While there are so many great things about being a military wife (snicker, snicker), I decide to limit my list to my top ten favorite things about being married to an Airman:
1. Free housing: My very favorite thing! I mean, we don't live in a luxurious house (although we probably soon will), our house is sufficient with 3 bedrooms, and it's completely free. We have a refrigerator, dishwasher, and gas stove too! As far as I know, most professions don't give their employees free houses. Unless you're, like, the president, or something...
2. Random discounts at various stores: I've found this to be equally true in military & non-military towns. For example, in my hometown, I could get 50% off at Chick-fil-A.. oh yes! We also get discounts on different brands and products, which is always fun! It's like being a walking coupon. Kind of.
3. Free health care: Well, kind of. It isn't really "free" since my husband is working his butt off for it (ok, his job really is easy peasy, if the truth be told!). Also, we can generally get any procedure done for free. Mark, being active duty, can even get braces or lasik eye surgery. I can birth a baby for free! Sounds ideal to me, and our kids will have it, as well!
4. Job security: Mark never has to worry about being laid off, losing hours, or his pay being cut. Basically, he will only make more money each and every year, and that's a pretty sweet deal.
5. Everyone feels sorry for you: No really, they do. At least, in non-military towns, anyway! You do get quite a lot of extra attention once someone finds out that your husband is serving the country. You also get lots of handshakes and lots of, "Be sure to tell your husband I said 'thank you for serving our country!'"
6. Cheapo food and products at the BX and commissary: A 12-pack of Dr Pepper was only $2.75 at the commissary this weekend. We just couldn't pass it up. I can also get items like strollers cheaper, so that's always fun! I mean, I've never bought a stroller. But still. And, I wouldn't know first-hand, but one of my best friends gets cheap Coach bags from the military! Fun!
7. Getting to travel for free: They pay you for basically everything. For simply coming to VA alone and disrupting our lives, the government gave us $1800 for free. Just because I rode in the car and was disturbed, we got extra money. I'm not even joking, folks.
8. Vacationing for almost free: Thank you, temporary living facilities! aka hotels. In the future, we can go to a vacation hot-spot (Eglin AFB in Destin, Florida, for example) and stay there for super cheap, making our vacation easily doable! You can also fly for free (almost) using their Space A flights, but I don't understand it, and I'm too chicken to risk not getting a flight back home. Hard to explain in a blog post, but it's still a perk. If you're brave enough.
9. Tons and tons of time off for Mark: He already gets 30 vacation days each year, but he also gets a bunch more days off! He recently was given 10 days of free leave for Christmas -- how fun! He also gets to come home early on Fridays and works the best hours he's ever worked. Monday was "Military Family Day" so he had off -- I'm not really sure what we were supposed to do on this holiday, but we did have fun. Ha.
10. Meeting nice wives: Um, so this might possibly fall under the bad list, according to a lot of wives (snicker!) but I really have met some wonderful wives online. Unfortunately, we're all stationed at different bases. I'm not really sure how that happened (sigh) but someday two of us are bound to be stationed together! It really is like a tight-knit group. Sort of. Minus the drama and stuff. But in the end, we all really understand one another, and it's great.
and I'm going to give a little shout out of sorts to my AFW best buddies:
Tara at Shaw AFB, Stephanie at Travis AFB, Erin will be at Barksdale AFB, Mandy at Sheppard AFB (soon to be Whiteman!), and Maegan at Minot AFB!
lol, Shannon! Space A for the win! If you don't mind unpressurized C-130s. Yay being strapped to the wall! And woohoo Job Security so long as involuntary separation doesn't knock on the door! :)
ReplyDeleteLove this post, Shannon! I have to agree with you 100%, especially that some of us will eventually end up together!
ReplyDeleteLisa
And hopefully we'll all end up at Charleston, Patrick, or somewhere overseas so we can all go to Paris for the day!! Oh yes!!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLove you much, Shannon! You are a sweet sweet wonderful woman!!
ReplyDelete*tear*
ReplyDeleteThanks, Erin!!! You are just so cute.. Can't wait to see your wedding and cruise pics! It will be fantastic!
I had to start commenting while I was reading because I knew I'd have so many things to say.
ReplyDelete1: I love that you live somewhere for free. But you left out another profession where SOMETIMES people get to live places for free....ahem, preachers. Fingers crossed, m'dear.
2: That is REALLY cool. When my dad went to Iraq (junior in high school) we had active duty military IDs, and it was cool. The not cool part being our dad was in Iraq, but still, it made for some great discounts. The movies were always my favorites.
Travel: That's real cool. For being paid, and for having hotels and stuff cheap. That's nice. AND, you forgot to include maybe moving overseas one day. I mean, sure, we'd all be upset, but Germany and Italy would be SO, SO cool. You need to read Eat, Pray, Love (if you haven't). I can totally see you being that woman, telling us all about your Italian adventures. I wish I'd blogged more when I was there.
ALSO, you should tell your friend Maegan that my friend Tyler is stationed in Minot and his wife's name is Ashley. I don't really know her that well, seeing as they dated for all of about 3 weeks before they got hitched and moved away. But HE was my best friend growing up, so that's always something, right?! =)
I love this list! Everything is so true. Yes, the military can be a hassle sometimes, but it really is a great thing to be a military wife. Thanks for writing this!
ReplyDeleteEmmy, I don't personally know ANY preacher who lives in a house for free! I've just heard of missionary houses. And priests live for free. But that's all.. Neat! May that kind of thing varies among denominations.
ReplyDeleteYay! I made it on your blog! I feel so special! lol. Thanks! :-)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this post! It's so true!
ReplyDeleteI so hope that when I go to Maryland we can meet up and hang out! That would be amazing! and if Tara could come too! That would be the best ever!
Stephanie
ME TOO!! the 3 of us together?!?! OH MAN! That would be a dream come true!!! My favorite ladies EVER! :)
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post, being a AFW stationed in Germany I can relate.! And Oh how I miss the states....We don't really get the great deals at the Commissary and BX like you do in the states. They have no competition to keep prices low. But I do have to say being 4 hours from Paris and a stone's throw away from many countries is nice. Plus can we say Autobahn!
ReplyDeleteChristi
P.S Space A isn't scary if you fly with your hubby that is how we get back to the states :) And the flights aren't always cargo planes, they have commercial flights out of Baltimore to Germany...and not sure where else.