Army Marriage

Hubby finally came home late Saturday night and promptly left again at 3am on Monday morning. He’s supposed to come home tonight, long after I fall asleep. This ends the field training, thank goodness, but I’ll loose him again soon when the Army takes him to LA for 3.5 weeks (and no, not the fun city, the humid, swampy state, bleh.)

Albeit a short amount of time I’ll have him back, I made some fun lotto cards that I saw on this blog, to give hubby when he gets home. We’re not having much luck with the Powerball, but I’m pretty sure he’ll be happy with my home made scratch off version! The blogger I got the idea from has way too much time on her hands and is so creative it’s sickening. I spent all afternoon browsing, taking notes, and stealing her cute ideas. Thanks :) ! Check her out for some super creative and charming ideas to brighten your hubby’s/boyfriend’s/fiancé’s day!

Before my return to single-wife living, hubby and I are going to St. Louis for the weekend. Get this, we’re going to a 1940’s/WWII era themed wedding and reception! How cool is that going to be, right? (*I* totally would never do it, but it’s freakin’ awesome that they are!) I’ve got a super cute dress and hubby has a WWII uniform. I’ll post pictures upon our reentering the 2000’s

Speaking of weddings, I want to share with you the Army Wedding Vows. Not the ones we read at our wedding, but perhaps we should have. They’re pretty accurate…. Enjoy!

Army Wedding Vows

Dear family and friends, we are gathered here today in the sight of God and the Department of the Army, to witness this exchange of vows, and see the love that these two dedicated, loving people have for one another.

"Wilt thou, __________, take ___________ (who will now be referred to as the "dependent"), as your family member, to dwell together in so far as the Department of the Army will permit?

"Wilt thou love her, comfort her, via the postal service or over the phone, make sure she knows where the commissary, PX, and church are, and what time she is scheduled to use the laundry room the day she arrives, wherever you are stationed?"

"Wilt thou attempt to tell her more than 24 hours in advance that you will be leaving for two weeks, beginning the next morning? This especially applies to the years you will live in a foreign country!

"Wilt thou ____________ , take this soldier as thy wedded husband, knowing that he is depending upon you to be the perfect (well almost) Army wife, running the household as you see fit, and being nice to the commander's wife? Furthermore, you understand that your life with your husband (little that you may have together) will not be normal, that you may have to explain to your children, not once, but twice, and more often in the same day, that mothers do have husbands, and that children do have daddy's, and that the picture of the man on the refrigerator is not the milkman, but the same individual who tucks them in at 2200 hours, long after they are asleep. This soldier is their daddy, who loves them very, very much.

"Wilt thou love, respect and wait for him, preparing his favorite cookies and pictures of yourself and the kids, so he can remember what you look like? And last but not least, put on the outside of your door his "Welcome home" sign when he's due to arrive?

"I, ____, take thee ____, as my independent wife, from 1900 to 2200 hours or as long as allowed by my Commanding Officer (subject to change without notice), for better or worse, earlier or later, near or far, and I promise to look at the pictures you send me, maybe not when they get to me in the field, but before I turn the lights out. I will also send a letter, if time permits, and if not, to somehow, some way, make the time.

"I, _________, take thee _________ as my live-in/live-out husband, realizing that your comings and goings and 0330 staff meetings are normal (although absurd to me) and part of your life as a soldier. I promise not to be shocked or taken by surprise when you inform me that, although we've just arrived at our new duty station, we will be leaving within the month. Yes, I'll have you as my husband as long as while you are away, my allotment comes through regularly, and that you leave me a current power of attorney and the checkbook at all times. I am a family member and proud of it, dependent upon myself and my resources. Although I miss you when you are away, I know I can handle whatever comes across my path.

"Now then, let no man or woman put us under what God and the Department of the Army have brought together. The Army hereby issues you this lovely, dedicated, independent woman, knowing that she'll be an asset not only to your marriage, but also to the mission of the United States Army, which is, as you all know, to remain in a state of "Readiness." By the authority vested in the Bible, elaborated in the regulation and subject to current directives concerning the aspects of marriage in the Army, you are now a Soldier with a Family Member. Best Wishes and good Luck."

In a Funk

I’ve been in a funk the last few days. I miss hubby, a friend just announced her upcoming divorce and out land lord is coming on Sunday for an inspection of the house. I’m kind of stressing about the house thing. Here’s hoping that A) They don’t raise the rent, B) they let us sign for 2 more years – otherwise we’re moving and I don’t want to do that. (If we sign another 1 year, our lease will come up while hubby is deployed. So not down with that)

I try not to gripe too much about the Army, because I’m proud of what hubby is doing, and let’s be honest, the pay’s not bad, the benefits are pretty good (Although I will talk about my feelings on the health care another time), there’s no fear of downsizing or layoffs… Things could be worse. But I’m getting tired of sleeping alone at night. I miss hubby.

