"I am an American Soldier"

This time two weeks ago we had just landed in Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain...

No, we didn't break into song but I was mighty happy to be there to see The Soldier graduate from boot camp. He has been gone since January with only weekly phone calls and a couple of letters from him to keep us up to date, we were looking forward to seeing him and his new "home".

Early Thursday morning we sat amongst other families anxiously awaiting our soldiers arrival and subsequent release. They were supposed to have a demonstration showing us what they learned during their time in boot camp but with Oklahoma weather being what it is, the frosty temperatures that morning prompted them to cancel that portion of Family Day. Luckily they were able to move inside so we could witness The Soldier's promotion.

After the short ceremony he was released to us until "twenty hundred" or 8 PM in civilian speak. And as I imagined the first thing he wanted to do was eat. His one request was "anything but chicken and rice".

The big event took place the next afternoon. Again we were surrounded by other families and as we made our way into the auditorium my heart swelled for every one of those soldiers. The program started with all 196 of them standing and saying The Soldier's Creed:

I am an American Soldier.

I am a Warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values.

I will always place the mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

I will never leave a fallen comrade.

I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.

I am an expert and I am a professional.

I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.

I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.

I am an American Soldier.

Even now I get chills remembering how they stood so proudly and said those words.

The rest of the weekend was a blur of camouflage and food, but I'll never forget that moment...

I am the mother of an American Soldier. And damn proud of it.

Where do I go from here?

For this journey I won't need any luggage, a laptop messenger bag, or a passport.

When I started this blog the teen was in high school and like many of you, my life revolved around my kids activities. Our social life was completely intertwined with whatever he was participating in as indicated by my blog posts. I wouldn't change any part of that but it now leaves me at a crossroads.

The teen became the soldier this month. He is several states away starting a new life and our life, my life, no longer revolves around him.* That leaves me with more free time in real life and less blog fodder for this world.

I don't want to abandon my blog (I'm sure it seems I have some weeks) but I just don't feel like the name, Not Your Average Soccer Mom, describes me or my life that well. I'm still a Mom but not a full time one anymore. As he grows I feel like I should, and my blog along with it. I've thought about playing around with the Army Mom thing but to be honest I don't want my identity to revolve around "Mom" anymore.

So I'm looking for some inspiration. Some ideas. Some...something to put me in the right direction.


*Life may not revolve around him but we do anxiously await his phone calls. It's hard to be so far away & not talk to him every day.

Only 4 days...

Until he starts a new journey.

Until we're "empty nesters".

Until another bedroom is empty.

Until dinner time is quieter.

Until his car sits still.

Until I cry.

Until the teen becomes a soldier.

The Big (or maybe not so big) Announcement

I posted earlier in the summer about the teen's decision not to attend a four year university mainly due to cost. (You can catch up here.) Since that had been the plan all along he was at a crossroads about what to do instead & weighed his options with a lot of thought.

*****
I never really thought about it before now but what pressure to decide your future by the time you graduate. Hell, I'm 34 years young and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.
*****

The only option that was not on the table was going straight to work. Working a dead end job for minimum wage is not something that we wanted for him. Obviously.

There is a very nice community college nearby that he could have attended for two years and then transferred to a four year university to finish his bachelors degree. That would have been a much more affordable option for us so we even offered to pay community college - no loans necessary & of course he would live at home. We'll call this Plan B.

Plan C was joining the Army. I know, I know. I was vehemently opposed to this option from the start because...well you can imagine why; however I was keeping an open mind.

So the teen embarked on a fact finding mission arranging a meeting with both the college counselor and the Army recruiter. His dad went with him to the recruiters office & they talked for hours. Literally. The teen decided to take the test that tells them which job he is better suited for.

During that week we did a lot of talking weighing the pros and cons of both options. The guys told me everything the recruiter had talked to them about including the GI Bill, aka when they pay for college. They talked about the Army band and the band on each post.

Then he took the placement test. And did really well. After the test he meets with the recruiter again and is offered a job at this time. I knew that. It's standard procedure and we all agreed it wouldn't hurt to listen and then take a few days to think it over.

