Army Household6

Well I just wanted to take a minute and thank everyone who emailed me over the last 24 hours about PFC Levine. If I haven’t responded to you yet.. don’t worry I will tonight/tomorrow.

I received this email from Julie  with BlueStarMoms who visited with Hunter this afternoon .. so I wanted to pass it along..

Well, we already went today and just got back actually but we wouldn’t mind going again.  When I say we, I took my daughter-in-law and granddaughters too.  One of the staff did go in ahead and asked Hunter if he minded us coming in.  That was Hunters request to be notified ahead of time.

I figured that if he did not want visitors today that we would just leave what we had brought for him there for him to have and I understood his request. He let us come in because I told the nurse about my son serving in Iraq.  Tht seemed to make Hunter feel better.

We just stopped in for a minute and took a card, a box of See’s lollipops, some other candy and a small fimo clay frog wind chime. (FROG=Freely Rely On God) That made him sorta laugh, the wind chime. He said he didn’t know where to put it so we suggested over the a/c unit or hang it on the window that way he could know if the a/c was working or not.

I figured that he could use the practice in getting his other senses a little sharper while his eyesight was getting some work. The room was pretty warm though, and there was a soldier visiting him as well so I didn’t want to take up too much of his time.  I will call Stephanie later this week and see if he wouldn’t mind having us visit again, without the girls though. I would love to have you come with or meet me there.  I have a map now and it is pretty easy to get to.

He has a DVD player and an i-pod and told me he has all the music he needs, he is still pretty angry inside.  I know that later in life he will look back and think about us going there, it will be just a random thought but I hope it will be a good one.

Also, my granddaughters class is going to make a mobile for his room, that should help him with some eye coordination exercises without him knowing that he is actually doing them.

I did see that he had the DVD Gladiator (great movie!) so he has some vision.  He also had a watch on with a magnifier on it.  Also, the lollipops will help with the muscles in his neck which will in turn help with the face restructuring.

In fact, I am thinking that getting some crossword puzzle books and other items like that as well as some cards for other soldiers who are there would be worthwhile.  There were a couple who had no visitors and looked like they could use someone to visit with.

A HUGE amount of thanks goes out to to Trish of Email our Military (who originally posted about it) Vince Patton of Military.com as well as Caitlyn Scanlon (Military.com employee and member of Soldier’s Angels) for getting someone in touch with Hunter so quickly! This is what I love about our military family and of course for being a part of an AWESOME organization like Military.com !  : )

Social Media is all the rage online these days. Many families in the military community are starting to use social media to keep in contact with their service member, family members out of state, friends.

So, what exactly is social media?

According to Wikipedia social media–

“uses the “wisdom of crowds” to connect information in a collaborative manner. Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video. Technologies such as blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, group creation and voice over IP, to name a few.”

In order to give you a leg up on the top social media applications, let’s talk about a few of the social media applications according to survey done recently by New Media VA.com . There are tons of social networking and social media sites popping up each and every day.

Some of the most popular are: Twitter, Facebook, Utterz, and Ning.

1. Twitter - Twitter is a free social network and micro-blogging site that allows users to send instant updates to the Twitter website or with other applications such as Twitterific these updates are seen by those following the user through the Twitter network. A user must sign up to receive updates from others and can restrict delivery to those who are not in his or her circle of friends.

2. Facebook - Facebook is a free social networking website originally founded only for the students of Harvard University. Users create profiles or pages about themselves, which often include pictures and lists of likes/dislikes. Profiles are grouped according to their networks, relating to their high schools, colleges, and places of employment or geographical region.

3. Utterz - Utterz is a free social networking and micro-blogging site that allows users to send updates via cell phone to their blogs, social networking pages and their Utterz homepage. Audio and voice utterz can be recorded from any phone and text messages can be sent . When a user creates a new utter notification is sent to other users who have signed up to receive notification.

4. Ning - Ning is slightly different in that it is an online platform where users can create their own social networking sites and networks. Ning allows a user to create a site that can compete with Myspace or Facebook yet be targeted to the user’s specific audience or target market. Ning allows the user to use its templates to create a group website, photo website and video website of their own.

It’s not just a ‘teen’ thing!

