Changes...

It has actually been longer then I thought since I've posted anything.  The truth of the matter is that I just didn't feel like doing much online over the past few months.  I went through (and probably still trying to get out of) a little down period in my life.

I haven't really posted it much anywhere and have really only told a few people, but Freddy is scheduled to deploy early next year.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.  We dodged the last deployment bullet that was supposed to happen last year but I have a feeling we won't be dodging this one.  The longest that Freddy has been gone since we've been together is 6 weeks back in 2011.  But this time we're talking up to 9 months out of the country.  Marshall turns 4 next year and, by then, Freddy will have missed 3 of his 4 birthdays because of some kind of Army obligation.  Freddy was gone for 3 weeks in October, and Marshall had a really hard time with it.  He is at the age where he knows daddy is gone but he doesn't understand why.  What I have gotten him to understand is that daddy is away with the Army.

So I've been trying to figure out what I need to do to get through this.  I know one thing is this blog.  I feel like I will need to get my thoughts and feelings out some way and now sound like I'm whining on Facebook!  I know I won't be doing one of those counting up things that some mil spouses do because I KNOW I won't be able to commit to blog every day.  BUT, what I'm thinking is, at the very least, doing a monthly deployment recap or something like that.  I am a little concerned with trying to hold down the home front with 4 cats, a toddler, and a high stress full time job.  I know others have done it before me but I just hope that it won't take us long to get into our new normal.

I'm not sure what they do for Active Duty personnel and their families who are getting ready to deploy, but for the National Guard, they hold what is called a Yellow Ribbon event.  It is an all day event that provides A LOT of information on the services and resources that will be available to us while our service member is deployed.  Most of us do not live near a base so we don't receive this type of information regularly.  Our Yellow Ribbon event was yesterday.  I ended up with 2 tote bags full of pamphlets and papers to read through!  I think I'm going to have to create a couple file folders dedicated specifically to this deployment in our filing cabinet.  Throughout a full 8 hours of briefings and information, one thing stuck in my head.  It was during the 20 minutes or so that our FRG leaders had to talk to us with the service members out of the room.  Our FRG leader just had her husband deploy for the 4th time 4 days ago.  We are the only unit that she is responsible for that is also deploying around the same time but one of the things that she mentioned was about self improvement.  She said to focus on at least one task of self improvement during the deployment.  So here I am…

I will be working to get myself organized over the next few months.  Heck, I may even take the full week that Freddy leaves off from work!  But, one of the things that I had set up a couple months ago for fun and haven't really given much thought about until now is the Day Zero Project.  I actually got the idea from the blog She Follows The Sun.  Basically it is a list of 100 things that you want to do in 1001 days.  The site keeps track of your start and end date and also allows you to keep a "Someday" list.  So, here we go… I have my list of 100 things that I want to do in 1001 days.  I definitely plan to write some blog posts when I do finish any of them.  1001 is about 2 1/2 years.  Plenty of time to get some stuff done right??  You can follow my progress HERE.

So that's about it for now…  Look for some redesign coming to this blog in the coming weeks so I apologize in advance for any broken pictures or links.

~AKO