1.  You yell at your kids by saying "Don't make me e-mail your father/mother."
2.  Your neighbors know you but have never seen your active-duty spouse.
3.  Your conversations are sprinkled with PCS, TAD, LES, etc., and you know what they mean.
4.  You have had eight address changes in nine years, and you are not on the run from the law.
5.  The front hall closet of your home is a designated uniform closet.
6.  Your spouse will be gone for two weeks for his joband you think, "Is that all?  No problem."
7.  The radiator blows up on the car and the washing machine dies just as your spouse leaves for temporary duty.
8.  You aren't surprised when you get fours days' notice for a for-month deployment.
10.  You don't know your own Social Security number anymore, but you know your spouse's by heart.
11.  You are in disagreement with a bill collector and say, "Let me speak to your commander!"
12.  You spend your second wedding anniversary in a row alone.
13.  You move your day care from one state to another and still have the same children enrolled.
14.  You have a collection of different shapes, sizes and colors of window treatments for the same room.
15.  Your heart races when you hear a doorbell ring during a deployment.
16.  You've done more oil changes and mowed more lawns than your husband because he's never home to do it.
17.  You remember milestones by duty stations.
18.  All your kids, including your 2-year-old, stop what they're doing and put their hands over their hearts whenever they hear the National Anthem.
19.  You can sleep through the sound of fighter planes and bombers during their morning practice.
20.  You reach for your military ID upon entering a civilian store.
21.  You ask someone to hold on a second by saying, "Stand by."
22.  Your kids point at anyone in BDUs and boots, regardless of race or gender, and yell, "Daddy!" or "Mommy!"
23.  You tell the movers the correct way to pack boxes.
24.  You notice when Hollywood makes mistakes in movies portraying the military.
25.  Military homecomings on TV bring tears to your eyes because you can relate so well.
26.  You start reading Army Times in place of your Cosmopolitan or Sports Illustrated.


"The sergeant is the Army." - General Dwight D. Eisenhower