Kansas boy wants the world to remember dad

Please take a moment and read the following news link....Kansas boy wants the world to remember dad. It is the story of one little ten year old boy's desire to have his father honored for dying in Afghanistan.  He was the pilot of the Chinook that was shot down this weekend.  It is heartbreaking, and a constant reminder that HEROES take on multiple roles within our armed services.

Army Announces Nine Month Deployment Cycles

I know I am not the only Army wife who is cheering at the news release from the DOD about the newly shortened deployment cycles.  Nine months is nothing to sneeze about, but when you are used to a 13, 15, or even 18 month cycle, this news rocks!  Check it out.  Basically as our operations slow down, the length of time our soldiers will be deployed will also shorten.  

Read all about it here.  

I am doing the happy dance!

Why I like Netflix over Redbox

I have a confession.  I am horrible about returning Redbox videos to the kiosk.  With as much as I work, and as blonde as I am, my husband and I have been buying more Redbox DVD's than we have cared to over the past six months.  Why?  Why spend the money renting something that is ultimately going to end up costing you more than retail in about 21 days?  So, I stumbled across Netflix and streaming their videos by accident because of a class I am taking for school.  You see, I have to watch the movie "Big" for my Counseling Adolescents class and did not feel like "renting" it from Itunes for 24 hours at $2.99.  I had to come up with a different solution and fast.

This brings me to Netflix.  I used to hate having to mail their DVD's back and wait for another one to arrive.  If I was watching a marathon tv series, I would end up getting frustrated by the lapse between one season to the next or one dvd to the next. It did not matter if I timed things out to have a DVD constantly in rotation.  One would always get lost in the mail, or the weekend would impact my ability to receive it.  So, I signed up for streaming my movies.  Even though I am not much of a "woohooer" can we scream "WOOHOOOOOO"!  For $7.99 a month, I can stream all the documentaries, foreign films, tv shows, etc that I want and I don't have to worry about spending $2 on gas just to drive to a Redbox location to return a darn movie.  Since your average movie now costs about $9 per ticket, I think it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that this is a good deal.

In the past 18 hours, I have discovered all the National Geographic documentaries on Afghanistan, the war, our troops, mental health, foreign films, and a bunch of tv shows, and my queue is LOADED with all sorts of new stuff. As a Licensed Professional Counseling student, I am always looking for insight into how this war impacts our troops and their families, and now I have discovered a means to do so.

What do you think?  Are you a netflix fan or foe?

Biopsy

I went in Friday to have my biopsy performed. Basically they brought in another Radiologist, who looked at my mammograms and the ultrasound and talked with my Radiologist about the concerns they had over my breast tissue. They pulled up the ultrasound machine so they could mark where they needed to go in on the breast to perform the biopsy, decided they did not like the machine they were using, and sent the tech out the door to grab a higher powered machine.

Here is where it gets funny. The room they had me in was at the end of a long hallway, which basically intersected another hallway in the middle. When the tech left the room, she left the door wide open so I was in full view of anybody coming down the hall. This was NOT the experience I wanted to have since my arm was extended above my head, I was turned out at a 45 degree angle, and my breast was exposed to the world. My radiologist about lost it and yelled at the tech to shut the door. AWKWARD!

They marked the spot on my breast for where they needed to make an incision, numbed me with local anesthesia, and then made an incision. I barely felt the cut, but I could feel the biopsy needle going in and it was uncomfortable. They took a bunch of samples, stitched me up, talked to me about next steps, and then told me I would know Wednesday. Not good enough. My mother made a call to her breast center in Knoxville, and set up an appointment for me for Monday morning. So here I am in Knoxville waiting for my appointment tomorrow morning. Early results point towards a form of breast cancer called DCIS with a mass of unknown makeup. They are running tests tomorrow and will determine what my next steps are in the process. If need be, I will undergo a lumpectomy this week to remove any of the bad tissue, and will also start radiation treatment. Til we know for sure, I am keeping my fingers crossed and my prayers lifted.

