My Favorite Bee

Things have been a little depressing around here as of late, and frankly it's getting old, even to me. I'm not that kind of person. I try and stay positive and look at the bright side of things; even if it is a possibly-cancerous-hard-mass taking my abdomen hostage. So today, I thought I would do something different. Today I'm going to tell you all about my favorite bee in this little hive I've got; Ashley.

Ashley and I met on Myspace. Judge me if you want, but we've become inseperable since we've gotten to know each other. It's a really funny story, actually. I was at home and lonely while my husband was deployed and searching the list of people who were online on myspace within a five mile radius of me, when I came across Ashley, who's name at the time was something like '1/2 my heart is in Iraq' Or something close to that. At the time, my husband was stationed at Ft. Bragg in NC, but we lived 60 miles north of post in Cary. Besides how beautiful it is in Cary, one of my FAVORITE things about the town is the lack of military presence. I think to this day she is the only other wife I ever met, that lived there. So, I sent her a message. Her husband was in Iraq; mine was in Iraq. I felt that if they weren't in the same unit, chances of them at least knowing the other, were good. I message her and tell her my husband is deployed and that I call myself an anti-wife because I don't usually do the whole "military wife" thing. She messaged me back and asked what unit J was in. I was so detached from the whole thing, I didn't know. I mailed J a letter every day, and I'm such an air head sometimes, I had no clue which part of the address was his unit. Now, we weren't friends on myspace yet and my page was locked so she couldn't see my pictures or anything, but I had to laugh when I got a response back calling me a liar. At that point I confirmed with J his unit and had added her as a friend, so she could see that I wasn't really lying. We continued to talk and a week later, we sat down for a glass of wine and two bottles later, we were good friends.

I've heard people say that God always gives you what you need, when you need it. That is exactly how it was when I met Ashley. She was the same anti-wife that I was; That I am, actually. She was my only military spouse friend. She knew exactly what was going on in my head and we could hang out with each other and have a good time and keep each other out of trouble. She was my date and I was hers. We had so much fun waiting on the boys to come home! J says some of my best stories start with 'When J was deployed, Ashley and I...' After the boys got home, we were worried they wouldn't like each other, but they did and then we all became friends. In November of 08 they moved and we left in April to come here.

As things have changed around us, we've still remained really close. They came to see us when Bug was born. And when we go to see my madre in NOLA, they meet us and hang out. It's been nice to have a really good friend who understands the military frustrations living this life can bring. We've actually joked that are next duty station decision had to be based on where the other was going to go. Unfortunately, my husband is Airborne and after being at this "Leg" unit, never wants to deal with another one again. We are going back to Bragg in 2011 and they are not. They won't be too far, though, if they go where they are wanting, they'll be a short ten hour drive away. "Short" used loosely, but it's a lot closer than 18 hours.

I don't have the time right now to put all of the pictures in that I want to. But here is a picture of Her, Bug and I on the ferry Mardi Gras weekend.


and one of the two of us later that evening when Bug was hanging out with Grandma



I miss her and I love her :)