Mil-Spouse Round Up

Welcome to Mil-Spouse weekly Roundup. I have wonderful and sad news. The wonderful news is that I love this Round Up and have met amazing spouses through it. I have sad news. This is the last one. It makes me very sad because even when I did not participate I still lurked around on other blogs. Please head over to Riding the Rollercoaster and say hi and tell her WE NEED OUR WEEKLY ROUND UP. I know, I know I was screaming. So let’s go out with a bang and everyone link up and maybe it will convince her to continue. Okay back to the regular scheduled program.
Good wonderful morning to y’all. Okay really I do not say y’all but I do say enough southern things that my friend says I sound like Paula Dean. I did actually have a friend say her kid was not allowed around us because they picked up my accent. I on the other hand do not believe I have an accent. By the way my N button is not working right and this is driving me batty.
Now to tell you a little about myself: I am…………..thinking…………… thinking some more. Oh, I know first and most importantly I have a new puppy. Can we say harder to care for than a new born? H-E-L-P. I asked friends on facebook to describe my family so I could have some ideas of what to write. But they said too many nice things. Let’s see my husband and I are both from a state that has a lot of coal and beautiful mountains and is a place that most people make fun of. Any ideas? It has two initials.
I married my high school sweetheart. Long story but basically we dated in high school broke up and I moved 9 hours from home and 2 years later he followed me. When we married he was in the reserves. I had a decent job, he had a decent job but neither of us had benefits. And I wanted babies, I have always wanted babies, I still want babies. So shortly after we got married we decided he would go active. I found out during the move that we were pregnant with our first son. I will never forget those first few months. We lived in a 4 room shack as we called it and the army messed up our pay. For a month we literally ate PB &J that we bought from the PX with our star card. Hard to believe that was almost 17 years ago. Note to new spouses, burn the star card. We literally paid that stinken thing off last month.
In the last 17 years we have moved from Fort Campbell to Germany to Fort Campbell to Redstone Arsenal to Fort Bragg. We have had three more children. I have no clue where we will go next. I would love to go back over seas or even Hawaii. But can you imagine being our sponsor and being told a family with 6 kids, a dog, a cat, 16 suitcases, 8 cary-ons and a double stroller need transportation and housing. They would run for the hills.
My husband is currently a W2 in the Army. He has been in a total of 19 years. We have not decided when we will get out. I always tell everyone that it depends upon how fast he can finish his degree and how many more deployments I can handle. Rob has been to Bosnia, Kosovo, Albania, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iraq and is leaving shortly to go back to Afghanistan.
So now about me. Hi! I am Pam and sometimes I feel like I live on a roller coaster (wish I would have come up with that name for a blog, GENUIS). I am blessed to have 6 blessings in my home and love it. I write about my blessings, about homeschooling, baking and sewing and struggle. I have written about how hard military life can be and how amazing military life can be. I have also written about pregnancy loss and premature birth. Someday I want to write more about PTSD. I want to be real honest and help other spouses who have been through it. I am a social person. I love to have people over and love to talk on the phone. Oh man if my house needs clean I pick up my phone and find someone to talk to while I clean. I love to organize and straighten (although most of the time you would not know that) but I cannot stand to deep clean. I rarely mop floors or clean bathrooms. As a matter of fact during one deployment I paid someone to come in and dust and mop twice a month. It made a huge difference in my attitude. I never call my kids by their correct names. I often forget and leave food on the counter and feel guilt about being wasteful. I am very self conscious and you will catch me constantly explaining myself. Although I am getting better.
I love the military for a million and one reasons. I love that when we had a premature baby I did not have to worry about medical bills or when she needed specialist that they would be available. I love that we move. Seriously I love unpacking and organizing a house. I love that we meet new people. I dislike the hurry and wait part of it. He is leaving today, no in a month no yesterday and then not at all. Just this month we have been told block leave is cancelled and now NO Christmas holiday.
What else would you like to know about me? I am a pretty open book.
Pam