Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Happy Chrismahanukkawanzawahteveritisyoucelebrate Everyone!!!

I want to wish you and your loved ones a very wonderful holiday season... I wish you all joy, lurve, laughter, full bellies, full glasses and a tremendously spectacular 2010. Holy crap. 2010!!!

Thank you for standing by me through this demanding, challenging, emotional-roller-coastering, exhausting year! Thank you for your kind words, your snark, your laughter, your wisdom... thank you for calming me, ranting with me, sobbing alongside me, and celebrating with me. I am so lucky to have found all of you, or you to have found me as it were, and for your camaraderie, friendship and generosity of spirit.

May 2010 be better, in every way, than this past year for you and yours. And I look forward to all of the hijinks, ridiculousness, drama and laughs yet to come!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS MY DEAR READERS! Muwah!!!

Gratitude.

I just need to say this: I have so much to be thankful for... even in the midst of this spectacularly sucky part of the deployment, I have found SO many amazing people, from near and far, from every walk of life, that I can call my friends. People who get this. People who understand. People who are compassionate, witty, kind, generous and amazing. People who don't just try to pick you up when you fall... people who tell you it is okay to sit for a spell, ask if you are okay, try to fix or soothe what ails you and know that you will get up on your own as soon as you are ready. These are the kind of people who will be there when I fall again... they will be there even if I never fall again. For these people, I am truly grateful.

So THANK YOU. Thank you to all who commented/e-mailed/called yesterday, all of those who knew what I was going through, who stood beside me, who didn't judge or tell me to suck it up, who were there to tell me I was normal, things would be okay, and that I had every right to feel this way. In no way could I do this without any of you... you all will always have my gratitude, admiration and love.

Roll Call:
Slightly Salty
Meghan (who really should jump into the blogosphere!)
indiana.girl
Bette
Anchored Away
alternativearmywife
Post Tenebras Lux
LopsidedMom
Army Wife Life
Military Brat
LAW
Kimba

You all are amazing, wonderful, unique and incredible women & men. I would be lost in the sauce without you!!! Thank you for all you do, all you have done... and I can only hope that one day I can be there for y'all the way you have been there for me. I am so grateful for each and every one of you!

Updates.

First off: THANK YOU! Thank you to all of you who sent me well wishes yesterday, for all the support, kindness, wisdom and kind thoughts. This deployment would be so much harder without all of you, so thanks a million! I'm doing much better today thanks to you all.

Second, we gals over at LeftFace are in a bit of a competition for best new MilSpouse blog. If you like us, please, please go vote for us here. Thanks!

Third, I just found this organization, Operation Dreamseed, via research for this blog post about Kids in Afghanistan. Wow, they are an amazing organization with a presence in not only Afghanistan and Iraq, but also Nicaragua and Colombia. Here is their mission:

"Operating within the values of freedom, democracy, education, and self-betterment, Operation Dreamseed will develop and support education initiatives in the schools and education systems of underdeveloped countries in order to foster and facilitate the access to and process of learning."

If you can, go check them out and see if you (and your peeps) can get some donations together to help the cause. Thus ending this PSA.

Lastly, I really want to watch Grey's Anatomy tonight and put up another post about the status of Owen's PTSD, but alas, I will be in art class. So y'all will have to wait a twee bit until I can watch the episode online and pull a post together.

So go vote and have a super Thursday everyone!

Moltes gràcies.

That's Thank You in Catalan*. Thank you for listening to my rant. Thank you for not telling me the things I already know (like... "it could be worse" or "he isn't on vacation" or "I know a guy who's at so-and-so and he didn't shower for months!"). And thank you for understanding. Ooh! And thank you to you new folks for stopping by and commenting... I really appreciate it!

It is another cold, windy, rainy spring day here and I am working on a post about suicides in the military, especially the Army. I will be posting it as soon as I can wrap my brain around the issues. In the meantime... please go check out this new MilSpouse site: LeftFace. It is a new, 'alternative' MilSpouse site for those of us who think a bit more outside of the box, or at least left of the box. It just got up and running this weekend, and I will be posting there quasi-regularly, so go on over and check it out. There are a lot of amazing, smart, witty, and generally speaking great ladies who are posting (or will be posting) over there so go see what they have to say... we'd love your 2 cents too!

UPDATE: I put up my post about Suicides and the Military over at LeftFace... please go check it out and I really want to hear people's opinions and ideas about this topic and I really want y'all to check out the new site. Thanks!

*I have a secret love for Catalonia. You see in my fantasy, Swiss and I would move to Barcelona (or at least have a vacation home there), eat a lot of seafood, get season tickets to see Barça, and stroll up and down Las Ramblas sipping lattes and people watching. Then we would settle in for the night curled up on a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean sipping delicious red wine chatting until we couldn't keep our eyes open. Sleep and repeat. Can you tell this is where our first big post-Army trip is going to be to?

Howdy!

I just wanted to send a shout-out to Kimba for linking to me on her blog. And I want to say a big Thank You for all of those who stopped by and shared your stories. It is so nice to know there are so many wonderful ladies like each you out there and that we can all support one another through whatever comes our way. Few things in this military life can be counted on, so three cheers to all of you!

Thanks again and Happy Monday!

Thank you.

Thank you to all of those who serve, all of those who have served.

Bravely and honorably.

Thank you to those of you who have put your most precious commodity on the line for your country, your families, your neighbors, for strangers and for freedom.

Thank you to the families who have stood behind their soldiers and supported their missions.
And Thank You to Swiss, my husband, my soldier and my veteran. I am so proud of you, so proud of what you do and who you are. I love you.

Thank you.

Photos courtesy of Flickr.

THANK YOU!

I cannot thank you all enough! And I can't possibly thank Butterfly Wife enough for sending you all here (she's the best!).


Your kind words and support and the fact that you were all willing to reach out to a stranger to lend whatever comfort and encouragement you could is incredible.



So thank you... from the bottom of my heart.


Love,
Tucker


Image courtesy of russmorris over at flickr.com