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Posts By: Retired Blogger

Ginger Ale Thanksgivings

by | Dec 2, 2019

The holiday season is upon us! Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day, filled with the usual hustle and bustle, shopping and music, food and demands to get busy, plays and programs and recitals—have all suddenly exploded onto the scenes of our already hectic lives.

It’s such an amazing time of year, loved by many. But for others, it’s also an emotional time filled with ups and downs. Feelings of sadness tend to creep up on us as we reminisce on days passed and loved ones we wish could still be with us.

I’ve been an Army wife for nearly nine years, and I have three young sons. A sense of longing for far-away family always fights for my attention in the midst of the holiday business—a longing to live closer to grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles, and to always be able to spend these times with them.

A Homecoming We’ll Never Forget

by | Dec 1, 2019

I held him tight.

I thought perhaps the tighter and longer I held him, it would create muscle memory for me to run to when I needed it for next nine months of separation.

I tried to stay in the moment, but my eyes landed on families, children, husbands, and wives all around me wiping tears and giving their service member a last hug goodbye.

Saying “see ya later” at the deployment send-offs are simply the worst. It’s another “hurry up and wait” occasion that we as military families have become all too familiar with; however, this particular hurry-up-and-wait is brutal. Like pulling a band aid off, please make it quick and easy and as painless as possible.

AROO! AROO! AROO!

by | Nov 25, 2019

Only the crazies are going to understand that there blog title, so if that’s you, I fully expect you to stop whatever you’re doing and make that sound. Go on ahead, take a second, Carol, sitting there on the toilet at work… I’m proud of your dedication!

Now, for the rest of the sane folks wondering what on earth just happened, that sound is the battle cry of the Spartans. No, not the scantily-clad men from the movie 300 (well, hello, Gerard Butler), but those of us who willingly pay money to roll around in the mud, shedding blood, sweat, and tears, all for a cool medal and a banana at the end.

I’m not joking—you literally have to jump over fire for that banana.

First Holiday Season Together as a Military Family

by | Nov 22, 2019

This holiday season will be Trevor’s and my first together as a military family. Sure, we have been together for six years ,and it isn’t our first holiday season together, but as we are approach his two years of service mark, we have only had the chance to celebrate a few holidays physically in the same place since he joined active service.

This is the first year where we are 24-plus hours from where we grew up—last year, Trevor was halfway across the world, but I was able to spend the holidays (and some extra time) visiting family. It is going to be tough for both of us to not be able to see our parents and loved ones back home. I keep trying to come up with ideas for spending the holiday with our new friends and “family” we have added since moving away from home.

Back in our pre-military life, weekends this time of the year would be spent celebrating the holidays with our friends and family.

How You Can Support Military Families: Holiday Edition

by | Nov 18, 2019

Over the last almost 10 years, I’ve been working in senior living communities. Most of my days are spent connecting with those who have lived 80 years or more. Ever since my first holiday season working with seniors, I’ve observed that there are two sides of their holiday coin.

On one hand, you have tremendous joy and gratitude—it’s a season of giving!

On the other, you have grief and longing.

In most of their long lives, they’ve had tremendous joy alongside tremendous hardship. I only began to understand these two sides as I experienced my own hardship while my soldier husband, James, was away on his first deployment.

Find Your Tribe, Love Them Hard

by | Nov 15, 2019

I never considered myself an athlete. I swam competitively growing up, but I was rarely on top of any podium. I couldn’t kick a ball if my life depended on it. And I definitely couldn’t run. Not a single mile.

Ever.

But loneliness can make you do some crazy things. Like being freshly postpartum with your third kid in the middle of a deployment and signing up for some weird mommy boot camp exercise class.

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