OCS Graduation then PCSing....

So I haven't written on here in a while, but it is because the Army somewhat took over my life.  I've beyond busy and have had limited internet access.  The last few weeks have been full of tons of emotions and experiences.  So here it goes...My adventures of the past few weeks.
So it all started with getting to Ft. Benning Georgia.  My mom and I took off on the beginning of a long road trip to see my husband and finally get to be a real wife not just one who writes letter and waits for the next phone call.  We get to cook and clean and live together after being apart for our entire first year of marriage.  The first part of our trip we drove all the way through New Mexico and into Texas.  We got to stop in El Paso at Ft. Bliss to see another "Army Wife" and a wonderful friend of mine Audrey.  It was the best way to start a trip.  She is one of the best friends I have, even if we don;t see each other for years when we do get together it seems like we've never been apart.  The second day of our trip we made it to San Antonio to play tourist at our first stop.  Actually my favorite stop before we made it to Georgia.  The River Walk was so much fun and beautiful.    We visited the Alamo and went on a horse and buggy tour of the town.  It was where we decided that we will always come back to for a fun vacation.

As we left we headed to New Orleans to spend the next 2 days.  We stayed in a beautiful historic hotel on Royal street just 1 block off of Bourbon St.  It was an amazing place and a unique vacation spot but a location I probably would never go back to.  When we pulled into town there was so much traffic it was hard to get around and on top of that there were crazy people and everyone of them were dressed up in "Red Dresses"  That day was the Red Dress Run in support of Breast Cancer.  It was a huge event and a Crazy one at that!  The locals said it was the second largest event next to Mardi Gras.  They meassure the success of the evening on how many tons of trash they have to clean up the next morning.  I have never seen such a dirty place with so much trash in the streets.  It was definitely a must do but a 1 time experience for me.  My favorite part of it was the Piano Bar Howl at the Moon.  The next day we went on several tours of the area.  The first one was an Alligator Swam Tour.  We got to ride on a swamp boat and feed alligators.  AMAZING!  Then we when on a bus tour of the town and got to see the remaining damage from Hurricane Katrina several years ago.  The history behind this city was amazing.

Frustration...

Recently life has gotten the best of me.  I've been working more than normal, packing to go to my husbands OCS Graduation, and packing/organizing everything to move.  I am a bit of a planner and not being able to plan and confirm this trip is driving me nuts.  It's even more so driving me nuts that we cannot find a decent place to live in our price range.  We have found a few places but they are either in a bad part of town or not a nice neighborhood (so we've heard)  but moving there sight unseen is scary and frustrating.  Without much of Ryan's help it has made it that much harder.  We know what we can afford on his salary alone but trying to figure out if I'm going to have a job or not has also been driving me bonkers.  I just want some definite answers.  At this point in time the few things that I know are definite are we are leaving Arizona on the 11th to drive to Ft. Benning, GA we will be in Georgia for the OCS formal and Graduation on the 16th and 18th and will be back to Arizona on the 23rd.  Hopefully along this 2 week vacation we can get some more definite answers from the Army and hopefully we can get a few more decisions made as to where we are going to live.  I am trying to be more spontaneous with "BIG" decisions and not get so frustrated when I don't get a straight answer.
I will conquer this frustration...

Couch to 5k...

I've never been a runner in my entire life.  I've actually always hated running, but I need a cardio workout that I can do on my own and stay motivated to do.  I decided to try this program to get into better shape more than anything.  Since I am already active I am going to start the couch to 5k program at week 4 instead of week 1.  This could also be considered a walk to run program.  Basically you start with a brisk walk to warm up, then you run and walk in intervals.  As the weeks go on you do more running than walking until you can run an entire 5k.  

As motivation for this I decided to splurge a little.  At least I already had the nike shoes so I just had to get the sensor devise that sync's with your shoes.  I purchased the nike+ ipod system to track my performance and to help me keep my eye on the prize.  It is basically a pedometer but it has music and it talks to you as you run to help you stay motivated.  I hope it works out like I would like it to.  :-)  

Maybe some day soon I'll be strong enough to run a 5k with my husband...I can do this!

