Milspouse Weekly Roundup

What’s that you say? It’s roundup time again? I’m so happy to get a chance to host this week. Welcome to Milspouse Weekly Roundup!

What’s this all about? Well, all you have to do is link up a favorite post of yours from this week so that everyone can catch up with you. I like it because it makes it easy to check up on your favorite milspouse blogs if you don’t have a chance to read them every day. Whoever is hosting usually provides a little info about themselves as a bit of an introduction so without further ado…

I’m Mrs. K.

The handsome fella beside me is Captain J….although you wouldn’t be able to tell he’s an officer in the U.S. Army with a beard like that! He’s the best thing that ever happened to me. The Mr. (and the Army) came into my life a few years ago and I never looked back. Since then, we’ve moved three times and expanded our family to three (five if you count our dogs!). Three weeks ago, I gave birth to the most beautiful baby boy. He keeps me on my toes!

On top of the responsibilities of being a new mother, I’m also a graduate student studying to obtain a Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy. I’m also the new girl on post, as we recently PCS’ed to Ft. Polk, Louisiana. I’m enjoying our new location and staying busy trying to meet new people in the area when I get some free time.

I’m a Christian. A scrapbooker. A hiker. A fisher. A candlestick maker….ok, scratch that last one. It’s not true.

Thanks for taking a peek into my world. I hope you’ll come back!

Next week, the roundup will be over at Adventures of the K Family. Be sure to visit her blog and catch up with her adventures in Alaska. Now, let’s go see what everyone has been up to, shall we? Link up below!

In the Army Now

I guess it’s a high time I talked about this. Time to bring it all out into the open. Time to let you know what has been on my mind besides babies and books.

I should preface this by saying that my husband’s job with the Army was never a long-term, definite thing. I entered in to my relationship with him under the assumption that he would not be staying in any armed forces until retirement. We weren’t “lifers”, as the military community often refers to it.

Captain J did his duty, deployed to Iraq once back in 2008-2009 and made the decision that once was enough for him. Together, we decided that when the rest of his commitment was up (about 15 months from now), we would happily make our way back to Tennessee or some neighboring Southern state and start new jobs and add to our family.

To be fair, J has always had big dreams that change pretty frequently. I knew this about him. During deployment, we read this blog and fantasized about buying a sailboat and cruising around the Caribbean for a year or two before finally growing up, getting jobs, and starting a family. After he got back from Iraq, our desires seemed to shift. We knew we wanted a child so we started thinking that our boating/vagabond plans could wait until we retired. We then started imagining ourselves somewhere in a small town with lots of land, a small hobby farm, and a couple of kids running around. It has only been until very recently that these daydreams have started changing yet again.

Captain J came home from work one day and caught me completely by surprise saying, “How would you feel if I didn’t get out of the Army?”

Umm, excuse me? Had I just heard him correctly? ALL of our plans, varied as they may be, had one thing in common and that was freedom. No more looming deployments or time out in the field. No more being owned by the U.S. Army. I thought he was more than ready to be a civilian again. Heck, talk to him long enough about growing a beard and you could probably convince him to get out in a heartbeat!

I answered his question truthfully: ” I don’t know.”

I really don’t know. Here’s what I do know-

I know I want J to be happy. I don’t think he will be happy in a job around our home town. He feels led to do something different, but he isn’t sure the transition from Infantry Officer to civilian desk job would fulfill him at all. The pay cut we would experience would definitely be a bummer, too. I would likely have to go back to work immediately as opposed to enjoying my time with Baby K before he enters kindergarten (Yuck! He can’t grow up!). And we come to my only reservation about staying in…

Baby K.

I want him to know his family. Both of our parents live in the same area, the area that is nowhere near any Army post. I think the closest we got to them was during our brief stay at Ft. Benning. I’m afraid of not having their influence in his life. I’ve been blessed with a wonderful family and I want him to feel that, too as he grows older (Again, can I make that NOT happen?).

Anyway, the decision is still up in the air, but J is leaning towards staying in the Army, at least for a bit longer. We have already discussed and submitted our wishes for our next duty station. There are some exciting options in the works, but who knows what will happen. He still has plenty of time to decide.

