There are flying squirrels in Richmond.

The ACUs and PT uniform are all washed and we're gearing up for a new week. The guys had to go to work all day on Friday for a regimental run and training in mortuary affairs (not my favorite), so I got some things done at home before meeting up with J again for some girl time. We decided to go to Starbucks for some iced tea before heading down to the pool to enjoy it. It was the perfect treat for another sweltering sunny day. The quickest way to Starbucks was actually through Fort Lee, so I got the new experience of driving on post and using my Army ID for the first time. They want IDs for everyone in the car, not just the driver, so it felt pretty legit to be a couple of Army wives just driving through post with our shiny IDs. We waved to the ALU (Army Logistics University) where our husbands were as we drove by.


AJ and W came home from training on the early side (they carpool so J can have a car), so we texted them to meet us down by the pool. We had a short double date of just hanging out in the pool before we wives decided it was time to start dinner (they always come home so hungry!). I sent AJ down to grill our dinner of lemon chicken, which turned out delicious. Excited to pass down that great recipe to generations of Ullrichs to come. :)


On Saturday AJ went back on post to take care of some errands, and then we just kind of lounged around inside to escape the heat. At five we met up with W and J again for a Richmond Flying Squirrels minor league baseball game. It's only a 30 minute drive to Richmond, and the tickets for the front section were super cheap. As soon as we walked into the stadium a man pulled our husbands aside and asked them if they'd like to be a part of a game after the first inning. Of course my husband couldn't say no to that and W was just as excited! The point of the game was to compete in making the most baskets in a basketball hoop, and they were connected with a bungee cord so they had to pull on each other to get to their respective basketballs. W is a bit bigger than AJ, so my poor husband was struggling against his weight. But they tied, each with two baskets! J and I were laughing so hard at the sight.


The rest of the game was pretty hot, yet a lot of fun. W and J are a great couple and we're so glad they invited us along on their date night. Oh, and the Flying Squirrels won 6-1. :)


On Sunday we went to church with the same couple we celebrated Fourth of July with. AJ and I agreed right away that this is the church we want to be a part of while we're here. We felt so welcomed there--everyone was super friendly and we were taken under the wing of one man right away. I guess we're obviously not from around here. Al, the man who made it his mission to help us feel welcome, introduced us to the pastor and his wife and immediately connected us with a Bible study, which we stayed for after the service. We were immediately recognized as military by just about everyone (must be our age and the haircuts!). Another Army wife introduced herself to me right away at the Bible study; her husband is on a one-year deployment in Korea right now. The entire church is clearly Gospel-centered and extremely welcoming; you can tell they are used to people like us and care a lot about us even though they know we can't stay very long. I'm so thankful for those people.


Fun fact, courtesy of Al: Supposedly some of the wealthiest people in VA live somewhere in Petersburg. The rest of the town, he says, consists largely of places you shouldn't go at night. I guess we can understand the places you shouldn't go at night (although our apartment complex is very very nice and not one of those places) and are now curious about this fancy part of town. I'd love to hear more about what the locals think about our surroundings. I'm still of the opinion that Petersburg may have fallen on hard times, yet I'm still happy to live here and don't ever feel unsafe when I'm out as long as I don't run anywhere off the main road.




We had lunch at Panera after church, where we actually ran into the two couples we went to church with last week. Since then we've had kind of a lazy day since I was really tired for some reason. We got all four of our packages from Mom Ullrich and are especially excited for our Arby's sauce! Thanks so much!! Now to find a place to store everything...that, along with my first solo trip to the commissary, will be tomorrow's project. :)

