Hey there, listener! Thank you for checking out our older seasons! We're adding this note on the top of the show notes to keep you up-to-date with the show. Connect with Jen Amos and get bonus content when you subscribe to our private podcast show, Inside the Fort by US VetWealth, at http://insidethefort.com/

Last Updated: September 2, 2024

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051: Straddling the gap between the civilian and military community with new co-host Jenny Lynne Stroup

Holding Down the Fort welcomes its new co-host, active duty military spouse, mother and mental health advocate Jenny Lynne Stroup! She shares what life was like before she became a military spouse, assumptions civilians have about being in the military, how to go beyond saying, "Thank you for your service," and much more.

Connect with our new co-host Jenny Lynne Stroup at https://jennylynnestroup.com/ or email jennylynnestroup379@gmail.com

Recent articles by Jenny Lynne:

https://homelandmagazine.com/suicide-prevention-awareness-month/

https://issuu.com/adminhlm/docs/homeland_magazine_oct_2020/30

Listen to our previous interview with Jenny Lynne at https://www.holdingdownthefortpodcast.com/episode/cohenclinicsandiego

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Jen Amos 0:00

Welcome to holding down the fort, a podcast show dedicated to curating knowledge, resources and relevant stories for today's military spouses so they can continue to make confident and informed decisions for themselves and their families. Because let's face it, we know who's really holding down the fort. I'm Jen a Moe's, a gold star, daughter, veteran spouse, and your host for holding down the fort by us that wealth, let's get started.

Alright, hey, everyone, welcome back to another episode of holding down the fort season three. And this is a special episode because although the show has already started, I wanted to backtrack and actually reintroduce you all to my co host here, Jenny Lynn stroupe. So Jenny Lynn, welcome to the show.

Unknown Speaker 0:54

Thanks. Happy to be here.

Jen Amos 0:56

Yeah. And although we've already started, introduce yourself, I thought we would just dedicate one episode to you to really have you share your story and talk about why you decided to be on the show? Well, first of all, let me just start by saying thank you for choosing to reach out to me, I know in a newsletter some time ago. Now this is literally months ago. Now I think at the start of the pandemic, really, when I kind of knew that I wanted to have a co host on the show to just bounce ideas off of and add a different perspective. And you were definitely one of the first people to do that. And I appreciated you just kind of being very open and willing to just showing up because to me, that's all I really needed to have someone to show up and add to the conversation and everything else is taken care of so and you get to enjoy wonderful conversations with people. So I'm appreciative for you joining me, I am curious to know and to our listeners that are hearing about you for the first time, What compelled you to reach out and say yes, I'm gonna co host with you, Jen.

Speaker 1 1:49

Oh, man, part of it was total Wim. I'm one of those people like, well, that sounds fun. Let me give it a shot. So I did. But I mean, the truth is, I really enjoyed being a guest, I think I was a guest with my clinic director, I don't know, a month or so before you send out the newsletter looking for a co host, and you just made us feel like so warm and welcome. And it was fun to talk to you that I was like, I like to talk to people and hear fun stories. And as a military spouse, and you know, a military family, like the mission of this podcast to get good resources to military families is one that I can really get behind. So it's fun for me to get to see what are other people in my fear and learn from them and know what's out there.

Jen Amos 2:34

I appreciate you saying that. And I don't know if the stats are constantly changing. And you can correct me on this. But I know that only really less than 1% of the American community actually serves. And so we are really a tiny, tiny community. There's a lot of us if you find them, if you find us in the bases and everything. But we're really tiny, and we have a very unique experience compared to our civilian counterparts. And so part of why I decided to do holding down the fort. There's a lot of reasons but one of them is really to humanize our story to know that it's not just the service member that serving it's the family, you know, it's the spouse, it's the kids, that we're serving just as much and dealing with so many different issues. That is again, so unique and different from our civilian counterparts.

