taking a look back ( mail call and phone calls)

you know being a military mom isnt easy at all.
but here are a few things you should know
each branch of the military does it diffrently yet same same
so its best if your a army mom to ask another army mom what basic is like and what to expect .
navy mom 101
the kid is gone off to become a sailor
what do you do?

well the frist thing i did was go home and have a good cry.
then i waited for ira to contact me.
he finally called me about two weeks into his basic or when they finally allowed him to call me.
when he did he said ma all my personal stuff will be mailed to you via ups
they do that so you dont fall over in a dead faint if someone comes to the door to deliver your childs personal stuff back to you after all they no longer need that stuff all their going to wear from then on is a uniform right?

at some point ira had to sit and write me a letter. so i would get the information on his address and how to contact him . no phone numbers just a brochier on how to get to boot camp graduation. which i couldnt do since he was in the naval boot camp on the east coast. heck this is alaska good luck getting out of here and back in unless you got a ton of money laying around .
so i missed his gratuation totally both times.
couldnt be there when he shiped out to iraq either.
anyway that is getting ahead of myself
mail call...........
first off i invested in 100 stamps
and then ran off to locate every post card i could of alaska
and i would sit every morning at my pc and type him a quick letter
and send those off
here is the deal about post cards
if you feel like you want to send those please remember everything you write on the back is read outloud so those not getting mail can hear something from home .
sooooooooo no embarrissing stuff on the backs of those. and no mushy stuff
dont write things like love and hugs and all that from your mother
just put love from mom and leave it at that
what i did was this
i got me every post card known to man kind of alaska and took the opertunity to take the whole lot of them on a tour of alaska through post cards
would put triva about alaska on the backs or some funny thing on there something to get a smile out of them.
i was known as the mom who wrote the most when ira went through because i must have sent every post card out. sent out three of those a day and then sent about three letters a day too.

ok phone calls.......
i vowed not to cry on the phone with ira ever
and i vowed not to carry on about stuff back home like someone in the family not getting along or someone fighting or things like that.
i kept our talks to an upbeat thing didnt ever talk bad to him or tell him how to act or behave. heck he didnt need me to do that he had a person yelling at him all day and night during training he didnt need me to do the same .
and when ira came home on leave and left i would not cry when i put him on the plane either i would wait until i was down the road and at the nearest stop sign before i would fall totally apart.
i did the best i could to not add to any troubles ira had while he was in the navy by not falling apart or making him a part of any troubles going on back home.
not that i didnt include him in things either. i did include him told him about the walks i went on or the camping trips and movies i saw and places and people and events and alot of things but never about the troubles.
like he said once when i asked him where he was at he said if i tell you ma then i have to shoot you you know that.
he then asked me about something family and i said same thing there are things here at home you dont need to know so back at you if i tell you then i have to shoot you too. so dont ask.
and we kept it that way the whole time he was in after all there was not a dang thing he could do about what was going on at home. he couldnt reach through that phone and fix anything or make it better . though his calls made my days and nights and alot of time just hearing his voice made things a ton better.
and even know that he is out and on his own hearing his voice say maaaaa is that you maaaaaa and then begin to tell me about the place he is living at now well i sure miss the child i gave to the navy but i love the man they gave back to me. for sure
hugs and love and tons of prayers from this vetern navy mom to all of you.
aka ( crissy ira's mom) in alaska