Social Media is definitely becoming the wave of the future and it certainly changing the way we communicate with others. It’s great just to keep up with what others are doing but also to meet others for support,etc.

So let’s here from you

What types of social media are you using? Are you connecting with others in social media/social networking? Are you planning on it? Feel free to leave a comment in the comment section. First 5 comments get a free prize pack courtesy of MIlitary.com : )

Want to connect with me on the various social networking sites? I’m on lots of different social networking sites (part of my job as a Social Media Manager) but here are my Top3!

Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/tammymunson
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=667580989
Linked In : http://www.linkedin.com/in/tammymunson

I received this info from the editors at Military.com –

We want to know how you plan to celebrate Veterans Day. Record a short video message detailing how your family or your local military community celebrates this holiday. Then, upload your video titled, “How I Plan to Celebrate Veterans Day,” to Military.com’s Shock & Awe channel. Videos will be featured on our Spouse Network and the Family Newsletter.

I asked one of the editors (Kelly Johnson) over there about parents, family members posting their videos as well. She said that ” Anyone from the military community can upload a video — kids, spouses, servicemembers, etc. ”

So go ahead and post your video over at Military.com and then make sure to tell me about it. I’ll be posting mine here as well and we loved to feature a few on the blog as well. If you want to just send it to me directly, feel free to post the video URL in the comments section or email to me at tammy dot munson at gmail dot com

Yes you read that right.. Marines! I’m getting the task of speaking

at the Marine Family Conference later this month in Chantilly VA! I’m actually a little excited about this event as I’ll be talking about my favorite topics- blogging and military lifestyle. I just know that it will be lots of fun and I’ll be blogging live on here and via twitter! : )

Of course I’ll be there in my official role as Installation Ambassador for Military.com but we’ll also be handing out information about Parents Zone.

If you’re gonna be there, come on by the military.com booth and introduce yourself! : )

I saw this come across the The Military Report over at Military.com

U.S. Representative John Carter (R- Fort Hood) introduced the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act (H.R. 6070) in the House, which would amend the Servicemember’s Civil Relief Act (SCRA). SCRA gives servicemembers the ability to maintain a home of residency, regardless of placement by military orders, which has given servicemembers tax relief and also made a change in driver’s licenses and vehicle registration unnecessary. The bill gives military spouses the same benefits as they relocate with their active-duty spouses.

I personally never really had to worry about the issue with driver’s licenses and vehicle registration due to MN (our state of residence) already having a law similarly to this. I hope that Congress can get off their ‘duff’ and get this voted on, approved and signed by Pres Bush very soon.

Lots of military spouses could use a law like this. I commend Rep Carter for putting together something like this for us Milspouses! We all know how hard we work and sacrifice for our military husbands but its nice to know that others (especially those in Congress) appreciate it too!

So what are your thoughts… sound off!

Military.com and TurboTax have partnered up for an amazing deal for Military families. You can use TurboTax Online Free Edition now. You can also upgrade and save 15% on other TurboTax Online products!

Click here to find out more!

DannyBoy did our taxes there on Tuesday and we should have our refund by this upcoming Friday. Talk about quick turnaround time! It even found a couple of deductions that we didn’t even know about!

Well I’m all packed and ready to hit the road (or the skies I should say)! I’m headed off to Spouse Buzz Live 3 at Ft. Bragg! WOOHOO! I’m so excited to meetup with Andi again and the rest of the spouse buzz crew!

It looks like a bunch of us are getting together on Saturday night for drinks and a whole bunch of fun, so if you are going let me know if you’d like to join us. My phone # is 940-782-7340.

If you can’t make SBL3, then make sure to catch the LIVE streaming video. You can find out more info at www.spousebuzzlive.com

Unfortunately, I won’t have a laptop with me this trip (my pc laptop died two weeks ago and haven’t been able to purchase a new one…yet!) so no LIVE blogging. However, I’ll be taking pictures and video during the trip and I’ll post them when I get back on Sunday.

Have a great weekend! See ya on Sunday!
Tammy/Household6

SpouseBUZZ LIVE is headed to Fayetteville, North Carolina, home to Ft. Bragg and Pope Air Force Base on Saturday, December 1, 2007.

Mark your calendars now! Trust me , you won’t want to miss this high-energy event! I’ll be going.. are you??

More details coming soon!

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