My New Favorite Acronym: DLA

What is DLA??

In this usually crazy and sometimes confusing ARMY life, communicating almost always in acronyms only adds to the confusion!

However, this is one acronym that is sure to bring a smile to your face, not to mention some extra money in your pocket!!

DLA~DisLocation Allowance

Huh???

Well, the Department of Defense puts it this way...

The purpose of DLA is to partially reimburse a member, with or without dependents, for the expenses incurred in relocating the member's household on a PCS, housing moves ordered for the Government's convenience, or incident to an evacuation. This allowance is in addition to all other allowances authorized in this Joint Federal Travel Regulations (JFTR) and may be paid in advance.

The current rate for E-5 and below is $1952.08 (with dependents). Just to clarify...this is FREE money! It does not have to be repaid!! This is additional money, above and beyond money that is allotted for household moving and per diem transportation. And the only thing you have to do to get it is ask!!!

The last part is probably the most obvious, yet maybe not! We are getting ready to PCS for the first time and we were all over this opportunity as soon as we found out about it. However, we know someone who almost missed their chance simply because they didn't know about it (or weren't paying attention when the Sergeant gave a financial briefing).

Don't let this fantastic benefit pass you by! When your PCS time approaches, make sure your soldier asks the right questions and gets a meeting with Finance before you leave your current duty station (or training station). Once the paperwork is filled out it takes a few days before the money is deposited, and their is a time restraint on when the paperwork can be filled out. My hubby had to wait until he was 10 days from graduating.

For more information on DLA click {here} and {here}.

*DLA is only available to Active Duty Soldiers, with or without dependents, and only available for Reservists or Guards under special circumstances.

Alright! So it's been over 7 months almost 8 months since all of us have started this journey together! Can you believe that! I know we are all getting antsy to move on with the next step. Some of yall are about to PCS to your first duty station in the next month or two, others are living on base as a family again, and I'm just waiting for Curt to come home again. I know I have the easy end of the stick being National Guardsman's wife. I'm not preparing to move, I don't have to worry about leaving my family behind, and I don't have to worry about finding another job somewhere else. I do feel for all my girls though. I'm here if you need me!

It seems lately every morning I turn on the TV and I see something about the war in Afghanistan/Iraq. I mean I'm used to hearing about it and seeing stories on it, but these stories have been different. I walked into the living room this morning to go turn off the TV and they are showing a company from the Marines fighting the Taliban. Now I try to stay away from seeing anything like this because all I see are men yelling at each other, bullets flying everywhere and this is when it hits that what they are doing isn't just playing a video game. It's just nerve racking!

The other day I was listening to CMT in the morning where they just play country songs all morning and a song came on and as I walked into the room there was a mom sitting there on the tv talking, kind of narrating the song. She said the her and her husband never hid anything from the kids, and as the soldiers in a black vehicle came up to the door they just screamed. And the song goes on to say you'll never be gone... I need to find what song that was and who it's by. I honestly never want to hear that song again!

I don't know about you, but ever since I've joined this life just seeing things like that make my heart sad and heavy. I know God has a plan for each and everyone of us, but my heart just goes out to all of those women and children and families who have to experience that. It's a reality that that really could be me one day.

Sorry for the sad post, but it was just something that was weighing on my heart.

On a better note...Curt comes home in less than 2 months!!!! I so can't wait to go back to normal life and have him home to help me around the house and just have someone to share my life with again. I feel so lucky to be able to experience love like this. Not everyone is blessed with being able to share this kind of love with someone else and I wouldn't trade him for anything! Well it's back to work for now! I'll catch up with yall again soon!

Beautiful Blog Award!

We have received our first AWARD!!!!

Thank you so much to

The Annoyed ARMY Wife

for presenting us with this AWARD!

The rules for accepting this AWARD are simple,

we must pass it on to 7 other BEaUtifuL Blogs!!

