One Week Down!

I've made it through the first week of our first deployment!  I have to say, while I missed Anthony huge, it really wasn't as bad as I thought.  I have stayed busy during the day with work.  Anthony and I have got to talk lots on Skype.  I get to start my day by talking to him before work and end my day by talking to him just before falling to sleep.  That's really helped.  I've also eaten LOTS of these homemade oatmeal cookies I made last week. 

These two guys have been keeping me company.  They shower me with lots of kisses and snuggles.  These pictures are in the morning just before I leave.  They look so sad!

I've also done some shopping here and there to keep me busy.  This week Target had their swimsuits on sale and I had been checking out the polka dotted ones.  I had a gift card AND they were on sale, so I decided I NEEDED to get one!  Here's the one I ended up with.

This weekend, me and the guys are heading to see my family for the 3 day weekend.  Then I have a day and a half of school left, then it's SUMMER time!!!  One of the best perks of being a teacher!

The Glass is Half Full

Today I had to take the trash to the dumpster.  You're probably thinking, no big deal.  But this was Anthony's job.  I HATE taking the trash out.  I did that for many years when I was in college and before I met Anthony.  Now, Anthony takes it out 9 out of 10 times.  Well, he did.  Now I wil be taking it out 10 out of 10 times.  But I decided instead of dwelling on the things I will miss, I'm going to focus on the positive parts of him being gone.

1.  I don't have to cook.  I have enough food to last until I go to my parents.  I will be eating TV dinners and sandwiches.  And leftovers!
2.  I can sleep in the middle of the bed.  I would say that there's noone to snore, but Frankie (my shitzu) snores louder tahn Anthony.
3.  I have the bathroom all to myself while trying to get ready in the mornings. 
4.  I can watch whatever I want on TV.  And no video games are being played.  The remote is all mine!  I can't wait for Dancing with the Stars and the Bachelorette tonight!
5.  There's noone to complain that I left the closet light on or I can't park my car correctly.
6.  There are no shoes in the floor to trip on when I wake up in the middle of the night.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'd rather cook every night, sleep on the edge of the bed and watch my husband play video games every night if it meant I had him home.  But, since I can't have him home, I'll look at the positives!

God is Good

Today was a very hard day.  You see, since Anthony left, I've had Mom here to keep me company.  But she had to return to work.  Saying goodbye was hard.  Being alone was even harder.

Thankfully it was Sunday though, and I knew just the place to go.  I called up a girl I know that goes to the church I go to and asked her to save me a spot so I wouldn't be alone.  Church was hard, but good.  I shed a lot of tears and did a lot of praying.  I left church feeling renewed.  And with plans for the evening. 

After church, I cleaned my car (washed, vacuumed, wiped it down, and cleaned the windows), dug up and potted a lilly that popped up in my flower bed, and spent a few minutes talking to Anthony.  In other words, I kept as busy as possible.  Before I knew it, it was time to meet up with my friend, Emily.

EMily's birthday was Friday, and her friends and family were celebrating today.  We went to watch Letters to Julliet, which I highly recommend.  Then we headed to Olive Garden.  I had an amazing time getting to know all these wonderful women.  Emily's mom said that I was welcome to come over anytime.

I am truely amazed at the support system God has provided and continues to provide.  I asked this morning to be surrounded by His love and tonight, I see that I am.

Where's My Bubble?

I was going to write about my yummy oatmeal cookies I baked as comfort food.  And I was even going to include the recipe for you because it's so good you just have to try it.  But when I was on the way to the kitchen to get the recipe, the dishwasher door jumped down and attacked my leg.  I mean, I'd never run into the dishwasher door or anything.  Anyway, in all the pain, I forgot why I was in the kitchen (definately not something I do all the time).  So now, I'm sitting on the couch like this...

...Trying to make the pain go away and keep it from bruising too bad.  It's already starting to turn colors and there's a knot. 

Now, if that was the only accident I had today, then it wouldn't be so bad.  But, no.  It's the 3rd.  It all started this morning.  I was taking a bath and had shut the dogs in my room so they wouldn't bother Mom.  I was trying to hurry because Anthony had sent me a message and I wanted to talk to him, but I figured the tub wasn't the best place (especially with my clumbiness).  Well, I heard Sam trying to dig his way out of his bedroom.  We already have a 2 holes in the carpet due to his digging, so I jumped out of the tub and got on to him.  And opened the door.  As I was getting back into the tub, I slipped and slid down.  I hit my back on the edge of the tub.  That hurt like heck!  Thankfully as the day went on it started feeling better instead of worse as I had feared.

The next incident occured as I was baking cookies.  I had got out the stepstool (because I'm banned from climbing on things other than my stepstool) and was getting the oatmeal out of the pantry.  Of course it had to be on the top shelf at the back.  But that's just Murphy's law.  Anyway, as I was stepping off the stepstool backwards, somehow I sat right onto the door knob.  My butt cheek is still sore!

Anyway, I think I need a bubble suit.  Mom said I should just sit on the couch after she leaves.   I'm just grateful they are all minor injuries, it could be much worse!