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Housing Waitlists

I confess I am a little neurotic about waiting to get a house a post.  After crunching a few numbers, Ben and I decided that the most feasible option for us is to put in for housing on post and cut costs wherever we can.  Sure we get a decent BAH, but when you factor in the water, trash, electricity, fuel costs to drive back and forth, internet, ADT, pest control, and grocery bills, it just doesn't make sense to either one of us to continue in the same path we have been on for the past couple of years. 

The waitlist for housing used to drive me bananas.  Like any normal person would check their facebook account, I have been checking our position on it no less than ten times a day to see if it has budged at all.  When we initially put in our application, the lady at Balfour Beatty said it would be 2 to 3 months before a house would open up.  Sweet!  Well, it has been three weeks and for a while there I thought it was going to take 6 months based on how little the waitlist moved. 

Today I got a nice surprise.  I checked our position and we had moved 8 spots.  That may have been a small step for somebody trying to find housing immediately, but for us it was as if the moon moved closer to us and we didn't have to shoot so far.  So yay for moving and DEAR LORD I have so much packing ahead of me.  All whining aside, I am blessed that I can move on post, that I won't have but a five minute commute to work, and I will be much safer when Ben deploys again.

Official Release from Department of Defense

Government Shutdown has been avoided. Business as usual for all personnel,

http://touch.facebook.com/profile.php?id=114648515718

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Lawmakers Ready Emergency Troop Funding Bill

If they continue to reach an impasse, GOP Congressional heads are prepared to push through an Emergency Troop Funding Bill.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/04/08/6434904-lawmakers-ready-emergency-troop-pay-bill-?GT1=43001

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No Death Benefits For Those KIA If Gov't Shuts Down.

This makes me angrier than having to wait for our family's midmonth pay and beyond. These families make the Ultimate Sacrifice and our Elected officials cannot agree on a budget 6 months into a fiscal year. Sickening!

http://bit.ly/hcXRM2

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Navy Federal to Advance Military Pay to Members

Navy Federal to Advance Military Pay to Members

Now if somebody could redirect me to a word from USAA about how they are planning on responding to members, it would be much appreciated!

Message from Department of Defense on Government Shutdown

From Army.mil:

Army.mil Press Release

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Military Family State by State Laws on Renter's Rights.

In case any Military Families are worried about getting evicted for non payment of rent should this Government Shutdown continue...

Here is a link with each State's laws on evictions:

http://www.chiff.com/legal/eviction-laws.htm

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Military Families Emergency Plan

Awesome information on how a military shutdown affects families and where to get EMERGENCY help.

http://www.militaryfamily.org/feature-articles/government-shutdown-what.html

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Silence is Golden

One of my favorite things to do at night is lay in bed and read a book. Since my hubby has gotten back, it has been a lot harder to do. He likes to get to sleep much earlier than I do, but also likes to spend as much time with me as possible. To effectively problem solve this issue, I downloaded the Kindle application to my Droid phone and turned the reader to black with white lettering so as not to disturb his rest. So far it has been working out great. I get to read well into the night and he sleeps soundly beside me.

One of my favorite things about this experience is feeling his breath lightly dancing across my bare shoulder in an air kiss. As his sleep deepens, his breath starts to slow and I find myself relaxing in its rhythm. I treasure these moments because I know that he will deploy again one day and I will be left with memories and the scent of his cologne as gentle reminders. The silence is golden and the experience is priceless.

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Poking the Bear

I have a temper. There I admitted it. Three years of Debate in High School years ago has provoked me to not let anybody get the last word in when arguing with me. Marriage is not easy, particularly when you are married to a Soldier who is just as stubborn. When we fight, we can get into some doozies and more often than not I want to bail because at the time it seems like the easiest thing in the world to do.

