Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life

Julie

Old Spice Hardest Working Collection Toolkit Giveaway

by Leave a Comment

Did you get a chance to read my post from last weekend about Old Spice’s Hardest Working Collection?

Would you like a chance to win your own toolkit? You can win it for you or someone else in your family! This toolkit is great and comes with a lot of cool goodies.

Old Spice GiveawayHere is what you will get inside your very own tool box…

  • FREE entry into a 2016 Tough Mudder event to challenge the performance of the Hardest Working Collection
  • An Old Spice t‐shirt fitting for Legendary Men
  • A gift from Tough Mudder partner Merrell to keep more than your armpits dry
  • An autographed photo from the product king himself, Bob Giovanni (as seen on Old Spice’s popular digital infomercials)
  • Recognition of your Legendary status with a customizable trophy, as commemorated by Old Spice
  • One of each Old Spice product to put you through the paces as you lead your legendary existence.

Sweet huh?

Old Spice

Whoever wins will have fun with this giveaway. The tool box is great and can be used for a lot of great things. You get some of the products to try and the extras are great as well.

Old Spice

 

Old spice

 

Enter the giveaway below and don’t forget to get your Old Spice Coupons as well 🙂

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Old Spice (P&G). The opinions and text are all mine.

Feeling Homesick As A Military Spouse

by 2 Comments

Feeling Homesick As A Military Spouse

When you become a military spouse you know you will have to move. Many times. You know that you won’t stay in the same place and you will probably be far from home.

However, nothing can ever really prepare you for living far away from your family, raising your children so they only see their grandparents once a year, even longer in some cases and just not being a part of everything like you thought you would.

Feeling Homesick As A Military Spouse

It’s very easy to feel homesick when you are a military spouse. Whether you are a 19-year-old newlywed leaving her home for the first time or a 38-year-old who hasn’t lived at home for 20 years but still feels that homesickness every now and then.

Your spouse will have to go where the military sends them. In most cases, you will go with them. Leaving behind what you have known in the past, going to a different state or even a different country and culture.

I was 18 years old when I moved 9 hours away from my parents. I was going off to college and I was ready to leave. I wanted to see the world. And in the years, that followed that is exactly what I did.

I met my husband and we moved to Kentucky, then Germany and then Tennessee. Because of the high cost of living in California, we can’t move back there, at least not right now. Homesickness comes and goes. Sometimes it can hit hard.

When we were overseas in Germany I was homesick more for the US then my hometown. I missed the things I was used to. That was difficult and I know that can be the challenging part of living overseas.

Not to mention it is that much harder for the family to visit and for you to visit home, especially if you do have a lot of children. Ideally, you would be able to focus on the country and culture you are in, enjoying every moment. However, real life can hit and the homesickness can overtake you.

Homesickness Can Hit You Hard

If you are just starting your military journey, remember that homesickness can hit you hard. When I first moved away from my parents, even though I was exactly where I wanted to be, I still struggled. It was hard to not be near any of my high school friends anymore. It was hard to make new friends. I was living on my own. It was all so different.

Expect that you will feel that homesickness, even if you were very excited to leave. You will miss people and things you didn’t think you would. The key is to accept your homesickness and then find ways to fall in love with your new surroundings. Find things to do and new places to explore. Work on making some new friends and embracing your new life.

You Can Never Go Home Again

A few years ago I was talking to someone about how badly I missed our church back in California. They brought up a good point. They said that what I missed was in the past and that doesn’t exist anymore.

That if I moved back to that area and went to that church again, it would be a different place. Time moved on for me and time moved on for them. Sometimes we miss places and time periods that are just not there anymore. Everyone gets older and changes and it is important to remember that.

So if somewhere down the line you can return home, know it will be different. I am hoping to move back to close to where I grew up but I have to remember it isn’t 1997 there anymore. It’s 2016 there too and lots of things have changed. My memories are not just sitting there waiting for me to go back to them.

