The simple T-shirt, genderless and worn by all, hasn’t changed much since the late 19th Century when it was introduced as an undergarment. Or has it? Today’s T-shirts are basically the same with one exception: They’ve become a vehicle for promoting and advertising anything and everything under the sun. Corporate-branded T-shirts, pop culture and celebrity fan T-shirts, concert and event T-shirts, military unit and veteran T-shirts, protest and social cause T-shirts, and self-image T-shirts are commonplace throughout the world.
The Beginning of Printed T-shirts:
One of the first instances of printed T-shirts occurred in 1942 when Life magazine featured an Air Corps Gunnery School T-shirt on its cover. But the idea of putting words and images on T-shirts did not get real until the 1960s when printed T-shirts became a popular means of self-expression. Marketers picked up on this trend, and, as they say, the rest is history.
Military T-shirts:
Marketers weren’t the only ones who saw the value of printed T-shirts. Today, thousands of military-related messages appear on T-shirts, both in and out of uniform. The military realized the convenience of T-shirts early on. In 1905, the U.S. Navy adopted the T-shirt as part of its uniform. Other services followed, and by the end of World War II, T-shirts were required to be worn under the uniform by all military branches.
Many service members continued the habit of wearing T-shirts upon returning home after the war. Military veterans began wearing them as casual outerwear as they had done while serving overseas. Up until that time, T-shirts weren’t considered an appropriate garments to wear in public.
The T-shirt owes much of its popularity to the military, and military printed T-shirts are popular with the young and old. Their printed messages normally promote unit cohesiveness and recognition; honor a certain group, such as veterans and POW/MIAs, and display pride and patriotism.
Each of us is dreaming and planning of how to make our special day stand out and worth remembering for everyone. But, sometimes, it’s easier said than done. However, if you are serving in the military, you are an ex-Army officer, or you’re a cadet in the Academy, you are entitled to have a wedding ceremony in a military fashion. Military weddings in the States are different than the typical civil weddings in many ways.
Although they proved to be very hard to organize and plan due to the uncertainty and dynamics of living the military life, there is a big chance that everyone present at the wedding will remember it for all of those little things that are applicable only to these types of weddings. In this article, we’ll give you a number of brief examples of all of the traditions related to military-themed weddings:
Dress Code:
If you’re in the military and you decide to marry your beloved, you will be expected to wear your unit’s uniform, along with all of the medals or ribbons that you might have. And, as there will probably be lots of other military members (most commonly, the best man), they are also expected to wear their Army suits.
In cases when the bride is the one serving her country, there is a tradition that calls for a bride wearing military boots under her beautiful wedding dress. Apart from that, when attending a military-themed wedding, all attendees should wear formal attire if they’re not members of the military.
Arch From the Drawn Swords:
The feeling of walking down the aisle and saying that fateful ‘’yes’’ is even better when you know that there will be a memorable moment after that where you and your beloved will march down the arch made of drawn swords and sabres. Truly a sight to behold and relatable only to military weddings.
Army Insignia:
To spice things up even more and make everyone feel like part of the Army tradition, couples can also opt for engraving custom insignia on challenge coins and presenting a coin to each guest. Professional yet affordable coins can be made by Embleholics on your big day.
It’s also worth noting here that military couples do enjoy some benefits in the form of numerous discounts when it comes to finding a professional makeup artist for the wedding or acquiring pearl wedding rings.
Military bases of operation usually provide everything for the wedding ceremony and the reception that comes after that. You won’t have a chance of attending a wedding ceremony on base if you are invited to a civilian wedding!
There are many other things that we didn’t mention in this article, but we will leave the rest for you to imagine (although we are pretty sure that you already know of many things that should be added to our little list here). The bottom line, is that military weddings are truly different than other weddings. They never fail to create unforgettable memories and experiences for everyone.
If you are stuck on what career you want to do or you simply need a way to make some extra cash, you can make a lot of money by simply using your driving license. The beauty of having a driving license is that you become opened up to a lot more jobs and many companies might even pick you first for a job because if it. Here are some of the ways you can make a living by being a driver:
Delivery Driver:
If you are looking for a way to make some extra money this month, then you can give up a couple of hours in the evening to be a delivery driver. You can become an uber eats driver, a deliveroo driver, or even ask at your local takeaway if they need some extra help. It won’t necessarily be a huge wage for you to live off of, but it will be a good start.
