With Love...

A friend and I were chatting about a child who had visited her home and had a grand old time with a crayon and her TV. Friend called me for advice about how to remove crayon because she knows I have a child that just recently understands that crayon is meant for paper, not EVERYTHING else. The conversation made me sit and ponder all of the Life Lessons she has given me...

Soooo Tired of "Great Opportunity"

"Great Opportunity" translates to "new and fun way for us to eff with you, your career, and/or your family" in Army land. 

Some history.... Army Guy's current group is a significantly different experience for him from our last group. While my initial experience was on the better side, his was on the worse. To say it was frustrating, would be a huge understatement. While I was out making connections and feeling all warm fuzzy about it all, he was struggling to not go postal on his "peers". So I did the only thing that I know to do in hopeless situations...I prayed. I prayed for him to get some better understanding of what his command team was wanted (other then that whole long walk, short pier scenario), I prayed for clarity, I prayed for compassion, I prayed for understanding and most importantly, I prayed that all of this would get resolved before the Dreaded D. Mental note--when praying be prepared for left field responses.

Dear Army...We Need to Talk...

While I've come to terms with the Dreaded D and the AWFUL job that Army Guy is currently suffering through, I think I need to let Army know that beginning a Dreaded D in May with school age kiddos is just SICK AND WRONG. My Army Kids who thrive on schedules and routine (which in completely ironic in Army land, but that's another rant) were thrown completely off kilter for the Dreaded D. Thing 1's last day of school was the Monday after Army Guy left. So in addition to losing our normal family routine, we were losing the routine we'd had for the last 10 months...all at one time.This is just not right people. Army needs to start all deployments in September or October.
        
     Dear Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen--I NEED you to rearrange all war plans based on my kiddos school schedule, because I figure I let you take my husband away for a year at a time the least you can do is NOT leave me at home with a bunch of kids for the summer while we're all adjusting to the Dreaded D. Thanks. 
         Yah, I'm sure that'll work.

Goodbyes...

Army Guy left for his latest Action Adventure Destination Vacation (aka Deployment) about about week ago. And I have so many things to say about it that I literally don't know where to start. :) Kids handled the event fairly well. Thing 1 was very concerned that saying goodbye to Army Guy would make him late to his End of School class party. Thing 2 just couldn't (and still can't) wrap her brain around what was going down. I'm eternally grateful for that. Sam-I-Am was just hanging out as well. So after a few hours of gathering weapons and just standing around trying to figure out what to say to the man who is your bestest friend, who is half of you, and who gave you the 3 best gifts EVER, it was time to say goodbye.

Comfort in Surprising Packages

So true to form time before the Dreaded D always gets busy with just life stuff. Army Guy has been off training for the last few weeks, so it's been a good trial run thus far for the hoodlums and I. I felt a twinge of guilt when it was 15 days into Army Guy being gone before I heard the first genuine "I miss Daddy". I'd heard it before, but it was right after someone had been in trouble, so I don't really count that. :) I've had some concerns about how they are going to handle this upcoming Dreaded D just because it's going to be so different then the last Dreaded D.