Life Is An Adventure

Military life can be an adventure if you let it. Whether you are moving to Alaska or Florida. Whether you get to go overseas or you spend your spouse’s entire career in the US.

There are always new people to meet and experiences to enjoy that you would never have at home. Keep this in mind as you are feeling that homesickness. This is your life and you can make it a good one.

There is nothing wrong with missing your home, your family and your friends. That will happen. Then you will make new friends, they or you will move and you will miss them too. You will leave parts of your heart at every duty station you go to, even if you didn’t like it there at the time.

You will move forward and learn about different cultures and ways of doing things. You will grow as a person and become stronger and more independent. This time as a military spouse will cause you to grow into the person you are supposed to be.

Have you experienced homesickness? What have you done to help you get through it?

 

 

10 Ways To Save Money When You Need To Be On A Tight Budget

by Leave a Comment

 

10 Ways To Save Money When You Need To Be On A Tight Budget

There are other times during military life when the amount of money you are bringing in goes down, even if just for a short amount of time. Coming back from overseas you will lose COLA. After a deployment, you will know longer get deployment pay. When you PCS you might end up getting less for BAH. You have to keep all these changes in mind and adjust your budget accordingly.

Read More…

What You Should Know About The Reintegration Period After Deployment

by 1 Comment

What You Should Know About The Reintegration Period After Deployment

Homecoming is amazing! That day is one of the best. You get to pick up your spouse. The deployment is over.

There are hugs and kisses and tears of happiness. You wait and wait and you can finally bring them home. You are on a high from the excitement. But what happens the next morning? What happens the next week? When things start to get hard or complicated?

One of the hardest parts of a deployment can be after they return. You, the spouse have spent all this time without them. You have a routine and now they are home. Sometimes they come home from war very broken and sometimes there is a lot to deal with.

From wanting to spend all of your time together to working hard on getting him back into your schedule, here are what some of my military spouse friends have to say about what was the hardest thing to deal with in the reintegration period after deployment:

Letting him out of my sight to do anything other than hang out and talk! I was SO clingy!- Joanna, Jo, My Gosh

For me the hardest part of that weird post-deployment time frame was that even though he is home, he’s still very much connected to the boat. He didn’t always get to come home right away. He still stood duty, still had to be at work every day even on weekends. I wanted him to BE HOME after a deployment, and it just never works out that way.- Jody, Homeport:Washington 

The hardest part for me was when I had a job too. They get a week of downtime when they first come home. It was hard getting up and still going to work knowing that I could be spending the entire day with him.- Pamela, The Coastie Couple

The Reintegration Period After Deployment

I think the hardest thing for me was just watching him reintegrate with the kids and our family. He was unfamiliar with schedules and what the kids were doing and thinking no matter how well connected I kept him. It was hard because I didn’t want to correct him. I wanted to just let him just merge back into life, and not take over. But in some respects I couldn’t. It was tricky.-Rheanna, Cammo Style Love

The hardest part for us was that underways still happen immediately after deployment. During our first deployment, they were only home for a month before they had to go back out there for training. It was just a reality we had to adapt to very quickly.- Malia, Wandering Malia

I think the hardest thing is when he tries to take over some of the tasks. I see it now in treatment for cancer. Like if there is something I can’t do, or did before, he doesn’t do it right lol, or he doesn’t do it on my schedule. Like when I was really weak during treatment, he would spend hours cleaning the kitchen, and then never vacuum.- Jodi

The hardest thing for me was immediately wanting tons of together time and realizing he wasn’t going to be able to just jump back into my normal. He needed some time to adjust, sleep, get back on a normal schedule and I was all bouncy puppy dog just wanting to love him. And when it wasn’t reciprocated in the way I was expecting, I didn’t know enough not to take it personally.- Rachel, Countdowns and Cupcakes

