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A White House Meeting

July 14, 2010

A week or two ago, I received an interesting invitation to attend a meeting at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to provide feedback on different programs and initiatives currently underway to support military families. The meeting is part of an ongoing effort by the military family inter-agency policy committee announced by the administration a few months ago. The committee is charged with doing a review of the programs out there that exist to support military families. Headed by the NSC staff, the committee consisting of Federal Departments and Agencies have been “challenged with creatively adopting the military family as part of their own family.”

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I don’t think I imagined that these senior leaders from the agencies would fill a room to hear the feedback from a handful of military spouses, but that’s exactly what happened. We started the afternoon with an informal reception in the “War Room” of the EEOB. Mingling with the other spouses and some of the staff on hand, we took a few minutes to enjoy refreshments and get acquainted. There were less than a dozen spouses in attendance….I very much felt like the kid that found the golden ticket and vowed right then and there that I would capture everything I could to share with you.

After our reception, we moved up to a larger meeting room. The interest from the other agencies to get in front of military spouses and hear the feedback far exceeded everyone’s expectations, so we were ushered into a big room where chairs had been set up around the perimeter to accomodate everyone.  We spouses sat at the table and were interspersed among senior officials from agencies such as: Justice, State, Treasury, Education, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, DoD, VA, etc….I’m sure if I had taken a harder look around, I would have noticed that all the agencies were represented. At the head of the table, our hosts from the NSC were seated beside representatives from Mrs. Obama’s office as well as Dr. Biden’s office. They were all there to update us on their initiatives and then listen to our feedback. Even though the time allotted to us was short at an hour, I have to commend them for presenting us with a great opportunity to share our insights. There was a lot of information flying around, but I thought I’d provide some of the highlights:

  • All the agencies are working on ways to integrate military families into their programs and initiatives.  Several agencies to include the Departments of Health and Human Services as well as Education have elevated military families to one of their top three priorities.  More importantly, they are also allocating money and resources to support their commitment.
  • There are a lot of programs out there supporting military families and service members that we are not aware of.  The challenge will be finding ways to get the information out to the families and communities who need them.  As an example, the Department of Education has an extraordinary amount of money allocated in a discretionary fund.  Since they have made military families a top priority, they are looking at ways to fund grants that address our demographic.
  • Reading between the lines, I would say that there are deep cuts coming our way [no surprise to anyone who's been paying attention].  Look for more programs to go away.  However, the good news is, I don’t think we are aware of all the programs out there supporting us, so hopefully where one program goes away, we’ll be able to find another with a little extra work.

Based on feedback I received from military spouses, I left the committee with two parting thoughts regarding military spouse employment:

  • As DoD reviews and revamps MyCAA, it’s important for them to understand that portable careers and 4 year degrees are not mutually exclusive.  There are any number of portable career choices (teacher, nurse, counselor) that require a 4 year degree.
  • The military spouse internship program is great in theory, but no one really understands it.  In addition to the website that’s been established to educate HR personnel, it would be helpful to have a checklist for military spouses on how the program works as well as a bellybutton we can reach back to in case we encounter an agency that is not familiar with the program.

Biggest takeaway from the meeting: when you’re out there looking for programs supporting military families, DoD should only be your starting point.  There’s a lot going on within the other agencies that get less attention.

Filed Under: Career, Events, News, Support Services & Resources Tagged With: DHHS, DoD, DoE, Interagency Policy Committee, Military spouse blog, Military spouse employment, MyCAA, NSC, White House

One bad egg

June 16, 2010

There’s been a lot of discussion of late about a commander’s wife down at Ft. Bragg who was so demoralizing to her FRG and families that she has been banned from participating.  The article that first appeared in the Fayetteville Observer went into all the gorey details complete with timeline of grievances.  A shorter article in the Army Times gives a quick summary of what’s going on.  The message boards are abuzz with feedback on FRGs and spouses wearing their servicemember’s ranks.

While the Drinkwine case referenced in the articles above was extreme, I think we’ve all met these people at some point in time.  Watching it all unfold, I had flashbacks to my own experiences back in Okinawa with a horrible command spouse.  Maybe it’s the benefit of hindsight, but I weigh all the great people I’ve met and the wonderful experiences against that one lousy egg, and I wouldn’t hesitate for a minute in encouraging new spouses to get involved with their family readiness/family support/spouse groups. 

