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Army Wives

Lifetime’s Smash Hit, “Army Wives” Returns for a Third Season!

Sundays at 10pm!

The critically acclaimed drama series details the lives of five women trying to stay connected to their military husbands while adapting to turbulent life on a strict US Army post.

Check out the great series on Lifetime, or catch up with the episodes online at MyLifeTime.com

Smokey Bones on Fathers Day

FREE dinner for dads at Smokey Bones
Just like Mother's day, Dad's get to eat FREE at Smokey Bones on father's day!

FREE entree for Dad at T.G.I. Friday's
buy one, get one free entree coupon that anyone can use until June 22

FREE cone at TCBY
Take Dad to TCBY for his free dessert! TCBY is providing Dads with a free ice cream cup or ice cream cone again this year. This ice cream freebie is available at participating locations, so be sure to call ahead to ensure that your local TCBY is participating in this Father's Day promotion.

Carrabba’s Italian Grill
Carrabba's Italian Grill is offering a certificate good for a free appetizer plus a chance to win a trip to Napa Valley when you enter their “Toast To Dad” contest. Offer ends 6/30/09. Click here to find a Carrabba’s near you.

Outback Steakhouse
You will pay the full price for the dinner now but get $10 off Dad’s next meal. Click here to view offer.

National Park Admission
June 20-21, 2009 (Father’s Day weekend) more than 100 national parks that usually charge entrance fees.
FREE National Park Admission list

ESPN Zones
Get a free breakfast from 9:30 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. at participating places in CA, GA, MD, IL, CO, NV, NY and DC. Reservations are required
ESPN Zones

Putting Edge
Dads play free at participating Putting Edge Fun Centers
Putting Edge

BOGO T.G.I. Friday's offer

anti-stab knife

Sometimes you wonder why no one thought of this VERY basic, but great idea before!

The first “anti-stab” knife is to go on sale in Britain, designed to work as normal in the kitchen but to be ineffective as a weapon.

The knife has a rounded edge instead of a point and will snag on clothing and skin to make it more difficult to stab someone...

(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6501720.ece)

What does universal healthcare mean to the military?

With all this talk of Universal Health care, I've been wondering for a while now, what exactly does that mean to the military? Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any studies or articles regarding the situation. Luckily I finally found a great speculation piece where Rebekah Sanderlin puts in her two cents in her FayObserver, Operation Marriage article.

For a while now I’ve been thinking about what a nationalized health care system would mean for the military community and, the truth is, I don’t have any answers, just a lot of predictions and questions.

When I was the health reporter for The Fayetteville Observer, I was definitely in favor of a nationalized health care systen. I argued many times that, because uninsured people get treatment for basic ailments via costly hospital emergency rooms and then often do not pay those bills and hospitals write off the losses, we already had a nationalized health care system. So it made sense to me that we should just organize it better.

But lately I’ve been thinking more about what it will mean to me as a military wife if the whole country has access to the same health care that we in the military community have. For starters, the access to and quality of health care for military dependents would almost certainly drop. The best thing about Tricare now is that it’s there and we don’t have a co-pay.

In exchange for that accessibility and affordability, we already have a hard time getting appointments for certain services. When my son was enrolled at Clark Clinic on-post I had to lie several times just to get him seen by a doctor. When I tried to make an appointment for a child I was often told that there were no appointments available and that the schedule for the next month had not yet been made. I was told to call back at a certain time on a certain day when the new schedule would be up to make an appointment. But when I tried to do that I would be on hold for an hour or more because everyone else was calling for an appointment then, too.

So I just started making appointments for myself with a family doctor and then playing dumb when I arrived and saying that someone must have messed up and made the appointment for me instead of for my son. Since we were already there and already had an appointment slot, the doctors were always willing to see my son. Nowadays he and I both go to civilian providers off-post. We pay a little out of pocket but have no trouble being seen.

