

You can also find a military rate at the Knott’s Hotel.

Please visit the Knott’s Berry Farm website for the most up-to-date information!

The Fabulous Knott's Berry Farm Military Discount

Not All Military Housing is Created Equal, and Other Truths About Military Spouse Life

by 1 Comment

I never thought I would be a military spouse. When I met my husband, he was 25 and had already served a few years in the Army. Little did I know that life would lead him back to the military, and make me a military spouse.

There have been so many surprises along the way, and I have learned so much. Here are just a few truths about military spouse life. Can you relate?

You might be told X will happen, but that doesn’t mean it will

There have been so many times when military plans have changed. From deployments to trainings to appointments. Military life is all about change. Nothing is ever set in stone, and it is probably best to assume nothing will happen a certain way until it actually does.

Military life isn’t fair!

Your spouse might deploy a lot more than other spouses. You might not ever end up at the “best” duty stations. Some service members take longer to promote than others. The best thing to do is to celebrate when you are the one to get good news and be humble when you see that your friend or neighbor has not.

Not all military housing is created equal

I cried when we moved into our orange duplex at our 2nd duty station in Germany. That house was amazing! And to think we got that excellent house just because we moved to a new duty station, not because of a change of rank or position. That the two homes could be so different was unbelievable to me. Some housing is much better than others, and that can be a frustrating reality of military life.

You will grow without your spouse by your side

During military life, you and your spouse will grow and change. Everyone does. Sometimes, this will happen when they are not home. During a deployment, you can grow and change, and because you have, life can be a bit of a challenge once your spouse gets home. Remember this during the redeployment period, and remember why you decided to be together in the first place.

Your parenting will look a little different

Survival mode is very real and sometimes being in survival mode means you let things go and your parenting will change because of that. Try not to let this get you down, real-life sometimes doesn’t mix with our ideals. Do your best and at the end of the day, give yourself some grace.

You will surprise yourself

During the last 15 years, I have done things I never thought I could. I have been stretched and strengthened because of everything I have been through. Military life will mold you into the person you are meant to be. And you will look back and might be surprised about everything you have had to go through to get there.

When military life is over, you might not want to leave

As much as you think you are ready to leave military life behind, doing so isn’t as easy as you think the transition will be. You might find yourself missing parts of military life and wondering why you and your spouse decided that chapter must be closed. You might get upset that your spouse had to leave because of medical issues. Give yourself time to adjust to the after military lifestyle.

The “worst” duty station might be your favorite

A few duty stations out there have the reputation of being the worst place you could get stationed. Places you really don’t want to go, and for a lot of them, there is a good reason for that. But sometimes, the “worst” duty station may be your favorite place.

Maybe you have figured out how to bloom where you are planted, or maybe you just made some amazing friends, but for whatever reason, you will always look back at that duty station as some of the best years of your military life.

How long have you been a military spouse? What have you learned along the way?

The History and Heart of Memorial Day

by Leave a Comment

The History and Heart of Memorial Day

While Memorial Day can signify the beginning of the summer season, we know, as a military community, how much that day matters. Memorial Day honors and remembers those who have died while serving in the military. The holiday, always on the last Monday in May, was initially called Decoration Day.

The History of Memorial Day

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of the Grand Army of the Republic (a Union veterans organization), issued an official proclamation designating May 30th as a day of remembrance for those who died in the Civil War. Called “Decoration Day,” this day honored Union soldiers who had died in the American Civil War.

During that first celebration, the former General and sitting Ohio congressman James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery. After the speech, 5,000 people helped decorate the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers. The first US state to designate Memorial Day as a legal holiday was New York in 1873.

After World War I, Memorial Day became a day to honor all who had died in America’s wars. Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in 1971, so Memorial Day would always be on the last Monday of May.

The Heart

Today, you can find Memorial Day events throughout the United States. On Memorial Day, we remember those we have lost and their sacrifice. Any military member or spouse can tell you about those special to them who are no longer with us. On Memorial Day, we remember them, who they were, what they did, and what we miss the most about them.

Memorial Day often marks the unofficial start of summer. A weekend filled with BBQs, beach trips, family gatherings, and even store sales or free meals for service members. And while there’s nothing wrong with enjoying those traditions, it’s important to pause and remember the day’s true meaning.

Memorial Day is not just a day off; it’s a tribute to the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving in the United States Military. Their courage, service, and selflessness made our freedoms possible. Amid the fun and food, may we always take a moment to reflect on those who gave everything for their country, and honor them not just with our words, but with our gratitude and how we live.

The History and Heart of Memorial Day