Mailing to David...

Hey all! I thought I would let you all know how you can mail letters etc. to David.

I have discussed this before here but I thought I would remind everyone.

If you want to mail anything to David, it has been HIS request that you give the items to me. You can mail them to my address. If you do not have it, please e-mail or call me.

They've been told to appoint only ONE person to be the "contact" for the soldier. This one person is the ONLY person with the mailing address of the soldier. It also helps with OPSEC guidelines -the fewer people that know the address, the less chance of "loose lips sink ships".

Once the wife, parent, sibling, whoever the soldier appoints as the contact person, has a full box of items from family and friends, the contact person ships the box over.

David has been told (as have I by the Army) that this system works well. By decreasing the volume of mail soldiers recieve (ie letters) the mail (boxes) will get to them faster. It makes sense.

I've talked to a couple of soldiers who've been "over there" and they said they started getting their boxes much faster when everyone in their Unit started to use this system.

I know how much you all care for David and his safety. I also understand how much you would like to correspond with him. Please respect his wishes. It'll make this deployment a lot easier on all of us.

No Sympathy....

I was watching the news last night. I saw another Army wife talking about how she needed to raise money to see her husband for his 4 days of leave before he goes to Iraq. First thing I thought? Wow. He must be far away...Texas, California...some place that wouldn't be financially easy to drive to...some place far.

Then I saw the news piece. The unit is from Ottumwa. They are at FORT MC COY. FORT MC COY IS FOUR AND A HALF HOURS AWAY FROM HERE. Good Lord. She was crying on TV talking about how she wants to see her husband one last time before he goes, and another Army wife, who'd just married her husband a week before he left for training was all, "You never know when you kiss him if its going to be the last time you see your soldier alive." Oh, Please. It's Army wives like this that give the rest of us a bad name. Suck it up.

He's four hours away. Drive up there and get him. DON'T go to the media, crying about how you need money. And you know what else? This isn't their first deployment. So it's not like these four days of leave were a huge suprise either. Save your money so you can go get him. Or have everyone pool their money to get a bus. Don't go crying to the media about how you won't get to see him for a year...there are other Army Wives out there who've been without their husband longer (these guys have been gone for one month--Dave's been gone three months) and will not see them for a year either.

Suck it up and put your big girl panties on. You KNEW that deployment was possible when you married him/he joined the Army. Deal with it. Don't go crying to the media. Don't make all of us Army Wives look like sniffling little babies.

Maybe I'm the "Rosie the Riveter" or the "Dottie Hinson" ("A League of Their Own") of the group...but like "Jimmy Dugan" (Tom Hanks) said..."There's no crying in baseball."

It's time to suck it up, ladies. Deal with it. You're an Army Wife. It's going to get a lot harder before it gets easier. Go to your underwear drawer, find your big girl panties and put them on. While our men are gone, we've got a job to do...and I don't mean going to the media and crying for money. Suck it up. We have to be tough for our men. Because I can promise you, it is 10 times harder on them to away from home. You need to remember that.



I'm not saying its not hard on those of us who are at home. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm not saying that I never complain about my husband being gone, because I do. But I plan for things. I work things out. And I DO NOT go crying to the media.

Funny Fhoto Friday--TRACTORS!!!

Last weekend my Uncle Jeff came to visit from Arizona. Liam got to spend some time with his cousins and we were able to see the square dancing tractors. They were neat! After the show, they invited the kids to come and sit on the tractors...what a great photo op, I thought.

Yeah...Liam and Mitchell were not amused. Matthew had a great time...

Mitchell


Liam



And Matthew...


Look!! I'm driving!!


But Liam felt better after a long nap...and then he got his haircut!!

YAY HAIRCUTS!!!

Happy Birthday America!!

We attended the Iowa Cubs game and watched the fireworks afterwards. It was a little sad, being there without my husband...and I'll admit it, I got teary eyed when they sang "God Bless America", but I know that next year he'll be here to celebrate with us.

So if you had a great holiday yesterday, or have a long weekend planned, take time out to think of the soldiers who have fought and who are fighting for our freedom. And say a prayer for all of the wives and children who are missing their husbands and daddies.




God Bless America.