Tap in Thursday's

Last week we posted our Tap in Thursday's premier. Please join us today and remember to come back to tell us who was your favorite post or who provided the most helpful information!



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Last Tap in Thursday,

Semper Pi to Apple Pie gave a great website to find a house/apartment to rent, "militarybyowner.com" This website is useful for all branches and all duty locations! Thanks so much!


a doxie a noodle and their family seems to have the best location to find housing on post/base or off post/base with a breeze! WOW! Gotta love White Sands Missile Range! Thank you!

This week's theme is "Restaurants, DFAC and Take Out!" Stay tuned for next week's "Pampered like a Puppy" Please make sure you leave a comment about which blog posted the best piece of advice!

1. What are your favorite restaurants near post?
2. What restaurants are family friendly?
3. Where would you go to watch 'The Game?'
4. What take-out restaurants would you recommend to your best friend?
5. If you've eaten at your DFAC, how would you rate it?
6. If there are any restaurants that aren't worth eating at, which ones are they? Why?

Milspouse Weekly Round UP

Like Sunshine After Rain is hosting this week's MilSpouse Weekly Round Up! She is a super host! We appreciate her and Riding the Rollercoaster! See you next week!

Remember to check us out on Thursday for Tap in Thursday's! We would love your input! Thanks for stopping by!

Blizzard Blog Hop 2011

We really want to thank House Hold 6 Diva for her blog hop and the Blisdom Conference in Nashville Sponsored by Blissfully Domestic! How fun to meet you all in this way. Please go over to HouseHold6Diva to join the bloghop. It closes sunday January 30,


 


The story of how we (Radarette, Red Leg & Sapperette) met is a special one :) All three of our Soldiers were in Basic Training at the same time. However, they were not all at the same "boot camp." Sapperette & Red Leg's soldiers met at Basic Training at Fort Knox and became instant battle buddies. Those two soldiers met up with Radarette's soldier at Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, which is where OUR paths finally crossed :) If you want to read more about this amazing journey, read THIS


Our Blog started as a way for us to share our stories, but as we have begun this journey, we really want to have input from other spouses too! We want to make Tap in Thursday's something every military spouse can come to look at for information on her next location. We want it to be an outlet for families to share their favorite restaurant on base. It's essentially a sisterhood and we want you to celebrate with us!

Below are our names and backgrounds.

Radarette - Hi! I am the proud wife of a Signal Corp Officer. We have lived at Ft. Gordon, GA, Ft. Sill, OK, and Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. I was an independent career driven woman until I decided to follow my husband around the world, but I wouldn't trade our life for anything. My husband is currently deployed to Iraq and I am back in Colorado with my family...and back to my career girl ways. Please let me know if there is anything I can help you with.  Although I've only been an Army Wife for a year and a half, I've already been FRG leader and with the help of the other lovely ladies on this site I've learned a lot about the Army and what, exaclty, being an Officer's wife really means.  You may also find me at Oaks and Roosters.

Red Leg - Hello, Milspouse blogging world. I am a proud Airborne FA Officer Wife. I enjoy the sounds of artillery... unless it's at 3am. I have lived in Ft. Benning, GA, Ft. Sill, OK, travelled to Camp Casey, Republic of Korea and Ft. Drum, NY. Training experiences include, OCS, FA School, Airborne School and soon to be Ranger School. I have survived my first non-combat deployment and am currently going through our first combat deployment.

Sapperette - Hello there! I am a proud Sapperette Officer Wife. I am a mother to a beautiful Lily. I have lived in Ft. Benning, GA, Ft. Leonard Wood, MO, and Ft. Richardson, AK. Training experiences include; OCS, Engineering School and plenty of PCS moves. I am currently going through my first deployment. Please email me anytime with any questions you may have. You may also find me at My Family Blog.

Tap in Thursday's

Yesterday, we posted our Tap in Thursday's premier. Please join us today and remember to come back to tell us who was your favorite post or who provided the most helpful information!



<a border="0" href="http://armystrongspouses.blogspot.com/p/tap-in-thursdays.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/yy75/kpeacock8/ThursdaysTaps-2-2.jpg"/></a>

Thanks for joining!!

Today's questions are themed "Quarters."
Next Thursday will be "Restaurants, DEFACT and TakeOUt"
Remember to come back to tell us who gave the best answer and we will highlight them next week!

1. Name an instillation you have been stationed.
Fort Sill, Oklahoma

2. Did/do you live on or off post?
We lived off post in Lawton, Oklahoma. We rented from our next door neighbor there. We shared a roommate, but our backyard was spacious, our kitchen was big and we were only about 10 minutes from post.

3. What would you recommend for newcomers to do about housing?
If you cannot get on post housing right away, I would suggest looking at apartments near cache road. They have decent sizes. They also gives you a break for military when you need to break the lease.

4. Where is an inexpensive place you can stay off post while waiting for on post living?
St. James Apartments There main link isn't working right now. We have a good friend living there now and he enjoys it. He is single though. There might be a better kids place.

5. How is the housing office? Do you have any recommendations or specific people to speak with?
Unfortunately, we weren't married at the time and I do not have any experience with this.

6. How is the wait list?
Even though we lived off post, we had friends who got on post within six months! I would say that was pretty quick!

I am sure Radarette and Sapperette will be able to add to the post later today. They are in different time zones, but I wanted the east coast peeps to get a head start!
Thanks



Click here to read about us!

