The Military Wife

Whew, we’re home from our ahhh-mazing Baby Moon! Can I just say… So. Worth. It. !! Well I plan on writing a post about it but first I need to unpack, throw some laundry in the machine and give my sweet puppy dogs some serious attention! I missed them! 

In the meantime, I thought I’d share this poem. It brought tears to my eyes and eventually down my cheeks. Since I did not come from a military family and knew basically nothing about the military prior to meeting Honey this sums up what I have learned.

This is my life. The life of a Military Wife:

Lots of moving...moving...moving...
Moving far from home...
Moving two cars, three kids and one dog...all riding with HER of course.
Moving sofas to basements because they won't go in THIS house;
Moving curtains that won't fit;
Moving jobs and certifications and professional development hours;
Moving away from friends;
Moving toward new friends;
Moving her most important luggage: her trunk full of memories.

Often waiting...waiting...waiting...
Waiting for housing.
Waiting for orders.
Waiting for deployments.
Waiting for phone calls.
Waiting for reunions.
Waiting for the new curtains to arrive.
Waiting for him to come home,
For dinner...AGAIN!

They call her 'Military Dependent', but she knows better:
She is fiercely In-Dependent.

She can balance a check book;
Handle the yard work;
Fix a noisy toilet;
Bury the family pet...

She is intimately familiar with drywall anchors and toggle bolts.
She can file the taxes;
Sell a house;
Buy a car;
Or set up a move...
...all with ONE Power of Attorney.

She welcomes neighbors that don't welcome her.
She reinvents her career with every PCS;
Locates a house in the desert, The Arctic, Or the deep south.
And learns to call them all 'home'.
She MAKES them all home.

Military Wives are somewhat hasty...
They leap into:
Decorating,
Leadership,
Volunteering,
Career alternatives,
Churches,
And friendships.
They don't have 15 years to get to know people.
Their roots are short but flexible.
They plant annuals for themselves and perennials for those who come after them.

Military Wives quickly learn to value each other:
They connect over coffee,
Rely on the spouse network,
Accept offers of friendship and favors.
Record addresses in pencil...

Military Wives have a common bond:
The Military Wife has a husband unlike other husbands; his commitment is unique.
He doesn't have a 'JOB'
He has a 'MISSION' that he can't just decide to quit...
He's on-call for his country 24/7.
But for her, he's the most unreliable guy in town!
His language is foreign
TDY
PCS
OPR
SOS
ACC
BDU
ACU
BAR
CIB
TAD
And so, a Military Wife is a translator for her family and his.
She is the long- distance link to keep them informed;
the glue that holds them together.

A Military Wife has her moments:
She wants to wring his neck;
Dye his uniform pink;
Refuse to move to Siberia;
But she pulls herself together.
Give her a few days,
A travel brochure,
A long hot bath,
A pledge to the flag,
A wedding picture

And she goes.
She packs.
She moves.
She follows.

Why?
What for?
How come?
You may think it is because she has lost her mind.
But actually it is because she has lost her heart.
It was stolen from her by a man,
Who puts duty first,
Who longs to deploy,
Who salutes the flag,
And whose boots in the doorway remind her that as long as he is her Military Husband,
She will remain his military wife.
And would have it no other way.

So What Wednesday

Today I am linking up with Shannon over at  Life After I "Dew" for another edition of “So What Wednesday”!

This week I'm saying:

So what if… I am coveting the gift I got my sister-in-law for her birthday. Do you ever have a one-for-you and one-for-me mentality when shopping for others? Yea, me too. Well I showed some self restraint this time around and didn't get one for her and one for me. Just her. But I have to say, for a small, military town, we do have a handful of completely adorable shops and I love any excuse to wander through them! (Thanks sis-in-law for giving me the excuse!)

So what if… I made my airline reservation under my maiden name instead of my legal married name. Oops! I mean my maiden name was my name for 30+ years, my legal married name has only been my name for 10 months. Add pregnancy brain to that and you have oops Mr. Air Traffic Security Man, that's not my name, this is my name... Thank GOD I had a copy of my old social security card with my maiden name - they saw that and let me right through. Oops!

So what if… I wore a bikini showing my pregnant belly every single day that we were at the beach. I never thought I’d be one of those pregnant mama’s showing off her belly for the world to see in a bikini but I was! First of all I was not about to go buy a maternity bathing suit to wear for only one week. If I was pregnant throughout the summer then sure I’d do that. But I’m not. Secondly, it’s our baby moon! So I did it. And I loved it!

