Thus is the life of Army Wife

I have said many, many times over the past 14 years of being an Army wife that I was shocked at 

people. How many people complain about the lifestyle, how many people are totally in love with it and 

how few 'normal' people understand what Army families do. So, I wanted to take to the airways, or 

shall I say, keyboard and educate someone. No, that is not true. I wanted to get some stuff out and 

figured no one would ever read this.

Here it is. 

My list of things you should know about being an Army Wife:

10. Yes, it is hard.

9. Yes, we also long for the days when there is peace in the world.

8. No, we do not get "used" to our husbands being gone or to the endless moving. We survive because
we have no choice. We have to keep a good attitude because we have kids watching us.

7. Yes, we do have a 'good' retirement if our spouse spends 20 years on Active-duty.
But, please, know that the definition of 'good' is different for everyone.
We get paid very little, so 50% of very little is... yep, you guessed it, even littler.

6. No, the military is not all Republican or all Democrats. We are Americans and make up a small sub-culture of Americans. We are from all over and have different beliefs. We put those differences aside to serve together.

5. No, our housing is not that great, but it is close to work =)

4. Yes, we really stop our cars and our selves to salute or put our hands over our hearts at Reveille twice a day. Everyday. (This is a process on post to put up and bring down the American flag at the beginning and end of each day. )Yes, our kids do it as well. We know people, way too many people, who have died in support of that flag. That is the very least we can do.

3. Are the uniforms really that sexy? If you have to ask, darlin' you have never seen "An Officer and A Gentleman".

2. Do those reunion shows make you cry? Absolutely. More, if my man happens to be deployed at the time. Are they exaggerated and cheesy? Yes. Your point???

1. Would we do it again if we knew what all it entailed?  In a heartbeat. I fell in love with my husband before he took that oath, but I knew his heart. He wants to serve. He was made to serve. He serves his country and I serve him by honoring his choice. We are a team and I am proud to be an Army spouse.

The Crew before the latest Deployment. Thank you Lord, it is over!

Keep the Faith and Love your Soldier
~ Aggie Amy

.......

Ideas for Surviving, and Thriving, During Deployment

Deployment. Ugh.

That word alone makes every military wife cringe.

I have been there. My kids have been there.

It stinks. It is hard and it feels like it last forever.

Here are a few quick tips I used during the last deployment to make things a tad easier on the family.

I hope they give you an idea or two.

Daddy Dolls

The girls got "Daddy Dolls" and the boys got personalized 'Dog Tags' like their Daddy's. 

Daddy carried the boys' dogs with him in his ACU leg pocket. They were always close to him. 

The girls still sleep with their Daddy Dolls.  They liked them even better after they put skirts on them!

Flying Questions

The kids told me questions they wanted to ask their Daddy, about anything... 

They asked, "How is the food in Iraq/ Afghanistan?" "What was your favorite cereal growing up?" "If you had to be an author what would you write about?"  

 I typed them up. (At this point I secretly saved a copy and sent it to my husband via email.) 

They cut up their tiny questions and put them inside balloons. 

Can you see the little questions in there?

Off the questions went. 

They traveled all the way to the warzone.

 Can you believe it? 

(OK, so my kids are young and a little silly. But, it made them feel closer to their Daddy, so that's all that matters.) 

Through a lot of faith, and a little help, the questions found Daddy! 

He answered them over the course of several letters. He even included a busted balloon piece 
(...that Mommy had put in his luggage.)

Daddy's Kisses & Hugs

Our "Kiss" Jar was really a 'kiss &hug' jar. 

Each kid got one kiss and one hug a night. 

I replaced them throughout the deployment. 

I really did not worry about the numbers because we have a lot of kids. 

I started lowering them when we had about three weeks left. 

Skype

We finally got Skype about six months into the deployment. 

It was AMAZING! 

This is the first time the kids had seen their Daddy in 184 days. 

We set up times when each kid could talk with just their Daddy listening after this. 

It made the distance seem not so far when he knew all about their day and the crazy thing that so-and-so did.

That is it for now. I will add more as I think of them and go through my pictures.

 God Bless the Army!

As always, 

Keep the Faith and Love your Soldier,

~Aggie Amy