This is me!

I guess an introduction and some background is in order!

I grew up as an only child in the Tampa Bay area. I had 2 loving parents who always pushed me to achieve my dreams. To that end, I went to Space Camp/ Academy every summer for 7 years. I was a typical teenage female is that by my senior year of high school I was a beast to say the least. I won't say high school was all bad, but I remember the bad much more than the good 10 years later. Needless to say, I won't be going to my reunion this summer! I still have a few friends I keep in contact with, but being from a small town, they are the friends I grew up with!

I went to college on an Army ROTC scholarship at Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University. I always wanted to be an officer and a pilot. I was at ERAU on Sept. 11, 2001. The following days I slept in various friends' rooms or they in mine as we had bomb threat after bomb threat. Of course, what do you expect when the news reports that one of the hijackers went to our school, and we had a decent sized international student body! But, we stuck together as a school in a pretty amazing way and the news finally got it right- one of the killed pilots was from Riddle, not a terrorist! College was amazing from me. There was plenty of bad, but mainly good.

I got married at the end of my sophomore year. This made me, not unique, but different than most of my friends, especially since my new husband deployed days after our wedding. Not uncommon for a military family! Will and I met while I was in my senior year of high school. The summer after my graduation we became very good friends very quickly. Neither of us saw it becoming anything because 1. he was a recruiter, and 2. he is 12 years older than I am! But, it happened, and quickly!

The first 3 years we were married, Will and I lived apart. The total time together was just over 5 months, spread throughout that time. Even for a military family, that is relatively unique. Its the sort of marriage a duel military family leads. The Army said he had to be in one place, while they said I had to be in another. Usually, they try to put soldiers together or as close as possible, but its not always possible. In our case, I was a contracted cadet, and we had no other option.

My graduation from college was very bittersweet because I wasn't getting my commission also. But, I thought it was just a year off. After my knee scope and 'fixing' there wasn't enough change for the Army to keep me. So, I was medically discharged. This put me in a unique position as an Army wife. I have the training of a soldier, but not the experience. Not unlike my actual schooling. Due to ROTC training, I never did an internship, so getting a job in my degree field went right out the window.

After I was discharged, I moved to Germany to live with my husband finally! It was an amazing experience. I decided to start on my Master's degree since I would need the extra schooling to offset the lack of experience! I also started working at the base education center as the test examiner. It was a great job for me. And one that I would really like to do again. We did so much travelling while there also! It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience! While there, we picked up our first dependant- a chocolate lab we named Cocco!

A year and a half after getting there, we left Germany for Ft. Lewis, WA. We had started trying to get pregnant while in Germany with no success. That continued in Washington, to the point where the Dr. said I would need a procedure to get pregnant. Low and behold, a few months later I got pregnant with no help! Keirnan was born on May 10, 2009, our 6th wedding anniversary! I got pregnant again when Keirnan was 9 months old! While in Washington, we picked up another chocolate lab. This pup we named Ditto!

This past summer we moved again, here to Ft. Riley, KS. And James was born on post on November 13, 2010. Will deployed 3 weeks later.

That brings us to now. Keirnan is 22 months old, James is 4 months old, and we are 4 months into our deployment.