Couch to 5k.....

Beware of Fraud...

One thing that my parents made sure to teach us growing up was honesty and integrity.  Always treat others as you would want to be treated.  So when I have bad days because other people aren't honest in their dealing I really have a bad day.
On 4th of July I checked my bank statement and it is way and I mean way lower than I ever expected.  Someone was spending my money and it was not me.  I knew my husband had been shopping that weekend, but I didn't think he had bought much more than lunch.  Now, I'm thinking maybe his paycheck didn't get deposited.  Nope not the case.  There were fraudulent charges pending on our account, several thousand dollars worth of charges.  That's my husbands most recent paycheck and more.  OMG...What do I do?  So I immediately call the number on the back of my debit card, they are closed for the holiday.  Are you kidding me you don't have an emergency line that customers can call for this kind of thing.  I need them to freeze my account now not tomorrow.  Well I guess I just have to wait and see.
So we relax eat some pizza, enjoy a glass of wine, and watch the fireworks.  It was a great evening.  Good friend great view of the monsoon storm rolling in and probably the best fireworks show I've ever seen in Prescott.  This 4th of July was great :-)  The only thing missing was my hubby.  As soon as the fireworks were over we drove across town to the ATM and tried to withdraw the remaining amount from my account.  I can't loose it all.  I still have to pay my bills.  I tried to withdraw $600 it wouldn't let me, there wasn't enough in my account.  From when I checked my balance an hour before to getting to the ATM even more money was gone.  AHHHHH!  Still the bank is closed and I cannot get through to anyone.
First thing in the morning I head to my personal account to deposit my paycheck.  Thank goodness I have a separate account and I hadn't deposited my check yet so I have some money.  As I was leaving to go to Compass Bank I was slowly pulling out of the driveway and saw a car coming so I stopped.  I was sitting there waiting to go and I get rear ended.  SERIOUSLY... Did this just happen?  Oh yes it did.  UGH!!!  I get out and the first thing the girl says is, "I thought it was clear so I was going".  Yeah since when was it clear, I was sitting at the stop sign and there are cars driving past.  Are you blind?  It scared me more than anything so I began to bawl my eyes out.  Now this girl is trying to get her insurance info and wont move her car so I'm still out in the middle of the road where she pushed me.  I finally get my car out of the road and get her info and head to the other bank....Just to get more bad news.  They tell me they can't help me because the charges are pending and you can't dispute them unless they actually hit your account and you loose the money.  Why  Not?  Stop them while they are pending and I never have to loose my money and fight to get it back.  While the charges are pending I have no access to that money and I need it.  UGH!!!  So now I just have to wait.  Another day goes bye and I am still waiting and another.  Now I'm on vacation in Denver with very little money, thank goodness I'm with my mom and we're staying with relatives so I don't have to spend much money.
As soon as I got back from vacation some of the pending transactions had been denied and never hit my account only 5 actually got through and luckily they were the smallest ones, but I still have the pain in my butt to dispute them and get my money back.  As they were investigating the charges they found that it was not my card and information that got compromised it was my husbands.  Now I can't do anything because he is in training and is not here to sign papers...Oh wait that is why I have the power of attorney.    I go back to the bank and they allow me to start all of the paperwork.  But we still have to wait up to 3 months for the investigation and for the money to be deposited back into our account.  Thank you BBVA Compass....I could really use that money in the next 3 months.  UGH!!!  I have decided that I will never have a bank account that doesn't have 24 hour customer service and will definitely check into their fraud protection from now on.
The charges have now been tracked back to a book that Ryan purchased from Amazon.com.  I will no longer shop from that website and we have also learned a valuable lesson to never use a debit card online again.  Always use your credit card.  Keep your information as safe as possible.
Beware of Fraud.....

Rodeo Time...

So if you didn't know Prescott, AZ is the home to the World's Oldest Rodeo.   Which means that it's a pretty big deal for the locals.  It is one of my favorite things to do in Prescott. For 4th of July Prescott puts on a lot of fun events and we Celebrate for an entire week.

