What is a MILITARY Wife?

They may look different and each is wonderfully unique, but this what they have in common.They have THIS IN COMMON!
Lots of moving--- Moving.
Moving.
Moving far from home.
Moving two cars, three kids and one dog----all riding with HER of course.
Moving sofas to basements because they won't go in THIS house.
Moving curtains that won't fit.
Moving jobs and certifications and professional development hours.
Moving away from friends, moving toward new friends.
Moving her most important luggage; her trunkful of memories.
Often waiting-
Waiting, waiting, waiting for housing;
waiting for orders; waiting for deployment; waiting for reunion;
waiting for phones calls;
Waiting for the new curtains to arrive;
waiting for him to come home for dinner----AGAIN!
They call her 'military dependent', but she knows better.
She can balance a checkbook.
Handle the yard work.
Fix a noisy toilet.
She is intimately familiar with drywall, anchors, and toggle bolts.
She can file the taxes, sell a house, buy a car, or set up a move, -- all with ONE Power of Attorney.
She welcomes neighbors that don't welcome her.
Reinvents her career with every PCS; locates a house in the desert, the arctic, or the deep south and learns to call them all 'home'.
She MAKES them all home.
She is fiercely IN-dependent.
Military Wives are somewhat hasty.
They leap into decorating, leadership, volunteering, career alternatives, churches and friendships.
They don't have 15 years to get to know people.
Their roots are short but flexible.
They plant annuals for themselves and Perennials for those who come after them.
Military Wives quickly learn to value each other.
They connect over coffee, rely on the spouse-network and accept offers of friendship and favors and record addresses in pencil.
Military Wives have a common bond.
The Military Wife has a husband unlike other husbands his commitment is unique.
He doesn't have a job, he has a 'mission' he can't just decide to quit he's on-call for his country 24/7 but for you, he'sthe most unreliable guy in town!His language is foreign:
TDY
PCS
OPR
ACC
BDU
And so, a Military Wife is a translator for her family and his.She is the long-distance link to keep them informed, the glue that holds them together.
Military Wife has her moments----
She wants to wring his neck, dye his uniform pink, and refuse to move to Siberia.
But she pulls herself together.
Give her a few days, a travel brochure, a long hot bath, a pledge to the flag, and a wedding picture.
And she goes.
She packs.
She moves.
She follows.
Why?
What for?
How come?
You may think it is because she has lost her mind.But actually it is because she has lost her heart.
It was stolen from her by a man...Who puts duty first.
Who longs to deploy.
Who salutes the flag.
And whose boots in the doorway remind her that as long as he is her Military husband,
She will remain his Military wife.

Caught Standing

So, the other day I plopped Presley down in front of a new block toy a friend gave us so that i could go to do something in the kitchen. I wasn't gone two minutes and when I walked back in Presley was standing next to the block. YES, you heard me right, STANDING!!! She had pulled herself up and was playing with the top of the block. I proceeded to yell which made her turn, look, let go and then fall!! However, later in the day she did it again and I was able to contain myself and grab the camera. Well, just as I was snapping the picture she went back to her knee. You get the idea, though! Yes, she is in the same Halloween onesie she has
worn all week. We got it last Saturday and plan on using the mess out of it this week.

6 month check up

Taken yesterday at another halloween party

Presley had her 6 month check up yesterday. Besides the shots all went well. She is a growing girl and developing very nicely! The one thing the doctor kept commenting on is how social she is. The doctor couldn't believe she was as social as she is considering she is a home-care baby!!

Her Stats:
Weighing in at 14lbs 13oz
Standing at 25 1/2 inches

A cold front has come to Gainesville and this morning I had an interesting time finding Presley something to wear. It is finally cold enough for her to wear a hat and she was super cute!! Now that it is cold she doesn't fit a majority of the hats and socks that were given to her. Man! Oh well!! We are going to have to go digging through her things to find warm things she can wear because we are heading to an even cooler climate next week.

We are heading to DC on Saturday and are going to be there for a week. I can't wait to see my parents. I may be able to blog while I am there since they have DSL. So, hopefully I will have the time. Then that way I don't have to do it all in one blog. Ciao!

Halloween Weekend..

Ok, so it wasn't the actual Halloween weekend, but we had a lot of Halloween activities to do. First, Dusty was in town for the Arkansas/Ole Miss game. How did it go? WEll, I am not blogging about it if that tells you anything. Anyways, while he was here we decided to carve our pumpkin. It is so great having a kid. I do things now I have never done before. I had never carved a pumpkin til this weekend. Ok, so Dallas did the carving, but you get my drift. I did roast the pumpkin seeds afterwards. Wow, that is good. Presley loved the pumpkin carving. She liked the slimy insides. We had Dusty draw the face of the pumpkin because he is the family artist. Look at what he made for Dallas over the weekend. He drew it by hand with charcoal.


Presley had such a great time she fell asleep while we were putting the finishing touches on the pumpkin. So, after she woke up from her nap we got some pictures of her with her first carved jack-o-lantern!!