So, we would like to present this AWARD to:

1. My Domestic Niche
2. Diary of a Navy Wife
3. A Yummy Mummy on a Pink Park Bench
4. Julie the Army Wife
5. The "D" Word
6. Married to the Military
7. Me and My Soldier Man

Thanks again to The Annoyed ARMY Wife!!! Stop by these other blogs!! We love them, and we know you will too!! They truly are BEaUtifuL Blogs!!!

The Commissary Roadblock

**I copied this post from my personal blog, I thought it had a place here as well!

I read something today while I was soaking up the sun by the pool (just had to throw that useless bit of info in there to spark some sort of envy in you!). I ordered a copy of Chicken Soup for the Military Wife's Soul from Military One Source(for free, of course!!) and I started reading it today. This is the first story in the book, and I found it to be so touching! So true!!

The Commissary Roadblock

It was just another harried Wednesday afternoon trip to the commissary. My husband was off teaching young men to fly. My daughters went about their daily activities knowing I would return to them at the appointed time, bearing among other things, their favorite fruit snacks,frozen pizza, and all the little extras that never had to be written down on a grocery list. My grocery list, by the way, was in my 16-month-old daughter's mouth, and I was lamenting the fact that the next four aisles of needed items would have to come from memory.

I was turning onto the hygiene/baby aisle while extracting the last of my list out of my daughter's mouth when I nearly ran over an old man. He clearly had no appreciation for the fact that I had forty-five minutes left to finish the grocery shopping, pick up my four-year-old from tumbling class, and get to school, where my twelve-year- old and her carpool mates would be waiting.

The man was standing in front of the soap selection, staring blankly as if he'd never had to choose a bar of soap in his life. I was ready to bark an order at him when I realized there was a tear on his face. Instantly, this grocery aisle roadblock transformed into a human.

"Can I help you find something?" I asked.

He hesitated, and then told me he was looking for soap.

"Any one in particular?" I continued.

"Well, I'm trying to find my wife's brand of soap."I was about to loan him my cell phone so he could call her when
he said, "She died a year ago, and I just want to smell her again."

Chills ran down my spine. I don't think the 22,000-pound mother of all bombs could have had the same impact. As tears welled up in my eyes, my half-eaten grocery list didn't seem so important. Neither did fruit snacks or frozen pizza. I spent the remainder of my time in the commissary that day listening to a man tell the story of how important his wife was to him—and how she took care of their children while he fought for our country.

My life was forever changed that day. Sometimes the monotony of laundry, housecleaning, grocery shopping and taxi driving leave military wives feeling empty—the kind of emptiness that is rarely fulfilled when our husbands don't want to or can't talk about work. We need to be reminded, at times, of the important role we fill for our family and for our country. Every time my husband comes home too late or leaves before the crack of dawn, I try to remember the sense of importance I felt in the commissary.

Even a retired, decorated World War II pilot who served in missions to protect Americans needed the protection of the woman who served him at home.

~Paige Anderson Swiney

(Included in Chicken Soup for the Military Wife's Soul)

First of all, I could totally relate with this woman's frustration of being at the Commissary and being so irritated with the older man "holding up traffic!" I haven't figured it out yet, but there MUST be a certain day of the week that all the retired people prefer to shop the Commissary, and I am quickly trying to narrow it down so that I can avoid that day altogether!! It saves on Tylenol at least...

After reading this story, I was both touched and rebuked! What a blessing to see the lasting effects that we, as military spouse's, have on our servicemen and women! Even after we are gone, and they (if God wills) are left to survive here on earth for a time, they still look for and miss our "protection". We serve a far greater purpose than just taking care of their home, their children, their laundry...we take care of them in ways the Military never could!! And the entire world relies on that care that only we can give them, as it makes them that much stronger to do what they are doing!

Maybe my next trip to the Commissary should reflect a different reaction if I am so blessed to encounter a "roadblock"! Instead of being irritable, annoyed, or in such a hurry, I could learn a lot from the retired men and women doing their shopping as well. Or maybe I should pause to consider what is holding them up.

Do you have any "roadblock" stories?

