PCSing and the Military Spouse.

PCSing is a challenging time for any military family.  Okay, moving in itself is hard, so I'm not trying to discredit any of my readers who aren't military and have had to move, but there's something to be said about moving in the military.

PCS or Permanent Change of Station is a term that shouldn't be used because when it comes to the military, our change of station is never permanent!

I think that one of the hardest things about PCSing is the fact that you know that you will have to do it again within the next 2 to 5 years.  5 years for those that are lucky!

A few days ago, I asked my Huachuca Wives this question:

What is one thing that could have made your PCS to Ft. Huachuca easier?

Most of the responses revolved around having someone, a sponsor, to show them the ropes when they got here.

I had to agree.  

Okay, as many of you know, moving to a new place is hard work.  Moving to a place where you know absolutely no one or nothing about the area can be down right discouraging.  

The units are suppose to assign each in-coming soldier a sponsor to help your family out when you arrive.  Not always the case.  Also, an FRG Leader should give you a call to welcome you to your new duty station.  Not always the case. 

One thing that I think would have been nice when we moved here would have been if there was a family, similar to our own, sponsoring us, showing us the ropes, telling us about the schools, the ins and out, the ups and downs.  Until I started Huachuca Wives, I didn't know anyone in the area.  I felt alone in the desert and I was in need of someone to talk to.  Huachuca Wives has given me a group of ladies who can help guide one another, learn from one another and support one another.  

I know that I can't greet every spouse that comes to the post feeling the way that I did, but I want to use Huachuca Wives to help those that are new here and in need of a friendly face.  

I'm getting a lot of positive feedback from the girls and I know that while I'm here, I want to be a positive asset to as many people as I possibly can.  

Just being there in the very beginning of a person's new adventure can, if nothing else, give my fellow Military Wives a good first look at what to expect here.

PCSing isn't always easy, but having a friendly face waiting there for you can make a world of difference.

15mph PLEASE!

It seems that every morning I have to motion for someone to SLOW DOWN in the school zones.

Here on Ft. Huachuca, school zones are 15mph, which is a snail's crawl.  

It's pretty obvious when a car isn't going 15!  

I often try to control the speeders in the school zone where my child crosses the street.  Now, I know that it's not my job to do this because I'm not an MP, but I am a parent and I have 3 kids that use this school zone 5 days a week.  I want people to take heed to the school zones!

 

I wave my hand every morning to motion for SOMEONE to slow down.  Do you know that the majority of these drivers are women?!?  You'll find drivers throwing up their hands in defense as if to say "Hey, I'm not speeding."  But there's a hug difference between 25 and 15.  

Granted, the school zones signs in our area are very confusing because there's not sign that says END SCHOOL ZONE, so in the defense of these drivers, some think that as soon as they get past the the yellow crosswalk they can go back to normal speeds.  That's not the case.  And granted, unlike what I'm use to on the east coast, the school zones speed limits are for the entire time that school is in session, not just during the times that kids are going to school and coming from school.  But that's beside the point.

I'm not perfect by any means.  I have a lead foot very often, but I feel that when you are in a school zone during the times when kids may be crossing, it is a driver's duty to keep the kids safe and drive slow.

So, until someone tells me differently or drivers suddenly decide to adhere to the 15mph signs at all time, I will continue to play mini-cop and warn these drivers about speeding.  

Those are MY kids out there!

Things To Work on Thursday: Organization and Career

There are a few things I have trouble with.  

One is staying organized. 

Lately, with so much going on, I have trouble finding time to keep it all together.  

Have you seen my calendar?

 (Yes it's sideways!  I couldn't figure out how to rotate it!)

It's color coded for each child and myself for all of the things that I have to do during the day.

My iPhone reminds me of every appointment, event, class, practice, game, conference, field trip or luncheon that I have coming up.

If I don't write it down AND set a reminder in my phone, it's likely it will fall into the I FORGOT pile.  Often, that pile is where I find folding laundry.  (Perhaps purposely put there.)

My point to it all is that I'm very busy these days and that's WITHOUT a traditional job!

I can only imagine how it all will get done when I have to go back to work.

Ahhh, work!  I feel that lately the husband has been throwing (pretty hard) hints about me getting a job.  He's been talking a lot about me getting my resume together every since he went to a resume class and has even mentioned a few websites for jobs here in AZ.

I know what he's saying, but the problem with me finding a job (other than that fact that I don't want to) is that everyone is so competitive here, with their fancy degrees and such.

Shoot!  I don't have my degree yet and my confidence is way low... when it comes to competing for a job anyway. 

Where is that perfect stay at home career that I have been waiting to fall into my hands? You know, the ones where I don't actually have to get up and go to a place of business EVERY DAY??  HUH?

Coming together for Brunch

First of all, I have great news.

I made a 91 in my Macroeconomics class!

YES!  The class that I HATE!  

The one I thought I was going to FAIL miserably!  

I got an A!

Well, technically it was an A minus, but an A, nonetheless.

Can you say THRILLED?!??