A hard thing for me was having to cook again. I hate cooking and I missed being able to have cereal for dinner.- Amber, Airing My Laundry

The Reintegration Period After Deployment

Two hardest things for me: #1- I got pregnant with our 2nd child right before he left and the baby was born only a few weeks after he came back. Adding 2 “new” people into our home in such a short period of time was a little overwhelming (especially when it came to doing laundry)! #2- Adjusting to not seeing my friends as much. I had become very connected to other wives in the unit and once our husbands came back those relationships were unfortunately never the same. They had become my support system and it was surprisingly difficult to shift that back to my husband.-Sarah,  Servant Mama

Each reintegration has been a bit different, but consistently I struggle a little with balancing a desire to do everything to keep him happy in those first few weeks/months and my need to stay sane. When he first comes home, he wants to eat out constantly, road trip, give our son all sorts of treats/stay up late/etc. Part of me wants to jump right in with him and just enjoy each other. But the reality is that our son needs some consistency and structure, my husband and I both do best with a little breathing room, work still has to happen and all those mundane daily tasks that keep a household running need to happen. I have to insist without getting resentful and he needs to be flexible while reminding me it’s okay to relax. We did better with our most recent one and that was in large part because we communicated more effectively before he came home about plans and schedules so we had a better handle on what to expect.- Kristen, If The Saddle Fits

He had terrible depth perception after six months at sea on a submarine. I couldn’t let him drive the first few days until he got reacquainted with that strange bright orb in the sky.- Patricia,

I’m the soldier and mother. The hardest was having to start doing all the routine and endless tasks of taking care of a home and children. Some things I used to love seemed tedious. But my family was so patient and understanding! I have so much respect for the spouses and family that support their soldiers!- Tamara, Enlisted Mom

I have a really hard time figuring out the balance between giving him enough alone time and completely smothering him with my presence. We are both so used to doing things alone, from watching TV to deciding on what to eat for dinner…so when he returns I want to involve him in all those decisions, I want to cook together, I want to be together. I am a clingy, obnoxious pest. He struggles with figuring out how to make me happy with balancing all this new togetherness. We’ve both learned after a series of (almost) back to back deployments not to take anything the other does during those first weeks back personally, but I still just want more of “us time”. Being that I also work full time, I don’t get to have a week of leave as soon as he gets back so I tend to really monopolize the time that we do have off together, forgetting that he also needs to sleep, unwind and readjust. – Molly, Love the Everyday

The Reintegration Period After Deployment

The hardest thing for both of us was establishing a new normal. Realizing that we had changed and grown over our 10 months apart. I had started a professional job and now had requirements that didn’t allow me to have time off when he did. I also had to learn what thing I wanted to give and what things I want to continue. It was alot more challenging than I expected. I wrote an entire post on the experience here.- Elizabeth, The Reluctant Landlord

The hardest part for me was not taking out the trash. It sounds so mundane, but you get so used to doing EVERYTHING that something as simple as letting them take the trash out, was hard for me to relinquish. It’s so important for them to feel needed again and something as simple as the trash is just one more way to get back to normal.- Kayla, The Navy Mom

The hardest part was teaching him to adjust to the children…-Trista, A Purpose Driven Wife

The hardest thing for me is realizing he can be a big help, but he isn’t going to do it my way. For months, I go on with life doing things the way I want them to be done, but then all of a sudden, he comes back and he will go back to how it used to be done. We have always approached things differently, but it is really magnetized when he comes home. And he likes to rearrange the furniture.- Kim, 1200 Miles Away

Just knowing how much he missed during our son’s first year. He left when he was 10 days old and returned when he was 14 months old.-Karen, And Then We Laughed

We didn’t have any big issues. It was more me having to adjust to him upsetting our schedule and routine. I had to take someone else’s opinion to mind instead of just doing what I wanted to do.-Kara, Ramblings of a Marine Wife

What was the hardest part of those first few weeks during reintegration after a deployment?