And I still have plenty of time to fret over this. I think I’ve been doing that since I met him. If you’re thinking of getting hitched to the military, you should probably go ahead and disregard all plans you may have made in your pretty little head. They’ll definitely change. But you know what? I’m happier than I’ve ever been. So, my Master’s degree was put on hold for a few years…so what? I’m working on it now. In the mean time, I’ve made some great friends along the way, been fortunate enough to see much of this great country of ours, and have become a stronger person directly due to some of the things I’ve faced because of my husband’s job in the Army. It won’t be so bad if he decides to stay in. It might just be another adventure.

I’m still at the beginning of the last adventure he asked of me, though! 😉 It looks a lot like this:

Here’s to adventure! May God’s plans for us be our plans, too.

little things

Little things make me smile. They have to.

It’s 105 degrees in these parts for most of the day (and my doctor is telling me to walk to induce! ha Easy for her to say.) and I rarely venture outside. I play with our k9 friends for a bit. I check the mail. If I’m feeling really frisky, I’ll walk down the short driveway and retrieve the trash cans. This is the extent of my leaving our nicely air conditioned casa.

This means I have to find happiness in the little things…

Like lime flavored popsicles:

And when my husband is preparing his helmet thing-a-majig for jumping out of airplanes while simultaneously eating said popsicle and being totally engrossed in one of the Harry Potter movies:

And random, odd text messages from my brother:

Yes, it’s the small stuff that gets me through my day.

Otherwise, I’d be going absolutely insane with contractions one hour-

and absolutely nothing the next.

Such a tease.

I hope this baby turns around soon. Back pain is for the birds.

What little things made you smile today?

(P.S. Captain J jumped out of an airplane today and lived. That made me smile, too. Don’t they know they shouldn’t let soon-to-be dads in warzones or throwing themselves out of airplanes? It’s just not kosher with Mama!)

So, I wait.

“There is time enough for everything. Take it easy.” ~ Eleanor Kirk

One might say I’ve adopted this mantra as of late or at least I’ve attempted to. My existence has become a waiting game. How strange it feels to be on the cusp of motherhood, a period of time, change, and role replacement that will alter my path forever. Yet, I’m still sitting around, staring at my ever-growing middle and wondering how this will all work out.

Is there really a 7lb, bouncing baby boy inside me? Am I really to be trusted with this new life? He has been mine for nine long months, how will I learn to share him now?

These are just a few questions that float freely through my mind throughout the day. My life is about to change forever and it’s no little thing. Anticipation. Excitement. Fear.

I told a friend earlier today that the end of this pregnancy has felt much like the end of a deployment. It is by far the most excruciating part emotionally. If you aren’t accustomed to military life, then I’ll let you glimpse it for a moment…

Wives, mothers, sisters, brothers- none of us know exactly when our soldier will be home. We hear various rumors and are often pushed to our limits being told, “The plane should pick them up tomorrow” only to hear the same the next day. What you may not know is that there are several plane rides that eventually bring the service member home. Layovers are days or weeks long and all we can do is wait. All we can do is think about that meeting, eyes finding one another, that first touch that makes everything right with the world again.

I feel much like that now.

Good things come to those who wait, though. I might just have a little bit more wait in me than I thought. I suppose I have the U.S. Army to thank for that.

I waited a whole year to take this homecoming picture. One entire year on the man I love.

Surely, I’ll make it a couple more weeks on my sweet baby to decide to make his way into my arms. So, I wait.

Favorite Days

“Describe your favorite day.”

Every form of this question has left me feeling baffled and slightly sad when I heard it asked. Am I supposed to have a very favorite day that sticks out in my mind? Furthermore, should I be answering these questions like a good little lady by saying “my wedding day”? Or as a Christian, “the day I was saved”… Or when I’m a mother, will I say “the day K was born”?

I can’t imagine the latter. Maybe the day after K is born. I’m no masochist.

Still, I can’t imagine choosing one day in my entire life that is the most special to me. Perhaps this is a good thing because it may insinuate that I have many wonderful days, which I do. I’m not sure I could even choose a favorite day this year, but there are many runners-up. Walk down memory lane with me?