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

*****************************************************


I'm really liking the way that the Huachuca Wives group is going.  So far there are over 50 members and there is tons of communication and participation with the discussions and posts.  I'm trying to maintain a group with a positive atmosphere and so far, it's working. 

Today I got together with some of those great girls.  I invited the group over for a potluck brunch.

I ended up wit about 7 girls, and they were a great group.  I invited Deborah, the crossing guard that I met last year who is just absolutely darling!  She's a retired spouse.  She and her husband live in a small travel trailer and she LOVES kids.

Have you ever read the books about Mrs. Piggle Wiggle?  It's a series of books I read when I was a kid about a little old lady with who loved kids.  She never had any of her own, but she lived her life being around kids, playing with kids and having imagination adventures with kids in her neighborhood.  Anyway, Mrs. Deborah reminds me a lot of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. She has the greatest spirit and the biggest heart.

The ladies I met today were great.  It was nice to be in a positive environment with some positive people.  It's great to be able to shoot around thoughts about the area and ideas about what to do to make things better.  One of the girls, a girl that I asked to be my co-admin on the FB page, made me so happy today.  She told me that the site has helped her realize that she can do this Army Spouse thing and she told me how appreciative she was that I created it. 


And that, my dears, is success!  If I have touched 1 person's life in a positive way then Huachuca Wives is successful and I know that my goals have been met!

Repost from September 11th 2008

There are some things that you never forget. 

I figured that in light of the 10th Anniversary of September 11th, I would repost the post I wrote remembering this tragedy.  It's so vivid to me still and I wrote a post on this on my Huachuca Wives page a few days ago which was very similar to this one.  The precise memories of what I was doing that day will never fade away.


September 11th.



As all of you, I remember where I was on that horrific morning 7 years ago. I was sleeping in late that day, pregnancy was not agreeing with me one bit. I remember that I was going through this major depression, unhappily pregnant, unhappily married, just miserable. So I didn't want to get out of bed that morning, but I did. Went into the living room and turned on the TV.

As I sat on the couch. I remember wondering why was this movie on my TV instead of Divorce Court, which at that time I was watching faithfully (probably due to my marital situation). Surely, I hadn't left the TV on one of my premium HBO or Showtime channels. Nor had I ever seem this movie before. I changed the channel and it was there too.

One of the Twin Towers (which I really knew nothing about at that time being from the south and all) was burning. The Today's Show commentators were sounding solemn and nervous. I watched for a few minutes, thinking what in the world could have happened to that plane to cause it to crash into a building? Then came the second one.

Oh my God! I sat on that couch with my mouth wide open in disbelief thinking, "What the hell is going on?" The voices on the TV were fractic and I picked up the phone to call Hubs, who of course didn't answer the phone, usually unable to get reception from his office at work. So I sat there, alone and afraid and a little thankful that my 1 yrs. old slept soundly in his bed.

I watched as the flames burned the people started jumping. Then the first building went down, I started to cry.



Today, and every year to the date since, I think back to those events. I always say a little prayer for those people that were in those buildings and their families and those that fought to saved them, many losing their lives. I say a prayer for those who have lost their lives since because of those terrorist attacks, and those still losing their lives even today. That tragic day. September 11th 2001 changed our world forever and for every year on this day forever more I will remember.

Labor Day at Sea World!

So how was your Labor Day Weekend?

As a Family Chick, it's inevitable that a good holiday weekend is going to revolve around family stuff.

So, lucky for us as a Military Family, Sea World is being generous to offer free tickets to military families!  They call the program "Here's to the Heroes" and there is a free admission to Soldiers and up to 4 dependents.  Which was great because we only ended up having to buy one ticket and because we purchased it at MWR before we went, we even saved almost twenty bucks on that ticket as well! 

So off to San Diego we went on an 8 hour drive from Ft. Huachuca. 

Even better, we have friends that live at the Navy base in San Diego and were able to spend time with them as well.  They were our neighbors in Georgia and I was so happy to see her!  It's so true what they say about how military friendships often just pick back up where they left off!

Every since I was a kid, I always wanted to go to Sea World.  We lived in Georgia and that's about 8 hours from Orlando.  We took a trip to Disney, but never got back to visit Sea World.  Back then, the Free Willy movies had come out and I wanted nothing more than to see Shamu!

Well I finally got my chance!  The kids had an AMAZING time!  We didn't do the rides, just the shows and they still talked about how much they enjoyed it. 

It was a great Labor Day Weekend.  My only complaint is that the 4-day weekend didn't las long enough!

A mom's work... well you know the rest!

I know I shouldn't say this out loud and I know that I'm being a bad influence for my kids, but homework is going to have to wait!

I have been flooded with "things to do" and I'm starting to think that I might want to slow my role a bit.  I haven't had time to go to the schools to volunteer my time this year.  I seem to not have time for anything with the school days being so short and the kids getting home starting at 2:10 rather than the 4:15 time they got off the bus in GA.  That's 2 hours off my day!

