This Military Life

Over the last 4 years that I have been married to a soldier, I have often been asked this question from friends: "How can you live that life, constantly moving, being away from family and your husband being sent to war zones?"

My answer is simple: I love my husband and I 100% support his decision to be in the Army.

I have lost many friends because they just don't get this life. Every time I come back home to Vegas I really have no one to hang out with besides family (that's not a bad thing), because I moved away and when I would try to stay in contact it wasn't reciprocated. I wouldn't trade this life for anything, Kyle and I are a team and we work best together. When I married him I married the Army too, there is no way around it. We have been through many ups and downs; including 2 deployments. We, of course, don't have a perfect marriage, we fight, we struggle sometimes because of the Army, but it ultimately makes us stronger. I'm not saying that I don't have days where I want to curse the Army and the headaches it can cause, but for me the good greatly outweighs the bad.

I am so proud to be married to a soldier, I am thankful for the life it has given us, I am thankful for the friends that we have made because of the Army. 

I just get frustrated with my other friends who don't take the time to understand this life and really understand why I love it so much. I get treated differently because my life is different.

I would never walk away from him or this life (well except when he retires lol).

This is my vent for the day, thanks for letting me do so.

Busy Bee

Since I got to Vegas I have been a very busy lady in the morning!!! I am helping out my sister and brother-in-law with their kids while my sister is at work and my brother in law is at class.

Here is what my day looks like:

6:45am- wake up

7:10: take kylie to school

7:30: help get grayson ready and fed

9:00: drop my brother in law off at class

9:15-9:30: drop sister of at work

9:40: put grayson down for a nap

9:40-10:40: catch up on blogs haha :)

10:45: get grayson up and pick Kylie up from school

12: pick my brother in law up

It has been busy but really fun. I love spending all this time with my family. I am glad that I am able to help out. Of course amidst all this chaos we still know how to have fun. My family is notorious for playing practical jokes on each other. So last night it was my turn to get my sister. My Dad has had a mustache since 1974, no one has ever seen him without one. He decided last night he was going to shave it (my sister has wanted him to do it for a long time), so he did (he loves doing crazy things like this, a few years ago he shaved his head just because). I decided that instead of just telling my sister that I would call her, this is what I said "Hey Lis, you need to come over here right now (they live next door), Dad has a bloody nose and I can't get it to stop." She said ok and headed over, when she came in Dad had his hand over his nose and when she came to look closer he pulled his hand away, hahaha! She was soooo shocked, it was hilarious. The best part though was when she said "I brought tampons to stick up his nose because that will stop nosebleeds." I was dying laughing, it was hysterical!

Here is his new look:

I hope you all are having a great day!

PS: here is a quick update on the kyle's meeting yesterday. She crossed off every job that was division or lower. So now it leaves us with 8 choices (fort hood is still firmly at #1), 9 if you include Korea. If he does happen to get Korea he will go for 12 months unaccompanied. Keep ya all posted!

Fingers Crossed!!

Well, today is the day that Kyle meets with his branch manager. He will have 15 minutes with her to go over his list and we are anxious to see what she has to say.

Since I last posted about this there was a revision made to the list and in a devastating blow to Kyle the assignment to Fort Lewis was taken off (along with a job in Hawaii). :( Kyle was really upset and bummed, he really wanted that job. Now we have rearranged the list and we put Fort Hood, Texas as our new #1. It is a job at III Corp and would be a good fit. We should have an answer by next Thursday!!!

Fingers crossed for some good news!!!! 

Hello from Vegas!!

At about 10:20 last night I landed back home in Vegas! Thankfully, it was a smooth flight and went by fast. My sister picked me up from the airport and once I got to my Dads (my sister and Dad live next door to each other, makes it really convenient and awesome) I showered and headed to bed. 

This morning I woke up and got to see these 2 amazing kiddos:

Kylie

Grayson

I love these two so much! It has been awesome spending so much time with them. I am looking forward the next 26 days with them (although I miss my husband terribly, I wish he could have come with me!!!!)

Now it's time for me to go color with Kylie while Grayson is napping! :)

I hope you all are having an awesome day!

Weekend in Review

Kyle and I had an amazing weekend!!! Since I will be leaving tonight for 3 1/2 weeks we wanted to have as much fun as we could.

We started off the weekend by heading up to Tucson for the Easton Corbin concert (can't go wrong with winning tickets on a radio station haha). It was AMAZING!!!! The concert was held outside at a new health and wellness center (all the proceeds from the concert went to the center), it was nice to just walk around and stand wherever we wanted. If you like country music and have never listened to his music, DO! He is a great artist, I was able to get some good pictures:

This is AnnMarie, she is a local artist and was really good!