However, a lot of civilian doctors choose to not accept Tricare, Medicare or Medicaid because these government payor plans reimburse the doctors at a lower rate. Doctors don’t even break even on some services with what they receive from the government payors. Throw a couple of hundred million more people into the system and you’ll find fewer people wanting to be doctors, more “boutique” doctors who choose to treat only people who pay in cash and an even more overburdened health care system. It will take longer to get an appointment and the doctors available to the masses will likely be those who didn’t finish in the top half of their medical school classes.

When I had a miscarriage almost two years ago it took eight months for me to get an appointment with an OB/GYN on-post so that I could find out why I had lost the baby. My baby was already dead and I wasn’t pregnant anymore, so I wasn’t a priority. By the time I was seen there was no way a doctor could have determined why I miscarried. Fortunately, I was able to get pregnant again. Now imagine that same scenario in a health care system that is even more crowded and less profitable for providers. It’s a scary thought.

A nationalized system would definitely help the millions of Americans who cannot afford any type of health care, so I feel a little guilty and greedy for arguing against it. And it is obvious that the country’s current system of employer-based insurance is broken and needs to be fixed.

But when I reported on healthcare, I interviewed a lot of people who entered military service, re-enlisted or returned after getting out because someone in their family had significant health problems and needed the insurance to pay for often costly and frequent services. If there was a national health care system that provided the same access and quality of care available to members of the military, there would be no incentive for many of the people in the military now to stay in or for future service members to choose to have a military career. Enlistments would almost certainly fall during this precarious time for national security. We would be more vulnerable to terrorist attacks and the government would have to find another way to entice people into military service or would have to re-instate the draft. A column in the New York Times in June addressed this issue at length.

Finally, nationalized health care just seems kind of unfair to me, personally. My husband and I have made a lot of sacrifices for this country and one of the ways we have been compensated for all that we’ve given is with the promise of available and affordable health care. If the same system is made available to all the people in the country, people who have not made these same sacrifices, then I think the government should provide some other form of compensation to troops to make up for the difference. Replacing our current health care system with one that would most likely be of poorer quality would essentially be an enormous pay cut to service members during a time of unprecedented demands being made on troops and their families.

In the military community we are often reminded that, though there is a significant gap between what service members are paid and what they would earn in the civilian world, the shortfall is made up for with all of the other benefits we receive. The most significant of these benefits is health care. No one is going to sign up for or stay in the military just so they can shop at the PX and the Commissary and patriotism will only take us so far for so long.

Some sort of new system for the uninsured is necessary. Maybe we just need to expand the parameters of Medicaid so that more people are covered. I’m not an expert on Medicaid, so I don’t know. But allowing everyone in the U.S. access to the same system now available to military families would almost certainly be more costly to the country, both in terms of dollars spent and security lost.

Free Coffee

Free 12-oz. beverage from Seattle’s Best Coffee from Borders Book store
http://www.bordersmedia.com/coup/erewardssbc0612.asp

Flock of Birds

I am soooo sick of all this John and Kate hoopla... I was never a fan of the show, Kate's cold, overbearing ways were always just such a turn off to me. But especially after all these allegations are coming out, and she's standing there acting like the victom who was cheated on... I'm not buying it. I believe the family's claims that she kicked John out and they have been seperated for a while... What elsse do you expect him to do... The wife leaves him, so obvisouly he's going to be seen out with a girlfriend.


Anywayz, the more and more I see of this whole fiasico, the more and more it just gets under my skin. Everything about Kate bother's me any more... Especially her hair. I men seriously, if anyone else dared to chop the back of the crown like they got caught in a low hanging ceiling fan, but left the front in an asymmetrical bob, they would be laughed at and mocked shamelessly. Oh but when this mom of 8 does it, oh it's the latest trend. OMG, I am soooo tired of seeing moms walk around with this hair don't.

Free Family Film Festival

REG’s Free Family Film Festival is Now Showing!