Captain J (pictured above) and I were in a small town in Alaska just beginning our journey across America. We were bordering Canada while our friends back in Fairbanks were experiencing an ice storm that debilitated the city for a while. Meanwhile, we were enjoying a mostly snow free experience in Alaska in November, which is almost unheard of for this area. The wind was fierce in that little town. It whipped our faces and watered our eyes as we fought against it with a vengeance. Who else would walk our pups? This day was beautiful to me because we were together, experiencing a quaint town, and marveling in our last taste of Alaska for a long time. It’s one of my favorite days because we were headed to the lower 48 on a journey that had no time constraints. I cherish uninterrupted time with my soldier when I come across it.

Or maybe my favorite day is this one- when we felt warmth on our faces in sunny California for the first time in a long time. We drove the scenic route that meandered along the ocean for miles. Huge crashing waves provided our picture perfect views, waves we just aren’t accustomed to as East Coasters. There was a man in front of us on our drive riding his motorcycle. We got a chance to talk with him; he was discovering our great country with little more than the clothes on his back and the gas in his tank. As we walked away, we day dreamed about having few responsibilities and the freedom to just simply go.

It might have been this day as my brother, sister, and I snuck off to take pictures for my mom as a surprise Christmas gift. Ever terrible liars, Jake and I dodged phone calls from my mom who was questioning the original lie that “we really wanted to try out the new restaurant in Tellico”. Paige didn’t have service that night or if she did it was sketchy at best. Again, I love uninterrupted time with people I love. We took photos, ate, and boy, did we laugh. It was a great day (Note: No, we did not give the above photo as a gift. ha)

Or perhaps it was the day we got to finally announce that a baby would be making his way into the world to my family.

It could have easily been this day when Captain J and I walked hand in hand along Tybee Island in Georgia for Valentine’s Day weekend. We strolled, imagining the next time we took a trip to the beach that we’d have a son or daughter in tow.

This day was so memorable for me, too. Many of my closest friends were in the same place at the same time, a rarity in military life. I prepared a breakfast brunch for them as my mom decorated the back porch to see that everything was perfect! This was to be our last trip back to Tennessee before we moved for the second time in less than a year.

See? These are just a few. I don’t know that I can pick just one special day because God has blessed me with so many.

Do you have a favorite day?

Innovative

I love my husband for many reasons.

One of them should be mentioned here now- He’s innovative. Driven. Determined. Logistical.

You may be thinking, of course he is- He’s a U.S. Army Officer. Mmmkay, scratch that. You probably weren’t thinking that.

Anyway, the point is he provides for this little family in any way he can. This past week he has really stepped up to the plate in trying to make our home for the time being, a home. The other day he got this brilliant idea to make his own grill using materials around the house. I thought he was batty and was ready to simply check out some to-go menus when he proclaimed, “I’m going to pick up some steaks.”

Oh, gracious.

I thought, “There’s no tellin’ what I’m going to have to eat tonight”, but I said, “Okay, love you! I’m staying here” {in the air conditioning, thank you}.

By nightfall we had quite the feast.

We had steak, grilled onions and cucumbers, complete with a candlelit ambience. All eaten on paper plates and a large Army tote, it was perfect.

It doesn’t take much to have a nice evening with my husband, though. We enjoyed the rare breeze that a June night in Georgia offered us by sitting in camping chairs outside, watching the dogs play, and talking while the food cooked. Pretty soon, quiet evenings such as this will cease to exist with the arrival of Baby K. Better enjoy it while we can!

It’s days like these I like to store away in my memory forever.

Oh, the places you’ll go

Captain J and I hit up Gatlinburg last weekend, hoping for a reprieve from the heat and humidity. Boy, were we way off base with those hopes and dreams. It was so hot! I think I forget every year how hard it can be to breathe in said conditions or perhaps my shortness of breath can be blamed on the little babe inside my belly. Either way, Tennessee is miserable this time of year.

Worse even is Georgia. Today the thermometer in my car read 104. I’ll not be going back outside this week unless I have to. People keep warning me that Louisiana will be worse. I can’t, nor do I want to, imagine this. It’s funny to think about the various places and extreme temperatures we’ve experienced in the last year and a half. We’ve gone from fifty below zero in Alaska to one hundred and four above in that time period. That’s a 150+ degree difference. Yikes!

Oh, the places you’ll go.

Speaking of, while in G-burg we visited our place of marital oneness for a quick snap of a photo. We pretended to get married at this lovely church with a pretty red door, but in actuality I just admired that church as we passed and made Captain J pull over for a few pictures. Really, we found the cheapest place in town and said our I do’s in under 15 minutes.