the support group i belonged too

finally i updated this blog so i could add links along the side and such. when i first began this blog awhile back you couldnt do that or if you could i had no clue how.
that was during the time the bagdad blogger was the hot deal and i actually was busy reading his blog of what it was like for a private citizen in bagdad to go through the war.
at the same time i ran across alot of blogs done by our own military soldiers those kept going while they were in the service but once they got out poof gone.
anyway.
during that time i began to blog . not alot but i blogged.
i also ran into one of the best support groups on line any military mom would ever want to gett involved with and that is the military moms.net link located on the side here under links.
for me it was a place i could run to anytime day or night and just hang my emotions out and say ouch and others understood me totaly and backed me up. to them i was norrmal on a normal roller coster ride all of us understood but if you werent a military mom well or a family member of one well it was a tough call for the understanding department.
so i lived there day and night. i remember one thanksgiving my hubby was working and i went in cause i was here at home alone. and i spent the day reading every post there was and posting something to each one. just for something to do and for some kind of connection to the outside world that day.
being a military mom and belonging to a group of people that were military moms helped me feel like i was normal and connected .
and yes during the war i watched as other moms burried their sons and daugthers on the board there and we held prayer services for each one.
i also watched as babies were born to our inlisted as well as their families.
and i watched as we got news of those who were wounded and whoses families were in need of alot of prayers as they traveled to germany to see their soldier.
and i watched as we celebrated the arrival on US soil of those returning home unharmed .
there is a deep bond that goes with being a military mom one all of us that are or have been can be very proud of.
in fact i am a mother now of a navy vet.
i remember when that happened . and i thought ok wow now i am done and i can leave or i should at least leave the military moms. so i did just that.
only to find that wasnt going to happen none to soon. i found out there were people out there hunted for my posts and read them all the time. and wanted to hear from me even if it was none military postings anymore.i was told i had a positive way of looking at anything.
well i got to say. that didnt come because of self. that came because of the military moms. it came to be during the time i was in there.
i had had enough of the crying all day and night for me that is. enough of the not feeling like i was living but sitting and waiting all day and night for the next shoe to fall so to speek. enough of the wondering and enough of the what ifs and your next and if if if .
not to say for one min this moms heart wasnt concerned or worried at all. but i figured out i didnt have to live with the deep stuff of horror.
so i began one day with crissy aka the princess of the tissues or some such posting where i began to talk about things like i had a bad cold and felt like i was supporting the tissue companies not just with that cold but all the tears i shed just being a mom. and i kept posting in a light hummorus way. talking about my everyday problems and then talking about the good things that happened that day even if it was something tiny . but i hung onto the tiny positive things like so many life preservers thrown over board to me.
i talked about my adventures with the grand kids yea for grandkids . they were my real life heros during the time my son was in the navy. because i was busy taking care of them as a day care provider and we went on so many adventures because of it all that i had no choice but to keep my chin up.
i will post more about being a military mom and what it was like for me. again. but for now its time for this gal to have am coffee with her vietnam vetern hubby before he leaves again today and goes back to work at the local mine here out of town for 4 more weeks. and wouldnt you know his cell phone dont work out there grrrrrrrr. so its limited phone calls again and at odd hours. thank god i have a cell phone he can reach me anywhere i am anytime .
hugs and love and tons of prayers from me crissy aka (Crissy Ira's mom) in alaska

boy the things you remember later :) the fire across the street that almost took us out.

my son was leaving gitmo after a few months serving there. he called me to say i will be back at base on such and such day.
i was of course happy to hear that. But what i remember is that sunday morning that week end he called us the church across the street went up in flames. you can park a small truck length wise between the side of the chruch and our front door that is how close it was.
it happened early in the am some kid now doing some 40 years in jail started the fire. took out the church and one home. no one was hurt thank god. and my home was spared thank god. in fact all i could think of was my son had gone through all of his time in the navy the bombing of the cole, 9-11, serving overr seas in japan and other countries in that area, Iraq, and then lastly gitmo bay and if all went bad that one sunday am i would have had to call him and tell him we had no home for him to come home too. as it is i didnt have too. but it was scarey. i found for the second time since he had entered the navy i was running for my life from a local fire. the last one taking out half a block not three blocks away from us in the down town area.
i remember going to the frontroom after hearing fire trucks thinking hum wonder what is going on. only to find hubby standing there looking out the frontroom window. he said the chruch is on fire. by the time i went back to my room grabbed my cell phone and came back calling my daughter and letting her know one corner of the church was obviously in flames. i went back grabbed what i could and got dressed. and by that time in a matter of mins the roof was totally in flames smoke pouring out everywhere.
it was an old chruch so it went fast. and because the church wasnt into putting in alot of new things it burned clean too. thank god for that one. the one down down had so much material in it that it burned toxic fumes.
anyway my daugher came to pick me up had to park a few blocks away and i went to her house for the day. hubby followed later on with the dogs we couldnt find our cat at all dont have a clue where she hide on us and he had to leave the birds as it was we did loose our love bird to smoke inhilation a week later.
i remember one talk my son and i did have after he began to talk to us all again. he mentioned us almost loosing him in a bombing in Iraq. and i thought you know you came so close to loosing us too in two fires here.
anyway al turned out ok . i love email and now that he dont have email anymore . i do love cell phones we are busy all the time text messaging each other.
hugs and love and happy new year from this vet mom to all of you :)