The Fourth at Fort Lee

The holiday break is over but we're ready for the weekend to start today! We were so excited to celebrate the Fourth of July together again because we've only had one together in almost five years of dating. We really wanted to do something special for the holiday since we're so far away from family and friends. We had kind of a lazy morning before heading to Kroger to pick up some groceries for that night. Once we got home, we started putting together the deviled eggs, ham appetizers, and homemade lemonade. I was really excited to make some of the things that I knew my family would be having that same day. At 6:30 we met another couple at the gate to our apartment complex for dinner. This couple has been living here for a few months now; they decided to come to Petersburg early and found an apartment on their own. K is pregnant and due during the last week of BOLC, so things are a bit up in the air as to where they will live and how long they will stay in VA before heading to their next duty station at Fort Lewis in WA. We used the grills down by the pool to cook up some burgers and hot dogs, which we enjoyed along with the lemonade, deviled eggs, ham appetizers, and chips. It was delicious and quite a success. We really enjoyed getting to know S and K and hearing their story as a couple. 

At about nine we drove on post for the "Fourth at the Fort", sponsored by the Fort Lee MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation). The festivities had actually started at 2pm that afternoon, and the place was packed by the time we got there. There were thousands of people in and around the stadium, where a country concert was going on. We set up our beach towel (none of us has lawn chairs) in the perfect spot on a lawn and enjoyed an awesome fireworks display. It turns out that we definitely went where the locals go, which gave me a sense of pride for figuring that out. Even though it was our first holiday far away from our families, it felt great to know that we are a little family ourselves and are forging our own path here in Virginia. 


Side note: When we were on post the next morning I noticed that you would never have known how many thousands of people were there just the night before. The place was spotless. I guess that's the Army for you.

The next morning we had an appointment at the Soldier Support Center to register me for DEERS and get my military ID. I don't entirely know what all DEERS entitles me to, but it does give me healthcare and whatever other military benefits I'll get. Now that I have an Army ID I can use any gate to get on post and shop at places like the PX and the commissary. I'm super excited about the privilege of shopping on post; I keep thinking about how fortunate we are to save some money when so many people need those cheaper prices more than we do. Not sure it's worth a deployment though.

We wrapped up the day with a stop at the PX for more ACUs and a haircut as well as a stop in the commissary for a few groceries, plus a visit to the Army Women's Museum. I really enjoyed learning about the history of women in the military and gained a sense of appreciation for their contributions to our country. It was really interesting. We ended the evening with a walk around our apartment complex, which was nice, although I wish we were in a neighborhood and not so limited in that respect.

Today AJ came home for a quick breakfast, which was nice, and he might get out early this afternoon. I've skyped with a college friend and will soon be going out with another wife for the second time. Tonight hopefully we'll think of ways to beat the heat, yet still do some fun exploring. 

Back to work.

The Ullrichs are wrapping up their weekend here in Petersburg, which isn't so bad because it was definitely a good one. We went to the U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum on post after lunch on Saturday, partly because it was just something free to see and partly because it's all about AJ's job. Although I'm not really into some of the more technical military stuff, I did enjoy learning more about the history of the quartermaster corps and about what AJ will be doing for his job. Some of the highlights for me were learning about how rations have evolved over the decades, seeing what the riggers do and how the Army drops humanitarian relief and entire vehicles from planes, meeting Pipeline Pete, and finding something like the STAPLES "Easy button" that says "hooah". Adding a postcard to my collection was also pretty exciting. With all this moving around for the military my collection is definitely going to grow. :)

After the museum we checked out the commissary, where I will be doing our grocery shopping once I get my CAC card. We weren't intending to buy anything until we saw Naked Juice for $1.85 AND we don't pay tax on post! Naturally we were amazed and bought two. That place is awesome. After that we drove over to the largest PX, which for those of you who don't know is kind of like a military department store. The place was packed with enlisted soldiers in ACUs who must have just arrived for AIT. It was more than a little overwhelming being in a crowd of camouflage. You can especially spot the new enlisted soldiers because their combat boots are super clean looking, unlike AJ's. We picked up a couple things there and drove over to the other PX, where the uniform store is, so AJ could look for some new ACUs. I got a kick out of more of the street names on post--Preamble Drive, Battle Drive, Army Avenue...the Army is so gosh darn creative.