Don’t let the actions of any one person taint your view of all groups. 

Well run, functioning family readiness/family support/spouse groups are a great way to: meet new people, make friends, volunteer in a meaningful manner and make a real difference in the military community.  I think we’ve all been around the block enough times to realize that bad, ill-intentioned people exist everywhere.  When they make you their special project, it’s not fun.  Trust me, I know.  Don’t let your experiences with those people steer you away from getting involved….because if they did, it would effectively mean that the bullies (those bad eggs) get to chalk up a win.

Filed Under: Support Services & Resources, Tips and Advice Tagged With: Drinkwine, family readiness groups, family support groups, Military Families, military family support, Military spouse blog, military spouse groups

MilSpouse Friday Focus

May 2, 2010

Last November, DoD hosted a National Leadership Summit on Military Families in conjunction with the US Department of Agriculture and the University of Maryland.  Over 150 leaders from organizations that provide support to military families along with some family members brainstormed ways to improve family support programs.  The report from that event is now out and available for your reading pleasure.  At the very least, the executive summary is an interesting read, though it won’t be a surprise to any of you.

Some highlights for you, attendees determined:

The Top 5 issues for military families:

  • Challenges of the deployment cycle
  • Psychological health of military families
  • Access to services and consistency of support
  • Communications challenges
  • Frequent relocations

Top 5 goals:

  • Evaluate programs and build on successes
  • Communicate critical information to all family members
  • Establish collaborative partnerships
  • Address psychological/behavioral health needs of military families
  • Develop and implement programs supporting military children and youth

Hopefully we’ll get some viable programs for military families out of this conference and report and what I anticipate will come out of the Congressional Military Family Caucus Spouse Summit.

Onto some new benefits/programs that hit the radar this week:

This Saturday, the VA will begin accepting applications for the Fry Scholarship program for eligible children of servicemembers who have died in the line of duty since September 11, 2001.   Under this program, each eligible child is entitled to 36 months of benefits at the 100% rate where normally, all eligible dependents would have to split a maximum of 36 months of GI Bill benefits.

Earlier this week, DoD announced their 2010 Military Spouse Intern Program.  There are 120 opportunities available under this pilot program help spouses secure employment with federal agencies.  Details are still forthcoming (a permanent website is set to launch in the next few weeks), though there is a fair amount of information available right now on their website.  The program is open to:

All spouses of active duty service members except:

  • Spouse who is legally separated from service member when the person begins the internship
  • Spouse who is also a member of the Armed Forces on active duty
  • Spouse who is a retired member of the Armed Forces

If you end up taking advantage of this program and manage to secure one of these positions, please let me know.  Would love to hear the feedback on how it’s working.  Thanks.

Filed Under: Career, Events, Resources, Support Services & Resources, Tips and Advice Tagged With: 2010 Military Spouse Intern Program, Congressional Military Family Caucus Spouse Summit, Deployment, Fry Scholarship Program, Leadership Summit, Military Families, military family support, Military spouse blog, Psychological Health

A New Adventure

March 24, 2010

A couple months ago, I left a dream job spearheading military spouse outreach initiatives for a wonderful military association. Many people thought I was crazy, but I wanted to create something out of whole cloth just for spouses.

Looking around at all the talented military spouses I know who have professional careers and aspirations and remembering my own experience with the job search in Washington DC, I realized that what we were all missing was a professional network. There are other organizations out there that already exist to support military spouses and they’re doing a great job in their niche, but we needed something more.

Forget the good old boys’ network, we needed a place we could go to meet like minded people; share great, relevant information and network with one another. I started reaching out to other spouses and the response has been overwhelming. Everyone could not have been more supportive or more excited. From all this, the National Military Spouse Network was born. We launch May 7th (Military Spouse Appreciation Day), but for now, you can follow us on Facebook or Twitter. If you’re in the DC area, you should plan on joining us at our launch event on the evening of May 7th. Cannot wait to update you all on the new endeavor as things progress.

As for those people who still think I’m crazy for leaving such a fantastic job, my days now are spent talking to extraordinary military spouses and creating a platform to highlight what we all do. I get to talk to people outside of our community and share our stories to elevate their level of understanding and make them more receptive and eager to hire military spouses because of everything we bring to the table. If we do this right, we are on course to change the face of military spouse employment and I can’t imagine a more worthwhile endeavor.

