Posted on

Enlisted v. Officer: What’s the Difference?

People ask all the time “what rank is your husband/boyfriend/wife/etc?” And you tell them and they go “ok.” I once went to a doctor’s office, the woman checking me in looked at my ID (I gave her my military dependent card), she saw my husband’s rank and said, “Oh, 2nd lieutenant, that’s high up right?” It was hard to explain that yes, he was an officer, which some see as higher than enlisted, but in the scheme of officers he was the bottom of the food chain. So let me see if I can explain the difference…(also check out the glossary for a quick look at how the ranks break down)

I asked my husband to help me out on this one and this is his super simple explanation, comparing enlisted and officers to restaurant employees: Continue reading “Enlisted v. Officer: What’s the Difference?”

Posted on

Making friends in a new place

Making friends is never easy. I think we’ve all had a new kid at school, or been the new kid in new school, and I think moving to a new place is a bit like that!

I went to school with a lot of the same people from kindergarten through high school. While there were new additions of friends, and others moved away or we grew apart, it was fairly insular for me. College was eye-awakening. Moving across the country I hardly knew anyone in NYC. I was lucky to have some of the most amazing people live on the same floor of my dorm as me, in fact some of those people are still my best friends. As I went through college I made some friends in classes and clubs. There were friends from internships and jobs. These were people that I knew and introduced my husband to, we had his friends from school too, and some were in Arizona with us, but Washington was a bit different.

My bachelorette party aka with my best friends saying farewell to NYC in style!

Continue reading “Making friends in a new place”

Posted on

The Art of Moving (Military Style)

As most people know the military moves people around fairly often. Most people I know move about every 2 or 3 years, but I have met some that have stayed at the same base for nearly 10 years. (This has to do with how you select preferences for your next job, as well as other factors: such as asking to stay for stability for children, or if a family member has special needs or medical treatments that are more available at certain posts. But that is a post for another day and for someone more knowledgeable on that aspect.)

That being said, we’ve moved twice, one was to a temporary location, I will explain that in a bit. But it’s a part of military life that I can say I love and hate all at the same time.

Don’t worry, I only had to ride like this for about 15 minutes!

Continue reading “The Art of Moving (Military Style)”

Posted on

Check out the glossary

As of today there is a pretty extensive glossary page. For now it is a lot of words that I have encountered as an Army spouse, but I know that there are a lot that I left out, some on purpose, because I’m not sure we will talk about those issues at this point in time, and some that are slang. It is a living document so if you see something is missing please let me know and I’ll add it. I may ask for your definition of the word/phrase/acronym as well, so be prepared!

I hope you find the glossary useful. And please don’t forget to take my quick survey to let me know what you’d love to see on the blog. Thanks!

(Also like the More Than a Military Spouse page on Facebook!)

Posted on

Tell me what you want to know!

Hi all,

In an effort to talk about the issues that you care most about, want to know more about, or want to dispel rumors about (if you’re a family member), I created a survey.

I have some topics I want to talk about and am working on getting more stories to share of other spouses’ experiences, because we really all deal with the ups and downs of life differently.

Also I have created a Facebook page to create a community around the blog, please like the page, leave comments and ask questions, invite your friends, etc. The more we share this blog, the better it can become!

So click here to take survey and here for Facebook.