Ground Control to Major Mom

Doing this nice and early because the rest of my Thursday is pretty crazy!

1. With PCS moves happening every few years, do you take the time to paint and decorate your home? submitted by Life as Mrs. JPT

That would be YES!  When we own our house, we have always taken time to paint, not necessarily for the color, but more because we prefer higher quality paint on our walls to keep them clean.  At our last house in Nebraska, even though we had a rental, the paint was such poor quality (original homebuilder paint, I think) we got permission from the homeowner to paint several of the rooms with a higher quality paint, and also got permission from him to change some of the colors.

As for decorating, we keep it minimal.  No permanent stenciling or border paper.  We will make sure to hang items on our walls (the kids find it comforting, I know).

2. If you could live in any home on a television series, what would it be? submitted by Standing By Him

If you mean a home based on the house itself, the layout and the decorating, it would have to be any of the homes on Wisteria Lane on ABC’s “Desperate Housewives”.  Somehow they all look so beautiful.  I could never get my house looking that nice.  Which is how you know it’s a TV show, right?  Lynette’s semi-chaotic house is probably the closest to my own in terms of clutter.

3. What inspired you to start your blog?  submitted by Pink Combat Boots

My kids and my extended family.  Without having the grandparents nearby we heavily rely on the internet to share photos and videos of the boys.  I started my blogging — the storytelling aspect — on MySpace…WAY BACK before Facebook was presented to the masses.  My husband had a Facebook account because he was in Grad School in 2005-2008.  I started my Blogger blog in late 2007 so more than just MySpace friends could see the stories and pictures.  Most of the posts at the time were about the kids and some of the crafts and recipes we did.  Very little about the military life, since it wasn’t quite so military when my husband was in grad school.

4. What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen on base? submitted by Adventures in Life

Most Air Force bases have a fire training area way over on the far side of the runway.  There’s always this burned-out welded together fuselage that gets set on fire time and time again so the firefighters can train on them.  Here’s an example of one at Cannon AFB, but if you do a Google Image Search on “air force base fire training plane” you’ll see dozens of them at assorted AF bases.

Don’t let this alarm you, it’s a “training” aircraft fire at Dover AFB.  Most Air Force bases have a fire training fuselage tucked away somewhere on the base.  Photo courtesy of The Dover Post.

The burned out aircraft aren’t very good looking and always looks rather shocking on an otherwise clean and professional looking base.

5. Which historical figure (politician, writer, artist, scientist, actor, etc…) would you like to have dinner with?  submitted by Army of Two

This is a toughie.  There are so many.  I think Abraham Lincoln would be towards the top of the list though.  Perhaps because it’s on my mind, I’ve been thinking about how this man had to do something pretty amazing.  He had a mutiny on his hands on several fronts, and had to make some VERY difficult decisions and essentially succeeded in keeping this nation together.  And to top that off, remember that this was before the days of telephone or Internet.  So communication was low and slow.  Heck, this was even 15 years before the invention of electricity!  At least he had the telegraph, right?

1. What is your must have gadget? submitted by Flying High With My Flyboy

That goes without saying.  My iPhone.  It’s been a paradigm shift for me, but I’m becoming more and more reliant on it, and feeling great about becoming paperless!  Shopping lists, calendars, little notepads…all electronic!  And it integrates so seamlessly with my Macbook!

2. How does your adulthood compare to what you imagined it would be like when you were a little kid? submitted by L to the Third

I never thought I’d (a) join the military myself or (b) marry a military member…especially after watching what my mother went through as a Navy Wife for 27 years!  Offers by the Air Force for pay for my college was all the carrot-on-a-stick that I needed.  But I soon realized that being in a military community is comforting to me…and I’m now nervous about how my life will be when none of us in the household is military.  And that’s coming up sooner than one would think!

3. What is your favorite chocolate recipe?  submitted by Our First Deployment

Pioneer Woman’s Chocolate Pie!  It’s DIVINE, and I do make it with raw eggs, I have to admit.  Ironic, I was just contemplating making one tonight…

4. How do you deal with military life when it gets to be to much or to hard? submitted by Combat Boots And Pointe Shoes


This is a toughie.  I’ve had my REALLY REALLY REALLY hard days before…and usually it takes a very little reminder somewhere about what we’re here for.  


On 9/11/01, my husband was TDY to downtown Seattle and I was very afraid for him.  I was active duty at the time, and we were all busy with accountability and stuff, but I remember it was the unknown that is truly scary.  “Was Al Quada intending to target other large American cities?”  Precautionary measures were established in large metropolitan areas and my husband and I weren’t even sure when we’d see each other again — our colleagues were getting called to extended duty/deployment standby left and right.  We were both grad students at the time, so we wouldn’t be deploying, but I still have distinctive memories of that fear of the unknown.  


After another 2 days in Seattle, Dave and his colleagues drove nearly 48 hours almost straight through from Seattle back home to Dayton, Ohio.  The longest week of my life…


How did I deal?  I leaned on my friends.  I leaned very heavily on my friends…and they came through for me.  Emotionally, and practically.  Don’t ever shut out the offers for help…ever!

5. What piece of advice would you give a new Military spouse facing their first deployment?  submitted by The Albrecht Squad


See #4 above.  Spouses SHOULD be getting plenty of offers of assistance.  At least that’s always a goal of mine, and when my husband becomes a commander later this year, it will be a priority of mine.


