Saturday, December 25, 2010

Christmas

This was our first Christmas together as a married couple in our first home together and it couldn't of gone any more perfect! On Thanksgiving last month we invited a bunch of single soldiers over for dinner but for our Christmas feast, we kept this special Holiday all for us to share together! We are enjoying a VERY white Christmas, hope everyone else is also enjoying the same :) Happy Holidays to all our family and friends near and abroad!!!
Tubbles enjoying the Holiday season
Tubbles getting a little too friendly with the bird

Tree outside our window

Yummy feast

Beautiful Christmas balls

Poor guy ate too much

Beautiful Christmas night on Oak street.


Honda is somewhere under there

Christmas card we sent to family and friends

Friday, December 24, 2010

Our Military Issued Home

Its Christmas Eve and we are finally done unpacking! I got my Christmas stocking right in time for Christmas but for some reason Steve's stocking wasn't in the mess of boxes! So we went to the PX and they were out of stockings so we 'improvised' by using a regular sock. HA!

The Kitchen





The fruit and veggie basket

Dining Room

Living Room
Our beautiful tree with our stockings behind.


Steve enjoying his new recliner



Bathroom



Bedroom

Unpacking

What a mess!! We got our HHG and now its finally time to unpack! I didn't even know we owned this much stuff! My goodness.

Steve putting together shelves and what not. He got mad and finally decided to read the instructions. MEN!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Trip to XXXL

 We are getting our HHG (House Hold Goods) in a few days. The Military ships all your stuff on a big boat once you are stationed in a foreign country. Our stuff has finally arrived in Germany. A kitchen table is the only thing we don't have coming. So we wanted to go look around at furniture stores to see if we can get one before the movers arrived... but the only on problem is that Germany is a snow storm right now.

We finally got the guts to drive in the blizzard that was going on to go to XXXL which is 20 minutes away when driving on the Autobahn (highway in Germany). The road conditions were YELLOW but we decided we would just drive slow and careful! We quickly came to the conclusion that was a dumb decision. About 3 minutes after we left home we had to turn a corner to get on the on ramp to get on the Autobahn and the ice on the road had other plans.. we nearly went straight into a road sign pole but missed it!  That should of been our sign to turn back and go home but heck no.. we kept on driving.. bad idea!
   SO, there we were driving on the Autobahn and had to speed up to keep up with traffic. The Germans on there were passing by us like there wasn't any ice but we were fish tailing. I don't do well with anxiety so I started having a panic attack but was alright once we started to get on road that wasn't so icy and was actually plowed. We eventually came to the exit to get off for XXXL and almost went to a crawl going down the spiral hill since we could see it was icy and didn't want to slide and hit the guard rail but when we eventually got on regular town road it was very slippery and icy again and as we were coming to a stop at the light, the car couldn't stop.. the ice just had it keep on sliding and we would have slammed right in to the back of a semi if the light didn't turn green the semi hadn't moved. Thank you, Lord!
  Anyways, We finally made it and they didn't even have a dinner table in our price range and the few they had we didn't care for. But we did get a cute rug for the kitchen for in front of the oven and a nice fruit and veggie holder!
  The trip home wasn't as bad but we did get lost for a quick minute but somehow we found an exit for Schweinfurt that took us home!  We have decided we are NEVER driving in that bad of weather again! What were we thinking?!
XXXL

Friday, December 17, 2010

Life of a Military wife interview

I feel so famous to be asked to have an interview. Angela Caban is an Author who's expertise is in Military lifestyle and I was featured in her column Life As A Military Wife. I was honored and happy as a clown to do it. **note-This was back when I was still in WA waiting to come to Germany and Steve was still deployed.

 Life of a Military Wife: Crystal Cox



August 21st, 2010 | Published in Military Life

Written by, Angela Caban

Army wife Crystal Cox has been married to her high school sweetheart for one year, and would not change a thing about her life. About to experience her first Permanent Change of Station alone while her husband is deployed, Crystal has begun to build the courage and strength usually found only after years of marriage. In "Life of a Military Wife", Crystal shares her fears, strengths and tips on how she handles being an Army wife.

So you and your husband have known each other since high school, did you ever think that this would become your life?
Stephen was in JROTC (pretty much an intro to the Air Force) during high school. He always knew he wanted to be in the Military. I didn't really know much about the Military at all, or what to expect. I didn't even know what a base was.

