I’ve alluded to the BIG announcement on Facebook and Twitter so if you follow me over there you know what I’m about to say.

Several months ago, SGT Daddy decided to NOT re-enlist to continue his career in the Army. Today, he officially started with ACAP (Army Career and Alumni Program) as part of our transition out of the army. Yes by the end of the year, we will no longer be an Army family.

The BIG Announcement is that as of today I will not be continuing with my ArmyHousehold6 blog. (boy this  was hard to write ) It is with a heavy heart that I no longer will be blogging here at ArmyHousehold6.com. This blog has been a MAJOR part of my life for the last 5.5 years. It has been my saving grace through basic training, issues with Tricare for our kids, promotions, TDY’s,  3 PCS moves and of course the year long deployment.

I have made so many wonderful and close friends because of my little blog here. I love you all. I’ve been given so many wonderful opportunities and have been honored to be part of something amazing.   I truly never expected when I started “this blogging thing. ” back in November 2004.

Now I’m not giving up on blogging,  (did you really think I would ?) I’ll continue to blog about everyday life over at tammymunson.com. I hope that you follow me over there.  I will continue to leave ArmyHousehold6.com up as an archive for other army wives, girlfriends and family members looking for information, resources,etc.

I’ll still be involved with the military community through my volunteer work with Soldiers Angels and continue to support our troops, military families and of course  the milblogging community. As always, I’ll still be available to anyone of my military family member who needs help. I will always here for you.

I’m sure many people want to know where we are going. We will be moving to North Carolina (near Camp LeJeune area ) so I can work in the corporate offices of Jane Wayne, LLC. SGT Daddy (his real name is Dan ) will be getting a position in that area as well.

xoxo-
Tammy aka ArmyHousehold6

Well my Canon Rebel XS DSLR camera arrived today and I love it! I never thought I would ever say that about a camera. I immediately took it out of the box and started snapping pics outside of the kids, neighborhood,etc.

This camera is amazing! I thought our Kodak Easy Share took some great pics but this one put it to shame!

Here is one of my first shots — pretty good for a newbie eh?

So drumroll please — the winner of the Scentsy Military spouse Appreciation Day Giveaway is

Congrats Wife of a Sailor !!!
Patty will get in touch with you shortly for you to pick out your warmer and choice of scents!

Date : Friday may 7th , 2010 aka Military Spouse Appreciation Day
Time 8 – 9 pm EST
Location : Twitter  — we will be using the hashtag #milspouseday10

What is this all about ??
A Twitter Party to celebrate military spouses and the sacrifices that they make on a daily basis. We will have lots of cool prizes to give away!

Participating Organizations and Businesses :

Jane Wayne Gear
All Fired Up Candles
Beadwork by Sheree
Scentsy – with Patty Santiago , Scentsy Consultant
Army Wife Network
Soldiers Angels

If you would like to sponsor or donate a prize – email Tammy at tammy@armyhousehold6.com

Like I said , the Scentsy warmers and pods are awesome! They are perfect for any household, especially military households. This is especially true for those PCS moves — just pack up your warmer and scent pods and off you go !!

So here are all the details about the Scentsy Military Spouse Appreciation Contest

Patty will give the one lucky winner (on each of the participating blogs)  with their choice of a Scentsy warmer and three fragrance bars of their choice. This contest will close at 11:59pm Eastern time zone Wednesday, May 5th. The winner will be announced via video post on May 7th – Military Spouse Appreciation Day !

Don’t forget to make sure to join me for the Military Spouse Appreciation Twitter Party that I’ll be hosting from 8pm to 9pm EST

The following are ways to gain entries in the drawing:

1. In comments section of this blog post, tell about your experiences with moving around in the military and what you do to make your new house feel like home. (1 point)

3. Tweet linking back to blog (post Tweet url to comments of this blog post for verification)- if not sure how to do this please don’t hesitate to contact me! (1 point ) The contest hashtag is #milspousescents

4. Post on Facebook – make sure to comment in the Blog comment section with a url to the facebook status update (1 point )

4. Write your own blog post about this giveaway and link back to this blog post . Make sure that you put the blog post URL in the comment section. (2 points )

5. Create your own video and post the video URL in the comments section (5 points)

About the Contest Sponsor – Patty Santiago aka MommyTac0

Patty is an Army wife who recently became a Scentsy independent consultant so that she can share one of her favorite things with her friends: Scentsy wickless warmers. Patty knows that it can be hard to feel at home when the military often requires families to move to new locations every few years. Scentsy helps create a warm, inviting atmosphere that helps make a house feel more like a home. She believes that the sense of smell is the main sense that triggers memories.