Staying Busy

Let me begin by saying this.  All of you that told me the anticipation was worse than saying goodbye were so right.  I was a wreck.  Now, it wasn't easy saying goodbye, but I felt better than I felt the days leading up to him leaving.  Yesterday (the day he left) was kind of tough and I found my self in tears a few times, but not the big tears like I had before he left. 

Today, I've kept busy all day.  As a matter of fact, this is the first time I've sat down and relaxed all day.  And it's 9:30.  I worked all day and it really helped keep my mind off things.  I work with wonderful people who love me and make things so much easier.  After work, Mom and I went for a pedicure.  After that, we headed to Cold Stone for some ice cream.  Then we headed to the mall for some retail therapy.  Before we knew it, it was 8.  We grabbed dinner at Quiznos then ran to Kohls.  And finally we are home.

I was very lucky that while we were at the mall, I heard from Anthony.  We both signed up for AIM and there's an app for my phone.  So, he can send me a message and I automatically get a message!  He then got a phone number through skype and I was able to call him.  Oh how I love technology!

I am also very lucky to have my mom here with me until Sunday.  She is making it much easier because I'm not alone.  I have such a wonderful mom!

My new shirt I bought while shopping with Mom.

My pretty painted toes!

His bite is bigger than his bark

This afternoon, Mom and I were sitting on the couch.  This cute little guy was curled up at the end of the couch with us.

That's when his brother (see the resemblance) came along and started sniffing around. 

Well, Frankie didn't want Sam to interfere with the attention he was getting on the couch or take his spot.  So, my little 8 pound dog attack the 55 pound boxer.  Poor Sam is now missing a chunk from the tip of his right ear.  ( I tried to take a picture but he let out a loud whine when I tried to touch it.)  What did Sam do about it? 

Nothing. 

Packing

One advice to military wives whose husbands have never deployed:  Make your husband start packing 2 weeks before you are set to deploy.  My husband definately didn't!  Oh my goodness, we've ran around like crazy people!  There are so many little things that you don't even think about.  We had to wash a bunch of stuff.  We had to buy random things like a wallet for his arm and a bathroom baag.  We had to go back and buy batteries and a sunglass case.  We had to buy space saver bags.  And all of these things were bought in different trips to the store.

In addition to the bazillion trips to the store was the packing, unpacking and repacking.  In all of that, he decided to demonstrate his gas mask.  I noticed while he had it on that the dog seemed to run from it.  So, I thought it'd be funny for him to chase Sam and see what he did.  Well, he made a puddle.  We laughed and laughed about it.  It was just what we needed!

Preparing

My husband will be leaving soon.  No one will tell us when, but we know it's soon.  So, here's how we've prepared:

-Taken 3 days off from teaching,  thinking my husband might leave soon.  Nope.
-Spent the weekend visiting family, including our new cute little niece!  And then said goodbye.
-Searched everywhere for biker shorts for my husband to wear under those very short PT shorts.  I mean really...it's not the 70's or even the 80's, can't they have longer shorts?
-Got a POA and made a will, honestly 2 things I never thought we'd need at 26.
-Searched for a hanging bathroom bag.  One that wasn't pink.  Or teal.  Or any other remotely feminine color.  I offered to let him borrow mine, but he wasn't going for the hot pink with zebra ribbon.
-Began packing.  Although, most everything is covering our guest bedroom.
-Ordered Faith Deployed for me.  I can't wait to start reading it!
-Asked each other a million times, "What's wrong?" because neither of us knew what to say.
-Eaten lots of places and foods that Anthony wanted.  One of thsoe places was Hooters, and I love that he didn't want to eat there or to even go pick up the food.  I got to do all that.  I guess he really does eat there for the food!
-Shed some tears.  Those were all mine.  Unless he hid his from me, the way I hid mine from him.
-Downloaded, signed up for, and played with Skype! 

Thank Goodness There Were Only Four

Four days of work, that is.  We were off Monday, I think it was a bad weather day we didn't use.  But, by the time Friday finally rolled around, I knew I couldn't have survived another day.  Here's a recap of the week:

-60 benchmark tests administered one one one (20 kids, 3 tests)
-Morning duty every day-had to be at work 30 minutes earlier than normal
-Almost have the kids in my class cried this week for one reason or another (paper cut, feelings hurt, got in trouble), but the bottom line for most of them was that they were tired. 
-Two of those crying children threw all out temper tamtrums, laying on the floor, screaming, kicking, refusing to listen to me.A
-Four bloody noses.  And I'm not talking a little blood.  This was gushing blood.  And for no reason.  And two of them occured at the same time.

But thankfully, that week is over.  Tomorrow we're having a going away cookout for the guys that are deploying.  It should be a lot of fun.  And I'll start fresh on Monday.

And on a completely different note, I have to share the funny thing one of my little girls said.  It was the end of the day and we were sitting outside waiting for her mom.  She told me she liked my flipflops, but used a Spanish word, something like "chuckas" but I know that's not how it's spelled.  Anyway, a couple minutes later she says, "I know the Spanish word for car."  So, I asked what it was.  "Vehicle."  I got quite a kick out of that.