Christmas is ON!!!

So today...my son came HOME. I say home because he is finally home. OK, I think some need a back story. My son is a military brat, through and through. Some may say he is a "Global Nomad" having lived on 4 continents before the age of 12 I believe the definition is. It was probably the best thing we ever did for our son. To expose him to different cultures. From the Asian perfection, to the Spanish flair to the extreme poverty of living in West Africa where rich is defined in family values and not superficial things. He has seen a lot in his 18 years. For my long time followers you know my son is a Midshipmen at ASU in ROTC Marine Option. He finished his freshmen first semester (the killer) with a 3.95 and as #1 Ranked Midshipmen, he busted his arse for that, and it was no small feat, trust me. Imagine college with 18 credits along with 0600 PFT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with 60 motivated Midshipmen all wanting to be the best, and our son was. I can't tell you what a sense of pride that is. While all the other were telling the SNSI (Senior Naval Instructor) they wanted to fly planes, they wanted to be Seals, they wanted fixed wing...my son was saying "I want to be a Marine" ...we are proud. It does help on the rare occassion he gets to come home he gets to train with his dad and the best Grunts in the Marine Corps...Shout out to the Darkside! But he is so self determined and motivated. A son, a sense of pride, that everything he has accomplished that has come hard won. His father and I are so proud. But ok, enough of the mushy stuff our boy is home for Christmas. He went to North Carolina first, he wanted to go to what he thought was home...we moved the day after he graduated high school and he felt like it was his home and he had to go there ... we didn't want him too but we knew he needed too. He stayed with his best friend in High school and his parents, they were awesome to him, he visited friends and went to his old JROTC and he came to the conclusion he wasn't home, that he wanted to be with us. His mom, his dad and his dog. That was were his heart was.....and I hoped that would happen and it did. He is truly a Marine Brat and a future Marine Officer that gets, Home is where the Marine Corps sends you. I am looking at his sweet face right now, feeling so content as he sleeps in our new home, but our home none the less. My Christmas gift wrapped in a 6 foot 2 package with ginger hair and the sweetest face I ever seen. He has more muscle, more confidence and he is just as amazing as the day he was born. Not my baby to the world but to me always my baby...welcome home son, and Merry Christmas. We love you and we have missed you.

MilSpouse Friday Fill In

1. What is the best gift you have ever received or given? Well I think my favorite gift is actually attached to one of my favorite memories. When I was about 11 years old me and my cousin Gussy (we're Italian)were given calculators shaped like Mickey Mouse Faces. We thought they were the coolest things ever. Well we grew up in Philadelphia (in the same neighborhood the movie Rocky was filmed)and on Christmas day it was snowing. So we decided we had to have batteries for these calculators. The memory of she and I walking in what was a blizzard to go get batteries for calculators on Christmas day and her and I laughing all the way and in pure joy of a 9 and 11 year old will be with me forever. We didn't have an easy childhood so the memory of that day will always be with me and make me smile.

2. Do you celebrate holidays differently when your loved one is deployed/gone or do you keep tradition?The Christmas before last my hubs was in Iraq and it really was hard for us. We are like the 3 musketeers and with one of them gone it just didn't feel right to do anything. I remember on Christmas morning we skyped while we opened gifts and I really don't think we cared at all about those gifts just being able to see one another since skyping was a rare treat. Last year hubs came home from Aghanistan on Thanksgiving night at about 1130 and we didn't have turkey or anything but we all were happy later that night with bowl of Ramen and one another. When you spend holidays away from your loved one you really get it that it's not about the food and gifts but about the family. Nothing else really matters.

3. If you celebrate Christmas, do you put an angel, star or something else on the top of your tree? It has changed over the years but in recent years it has been an angel.

4. What are your three favorite websites? Facebook, Twitter, and Enlisted Spouse

5. On your man do you prefer... boxers, briefs or boxer briefs? Or commando?
What about thongs? Well I like boxer briefs but my hubs lives in green silkies, my fellow Marine Wives you know what I am talking about, those little green silkie PT shorts for those of you who don't. Apparently while in theater and in the field the silkies are preferred for "dropping trou" in my hubs words not mine. lol

Mil Spouse Weekly Round Up #15

I'm so happy to be hosting this week's round up...hope I don't mess it up too badly. Not as tech savvy as I would like to be but I try! Thank you to Ines for picking me this week. I love her blog she's a great milspouse to follow so if you don't click on her name and view her great blog The Few, The Proud, The Wife.

We are all pretty busy and sometimes we are just too busy to read every post out there of the million and one blogs we follow. SOLUTION: MilSpouse Weekly Roundup. This weekly roundup allows you to post your favorite post of the week and catch up with other MilSpouse bloggers.

