Pack, Unpack, Rinse, Repeat

  Whenever I'm asked the question "Where are you from?" I don't really have a straight forward answer. I usually say, "Everywhere, I grew up a military brat." Mostly I call the East coast my home, mainly NoVa...for those who don't know, that's Northern Virginia. I went to High School there and attended a Virginia University. Our daughter is on much of the same path as I had growing up, although I hope she gets to skip the 19 different schools and the 15+ moves. My family is getting set to do this familiar routine again in a couple of weeks, and I'm looking forward to it. Shocking, I know! We'll be leaving the West coast and heading "home" to NoVa, Quantico MCB to be more exact.

  The past few months have been crazy and not even close to your typical pre-deployment work-up. My husband has been home for 30 days since May. He was just home for two weeks which went by so fast and yet seemed so long! It's the longest he's been home since we started this insane schedule. He left yesterday for yet another 5 weeks, then he'll be home for Thanksgiving weekend and gone again until Christmas leave. And so, with my dear husband gone so much and my daughter napping well in the afternoon this leaves me with time on my hands. This is where I have some one on one time with my oven.

  Yes, you read that correctly...my stove. I love to bake! Today's creation was Monkey Bread. Oh so very yummy, doughy, sweet, caramely, goodness! Getting hungry yet? Well my friends, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:



3 (10 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough

3/4 cup white sugar

3 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1/2 cup margarine

3/4 cup white sugar


Directions:


1.Mix together 3/4 cup sugar and cinnamon.

2.Quarter the biscuits with kitchen shears. Dip shears in water after each cut to keep the biscuits from getting too sticky. Dip biscuits into sugar mixture, and place in a greased Bundt pan. Do this until all biscuits are used.

3.Melt butter or margarine, and mix in 3/4 cup sugar. Pour mixture over biscuits.***

4.Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 30 to 35 minutes.

***Today I did a little variation, I did 5 Tbl. melted butter, 1/4 c. heavy whipping cream & 1/2 c. brown sugar mixed and poured into the pan FIRST, then place the dough balls in the pan.

  I hope you all enjoy! I'm off to pack a box or two in hopes that if I do a little everyday it won't be too stressful come moving day...but who am I kidding? I've been there and done it ALL. I think I may even have my mother beat by now with moving stories!

The Hits Keep Coming

  Oh let the "fun" begin. When my husband came home for a short four day weekend we figured, "it might be short since you've been gone a month and you're leaving for another 6 weeks, but after that husband will be home." Boy were we WRONG! We found out the morning after he flew in that he would be deploying. After my initial what-the-heck moment we talked schedule and training and all that follows. We decided to enjoy the weekend and worry about it all when he went back to work.

  Back at the Battalion he finds out that the person who told him the original details about the deployment was beyond wrong and the deployment date was so much sooner than what we were originally told. Great. I told the husband that I needed to know what his schedule would be with the new changes. A lovely email was sent to my BlackBerry with his whole schedule mapped out for my type-A self. It's LOADED, even when my husband deployed to Fallujah, Iraq during the height of the battle there he didn't have this much pre-deployment training! I'm trying my best not to jump onto the Debbie Downer convoy but seeing that he will only be home a handful of days (and I'm being generous when I say a handful) it's hard not to.

  After our last move (Camp Lejeune to Camp Pendleton) I swore that I wouldn't drive a Uhaul cross-country, towing a car behind it solo again. Well at least I was right about some of it! I won't be driving a Uhaul (I'll be driving my car) and our daughter will be keeping me company this trip. We will be moving to Quantico, VA shortly before my husband leaves for deployment. With his rockin' schedule however, our daughter and I will be hoofing it across I-10 (or maybe I-40 for a better view!) alone.

  I am looking forward to Homecoming already and can't wait to get this next one behind us! It's amazing how strong you become when you get thrown into these situations. An amazing spouse and fabulous friends will get you through just about anything.
 

USMC style Curve Balls

  This past Thursday my husband got home from being away for a month in the field. It was so great to see him and have him finally be able to see our baby girl crawl! He was only home for the weekend as he is off on more fun adventures with the Marine Corps for another 6 weeks. While he was home for this short time we had to make a little road trip. By little I mean it took 10 hours! Thank you L.A. traffic for detaining us for 4 hours and waisting gas. About 30 minutes into our road trip my husband got a phone call. You know it's Marine Corps related when every other word is "Sir". I sat there quietly, half trying to hear what was going on and half listening to our daughter babble in the back seat to her stuffed bunny. When my dear husband got off the phone and looked at me I knew I wasn't going to like it, and then came those four little words...."I'm deploying to Afghanistan."


