What an awesome Christmas this would be!

Ok, so most of you know that I am completely obsessed with A Christmas Story. Check out this auction on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320318312873

First I should mention it benefits the Wounded Warrior Project, so the military connection definitely caught my eye.

You get to ride in the family car….try on the costumes (including Randy's snowsuit!)…..have the leg lamp delivered to the house, complete with crowbar so you can act out the scene from the movie….spend the night in the house on Christmas Eve in Ralphie and Randy's bedroom!!!….open presents on Christmas morning to include the bowling ball, pink bunny suit and of course a Red Ryder BB Gun….then go out back to practice and hopefully not shoot your eye out!

Someone is going to have a great Christmas!

One Million Posts!

I transitioned the message board over to ArmyWifeChat.com in April of 2007. At that point, we started over with counting posts for the board as a whole. Some time in the last 24 hours, someone made the one millionth post! Wow! That is a lot of talking, supporting, arguing, crying and laughing on a message board together!

Just thought I would share yet another milestone!

Longer Dwell Times

http://www.military.com/news/article/longer-dwell-times-on-track.html?col=1186032310810&wh=wh

Are things finally beginning to wind down? According to this article, beginning in 2009, soldiers will be guaranteed 18 months at home between deployments (well, the big Army soldiers anyway….special ops you can ignore this!). And by 2011, soldiers will be guaranteed at least 24 months at home between deployments. Of course, this is all said with the condition that the need for troops overseas remains stable during this time period.

I do think that longer dwell times are important but what I think is even more important is to make sure that applies to soldiers who are PCSing to new units as well. I cannot count the number of times I have heard about a soldier returning from a 12-15 month deployment, PCSing to a new unit and then leaving for yet another 12-15 month deployment within months of arriving. Some of these families are approaching the three year mark only having spent a few months together. That issue needs to be addressed pronto! A normal deployment is hard enough but basically doing two back to back of 12-15 months each is near impossible.

Off my soap box for the day…

Candles for Our Troops

Those of you who receive my newsletter should know all about Kat's candles! She just debuted a new candle today and I'm in love! They are SO cute! Here's a picture and yes, that is ALL wax!

They are Smores scented and would make great gifts for the holidays.

Perhaps most importantly, Kat uses the profit from the sale of her candles to send candles to our troops overseas. To date, she has DONATED more than 10,000 candles! Amazing! She currently has about 1,300 candles boxed and ready to go to our troops but is lacking the funds to ship them. Can you help? You can donate on the site or buy candles – both help with raising funds. These are candles that our troops have requested to brighten their holiday season. Let's not let them down!

The website is www.doublehhcandles.com. Please donate if you can!

Skribit

So I'm sitting in my entrepreneurship class listening to Sanjay Parekh talk about his adventures in entrepreneurship. He told us about Skribit that was launched at the last StartUp Weekend in Atlanta. What a great idea! Now all of you can suggest topics that I should blog about or write about on the MarriedtotheArmy.com website.

So let me know what you think!

Follow up to Top 10 List

Many of you have read my list of what not to say to someone who has a deployed soldier. I received this email recently and after getting her permission, I just had to share. I don't understand what is so horrible about remaining faithful to someone even when they may not be in the same state or even country. This is not the first time I've heard this type of story and I think it is sad that so many people encourage others to move on rather than remain faithful. Read the email and be sure to respond so this soldier's girlfriend knows she is respected for remaining faithful while her boyfriend serves.

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I have one to add to your list! My boyfriend of 5 years left for Fort Benning in July (for OSUT)… I was at a bus stop on campus when I ran into a girl who I used to share a suite with in the dorms on campus. I was talking to her about my boyfriend being gone and another girl (who neither of us know!) chimed in with this: "You're crazy for waiting for him! Don't you want to get out there and date? Don't you want to enjoy your college life?"