Formula One Driver:
If you really love to drive and you want a career where you get to live your ultimate dream, then becoming a racing driver could be the perfect career path for you. It will, of course, be a difficult journey for you to take on, but as long as you have the passion and drive to success you can make this into a wonderful career for yourself.
Tank Driver:
If you have ever wondered who mans the tanks in the army, you could be one of these people. Tank drivers are not just average soldiers and they have to be trained heavily to be able to man such a monstrous machine. If you always loved playing army as a child, then this could be your chance to live the dream and play with the real thing for yourself.
Bus Driver:
If you love your local area and you also enjoy talking to new people every day, then becoming a bus driver could be the perfect job for you. You will get free travel around the country when you aren’t working and you can enjoy driving around your local city every day. You will, of course, need the patience to not get road rage!
Chauffeur:
Chauffeurs aren’t just for characters off of Downton Abbey, you know. Many high profile people will use a chauffeur to drive them around every day, and it means that you will have the chance to drive the most luxurious cars as you tend to your employer. You will need several years of driving experience and you will also need to have some basic car maintenance skills in case you ever get stuck out on the road.
Driving Instructor:
Last but not least is becoming a driving instructor for children and other people in your local area. You can either join an agency and work on their behalf or go out independently and make a name for yourself like that. You will need special training and lots of driving experience, as well as a license to say that you are allowed to teach.
If you love to drive and have a lot of, well… drive, then a career that gets you behind the wheel of a car could be an amazing option for you!
If we are honest, all countries need their military at present, although it is not the case that everyone is suitable for military service. But if you are thinking about joining your army, you might well be wondering whether or not you actually have what is required to make that happen. It’s no secret that it takes plenty of training and a lot of time before you can get fully admitted into the army – but in the first place, you need to work out whether you are made of the right stuff. You might be surprised at just how many people probably are, and if you read on you will see some strong arguments that you might be able to do this as your career – if you so choose to follow that particular line in your life:
A Sense Of Pride:
Something that tends to set apart those who want to be in the army from the rest of the civilians is that they have a deep pride in their country, their homeland, and what it stands for. If you feel that you are particularly proud of your own nation, then you will probably find it easier to become a soldier, or employ another role within the army of your country (see below). Of course, this is not something you can fake, and you either are proud of your country or you are not. But as long as you are, and you are keen to serve that country in the manner of your choosing, you might find that joining the army is a great way to do so. If you are particularly proud, you might even choose to have your time in the army commemorated later on with a coin from MilitaryCoinsUSA or somewhere similar.
A Special Skill:
It’s important to remember that not everyone in the army is a soldier. You have a number of different roles which you might be able to fulfill, and that’s why one of the first things to do is to make sure that you have a certain skill which you can be proud of, and which nobody else necessarily has as well as you. It might be that you are a particularly good chef, in which case you could occupy that position in the army. Or maybe you are an engineer, and you want to do that, instead. Whatever it is, you can be sure that there is some way in which you can make it a part of your life by joining the army of your country. So don’t feel that you have to do some of the less savory acts you might associate with being in the army – there are a whole range of things to do.
Once you have made the decision, however, it’s vital that you stick to it. You need to be fully committed to your decision to be in the army if you are to make the most of it, and you might even suffer some poor consequences if you don’t manage to follow through with this. If you don’t know whether you will have the commitment or not, it can mean that you find it much harder to achieve what you want to with your career, so this is an important part of the whole.
Making any major choices in your career path is something that should be thought about very carefully, especially if you are considering a role in your nation’s army.
Hi everyone and happy Hump Day! Yesterday I had the joy of hanging out with one of my dearest friends all day and I’m simply thrilled about it. One of my best friends, Tyler, is in the Army and is stationed far away from my neck of the woods. Tyler and I met during a play that we did, Suicide in B Flat, and have been inseparable ever since and I haven’t seen him for over a year. This past day we got to reenact our classic “Middle Aged Monday” hang outs, where we day drink, craft, and watch silly movies. We had an absolute ball candle making, drinking blueberry flavored beer, and watching Vacation! Take a look:
Tyler picked me up around noon yesterday and we had our usual MAM (Middle Aged Monday, falling on a Tuesday) lunch at Chipotle. After we dined, we hit up Hobby Lobby to find a craft for us to do while we drink. We decided on candle making, which we usually have frowned upon before because all of the products were so expensive. But lucky for us, all of the supplies we needed were half off!
