Reflect and Prepare

With 2022 coming to a close, I sit back and reflect on the years peaks and valleys. I think of so many highs and some pretty low lows my family has gone through this year. 

As I process the summary of how 2022 went, I feel I should categorize my lows as lessons and experience that brought my family together in times of stress. As well as my highs, which made shining memories that will last a lifetime. I hope to embark on an exciting new year for my husband and I, filled with adventures and maybe a little addition. 

I reflect and make hopes for the new year, and try to prepare myself for what struggles we may face.

Being a veteran wife and caregiver, the new year can bring a lot of uncertainties in what our new year may look like. What hurdles we may have to climb, and the strength we will have to muster. However, I know this time next year I will reflect again, and remind myself of the highs and lows, and continue on to face another year.

All I can do is cherish those sparkling moments, learn from the difficult ones, and march on. 

I like to think of a new year like a new chapter in our book. As we turn the page to a new chapter, we grow more and more developing a wonderful story along the way. 

May your New Year become a beautiful new chapter, 2023. 

Dodging Snowbird Season

With Christmas approaching quickly I have to remind myself to stay grounded. Living in Florida, a good majority of our small town’s population is seasonal. We call them "snowbirds." Being that Christmas is already stressful enough when we add the snowbird season to the holiday chaos it can quickly become a stressor for my family and even more so for my veteran. 

As many of you know we love to take the Harley out for a ride. Wind therapy is something my husband and I value. Our favorite time to ride in Florida is Nov/Dec as the humidity disappears and we enjoy the weather in the mid-70s with very little rain. However, being that it’s also snowbird season, the large amounts of elderly that come from the North for winter have difficulty driving safely & properly.

We love that we have a small town that benefits from vacationers and snowbirds, however, the stress it adds to our family can become overwhelming and not only damper our riding adventures but also our holidays. Compared to most of the time we ride, this time of year is particularly dangerous. A big majority of the elderly fail to drive safely putting us in danger on the bike. When we have those close calls / potential accidents it seems it's always during the holidays. Sadly, such a small distraction to a driver can cost a biker his or her life. 

Despite the stress that this season causes my veteran, I manage to help ground him and myself during these scary & stressful moments on the bike and keep the holiday spirit going! 

Every year we do the Toys for Tots run and the Wreaths Across America run. It’s a tradition my husband and I partake in every year. As he is a Marine, toys for tots holds a special place in our hearts. We usually have Santa leading the bike run from a local VFW. Then for Wreaths Across America, we meet at Harley Davidson and the police escort us on an hour ride to Bushnell National Cemetery. The local PD works together to block off roads and escort over 100 bikers to the cemetery to pay our respects and place a wreath on their grave. The towns we go through have people stopped with signs, waving to all the riders partaking in the ride. Crystal River, Florida is called Purple Heart county due to our high concentration of veterans with Purple Hearts. We have several veteran nonprofits/ groups in our town that all work together to create this magical experience. It’s my favorite run we do and it is amazing to see our community coming together to support our fallen heroes during the holidays. 

Semper Fi & Merry Christmas!

❤️The Burrell’s 

 Planning a Wedding with a Veteran

My husband served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps and retired as a Master Sergeant. I knew about the veteran world as I had been a veteran advocate for 7 years and an active-duty spouse in my previous marriage. We both knew that planning a wedding would challenge us and create stressors that were more than likely going to trigger his PTSD. We decided to plan the wedding on our property as we have 5 wooded acres and thought “this will be a great idea, an affordable county wedding!” 

                                                

What we didn't consider is that now we have to do all the work to create a venue and make my creative dream come to life. This is definitely how my husband learned he hates Pinterest! All my crafts and projects for four months drove him crazy. From hanging lights to stapling fake flowers to a tree to make my flower tree, we learned we had committed to quite a difficult and stressful task.

Neither of us had a wedding with our families in our previous marriages so we wanted to make it a perfect event. As we got closer to the date, we asked ourselves why we didn't just go to the Bahamas and elope! The stress of planning and creating our vision was getting old. Thank god we planned it in 4 months because I don't think he would have lasted a year with all the wedding talk and events. 

Our 1st event was our engagement ride. Since we are always riding the Harley with our local veteran biker community we thought it would be fun to do an Engagement Motorcycle Run. We had games and prizes at the bars I have worked at and it was perfect. Next was the bridal shower where my husband did a bridal brunch for us girls and our moms at our house. He and his best man set up a waffle and omelet bar and cooked for us.

                                     

Then came the big day. The day of, I lost my photographer to a family emergency, my maid of honor to a bad falling out, and my soon-to-be husband woke up with a fever of 100.1. With so much to do and very little time, I quarantined Chris off in the bedroom, shoved him full of meds, and got to work with his best man and my uncle. Our moms jumped in the kitchen in my husband's place, being that was definitely off the table now! 

                                                 

Guests started to arrive and I was in the kitchen making a Charcuterie board; no makeup, no bra, and certainly not looking like a bride. My poor guests were subjected to Florida’s July heat and humidity, while we tried to get it together. I managed to break my soon-to-be husband's fever and got him down the aisle only an hour behind schedule.

The ceremony was perfect despite all of us looking like we went swimming in our clothes from the sweat. My guest thought I was wiping my husband's tears and nose but it was just the sweat running down his face! Besides the heat, which you just can't escape in Florida, it was a perfect wedding. It puts things in perspective, no matter how crazy life gets or how much it feels like things are not going to plan, as long as you have your best friend by your side, you can conquer anything! 

Written By: Savanna Burrell, Veteran Caregiver