Blogger of the Week: Toddler Momma

The first blogger of the week is Corrie at Toddler Momma. I met Corrie on twitter, and have enjoyed chatting with her. Stop be her blog and say hi!

1.Tell me a little about yourself and your blog.
I married my husband in March of 2006 when he was on leave from Iraq and moved to Alaska in August of that year. His brigade returned home from Iraq four months later than expected so I was in Alaska getting a "home" ready for him to come home to. Not long after he returned we found out we were expecting a baby!

Now, I'm a 25 year old SAHM on Monday through Friday and work as a police dispatcher on the weekends. I love being able to be home with Ethan full time. I also just started selling Avon to make a little extra money on the side.

My blog is geared towards Moms. I try to contact companies who have products that are great for Moms and/or their little ones so I can review them and offer giveaways/discounts on those products. "Toddler Momma" has only been up and running for about a month but I think I'm off to a great start! I can't wait to see what's to come! (Warning: When I was in college I was a Journalism major. I didn't finish my degree, but my style of writing definitely comes out in my blog posts....and by that I mean the length of my posts! I love getting back into writing though....it's my escape.)

2. As a fairly new blogger, what have been the toughest challenges for you?
Can I have 2 challenges?
#1-HTML....need I say anything else? I'm good on the computer but get a little shaky with all that HTML jazz.
#2-Trying to get the word about my blog "out there". I'm a Twitter nut....at least I think I am and some days I post, post, post links to my giveaways/blog. I think it might be working!

3. How did you decide reviews and giveaways were the right choice for you?
Well, one of my friends has been doing reviews & giveaways for quite a few months now and I entered one of her giveaways and then started entering giveaways on other Mom blogs. I loved winning stuff but knew that I would also love offering giveaways to Moms just like me!

I've had a great time contacting all the different companies. And everyone has been great to work with!

4. What's the hardest part of being a military family?
Okay....let me tell you a little about us first. (Sorry for the story but it will come together)

The whole time DH & I "dated" (if you can even call it that), he was in Alaska & I was in Maryland. That was tough! He would come home on leave for 2 weeks every 6 months. Our relationship was pretty much over the phone and I felt like we had to get to know each other all over again every time we saw each other.

Here's how our wedding was planned: he called me from Iraq at the end of January '06 and his exact words were, "I'll be home in six weeks. If you want your wedding, start planning." Thank goodness I had been looking through wedding magazines for over a year! So, I planned our wedding & we got married on March 4, '06. We went on a two day honeymoon to Williamsburg, VA so we could go to Ft. Eustis, VA and get me added to everything and he left a few days later. It was hard saying goodbye to my husband at the gate at the airport five days after we got married....quite a whirlwind.

In June I got a phone call from him early one morning and he told me that he had been driving a bus and was parked outside of a building waiting for some soldiers to come out. I guess they were taking a while because he said he decided to write me a letter but couldn't find a pen so he got down on the floor to look for one. Before he knew it there was a blast and his ears were ringing. Turns out a mortar had been fired at the bus and it fell just short of the bus but the blast was still strong enough to blow out all the windows and send shrapnel flying. The seat he had been sitting in just a few seconds ago had a piece of shrapnel through it. Can you imagine getting that phone call as a newlywed? Believe me, I know it could have been a lot worse but it still wasn't an easy call to get. The funny (for lack of better words) thing is that he hadn't written me one letter in the almost ten month he was deployed! He had a guardian angel that day.

His deployment was supposed to be a twelve month deployment so the plan was for me to move to Alaska in August, which was when he would be back. So, I bought my plane ticket, did all the paperwork for an apartment I hadn't even seen, and packed as much in two suitcases as I could. Two days before they were supposed to get on the plane to leave Iraq (and a week before I was to fly to Alaska) they were told their deployment was extended by four months and instead of staying in Mosul for the next four months, they would be taking over patrols in Baghdad.

Everyone kept trying to talk me into to staying in Maryland until he got back but we both felt it was best for us if I went up as planned and got settled in. Guess I should tell you that I had never lived anywhere but with my parents. There was no point in moving out when we got married since he was gone so I just stayed with them. Let me tell you, going from never being on your own to being on your own in Alaska was a huge jump! The only person I "knew" was another Army wife I had met on the Internet when I was planning our wedding. Thank goodness I was able to connect with her when I got there or I wouldn't have known anyone!

Okay, fast forward to now. We're back living in Maryland now. Keith works full time as a Correctional Officer and is in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.

The "difficult" now compared to the "difficult" when he was in the Army is different. I guess that's mainly because the Army isn't his full time commitment now. We really can't complain, though. Yes, we've had a lot of "hard" times because of things being uncertain with deployment time frames or wondering if the right paperwork was done so I was covered on his health insurance, but we made it through. We both agree that the things we have been through have made us stronger people and living in Alaska we were able to see things that a lot of people just dream of seeing. Don't get me wrong, we had our hard times but we made it through. I was an Army Wife and now I'm an Army National Guard Wife. We haven't been through any deployments with the NG yet so I can't say how that's going to be but I do know that it will be completely different now that we have little guy. I'm not ready to think ahead and wonder how Ethan will react if Keith's deployed. That's something we'll deal with when we get to it. Having a child is going to add another degree of difficulty to the deployment.

All in all, to make a short story even longer, we're a military family, we've had our hard times. Things have been crazy. We've lived more than a 12 hour flight from our families, but we wouldn't have it any other way.


5. What has been your favorite item to review and why?
Favorite Mommy Item: Orglamix. Cheri from Orglamix was wonderful to work with. She has an amazing product that she has created herself and she's a Mom just like us! If you haven't been to her Etsy shop yet, please check it out.

Favorite Kiddo Item: Strider Running Bike. I can't believe how quickly Ethan picked up on riding the Strider. In just a matter of minutes he was zipping around in the grass and he loves his Strider. We have to hide it from him in the apartment so he's not running over his train track and other toys!


6. What do you do in your free time?
Most recently I've left Ethan home with Keith and gone to a movie by myself. That might sound lonely to some people but it's my time to breathe. The first time I went to a movie on my own I felt kinda weird but by the end of the movie I was soooooo relaxed!

7. Any more little ones in the future?
I don't know. I'm an only child so I'm content with having one little one! Keith definitely wants at least one more but we want to make sure we're able to financially support a second child before we make that step.