Heyyyyyy :D Happy Monday! Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!
We’re back home in V-town and had a blasty in Orlando with Meg, her pilot and my aunt and cousins! Coming back is definitely the worst part about our weekend roadtrips (even though we all know how much I like V-town, haha), but I know we’ll be back soon.
After I last posted (and our outta-control amazing two hour Zumba class) we hit up Einstein Bagels for some bfast.
I got the good grains bagel with egg whites and salsa:
And then we went to Epcot to spend the day there and watch the fireworks.
I packed this little beauty as my emergency snack and ended up munching it later in the day:
For those of you who haven’t been to Epcot, it’s a Disney park surrounding a lake and each portion of the park represents a country. The workers in that “country” are actually from that location and they have food and drinks/cultural artifacts/art/rides/drinks representing that particular area.
We spent a while in Mexico:
I was so happy to be in my homeland :D
So was the pilot:
El piloto y yo:
In Morocco, I got a sweet henna tattoo. The pilot isn’t a tattoo fan, so I’m filling the void by getting henna tattoos on my right foot whenever I get the chance ;)
The paste dries and peels off, leaving a beautiful reddish brown stained tattoo:
We spent a while walking around the park and roasting from the heat, so we decided to go to the Boardwalk to get some food and AC.
We went to ESPN bar which has sports games on flat screen TVs everywhere—the boys were in heaven.
We were very impressed to discover they actually had some healthy items on the menu—there were 3 things I couldn’t decide between!! My aunt, who also loves healthy delicious food, and I decided to each order a different sandwich and give each other a half so we could try two things.
I got the roasted vegetable sandwich (with roasted red bell pepper hummus, portobello mushrooms, zucchini, tomato and onions on multi-grain bread) and she got the grilled mahi-mahi on a whole wheat roll.
I also ate a blurry cucumber salad :/
And these chips (yes, more tortilla chips! Ay ay ay!) with black bean and spinach dip:
Sooooooo good. I’ve definitely gotten my chip fill for a while!
After dinner, we took the boat back to Epcot, and watched the fireworks from there.
They were cccrrrraaazzzyyyyy amazing:
After the fireworks, we walked back to the car amidst the giant herd of hundreds (thousands?) of sweaty (and stinky) people, went back to the casa, and I fell asleep on the couch watching Hancock.
Sunday was a pretty chill day. I definitely got my Whole Foods fix in and will be posting the rest of the foodie pictures (and the purchases) later tonight. The Summer Shape Up workout will be also be up around 3pm EST.
I hope you all have a great day <3
xoxo,
G
Musings on military life: I’ve gotten a lot of emails from current and future military wives asking for advice, what it’s really like to be “married to the military”, and about the lifestyle in general. I figured (especially considering the recent holiday) that I’d take a little time and write about what it’s like to be a military wife.
Growing up, I said I’d NEVER marry a military man. We lived about 10 minutes from an Air Force base (Davis Monthan in Tucson) and I had quite a few friends in school whose fathers were always gone. I told myself I would never be able to do that to a family or have a husband that was gone all of the time. I guess you can see how that “plan” worked out for me?? I met the pilot of my dreams at a Starbucks and the rest is history ;)
Being a military wife is by far one of the most challenging roles I’ve had to undertake and also the most rewarding by a landslide. Giving up the person you love more than anything for deployments, TDYs (short deployments), long work hours and constantly worrying about his safety can be exhausting, saddening, stressful, frustrating and overwhelming. Deployments are definitely the most difficult part of this lifestyle, but how you choose to react to the tough situation can make or break the entire experience.
The best advice I have for getting through deployments are to: stay busy (take up a new hobby –like a dance class, cake decorating class, learn a new language), start that project you’ve been putting off (a lot of my friends paint their houses while the boys are away), do something you’ve always wanted to, surround yourself with friends and family, look to the other wives for support (they know EXACTLY what you’re going through and probably want someone to hang out with, too), travel (if you’re able to), and take care of yourself the best to your ability.
I’ve seen some wives use that time to eat a lot of junk food because they’re feeling sad (or gone the other way and don’t eat as much as they should) and throw exercise regimens to the wayside. Eating well and working out while the hubby is away is going to make you feel SO much better. Those exercise endorphins definitely helped me make it through the tougher days and eating well helped to maintain my energy levels and cranky-ometer ;) I still had some down days off course (like the time I went into the woods and had a cry fest), but days like that are expected and all in all, I was fine. I had my family, friends, traveled a ton, and kept super busy with work and school.
We have never lived on base but know quite a few people who have and loved it. If you’re going to live on base, try to contact someone who has lived at that base (a friend or online resources) to determine if it’s something you want to do. The convenience of living on base is a huge factor –everything you need is there- but sometimes they’re located pretty far away from “town”. The base here in Valdosta is about 25 minutes away from the most exciting part of the city (which doesn’t say too much, haha), so that’s a big reason why we chose to live off-base.
Most importantly, the best thing I think one can do is to get involved--- in the squadron and by participating in base events. Making friends with the other wives is such a great way to meet people who have a huge thing in common with you and there’s always a chance you’ll see them again.
Yes, the military lifestyle is a challenging one, but it’s worked out for me so far ;) It’s certainly made me grow up… a lot. I used to be so dependent on having friends or family around 24/7 –in college I had the girls over almost every night after dance when I lived in one-bedroom apartment because I hated being alone. Also, as a super type A personality who always needs a plan and agenda for everything, constantly dealing with the unexpected –like the fact that we have NO CLUE where we’ll be living this time next year- has been really good for me.
Since I married the pilot, I’ve made some of the best girlfriends that I’ll keep for life through the squadron and am also more proud of my husband than I could ever try to articulate. Thank you to all of you other military wives and girlfriends out there for your sacrifice, courage and support--- you defend our country and freedom in a magnanimous way. If you ever have questions about military mumbo jumbo or need someone to listen to the Murphy’s Law events that deployments set into motion, just shoot me an email ;)
