Army Hippie Chick's Non Sequiturs

This should be old hat by now

2011-08-16T01:08:00.006-05:00

It's been about two years since I began writing this blog, and sadly, there isn't much to see here. A lot has happened and life has been speeding by. Sometimes I find myself wishing for a pause button so I can stop the world for a second and catch up. Unfortunately, reality has something altogether different in mind. I have been back from deployment since late November, but it feels like it was

Changes, challenges create Army Strong kids

2011-05-02T13:15:00.008-05:00

According to my “chickadees” — my daughter Hana and my son Devin — being a military child can be “pretty cool." World travels, a diverse group of friends and a mom or dad (or both) who wear the uniform every day, are all normal in their eyes. Some of their friends think it's a bit exotic. Hana loves telling people that she was born in Lich, Germany, and is proud of having seen so much of the

Transitions

2011-01-22T12:26:00.001-06:00

I spoke too soon. I am having a terrible time transitioning into the next chapter of my life. The deployment is over and I am in limbo hell. My pay will run out at the end of next month and I still haven't found a job or a home. I am staying with my parents right now, and what was supposed to be a three-week visit has stretched into five, and counting. Mom keeps saying that she is glad I am

Off to a Good Start

2011-01-03T13:09:00.001-06:00

I spent New Year's Eve at home with my mom, cutting out pieces for a quilt and watching old movies. She had a midnight deadline to complete the registration for a quilt show that she wanted to enter, so she was racing against the clock to get it finished enough to send a photograph with her registration. (The actual quilt does not have to be complete for a few more months, but entrants have to

Home Sweet Home

2010-12-24T17:08:00.000-06:00

I'm home. Well, I'm at my parents' home, and my children are here for Christmas. I still have no idea where I am going to settle next, or where I will work next, or go next. Thankfully, my ex-husband and his wife have agreed to let my chickadees stay with them until school ends for the summer so I have a little time to figure it out. (I really didn't want to jerk them out of school in the middle

238 Days

2010-08-10T07:10:00.001-05:00

So here I am, 238 days into my deployment, and my big aspirations of keeping this blog up to date have all but whithered away. I thought about it a lot, but thinking about it does not put words to virtual paper... I have been pretty busy here and have enjoyed most of it. The job itself is great--I love what I do! I am the social media administrator, edit (and sometimes write) press releases, go

My New-Found Hope for the Future of Iraq

2010-03-08T12:47:00.055-06:00

In my last post, I mentioned how hopeless and helpless I felt about the future of Iraq. I still feel overwhelmed by it sometimes, but I think the future of Iraq lies in the new generation. These children ... All they know is the volatile world that they live in. Some of them are too young to have memories of anything but the U.S. occupation and the war that has been part of their lives since

Iraq and All That

2010-02-12T03:03:00.000-06:00

It has been longer than three months since I have written here, and a lot has happened since my travels to the Kentucky homestead. Instead of talking about all of it, I'll tell you where I am now and try to get to the rest later. I am currently stationed in the International Zone (formerly referred to as the Green Zone), in the heart of Baghdad. This is not my first time in Baghdad, but it is my

Home(stead) is Where the Heart Is

2009-10-28T18:16:00.012-05:00

My former home has new occupants and all of my belongings have been packed-up and sent to a storage warehouse, due to my pending deployment. I was originally scheduled to be gone this week, but I have been blessed with more time. I chose to spend this time visiting friends and family, and saying one last "see ya later" before I head over to the great sandbox. This decision led me on a 3200-

Another Day Closer...

2009-09-27T23:27:00.007-05:00

...To Deployment Just a few of my plants I'm taking a break from my frantic household purging and cleaning. I'm drinking an ice-cold Sam Adams Black Lager, getting eaten alive by blood-thirsty mosquitoes the size of 757s, listening to crickets singing from somewhere out there in the darkness, and watching the geckos watching (and clicking at) me as I sit on my bench for the last time this year.

My Rude Awakening

2009-09-26T23:21:00.005-05:00

Ahh! I'm sitting outside on my porch, listening to the crickets singing and dogs barking in the distance, and mulling over the events of my day. It's the first real break I have allowed myself since I woke up 15 hours ago. I'm deploying back to Iraq very soon, so I am trying to get my house ready for my absence. I sent my children to stay with their father in Pennsylvania while I am gone and

Not-So Dirty Hippie

2009-09-16T14:52:00.052-05:00

It has been a long time since I have been here and a lot has happened since my last real post. Now I am going to attempt to catch everyone up without being all over the map (although, I suspect that's exactly where I'll be). I gave a little teaser in my last entry about making my own cleaning products, deodorant, and going shampoo-free, so I'll pick up from there and then I will tell you

9-11, Remembered

2009-09-11T21:48:00.004-05:00

*Note: I wrote this a few years ago for someone else and recently found it on my hard drive. The timing is close, so I thought I would share it here. (Please ignore my old writing style.) September 11, 2001, was my first day back to work following maternity leave from the Army. I was stationed in Germany, and my mother had flown into Frankfurt the day before on an American Airlines flight. I

I'm Still Here...

2009-07-07T00:34:00.008-05:00

Lots of things going on here lately that have been keeping me away from my computer... Started back to work after a 6-week recovery from an abdominal hysterectomy, found new summer childcare that is entirely too far away, performing a major overhaul on my house due to the 6 weeks of neglect (where did all that laundry come from?! Thank goodness for Soap Nuts, but more on that later), mixed-up my

But I'm Only One Person...

2009-06-16T17:16:00.021-05:00

"But I am only one person," my friend said to me. We were discussing things we could do to heal the environment and give ourselves (and others) a better quality of life. I have heard this many times and have even said it, myself. I understand how utterly overwhelming it can be when pondering how colossal Earth is and how seemingly insignificant one person can feel in relation to the human

Remember When? Grandpa's Lessons (part one)

2009-06-12T11:53:00.011-05:00

"Green" is the new buzzword of today. Anyone who is anyone is using it to market their products, to make themselves feel/sound superior, and to jump on the bandwagon on the road to popularity.Everywhere I go these days, I see "green" -- in my grocery store, on the internet, in my magazines, on television, and even *gasp* at my gas station. While I am excited about the fact that more and more

What Is This? (An Introduction)

2009-06-09T13:04:00.005-05:00

The task of launching a blog from scratch is a little overwhelming to me, but like any other obstacle I have overcome in my lifetime, I decided that the best way to begin is to- Just. Begin. Write until the words are flowing freely and let the random thoughts pour out of me until they converge into one meaningful and relevant river of consciousness... There are so many things on my mind

What I'm Reading

2009-06-08T14:57:00.002-05:00

I thought I'd share what I'm currently reading while sending a test blog entry from my mobile phone.