Welcome to the Marine Corps!

Being a Marine wife can be bittersweet at times.  Part of it is full of adventures and excitement...the moving to foreign lands, the new friends, the interesting challenges you're forced to deal with that you never think you'll overcome but in the end somehow you manage, the long awaited reunions with a deployed husband.  Other parts can be downright miserable.... watching good friends move away, saying goodbye to a husband for an indefinite amount of time, trying to make a "home" out of a place that could probably be condemned.  It's a roller coaster, that's for sure.  It all looks so exciting from a distance, but once you're on the ride you are thrilled and terrified and more than once you wish you could get off.  Then, the most surprising part is that point when you can see the end of the ride on the horizon and you wonder, "Am I really ready to get off yet?" 

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic and melancholy this morning because this weekend we had to endure another challenge of Marine Corps living....we missed a family wedding.  Apparently no one received the memo that there will be no important family events while we're on the other side of the Pacific!   It's hard to believe that the bride-to-be was a flower girl at our wedding, and, to top it off, she's marrying a Marine!  Bill and I tried to figure out a way to get at least one of us over there, but it wasn't meant to be.  So, once again,  we'll have to wait to see the pictures and hear the stories of the big day. 

Like many Marine weddings, this one has been wonderfully planned in a few short months.  I asked the bride about the date, and she said it's the only weekend in the next two years that she can be sure her Marine will be able to make it.  (I can sense Marine wives everywhere nodding in sympathy.)  Since we won't be able to join her on this special day, I've asked a collection of seasoned Marine wives to share some of their wisdom.   Welcome to the Marine Corps, Emily.  You're in for quite a ride.  

You know you're a Marine Wife when......

...you wake up at 6am to an empty bed and realize he's been at work for 3 hours already!

...you plan your life in 3 year increments or 2 deployments--which ever comes first.

....you have a dog named Chesty, Hummer, or Gunney!

...you're evacuating (alone) from a hurricane and the only advice you get from your far-away husband is to take his guns and uniforms. 

...when you can count 9 months back from your child's birthday and it's a homecoming/outpost date.

...you're able to throw together a home cooked meal for "a few friends" from work (which means a small platoon) on a 2 hour notice (if you're lucky!)

...the words "deserts" and "green" mean something... and you have a preference.

... instead of him moving in his old ugly furniture and "art", he moves in a house full of uniforms and gear!

...you were sad the day the sleeves-down policy was put into effect. 

...you know his "last four" better than your own.

...you can find your husband (from a distance) in a formation of 100 men in cammies.

... you know the exact day he switches from deserts to woodlands.

...you can spot a USMC sticker on a vehicle 5 miles away.

...Your husbands next job changes several times in one day...and at the end of the day you still don't know where he is going.  Never believe he is getting a specific  job until he has been doing it for at least 30 minutes!

....you go to sleep next to the phone in hopes of a call.

... you roll your eyes everytime you see a soldier wearing their cammies in public.

...you know that "field day" has nothing to do with a field.

...the terms PCS, TMO, and DLA instill feelings of panic, irritation, and excitement....in that order. 

...your daughter's goodnight "lullaby" is The Marines Hymn. 

...you complain everytime your husband comes home from work with that unmistakable "stinky boy smell"...... but secretly you love it. 

...When the only way you can wake up your husband is by shouting his last name as loud as you can!

...you want to shield your children's eyes when a driving by a group of Marines PTing in their green silkies. 

...you associate names like "Tarawa,"  "Guam," "Guadalcanal," and "Pelelieu" as both World War II battlesites and streets that you've lived on. 

...even after all the moving trucks, birthday balls, last kisses, lonely nights, house hunting expeditions, reunions, laughs and tears....you'd still say "I Do."