MilSpouse Friday Fill-In

Join in over at Wife of a Sailor!



1.What is your favorite MilSpouse blog?
I read so many MilSpouse blogs that it's hard to just mention a few, but there are certain ones I check everyday. Sgt. and Mrs. Hub is one (and also happens to be the first blog I started reading) Jesstagirl and her Officer, Blonde Glambition, Just Another Day in Paradise.

2.What are your favorite perks about your s/o being deployed (we all know there are perks)?
I eat better and work-out more when Sean is gone, so a perk is that I'm healthier. I also get to watch things like Top Model and Jersey Shore instead of UFC fights and other sports crap.

3.How long did you date your before getting engaged? Married?
Well...we talked online and on the phone for 7 months, he came to see me for block leave and we got married two weeks later. For a more detailed account of the story, click here.

4.What do you think your would do if s/he wasn’t in the military?
I think he'd do something in journalism, though I think he should write a book. He really has a gift with words.

5.If you could talk to the Secretary of (fill in your appropriate branch) what is one suggestion you would like to bring to their attention in order to improve the lives of military families?
Dear John McHugh, (Secretary of the Army)
I'd like to bring to your attention the issue of funding. I see so much waste in the Army and the military in general, why not put those wasted funds towards more money for college classes for soldiers, building a hospital here in Italy that will service all our needs so we don't have to continually go to Germany for any health issues or towards the improvement of the facilities on each post. The lack of parking at our small post is beyond ridiculous and I can't fathom why money doesn't go towards a parking garage, rather than making the headquarters building on post some new fancy columns?

Berlin Pics and Commentary

I'm already done (mostly anyway) with editing pictures of Berlin, so I thought I'd go ahead and do a post on our two days in Berlin.

First of all, the hostel we stayed in was amazing. Probably my favorite place that we stayed on the trip. It's called Circus Hostel and was on the east side of Berlin, near most of the places we wanted to stay. It even had a bar in the basement with some great drink specials. The link to it is here.



A view of our room



The Hoff Shrine in the bar in our hostel. How awesome is that?!



The Reichstag (the parliament/government building in Berlin) Normally you can go up in the dome and the building itself, but it was closed off and no access was allowed while we were there.



This was a monument to political leaders that Hitler had killed while he was in power.



One of the few things we saw the first night we were in Berlin was the Brandenburg Gate. One of 14 original gates that used to surround the area. Usually in each city I go to I have one landmark that I really love taking pictures of and the Brandenburg Gate was my obsession in Berlin.



The next day we wanted to see what was left of the Berlin Wall, so we headed to Museum Mile, which features different artists work on a long stretch of the wall. It was very interesting to see all the different pieces of work.



Next up was Checkpoint Charlie, the infamous checkpoint between East and West Berlin. There's supposed to be a pretty good museum that is all about the checkpoint and methods people used to get over into West Berlin, but since it was kind of pricey, we opted not to go in.



In some parts of East Berlin they have kept the stoplights from the communist era. I think they are awesome!



We stopped in Fassbender and Rausch, the most awesome chocolate shop EVER! They have chocolate sculptures of the landmarks around Berlin and a chocolate volcano. Sean chose some chocolate covered nut bark and I got five truffles of various flavors. They were all amazing, though I think my favorite was pina colada.



Museum Island was also on our to-do list. Our two museum stops were the Pergamon Museum and the Neues Museum. The Pergamon has the Pergamon altar, pictured above and some other artifacts like the Gate of Ishtar. That was my favorite thing about the Pergamon Museum. The Neues Museum holds the famouse statue of Nefertiti. I have no pictures of that though, because they weren't allowed.



The Gate of Ishtar



Some of the Egyptian collection at the Neues Museum.

The last night we were in Berlin, we decided to eat at a Rick Steves recommendation for Georgian food. I've never had Georgian food, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was delicious. We shared a menu that came with about 5 courses and it was amazing. My favorite thing by far was cheese bread, but there were great soups, dumplings and lamb kebabs as well.

Overall I really enjoyed Berlin, the downfall was that it was super cold while we were there, but otherwise it was great. If you want to see more of my pics from Berlin, click here.