Filed Under: Career, Events, News, Resources, Support Services & Resources Tagged With: Mentoring, Military spouse blog, National Military Spouse Network, Networking, social media, Twitter

MilSpouse Friday Focus

March 20, 2010

DoD’s office of Military Community and Family Policy has come under some scrutiny over the past month or so due to the MyCAA accounts, but don’t let that single program cloud your entire judgment of a group of people who work tirelessly on behalf of military families.  The folks at MCFP also “own” plenty of the programs that we all care most about such as: military spouse employment, DODEA (schools), MWR and childcare.  In the latest edition of their newsletter, we learn that they have recently stood up a new Office of Community Support for Military Families with Special Needs, hopefully good news for the multitudes of families who have been clamoring for more oversight and assistance.

For families of currently deployed, recently returned or soon to be deployed servicemembers, the National Military Family Association has just opened up registration for their free week-long Operation Purple Camps.  More information and the application can be found at their site.  Aside from the traditional camps, NMFA also runs other retreats, so it’s worth stopping by their site to check it out.

Speaking of deployments, the folks at Build-a-Sign are offering free welcome home banners to military families.  I’ve had a lot of friends take advantage of this program and they reported back that it’s an easy process and the signs are wonderful.

DoD’s new Social Media policy is prompting a lot of folks to take a second look at the various platforms that exist out there trying to wrap their minds around the way the Millenials and many Gen-X’ers are now communicating.  For many, this can be a very uncomfortable process which they engage in very begrudgingly.  At a presentation I gave yesterday to a joint session of squadron commanders and their spouses, it wasn’t difficult to read the body language in the room – everyone looked quite rigid.  The majority had already made up their minds that social media was either (1) a waste of time or (2) too much of an PERSEC and OPSEC nightmare to even think about getting engaged and they weren’t budging.  It wasn’t my job to change their minds, but to simply present them with the information and give them another tool in their toolbox as leadership teams.

What’s interesting about the disconnect between those who do utilize social media and those who don’t is that the folks who don’t sometimes fail to recognize that the conversation is taking place with or without them.   Didn’t DoD learn this the hard way with the MyCAA debacle?  I think effective leaders in the future are going to need to understand and incorporate social media in their outreach and communications, or run the risk of being irrelevant.  The corporate world has certainly acknowledged this and some government agencies have begun to incorporate SM into their own outreach initiatives; an astronaut tweeting from space is certainly a nod to the fact that NASA understands the challenge they have in reaching Gen Y.  If you haven’t already seen it, make sure you check out this presentation about Gen Y perspectives.

Finally, don’t forget the applications for the Military Spouse Summit being sponsored by the Congressional Military Family Caucus are due March 26th for the April 23rd event.  Get that in now if you want to be considered.

Filed Under: Events, News, Resources, Support Services & Resources, Tips and Advice Tagged With: Congressional Military Family Caucus, Deployed Resource, Deployment, DoD Social Media Policy, MCFP, Military spouse blog, Military Spouse Summit, Milspouse Friday Focus, MyCAA, social media

Road Trip!

March 12, 2010

Greatest thing about the military lifestyle….you never really say good bye, just till we meet again. 

I think the toughest part about having friends in other service branches is that you may never be assigned at the same location again.  I know with our Air Force friends, we’ll keep running into each other down the road.  With our Army, Coast Guard, Navy and Marine friends, you just never know.  That’s why when an opportunity came up to road trip down to Ft. Stewart to join Star and Tara on the road with Field Exercises, I jumped at the chance.  This could be really fun and if it worked out correctly, I’d get a chance to visit with one of my favorite Navy friends and two of my favorite Army pals (one of whom we hadn’t seen since being stationed in Germany together over 7 years ago).  I still can’t believe how quickly it all came together.

Usually everyone’s always crazy busy, can’t line up childcare, can’t afford it right, can’t spare the time….[insert your favorite excuse here].  Maybe it’s because all the stars aligned correctly, but when I called up my girlfriends, it only took quick conversations with husbands and the trip was on.  (This was probably facilitated by the fact that 2 of our husbands had just returned from deployment so it was easy selling them on the fact that we needed a break and the other 2 husbands are currently deployed, so their opinions were irrelevant.)  Regardless, by a miracle of scheduling, the trip was on!  We planned an easy itinerary:

  • Wednesday: rent a car in DC and drive down to VA Bch to pick up N.  Head down south with a stop in Florence, SC. 
  • Thursday: show up at Ft. Stewart in time to hang out with T before heading over to Field Exercises, then head over to Richmond Hill to hang out with L.
  • Friday: Sightseeing and catching up in Savannah.
  • Saturday: Drive back to VA Bch to meet up with the husbands and chill a bit before driving back to DC on Sunday.