Tyler and I perused Hobby Lobby and found the perfect jars, fragrances, and colored waxes for us to use during our craft. We settled on a peach mango fragrance and then headed to Giant Eagle to get our day drinking alcohol of choice. Usually we always drink wine during our MAM hang outs, but we went for beer this time around because wine always makes us sleepy during early afternoon get togethers. At first I didn’t care for the blueberry flavored beer but after one bottle it was surprisingly delicious!
Once we purchased all of our gear for a middle aged themed hang out, we made the trek back to my place to get our craft and drank on. The candles ended up being hella easy to make because literally all we had to do was pour the wax, wick, and a fragrance into the jar! Talk about easy peasy lemon squeezy! Tyler and I have played around with the idea of making candles before but we had never dreamed that it would be so simple!
After our craft, which ended up being a whopping five minutes to make, we delved into our six pack of Wild Blue beer and put on Vacation. We had a complete blast watching the movie and laughed until we cried. Once our movie was done, we spent time taking some cute picks while quoting basically the entire movie. It was perfect.
I had the most amazing time with one of my dearest friends and it felt so good to see him after such a long time of being apart. When Tyler is away, we keep in touch via Skype, FaceTime, and text – but nothing is better than being face to face with each other! Middle Aged Monday (falling on a Tuesday) was a great success and I can’t wait for my best friend to come home again soon!
Yesterday I got to say Hi to my Best Friend and I couldn’t be happier. We had the best time and I can’t wait to see him again soon! Who has a best friend that lives far away from you? What do you do to keep in touch? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Hey everyone and happy Monday!! So this weekend was full of exciting, shameful, and not too noisy events so let’s get to it and discuss in this Monday Update: A Moment Of Silence Edition:
Let’s start with some good news: One of my best friends on the planet, Tyler, came home for the long Labor Day weekend! Tyler is currently enlisted in the Army and lives in California. He began his journey in October of last year and that was also the last time that I saw him until yesterday! Tyler was so insanely busy this weekend, as there was a wedding he had to attend on top of all of the friends and family that he had to see, so I am SO incredibly thankful that he was able to pencil me in!
Tyler stopped over at my place for an hour or so bearing Pumpkin Spice Latte frappachinos and infinite hugs to ease my ugly crying. I seriously can’t even describe to you guys what it felt like to see him and hug him for the first time in an entire year. When he got out of the car I ran into his arms at full speed and he held me and let me cry for as long as I needed to. I knew for a fact that I was going to be emotional during our reunion but I had no idea that it was going to be like that! The only way I can describe seeing him again was perfect. It was really really perfect.
After lots of hugs and crying outside, we went into my house for chit chatting and staring at each other in disbelief that we were finally together in real life. Hanging out with him felt exactly like it did when he lived in Ohio – our banter was endless and effortless and we were able to laugh at the dumbest little things. I’m so happy that Tyler and I communicate frequently via text and FaceTime because we were able to talk about our most recent endeavors and stories rather than cram a years worth of information into one hour.
I wish that our hour together could have gone on forever but like all good things, it had to end. Before we even exited my house I was already crying. It didn’t feel fair that one of my best friends was finally standing in front of me in the flesh rather than on a phone screen and he had to leave so soon. Seeing Tyler for the first time resulted in tears of joy but my goodbye tears were the epitome of ugly crying. Even though Tyler had places to go, he let me hug him and give him an abundance of cheek kisses for another five minutes before he drove off. He’s so sweet! :*)
Almost a year ago, Tyler and I had a very similar interaction when he left for California and I’ll tell you what – the goodbyes never get any easier. As we texted later that afternoon he described our get together as “bittersweet” and I couldn’t have said it better myself. The bittersweet-ness was so real considering my first tears were so happy and my goodbye ones were of the purest sadness. There’s things that you forget about people when you haven’t seen them in so long. I couldn’t believe that I forgot Tyler’s staggering height – especially in comparison to mine. I forgot the way that when we hug my head doesn’t even reach his shoulders. I forgot what it felt like to hear his voice with my own ears rather than on a speaker. Tyler is always going to be one of my best friends and the fact that we haven’t seen each other in forever but could pick up right where we left off completely solidified that for me. I love him so so much and I can’t wait for the holiday season so he can come home again soon! ❤
Now let’s get to the part of the Update where we tie the title into one of my stories. As I mentioned last week, mama was not feeling too hot at all and unfortunately, I still feel like hell! Hurrayyy! The remnants of my sickness when the weekend rolled around was a sore throat. Now the remnants of my sore throat is that my voice is completely gone! Allow me to explain:
Long story short, Saturday was a day of intense drinking for me. While I was sick during the week, I wasn’t smoking at all but of course, when I drink, I always smoke like a damn cowboy. During my drinking excursions, I managed to cough through a half a pack of ciggies and told myself that I’d be fine after. APPARENTLY NOT! I was on my Lindsay Lohan too hard and when I woke up Sunday morning it was almost comical to see myself open my mouth to speak and have nothing come out. Luckily, I had about two hours of salvageable speaking in the morning because I would have been so devastated if I couldn’t talk with Tyler!
