Happy 8th Anniversary!!

Happy Anniversary...to me...oh, and my extremely amazing hubby who has put up with me for all these years! ;o) I can't believe it was 8 years ago that we were freezing our tookuses off at the USNA chapel...waiting for the show to go on because our wedding time was double-booked (two couples who scheduled the chapel prior to us had the same last name...one couple canceled and another couple was scheduled in the same time slot as the couple that DID NOT cancel). Still, everything came off without a hitch and the day I had been planning for and that had almost not happened (there was a possibility of Sean going on his 6-month deployment earlier because of 9/11)...happened.

I still can't believe that I'm here...8 years later...2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 houses, and 2 cars later....a stay-at-home mom/military wife. I remember before graduating college, my advisor told me that she didn't think I'd fit in. She was right...and wrong. I don't completely fit in. I'm not a gung-ho military wife. I'm a woman of color...married to a submarine officer...which in a community that is really lacking in diversity. I'm a social justice advocate. I am not a homemaker. I'm liberal. The real thing...I've always been fiercely INDEPENDENT and never imagined that I would be "dependent" on someone else. Like her, I had this preconceived notion that these military wives were completely dependent on their spouses, may not have attended college, and a whole other slew of stereotypes.

But...we were also wrong. In my 8 years...I've met women of all different walks of life. All of whom, are amazing women. I never realized the type of strength and INDEPENDENCE that it takes to be a military spouse...often a single married military spouse. That strength is physical, mental, and emotional. With subs, you can expect to not hear your partner's voice for extended periods of time...if at all if he is on a boomer. Email is sporadic...if it works. Length of time varies...although I'd take the boomer life any day over the hellish fast-attack life. Still, it was both types of life (boomer & fast-attack) that prepared me to be the military wife I am now. The women I've known range from the seasoned and optimistic ('cause a a military spouse life is NOT the life that you can afford to be a pessimist) to the virgin and plaintive (shoot, it can be a pretty difficult life to adjust to)...still...all these women become the type of women able to handle what life throws at her when he husband is gone, to be the mother and father to her children, and to be overall...amazing.

I never knew that in that spring of 1987 and walking the grounds of the USNA on our 4th grade field trip and fantasizing one day that I would marry a midshipmen in that beautiful chapel that 14.5 years later that would become a reality. I never knew that I would be a stay-at-home anything. I never knew that the life I live now as a military spouse and stay-at-home parent would be this rewarding. I never even imagined living this kind of life.

I wouldn't have it any other way...

From I'm not sure what I want to be when I grow up...

From I'm not sure what I want to be when I grow up...

From I'm not sure what I want to be when I grow up...

From I'm not sure what I want to be when I grow up...