Waiting for Easton Corbin

I am so glad that went to this concert, it was a blast!

After the concert instead of driving an hour back home we decided to get a room in Tucson for the night. Sunday morning we got up bright and early, had breakfast, and drove 2 hours to Glendale for the Cardinals/Eagles game.

We of course had to cheer for the home team and we were not disappointed! The Cardinals dominated the Eagles and won 27-6. 

I am so glad that we were able to do all this before I leave. It was a blast!!

I am also excited that I get to hug these 2 adorable little people for the next few weeks:

Have a great day!

Miracles Do Happen!

I just had to share this picture because it made me laugh and well our "kids" are awesome!

Emma and Fishy don't always get along (they co-exist lol) so when we caught them actually getting along I had to snap a picture:

Yeah I know Fishy is sleeping and probably had no idea that Emma was laying on his pillow lol but it's progress. 

They are way happier in this picture then they were yesterday when I put their Halloween costumes on them, but those pictures I will post later haha.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

I Miss You

I normally don't post twice in 1 day but I need to get something off my chest.

As my trip to Vegas gets closer, I'm missing my Mom even more. It is so hard going home knowing that she isn't there. I will be staying at my Dad's while I'm there and I can feel her all around me in the house. I am thankful that I get to spend time with my Dad, sister, brother in law, niece and nephew.

I really thought that it would get easier as time went by (she passed away March 31, 2011) but that is not true at all. If anything it gets harder, I hate that our future children will never get to know their grandma and how wonderful she was. I really just want to scream at the top of my lungs:


SCREW YOU CANCER!!!!!!!!

I hate that she had to suffer for 10 months because of you, I hate that you took an amazing woman from this world.

Living in NC while she was sick was tough but I was able to go home a lot and spend time with her. I was lucky enough to be with her 2 days before she passed and while I was with her she gave me this:

I will cherish this for the rest of my life. I know that she is with me everyday and that she is looking out for my whole family. 

 I want to share a few pictures of my life with an amazing woman!

Mom and Me one week after I was born

Our Wedding Day

At the race track

Beautiful!

New Years Eve 2010

Spending time with Mom at the Cancer Treatment Center of America in Phoenix 

My last picture with my Mom

A tree we had planted in honor of a wonderful woman!

This video was taken at her celebration of life last June. 

I love you and miss you everyday!

Vacation Preparations

I always thought that preparing for vacation was simple. Do laundry, pack your suitcase and off you go! Unfortunately that is not the case for this trip. I am leaving my husband at home by himself (well of course the animals will be here) for almost a month. I, of course want to make sure that the house is spotless, even though I know that it will probably be destroyed in a matter of days. So over the next few days I will be knee deep in these:

I am going to scrub the house from top to bottom on Monday, since my flight isn't until late evening. Most people I know absolutely hate cleaning, I on the other hand LOVE it! Kyle always jokes that he can tell when I want to clean because I start pacing around the house asking him "Does the house look clean?!" LOL! Thanks to this stuff cleaning is made so much easier:

My favorite cleaner!

I spent yesterday stocking the house with everything (besides groceries, I will do that on Monday) that I know Kyle will need while I'm gone. Yes, I know he is capable of going to the store but I figured might as well just get everything now. It will make things easier for him and he will be able to focus on the MICCC and classes for his Master's while I'm gone. I am a pretty awesome wife, aren't I?! haha.

Well, it's time for me to relax (before I head off to Best Buy to get Kyle a new video game lol) and enjoy some tea in my super fun mug:

Cute, right!?

Have a great day!!!

Getting Closer

Yesterday, Kyle finally received the list of open assignments for his class of the MICCC (Military Intelligence Captains Career Course). We had absolutely no idea what was on this list and I started to panic when I saw that a good portion of the assignments were in: KOREA! We have no desire to go to Korea right now and thankfully we were able to fill the 20 spots on his dream sheet and did not have to include any job in Korea (it is our one do not want to go place). 

Our #1 choice is Fort Lewis, Washington. The job would be perfect for Kyle and is exactly what his branch manager wants for him. We also have some really good friends that live here and Kyle went to college there so I know he would love to be back in the area.

 Other places on our top 20 are: Fort Carson, Fort Meade, Schofield Barracks, Shaw AFB, Fort Hood, Fort Sam Houston, Fort Bragg (which we know for a fact that we won't be getting orders back there anytime soon), Fort Shafter and Fort Stewart. It is crazy to think that in roughly 3 months we will be packing up our stuff and moving again.

Kyle has his interview with the branch manager next Wednesday and we should have an answer the first week of October. I will be on pins and needles in Vegas waiting to hear from him haha.