With over 80 scents to choose from, Scentsy will not only bring back fond memories but help keep memories created in our new homes smelling familiar and comforting. In  participation of the upcoming Military Spouse Appreciation Day, Patty would like to sponsor a blog give-a-way to three fellow Military Spouses. The contests will be held on three Military Spouse blogs, where each will have one winner.

Disclosure – I am in no way directly affiliated with Scentsy nor is the give-a-way sponsored by Scentsy. This give-a-way is being sponsored fully by Scentsy Independent Consultant Patty Santiago, and I have not been paid to promote Scentsy or their products. I did receive a warmer and 3 scents as compensation for the product review.

Photo credit - Stock Xchange

Yep R&R is over and SGT Daddy is on his way back to “the Stan“. We really had a great time together.. did some shopping, ate out A LOT and just loved all being together.

So now we are officially in the last phase of this deployment … Can I get an AMEN?? It’s hard to believe that 10 months ago

we started this process , not knowing how the process would change us.

It did change us — that’s for sure. We learned a lot about ourselves and what we want in our marriage and our life.  I think even the girls learned a good lesson or too .. mostly not to take things for granted.

To our friends that are just starting this deployment journey (you know who you are ) –
My advice to you is simply take it day by day. Try not to think about how long it will be until you are physically together again. I know its hard but each of you can do it . Set milestones and when you reach them … reward yourself.

Image courtesy of Momlogic.com and Getty Images

November 5th, 2009 will be one of those days that I never will forget where I was or what I was doing. In ways, it reminded me a lot of my thoughts and fears of September 11, 2001. It brought back images of desperately searching for information, hoping it wasn’t what you thought it was, and praying for those families affected.

I first heard of the shooting at Fort Hood on Twitter, I immediately thought, “Well, Fort Hood is certainly no stranger to violence.” There have been numerous shootings and murders in and around Fort Hood over the last several years. It must be something along those lines.

But as information began to emerge on Twitter, Facebook and the major news channels, my thoughts went to: “Oh my goodness, this is actually happening.” I felt an immediate heaviness in my heart and wondered if we knew anyone directly who was there. I began searching for those that we know in Texas and luckily none of them were any of the families directly impacted by the horrific tragedy at Fort Hood.

It was also a role reversal as well. Usually, it is my deployed husband telling me what is going on over there where he is stationed in Afghanistan so I won’t worry. Yesterday,  he was calling me to find out what happened so he wouldn’t worry. It was the middle of the night for them, and there wasn’t a whole lot of information

As the information and speculation began to explode all over the internet, I found myself glued to the internet and television just like I was on September 11th. I was not only worrying about those who were getting that knock on their door from official military personal, but about our own personal safety.

One of the reasons so many families live on a military installation is the safety factor. It is so much safer to live on “post.” You feel safe here. You see the MP’s patrolling the streets on foot and in their vehicles. You have security at the gates, so you must have a Dept. of Defense sticker and an ID to gain access. One man, an Officer in the US Army, took that feeling of being protected and safe away from us.

Of course I’m not paralyzed with fear or anything, but it does make you stop and think. Are we really “safer” here on post? Was that something we tell ourselves so that we can make it through the various deployments? I don’t think any of us will be that naive any more. If it can happen at Fort Hood, it can happen at just about anywhere.

The horrific tragedy that occurred yesterday was magnified I believe by many in the mainstream media and others. There was ton of speculation and assuming of unproven facts. I thought that they were supposed to report the FACTS. But I know that mainstream media has a long history of sensationalizing stories to make things more news-worthy.

This was not the time to do that. Family members of Fort Hood soldiers were desperately searching for information about their loved ones and what they were finding was lots of speculation and “talking heads” jumping to conclusions. They needed fact and truth.

All in all, the people of the United States did what we do best. We rallied around those who were affected by tragedy and we will continue to be there for them until they no longer need our love, prayers and support.

Originally posted  at http://www.momlogic.com/2009/11/the_fort_hood_tragedy_through.php#ixzz0W88nMOJ5

Nominate YOUR Favorite Military Spouse!!

Yep Military Spouse Magazine is looking again to spotlight a military spouse who represents the sacrifice, patriotism, professionalism and altruism that embody this community of 1.1 million current and 20 million former military spouses.

Nominate yourself, your best friend or the person you admire most!

You have until November 13th to share your support by placing a nomination.

Make sure you stop and browse through this amazing magazine online (www.milspousemag.com) … There are tons of tips and GREAT information that is there to support the military spouse!

Send in your nomination(s) to: http://msoy.milspouse.com/

I had a blast at BlogWorldExpo 2009. I got to meet some of my favorite bloggers and social media types plus a whole new group of awesome and highly talented people.