So what if… I missed my dogs. A LOT. I cannot imagine how much I will miss this little baby the first time I have to spend the night away from him! We have a great boarding place here in our town (I toured several before committing to one) and I know my dogs were in great hands but I missed them and I know they missed Honey and me! A LOT.

Sorry for a mostly trip-related “So What Wednesday” but that’s what I’ve been saying SO WHAT to this week. What about you? What are you saying So What to?

Preggy Update #1

Three months to go? Really? How is time moving so very quickly? Since I’m 6+ months pregnant and Honey and I are flying to the beach for our Baby Moon today (FINALLY!!) I thought I’d share a preggy update!

How Far Along: 26 weeks + 1 day or 6.5 months pregnant; our baby is due on June 19

Total Weight Gain: 11 pounds

Baby Size: The size of a Cucumber – 15 inches, 2.2 lbs

Baby Movements: Pretty regular throughout the day. Yesterday I even saw the movement when I was lying down! Honey has felt the baby kick which was really fun!

What Is It / How Did We Find Out: It’s a BOY! We had a gender reveal party to find out what our little bump was – I highly recommend it, we loved learning the news while surrounded by family and friends!

Nursery Update: Nursery is painted, furniture is moved in, now we are I am picking out accessories and starting the “decorating” process. This is SO fun!

Name Update: We have it narrowed down to two names. We LOVE them both! They are also very similar. It is making it so hard to pick one over the other though. We decided to use one name this week and one name next week. We hope that after saying the names maybe one will stand out… hopefully…

Food Cravings / Aversions: I was craving apples pretty seriously for a while but that has subsided. Lately I’ve been having chocolate milk when I want something sweet. The only aversion I have had is veggie pizza. I used to love a pizza with spinach, artichokes, sun dried tomatoes and feta cheese at our local pizza pub but now when we go there all I want is a greasy pepperoni pizza with extra cheese… ewww that is so not me! But I love it!

How I Am Feeling: I feel great! I get tired in the afternoons but rarely lie down and rest. I am usually getting a very good night’s sleep because I’m ready to go to bed so early! I was getting frequent headaches but that seems to have subsided, thankfully. I was also experiencing some serious nasal congestion which I read is quite normal – just strange. I ended up neti-potting about once a week and that seemed to really clear things up! I am still able to work out about 4 days a week and the exercise has been great!

What I Miss: Sushi and Wine. I have had sushi a few times but have only ordered the cooked rolls. I miss my raw fish! And wine… I miss having a glass of wine with Honey in the evenings. I also miss my waist. I never thought about the fact that it would disappear but I’m here to tell you – it is G-O-N-E.

What Are We Talking About: Honey and I are currently talking about some of the BIG things we need to register for – baby monitor, high chair, swing/bouncy seat… those are the main three things. We are also talking about what we want to get done in our house and yard before the baby is here. 

What I'm Complaining About: The only complaint I have is that I’m developing varicose veins in my legs. Yuk! In addition to being the most unattractive thing I have ever seen, if I am on my feet too long they can get painful. This happened for the first time last week. We had friends over for dinner and I spent the day picking up the house and then preparing dinner – on my feel the whole time. That night while washing dishes, I began to feel the pain in my legs. I am a busy-body and always on my feet so the idea that I have to sit down and prop my feet up is a new concept for me! Since I work from home I do prop my feet up during the day while I’m working.

Best Part So Far: It’s all been pretty spectacular! I am so thankful that Honey and I conceived this child and I think about this little baby pretty constantly. I do have to say that a major highlight is our BABY MOON! Today we leave for Amelia Island for a week of nothing to do but spend time together. I think that is definitely going to go down as one of the best parts of this pregnancy!

Well there’s my update! I’d love to hear if your experiences were similar or different.

Have a great week, I will not be blogging from the beach but can’t wait to post about it when we get home!

So What Wednesday

Today I am linking up with Shannon over at Life After I "Dew"  for “So What Wednesday”!

This week I'm saying:

So what if… I ate a ton of Girl Scout cookies! Someone needed to eat them. My husband was out of town when the cookies arrived and I debated on whether I should tell him that we got any at all! But… I told him and I shared them. Thankfully they are finally ALL GONE so I don’t have to worry about them calling my name from the pantry any more.

So what if… I’m skimping on dinner the night before our trip. I firmly believe that the night before a trip is like a free pass to have a completely lazy dinner. The night before our trip is tonight but we already have dinner plans with some friends who are in from out of town. Since I didn’t want to miss my “free-pass-for-lazy-dinner-night” I did it last night. We had lasagna (Stouffer’s frozen kind), Cesar salad from a bag and cheesy bread sticks. And it was glorious.

