Military Fun

Last week, we took LMA out of school for the day to see the Andrews Air Force Base Air Show. Although it took us a little bit longer than expected to actually get to the air show field, it was a day filled with excitement. Ever since we went to Miramar Air Force Base Air Show in California last year, BBZ just LOVES airplanes. In fact, I'm pretty sure "WOW" was his first word there. Now, it's "Oh, Wow!" and "Airpane" (yes, that is spelled without an 'l' because that is how he says it). I was thinking of staying only until 1pm or naptime, but I thought if BBZ was really that tired, he could just fall asleep in his stroller. It wasn't until 3:30pm that he finally fell asleep and only for 30 minutes! We caught up with some school friends, walked around "Texas" for a bit, and sat in a few cockpits. We will definitely be going back next year if we are still in the area!

Our new countdown

Little Man A is still "dealing" with Daddy being gone. His new way of dealing involves asking about all things Army. The other day he wanted to hear an Army song. So we went to iTunes where we downloaded, "The Army is Rolling Along". Then he wanted to see Army trucks, particularly Army dump trucks. Then he wanted to watch an Army movie. That one, I didn't come through with, because well, let's face it. I'm not sure I could find a child friendly Army movie. He even gave Daddy an assignment for the weekend to take pictures of an Army dump truck, the huge iguanas that Daddy keeps talking about, the house where he lives, and his house phone (which actually happens to be the exact same phone we have here).

The other way we are dealing is with our new way of counting down. As of right now, we are planning on seeing Daddy in April. Whether or not this actually happens all depends on the Army, of course. On New Years Day, I counted out 106 paper strips to put them together to make a chain. Each month is labeled and is a different color just so we know we are on track. Then I marked each chain by 5's. It's a good thing I did this because 3 days went by last week before we pulled off some links.

So far we haven't had any major meltdowns like we did last month. Some days are still better than others, especially if BBZ doesn't wake everyone up at 6:30am! Most days, we get through the daily routine okay. But it's been awesome to see LMA's face every night when he pulls off one more link of the chain. And then when I have to move the chain lower we all get excited knowing that April is getting closer every day.

So let the countdown begin. I just hope the Army doesn't mess this one up or they are going to have one pissed off kid on their hands.

(Not) Dealing with it

As a military wife, I am suppose to be the backbone of the family. I am suppose to be strong, confident, tend to both myself and my children while not complaining one bit that my husband might be some place else warm and defending our country. Even though he might not want - strike that - does not want to be there without his family, I still envy him when both boys start to act up and I feel as though I can barely make it through the rest of the day. But should I really mention this to hubby/Daddy? Nope. I am to remain strong so he can focus and accomplish the task at hand so he can just come home when his time is over.

Since Daddy left for Cuba almost 3 months ago (boy does it seem and how I wish it were longer), LMA has been dealing with Daddy being gone. Or not.

Lately, I've noticed LMA's attention span dwindling. Incident reports are being handed to me on a daily basis, it seems, from his school teacher. Temper tantrums are at an all time high. He's constantly acting as if he is tired, at least that's what he tells me. Some of this has changed, like acting bored, since Pop-pop has arrived last month, but the others are still affecting our daily life. I've even gone so far as to wonder if he is starting to show signs of ADD. But my mother assures me that he is not. He wouldn't be able to sit still for 20 minutes while you read him a or several books, he wouldn't be able to sit still for 20 minutes while he plays with his LEGOS, and so on.

The other day, after waking up at 7am (I know for some that is sleeping in, but for my first born he should really be sleeping in until 8am), I was determined to make him have "quiet time". He of course thinks that includes sleeping, but to me its' just simply "down time". So that's what we are calling it now. He, on the other hand, was determined to fight me the entire way.

We walked, or should I say, I walked with LMA being dragged behind, into his room. I, with book in hand ("How to talk to children and how to listen so children will talk"), sat down in the middle of the room and began to pick out some books for him. He wanted to play. And was completely focused on that and nothing else. When he moved closer to the closed door, I would pulled him back into the room. Finally I sat in front of the door. When he came close again, I grabbed him and gave him the biggest bear hug. This time, I was going to take the squeeze approach to handling this tantrum.

