You’ve been there, done that! Deployment, reunion, marriage struggles, divorce, infidelity, joy, sadness, stress, moving and MORE! Whether you are a spouse, grandparent, mother, father, sister or brother or just have a connection to the military!
Now is the opportunity to share your story with other military families! Post your tips, thoughts, advice, do’s and don’t. Your story may be featured an upcoming book to be released in January of 2008.
July 12, 2007 at 9:36 am
The day after my husband came home from a year deployment, I jumped a plane to Hawaii for a business conference. At the time, I viewed it as a vacation. I deserved it. A year running the house with two small kids, take me away!
However, throwing him back into the routine with little or no warning was challenging not only for him, but also for me. I wouldn’t recommend it. That one week vacation I took, started us off on a roller coaster that lasted almost 2 years. (I still had a great time in Hawaii).
July 17, 2007 at 4:43 pm
9/11 was a big wake up call for us and we responded with outrage and resolve. But as time goes by we as American’s tend to forget what started a situation and let the little things in our lives take over again. What was a priority a short time ago is now yesterday’s news and we want to move on to things that do not take as much of our time and energy unless it affects us personnely.
What we forget is the sacrifices that are being made every minute of every day by a volunteer military and all their families, both imeadeate and extended. It is easier for us not to stand up and be counted for what some preceive as an unpopular effort. To tend not to draw the people who are making the sacrifices into to our circle and comfort them in their time of greatest need by giving some of our time for them.
Being a previous military person I believe that it was easier on me than the family that I left at home to function and deal with the situation. That was until I returned from “beautful south-east asia”. Without the assistance that our trrops have today I was left to deal with my deamons mostly by myself and tended to draw into myself. It does my heart good to see the support that the troops returning home today are receiving. With one son already having served a tour of duty in the middle east and the other “on the bubble” along with the first one again, it gives me solice that they will not have as difficult time as I experienced. This does not mean that it will be easy for them when the return but 40 years from now they will not be wondering what they did that caused the American public to turn their faces away from them and regard them as something that was better off put out of sight and out of mind. Thus the healing for them can start earier and make their life more enjoyable in their old age.
It is important no matter what your political views are that these men and women are putting their lives on the line every minute of every day they serve so that we can espouse the phylosophies tht we each believe in and they deserve a hero’s welcome and treatment for their commitment to us and their country.
April 26, 2008 at 2:59 am
Top 10 upsides to deployment: (Amie’s guide to Delightful Deployments)
1. We have a rule, no TV’s in bedrooms… I however, love to watch tv and fall asleep… so, the day he leaves, the extra TV packed away in the garage comes out and onto the dresser. My kids and I look forward to movie night, snuggled together under the blankets.
2. get to change your hairstyle (I cut it off the day after he leaves), change colors… whatever…it’s hair… dye washes and hair grows a lot in 8 months.
3. Retail Therapy… the just opened a new pottery barn outlet! Spend that tax free money. (but I do recommend taking it easy… it’s a lot harder to pay it off in the back-end.)
4. Paint, wallpaper… re-tile, re-carpet, redecorate… re-whatever, the lamps are all yours….
5. ….so is the remote control. Also, ther is more room on the DVR for Men In Trees and chick shows, without having Battlestar Galactic, Future Weapons… well, generally any sci-fi, military or history channel shows taking up your valuable DVR space.
6. Travel… to wherever, go and see YOUR parents… Seattle, here I come… who cares if it rains on July 4th!
7. Shopping List… paper plates, paper towels, paper cups, plastic silverware… 8 months of no dishes, priceless!… oh, and I highly recommend Take-out chef’s.
8. stay up until 2 am writing, blogging, scrap-booking, painting…. any ing’s you want. Just crash in one of your kids beds when you run out of steam… because they are inevitably in yours.
9. Less laundry
and #10… put out as many candles, throw pillows, plants… chick movies, romance novels, flannel pj’s and bon-bons as you like
of course, I would gladly give them up for my husband to share the next 8 months with us.