Oh dear, so much time has passed since I last wrote and I feel as if I have given up on my blog too and I promised myself I wouldn't be a quitter again.
I was trying to so hard to put this together in some kind of order last night, but just couldn't see straight to type because my head kept hitting the keys and waking me up.
I always wanted to be a nurse (truly) and go into the Peace Corps. I also wanted to go into the Armed Forces to get the education to become a nurse. I was also pursuing a singing career but gave that up for my hubby, along with my other aspirations.
I enjoyed being a mother but it was hard. I had my first child at Fort Carson Army Base in Colorado. Within a month hubby was sent to Germany due to the Berlin Crisis. I went home and lived with mom and dad and I couldn't wait to get out of that house so took out a loan to join hubby. What a rude awakening to go to another country with a one year old and not have housing. We lived in an apartment in a small German town. Two days after arriving, hubby was sent to the Congo. He was a helicopter mechanic and his MOS was critical. So off he went and I was on my own with a one year old.
While in Germany I got pregnant with my second son and he was born in a German hospital. I loved the Catholic nuns there. They were so kind, unlike the army hospital where my first was born. My second son was brought to me right after birth and was allowed to have his crib in my room. When I was able to go home, our first son, Mike, adored his new baby brother and was quite a little helper. After a year, I got pregnant again (yes, it WAS the water) and in my 7th month my husband was issued orders back to the states. I was excited but also very sorry to leave my German friends from whom I had learned to speak a type of low Dutch and we got along fine with our close neighbors. The trip and flights home were a nightmare but that's another story.
We came home to the good old states and were stationed in Georgia. I was 8 months pregnant and then hubby was sent to the Dominican Republic because of the uprising and fighting there. I developed Toxemia and had no one to help me out. That was not a happy experience but I got through it without my mom coming, (whatever made me think she would?) and our third son was born.
It was now time for my hubby to get out of the Army and he wanted to reenlist for the 3rd time. I said no because I was tired of raising three small ones on my own. He was discharged and three days later his whole outfit was sent to Vietnam. He was sick about it and felt he had let his buddies down.
Life in Georgia was much different than I had imagined. The heat was unbearable and the weight of the air nearly suffocated me. Both Jon and I ended up in the hospital with heat exhaustion. Life styles are very different in the south. You did what you had to in the early morning and afternoons you napped if you were lucky. I learned the two most important words to suit that time of life, AIR CONDITIONING. Two years there and we were ready to come home to Connecticut.
After seeking employment for weeks on end, hubby finally found a job but the drawback was it was three shifts. It was a nightmare but I found ways to keep the little guys quiet so hubby could sleep during the day time. The children were ages 1, 2, and 4. And did I say very active! I had always been very creative and my imagination really came in handy.
I was a stay-at-home mom and when the children got older,I was a den mother, school room mother, Sunday school teach, and class party planner. I was also the one who picked up sick children from school for working mothers and kept them at my house until They could pick them up after work. I did everything I could with my boys and while we weren't well off by any means, we got by and did a lot of nature hikes, crafts, etc.
I have to say those days were the most fun. I never feel I missed out on anything by being a stay-at-home mom. I finally went to work when the youngest was 12 years old. I had done my share of Room Mother, Den Mother for all 3 of them, baking cookies and having cookies and milk ready for them when they came home from school. But I now needed to get out and help moneywise so we could eventually own our new home.
Finally, after 16 years of marriage, we found a few acres out in the boonies and paid on it until we were able to start building. All in all it took us much longer than we expected and I was finally working as a secretary to help with the mortgage payments. It was so exhilarating to be free and on my own for most of the day. I also needed to be around grown ups so I could increase my vocabulary again. Raising children and always having errands to run for last minute school projects, cookies for a special day, and a number of other little emergencies kept me busy for a number of years kept me out of grownup circulation
Those days are now over and have been for some time now. But all this rest and relaxation is getting to me and I seem to be going through a new phase at this late age. Maybe I need to get back out around young people again. Others my age seem to be forgetting too many words, and I think it's contagious!
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