Thoughts on our new life...

 *I went ahead and copied this from my main blog, I figured it would be good on here as well.*

Do you as military spouses ever just sit back and think about everything you are leaving behind. All of the years and experiences with family and friends "back home" that you will never get to experience? Do you ever just think about how much you will miss during your 20 years or more away? I am just starting this journey but I cannot help but think those thoughts, I cant help but realize that my parents will be 20 years older then when we left if we do decide to make a full career out of this. My sisters will be in their 30s when we are done. All of that time will be lost, you don't get time back and I am finding that hard to deal with. Now, don't get me wrong I knew this is what we were signing up for. I also knew what we needed to do to get our family into the place we needed to be financially and where our health care is concerned well, we were seriously lacking in that area before enlisting, and don't even get me started on this further weakening economy. Who knows how long KS could have held out where he was working and the odds of him finding another job with what very little college education he had... well it obviously wasn't going to happen. We had exhausted every option we had. I still believe that this was the right choice for us, and in many many ways I wish we had made this decision years earlier, but God puts us where he wants us and I know that years before this would have never have been an option for us. Neither of us were at a place to "let go" so to speak of our family, ourselves, and in many ways our marriage. Not that we will ever let go of our marriage but what else could you call a deployment? You are sacrificing your marriage and family to go defend our country and all the people who are that 99% who are not serving in our armed forces. In a lot of ways I feel guilty for leaving my family behind, for leaving my sisters during their transition into adult hood without a big sister to look up to and to guide them. Without a shoulder to cry on and without a place to see refuge during trying times. I feel bad for making my children say goodbye to everyone they have ever known and for making everyone say goodbye to us and not being able to give them any idea of when we will get to see them again. My sister asked me this week if we will be home for Christmas, I laughed and said I have no clue when we will be home again. All we can do is pray that we will get stationed on the same coast as our family again, and if we don't... well we will deal with it and save up for summer vacations back home. This is the life we have chosen and no matter how much parts of it just down right suck it is a life I am honored to live. It is one that I will look back on and tell my grand-kids this is what your grandpa did and I will hold my head high and be proud even if I am missing years I may never get back with my family because at the end of the day I am still blessed to have my husband and my kids with me, and an amazing family back home who supports every decision we make. We have been blessed with such an amazing support system and people who love and care for us. People who do not resent us for up and leaving them, and for people who know that now as adults KS and I's family, this sweet and wonderful family of 5 that we have and hold so dear is what comes first in our lives. Our jobs are to raise our children the best way we know how and if joining the military is what we needed to do to give them the experiences and life we have dreamed for them to have then so be it. We can only hope and pray that at the end of the day the kids see the sacrifices we have made and they realize that we have done it all for them.

Another one gone!

So I just said goodbye to my brother in law. He is leaving for Fort Sill Oklahoma for his basic and AIT. It's so weird to have to revisit those feelings of when Curt left. Somewhere I never wanted to go back to. I'm so excited for them because they are both excited to be able to share this experience with each other. Curt has been giving him tips on this and that and they are so cute watching them talk to each other. Curt is telling him to behave and Lucas is saying I know I know. It's just funny. Things are good here. The doggies are sad to see their Uncle Lucas go. He would stay with them on the weekends and stop by during the days to play with them. I'm sad to see him go too, but it's a good type of sad. I'm just gonna miss his happy face :). Other than that. Everything is going great over here! Just working and playing with the puppies and cleaning and working on the house!

Follow the yellow brick road...to where? Who knows!