The Hardest Working Man

by Leave a Comment

 

Old Spice

My husband. After 10 years as an active duty soldier is now a part of the National Guard. This means he has two jobs. Monday through Friday he works outside at his regular job. Once a month he puts on his uniform and does his Army job.  Both jobs are pretty demanding and he works hard juggling both. He started a new job in March and after his first week he had drill. That was a long week for us but he did it without complaining.

Old Spice

 

Old Spice
On the weekends, we always try to spend some time as a family. This last weekend we went to a local park. My husband loves sports so he had a good time playing with the football and soccer ball in the big green belt. He is so good with the boys, always has been. I am so lucky to have that in a husband.

Whether he is working at his regular job, going to drill or home with his family, he is doing what he can to be there for us.

Old spice

 

13010116_10156737354020705_1640702645_o

 

12999704_10156737353625705_1813801232_o

He was very excited to see the Old Spice Tool box kit with the Hardest Working  Collection come to our house. He has been a fan of Old Spice for a while. We both love how it smells and the names of the different scents that they come up with are perfect. Lasting Legend? Stronger Swagger? Fresher Fiji? Love them!

Old Spice

With the new Hardest Working Collection, Old Spice is taking performance up a notch. They will be offering the highest-performing Old Spice anti-perspirants and body washes in the world. Delivering Legendary protection for the Legendary man. The anti-perspirants protect from odor and sweat with body washes that don’t dry out the skin. Leaving it clean after a hard days work.

The Hardest Working Collection products are available at retailers nationwide. You can also download coupons to help save you money at .

Odor Blocker Anti‐Perspirant/Deodorant

The Odor Blocker is Old’s Spice’s most powerful invisible solid anti‐perspirant/deodorant, delivering legendary performance through stronger and longer sweat protection than its other collections and a 50 percent increase in BCD odor fighting technology that only Old Spice can claim. Odor Blocker’s unique invisible solid anti‐perspirant formula forms better plugs to protect against sweat.

Old Spice

Dirt Destroyer Body Wash

The Dirt Destroyer is Old Spice’s most powerful body wash, offering 15 percent more cleansers, a 30 percent thicker formula and 20 percent more scent. Its thicker formula delivers a thick, dirt‐eliminating lather and less down the drain resulting in a better overall shower experience.

Old Spice

The 1-800-PROVE-IT Challenge

Check out the 1-800-PROVE-IT challenge. Old Spice is so confident in the Hardest Working Collection, the product is backed with a money‐back guarantee, as seen in a series of humorous digital infomercials hosted by Product King® Bob Giovanni. If you use the Hardest Working Collection and the products do not live up to your standards, you can call 1‐800‐PROVE‐IT for a full refund. Just call the line, and Bob Giovanni himself will provide further instructions. Pretty cool, huh?

Did you see the tool box we received? Stay tuned for a future giveaway where you can win one for your hardest working man 🙂

Don’t forget to follow the hashtag: #smellegendary to learn more!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Old Spice (P&G). The opinions and text are all mine.

10 Of The Best Places To Make Friends When You Are A Military Spouse

by Leave a Comment

You are new to your duty station, you don’t know anyone and your spouse is going to deploy sometime in the next few months. Where do you go to make friends? What can you do to find them? How can you be a part of this military community everyone likes to talk about?

10 Of The Best Places To Make Friends When You Are A Military Spouse

Finding new friends can be difficult when you first move to a new place. You can live somewhere for a while and still not fit in. You could be shy and find meeting new people difficult. So what do you do?