So here’s the big reveal. We actually got hitched here:

and have I said lately that I wouldn’t change a thing?! I love that man more and more every day; it doesn’t matter how we made a commitment to God and each other. It just matters that we did it!

P.S.- Have you entered my giveaway yet? As it stands now, you’ve got a pretty remarkable chance of winning!

Later, taters.

hoping and praying

I like to play countdown games with the toaster. “5-4-3-2-1” and up pops the poptart. Perfect timing.

I enjoy a tall glass of water and a hot cup of decaf tea in the morning.

I don’t enjoy waking up with that old familiar feeling of dread, queasiness, and gloom.

Army Times can be both a helpful tool and a terrible nuisance. When J was deployed, I checked the website regularly, hoping and praying there was no news from Diyala Providence, Iraq. Now, I find myself searching for news from Afghanistan. Yesterday, my heart sank as I read the latest:

“Three Fort Wainwright soldiers have been killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

Army officials say the incident happened while the soldiers were on mounted patrol Monday afternoon in the city of Spin Ghbarga.

A fourth soldier, assigned to the unit the Alaska-based soldiers are replacing, also was killed.

Officials say two other soldiers from the brigade were wounded.

The 4,000 soldiers of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division at Fort Wainwright, began deploying to Afghanistan in mid-April.

Army officials say that during the unit’s last deployment, from September 2008 to August 2009, it experienced five combat and two noncombat deaths.

Names of the soldiers killed were not released pending notification of relatives.”

Although, the terror I used to feel when hearing similar news those years ago has subsided, my worry and fear for those soldiers that Captain J served beside doesn’t go away. Friends are over there. It’s so easy to forget.

More than anything, I pray for my friends left behind by these brave soldiers. I remember what it’s like to not know. Feeling completely helpless and just trying to get through the day, hoping the communication outage will lift and that voice will be heard saying, “I’m safe” is a mixture of a emotions I cannot explain nor want to experience ever again.

I’m awake because at 0500 when J rolled out of bed to head into PT, I had to hug his neck and remind him how glad I am that he is home. Whether home is Georgia or Louisiana now, it doesn’t matter. He’s with me and I am forever grateful that I’m not going through this pregnancy alone.

Some of my brave friends can’t say the same. Please pray for them. For all the people left behind, for all the men and women serving- my thoughts and prayers are with you often.

Career Vlog (and a Mrs. K announcement)

Mondays are good for blog hops, aren’t they? I recorded this vlog for (Mil)ing It Over at Chances I’m Taking, but I thought it would be applicable for Military Monday, as well. Spouses, I would love to hear what you all have to say about your career struggles and triumphs! Please head over to Jenn’s page to link up your experiences there. And also, if you’re feelin’ frisky- head to Candace’s page to link up any recent military related post there. Have a great day!

So there I was…

On the morning of my wedding day, January 04, 2010, happy as a lark. It was all so surreal. Was I really ‘goin’ to the chapel’? And ‘Gonna get married?’ Yes, yes I was.

I came across some photos that I didn’t know I had in my possession and I had to share. Most of you know, our wedding ceremony was thrown together in just a few days. There were no guests, no stressors, nothing. It was just me and him.

I remember thinking, “Does he really want to marry this girl, the one with the ‘Animal’ panties on?”

What?! Maybe I needed to do laundry! Give me a break, people.

I also wondered what I’d do without the women in my life. It’s no surprise that I’m not the best at hair and makeup. They helped me get all dolled up for my big day.

Everyone always seems to say, “I haven’t weighed that since my wedding” or something along those lines. So as I squeezed into my size 2 wedding dress, I remember hoping that I would be able to wear it again someday. You know, just to try it on for size, make sure it still fits…

Somehow the wedding all came together. I had something new-

Something(s) borrowed-

And something blue-

As you can see, there was no nervousness, no second thoughts, no need to worry about a thing. I was only blissfully happy, waiting on my man to pick me up so we could go get hitched!

Sure, the day wasn’t completely perfect. I mean, just look at J’s uniform. He forgot his Ranger Tab back in Alaska, which just about killed him. And me, you’ll remember that I forgot my big girl panties and had to leave my pride with them. But other than that- yes, that day was dreamy.

That day I married my best friend.

Happily Ever After.