I'm Back....

Wow...I think I need a vacation from our vacation. Our trip wore Sean and I out. I don't think I've ever walked so much in my entire life! We had a good time though and made lots of new memories and for that, I am glad.

I have a ton of pictures (around 1500) and lots of stories about all the different places we visited.

Today Sean and I have been taking a much needed day of relaxation. I'm also enjoying hanging out with Boomer, I really missed him while we were gone!

Look for pictures and stories in the coming days/weeks!

Thanks again to all my wonderful guest bloggers, I really appreciate you filling in for me!

Living the Dual Military Life

I met today's blogger, Mrs. H, through blogland. I've enjoyed getting to know her the last year or so and one of these days I really hope to meet her in person. You can check her out at Married to the Job, she's got a new look to her blog and it's super cute!

I’m so glad that I’m getting to guest blog for one of my favorite bloggers. For a while I didn’t know what to write about. Then my husband asked me how many dual military blogs do I follow, and I realized that I’m the only one where both spouses are active duty. (Well, that I have found. I’m sure there are others out there.)

My husband and I get asked all the time what it is like to both serve in the same job. We are both Air Traffic Controllers, we are just in different facilities. I bet you all are wondering what that means.

Well let me explain; I work in the tower. Meaning my air space is 5 miles and I mostly clear aircraft to take off and land. My husband works in RAPCON (aka radar) and is in charge of 60 miles of airspace, and about 20+ aircraft at any given time. He tells them what altitudes to maintain, and makes sure they don’t hit each other. He easily has it harder.

When I was still a civilian, I was with a military man, and I can say that hands down being the military member is easier. It is hard work being the cheerleader, and supporter to things that sometimes make no sense to you whatsoever. I know… I’ve been there.

I guess that’s one of the best things about being married dual military, especially having the same job that we do. When I come home and have a full blown break down because I had a bad day on the sims, he understands. He isn’t just soothing me because that’s his husband duty, he is doing it because he fully gets it. We he comes home and says he had a set bust on sims, I know what that means and just how bad that is, without him going into a full explanation. When I come home and say “it was one of those days when I wish I was any other job but ours,” he knows that no other words need to be spoken.

We understand each other on a level not many people can. I understand the stress, and the pressure to never make a mistake. I also understand the sick drive it takes to do this job day after day, and in a twisted way, wanting to be good at it, and end up liking it. I also am fully aware of the mental toll it can take on both of us without any warning.

I am just as proud of my husband as any civilian wife is, maybe even more so. I understand the commitment, and need to serve, that pulled us both into the military life first hand. I know that no matter how much he loves me, he will turn around and walk proudly towards that plane that will carry him overseas to a war zone. He understands that I too, will do that same. I won’t complain about him being gone, or missing special days, because well, I signed on that dotted line too. Then I signed again when I decided to marry him.

It is a hard balance being dual military. We both are very career orientated. Sometimes we have to remember that as much as we love our jobs, as much as we want to be successful at them, none of that will matter if we don’t succeed in our marriage first. One of the highest divorce rates in the Air Force is Air Traffic Control; now make that two Air Traffic Controllers. We have a lot of odds stacked against us, but we both believe that true love, hard work, and dedication to each other can conquer anything.

A {Long-Distance} Love Story

When Melissa asked if anyone would like to guest blog, I jumped at the opportunity. New Girl on Post was actually the very first military-related blog I found, and I thought it was beyond cool that she was living in Italy. Well, low-and-behold, we just found out that we’ll are PCSing to Italy this summer! Anyway, I just wanted to say that Melissa helped inspire my early military ramblings!


But I’m here today because it’s Valentine’s Day and I’d like to share my love story. This is a tale about a boy and a girl overcoming distance, time, and the military to be with each other.



Our story begins a few minutes after the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Day, 2006 when this random boy, Kenny, accidentally spilled a drink down my back. He and I ended up talking until the party dwindled down—several hours, at least. But when both of our sets of friends left, we parted ways without exchanging numbers. In fact the only thing I remember him telling me that night was that he was going to school in Arizona (I lived in New Mexico), and that he was in the Air Force (I was studying abroad in England at the time). This was before the days of Facebook, so we didn’t even know who our mutual friends were at the party. And with that, we went our separate ways.