Here are 10 ideas to help you make friends as a military spouse:

  • Your FRG-The FRG is either going to be really good or really bad but you don’t know until you try. So go once, see what things are like. Maybe the FRG needs you to help make it a better place. There can be something great about connecting with the spouses of those your own spouse is going to be working with. Other times, there just might be too much drama. That happens, especially during deployments. But make yourself try the FRG out. You never know what you might experience or who you might meet when you go.
  • Your Neighborhood- Your neighbors can become your friends. Reach out if you can and join your neighborhood Facebook page. See if you can meet some other people who are in your stage of life. This might be easier if you have kids who are old enough to go out and play with the other kids in your area. You can meet people through them as well. Smile at people if they walk by and be friendly and a good neighbor. Knowing people who live by you is a good idea. They can watch out for your home when you are away and you can be there for them.
  • Bible Study– If you are religious, seek out a bible study. Most military installations have a PWOC or other similar groups. These places are a time for bible study and to get to know other military spouses. Overseas, my PWOC group with a lifesaver. You can also find bible studies off post within your local community. That is also a good way to meet other non-military friends in your community.
  • MOPS– MOPS Stands for Mother’s Of Preschoolers. It is a great program and they do have some military MOPS programs. These are free and are located at the base chapel. You might also find MOPS in your community off-post. Those will have a fee for the year. The great thing about MOPS is that it was made for moms of smaller children so that they have a place to go to meet other moms and get a little bit of a break from their kids. This might be the only non-kid time a SAHM might get during the week. MOPS is a great way to meet new people, other moms that have children the same age as yours.
  • Sports team– Sports is a great way to get to know others. Either signing your children up for a team or playing a sport yourself. Look and see what is going on in your area. Even swim lessons is a great way to make a new friend. You all have to sit and watch your kids and in a lot of cases you can’t help but talk to someone new while you are there watching your kids swim or play a sport. Finding an adult team is a great idea if you are into sports because you can do something you love and make new friends while you are doing so.
  • Playgroups- If you have kids, you have to join a playgroup. They are such a good way to make friends and even if you don’t, a way for your kids to make friends and be social. They can be a good way to get out there and break up the day. Some playgroups are put on by an organization, others are hosted by a mom and she invites people to her home. Figure out what is in your area. If you only know a couple of people, invite them over to play and have them invite some friends.
  • Book Club– I love books. I read so much. So when I heard about a local book club, I joined it. We got to talk about books. It was wonderful. Do you love books too? Join a book club. You will be able to meet people to talk about books with. Which is one of the best things.
  • Restaurant Club– When we were in Germany there was a club that met once a month at a new restaurant. This was a great way to learn more about our area and food options but I was also able to connect with other spouses and get to know them. I am sure they do have these types of groups other places as well.
  • Volunteering- If you are still not sure how to make friends, try volunteering. There are a lot of chances for that on post as well as off. You can do a one day or one week type of event or volunteer long-term. Doing so will allow you to give back to the community, keep busy and make some friends. The more you do it, the more people you will meet. The best part is, there are so many different ways you can volunteer in a military community.
  • Bunco- If you ever get invited to a Bunco group, go. This game is so much fun and because of the way you play it you have to talk to new people. You are moving from table to table and it is a great way to feel connecting to other people in your community.

How have you made friends in your military community? What is the hardest part of doing so?

WeVets: Give Veterans A Voice

by Leave a Comment

Sponsored Post Graphic

 

When you move to a new city, knowing where to go, where to shop or where to eat can be overwhelming. You might not have ever heard about that store down the road. You might be lost when it comes to the local military clinic and you might just need some help figuring out which places are worth going to.

WeVets

This is the mobile version of the site.

 

This is where a place like WeVets comes in handy. This is a new website for active duty military, veterans, their families and supporters to access resources and review businesses, programs and organizations designed to serve the military and veteran space. You can go to WeVets to look up information on the businesses, organizations, and resources that you need to serve you and your family. The reviews will be written by other military families which can be important. You can find reviews on places like Lowes, Disneyworld, IHOP, the military clinic and the vets office. You can leave your own reviews as well to help others who are curious about a location that you have been to.

