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A year ago today I dropped James off at his battalion, hugged and kissed him goodbye, hoping that the next nine months would fly by and he’d return home safely from his deployment. He returned in November and while we’ve been living it up we made a big decision in the last few months: we bought a house. A HOUSE! Our own freaking house.
About five years ago I took the train from NYC’s Grand Central Station to Garrison, NY on MetroNorth for the first time. Little did I know that the trip would become a regular occurrence over the next few years.
I dated James throughout his time at West Point, from plebe (freshman) year through graduation. While we did not qualify for the 2% that make it from high school through graduation, we were pretty darn close having met in October of his first year. Continue reading “West Point through the Eyes of a Girlfriend”
When James returned from deployment it was pure joy. But we’ve both had to give and get from each other to make sure that living together still goes well. Things have definitely changed in our lives since before deployment so figuring out new schedules and chores can cause some bumps in the road. Here are some things we’ve been doing to ease those bad days and make them all good:
There are good and bad stories about FRGs. I was nervous to join ours at our first duty station, mainly because I just hoped I would like the other ladies and make friends, and fortunately my first experience was fantastic. From our Battalion Commander and Sgt. Major’s wives on down we had a welcome and opening support network. The other spouses are funny, honest, and down to earth. And I count some of them as my best friends. I served as a POC (Point of Contact) for nearly a year for about 12 spouses in our company, as well as helped out at a number of social events, and attended memorials. I got really involved in our FRG and throughout the way I saw and heard a ton of stories, and learned a lot. At one point my friend joked that I was an FRG Leader in Training since I was such good friends with all of our FRG leaders. It really just happened that way but it was funny. Of course the FRG wasn’t perfect, and there were days when I got frustrated, but here’s what I have learned about successful FRGs and what I think they should be, during a deployment or not:
Last week I attended the MOAA Spouse Symposium on careers. The day was full of information, some new, some not, but overall it was a day full of learning.
The day started off with a panel discussion about what employers want to know about you. We also heard from Senator Patty Murray, a number of employment experts in various sessions, military spouses that have made their own careers, and policy officials on what states and the country are doing to support military spouses. Here are my top takeaways from the day: Continue reading “Lessons from the MOAA Spouse Symposium”
This week the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) is holding the 2013 Spouse Symposium at the University of Washington Tacoma. The topic? Keeping a Career on the Move, I am so excited! I am looking forward to learning how other spouses have moved their careers and just general tips on getting jobs.
I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to find work but as I’ve talked about before, I’m still figuring out what to do with my life. You can follow my day via Twitter where I’ll be tweeting from the various keynotes and workshops. I’ll also do a recap next week (probably Tuesday to be honest, we’ve got a wedding this weekend of a dear friend, my birthday, and a busy work/school day Monday). Let me know what you are curious about and want to know and I will share with you here!
I know you’re probably like whaaaaaat? But yeah it’s true. There are some habits that I picked up while the hubby was gone that I find myself needing/wanting to do. They aren’t terrible habits, more like patterns of life I fell into during the months he was gone. Be it how to go about my day or just things I like to do.
Here’s what I find myself doing now that I’m used to him being home. Continue reading “Deployment Habits Die Hard”
Ever since my husband and I were dating it was difficult to celebrate birthdays or anniversaries together (yayyy long distance). My birthday, except for the one right when we met, has always fallen on a weekday. And the one after we were married? He was in the field for a training exercise (although he was able to get away for about an hour where I saw him at Taco Bell), I’m excited we get to spend this year’s together, but next year? Very unlikely as we just learned he’ll probably be off at a training again. And our anniversary? Well this year we had deployment, so what’s a girl to do?
I met Julie at a last year and we hit it off! She and her husband are both Active Duty currently stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Today she’s sharing what her life is like.
After meeting Jessica at a baby shower for a friend, I started following her blog. I am honored to be able to share what it’s like to be more than a military spouse, and in this case, more than just a military service member!
Dual military spouses—this is the title both my husband and I have in this crazy Army life we live, and it definitely has its own set of challenges. Casey (my hubby) is an active duty Infantry Officer currently deployed to Afghanistan, and I, Julie, am an active duty Medical Service Corps Officer stationed at JBLM.
Last month I was sad to hear that the Fort Bragg Officers’ Club denied membership to a spouse because she is married to a service member of the same sex. As a member of our Spouses’ Club, it really upset me because to me the club is really a place to build community and meet new people, make friends, support your local base. Being new to an area can be nervewracking, you don’t know where things are, you may not know many people, so a club like this is a great place to start making those connections and learning about your new base. So why deny someone that wants to be a part of that?
The whole situation needs some crisis communication help, but it seems that the reasoning behind the denial is that the spouse doesn’t have a Dependent ID, since even though “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is no longer in effect, gay and straight service members work in the same units alongside one another, DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) still is in effect, basically meaning same-sex married spouses are not able to have benefits, even something as simple as an ID card that gives access to base.