Holidays and the Army

As everyone would guess, one of the most difficult parts of being married to a soldier is the distance we're constantly experiencing from our families. Mine being in Minnesota and Montana while my husbands in Oklahoma makes it especially difficult to travel home for the Holidays. We don't want to upset one over the other and a lot of the times we frankly just can't afford the financial burden of traveling across the country with a family of 5 and 2 large dogs.

I feel left out when my family posts photos of their gatherings and I feel heartbroken when I see how grown our nieces and nephews have become without us realizing. It's tough. I miss the traditionally board games, catch phrase and empty wine bottles.

And yet, I still feel blessed. Two years in a row we have hosted Thanksgiving dinner and have been surrounded by great friends. We invited soldiers the first year that had no where to go as well as a few close friends. It felt good not to be alone and it felt even better to offer a celebration to the soldiers in AIT staying at the barracks. This year we celebrated with two of our good friends' families. I love having a house full of little ones and our friends swapping stories.

It's funny how quickly I find myself developing close friends in this new life of ours. I'm normally a pretty guarded individual with well justified trust issues. Most of my close friends have been life long friends and here we are in this new way of living and I feel closer to the families we've known for 3 months then I do to those who have been there from the beginning. I miss our neighbors and friends from Pensacola with all of my heart. We were there just months but we spent nearly every day together going to the beach, complaining about our pregnancies and having fires. They take the place of our families when our families are thousands of miles away. They become the aunt and uncle your kids need, they are the ones who help make sure the kids get to school when you have a sick one and can't leave, when you have family emergencies and forget to work out the details without asking they're already putting the pieces together for you.

 

So, this year... I am thankful for these new relationships and this new way of life. I'm thankful for coming full circle and learning to love the fact I have to make new friends and develop close relationships with complete strangers, ha! I'm thankful for my new
support system and all the new little ones in my life to love on.

Racing with a Diva

Our family was lucky enough to travel with my husband for his AIT in Pensacola, Florida. We were going to be moving from Minnesota to Florida, THE BEACH BABY! This was our first move with the Army. Our first experience with the Army. Our first look into what our life with the Army might be like. I had it all planned out. I was ready and very excited….

But it was our first Army experience. Nothing went according to plan. Everything that could go ‘wrong’ did. Many unexpected twists and turns were thrown at us. We were selling our home and planning ahead we had gotten a POA and the bank was not a fan of said POA, when hubby mailed a new POA the bank didn’t like the notaries stamp(I mean seriously), I wasn’t able to take the job my boss had worked very hard at helping me land, My husbands truck blew up and we had to leave it in MN to be repaired, we couldn’t get a house on the base my husband had training on and a lot of other trivial stuff that made my life hurt. 

But we made it there with the help of our friends loading us up and my mom driving across the country with us! It took us 3 whole days but we did it! As soon as my mom left I felt so alone. 

Then I did what any normal person would do. I tried making all sorts of local friends on Facebook, ha! They had ALL the answers! THEN I made VERY smart decision to participate in the color run with one of these said Facebook friends/complete strangers and drive over an hour with her to the run. 

It was an absolute blast and I love Ashley and her little peanut! The color run was an amazing experience that I will forever cherish. It brought back my high spirits and encouraged me to get out there and try new things more often. My MD was only 4 at the time and rocked it out during the race! She was so excited every time we’d get color thrown at us! All the volunteers were great and would be extremely gentle when throwing the color bags on the little ones and MD would scream MORE at them, ha! Then the after race dance party….That was the highlight for her! 

We were unable to do the color run last year since I had just had baby diva via csection but oh my gosh am I pumped for this years race! I plan on taking a million and one photos and dragging all my friends with! Who would have thought running was fun ;)

I highly encourage you to try and sign up for a local race!  Use our link for The Color Run and get $5 off registration!!! Good Luck Everyone! Share your color run photos and stories with us!