  My heart sank. We were NOT expecting this as his company isn't slated to deploy for another two years. He tells me that the Command was so impressed with the job he did in the field over the past month they want him to move to another company and deploy with them. I'm so proud that my husband did such a wonderful job but the little devil on my shoulder makes me think "you couldn't have slacked off just a little?" But then, that wouldn't be my husband. I'm looking forward to the next few days when we'll get more information about this deployment and the pre-deployment schedule. I am not looking forward to having him gone over the next few weeks/months/year and missing so many moments with our daughter and myself, but I'm looking forward to sending him care packages, goodies and letters. Looking forward to the butterflies in my stomach feeling when I see that strange number and it's my husband calling me. Mostly, I'm looking forward to HOMECOMING.

Dear Deployment...

  I don't know a single spouse that hasn't been through a deployment right now. While there are so many horrible, terrible, no good things about deployments I'm not going to focus on those. I want to talk about the good things. I know what you're thinking...good things? Is this lady off of her ever lovin' rocker?!? Let me explain.


  I loved sending my husband care packages. It was so much fun to get him the things that he would never get for himself. What Marine is going to go buy mini water guns, MadLibs, and a baby pool?! And those are just a very few of the crazy things my husband was sent over all of our deployments. I know that he could get what he NEEDED while he was there from the PX, but I sent him the silly things and homemade stuff he couldn't (or wouldn't) get. It was nice to go out and find things for him and I knew he would like and in some strange way it made me feel like I was sending him a little bit of us in a box.


  Phone calls...I don't need to say anything more, but I'll expand anyway. When have you ever looked forward to seeing a strange or unknown number on your called ?! When else is it acceptable for you to take your cell phone with you every where...and I do mean EVERYwhere. My cell phone went with me to the gym, on runs, to France and Belgium, in the shower, while cooking dinner, to the bathroom, the movies, meetings, banquets and doctors appointments. Even when the phone calls were on terrible satellite phones with horrible reception because of sand storms (or just being beat to hell and back and held together with duct tape) it was still the highlight of my day...or sometimes week. Even when they were so short the only thing said was "Just wanted to call and say 'I love you' 'cause I don't have much time to talk now." My heart would skip a beat every time I saw a funny number on the caller ID I didn't know.


  During deployment you get control of the television remote. Now granted, you may get it when your husband is home too...but you also get the "seriously, you're watching that??" You have total TV freedom! Chick-flick on, grab your tissues. Romantic comedy, grab the popcorn! Soaps, Project Runway, Top Model, your favorite Disney princess movie or anything on the Food Network is all fair game without someone giving you funny looks or saying that you should watch something less "gay". Enjoy the power ladies!

  The last thing I'll leave you with is obvious to all....HOMECOMING!!! How could this not make my "Good things" list? Picking out your homecoming outfit and getting a mani/pedi is like that first day of school all over again. Getting to making welcome home signs and hanging them up for all to see and then finally seeing those buses pull in! There is no way to describe the feeling of seeing your spouse step off the bus after x number of months gone. The first few hours home seem like a dream, but when you wake up he is still there and it isn't a dream.

  So if you are in the midst of a deployment or about to set out on this adventure I hope you can dwell on some of these "good things" and enjoy your TV freedom and care package projects until you get to hug and kiss your military man again.

The Marine Corps is like a Box of Chocolates

   Forest Gump’s momma was so spot on. Life IS like a box of chocolate, you never know what you’re going to get. The Marine Corps can tell your husband he’s going to so and so one day and less than 24 hours later you’ve done a back flip with 5 twists! How many times has this happened to you and your Marine? (I can’t speak from experience with the Army…but I’m guessing we’re in the SAME boat/tank/plane.) If you’re still a new spouse or girlfriend you may not have gotten the full effect of this fabulous game yet.



   Here is a WONEDERFUL example of what I mean: My husband went to the field for a course that lasted a month. About this same time we were due for orders and were told that we would be going to Japan. I was not so excited to be going back to Japan. I grew up in the military, my dad was in the Navy and we’d been stationed at Yakota AFB. By the time his month of training in the field was up I had dealt with moving to Japan and (GASP!) even become a tiny bit excited. My husband called me on his way home (at 3am) to let me know they were done and please don’t shoot him when he walked through the door (since I wasn’t expecting him home until the next afternoon). When he finally got home he told me that we would not be going to Japan. WHAT?!? I was kind of excited that now I don’t have to go there…but wait! Where ARE we going? Fort Knoxx!!!! A few weeks go by and low and behold we’re not going there either, we’re now going to Camp Pendleton for a deployment. This ended up being the last chocolate in our box, other than of course driving a U-haul and towing our car behind it by myself across country.



   You never know what life, or the military will give you. Unlike that box of chocolates though you can’t spit out the ones filled with French nougat and only pick out the caramel chocolates. For those of you facing your least favorite chocolate in the box know you’re not alone and you will make it to the caramels and peanut butter cups.