I’ll share some pictures with you all later, but for now, here are some things we learned from our road trip:

  • Did you know that in Emporia, VA you can buy 25 pounds of peanuts for $19.99?  I’m not going to lie, I was intrigued.
  • Most vodkas are not made from potatoes.  Grey Goose is actually made from wheat which our gluten intolerant friend found out the hard way….sorry N.
  • It is ENTIRELY possible to eat grits with every meal in the South (hooray for those of us who love grits!)
  • It is also possible for 4 grown women (and mothers all) to go 4 days without eating a single green vegetable (unless celery counts).
  • South of the Border really is as cheesy as you imagine it to be.
  • Don’t play in puddles when you’re in Savannah, GA because you never know what kind of puddle it is.  (The number of horse drawn carriages around town should give you a clue though.)
  • At one time, GA lawmakers had proposed a law that would make it a misdemeanor to not offer sweet tea in any GA restaurant that served ice tea.  That probably explains why sweet tea was the only beverage on the table at the event we attended.  Though, they did bring us water when we asked.

And the greatest thing I learned:

  • The differences in service cultures and lingo* that separate us are blurred almost into insignificance compared to all the life and military life experiences that bind us together.  We’re all more alike than we are different. 

Cannot wait for the next road trip.  Rumour has it we’ll be going down to Charleston…..

* Thanks to my Army Tweeps for clarifying “household six” for me…even if there was a fair amount of heckling taking place!

Look for pictures in the next post….Road Trip Part II

Filed Under: Events, Miscellaneous, Support Services & Resources Tagged With: Armywifenetwork, Deployment, Field Exercises, Military spouse blog, Twitter

MilSpouse Friday Focus

March 8, 2010

The excitement this week follows DoD’s highly anticipated release of their new social media policy.  Amazingly enough, it is quite expansive and states that the default for DoD’s non-classified network is for open network, allowing DoD users access to use new media across the board.  Inappropriate content and sites will continue to be banned (eg: pornography, gambling, hate crimes sites, etc…)

Earlier this week, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Mr. Price Floyd and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for New Media and Outreach, Mr. Sumit Agarwal hosted a

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to discuss the new social media policy.  The release of the new social media policy is quite significant in that this is the first time DoD has had an across the board policy.  Before this, each of the services had been developing their own policies and they varied greatly.  It’ll be interesting to see how this new policy is implemented and how the security issues are addressed.

As leaders check out the landscape and decide whether or not they want to engage, Mr. Floyd cautions that whether or not they choose to engage, the conversations are already taking place around them,  ”Question isn’t whether or not they want to participate, the question is whether or not they want to impact what is already being said about their unit or command.”  As people move forward and begin to get engaged with these new communications tools, DASD Price Floyd also encourages folks to continue to be mindful of OpSec considerations and utilize common sense in determining what kind of information to share, “Don’t say or do anything you wouldn’t say or do in front of your boss or your grandmother.”  More information on utilizing social media sites can be found at the DoD Social Media Hub.

In other news, MyCAA suspension continues to generate a lot of interest.  This past weekend, Representative Glenn Nye (D-VA) held a roundtable in Virginia Beach bringing together military spouses affected by the MyCAA suspension to share their stories.  Back on Capitol Hill, members of the Congressional Military Family Caucus sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates asking his help, “to better understand the basis for this “pause,” how long this “pause” will be in effect and the impact it will have on spouses.”  The link to the letter includes the signatures of the representatives who signed in support of military spouses, so if you’re interested in whether or not your congressional rep signed on the dotted line, you can check that here.  Spouses continue to look for answers and unfortunately, the new information coming out is serving to fan the fires.  The surge in websites, roundtables, articles and demonstrations around the MyCAA suspension tells us that this is not an issue that’s going away anytime soon.  I’ll continue to keep you updated.

