Adrienne Caudill

Adrienne and Keegan at her High School Graduation.

Mrs. Adrienne Caudill

Tell me a little about yourself.

I grew up in Florida, and moved to Chiefland when I was 10. I consider Chiefland my “home town.” I met my husband Keegan for the first time when I was 11 or 12 but we didn’t start dating until years later when I was a senior in high school. When we decided to get engaged, it really made a lot of sense to us, but looking back I can see exactly why everyone thought we were crazy! He was in the army already so right after high-school graduation we got married and I moved out to Texas, near Fort Hood. He actually deployed to Iraq later that year so I moved back home and started school. Over the last 10 years we’ve lived in 6 different states and are about to move into our 8th home. We have 3 hilarious and fun children, and we are expecting our 4th in August. Life as a military spouse has been a challenging but exciting adventure. I enjoy exploring new places and meeting all sorts of people! There are a lot of difficult moments but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. As a family we love being outdoors, hiking, and enjoying God’s creation. In the last year or two we made a “bucket list” goal to visit all (or as many as we can) of America’s national parks. We hit some really cool ones on our cross-country road trip last year, including the Redwoods, Alcatraz Island, Chaco Canyon, and the Grand Canyon. We’ve also been to the Olympic Rainforest, Mount Rainier, Mount Rushmore, & the Badlands, to name a few. Just last month we spent a few days in Georgia and visited Cumberland Island National seashore which was absolutely breathtaking. I love that my husband’s job takes us all around the country and we love getting to share the experience with our kids. As for me personally, I enjoy gardening, reading, cooking & baking, and being a mom! I’m a semester away from finishing my bachelor’s degree and people keep asking when/where I’m going to work, so I always feel a bit strange when I tell them I’m going to shelf my diploma indefinitely and continue to stay home with my kids. I feel like we have a lot of different callings in our life, but for right now I definitely feel called to be at home with them. We made the decision to homeschool the year our oldest was going to start kindergarten. We knew we’d be moving in the middle of the school year, and since I was already teaching him a lot of things at home it made the most sense to just keep him home. That has kind of spilled over into each year and next year I’ll be homeschooling a 2nd and 1st grader, (plus juggling the 2 little guys.) Our school choice has provided a lot of flexibility for our military lifestyle and it has been a real blessing to our family. I don’t know if we will do it forever, but so far it has worked out really well. I always say I’m taking it one year at a time!

What fictional character do you feel is most like you?

This is an interesting question...I feel like I’m a good mash-up of Hermione Granger, Leslie Knope. And Mary Poppins.

Of all of the paces you've traveled, what has been your favorite trip/place?

This is tough to answer because we’ve visited a lot of amazing places and they are hard to compare, however one of my favorite places in the world is the Olympic peninsula in Washington state. From rocky pacific coastlines to stunning rainforests---that place is heavenly. I get sort of homesick for it sometimes.

Tell me about your wedding.

I was 18, he was 19. We were married in the pre-pinterest era, which I’m glad for because I didn’t have a lot of crazy expectations. We were married at First Baptist Church in Chiefland and my uncle officiated the ceremony. It was short and sweet and we held a reception at the Tommy Usher center in Chiefland. We didn’t have any time for a honeymoon because the army only allowed him a few days of leave and we had to pack up and move out to Texas.

What advice would you give young married couples?

Marriage is hard. Harder than you think --- Anything I can think of to say sounds so cliché….be willing to compromise. Give in on things that aren’t worth the fight. Respect the other person, their feelings, their interests, their style….it will all be be different than yours, but accept it. Accept in advance that they will have vices, but know that we ALL are works in progress. Talk to each other. Ask your spouse for their opinion on things. Set up guard rails. Don’t always “follow your feelings,” because sometimes what feels good in the moment isn’t the right thing. 

Liam, Leif, and Raleigh

If you could sum up each of your children with one word, what would those words be?

Liam: “curious.” Raleigh: “free-spirit.” Leif: “handful.”

What has been the toughest moment you have experienced as a military wife?