Speaker 1 3:17

Jen Amos 4:31

Yeah. Well, thank you for saying that. Yeah, it is interesting, because you know, you and I have essentially swapped places. I lived in San Diego for 20 years. And just like what you said, it just felt so normal to be around military affiliated people or someone knew someone you know, that was at least in the military, and I come from a military background as well. And it's part of how you know, my parents were able to leave the Philippines is my dad and his brother joined the military and were able to serve and I was essentially born as an Emir. I can but on American soil, like in Japan, and so I feel like I was already like birth into a very, you know, interesting culture because people asked me often do you speak Japanese? I was like, No, I was in the American base, okay, like, yes, I would step back. But it doesn't mean that I could speak it fluently nor my Japanese. But you know, it's interesting to know that there's a small percentage of us that serve and the families that support those who serve. And yeah, I just find it so fascinating. And I think like right now, especially with the pandemic, I feel like a lot of our civilian counterparts can really learn from our military families and what it means to, you know, have your spouse gone for a long time, and then suddenly, everyone's in the house, you know, and it's just like, a, like, what are you doing here, you're ruining my routine, and just learning to make that adjustment. And I think that if our civilian counterparts can, you know, learn from us and see that, hey, like, adapting is part of our life, it's part of our culture, being resilient, being resourceful. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I grew amongst my civilian counterparts. And I think like, you know, I'm so glad that I was raised in this life, because it's taught me to be nimble, and optimistic and resourceful, and everything, everything that I believe we know at this point that military families have to go through. And I think it's part of why I'm able to, you know, be the entrepreneur I am and be able to kind of have the lifestyle that I have is because of that background. It's not to say, though, that it obviously comes with its challenges, you know, having to uproot yourself quite often. And so I know for you, Jennylyn, you came from Virginia Beach, or Virginia. So we essentially swap places. And if you can a little briefly share a little bit about your life before you and your family entered the military. And how was that transition for you to adjust as a military spouse?

