MilSpouse Life
One of my most vivid memories of military life was during a time when I was a military girlfriend. Nearing our thirties, my boyfriend and I had been together for several years already. In the beginning we were long distance, and after almost two years together, I moved from the Midwest to Coastal North Carolina to be with him. It was [...]
military marriage
33 Ways You Absolutely Know You’re a MilSpouse
Inside: Military life can get a little wild! Grab your favorite drink and laugh through this humorous list of crazy things that make military life unique for military spouses. Because so many of my friends are fellow military spouses, I sometimes forget that there is a whole wide world out there where people actually expect to [...]
DeploymentWhy I Stopped Preparing for My Service Member to Leave
If you could see my living room floor right now, mere hours before my husband leaves for an extended training mission, you might cringe. Sea bags leaning against the sofas, empty magazines piled up on the coffee table, extra blouses strewn across the floor—all hiding the cherry hardwoods underneath. Crossing into the kitchen requires [...]
8 Totally Awkward Moments That Can Happen After Homecoming
Inside: If you're feeling weird about homecoming, read these military homecoming tips and you'll know everything really is normal. Or how to avoid the awkward altogether. "Hi," I said. "Hi," he responded. "Hi." "Um. Hi." This is basically how the conversation went when my husband returned home from his first deployment. I couldn't [...]
The One Phrase That Will Reconnect Your Military Marriage
I opened the door to our apartment, walked in and melted into the couch. I just finished a two-hour round trip of taking my parents to the airport and returning home sans houseguests. The visit was amazing. We got along. We did a lot of fun stuff. We connected as a family again. But now? The week-long family vacation was finished and [...]
9 Relationship Truths Only a Military Spouse Will Understand
If I’d known better, I would’ve stayed home until I got the “official” phone call. My husband was finally coming home from deployment after months away on ship. 36 weeks pregnant (with a soon to be 10 lb baby) with a very energetic toddler in the peak of an oppressively hot summer, and I was so ready for my husband to hurry up and get [...]
The Pictures You Didn’t Take With Your Service Member
My husband missed our fourth wedding anniversary this year. In the middle of the day, I remember looking out the patio door window into the distance and thinking he was out there. Somewhere. But not here. Deployed again, our anniversary marked another celebratory milestone where his absence was heart-achingly paplpable. I took a break [...]
How to Overcome the Intense Challenges of Military Marriage
I had just found out that another fellow military wife left our OCONUS duty station—and she wasn’t returning. The pit in my stomach immediately turned queasy. This wasn’t the first military wife who moved her life half-way around the world only to move back to the U.S. without her husband. In fact, she was one of many wives that I knew [...]
10 Relationship-Saving Tips to Use During Deployment
It was a Saturday night and I was alone. Scratch that. I was sad and alone. I was a military girlfriend with a deployed service member and I struggled to balance waiting by the phone with getting out of the house and enjoying life. I mean… Do you stay or do you go? I laid down on my couch getting ready to watch a movie, wondering what [...]
What Military Marriage Really Looks Like
I forgot my anniversary this year. No really, I completely, totally and utterly forgot my anniversary. Three years into my military marriage and I did not even see it coming. My mother-in-law messaged me one September morning to wish me a happy anniversary. I immediately clicked out of my iMessages and called my husband. [...]