After wriggling what seemed like 5 minutes, I finally began to whisper words in his ear. "Daddy loves you, A. Daddy misses you, A. Mommy loves you, A. Mommy loves you so much."

His reply? "I don't love Daddy. I don't miss Daddy. I don't love you, Mom."

I just kept repeating the words over and over, even though he was still wriggling and yelling "Let me go!" I held tight.

Finally, I asked, "Tell me how you are feeling. Are you mad the Army took Daddy away? Are you sad he's not here? Do you want to draw how you feel? If you were a color, what color would you be right now?" These just happened to be ideas about tantrums in the book that I was able to read while he was trying to sneak out of his room. This caught his attention.

After he finally calmed down and we talked about how he felt, we settled down on his bed to read "The Velveteen Rabbit". If it wasn't for the fact that he had to go pee halfway through the book, I'm fairly certain he would have fallen asleep. Even still, just laying down, listening intently to the story seemed to calm him.

Since then, I'm lost as to how to make his daily life better without Daddy here. I'm determined to have him spend at least 30 minutes in his room reading. It doesn't have to be in his bed, so maybe that will appeal to him. Last night though, while reading the "Parade" magazine from the sunday paper, I found an article about Flat Daddies. The story, about a mother of three who's husband has been deployed several times and has missed all 3 of his three-year-old daughter's birthdays, talked about the adventures with their Flat Daddy. He spends almost every occasion with them even going to Chuck E Cheeses, the mall, birthday parties, and of course, holidays.

This, I decided, is my answer. If I order it this week, we should have a Flat Daddy by Christmas. I was hoping we could get it in time for LMA's birthday party, the week prior which also happens to be Daddy's birthday, but I almost think that Christmas would be even better. Of course, hubby is going to wonder what the hell is going thru my head. I have to hope for the best. If it doesn't work, then maybe it'll help us, not just LMA, remember that Daddy is still a part of this family. Even if he is hundreds of miles away he's still here in our hearts.

What could he be thinking?

I can't believe it's been close to an entire month since I posted. Lately, I just haven't been in the mood. Occasionally, I'll have a few photos I want to share, but just can't find the words to go with it. I should probably just post the pics considering family like Wenderina love to just see how the boys are doing. Even the big one.

We've started talking about Daddy going away with LMA. It started mainly by accident a couple weeks ago when I had a yard sale. The signs I made said "Moving Sale" so everyone kept asking me, "This is the moving sale, right?" I replied that is was going to be a moving sale, but then the military changed their mind and decided to just send hubby. Sometimes I'm not sure what LMA is thinking. Is he sad? Does he understand? Is he mad? Does he think Daddy is going away and not coming back?

Today we watched a video done by Sesame Street talking about a parent, in this case Elmo's Daddy, going away for work. I really wanted to sit down with LMA and Daddy and watch it together. I thought maybe LMA would have questions or just want to talk about it afterwards. Nope. He got mad. In a quiet way.

After quiet time, he wanted nothing to do with me. "Where's Daddy?"

So when I came out into the living room where Daddy had been taking a nap, I found this....






I wish I knew what was going through his little head. I wish I could make him understand that even though Daddy is going away for what seems like a really long time, he loves him and really doesn't want to go. Daddy wishes he could take us with him.

They say there are two different types of reactions from children when they learn that a parent is going away for awhile. One is to be separated, distant. The other is my son: attached. Wants nothing more than to just be with Daddy.

I hope this next year goes by fast.

The Military Saga Continues

Oh, how things can change in a blink of an eye. Sometimes I hate change. Would prefer things to stay status quo. Not sure why I ever decided to become a military wife or a mother then, but alas I did. Thank goodness I love my husband and my children.

As of last week, hubby was waiting for his short term orders to come through. One last memo needed to be added to the packet to make it complete ... oh, and then another.... oh, and one more just for good measure. Instead of doing drill last weekend and hopefully finding out if his packet was complete and if he was ordered to start 15 July, he decided to help out Wally's World because he was gone for 2 weeks straight and he's too nice of a guy. He opted to do it on Tuesday and Wednesday instead.