Speaker 1 6:52

Yeah, so a couple things came to mind as you're talking one as military spouse who isn't I'm not a former veteran. So I've never, never been active duty or reserve or anything. You know, I straddle that gap between civilian and military community, because technically, I am a civilian, and also the military effects a big part of my life. And I grew up in Hampton Roads, which, when I grew up there, where I lived in Suffolk, which is about 30 to 45 minutes away from Virginia Beach in Norfolk, depending on how fast you drive. Not many military families lived out that far, it was just too far of a commute. And so I did not grow up around more than probably one or two people that were military. And so for me, the Navy, especially being from Hampton Roads was just always kind of that thing that was over there. Like we knew that it was there. And there was kind of, for me, this inherent like, safety, but I didn't, it never affected me It never, I never had a reason to really think of anything other than Oh, there's some boats over there in Norfolk, like that was really start and finish of my military history prior to meeting and marrying my husband. And really, for my whole family. I mean, my uncle and my grandfather, both served but my grandfather served before my dad was born. So he didn't grow up a military kid, my uncle is much younger than my dad. And so he served but he was always like, the fun younger uncle, you know, that we would see every now and again, and all that, but again, it wasn't a military lifestyle, like I didn't. My family was, you know when to work nine to five like that. So, in marrying my husband, I really kind of pushed my whole immediate family into this like weird world of deployments and workups, and trainings, and all of these things that none of us had ever really experienced. And for a while, you know, Matthew did several trainings and deployments and transferred from enlisted to officer he was Officer Candidate School. And we we as in me and my, our children stayed in Hampton Roads. I mean, he was kind of all over the place, but we stayed where I grew up. And so largely, we lived a civilian lifestyle with this military kind of overhang. You know, I was still friends with all the people I grew up with, I still went to the grocery store I'd always gone to I still lived in the same town and saw the same people. And it was just that my husband was in uniform and often not there. In fact, most of the time, not there. And when he returned from his second deployment, we moved for the first time as a, you know, as a military family. And we moved to a largely civilian area. So our second well, not our second duty station, we kind of bounced around within Hampton Roads for the our first time like leaving the Hampton Roads area, we moved to Manhattan, New York City, and so on. You know, Matthew was one of two active duty Navy people in the office, sorry, one or two. And so we were the only Navy family and neither of his bosses were married with kids. So we were the only Navy family. And we lived in a town, we lived in one of the commuter towns in New York. And we were for some people, the only military people they've ever met. So, you know, when I think about that being the quarter of a percent, like it was never more prevalent than when we lived up there. And I am very grateful that I had a community that was curious. And, you know, wanted to know, you know, I got lots of questions like, so we hear you're rich, because the government pays for these in this thing. And, you know, it was one of those things that after having years of friendship with these people, like I was kind of, like, you know, what, what myths did we debunk for you? And they were like, Well, we learned that you're not rich or not rich, that the Navy controls a lot more of your life than we would have ever assumed, you know, that we have, you know, and so I think that's when I really kind of embraced the military spouse lifestyle is like, Oh, it is different. And it's good. And I really do want to be that gap straggler between the military and the civilian community, because I saw what a difference it made in my civilian community for, you know, people to see what it's like up close for people to live a military lifestyle. Now, let me caveat that with saying New York is very different than regular Navy life, we were in a position Matthews in a position of like, outreach really. And so we did a lot of fun and pretty. And so like, it wasn't deployments, it wasn't, you know, trainings and stuff, it was put on your best uniform, go make the Navy look good, and have fun while you're doing it. So even at that, like our friends saw this, you know, less stress and Paul gal and so on. They're like, wow, this is great. And I'm like, Yeah, but this really isn't it either. But it opened the door to conversations about what it had been like before and what it was going to be like, after that tour. And so moving them to San Diego was a little shock to the system, because all of a sudden, we were back in an area where like every third house is navy, right? Even if you don't live on base, we don't you know, and so there's a little more inherent understanding and military lifestyle, and then also that civilian mindset of well, of course, everybody knows people like you. You're all here, we're like, Yeah, but we're not all everywhere, you know, so that's kind of how I got I got to where I am. And, you know, it was really that New York tour that kind of solidified for me both what's really special, and what's really hard. And what's really interesting about being a military family and military spouse.

