Memorial Day is For Remembering

So by now I'm sure many of you are out there enjoying your burgers and beer, seeing friends and family and turning up the radio or firing up the boat (wish I had one!). But, please, take a few moments out of your day to remember the reason you are off work and celebrating... in fact, remember the reason that you wake up every single day to a life where you are not oppressed, where you can go to any job you want, where your kids can hop on the bus and go to school where they can sing in the choir or play football to their hearts' content, where you can go to any church your heart desires, where you can call into a radio station or write an editorial in the local magazine just because you feel like it, where you can get home at any time of the night you want without fear of a curfew, where you can live a free life. But the price of that free life isn't free at all, is it? (I guess it's true that nothing in this life is really free!) Be the person in your group today who stands up and asks for a moment of silence. Or makes sure to include our troops in your mealtime prayer. Or takes your children to a military cemetery or a base or a museum and teaches them that this holiday is sacred and special. Too many people take today for granted. Let's us not make that same mistake, and use it to spread knowledge about the reality of the fact that in order to have a country that is the superpower of the world, our military members and their families sometimes make sacrifices bigger than our comprehension. Today I am remembering my great-grandfather (Navy, Pearl Harbor), my grandpa (Navy, Korea, USS Princeton), my husband (Air Force), and the countless other men and women we know who are currently serving or previously served. I'm thinking of them today; are you?

Milspouse Friday Fill-In!

Here are the questions for this week!!! Head on over to Wife Of A Sailor's Blog to answer the questions for yourself!!

1. Do you think civilians, in general, understand the meaning of Memorial Day?
No. And honestly, I think most people just think it's great because they get off work. I think you don't really understand the weight of the holiday unless you are a military family member or significant other. Every day I bear the burden of wanting to plan the rest of my life with my husband, while at the same time planning for things in case I don't get the rest of my life with him. It's a tough life to handle, every single day hoping for the best and yet planning for the worst. And the every day civilian most likely will never experience that. I wish more parents educated their children about what Memorial Day is really all about (and it's not picnics and booze).

2. What are your plans for Memorial Day Weekend?
Friday I am heading to Maxwell AFB to see a friend graduate OTS, and then I will be back at home getting the house clean and hoping that BE is doing well with his navigation classes he is in the middle of. I will be planting a tree in the backyard in memory of my grandfather, who was a Navy man during Korea and was a marshall on the USS Princeton. He loved the Navy, and I miss him every day.

3. What skill/talent do you wish you had? submitted by The 3 Turners
I really wish I could play the guitar. I've also always wished I could roll my "R"s, because I sound like a total idiot when I speak Spanish. People who can curl their tongues amaze me too.

4. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? submitted by I Married Into the Army
I would have to say the chicken. When you see Bible pictures, you don't ever see cute baby animals or eggs or larva. You see big animals. lol

5. What is the best thing about your post/base? The worst? submitted by Randomly, Robyn
The best thing about our base is that we have a lot of people that BE went through OTS with there with us, so it has made it easier for me to transition into the military lifestyle having people who were priors to talk to and ask questions, and then also people who are new like us and can sympathize with my stupidity about military life lol. The worst thing about NAS Pensacola is just that... it's a Navy base, not an Air Force base :(

Link-Ups!!

So Thursdays are also super fun because there are two great link-ups to join in!!

Over at Goodnight Moon's Page you can link up your favorite song from the week and then go and check out other blogs to see what's going on in their worlds (and get exposed to some cool new jams!) My song for this week is:

Also, for some more fun, head on over to Flip Flops and Combat Boots to link up with the Thursday Five!!! This week's five are five things that have been...

Great

Incredible

Inspired

Rewarding

Swell

It was GREAT to go home this past week. I really needed to see my family and get out of my house for a little while. Even though the trip is over, it was really refreshing and I loved it. There's nothing like a hug from mom (even though we hate each other sometimes).

