Knock On Wood

You know that you're 5 and a half months into a deployment when Hubby calls at 3:00 in the morning.. and instead of shrieking into the phone with excitement.. you're actually a teensy tiny bit frustrated that you've just lost out on a perfectly good night's sleep.

Well, that's what happened to me last night, anyway. Not that I wasn't completely happy to talk to him - it had been a few days, and I was starting to get a little agitated with the lack of communication. But, when he hung up abruptly after only about ten minutes of converstaion due to the early arrival of his team back from a patrol, it was just the slightest bit annoying that I could not fall right back to sleep.

Instead, I laid in bed planning what I will do in my classroom for my school's Open House at the end of January. After about an hour of that, I had to start repeating the "Our Father" prayer over and over in my head to make my brain stop THINKING so much. And, sometime, around 4:30 am, I finally fell alseep.

Today, being the very middle of the month of January, marks the beginning of a month and a half countdown until Hubby's return. I'm so excited.. and yet.. I somehow feel so unprepared.

How in the world did this deployment fly by so quickly? Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not complaining. I'm just amazed.

I can't begin to explain to you how much easier this deployment has been than the last. I was thinking about that today, and I decided this can be attributed to a number of things:

1) It's our 2nd deployment - and therefore, we both knew what to expect
2) My mom doesn't have CANCER this time
3) One of my very best friends lives here now
4) I've been working this deployment - and therefore - completely busy
5) Hubby is not watching his dreams shatter before his very eyes this deployment
6) I have a gardener and no longer have to spend my precious weekends outside doing yard work all by myself/at all
7) I have not had to flee my home in order to escape wildfires
8) My pool pump hasn't broken due to terrible debris and ash from aforementioned wildfires
9) My pool hasn't turned green due to broken pool pump
10) My dog hasn't dug a hole in my couch


I think you get the idea. This deployment = Paradise

compared to last deployment which = hell.

Now, if you don't mind I must go. You see, it would be just my luck that after writing this blog something horrible would go wrong. Therefore, I absolutely must go find the nearest piece of wood.. and knock on it.