Remembrance

Our first guest blogger is my friend Heather from Purple Platypus Pictures in Ohio. She's an amazing photographer and a great friend of mine. I hope you enjoy her thoughts on Memorial Day from a civilian perspective! Enjoy- Andi



I will be honest... I celebrate Memorial Day by eating hotdogs and cheering that the pool is open. I don't come from a military household. Both of my grandfathers fought in wars (I think) but my Dad didn't, and my Uncle didn't (again... I think?) Obviously veterans, war, armies... all hot topics in my household growing up. So Memorial Day was about... hot dogs... pools... days off of school/work. Only recently, in my adult life, have I started to pay attention to the actual day, and the reasons we get it off of work.

Where am I going with this? I woke up Sunday still in poison ivy agony. Even with the prednizone  pills, and the three different anti-itch creams I was taking... I was still itcy. Out of my skin itchy. And the rash was spreading, now to the palms, yes folks the PALMS, of my hands. Then Olivia's eye swelled up again, and after a confirmation phone call to Karen that made it ok for me to go to Urgent Care (ony our third visit to a doctor in two weeks) I headed off for a shot of cortizone. On the way to the Urgent Care, across the street in the fields of Westerville Park, were lines and lines and lines of flags. Because the trip was impromptu, I didn't have my camera. I swore I'd go back when the sun was lower, and the heat less.

The flags made me think of the sacrifices those men and women make for us. The ones that go to war... the ones that stay home. The ones that make it so I can live my life the way I choose. There are 2,000 flags planted in the park, and a recreated Vietnam Veteren wall in the back corner. Each flag has a zip-tied message to them. Some made me cry. I went intending to stay for 15, mabe 20 minutes. I got there at 8pm. I stayed until 10pm. If you live here, you should go see it.

Thank you.

Let's Talk Resources

I'm always on the lookout for good resources.

My family takes on a huge amount of responsibility during deployment with what feels like very little payoff. Something is always breaking, the kids are bored, I'm lonely, the finances change, etc.

So what's a military wife to do?!

We're eligible for all sorts of things: free YMCA membership, free admission to theme parks, online chat forums, in-person support groups. Does anyone find all of that overwhelming?!

I do.

Sometimes I just want to know what the most helpful things are and cut out the rest. In order to do that, I have to put my priorities in order. For me, that's my kids' well-being and our general family resiliency. I've chosen a couple of organizations that do just that to open the discussion up.

Here are my two favorites:

SOAR :

SOAR is an amazing resource that provides free online tutoring (Grades 3-12) and assessment programs for our favorite people...military kids! It also provides a parent forum (all ages) where military parents can discuss relocation and get the skinny on new school systems from other people in our community who have lived there. I cannot say enough good things about this program!

Military One Source:

The hubs and I are stationed at a base geared to Reserves right now, so MilOne has been a lifesaver for us. They offer everything from resource booklets to CDs to kids books to....wait for it....free counseling! That's right....F-R-E-E. What family in our community doesn't love that word?!

What are your favorite perks to mlitary life? I want to hear from you!

Memorial Day. Right.

I normally don't have any issue with the way people celebrate Memorial Day. When I was a teenager, it was a weekend to spend hanging out with my friends before summer vacation. A break before the break, if you will.

Now that I'm a military wife, however, and I've spent some time delving into my familys military history...

...I find myself disgusted.

Do you ever feel that our fallen heroes are underappreciated? Do you ever feel that vibe of entitlement from people when you're out in public?

I know I do.

Today my hubby and I were in BJ's Wholesale, of all places. We walked by a table where Operation Gratitude was collecting letters from the public to include in care packages for the troops. The goal for this BJ's (at JANAF in Virginia Beach, of all places!) was a leager 300 letters to be written throughout the entire month of May. Today is May 30...and the location only had 150 letters.

ONLY 150!!

This is a military town full of veterans, active duty, reserves and Guard. To have such a pathetic number of people remembering our forward deployed troops was embarrassing.

I sat at the table writing my letter and watching piles of people walking by and not noticing.

The more I sat and watched, the angrier I got.

What is it about being born on American dirt that makes us feel like we have somehow earned the right to have people make the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf? What did we do to earn that?!

The answer: Nothing.

We. Did. Nothing.

And yet there I sat on 'memorial day weekend', watching a military town cruise past the table with their hot dogs and prepackaged hamburgers, paying no attention to the opportunity they were missing. An opportunity to tell a hero what they mean to them, to this country, to our world.