So imagine my surprise when, exactly 11 months and twenty-six days later, I saw him at a bar in downtown Albuquerque. He was in town for the holidays, catching up with friends, and I was at the bar celebrating my friend’s bachelorette party. After talking, we realized we were both attending the same New Year’s Eve party a few days later. We left each other that night and promised we’d “keep an eye out for each other” at the party.


There were so many people at the party that Kenny and I didn’t actually find each other until after midnight, but it was just a few minutes after reconnecting that we shared our last, first kiss. We kept things simple and only talked via Facebook (which was still brand new) and texting for those first few months, and gradually upgraded to talking on the phone. In May 2007, I flew to Florida to meet him at Disney World. We hadn’t seen each other since New Year’s Eve, and let’s be honest: it was a party and we were both a little tipsy, so meeting him again was pretty nerve-wracking. Luckily, we completely hit it off. Not too shabby for a first date, right?


The next four years consisted of thousands of text messages, phone calls multiple times a day, chatting on the Internet, countless trips across the country, a deployment, and the hope of a future together.


Since my job was a little more flexible than his, I typically flew out on long weekends to see him, and he would drive the four hours (round trip) to pick me up from the airport. But back to my story…Two years ago today, I landed in Atlanta, ready to enjoy a weekend with my boyfriend—it had been two months since we saw each other. My flight was supposed to arrive on the 13th at 11:40 pm, but delays caused us to land around 1 am on Valentine’s Day. Kenny was there to pick me up, and we arrived home about 2 hours later; by 3:30 am we were sound asleep.


On Valentine's Day morning we woke up with the sun, just able to rest for a few hours. While I was in a sleepy daze, Kenny took the rings off my fingers and started fidgeting with them. This was nothing new; he would often take them off and twiddle them around, so I didn’t think anything of it, especially since he put them back on a few minutes later.


But then, as we were lying there, I felt his heart start to race. After a few more seconds of feeling his heart beating faster he whispered, “Will you marry me tomorrow?”


My initial reaction caused me to giggle and muster out, “No way! That’s too soon!”


Then he said, “Well, will you marry me in 2010?”


We had a running joke about getting married in 2012. Don't ask me how or when it started, but two thousand twelve became the "magic" year for us.


I giggled again and this time replied, “No. That's too far away."


After I shot him down again, I could feel his heart beating so fast that I thought it would beat out of his chest. Then, in a very soft and timid voice he asked, "Well, will you marry me sometime?"


This time I said, "Of course!" Getting married was always part of our plan.


Apparently “of course” wasn’t what he was looking for, because he grabbed my hand and said, "I'm serious. Will you marry me?” So I peeked at my hand, and instead of seeing the promise ring he made me a couple years earlier, I saw a gorgeous diamond ring.


Instead of giving him a response right away I started crying, laughing, and bobbing my head up in down in such a way that I hoped it resembled a “yes!” Finally, when I could breathe again and gave him a definite “affirmative,” he gave me the whole scoop about how he asked my mom and dad for my hand in marriage two months earlier!


I’m happy to report that we are six days shy of celebrating our first wedding anniversary. I thought I was happy and in love two years ago when he slipped the engagement ring on my finger, but the love and joy we share now is absolutely amazing. It’s so fantastic that we constantly make ourselves—and others—sick with how cute and lovey-dovey we are. But you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way!


Long story short, Valentine’s Day will always have a special place in my heart. Oh, sorry, was that too cheesy? Well if you’re still with me, hop on over to Jesstagirl and Her Officer (http://jessicalynnwrites.blogspot.com) for more sappy posts, pretty wedding pictures, and soon, tales from Italy!

Dining Out with the Annoyed Army Wife

I’m so pleased to be guest blogging for such a MilSpouse institution! I love Melissa’s blog and am honored to be here. I’m an army wife supporting my physician husband, OccDoc, during his first deployment to Afghanistan. My little slice of the interwebs is the annoyed army wife.

