AWAG-ing

I'm feeling the Army-love today.  Big R's prior assignment just didn't give me the dosage of being an Army wife that I expected, so I've decided to take a peek at how this world works.  So, when a fellow JAG wife passed along information about the AWAG Conference occurring on our post, I decided to give it a try.  I'm glad I did.  It was fun to be around so many women with so much positive energy.  Not sure if I'm anywhere near the Army spouse that some of these other women clearly are, but it was great to see how the "other half lives", so to speak.

The Army life is anything but normal.  These Soldiers work hard (or at least put in the hours) to prepare for fighting for our country.  If they aren't deployed they are pretending they are by spending months on end out in the field.  Meanwhile the spouses (typically women) are at home taking care of the family, some much more sanely than others, trying her best to give all the moral support possible.  I consider myself lucky that my Soldier is a JAG because I'm now realizing that JAG is a fairly relaxed arm of the Army.  I'm trying to imagine what it would be like to be married to someone that was deployed or in the field all the time, or when he is home, he up at 430 a.m. and not home until well after 700pm only to be in constant communication on his cell phone.  (Ok, there have definitely been times when that has happened in my house, but at least it's relatively short-lived...)  These are the lives that go on behind that curtain.  Many of the women that I've met and have become friends with since I've been here have this life.  I struggle to put my head around it, and I feel for them.  It becomes all too clear why I had spouse after spouse in my office dealing with family law issues. Not going to lie, many of them just love the drama and never should be married, but there are those spouses that are just plain tired of being married to the Army.  It would take a lot more than that for me to get tired of my Soldier, but that doesn't make it easy...

So, this AWAG Conference was a peek for me at the inside.  I saw many of the women I've run into in the different circles around post from book club to volleyball to little r's tumbling class.  It was interesting to see them all joined together for the conference, many for the same reasons, some for very different ones.  I was able to enjoy spending a day with my newest friend and fellow JAG spouse, and I got a little bit of a "grown-up" day while little r got to play with other kids at the child development center.  

After a fun-filled day of AWAG-ing I am now better versed on public speaking (we all know I could use some help there), nutrition (amazing speaker that answered some challenging questions from the crowd that will help me plan better meals for little r), some military etiquette (yes, can you believe they have rules for receiving lines and response times for invitations, oh, and don't forget the "thank you" note rules!?), and a little fundraising education.  I hope to put some of this newly acquired information to good use at some point during our assignment here. Can you see me as a volunteer?  Go Army!  I do actually have some ideas up my sleeve, so we'll see where that takes me...

Before I sign off, I'd like to send a special shout out to our Soldiers, but more importantly, to their families.  I know that the Soldiers work hard, yet it hardly compares to the struggles the families go through back home while they try to support their loved ones. Thank you for all that you do...