I guess Ruby has the chicken pox now, too! Poor girl. I have never had them so I hope she didn't give them to me while I was there and that's why I am feeling so crappy. They say that you actually have the virus in your body and are contagious for a few weeks before you get it. I don't have any rashes or red bumps though so I think I am in the clear.

Adam and I had to buy a new keyboard the other day because I broke ANOTHER one. I type way too hard and keep breaking the keys on all of our keyboards. The first one now has a broke space bar, and my latest victim has a broken *C*. LOL. Oops!

On a good note, I am finally getting my hair cut tomorrow. It is so long that it is driving me batty. It gets caught on everything, and I am constantly pulling it because it is stuck under an arm pit or in my elbow. I can barely sleep at night cuz Adam lays on it all the time, and it is so hot that I sweat ALL THE TIME. So, I made an appointment at a real salon tomorrow to get it chopped. It's been so long since I went to a real salon instead of Great Clips. LOL. I'm not going to go super short or anything, just halfway down my back with some layers. I hope I am not posting tomorrow talking about how much I hate it.

Adam and I have to abandon dizzab.com. I absolutely LOVE the name dizzab for the site, but between his sister taking it over and using all kinds of bandwidth, and getting offered a free site by Hilary, we decided to make a new one. Now I have to think of a name for it which is going to be SO HARD. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to post them here! We are going to just give dizzab.com to Mary and tell her that when it runs out and the bill comes she will have to pay it to keep it going. It can be a birthday present for her since we never got her one. LOL.

I wrote an article for the Solo-Ops newsletter. My first ever published article. It's about themandatory fun day I was complaining about. It's nothing spectacular, but here it is if you feel so inclined to read it...

For those who think that "military intelligence" is an oxymoron, I have a new one for you. Mandatory fun. If you are an Army wife, you know what it is. It's those times when your husband's command doesn't want to be nice and just send the soldiers home when there is no work to do, so they decide to throw a "party" so that everyone can socialize to bring up morale. The purpose of it is so that the soldiers and their wives can familiarize themselves with other soldiers in the unit and their families. Let me tell ya, it isn't all that fun.

Recently I spent the day cooking for one of those mandatory fun days. No matter how hard I tried to back out of going, my husband wasn't having it, so I got up out of bed 4 hours before I normally do so that I could make a chicken enchilada casserole for the event. So there I was, up at the crack of dawn, shredding chicken, and burning the fingerprints right off of my fingers.

The moment I got the casserole done, my husband showed up at the door telling me it was time to go have some "mandatory fun". I had about 10 minutes to get dressed and do the makeup and hair so that we could rush out the door and stand around in the heat with everyone in his unit. You would think they would plan the things a bit better, but all they did was make all of the soldiers wear the same t-shirt with their PT shorts, and cooked hotdogs on one of those dirty grills that are cemented into the ground outside at places like campsites and rest areas. Needless to say, I didn't eat the dogs.

I see the point of mandatory fun. This particular one was because the whole unit was finally back home again. Half of them had been deployed, and those who weren't deployed were TDY. It had been a while since they were all together, or even all home. Since the military isn't just a job, but a way of life, they should have these kinds of activities. Something to get everyone involved, and a way for the spouses to meet the people that get to spend more time with their husbands or wives than they do. I truly appreciate the sentiment. I don't see the point of standing outside in the heat with no shade in sight when there are perfectly good, empty buildings surrounding us, but the intentions are just heart warming.

So, anyway, after standing out there just long enough to eat some of my own casserole (if you saw the food that other people brought, that is all you would have eaten, too), and open a soda, the soldiers were dismissed and sent home. We didn't get too much socializing in, but I wasn't complaining with how hot it was outside. I felt like I was cooking faster than the shriveled up dogs on the mud covered grills.

All joking aside, I think it is awesome that the Army at least makes an effort to provide family time in the workplace. Whoever said that the Army isn't family oriented never went to a "mandatory fun" day. As much as I complain about the heat, it's neat to see the military in action, and see them all as real people instead of the G. I. Joe macho stereotype that the media tends to plant in your head. It's especially good when one of the Chief Warrant Officers compliments your casserole.

Trina Alexander is a 24 year old Army wife living at Fort Lewis, WA. She was born and raised in Phoenix, AZ, and is the oldest of 7 siblings, 5 sisters and a brother. She has been married to her husband, Adam, for 13 months. Her first exposure to military life was in June of 2002, and she adapted very quickly to the lifestyle and is very proud to be a part of it.