Right now the website is still in beta but they need your help to build it up. If you can, head on over and sign up. Leave a review or two and share with your friends. If you need to know about a particular service, look and see if it is on the site. You can read the reviews and learn more about what other people have experienced by visiting those places.

Take some time to watch the video as well.

 

This website is going to be a great resource for those in the military. It will allow people to find out more information on the places they want to go.  This is a great idea for a population of people who move around a lot or don’t know the area they are in as well as they want to. Go check them out…:)

 

A Deployment Tool Kit: What You Need To Get Through A Deployment

by 5 Comments

A Deployment Tool Kit: What You Need To Get Through A Deployment

The time has come and your spouse has left for a deployment. You’re feeling a little out of sorts. You haven’t fully accepted that he is actually gone and now you have three, six or nine months ahead of you. Months of a deployment where you will not see your husband. Where you will be both mom and dad for your kids and where you know the loneliness will set in. How will you get through a deployment?

A Deployment Tool Kit: What You Need To Get Through A Deployment

In order to get through this season, you are going to need to have a deployment toolkit. In the kit, you will keep the things that will help you while he is gone. Everyone’s toolkit is going to look a bit different but here are some ideas to help you get ready to conquer your upcoming deployment.

Good Friends

Having someone you can depend on during a deployment is so important. This can be hard to find sometimes because you might have just moved to your duty station right before the deployment or your best friend might have just moved away right before it starts.

The key is finding places to go, to take yourself and your kids where you can meet other people. Think about groups or clubs that you would enjoy and go to them. Be friendly and let people know you are new or would like to set up a playdate. This is hard I know, especially if you are on the shy side but it can be worth doing in order to find a good friend to go through a deployment with.

Patience

I don’t have a lot of patience, especially during a deployment. But I need to have it if I don’t want to drive myself nuts. I need to have patience with the timetables, with the changing dates, with my kids and even my house. Sometimes even my dog. This is hard but I know I need to step back, take a deep breath and work on my patience.

Good Food and Drink

For some people, this is a good cup of coffee. I never really felt I needed coffee every day until our first deployment, then it was a must. Other people prefer tea or Dr. Pepper or a nice glass of wine. Just have something in your house that can make you feel good on a bad day.

You can apply this to food too. Sometimes a nice bowl of ice cream is a good way to end a stressful day. Be careful, though. Stress eating is a thing and the deployment might be a good time to break that habit. Make a nice salad or try a new food you didn’t think you would like.

Books and Other Hobbies

Reading books, watching movies, tv, going on walks, working on your hobbies, etc, all of these will help you through a deployment. Focusing on your hobbies will help keep you busy. You can also work on your career, work on going to school or do something to better yourself.

The best thing to do is make a list of all the things you want to do while your spouse is gone. You won’t finish that list but it will give you tons of ideas and allow you to fill up your time. A good book can take you out of a funk and get you interested in something else besides just missing your spouse. I love to read to help me through a stressful period of time.

The Ability to Laugh

You really have to be able to laugh at military life. It’s not that things are funny, it’s that if you take everything too seriously, life is just going to get too hard. Don’t be afraid to laugh. Laugh at yourself. Laugh at the situation. See that thing will get better in the long run. Don’t be afraid to have fun while he is gone and make a life for yourself.

A Journal

Writing in a journal can help you get your feelings and thoughts out. If you haven’t ever written in one before, a deployment is a good place to start. Some couples like to keep one together. One will write in it for a week and then send it to the other and back again. This is a great way to connect during a deployment. Looking back at your old journals and reading about old struggles can help you get through your current ones.

A Haven

You need a safe place where you can go when you just need a moment. This can be your home, a room in your home, even a corner. I like to turn my bedroom into this place. I want the area comfortable with soft lighting. I want it to be a place I can retreat when I just can’t take it anymore. A place to relax, cry and figure out how to get out of my funk.

Deployments are going to stress you out which is why you need the right tools to help you through one.

What is in your deployment toolbox? How do you get through a deployment?

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