For fun, part of my family got together and went to the rodeo to begin all of the celebrations.  Every year the rodeo and 4th of July celebration remind me of Grandma Billy.  She was Prescott Frontier Days Rodeo Queen of 1948.  It's fun to dress up in her old cowboy boots and tromp around the rodeo ground in memory of her.  Pam, Taylor, Wyatt, Mimi, Papa, Mom, and I had a fun evening watching all of the events.  My 3 favorite events are bareback bronk, barrel racing, and last but not least Bull Riding.  They were all pretty entertaining, but sadly nobody was able to ride the Bulls for 8 seconds :(  As we were leaving my mom saw a booth where you could take a pick with a bull so what did I do?  I rode the Bull at the Rodeo =D

I even stayed on a full 8 seconds ;)

Entertainment from the rodeo clown doing a skit and dancing to the YMCA.

We are gearing up for the fun events of the weekend including the parade, the rodeo dance, line dancing on whiskey row, the pit bbq at Mimi and Papa's, visiting with everyone, and the fireworks show.   I wish Ryan was here to enjoy all of this with the family.  He has always been working and missed out on most of the 4th of July festivities.  Someday we'll have to come home to visit and enjoy 4th of July together.  

Enjoy the holiday weekend everyone!   

It's Rodeo Time....

My Misfortunate Mistake...

Last Thursday night as my mom and I were packing to leave for San Francisco, my mom yelled down the hall for me to print out our boarding passes.  I quickly went to US Airways and typed in my confirmation code and it tells me invalid code.  I'm thinking what's wrong with this I paid for it, the money came out of my account, I have the confirmation and everything right in front of me, it cannot be an invalid code.  So I promptly type it again, "Invalid code".  What the heck!!!  I look at it and OMG it is an invalid code.  When I booked my ticket I hit July instead of June so I couldn't check in 1 MONTH in advance.  I sat there for a second wondering what to do.  By this point my mom is wondering what was taking me so long and came down the hall to check.  I looked at her and said I guess I'm not going to Chris and Sheila's wedding after all.  I want to cry.  I was so looking forward to going to see my relatives and go to the wedding.
My mom says well call the airline and tell them what happened and see if they can get you on the flight tomorrow.  While I'm sitting on hold waiting to talk to a representative we look up the flights to SFO from PHX.....SOLD OUT!!!  Now not only do I want to cry but I'm sick to my stomach.  We ask the representative if I could get on a flight and he said yes but I'd have to pay the difference in the ticket price plus I'd have to pay a service fee.  It was going to be over $500 (almost double what the original ticket cost).  UMMM...NO!  So we hung up the phone and as I was about to mope to my room and cry, My mom fixes Everything!  She looked up ticket costs to fly to Denver Colorado.  They were cheaper than our original tickets.  She imediately calls back and asks if we can change our flights to Denver for July 7.  They allowed us to do that.  WOO HOO!!!  We were originally going to fly to San Fran for Chris and Sheila's wedding then drive to Denver 3 weeks later for a family reunion.  Now it's the opposite.  So we quickly packed our bags and went to bed. We had a long drive ahead of us and we had to leave early the next morning since it was a 12.5 hour drive.
We made it to San Francisco no problems once we were on the road.   The weather was great.  It was actually really cold but it was a nice break from the Arizona heat so we enjoyed it.  We got to tour around the Bay for an extra day because we drove and had a blast doing so.  A few highlights of our trip were getting to go to Baker Beach and I got offered to try to fish for striper, Seeing the Golden Gate Bride, Lombard St., Of course the wedding, touring the city, and riding the cable car around town.  :-)

The wedding was absolutely beautiful.  It was in Foster city, right down on the water.  The reception was really lively and entertaining all night long.  Chris interviewed both parents and put it together and added pics of both of them growing up through their engagement and then put of video of how it all started.  It was so cute!  There was a lot of dancing and man were they good.  Sheila's godson danced for them as a wedding present.  I've never seen such a little boy dance so well.  It was amazing.  Then Chris and Sheila's first dance came....It blew us all out of the water.  It started with a slow dance then the music  paused and they looked up at the crowd like what's going on, then the music changed and they had a hip-hop choreographed first dance.  It was so Awesome and creative.  I loved it!  I hope someone video taped it and I hope it ends up on You Tube LOL!  Everything turned up perfect :-)

My Misfortunate Mistake turned into a Wonderful Weekend......

