Deployment Life

I'm sitting in the Fort Walton Beach airport waiting for my flight to Colorado Springs for work, so I figured I'd type up a quick update blog. Since Bryan has been home, I feel like we are constantly on the go. We're trying to make the most of his time before he leaves for Senior NCOA in a couple weeks. For Memorial Day, we waited for a tropical storm. I was kind of looking forward to it. Dreary days filled with good food, wine, and Netflix marathons. We put away all of our yard items that could become projectiles. We went grocery shopping. And then... nothing. In fact, the day the storm made landfall, we did a Memorial Day Murph. We had to run in the rain, but there was no storm. Kind of disappointing. After Memorial Day, we had some beach days and some parties. We started to get into a bit of a rhythm with our schedules, but that didn't last long. We decided to buy a condo as an investment property, so we are in the thick of all that. Trying to get it done...

It's been a little over 2 weeks since I've posted a blog, and with Bryan home I'll probably be posting more sporadically, but I'm going to keep blogging. The past 2 weeks have been fun, but exhausting. Reintegration is always a sketchy time. On the surface, it's fun. But underneath, it's stressful and confusing. I tried to limit our plans while Bryan was on his 2 week R&R, but somehow we ended up jam-packed with things to do. After Bryan got home, we spent some time getting him unpacked and doing a few home maintenance things that needed to be done (changed out some faucets and got the yard cleaned up, etc.). We spent a couple days in the gym together and a few more hanging out at the beach and crab island. The Capitals made it to the conference finals against Tampa, so we made a last second decision to drive to Tampa for a game. I mean, who knows when they'll get this close to the Stanley Cup again, right? We made the 6 hour drive and only st...

He's back! Finally! 8 long months, and it's finally over. Until next time. But let's not talk about that now. Bryan came home on May 3rd after a good 24 hours of travel time from the Middle East. He's home for a solid 8 weeks and then he's off to Senior NCO Academy for 5 weeks in Alabama. At least he'll be driving distance away and not an 8 hour time difference. The days leading up to Bryan coming home are always hectic. I spent the days mowing the lawn, grocery shopping, bathing the dog, doing laundry, and cleaning the house and cars (well, someone came and cleaned the cars because I was just tapped out). The homecoming was really nice. We had over 160 deployers return so everyone came out to welcome them. We had USO volunteers handing out cookies, water, and American Flags. And a local brewery donated cases of beer! Since Bryan has been back, it's been hectic. He's got 2 weeks off from work for R&R and we're staying home (not travel...

Nope, he's not home yet. I know that's what everyone is checking for, but it hasn't happened yet. Soon though, very soon! This was another BUSY week. And it was my BIRTHDAY! It was also 3 of my friends' birthdays this week too, so we celebrated all week long. On Tuesday, we had sushi and sake for Jill's birthday: On Thursday (my actual birthday) we had trivia as usual. The Dependas sucked royally this week, with a 5th place finish, but we had fun! The girls bought me an awesome cookie cake and my neighbor left me a gift on my doorstep: On Saturday we went to dinner at Ye Old Brothers brewery to celebrate Shelby's birthday and then we headed out to Destin for our last Girls' Night before the boys come home. We started at Tailfins, moved to Lucky's and then ended on the bar at Coyote Ugly. In professional news, I launched my new venture in travel planning with Pixie and Pirate Destinations. If you're planning a trip to Disney, I...

Seriously, this week was pretty much nuts. So much going on! Ok let's see... I continued to work with The Value of a Veteran, and just completed (like an hour ago!) my training for my mystery job. I'll be making the announcement later this week- on my birthday! I also have a training trip with Military Child Education Coalition in Newport News May 21-23. In other work news, I got an email this morning that I've been referred for a fantastic position on Eglin, so keep your fingers crossed for that! I am pretty much done with my portion of the text book chapter I'm writing with Lindsey Lee. It's due on Monday! I also attended a USO networking event in Pensacola which was really great professionally and personally. I always get a lot of energy and motivation from other military spouses who are killing it. In trivia this week, the Dependas came in 4th again. I did win a free beer on a bonus question, so that's what really counts, right? I also had another Geek...

What a fun week! I haven't said that in a long time. The week started off with my miserable allergy testing. But it ended really well! Tuesday and Wednesday I worked from home, trained for my mystery job that will be revealed (hopefully) next week, and sat around being miserable with tape all over my back in hopes of finding out what I'm allergic to. I also had a squadron booster club meeting Tuesday afternoon and cleaned the house on Wednesday. After the tape was removed from my allergy patches, I looked like a giant game of tic tac toe: Bryan is getting in to the home stretch of this deployment. He mailed a bag home to me and his replacements arrived this week. He says it's miserable because now they are all on top of each other because there are double the people there, but that just means he's getting closer to coming home. Whenever Bryan drives off base, he sends me pictures and videos of the camels. Unfortunately I can't save the videos (snapchat) but...

Its finally here! A blog post where I can say I'm counting down weeks and not months! Don't get too excited, I can't post a countdown or dates. Why? 1. Because I honestly don't know them. 2. Because it can cause a delay in their return if the dates are compromised. I know a date range and that's all that matters! Right now, Bryan is starting to wrap up his work projects and prepare to hand things over to the new group replacing them. He's sending some stuff home in the mail to lessen what he has to carry home. It's getting real! Meanwhile, back at the homefront, things are going alright. Hoss is doing well, being lazy, and ripping up his toys as usual. Luckily he only rips up his toys. He never touches the pillows, my clothes, nothing but his toys. The weather has been sucky. It's been rainy and gloomy and chilly. Its supposed to warm up, but we shall see. Kate and Laura get here on Thursday and currently the weather forecast is shitty. Eve...