INCREDIBLE doesn't even begin to describe the amazement and awe of God that I felt when I realized that my grandfather (who I love more than life itself) overcame TWO massive heart attacks this past week. The minute I saw him when I got home, I cried. Nothing compares to getting that extra hug that you almost never got. 

I was INSPIRED this week by two friends of BE's and mine who are beginning the process of adoption (and are actively trying to find a birth mother looking to find a family) despite the fact that they are in the military. Their strength and perseverance and faith that the right person will come into their lives and give them a child to love is really like no other. Please visit their site at http://prowsehouseadopts.blogspot.com!!

Knowing that I am finally finished with college is REWARDING, especially since I am the first girl in my family to finish college and get a degree. I worked my butt off for that B.S.N after my name, and I'm so proud of it. 

BE and I will be on a cruise next month, and that is going to be SWELL!! Our honeymoon was kind of a bust, since bad weather prevented our ship from docking in the ports, and we ended up just sailing around on the waves and 66 mph winds of the Caribbean for five days. I'm so glad that we are getting this opportunity to go again before he begins the next leg of training. After him being gone more than 4 months of our 6 months of marriage, we need some alone time together!!!!!!  

Hope you go link up!!!!!

A Special Mission

So today I have a special mission. Today, I want to introduce you to some amazing friends of ours. Their names are Brinn and Blandon, and they are beginning the long and difficult process of adoption. Blandon went through Officer Training School with BE, and I will not hesitate to say that they are one of the best, most loving, kindest couples I have ever met in my life. They have a son (who is ADORABLE) but are unable to have any more children themselves, and so have turned to the blogger world to try to find a birth mother who is considering adoption and wants to find a beautiful family to love her child. I am putting my entire heart behind trying to help them as best I can, so please please please spread the word about the "Prowse House". They are running a blog HERE that you can visit and cry over their amazing story like I did! We love you, Brinn and Blandon, and know you will be blessed with another child to pour your love into - you deserve this dream and we are thinking about and praying for you constantly!!!

Prayers Needed!!

So I may be a bit absent from the blogger world for the rest of the weekend... a few days ago my grandfather had chest pain, went in to the hospital and ended up having to go through surgery to get 5 stents put in (which keep vessels open going to the heart). They look like this:

It's actually a neat procedure to watch (I've seen many as a nursing student). They go in at the groin and feed a guide wire with a balloon on the end of it all the way up into the coronary arteries. The stent is wrapped around the deflated balloon. Once the doctor determines that the balloon is in the right area of the heart, they inflate the balloon, which expands the stent. This holds the artery open so that more blood can pass. My grandfather already had 5 to start with, now he has 10 (which is a lot!!). So they did the surgery and sent him home.

Well, today, one of the stents collapsed, and he had a massive heart attack. They had to shock him a few times to revive him on the way to the hospital, and he had to undergo another surgery. I am closer to my grandfather than probably anyone else in my family, so this has really hit me hard, especially since the one person I lean on (my husband) isn't here to be with me. Please pray for my grandfather as he recovers from this and hopefully gets to go home in a few days. This is one thing I hate about military life - it makes you too far away from your family sometimes to do anything or be where you feel like you need to be. I have great friends and a great church group who have been there for me though!

On a side note, please also pray for my patience, because the past two nights I have had neighbors that have kept me up literally all night. Last night I had to call the cops on the neighbors behind me when their rampaging party (complete with blaring rap music and a strobe light on the back porch) went past 3 a.m. (and I had to be up at 7). And now I'm in a hotel room listening to a family of 20 (taking up all 5 rooms around me) hoots and hollers and yells and slams doors in the hall at 1 a.m. I'm so sick of no one allowing me to sleep. I called the front desk and the guy came down and told them to go back in their rooms, but that doesn't help because their rooms are right next to mine. I really need sleep after such a stressful day. So, on that note, please pray!!