Wonderful weekend....

After a somewhat stressful weekend, I got some time to myself and out with friends.  After work on Friday I got a call from my cousin Wyatt.  He works at Starbucks and was running a booth down at the local high school during the Relay for Life cancer walk.  His mom, my aunt, is currently fighting breast cancer and is almost done with her treatments.  Thank You Lord!!!  We sat out on the field talking with people and passing out coffee and tea to until about midnight.  We even participated in a couple of the events.  It was definitely a fun night out volunteering with my cousin.
Bright and early the next morning I got up and met my best friend, Kristen, to go hiking.  We then met up with 2 other friends Veronica and Jess.  The four of us spent the day hiking around and exploring Sedona.  It was such a beautiful day to be out hiking and so nice to get away and relax.  We hiked up to Devils Bridge where there was an amazing lookout over the red rocks.  Afterwards we headed into town and enjoyed a delicious lunch at a local Cafe the Tao's Cafe and shopped until we were all exhausted and ready to go home.

Sunday morning before my dad went back to work in Kayenta we got out of the house again.  Dad and I went out to the range and did a little target practice with our pistols.  I'm getting better.  I hadn't shot in a while so I was a little rusty at first but it came back real easily.  It was so nice to be out in the beautiful weather once again. Once my dad had left, Mom and I curled up on the couch and in the recliner and watched movies all evening.  It was a much needed relaxing weekend.  :-)

What a wonderful weekend....

Pen Pals....

So today I was reminded of an experience I had in elementary school, being a pen pal.  At that time in my life it didn't seem like much of anything.  I wrote couple letters to a girl that would be moving to Arizona and would be going to my school.  Once she came we knew a little bit about each other and it made it easier for her to make friends and adjust to the new school.
You're probably thinking what reminded you of this?  My current life situation has reminded me of this.  I'm new to this whole Army Wife life and am getting ready to move to a new state that I've never been to.  Through facebook I have met other Army wives in my same situation that have basically become my pen pals.  Facebook has become this amazing resource to be able to connect with other wives whose husbands are in training with Ryan right now.  We have become each other's support group and have made it easier to  get through this hard time.
Facebook has also connected me with a family that lives in the area where we are moving to.  We haven't talked much yet, but we have talked about the area and things to do.  Facebook has become the modern source of pen pals.  I am thankful for this resource and all of the wonderful friends I've made.  I hope to keep in touch with them and I hope to meet them all someday.
To all of you wonderful ladies, Thank You for your support and Thank You for being wonderful pen pals.....

Zumba....

Yesterday started as a blah day.  I felt like all I wanted to do was run away, run far away.  For anyone that knows me I'm usually a very happy bubbly person, but yesterday was that one downer day.  I was supposed to be in Georgia seeing my husband for the first time in 3 months and I was going to get to stay with him for 2 whole weeks.  Since we've been married that would be the longest time we have been together since our honeymoon 10 months ago.  I just kept telling myself that everything happens for a reason and this is all part of gods plan.  Let put all of our faith in him and he'll lead us down the path we are supposed to be on.  I also listened to a friends advice, "While your husband is gone stay as busy as possible, do what you love, and LIVE your life".
To stay busy I called my Uncle Taylor.  He always has something for me to do or to work on.  I jumped in the car and went straight to his house to help him with paperwork and shredding.  Half way through the day I remembered that my summer Zumba class would be starting that afternoon.  Woo Hoo!  Something I love.  As soon as I finished up helping Taylor I ran to the mall and bought myself a new workout outfit for my fun summer class.  It's always fun to get something new plus I didn't have any summer workout clothes.
Zumba class always cheers me up.  The fun rambunctious energy makes you forget everything and have fun for an hour.  The up beat music makes you want to move and "Shake It" as my teacher would say.  You leave less stressed and just feeling good.  It is such a good workout.  It really works to get you back into shape.  I love it!
"Ditch the workout, Join the Party"
 ZUMBA.....

