Respect at ceremonies...

So my target of this post is homecoming ceremonies and the respect that should be presented at them. But really it comes down to respect at any ceremony. So here is my rant:
1. If you don't get there early to get a good seat don't expect others to move around so you can have the seat that you so desperately want. We all want that seat, which is why we showed up early and reserved the seat. Also, don't try to move my stuff so that you can take my seat. NOT COOL. I will call you out on it, and you will be the one looking like a fool.
On the same note, I arrived early to have a front seat. That does not mean that if you show up late that you can come stand in front of me. Go stand with everyone else that was late.
2. When the speaker is talking don't start yelling for your loved one so that they can find you in the stands. We all want to find our loved ones, but please show respect for those who are trying to listen to the speaker. Plus its just flat out rude and disrespectful to interrupt the speaker like that.
3. While I know that there is no dress code for a homecoming ceremony please dress respectfully. Jeans and a t-shirt are not respectful. Jeans and a nice shirt are fine. Dresses don't need to be ball gowns, but also don't pull out the slutty, tramp dresses. We all know that you can't wait to get home, but you don't have to show everyone every little inch of your body. These guys have been gone a long time, protecting your freedom and working hard to provide a better life for you; please show them the respect that they deserve.
4. We all have signs that we want to hold up to show our loved one. Please keep it to a practical size, if multiple members of your family are holding it, fine. But if you are trying to stretch it out in front of a bunch of people so it blocks other families, again not cool.
5. I brought balloons as well, but I tried to keep my balloons under control; I held them out of people's faces, out of pictures, and it was only 2, not a giant bouquet that I would expect at a county fair that is more of a distraction than a festive marker for this joyous occasion.
6. How my loved one and I choose to celebrate the homecoming is our decision. Just because you do not agree you do not need to make me feel like shit because of it. Keep your opinion to yourself!
7. We have all had to wait a long time for our loved ones to come home. I understand that not everyone is home yet, and I am sorry. I too have had to waited through watching other loved ones come back and not able to see my husband, I have felt the same jealousy. You do not need to make me feel like shit because your loved one is not home yet. Oh and FYI for those of you who did make me feel like shit for all but one of you my husband left way before yours. And for that one your husband left only the day before mine and yours will be home very, very soon, not that big of a difference. Get over yourselves, we are all in this together. It is not possible for them to all come in on the same day, so please let me celebrate my day without making me feel guilty.

While this has been a negative post, please don't get me wrong. I am overjoyed that my husband is home and would not have missed the welcome home ceremony for anything in the world. I just needed to share my mind.

Reintegration

As something I have discovered a word that military families come to cringe at just as much as the word deployment is reintegration. This is the period immediately after deployment that everyone involved has to learn how to act as a family unit again. Our reintegration period isn't even here and already I have mixed emotions about it. Don't get me wrong, I am very excited for Nathan to come back. What am I worried about you ask? Learning how to live together as a couple in which both of us have full-time jobs. Up until this point in our marriage we have been separated any time we have both had full-time jobs. When we were first married I was actually working 2 jobs, but Nathan was sent to Missouri a matter of a few days after we were married. Start our first separation while we both worked full-time. Come the end of Nathan's school in Missouri, I quit my jobs to follow him to Germany. I immediately started looking for work but didn't one until right after Nathan left for this deployment. So while I have been working at this job now for awhile this will be the first time that we live under the same roof and both work. Begin just one of my worries for when he comes back.
Hopefully Nathan will be here soon, and then we can begin this wild adventure called reintegration!

Where does time go?

WOW!!! Where the heck does time go? I kept thinking that it had only been about a month since my last post, until I signed in and saw that it has been about 2  months! My bad.
Can you believe that it has been almost a year since Nathan left? As I start prep my house for his homecoming I am reflecting on this past year. At times it seems like it has dragged on forever and at other times it has flown by. I didn't travel as much as I had originally planned this past year, but I did start my job and have been trying to save up all the leave time I can for when he comes home.
We will have more travel pics as soon as Nathan comes home, I promise. We already have a couple of exciting trips set up. I cannot wait!

Moving overseas advice...