Trouble In Paradise and the Weekly Fill-In

Ok, so today has been stressful, to say the least. The hubs had his first flight today out at IFS (Initial Flight Screening)... well, he really didn't give me any info on it other than the fact that his flight would last an hour. He texted me around 9 this morning saying he was heading out to fly... and by 1:30 pm I still hadn't heard from him. I called around (freaking out because, wouldn't ya know it, my biggest fear in the whole wide world is airplanes! of course.) and everyone else I talked to had heard from their husbands a while before in the day and seemed confused when I said I still hadn't heard from BE. I about went crazy. I started crying, feeling sick, the works. I finally tracked him down through someone else's husband who had seen him and knew he had landed. BE KNOWS how I am about airplanes (it takes drugging me up to even get me to go INTO an airport... even if I'm not the one flying) and then he can't even take two minutes to step aside and shoot me a text? By the time he found out I was mad and called I was LIVID. And then he dares to say to the snarling dragon "I just figured you knew it would take four or five hours." Um, excuse me. Last time I checked I wasn't the one in the Air Force. I don't just "know" these things. I don't know anything unless you tell me. So yeah, it's been a long day. So, on that note...

Each week, Wife of a Sailor will post a list of questions on Thursday (so you can have your blog ready on Friday). Head back on Friday and enter your blog post into Mr. Linky so others know who else participated and we can all visit other blogs.  And please feel free to use the button above!
1. What is one of the things you always do special when your husband returns from a deployment? submitted by Keep Calm and Soldier On
Well, we haven't been through one yet. But when BE came home from IFS I cooked the dinner of his choice. We never go out to eat on the first night home.

2. What do you do to help your spouse and/or yourself readjust after after a deployment or long separation? submitted by Diapers, Dogs, and Deployments 
After long separations, and especially OTS, I just had to learn to be sensitive to the fact that his sleep schedule was TOTALLY OFF, and try to adjust mine. We also try to work out together, so that I can feel like a part of his routine. And for the first week back we always eat dinner together at home.

3. Are you a crazy coupon-clipper? submitted by Married My Airman
No, but I am a CRAZY CASE LOT SALER!! I saved 52% just by working our latest case lot sale, and I have lots of actually necessary stuff (unlike a lot of those shows on tv) that will last me until the next one. I only spent 230 dollars for over 500 worth of stuff! I call that awesome. But I would like to learn how to coupon (not in huge bulk but just for our little family).

4. What's your most treasured memory of you and your spouse (not counting your wedding - that's a given)? submitted by Scrubs, ACU's, & One Crazy Ride
Ok, so this is going to sound totally cheesy. But we met online and then dated long-distance from AL to NC for months before we ever met. When he came down to meet me we went out on a triple date with some other couple friends of mine. As they were chatter boxing, I happened to look over at BE, who was sitting quietly taking everything in. At that moment, he grabbed my hand under the table, smiled, and winked at me. My heart just melted!! Ever since then whenever we're out in a group he makes a point to catch my eye and wink at me, which always makes me smile because it's like a little secret just between the two of us even in a crowd.


5. If you could live anywhere overseas, what would you pick and why? submitted by Little Moments Like This
Definitely Italy. Love the food and culture, and it would definitely be nice to have access to all of Europe whenever I wanted a vacation!!

Everything's Gonna Be All Right...

So, okay. Yesterday was quite possibly one of the worst (and most hilarious) days ever. My car, which I always brag runs like a champ, decided to quit on me two nights ago around midnight when I was getting home from a friend's house watching a movie. I barely made it to my driveway and all of a sudden the power steering goes out, the car shudders, and the engine dies. I knew it wasn't the battery though because the lights and radio were still on. I turn the key and it cranks just fine, so I'm confused. But the minute I can get it up into the driveway, it happens again. So here I am, midnight, on my first night with BE in training, with a dead car, and NO idea what to do next. Then I go into my house and stand in my bedroom, only to hear something start running on top of my roof, back and forth and back and forth. Obviously, I freak out. It's way bigger sounding than a squirrel. I pull the gun and do a shaky circuit of the whole house (yeah, I checked every closet and under the beds - you know you would have too). So then I call Tracee over to help me canvas the outside of the house because I'm going insane, and we walk all the way around my house. Finally I'm satisfied that there's no creepy man in a black trenchcoat standing on my roof, and go inside (where of course I didn't sleep...instead, I watched Mob Wives).