Wild Goose Chase...

So it seems as if the Army doesn't have positions available for all of the OCS guys to commission so what are they doing?  They are finding any and every reason to recycle these guys back to OCS or chapter them out of the Army.   A few days ago my husband told me he had to prove that he graduated from ERAU by providing a copy of his degree certificate and a copy of his transcripts to his cadre, but wasn't told when he had to have them.  I got everything together and made photocopies of each page and thought I was being a good little wife and would send him the copies before he needed them.  Monday morning rolled around and the package was sent off to Ft. Benning with a few other items he had asked for.  Woo Hoo!  He's ahead of the game and is going to be good to go.
NOPE....I get a phone call that afternoon and my heart sunk.  He never calls at 2 in the afternoon.  Since I wasn't able to call him back right away everything was running through my head, did he get re-cycled back to HHC, did he get hurt, what is going on, not another delay in training please.  It turns out that he needed a copy of his transcripts and degree certificate that day no exceptions.  I rushed home got them (thank god I did not send him the originals earlier that morning).  I went straight to my moms office to fax them.  Of course since so many wives/mothers/girlfriend/whoever was trying to send these in it wouldn't go through. Finally after trying for 45 minutes it worked.  I was so worried that I went straight home and tried to scan and e-mail it to him as well.  The scanner wasn't working.  Of all days for it not to work, why TODAY?  So off to the recruiters office I go.
SGT Thomas helped me out and scanned the documents in and sent them off to Ryan, but of course it was no easy task since internet explorer and outlook express both decided to stop working.   We finally got connected to the internet and sent it through his personal e-mail.  In the end he got it.  :-)  My visit with SGT Thomas and some of the other guys turned out good because I've been trying to figure out how I was going to get in to see a dermatologist and they told me a doctor that would help me out and get me a referal to go to the dermatologist.
All in all I had a good day.  Got to relax a little, go shopping, sent a package off to Ryan, hiked for about an hour, faxed and e-mailed Ryan his proof of college graduation and got to talk to him on the phone twice.  Wild Goose Chase of jumping through hoops for the Army for sure.  We've gotta do what we've gotta do.

OCS is in Session....AGAIN

So as the stress of Ryan re-starting OCS has began to settle, as the stress of him starting all over again has come back.  What if he doesn't graduate this time?  What will he do?  Where will we go?  These are all the unknown.  I just have to remember to be encouraging and Pray!  Pray that he has the strength and motivation to do this all over again.  Pray that his cadre and others will see his determination and see an improvement from last go round.  Pray that this will lead us to where we are supposed to be.  Pray that Ryan can be a leader and helper to his peers as he has some insight as to what they are doing.
We can do this and we will do this together.  This time apart is making us grow stronger together and teaching us the importance of one another and the importance of a strong family to support us through this long journey.
Congratulations to everyone who classed up to OCS Class 011-11 Charlie company!  Best of luck to all of you in this journey to commissioning as an officer of the US ARMY.
Let the Countdown Begin!
OCS is in Session.....Again

Happy Birthday Ryan...

So yesterday was a pretty rough day.  Ryan got a re-start and for a different reason than expected.  He and 19 others did.  Man these budget cuts have the Army seriously down sizing.  My husbands response to getting a re-start was "What a birthday".  It looks like he'll be able to start training again on Tuesday and will graduate the very end of September.  Who knows, this could be a blessing in disguise.  Just as stated yesterday, Everything happens for a reason.  With the re-start comes the chance to test into Aviation so Ryan's dream of being an Aviation Officer may still happen.  We'll just continue to pray that he is doing everything he can and that God will place him where he's supposed to be.
Anyways, today is Ryan's 29th birthday.  Happy Birthday Husband! For his birthday I baked him a rainbow cake.  (I'm going to eat it all by myself or maybe with some help of a few friends/neighbors) These cakes turn out pretty cool.  You put 3 colors of dough in even layers in an angel food pan and the heat waves in the oven swirl the colors and make different designs in the cake.  They are way fun to cut into so you can see the design from all of the colors.  Of course, it is a delicious cake too.