His platoon is on a lame training schedule right now. Thus far: Left early in the morning to go to the range, stayed 3 days, then had staff duty on Friday night, came home dog-tired on Saturday mid-morning. Sunday night, bed time was 7:30pm in preparation for our hella-early wake up, so that he could be at work by 3:30am. He came by to see me at work on Tuesday, and we spent less than 3 hours together before he left again. He was supposed to finish up last night, coming home this morning, but due to a rain storm, things got delayed, so now, hopefully, he’ll be home sometime tomorrow. Monday is another early morning, beginning the 3rd and final week.

As soon as he finishes with this work at the range, he gets one “normal” work week, and then flies off to LA (The state, not the city, bummer) for 3 ½ weeks for a training. Ugh.

I know this isn’t anything like a deployment and we’ve been through a lot more than this before, but someone, please give me my husband back!

Maximum Capacity

We are almost an official Noah’s Ark, with 2 dogs, 2 rats, and with our newest addition, 2 cats. We only have one fish, mainly because Betas must live alone.

We’ve been talking about a second cat for a while and hubby was home for the weekend, so on Saturday we picked up a darling, 3 month old boy we’re calling Toby (unless we decide on something else). He’s a short hair gray, or brown tabby, it depends on who you ask. (Hubby thinks he’s gray, I think hubby is color blind). Forgive me not posting a picture, hubby took the digital camera with him out in the field.

So far, all signs have confirmed that Tentatively-Toby was meant to be our cat. A) He pooped in the car on the way home, B) He threw up in the car on the way home, C) He pooped AGAIN on the way home, and finally D) He likes hubby better than me. He’s also uber laid back and unshakeable, which is kind of necessary to live in our house. Last night Tentatively-Toby met our German shepherd, Erika for the first time. I assumed that he would be terrified, due to her crazy, hyper self, but they loved each other. They played, actively played, for more than 2 hours, and when I finally separated them to bring him upstairs to “his” room, Tentatively-Toby was drenched in slobber. I was proud of Erika for being (somewhat) gentle, and impressed at Tentatively-Toby’s cool attitude.

Besides our new addition, there’s not much to tell. Hubby’s been gone (although he came home Saturday morning, he had to leave again Monday at 2:30am) so my schedule is all wacky. I had chips and cheese for supper and stayed up until 11:30 last night watching 16 and Pregnant. I’ve also been doing some gardening, I don’t have green thumbs but there are a few pansies and some other pretty kind of flower that, but I’m not sure what it’s called, in the flower bed out front.

Since my last book post, here’s what I’ve been reading:

David Sedaris: Me Talk Pretty One Day
David Sedaris: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Who Moved My Cheese?
Marlena de Blasi: A Thousand Days In Venice
Ann Rule: Every Breath You Take (Currently working on, almost finished)
Yan Martell: Life Of Pi

And of course, every month’s issue of Cosmo, cover to cover, as soon as it’s on the newsstands…!

God and a Gun

As I mentioned in the Family Pictures post, hubby is gone a lot. He’s gone right now, as a matter of fact. This time apart is an easier one than normal since he gets to come home on the weekends (Except this one, boohoo).

When I’m home alone, the time I miss hubby most is bed time, I just don’t sleep well alone in our big bed, it feels too weird and makes me miss him like crazy. I fall asleep in the wee hours of the morning, counting the nights I have left before he comes home, or if I’m lucky, I drift off with the TV on. I rarely sleep in our bed, and if I do, I’m on his side. Besides being entirely too sappy and dependant, I’m also terrified to be left home alone.

Before we got married, I lived in a cozy, charming house in Denver, Colorado. I loved my pale yellow bedroom and lying in a hammock on the front porch. What I didn’t love was the location. Things were never boring during my 2 years in the Sherman house. Once the police searched my yard for a gun they thought was dropped there as a shooter fled the area. Another time news crews covered a shooting that happened at a child’s birthday party only a block away. Then there was the neighbor across the street, involved in drug deals and murder – she shot and killed her lover’s girlfriend on the side. My personal favorite was my neighbor on the left, one house separated him and I; on two occasions (maybe more, that’s all I actually witnessed) he locked himself in his attic and shot at vehicles and pedestrians on our street. The SWAT team responded both times; the man wouldn’t come out and once made me late for work since the entire street was shut down. I finally drove through the bushes in my yard to get out, since he clearly wasn’t going to settle anything any time soon.

Another time, things hit too close to home when my house was robbed. Not once, but twice, in the same day.