So fast forward to yesterday. I get up and start making phonecalls about my car - to BE's old shops where he worked to get opinions, to my dad, to dealerships. Finally I get my car towed to the Honda dealership down the road. 4 hours later they call me... and tell me there's nothing wrong with my car. Even the guy in the tow truck couldn't get it to stay on long enough to back it out of my driveway!! But they said they ran tests and everything diagnostically is fine - there's nothing for them to repair. So I asked them to keep it overnight and check it again in the morning, because it will be bad news bears if I'm driving around town two weeks from now and my car just dies.

Anyway. So while I'm stuck at home with no car, I decide to be an awesome wife and wash BE's mustang (complete with wheel shine, window cleanings, and a hand-dry, so there are no spots of course). Satisfied with my 3-hour long job, because BE is anal about his car, I proudly manage to pull it back into the garage (it's a stick and I don't drive stick), which is impressive enough in itself. So I park it, and decide to go with Tracee to Wal-mart. Since I have a keyless entry to my garage and I know the code, I decide to leave my keys at home. I go out through the garage door and put in the code to shut it, and go on my merry way to Wal-mart. Well, I come home, walk up to the garage, put in the code, and NOTHING HAPPENS. I try the code again - nothing. After a third try, I convince myself I must have the code wrong, and try a different one. Still nothing. About that time, Tracee looks down and sees that my garage door is bowed out a little bit... on the side that BE's car is on. OH. MY. GOODNESS.That's when Tracee asks me the Big Question: "Um... AM? Did you maybe forget to put on the parking brake?" You've got to be freaking kidding me.

So here I am stuck locked out of my house with a garage door that won't open because my husband's car has rolled back into it. So I don't want to force the door open because it will scratch the back of his mustang all up (unforgivable). Of course, I'm super paranoid about the house, so every window is not only locked, but has a piece of wood jammed in it. Of course, every door is locked (with double-sided deadbolts, I  might add) and the keys are never even left in the locks, so even if I broke through the window there would be no key to turn. I am officially screwed. So I call a locksmith.

The locksmith shows up and works on my front door. They are new locks, and he can't get it. We go around back. He finally gets in, and I go to the garage to see the damage and to push BE's car off the garage door. What do I see? The car, sitting right where I parked it, emergency brake on, and NOT against the garage door. So we go back around front, try the garage door again, and IT OPENS RIGHT UP. ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW??????? All I could do was burst out laughing. Same code I had tried literally four times earlier. So here I have this locksmith who is about to charge me an arm and a leg to open a house that I wasn't really locked out of.

Luckily, he broke the bottom lock in one of my doors (which really doesn't matter because those can get broken into with a credit card - I still have the deadbolt... I also didn't tell him that I have spare locks in my garage that I replaced it with right after he left), so I get him to agree that we will just call it even, and I didn't owe him anything! He did get a really good laugh at me out of the bargain though. So now I realize that I got out scotch free - the car wasn't actually damaged, I didn't have to pay for the locksmith, so in reality I would never even have to tell the hubs about any of it... but in the end, it's just too good of a story. I'm so grateful I had friends offering to help me and give me rides (and even stay with me the whole time). I was able to laugh about it and not cry or get frustrated, and that's a huge accomplishment in itself. BE even told me he was super proud of me for handling everything :)

So yeah. That was my Saga of yesterday. hope you got a good laugh!! lol. Today we went to Eglin and I found the most awesome coin holder for all of BE's challenge coins!!! It is in the shape of a pentagon and has six or seven levels on it, and it spins!! I figured it would be a great way for him to start displaying and building his collection :) Tomorrow I'm going fishing and also starting a workout routine that I'm really hoping I can stick to - my goal is to be able to jog/run a 5K. Here's hoping!!!