Posted by Aprille D on Wednesday, May 16, 2012,
In :
Army Life
I recently had the opportunity to do some guest-blogging over at Singing Through the Rain, the blog of a dear friend of mine who is an Airforce spouse. Her husband was getting ready to return from a six-month overseas deployment and she was asking about what to expect - both what she could expect personally, and what people reading her blog who aren't associated with the military could expect her to experience. I've written two posts, one for civilians, and one for the military family. I hope ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille D on Friday, April 13, 2012,
In :
Army Life
I don't have a "bucket list," but if I did have one, "attend a ball with Prince Charming" would definitely be on it. So, when the 3rd opportunity in 5 years to attend a battalion ball came across the social calendar I could not let it go. We had passed up the last two for various reasons (the 2nd was held just after Ezra was born), and I didn't want to pass this one up as well, knowing it was likely the last opportunity we would have to go to a ball before Russ gets out of the military. By at... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille D on Thursday, April 5, 2012,
In :
Army Life
As promised, I finally blogged about my deployment countdown calendar as other military wives have often seemed very curious about it! The idea, along with very detailed instructions and photos, can be found as a guest-post on my friend Kathryn's blog Singing Through the Rain!
Here is an excerpt... You look at that calendar, all those empty days, and wish for a way to make them go by faster. You miss your spouse more than anything, and feel so disconnected from him, especially on days when h... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille D on Saturday, March 17, 2012,
In :
Army Life
He's been home almost three months now. Time always drags when they are gone and flies when they are home! Deployment uniforms have all been tucked away, ACUs are the standard again.
Reintegration has been much easier than I expected it to be. And that kind of makes me nervous. I know that sometimes the worst problems happen after they have been home for a while, but right now, I'm not going to borrow trouble. I'm just going to enjoy it for what it is and what it has been.
Posted by Aprille D on Friday, January 20, 2012,
In :
Army Life
My husband came home from Afghanistan on New Years Eve! This deployment lasted 353 days apart total, lasting from December 29, 2010 to December 31, 2011. It was one long year! My husband's career in the military will be ending in 2013, so we are blessed knowing that we are done with deployments - this was our final homecoming. Back in August I came across the song "After All" - I had heard it before, but it was almost like I was hearing it for the first time. And I realized that it was our sto... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille D on Tuesday, November 22, 2011,
In :
Army Life
Meet Kayla...The story of our friendship is very unique, and honestly makes me think that God has quite a sense of humor. Kayla and I went to the same Christian school growing up. But we were five years apart, so never interacted. At all. I vaguely remember hearing her name once or twice, and her same with me. She remembers my little brother, and I remember her inlaws as her brothers-in-law were closer to my age and that of my brothers. But that's it. Here's us in 1998 - Kayla in first grade, ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille D on Wednesday, November 16, 2011,
In :
Family News
Since Russ went back to Afghanistan, I've really been struggling. Struggling with what? Well, just everything. I think that 90% of the time I feel utterly exhausted and overwhelmed. There's a song that has a line that says something like "You can only be strong so long before you break..." Which is true. But I think that most of the time people don't realize that I'm not even trying to be strong - I stopped trying a LONG time ago. Mostly, I'm just trying to survive. I have chronic fatigue, fr... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille D on Friday, October 7, 2011,
In :
Baby Ezra
Posted by Aprille D on Saturday, September 24, 2011,
In :
Army Life
This is the question that I've been hearing a lot this week! And it's a good question. But it's one that in some ways I don't know how to answer with a quick reply. Words like "great," "awesome," and "wonderful" are indeed true...but so are words like "hard," "emotional," and "difficult." But those are words that most people don't expect to hear when they ask the question. What I'd like to do is take this post to go into more detail and answer the question on everyone's mind. I am going to b... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille D on Saturday, September 17, 2011,
In :
Photo blogs
This post is somewhat out of order, but I realized it's something I meant to post a while back and never got around to it. Living this military lifestyle definitely has it's challenges...it's hard! But it also gives our family some AMAZING opportunities and privileges that others do not have. One such opportunity was given to us by the organization called Operation Love Reunited. "OpLove is a 100% VOLUNTEER group of professional photographers that donate their time and efforts towards portrait... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille D on Wednesday, September 14, 2011,
In :
Army Life
Monday, September 5th, 2011...what most people knew as Labor Day. What I knew is that it was the day my husband was coming home for mid-tour leave!!!
