Tuesday, August 09, 2005

25 Ways you know you are a military spouse

This piece was in Army Times a couple weeks ago. It hold very true to most military spouses, and gave me a good chuckle.

1. You yell at your kids saying, "Don't make me email your father!"
2. Your neighbors know you but have never seen your active-duty husband.
3. Your conversations are sprinkled with PCS, TAD, LES, etc., and you know what they mean.
4. You have had 8 address changes in 9 years and you are not on the run from the law.
5. The front hall closet of your home is designated as a uniform closet. (mine is!!)
6. Your spouse will be gone for 2 weeks from his job and you think, "Is that all? No problem."
7. The radiator blows up on the car and the washing machine dies just as your spouse leaves for temporary duty.
8. You aren't surprised when you get 4 days notice for a 4 month deployment.
9. You don't know your own Social Security number, but you know your spouses by heart. (I've forgotten mine plenty of times!!)
10. You are in a disagreement with a bill collector and say, "Let me speak to your commander!"
11. You spend your second wedding anniversary alone. (I'll be spending my first alone)
12. You move your day care business from one state to another and still have the same children enrolled.
13. You have a collection of different shapes, sizes, and colors of window treatments for the same room. (I make mine, and recently cut up old ones for other projects, since they couldn't be reused)
14. Your heart races when you hear the doorbell ring during a deployment.
15. You've done more oil changes and mowed more lawns than your spouse because he's never there to do it himself.
16. You remember milestones by duty stations.
17. All your kids, including your 2 yr old, stop what they are doing and put their hands over their hearts whenever they hear the national anthem.
18. You can sleep through the sounds of fighter planes and bombers during their morning practice.
19. You reach for your ID card when entering a civilian store.
20. You ask someone to hold on by saying, "Standby."
21. Your kids point at anyone wearing BDUs and boots, regardlessof race or gender and yell "Daddy!" or "Mommy!"
22. You tell the movers the correct way to pack.
23. You notice when Hollywood makes mistakes in portraying the military. (Big one here... hate that!)
24. Military homecomings on TV bring tears to your eyes because you can relate so well.
25. You start to read the Army Times in place of Cosmopolitan