Today is Military Spouse Appreciation Day. It’s a day to appreciate the sacrifices the spouses endure as they support their loved ones in the military.

Back in February, the gals at MilSpouse.com asked participants to finish the following sentence: “You Might be a MilSpouse If…”

You Might Be a MilSpouse If…

“… you go weeks without hearing from, talking to or seeing your spouse and only start to worry when it starts hitting the two month mark.”
“… you have a better support network online while your spouse is deployed than you do with your own family.” 
“…you live life expecting the unexpected!”
“…you refer to your friends as “my civilian friend so & so” or “my military friend so & so” during conversations. This can confuse civilians when you live in a non-military community.”
“…majority of your laundry consists of camo, tan shirts, and green socks. (It seems like a never ending supply.)”
“…you can pack and unpack a house within a couple of days.  Like a pro!”
“…you use a military ID, but the bank teller wants a “real” ID (especially when you have a special military bank account)”
“… if your kids are all born in different states.”
“… you don’t flinch when a man with a gun asks for your ID at the grocery store!”
“… your 8-year-old son tells you how the mall ‘downtown’ is not a secure location.”
“… you know that a month long separation is short, no matter what anyone says.”
“… you own at least one “I Love My Soldier” t-shirt, bumper sticker, purse or anything camouflaged!”
“… you get bored after living in one place more than a year.”
“… you use so many acronyms when talking about your day that those outside of the military community have no idea what you are saying.”
“… you take your computer to bed each night with hopes that you might catch your husband online should he get on SKYPE, Facebook, messenger, etc.”
“…you can unpack an entire house in less than a week….or your garage still has unopened boxes and you moved in over a year ago!”
“… you accidentally start to put down your spouse’s SSN when filling out documents about yourself.”
“… you save voicemails from your spouse, so you can hear his/her voice any time you think of them.”
“… your civilian friends think you’re crazy when you say “Oh, he’s only going to be gone six months this time, that’s not so bad.”
“… you spend Christmas, New Years, Valentine’s Day, Your Birthday and other big holidays away…all in the first year of marriage.” 
“… you long for the stench of their gear…it might be nasty but it means they’re home.”
“… you answer your husband’s texts with “Roger”
“… you can never plan too far in advance and you never really know where you will spend Christmas until it gets a lot closer to December.”
“… you had to buy a body pillow to make it through a night alone in your bed during a deployment!”
“… you never know what’s going on when because one day you are about to face a deployment, the next week there’s no longer a deployment.”
“… you automatically pull out your ID to get to where you live and it doesn’t faze you when there are guys guarding the gate with rifles.”
“… you have three jobs on your resume for the past two years.”
“… you ALWAYS have a current Power of Attorney on hand.”
“… you know your spouse’s social security number better than your own.  (I am constantly confusing the two these days.)”
“… when you hear a civilian gal whining about her husband being gone on a business trip for a few days and babbling on about how she misses him so terribly even though he texts her throughout the day and calls her every night, your eyes get kinda squinty and you look away and keep your mouth shut because your mama told you that if you can’t say something nice, don’t say it.  But you’re really thinking to yourself, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!”
“… you speak in acronyms and understand them!”
“… you never know where you’ll be next year.”
“… your husband has more boots than you have shoes.”
“… you refer to everyone not carrying a military ID card as a civilian.”
“… you know all the last names of who your husband works with, but rarely their first names or gender.” 
“… you love the military…no, you hate it….wait, you love it….damn you military!
“… you routinely ask for a military discount because you don’t want to give California more money than it deserves.”
“… you & your husband do repeat backs.  “Honey, would you take out the trash?” “Taking out the trash, aye.”
“… you have been married longer then you have been physically together!”
“… your toddler knows the word “commissary.”
“… you celebrate holidays based on duty schedules.” 
“… you have 20 different sized curtains to fit all the different windows of the houses you have lived in.”
“…  you start thinking of how you’ll deal with life events without your husband there.”
“… if TMO has ever packed your trash can for a PCS with the trash still in it! … True story… happened to us when we moved from Oklahoma to Georgia… my god did our apartment stink for about 3 days before we figured out which box had the trash still in it! GROSS!”
“… if you’ve ever shouted “Fly By” or “Low Pass” into the phone at someone 2 seconds before a jet roar’s past you over head.” 
“… you don’t own any blue pens.  Because you are very aware that you can only use black pens when filling out ANYTHING for the military!”
“… when your car or sink break and you simply grab the tools and fix it. No men required.”
“… you constantly have to explain to employers why you have had so many jobs at 25 and why you have a random area code.”
“… his gear starts to take over your house!” 
“… you are an independent dependent.”
“… you have an expired Texas license, with a Florida address, and you live in North Dakota.”
“… you celebrate holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, etc months after they actually occurred.”
“… your driver’s license is shoved in the back sleeve of your wallet because your military ID now has priority.”
“… you answer your phone for any unknown number at all hours of the night or early in the morning because your husband is calling you.”
“… you wake up converting time to the Middle East.”
“… you have a minor panic attack when you miss your hubby’s call . . . and then you suddenly realize that it’s actually okay . . . because he is home!”
“… hearing noises from the gunneries and artillery at home don’t faze you anymore.”
“… you sleep with your phone AND computer by your bed!!”
“… you’ve heard mortar rounds going off on in the background of a phone call during a deployment and that was considered “normal.”
“… your children respond to your command to come here with, “stand by one mom”. and I’m totally serious when i say that this occurs in our home with my 4 year old!”
“… 2 weeks after your love goes back to war, you finally get around to washing the towel he last used and left hanging in the bathroom.”
“… you can catch flaws on your spouse’s uniform better than they can.”
“… you might be a MilSpouse if: you only write in pencil because EVERYTHING is subject to change. ”
“… you tear up when you hear “Proud to Be An American,” even though you’ve heard it 50 times by now.” 

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