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Blue Star Voices Blogs

Here are the latest entries from all our blogs. Scroll down to read them, or select one these links on the sidebar for the community you're most interested in.

And the winner is.....! | Post date: 07/15/2010 - 23:18

Thank you to all the wonderful military bloggers who entered our contest for a conference pass to BlogHer 2010.

It was a difficult decision, but our panel of judges selected Jacqueline Goodrich of Ask the Milies and ACU's, Stiletto Shoes, and Pretty Pink Tutus!

Jacqueline will be joining Blue Star Families at BlogHer 2010 in New York City next month!

Here's an excerpt from Jacqueline's winning entry:

The Red, White, and Blue Elephant

I didn’t invite the military to my wedding, but it came anyway. The decision to get married before Iraq had been a sudden one. I had less than two months to pull together my “dream” wedding. I used the word “dream” loosely because is it ever a bride’s dream to watch her groom walk away from her with an M249 strapped across his shoulder after one week of marriage? One good thing and bad thing about having so little time to plan was that once a decision was made, that was it. No last minute changes. Everything was last minute. I told my soldier that it was up to him whether or not we had an official military wedding. He declined because “The military is going to run our lives for the next twenty years. I want our wedding to be just for us.”

So that was that. The military wasn’t invited. But on Christmas Eve 2005 two 19 year-olds exchanged vows with a big red, white and blue elephant in the room. It was there on the solemn faces of our friends and family—some of which had begged me to post-pone the wedding so I “wouldn’t risk being a young widow.” It was in the quickening of my teenage pulse as the Pastor said the words “as long as you both shall live.” And it reared its ugly head as we made special pinky-swears to each other. We said things like “I promise I’ll come home in a year.” And “I’ll be waiting for you to return.”

Last month we went to a friend’s wedding and on the way home I confessed some things to my husband. I told him that I hate weddings now because it reminds me of my regrets from our own nuptials. Of course I’ll never regret the who or the when of our marriage, but I have regretted the how.

Read More....

Congratulations to Jacqueline and thank you to all of the bloggers who entered.

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Army Wives Cast Meets Real Military Families for Blue Star Museums Event | Post date: 07/15/2010 - 20:19

by Julie Pippert

Photo from L to R: Terry Serpico, Lisa Ripa, Thomas Ripa, Caroline Ripa, Garrett Hoppin, Sue Hoppin, Brian McNamara (Scott Henderson, Lowcountry Photography)

On July 9, 2010 in Charleston, South Carolina, cast members from Army Wives met real life military wives at the Gibbes Museum of Art for a special Blue Star Museums event.

Blue Star Museums is a partnership between Blue Star Families and the National Endowment for the Arts to provide free admission to over 850 participating museums nationwide to active duty military and their families.

"The greatest honor I've gotten from this show in four years is the handful of times I've gotten to pay back to the military and their families. This is one of those instances where the NEA and Blue Star Families have taken that step...and we, of course, consider it a great honor," said Brian McNamara, who plays Major General Michael Holden on Army Wives.

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BSF Guests of San Diego Foundation for Fun Symphony Summer Event | Post date: 07/14/2010 - 11:46

What a great night last night! Blue Star Families was fortunate to be the guests of the San Diego Foundation for the San Diego Symphony Summer Pops Concert featuring The Flying Karamazov Brothers. Several local Blue Star Families were able to take advantage of this great opportunity. Special thanks to Audrey Geisel for covering the financial cost of our tickets.

The evening started with a buffet dinner catered by Wolfgang Puck. During dinner members of a local circus were walking around entertaining the children. In the presentation, the San Diego Foundation mentioned Blue Star Museums and Blue Star Families and recognized our service. The military families were asked to stand to be thanked. The concert was fantastic! And the venue had an amazing view of downtown San Diego and the harbor. During the concert, dessert and hot beverages were provided. The Flying Karamazov Brothers were extremely entertaining and very funny! If you have never had the opportunity to see them - I highly recommend it! The evening ended with wonderful fireworks in the harbor.

Thanks San Diego Foundation! We needed that!

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Don't Touch ANYTHING! A Morning at the Chrysler Museum of Art | Post date: 07/12/2010 - 23:39

by Michelle Galvez

Before entering the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Va. Thursday, my kids were strenuously warned to use their inside voices, walking feet and look with their eyes, but not with their hands. I truly enjoy introducing my children to art and culture but I was a bit nervous about the potential for too-up close and personal interaction between them and the priceless and breakable masterpieces inside. I needn’t have worried because between the red, white and blue cupcakes and jobs as museum detectives, my kids were engaged and behaved.

