Adventures in Deployments 2...it's been a month!!!

Yipee!!  We check off a month.    People ask me all the time if it goes by fast.......hmmmmm, fast, that is interesting to me.  Deployment life goes by at a crazy pace.  Sometimes you look back and say "Wow!  That is another week done," and other times you say "when is this day ever going to end."  Either way, days seem like a never ending cycle of waiting and documenting and worrying and well just stuff.  The constants of deployment life are taking care of the children, making yourself eat and trying to sleep.  The later two are necessary to do the first !

Hitting the month mark is a great feet...I'm thankful that this deployment is only five months for us.  I have friends who are doing seven and ten months and I have the utmost respect for them.  I know it was a crazy 2 months when he was trying to catch up to the unit and there were many days that I felt like mentally he had already left us, but he was home and we did not worry.

So what have we been filling our days with the last month you ask?  J loves school...well, kind of.  He only recently stopped crying when I dropped him off.  He had stopped for a while and then my car broke down and someone he didn't know had to pick him up and well, the crying cycle started up again.  We have been able to Skype the last 2 days, which has been a tremendous help to J.  He doesn't like to talk on the phone and actually getting to see Daddy has really made a huge difference in his days.  CB is clueless about what is going on.  I am glad she is able to Skype too, so that she doesnt' forget him.  She is very verbal, much more so than J was at 15 months.  This is nice because she is actually able to talk to Daddy a little bit.  It's super cute!!

 What have I been up to personally? Well, I've been running....a lot.  I ran in my first 10k a couple of weeks ago and am looking forward to another one in the near future.  I've also done a few 5k races and have several more on my calender in the next 2 months.  I love the ladies that I run with, they help to keep me sane.  We have also had some wonderful visitors in the house which always makes the time go by a little faster.  I've been going to a community Bible Study group with a nursery for CB to enjoy, that I absolutely love.  God has really been working on my heart these last few weeks about being open to help and having an attitude of service to others.  While I can honestly say in the last week we have had more bad days than good days, we are working to make those few and far between. 

Thank goodness for Facebook.  While you may have differing opinions on the subject of social media, I can say that this deployment's nights are not nearly as lonely as those from our deployments 3,4,5,6 years ago (this is our 5th deployment).  Being able to chat and connect with other deployed wives at night has been a lifesaver and a huge blessing.  I have much more respect for those wives of WW I and II who not only didn't hear from their husbands, but who also were disconnected from family and friends.  The relationships that military wives have is a very special one.  Today as I am reflecting on the fact that we moved to Jacksonville just three months ago, I am amazed at the fact that I know so many other people so well already.  A deployment will do that to you I guess :)