Do you ever wonder what life is like behind the scenes of
the military families? Do you ever look
at a military family and think “man they have it made, and they make soooo much
money!” Do you envy a military spouse
because she doesn’t have to work? If you answered yes to any of these
questions, I have news for you.
I
entered into this lifestyle by accident.
I was not looking for a man in uniform, though I must say those uniforms
sure make a man look good! I was married
to my husband before he was a soldier.
We were young, and broke. We were having a rough time getting along most
of the time. We already had one child and another on the way. We had bills and had been out of our parents
houses for years prior. Most days, it
really felt like it was just not going to work out between us. We went our own ways for a bit. To make a long story short, he joined without
me knowing to support the kids. Later
on, we worked on things and while he was in basic training in Oklahoma, we were
able to work it out and get back together.
To make
things clear here, there was very limited conversation phone wise while he was
there. He had his phone sometimes on the
weekends, and sometimes not. We had to
communicate the most through snail mail.
This included telling him that his next child would also be a boy. I finally was able to make the trip with his
family to Oklahoma to watch him graduate Basic training. We had him for a whole
entire weekend. Than we left and he had to stay for AIT. I remember it really sucking that we had to
leave after we finally got to see each other again. It was a really long drive when you are
really pregnant and have a small child along as well. Needless to say, no one died and we all made
it through.
Close
to the time it was for me to have our second child, was close to the time he
was to be done with AIT. So knowing that
he was about to be assigned to a new state and place to live, I moved out of
the house we had and in with his parents.
Now, I was happy to have a place to live, and people to help me with
things, it was really different living with someone when you haven’t in so very
long. I was there for a month or two
before my husband called and told me he knew where he was going to be
stationed. In my mind I thought “North
Carolina, Texas, Washington, Colorado, or maybe California.” I didn’t know where I WANTED to go, but since
we had no say in the matter, I did not see the point in trying to find
somewhere that I wanted to be. He called
me and told me. I was so confused, and so shocked! Of all the places that the
army can send someone, I forgot this state was even a state. Can you guess where the beautiful glorious
army sent us too???? Yup, they were
shipping all the little Johnson butts to Fort Riley KANSAS!!! Don’t forget Todo.
He came
home a day before he was originally going to, and almost scared the baby right
out of me. He was sitting on my bed when I came back to his parent’s house one
day. He had two weeks of leave, and that ment that
in order for me to go to the land of Oz with him, I needed to get this baby out
in the next 2 weeks. This part of my
life actually worked out well, because 2 days into that leave time, I was ready
to deliver. We were able to pack up the
uhaul and both cars, spend time with family, say good bye, and take care of all
the little things…like resting…NOT.
Resting doesn’t exists anymore!
So we
make our journey in Aug of 2009, my birthday to be exact. As I later found out, most all my birthdays,
would be me driving. We started the 12
hour trip, that was planned to take 12 maybe 14 hours. My husband had the jeep with the Uahul and I
had the car, with the kids. LUCKY
ME! We made it to the half way point,
and WHAM, just like that the jeep was smoking and smelling a little funky down
the highway. So, we pull over. There is no way we are leaving this thing on
the side of the road with our life inside of it. So my husband stays with it while it try and
find a phone book. (we barely had normal
phones little lone smart phones than) We
find this little sketchy town and we figure out a tow truck and a hotel for the
night. The tow truck shows up and takes
the jeep to the shop. The kids and I get
some dinner and head to the hotel. Time
passes and we get a call. We just
overheated the tranny because, SOMEONE was driving it on overdrive! SERIOUSLY.
Either way we had to stay the night now.
The next day was a race against time to meet with the people that were
going to rent us an apartment before they closed for the weekend. If you know my husband, you know that time is
the last thing that he is worried about when he is driving. Of course, I didn’t know where I was going so
I HAD to follow and it was killing me to go that slow on the freeway knowing we
were on a time limit. Most people would
have just opted for a hotel for the weekend.
1. We didn’t have more than 100.00 to our name, and 2. Have you ever
tried to get a hotel right by a military post on a weekend? Families have to live in those for months
sometimes. (Which I would also later find out)
Somehow we made it.
Now we
were so tired we all went inside and slept on the floor for a few hours. I had not seen this place that I was about to
live in, only my husband had. He made
sure it was ready for us when we got here.
It was very thoughtful of him. Once I woke up, and was able to look around,
there was nothing to look at. It was a 2
bedroom, and there was four of us! It
was 1 floor with 1 bathroom, 1 level, no place for a washer and dryer, and no storage. We had no choice, this was it! This was home! We now had to do with what we had. It was alright at first, but as the year
ended, I could not stand that little place.
We had
brought a Uhaul with a few essentials with, but we still had to wait for the
military to ship the rest of our things, which at the time, was not a whole
lot! When that stuff finally came, we
were so happy, and I was so frustrated because there was nowhere to put any of
this stuff! For the year that we were
there, there were boxes behind our bedroom door, stacked to the ceiling,
because there was no place to put it. I
could not believe that this is what I agreed to come to Kansas for.
I did
make my first friend though! Man was I
happy. Her husband and mine went to
basic and AIT together, and they even let my husband stay with them in the
hotel before he was able to come home and get me. This girl was my new partner in crime. They were still living in the hotel when I
got there. Once we were settled, we
invited them to dinner. My youngest was
2 weeks and my oldest was 2. My husband
had informed me that this girl LOVED kids and more so babies. So we hit it off from the start. So started the many adventures of the new military spouse's!!!
Tune in tomorrow for more of the adventures of an army wife!
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