Instead, they passed by, concerned their meat would spoil.

I am sickened. I am angry. I am ashamed.

At the same time, I'm proud. I'm proud to have been in that store with a man who will ignore the entitlement tendencies of those people and go out and fight anyway. A man who says 'Don't hold it against them, they don't understand. They've never been there, or if they have, they've forgotten.'

THAT is a man.

Today I remember the fallen. I know many of you are remembering your heroes as well. Please go ahead and leave their names in the comments...they deserve every mention we can give them. I would love to hear about what kind of people they were, what their jobs were, the reasons they had for doing them. Our community thrives on the heroisms of its members. I hope we can remember them always, not just over a hot dog on one weekend a year.

Here are ours:

Chief Joel Baldwin

Chief Dave Gilbert

Senior Chief Carl McCaughan

Daniel  Holdren

Cyrus Holdren

Larry Dale

These were all great men. Some died in combat, some died as a result of combat, some died from illnesses caused by chenicals from combat. Regardless of their situation, they were all what Memorial Day is about.

I'm just grateful that they shattered my entitlement complex. We should all be so lucky.

Ah, Blogger. I Love You Truly.

Good Morning LLCrazies!

Blogger ate my post from yesterday, so here it is in archived form. I apologize for sual posting, but I didn't want to delete yesterday's entry becasue Team Chappy's comment was so good.

I hope you are all having a great day!

Andi
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Good Morning, Lovies!


Today is the first day of the rest of your life...what are you going to do to make it worthwhile?


I try to ask myself this question every day. Sometimes I like my answer- other days it just frustrates me.









As military families, what can we do today to make our presence in this community worthwhile? What can we do to make our voices heard on the issues that really matter?









I'm not talking about who gets to park closest to the door at the Commissary. Not talking about the restrictions on what we can and cannot do in government housing. I'm thinking about our community programs. Our returning warrior programs. Our pre-deployment planning. What can we do to make our military a better place for all of us?









I've found that I get my best ideas for improvement when my husband is deployed. I suppose I think best when I'm having to slug through the red tape and frustration alone. It seems that we collectively slip into hibernation during homeport; the grass is always mowed, the plumbing can be fixed by someone who knows the difference between metric and standard wrench sizes, the kids rarely get sick. It's an almost utopian state for a military family.









Once a deployment sets in, however, we begin to see things from a frazzled, lonely point of view. On top of the frayed edges and lonliness, however, there's this great and overwhelming sense of pride. We're proud of what we do; our toughness, resiliency, effectiveness.









Now picture in your mind the most capable military family you know. Call to mind their ins and outs. What habits do they have? What traditions do they celebrate? Is there anything that makes them a little more able than the rest of us?









I encourage all of you to talk to that family and find out. Pick their brains. Ask the tough questions.









Once that's through, let's all get together and share these ideas. The more resilient we are as a community, the more likely our warriors won't be left behind.









What can YOU do to change our world today?









Loving like crazy in 2010,



Andi

Let's Start At the Very Beginning

Good Morning, Lovies!

Blogging With A Purpose

Hello friends!

For the last few weeks I've been sitting and pondering the motivation behind LLC. I've had to take a step back in my own life and look at what makes me think and feel and act the way I do. Here's what I've decided:

I would like LLC to be a place where military spouses  across all communities can come and share what works for them. I'd like to spend some much-needed time focusing on the successes of our community. We are forced to be a part of so much that is negative (or that we, unfortunately, turn into something negative...hello, spouse groups!) that we've lost our plot.

Being married to a warrior is a profession in and of itself. We have challenges, loves, hates, excitements, fears and (possibly the most important) doubts. These emotions are shared by others worldwide- yet we refuse to band together and share them. Why is that?! Can you imagine the force for good that we could be?

One of the best parts of our community is that simple fact that we love like crazy. Civilians don't fully understand it, media outlets twist it, our families try their best to support it: but nobody 'gets' it like we do. Together, we are unstoppable.

So here's the plan: I'm going to start putting LLC out there. I'm already in a discussion with a good friend of mine to be a sometime-co-blogger. Fingers crossed that that works out, because she's amazing and a wealth of good information.

To you, I ask that you 'bring a friend'. Let's turn LLC into a community where we make a difference for GOOD in our military, our families, and ourselves. I can't wait to share this adventure with you!

Loving like crazy in 2010,

Andi