MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #39

Giving it another whirl! 

Have you and your spouse agreed to live in separate locations (a geographical bachelor tour) knowing that the short-term inconvenience would have long-term benefits for your family? How did it work for you? submitted by When Good People Get Together

Not yet but we've discussed it. Right now our kids are young and I'm homeschooling the oldest so we're pretty travel ready. It'd really depend on the situation. I'm getting ready to start grad school in the next few months so yes, we know it might at some point be beneficial for us to live apart for awhile. I've had several friends who've done the geobatch tour with varying degrees of success. Frankly we spend enough time apart, I'd like to avoid it. 

What is your favorite thing about being a MilSpouse? submitted bySarah Ruth Today


"Just" being proud of him for his service and sacrifice. Moving, while it can be a pain (see our nightmare move haha) can also be a great adventure! 

If you could still have your spouse/significant other and your family, but take the military life out of it…would you?  submitted by Trust. Love. Believe. Bake.


That's a tough one. On one hand yes because I miss having my career and location stability but on the other hand, I've really enjoyed all of our adventures. I could live without deployments of course but it is what it is. Regardless we're now on the downhill slope to retirement so we'll find out in just a few years. 



What have your homecoming experiences been like after a year long tour of separation? submitted by Army Soldier, Army Wife


Thankfully uneventful. Just takes a few days to get used to having him around again. We're pretty low key people and hubs, thankfully, is a pretty calm guy who's been there done that and hasn't had any re-integration problems. 

If you have a child(ren) why you chose their name(s)? If not, why you would name your child something?  submitted by Tiara’s & ACU’s


With our oldest we didn't find out what we were having - I was *throughly* convinced that it was a girl...so much that when he was born and hubs announced that he was indeed a HE, I promptly said "no it's not!" So we had several names picked out - I'd had a lot of complications and conked out from meds soon after he was born. When I woke up, I asked when we were going to fill out the birth certificate only to have the nurse tell me that my husband had done that "hoooooours ago!" I was not amused. It was his first choice name and my 2nd...lucky for the hubs, it fits him PERFECTLY and I could not fathom him having any other name. After that debacle, I had the final choice on baby two haha. His name was just one that I really loved and seems to fit him perfectly. His middle names (yes two) are after my grandpa who passed away while I was pregnant with him and after my dad. I would love to have a little girl because I had a few fantastic girlie baby names but we're done so they'll just have to sit in my memory. 




Mr Linky http://www.blenza.com/linkies/links.php?owner=wifeofasailor&postid=29Apr2011

Thank You Red Cross

Last Friday morning, early, long before the sun rose, my husband got a phone call that we'd both been expecting and dreading. His dad had passed away from the big C. He'd been sick for quite a while and recently had been told he had no more than 6 month - it ended up being closer to 2 weeks. Hubs was actually up and getting dressed because he was scheduled to take a PT test that morning - obviously that didn't happen. 

What did happen was that the wheels started turning of getting a Red Cross message to him and to his command. Everything went amazingly smooth. Especially considering it was just hours before they expected to shut the government down. We were a little stressed at the prospect of buying a last minute and very expensive plane ticket and not knowing when we'd get paid again...if it'd be a week or a month. Not exactly a stress free situation. We're pretty religious about saving and knew we'd be ok but the whole looming shutdown just made it a little harder to plunk down over $1,000 for a last minute flight. 

Which is another side rant. Since when did airlines start charging MORE for bereavement flights?! I usually pride myself on being a savvy travler and know the ins and outs of buying tickets etc. but man, I was shocked that it was going to cost us that much to fly one person to Florida from Texas. I could understand if he was going to say, Fiji but to fly from Texas to Florida? When I called several airlines to see if they had discounted bereavement rates or military rates imagine my shock to find that the prices went up by several hundred dollars compared to what their websites showed. But I digress. 

Some kind soul at the Red Cross decided that they'd be an awesome person and helped us out. Frankly we haven't had much of that in a long time. They contract through someone and they arranged for a flight that cost MUCH less than what we'd found on our own. The Red Cross and AER (Army Emergency Relief) paid for it and all he had to do was pick it up. Being able to have that worry, that stress of finding flights, etc taken away was just amazing. Of course we're paying the AER back and I wouldn't have it any other way- just the fact that they stepped up like that especially when they didn't have to just blows me away. 

I cannot thank them enough for stepping up and making the situation a little bit easier.