What were your first thoughts when your husband told you he wanted to join the Army?
When the time finally came that he did join, he choose the Army instead of the Air force. At the time, I finally did know more about the life and to be honest I was scared. I didn't think I would be able to handle it and we decided to go our separate ways. We broke off our engagement, but I finally came to my senses and didn't want to live a life that he wasn't apart of so we got back together. We were married during leave right after basic training. I now wouldn't change my life for anything, I love this lifestyle.

What challenges have you faced since your husband has been deployed? How do you handle them?
When Stephen deployed, it had already been six months since we last saw each other. He left for Germany and wasn't able to get me command sponsored before he deployed. I was 19 and alone for the first time in my life. I didn't know there were spouse groups or sites like Military OneSource. The first six months of the deployment was the hardest. I had to be at my father's death bed alone, and since I was his only family and being only 19 it was very hard to be the one to make all the decisions. I moved to a new city a couple hours away from my home town once my father passed away to be closer to my mom. Her boyfriend and I don't get along, so i have been staying in a motel with my cat Tubbles. School has been keeping me busy and thank goodness for MyCAA or else I wouldn't have been able to continue my education.

So you will be PCS'ing to Germany soon, how stressful has this process been without your husband around to help?
It's been very hard, the reason that I am PCSing while Stephen is deployed, is to be there for homecoming and have our new home on post all set up for when he returns. I wanted to be up there as soon as possible since I am living in a motel and it seems like the command sponsorship process can't go any slower. There is always more paperwork to be done, more signatures needed.

What do you consider the biggest joy of being an Army wife?
I absolutely adore all the wonderful people I have met. It's truly an amazing bond that Military wives have and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I live next to an Air force base and I have had some wives from there add me on Facebook and invite me to go out for a coffee with them. It's amazing just how many great people there are in this world.

What is one common misconception that you see people have about military spouses?
I've had a lot of friends try to make me the match maker to set them up with some single soldiers in hopes for it to turn in to a relationship. Being a Military wife isn't a day at the carnival, its hard work and it will either break you down or build you up to be stronger. It may seem romantic to be married to a soldier and at times it is but with deployments, wondering if they are coming home, being assigned to new duty station, and having to say goodbye to all your friends, it is a down side and you must take the good with the bad.

What is something that people can do for military wives?
Support, I've always liked the saying "Be kinder then necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some sort of battle". Military wives are no exception, I've met a lot of great women who have kids and are dealing with their husband deployed also. I give major props to all of you; I can only imagine trying to survive this deployment with another life depending on me to keep it together.

http://www.veteranjournal.com/military-wife-crystal-cox/

We Eloped!

 Steve and I eloped (got married) at our local courthouse. We didn't have a big white church wedding like we planned because of the Army's schedule and the amount of time we were given for his leave after Basic Training. So we did what we could with what we were given and I can't imagine it any other way. I married my best friend and that's all that really matters, what's better then that, right? My father also was able to make it to see me get married which makes me so happy, it wasn't to long after that God took him to Heaven. But I know he is in a better place now. I know a lot of people haven't seen any photos from our wedding so I thought I would give it up.. Enjoy!

putting on his band

saying my vows

The happy couple

shoving cake in his face

Cutting of the cake

The Kiss





BBQ Reception at Chief Timothy

My brothers giving Steve a hard time
Our rings

The Newlyweds

Us girls-Christa, Me, Staci, Lauraine, and baby Katy

My Dad and I

Steve with his siblings, Katy, and my dad

Steve, his father Ian, and I

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Meet Tubbles

playing with her favorite toy

On my 16th birthday, Steve gave Tubbles to me as a gift. I was there for the birth of her and fell in love with her. Little did I know she would be one the best things that has ever happened to me. She was just a few days old when I got her. She was a runt of the bunch and was clearly not going to live.. until Amanda (Steve's sister) and I started bottle feeding her and lots of love and a Veterinarian (I spent most of my hard earned money on this sweet pea) all made her healthy and now lives a healthy beautiful life with Steve and I as our Baby.
Waiting on Dinner

 Since she was a runt, she never did grow to the adult cat average size.. She's still the size of a young cat and always will be.
 Tubbles is our little shadow. She doesn't just lay around like the cliche cat. She follows me in to every room, sleeps at my feet or on Steve's head during the night.. and she eats at the table with us during dinner. She really is apart of our little family. Steve and I both like to agree that she binds us together.
Sleepy girl