Casper the friendly Husband

   Let me introduce you to my husband. He’s opaque, white, sort of transparent and had a crush on Christina Ricci in his 1995 movie. If you guessed Casper the Ghost you get a gold star. At least that’s who it feels like I’m married to sometimes. Between deployments, schools and field exercises I sometimes felt like the married single girl, who is now the married single parent. In the past 2 years (exactly today!) I have seen my husband roughly 150 days, give or take a few. Yes, that’s right 150/750 days…not too shabby! Some of you may be thinking “Are you kidding me!?! That’s horrible!” while others may be thinking “Wow, you’re so lucky!!!”



   So many wives are left at home with work or school or kids or all of the above. While we lived at our last duty station (we were only there a year) only 4 or 5 people actually met my husband. Some of the High school kids I worked with would joke that he was pretend or that I kept him locked up in the basement. Yet those days they are home can have so many emotions. There have been times its perfect and like another honeymoon, and others where we’re at each other’s throats because we know he’s just leaving again in a few days and take the stress of it out on one and other.


   What would we do if we saw our husband’s every day? Our relationships would be something completely different for one. I don’t think that I would appreciate my “Casper” and the little things he does for me before he leaves. The bowl that’s kept in the cabinet that’s just out of my reach always seems to find its way to a bottom shelf just before deployment or long field exercises, and that favorite shirt of his finds its way into my dresser after the last pre-deployment bag is packed. Would these things get done if he was just going on a weeklong business trip? HECK NO! It’d be a quick peck on the cheek as he rushed into the cab for the airport, instead it’s a 5 minute long hug because sometimes you don’t know when the next one will come. In 4 years or 20 years, when it’s all said and done I know that it will be wonderful to have our husbands home daily, so until then….embrace the uncertainty ‘cause you know (if you don't know already you soon will) it is an ever changing lifestyle.

Peanut Butter, Chocolate & a Saturday Night Movie

You have your most comfortable pajama’s on, you know the ones I’m talking about! Green sweats with a little black EGA on the hip that are nicely worn in for you by someone else, the t-shirt that has holes but is so soft from years of love…yes those pjs. You’ve got your popcorn, peanut M&M’s (or fill in your favorite candy here), glass of wine and favorite go to movie for nights like this and yet something is missing. Your Marine.

If you’ve been married to your Marine for a while, you know EXACTLY what I’m describing here. It’s the end-of-a-hard-week-Saturday-night-middle-of-deployment (or field op)-me-time of the Marine wife. I’ve done about a hundred of these nights, and will do a hundred more. Sometimes it’s with girlfriends, sometimes alone, and for me, most recently with our new addition, our baby girl. I’m sure when you first married your Marine this was not the Saturday night you thought you’d have. It’s funny that our view of a situation can change after we are into it. It’s hard to remember you were supposed to drain the swamp when you’re knee deep in alligators! Everyone thinks and often says “I know it’s going to be hard, but I love him”. Well you’re marrying him, so I sure hope you love him, but looking back we don’t really know just how hard some of those times will be, do we? You don’t think about how many things he may miss because of a field exercise or deployment when you’re in a beautiful dress and your Marine is standing at the front of a church in the BEST dress uniform of them all, ready to make you his forever. Then the wedding is over and you don’t get a honeymoon until 6 weeks after your wedding because they’re going to (insert your favorite duty obligation here). Or that he’ll miss your pregnancy while "backpacking" across Iraq or Afghanistan, or worse the birth of your baby. You don’t think about him not being there for a birthday, family event, anniversary, or holiday. Why don’t you think about these things? Because you love him and as hard as ALL of those things are, it’s ok. You are a Marine wife; you can handle whatever the Marine Corps can throw at you! PCSing in a month, no problem! Pregnant alone? NO problem! Christmas without your Marine? E’ed Sae’ed! (Happy Holidays in Arabic) You’ll celebrate with other Marine wives. While our husbands adapt and overcome, so do we!I’m not sure about you ladies, but as for me; I wouldn’t change my Marine Corps life and experiences for anything. These experiences have shaped my husband and me into who we are today. They’ve given us great friends, and taken a few. They’ve even brought us closer together through thousands of miles apart. I hope you all are enjoying this Marine Corps roller coaster ride. If you’re having one of those end-of-a-hard-week-Saturday-night-middle-of the-_____________(fill in the blank) nights tomorrow just remember you’re not alone and we will make it. After all, we are Marine Wives!

(For those who are reading that are Army Wives/Navy Wives/Air Force Wives just insert that where needed!) :)

The Start of Something New...ish

I have another blog, but that one is more of a focus on my growing business. A place to talk about products, share ideas, and let you know about sales. I want this place to be for us, the often silent, sometimes unsung hero's of the "Silent Ranks". I would love to get other wives to add to this and contribute posts too! I came across something; or what I thought was something like this earlier this week. I was flabbergasted when I read the blogs latest post about not caring about the safety of anyone else! Did that really just come out of a Marine wife's mouth!?!

So...below is a post to kick this all off. It is also posted under my original blog, but thought it should have a place of it's own. I hope you enjoy reading and that this will grow into a community of support, a place to share experiences, and somewhere to get a laugh!

*Please note that OPSEC will be followed here...no exceptions!