Consider this a fresh start and a recap!

Wow...Obviously I've been neglecting my blogging.  We are going through some crazy changes around here and it has been a bit of a whirlwind since I last posted.

Hubby got a new job after having been deployed (which you rode along with us here).

Our family is growing in January.  (A baby brother!)

Previously mentioned new job caused a long distance family situation for about 3 months.  Papa/Hubby lived on a friend's couch during this time about 270miles away from us and came home most weekends while we tried to sell our house and relocate...Oh yeah--heavy lifting such as packing boxes and moving them is frowned upon during pregnancy I'm told so that slowed this process down even more being the only adult in our household on a day-to-day basis again.

The sale of the house was delayed by city regulation stipulations being disputed BY A NEIGHBOR...We won't go into details because I don't want to get riled up right now ;)

Sale went through and an offer was placed on a short sale in the new location which took over two months to hear nothing.  Yay....

We are back to living in an apartment but together finally and looking again at houses in the area in hopes we can find the house we need for our growing family!

All this done with our two year old daughter who has discovered that being two is very tough.  I hope to keep up with this blog now (minus whenever we finally do move into a new house--that transition time) that life is settling in again.  Enjoy our adventures in toddlerhood and down the road adventures of dual children houses!

Party Planning 101-301

I have begun the planning (okay finished the planning) of the Homecoming party!  Of course, I'm a planner so it was a rough sketch plan for the last 3 or so months already and the concept was done before he left.  Either way the only thing left to do is wait for the ability to release the date to the family and friends!  *sigh*  It is wonderful having even a small clue of how close this is to being done.  We miss having our Papa in the house with us to rough house, cuddle, tease and read bedtime stories...I miss watching movies with him and the simple fact that he is the main cook in our family (well, of edible non-box food anyways).

I had grand plans all mapped out on Pinterest of ideas and then realized, it is more than enough to just have him home.  I definitely make more effort on the send off party but I also have extra hands during the prep.  His homecoming is spaced to give him a breather before the masses descend upon us so he will likely have seen many people before the party itself making all the cutesy things a little less important and thus can be saved for a backyard bash later this summer I suppose.

By-the-way, if you need any parties planned, I probably have it done already on some of my Pinterest boards so let me know and I'll sort through them for ya  (baby showers, weddings, bridal showers, kids' birthdays, holidays, etc.).

If you haven't had the reason for a RedWhiteBlue party yet (such as military deployments often are), consider stocking up on items after the 4th of July merch goes clearance.  It will save you a ton of money to get these things then and save them for future use.  Many of the picnic items are great because they can be used all summer and at these events whenever they may fall.  Serious people, parties are expensive so think of ways to theme and clearance well in advance!  Valentines Day clearance:  pinks and reds make great girl accessories to parties.  Halloween:  find the fall type instead of the spooky stuff and you've got a jump start on Thanksgiving cornucopias.  Christmas:  Red and Green--valentines day and st patty's day aren't too far off!  New Years:  Gold, Silver and Black--these are great neutrals that work with graduations or truly just about any party theme you want.

We are ready to party around here!  I hope y'all have many parties to throw or attend this year and that they all go off without a hitch.  Wish us luck that our timeline for this particular party doesn't change...curse of the planner attached to the military lifestyle!  Eeep!

Looking Forward

So, in a military family, there are things that we just can't share with others.  For safety of not only our soldier but for other families' loved ones.  So dates, places, movements, etc. are just not allowed to be shared.  It's called OPSEC (operation security).  This doesn't mean that we don't follow the rumors at near rabid pace and gobble up the if's, and's, or's, and but's....

Army rumors are truly very unreliable and you learn rather quickly that you don't make plans based on them.  Don't get your hopes up too high or the fall is just that much further.  Don't start planning that Welcome Home party for the week after you 'heard' because it likely will change.

Change is inevitable and we learn to (frustratingly) roll with it.  However, not all the change in plans are bad!  Sometimes, SOMEtimes we get our soldiers back ahead of schedule.  SOMEtimes we get a deployment postponed.  SOMEtimes a training is cancelled and they stay home.  SOMEtimes we get one more night or two or twenty.  Those changes are not a change I will ever complain about because those are precious changes.  They make the changes that we brace ourselves for just a tiny bit easier to handle.