When school’s out, kids around the country visit selected Regal theaters for the Free Family Film Festival. It’s a fun-filled nine weeks of movies for kids and parents. Since 1991, Regal has provided this service to the community, and best of all it’s FREE! Selected G & PG movies start at 10AM each Tuesday and Wednesday during the festival. First-come, first-served seating is limited to theater capacity. The Free Family Film Festival is safe, lots of fun and a great way for kids to spend a weekday morning in the summer. Tickets for our 2009 Free Family Film Festival are exclusively available at select theaters’ box office on the day of the show.

Melt my Heart

OMG! My mouth is watering just looking at this picture! This pic is curtsy of Peabody. Unfortunately they didn't post the recipe.

Free entry into National Parks

The National Park Service will allow visitors free entry during three weekends this summer to encourage Americans to visit national parks such as the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Rocky Mountain National Park. The fee waivers -- one each month in June, July and August -- will apply to all 391 national parks across the country, from Alaska to Florida.

The 10 parks in Virginia affected by this morning's announcement are Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, National Memorial, Assateague Island National Seashore, Colonial National Historical Park, George Washington Birthplace National Monument, George Washington Memorial Parkway's Great Falls Park, Manassas National Battlefield Park, Petersburg National Battlefield, Prince William Forest Park and Shenandoah National Park.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the free weekends should help American families struggling with the recession afford a memorable vacation.

All 147 Park Service sites that charge fees for entry will waive entrance fees from June 20-21, July 18-19 and August 15-16, Salazar said.

Entry fees being waived range from $3 to $25. That does not apply to fees charged for camping, reservations, tours or concessions.

Twitter

I gave in and finally created a Twitter account.

http://twitter.com/WifeMomBlogger

Add me if you really care what I do every day... That's saying, if I can remember to update the account.

Summer Fun: Donut party game!

It's the classic donuts party game! Throwing a party and not sure what to do? Have a room full of active kids and about to lose your marbles? Is it super hot out and you have some stale donuts on hand? Why not tie them up? I remember my mom doing this game for all of my sister and I's birthday parties growing up.

What you need:
* donuts
* string
* scissors to cut string
* a place to hang your donuts, a tree would be nifty
* blindfold (for older kids)
* a camera...pictures are a must!

Tie a length of string around each donuts. The length depends on the height of your kids and the height of the hanging location. Assemble all your donuts into a bowl for easier transport. Hang them up and let your kids at 'em! You can trun this into a piñata game by suing a blindfold and spinning your wee ones around or you can hold a contest to see who can finish one first, no hands allowed!

John & Kate + 8

They're on the cover of nearly all the tabloids this week!

America just can't get enough!

Praying For Avery

I just wanted to highlight this blog I've been following, Keeping Up With The Keirseys. The Keirsey's had their daughter diagnosed with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia at their 20 week ultrasound and the blog chronically their day to day struggles with their now week old baby.

Old Navy

Military Appreciation Day
at Old Navy!

10% off your order the 1st day of every month!

Special Day for Special Kids

The USO of Hampton Roads and Kings Dominion will host the annual “USO-Kings Dominion Day” for special needs children on June 19, 2009.

Each year families from the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Navy, and Marines with children who have severe medical conditions (terminally ill, chronically ill, life threatening, or wheel chair bound) are provided free park admission, a group picnic, and special medical services at the park.

The program is designed to provide a respite for the families who due to cost, time, and mostly medical reasons are unable to visit recreation and theme parks. USOHR, Kings Dominion, and the Joint Services EFMP Committee make it possible for them to enjoy a family day together.

This event began over 15 years ago. Each year 20 to 25 families from each branch of the service bring their special needs child for a day they will always remember.

To see if you qualify for this wonderful event call your EFMP Coordinator.

For more information on this program call Eva Granville at 757-289-5917 or email: eva@usohr.org

Please click here for fax / email registration form.

To fill out application online click here.