So what if… I’m wearing non maternity dresses on our baby moon?! I cannot believe that I am wearing a dress from our engagement pictures, a dress from our wedding weekend and a dress from our honeymoon on our baby moon! Thankfully these dresses have empire waist lines so they totally work with my bump. Not to mention that my while my doc says my bump in measuring perfectly it’s rather small size is helping me fit into these clothes! They may be the only 3 non maternity dresses that I can wear but you better believe they are in my suitcase right now!

So what if…the more people I meet the more I love my dogs. Seriously, humans have a lot to learn from dogs. They are loyal, forgiving, loving, faithful, devoted, funny and affectionate. How many people do you know who have those same characteristics at any given moment no matter what is going on? Yea, I didn’t think so… I am so thankful for my two puppy dogs. They make my day every single day. Hands down.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for this week’s “So What Wednesday”! What are you saying SO WHAT! to this week?

Journey to Guacamole

So everyone has a go-to guacamole recipe, right? Well today I thought I’d share mine along with the journey I took to find this and the secrets I picked up along the way…

My Aunt Carol in Miami makes the best guacamole ever! She can also just walk through her yard and pick avocados off the trees! She gave me her recipe and that started the beginning of my guac-making-journey.

First you will need these ingredients:

• 3 Avocados
• 3 Vine Ripe Tomatoes
• 1 Bunch Green Onions
• 1 Lime
• Sea Salt
• Cumin

What, no onion? No. No Cilantro? No. You don’t need them… you’ll see!

First slice up the avocados. When my husband and I took a cooking class (super fun date night, by the way) we learned to slice them like this for a salad, however the principle applies anytime you’re using avocado – so simple!

After slicing the avocado in half, remove the pit by pressing your knife into it, turning it one quarter and lifting your knife – presto the pit lifts right out! 

Now slice the avocado by holding it skin side down in one palm and using your knife to slice it right inside the skin.

Scoop out the slices and place them in the bowl. The secret to full flavored avocado – which is key in any good guacamole – is this tool:

My husband put this in my stocking one year... It’s from Williams Sonoma and it is an avocado masher. While I was reluctant to use it because I love chunky guacamole, once I tasted the flavor that it brought out of my avocados, I was sold! (If you don’t have this tool I am sure a regular potato masher will work as well!)

So go ahead and mash up your avocados.

Before

After

Next slice your tomatoes. This introduces my next trick – first quarter the tomatoes and then using your fingers remove all the tomato seeds and juices. I also learned this trick in cooking class when using tomatoes for a salsa. This will make your end result less runny and we all know runny guacamole does not sound, much less look good!

Quartered Tomatoes

Seedless Tomatoes

After removing the seeds and juice, slice the tomatoes into pieces and add them to the bowl. 

Next, sprinkle in some sea salt.  I like to add the sea salt after the tomatoes because I love salted tomatoes and sea salt helps to bring out their flavor!

Next, cut the green onion. I like to do very, very small pieces and I stop when I get to the white part. Add them to the bowl.

If you’re using a mixer, go ahead and turn it on the lowest speed and let these ingredients start to mix. While they are mixing, cut and squeeze your lime. The secret to getting the most out of your lime is to roll it before you cut it. When you roll it press down hard to loosen up the skin – you’ll get much more lime juice this way! Squeeze all that lime juice into your bowl.

You’ll probably need more sea salt after all that lime juice so have a taste and if your guac needs more salt, go ahead and add some more.  

Finally, the secret ingredient!  My secret weapon is …cumin. My husband had to take me all the way to the Virgin Islands for me to learn about this spice appearing in guacamole! Definitely tell your husband tonight that you need to go to St. Thomas soon… the food you prepare for him could depend on it! 

While Honey and I were eating at a fabulous café, Sun Dog, which was literally positioned in an alley between two buildings with only large umbrellas as their ceiling (island life!), we sampled their guacamole and I immediately said – this has cumin in it! Honey and I checked with the chef who confirmed they used cumin in their guac and WOW what a delicious touch!

Walking to the Sun Dog Cafe, St John

Having lunch at the Sun Dog - YUMM!!

So when we came home I made my guac and added the cumin and we loved it!

Add cumin to taste and mix all ingredients. 

So there you have it – my personal guacamole recipe and the journey we took together. Remember these three things when making guacamole:  MASH the avocado to bring out the flavor, REMOVE the tomato seeds and juice to so it won’t be runny, and ADD cumin to taste.

Then open a bag of chips, pop open a cold beverage and enjoy!