Things About This Military Spouse

May 12 is set aside as Military Spouse Appreciation Day. As a spouse of a Marine, I have to say 'thank you' to the genius who decided that :) Just kidding! I don't have a super hero cape or a crown. I'm just a regular person whose life gets pretty complicated due to unforeseen twists and turns that get thrown our way. A spouse who feels like throwing in the towel once or twice a decade because things like communication and time are never guaranteed. I have most definitely pulled the crazy lady card during deployment. For all the military spouses reading here today, this post is for you! All the other sweet souls who stop by, I promise we are not crazy!

Here is the short story, I started the blog to connect with other military spouses. After 12 years of military life, I felt I had learned a thing or two I could share. Over the next five years, I continued to write about our military life. Sometimes I rambled and sometimes I felt like I hit the nail on the head. Here are a couple posts where I felt that happened...


The Funny Thing About Military Spouses

My Take On Military Life

Those times when I rambled were often mid-deployment or the beginning of a school year when I was balancing work/parenting/house/life crap in the height of Stressville and he was "away". Why is he ALWAYS gone in August?? I write this in May with no news of an impending training/deployment but just you wait!  It's always August :(

There have been some pretty cool things happen because of this military family blog. I've connected in real life with other military spouse bloggers. We had a lot of great adventures and we all were very lucky to have that time together. Here are some posts of our outings.

The Time We First Met
The Time We Went To The Winery
The Time We Got Our Hair Done
The Time We Ate Donuts and Made Care Packages
The Time We Had Amazing Mexican Food In San Diego :)

Since beginning this blog, my husband has been promoted, re-enlisted, and re-assigned permanent duty stations. That duty station just happened to be on the opposite coast. Well played Marine Corps!

The best part of this military life for me has been the travels. I spent the first 20 years of my life in Iowa. I traveled in summers to visit my dad and stepmom but other than that I was confined to the flattest state in America. I still laugh about how scared I was moving to California. I thought there would be gangsters on every corner as I drove down the street. I was so sheltered!

The military life has definitely afforded us the ability to experience different adventures and cultures. I think that will always be another part of our military experience I value. I do not think I would be as open-minded to others and differences. Nor would I be so brave to try new things or as adaptable to change.  

I can hardly believe we are almost done with this active duty military life. I remember our Sergeant Major and his lovely wife telling us in the beginning how fast the time would go. I may have disagreed until about year 7, then things really picked up. Time honestly goes fast once you start to build some seniority and rhythm for the lifestyle. When you consider the benefits of a 20 year career, the Marine made the right choice.

So, to all my fellow military spouses towards the beginning of this journey, I will be that older spouse sharing my wisdom. Your military life will pick up speed and be over in a blink of an eye. You will have so much of your life to live with some pretty amazing experiences behind you.

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