This Crazy Army Wife

So I'm telling you right now, this one is gonna be a real one. If you are not an adult, or if you don't want to get personal, close on out right now. If you want to be real scroll down . . . . . . . . Still here?  Okay, girl what has happened to your passion. I'm not talking about sex, although ladies that IS coming in a future post. I mean passion. What gets you all fired up? What REALLY matters to you? If your knee jerk answer is your kids, your spouse, etc.... that's okay. You can be passionate about them. I have some great friends whose passion is their kids. There is nothing wrong with that at all, especially if they are little. That being said, you better keep looking because if you invest all your passion into your kiddos, what do you do when they grow up???? Right now, that might be hard to contemplate. You have a kid hanging off you day and night, Mommy please look at me, do this with me, make me food! I don't like this food, etc etc.... Bu

Who are you?  For those of you who saw the video of me speaking last weekend, this is going to be a bit of a repeat. Yes, I did it, I actually stood up in front of a crowd and spoke. My good friends will know how rare that is for me, because I have a fear of public speaking :)  A friend of ours, named Kristin has a great foundation to support military wives. To see what she's all about check out her website  Northwest Military Wives Last weekend, they had a foundraiser to raise money for a retreat for military wives. They decided to honor me at the event and she asked me to speak.  Now, when she first invited me to speak I thought, no big deal I can talk about  Jimmy's Walk . I thought his cross-country walk to raise awareness for Veterans Mental Health issues was why she asked me to speak. I thought,sure I can talk about him. I hate speaking, but I love my husband and I do support what he is passionate about.  She said.... no Heather, we want to hear your stor

Changing plans.... as always. We have said all along that if Sammie wanted to stay and graduate with her friends we would. She has been adamant that she didn't want too..... That being said, now that her anxiety is being managed with medication she is finally settling in and realizing she has friends and that life is good here. She still thinks her school sucks.... but she doesn't want to leave her friends. So it looks like we will be staying in the Pacific Northwest for a few more years.....  at least as of right now. Add in that Karah is saying that if she stays here for Freshman and Sophmore year she will want to graduate here too. Who knows what the future will bring. Just proves that nothing in life is ever definitive. I still wish I was closer to my oldest and the family, but just as we discussed staying in Kenosha for Tess to graduate, we will give the same option to my girls here. If they want to stay, stay we will. So for now who knows.....

I am going to try and do better about this whole blogging thing. We are currently in Washington state, back at Fort Lewis (or JBLM) as it's called now. We have been here for a little over a year. The oldest is off at college (and some days are better than others for her). The middle kid has started to study for her AP testing and is excited and scared for Junior year next year. Our little baby, isn't so little anymore.... She is scared about next year and starting high school. She has also continue to grow her artistic talents and is turning into quite the painter..... Jim, well he has decided to retire from the Army.... That's right, this Crazy Army Life is approaching retirement. The thought of being out and on our own is a little intimidating.... Where do we go now? Most people go home... but where is home? My family is scattered to the winds... Jim's are all in Missouri. Missouri is where we consider home, but.... it's a limited practice state for me. I have

Well the Army decided Hawaii was not the place for us to live next. We are currently in Limbo awaiting a new assignment. We are hoping to find out sometime in the next few weeks where we are going next. Tess is now living in Missouri with her Oma, looking for work and getting ready to start Community College. The rest of us are just keeping busy with school and general life. I made some Pizza Soup today... and it was super yummy! I decided to share the recipe here. ENJOY Pizza Soup - a delicious tomato soup. Large can of diced or crushed tomatoes (28 oz) Can of diced seasoned tomatoes (italian seasoned) Can of pizza sauce Can of tomato sauce (8 oz) Can of tomato paste Chicken Broth (2 cups) Italian Seasoning (your choice how much) 1/2 tbsp sugar garlic (again how much you like) Salt and Pepper to taste 1 cup of shredded Italian Cheese Pizza toppings of your choice (I used mushrooms, onion, green bell pepper, olives, pepperoni, italian sausage) Place the first set

Today in a search for a recipe I decided to revisit my blog.... and realized I haven't posted on here since spring. Life moves on.... We still have our good days and bad days. Some better and some worse.... Things have stabilized and gone crazy all at the same time. Our eldest has graduated High School! We are proud of her, and about to miss her a lot.  She is moving out in a few weeks to live with her Grandmother in Missouri. Then she will start community college down there in the spring. We are working on our paperwork for our next PCS (military move for those non-military who follow us).  As of right now the plan is to move to the lovely isle of Oahu! We have been trying to get stationed there since Jim joined the Army 18 years ago.... How fitting that unless something changes, it will be our last assignment before Jim retires. I am about to start my final semester of grad school and then there will be some freedom in my life.... But, none of you follow me for all of that, y