Since dating my hubby through the record holding NG deployment of 22 months (that was a few changes in the wrong direction if you didn't guess), we have had trainings that changed, drills that changed, deployments change, and dates we never count on as hard-and-fast.  So when I get rumors headed my way about changes that I'd like, well....I've learned to brace for the worst and prepare for the best.  That said, 3 different rough-rumor dates have reached me via various rumor wheels and none of them are my hard-and-fast idea.  I have one hard-and-fast and that is based on official orders (and those can change in a matter of minutes too).  Hmmmm, maybe I should just throw out the 'hard-and-fast' phrase for the foreseeable future...

I look forward to throwing a Welcome Home party.  I look forward to so many different things for our family.  The thing that I look forward to the most though is that first embrace.  Having that first hug off the plane/bus/whatever for our daughter and me is what I yearn for and I suspect will always be my favorite thing of a homecoming.  Every day is bringing us closer to that moment and I get giddy each time I think about it.  Time has flown by this deployment (though only when looking back on it).  I'm grateful for that, but I'm ready to have my husband home!  So let's go!  Let's throw a big Welcome Home party and have all our troops home and safe soon for those first hugs...

Time Lapse! YES!

WOW!  Can we say forgetful?  With so much seeming to go on, and yet nothing happening, this blogging thing should be simple for me to do!  I have nearly endless amounts of time and yet nothing gets done...

Forgive me my lapse and be forewarned it is likely to happen again.

Since Christmas....yikes...I'll have to dig out some pictures and show y'all the birthday girl who turned two at the end of December!  Then there was the new year to ring in which we slept through I think.  After that we had Momma's birthday (me) and now we are in February!  Come to reflect upon the last skipped month, I love these blog lapses!  Time flew based on that summary!! ;)

A gift to myself--Free Subway Art from Pinterest links

Okay, so it didn't exactly fly by but hey, summaries are great to make it seem like it can!  We had a wedding on Alyssa's birthday in our family so that was exciting and Alyssa LOVED the dance.  She danced the night away right next to the big floor speakers and would not let Momma pull her away for all the ear damage she would end up with...Following the wedding we had a birthday party that, get this, people actually got to come to!!!  Yes, a December birthday has some weather challenges quite often and this year we lucked out!  So the amount of cake that weekend was enough to give you a cavity just reading about it.  Cupcakes at daycare that Friday, cake at the wedding, and cake at the birthday party!  Two days...lots of sugar!

Inevitably the sugar crash came around and we subsequently slept through New Years Eve.

That I can recall, nothing supremely memorable happened between then and my birthday in mid January...I expected nothing special for my birthday as the only adult in the house.  I debated buying some cupcakes at the grocery store but didn't.  My mom and sister decided they were going to come up for my birthday.  My aunt, mom and sister took me out for lunch while my cousin watched Alyssa.  We did some shopping (I was given the choice to be dropped off at home or go with on the errands that my mom and sis were planning on doing that day since they'd be in town ya know).  When we went back to my place, mom and sis ran off for a couple more errands and Alyssa and I hunkered down for the afternoon.  But booyah!  They came back with cake!  Specifically carrot cake!!! mmmmmm....dang that was a good carrot cake!

And just so you see what my birthday would have been without my family around:

My Birthday--Her gift!  She got a new Kitchen!  Dang I have a cute looking birthday!

...and that brings us to February....as yet, nothing amazing going on.  I'll work on those pictures over the next day or three so watch for a photodump!

"Next year..." and the Holidays

Yes, yes...almost a month and half between posts....The slippery slope of blogging distractions has started.  The one thing that a holiday season acts as for most people is a busy schedule!  Our holidays are no exception to the hustle-bustle of family, travel, food, crafts, shopping, decorating, gift wrapping, gift re-wrapping, so on and so forth.  Y'all know the routine I'm sure.

Things this year are a little different for us of course.  The deployment makes everything in our lives a little less typical.  This doesn't mean that our 'big events' are put on hold or that they aren't plenty of special like the would normally be.  It just means it takes a little more planning and a lot of luck to come out the way we want them.  Today is one such event for us.

We had our home Christmas celebration today.  Every year we have multiple Christmases to attend so we planted our feet and dug in and have our small family time on Christmas Eve morning.  This year instead of the three of us tearing into gifts together in pj's and then eating whatever Papa decides to make for breakfast, Alyssa and I hunkered down in front of the computer this morning and hit "Video Call" on Skype.  Alyssa watched with a smile as Papa appeared on the computer and was ready to show him all sorts of things (c'mon, she isn't quite two yet...she hasn't figured out that we could commence the ripping open of gifts right then).  So while they chatted a bit I set up the video camera on a shelf aiming at the bottom of the tree and then hit record.  Alyssa was handed a gift and to town she went!  Papa watched her open all her gifts under the tree and then she opened a couple for him too.  She did try to give them to him so he could open them but unfortunately Skype doesn't quite work that way yet so we sat on Momma's lap to open Papa's stuff.  (This is where that 'planning' should've come in.  I should have had his gifts wrapped and mailed over so that he could open them on the other end of Skype today.  I'll remember that better for the next deployment I swear!)  Of course his gifts will be mailed out to him ASAP next week and there are a couple things that he didn't get to see today for his holiday surprises.

