Do I Need To Make Friends & How Do I at My Duty Station?

MY CRAZY CLOSE FRIENDS FROM HUNTER ARMY AIRFIELD.
HEY THAT'S "Ask Rell" ON THE LEFT!

HAWAII FRIENDS





Do you have to make new friends at your new home ...No!

Should you make friends at your new duty station....My answer is YES!

I will be the first to admit that I don't like having too many friends. It is not a military thing, it is just how I have always been. At the same time I am the coolest person and don't mind being friends (associates) with people just as long as their halfway normal and not "drama queens".

Unfortunately in the military life sometimes we have to step out of our normal everyday realm and put ourselves out there. With the constant moves , and deployments it is extremely important to make a friend or two who lives where you live and that you can talk to when needed.

During my husband's last deployment I always was worried about what if I were to pass out in this house and no one knows, or who would watch my kids in an emergency. Besides emergencies I thought about less worse things such as being in my house for 15 months alone in another state and not knowing a soul, no matter how much of a loner you are the thought of not knowing a single sole is pretty depressing.

So I am here to tell you yes their is literally a way to make friends at your next duty station before you get there. When I arrived in Hawaii I had already made some great friends...who gave me time to get settled and then a chance to get to know them more.

Ok ok I know your like well damn it tell us how already *smile*

1. Visit the sites listed below. Each of these sites has a separate message board community for each Army post.
*Married To The Army
*Military SOS

2. Visit Meetup and see if their is a Military Wives meetup group in your area, or a local group which meets one of your interest. This could include scrapbooking, playgroups etc.

3. When I PCS'ed here to Hawaii I searched out military wives groups on Myspace and I even used the search feature to find spouses in this area and then sent them messages privately.

4. Visit your Army post ACS building and get a list of different spouse groups available on and offpost. PWOC is just an example of one of the different programs on bases worldwide available to spouses. In this case PWOC is a women's ministry on military installations. If that isn't your cup of tea check out the Enlisted Spouses Club on your base.

Word of advice don't be persuaded by other views of groups such as Spouses clubs. Everyone has varying opinions and you don't want to lose out on a potential great support system just because of one person's opinion.


Moral of the story make a friend ...trust me you will definitely need one!

Hooah & Smooches

Krystel

Armywife 101Vlog : Armywives and Why We Need to Stay In The Know

The Last Supper....For a Year

So it's 4:33 am as I am writing this and I am up for no reason... then again I know why I am up.

You see I'm at that same point I was at back in May 2007 . It is the week of an upcoming deployment and as much as I want to focus on work and everything else I can't. I feel like I have the weight of the world on me and it's not gonna go away until this is over. I do have to say though that minus the constant worrying, wanting to throw up from fear of the unknown every time your doorbell rings, and no nookie for a year a deployment isn't really that bad.

I always tell wives getting ready to go through their first deployment that the hardest part will be the week he leaves and the night of the day he leaves.

Everything we do this week I have to remember we won't get a chance next week to do.

I know it will be our last whatever's for a year. For instance last night I didn't feel like cooking so I called hubby and we were deciding what we wanted to order in for dinner and hubby wanted pizza and I wanted sushi and normally we would have just got both, but I knew that this would be the last time this week we got to eat pizza together as a family for a year.

Who would think that pizza would mean so much?

At the end of the day I know I am strong...I can get through this....I survived 15 months of this crap...I can most definitely survive a measly 12 months right?

Well stay tuned we shall see.

Lock Up & Be Aware!

I know that some of you have had this thought before " I live onpost ... I'm protected by the government ... No one has access to these grounds... I'm safe here.

Ok ok maybe I'm the only one who thinks all the extra stuff but I do know that 99% of us have had the thought that "We are safe onpost". The truth is we are probably much safer onpost then we are living offpost, but incidents still happen on military installations and spouses should be aware.

I think it is even more to important to be aware when your spouse is deployed. The tips below are my own ideas of what you can do to prevent robberies, missing kids and any other type of bad accidents or incidents.

1.Spouses please watch your kids... I know some of you have seen 4 years olds running around outside onpost and people think it's ok because where on a military post. I'm here to tell you NOOOOO it's not cool. I don't care how protected you feel you little toddler should not be able to ride a bike around the block without your supervision. People still speed in the residential areas onpost.

2. Lock your darn doors! I see and have had many spouses tell me that they go to the commissary and leave there doors unlocked. Like it takes one second to stick the key in the hole and turn. BAM! Your door is locked. You don't want to come back home one day and find out one of the neighborhood kids is hiding in your house , crap like that happens.

