What is your favorite MilSpouse blog (not including Wife of a Sailor who we all love, or your own)? –submitted by Our Crazy Life
Now, now, it’s not nice to play favorites. 😉 I’ll give what might be perceived as a cop-out answer and say SpouseBUZZ is pretty cool because of the variety of viewpoints it offers. SpouseBUZZ was one of the very first milspouse blogs I added to my RSS reader several years ago, back before I kept my own milspouse blog or really sought out others’.
What are your favorite perks about your s/o being deployed (we all know there are perks)? —submitted by Ramblings of a Marine Wife
One thing I have savored is not having to live my life by the flight schedule. We have no idea what my husband will be doing the next day until the flight schedule goes out the evening before. Until that point, we don’t know if we’re looking at an oh-dark-thirty wake-up for an early brief or if he’ll overshoot a reasonable dinnertime by hours due to a night bounce (Field Carrier Landing Practice, or FCLP) session. My hours are much more regular when Sampson is away; I imagine it will be a bit of an adjustment to get used to planning around the flight sked again when he returns home.
How long did you date your <significant other> before getting engaged? Married? –submitted by Utterly Chaotic
We had been dating for about four and two-thirds years when Sampson proposed. We initially thought our engagement would be about a year and a half long, but due to the exigencies of flight school, we wound up getting married just a few days shy of one year after he proposed.
What do you think your <significant other> would do if s/he wasn’t in the military? –submitted by Adventures of M-Squared
We’ve talked about this “parallel universe” scenario from time to time. I think we would find ourselves living close to our Northern Virginia roots while Sampson worked as an aerospace engineer for one of the big government contractors. It’s possible that I would be working for the same one as a software engineer.
I think one of the main things that kept Sampson from going that route was the knowledge that if he didn’t even try to make his childhood dream of being a Naval Aviator a reality, he would live the rest of his life wondering what might have been. The fact of the matter is that one can pursue a career in engineering after a career as a military pilot, but the reverse is not true. Some things must be done in youth or not at all.
If you could talk to the Secretary of (fill in your appropriate branch) what is one suggestion you would like to bring to their attention in order to improve the lives of military families? —submitted by My Life as His (Air Force) Wife
I don’t know about the lives of military families in general, but it would set this Navy family’s collective mind at ease to have confidence that those in the upper echelons understand the difference between sustainable, well-supported efforts and temporary, extraordinary measures to get the job done in a pinch. None of us can function interminably at “in a pinch” levels.
Are you a military spouse/fiancée/fiancé/girlfriend/boyfriend? Hie thee to ENS Wifey’s blog, snag the questions, and add yourself to the Mr. Linky for this week’s MilSpouse Friday Fill-In!
To the Nth 
Not having to live my life by a military schedule is definitely one of the pluses of deployment! Although the trade off is that I am glued to my email for a couple months at a time 😉
The “glued to email” factor the primary reason I finally bit the smartphone bullet before Sampson left. Prior to that, I was actually a bit of a cell phone Luddite; I didn’t even want a phone with a camera in it and grumbled that I wanted a phone that was good at one thing (making calls) not mediocre at a bunch of other things (like taking pictures). However, I know myself well enough to admit that I’d be tethered to the computer if I didn’t have a way to stay connected whilst out of the house.
So now I’m one of those *shudder* “Android people,” and I wouldn’t go back. 🙂
Ah yes, the flight schedule. You had me at daisies and unicorns until you brought out that beast.
It’s great when it’s a day off, but when it’s not…or it’s a cross-country with less than 12 hours notice, I silently grumble…in either jealousy (because it was to WA) or annoyance.
If you manage to grumble silently, you are a better woman than I. My grumblings tend to be inescapably vocal. 😉
Wholehearted agreement with your comment about “in a pinch” functioning. Unfortunately, people in leadership tend to look at what they can do during their tenure, not what they can do to make changes down the road. Long range planning is difficult and expensive, but SO important!
Depressingly true. If it won’t make for a shiny FITREP bullet or end-of-tour award, it often isn’t a priority.
I hadn’t realized how disruptive the military can be to every day life. I’m a National Guard wife, so we only get “disrupted” once a month. At least that is how it is for us now, and that’s something we can plan, so it’s not really even a disruption.
It’s great to meet another military spouse. Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Thanks for returning the favor and visiting mine. 🙂 Yeah, the military can get to be nearly all-consuming at times. Reminds me of theatre in some ways — everything’s a crisis, whether it should be treated as one or not.
I often feel like the Navy gives me whiplash.lol.
That’s an apt way to put it. We never know what’s going to pop up around the next curve, and yet we have to barrel down the road at a hundred and fifty miles per hour anyway.
I understand what you mean about the flight schedule. Unfortunately it seems I can’t even escape it when he is deployed because our “time together” even online is still whenever he isn’t flying. I will be living at the mercy of a squadron scheduler for quite a while to come. Ironic since Dave’s desk job is being a {ta-da} scheduler.
I try not to think about that part, though it’s true for us, also. 😉
Sampson was stashed in Skeds while waiting to start the last phase of training before hitting his fleet squadron. He described the office as “the centroid of hate and discontent” — you just can’t avoid screwing somebody over; it’s just a question of who it’s gonna be on any given day.
Hi there 🙂 Thanks for stopping by & complimenting my pups! Happy to have another Navy wife to read!
Thanks for visiting me over here!
Hi! Thanks for stopping by and commenting on my blog. We feel the same way about not wanting to be the reason we are not with our spouses. I had never heard of Spouse Buzz, so, I stopped by and checked it out. I hope to “see” you again soon. Enjoy your weekend! ☺
Blessings,
Kristine
And thank you for following me back here and leaving such a sweet comment. 🙂
SpouseBUZZ was the very first one that I started reading. Thanks for stopping by on my blog 🙂 I’ll have to try resisting picking his clothes up when he gets home!
Be strong! You can conquer the dirty clothes monster. 😉 Thanks for returning the favor and visiting my blog.