It was wonderful to share the holiday together even if it was in a way that takes a little more effort.  Alyssa loved to have Papa 'here' and to show him not only her gifts but his as well.  She holds things up when asked and thrusts it as close to the web cam as possible (typically resulting in a black screen due to lack of light).  I read a blog today that a friend had posted a link to.  It is another blog for military families and it's theme was the phrase "Next year..."  A better phrase for us I have not thought of.  I have avoided using the phrase up until this point in this post and it was HARD!  It is almost like an anthem for many families who are temporarily apart.  "Next year..." we will get to go through the holiday craziness together.  "Next year..." we will get to curl up for classic holiday movies at night.  "Next year..." we will get to remember that this year was wonderful even with a deployment overlaying it. <3

Happy Holidays to all of you.

A Military Family

Some days are amazing.  Some days make you realize that your family is much bigger than what you think it is.  Yesterday was one of those days.

These amazing people are a larger part of our family.  This is part of Chris' unit and our local FRG leaders.  They showed up at my house on Sunday around 2:30pm on drill weekend and put some of our lives back together.

They cleaned up the remaining pine tree debris from last week's adventure.

The guy on the right is using a jack to pull a branch out of the ground.  It was buried at least 2' deep!

Some of them started in on the fence right away.

H. even mowed my backyard to try and get more needles up using the bagger.

 There was so much going on that I don't have pictures of everything.  A couple people unhooked my outdoor water hoses to avoid winter issues.  They also fixed my yard's front gate so that it would swing close easily and not require my shoulder's weight into the fence!

All of this was an immense list of things I had to figure out how to get fixed and done.  It took them less than one hour...The teamwork was incredible and I was overwhelmed by everything being done for us.  It took less than an hour to have my yard back, my fence back, the gate working, water being winterized, and a mowed backyard!  None of this was expected and what was suggested by the FRG was the pine debris removed and the fence fixed.  These little extras were amazing and thoughtful and everything was wonderful.

I was able to post pictures to FB and Chris was moved to (he admits to only one in his eye) tears over the outpouring of support for our family from his military family.

So thank you, to our military and FRG family.  Thank you for something that may have seemed easy to you but means the world to me.

Mission Changes and Guru-ness

My husband over the last 24 hours has been moved.  His mission has changed (though his job has not).  Overall, this isn't the worst thing out there.  He is now (temporarily) up in Iraq in support of a draw down.  While some would freak out over this, I think I had only about 30 seconds or so of apprehension over this.  At this point, Iraq is generally a safe place to be again for our troops (as the bases they are restricted to are quite secure).  As I sit here thinking about it, really, the biggest inconvenience as I see it is that the mail is suspended due to the draw down of this base.  All letters and packages will be held at his original post until his return.  What a shitty thing to not be able to get physical letters and packages!  We just sent his first box off last week and he didn't get it before the move so he likely won't get it for over a month now--those poor lonely Oreo's!

There goes our wonderful thoughts of a cake walk deployment.  Well, my mind is a little complex because I have a hierarchical mind and without snail-mail it only really goes from cake walk downgraded to easy...  As a techy army man, this deployment his job requires internet...which means he should almost always HAVE internet.  We will have Facebook; we will have e-mail; likely during at least some of the time, we will have Skype.  This is so much more than many families get over a deployment that I am blessed with the expectations of it even.

On the plus side (if one wants to look at it this way...) he was specifically chosen for this mission because he is 'well-rounded' in the equipment of not only his job, but the sister jobs as well.  His newest designation (posted at his new place) is the S6 Guru.  So Congrats Hon!  Your over-achieving, productiveness has been noticed...next time aim for a promotion instead of a deployment.  ;-)

Birthdays and Philosophical Theories

So I *think* I was first to say Happy Birthday (via FB anyways) to my husband....But this brings a small debate into the FB sphere.  Is his birthday only valid during his time zone or does one ahead of him get to start his birthday early?  LOL, someone beat me to it by an hr but it would have been an hr early based on Chris' time just not the poster's time.  Here where I am his birthday doesn't start for 8 hours but he is 27 where he is.

