Olivia Eileen

We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.  -- Ronald Reagan As a military spouse I know many spouses who have had friends' husbands pay the ultimate price for our great Nation, but I have not held a friend tight in my own arms who has lost her husband... My heart selfishly hopes I never have to experience those emotions with a close friend. But when you can't imagine your husband doing anything but serving our Nation...well, you get the idea. As Memorial Day Weekend drew near this year I began to realize it felt different.  The excitement of a four day weekend with my husband home wasn't as exciting as I gradually recollected where I was this time last year and the emotions I was feeling or trying not to feel... The first picture I saw of my husband after he deployed! I cried. My husband was deployed to Afghanistan the majority of last year. It was our first deployment. Many of my seasoned military spouse friend...

Words cannot express my relief that August will soon be here...although I know full well it will bring challenges of its own...ending one month and starting the next is like a breath of fresh air and boy do I need some fresh air. Fresh salty air with sand under my toes would be really nice, actually. July essentially compounded the stresses of this first deployment experience. Because on top of the obvious: being a solo mommy to our toddler living 12 hours away from both sets of doting grandparents; the less obvious: is that I am the FRG Leader for my husband's Company. What the heck is an FRG Leader? Basically, aside from having a toddler in the house, its the sole reason I haven't had the time, nor the energy, to blog this deployment. And probably is the reason why I don't respond to your emails or text messages in a timely fashion, if at all. But really, FRG Leader stands for Family Readiness Group Leader. In the Army, it's the leader of a volunteer organization that...

Words cannot express my relief that August will soon be here...although I know full well it will bring challenges of its own...ending one month and starting the next is like a breath of fresh air and boy do I need some fresh air. Fresh salty air with sand under my toes would be really nice, actually. July essentially compounded the stresses of this first deployment experience. Because on top of the obvious: being a solo mommy to our toddler living 12 hours away from both sets of doting grandparents; the less obvious: is that I am the FRG Leader for my husband's Company. What the heck is an FRG Leader? Basically, aside from having a toddler in the house, its the sole reason I haven't had the time, nor the energy, to blog this deployment. And probably is the reason why I don't respond to your emails or text messages in a timely fashion, if at all. But really, FRG Leader stands for Family Readiness Group Leader. In the Army, it's the leader of a volunteer organizat...

While this first deployment was a long time coming the last three or so months have been quite the whirlwind. One of the privileges we have with being stationed at Ft. Bragg is that my husband has learned how to do things the "right" way in the Army (or maybe it's just the Bragg way...). Anyway, what I mean by this is that hubby didn't get a nice break or many shortened workdays leading up to this deployment (except for Christmas block leave). So, right when you've got to finalize your personal and family life in preparation for a deployment, my husband was working from before sunrise to well after sunset nearly each and every workday. In all the hubbub and emotions whirling around I had this grand idea that I wanted to pursue one of my personal dreams and compete in my first Ironman while my husband is off pursuing one of his dream.  It only seemed "fair" that I get to "do" something I'm passionate about too... Well, that idea sounded real...

While this first deployment was a long time coming the last three or so months have been quite the whirlwind. One of the privileges we have with being stationed at Ft. Bragg is that my husband has learned how to do things the "right" way in the Army (or maybe it's just the Bragg way...). Anyway, what I mean by this is that hubby didn't get a nice break or many shortened workdays leading up to this deployment (except for Christmas block leave). So, right when you've got to finalize your personal and family life in preparation for a deployment, my husband was working from before sunrise to well after sunset nearly each and every workday. In all the hubbub and emotions whirling around I had this grand idea that I wanted to pursue one of my personal dreams and compete in my first Ironman while my husband is off pursuing one of his dream.  It only seemed "fair" that I get to "do" something I'm passionate about too...

I'm pushing my luck starting this blog because my little sugar bean has been down for a nap since 12:30pm...and it's 2:22pm! But here I am with my coffee hoping to get this blog updated. I wont be too sad if she wakes up though, because I have been productive in other areas of my life so far today: swam about 2200 meters, made dinner (in the crock pot), sent out FRG e-mails, paid a bill I forgot about (BUMMER!) blah blah blah :) Unfortunately, blogging has had to take the back burner the last month. I mean, we did move into a new house and sent my husband off on his first deployment this month... Two TOTALLY normal life activities occurring nearly simultaneously, right? Only if your military! But my husband is off and sugar bean and I are about one week into holding up our home front.  Last week I was very intentional about getting to the gym. I knew that if I did not make the childcare reservations for the entire week ahead of time I would not have been getting out of bed ver...

I'm pushing my luck starting this blog because my little sugar bean has been down for a nap since 12:30pm...and it's 2:22pm! But here I am with my coffee hoping to get this blog updated. I wont be too sad if she wakes up though, because I have been productive in other areas of my life so far today: swam about 2200 meters, made dinner (in the crock pot), sent out FRG e-mails, paid a bill I forgot about (BUMMER!) blah blah blah :) Unfortunately, blogging has had to take the back burner the last month. I mean, we did move into a new house and sent my husband off on his first deployment this month... Two TOTALLY normal life activities occurring nearly simultaneously, right? Only if your military! But my husband is off and sugar bean and I are about one week into holding up our home front.  Last week I was very intentional about getting to the gym. I knew that if I did not make the childcare reservations for the entire week ahead of time I would not have been getting ...

So, we are officially MOVING! After praying and seriously weighing all the pros and cons we took the plunge. We found THE house last Tuesday, signed the lease, paid the deposit, and are in the process of packing up all of our belongings....................which is going faster than ever....................but is still.................a very..................long.............................process! The goal is to be moved into our new house this weekend! I am SO excited. And I have been non stop packing since we signed our lease last Tuesday, thus falling off techno world! But, redeeming thing about all this packing, I found a bike trainer I thought we gave away! No more interval workout excuses. My butt will be in the saddle doing intervals during nap times starting next week. Ironman Louisville is still very much on the radar. Awesome back story to finding THE house...two Sunday nights ago I was up searching the web again for rentals. Up late because I was nervous about the house we ...