Yeah, I think that once you get adjusted to the life, I mean, I don't think we'll ever get adjusted. But when you get a sense of adjustment, it becomes a form of responsibility to educate people about it, you know, so one of my pet peeves growing up, was, every time people knew I was, you know, part of a military family, they called me a military brat. And I think that's cute and all and it's like, yeah, sure, we get the benefits and you know, whatever. But to me as a Goldstar daughter, too, that came with a lot of pain. And I took that offensively, I was like, I'm not a brat, like, I lost my dad to the service. You know, like, yeah, yes, my school was paid for, you know, thank God, I didn't have to worry about like, college debt and stuff like that. And I had, I think I had, like, I had all the health benefits, and you know, just the benefits that you would get as a kid. I think I lost it all around 21 or 23. I forgot which one. But I remember when my mom sort of hinted that, like, Hey, you're not going to have this anymore. I'm like, oh, like, Oh, so that's the bubble I lived in. Either way, just having just carrying that pain. And it actually took until, like, later on in my life, my young adult life when I really started to see my military child conditioning play out, because it was really hard for me to hold down a job. Like, even though I got a bachelor's, I actually got fired from four jobs consecutively in my young 20s. Like, I just, I couldn't hold down a job because I think like every two to three years, I'd be like, This feels very unsettling. Like, am I supposed to stay here? You know, or I just always had this desire to take off, you know, or to do something different or to have multiple projects at once. And so to me, when people call me a military brat, it's like, I mean, not that anyone's called me that lately. I think military brat typically goes toward maybe the youth or teens nowadays, but you know, when I do hear that term, I really challenged people to look deeper than that and be like, Yeah, we have certain things, but it's at the cost of so many other things. You know, and so I appreciate you saying that. What you do as a spouse is you kind of straddle that gap between the civilian life and the military life. And that's why I'm really happy to have you on the show genuine because I also know that you're a blogger, and you love, you know, talking about this life and kind of demystifying it, you know, not just to give peace of mind, or maybe comfort or connection with the military community, but even for the civilians who really haven't been around military people. I remember even in San Diego, I had a good friend who lived in in northern San Diego, so probably not close to Pendleton, but so I forgot exactly where she lived. But she pretty much lived in this bubble. You know, she's an artist, a professional artist, and, and I was one of the first people that she really met, where she knew that I was a gold star daughter, and she heard about like, just my family and losing my dad. And she's all like, wow, like the military really have it hard, you know, like, she had no idea you know, the sacrifices that could take place. Fortunately, most people don't have to go through that. But like, just to know the sacrifice, and what gets left behind more even the impact of a service members career on to the family. And so it was really interesting to like, what felt normal for me to talk about with like, everyone, I was like, Yeah, I'm gonna Goldstar daughter, I lost my dad was very, like, unusual for like, the average person be like, what, like, I can't believe you know, that happened to you. I'm so sorry. Like, they were very apologetic of it, even though for me, it happened, you know, 20 years ago now. But I think the point of what I'm trying to say is that this is why this show exists is to let people know that there's a lot of sacrifice and responsibility and duty to be a military family. And it is very important for us to share our story's not just to stay connected and to not feel alone, but also to educate our civilian counterparts that like, Hey, you're welcome. You know, you're welcome like this, you know, like your taxpayer dollars like is going to people like us, so that, you know, you can continue to feel safe and pursue your dreams and your goals and your you know, whatever you want to do. It's because of us. So you're welcome.

Yeah, it's interesting, I can tell you like pinpoint the moment that I realized, like, oh, man, like education about this lifestyle is really important to me, I probably should have realized it a little sooner. I do have a master's degree in elementary education and have taught school for several years. And so I should have put two and two together that education was really important to me, however, comma, it took a while. But I was I participated in this event in New York City called theater of war. And the premise of this is that actors come on and do a scene or two from a Greek tragedy that depicts like wartime behavior. And then after the scenes are over a panel of people who are military affiliated, whether they be active duty veteran, spouse, whomever talk about their own experience with war, based on like, what the show was about, we have to connect our experiences to the play in front of an audience. And then after the panelists share their experience, the moderator has very specific questions, he asked the audience to kind of get their feedback, get their read, you know, if this is totally new for them, like what, you know, what kind of came to them while they were watching both the play and hearing the experiences. And it was a two night run. And I did both nights on the panel, and one of the evenings after I'd shared my version of what it you know, experience with Ward, there was like a cocktail reception afterward. And this girl came up to me and she kind of like touched my arms, like, thank you so much for sharing your story. And I was like, oh, you know, you're welcome. Like, you said, I just didn't have any idea. There were people like you. Wow, insert, like, awkward silence because I have nothing to say. And inside my head, I'm like, wait, what? Like, you didn't know that people that like went to were married to people, you didn't know that there were families? Like, I'm not really sure what's happening. You know, I was so shocked by her comment that I didn't say all the things I wish I'd said and like, you know, now years later, I wish I would have had more of that education mindset of like, actually there, you know, point two 5% of us. Yeah, around the US. But really, I mean, that really, for me, kind of set the pace for me and like, not a goal per se, but just really kind of lit that fire of, you know, it is important that people know, I mean, this was for an audience of a largely civilian people, like I would say, out of the 100 people there. 90 of them are civilian, you know, I mean, right? And that's because like, my husband was in the audience, so he is obviously military affiliated. Like