I feel like every decision I make is suppose to be the right thing to do, but it always seems to put me one step behind or cause some sort of frustration. At one end I have an amazing life….at another it doesn’t seem so amazing right now. Curt is gone with the National Guard and has been gone almost for 6 months now. Everybody wants to tell me what they think I should do. Everyone has their own opinion about what I’m doing. No one has once asked me what I want to do or if I’m happy. I’m so sick of it. I have given and given and given to these people. I pay for food for everyone, Curt used to drive everyone around, we opened up our house for others and never once did anyone do anything nice for us or helped us out. We did it out of the goodness of our hearts, but we aren’t millionaires and money doesn’t just grow on trees for us either. They can’t even pick up after themselves. I know it’s my house and I’m the one that’s supposed to clean it, but no one ever helps me by putting their dishes in the sink or picking up their clothes or anything. They aren’t my kids and this isn’t their house, what makes them think that they can do this. I feel so used. Not one person goes out of their way for me. So what if I want to go to bed at 10 pm, or if I want to have some time to myself during the week, I have to work 40 hours a week and then I’m gone on the weekends. Everyone says I should stay home on the weekends, but how do you do that when the love of your life is only 2 hours away and you really don’t have any other reason to stay home except for me to be selfish and do things I want to do. Doesn’t make sense to me.

It seems like I’m in a whole different world. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m 23 living a 30 year olds life and have responsibilities that the others in my life don’t have. I go to bed at night wondering if we are ever going to get out of the hole we are in. I know we brought a lot of this on ourselves. We are the ones that wanted to get married young, we are the ones that wanted a house, we are the ones that wanted newer vehicles, I’m the one that wanted to go to school but couldn’t ask my parents for money to help, and we are the ones that were determined to do it ourselves. But in the end we’ve paid the price for all of this. We’ve had a lot of hard times over the past 2 years, but we just keep on going and learn from it. We just have to make some sacrifices now. I can’t take it back and I don't want to take it back, but my so-called friends just don’t even help. My generation is the biggest most selfish generation I have ever come across. It’s only gonna get worse after us. Our parents gave us everything. All they wanted to do was give us the best, but they’ve raised monsters. People who think they deserve everything. We don’t deserve anything. We are lucky to have the finer things in life. We are lucky to be able to drive a car or have a house with your own bedroom so you can have privacy.

I’ve learned a lot about life since Curt left back in November. I learned that I have no control over anything that is going to happen, so my goal in life is 1.) Serve God with everything I do. 2.) Be the best wife I can to my husband 3.) Just make decisions that are right based on what God has taught us. I’ve met better friends through the army than I have at home. These girls actually get it. They understand the stress and effect of being a grown-up. I just wish I could find some friends like that around here. I am gonna be an outcast from others because of this until I find a new church and make new friends that have the same morals as me. I just don’t think people understand. I’ve let one too many people use me and abuse cuz I will do anything and everything I can for someone else no matter how many times you've screwed me over. I take pride that I can do that, because now a days there aren’t many people that can. I love doing things to make someone else’s day happier. What good are you if you ruin everyone else’s day, cause drama, and can’t touch anyone else’s life. It’s the little things in life that do matter and it can change someones world just by smiling at them or just by saying thank you for something little or by listening to a story they are proud to tell.

I’m not strong enough to be in bad situations and choose the right thing to do, so I just stay away from them. I just feel lonely. I’m not lost because I know exactly what I’m doing. I just hope it’s the right thing. It keeps tugging on my heart to let these people in my life that I thought were so called "friends" go and move on, but it’s scary to feel like you’re gonna be lonely. I know I will always have Curt, but I would love to find someone else that will be around even when Curt is doing other stuff. These people add no value to my life. They never once have supported me in what I was doing. Never once have done anything nice for me. They just use us and it hurts my relationship with Curt. Who knows…I just know that if I do what I’m taught and feel is right then I’ve done my part and I just have to sit back and enjoy the ride until God does his part and they meet somewhere.

I’m sorry to be so depressing…I’ve just had a lot on my mind and no one to share it with that will take a step back from their life and actually just listen. I don’t know what I would do without these girls that I met while Curt was at BCT. They are amazing and it seems like I’ve known them forever and there is just a special bond that can’t be put into words…

I'm actually happy with where I am in my life. I'm just sad that all the ones I thought were my friends aren't here to share it with me. Friends come and go especially at my age right now and I know God will open up a new door soon. It's just a matter of knowing what you're doing is the right thing.