Monday morning he received a call from a captain at his unit asking him if he would like to volunteer for a deployment. This captain has had hubby's name for awhile and looking out for possible deployments/mobilizations - any where. It's been five years since hubby was deployed overseas and being a new lieutenant he's at the top of the list to be deployed again. I would just prefer it to not be Iraq or Afghanistan (which happened to pop up and I promptly told him NO!).

So when this opportunity came around, needless to say he was actually excited.

The position? At Cuba. Guantanamo Bay. For 330 days.

How am I? I've already started to go through a couple phases of acceptance. First, Denial. "I'll wait until I actually see the orders," I thought. Next day, orders came. Well, at least it's not Iraq or Afghanistan, I thought. I mean he could be selected/told he was going somewhere rather than given the opportunity to choose, I rationed. Then I thought, it's only 10 months (or so he kept telling me. Come to find out it's closer to 11 months. He'll be back July 25th).

Then, I started thinking about how frustrated I get during the day and relieved I am to see him walk through the door at the end of the day. For 11 months, he won't do that. That's about when it hit me.

How am I going to keep sane?
How am I going to keep the house clean, feed the kids, laundry, take care of garbage, and everyday maintenance?
How will LMA deal with not having Daddy around?
He's going to miss BBZ first birthday. Will this child really know who Daddy is when he comes home?
How in the world am I going to dig myself out of the snow if we have another winter like last year???

Of course I want him to take the position. Not only is it a great opportunity for him, it's some place relatively safe, and when he comes home he'll be a 1LT (he'll be up for promotion while he's away). At the same time, I just wish things had never changed.

We both said when he accepted his promotion last October that the next year and a half until he would make 1LT would be tough. I just didn't think it would be this tough. Or maybe I just thought I was tougher and able to handle anything.

I've thought about moving to California with my parents, or moving to Texas with a good friend, or moving back to our old neighborhood here in Virginia. I think the best thing, especially for the boys, is to not change too many things. Even they like status quo too sometimes.

So September 7th, we'll miss him, but I think we'll be okay. I hope.

Memorial Day fun

Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial. I also hope everyone appreciated the military service members, both past and present, for all the freedom and effort they have done and are doing for our country. I know I definitely do.

For us, Memorial Day weekend was also the start to pool season. And thankfully, hubby was home or else we definitely would not have enjoyed it with just mommy on duty. I was super excited to see how BBZ would react to the pool. It was a little crowded, which was expected, but we had a great time. Until of course, LMA was running and decided that on the concrete was a great place to learn how to slide into base. Not good. Shredded up the tops of his ankles and one knee. (He decided to add more coals to fire last night and do it again to the knee that wasn't injured the first time).




Later on after dinner we brought out our own little pool. The water from the hose was a little cold (we tried to off set it by adding a couple gallons of hot water), but both seemed to enjoy it.


Looks like I have two water boys on my hands. Can't wait to take them to the spray grounds water park this weekend.

Something wrong here?

I know I should be mentioning some things that have been happening around the household instead of bringing up our income, but while going over our monthly budget I had to bring it up to someone.

For the past two months, hubby has been working security/loss prevention for Wally World. He's really enjoyed it because of the chase and the thrill of catching someone stealing, but the pay just doesn't add up to what we were used to. He's still trying to get back into the active duty side of the military since taking his promotion last October. Unfortunately, we have both wondered why he took the promotion many times over the past 8 months. We continue to remind ourselves that he just needs to get through until April when he makes First Lieutenant. He does have a few things in the works. It's just a matter of something panning out.

Anyways, you know you had it made with income when you get two paychecks. Both of which are close to the same amount. However, one is for working 80 hours with Wally World. The other? THREE DAYS WITH THE MILITARY!

Didn't think I would ever say this, but he so needs to get back on active duty. It'll happen. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

My roller coaster ride has begun

As of June 22nd, 2009 my hubby was selected to become an officer. As an enlisted soldier, this is a big deal. As an Army wife who is expecting a second child, I would consider this an even bigger deal. Especially since our moving date will probably be around when the "new kid" will be arriving.