3. Secure your valuables and once again lockup. I was reading my installation newspaper and it said that most of the break ins on post are usually done by the neighborhood teens. The fact is (I hate to say this) but we have some bad @#$ kids onpost whose parents refuse or do not attempt to keep them in check, due to this we have alot of petty thiefs roaming around. Alot of times they aren't looking to hurt you but they are looking to steal that cool ipod you had sitting in the front seat of your car. SO LOCK UP YOUR CARS! People do steal onpost.

4. Do not let to many people know when your husband is deploying. This is not only important for OPSEC reasons but for your safety. Let me just be blunt here , we do have some crazy people onpost. Unfortunately more serious incidents have happened on post where women have been raped or brutalized because a soldier or a male who lived in housing knew husbands were deployed.
*Some key things you can do is leave a car in the driveway instead of keeping them in the garage.

*Keep lights on in parts of the house visible through windows; this will give people the idea that someone is up in the house.

* When pulling out of your garage back out and then make sure your garage closes fully before you drive off.

I hope I haven't scared you off and that you will come back. I really care about all my fellow spouses and would not wish or want anything to happen to any of you. Please take heed to this post.

Share your tips of what you do while your hubby is away to feel safer?

The Deployment Ceremony....

So by now you can tell by some of my blogs I tend to be a certified complainer. As patient and as kind as I am I find annoyance in alot of things.

So today's annoyance was my husbands units Deployment Ceremony.

Ok simply put what is the point of it?

For those who may have not been to one , it is pretty much a ceremony where the General speaks, maybe a LT COL some soldiers do formation , they do the color guard thing and then they release the soldiers and tell the wives you may go get your soldier....


Umm notice the highlighted part above and then think about all of this is BEFORE the deployment even begins. I guess the part that truly annoys me is not really the ceremony itself, but more so that it's already hard having your spouse leave but ceremonies like this always seem so final to me. It's almost like the deployment is being rubbed in your face.

I chose not to go to this one because I had been to one last deployment.

At the end of the day I'm all for formalities but this is one formality I can live without.

The Ling & Lee Homecoming.... My Vent

I am sure this morning you all heard the two journalist who were accused of illegal entry in North Korea were pardoned and allowed to return home after 4 months of being held in a jail there.

Ok first let me say I am extremely happy that they were allowed to come home and that they did not have to serve 12 years of hard labor at a camp.

The part that I guess bothered me (and I'm probably just being sensitive) is the newscasters while awaiting the arrival. The family and other spectators were in a hangar (where planes enter) and the reporter keeps on going on about how this is quite a scene imagine how the 4 year old daughter of Euna Lee (one of the jailed journalist) must be feeling , having you mother away for 140 days and how this is a homecoming to remember.

Before you know here goes another reporter saying how great a scene this is with the rising sun in the background and the plane entering the hangar and family who hasn't see there loved one in 140 days , you dont see scenes like this everyday.

While I am extremely happy for Euna Lee's 4 year old daughter and (as a mommy of a 4 year old) can imagine her delight and surprise to see her mother , thousands of military children don't see their mommies and daddies for a year or more at times. The military has huge homecoming ceremonies all the time, where the hangar doors open and behind it are our heroes standing there in the sunlight waiting to see us after a year in a horrible place. Where is the attention drawn to that?

I realize that service members are humble and never ask for recognition and that's one of the things that makes them great, but it would be even better if people can see we have smiling little 4 year old's running to there mom or dad whenever our brave me and women come home.

The Pajama Pants Syndrome.....

So I'm in the commi the other day , walking down the pasta aisle minding my business when I'm blinded by the site of holey dingy spongebob pajama pants.

Don't get me wrong I like my fair share of Spongebob lol, but on a Friday afternoon in the grocery store?

Come on ladies some of us have got to do better. Do not get me wrong we all have those crappy days especially when the hubby is deployed, the kids are driving you bat crazy and you just have the weight of the world on your shoulders. On the other hand their is no reason to come out the house greasy, dirty and dingy looking. No makeup is fine, hair thrown up in a clip or ponytail is cool to, but looking plain stank is no excuse.

We wonder why people talk about us and some of us actually have the nerve to get offended (hell even though I am addressing Pajama Pants Syndrome doesn't mean I won't take up for my fellow Army wife.)Times are hard for everybody but I guarantee you that your local Walmart has a $11 pair of jeans for you and your local thrift store will have a pair even cheaper.

All I am saying is people will judge regardless but don't let peoples judgement of you and all military wives be because you have Pajama Pants Syndrome.

PS: I know some might not agree with me but that's what Armywife101 is all about honesty, so be honest with me and don't hold back on your thoughts I won't bite :)