The occasion was the local Hampton Roads celebration of the Blue Star Museums program with more than 850 museums across America offering free admission to military personnel and their families this summer as a Blue Star Families initiative between the National Endowment for the Arts and participating museums. Thursday’s event included comments by U.S. Senator Mark Warner, Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim, and Rear Admiral Mark Boensel, Commander Navy Region Mid-Atlantic.

They welcomed the military families in the audience by talking about their appreciation for the sacrifices made by military members and the need for communities to support their families through programs like Blue Star Museums. Boensel said how important these initiatives are not just for families but for overall mission readiness of the military. “When our service members can do their jobs because the community is taking care of our families then readiness stays up,” he said.

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The Upside of Deployment | Post date: 07/08/2010 - 18:50

by Wife on the Roller Coaster

Deployments get a bum rap. Military spouses, including myself, share endless stories of loneliness, exhaustion, sadness, and that evil Murphy’s Law that shoulders the blame for leaky faucets and flat tires. I’m not saying that deployments aren’t tough on the loved ones left behind. The word tough doesn’t come close to justifying the challenges we face. However, I’d like to take a moment to wax optimistic because I know that buried beneath the surface of those struggles hides a treasure of virtues. And when we take the time to recognize them, it may make some of those not-so-positive aspects a little more bearable.

As Commander in Chief of my household, I take pride in the manner in which I maintain it. Granted, I’m not the world’s most proficient housekeeper, but I have a system. That system works for me. It doesn’t quite work for my husband. When I plan my weekly grocery list, I spread my recipes across the coffee table. When I need reminders to tackle important tasks, I stick Post-It notes in random locations. And my desk? It’s covered with rough drafts, magazines, newspaper clippings, and yes, Post-It notes. To me, this is a system of organization. To my husband, this is clutter. But with Mr. Anti-Clutter gone, I can freely scatter my system wherever I choose.

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Visits to Georgia museums a boon to military families | Post date: 07/08/2010 - 03:00

by Vivian Greentree

My husband recently returned from a yearlong deployment. He volunteered for an assignment in Iraq, so he traded in his Navy flight suit for some Army ACUs and has spent the last year on the ground instead of in a plane. We are enjoying the reintegration process, spending time with each other and have probably over-planned excursions this summer to make up for lost time.

After all, he’s missed a lot in the past year — big milestones and small. He missed seeing our older son learn to ride his bike and the confidence he exuded as he pedaled himself right out of my protective grasp. He missed potty training our younger son (well, maybe he didn’t mind that one so much) and our house’s first tooth fairy visit. He wasn’t there for field trips, birthdays, earaches or picnics at the park behind our house.

He also missed a very awkward discussion with a sports equipment store representative about the proper use and placement of a “cup” in preparation for T-ball season. That is one rite of passage I don’t think myself, MJ, or the sales representative will ever forget though!

But this summer, one thing he won’t miss is the enthusiastic looks on our children’s faces as they explore the incredible worlds of art, history, culture, and science through a new initiative between Blue Star Families and the National Endowment for the Arts. This initiative, Blue Star Museums, is a pilot program in which participating museums across the country will open their doors for free to military families from Memorial Day until Labor Day of this year.

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A Day with My Military Family, Portsmouth Lightship Museum, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum | Post date: 07/06/2010 - 03:00

by Heather Faulkner

Another weekend was approaching. The weather was too stifling for outdoor activities, and we were already waterlogged from trips to the pool during the week. My kids proclaimed that their mountains of toys were boring, and the television was running almost as frequently as our air conditioner. I needed to plan a family outing. However, with my husband away on travel, just the thought of taking my two energetic young children out in public by myself exhausted me. But thanks to Blue Star Families and the National Endowment for the Arts, I had the opportunity to plan an excursion with a different kind of family: my military family.

My best friend is a military spouse as well. Our children are the same ages, and our husbands were both MIA for the weekend. So we packed up the kids and caravanned to Portsmouth, Virginia to visit the Lightship Museum and the Naval Shipyard Museum, both participants in the Blue Star Museums program offering military families free admission throughout the summer.