And so my roller coaster ride has begun.

This is my life as a military wife. Things you know and expect, and sometimes even look forward to for the sake of your husband's career. But sometimes, there are little bumps in the road, like any road in life, that seem like mountains at the time.

The big thing now for hubby is being able to find a unit who will accept him for what's called a "long tour". This way, he'll remain active duty, however, be working for a reserve unit. By accomplishing this task, he rids the risk of being a "one weekender a month" officer therefore requiring him to find a civilian job which will probably pay half of what he is making now. Oh and did I mention lack of health insurance? Once he gets to the new unit, where ever that might be, he'll be required to go to school to officially become a Second Lieutenant. That school will probably last anywhere from 10 weeks to 14 weeks total (I think). During such time, I'll be abandoned alone with two children. Once he finishes school, he'll be re-applying for the active duty side of the military as an officer. Which I'm sure will mean, once again, that we get to pack our bags.

It's a good thing I don't need to do the packing. We just need to make sure we don't have too much crap stuff to be moved and go over our weight limit. And with two kids and all their stuff in tow, I'm sure it will be close.

We still don't know exactly when (we're hoping for just after the "new kid" is born so I can deliver here with a nurse practitioner and doctor I already know... and don't forget our dearest friends) and hubby is still working on the where. Hopefully, by the time his official papers come in two weeks saying he has been selected, we'll know more.

Until then, I think I'll start taking two tablets of Zoloft daily.

Changing gears

I'm a planner. I like to make sure everything is planned to the "T" so nothing goes wrong. Sometimes, hubby will get in the same groove. Sometimes, he'll plan WAY too much, much more than I would plan (which is a lot if you know me).

However, I married a military man. That doesn't leave much room in the way for planning. Especially when the military has a "wait and see" or a "hurry up and wait" program that they like to follow. So, I've learned to relax a little and try to go with the flow. "Try" being the key word, but I have to admit I've been really good at times about letting things just happen (at least I hope those closest to me would agree).

I'm still determined to plan at least something every once in awhile. So I decided to tackle the finances since the holiday season is officially over now. Dear Lord, help us.

Apparently, now that hubby has his direct commission packet in, he's changed over to the "wait and see" mentality as well. When I asked him where he thinks the "extra" money should go in March, his reply, "Let's just wait and see what's going on that month." Well, according to him, as of this morning anyway, he won't find out until April if his packet has been accepted. From there, it's definitely a "wait and see" scenario.

Ah, roller coaster ride called "My life".

It's a hit!

Well, I know not very many people actually commented about my pics and review of the month of July, but I know for a fact that it was a hit. Looks like I'll be turning this blog entry into a habit. Not only does our family and friends get to catch up with the life of Little Man A, I also have a great entry for future scrapbooking layouts.

Speaking of which, I just received my order of prints that I picked out for my "Little Moments with Little Man A" album. So keep an eye out for those coming soon. Hopefully, if I can pry myself away from ebay long enough this month, I'll be able to finish that as well as Wenderina's wedding album (even if I don't have all of their journaling in hand).

Also on my list to accomplish this month, although it's not necessarily for me, is to have my brother finish my website. If you haven't noticed, I did put a slideshow together of my layouts if you are interested in checking them out. Most of them I've published here already, but I have included a few others I have not displayed. Hopefully, with the website up and running, Scraps 2 Remember will be up and running before the end of the year.

Oh, and one more thing. We're NOT moving before the end of the year! Hubby informed me that the board for his promotion packet will not happen until November. He will be notified if he has been selected 4-6 weeks from there, putting it around Christmas time that we will find out when and even where we will be going next. If he is selected, there are two schools that he needs to complete (total 12-14 weeks long) prior to checking in with his new unit. I'll be staying here since I have friends to keep me occupied here. Not to mention this will postpone our need to either rent or sell our house. Hopefully by then the market will have started to incline again.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

I hate emergency rooms!