We met another couple in AJ's class for dinner at Outback that night, which was really nice. J doesn't have a car so I told her we could do some more exploring together sometime. We all have a shared love of Pixar and they're from Texas, where AJ has orders for after BOLC.


We enjoyed another nice thunderstorm when we got home that night. The storms here are frequent and come on pretty fast. On Friday night we just had very strong wind and lightning for awhile, which actually made the trees behind our apartment look very creepy. Apparently thousands of people were out of power due to the recent storms, so the cities have been setting up designated air conditioned buildings for people out of power to beat the heat. The power goes out so easily here, it's weird.


This morning we checked out a local church with two other couples. One couple has a daughter almost the same age as our niece which was really nice. We had our own little Army family row during the service. The church ended up not being for us, so we'll continue our search with another couple next week hopefully. We did go to Lone Star for lunch with our new friends, though, which was definitely a good time. After lunch we did some errands and took advantage of our apartment complex's pool, because once again, it is very hot down here. We went to dinner at some weird, fancy Arby's, which was actually super disappointing because they don't have Arby's sauce! I was really bummed about that and missing the real Arby's back home. :( Now AJ's finishing up some anti-terrorism training on his laptop and we'll just hang around until he goes to bed early for combatives training tomorrow. I think he's pretty excited for that. :)

First weekend in Petersburg!

The weekend is here! And it has been great so far, although very, very hot. I skipped my morning run on Friday due to the heat, which was somewhere over 105 degrees. AJ came home at his usual time on Friday and hopped in the shower right away because we had a dinner date. He met another 2nd lieutenant who's here for transportation BOLC I believe, so he's not in the same class as AJ. He had breakfast with this guy on Thursday morning, during which they discovered that they have the same amount of siblings, almost the same birthday, look similar, and love to talk--which in their minds, made them best friends. ;) The soldier just got married a month ago like us, so they immediately set up a double date for us wives to finally make some friends. It turns out they love ethnic food and sushi like we do, so we met at Elephant Thai, a restaurant right off post. Our husbands finally learned each other's first names, and we all agreed to try to remember to use first names when we're together. Of course, this is no problem for us wives. This couple is on active duty and will be stationed at Fort Hood, the other base in Texas, which is a far cry from their home in Colorado. AJ and J are so similar that it's crazy, and I really enjoyed getting to know R. We talked for a full two hours at the restaurant and then invited them to see our place and have a cup of coffee. They live in Fort Lee housing, which means that they don't have a kitchen or anything like that. They actually brought things they would need for an apartment, unlike AJ and me. I told R that she is more than welcome to come over and use our kitchen at any time, and I'm pretty sure we will be having them over for dinner quite a bit. She has made friends with another young wife who has a daughter the same age as AJ's niece, so I'm excited to get to know her too. It was such an encouragement to finally meet someone here who shares my experiences and who can share their perspective on Army life, deployment, children in the military, etc. I'm so thrilled to have a friend. We're going to church with them tomorrow, which is great because we haven't had a chance to try to find a place yet.


AJ took me for a drive on post yesterday before dinner. This was my first time at Fort Lee, and it was great to finally visualize where he goes every day. It feels a little bit like a college campus, just not quite as home-y, I guess you could say. The Army is super creative about street names too- A, B, C, and D streets, Lee street. We found the commissary and PX, which will be great for me once I get my ID. I'm looking forward to getting my paperwork done and meeting with Army Community Services to try to find a place to volunteer or something while I'm here. 


I've been learning more and more about Army culture and being an Army wife in general these days, mostly through AJ. One day he came home from a security briefing will all this new information he wanted to put to use. Obviously, security is always important for anyone to know about, especially when you're in a new area, but it's super important in the Army. He told me some crazy stories about information being leaked to terrorists just by someone doing something innocent like posting a picture on Facebook. I try to be careful about what I say on the Internet anyway, but I now that I'm affiliated with the military it's crucial. 


