My husband is preparing for deployment to Afghanistan soon. This will be his 2nd deployment in his Army career. He has already served in Iraq during 2006-07. This will be the first deployment my kids and I have experienced on the National Guard end. We were an active duty family during the first deployment.

When you are active duty, the families have so many more resources, connections, and events available to them during deployments. However, when you are in National Guard or Reserves, that is not always the case. So, I am working on putting together a "support" group for SPOUSES and CHILDREN of DEPLOYED soldiers.

This will be a local group and open to anyone who has a deployed spouse. TO PROTECT THE MEMBERS, each new member will need to fill out an application for membership and DOD-issued dependent ID will be required for anyone over the age of 13 yrs. old. This will be both an educational and supportive meeting group, but it will also be fun too! We will put together and attend events and fun things for kids and spouses to do! Both husbands with deployed wives and wives with deployed husbands can join! No joining fee at this time! Meeting place has not been confirmed yet but it will most likely be in Oxford. Meeting times and days are TBA. If interested, please contact me by leaving me a message in the comment section. If you are on Facebook and would like to be contacted via FB, please let me know what name to look up or you can leave your link. If you would rather email, please leave your email that you would like to be contacted at, and I will contact you.

Have a great day!!!

Happy New Years!

With a new year comes new resolutions. The majority of people do not stick to their resolutions. Most resolutions have to do with weight loss, exercising more, eating better, etc. I usually do not make resolutions because I typically just try to live a healthy life anyways, but this year, I've made a resolution to get organized. I used to be extremely organized, but as I have gotten older, gotten married, had 2 kids, worked as a nurse, returned to school, and just become all around super busy, organization at home has not been what it used to be. In 2012, however, I am going to change that! :)

Christmas Eve is 18 days away, yet it still feels like fall on most days and summer on others. Some houses have decorations out. Ours is one of them. However, I have not seen as many as I did last year. I don't know if people are losing the spirit because of the weather or maybe because of the economy.

Times are hard for a lot of people. I know a few people who won't be having much of a Christmas due to finances. We started buying for our kids' Christmas gifts a few months ago, so other than the few things we have left to get off layaway, our kids' Christmas is good to go. I really feel for the families who will not be able to give their children a Christmas to remember this year.

My Girl Scout Troop will be taking a trip to the Quintard Mall in a couple of weeks to work together to pick an angel off the Salvation Army tree. Then they will each be given money to buy a gift in the mall for that angel. They are so excited. The day after that, they will be delivering their Birthday-in-a-Bags to Childrens Hospital in Birmingham. Hopefully these 2 wonderful bags will help a very special boy and a very special girl to celebrate their birthdays while they are in the hospital.

Getting into the spirit doesn't just mean what you can buy for each other...it means showing others that you care.