My letter to Oprah

Re: advise to military familys. My letter was to long to send in, so I am posting it here. I worked hard on it! :)





I am an army wife, our family has been in the army for almost 10 years now. We have lived in Germany for 8 years now, and enjoy it very much. Although we love it now, we had a very hard time adjusting.

We first moved to Germany in 2002, my husband was deployed in 2003. I was left alone in a foreign country to fend for myself and our two very infant daughters. This was the hardest time I have ever endured in my short life.

Many people move overseas not knowing what to expect. Hearing stories other people tell them, or misconceptions they hear through internet, friends, tv, ect. I know when I moved to Germany I thought about bratwurst, beer and horrible Nazi storys. I can tell people from experience its nothing like that...well maybe the beer part!

The best advise I could give to someone is that the army is one very large family. There are some family members you don't get along with, some you like more than others. We all share on common goal, protecting Americas freedom and standing behind our soldiers. I remember when I first came here and had to go to the hospital for an emergency and had no one that I really trusted, I had only been here for 3 months. My neighbors stepped up and took our two small children in and watched them like their own. Family is not just blood, its what you make it.

My other best advise is taking advantage of the places you will be stationed. I know people that have been in Germany for 6 years and never been to any other countries, barely stepping foot off the base. I drag my family out every chance I get to explore new things, how often will we have this chance again? My oldest child was two years old when we got here, she will be 10 years old this year. She has been to 10 countries! We scrimp and save to go on road trips, but we are making memories that will last forever.

Some of the best people Ive ever met where in my army family. Now they come and go all the time, sometimes you meet a few that you don't agree with, that's what makes us all different I guess.

Keeping in contact with family is important also. I try to call my family once a week. I have not seen my mother in three years. She is unemployed and cannot afford to come here, so we take pictures of our house and give her a virtual tour of things. We don't celebrate birthdays together with aunts and uncles. We see family and feel so sad that the time goes by and we don't see the little ones grow. We feel strange around family when we come home because we cannot afford to come home more than every two to three years. We try to stay close. We miss grandma babysitting, or grandmas cookies. They miss important events like the first day of kindergaden. We sacrifice these things and a lot of American don't realize.

We make home wherever we are. We make family wherever we are. Home is where the Army takes us. We also get culture shock when we go home :)

Thanks for recognizing the military and the family's who keep them going.

Sarah Richardson
Proud US Army wife to SGT. John M Richardson
Go Army HOOAH!!!

Another day around the Richardson house. We have been outside playing and talking to the neighbors.We have planned our route to Spain this June. We are all looking forward to a much needed vacation! Zoey and I went to Spain when John was in Iraq. Emmy was to little to bring. I think Zoey was around 3 1/2-4 when we went and she still remembers a few things about Spain. We went on a bus trip with our neighbors and we all had kids the same age. I remember it was a very long bus ride! It seemed like forever getting there and back. We only stayed three nights in a hotel. Zoey and I went to a midevil show and after that we watched a flamenco show :) That was a lot of fun! I will never forget when my neighbor Shawna and I snuck out after the kids were asleep to the lobby area where there was a bar and they had a guy playing karaoke on a keyboard. I was sippin on something fruity at the bar and there was like 5 people there including the bartender and the guy playing the music.....My friend Shawna got down! She jumped
up there and started singing "Thriller" she knew all the words and even did the dance!!! I laughed so hard I think I almost cried!!! That was my favorite memory of spain. Well worth the 15+hours in a crappy slow bus! I also remember it was super hot and the ocean was beautiful. We all ran down to the water to cool off and it was like icewater cold... so cold it gave you like a ice cream headache! I think I can still feel it somedays............

I also remember almost dying trying to get up this mountain to see a rather famous monastery called Monserate I think that's how you spell it. The roads just went up and up and up and up. It was windy and I swear the bus driver had to push his mirrors in to pass the other tour buses! I had to just breath and look away at that point... And when we finally got to the top I was like "THIS IS IT" I risked my life to see a statue of Madonna that turned black mysteriously....
what the heck...... :) I will tell you we wont be going to see that this time around.

I am looking forward to spending two weeks in a warm sunshiny country :) I know it will be super hot some days and I get super crabby when I am hot...Ill just have to breath and shake it off.... and remember that this will be the most sun my body will see until I either return or a miracle happens and we actually get a summer in Germany this year.

Most summers here it gets up to like 95 which is plenty hot for me. Those are the days we put the TV in the basement close all the windows, and go out and play at like 8pm when its bearable. I know it sure felt good to have a lil sun today. It got up to 65 today I think, which is really warm for April 1st!!!!

