11 Months Down!!!!!!!!!!

Day 338

THIS is my 200th post!! How awesome is that?? I didnt realize it until yesterday or I would have done something special. Maybe something for my 300th post. :)

Anyway, Joe has been deployed for 11 months as of today, or yesterday if you ask Joe. It's amazing how different things are compared to 11 months ago.
This year has made me realize that most things are temporary, even when they dont seem like it. My mom used to tell me this all the time, just get through this part, everything is temporary. And we did!! We got through 11 months of this dumb deployment and now we're getting ready for Joe to come home. As hard as it was, it too was just temporary.

I've said it before, sometimes this year seems like it was 2 or 3 years long, but sometimes it only seems like it was a few months. But while I was on the phone with Joe, for a record breaking 45 MINUTES, it seemed like I hadnt seen him in a decade. It's been a long year. We're ready to get back to normal. And then we can start our other countdown... countdown to being civilians again!!!! That countdown is 727 days... just in case you were wondering. :)

Speaking of being a civilian again...

We have a Military Ball in May. Sadly, this will probably be my only chance to go to a Military Ball. But I have class that night. Graduate school class. There's no way I can skip this class. And it surprised me how many people told me to just skip it. I'm in class now with a woman who is in a similar postion. We were talking about it last night. She said of course she was skipping class for the Ball. And this honestly surprised me. Her husband is an officer and she reminds me of this often. She said that its her duty as a wife to go to the ball to represent. I asked her if she was an FRG leader or something. Nope. Just her job to go with him, as an "officer's wife". After being raked across the coals for not wanting to skip a GRADUATE SCHOOL CLASS for a party, I made a remark like "Well thank goodness Joe is just a SGT so he doesnt have to go to silly things like this." Well, this apparently makes me a bad Army wife. I would love to go to the Military Ball. If it was on a Saturday night and not a Wednesday night (WTF??), I would go. But I have priorities. School is a very high priority. An A in Stats II is a very high priority. And I will skip the party for class. And if that makes me a bad Army wife, so be it. I never claimed to be a good "Army wife." I dont strive to be a good "Army wife." But I AM a good wife and a good student. And quite frankly, my husband thinks the Military Balls are boring and stupid and he's thrilled that he can use my class to try to get out of it himself. It's not mandatory, so unless they make the alternative really horrible, like working weekends, he doesnt plan on attending the Ball either.

The professor was listening last night. This woman has this same professor next term, during the Ball. I'm glad she made it obvious to him that her husband's rank and silly party are more important than his class.