Community

We have lived off base and have for my husband's entire career. This has left us somewhat disconnected with the community that is the military. When ever we do attend a military function I am always amazed at the sense of family I feel.

Today we attended a Luau/fishing derby on base. I also needed a new I.D., so we were killing two birds with one stone. My husband took Evan up with him to the grill while I stayed back with Harry trying to keep him entertained until food came so that his hungry maw could be stuffed. There were two guys chatting at the table. One saw that Harry was eying his hot dog and offered up some of it for him. He then proceeded to engage me in conversation. I don't think that there are many instances in the "real world" where perfect strangers would be this kind or genuinely interested in perfect strangers. I am not sure that many civilian work places would have the same camaraderie that the military seems to have in great abundance.

On a different note, I hate my I.D. picture with a passion. They always seem to turn out horrible, but this one tops all the others. My hair looks crappy, I have a zit on my chin and my smile looks awful. Hopefully my husband will make rank soon so I can get a new one done. Next time I am going to plan ahead and have someone go my makeup and hair. That will take care of the two worst offenders.

Bleh

I have been feeling very stressed out lately. I have been really trying to pack too much into my day and it shows. I hate feeling rushed and needing to be somewhere or doing something all day. I need to have down time and so do the kids. Yesterday at physical therapy Evan was very grumpy and was wanting to just run around because much of Tuesday he was in the car with me while I was running errands.

One thing I know that I will be cutting out is the Spouse's Association. I can't take it any more. The reason there was no one there on Tuesday was because I came early. My stressed out mind made me go at the wrong time. I hardly go to any of the activities that they put on because they are generally on base and that is a long drive to do things that I can do here in my own town. I only went because I felt I should. I could do a whole post on how some women think that they play an important role in how their husband does in making rank. I was sort of subliminally buying into that but now I have just decided that it is not worth the effort since it doesn't really matter any way. My husband is doing just fine without me.

I am not too sure what else I can cut out of my life. One thing that would free up a ton of time is not going to physical therapy for Evan but that is not exactly something I can do and still feel like I am a decent mother. He has a gimpy arm and really needs the therapy badly if he has any chance at regaining any use of it.

What I really have been wanting to do all week is go shopping. I want to buy myself a few dressy tops for church. I only have two and one is long sleeved so it is getting too hot to wear now. I hate that the majority of my wardrobe is tshirts and jeans. I am also toying around with the idea of getting shorts for the summer but I hate showing off my horribly white legs. Shorts would also mean that I have to shave on a semi regular basis. I may just get long skirts which will cover the casper legs and still be cooler than wearing pants. I just haven't had the time I need to even go looking. These are things that I can't just pick up at Target. It will require a heavy duty all day search, possibly several days of heavy duty shopping. I think that I may possibly do this shopping when we go on our vacation in June. I will have more of a selection and I will have babysitters so I can actually try things on.

I guess the whole point of this post is that I need a vacation. Bad! Of course it will not be as exciting as I had planned since just last week my mother fell off her bike and cracked her pelvis and her left elbow. The next day my sister E was running on wet grass slipped and snapped her ankle. Sadly those two are the main people that I leave the kids with when I am there visiting. They should be more mobile when we arrive but they both had to take sick leave and vacation time for this, so they will not have as much free time when we come. The main thing that is important is that they have both promised that they can watch the kids for our fifth anniversary celebration. My husband and I will be leaving the kids for a few days and having a romantic getaway. Where? I am still trying to figure that one out but we will be getting out come hell or high water. I think I am going to include a massage for me and some pampering.

I have had one crazy day!

I am tired!!! I have been running around all day doing one thing or another. A lot of it was because I had signed up to bring the snack for the Spouse's Association meeting that was supposed to be tonight. I rush to get everything together, drive the long drive out there and then wait for someone to show up. No one came, so I thought maybe I had the date wrong or something. I get home and check my schedule and yep I had the right day. I had even emailed the president about the location of the meeting. I just emailed the president but I am rather ticked off about the whole thing. Now I have a crapload of fruit in the fridge and some Diet Coke which no one in my house drinks (I figure if I am gonna drink bad stuff I may as well have it taste good). *sigh* I need to go to bed.

