Not a "What if" Blog

This is not a "What If" post.. like a lot of my thoughts, and therefore blogs, tend to be.

But it's going to sound like a "what if" post.

The question was raised this morning.. "What if I decided to stay in the Army for 15 or 20 years?"

Well.. I guess it's a possibility. A very slight one. Since it's been 3 years and we've been SHAFTED by the whole system over and over again. But, let's say he went to a new AIT next year, and decided he LOVED his new MOS, and we got really lucky and loved our next post (still don't know where that's gonna be..) and he decided that he wanted to make a career out of this. Well.. I'd be ok with that. Mostly.

We do get burned a lot by the military. A lot. But there are so many benefits to it as well. And because I'm fairly neurotic about what will happen after we're no longer part of the military community, if he decided all of a sudden that he loved his job with the military, I'd be ok with him staying in.

I deal with deployments really well so far, it's the garrison life that I hate. But that's probably just because of this garrison life. Not garrison life in general.

I like knowing I can take my baby to the doctor whenever I need to, or knowing that my husband's medical is taken care of. I like having a house, and although living on post isn't EXACTLY what people want you to believe, especially in this neighborhood, I have a house. And it has a yard for my dog to play in and be safe and if something breaks (as long as it isn't my fault) the military'll fix it.

I'm trying to be more thankful for everything I have lately. That's pretty hard for me...because, let's face it. We're broke. Not broke broke like some of my friends, but broke enough that I can't even think about buying another car right now and I'm struggling to pay for school books. We have our house, our bills are paid and money goes into savings. But.."Extra luxuries" in my house means I spent $1 on shampoo instead of 70 cents. And it's those little cuts around the house, that means I can buy strawberries or kiwi for my baby instead of just apples and bananas. Even if it means I'll have frizzy hair.. but really, in this humidity I'm gonna have frizzy hair no matter what.. It means that she can have a new toy or board book once a month and that Tuck can get a new ball and I'll have the husband paint my toenails instead of going to get a pedicure.. it's bonding time, lol.

So.. I'm sort of off my point, if I had one in the first place. If he said, "I wanna stay in the military." I'd say, "Ok. Get your ass to OCS or WOCS." ...If we're staying in forever then I think we deserve to get paid better...

I don't actually think any of this is going to happen.. but I needed a little time to think about it and this is the best way to do it.

On a happier note, the sun is out. Lots. And this is a very good thing.