Happy Dance! (aka 51 weeks since Joe deployed)

So this is a scheduled post. It's going up at 0800... the same time Joe should be walking into the Special Events Center!!! So... HAPPY DANCE!!

It's pretty cool that it's also a Wednesday, and my 51 week marker. Joe was deployed for 51 weeks. And now he's home. Safe.

49 Weeks Down!!

Day 344

There aren't words. I am so excited about Joe coming home. For the sake of OPSEC, I cant say much. But we've gotten down to the wire where the window shifts daily. Joe has a day he's going to leave Iraq (which Joe says is set in stone - *rolls eyes*), but they don't know how much time they are spending in Kuwait. Well, I'm sure someone does, just not anyone in my husband's command. I wake up to Skype messages about how many days they are spending in Kuwait now. It's really pissing my husband off. He's so done.

Classes are wrapping up so I am SUPER busy!! I really needed that 3 day weekend so I could do all the school work. At one point this weekend, I took a break from school work and cleaned the stove. And the strangest thought hit me. In just a matter of weeks, everything will be so awesome. Joe will be home. I have a good job. And I'm in grad school, my dream for a long time. All will be SO right with the world.

I had to watch Ordinary People for Family Systems class. It's an older movie, made in 1980, 4 years before I was born. The story is a sad one, a family loses a son in a boating accident and the younger brother has a hard time dealing with is and attempts suicide. It's about how the family handles the stressors 4 months after the younger son is released from the hospital. That's not the interesting part though. Stuff was MUCH different in 1980. People smoked in doors, at plays and in the movie theater. And when they were taxiing to the gate in the airplane, the announcement was made to please refrain from smoking until you get to the lobby. Smoking inside the airport?? Crazy. And at one point someone asked the son if he had electroshock therapy while he was in the hospital. Being in the field I'm in, I know this was a popular method of treatment, but it still makes me cringe with I think about those poor people that had to endure that kind of "treatment." But anyway, this movie has EVERYONE in it! Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Hutton (very young!) and Dinah Manoff (she was in Grease, you'd recognize her if you saw her). But as for class, I have to write an assessment and intervention for the family, as if I was their therapist. Lovely. It's the final, using everything we learned all term. It's a powerful and moving movie. If you have 2 hours to kill, and $3 to rent the movie on iTunes, it's not a bad flick, even just to make fun of the clothes and hair styles in 1980. :)

48 Weeks Down!!

Day 337

We got new redeployment dates. Joe says that are the real dates. And I think he actually thinks they are the real dates. How long has he been in the Army?? Silly boy. But we're getting so close. It's all I can think about. And we have a flight number too. :)

I'm getting nervous about having him back. I spent so much time trying to get used to him being gone. I came up with the perks, like not sharing the remote and not having to shave my legs everyday. I'm afraid that I dont remember all the married stuff. I had popcorn the other day and threw away the kernels without thinking about it. Then it hit me that Joe loves them (dont as me why he likes the unpopped kernels, but he does) and I'll have to remember to ask him if he wants them before I throw them away. I have to get all of my stuff out of his bathroom. And share the bed. I know it will all come back pretty fast, but it's been on my mind lately. And the excitement completely overweighs the nervousness. I CANNOT wait to see his name in the vFRG list. I CANNOT wait to drive to the Event Center to pick him up. I CANNOT wait to get back to normal with my husband.

47 Weeks Down!!!

Day 330

It's almost too much to take. I am so excited!!! The time is flying! The penguin pic is perfect. Happy but freaking cold too! Winter has hit Colorado Springs pretty hard. SO COLD! And snowy. I can handle the cold. Even -12. I can always put on more clothes. But the snow and ice, no thank you. This Arkansas native cant drive in this stuff!! It makes me so nervous. But I try to be calm and just drive. And poor Rigel!! His little feet and his tiny nose! I know he misses Arkansas.

I have about XX days until Joe comes home. I also have about the same amount of XX days until my classes are finished for this term. So I really want Joe to be home. Really really really want the days to slip by until he's here. But... at the same time, I have SO MUCH work to do for school by then too. I have to get my butt in gear!!

A year ago, when Joe was leaving, a good friend was about to welcome her husband home. Many other friends have welcomed their husbands home in the last 11 months. Its so hard to be happy for others when you're speeding towards a deployment like the days just wont slow down. Most of us have been there. While many are wishing the days would fly by, others are wishing they would just stop. But somehow, most Army wives are able to work with both. I still feel so bad wishing the days away while another wife is wishing they would slow down. Just know we're thinking about you, and we were all there (at least) once, we understand, and are here for you if you need ANYTHING!!

44 Weeks Down!!

Day 309

This week has been so great. A co-worker left and I was offered her position. It's more hours and more pay. This really is the answer to our problems. School will be easier to pay. The car will be paid off that much sooner. Life is just easier when you dont have to worry about finances. We're doing great with the extra deployment money. Joe's excited about paying off the car in only a couple of months. This has been a big stressor for Joe. We arent used to having debt. Neither of us have credit cards. We dont have debt... except the car. And once the car is paid off, Joe will throw a little money my way for school, and the rest goes into the house down payment fund! We hope to have a good pile of money saved up, hopefully about 20% for the down payment. Being an adult isnt fun. But planning kinda is. We were talking about buying a jacuzzi last night. So maybe that part of being an adult will be fun.