Are you or your loved one in the military and have orders to move overseas soon? Need some advice that I wish someone would have told me or not told me when we were moving here?
1. Get your paperwork started immediately to have an accompanied tour. It takes a long time for all of the paperwork to come through. It is by far easier to move all together as a couple or family than it is to move the service member and family members later.
2. Don't believe when others tell you that your American made SUV will not fit on the roads. Yes it may not fit in all of the parking garages if you have a big SUV but they do fit in the roadways and you can always find a different parking lot. I had been told a couple of absolute horror stories about SUVs not fitting, so we chose not bring my car, a cross-over SUV. We are now trying to do all of the paperwork to ship it, but I can promise you it would have been easier to do in the first place.
3. You will make an electricity mistake. Don't plug in anything to the wall until you are confident that you have figured out all the tricks of the electricity here. Hint: you can find the voltage on the plug in or bottom of almost everything you need to plug in. If it lists 120-240 V then it is dual voltage and you only need a simple adapter, however some of these things do have a switch that you will need to flip to move between the 2 voltage types. Pretty much everything else will need a transformer, make sure to match whatever you are plugging in to the appropriate size transformer. You can plug in your table lamps with a simple adapter if you change out the light bulb to a 220 light bulb.
4. If you are brining pets make sure to check with your vet about everything you need to get your pet here in plenty of time. We need to have rabies shots that had been given over 30 days before our departure but not more than a year before our departure. You will also need a health certificate, unless these are done at a military vet they need to be signed by your state, which can take a few days. Remember that these need to be not more than 10 days old at time of entrance into Germany. Also, make sure to try to avoid flying through the UK if you can, the UK has a mandatory quarantine period, even if you are only there for a layover.
5. Jobs are few and far between for family members, be prepared to have it take a long time to get a job or not be able to get a job at all in our chosen field. There are jobs, you might have to leave your field of interest though. The trick to getting a good job is to first volunteer, get your name known, and then when a position opens up they will have your name in mind.
6. It is way too easy to stay on post or around post all the time. You are living outside the US, get out there and travel. There are so many places to see and you may not be this close to all of them ever again.
Again, I will add more as I think of more. These are some of the big ones that I wish people would have told me or been honest about when we were moving here.

Deployment advice...

So I had someone ask me for some deployment advice as she is facing her husband's first deployment soon.
1. I don't care how many deployments you have been through please don't judge me or make me feel inferior because this is my first deployment. I respect those who have gone through multiple deployments, but don't make me feel inferior because of it. For those who are going through their first deployments, everyone has had a first deployment, after this you too can be one of those seasoned wives.
2. Find something in common that you can talk about. Your loved one will most likely not be able to  talk about what he/she is doing all the time. It does get old being the only one talking about what your day to day activities. Nathan and I have a Bible study that we do together and we read books together and then talk about them. We kind of have our very own book club going on.
3. Make lots of connections and use those connections to stay busy. Go to the spouse's club meetings, go to garrison events, etc. It helps you feel more connected to the unit that your loved one is deployed with. You will have more common connections to talk about.
4. Have a communication plan made before he leaves. Are you going to talk by phone, email or IM? Understand that even if your loved one says that you will get a form of communication every day some things happen, don't panic if you don't hear anything for a few days.
5. Journal. This is my saving grace some days, it gives me an outlet to express my feelings whether anger at the deployment, utter loneliness, etc.
I am sure I can come up with lots more but here is the start of my list. I will add more as I think of them.

Ticking away days of this deployment

So I have to admit part of the reason I have posted much during this deployment is that I feel that I don't have much to blog about. After my first couple of trips I felt guilty going on trips without Nathan. I felt guilty that I was seeing amazing sights and tasting fantastic foods without him around. I felt like he was far off taking care of so much for our country and here I was having a great time without him. Because of this guilt and my paperwork finally going through for my job I have not traveled as much. My job has been a tremendous help in keeping me busy instead of traveling.

I am going to post some pics from our cruise over R&R, we left out of Rome then traveled to Sicily, Athens, Turkey, Crete and back to Rome. We had a truly amazing time and cannot wait for another cruise.  The top pic is a beach/coast line in Sicily, the middle is Mt. Etna, an active volcano that we went to Sicily, the bottom is from one of the formal nights aboard the cruise. I will post more later...

Been busy

Hi all!
I have been one busy girl. We finally had R&R and took an amazing cruise to Rome, Sicily, Athens, Turkey, Crete and back to Rome. I promise to post photos this weekend, as I procrastinate in doing my homework. A little, funny story to share to give you a sneak peek into our time together. Another funny cat story, for those of you who don't remember or don't know go back to my blog about our flight here. The stories involve the same cat. So the most current goes as this:
It's the morning we are supposed to be leaving for the airport, it's about 2 AM. We are getting ready and realize that we haven't seen one of our cats. We immediately go outside after quickly searching the house. This is the cat who likes to try to get out and usually goes to the same place when she gets out and is relatively easy to find. I immediately sent Nathan towards the area she usually goes to, which happens to be in the neighbor's yard, yes the neighbor has helped me catch her at one point. Low and behold we pick up a set of eyes reflecting from the light of the flash light. Nathan starts going after the eyes and I see the cat move around the house. So while standing on our side of the fence and shining my light into the neighbor's yard I am trying to guide Nathan to the last place I saw the cat. We do this for a while, me occasionally seeing the cat and trying to guide Nathan to her, but unlike any other time she has gotten out she hasn't been able to catch yet. We finally say enough chasing her right now, as we cannot locate her again. We head inside to get some food for her to set out to hopefully lure her back in and start discussing whether to cancel our plans for the trip or not if we can't find her. While walking in the house to get her some food, I see the damn cat sitting in the office. She had been inside the whole time we were outside. We just chased someone else's cat around our neighbor's yard. Oops!
As one of our family members says it sounds like an episode out of I Love Lucy, which I have to agree it does. Sometimes I think our life seems like a mini circus.
Lots of photos to come!