Monday, May 27, 2013

Excuse me

I have been neglecting my blog since the day hubby got home and I feel terrible about it. Two weeks plus a few days without adding one word to this site is uncouth. We have been furiously traveling across the US for our "Family Fun Adventure" which has included Rhode Island, Texas and Arizona thus far. Needless to say, we have been exhausted! These few weeks have included: a change of command ceremony, one ten hour drive, one college graduation, two flights, four trips to the drug store, a pack of five dogs, two grandmothers, three sets of in-laws and one Memorial Day Ceremony (which was fantastic and is warranted it's own entry later). And we are not done yet! Oh man, we are going to need a vacation after this "vacation".

Friday, May 10, 2013

Thursday, May 9, 2013

I am...

Anxious
Beside myself
Charged up
Delighted
Excited
Frantic
Giddy
Hyper
Insane
Jumpy
Kooky
Lovey
Mindless
Nervous
Overwhelmed
Playful
Quirky
Restless
Silly
Tired
Upbeat
Vivacious
Wacky
Xenophobic
Yappy
Zealous

All of the emotions I have felt today and the past seven months for that matter!
So Damn Close!

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Panic.


A friend of mine posted this on her Facebook page a couple of weeks ago when her husband was on his way home. And now it is my turn! All day today was cleaning day. Even the littlest things that I know no one would ever notice got cleaned anyway. lol. The shelves in the guest room, clean. Bookcase in the hall, dusted. Old food in the kitchen cabinets, gone! Gotta love panicked cleaning. It's procrastination at its adulthood finest, and it still gets the job done!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Oh the fever!

Can't you see her as my little girl? I can. 

Baby fever that is. Yeah, it's back and it's bad this time. I spent a few hours today with my newest friend Melissa. Her husband is in the same squadron as mine but they came in while hubby was deployed so I've only seen her a couple of times in groups of people. We finally got to spent some one on one time together today. It was a fantastic afternoon. We spent a few hours hanging out at her house, eating lunch and talking like two hens in a hen house. Melissa and her husband have the cutest 2 year old little boy. He is such a little mamma's boy, it is adorable. He would not let go of her after he got up from his nap. All he wanted was to hang onto her like a little monkey. Needless to say, he took a while to warm up to me. I think he was worried I was the babysitter and mommy was going to run out the door soon. When he realized she was staying put, oh man did he open up! He was running around the house, playing with all of his toys in the living room and giggling up a storm. He even started playing with the weird lady that was there, me. We had a tickle fight, I caught him when he was jumping off couches and he even shared his teddy grahams with me! Which is a big deal, he doesn't even share his food with mommy and daddy. It was a blast. That little boy rekindled my baby fever today. Uh oh :)


Oh and a p.s.: The new craft is coming along, but man it is taking a lot longer then I thought it would. Very labor intensive this one!

Monday, May 6, 2013

Blast from the past

Luna woke up this morning with a welt on her nose that almost looked like a burn. Needless to say I googled it faster then a jack rabbit on a hot date, and Dr. Google promptly gave me some reasons for the bump. Of course what is the first thing to come up but sinus cancer. Don't you just love webmd's optimism? Even for animals they still like to scare the pants off of you first thing out of the gate with the cancer option. Boo. So what does any worried fur baby mommy do but run to the vet as fast as your feet can carry you!

While we were waiting at Banfield for Luna to get called back she was trying to make friends with other dogs in the store. I guess I'm just not entertaining enough for her sometimes. lol. One yellow lab puppy took a special shine to Luna. He was a cute thing no more then 6 months old but already bigger then Lu. While I was talking to his owners, the girl told me I looked so familiar to her. My little red flag was flying in the back of my mind too but for the life of me I could not place her. It turns out she remembered me from Middle School in Texas and could even remember my name. I wish I had a memory like hers. It took me a hot minute to remember her but when I did it hit me like a bag of bricks! Her name is Audrey and we had gone to the same elementary school too. She moved away in the seventh grade to Florida where she grew up and married a nice helicopter pilot and they are now in Norfolk for training before moving to Guam. What are the odds of seeing another person I knew when I was younger in Texas here in Norfolk? This would be the third time someone has recognized me from growing up in Corpus. It is wild to think that there are others who's lives are so linear to yours: growing up in the same city, same schools, married men with the same careers, moved to the same city far from home. I love serendipitous moments like those. It really is a small, small world. 

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Butterflies :)

The homecoming is just days away now and my nerves are starting to get the best of me. I can feel my blood pressure going up when I think about it. All those butterflies are coming back and man are they are flying nonstop. It feels like I am getting ready for our first date again: the excitement, the nerves, all the possibilities of what could happen. In a way, homecomings are a first date. Thankfully we will start this date with a kiss instead of waiting all night for it! There will be hugs, fantastic, long hugs where you melt into his arms. You feel a shiver through you when your lips touch for the first time in months. I can't wait for that kiss. But just like our first date, we are going to have to get acquainted. Or reacquainted actually. I'm beyond excited to get my husband back and I am really curious to see how he has grown as a person during that time.

Deployments affect people in a multitude of ways. Some people can't stand deployments. They will hate every moment of the time away no ifs, ands, or buts about it. On the other hand, there are others who thrive during deployments. They use it as time for themselves or to get out and see the world. Whether someone is an A or a B, situations like that can either take a toll on you or bring out the best in you. Deployments often change people. But what we don't realize is that people change a little bit every single day whether they are around you or not; even in the most insignificant ways. You or your spouse can change physically, mentally even spiritually sometimes during a deployment. People are organic beings, we are constantly growing and evolving. We should all keep that in the back of our minds, especially during the times apart. The only way to grow together when you are thousands of miles apart is communication. Whether it is through email, skype, phone calls or snail mail, just talk. Even when they only have a few seconds and all they can squeeze in is an "I love you", take it and live in it until you can hear their voice again.