Soooo I have decided that in order to really talk about the process needed to truly love, that it is important to bear my soul. Not all of what we go through, but the pain of experience and the lessons I have learned because of the journey.

I am a romantic at heart and so is my husband. Put the two of our personalities together and we can become quite volatile. Boring we are not, but we are definitely honest and that is the beauty of deepening passion and compassion for each other. He is my anchor when I feel overwhelmed, my mirror of accountability, and let's just face the reality...having somebody expose the imperfect areas of your life sucks when you allow God to use your marriage as a means to detox the crap out of your life.

Despite my husband's occasional irritation with me, he still pursues me and that just blows me away. There have been a few fights where I have threatened to leave because of pride and fears about our future, and the devastation on his face was enough to convey to me just how deeply he loved and still loves me.

Marriage isn't a picnic, but I would not change a thing or the choices I have made. Yes, my husband gets angry with me, but he is also quick to forgive. Some of his buddies at work call him a Polar Bear. He may look cuddly and cute, but he is also quick to protect hearth, home and the ones he loves...

Don't provoke him. I am the only one allowed to poke this bear.....

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The PT Alarm Clock

My husband is soooo funny.  He hates PT in the mornings and I can't say I am really all that surprised.  After all, what crazy person likes getting up before the sun rises to exercise with a bunch of stinky people?  Every morning around 0530 he has a coming to Jesus moment when his alarm shakes him out of a deep sleep and he has to slam his finger down on the snooze.  He is Mr Cranky Pants and it makes me giggle.  I say all of this in jest, because my favorite part of him getting up that early, is the moment right before he walks out the door and his freshly minted breath meets the dragon fire of mine for a kiss goodbye.    When he was deployed, I missed it so much and I am grateful that God has given us the opportunity to share in the humor of life's moments.  Cranky pants or not, I am proud of him and am grateful God has placed him into my life.

OPSEC and Why I Keep My Mouth Shut

This is a reminder of why it is important for us to maintain our silence.....how quickly we forget that there are Terrorists out there monitoring our web activity.

By being a Family Member, you will often know some bits of critical information regarding our unit such as flight schedules, ship movements, installation activities, homecoming dates, and our Soldiers’ locations. This is sensitive information that needs to be concealed and protected, so please DO NOT discuss them outside of your immediate Family and especially not over the telephone or on the computer/Internet.


Your diligence in Operations Security (OPSEC) is key to ensuring our effectiveness in operations and our collective safety. When reintegration nears, I completely understand how excited everyone will get – it is great news – but it is not news that needs to be posted/said for anyone to read/hear. With resources such as Facebook and MySpace, it is easy to slip up and post, “One more month until my Soldier comes home,” “Our 12 month deployment is almost over . . . just one more week,” or “My Soldier will be on the Main Body flight coming in on 15 January,” but PLEASE DO NOT POST ANYTHING SIMILAR TO THIS – anyone can access your information online. You can protect your Family and friends by protecting what you know of the unit’s day-to-day operations. There are many countries and organizations that would like to harm Americans and degrade our influence in the world, and many of them collect significant amounts of useful information by using spies.

OPSEC is a vital element in protecting our Soldiers and missions, and I want to stress how vital a role every member of our Battalion plays in ensuring that we deny our adversaries potentially useful information. OPSEC protects our operations – planned, in progress, and those completed. Even though information may not be secret, it can be what we call “critical information.” Critical information deals with specific facts about military intentions, capabilities, operations and activities. If an adversary knew this detailed information, our mission accomplishment and personnel safety could be jeopardized. It must be protected to ensure an adversary doesn’t gain a significant advantage.

Here are a few things to remember:

Limit what you say about:

- Military movements (deployment/redeployment dates, dates of field exercises, flight information, etc.)…next Tuesday is a specific date

- Any issues with the unit

- Anything concerning security specific issues

- Equipment issues (what, no flak vest?)