If you’ve never had me over to eat dinner you would probably never know I was a pescetarian. A pescetarian is kind of like a vegetarian but they eat fish. I’ve mentioned it on my blog, but for people who know me in real life (my blog is anonymous) they would never guess that about me.

Initially I went vegetarian right around my 22nd birthday about 9 years ago. People often wonder why I made such a drastic change to my eating habits, and by people I mean my family and close friends. They assume it was to take a stance on Animal Rights or due to an aversion to meat. Good guesses, people, but wrong. No, I made the decision just like I make all my important decisions; I woke up one morning and my gut told me.

Let me explain a bit. In grad school I lived in a cute little apartment with just me and my house bunnies, which was down the road from Sonic, a dining establishment my hometown never had. I love Sonic, especially their hamburgers, and I went there quite often for dinner being a busy grad student. One day I woke up and decided my life needed a change before my Sonic addiction had a more detrimental effect on my waist line, so a vegetarian was born on that day.

I started eating fish again about 4 years ago to fit in and to make dinners out with army folks a bit easier and less explaining for OccDoc to army folks about why I never ate anything at neighborhood BBQs when we lived on post. The army folks we knew just assumed I was some sort of weird hippie freak because I didn’t eat meat. Whatever.

Enough back story, here’s my point. Most people don’t know I’m vegetarian/pescetarian because I don’t like the way I’m sometimes treated after I tell someone. I have never, ever made a comment about anyone’s eating preferences, unless they were drowning their food in ketchup (because that’s gross). :) Even though I’ve never done it to others, some people feel it’s completely acceptable to hold steak in front of my face, cluck like a chicken, or tell me how delicious their bacon is (honestly, I don’t care how good your bacon is, I still don’t want any, and I really hope you don’t choke on it). I can’t believe people I barely know think it’s okay to tease me just because I load my plate with veggies instead of whatever was just burned on their grill. I've even had people be pissed at me because I won't just try a piece of meat because they're sure I'll like it. Seriously? Don't try to 'turn' a vegetarian, unless they're trying to 'turn' you. My husband is a glaring exception to this, he has never criticized my eating habits, and he eats vegetarian at home. Every once in awhile he asks to go to a steakhouse so he can have his fill of red meat, which I gladly go along with and order fish.

I’m not sure if the people who tease me had once met a vocal vegetarian who criticized their eating habits, but I don’t criticize the eating habits of others for one simple reason: RESPECT. I respect others’ beliefs and opinions. And I respect my own opinions and beliefs. I don’t try to convince people my religion, political views or eating habits are right for them – my beliefs are right for me. Some times when I hear someone forcing their ideals or beliefs on someone else I have to wonder ‘Who are they trying to convince? The other person? Or themselves?’

Food for thought…

A Perfect Gift

I'm so excited to be guest blogging for Melissa! My favorite New Girl posts are looking at her amazing travel photos. I use a point and shoot camera, so my photos aren't exactly New Girl quality, but I want to share my favorites with you.

Valentine's Day is coming up, and I'm making my boyfriend, Shawn, a hardcover book filled with our travel photos. I'm using Blurb to create and print the book. I've spent so many hours looking at our travel pictures that I think I've decided on a few several a lot of favorites:

One Year Anniversary, Windsor Ruins, MS, September 2006

Spring Break, New Orleans, March 2007

Saratoga Springs, NY, May 2008

Albany State Capitol Building, Albany, NY, May 2008

Brooklyn Bridge, New York, July 2008

Marble House, Newport, RI, December 2008

Church of Christian Scientists, Boston, May 2009

Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower), Chicago, August 2010

Bahamas, October 2010

St Thomas, October 2010

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Savannah, GA, December 2010

Lighthouse, Tybee Island, GA, December 2010

My boyfriend Shawn is in the Navy, and I have a job as an interior designer in Alabama. We don't get to see each other very often, so we make it count by traveling to interesting places. My favorite thing about traveling isn't the amazing food or exploring new places, it's being able to spend time with my best friend!