Ah the questions bring us into deep thought.  Is he still 26 here?  Is he older in China than where he is now?  It is so crazy that his birthday came on Oct. 2nd for us this year when last year (and most years before) it was always Oct. 3rd.  Granted to him it is Oct. 3rd....Well, if one didn't believe in parallel dimensions, this should be easy...otherwise you may end up with a headache!  Just some fun food for thought.

Happy Birthday SPC Chris Lee!!  We love you, miss you and wish you as good of a birthday as the weather over there can! ;-)

How I Feel...

I don't think I have ever heard a song that describes the utterly strange feeling that settles over me during deployment.  People have tried to describe it to me/for me as sad, angry, depressed, lonely, stressed, tough, etc.  Yes, at times these all pass through my life while my soldier is away....But really, those go through everyone's lives on any given day...it just isn't an adequate description of the overwhelming and ever persistent presence of this feeling.  Thank you to Simple Plan and Natasha Bedingfield for your song "Jet Lag" and a new way to tell people what this feeling is.

"You say good morning
When it's midnight
Going out of my head
Alone in this bed
I wake up to your sunset
And it's driving me mad
I miss you so bad
And my heart, heart, heart is so jet lagged
Heart, heart, heart is so jet lagged
Heart, heart, heart is so jet lagged."

~Link to the rest of the lyrics~

I am simply Jet Lagged.  Our lives right now are so very far apart that we have settled into different routines to get ourselves through each day but never forget that the other is likely sleeping or awake at a different time as us and they aren't here.  This knowledge, this life is tiring and hard to adjust to, no matter how many times you do it.  My mom sent me a Facebook link to this song and obviously I cried.  But I felt a sense of calm from it too.  Someone gets it!  Someone out there knew how to put this feeling into words...They may not even have been referring to a military relationship but it fits so perfectly and I simply had to share this new-found description with everyone.

So for all you couples whose hearts are so "jet lagged", let's all look forward to homecoming whether it is five days away or a year.

Lifestyles of the Rich or Deployed...

Well, I have a few pictures from Chris of his new living situation.  They don't match what I had in my head based on description but that's because in my head there was one less wall!  LOL!  So here is a glimpse into this particular deployment.

Based on the bathroom travel bag, the last picture is Chris' locker.  I *believe* his bunk is the bottom bunk in the second picture but I'm not positive on that one.

Well, this is a preliminary glimpse into the living space he and his buddies have put together.  (In case you didn't know, this is a bay that holds 60 people.  They worked it up into a private area for 4 within this bay.  Pretty smart huh?)

Settling In

He is settling in and we are excited to say that we have an address to start sending some homey things to him.  His first box will have a couple birthday items in it, some snacks, and by his request--two wall clocks.  Doesn't the base have clocks around?  Well sure they do, but what they can't have is clocks set to local time AND the time zone your family is in next to each other.  Why not?  Well this is such a simple answer that so many of us forget about it...America covers more than one time zone...And then we throw in DST which not everywhere observes.  Yup, so he and his roomies are getting two clocks to hang above the projector screen in their "room" to show local vs home times.

Projector??  Oh, did I forget to mention I'm married to a nerd and he is part of the nerd squad too.  Commonly called Signal...They sure do like their tech-y toys!  Hopefully I can get some pictures up of his "room"  (a makeshift privacy attempt in a bay built for 60 people).  Of course I have to double check OPSEC and then get him to send me some...but barring issues with both of those things, I'm aiming for a week turn-around on this particular item.

Overseas Begins

Long ago a flight took off with my husband on board.  Well, it was about an hour ago actually.**  We will now be in significantly different time zones and have to do math to know when the other is awake or not on shift or when Alyssa is home to connect with.

And that sucks.  I really hate doing math...

He will be overseas for his, Alyssa's, and my birthdays, for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentines Day.  He will miss our anniversary in November, my sister's graduation from both college and high school, and a friend's wedding in early June.

However, this isn't all bad and its not as depressing as it may sound.  While we will be sad on these events that he isn't home with us, we will take lots of pictures to share and lots of phone calls, e-mails, video chats and snail-mail!  He won't miss much (if any) of next summer, gymnastics will continue and Alyssa might even roll by the time he comes home, and development of a toddler never stops going so there will be all sorts of new things for Papa and Alyssa to explore together....

We are looking forward to these things and even though there will be some sad moments until then, knowing those moments will pass helps.

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**Times are from the time posts are written, NOT the time posted as this would be against OPSEC recommendations.