What’s the best part of being neighbors with a military family? When they about to move, they will open their pantry to you and ask you — no, beg you — to take all their canned goods, unused condiments, unopened wine, salt, pepper, flour, sugar, frozen dinners, corn on the cob, Bisquick, and basically, everything [...]
It’s been awhile. I miss “talking” to all of you. As many of you know, my family is about to move to Maine, and we are in the middle of transition hell. The movers come on Wednesday.
While I always think packing up all our belongings will be a terrible thing, now I remember that when [...]
I had two hours set aside to get my hair cut and colored today. Two measly little hours. That’s all I wanted. A babysitter situation (or lack there of) meant that I had to take my kids — all three of them — to the salon with me. Imagine walking into a salon where they [...]
Hello from the depths of housecleaning, clearing, yard sales, boxes, attics, and please-don’t-walk-on-the-floors-because-I-just-mopped-them-and-someone-might-come-look-at-the-house-today.
Dustin and I haven’t moved in five years. That’s pretty unusual for a military family. Now we are moving to Bangor, Maine. And, well, I think I know why Uncle Sam normally keeps us on the go: when you stay in one place [...]
April 10, 2008 – 10:58 am
Before I begin today’s post, let me refer you back to an earlier entry I made on February 28th of this year titled Uncle Sam’s Darts. In said entry, I recounted Dustin coming home one day, long after we had already made our “wish list” for our next duty station, and telling me that he [...]
I was all prepared with a blog about military acronyms when I read Anita’s post about her in-laws. Suddenly I feel compelled to repost this archived Shore Duty column about that very issue. Hope this helps, Anita.
Taming Your Military Spouse’s Parents (aka, “The In-Laws” 
A few years ago, I wrote a column suggesting that mothers-in-law [...]
March 19, 2008 – 12:36 pm
“Why do you follow your husband all over the country and world at the sacrifice of your own career and goals?”
As military wives, we are asked this question often. Sometimes, it seems, civilians view us as weak, dependent women with no aspirations of our own. To them, we are the epitome of “stand by your [...]
I’ve recently joined the Facebook/MySpace generation, and, well, at first the whole thing made me feel a little old. Kids that I used to babysit have accounts on Facebook. What’s worse, I often don’t recognize the songs on their MySpace page. I found my own children’s former babysitter on MySpace and learned more about her [...]
February 28, 2008 – 1:53 pm
My husband, Dustin, came home last night with yet another addition to the ever growing list of places where we could be sent next. This new destination — Bangor, Maine — is even colder than the others. Now our “options” (I use the term loosely because “options” implies that we have any real perceivable control [...]
February 12, 2008 – 9:50 am
Like most everyone else in America, I’m trying to lose weight before summer. In my quest to feel full on less, I have found a gem. Double. Fiber. Bread.
If the fiber in this bread were to get on one end of a see-saw, and the fat/calories were to get on the other, the fiber would [...]
