Deployments and Skype

I was inspired to attempt a deployment blog by a wonderful military wife and mother that I respect immensely.  Its a wonderful way to remember the deployment's day-to-day effects on our family from my perspective.  This will give our family something to look back on and see how our first family deployment goes.

Tonight was our first foray into Skyping.  Alyssa was amazed at Papa being inside the computer and Papa got to see us nearly 1,200 miles away.  It was so fun to watch Alyssa (captivated for as long as a toddler can be--5 minutes tops) investigating the computer and how to interact with Papa in this new way!  We are still waiting for vocal conversations and so this video solution allows goodnight waving and kisses (and a nightly reminder to clean my laptop screen).

As we climbed onto the couch and opened up the program we got an incoming 'call' and after much tinkering and figuring out how in the world Skype works in its most basic form (I'm married to a tech guy...I don't need to be tech-y right??), we got video up on both ends, lighting in order to see everyone, and voice so Stroh good ask what I was wearing...Yeah, there is not much privacy in the military and much joking in the barracks.

The basics having been mastered, okay, practiced...We are now ready to take on this year-long deployment.  We will continue to work on our vocal conversing in hopes that we can get "Papa" and maybe even "Good Night" and "Love You" out of Alyssa before Papa comes home but for now we are excited to be able to wave, smile and kiss at Papa in the computer.  So here we go, 3 weeks into the deployment and less than a year to go!