So, we are officially MOVING! After praying and seriously weighing all the pros and cons we took the plunge. We found THE house last Tuesday, signed the lease, paid the deposit, and are in the process of packing up all of our belongings....................which is going faster than ever....................but is still.................a very..................long.............................process! The goal is to be moved into our new house this weekend! I am SO excited. And I have been non stop packing since we signed our lease last Tuesday, thus falling off techno world! But, redeeming thing about all this packing, I found a bike trainer I thought we gave away! No more interval workout excuses. My butt will be in the saddle doing intervals during nap times starting next week. Ironman Louisville is still very much on the radar. Awesome back story to finding THE house...two Sunday nights ago I was up searching the web again for rentals. Up late because I was nervous about the house...

Having a baby changes everything. But, you don't realize it changes everything until you have your very own! As I am learning to roll with the frequent spontaneity and inconsistency of the military lifestyle I am also learning how to use my time more wisely and effectively as a wife, mom, and athlete. Otherwise, I'd probably be pretty frazzled and grumpy all of the time. Two of my favorite, already owned, time savers are the door frame pull up bar we've owned for a long time and our new Vitamix Blender! If you don't have either, consider the following my recommendation for you to put this on your next birthday or Christmas wish list! What are your favorite in-home time savers?! Tell me your in-home time savers or solutions in the comment section below! For the longest time I was intimidated by pull ups (and still am to a degree). And now that we have a baby, I initially complained ( often ) about not being able to weight lift anymore for lack of childcare or proximity t...

Having a baby changes everything. But, you don't realize it changes everything until you have your very own! As I am learning to roll with the frequent spontaneity and inconsistency of the military lifestyle I am also learning how to use my time more wisely and effectively as a wife, mom, and athlete. Otherwise, I'd probably be pretty frazzled and grumpy all of the time. Two of my favorite, already owned, time savers are the door frame pull up bar we've owned for a long time and our new Vitamix Blender! If you don't have either, consider the following my recommendation for you to put this on your next birthday or Christmas wish list! What are your favorite in-home time savers?! Tell me your in-home time savers or solutions in the comment section below!

Yesterday I spent my time trying to find hourly child care for our almost 17 month old, just a few times a week, so I could swim/bike/run without a 24+ pound baby in tow (well, during the swim I would be worrying about whether or not she was vying for my attention in the jogger, pool side, not pulling her in a raft!). I, unfortunately, discovered that where we live in the Fort Bragg, North Carolina area is No-Mans-Land for hourly child care. Well, hourly child care that would allow me to pack my daughters lunch. When sugar bean was nursing it was easy to drop her off at the hourly child care center on Fort Bragg because they were REQUIRED to feed her the pumped breast milk I supplied.  Now, she's older and eating table food, so she's required to eat whatever they serve-unless a doctor has signed off that she has an allergy/intolerance, which she doesn't. So, the only way to take advantage of the $4/hour child care on post is to throw our chosen daughter's nutrition out ...

Yesterday I spent my time trying to find hourly child care for our almost 17 month old, just a few times a week, so I could swim/bike/run without a 24+ pound baby in tow (well, during the swim I would be worrying about whether or not she was vying for my attention in the jogger, pool side, not pulling her in a raft!). I, unfortunately, discovered that where we live in the Fort Bragg, North Carolina area is No-Mans-Land for hourly child care. Well, hourly child care that would allow me to pack my daughters lunch. When sugar bean was nursing it was easy to drop her off at the hourly child care center on Fort Bragg because they were REQUIRED to feed her the pumped breast milk I supplied.  Now, she's older and eating table food, so she's required to eat whatever they serve-unless a doctor has signed off that she has an allergy/intolerance, which she doesn't. So, the only way to take advantage of the $4/hour child care on post is to throw our chosen daughter's nutritio...

This song brings our hearts great hope and peace and sums up where our hope currently lies at the dawn of a deployment. Olivia

This song brings our hearts great hope and peace and sums up where our hope currently lies at the dawn of a deployment. Olivia

My husband's first deployment is right around the corner. To say emotions have been up and down over the last three months is an understatement. There is much that comes with a deployment, besides the obvious long separation. On top of anticipating your loved one being in harms way for 9-12 months, there are many things the soldier has to prepare for himself and his family before he leaves... He has new equipment to be issued/organized/laundered. He also has a huge list of extra supplies to buy in order to be prepared and comfortable (new socks and ground coffee are two of my husbands "necessities":)). Then all of his stuff is shipped out in stages over the course of, about, three months prior to the actual departure. Seeing my husband for the first time in his new Multicam uniform was quite the tear jerker. The Army is retiring the ACU for the Multicam , which is currently only being worn by soldiers deploying overseas. Then there are all the financial and legal issues...

My husband's first deployment is right around the corner. To say emotions have been up and down over the last three months is an understatement. There is much that comes with a deployment, besides the obvious long separation. On top of anticipating your loved one being in harms way for 9-12 months, there are many things the soldier has to prepare for himself and his family before he leaves... He has new equipment to be issued/organized/laundered. He also has a huge list of extra supplies to buy in order to be prepared and comfortable (new socks and ground coffee are two of my husbands "necessities":)). Then all of his stuff is shipped out in stages over the course of, about, three months prior to the actual departure. Seeing my husband for the first time in his new Multicam uniform was quite the tear jerker. The Army is retiring the ACU for the Multicam , which is currently only being worn by soldiers deploying overseas.