In July we are having our niece come to visit us. I am super stoked to show her around :) Her and I get along real well. I have know her since she was 5 years old. She will be having her sweet 16th here. John and I want to take her to the Eiffel tower or somewhere special on that day. How many kids can say that :) John will be working most the days so we will do longer trips on the weekends and such. I will be taking her and the girls to do day trips while dad is at work.

In august we are going home!!! The girls have not seen there grandmas in 3 years!!! It is long overdue! We got free plane tickets for John re-enlisting. We are not rich, just Richardsons...baa dummpp dummp :) Errrr........ So we are planning on coming home as long as we can. We originally wanted to come home for the 4th, but they are not doing the fireworks this years:(
So we are going to the Clark County Fair. I have not been to the fair for probably 8 years! I remember putting the girls in the cutest baby contest :) Emmy was 4 months old. She will be 8 this month.....Jeshhhh!

I think I wrote enough for today :) Ive been trying to pass time and ended up writing a novel. Whatever, its my blog and ill
blog if I want to right?

CIAO BELLA ;)

Oh let the sun shine though!

We have had the most beautiful weather the last 2 days. We are due for a whole week of sun, I am so grateful! I have been outside all day shopping, driving, sunbathing :) I almost forgot how good the sunshine feels on my shoulders:) Ahhhhhhhhh.....................

Pics and forgotten stuff

John is not going to BNOC untill April 6th. So that is good news to me. He was suppose to leave this last Sat. and got the news on Friday. And now, some pictures :)


John and the boy making cake cakes :) Isaac ate 6!
John dancing at the BBQ :)

Updates and Ect....

Well, my thyroid is outta whack again. I have had it checked twice in three weeks. The first time I went to the Dr. in Feb. for heartburn. He gave me some meds, and I had my thyroid checked just in case..... well it turned out my thyroid was over 100, with 20-30 being normal. So I continued with my thyroid meds and went in a week ago for headaches. The Dr. had me do my thyroid again. It was 0.3? Which she had not seen it go from sooo high to so low in her carear. So now I am taking half a pill and going back in three weeks to see if it is around normal this time. I also got refered to a different Dr. to get my back checked on. She was real good to :) And I was lucky enough to get in to her the next day after seeing the Dr. for my headaches. I am feeling loads better now. The third Dr. I saw gave me muscle relaxers and some Naproxin, for inflammation. Boy, those muscle relaxers are no joke. After drooling on myself, and getting like 20hrs of sleep. I am rested and relaxed and felling a lot better. I am trying to take it easy and not lift stuff, and stretch out and relax a little more. Which is no easy task :)

Last night we had some friends over, mostly our German neighbors. They are a lot of fun and love to come over and mingle with us Americans :) John taught the guys to play Texas hold em' and I sat upstairs and fed people get this......German Chocolate cake :) It was our first BBQ of the season, and many more to come I am sure!!

Now I am off to find an adventure to do.......and take my camera out and find something to take pictures of. Any suggestions?

Bored or Boring...

Ive taken a liking to reading blogs. I have this wonderful program called stumbleupon that takes me to a random website and I love it. I believe I stumbled on this program to start a blog. I have a few that I follow, and a few that I keep an eye on.

Been busy this last 2 weeks, no blogs to busy to type...well sort of. I am trying to sqeeze in all my time with my husband, he is going to Alabama for 2 months to do his schooling for his E-6 rank. He is also taking a super intense math class on every other weekend. He is doing great at it and is finished now. In fact, his last day I "broke into" his car and placed a case of beer on his seat. He was shoked and admitted to me later that when his test was over he really just wanted a beer :) He also has been taking the a class to be his units internet guy. He was basicly typing e-mails to me all day and surfing the net and still managed to get a 80% on his test!?! Who does that? I swear he could pass any test. Thats why I am so gald that he is doing his college classes. All to make a better life for our family. I love him more for that :)

Zoey has found a new friend is class, she has stayed the night a few times at there house and she has been here. I took her to her friends house the other day and realized the "mom taxi" has just started! Ugh..... She is also becoming a tween. She is developing more and more everyday, and her attitude is about three years ahead of her. I hope she stays sweet for just a little longer. I think I jsut heard a grey hair comeout....is that possible?

Emmy is still busy and bold as always. The girls loves to buy work books with her money, the kind you buy specific for their grade level. It tickles me, Zoey wants make-up or earrings. Emmy always buys workbooks or books, oh and especially writing tablets. She loves to fill up the pages with whatever spills out of her brain. She is very creative and art is definatly her output. She still has her "emotional outbursts" I am trying to comfort her more when she is frustrated, which is a big step as she does not liked to be touched very much. We are still waiting for her results from her school. We have a pretty good idea that she has some kind of learning disablility, I am waiting on pins and needles for it. The school told me March 15th, so I am waiting by the phone.

