Category Archives: deployment

Christmas Eve Eve

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I’m ready. Really 100% ready. Gifts are wrapped and ready to be put under the tree tomorrow night. I finished getting everything I needed for Christmas dinner, and my final task of finding new pajamas for Christmas Eve.

I’m ready as I can be but so not in the Christmas spirit this year. I LOVE Christmas, usually I am just so overwhelmed with things I need to do I can’t enjoy it, but right now I am done with everything. Trying to keep the kids happy and entertained, and just not feeling it. Our family isn’t whole this Christmas and it just sucks. So I’m trying to throw my pity party and still keep it fun for the kids. It’s been crafts, outings and treats non stop around here. I still need to bake some more cookies to hand out and some sugar cookies for them to decorate. Another batch of bars bars along with Russian Tea Cakes and jam thumbprints.

Today was a trip to the local ice skating rink. Mckenna had been wanting to do it for awhile and I figured hey, right around Christmas would be the perfect time to go. I have to say I was freezing my butt off in there! I think they said it was 58 degrees! The hoodie I was wearing wasn’t cutting it. I stayed with Omar while he skated/slipped/fell around the kiddie section. Mckenna was off on her own in the big rink. I wish Omar had liked it more, he just couldn’t get the hang of it and got frustrated. It wasn’t the magical trip to the rink I had planned (why does nothing ever work out the perfect way I imagine in my head?!) but Mckenna had fun, we got out of the house, Omar had his first skating experience.

Now as I’m sitting here I am starting to feel nauseous. I don’t know if something I ate isn’t sitting right or if I’m getting a stomach bug (which it seems like everyone is getting!) Crap. Hopefully I am just imagining it because my neighbor is sick. I can’t be sick before Christmas!

Blah

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So.

I’m kinda sorta in a HUGE funk right now. And I can’t shake it.

I don’t want to do anything, housework, cooking, leaving my house, I just want to stay home in my cocoon and be pissed off.

So to ensure that I actually get out of the house as well as hopefully get me in a better frame of mind, I have been scheduling the shit out of myself. PTA, fundraisers, Humane Society, dog sitting, Family Readiness Group, training, lunches, playdates, coffee, football. Anything so that I am not sitting at home thinking about how much longer I am going to be alone.

This sucks.

This wasn’t in my plan for Hawaii. We were going to explore the island together. I had so many more spots that I wanted to go to as a family and as a couple. We never made it to a luau and I won’t go to one without him now because that is something I want to do together.

I haven’t snorkeled since he left. That was our thing, man. Something that he found out he totally loved to do and something we loved to do together.

I was chatting with him tonight and mentioned how much they had done and he said something along the lines of it hardly matters. Which I understand. I mean what we still have left is more than a normal deployment, we have MONTHS to go before we even have a normal deployment left!

And I am angry. And sad. I feel cheated out of my time with my husband. Time that we were supposed to have together as a family. Part of it is the lack of warning or warm up time, it was so, so sudden. Part of it is the shear LENGTH! I don’t know how Army and Navy IA do this crap for a year. Over and over again.

I am just looking toward this sea of months left and thinking about everything that he is going to miss, and then he’ll be home and we’ll have to re-integrate which always sucks because he’ll feel like so much has changed since he was gone. And it will have changed, we’ll be different, the house will be different. And it’ll take time for us to get to the new normal after being separated for so long. I don’t want to deal with all that! We were in such an awesome space together as a couple and a family before he left.

Anyways. That is my vent. It’s not a unique one I know but this deployment has been particularly sucktastic.

So, pray for peace in the Middle East and all that, I want my man home.

End rant.

Happy Birthday Baby!

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So today is my husbands birthday and the poor man has to spend the day away from family or friends out on a ship in the middle of the ocean somewhere. I wish he could be home with us to celebrate.

We love you and wish we could spend this day with you.  I can’t believe this is the 14th birthday that we have spent together (even if we are not technically together)! It’s been a wild ride and I am already plotting next year, when you will be home. We’re gonna do it big!

You have a family that loves you and is thinking of you all day today!

Seriously, my husband is so good looking and doesn’t look a day over 25… I LOVE YOU BABE!

 

One Month Down!

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It’s amazing how a month can both fly by and feel like it took forever…
Most people will tell you that it’s the first month and last month that are the longest. The first month is hard because its so fresh in your mind and you have to get into the swing of things and get into a routine. Then then the months start to go by a little faster. The last month is terrible because homecoming is so close you can almost taste it, it’s like Christmas!
So one month down, out of ten. Because this deployment is the longest one we’ve he’s ever done I’m sure there will be some surprises. Just ready to have my man home already!

Care Packages!

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While I hate pretty much everything about deployment, the one thing I do enjoy is sending care packages to my husband.  It’s been years since I’ve had to do it (5? 6? I don’t remember!) So I’ve been having fun coming up with ideas of what to send as well as making the boxes themselves fun.