Saturday, Little Man wakes up with what feels like a fever. Unfortunately, we have a piece of crap ear thermometer. I thought it was cool when I purchased it because you could theoretically just point it at something and get an "accurate" temperature. Whatever. Every time I check Little Man's temp it says it's normal, but mother's intuition says otherwise.

We were able to make it through the morning routine miraculously because all Little Man wanted to do was walk around with mom with his head attached to my shoulder. He slept until 3:30pm for his nap, which really isn't all that unusual. When he wakes up though, he's not into eating for himself. I would hand him a yogurt covered pretzel and he would turn around and feed it to dad. Although dad was extremely appreciative, I was concerned that he was only wanting to drink juice or milk.

By this time, he felt even more warm to my touch. I called my mom and asked when I should begin acting worried. I double checked his temperature with a regular digital thermometer under his arm and it registered 101 degrees. I knew I really should be taking a rectal temperature, but I was not into torturing my child at that point. I had already given him 1/2 dose of Tylenol 30 minutes prior, so mom recommended to give him the other half of dose.

When I did, he started choking and eventually threw up ALL of his lunch (5 hours later) and anything else that happened to be in his stomach. I yelled down to hubby to say it was time to go to the emergency room.

Now, I know I'm probably throwing this way out of proportion, but I had this aching feeling something else was going on. First we had the problem with the UFR (Unidentifiable Freaking Rash), which we are still trying to get an referral appointment with a dermatologist. Lately it's been a horribly runny nose which I associated with his first molars emerging. I just felt like this could not wait until Monday morning.

When we get to DeWitt Hospital, I inform them of his symptoms (temperature, vomiting, not eating or drinking since noon - past 6 hours). Apparently, these symptoms were not urgent enough to the triage nurse because it was close to 2 hours later that we finally were called back to get his vitals. When she registered a temperature of 103 degrees, I about hit the roof! So, not only has my child not eaten or drank anything for now 8 hours, he has a fever. Can you say dehydrated??

I paced and paced over the next hour and half. We tried to get him to take some liquid Motrin, but that just upset him even more, so we had to give him a suppository of Tylenol to help break the fever. Thankfully, it worked and by the time we made it back to the emergency room, his temperature registered 100.4 degrees. So three hours after we first arrived, now we have to wait to be seen by a doctor.

I told hubby that I was giving them until 10pm to get a doctor or we were going home. Thankfully, Little Man was totally content to play with daddy's wedding ring, his phone, take tissue out of the box and watch it float to the floor. However, we're now 2 hours past his bedtime and he's starting to get cranky.

10pm comes and I address the nurse's station. "My son's temperature is down. He's no longer a priority to you anymore. Can we just go home?" Thankfully, one of the nurse's asked if he's been able to hold anything down. No one had offered him anything, we forgot his sippy cup at home and didn't have one in his emergency diaper bag in the truck (one will be going there now), and now he's just plain tired.

So they got him some Pedialyte and a popsicle to try and he didn't want anything to do with it. Apparently, now he's an urgent patient (not ingested anything in 10 hours!) and around the corner finally comes a doctor. Wouldn't you know it, one look in his ears and he had an ear infection. (rolling my eyes)

However, the doctor is extremely concerned that he's getting dehydrated (no duh!) so now comes the fun part. He's also concerned about RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) and making sure there is no other underlying problem going on. Since he's not eating or drinking on his own, the fun part is an IV in his arm. I'm so sorry buddy.

The rest of the night is kind of a blur, but about midnight I'm about to pass out from lack of nourishment myself. Hubby visited the trusty venting machine and comes back with Cheetos. Little Man's favorite! At first he wasn't interested - said no to daddy when he asked if he wanted a Cheeto and pushed his hand away. But when he got a taste of the cheese, it was all up hill from there.

By the end of the night, he was finally sleeping (until of course they removed his IV and urine bag around his pee-pee (ouch!)) and we were heading home at 1:30am. I never want to do that again! I feel so sorry for parents who have children with repetitive ear infections (as a matter of fact, there was a mother there who knew her child had an ear infection and waited 2 hours without being seen by the triage nurse. She ended up going home and said she would be back tomorrow if it was worse). I feel even worse for parents who have to experience their children being hospitalized for any other reason at all. I consider myself to be a strong person (I listened to my child scream when they checked his temp rectally, tried to give him medicine orally when he couldn't breathe through any other opening than his mouth, and give him an IV and pump his arm to get one last drop of blood for a CBC), but I don't think I could handle my child being hospitalized for a serious illness.