I'm sure I can find something to occupy my mind while waiting to find out, like maybe going here:

My sister and I decided today that we want to go to Disneyland while I am visiting. I love Disneyland at Halloween time, it is so fun and the decorations are amazing. We want it to be a sisters trip and I know we will have an amazing time! This will make the 3rd trip to Disneyland for me in the last 3 months (I'm definitely not complaining lol), so I can't wait.

I hope you all are having a great day!!

The Story of Us

Our story began in 1996 when we were in the 6th grade. We were two adolescent kids who didn't have a care in the world and our biggest concern was who we would be "going out" with the next day haha. 

Weren't we adorable?! :)

We were friends but according to Kyle he had a large crush on me and I thought he was a little nerdy. We stayed friends throughout middle school and ended up at different high schools. We saw each other again our sophomore year when we were both involved in Key Club and went on a trip to an amusement park in California. We tried to date but it was too difficult going to separate schools and we both couldn't drive yet. 

Fast forward to 2007; I had just gotten divorced and his fiance' had just ended their engagement. He sent me an email on myspace (yup myspace lol) and we stayed in touch for a little bit until he went away to Airborne School at Fort Benning. A few months later in March 2008 I sent him another message, we finally exchanged numbers. We talked constantly and he took leave when he got to Fort Bragg to come see me, we shared our first kiss at the airport when I picked him up and from that moment I was in love. We spent an amazing week together, getting to know each other and each others families. 

As crazy as it sounds we started talking about marriage and we both knew that we wanted to get married. For the next few months our relationship was long distance, me in Las Vegas and he in North Carolina. On June 14, 2008 he flew back to Vegas, on June 18th, he asked me to be his wife! 

The night we got engaged

On June 21, 2008 we were married at the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel:

I can honestly say that I married my best friend that day, the perfect man for me in every possible way. We challenge each other, support each other, love each other, motivate each other and are there for each other no matter what. 

Being married to someone in the military hasn't been easy. Dealing with deployments, constant training cycles, late nights, and sometimes being in the dark about things has been tough. I have grown to love this life and I know that being a soldier and leader is what Kyle was born to do. I am thankful to this life for making me tough!

We have been through so much in the last 4 1/2 years, every moment has made our relationship so much stronger than the day before. I would not change any part of our lives together, every moment has molded who we are. I love him more now that the day we got married and I know that everyday we spend together it will keep getting stronger and deeper.

I can't imagine my life without him and who would have thought that I would meet my soulmate in the 6th grade.

"You don't marry someone you can live with – you marry the person who you cannot live without." – Unknown Author

Military Balls

I know a lot of people will give you the do's and don't of attending a military ball. I don't agree with the ones that say: short dresses are inappropriate. For some reason that BUGS me to no end, I have been to 6 military balls since Kyle and I got married 4 1/2 years ago and I can tell you that even Generals wives wear short dresses. Now I'm sure it isn't the best idea to wear a poofy prom type dress, but to each their own and who am I to judge. For me, being an Officer's wife I am always going to be held to a higher standard when it comes to Military Formals, I don't think I have done anything too crazy.

I have worn everything from long, short, strapless, classic black, red and bright yellow. Every time I have gotten compliments on my choices. Here are pictures of what I have worn:

This was my first ball in May 2009. I was scared out of my mind and had no idea what to expect so I went with classic black and it has been one of my favorite dresses ever since. 

This dress was from the Year of the NCO Ball in July 2009. Going to this ball was not planned and very last minute, thankfully I had this beautiful short yellow dress handy and it was perfect for the warm weather.

This is from the St. Barbara's Day Ball December 2009 (talk about overwhelming 3 Military Balls in 1 year). I was very frustrated with my weight at this point and wanted something flowy. I found it at David's Bridal and it was extremely comfortable. The detail and beading under the bust was my favorite part.

This dress I wore to the Black Falcon Battalion Ball in February 2010. I LOVE this dress, the three dresses I wore before this I donated but I could not part with this dress. I actually owned it for a year before I wore it, the detail on top was amazing!!

St. Barbara's Day Ball 2010, I wore black to the first one and I wanted something fun and bright. I found this amazing red dress on vacation in Vegas and I knew it was perfect for a Field Artillery Ball. It was flattering and extremely comfortable. 

Black Falcon Battalion Ball May 2012. I knew the instant I tried on this dress that it was perfect. I felt amazing in it and thought it was classy and beautiful. 

Over the last 4 years I learned that you can't make everyone happy with what you choose to wear to a ball. Just make sure that you are comfortable!! I remember there was one person who told me when I first married Kyle that I should never show my tattoos at a military function. I learned that that was crappy advice when I had the division commander's wife tell me that my tattoo (my tulips on my back) was beautiful. There will always be someone who wants to give you their opinion, do what you want. 

Happy Monday!!!