A Fun Evening

I went to the monthly gal's night out that the spouses association does every month. It was great because while there a met a new person who had just transferred in. What was especially remarkable about her was that her son has a heart defect. It was my first time meeting a heart mother that was in the same branch of the military as we are. Heck it was only my second time meeting a heart mom, so I was pretty excited. Another funny thing was that she has the same name as me so I have no excuse for forgetting it.

Her son ended up needing a transplant to help with his issues, so I am very lucky on that front. She mentioned that it was very refreshing to be able to talk with someone that knows what it is like to have a child go through the things that our kids have gone through. Her son is getting his treatment at a different hospital that Evan goes too so we can't discuss different doctors. I had toyed with the idea of moving his care to that hospital simply for convince (Evan's GI doctor is there) but I just could not. The doctors and nurses at Evan's hospital are like family to me. They care about him so much.

Something that she mentioned that really resonated with me was that going through all of this really ages you mentally. You have to grow up so fast when you have a child with health issues. Looking back on how I was pre Evan and seeing how I am now there is a huge difference. Some of this is just being a parent in general but a lot of it is making life or death decisions for your child. I am really looking forward to getting to knowing her better.

Harry giving Evan a taste of what is to come: Dogpile on Evan!!!!!!

Fun for the kids

Every now and then I decide that we should actually pretend like we are a part of the military community. We get up and go to whatever activity is going on and put in an appearance. Today that activity was an Easter egg hunt put on for the kids. They also had free breakfast at the galley, woo hoo! (NOT) The food was standard cafeteria fare.

Apparently Seafood Friday is a grand spectacle but we have never made it out for that. We rarely do to anything on base because we don't live there and it is a half hour drive from where we do reside. The upside to not living on base is that we have shopping near by and don't have to live out in the sticks. Downside is that we hardly know any one, so the activity was pretty lame for me socializing wise. I need to get more involved with the spouse's association but after a long day with the kids I am often too tired to attend the meetings.

Evan had fun picking up the eggs and putting them in the bag. Sadly the eggs for the younger kids were all filled with animal crackers. I was secretly hoping that they would be filled with candy that I could steal. Evan seems to like the animal crackers because he is cramming them in his mouth as I type this. I guess I am going to have to buy my own dang candy.

Another 6 Years

Today my husband just reenlisted in the military for another six years. This pretty much guarantees that he will be going career since you either invest 20 years in the military or you get no retirement. My husband was very much on the fence about this pre Evan. He had this thought that there was this perfect job out there where no one would annoy him and the working position would be perfect.

Reality, in the form of Evan's heart defect, convinced him that it is best for the family that he stay in. Evan's heart defect means that insurance will be a huge problem for us. He could make more money on the outside but then we would have to pay insane premiums for bad coverage which would eat up any gains we would make in salary. We would also most likely be making too much money to qualify for state aide, which I would not even want my son on unless we really had to. I don't want him to be treated like a charity case.

We also get a nice bonus which will be saved for the day when we move to a state without insane housing prices. My husband longs for a house of his own, he has since we got married. He was a real estate agent pre-military but he is such a nice guy that he only managed to sell one house and it was to his sister. The funny thing is that house was only a few houses away from my parents so they keep in better contact with them that we do. He had us looking at houses when all we could qualify for was a $60, 000 loan. Even in a place without the insane prices of California (we were in Utah at the time) that much does not buy you a lot.

I think that all in all the military is a good place for our family right now. We will have to be moving around a lot, but I kind of like the thrill of moving to a place I have never seen before and finding housing in 10 days. I have met a lot of neat people and with the internet I do not have to loose contact with them. I love that this job provides enough money for the family that I am able to stay at home with the kids. Here's to another six years!!! Cheers!