I'm also new to the serious hierarchy here and the strict boundary between officers and enlisted soldiers. This area is crawling with enlisted people here for AIT, which comes right after basic training. Their freedom is still very limited--they have to go places in groups and must always wear an ACU backpack, which singles them out very easily. I had no idea how much enlisted soldiers really do live in a different world, as AJ puts it. It's crazy that many of them are here straight from high school--some of those 18-year-olds are even MPs (military police) on post, which is a little weird. Officers are told not to go near them, period. As an officer, AJ has plenty of freedom here; our lives would be very different if he was enlisted.


Well, that's a lot for today. We're probably going on post to the Quartermaster Museum and Army Women's Museum today, mostly just so AJ can say he's been but also so that I can learn more about his job. We're supposed to meet up with yet another couple tonight, so that'll be fun too I'm sure. Time to start our day.

Grocery shopping adventures and meeting the squad.

Before I talk about yesterday, I'll post some pictures of my new car. Notice the Virginia plates--I'm driving disguised as a Virginian :)

Okay, on to our day real quick. I finally went for a run in the morning, which was so needed. Unfortunately, AJ came home for a quick break during that time so I didn't get to see him as much as I would have. There aren't any sidewalks around us and we're on kind of a busy road, so that's kind of a bummer. If nothing else I might just drive to the Petersburg Battlefield and run along the trails because that would be nicer. 

After AJ left I tried to figure out how to report AJ's stipend on my FAFSA, which was unsuccessful even after calling the FAFSA people. Turns out they don't know much about the military because they told me to ask the VA, which even I knew was a little ridiculous. Next I made our grocery shopping list and tried to figure out where I should go. I decided Save-a-Lot sounded like a promising name, and it's close by. Turns out, it's like an Aldi but not nearly as nice and without much variety. Still, it was cheap so I felt really good about shopping there. I doubt that's where the other officers wives go, especially because it definitely serves a different demographic, but I don't care. I went to Kroger to get the rest of our food and I was so nervous about the prices the entire time. I've never bought significant quantities of food from anywhere but Aldi, so I thought I'd for sure shock AJ with what I spent even though I just got what we really needed. In the end it was okay though.

After four trips up to the third floor with my purchases I started dinner, which was sloppy joes on Texas toast with spinach salad on the side. It was a pinterest recipe and it was delicious! AJ really liked it, which was very exciting because this was the first time I've ever made dinner for him. After dinner AJ had to give out PT belts and other equipment to his squad, so he had them come over here. I was really glad he decided to do that because I got to meet a lot of the people he spends time with. They all introduced themselves by first name, which makes perfect sense anywhere outside the Army. AJ doesn't even know their first names I'm pretty sure, so after each one left I asked my husband for their last name. We finally got to spend a little over an hour together after all that was over, which was really needed after how crazy things have been lately.

AJ had the APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) this morning. He left at 3:30am and came home just as I was waking up at 7:15 to shower and tell me that he maxed yet again. Which is great because he really hasn't worked out since we got married! So proud of him, but I knew he would do it. Now he's on a breakfast date on post with his new friend, so I'm on my own again. Time to start the day.

New apartment, new car...life's good!

Yesterday I was able to unpack all of our belongings and put everything in its place. I was surprised at my husband's lack of clothes other than his ACUs, but at this rate, that's all he wears anyway so I guess that's okay. And when I'm gone in two months I can't pester him to wear something other than a T-shirt once in a while. ;) Here are a couple shots of our new digs.