Short newsletter this week as I’m penning it from the road.  I picked up one my milspouse pals in Virginia Beach and we are trekking it down to Ft. Stewart, GA to visit with friends and check out the Armywifenetwork Field Exercise.  Tara and Star have always been so gracious about extending an invitation to their contributing writers to join them on the road, so it seemed like a great opportunity to kill two birds with one stone – visit friends and participate in a Field Exercise.  Can’t wait to tell you all about it next week.
If you find the information in these newsletters valuable, I hope you’ll feel free to share with friends.  And if you received this e-mail as a forward, it’s easy to sign up to receive the newsletter yourself.  As always, if I’ve missed anything, I hope you’ll let me know.

Filed Under: Career, Events, News, Resources, Support Services & Resources Tagged With: Armywifenetwork, Congressional Military Family Caucus, DoD Social Media Policy, Field Exercises, Military spouse blog, MyCAA, Price Floyd, social media

Milspouse Friday Focus

February 26, 2010

The suspension of the MyCAA program continues to be the big news. As mentioned last week, spouses were appalled that they were not given any official notification of the unexpected turn of events. I think it’s fair to say that a high majority (if not nearly all) of the spouses found about the suspension through Social Media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. To make matters worse, once the word was out on the street, officials in charge of the MyCAA program remained quiet for the critical first few days before finally issuing a statement. Unfortunately, it may have been too little too late as spouses had already taken matters into their own hands and contacted their congressional delegates and the press. What started as spouses talking to local press has exploded on the national scene as evidenced by a recent piece in The New York Times.

The latest MyCAA developments and resulting uproar have Congressman Sanford Bishop and Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers (co-chairs of the Congressional Military Family Caucus) drafting a letter to be sent to Defense Secretary Gates regarding MyCAA. They are encouraging spouses to contact their state representatives to sign on to the letter.

In other news, the aforementioned Congressional Military Family Caucus released a statement that they will be holding a Military Spouse Summit in Washington DC on April 23rd. They are looking for 50 military spouses to participate in the event and are accepting applications until March 26th. This is your opportunity to have a say. If you or someone you know may be interested, don’t wait too long before sending in your application; March 26th will be here and gone before you know it.

Every once in a while, we’ll seek to highlight a benefit that you may not be aware of. For instance, did you know that there are a handful of states that provide unemployment benefits for eligible military spouses who have to give up their jobs in conjunction with a permanent change of station (PCS)? To see if you may qualify, consult the following document compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures. There are so many programs out there supporting military families that it’s difficult to keep up with them all. We’ll do our best to bring them to your attention.

If you find the information in these newsletters valuable, I hope you’ll feel free to share with friends. As always, if I’ve missed anything, I hope you’ll let me know.

Filed Under: Events, News, Resources, Support Services & Resources Tagged With: Congressional Military Family Caucus, Military spouse blog, Military Spouse Summit, Milspouse Friday Focus, MyCAA, Spouse unemployment benefits

Milspouse Friday Focus

February 19, 2010

The big news of the week was the unexpected suspension of the wildly popular MyCAA accounts.  For those who are unfamiliar with the program, MyCAA provides up to $6000 in educational benefits for eligible military spouses.  According to a Navy Times article, over 133,000 milspouses have submitted applications since the program’s inception over a year ago and over 98,000 are in the pipeline (either already approved for tuition assistance or already enrolling in classes and utilizing the benefit).

Twitter and Facebook are abuzz with spouses lamenting the lack of notice and wondering why.  The only consist ent information that can be found regarding the action states that they are “reviewing the software applications, financial assistance documents and overall program.”  The timing could not be worse for spouses who may now have to scramble to find other means of funding their educational goals; hopefully, the program will be back up and running soon.  In case the suspension of the program leaves you at loose ends, here is some information regarding potential alternative funding sources.

The information about the temporary MyCAA suspension was only out for a few hours before military spouses were on the phone with Military OneSource counselors, their schools and their congressmen trying to get to the bottom of the story.  More information is coming out daily.  If you’re interested in following the most up to date information, check in at the myriad of Facebook pages out there dedicated to serving military families such as: Fleet and Family Support or Congressional Military Family Caucus .  Sites such as Military OneSource and Military.com have also been updating information quite frequently.

