Ann Marie at household6diva is hosting a military spouse blog hop this weekend to connect spouses from all over the world and across all services.  Feel free to join in and meet some of the most amazing military supporters on this planet.  Every one of them serves their country simply because they love and married someone who is a member of the armed forces.  We might be called “dependents,” however, we are anything but dependent!

For those of you who are hooking up through the blog hop and meeting me for the first time, I’m an Air Force spouse and have been married to my airman for almost 35 years.

This is a picture of us taken on October 1, 1977.  We were such babies…still in our late teens!  Jim was ROTC at the University of Cincinnati and neither of us had any clue what was ahead for us in the military.  Our fathers had both served but we didn’t personally know anyone who had chosen to make it a career.

This is us thirty-one years after his commissioning….and 22 moves later!  Since then we’ve raised three sons, are grandparents to two adorable grandsons and I’ve pinned nine different ranks on his shoulders.  It’s been an amazing ride and we are still on the bus, for a few more years anyway!

Along the way what has made it all worthwhile is the people.  We talk about the Air Force Family all the time for a very real reason.  When we live away from our relatives it’s the people we live and work with on our bases who truly “get” us and who support us in all those instances when our own families wish so fervently they could be there to hold us up, but who can’t because of time and distance.

This picture of Jim was taken out on the flight line last week (he’s on the far left).  I’m extremely proud of my husband and thankful that I’ve been along for this ride.  I’m proud to be a military spouse and I’m proud to stand beside all the other mil spouses that I look forward to meeting on this blog hop!