Army Guy is still leaning heavily towards saying goodbye to active duty Army. Prior to Christmas Break, I was really on the fence about this whole decision. Some days, I was all "do we have to wait until August?!?!" and other days I was "I can't imagine my life without Army!". We're now post Christmas Break and my opinion has changed to "okay fine, you can get out, but you HAVE to take a job that involves some travel."
Army Guy has never really had a chance to take leave (a day off in Army Land) other then in conjunction with a move, which I therefore don't count because a move is not like a vacation. :) And even with that leave, he's only maybe been off for a week or two. When he came home from Afghanistan, he took leave. Lots of leave. 60 days to be exact, because he was going to lose it. Then we moved and he was on leave again. Basically it amounted to him to being "off" from March to mid-July (60 days leave, move leave, new unit being on block leave when we arrived, etc). So I went from having no husband to having husband at home all of the time. It took a bit of adjusting, but we got through it. Within 2 weeks of Army Guy going back to work, the older 2 were at school and it was just Sam-I-Am and Mommy at home. The funny thing was that step took adjusting to also. I'd gotten very comfy with having Army Guy home and available. So his sudden departure back to Army Life, was frustrating. But by late August, we were all back in our groove--older two to school, youngest one NOT doing daycare, me resigning myself to not doing anything, Army Guy at work with the weirdest, yet known, schedule. All was good and manageable.
Then suddenly it was December and we were fast approaching Christmas Break. We originally had grand plans of doing a vacation with another Army family, but those plans were changed late November, so we suddenly had 2 weeks of nothing to do. I'm a firm believer of not travelling before or on Christmas Day. I've been known to travel after Christmas, but not before (insert foot stomping here). But this year we were looking at staying home and being bored, so we ran away to my parents house in Texas. Knowing that it was going to be a stupid long trip (15 hours to be exact) we left before Christmas. The trip went surprisingly well and we did it all in one day. And then we spent the next 2 weeks with my parents, Grandmother (for a week) and 3 dogs in 1600 sq feet. :) A good time was had by all....and then it was time to go home. Trip went surprisingly well again and we were home in one day of travel.
And then, more adjusting. And this time, adjusting did not go well.
I don't know exactly what the issue was, but all of a sudden the day after we got home, I was done. Done with kids, done with husband, done with house, done with dogs, done done done. It occurred to me that we'd all been sharing the same space for 2 weeks and as much as I was done with them, they were all done with me too. Thing 1 was constantly disappointed with my answers to all of his questions. ("Can I go play, can we ride bikes, can I go buy a new toy, can I go lizard hunting, can I play on your computer, why do I have to clean my room?") Thing 2 was all dramatic about every.little.thing. ("She's SITTING NEXT TO ME!!! I JUST WANT SOME SPACE! STOP LOOKING AT ME! MY TV WON'T SHOW WHAT I WANT!") Sam-I-Am was antagonizing everyone (sitting on Thing 2's head, pinching Thing 1, repeating the same question to Army Guy, etc). Army Guy's patience were thin and I was getting sick with the world's worst cold.
Enter Life Revelation.
We don't know how to live together and not be in some state of major flux/life change for more then 10 days. We literally can't do it. We can handle being together for more then 10 days if something major is changing (job, house, move, etc), but just a random 2 weeks off puts us over the edge. Don't get me wrong, we love spending time together and we do enjoy the time we spend together. But evidently we have a time limit. :)
Some of you may think that's just sad, but the reality of it is this IS our reality. Which is why if Army Guy does get out, he's got to take a job that requires some kind of travel. Or I'm likely to go nuts.
The older two are back at school. Army Guy is back at work. It's just Sam-I-Am and me. And we're all a lot more tolerable. :)
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