Don’t be afraid to accept the help of others.  It doesn’t make you weak…it doesn’t make you a bad spouse or parent.  Allow someone else to watch your kids, even if it’s 2-4 hours per month, to get out and spend some time to yourself.  I know of spouses who committed suicide because he/she felt overwhelmed with keeping up with the house, the kids, and the emotional stresses of missing his/her deployed spouse.  


There’s no reason to be overwhelmed…if all else fails, pay a visit to your chaplain or the Family Readiness Center.  There are lots of programs out there…you aren’t going through it alone!!!  Not by a LONG SHOT!

I’m putting the number with the title to correlate them to Wife of a Sailor’s original questionnaires.

Here are this week’s questions and my answers (and I’m finally starting to get the hang of the formatting with these):


1. What are some of your ideas for staying connected with family…you know, those people we moved thousands of miles away from? submitted by Live it. Love it (or not). Write About It


Webcams, Skype, cell phones, etc.  This blog, and our social networking sites.  As a military brat myself, I remember my Mom sitting me down and having me write letters to my Dad once a week.  He was in the Navy and spent 6-months at a time deployed when he was on sea duty.  Little did I realize that sometimes those letters would arrive in a clump, depending on his opstempo and port schedule.  And there was nothing more spectacular than getting a letter from my Dad in reply!


I think about how well deployed folks have it these days.  Even the most forward deployed troops can get to an internet connection occasionally these days.  That’s so impressive!


2. What’s the most romantic gift you have GIVEN? submitted by Painting My Canvas

This past Valentine’s Day my husband sent me on a scavenger hunt throughout our house, searching for memories of our early days, taking me right up through our two kids’ births, ending up with a pair of pretty earrings.


3. Would you encourage your child, if they came to you and wanted to join the military?  submitted by Perfectly Imperfect

Abso-freakin-lutely!  There’s very little more honorable for my sons to do.  I might, ahem, massage/inspire what service/career fields they’d want to do but I would never ever ever discourage them!


4. What is your least favorite bill to pay and why? submitted by A Little of This, A Little of That

Our bill to AT&T.  It’s a combined home phone, cell phone, and high-speed Internet bill.  Don’t get me wrong, I love our iPhones, our high-speed internet, and our cheap long distance service so we can talk to our relatives.  But the amount of $$$ spent for those services seem to get more and more expensive, contrary to the typical trend of technology getting cheaper with time.  I just did our mid-month bill-paying this morning and seeing that $250 combined bill to AT&T is frustrating every. single. month.


5. What is the proudest moment you’ve had as a military spouse?  submitted by Our Okinawa Life

When my husband was selected for squadron command.  My opinion is that career military officers should be aspiring to command troops and resources.  It’s what they train for and in my view is the ultimate accomplishment.  (I fully understand that not everyone shares my view, hopefully we can agree to disagree 🙂  I am so proud that my husband was selected to be an Air Force weather squadron commander last fall and will be taking his command this summer.  He’s going to be awesome, even if we have to say goodbye to vacations for a couple years, since he’ll also be extremely busy.

These are kinda fun!

Here are this week’s questions and my answers (pardon all the questions being numbered “1”, I’m in a hurry and I’m having formatting issues):

1. During military separations (whether short or long) how do you keep yourself positive and motivated? submitted by Married/Single Parent

1. What is your favorite concert you have ever been to? submitted by Young but Not (Completely) Dumb

1. What do you miss most about your “hometown”?  submitted by A Florida Girl and Her Soldier

1. If you could run in any race, which charity would you choose to support? submitted by Wookie & Co.

1. You find out Willy Wonka is your father, what 3 course meal do you INSIST he create in that stick of gum?  submitted by A{muse}ing Mommy on a Pink Park Bench

I recently discovered Wife of a Sailor while wandering through the Blogosphere looking for….well I can’t remember what.

She has helped bring together dozens and dozens of other military spouse bloggers.  I had sent “Wifey” a note a few weeks ago expressing my appreciation for this project she does: “MilSpouse Friday Fill-in“.  It’s been fun to read others’ responses, but this is the first week I’m taking part.  On Thursdays she posts the questions, then you post the answers on your own blog and then send her your post with the answers.  It draws all these other military spouse bloggers together.  Very clever!

So here are this weeks’ questions, and my answers.  It’s going to be worded somewhat formally since a several new readers will be seeing it.

Do you or your {spouse} ever wish your {spouse} was in a different branch of the military?

Funny this was asked, because my husband actually inquired into transferring into the Navy in the late 1990s.  The Air Force made some significant changes to our (“our”, since I was on active duty at the time) career field in the late 1990s, and a lot of opportunities to be stationed overseas and in more parts of the country went away.  Ironically, the Navy did similar consolidations with their weather career field about 7-8 years after the Air Force did, and the issue became moot.

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

I can’t think of any place that we absolutely wouldn’t at least try.  Especially overseas.  If we can come along, we certainly will!  Fort Hood, TX and Fort Irwin, CA are high up on an “almost No Way” list, but it doesn’t look like he’d get stationed there.

If you could be one age forever, what age would you choose and why?

27.  I felt like I was on top of the world when I was 27, for some reason.  The only things missing were the kids, I didn’t have my first son till I was almost 28.

If you were a breakfast cereal, which one would you be?

Life.  Yummy AND nutritious!  The name says it all 🙂

What is your morning beverage of choice and why?

About 16 oz. of homemade coffee, with 2% milk and 2 TBSP. of sugar.  I had a couple years where I made this for myself EVERY morning, but I’ve been cutting back to just 1-2x per week.