Military life provides lots of tough moments. The first ones that come to mind are all the moments when your spouse has been gone, whether it be for a week or several months, and you’re just flat out tired of doing everything alone. I also think about the times you have to pick up and move and say goodbye to so many people you love dearly. But there’s nothing like experiencing the loss of a friend, a soldier, a child’s father, your friends husband --- sometimes it is someone close to you and sometimes it’s someone you knew only casually, but if you’ve done this lifestyle long enough you’ve experienced it, and it’s never easy.

What are some of the blessings that you have experienced as a military wife?

Hands down the people. There is a unique quality about the military and how it brings people together. First of all, there are a bunch of people, all living hundreds/thousands of miles away from their “homes” and “real families,” all thrown together to be co-workers and friends and neighbors and you just sort of share in the uniqueness of your situation and become each other’s families. Second of all, no one else understands the ins and outs of the military life except other military families. Military friend/family bonds are strong. At every duty-station we’ve been to we have developed close family-like relationships with friends there. The neat part is how you are bound to cross paths again over the years. As we speak, I’m crashing at an old friend from Fort Bragg’s home as I drive across the eastern US on a trip. My husband is out in Arizona for training for a few months, and he’s had countless dinners with some old military friends of ours that are stationed there now, and he spent Easter Sunday with some dear friends of ours that we knew in Washington. I have close friends from New England, California, Texas, the Phillipines, and countless other places. Military families are diverse and that makes for interesting friendships! 

Tell me a little about each of the places you've been stationed/lived?

1. We started out in Texas at Fort Hood. Texas is a great place and the people are amazingly hospitable and kind there. We did quite a bit of exploring and our favorite city was definitely San Antonio.

2. We moved to Virginia next--over on the Eastern part about an hour from the coast. Our time in Virginia was short but that area was packed with neat things to do. We lived right between the James and York rivers. We got to visit the location of the original colony of Jamestown, as well as so many other interesting places.

3. We lived in North Carolina for 3 years at Fort Bragg. We loved it there because we were close enough to home to visit for holidays. We met a lot of really great friends in North Carolina. Our daughter Raleigh was born there and her namesake is NC’s capital city!

4. After North Carolina we moved to Washington state for 3 years. It didn’t take us long to fall in love with Washington. Everything people say about the weather is 100% true. It rains a lot and it’s grey and cloudy for a lot of the year…but the summers couldn’t be more perfect. It’s glorious and everywhere you go everyone is outside soaking it up. The rest of the year you just have to learn to embrace it and go out anyways. The mountains and the evergreens and the Puget sound make for a breathtaking scenery. We love the culture of the Pacific Northwest.

5. We left Washington and moved to upstate New York, outside Fort Drum. We bought our first home there and thought we’d be staying for 3 years, but that turned into about 9 months, ha! Upstate New York is very rural. There were lots of rolling hills and farms. And Amish people! I always had to try so hard not to stare at the Amish people because I was so fascinated with their way of life. We experienced out first “real winter” this past winter. The locals say it “wasn’t that bad,” but I beg to differ. The snow is beautiful when it’s falling and you’re tucked away inside cozy and warm. Waking up to negative -10 degrees and needing to shovel out your vehicle isn’t too fun, lol. We were looking forward to exploring more in New York but now we’re headed back to NC. Maybe the army will bring us and NY together again some day!

What are some of the cool "local" digs/things you've experienced at each of those places?

There are so many neat places we’ve visited over the years, but I always loved being able to go to random little coffee stands in Washington to get a good cup of joe. They weren’t full-fledged coffee shops…just little closet sized stands in parking lots and on corners where you could get coffee. They were everywhere and it was amazing. We also loved Astoria, Oregon. We visited several times and there was a coffee roasterie there that we loved, and a little hole-in-the-wall seafood place that had the best chowder.

What are some of the funniest things your kids have said?

My kids….man they’ve said some ridiculous things. I should be better about writing them down but I never do. I remember once when Liam was like 3 he was eating a popsicle and I guess he got brain freeze because he said, “Mom! It’s freezing my ideas!” Raleigh used to have some very involved imaginary friends. One of them was named Gracious, and I remember one time when Raleigh was 2 or 3 we were driving down the road when out of nowhere Raleigh told me, “Well mom, Gracious is dead. I hit her on the head with my hello kitty lunchbox.” I didn’t really know what to say! They keep me laughing, that’s for sure.