In the meantime I thought he was still leaning towards community college. That meant being at home and being closer to his girlfriend. The only downside was he wouldn't be able to continue to play and study music while he was there.

The next week the teen and his dad went back to the recruiters office. Again they were there for hours. When the teen finally called me he said that S was on his way back to the office and would call me later. I asked about the meeting; the teen said he was offered the job he wanted and we would talk about it later.

S finally called me that afternoon and I immediately started in with the questions. Then he dropped the bomb - the teen had enlisted.

I FUH-REAKED out.*

I was under the impression it was a meeting and that we would discuss it before any decisions were made. Apparently the teen had a different view of it all and had been doing a lot of thinking on his own. After I calmed down a little S was able to tell me more details. I sighed (heavily) and said "well it's only for two years." To which S replied "He signed up for four years."

And I FUH-REAKED out. Again.*

So to summarize the teen has enlisted in the Army. For four years. And I'm dealing.

He doesn't actually leave until January so I'll have time to get used to the idea before he leaves.

And then I will FUH-REAK out. Again.

*FUH-REAK is putting it mildly. Very mildly. Very, very mildly.

Spring Cleaning

You may have noticed I did a little Spring cleaning around here yesterday. And when I say "I" I'm really talking about Emma from Indie Chick Designs.

This is my first ever 'blog makeover' so I wasn't sure what to expect, but Emma was more than patient with me as I choose each element of my page. Right up until she installed my new look I was still changing stuff around.

Thankfully she is not only patient but extremely talented. She was able to put everything just the way I wanted it & I couldn't be more pleased.

If you've ever come by before you would know this is a dramatic change for me. NYASM went from a dark black background, neon fonts and 3 columns to what you see now. And I'm sure you are seeing it much better now with a lighter, brighter background.

Squeeeeeeeeee!

Peeps if you are looking for a bloggy makeover, Emma is your woman. Go to Indie Chick Designs check out the portofolio - she does awesome work! With excellent prices.

Emma I can't thank you enough for all your hard work!

You rock!

Mission Accomplished

Sorta.

Before:





After:



You'll notice that the painters tape is still up because I need to give them a second coat, but already the difference is AMAZING.

Although I did briefly consider purple & neon green as suggested, I took the advice of many of you and went with black because, and I quote, "black is classy".

I concur.

**Please ignore the empty flower bed; I'm in the midst of cleaning it out and planting new mums for fall & bulbs for spring.

Back to School - NYASM style

For the last week friends have posted pictures of their kids heading back to school on their blogs & Facebook. I've commented & "liked" photos of their kiddies dressed in their first-day-wear, most of them looking pretty excited.

Or at least their mothers made them smile. Whatever...

In return I thought I would post a picture of the teen on his first day as an official senior so you guys could oooh & ahhhh over it...


Um, yeah.

It just didn't happen. Instead here is what took place this morning...

Scene #1 with Brandy:

(As we passed in the hallway)

Teen: "Loser"
Me: (a half open eye, very groggy) "Shut up"


Scene #2 with S:

(In the kitchen)

S: "Have a good day at school"
Teen: (laughs as if this is a retarded statement)
S: (play punches teen in the kidneys)
Teen: (laughs harder)


Scene #3 with Brandy:

Me: "Teen!"
Me: "Teen!"
Me: "TEEEEEENN!"
Me: (walks to down the hall to his room) "Hello?"
Me: (looks out the window to find he has already left)

Not only did I NOT get a picture but I also did NOT get a goodbye.

~sigh~

"Trim the Fat" Tuesday (+ a ?)

I took a little break from TTFT last week since I was on vacation. I'm happy to say that I did consume lots of water (and sweet tea but that's another topic) & I got PLENTY of exercise. BUT...yes, there's a BUT...I didn't take my vitamins. Heck, I barely remembered to take my Yaz everyday.

Out of sight, out of mind. ~sigh~

Since I've been back, I'm still drinking water & taking my vitamins again. I'm not that happy about it, but I'm doing it.

