MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #30 and #31

Head over to Wife of a Sailor for the latest Friday Fill-In!

I missed last week's Fill-in so here's two weeks of my answers:

Friday Fill-In#30

1. What is your favorite MilSpouse blog (not including Wife of a Sailor who we all love, or your own)? submitted by Our Crazy Life

I don't know that I have a favorite one. I enjoy reading about everyone's different perspectives, thoughts and feelings about military life. Some of the military spouse blogs that I follow are linked on the side bar on my blog. I follow others too that I haven't gotten around to putting up there yet. There's definitely something about each of them that I like so I don't know if I could pick just one.

2. What are your favorite perks about your s/o being deployed (we all know there are perks)? submitted by Ramblings of a Marine Wife

I like that I can do what I want when he's gone. Not in a "he controls me when he's here" kind of way, but when he's home, I definitely make more compromises regarding everything. From the TV, to day trips, vacations, work around the house, etc....its all done on a 2 person basis. When he's gone, I can watch whatever TV show I want to watch. I can clean the house on my schedule without worrying that he's going to think that I'm a slob or lazy (he's never actually called me a slob or lazy, but I do feel motivated by my desire to not have the house looking like crap for him when he's home). I can do things that he has no interest in doing, instead of dragging him along with me with the knowledge that I AM dragging him along with me. I guess its a sense of freedom and the fact that I don't have to compromise with anyone when he's not here. Life at home becomes about me and me only, and I enjoy the fact that I have several months to be completely selfish :-).

3. How long did you date your before getting engaged? Married? submitted by Utterly Chaotic

To be honest, I don't know what day we officially started dating. But we were dating for about 6 months before getting engaged, and we were married 8 months after that.

4. What do you think your SO would do if s/he wasn’t in the military? submitted by Adventures of M-Squared

He'd be doing some kind of aerospace engineering thing. He's mentioned that he wouldn't mind working for Boeing or Lockheed-Martin in the future.

5. If you could talk to the Secretary of (fill in your appropriate branch) what is one suggestion you would like to bring to their attention in order to improve the lives of military families? submitted by My Life as His (Air Force) Wife

That's a tough one because there is a lot about this lifestyle that I don't particularly like. Since this question is going directly to the Secretary of the Navy though, maybe to make tours for officers a little longer. I know that there are a few select jobs that will stay in one place for a long time, but the general rotation of an aviation officer is 3 years on sea duty, 3 years on shore duty, then repeat - for 20 years. I don't think I would mind the moving so much if I could feel like I could actually settle into a place for a while. Maybe a 5 year tour would be better. I feel like we just got to Washington, but in 5 months we're going to pack up and move again. I don't like the feeling of being unsettled, so I don't think I would mind the uprooting so much, if it was done less often.


Friday Fill-In #31

1. Aside from no deployments, what is one thing you would want to make the MilSpouse life “perfect”? submitted by Oh How Delightful

As a continuation of my last answer from the last fill-in, I would want to move less. I do like the idea of "seeing the world" so moving in general isn't the problem for me. Its the constant moving that I don't like. I want to stay in one place long enough to feel settled there. At the rate we move, I'm starting to forget how to answer the question of "Where are you from" because no place feels like home anymore.

2. Just how many peppers did Peter Piper pick? submitted by Married into Army

This definitely deserves some kind of witty answer, but I'm not a very witty person. So the simple answer is "a pack". At least if I'm remembering the tongue twister correctly. Isn't it "Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled peppers"?

3. If you could have any career in the world with nothing holding you back, what would you do? submitted by It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To

I think I've answered a question like this before, but I'm not sure where my answer is to link back to it. I'd be a Civil War historian, and work on a Civil War battlefield. If I wanted to put both of my degrees to work, then I'd produce a Civil War documentary for the History Channel.

4. Do you have a service oriented tattoo and if so what is it. If you don’t what would you get? submitted by The Squid’s Accomplice

I have no tattoos at all. Although, I do want one. I won't get a service related one though. As much as I love Mr. V, the Navy is about him, not me. I honestly don't think it would even cross my mind to get a service related one. Instead, I'm trying to work up the nerve to get a small cat's paw print tattooed somewhere on me.

5. Imagine a block of time has opened up in your busy day for you to take a class in anything you like. What subject would you choose? submitted by To The Nth

Something history related. Preferably history of the American South related, because I'm basically a huge history nerd and would have fun taking more classes related to my degree. On a non-nerd level, and more on a crazy old cat lady level, I'd take more craft classes - mainly more quilting and sewing classes.