Isaac is such a bold boy! He is always running or flying or carrying some kind of truck or toy. he is sitting next to me now with his Thomas trains in his hands. His new thing is going to the park. He is now big enough I can let him out with sisters and they watch him pretty good. There is a 2-3 inch deep creek that they love to"fish" in. I tell them to stay out but they never listen. Last week, Isaac had about thirty little bumbs removed from his legs. He has had this rash called Mollescum for about a year. It drove me crazy! Finally his doc sent me to a specialist and they were very nice to him! His ingenius mother finally got him to put on his lotions by buying a clear bottle and putting Thomas stickers on it. I also get him to eat carrots by putting stickers on some tupperware and telling him they are Thomas carrots :) Hook, line and sinker :) Go Mom!

I have been so busy I never take time out for myself. I have finally made a Dr. appt for tommorrow to go and see why I am getting headaches EVERY day! They are not super intense, but enough to make me want to take a pill (which I hate pills). I am sitting in the dark right now at 2pm because I am stubborn and dont want to take a tylenol again. I have been driving my husband crazy lately, he is always telling me to go to the Dr. and get "fixed up". I have been having back pain also, like the headaches not enought to want to take a pill most days, but enough to make me wanna lay and sleep all day. I am ganna have that looked into also. I fell like I am much older on the inside. I am 28 on a perscription heartburn pill?!? MY dr. says I need to manage my stress better and maybe take another d**m pill. I hate pills! Half the time I dont take my Thyroid pill and I know I need to. I just hate putting anything in my body. I have been religiously taking my thyroid now and Im not sure but I think that where my headaches came from......its a vicious circle I tell ya. I really miss having a regular Dr., someone who recognizes your face and can remember a little something about your med. history without a computer in there office!

Funny storie, well a little funny.... Last night the cat was being wierd, franticly trying to get into the fish stuff we keep under the tank. Well john put a pillow in front of it. I was thinking he was trying to get into the fishflakes that sometimes fall on the floor. Come to find out, this morning John pulled out a dried up sucker fish from his mouth and that what he was trying to get! I guess sometime last night the sucky fish jumped out the tank somehow, landing behind the tank. And people wonder where those wierd smells come from in there house. I am glad to have a cat somedays :)

Last week our plasma went out, for the second time. Word to the wise...never by a toshiba! Or a plasma for that matter. Now I am watching the girls t.v. with a portable dvd player....oh the irony! We have a DVD player, but the wire are to short to reach the t.v. and I love the portable more anyways. What happend to the old giant t.v. that lasted a 110 years? They just dont make em like they used to!

Long Blog, sorry lots to write about.

This past sunday we cleaned out our garage. It was funny because it was finally nice outside and you could sure tell because all the Germans were outside in their yard and garages cleaning out all the dead stuff and tidying up for spring. John and I just laughed, it was like little ferrets popping outta there holes for summer :) We definalty need sun here!

I think thats my news for now, waiting for the girls to get home.
Sarah

Ill post some new pics soon :)

Sickness.....

Ugh, today the whole family is sick....cough cough.... I am sitting here hot as heck, and having to take care of the crew. Dad is being a good help however. He is home today also, he caught our bug. Our neighbors are sick. A lot of our friends are sick, its just everywhere! So we chose to barricade the door and fight it out! I think the girls are getting better, Isaac still has a fever.

This last weekend I got to go out and let my hair down. John surprised me with a babysitter and we were invited to got out to dinner with a bunch of the barrack boys and a few married couples. Two of them turned 21 which made me feel very old! John was my DD and everyone elses so I got to drink with the boys which I must say I surprised myself. Sips off stuff and 7-8 shots of Jag later I was feeling no pain. I had a lot of fun being with the younger "kids" and not being a mom for a little while :) made it home and slept like a baby. I woke up a little slow but not to bad. Now that I think of it I was probably starting to get sick that morning.

I hope this sickness goes away, I am hot and sick of coughing!

Yesterday I got news of another death in our family. My brother in laws uncle died at 49 of a heart attack. Uncle bob was a blast to be around and even more fun to camp with. I feel for his family and for my brother shawn. We all have had such a bad year, I only hope it gets better. Rest in peace bob, save me a camping spot in the sky :)


This recent loss of people makes you realize that life is short sometimes. It makes you wonder what an impact people make on you, and the impact you make on others. I came to a conclusion that I DO NOT want to smoke in my 30's. I dont think anyone ever plans on being a smoker when they grow up. No one plans on being out of shape, overweight ect. Life happens, and then life stops sometimes. I love my life most of the time, and I want to see my babys grow up. I want to live to be 92 like my Great Grandma Pearl. I guess the key is wanting to live that long, and I guess being stubborn helps to :)

Thats my news for now, Sarah