I woke up at 3am totally unable to sleep because of the butterflies - normal. Was awake for a while and then fell back to sleep. Woke up around 6am and the butterflies were worse. I had a BAD stomach ache. I knew I wouldn't be getting any more sleep, so I got up to change the sheets on the bed. I got the sheets stripped and had to run for the bat... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille on Saturday, April 2, 2011,
In :
Army Life
A few weeks ago, I wrote a guest blog for my friend Kathryn about deployment. One of the things that I encouraged her to do in that post was to "enjoy the deployment." Shortly thereafter she responded on her blog by writing a post entitled " Reasons to Enjoy a TDY" I enjoyed reading her post so much that I thought I would steal her idea and do a similar one here on my blog! Reasons I enjoy deployment: 1. More freedom in scheduling and caring for Ezra. Let me say that, while raising a child with ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille on Wednesday, March 16, 2011,
In :
Army Life
Posted by Aprille on Thursday, March 10, 2011,
In :
Photo blogs
Posted by Aprille on Monday, February 28, 2011,
In :
Army Life
I ran out of milk sometime last week. Well, actually, I didn't run out...it expired, and I didn't have any left to replace it. Thus begins the madness that is also known as "the last 5 days of my life." I shall begin with Thursday morning's status update:
FRG calls - almost done. Photos ordered
- check. Now to shower, run to walgreens for photos, come back,
finish setting up russell's computer, decorate the box, then run back
out to the post office! oh and I need to go by the MWR office! And
... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille on Friday, January 28, 2011,
In :
Army Life
Baby
How's our little baby boy?
Does he know his daddy's half way round the world?
Tell him he is my heart
 Well...
I only see him in his photographs
Don't know whether to cry or laugh
While I'm out here in the dark
I get so tired but I'm doin fine
Got my brothers back and he's watchin mine
Just keep prayin that we'll all make it through
I fight for what's right
And I fight for what is true
Mostly I'm fighting to get back to you
We don't see black
We don't see white
We don't see what we haft... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille on Monday, August 2, 2010,
In :
Army Life
I'm posting this because one of my friends on Facebook asked about songs for deployment...after writing half a book on her status I figured I'd copy the information here so I don't lose my list if anyone else ever asks. American Soldier - Toby Keith
Hero At Home - Amy Douglas
They Also Serve - John Conlee
Letters from War - Mark Shultz
Please Come Home Soon - SheDaisy
I'm Already There - Lonestar
Man of the House - Chuck Wicks
8th of November - Big and Rich
I Pray for You - Big and Rich
Just a Dream ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille on Tuesday, July 13, 2010,
In :
Army Life
I laid in bed the other night struggling to find a comfortable position in which to sleep. Amongst all of the tossing and turning I was struck with the realization that "I've done this before." At the risk of sounding extremely melodramatic...
Deployment and pregnancy have a lot in common. At first you might be taken back by this statement. Generally we think that deployment = bad and pregnancy = good. But looking back at both the one year deployment we went through, and now this pregnancy, I ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille on Monday, January 4, 2010,
In :
Holidays
Just in case you were wondering, no,
the title of this blog post is not a typo.
I thought it would be apropos to write a "first of the year" blog post. But, the truth is that when it comes to New Year's celebrations,
resolutions, and excitement, I'm kind of a “scrooge”...(If you
will allow me to steal a Christmas phrase and apply it to New Years.)