Try to hit the pavement or the gym most days out of the week right after I drop Miss Missy off at school in the morning, and by the time I get home, take a shower, check my email and FB... it's lunch time for Hubs.  He's home and I can't do homework during that time, of course.  So, he goes back to work and most days, that gives me maybe an hour before Miss Missy needs to be picked up.

Then it's "Them" time.  Can you read this?  Can you sign that?  Can you help me do this?  blah blah blah!  UGH!

One they are home and in homework mode, it's time to get ready for soccer practice 4 days out of the week.  

Monday - no practices - this is going to be the only day of the week I can do homework!

Tuesday - Miss Missy

Wednesday - The boys

Thursday - Miss Missy

Friday - The boys

Their games start this weekend.

Miss Missy is going to miss her first game because we're taking a mini-vaca for the 4-day!  Yay-ay!

It's been really busy lately, but I'm looking forward to adding in a little volunteer time at the school and a few things through ACS as well.  AND I run a FB group for the wives of Ft. Huachuca.  Oh and of course, I do the Soccer Mom thing for 2 out of 3 of the kids' teams.

Gotta Love being a Stay at home mom!

Do you curse around your parents?

There's something to be said about respect for your parents.

Growing up, there was no way my brother and I would raise our voices and disrespect our parents.  

NO WAY!

My sister was another story, but hey, she was the baby and got away with a lot more than we ever did.

When it came to our household, respect was something that all adults got, no matter what.  You spoke when you were spoken to.  You answered yes or no.  You didn't get to have an opinion.

We were raised in the "Kids should be seen, not heard" fashion.

Talking back?  Nuh-uh!

And profanity of any kind would have gotten me smacked in my mouth.  I know this not by experience because I was never brave enough to try it.

As an adult, not much as changed.  I still will in NO WAY use profanity of any kind around my mom or dad.  Not even over the phone where it is impossible to be smacked.  I never lost that kind of respect for them because I believe it is a well deserved respect.

My momma has a friend who argues and curses with her children on a regular basis.  She once told my mom, "Oh come on. Lorie. Don't act like your children have never cursed in front of you before."

My momma confidently answered, "NEVER!"  We knew better.  Even as a grown behind woman, I couldn't see myself using profanity around my parents.  I get called out if I use a four letter word on my blog, so I can only imagine what my mom might say if something slipped out of my mouth!

Do you ever curse around your parents?

A new dentist for the kids.

The kids had their first visit to the dentist since we've been in Sierra Vista.

I wasn't crazy about taking them to the dentist because in my mind NO DENTIST could ever live up to their dentist in Augusta.  The pediatric dentist we've been going to from the beginning was absolutely great for kids!  It was decorated with an Arctic Wonderland theme and had toys and video games.  The hygienists did a great job and were all sweet and patient.  The dentist would come to take a look in the kids' mouths once the hygienists finished the cleaning.  He had a perfect set a teeth himself and a great smile.  Very easy on the eyes too!  LOL!  Dr. Lee Baker's  Pediatric dentistry certainly holds a place in our family's hearts!

So going to the dentist here wasn't something I was looking forward to.  However, the experience was not all that bad.  We went to Cochise Children's Dental Center.  The waiting room is set up to entertain young children with table trains and wood puzzles on the walls.  For the most part, my kids didn't take interest. 

What I didn't like was that they did one kid at a time. The dentist was the one who did the cleaning and the assistants were just there to set up and hand him the instruments.  That meant that each child was done one at a time and the visit took almost 2 hours, being that it was our first visit.

I guess I can't expect everyone to live up to the standards of our old dentist, but other than the time it took to do 3 kids, this was a great dentist.  At least there were no tears and no cavities!

The Animal Rights Activists Would Have My Head!

Ginger and I went on our morning walk.  The weather this morning was bearable for a good walk/run.  There sky was cloudy, just the way I like it in the morning to block out the HOT sun.  I added in a little extra today, even though my legs are cramping like crazy.  Other than that, I felt great.

But.....

Poor Ginger obviously wasn't feeling the same way.  Halfway through the running part, she STOPPED!  Yep, just STOPPED and layed down in a shady stop.  

Of course, we are in Arizona, so there aren't many shady spots because there aren't any TREES!

But she managed to find a shady spot next to a wall and...  STOPPED!

"Okay," I said. "I'll give you a minute."  I gave her a little wtter from my waterbottle, snapped a picture of her and it was time to pick up the pace.  

Well, after about another quarter mile, something was slowing down my stroll.

I take a look back at the dog, who was now WALKING in slow motion.  SHE. WAS. DONE!

For a minute, I thought we were going to have to sit down and wait out her exhaustion.  She would not walk faster than a slow crawl.

So, we walk the rest of the .25 mile at a snails pace back to the house.  

When we get home, I spray her down with the water hose.  I'd called my mom on our crawl back to the house and she suggestion the poor dog might have heat exhaustion.  

Now, she's laying next to her bowl, drinking ice water and panting heavily.  

Ginger is NOT that dog who enjoys exercise!  Maybe it's time for a Golden Retriever puppy.