AJ was able to come home for a 30-minute lunch break, which was short but better than nothing. Once he returned at six we hopped in the car and drove straight to Mechanicsville to pick up my car! The dealership had been out of power for about 24 hours due to a storm, so the process of signing papers took a bit longer. We finally drove away as the sun was setting. I was nervous to drive a new car in a new area, but that feeling quickly went away because I was so excited and happy. I love it! According to the Army, we should never give in to road rage because of the open carry law here. Apparently it's not uncommon for people to be shot over an argument on the road. Duly noted. Makes me thankful that IL is the only state left without a concealed carry law. You REALLY don't want to give Chicago drivers a gun! One challenge we face with two cars now is the fact that we only have one remote to open the gate to get to our building. I have to get up with AJ, follow him out of the gate, wait til he hands me the remote, and drive back to our building. Which is GREAT because now all our neighbors get to see me with bedhead, pajamas, and a cranky expression first thing every morning. I wear sunglasses even though I don't need them so maybe I'm not as recognizable. :)

AJ was on his cell phone "keeping my squad together" all evening, and we had to stop at another apartment building right away so he could meet with another soldier. We finally had McDonalds for dinner at 10pm. I can tell he must be feeling overwhelmed these days, so I'm doing my best to take care of his needs and not ask much of him.

Well, I'm about to go for my first run here. Supposedly there's a trail behind our complex; however, as an Illinoisan, while living around lots of trees is somewhat novel to me, it also makes me a little nervous for safety. But this seems to be a nice quiet area, and I AM surrounded by the Army, right? After that I'll take my car for a spin and finally get us some groceries. Maybe I'll make dinner tonight!

We're home. :)

Not a whole lot to report for yesterday on my end. Thankfully, AJ raced over to the hotel on his lunch break to grab my suitcase so I could leave the hotel lobby and walk over to Starbucks for the day. He was gone until about 5:30, poor guy. Since he left at 3:30 that morning, that's a 14-hour first day. When I saw him, though, it seemed as though I was much more tired than he was. He finally was able to get our housing voucher, so we drove to our apartment complex to check in. I held my breath as we climbed the stairs to the third floor and as I opened our front door. Wow! This place is so much nicer than what I would ever hope to have in my first year of marriage. Granite counter tops, en-suite laundry, a corner unit with a view of the tall VA trees, a dishwasher (I've never even used a dishwasher before!)...it's pretty amazing to me. There are little samples everywhere, from shampoo to laundry soap to granola bars. They even provided us with dish cloths and a laundry basket! I'll post pictures as soon as I put our stuff away because right now our belongings are scattered everywhere. One thing is for sure. We are completely surrounded by people in ACUs here. I wonder how many people living in these apartments are non-military. We're definitely not unique anymore, like we were in Illinois. Another thing--it seems as though almost every state is represented in the license plates here. Proud to add our Illinois plate to the group.


Even though I was exhausted, I started unpacking right away. The first thing I set up was our fancy new coffee maker that was a wedding gift from my brother and his girlfriend. You guys know me, but actually it was AJ's idea. We ordered Domino's for dinner, which took AJ awhile to eat because he was busy emailing his squad and taking care of Army things. Eventually he took out all of his paperwork for me to see. I'd rather not try to understand some of it, such as all the financial stuff and his life insurance. However, I was shocked to see that we're going to get reimbursed a little over $400 for gas it took to drive out here! WHAT?! He also has to document the miles he drives to and from base because we get money for that. Holy cow. I also learned that the Army already considers me exceptional ;) I have to be enrolled in a program due to my illness so that we're always stationed in a place where I can get the care that I need, but I'm sure once they get to know me they'll learn how lucky they are to have Hannah Ullrich on board. We talked about Army Community Services, TRICARE (health insurance), why he shouldn't haze enlisted personnel, and the fact that AJ should get separation pay because we won't be living together for the next year on account of the Army. He seemed to have a lot of energy and I think he had a decent day overall, except for the part when his instructor threw a chair because some of the 2LTs (2nd Lieutenants, AJ's rank) were late. He said he saw uniforms from all over the world, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Ghana. Once we went to bed I could tell he was a little stressed and tired, especially with his squad texting him in bed. I'm doing my best not to bother him with the things that I need too much and instead do what I can to make him at home and ease the stress. 


So, our stuff is scattered everywhere and our fridge is stocked with just Mike's and a Domino's box containing leftover pizza. Feels kind of like a frat house right now, so I'm going to start organizing. Can't do anything about the food situation without a car, but hopefully that will change tonight!