Fact of Life

I've realized something over the last few weeks that sort of makes me sad. It first happened when a friend of mine from high school said that she and her husband haven't spent the last 2 summers together because of the Army. I then realized that she's in the same boat I'm in. Or was in until this deployment ended.

In about 2 weeks, my husband will have been in the Army for 2 years. This is the first summer we've spent together since then. In fact, this will be the first time in 2 years that we'll have some sort of normalcy. Let me give you the rundown.

July 21, 2009: Joe shipped out to basic {BCT}. 

October 1, 2009: Joe graduated from BCT.

October 4, 2009: Joe started AIT which was approximately 21 weeks long.

December 2, 2009: I moved to GA, where Joe was at AIT. Joe continued to live in the barracks, only coming home in the evenings for 2-4 hours and staying every weekend.

April 2010: Joe graduated AIT. We PCSed to Hawaii.

May 21, 2010 (ish): Moved into our house.

June 10, 2010 (ish): HHG arrived.

June 26, 2010: Begin deployment #1.

June 21, 2011: End deployment #1.

So, yeah. It's been 2 years of constant changes and adjustments. 2 years of never knowing when we'll actually be together again. Looking back, I'm incredibly thankful that I was able to move to GA when he was in AIT. Though we didn't get a whole lot of time together and I still slept alone on most days, I treasured that time. I treasured it even more after he deployed. I can only imagine how I would have dealt with the deployment if I hadn't gotten to be with him during 6 months of AIT. As hard as it was, I think it would have been much harder if I hadn't had that extra time. 

I'm thankful every day that he's here. He's safe and we get to spend time together. Lots of time. Reverse SRP is good for that kind of thing. =) Going in late, coming home early... I don't know what I'm going to do when he has to really go back to work after block leave!! I know there is a TDY in our near (ish) future, but I'm just happy to have him home. I look forward to finding our "normal" routine and having him home every day. Some days it's like he never left and others I find myself reveling in the fact that he's actually home. 

I know there are going to be changes, TDYs and trainings....but today I'm just glad he's here.

Neglected

It appears that I have been neglecting my blog as of late. Woops. =P

Apparently this is what happens during reintegration. It's not that haven't been wanting to blog, but it's a mixture of spending lots of time with Joe and also not having much to talk about. Since it's been so long since I blogged, I actually have some things to talk about now!!! =D

We had a great 4th. We got together with 2 other couples and went boating! Annie, Jennifer, their husbands and Joe and I collectively rented a boat from the Marine Corps base on the other side of the island. This was the view we enjoyed:

Gorgeous, right?!

We spent about four hours out on the water chatting, eating, laughing, floating and snorkeling. It was really a great time. It was nice to be able to spend time with other couples for a change!! Don't get me wrong, girl time is awesome, but there's nothing like hanging out with your husband and other couples. =) Although we had a fantastic time, Joe and I ended up with some very painful sunburns. 

As we were heading back...

You can already see my sunburn. *sigh*

Mine is patchy... I have burn patches basically all over my body...including a patch on my forehead. I'm not going anywhere until that sucker has faded!!! Joe isn't burned quite as badly as I am, but he does have one little burn that I find quite hilarious. His belly button. Yep. Belly button! I think we discovered it later that night, and I died laughing. How on earth does that happen!? He let me take a picture, but I'm forbidden to post it anywhere online. Anyway, it was hilarious. =)


In other fun news, Joe let me order my birthday present last week!!! We found it on Overstock for much cheaper and he let me buy it. =) Usually it takes forever to get packages here, but this one arrived just a couple days later! Happy early birthday to me!!!

That's right. I got my very own Silhouette!!! =D I'm so, so excited to start using it!!! But since I ordered it from Overstock, I didn't order anything to go with it. You know, like vinyl or heat transfer stuff. Until I get stuff to make with it it's sitting pretty on my desk.

I have decided, though, that with whatever money I get for my birthday {which is Saturday, by the way *wink, wink*} I'm going to buy some fun Silhouette things. I think that's a pretty good compromise. It's killing me that I can't do anything with it yet!!! It's just sitting there...taunting me with all of the things that it's capable of doing. Lol! 


Speaking of being capable of doing things.... My bestie just opened her own little shop. She makes just about anything you can think of - from crib bedding to coupon/cash wallets. She doesn't have an Etsy shop {yet} but she does have a Facebook page that you can check out. It's called Melissa's Custom Sewing. This weekend, she made a super cute cash wallet with some chevron fabric. It's freakin' adorable!!!

So go check her out!! =) 

Now that I've plugged my bestie, I want to plug another friend. There's been a lot of complaining about the Casey Anthony trial verdict. How she should have been convicted, etc. While I don't really doubt that she did it {who doesn't alert the police that their child is missing?!}, no one had any shred of evidence that proved without a doubt that she did it. Katie, who is also a criminal defense attorney, shared her thoughts on the verdict on her blog. I completely agree with her. While she probably did do it, the prosecution had nothing but circumstantial evidence. That does not a conviction make.


Now, I'm going to go enjoy some more moments like this one:

Hope you guys are sticking with me through yet another one of these Army transition times. =)

{Re}Adjusting

No doubt about it, homecoming was amazing. It's what comes next that proves to be a bit of a challenge. I enjoy having my husband home and not being alone 24/7, but....adjusting to changes overnight can be difficult. I went from 24/7 of me, me, me to this:

Not only did I get my husband home, I got all of his stuff too. =P And let me tell you, he has lots of stuff. As soon as we walked in the door all of his Army gear landed in the middle of my kitchen. As I told him, it looked like the Army threw up in our kitchen. Haha! Since I knew he was tired and didn't want to deal with it, I took a deep breath and dealt with the fact that all of that crap was staying in my kitchen. It's taken that same level of control to not freak out when clothes are all over the bedroom floor and dishes cover the kitchen.

Fortunately, having him home also means lots of hanging out and laughing. This takes my mind off of the "oh my gosh my house is a disaster" thoughts running through my mind. =)

Chillin' at the beach.

Joe checking out a sea turtle. =)

There are times that I think I'm going to go crazy trying to readjust to having him home. After being alone for a year, it's definitely not easy. I keep thinking that "they really weren't kidding about this reintegration stuff." It ain't easy. But it's definitely worth it. =) I'd much rather be dealing with figuring our "new normal" out with him than doing things my way all the time. 

And, like they say, nothing worth doing {or having} is ever easy. So here's to reintegration, figuring things out and being together. =)