Long story not short, he's doing better today. Although I'm trying to figure out how to not torture my child while giving his medicine (he didn't fall for it in his milk - in fact that made him even more upset last night). I'm going to try putting the grape flavored antibiotics since it's only 2ml in some yogurt. If he needs Motrin or Tylenol (5ml), I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Up until now, he had always just opened his mouth and seemed to like the taste of it. Not anymore.

On a good note: Stay tuned for tomorrow. We finished our bathroom project! Until then, tootles!

Just a thought

Not that I really want to start a rival with anyone out there, but I was just thinking while I was trying to run errands at 9:30 at night, load the dish washer, tidy up the house so we have a fresh start in the morning, finish the laundry, and make sure Little Man and hubby have at least clean underwear tomorrow (oh, wait Little Man doesn't wear underwear yet-Whew). That's a lot to do while thinking.


Why is it when a woman gets sick they are still able to cook, clean, take care of the house, do the errands, and if you are like me, still able to take care of a child?


When a man gets sick.... he's totally debilitated?


Granted in my circumstance, hubby also gets migraines to go along with everything else either not functioning properly or has an enormous about of mucous running out of his nose while Little Man is desperately trying to get daddy to "Up!" Poor guy.


This also leads to another thought.


I am totally screwed if he ever gets deployed. I'm sure I may be able to put on a good I-can-do-everything-by-myself show, but I really can't. I'd probably have a nervous break down after about a week or two and just have to move back in with my parents (all the way out in CA now). Not to mention, I'm sure I would inadvertently make his life a living hell (not that living in Iraq wouldn't be considered hell already) while separated overseas because he'd be so damn worried about me and Little Man. Or I would just make him miserable for going to active duty. Details smetails.


Anyways, just a thought.

What a day A had...

I feel like Dr. Seuss writing that title. For those of you who are not familiar, here's a taste:

A is sad.
A has had a bad day.
What a day A had.

Have you ever had one of those days that were so horrible that it completely drained out all of your energy...including the energy you thought you had in reserve? That's the type of day that A has had so far today. Fortunately, he is rejuvenating himself right now with a long nap.

Today was A's 15 month check-up. As some of you mother's out there know, this includes vaccinations. Great. Hubby wasn't able to get the day off because well, he just had a week off. So, A and I drove him to the train station this morning and proceeded to his doctor's appointment. Fortunately, there were TONS of buses and trucks out this morning to keep A entertained in the back seat.

When we get to the doctor's office, 10 minutes early like they request, we proceed to wait 30 minutes before we are called back to get his weigh in. He was not very excited about this at all. In the past, he's been fairly cooperative, but this time he didn't want anything to do with the nurse. Even if she was handing him something that looked cool to play with like her stethoscope. He's continued to grow, by the way, in the 95 percentile for height (34 inches) and about 60 percentile for weight (26 pounds).

Then we had to wait another 20 minutes for the doctor in the room. This was a 9am appointment and there were hardly any other patients in the waiting room when we arrived?!! A finally starts to get comfortable again (eating Cheerios and Goldfish and sipping juice will do that to you apparently) and then the doctor comes in. He obviously didn't want anything to do with her either, but atleast her part is short and sweet.

We head out to the waiting area to be called once again for his vaccines. 45 minutes later, A is getting extremely impatient. Not only did he miss his morning nap, he can't really run around the waiting area even though it is big, but it's crowded by now. My only saving grace is that he loves to look at airplanes now (thanks to his trip to the airport to pick us up) and there are tons of military magazines in the waiting area. I start to get antsy as well and ask a nurse how much longer. Apparently, this sends some sort of red flag off in the back and actually gets the nurses back to work because 5 minutes later we're called.