I also made him a no sew fleece quilt out of Army material and a solid blue fleece.  I think he'll love it.  Last but not least I got him a new pair of five fingers that are for fitness activities like running.  Too bad he can't use them while he's in training right now.  

One present that Ryan will hopefully receive soon is the dozens of birthday cards from friends and family.  I forwarded his address to as many friends and family as I could so he could receive lots of love and support through the mail even though he can't have his actual presents yet.   

Happy Birthday Ryan...

Everything Happens for a Reason....

So since my husband has shipped out in the Army 2 weeks after we got married he has had a number of "mis-haps".  So many hurry up and wait moments and so many discouraging moments.  My husband keeps questioning why he did this.  Oh yeah because his last job was a downer and boring.  Now this is making him realize that his job really wasn't all that bad.  He made great money, had decent hours, could get time off when he wanted/needed.  What more could he ask for?
To start off he was in BCT for 4 weeks when he "pulled his groin" well thats what he thought he had done and he didn't want to tell anyone because he's in BCT and he wasn't going to do a re-start for something as simple as a pulled muscle.  A few more days passed and it got worse.  He finally asked someone about it and they pulled him out and sent him for some test.  Which consisted of x-rays and stress fractures.  He had several in his femur, hip and pelvis.  OUCH!  He was crushed because he was getting recycled back through the system.  Because there was no room for him in The Physical Therapy Rehab Place he stayed with his BCT group through the end but he went to appointments when they did activities that he was un-able to participate in.  Finally 4.5 months later he was healed and sent back to training.
His new BCT group was great he had a few more privelleges but it was still extremely strict as it always has been.  Graduation can and we got to go out to Georgia and visit him.  It was frustrating to us to be out there for 7 days and have the Drill Sergeants mess with the families just as they do the boys.  They would never tell us the correct time to see our loved ones and would make us wait.  In 7 days we got to see Ryan 2 half-days and one other time for 36 hours.  Not as much as we would have liked but it was better than nothing.
Now onto OCS.  This training has been harder physically and mentally.  Even though they do not have a drill sergeant yelling at them constantly or "smoking" them.  They have more to do than you could possibly get done in a 24 hr period and are exhausted from all of the physical activity.  For the first 2 weeks it seemed like at least 1 person a day would drop out and have to re-start.  After that it slowed down a bit.  They made it to "senior phase" and now we know where we're going and what we're doing.  As the guys had their last 10 mile ruck march, 1 girl got a re-start for not being able to keep up with the overly fast pace.  Once they finished they had all of the guys empty their packs.  If they were missing an item or had an incorrect item they told them they were going to be considered for a re-start.  Earlier that morning the first sergeant had told the guys if they didn't need the extra pair of boots they could replace it with a canteen of water so they still had the weight.  All of the guys including my husband who replaced their boots with a canteen of water are being considered for a re-start.  UGH!!!  Yet again another delay.
As all of this is going on I have to find the positive in everything.  It will all work out and is part of God's plan for him, for us, and for our family.  We have to have faith in the Lord that he will guide us to do the right things.  This long and stressful journey has taught us to appreciate what we have and to take nothing for granted.  Not our health, our wealth, or our relationship.  It has made us realize the worth of thing.  Our health and relationship mean more to us than anything.  Even if we don't have much money or anything we will make it through.
Everything we do and every "miss-hap" teaches us a lesson as long as we are open to it and willing to learn from it.  Everything happens for a reason....

Fashion Decision...UGH!

What am I supposed to wear?  Its not like I dress trashy or anything, but my wardrobe mostly consists of Jeans and t-shirts.  I have a few nicer tops and a few dresses.  Don't get me wrong, I am a girly girl and I have more clothes than most girls my age, but the majority of it is way casual.  Being a college graduate with my engineering degree and and Army Officers Wife I should probably step up my wardrobe to be a little more business dress (Classy) and a little less college casual.