While I enjoyed staying up until
midnight and getting my first New-Year's kiss EVER, once I crawled in
bed dead tired I wondered why I had bo... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille on Wednesday, December 23, 2009,
In :
Holidays
WIVES OF FAITH 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS BLOG CARNIVAL DAY 12. 1. The first thing I don't take for granted this year is God's amazing love...I know it may sound a bit trite, but God is showing me every day how much He loves me and cares for me, even when I don't feel worthy. It's so easy to feel like God can't show us love because we aren't perfect and disappoint Him so much, but the older I get the more I realized that God delights in giving us good and perfect gifts! 2. The second thing I don't t... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille on Tuesday, December 22, 2009,
In :
Army Life
WIVES OF FAITH 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS BLOG CARNIVAL DAY 11.I would have to say that the perfect care package for Christmas is one that is packed with the intention of bringing Christmas to the soldier, the way that he wants it. For some men that means mini trees and lights to put in their barracks rooms, or santa hats for all their platoon buddies. For Russ, he just wanted another package filled with love. I sent him some goodies (Christmas cookies of course!) and snacks, as well as some gifts.... Continue reading ...
WIVES OF FAITH 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS BLOG CARNIVAL DAY 5. I could only come up with a few for this post, but they are all from personal experience. ...if you don't call it “Christmas Break” but instead call it
“Christmas Leave.”
...if you are done with your Christmas shopping in November
because you have to get that care package sent out in time for it to
make its way overseas to reach your husband by Christmas. ...if the brass quartet you listen to while you are shopping is wearing ACUs... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille on Tuesday, December 8, 2009,
In :
Holidays
The Wives Who Wait
Twas the night before Christmas
And there all alone
I saw a young woman
Who sat by the phone
For what was she waiting
On this holiday night
Where were the stockings
Christmas tree, lights?
I saw one little tear
As it rolled down her face
And she curled up in a blanket
Then looked round the place
Something was missing
Someone not here
In her face I saw sadness
Did I also see fear?
I paused and I wondered
What could it be?
That would cause a young woman
To look so lonely... Continue reading ...
This is the first in a series of posts I will make from time to time. YOU MIGHT BE A MILITARY WIFE IF...if the sound of an instant message contact coming online makes your heart skip a little. (ha this happened to me last night when I was washing dishes...only Russ was sitting at the table LOL!) Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille on Monday, June 15, 2009,
In :
Army Life
I am kind of laughing at myself right now...it's amazing how we can see the circumstances around us and long for something better or easier. Then, once we get there, we do the very same thing. Two weeks ago, I was at a point with both my husband and this deployment where I was just tired. I was tired of him being gone, tired of being up at all hours of the night for instant message conversations for months on end...I was just plain old worn out EXHAUSTED. I told Russ in all sincerity that I r... Continue reading ...
*I wrote this article for a Christian military wives newsletter so I thought I would share it here too.*
Whom having not seen,
ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory: (1 Peter 1:8)
This verse became a precious comfort to me when I was
nineteen. I was very lonely, very
single, and desperately wanting to be married. While I don’t know that my
personal interpretation was exactly God’s intent when He wrote this Scripture,... Continue reading ...
I feel the need to blog this morning, and I have no idea why. Right now I find myself entirely frustrated with life. I am in no mood to encourage anyone but I guess God wants me to write this anyway. I was awoken shortly before seven this morning (after being up until after midnight last night talking with my sweet husband), by again, the sweet husband. Although this time I was having to remind myself of his sweetness, as I'm sure he was of me. We got into an argument, well more like a tense d... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille on Friday, May 22, 2009,
In :
Family News
On Wednesday I drove up to the battalion rear detachment HQ and picked up a paper copy of Russell's orders. I can finally definitively say that we ARE moving to Kentucky this fall. Russ will be home early this summer. We will be taking a trip up to KY to find housing and then over to NC to visit family the first week or so of August. I figure we will be moving sometime in September. Pray for us that God will give us the kind of rental home we are looking for within our price range. Pray for us... Continue reading ...
Posted by Aprille on Friday, May 8, 2009,
In :
Army Life
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