Married to the Army

TDRL

Well, it seems like yesterday when he was added to the Temporary Disability Retirement List but he's already up for another evaluation. We weren't given any information on how the process works so if anyone knows anything about it as far as timelines, I would greatly appreciate the information!

His evaluations were suppose to be every 12-18 months so we were a little surprised that they called when they did to make an appointment. He was told it was because those physicians were deploying but when he saw the doctor, he said otherwise. So we're still wondering about that one.

Let the Army roller coaster ride continue!

The Gratitude Campaign

Every time someone approached my husband to say thank you for his service, it always made me a little teary eyed. Perhaps because it didn't happen very often or maybe because you could always tell the person wanted to be able to do so much more. It just always meant a lot to me and to him when people would go out of their way to come over, shake his hand and say thank you.

Now there is a new way to say thank you and there's a video and website that is dedicated to the cause. Check it out!

The Gratitude Campaign

Thanks Vimi for sharing the link!

Pre-Deployment Briefings

Is there anyone else out there who dreads these as much as I used to? Of course, the most obvious reason is because it means you will soon be saying good-bye to your soldier. But there are other reasons to dread it as well. Though that doesn't mean you should avoid going to them because of it.

I realize that the Army needs a lot of information before they send your soldier to the opposite side of the globe and that it needs to be as updated and accurate as possible. But there has to be a better time to obtain it than when you are already in basketcase mode counting down the hours until he leaves. Perhaps it is only his unit that liked to hold these just a day or two before they left but ours always worked out that way. You know how it is at that time. The most innocent thing will send you into a crying frenzy.

That's not the time that I want to be drawing out a map to show the Army how to get to my house in the event that I will be getting the dreaded knock on the door. Nor am I in the right frame of mind to have to decide (on the spot) who I want to be notified so they can be there with me when I'm notified. I don't know phone numbers and addresses of family members off the top of my head either. And really even if I did, I doubt I could recall them at that moment with the other thousand thoughts going through my brain.

This briefing was always the time when the unit (or perhaps under orders of the big Army) decided to bring in a rep from every organization on post or close to post to tell us about their services. But at that point, there's only a few things I'm concerned with - when he's leaving, when he's coming back and an address of where he'll be. Other than that, I don't really care. Not that the information isn't useful - it is. But there has to be a better time to give it to me, preferably in writing, than at that time. Because truthfully, the only thing I could think about during those briefings was the fact that my husband was probably sitting beside me for the last time for quite a while and that with every minute the speaker ran their mouth, the amount of time I had left with him diminished by another minute.

So am I alone? How were your deployment briefings run? How would you do things differently?

Great Phone Call!

Some of you are aware that I could definitely use some good news right now as the past week has been very rough for my best friend and her family.

And my great news came last night. When we got home last night, the answering machine light was blinking. I pressed the button and heard "This is the Director of Admissions at the University of Georgia and I have good news..."

Woohoo! I have officially been accepted to the MBA program at UGA! Finally, I will be a Georgia Bulldog! I am so very excited about this program and have been sitting here with my fingers and toes crossed for several months.

I begin the program in May. The way it looks right now, I'll beat Rob to graduation by one semester! :)

2008 is off to a great start!

Hopefully, this post will not jinx that!

Yesterday, both Michigan and Georgia won their bowl games. I'm happy any time anyone beats Florida no matter who it is and of course, Rob was thrilled. The Georgia game was actually kind of boring. I've never watched Hawaii play so I have no idea if that was their normal level of play but it definitely didn't seem like they really showed up for the game.

Last night, we had a rare sight - at least for us here in Georgia. It snowed! We came outside at half-time and it was coming down pretty good, at least by Georgia standards. The news called it heavy snow showers. Whatever. It doesn't matter to me as long as we were able to see it. It was so much fun to stand outside and have it swirling all around. I didn't even notice how cold it was. And that's really saying something for me!

Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come! Hope your New Year was as great!