The Start of our Military Adventure

Zach's been in the military for 4 years. We've been married for almost 6 so I went through the whole process with him. He went to basic in Nov 2007. Some of the hardest months of my life. He was suppose to leave a few months later but a job came up and he took it. They gave him 24 hour notice. Talk about tough! I was kind of in shock that he took it but tried to be supportive anyway. He left me with a 6 month old baby and we had a lot of financial issues he didn't take care of. I ended up getting two jobs while he was gone and worked from 7am - 10pm most days. My parents helped out a lot with Jaidyn. I never want to go through that again and thankfully we are past basic/tech school. Zach missed Jaidyn's first Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Jaidyn and Aunt Arlene

Jaidyn's First Christmas 2007

Basic was 6 weeks. We got through that and my BF Arlene went to Tx with me for his graduation. I only got to see him a few days before he went to tech-school. That was from Jan 2008-April 2008. He called me and told me we got orders to Kadena Afb in Okinawa, Japan. I thought he was lying but nope. He put that first on his dream sheet (list of places you'd prefer to go but rarely get). You can only guess how much fun it was for me to tell everyone. No one believed me but it was very true. I ended up moving down to Missouri with a baby, cat, and dog in February and stayed in a nursing home off base while he finished up tech-school. Long story there. Anyway, we ended up getting pregnant with Ryker in Missouri and then came back to Colorado before we went to Japan.

Basic Graduation

Being new to the military and having an overseas location as your first base was very interesting. Not to mention I was pregnant when we flew the 24+ hours to get there and got pretty sick. Plus Jaidyn was crawling and it was hard to keep him happy in a plane that long. Luckily he was a good baby and the flight attendant even walked around with him for a bit.

Welcome to Okinawa. Huge culture shock. We got there late, I had gotten maybe a half our of sleep the whole plane ride, and it all just seemed like a documentary on TV. The first couple of weeks consisted of finding a car, getting new driver's licenses, house, and getting Zach settled at work.

I have a love/hate relationship with Okinawa. The island is magical and gorgeous. The town is very vibrant and colorful. Its like going to a resort but even resorts make you miss home. That was not a good base for our first one. I think everything was over exaggerated since we were far from. Lots of people had the "I'm better then everyone cause I'm an American" attitude and it wasn't just towards the Okinawans. Not every one was horrible but there was a lot of excess drama. To many bored wives, pissed off that they were away from the States, and doing everything to cause more drama and make other peoples life's harder. The military side of it was harder too. Lots of extra exercises and higher security since being overseas. There were even some protests against the base but never anything really violent. Kind of scary though.


We never made it back to Colorado the whole time we were stationed there. Zach had a TDY and ended up going to the States but he wasn't able to go home either. I missed my sister's graduation, my best friend's wedding, and several family members and friend's deaths. It was really hard not being able to make it home. It does draw you closer to your family. You have to be ok with it just being you, your husband, and your children.


I did have some really good friends there. We would have play dates, go to the zoo, go to the off base mall, random outings, and go to Cocok's(nail salon) for our toes. Best place ever! You get to be with your friends, get your nails done, and have a gorgeous view of the ocean. I miss my girls. You never know though, we may end up getting stationed together again sometime. :)

We found out in 2011 that we'd be moving to Canon AFB, New Mexico. About a week later, it changed to Goodfellow AFB, TX. We got here in July 2011. So far, its been alright. We don't like our housing arrangement but the people are awesome and its a nice little town. The one thing that makes it hard is that we're 8 hours away from our families (not half as bad as okinawa so I can't complain to much) and that its a training base. You make friends and then they leave. There are more students here then permanent party and its kind of hard to get close to anyone.

We are going to try for a B.O.P. (base of preference) in March. Hoping to go back to Colorado! Zach is also looking into being a recruiter and then we'd move back to Colorado for that. We both really want to get back home and hopefully it will happen. If it does, we'd be back August/September time frame of this year. Hopefully. :)

Zach tests for Staff again this year in May. We're really hoping he gets it. He definitely deserves it!

Through it all, I've learned a lot about the military. Some stuff I wish I didn't know. I've learned 1000 and 1 acronyms, that you need to take it day by day, to be careful who you trust, that our life is controlled by the military, that you have to be ok raising the kids by yourself, how important a support system is, and that at any moment life can be taken away. Being a military wife has definitely made me a new person. I am a lot stronger then I have ever been and I've grown up a lot.