you added into this statistic. You're like,

yeah, it's probably Yeah, but you know, we were talking to people that really didn't have any connection and so one I am so grateful that that program exists and theater of war still does great work now, still doing that same program to really make that connection. But yeah, I mean, I can see it just as clearly now, like, almost been like five years, you know, five years after doing it as I could that night and it, I do think it's really important. I think it's really important that those of us who live this lifestyle share because it is hard, and it also is neat, and it also is fun. And it, you know, I never imagined living in California, I mean, kinda like maybe when I was watching Saved by the Bell thought it would be cool, but not like as a Oh yeah, I'm gonna move to California and live there. It's just like this weird idea. Now, I've been here for four years. So I'm like, Oh, I've lived in California. I've lived outside of Manhattan. Like, who didn't want to do that when we watch Sex in the City in college, like everyone, you know, since provide a lot of experience. And then I think is a spouse and having children. I mean, one, it's given my children an incredible amount of resilience and learning to go with the flow, and learning to be flexible, and it's brought its own scars and wounds. And also, especially because they were small, when we lived in New York, and got to do a lot of really fun things. It gave them this idea of the world that like being in the military was fun. Like, they got to do a lot of things that had we stayed living, you know, had I gotten married and stayed in my hometown, like we would have never done. I mean, I'm always struck by one of my first memories for being up in New York with them is that my parents came to visit our first Thanksgiving, and we'd been there about four or five months. And so we'd taken the boys into the city, and they'd kind of seen the big sites and my parents came up at Thanksgiving, and we take them to Times Square, and my dad who was in his 60s is like standing there, like a kid looking at all the all the lights because he'd never been to New York City. And my three year old was like, Hey, what are you doing? He's like, I've just never been here. It's really my three year olds, like, that's three. I've been here. You know. And so there's a certain aspect of military life that like, I hope that when they're older, they get to look back on and go, Man, when I was three, I was in Times Square, like when we were seven. When I was seven, we moved to San Diego, and I got to see the Pacific Ocean, which was in my 30s when I saw the Pacific Ocean when we moved here. Right, you know, so I think talking about all of it, The Good, the Bad, the Weird, the cool, yeah, it's really helpful. And as a writer, I mean, stories are my jam. So

yeah, I appreciate you sharing all of that. Jennylyn. And again, it just affirms why I'm so glad you know, to have you as a co host, to add your perspective and be unapologetic about it. Especially when you come to a place where you realize, like what you thought was normal is actually very abnormal for a lot of people. And I think we can kind of, like I said earlier, like demystify, and I want to say D romanticize, I don't know if that's a word, but like, you know, stop romanticizing the military life. It's very common on Instagram, for example, where you see that standard photo of a service member coming home and the spouse, whether it's a girlfriend, fiance, or wife is greeting them. And it's all about the reunion. It's all about that beautiful, exciting reunion. But there's a lot of pain that happens before that, you know, all the waiting the patience, like the, you know, just kind of the questioning and ask yourself, like, is this worth it? Is it worth waiting for this person to come back, or just that resilience of like, I'm going to wait for this person to come back, and I'm going to keep myself busy. But then by the time they're back, it's like you already have this whole routine. So it's like just that little snapshot of Oh, my gosh, they're back is really only a snapshot, you know, there's so much that happens before and after that. And so I'm just glad to have a medium such as podcasting to really convey more to the story other than just that snapshot moment, which is so beautiful, and it drives people to tears. I've definitely seen those, like, even my husband has shown me those videos where the service member comes home to their dog, you know, and the dog hasn't seen the service member forever. And the dog is just like freaking out. And it's like the cutest thing and you're crying and stuff like that. But again, that is only one aspect of this military life. There's so much that goes in it the good, the bad, the ugly. And I'm just really glad to have this medium again, to really amplify those stories and let people know, it's not just a service member, that sacrificing for your freedom. But it's a family. So you're welcome. And, you know, thank us by listening to our stories and honoring us and having more conversations with us not just calling us rich or military brats.