Coincidentally, as part of the “Open Government Initiative”, DoD has launched a website to solicit your ideas and opinions.  I’m not sure they’re ready to hear everything we have to say!  Already, spouses are not being shy about sounding off.  All kidding aside, in addition to being a portal for folks to share their inputs, the site’s a great jumping off point for other DoD resources.

In other news, finding flexible employment opportunities remains a challenge for many military spouses.  Fortunately for us, the Military Child Education Coalition has multiple part time positions available nationwide for Parent to Parent team members who will facilitate training sessions.  This is a great opportunity for military spouses who would like to build some tremendous résumé bullets working on a part time basis doing very meaningful work.

It’s been an extraordinarily busy week for military spouse issues.  If I’ve missed anything, I hope you’ll let me know.  I’d love to hear how any of this news is affecting you.

Filed Under: News, Resources, Support Services & Resources Tagged With: Congressional Military Family Caucus, Fleet and Family Support, MCEC, Military Child Education Coalition, Military OneSource, Military spouse blog, Military.com, MyCAA, Parent to Parent

Happy V-Day

February 12, 2010

I’m sure that February 14th is a date that causes men (and women) all around the world to want to curl up in a ball and whimper in anticipation of the potential landmines.  You only have to read some of the articles out there to know that men are really starting to take this seriously and working hard to balance between too much and not enough.  The opportunities for failure are rife!    I mean, come on, who among us hasn’t gotten a little chuckle out of watching deperate men on February 14th out on their lunch hours searching for the perfect card, flowers and candy among the anemic selection that is left.  Those Zales and Jared commercials blasting at you 24/7 are not helping either.  Talk about building up unreasonable expectations!  Personally, I don’t necessarily need (or expect) jewelry for Valentine’s Day.  I think for V Day, the meaningful gestures are really the best.

Remember those handmade valentines we used to get when we were younger?  The ones made with red construction paper and doilies…my all time favorites.  The thought that some boy sat down (okay, maybe with a lot of his help from his mom) and made it for me was always a little heady.  I still remember the one I got from a boy back in 5th grade with a coral necklace…so sweet. 

So now, let’s fast forward through the years….

Valentine’s Day when hubs is in town is actually almost like any other day with the addition of a card, a little bunch of flowers and maybe a dinner out.  It’s the ones when he’s out of town that really stink.  It can be seriously difficult to wade through the oceans of candy hearts, sappy commercials and romantic dinner for two promotions going on around you when you’re separated by deployment.  I never paid it much attention figuring, when he’s in town, flowers and chocolates are in my future; when he’s not, maybe I’ll get a card in the mail sometime around the holiday and a phone call if he remembers and is able to call.  In the past, I think he always got a free pass if he was going to be deployed.  He still does pretty much, but on those deployed holidays when he comes through, I get the same feeling I did when I received that first hand made Valentine…so unexpected and thoughtful.

Nowadays, it’s easy for even deployed service members to acknowledge the holidays.  The popularity of online shopping and access to the Internet in the FOBs ensures that you can send Christmas and Birthday gifts, but what about Valentine’s Day? 

When I was researching the book, I spoke to a florist about how someone could go about setting up floral deliveries ahead of time.  He wasn’t surprised by the question.  Here were his simple tips:

  • the sender can pick which arrangements they want sent on which dates and have them kept on file
  • you can even go in and fill out the cards ahead of time to be sent along with the floral arrangement (if you want to do this, make sure you pick a local florist with a brick and mortar facility)
  • the florist will keep your method of payment on file and you’re all set to go
  • make sure you keep their contact information handy in case you need to make any changes

 

I was so surprised to get a Valentine’s arrangement at work when my husband was deployed and even more surprised and touched when I read the card and it was in his handwriting.  The flowers were lovely, but I loved the thought behind the gesture even more.  All over Facebook, I’m hearing from friends who are getting surprise packages and flower deliveries from their deployed spouses….love it!  All this talk of Valentine’s Day reminds me that I haven’t gotten out there to get a card or a gift yet.  Hmmmm….I’m going to be the desperate one at the grocery store that everyone’s snickering at this year!  Oh well, much is forgiven when the card’s presented with a gourmet meal.  Guess I’d better start that menu planning.

So do tell, what are your plans for Valentine’s Day?

Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Resources, Support Services & Resources Tagged With: A Family's Guide to the Military for Dummies, Deployed Resource, Deployment, Military spouse blog, Valentine's Day