Now, it's time for vaccines. The nurse proceeds to tell me that 2 of the 3 vaccines are going to be sub-Q or inserted just below the skin. Really?? Then why when she inserted all 3 vaccines did she target every single blood vessel in A's tiny thigh???

Fortunately, these little guys bounce back fast and by the time we are home, he's all right. May be a little sore, but he'll live for right now. As we are walking up to the door, he trips a falls on his knees and hands. Because of the thin pair of pants that he is wearing he scraps both knees. I get him inside, change his diaper and we calm down by watching a little tv (hence why I'm starting to fear that this child will be ADD). I didn't think he would want to sit still for another 20 minutes, but we find something that catches his eye.

Like my mother has found out while watching him, things can change in a split second. One second he's crawling around on the bed to another location, the other he's toppling over the side of the bed. I reach to catch his leg, but it literally slips through my fingers.

Now, not only does A have sore thighs, scrapped knees, and he's exhausted... now he has a bump on his head. It could have been worse... he could have hit his head on the side table when he went over the side backwards.

So, I'm really sorry I didn't share any pics from our marvelous vacation, but I'm just too exhausted myself. Needless to say, we're ordering dinner tonight. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.

The Military Life

Oh, the life of a military wife. Either it be Marines, Air Force, Navy, or in my case, the Army you know what I'm talking about. I really don't even have to elaborate for you to even comprehend. But, for those of you who are not in the military career... let me explain.

When I signed up (no pun intended) to be a military wife, I was expecting the life of luxury. I would reside in Hawaii amidst the wildly colorful bromiliads and banana trees. I would sit on the beach sipping from a coconut and watching my child (okay, children were not in the picture when I married my husband) making a sand castle by the water's edge. We would go to on-post parties with other families and play tennis on the weekends (or just explore the islands).

Fast forward 10 years, and I'm stuck in Virginia. Before this, we lived in Minne-snow-da! Where thankfully we are NOT anymore - especially with 43 degree BELOW zero temperatures! And that's not even the wind child factor! Before that, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Don't get me wrong, there are up sides to being a military wife. I get to go to places, like those mentioned above, that we would never consider. Why I considered Minneapolis??? I have no idea. But I do have to admit I did meet some wonderfully, interesting people. That's the other plus to tagging along with the Army. We have been extremely blessed with the people we have met along our travels. Especially in Pittsburgh where my across-the-hall-neighbor chiropractor and his wife (girlfriend at the time) took me in like family while my husband was deployed to Iraq. I honestly can say if it were not for those two people, who thankfully we still keep in touch with (because let's face it after spending a year with me and my dog and my three cats, we're family whether you like it or not!), I would not have been able to handle that deployment.

Then we come to the people we have met here in Virginia. At first, when we visited the D.C. area to scan the neighborhoods for places to live, we looked at purchasing/leasing a townhome. Thankfully, I say that now, it did not work out. The place that did work out, which we totally skipped that weekend, was a dream come true. Not because of the actual place, although it was a very nice place to call home, but the people who lived right next door. And across the street. And two doors down from them. Because of these three families, I made it through the end of my pregnancy and beginning phase of mommy-hood.

Since last summer, two of the four families have left our little "home town". We purchased a duplex, only 15 minutes away, and another family purchased a beautiful home 15 minutes the other direction. Last night, three of the four families got together at their new home for dinner and a playdate. As I watched Little Man A playing with his little friend "Bruce" and baby "Amie", I thought about the military life. That unfortunately, this is going to come to an end.

By next year, we will be probably be on to the next chapter of our lives someplace else. Little Man A will have to meet new people just as his mom and dad will. It actually made me sad to think that Little Man won't have lifelong friends that he gets to grow up with over the years. Yeah, sure those families can come visit us where ever our roads take us next, but it won't be the same as to call them on the phone and ask, "Can Bruce come over to play?"

I know we'll all gain more friends along the way and that I know God (although I am not that religious) put us here for a reason. I just hope that where ever we do end up, either it be in San Antonio or not, that Little Man meets new friends quickly and doesn't forget about the ones he's met in the past. Because good friends really are just an extended part of your family.