Now that we are nearing the end of this deployment, we are looking back as a couple and seeing all the ways that we have changed. We are lucky that during the time apart we grew together. This deployment actually brought us closer. It helped to strengthen our marriage. We had opportunities that are rare for deployments. I had the opportunity to go overseas and see him. We were able to talk almost every day that it was available. It was pretty similar to the beginning of our relationship. We were a long distance couple almost our entire dating time. The only time we lived in the same city was our first month of dating, the rest of it was phone calls and skype dates. We are old pros at long distance. Now we have the task of learning to live together again. It's the little things that we will have to readjust to, like who's cooking breakfast on Saturday or what show gets recorded tonight. But I am honestly looking forward to those decisions. We'll hold off on the bigger conversations until he's been back for a few months and is fully acclimated back to regular life. (But I have warned him the baby timing talk is coming soon!)

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Tap me in

I went to dinner tonight with some of the wives from the spouse's club. It was a blast. We went to a new place in Virginia Beach called Tapped Gastropub and it was incredible. If you have ever complained about not having a lot of options for good food in the area, here is a place to fight against that argument. Lots of options, including gluten free, lots of flavor and an excellent beer and wine selection. And live music! Don't worry it's not the weird guy that smells like rotten patchouli and can't really sing with an overwhelming sound system, but someone who can actually play guitar and sing a great acoustic set.

It was a marvelous time. There was lots of catching up and play dates being made and farewells to be said. It was our last group outing with Caroline, the COs wife. They are moving onto their new command next week so it was bitter sweet having dinner this time. Caroline really helped to change the Club from business to social fun this past year. It was a great transition! Now we just eat and drink and talk; a lot :) Sometimes you just need to be around other women who get you. Who get what it is like to be a temporary single parent or who will drive you to the hospital when your appendix needs to go. They know what it is like to not know where you are going to be living in a year (and that you have absolutely no control over where you go next). They understand you and you understand them. It was great seeing them. I can't wait for next months "meeting". lol.

Friday, May 3, 2013

The home stretch

Today marks the beginning of the final week of this deployment. I can't believe it is almost done! It will be amazing to have my husband back. Back in the states. Back in our house. I'll have someone to cook for besides me and Luna and the occasional friend who drops by. When I start a new painting or craft, he'll be there to tell me I'm crazy, then tell me the final product is amazing and that he loves it. Wine will only be half mine again, but it's okay when the other half is going to him :)

Today I thought back on all of the good and hard times during this deployment. This deployment was a blessing in that I got the chance to see him during it! It is so rare to be able to actually set eyes on your spouse during a deployment, and I was so grateful to be able to. It really helped to break up the deployment into 'before' and 'after I see him' time frames. But the visits are majorly outnumbered by the alone time. Being home alone is always something that is hard for me to adjust to. I always seem to want to run down the stairs and tell him what happened on Real Housewives even though he doesn't give a damn what went down between Vicki and Tamra this week. Sleeping alone is something that I never get used to. I feel weird when my leg drifts over to his side of the bed (just like Billy Crystal in When Harry met Sally). And then there are those days where you just feel out of it. I had some hard times that led me to Fleet and Family; just to talk to someone you know. And I know I am not the only one that just wants to unload all of the heaviness in your heart sometimes. I went to Fleet & Family because I didn't want to unload on a friend or family member that would try to 'fix' what I thought was wrong. I just wanted someone to kind of talk at. To listen without a bias or previous knowledge, that I could just bitch to or even cry to sometimes. They were so helpful in this self discovery period of my life. I decided to add something I thought would be helpful to other navy/military spouses on my page today.

I added a new page today full of resource websites. Fleet and Family is there, Cinchouse and other military lifestyle blogs. It is nice to know that you are not alone during this time even though you might feel like it. Talk to other people in the command who's spouse is deployed with yours.  If there is anyone who knows exactly what you are going through it is another spouse. FRGs are great to get to know some new people and see who you really hit it off with. My Officer's Spouse Club is a small but tight group with some amazing women in it. You never know, you might meet a life long friend.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Another day another project begun

Yup. A new craft has commenced in my newly cleaned "studio" aka the garage. I picked up an unusual  crackle painted bench from one of my favorite local thrift shops called Good Mojo. They always have a new piece of furniture or knick-knack that begs for a one way ticket to the studio!

But just look at this monstrosity!


Yuck!  Excessively textured crackle. Ahh! Ugly pattern on the cushion.  Eww!  But great bones to work with. 

I can't wait to finish this one up. Hopefully it doesn't take too long! 



Wednesday, May 1, 2013

So close...


Today was "Hubby grocery shopping day". You know that day. That trip to the store where you buy all of the things that your deployed spouse eats and drinks that you haven't purchased in half a year or more. For me it was lots of not so good for you things: cheese, beer, bacon, those yummy things. 
And it was so exciting! I'm pretty sure I was shopping with a huge grin on my face the entire time. I don't think I have ever been so enthusiastic about picking out frozen french fries! Hard to believe right? Doesn't everyone mull over a fry purchase for five minutes!? :) 
So close!