I thought I was pretty well prepared for Vegas — after all I grew up in New Orleans and lived in the Twin Cities for awhile. I was not prepared for the pace at which Vegas runs at. (not to mention all the hookers aka independent contractors”)

I don’t think there was a single night, my roommate DeltaWhiskey and I  didn’t go back to our room before 2AM. Maybe I’m just getting old(er) and can’t keep up that pace anymore….

My first night there of course, there was a party to attend. I went to the Las Vegas Tweetup which happend to be at the same hotel that I was staying in . Most of the attendees were local people including my freind, Eleanor Prior.While at the tweetup, I spotted several of the  milblogger crowd. It was my first time meeting many of them so it was so cool and was a little awestruck.

The conference itself was awesome. We started bright and early Thursday morning. As we are getting off the monorail, I notice one of my favorite milbloggers CJ Grisham . The morning started off for me with a hitch. LaughingWolf (Blake) asked me to moderate the milspouse blogger panel.

I thought sure…SEMPER GUMBY ! I’m flexible … adapt and overcome! LOL

Our panel (with DeltaWhiskey and BarmyMama ) went pretty well I think. (especially for my first moderating a panel before) We discussed many things like how we got started as bloggers, OPSEC issues on blogs, and some of our best and worst moments as bloggers.

Of course I talked about my dislike of Army Wives (tv show) and Greyhawk told me that I had to go and ruin it for him. LOL

One of the things that came up was the mention of “Spouse Bootcamp” .. It prompted a really good discussion about how as spouses we need more support and knowledge is power. This is not the first time that something like this has been discussed but I was excited to see it talked about so openly in a public forum. I really hope that we see that move forward.

Even “Sgt Daddy’s story” came into the conversation which the majority of people liked the post and wanted to hear more of those kinds of 1st hand accounts. Afterward I was a bit nervous, when senior Army officer from the Army’s Social Media division approached. I thought UH OH! It was a very nice conversation in which she told me I was doing a great job and to keep blogging!!!

The rest of the panel discussions were just as great ! We even had some panelists calling in all the way from Afghanistan.

One of the topics of discussion was the future of milblogging. As a social media person (personally and professionally) I was excited to hear that our military community embracing the benefits of social media. It was also discussed about networking and having conversations outside our little military bubble. I think its time to share the great stories and realities that we have to share.

The nightlife was fun too! The entire Milblog Mafia (those are Chuck Z’s words not mine) had a blast hanging out at all the various places we ventured too. I was introduced to a new drink (and a very good one at that ) by Blackfive.. its called a Gimlet. By the way – Yes there are pictures of the nightlife but there is no need for a war or anything LOL amongst us all.  : )

One of the highlights was that I got to meet one of my readers, a friend and all around great guy – JihadGene! If you haven’t read his blog , I highly urge you to do so!!

All in all , I had a great time and made several new friends! Thank you for the best 4 days since SGT Daddy left for Afghanistan! You all are ROCKSTARS!!!! I miss you all already! I can’t wait to go back .. and next time I’m bringing SGT Daddy with me!  : )

To Rick Calvert (Blog World Expo CEO) and Laughing Wolf (Milblog Track Leader) — you guys out did yourselves!

To CJ, Blackfive, Toby, Beth , DeltaWhiskey, BarmyMama, Bouhammer, Mrs. Bouhammer, Greyhawk, Mrs. G., Chuck Z, Laughing Wolf, Mr. Wolf,Boston Maggie,  JihadGene, CDR Salamander, — can’t wait to see you all again at the Milblog Conf in DC next year! (if I missed anyone – I apologize)

There were be several people at the event that I’ve known for awhile but never got the opportunity to meet until now. I know its just going to be a ton of fun. I’ll be posting pics, video and updates here on the blog but also over at Twitter and Facebook.

I’m also pretty excited to I will be one of the panelists ( along with fellow milspouse bloggers DeltaWhiskey & BarmyMama)  on Thursday during the Military Bloggers Track! Our panel is They Also Serve : Military Spouse Bloggers.

If you are going to be in the Las Vegas area and you want to attend… of course there is still time!!

If you are currently serving in the Armed Forces, or are a veteran of same (discharged or retired), military spouse, military spouse, spouse blogger, military supporter, or reader of the milblogs.. send a quick email to Blake ( wolf1 at laughingwolf dot net ) to get your code that gives you a free registration for the milblog track on 15 October, and access to the exhibit hall (and the Milblog Lounge) on the 16th & 17th.

If you already have plans on being at BlogWorld Expo – make sure to find me! I would love to meet YOU!