Thursday, January 21, 2010

You know your soldier is deployed when...




1. You wear old sweatpants and sweatshirts to bed.



2. You can watch whatever you want on TV without arguing with him first.



3. You get up in the middle of the night to check your e-mail or you stay on the computer all night waiting for them to get on.



4. You sleep with your cell phone incase he calls in the middle of the night.



5. You love watching cute love movies because it reminds you of all the cute things he does when he's home.



6. You haven't shaved your legs in weeks.



7. The mailman knows you because you are always out waiting for him to come.



8. You start paying close attention in class when the words "military" or "Iraq" are mentioned.



9. You suddenly have an obsession with anything military related.



10. You see someone wearing an army, navy, or USMC shirt and you get this overwhelming urge to talk to them.



11. You make friends with strangers online just because they are in the same situation as you and are the only ones that can truly understand what you are going through.



12. You can't decide what to wear when you meet him at the airport because his flight comes in at a ridiculous hour in the morning and you want to look cute, but not too cute, because your cutest outfit you want to save for your first full day together.



13. Your first Christmas together is.... apart.



14. You find yourself checking your e-mail every fifteen minutes. (hah more like every 5!!!)



15. You know all the time differences between where you are and Iraq, Ireland, Kuwait, Italy, Germany, Korea, and every state in the U.S.



16. The highlight of your day is getting a letter that was mailed a month ago.



17. And if you don't get a letter, the highlight of your day is writing him a letter that you know he will be able to read in a month.



18. You realize that HOMECOMING is so much more than a football game.



19. You want to hit any happy couple you see together.



20. You get excited about "unknown" phone numbers calling you



21. You've exhausted every idea a brain could have of what to put in a box.



22. You see a "support our troops" sticker on a car when you are stuck in traffic and you find yourself guessing about who they know that is deployed and thinking about their entire life story.



23. When the clock says 11:11, you find yourself wishing for the same thing every time: a call from your soldier.



24. You get excited when its only 9 months until you see your soldier instead of 12!



25. You can't stand girls that talk about missing their boyfriends who live a few hours away. You just want to yell "drive and go see them them" because if you had the chance, you would jump on the first plane to go see your soldier no matter how far it is.



26. You don't know what teams are on top for football, basketball, etc.



27. You wouldn't dream of walking out of the house without the cell phone and every number you have is forwarded to that cell.



28. You find yourself randomly crying from just looking at a picture of the two of you together.



29. You find yourself randomly crying and you sometimes have no idea why.



30. You stay on the Internet for hours searching for anything and everything about the military.



31. You talk to your friends about him so much that they know his full name, birthday and even his favorite color.



32. You are reading this and smiling and nodding because you know it's so true!



33. You sleep with his favorite blanket so often it's starting to smell less like him and more like your perfume
You know you're an Army wife when.....




Author: Unknown

~You can unpack a house and have everything in place in 48 hours

~You string Constantina wire to keep the neighbor's kids out of your flower beds

~Your husband's work and dress clothes cost more than yours do

~You've changed more oil and mowed more lawns than your husband because he's never there to do it himself

~You use a crook-neck flashlight with a red lens during power outages because it's the only one you can ever find in the house

~Your children say "hoo ah" or "roger that" instead of "ok"

~You know that it's normal to light shoe polish on fire and that the best way to spit-shine boots is with cotton balls

~Your husband does a route recon and takes a GPS for a trip to the mall

~You only write in pencil because EVERYTHING is subject to change

~You need a translator to talk to your civilian friends, only because they have no idea what DFAS, AER, TDY, ACS, NPD, PCS, and ETS mean

~You have a larger selection of curtains than Walmart does

~You can remember where you kept the Scotch tape in your last house, but unfortunately, not in this one

~You mark time in duty stations, not years

~You refer to friends not only by name but by the state that they live in

~You know that "back home" doesn't mean at the house you live in now

~You tear up when you hear "Proud to Be An American," even though you've heard it 50 times by now

~You know that a 2 month separation IS short, no matter what your civilian friends say

~You ALWAYS know when payday is and get ticked off if there are more than 2 weekends during that pay period

~You know better than to go to the PX or commissary between 11:30 and 13:00 unless it's a life or death emergency

~You show your military ID to the greeter at Walmart

~You know that any reference to "sand" or a "box" describes NTC at Ft. Irwin, not your kid's backyard toys

~You know that "Ft. Puke" is a completely accurate description of Ft. Polk

~You find yourself explaining your husband's LES to him

~You have enough camouflage in your house to wallpaper the White House

~You don't have to think about what time 21:30 is

~You've ever been referred to as "Household 6"

~You're the TC, not a backseat driver

~You start ripping open MREs and looking for the M&Ms when you run out of Halloween candy

~You can't remember the last time you saw a doctor who wasn't wearing BDUs

~You've ever had a pet named Scout, Ranger or Sergeant

~You stand for the National Anthem at a movie theatre

~The local dry cleaner knows you by your first name

~It only cost you $25 to have a child

~You find that a large number of your clothes and household items are olive drab or loam, even though you never planned it that way

~You pick apart uniforms on TV and in the movies, even though you used to yell at your husband for doing the same thing

~You know what "pogey bait" is and which kinds everyone in your husband's platoon prefers

~You wish you could go to CIF to DX your old stuff like your husband can

~You've learned to sleep through the sounds of tanks, planes, helicopters and artillery simulators

~You give your kids a hand receipt when they take your Tupperware to school

~You can hate military life but be terrified to leave it all in the same breath

~You defend your lifestyle no matter how bad things get because you know there's no other life for you!

I am a military wife

I Am A Military Wife




Author Unknown



I am a military wife - a member of that sisterhood of women who have had the courage to watch their men go into battle, and the strength to survive until their return. Our sorority knows no rank, for we earn our membership with a marriage license, travelling over miles, or over nations to begin a new life with our military husbands. Within days, we turn a barren, echoing building into a home, and though our quarters are inevitably white-walled and unpapered, we decorate with the treasures of our travels, for we shop the markets of the globe.



Using hammer and nail, we tack our pictures to the wall, and our roots to the floor as firmly as if we had lived there for a lifetime. We hold a family together by the bootstraps, and raise the best of 'brats', instilling in them the motto: "Home is togetherness", whether motel, or guest house, apartment or duplex. As military wives we soon realize that the only good in "Good-bye" is the "Hello again". For as salesmen for freedom, our husbands are often on the road, at sea, or in the sky, leaving us behind for a week, a month, an assignment.



During separations we guard the home front, existing until the homecoming. Unlike our civilian counterparts, we measure time, not by years, but by tours - married at Petawawa, a baby born at Gagetown, a special anniversary at Uplands, a promotion in St Jean. We plant trees, and never see them grow tall, work on projects completed long after our departure, and enhance our community for the betterment of those who come after us.



We leave a part of ourselves at every stop. Through experience, we have learned to pack a suitcase, a car or hold baggage, and live indefinitely from the contents within: and though our fingers are sore from the patches we have sewn, and the silver we have shined, our hands are always ready to help those around us. Women of peace, we pray for a world in harmony, for the flag that leads our men into battle, will also blanket them in death.



Yet we are an optimistic group, thinking of the good, and forgetting the bad, cherishing yesterday, while anticipating tomorrow. Never rich by monetary standards, our hearts are overflowing with a wealth of experiences common only to those united by the special tradition of military life. We pass on this legacy to every military bride, welcoming her with outstretched arms, with love and friendship, from one sister to another, sharing in the bounty of our unique, fulfilling military way of life.Photobucket