Our Getaway

Two weeks ago, Joel and I left for a little post-deployment getaway.  We left Grace and Autumn with my parents and headed to out of town.  Our getaway was as much to get away from the stresses of life as it was to work on strengthening our marriage.

Seven months apart changes a person and it changes a marriage.  A deployment marriage is hard - communication is limited and the time that you do get to talk is brief, at best.  Joel and I knew from our experience after he came back from Iraq in 2007, that our marriage has to be first priority.  And after seven months apart, we knew we had to get away together after he came home.

We rented a cabin in the middle of the woods - away from everything.  For four days, we read, slept, watched movies, ate and enjoyed the quietness that nature gave to us.  We woke up every morning with no stress - no expectations on me for the day ahead.  It was great to cook together, laugh together over last season's Office and focus on each other.

The view from our bed

There were lots of dead things hanging from the walls

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In

Head over to Wife of a Sailor and join in this week!

1.Do you or your {spouse} ever wish your {spouse} was in a different branch of the military? submitted by The Turner Family

Joel talks frequently about wishing he had enlisted with the Army  instead of the Air Force.  Honestly, though, I much prefer the Air Force deployment length!


2.What duty station(s) are on your “No Way, Hell No, Not Going, Have Fun Unaccompanied” list and why? submitted by Every Branch

We're Guard, so unless Joel goes to an active base, this isn't something we've ever discussed.

3.If you could be one age forever, what age would you choose and why? submitted by Three Krakens

I'm turning 30 in just a few weeks.  So, I'm picking 29.

4.If you were a breakfast cereal, which one would you be? submitted by the C.W.

Lucky Charms.  It's fun, colorful, deliciously sweet & it makes you happy.  But there's still room for improvement.  (Hello, nasty oats)
5.What is your morning beverage of choice and why? submitted by NH Girl Displaced
 
Besides the usual coffee with lots of cream, I love the Bolthouse Farms Berry Boost smoothie!

Wednesday Weigh-In

Joel and I were away last week on Wednesday, so I had a week break from the scale.  I was back on it this morning and was happy to see that I'm back to where I was before Joel got home.  I have about 3 pounds to go now at this point.

Tomorrow, I have a date with my running shoes... and my inhaler.

A Very Naughty Blogger

I know I've been slacking as a blogger since Joel came home.  There have been so many times that I planned to sit down and do a post, but I've been constantly distracted lately.

I do have plans to blog more soon - I want to share about how our adjustment has been, the getaway that Joel and I took last week and an update about Autumn's helmet.  I'll be back on it soon.  Promise!!!  Miss you all.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In

Thanks, Wife of a Sailor!

1.Aside from no deployments, what is one thing you would want to make the MilSpouse life “perfect”? submitted by Oh How Delightful
A free on-call maintenance man during deployments.


2.Just how many peppers did Peter Piper pick? submitted by Married into Army
Probably 8

3.If you could have any career in the world with nothing holding you back, what would you do? submitted by It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To
With some education first, I would love to go into landscape design.

4.Do you have a service oriented tattoo and if so what is it. If you don’t what would you get? submitted by The Squid’s Accomplice
Ahhhh, the great tattoo debate...  If I were to get one, I would get beloved in a very discreet spot.

5.Imagine a block of time has opened up in your busy day for you to take a class in anything you like. What subject would you choose? submitted by To The Nth
Botany

Welcome Home Banner

About a month before Joel came home, I ordered his welcome home banner.  I had heard about a company who offered free custom welcome home banners and cards for soldiers, but it took a bit of digging to track down the company.  BuildASign.com has a selection of welcome home and "In Memory" banners that are completely customizable.  It took me less than a minute to change the text on the banner to read as I wanted.  The company also has jumbo cards that would be fun to send for special occasions while your troop is deployed or to bring with when they come home.

The banner was free.  All I paid for was the cost of shipping.  The banner is really well-made and I'm sure we'll have no trouble using it again.  It took less than a week for it to be delivered and the communication from the company was outstanding.

Just through I'd pass this on to you - hope it'll be useful.  And I'm more than happy to give credit to a great company who supports our troops in such a practical way!

NOTE:  I am in no way affiliated with BuildASign.com

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In

Head over to Wife of a Sailor to see what other MilSpouses are saying this week.

1.What is your favorite MilSpouse blog (not including Wife of a Sailor who we all love, or your own)? submitted by Our Crazy Life (Wifey note: whaaaat? You can’t say my blog? No fun! LOL, just kidding)
I love {Mis}Adventures of an Army Wife.  When I was thinking of starting up a blog, she was actually the first blogger that I found and I've really enjoyed keeping up with her since.

2.What are your favorite perks about your s/o being deployed (we all know there are perks)? submitted by Ramblings of a Marine Wife
Well, we just finished a deployment, so right now all that comes to mind are the 1,000+ perks of having my husband home!  But I guess there are a few benefits - no day-to-day bickering, no "Joel messes" around the house and deployments give us a bit of a financial boost.

3.How long did you date your before getting engaged? Married? submitted by Utterly Chaotic
Joel and I dated for 6 months before we got engaged and we were engaged for just 3 months.

4.What do you think your would do if s/he wasn’t in the military? submitted by Adventures of M-Squared
My guess would be that Joel would have been an engineer.... he's more than halfway through his engineering program, but I'm not sure he'll ever pursue that professionally.

(I cheated and decided to ask him.  I was right!)

5.If you could talk to the Secretary of (fill in your appropriate branch) what is one suggestion you would like to bring to their attention in order to improve the lives of military families? submitted by My Life as His (Air Force) Wife
I know this is pretty broad, but I think I would suggest they pursue more effective ways to communicate about military benefits.  It seems that each unit on base is responsible for communicating these benefits, and some do a much better job than others.  I feel that there is so much information that we need or could benefit from that we just don't know.  And I'm not sure if that's unique to the Guard or if Active Duty also has these problems.