On Being a Military Family

What I love about being a military family:

• moving
• traveling 
• meeting new people
• exposing my kids to new and different cultures
• the welcome homes

What I hate about being a military family:

• moving
• traveling
• meeting new people
• exposing my kids to new and different cultures
• the goodbyes 

I grew up in a military family, it's not too much of a surprise to me that I married into it.  Maybe it's in my blood, but I get antsy after living in one place for more than 3 or 4 years.  Growing up, I loved going on road trips, going to visit our family, getting presents and sometimes money from the cool places Daddy went to. 

Little did I know the grown-up side of it though...

1. Moving SUCKS!  There's the going through ev-er-y thing and throwing crap away; the pre-packing (cause military packers are dumb); the packing days when you allow high school drop out probably former convicts into your home to touch your stuff; the cleaning; the address changing; the finding a new house on the internet and hoping it's not in the ghetto when you get there; the saying goodbye.  On our most recent move, one of the movers stole my debit card number and cleared my account. WHILE WE WERE ON THE ROAD!  Um...yeah...we kinda needed that money...thanks.
2. Family visits are expensive!  I don't actually know how my parents were able to swing sending us kids to see both sets of Grandparents every year (sometimes twice a year).  One thing is for sure, they taught us that family is important. Taxes are being used this year to fly me and the Big Man out to see my Grandparents... 
3. Getting presents and money from Daddys trips actually means that Daddy has to go away for a while.  This sucks for a couple of reasons...a) he's not here b)Murphys Law states that whatever can go wrong, won't until after he's gone AND THEN...it'll all go wrong at once c) as soon as Daddys gone, our son turns into a completely different child (I thought this was just me, or him reacting to my anxiety, it's not, his teachers have noticed a change too) d) as soon as we get into a routine, Daddy comes back and screws it all up
4. Meeting new people is a wonderful thing...but...it's also one of the most difficult things to do.  In the nine months that we've lived here, I have met three women my age that I would like to be friends with.  I say like cause I have yet to have the chance to even go have coffee or get my nails done with any of them.  
5. New and different cultures...OH BOY...well...I opened that can of worms.  At the risk of hurting someones feelings...Texas is about 20 years behind the Western half of the country.  I am trying to see past the bigotry and ignorance.  I'm actually in the process of looking for a teaching farm to expose the Big Man to animal husbandry...I think it'll be cool for him to learn about animals and how farms work.  While in Utah, the Big Man went to daycare/pre-school in a multi-cultural setting, there were black, Asian, Polynesian, Hispanic, and Anglo kids...now there's like 5 kids who aren't Anglo in his whole school.
6. The Goodbyes...this is the worst.  This isn't actually that much different from when I was a kid, except as a kid...I was a kid.  I hated leaving Illinois.  We had a home, all of our family, good jobs and friends.  I hated leaving Utah.  We had a home, the BEST jobs either of us had ever had and friends.  God, I miss my friends.  I miss my job, students, coworkers.  I miss having informal get-togethers in our front yard.  I will probably hate leaving Texas...I hope.  Then there's the other goodbyes...the ones where you have to say goodbye to your spouse.  It doesn't matter if they're going away for a week or a year...IT BLOWS.  We've been very blessed that Matt has never been deployed to a warzone, but quite frankly that doesn't matter...when they're gone...they're gone. Tomorrow, after only 3 weeks of having him back, we will be saying goodbye again.