ReALLy!!! Great homecoming fashion statements.

What a beautiful cover model.

Suggested fashions - love those heels.

Let's see... I was eight or nine months pregnant with Greta and specifically remember the brand new blue gingham maternity shirt I picked out for this event. BTW, we stood in the rain with hundreds and hundreds of other families members in the middle of the night for hours waiting for the bus to pull in.

The top picture was the day Gene left... again. He doesn't like this picture because we are smiling but our hearts were breaking. The second picture is his return. We all had matching pink t-shirts that were screen printed with a picture he had mailed to us. The drawing was of a stick figure soldier (Gene), sleeping on a cot, dreaming of his kids.

Note the fashion choices that correspond with the suggestions from the magazine! Hmmmm, hurry and pick the kids up from school so we can race to airport to pick up Dad. I think we all had on fairly clean t-shirts. What a beautiful day!

Wow, and I mean Wow - the cover of this magazine made me snicker every single time I walked past it at the Arsenal. The women are always so young, exceptionally beautiful, and appear to be stress free - just like me (sarcasm). I have a wonderful friend from Kansas, who is a civilian, who commented one day that she can tell who the military wives are... we all look exhausted and have our kids tailing behind us. She said it with love and it was the truth. Ft. Riley was one of those posts where every single soldier seemed to always be deployed.

Don't get me wrong. There are thousands of young and flawless military wives out there but, in my experience, most of them are like me. We are worn out by deployments and moves, although we love our transient life. We come in all different and fascinating shapes, ages, hair color, and ethnicity. As we are all different we all have one thing in common. We love our soldier and give everything we have to do our job, even when we are feeling broken.

My favorite part of this month's Military Spouse is the redeployment fashion. So, I had to show you my fashion sense during redeployment verses their suggestions. I hope you get a laugh out of this. BTW, look closely in the magazine picture... do you see what I see? Not a single wife is of the legal drinking age, pregnant, or standing in the rain with their kids. Heck, the model that was featured is 19 years old. Funny, funny stuff. Thank goodness there are wives out there who look and dress like that... I don't think I could attract the attention that would sell the magazine - if I were ever on the cover. Maybe I should try it.