ANYWHO, for the remainder of Sunday my day was spent mouthing words or writing out short phrases on a notepad to communicate. I figured that after a day of resting my tired voice that I would be fine…APPARENTLY NOT! I woke up this morning eager to test my pipes out and nothing came out. I kind of felt like the Little Mermaid though…so that was cool. My Moments Of Silence have turned into a day and a half of not speaking and honestly I’m going fucking crazy. It frustrated me to the point that I was almost crying yesterday when I wanted to tell my family something and literally couldn’t. So if everyone could take a Moment Of Silence and send some good vibes Lil Red’s way, I’d be forever grateful and will join you in your moment…because I have no other choice. #FML
^^^ This video was basically me this weekend. SHAMEFUL!
So there you have it, this week’s Monday Update: A Moment Of Silence Edition! How was everyone’s weekend? Does anyone have any fun Labor Day plans? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Whatupppp. So I recently discovered after over a year of having my iPod fifth generation that I can FaceTime on there! Better late than never, right? My FaceTime experience began when my best friend/soul mate, Kate needed a chat and I couldn’t come over to her place for some reason or another. After about fifteen minutes of technical difficulties, we finally figured FaceTime out and had a lovely Skype-like convo. My favorite FaceTime story though has to do with my darling and dear friend Tyler, who’s in the army and lives in California. Tyler is my Middle Aged Monday cocaptain, my confidant, and someone who I hold very close to my heart. (You can read all about Tyler in my posts “Middle Aged Monday” and “My Friend, Tyler”). I haven’t seen Tyler in over half a year since he began basic training in October and then left for California in January. Before FaceTime (B.F.), we would text and write letters to each other. But needless to say – I still missed him terribly! Thanks to Kate helping me discover that I had the capability to FaceTime on my iPod, I asked Tyler if he had the technology to video chat with me in Cali, and luckily he did! We scheduled a FaceTime date with each other, and my heart was seriously pounding like a drum while I waited for the call to go through – I haven’t seen Tyler face to face in so long and I was SO excited! When we finally got connected with each other and I could see his goofy self, I legit could have cried. Being able to hear him and see him talk was so special to me – texting and letter writing are great, but there’s really nothing like hearing someone’s voice. During our first FaceTime it was mainly just freaking out over actually seeing each other! We decided to make our video chats a weekly thing, so once a week we FaceTime for a half hour or longer – as long as it takes to tell each other all of the news we have from the previous week! Being able to talk to Tyler face to face – or phone to iPod I should say, seriously never gets old. Every time our FaceTime call connects through and I see his face appear on my screen it still makes me feel the way I felt during our first video chat with each other – happy, happy, happy! My favorite thing about our FaceTime talks is being able to laugh with him. I never realized how much I missed his laugh until I got to hear it again! We talk about serious stuff, but a hefty portion of our chats are usually devoted to reminiscing on old inside jokes and making references to our favorite movies that we would watch together during our Middle Aged Monday hang outs. I never knew that something as simple as a video chat could bring me so much joy, but here we are a month later and I still look forward to our talks every week and I cherish every minute of them! I love my Tyler so much and I can’t wait to see him hopefully in the near future!
^^^ Ahhh, these were the last pictures we took together on our final hang out before Tyler left for basic training! So cute!
I hope all of you are having a fabulous day! Who is someone that you love to FaceTime or Skype with? Do you have someone who’s far away from you that you’re missing? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
lifewithlilred 