With that being said please excuse me for posting a day early, I forgot I have a long day tomorrow doing my Family Readiness Advisor role..wrapping gifts for our Battalion kiddies so it should be fun but wanted to get this out since it was my turn.

So, all you have to do is: Simply link your favorite post of the week on the linky below and read the others that have already linked up.

Next week Elizabeth at The Young Retiree
will be hosting and I am so grateful since it is Christmas and everyone is so busy but she was such a sweetheart to do it. So please go visit her blog. It's funny, and very real and she say's what she thinks and it's very refreshing. Thank you Elizabeth!

Running Etiquette

OK fellow bloggers, I have a question. I have recently decided to really give my heart and soul back to this Couch to 5k thing. I started to do this on our awesome mile and a half PT course here at beautiful (lol) 29 Palms. The course is about the size of a sidewalk for you city folk, maybe a bit wider. It goes out for a mile and a half and you have to go back a mile and half to get back to your car so if you go out..your coming back. Something I should have kept in mind when in the summer in about 90 degrees I decided to walk it against hubs better judgement and just about had heat stroke and thought I was going to die. So you run/walk, c25k whatever you want to do, so depending on time of day, you could potentially be out there while others are at various points coming and going. I never go during morning PT time, remember this base is the majority infantry Marines and they PT hard, morning afternoon and night so best to stick between 9-11 am and that is what I do but still there are some people out there. Here is my question. What is the proper thing to do when you are face to face passing another runner? You are coming one way, they are coming the other..and then you either do a little wave, some say a little hello, and some just ignore you like your not there?? I am confused, I don't want to be rude, sometimes I am on my way back and all I can do is muster a little wave but still feel like you should at least acknowledge this other person, right? I mean maybe it's just me. I have been greeted by Marines, other woman, so it's not a black or white issue..like Marines ignore, woman say hello. So I ask you my fellow blogger runners...is there a hard and fast rule? LOL just something light for the weekend.

Mil Spouse Friday fill In

1.What do you see your life like in 10 years?
Happy, Healthy. My son will be well into his military career. We will be either still in or retired depending on what the future holds for my hubs in the Marine Corps. I just wish to be happy still like I am now and content with what I have like I am now. Maybe content isn't the right word, that is almost like I have settled somehow...peaceful, maybe that is a better word. I also hope the Wars are many years behind us at this point 10 years down the road.

2.What do you like most about your job?
Well since I am currently not employed and I am not technically a SHM since my son is a freshman at college. I would have to say I am a happy Family Readiness Advisor and it isn't keeping me as busy as I would like it too but that will pick up when are guys go forward.

3.What are three things you do every day, no matter what day it is?
Feed my dog
Exercise
Eat

4.What would you do with an extra five hours in your day today?
I usually do...see # 2 and I usually just clean, read or run errands.

5.What is your favorite Christmas (or whichever holiday you celebrate) cookie recipe (please share!)?
Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough..sorry no real cooking in this house :(

Mil Spouse Weekly Round Up #13

Don't forget to head on over to Taryn at maine-lytaryn for this weeks round-up.

Mil Spouse "Friday" Fill In #23

As you may have noticed I put Friday in quotations because I always try to get it done on Friday but seldom do. But I do love it and thanks to Wife Of A Sailor it has become one of my fave traditions on my blog.

1. If you were given $1,000 right now, how would you spend it? On my pops, he needs some home improvements and I would love to have them done for him.

2. If you had to choose a movie title (a real one that already exists) for your life story, what would it be? The Philadelphia Story. It's an obvious choice since I was born and raised there.

3. If you were a teacher, what subject would you like to teach? Easy, Social Studies and I would make current events a huge part of the class. I had a social studies teacher and every day for homework we would have to cut an article out of the paper and right about it. It encouraged us to read as well as to know what is going on in the world.

4. Has being a MilSpouse changed how you view holidays or how your holidays are celebrated? If so, how? If not, what hasn’t changed?
Well it didn't really until the Wars started and we were apart during the holidays and all the decorations, presents and trees didn't really mean all that much because the important part (us being together) was not in place. So now I am always grateful when we will all be together and this year even more so since our son has been gone at college and we will all be home under the same roof.

5. What is your favorite Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate) memory?
As a kid it would be me and my cousin not being able to sleep and drinking Nyquil to go to sleep. And one time we received Mickey Mouse calculators and we needed batteries and we walked in a blizzard about a mile to a store that was open to get batteries. As an adult with my own family it for sure is when my son was small giving him oatmeal to feed the reindeer before he went to bed, he would throw it all over the backyard and it would always be gone..birds maybe? And him and his dad making a gingerbread house, that is their tradition and he and I making cookies. I hope he doesn't think he is too old to do that this year..but I have a feeling he won't.