Back and Blogging for Me

Man this feels so weird to be back writing on this blog. Like one of those old journal you dust off and find that it's unfinished. That always drove me nuts (I'm OCD like that).

Well for those that follow my Instgram (@chucksandcharlies) you may already know about what a crazy year I've had. Now for those who don't follow me, it's been a freaking year. Like of all years, this was the one that contained the most insanity as well as fun. It was also all the craziness that happened which ultimately pulled me away from blogging. Family first, hobbies second as they say. Or do they? Well they should.

We are no longer residing in California (my home state). I spent six months fixing up our first house and putting it on the market. I had a baby, little Mr. #3 arrived happy and healthy. I flew out alone and bought a new house practically by myself. After a year long deployment, my husband finally came home from Japan. We packed up all the kids and dogs this summer, trekked the entire United States (with many interesting and fun stops on the way), and ended up in our new home on the East Coast. Now I am a stranger in a new state and looking for new fun things to do with the kids. I am dealing with my first actual winter (you don't know cold until you've been in  THE COLD). My oldest started her new school and we are soon preparing for her sister to join her. Then I will only have our new little guy home with me and may actually have time for more projects that I've been dying to do, like finally blogging again more regularly.

"Duck on a Rock" lookout point.



Our stop in South Dakota at Mt. Rushmore. Those stairs, were killer but we did the whole walk with the kids. It was totally worth it.

Now as for blogging, in the beginning it was quite the experience. Needless to say I learned a lot in my first attempts. I read every book, article, and even reached out to some of my favorite bloggers. Some were amazingly helpful and some gave me the cookie cutter answers. All in all it lead me to this conclusion, if I wanted people to follow and become a popular blog, I needed to invest a ton of time and possibly money. Well, sorry people, I am not Rockefeller and my time is even more valuable to me and my family has first dibs.

One thing I am not going to do this time around on the blog is worry about followers. If you like me and want to read about me, awesome. I more than welcome you here. For those who unfollow, I totally understand, this isn't your type of party.This is my venting place. I am here only for two reasons, 1. I'm a stay at home Mom and my adult interaction is almost null unless I drag my kids somewhere or my neighbors come by to hang for a while. 2. Being a military wife is sometimes great and sometimes not. If the ship is going down that day, I need somewhere to unload. Unfortunately the .308 is not allowed for stress relieving in our backyard. Just kidding....maybe not *waves hands in gesture of mystery*. Either way I want to say thank you to you all for reading along and allowing me to share.

Hope everyone has a great day! Hopefully you'll be hearing from me again soon.

Welcome to the new Chucks & Charlies!

Attention! Now listen up here my internet lovelies, things around here are gonna change. Nope, check that, they have changed!

A few months back I had an idea about getting this whole blog in order, and with the creative genius of Lauren from The Perfect Pair Designs, that idea became a reality this week.

So you may ask, why would I change the blog?

Well honestly, the old blog wasn't really me. I was testing the waters of this crazy world they call blogging. I had played around with it and am still learning, but, as they say, it's better to keep moving forward. Little steps eventually lead to BIG changes in the long run. And let me tell you I know a thing or two about changes...I'm a military spouse.

That's another reason I changed the blog. I wanted to openly share some aspects of how the military effects our family, especially for some of those out there who are in a position like I was. When first coming into the military life nine years ago, I had no clue about anything. I hadn't known anyone in my peer group who had been a part of any branch except my Dad. However, my Dad was a military brat and my grandfather (former Army) passed when he was 12, so even that source was way out of date to what was going on in today's military forces. It's more than just difficult because of losing the one you love to deployments, training, and other orders that come up. It's also extremely hard to find friends.

Now before I get the have you tried this and tried that speech, trust me, I have. I tried talking to girlfriends of enlisted guys, wives chats, living on base, joining battalion meetings, family events, and etc, etc., but to be honest, it's just simply difficult to find people even in the military network.

People move, change ranks, relationships fall apart, and sometimes there are the few that aren't in this type of lifestyle for the right reasons. So when it comes to making friends, you better be a pretty independent person because it can be tough to keep friends, let alone make them. Luckily with blogging it's been a lot easier meeting and keeping in touch with people. Not to mention the amount of people out there doing it is immense!

Now to be honest, it took some convincing to even start blogging in the beginning. After some pushing from a few friends and some family, I finally gave it a shot. And to be honest, I'm really glad now that I took that leap. Now it's time to make the leap worth the while and start reaching out more.

As my husband is also preparing a trip overseas I will be taking the kids on the road back and forth, from here to there. I will also be vlogging so when I just don't have the excess energy to write, you all can still see what we are up to.

Also, I have a baby on the way, which should make this craziness even more interesting. AND....don't worry, no birthing videos will be posted...I may be a T.M.I. offender but I'm not that bad.

I hope you all enjoy the new improved blog and thank you all who have shown me such great support already. I look forward to meeting many more of you out there!

Until next time...