I was highly offended by that statement! I don't consider myself crazy (and I know you would agree) for waiting for the man I love. No, I don't want to "get out there and date" just because he's not in Raleigh anymore. I love him and I'd wait for him if he decided to go to another state for school or if he joined the Army! I have friends who aren't in committed relationships and they know how stressful it is to find and date a guy they like! I'm not the sorority-type of girl who parties every night, sleeps around, etc. I like going home to my room mate and my kitten! And just because I'm not dating around doesn't mean I'm not enjoying college life. Since he is gone, I have found more things to take up my time, which in turn allows me to enjoy college! I'm in a couple of clubs on campus, I have a job on campus, I study a LOT more and I'm looking for an internship. Whenever my friends and I have a chance to get together (we all have busy schedules) we have really fun girl nights!

I thought you would appreciate this story and maybe we can educate other people on how to react when someone says their boyfriend/fiance/husband is in the military. How about "Thank your man for me! He is putting his life on the line to protect this country that I love!"

Good News Day!

I have so much to be thankful for today including the fact that the first half semester of the fall is over! I start new classes on Monday and I'm looking forward to the change. My finals all went well and we even won the business pitch competition. So things are good on the MBA front.

What that also means with new classes is that my schedule is changing. For the second half, I only have classes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. This will be a VERY welcome change as it will give me even more time to spend on my websites and the business. I have felt a little out of touch with it lately with such limited time but that will all be changing!

A friend called me today with very exciting news about the website. It should be growing even more soon and I'm very excited about that. She has been great in helping to spread the word about the site and generate support. I'm still in a little bit of a shocked state at the moment, but in a very good way.

Finally, we are getting some much needed rain. Its been raining steadily since yesterday. 

So things are good on my end. I just hope it continues! 

The Unit 9/28

Spoilers ahead!

WOW! This was definitely an action packed episode! I think I would be completely freaking out if I was one of the unit wives. What an insane situation to have to deal with. To think about totally leaving everything behind and carrying forward with a new identity just blows my mind!

Thank goodness Mack finally found out about the affair! That should get really interesting…especially considering that the punishment for sleeping with a team member's wife is death. I can't wait to see Col. Ryan and Tiffy's reactions when they find out that Mack knows.

How about those previews? Of course they usually aren't what they seem but looks like Molly rats out Kim. What in the world? I'll be on pins and needles until next week! It will definitely be a toss up now for whether I should watch Army Wives or The Unit!

Army Wives vs. The Unit

Ahhh!! Why are they making us choose between these two shows? I just saw the commercial on CBS that The Unit will premier on Sunday, September 28 at 10pm EST….the same time slot as Lifetime's Army Wives. Instead of fighting for the same audience, how about coming on at two different times? One will definitely have to be TiVo'd at this house. And if I had to guess, it will be Army Wives.

My husband enjoys ripping both shows to shreds as far as accuracy is concerned but even if he won't admit it, I know he really likes The Unit. Of course, he'll have plenty to say about the introduction of a female to the Delta team!

As for Army Wives on 9/21, it was a great show. Spoiler alert! Notice how all of the shows seem to have themes? Last week, almost all of the main characters played the victim role in one way or another. This week, they were all strong and held their own. I'm glad the Pamela stalker story has come to an end, Joan and Roland's baby is going to be okay and Trevor is going to get the help that he needs. I was loving the end when Michael arrived at Paolo's hotel room door and jacked him in the face. Perfect! And finally, Denise. I wouldn't mind having a vacation of my own at that house. It was gorgeous and looked incredibly peaceful.

Wonder what's coming up next week? Surely, there are still more surprises in store! What was your take on this week's episode?

Blackout in Georgia

Its that time again! All of the Georgia fans have been wondering and speculating about when the next blackout would be and we finally have our answer. When Bama comes over to get their butts kicked between the hedges, the Bulldogs and all of their fans will be in black.

My best friend, and an Alabama graduate, just called my phone to say "Roll Tide". Hopefully on Saturday, she'll be pouting as she hears Dawg fans yelling "sic 'em" when we tear Bama up on the field.

GO DAWGS!!!