My vitamins suck ass.

Initially I was taking a large, horse-sized multivitamin that nearly choked me every morning so I asked for recommendations. Someone suggested the chewable variety so I ran to CVS and picked up TWO bottles. (Buy one get one free- I couldn't pass that up!)

It's like chewing a large, horse-sized piece of "orange" flavored chalk. It is disgusting & I dread chewing them. I've even considered just swallowing them without chewing but I don't know how that would work once it's in my gut.

So here are my goals for the next week:

1. Drink 4 glasses of water a day.
2. Buy NEW vitamins.
3. Take vitamins everyday.
4. Do 20 minutes of exercise 3-4 days a week.

You'll notice I wasn't specific about the type of exercise. Instead of limiting myself to videos, I want to be able to count lots of walking or working outside in the yard. So basically my goal is just to get off my bootay.

So how did you do this week?

If you are participating in "TTFT" don't forget to link up at Angie's place!
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Before you leave me, I need a little advice.

It's time to paint my shutters...



...but I can't decide what color. HELP!

...Could You Be My Neighbor?

A sign similar to this went up in the front yard of the house next door to us a couple weeks ago.

It does not excite me.

I'm not good with change.

I liked very much that my old neighbor kept to themselves. In fact, I'm not even sure who lived there. It was rumored that it was an older lady but I swear to you that I never saw anyone coming or going from that house.

Now we are anxiously waiting to see who our new neighbors will be. And we pray that whoever it is, they don't mess up the very essence of our street.

I say that because we have been burned in the past.

This is our second home. Our first house was in the city and located off of a business main road. It was suitable for what we needed at the time, but it was truly a starter house. We always knew that it wouldn't be forever; however our neighbors made it pretty nice.

On one side there was a retired RN, that had survived breast cancer and now devoted all her time to gardening. Her backyard was full of roses...beautiful roses that ranged the spectrum of the rainbow. Evelyn took great pride in her yard and it showed.

A family with 3 boys occupied the home on the other side. They were fairly nice, and we seemed to get along well. SS and one of their boys became friendly when they played on the same baseball team one summer. My lil sis befriended the older boy *ahem* and my husband became pals with the Dad.

Keep in mind that we lived in the city, so the houses were closely situated having only a few feet of yard that kept us divided. It was a blessing that our neighbors were good people, and we took that for granted.

After about 4 years of "comfort", the neighborhood began to change. People a few houses down moved and rented their house out. Then Evelyn passed away. And eventually the family next door fell on hard times and had to move.

The new neighbors were nothing like the old. They didn't care about Evelyn's roses, and barely managed to keep their grass cut. Which is more than I can say for the people on the other side. Sometimes their grass would be over a foot high before they would cut it. That alone drove S crazy.

Along with the changes, we started to outgrow our starter house. Plus, we wanted to put a little distance between us & the neighbors. All of a sudden those few feet of grass seemed pretty claustrophobic. The city looked grimy and our street had forever changed.

So we packed it up and moved to the country. Our street now is a very quiet, cul-de-sac with only a handful of houses, each one having an acre or more.

We got our breathing room and then some.


We've been there for 4 years and it's been dang near close to perfect. Even though there are a few cosmetic things I'd still like to change, it's exactly what we wanted.

And our neighbors...for the most part they keep to themselves, often waving as we pass. Sometimes S talks to the neighbor to the right. When a tree fell down on our street and blocked the road, one of our neighbors came out to help remove it. After we first moved and one of my cats wandered off, another neighbor called to let me know.

We've already got one set of new neighbors. This past summer a new family moved in right across the street from us. Imagine our surprise when we realized their daughter had been in the marching band the year before. Occasionally those particular neighbors will ring our bell (sometimes at weird times) but overall they keep to themselves too.

Now I just hope that the new neighbors appreciate our quiet neighborhood, and do their part to keep it that way.

And if they can't, please God let them be good looking, down-to-Earth people who keep a well groomed yard, ride Harleys and like a good margarita on the weekends.

I'm just sayin'...