The moms juggled cameras as the kids explored the inside of the Lightship PORSTMOUTH. We watched as they asked the tour guide questions and then wandered off before hearing the answers because they had discovered something else that was “really cool.” Whether they were envisioning themselves sleeping in the cramped sleeping quarters, shining a flashlight up to the top of the hollow mast, or designing their own lightship at the table with coloring sheets, the kids’ imaginations were running wild.

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Kids Art Contest: Blue Star Museums | Post date: 07/01/2010 - 01:00
Has your military family visited a Blue Star Museum?

We’d like to hear from your kids about their experience!

Let's celebrate art as a thank you to the National Endowment for the Arts and the more than 800 museums participating in the Blue Star Museums program. They've given military families the gift of art, now let's show them how much that means to us.

Enter our contest and send us artwork about your visit to a Blue Star Museum or artwork that is inspired by the Blue Star Museum program – winners receive a $500, $250 or $100 savings bond!

The contest is open to military children ages 3 to 17. What is a military child? Any child who has a parent or sibling (including step-parents and siblings) serving on active duty, in the reserves or in the National Guard.

Here's How to Enter:
1. Become a member of Blue Star Families at www.BlueStarFam.org.
2. Email us your child's artwork with short description/story of your experience to museums@bluestarfam.org.
  - Include your name, email and phone number, as well as your child's name and age
  - PDF and JPG files accepted, the higher the resolution the better.
3. Have your child's entry to us no later than 11:59pm EST on September 12, 2010.
What to Enter:
1. Draw a picture or send a photo from your visit to the museum or inspired by the Blue Star Museum program.
2. Include a short description of your visit (e.g., what you did, what part you liked best, etc.) and why you are glad you got to go. (Parents may help little ones with writing.) Make sure to include which museum you visited and the date you were there.
3. Incorporate a blue star, like the Blue Star Museums blue star, into your drawing in any way you’d like.
Questions: Email questions to museums@bluestarfam.org. Tip: If you add "CONTEST QUESTION" in the subject, we can process your message faster.
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The Pack Out | Post date: 06/30/2010 - 03:00

by Christy DeWitt

I am not one of those clean freaks! You know the type, you could eat off their floor; but I do like a clean house and live by the motto, “A place for every thing and every thing in its place”.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that I was not as clean as I thought. Where did all these dust bunnies come from? I promise they weren’t here yesterday, so we must have been infiltrated overnight. I discovered them when two movers showed up to pack our household goods and began stirring them up. I was so embarrassed. There were black marks on the wall, Cheetos beneath the couch cushions, and something behind my sons' toilet that mere words can’t describe! The movers probably thought I had never cleaned this house. On a positive note, I believe the discovery in my sons’ bathroom may be source of our global warming problem. Would someone please inform Al Gore?

I promise I will never let my house get in this shape again (I think I said the same thing last time we PCS’d), yet here I am, two and a half years later doing it again. It’s all part of my military existence. I have been a military spouse for 13 years, and move after move; history repeats itself. Each time, I swear a solemn oath that I will never paint walls again, because it is too taxing when you must return them to their original color. But each time, after two weeks in my new home, and looking at stark white walls, it’s off to Lowe’s to look at paint cards. I inevitably choose colors that require several coats of paint to cover their bright hues.

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Discovering the Austin Museum of Art: Blue Star Museums | Post date: 06/30/2010 - 03:00

by Marianke Phillips (photo by author)

While visiting Austin last weekend with my husband, we stumbled upon the Austin Museum of Art. My husband had not yet been to an art museum before, but I had. (I visited the Milwaukee Art Museum a few years ago.) When we wanted to pay for our admission, the host there saw my husband’s U.S. Army hat, and asked if he was active military. My husband is a soldier in the U.S. Army and has been serving for 13 years now. The host offered us free admission as part of the Blue Star Museums Program. I had heard of it, but I did not realize the Austin Museum of Art was part of it.

The main artist exhibits at the museum currently are Chris Jordan and Sunyong Chung. Chris Jordan, who calls himself a political activist and can be named a photographic artist, fuses together images and information into epic photographs that ask us to consider our role as global citizens. His work “Running the Numbers” makes you think about the number of certain objects used per day. Like the 426,000 cell phones in one of his works that depicts the number of cell phones that the U.S. retires every day. This collection is displayed together with a selection from his work “Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption,” a collection of documentary images of container sites, recycling centers, and industrial yards.

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