From always being a very conservative girl, I have always struggled with being busty and trying to cover it up.  What may be cute to others tends to be to revealing and I just don't feel comfortable. So I tend to stick with my Jeans and T's.  I never thought me Ms. Jeans and a t-shirt would be stressing so much about what to wear and how to dress a little more classy and conservative while still dressing my age.

So, I'm the type of girl who doesn't mind to shop, but I have to be in the mood or know exactly what I want.  I love dressing up but never have any reason to as well.  Now as an Army Wife I have reason to dress up from time to time.  I have 3 events to dress up for in June.  The OCS Social, OCS formal, and graduation.  For these events I don't want to be over dressed or under dressed.  I guess I'd rather be over dressed in more than one sense than under dressed.

I purchased this amazing black gown that I was planning on wearing to the formal. When I trying it on to check if or how it needed to be altered I realized that it is lower cut in the back than I remember and shows a bit more cleavage than expected.  Now I'm in a pickle of purchasing a second formal or altering the one I have.  I think I'm going to go with the first option.  I'd rather be more comfortable and conservative for a formal Army event and save the "little black dress" for a night out with my husband.  Maybe, even for our 1yr anniversary.

My second shopping dilemma is that I have no idea how to dress for the OCS social.  Semi-formal, church dress, sun-dress, business casual, casual....I just don't know.  All I even know about the event is that it is on June 7th at a golf course.  To be on the safe side I'm going to go in a church dress/sun dress.  For the graduation the guys are going to be in their dress blues so I have a semi-formal dress to wear.  At least I had it easy for 1 of the 3 events...LOL!  No matter what I wear my husband will love it.  In reality these events really aren't about me so who will be looking at me anyways and who will ever remember.  I just need to stop stressing and go and have fun.  

A new way of life....

As I have been going about my daily life and hanging out with friends being "Miss Independent"  it had not hit me until the other day that I Kristen Rae am an Army Wife.  Getting married and having your husband ship out in the Army right after the honeymoon leaves you without the reality that you really are a wife.  I still lived by myself and with my parents part time.  I still do my own thing, go to school and work, and hang out with the girls like nothing has changed.  It's almost like Ryan is still my boyfriend and we're doing the long distance thing still, but he's further away and harder to get ahold of now.  Everything is about to change....
Last week we found out (after nearly 9 months of training) what Ryan will be doing and where our next move will be.  Finally I'll get to move with him.  So you've got it he'll be an officer for Field Artillery and we are moving to Ft. Sill, OK for 4.5 more months of training.  Finally I get to be a wife.  I am ready for this adventure to begin, so ready that I booked my plane ticket, hotel, and rental car so I can go to Georgia for 2 weeks.  Yup 2 weeks with My Husband.  It will be about the most time we've spent together other than on our honeymoon.  I'm really looking forward to meeting all of his "battle buddies" and their wives.  Especially the ones that will be moving on to OK with us.  
The Army has taught me a lot in the past 9 months.  The biggest is PATIENCE PATIENCE and a little more PATIENCE.  Everything is a hurry up and wait process.  Now that we know where we're going and what we're doing we still have to wait to know when and how long.  I've also learned more of who I am and want to be.  Meeting new people and connecting with other Military wives has opened my eyes to the world.   Hearing their stories and just being their friend has taught me that you never know what someone is dealing with or going through and to have more compassion for everyone.  In the past 9 months I have met some of the most genuine people whom will hopefully be in my life from now on.  Some of these people I have met over facebook, some through our husbands, some just talking to people about being an Army Wife.  Even though I've never personally met them or I've only been around them once or twice I have a whole new respect and connection to them.  
So the new adventure has begun as I begin to pack my things to prepare to "really" move away from my hometown to a location I have never been.  I am anxious to start my new life with my husband, but still hesitant about leaving all of my friends and family in Arizona.  From the experience I've had with meeting amazing people and making new friends I'm sure this adventure is going to one of the best experiences of our lives.  Having faith that everything will work out and knowing that no matter where I am I still have a wonderful and loving family back home as well as an Army family welcoming us to our new home.  I am ready to start this new way of life....