Yeah. When we talk about like sharing our stories, and you know what we do? I think the thank you is great. And what I would really stress is that it's often really awkward for military families and it's awkward because one so many things are romanticized or villainized. I mean, there's a very there are very few shows on TV and There are two that I can think of that I watched that do it quite well. But most it's either this like over dramatization of what it's like to be at war or to be someone who comes home from war, and what that looks like, or it's over romanticize in the eighth grade, he's home. And neither of those are totally true. And I think with, you know, thanking us for our service, the best thank you, at least for me, and my family is like, be willing to learn about our story. I think that's one of the things that really in Connecticut, with our friends, really, when they would say things like that they could put a face and a name to what they were saying. And they knew the things that our family had walked through, versus a blanket like, awkward thank you on a subway, which happened often because Matthew was in uniform, and it's always this awkward, like, you're welcome. You know, where's really? You know, really, it's like, thank you. And do you know what we do? Thank you. And you actually want to know who we are like, and it's the and that's more important to me than the thank you like, because chances are, you're not like me, because I represent point two 5% of the population like chances are you actually have no idea what you're thinking before, you have no idea that my husband left when my first son was three months old, for training, and literally never came back. Like, I mean, for a weekend here, there was not home when my you know, was on deployment when my second child was born, and met him on the pier, like, then deployed again immediately after, and we moved 25 days after he came home from deployment. And and and you have none of that when you look at me standing next to him in uniform. And that actually is far more important to me than just the blanket. Thank you. Yeah. So I really hope that people listening who are military families, like, know how much of those of us that do this really do appreciate what you do. And for anyone listening to this, that didn't know all of those things, like before just rushing out to thank you, like, maybe actually take the time to get to know the people. And a better thank you is, Can I cut your grass when your husband's gone? Like, you know, right? Do you need a babysitter for your kids while you run to the grocery store? Like that, for me is a much better way to like appreciate a military family than just thanks for your service.

Yeah, it's almost like an empty apology. In a way. It's all like if you're going to apologize, or if you're going to express gratitude, like put some umph behind it, you know, like, add something to it, like, Can I do anything for you? Can I help you tell me? And you know, my husband brought that up too, because as a veteran, he gets it all the time. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your service. And he's all like, can you get to know me? He's like, good, you say anything else? But thank you. Like, can you ask me? Like, what if I just did paperwork? What if I just push paper in the military? Like, what are you begging me for? You know, like, you have no idea like what I did, I'm glad that you brought that up. Because I think that this is a great way to create awareness about that. And let people know that you could do more than say thank you and with this show will give you the tools, you know on how to do it, we will encourage you, we will challenge you to do that. Because remember, freedom isn't free. And part of that is thanks to our service members and our military families that support the service member. Wow. Well, genuine, I think that was I think that's a great way to bring you on the show. Before we go just really quick. Let's just give a little snapshot of your life today just so that like yes, you are a co host on the show, but I know that you do other things. And so let us know for our listeners that want to get to know you. What do you up to nowadays?

