I’ve spent much of the past few months sharing with you what I’ve learned living in the North for the first time in my life. I’ve had encounters with heating systems, black ice and, most …
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Each year I make New Year’s resolutions, and each year I break them. Such a defeatist, negative thing. Oh, sure, I could, of course, choose not to break my resolutions, and then it would be a positive thing.
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By Sarah Smiley Special to the NEWS
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12/29/08
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2 comments
I used to compare meeting and connecting with other military spouses to being trapped in an elevator with strangers and then emerging close friends who know each other’s secrets, history, fears …
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Growing up, I always lived “below sea level” (at least that is what my parents said, which made me feel like a fish) and therefore never had a basement. Try to dig for a basement in my hometown …
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The human body is 60 percent water. Seventy percent of our planet's surface is covered in water. Every day, in order to live healthfully, human beings must replace 2.4 liters of water, taken from the planet, for their body.
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Moving from the Deep South to the extreme North, as we did this past August, has afforded our family many new experiences. Some of these experiences — ones like seeing fallen autumn leaves that are so bright they look like drops of sunshine on the concrete — I eagerly endorse.
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By Sarah Smiley Special to the NEWS
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12/1/08
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1 comment
After a two-week detour into the prickly world of politics, we now return to regularly scheduled columns about husbands who leave coffee cups on top of the car and drive away and children who …
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By Sarah Smiley Special to the NEWS
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11/24/08
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4 comments
Last week's column, “Elections distressing for military families,” was my attempt to explain the visceral connection military families have to Sen. John McCain. It generated a surprising number …
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I cannot speak for all military families any more than one person can speak for an entire race, but inasmuch as I have been in a military family for all but six weeks of my life, most of my friends …
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By Sarah Smiley Special to the NEWS
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11/10/08
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11 comments
A common thread among all military families, regardless of the individual branch of service, is the fact that they seldom live near their relatives. With our constant relocating, only the most …
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By Sarah Smiley Special to the NEWS
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11/3/08
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2 comments
When I decided to attend Fusion:Bangor’s annual Flava Gala, held Oct. 18 at a hangar at Bangor International Airport, and drag my husband, Dustin, along with me, I had given very little thought to …
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It has always amazed me how different two children in the same family can be. It amazes me even more that those same two children often aren't like their parents, either.
Our oldest son, Ford, who …
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By Sarah Smiley Special to the NEWS
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10/20/08
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1 comment
When I heard about the new Sarah Palin action figure from herobuilders.com, I couldn't wait to get one. And not for any political reason. My husband, Dustin, the military pilot trained for war, is terrified of dolls. He is especially afraid of dolls whose heads come off.
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By Sarah Smiley Special to the NEWS
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10/13/08
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1 comment
I was standing in a field watching my son’s soccer game one Saturday morning when I looked up and saw a military cargo jet, so big and gray it might as well have been a whale, cutting across the …
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By Sarah Smiley Special to the NEWS
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10/6/08
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3 comments
Before I share my thoughts about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her role as Sen. John McCain’s running mate, I need to tell you how Dustin and I once made an offer on a house.
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By Sarah Smiley Special to the NEWS
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9/29/08
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2 comments
After the first few days in a new classroom, especially if it is in a new school in a new state, your child is likely to come home and claim he doesn’t know the names of any other students.
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By Sarah Smiley Special to the NEWS
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9/22/08
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2 comments
Until you’ve moved to a completely different area of the country, you might not realize the nuances you’ve become accustomed to in your home region.
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By Sarah Smiley Special to the NEWS
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9/15/08
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6 comments
This week, I was in Pensacola, Fla., for the release of my new book, “I’m Just Saying ... .” I left Pensacola in June, after having lived there for five years (unusual for a military family). …
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From the way my southern grandmother has always talked, I thought men in blue uniforms with rifles may be waiting for me when I crossed the Mason-Dixon Line on my way to Maine last week.
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For more than five years, Sarah has written a weekly, nationally syndicated newspaper column. What started as a column specifically about military life has grown to be a unique, sometimes quirky, sometimes sentimental piece about life as a young mother and wife, as told through the peculiar lens military life provides.
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