That night some friends of ours invited us to their church's Trunk or Treat. What a cool thing that was. Each car's trunk was tricked out with a theme and the famiy dressed according to that theme. There was a Flinstone car, an Indiana Jones car, a High School Musical car, etc. It was incredible. Although Presley slept for the majority of it when she woke up she was the "social butterfly" of the night! She looked so cute. OH, and this was the first time we put her in shoes. We haven't wanted to put shoes on her much and still don't want to for a while, but it was chilly and we needed something black on her feet. I made a little slide show for ya. If you want to see all the pictures click here.
Sorry for all the slide shows on my blog. I am a little obsessed. They make me happy!!!

6 months...

Presley turned 6 months old yesterday!! Can you believe it? I can't. Man, time is a funny thing. She changed our lives and has made me a better person. Well, at least I think so. I hated waking up in the morning and now, well I still hate waking up, but as soon as I see Presley it makes facing the day that much more pleasant. 6 months is such a yummy age. I think I want to trap her here forever. She totally engages in everything we do. She even tries to make us laugh instead of just laughing when we joke with her. She is so big and grown. Oh, and I thought she was cute before. NOPE! She is gorgeous now. I just love her!








What is "Little P" (coined by Dallas' sister) doing now?
She has been sitting unassisted for a month
She is eating solid foods
She tries to feed herself with her spoon
She talks to her animals as she tries to squeeze the stuffing out of them
She cackles when you tickle her
She lights up when someone that she knows walks in the room
She recognizes people she knows even if she hasn't seen them in a day or two
She sleeps 9hrs at night
AND....
She is already trying to crawl!!

I am not sure I can even stomach looking back to what life was without Presley. She was well worth the wait!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

For Brent..

As some of your know my big brother is in training for his deployment to Afghanistan. He will be in training for roughly 10 weeks and then will get his orders for Afghanistan. I will probably not blog about that until he is there for security reasons. He will get some time in between training and Afghanistan with his family! That time will be very needed at that point!

Anyways, I was on the phone with him yesterday and he was asking me to send him my blog address so he could keep up with Presley...and Dallas and I too!!! I was telling him how Presley is into squealing these days. Man is she going to be a talker. Lord, help us all!! So, here is a video. It is hilarious. The video definitely shows how she spends most of her morning testing out her lung capacity. However, in this particular video she chooses to do it with comedic timing. I happened to be on web cam with my mom when Presley started squealing. She often does that at the TV. Almost like she is talking back to whoever is on it. Anyways, my mom says (listen really closely to the video) "Presley you look just like your momma from the side!" To which Presley screams back at her at the top of her lungs!!! Hilarious! So, here is that video. I also made a movie for Brent. I'll save it til last!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Deployment is such a hard thing for the service member and their family. There is so much unknown if it is your first time or even your fifth time. Every family experiences deployment in their own way. For example, I had no children and happened to live in the same town as my parents during Dallas' first deployment and was able to be with family during the second. Crystal is in California, 1/2 a country away from her family, with a child in school and with a job that is an hour away from her house. Her and Brent only had two weeks to even talk about their life once he deployed. So, as you can imagine it is all still very new and hard.

Brent, be careful! Keep your head up and your heart home! Crystal, be strong for your family but remember yourself first. Remember the illustration given on airplanes? Give yourself the oxygen mask before you help others. Dylan, you help mommy when you can and remember that now your daddy is not just your hero but an American Hero as well. You be proud of that!! Our hearts are with all of you! And, from a Navy family to an Air Force family, "Fair Winds and Following Seas"!!

Prayer...

I wanted to ask each of you reading this blog to please keep my best friend Missy and her family in your prayers. As some of you know their little girl Bella has been having multiple tests done to figure out the cause of irregularity in one of her pupils. Praise God most of the scans and tests have come back normal, but they still aren't out of the woods. She has a 24hr observation at the hospital on Tuesday to do. They will have wires and cameras on her all day to monitor brain activity and her activity level for the day. I can't imagine how hard that is going to be for a 20mo old. So pray for little Bella not to be scared and for her little body to do what it needs to inorder for the doctors to figure out what is going on with little eye.

Missy and Bailey are hanging in there. They are scared, of course, but everytime I talk to them there is an incredible peace in their voices. That would be testiment to their incredible faith that God has this situation in control. I am totally blown away, especially with Missy being pregnant, that they can keep their cool!! However, that said, please pray that they continue to have this peace and that God will provide financially for them. They have great insurance, but 20% of 2 neuro specialists, 1 brain scan, 1 EEG, 1 24 hr stay in a hospital, gas to and from Charlotte(45min from their house) and food adds up quick. Missy has made the decision to be a stay-at-home mom which is an incredible decision but one that comes with major finanical sacrifices. Please keep this in your prayers

Some of you reading this may ask yourselves "why pray? Hasn't God already made up his mind on this?" Maybe so. However, prayer wasn't given to us as a way to change God's mind. It is a way that we can commune with God and ask for His comfort, His love and His peace to be with us and/or those that we love during times we don't understand. So, yes, please pray. It isn't here to change God. Prayer is here to change us!!

Missy, Bailey, and of course little Bella, our prayers are with you!