This was the first box I sent out. I LOVE these large size priority boxes from the post office. First off, you get a discount if you are sending these particular ones to an APO/FPO. Second a 12×12 sheet of scrapbook paper fits each side perfectly!  I decided to put some pictures on here, just printed them out on copy paper so I could glue them on. I was hoping it would give him a little boost to remember why he is doing this and what he has to look forward to when he comes home.

 

The next box I sent was my favorite and I forgot to take a dang picture of it! I am so mad at myself! I had it all decked out with a Navy theme, that one had the PS Vita he wanted as well as his iPad cover/stand he forgot to take. You’ll just have to picture it in your mind. It’s terrible but it was a good use for the Navy embellishments that I didn’t like and wasn’t going to use for actual scrapbooking but didn’t want to throw away. So don’t throw away your ugly stuff! Just use it on your husband, he doesn’t know the difference!

 

Okay, I normally try to split the box at least half and half between snacks/junk food and meal type food but this one went a little overboard on the junk food. What can I say? I am trying to eat less crap so when I see something tempting I just buy it and sent in off in a box. Seriously, those Pocky sticks were tough, I LOVE them!

 

 

And here is the latest box, just sent this one this weekend and I am a little mad at myself, didn’t realize how late it got in the month! I want this to get there before Halloween but it probably won’t.  This is my first ‘theme’ box.  I didn’t want to just sent a crap load of candy so I sent some other snacks in there too… The little jack o’ lantern tin was in the dollar section of Target, I put some of those single piece candies you see, pumpkin shaped snickers, rotten egg cadbury, etc. Also Target had the crinkle paper filler in lime green so that is in the bottom of the box. Oh and I found a stupid creepy mask at the exchange for a dollar so I threw that in too…

 

There are some things that I know I am going to put in (like the gel insoles, those steel decks are murder on feet!) febreeze to make his rack smell a little nicer and not like ship. Yes, ship. It is a VERY distinct odor. And haribo gummies, his favorite candy (which will hopefully bring back memories of the haribo candy store we couldn’t stay away from in Germany!)

But then a lot of times I just cruise the aisles of the grocery store or exchange and just see what crazy new stuff is out there.

But here is a list to help get started on packing those boxes:

Food – meals

Precooked rice packets

Cup o’ noodles

Microwave soup

Single serve mac & cheese

Tuna steaks

Tuna salad kit

Single serve oatmeal/cold cereal

 

Food – Snacks/Junk Food

Trail mix

hostess/little debbie stuff

Combos

Gum

Mints

Nachos

Pringles

Beef Jerky

Single serve cookie packs

Popcorn (I love the new bowl one)

Goldfish

Energy shots

Granola Bars/Clif Bars

Toiletries/hygiene

Insoles (I bought the ones made for work boots)

Travel size toothpaste, shaving cream, qtips, shampoo, medication (they take up less space and I replenish them as needed. If your husband has hair a full size shampoo may work better for you!

Foot powder/spray (wearing those dang boots)

Febreeze

hand sanitizer

sanitizing wipes

Etc.

Cards, letters, notes from the kids

Entertainment such as playing cards/dvd’s or handheld games

Magazines/books

I do tend to send lots of food, the galley food isn’t the best and I want him to be able to have something to snack on if he’s hungry. If there is ever something he doesn’t like he can just give it away to someone else.  I am going to try to do the cake in a jar, we’ll see if it works and if it is still edible when he gets it however many weeks later!

 

 

 

Back to School…

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So today was a back to school day for the kids. They were off ALL last week for fall break (yeah I don’t know what that is either) and then were also off Monday for Columbus Day. We had planned lots of activities to keep us busy and I think we did an okay job. But man, was I happy when I dropped them off this morning! Ten days! Ten days off from school! And my darling sweet Omar does not like leaving the house, he is my little homebody. Want to go to the beach? No. The pool? No. A movie? No. Mckenna I ruined at a young age by taking her anywhere and everywhere. Omar grew up in Rota where we didn’t have a ton to do. So I have been having to balance the child who wants to get out of the house to do anything and the child who will do anything to be able to stay home. Go figure. We managed to get to the beach, the pool, the library, the movies, paint pottery, Child and Youth Day downtown, my football practice and games, Omar’s soccer practice and games and did not kill each other!

Today I also had a Scentsy party at a friends, damn I am a sucker for those burners. I am happy I got a pretty new burner for my guest bathroom and my bedroom. I reaaaaally need to get some paint so I can start hanging all my crap up on my walls. I got the most BEAUTIFUL new comforter and I can’t wait to get my room all put together, it’s going to look great with some of my watercolors from France hanging up! I can’t wait!

Also sent out another care package for my sailor. Mail call came and he got his first two care packages I sent so now I can post pictures on here. I had a lot of fun packing them and decorating boxes. Care package ideas and post coming soon!

Now I have to try and get myself back on a school schedule because I was staying up WAY too late while we were on break. In fact last night I was still up when my bestie in Virginia was waking up in the morning… And no, 5 hours of sleep did not cut it. And yet, here I am again. 11pm and not tired in the slightest. NyQuil it is!