I can count on one hand the times I’ve been really drunk, or stayed out all night. One of those times, I came home in the morning and my front door was open, my house was a wreck and most of my stuff was gone. Cops came and went, a report was filed and questions were asked about the dog (“No, Sir, I’m sure she wouldn’t do anything. See how she’s lying on the couch right now while you’re here? I’m sure that’s what she did for the robbers, too”). Considering that most everything I owned had been dug through and taken, I handled things pretty well. I pulled myself together, closed the house up and left for Home Depot to get new locks and pick up some pizza for lunch. Despite it being daylight, and that the cops had only just left, someone was stupid enough, or brave enough, to go right back in! With little left to take, they stole my new coffee pot, found my diamond earrings, and were interrupted by my return so the attempt to get away with my microwave was not successful (I found it unplugged, pulled off of the counter).

You can see why I might be a little leery of staying home alone.

I’m happy to say that now, hubby and I live in a nice neighborhood and the only time we’ve had to deal with 911 is when I accidently caught the stove on fire (I’ll save that story for another day), however, the assertive attitude and readiness to protect my home has stuck with me.

Something woke me up around a quarter to four this morning; it upset the dogs, too, who started barking. My old response would have been to hide deep under the covers and hope the dogs would do their job. Even though I don’t have the utmost confidence in their abilities as watch dogs, both are more likely to do something than the dog who was there for the burglaries! But do you know what I did? I retrieved the pistol from its top-secret hiding place and I went downstairs. I checked the whole house, ready to shoot at anyone I came across. I kept my cool, stayed calm brave. I checked rooms carefully, and I made sure I cleared areas before I turned my back.

I never did find out what woke me up, or what upset the dogs, but I remembered my ability to protect my home and take control of the situation, to not let myself be a victim, and I remembered how to handle the gun. (I’m a good shot at the range, and now I know what I can do under pressure, too)

So guess what? Our home is protected by God and a gun; you’ll meet them both if you mess with me tonight.

Family Pictures

Hubby is gone a lot. At this point in our relationship (from first dating to now married) we’ve spent almost exactly as much time together as we have doing the long distance thing. On the one hand, it’s great because our communication is spectacular! Not that we’re perfect at things, but we’re way ahead of the game when it comes to talking, because there’s not much else you can do when you’re 2 time zones apart. On the other hand, it sucks. C’mon, no one likes being apart, especially when you’re missing stuff like my joining the Catholic Church or his graduation from Tank Commander School. I sent pictures via cell phone from Coors Field when our favorite baseball team, the Colorado Rockies went to the ’07 World Series while he studied for a test in New York. I don’t know what’s worse, missing the fun stuff, or when the rough stuff happens; pets die, basements flood and the fact of the matter is, life doesn’t go on hold until you’re together again.

Lately we’ve been staying busy and his work schedule is getting intense, focused on preparing for an upcoming deployment. It’s obviously on our minds that before too long, before we’re really ready for it (are you ever ready?), he’s going to take his troop overseas for 12 months, and I’ll be here. As if the deployment wasn’t approaching quickly enough, he’s also being sent out in the field for training, to other posts for training, and even when he’s just at the office, the hours can be long. We’re not quite ready to slip back into long-distance mode yet, and in an effort to have some fun and capture our time together for when we are long-distance again, we had pictures taken on Sunday.

We found a great photographer here in the area, La Brisa Photography, and met with her at the park on Sunday afternoon. We took the dogs with us, because they are an important part of our family too. Although he is also a special part of the family (and the favorite pet, but shh, don’t tell the dogs!) the cat had to stay home.

Things went really well at first, the weather and sunshine were wonderful, the dogs were staying relatively calm and we were getting some good shots, then we let the dogs loose while we took a few pictures without the “kids”. A few minutes into the humans-only shots, we lost sight of Buford, our black lab. Normally, when we call them, both dogs come running, but this time we only caught a glimpse of Erika (See last post to learn about Erika) at the edge of the trees. We grumbled as we went over to collect our German shepherd and look for Buford (AKA, Ben), then “SPLASH!” a frightened goose came flying out of the river and Ben started crying! He’d jumped, or perhaps fallen, at least 15 feet into the river! By the time we made it past all of the trees and bushes, we weren’t sure where he was in the water. The 3 of us took off running for a clearing where we could access the water; our photographer already had her pretty sandals off in case of an aquatic rescue! I slowed my pace to look more closely at the other side of the river bank, when I heard his labored breathing behind me (Ben is, and was when we got him, slightly overweight and out of shape!). My baby was alive! Soaking wet and smelling like, well, a wet dog, but alive!

Most of our pictures will depict a soggy black lab and cuts and scratches on my legs, and the shots we’d hoped to get in the sunset barely happened, but we had a great time anyway. Enjoy these teasers we got this morning!