Man? What am I not up to this? Probably? Probably the better question. Well, during the pandemic, I have on boarded as an outreach coordinator for national military mental health networks. So I advocate for military mental health both for service members, veterans and families. That is super important to me as military family. I'm also the mom of two elementary aged boys that my husband and I are co homeschooling we chose not to go the virtual route, we're actually like, wow, I mean, the curriculum ourselves, which in some ways is really fun. And in some ways, it's really not you know, it's so you know, and then doing all the regular like, regular everyday stuff. I mean, in here in California, we've had more restrictions than most I also have been pretty good at putting up boundaries. I know you and I kind of talked off air but like trying to put a boundaries between what is work and what is home because I actually never leave my house. Right. Right. You know, what's work, what's homes, what's mom life, what am I doing and, and I'm also a writer, and that's really important to me too. So I spend, you know, several hours a week like writing if nothing else has been journaling, just just because this time is weird. And I mean also exciting and doing something that I love professionally and momming during this season and all the stuff the military Greetings to you. I mean, currently my husband's on shore duty. So we have not dealt with the like, weird deployment thing during COVID. But wow, that's all come with its own set of weird challenges, you know, so every day looks very much the same, and also very different based on kind of what's going on, like, I work inside my house. So I very rarely ever leave. And also, you know, one day homeschooling is really hard for my kids, and they're laid out on the floor and the other another day, like, they get right to it. And we have fun. I think I could do this forever. No, 24 hours later, I'm like, why did we ever make this decision? For? What were we thinking? You know, so I think in this season, especially, there's been a lot of high highs and a lot of low lows. And for me trying to balance the best I can, all of the roles that I fill in all the roles that I play, and try to combat kind of that I've heard a great phrase like fatigue, fatigue. I think in this season, that's probably been something that I have worked on, as far as my own mental health is that like, just being tired of being tired of how everything is, yeah. And so tried to, you know, get outside more and exercise more and, you know, do fun stuff with my kids to keep everybody busy, because very tired of income.

Yeah, absolutely. Which is why I'm excited for you to go on vacation soon. And also why I feel revitalized, because we talked about this offline. But even Yeah, last week was the first time in months where my husband and I just took off to the mountains. And we literally had no reception, we found out when we arrived, that we were gonna have no reception or Wi Fi and it was really a blessing in disguise. So you know, before we go, Jenny Lynn, I just want to take a minute. And you know, not just say thank you for your service, but applaud you for everything that you've done. And and also, I appreciate everything that you shared. And I'm very happy for you that you have found a career that is very fulfilling. And also just thank you for sharing your story and for contributing to the show. Because, you know, like we talked about so often already in this conversation, these stories feel so normal to us, but maybe to the new spouse or the new family or you know, just the civilian counterparts I keep bringing up like they have no idea they have no idea that our service members have a family, you know, that they want to come home to, you know, they're not just like robots that came out of the ship or jumped out of the, you know, the plane and started fighting. Like, there's more to that than what the movies and what media have romanticized around the military. And so again, it's just so great to have a platform to really unpack all that and destigmatize that and let people know that we're just as human as everyone else.

And I think I just want to reiterate how grateful I am to be a part of this, like, I'm so glad that newsletter came to my inbox. This is like the most fun, like weird thing I never saw coming. But I really, really like I mean, I love podcasts, also podcasts all the time, never thought I'd be on one like, you know, on a recurring basis. So, for me, this is super fun. And I'm, I'm happy to have the opportunity to like, you know, you and I both come at this military role slightly differently, you having grown up in it, and then marrying a veteran and me, you know, currently doing the active duty thing. Like, I think it's super important that we both have a different perspective of this lifestyle, and yet inherently understand one another. And so I'm just really grateful to be here. Yeah, this is fun. Oh, good. I'm so

glad you're having fun. I feel, you know, the way that you worded that I feel like we covered all our bases, we have the child perspective, we have an active duty perspective. And then we have the veteran sort of perspective when I talk about my husband, because we actually met after his service. So it's interesting to see the impacts of what the military had done to him after the fact and also just how he continues to have this passion for our military community. Otherwise, you know, this show probably wouldn't have existed if he wasn't still a diehard military advocate after his service. Well, awesome. Jenny Lynn, it's an absolute pleasure having you I'm so glad that you're having fun on here. I'm excited to have more fun with you. And I know that our upcoming guests are really going to appreciate having you on and your perspective, as well. And that's it. I'm gonna go ahead and wrap this up. Jamie Lynn, thank you for being on. And thank you again for sharing your story. And I'm very much looking forward to these upcoming interviews with you, too. Cool. All right. Well, I will officially wrap it up now. So to our listeners, we hope that today's episode give you one more piece of knowledge, resource or relevant stories so that you can continue to make confident and informed decisions for you and your family. Thanks so much for joining us, and we'll chat with you in the next episode. Tune in next time