Military Life As A Military Wife

I thought I would make a post about what it has been like so far being an Air Force wife. We've been here for almost 3 months now and are enjoying it.

At 7 AM I can hear the reveille song (I was going to play it but it wouldn't download) being played telling everyone that it's time to wake up. I'm not really sure why but I like hearing that in the morning. Maybe it's because it reminds me of camp and when I think of camp I think of a full day of fun activities, either way, I like hearing it. Don't worry, it's not loud enough that it would wake you up-I can only hear it when I'm listening for it. Although Bryan says that it's really loud over by the dorms (where the single people live). Ha ha.

My Air Force man with our Air Force baby

At 5 PM the retreat song is played which means they are taking the flag down and then they play the National Anthem. If you are outside during this time, you are to stop what you're doing and stand and face the direction of the music. If you are driving, you are to stop-you don't even have to pull over, you can just stop in the middle of the road. I think that if you're in uniform you have to salute while this is being played. I like hearing this too. I've never really been very patriotic and hearing the National Anthem and standing to it, helps me appreciate it and I hope that by doing this, our kids will learn the importance and have a more meaningful love of our country.

At 9 PM they play another song and I think it's the music they play at military funerals. This one tells everyone that it's time for bed.

Here they are again. Bryan looks hot and Brayden

looks cute.

I don't really understand why and I'm not a big fan of it, but the military wants everything on base to look the same. All the buildings and everything with it are brown. Even the fire hydrants! This is an older base and so it's an ugly brown too. Luckily the housing isn't brown but your neighbor's house looks the same as yours, inside and out (like an apartment complex) but maybe with a different color of trim (the doors are the same color as the trim). Ours is white and blue. I like the ones with red doors and also the ones with blue and yellow. Anyways.

Our ugly brown fire hydrant.

Our house, which is part of a fourplex.

A lot of people say that military doctors are horrible. Well you can't say the military doctors are horrible if you haven't experienced the military doctors. There are horrible doctors outside of the military too so don't jump to conclusions. My experiences with them so far have been just fine. One thing I don't like is that to make an appointment with pediatrics or with the dentist..., I have to call an appointment line which is some weird number and you have to listen to options before you talk to someone directly. The good thing is, you only need to know one phone number instead of a million. Something that I really like is that a lot of the doctor appointments and such (except for maybe dentist and optometry), are in the hospital. Brayden goes to pediatrics, they prescribe him something and we walk up a flight of stairs to the pharmacy, wait 15 minutes and it's ready. We don't even have to pay for it. No driving to Walgreens on the other side of town and waiting an hour or longer and paying a fortune for it. Everything is done in one location.

There are a lot of resources and programs here on base for me to attend. They do all they can to support families. There's the BX which is like a Wal-Mart but a hundred times better. No tax. The Commissary for groceries. No tax. Unless you go through the self-checkout, people take your groceries out to your car (even if you can do it yourself) and you are to tip them. Sorry, but I think it's stupid. There's a bowling alley, movie theatre, bank, gas station, places to eat, a place to rent movies, a library, an airman's attic (like DI but it's free and is only for ranks E5 and below), they have child care services, playgrounds everywhere, gyms, everything. If you have problems with addictions, abuse... there's a place to go. If you need a parent's night out child care is provided for free up to 20 hrs (not all at once)... you name it, they got it. If your spouse is deployed they have a ton of things for you to help you out. There's a million more other things some of which I'm still learning about. Even though Bryan is the one in the military, there are plenty of things/programs and such that I can do and be involved in. It's great.

This is the playground that is right across the

street. (I'm standing in our yard). Occasionally

Bryan's squadron will run on the track and I'll

walk across the street and meet him there.

As we are living on an Air Force base, there is the constant sound of airplanes, helicopters, and jets (day and night, rain or shine) flying around. I thought it would be annoying but it's really kinda cool. We live across the street from the hangar (where they park planes) of Air Force One. We saw it take off once and that was pretty cool. Bryan got to see the President, and got to be in some really cool and important airplanes (he'll have to tell you about that).

Here is the Air Force One hangar. Again, I'm

standing in our yard. That car is parked in the

playground lot to the left.

We are in a family ward and a good chunk of us are military. It's fun because we all live so close, close enough to walk, that we hang out all the time. Living on base is a safe place to live, and they take very good care of you. It's culturally rich out here and the people Bryan work with are so much fun. They are always laughing and joking around. It's fun being around them. Bryan has to work out twice a week so he gets out of work early (and still gets paid) to do that and sometimes I go with him.

Bryan just got done playing ultimate frisbee

with his squadron. I came along.

When driving, you cannot talk on the phone or you'll get pulled over. If anyone in the car doesn't have a seat belt on, you'll get pulled over. If you go over the speed limit you'll get pulled over. You have to show your military ID to get on base and you can vouch for and escort others on to base (which is what we do when we have the missionaries over for dinner). Your vehicle, at random, may get searched when you enter the base.

It's only been 3 months, but the experiences here have been mostly good ones. There are some things I don't like and I've mentioned them earlier, but so far military life has treated us pretty well.

Any questions?