Classes are chugging along. The homework is starting to roll out. Quizzes and papers and presentations, Oh My!! LOL. But it's nothing I cant handle.

And tomorrow is my birthday!

I hope everyone is having a GREAT Wednesday!

42 WEEKS DOWN!!

Day 295

Classes started this week. I am so excited about this term, for many reasons. The classes seem like they will be very informative and even sorta fun, in a super nerdy "I like Stats" kind of a way. And Joe will be back during this term, or at least not long after.

I must vent for a brief moment. I've stumbled across a few new blogs lately. And they are very... well.... arrogant. I never stood here on my high horse and declaired that all Army wives are just like me, and should behave just like me. This is just a blog of my experiences and trials while being married to a Soldier. But some of these women, geez.

"I am a female Soldier, you have to act like this."

"My husband is in the Military, and this is the way things are. Period."

"I'm a dual Army family, this is the RIGHT way to do things."

Well, all I have to say is... STFU!! Not everyone is like you. Not everyone thinks the way you do, or copes the way you do, or comes from the same kind of family, or even with a similar history. And yes, it's their blog, and they can write whatever they want.. blah blah blah. That's why the PSA is here, and not in a comment on their blogs. It's one thing to document your life online, to shed some light on a little piece of someone's military/milspouse/dependent life. But to tell people that their way is the only way, well, I'm not down with that. This is a blog, not some sort of deep meaning handbook for the way an Army wife's life should be. Just a small corner of the interweb where I can share my feelings. And the arrogance of some people to think they have it all figured out, all the hardships solved, well, good for you, I guess. But your arrogance doesnt do anything for the people who disagree with you, except make their experiences harder because you need to put them down to make yourself feel superior.

My new montra for others- THINK before you speak. Thank you.

41 WEEKS DOWN!!!

Day 288

The progression of this deployment/aloneness is strange. At first it's really sad that I come home and Joe isnt here. Then it just became normal and expected. I've hit a new one though, yesterday, today, most of this lsat week, I was actually mad that I came home to an empty house. I walked into the bedroom one morning and thought about how Joe would still be asleep. And I was mad that I was alone in the apartment. The same with customs forms. They are fun at first. Then just memorized. But now they annoy the shit out of me. I hate customs forms!

Patience, Sara. Patience....

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40 WEEKS DOWN!!

Day 281
Another week down! WOOHOO!!

A year ago today, I was all packed up in the car with Rigel, making an 8 hour drive from Junction City (Ft. Riley), KS to Colorado Springs (Ft. Carson), Colorado. Joe was driving in front of me. Rigel is a good little traveler, my little nomad. He has his own little seat belt. He likes to look out the window and bark at birds. And stick his nose in the air vents and smell the new air. That white blanket was his Christmas present from my mom one year. We always put it in the front seat when he's traveling with me. And that puffy silver white thing? The best jacket I have ever had!! Growing up in Arkansas, a heavy sweater would be sufficient during most winter days. But after going through a winter in Colorado Springs, and starting another one now, it's the best $15 I've ever spent at Wal-Mart. Yeah, it's a $15 Wal-Mart jacket, and I LOVE it!! I have a black one in the back of my car all the time, just in case. Rigel also likes to lay on it. It's gets snugly warm really fast.

It's amazing how a year can go by so fast. And so much can change. And so much can stay the same. I think back to that day. I was so nervous about the move. I was leaving so much behind. It was my first duty station. I had built a life there. We were told that we would be there for 6 years. But nope, 2 years, on the dot, we moved. I was leaving a job and wonderful friends. People I relied on. I was nervous about a new command. And we were certain that a deployment was in Joe's future, either that March to Iraq or in July to A'stan. New friends to make. A new job to find. A new life to start... alone. But I have made some AWESOME friends. And I have been able to go back to school. So this move may have been a blessing in disguise. And the deployment money has made a lot of things possible. We will pay off Joe's car in just 2 years. And we have a nice little savings started for a down payment on a house in the not too distant future.

So just in time for Christmas, the Springs had a massive wind storm that managed to throw something into my car window. And not just a regular window, oh no, it was the tiny triange piece that apparently costs more to replace because it's smaller than the rest of the glass. Well, I was expecting the replacement cost to be close to $300. But I found a place online that has great reviews that will come out to my house and replace the window for only $149 (tax, labor, mobile service, and the actual window are included)!!!! I've never had to replace a window before. This is all new to me. But that sounds like a great price compared to the other places I called; they wanted to charge between $217 and $256. They will be out here today between 0800 and 1130 to replace it.

All in all, it's not a bad situation though. I was sitting in my house steaming, f*cking window. Damn wind. And it hit me pretty hard, as things go, it's not the end of the world. December 20th, I could be worrying about much bigger stuff. But I'm not. It's just a window. Very fixable. I have many things to be thankful for, so I'm not going to let a silly window get to me. Many people are having a very rough December, because of jobs and the economy and the holiday at the end of the week. But we have the money to fix the window, and we wont be strapped because of it. Gotta think about the big picture.

And I woke up to this from my love this morning: good morning beautiful. one more day closer to kissing your face.