Tap in Thursday's Introduction

Calling all Military Spouses, Girlfriends, Boyfriends, Mothers, Fathers, Sisters, Brothers! We have a new Meme starting on Thursday's. We are calling it Tap in Thursday's. Why the name
Tap in Thursday's? 

Taps is the "lights out" song heard around every military instillation at 5pm. The way we see it, we hopefully have a place we call home at that time. Since home is where the military sends us, we thought this phrase was fitting! We want to know about the area where you call home.




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You heard him say it, "We have new orders hunny!" Your mind goes into milspouse mode; checklists, to do lists, call the landlord, get boxes, USPS change of address, and the list goes on. Wouldn't it be nice to have a resource where you knew a little bit about the next location before you got there and asked around? We know we would like to know where we should get our hair cut, is there a doggy day care, what is the school system like, where are the good doctors, exercise places, how is the weather, housing, neighborhoods, are you leaving a job and moving to a new location?

This meme will be something brand new and exciting. We haven't seen anything like it before. We want to help all of us military spouses who have to PCS in a moment's notice. We want to provide the information before hand to make things a little less complicated. Every Thursday, we will have a list of questions about where you have lived and the experiences living there. You do not have to say whether you currently live there or not.  After you answer the questions, link your blog here for others to take a look. As time goes on, we hope to use this information to provide a larger database for us to reference. Please come back to take a look at others and vote who had the best information to give each week. The following Tap in Thursday's we will highlight that winner. Please take the button below and place it in your sidebar or on the post to encourage others to take part.

For concrete information about Military instillations, you can also look to Military.com's information guide. There are a lot of phone numbers and general information about the area. Hopefully our meme will promote more detailed information. 


Thanks for joining!!

Tomorrow's questions are themed "Quarters."
Next Thursday will be "Restaurants, DEFACT and TakeOUt"
Remember to come back to tell us who gave the best answer and we will highlight them next week!

1. Name an instillation you have been stationed.
2. Did/do you live on or off post?
3. What would you recommend for newcomers to do about housing?
4. Where is an inexpensive place you can stay off post while waiting for on post living?
5. How is the housing office? Do you have any recommendations or specific people to speak with?
6. How is the wait list?

Military Monday Blog Hop

For those of you just joining our blog, WELCOME! We are happy you stopped by and we encourage comments. Military Monday (week 10) is brought to you by Marine Parents, Life with Littles, and Forever Neighbor. Click any of these links to send you to the blog hop! Join! Meet some people! Leave Comments, and Enjoy!! Remember to take the button for everyone to share and join!

Stay tuned for this week with, Thursday January 27 at 12 EST, with House Hold 6 Diva's 2011 Blizzard Blog Hop.  



Mostly Mondays are not the best day of the week. It doesn't help that where Red Leg is at it's -24 degrees without wind shield. However, it's days like today when I appreciate not working. I can stay in my jammies, footie socks, ugg slippers, quilt warm around me and not worry about traveling outdoors. Do you ever have days like this? Too bad my hubby wasn't home or else we would cuddle together! I guess this just goes on the record of one more thing we can endure while our Soldiers' are deployed!

Keep House Warm. CHECK
Shovel snow for five days straight. CHECK
Don't get frostbite. CHECK

If you're somewhere cold, I hope you are finding fun ways to stay warm inside. Go see a movie. Read a book by the sun beaming in your window. Do a puzzle. Anything to keep your mind sane and your heart happy (warm).

Red Leg

Hurry Up and Wait...and Wait...and Wait...

I had heard the expression "hurry up and wait" many times prior to life in the Army but I must admit I never had true appreciation for the phrase. When you are associated with the military, as a soldier or family member, your life will be a never-ending cycle of hurry, hurry...wait. My husband likes to use another military-ism "15 minutes early is early, 5 minutes early is on time, and on time you're late." It would seem the Army has an obsession with time. While I more than appreciate the need to have everyone where they need to be at the exact time they need to be there, it would help if the military ever saw fit to extend the same courtesy to its families. It is probably obvious by now that something is bothering me and has inspired this post.

My husband has been on a combat deployment for 7 months and while we decided we'd like to take R&R in February 2011 before he even deployed last June, it is now late January and he still doesn't have approved leave dates. He has been acting Commander lately (Commander has been on his R&R leave) and is checking frequently, but no news. I love the Army, I really do. I love the opportunities, the adventure and the sense of family you find with so many amazing people, but most of all I love knowing my husband is doing something worthwhile that makes a real difference in the world and that I have a very large role in that too. However, on days like today the Army plain ticks me off! I have a job, and a life, and commitments, and would it be so darn unreasonable to ask the Army to give us just the littlest bit of notice? Apparently they think so. See, that's lesson one I learned about being a military spouse: the Army either assumes you have no life/job/commitments of your own and/or they frankly do not care if you do. PCS, training, deployment, heck even working hours and night and weekend events are planned without the least consideration to military families.

Now, in fairness I must admit they are right. I will drop absolutely everything and go see my husband the moment they say I can. I will move where and when they tell me to. I will make dinner at 9:30 at night and deliver to my husband’s office when he cannot leave. I will quit jobs. I will say goodbye to friends and make new ones, knowing all along I’ll soon say goodbye to them too. I will live my life at the will and whim of the Army. I will do it because I love my husband and I love my country. Today I just would like to point out that the Army’s lack of notice to families makes things a little harder than they need to be. We sacrifice a lot so that our soldiers can serve our country. I wish the Army could be a little more courteous to us.

~ Raderette