- Locations of units (it’s OK to say they’re in Iraq, but not to say specifically where located)

OPSEC measures you should practice daily:

- Be aware of your surroundings

- Keep sensitive discussions in designated secure areas

- Keep a need-to-know attitude (if they don’t need to know, don’t tell them)

- Safeguard sensitive but unclassified information

Some other things to keep in mind:

- Make sure that your Family knows that the information you tell them is to stay between you and them

- Limit what you say on telephones. Whether they’re land lines, cordless or cells phones, they can all be ‘tapped’. Try using code words, or use birthday and anniversaries as time frames – i.e. “Our vacation will be two months after my grandmother’s birthday.”

- Censor what you put in e-mails. Anything sent out on the Internet can be seen by anyone on the Internet. (Keep in mind that the AKO and vFRG website is a secure site, hence why certain information can be posted there.)

- Limit what you say out in public. You never know who is trying to listen in on your conversations

Thank you all for taking the time to read this e-mail. Please, let’s all practice better OPSEC guidelines and protect ourselves and our Soldiers . . . watch what you say and watch what you do!

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

My Life As The Third Wheel

I keep joking that I need to carry a lifesize cardboard cutout of Ben around with me and document my experiences/adventures. After tonight I am seriously considering it. I met up with a few friends at Forsyth Park for the annual SCAD alumni concert to see G Love and Special Sauce. The music bored me, but that is besides the point. With everybody coupled up, Ben's absence made things awkward and I felt like a third wheel. To amuse myself I repeatedly pulled my phone out to check and see if he had logged on to google talk yet.

As stoned hippies danced to the hypnotic riffs emenating from the stage, I wanted to do something or even share the amusement of people watching with Ben. Sadly, this was not going to be the case, so I sat there with an overwhelming sense of sadness that 7500 miles separated us and there wasn't a darn thing I could do abou it. I don't know how other Army wives handle things, but I think a little comedic relief to break up the monotony of this deployment is in order.

What do you think?

You Know You're An Army Wife

You know you're an Army wife when...

...you can unpack a house and have everything in place in 48 hours
...you string Constantina wire to keep the neighbor's kids out of your flower beds
...your husband's work and dress clothes cost more than yours do
...you've changed more oil and mowed more lawns than your husband because he's never there to do it himself
...you use a crook-neck flashlight with a red lens during power outages because it's the only one you can ever find in the house
...your children say "hooah" or "roger that" instead of "ok"
...you know that it's normal to light shoe polish on fire and that the best way to spit-shine boots is with cotton balls
...your husband does a route recon and takes a GPS for a trip to the mall
...you only write in pencil because EVERYTHING is subject to change
...you need a translator to talk to your civilian friends, only because they have no idea what DFAS, AER, TDY, ACS, NPD, PCS, and ETS mean
...you have a larger selection of curtains than Walmart does
...you can remember where you kept the Scotch tape in your last house, but unfortunately, not in this one
...you mark time in duty stations, not years
...you refer to friends not only by name but by the state that they live in
...you know that "back home" doesn't mean at the house you live in now
...you tear up when you hear "Proud to Be An American," even though you've heard it 50 times by now
...you know that a 2 month separation IS short, no matter what your civilian friends say
...you ALWAYS know when payday is and get ticked off if there are more than 2 weekends during that pay period
...you know better than to go to the PX or commissary between 11:30 and 13:00 unless it's a life or death emergency
...you show your military ID to the greeter at Walmart
...you know that any reference to "sand" or a "box" describes NTC at Ft. Irwin, not your kid's backyard toys
...you know that "Ft. Puke" is a completely accurate description of Ft. Polk
...you find yourself explaining your husband's LES to him
...you have enough camouflage in your house to wallpaper the White House
...you don't have to think about what time 21:30 is
...you've ever been referred to as "Household 6"
...you're the TC, not a backseat driver
...you start ripping open MREs and looking for the M&Ms when you run out of Halloween candy