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The Year in Review – 2012
MilitaryAvenue.com has a lot to offer the military family, from local military discounts, to stories of personal experience, and articles from reputable resources like the DoD, USAA, Community and Family Policy and so many more. So what was important to our families this year? Here are the Top 10 Articles on MilitaryAvenue.com from the year 2012: MilitaryAvenue’s Moving Checklist: A move isn’t complete without a checklist! It certainly is less stressful with one. Click on a link below to take you to the appropriate time frame and then skim the other lists to make sure you are on track for a great move. Growing Up in the Military: A few years ago,…
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Raising a Generation that Loves
Today Newtown, Conneticut will bury the first of their children. Noah Pozner, age 6, will be laid to rest at 1:00pm. (Newtown shooting victims: First funerals to be held) Then there will be 19 more funerals for children and 7 for adults. Oh deep sorrow runs through my blood. My husband, the level headed soldier who has seen more then I would like to imagine, came home on Friday and immediately turned on the news. He watched for a quite a while, standing there stunned. Then the man who is never sick complained of a headache the rest of the night. I don’t know if it was a headache as much…
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The Christmas Tree – Military Family Style
O Christmas TreeO Christmas TreeHow Lovely are Your branchesIsn’t it amazing how many different styles of Christmas trees there are? The Country Christmas Tree The Patriotic Christmas TreeSource: Uploaded by user via MilitaryAvenue.com on Pinterest The Family Christmas tree filled with handmade ornaments and other special memories The ‘Ammuntion Tree’!Source: twitpic.com via MilitaryAvenue.com on PinterestEven the Camouflage Christmas TreeSource: treeclassics.com via MilitaryAvenue.com on PinterestWe have one Camouflage Christmas Tree to give away from TreeClassics.com! I think it would be perfect for a Family Readiness Group or Military Spouse Group to display. It would be lovely in an office or in an armory. It would look splendid in a home or perhaps the home away from…
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Protecting Your Hard Earned Tuition Assistance – DoD Blogger Roundtable
Fairy tales often start like this: Once upon a time… But our military benefits are not the things of fairy tales, they are earned and deserved! Some colleges have been less than honest with our service members while taking their benefits. It only takes a few to leave a bad taste. I can personally relate as: Once upon a time, a Lieutenant signed up for an advanced degree program, drove 100 miles roundtrip for classes, spent hours studying and preparing for assignments while working a more than full time job and then received orders overseas. Two courses completed, in the bank for when the next opportunity arose several years later.…
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The Home Depot Celebration of Service 2012 – Meet a military family.
The Home Depot Celebration of Service 2012 – Meet the Purvis family! I had the pleasure of meeting the Purvis family in GrandRapids, Michigan last week, as a part of The Home Depot Celebration of Service 2012. The Home Depot provided them (that we delivered) with decorations, a corner Christmas tree, and an opportunity to meet a wonderful family. Throughout my time with the family we shared plenty of laughs and a few serious and emotional topics. Mr. Purvis has been in the Army National Guard forabout 11 years. He has been deployed 3 times,to Egypt, Iraq and Afghanistan. The family’s living room wall is covered in pictures and memories…
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More than just the winter-blues
The Holidays. They can be a very tough time of year. Not only is it getting darker and darker in our part of the hemisphere but we are missing family, friends and loved ones that are around the world. We are looking back at our year and have seen changes we may or may not like. We are looking ahead wondering what the year ahead will have in store for us. Your spouse might be deployed. Your parents might be thousands of miles away. You may be experiencing the mind-blowing effects of PTSD. Your schedule is crazy and the thought of ‘Silent Night’ is really only a song. Or it might…
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Tips to Protect Your Hard Earned Military Money! The BBB Military Line is for You.
Do not give away your hard earned military cash! You served. You or your soldier, airmen, marine, sailor or coastie served in a high threat environment to bring in the bacon and now an unethical business or person wants to take it from you. Have you ever been a victim of consumer fraud? Concerned about how to avoid becoming a victim? Many of our military community are vulnerable to consumer fraud, scams and contract issues due to their age, relocation to new and unfamiliar areas and their wide spread use of the internet according to Brenda Linnington, Director of the Better Business Bureau Military Line! Did you know that the…
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Commissary Gift Card for You
It is that time of year. When we have a hard time finding air because the schedule is so busy. Parties, kid-concerts, shopping, meal planning, travelling and so much more. It is easy to get lost in the festivities and forget to take a moment to remember the joy in the season. Start your membership today – www.sittercity.com/dod To help encourage and empower our military families SitterCity has presented us with four $50 Commissary cards to give to military-families! Wow, what a wonderful gift! To be entered for our random drawing tell us something you love about the holidays.(This one is a must in order to be entered!) To be entered again Like…
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The “Macho Spouse” at USAA Blogger Conference
Jeremy Hilton, 2012 Military Spouse of the Yearsee belowWho is the military spouse? We know many of the demographics – they are young, try to maintain a career, mostly female but as the number of female military members trend upwards, the number of male spouses does as well. Most have faced numerous deployments in the last 10 years and many have children. They are often engaged in social media like Facebook, twitter and blogging as well. When MilitaryAvenue was invited to a blogger gathering in San Antonio, with banking/insurance/investment giant USAA.com for their 3rd Annual Influencer Conference (See “Two Very Different Veteran Day Celebrations“) it sounded like an opportunity to…
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Military Friends – A Puzzle for Our Civilian Counterparts
Military friends! Sometimes our military lifestyle is a puzzle to our civilian friends and the rest of the nation. We have some opportunities that civilians normally do not receive and we also face challenges and lifestyle issues they may never see. But one thing we have that is “just to die for” is our military friends. We come together from all over the country (and in some cases the world), of all races, ethnic backgrounds, economic and educational levels, different goals and lifestyles and so much more diversity that most Americans ever have the opportunity to experience. I have to admit that this is our (my military spouse, mil brats…