My Deployment Necklace

This necklace is special. Not just because every time I wear it in public I am stopped regularly (by the check out lady at the grocery store, by the person selling make-up at the mall, by just about everyone you can possibly imagine) to tell me how much they like it. Which they do. Like it. No, actually, I take that back. They love it. Everybody loves it.

I do, too.

But this necklace means more to me than just a pretty accessory that draws a lot of attention and goes with everything.

This necklace was made as per my specifications and request, and I wore it every single day during Michael's last deployment. If your eyesight isn't so great these days, I'll save you the trouble of squinting and tell you that the necklace has on it my military wife motto: love makes the ride worthwhile.

Perfect. True. Awesome.

During Mike's first deployment to Iraq he went as a pilot, and because pilots can't wear rings while flying (there's a silly hazard of losing fingers or something like that) I wore his wedding ring on a chain around my neck for the duration. It was important to me to keep a constant reminder of him with me during the deployment.

When he decided to wear his ring for his 2nd deployment (being that he wasn't flying and all), I had to think fast, which is when I went HERE and ordered that amazing necklace you see pictured above.

Shortly after Michael returned from Deployment #2 the chain broke and the necklace has taken residence in my jewelry box ever since. With Deployment #3 looming in my very near future (don't remind me!), I figure it's about time I resurrect my special deployment necklace, dust it off (or, actually, it needs a good polishing), and send it back HERE to have the chain fixed so it will be ready to be donned proudly around my neck for the next year.

I honestly think it doesn't get any more perfect than this necklace. It states my feelings perfectly and succinctly. I mean, I don't want to lose my husband for huge chunks of time as he works in war-torn countries, and I certainly don't love it. But I can handle it. I might even have to go as far as to say it's worth it.... because I just love him so darn much!

Exhibits A, B, & C

Our husky surveying his new yard...


Who wants to play?

Not the best picture, what with the sunspot and all, but you get the idea. The dogs = love the new grass.

Btw, if you have never seen my husky before and upon looking at these pictures didn't immediately think to yourself, "that dog is skinny!" that means the new dog food is well worth the $$ because he's chunking up!

Btw again.. next project? Stain the fence. Mom are you and dad up for helping me with that this summer?

Synthetic Turf a.k.a. Fake Grass

If you live on the East Coast and don't own any dogs you are probably going to think that what I am about to tell you is crazy. It's okay. I thought it was crazy, too. At first.

Michael and I are forking over a very sizeable chunk of change for synthetic turf in our backyard. Actually, the really crazy thing is that 90% of our backyard is either concrete patio or pool. Only a small fraction of one side of our yard is grass... or should I say dirt. So, we are forking over a very sizeable chunk of change for a very small portion of our backyard to be turned into sythentic turf. And I couldn't be more excited about it.

You see, keeping grass growing in the backyard has been nothing short of impossible. Only months after we moved in, our border collie dug up the lovely underground sprinkler system we had going back there. Sprinkler system? you East Coasters are probably wondering. Yes. Sprinkler system. If you live in San Diego you absolutely must have a sprinkler system... if you want to have grass that is.

Even so, we thought we'd manage without it. We did it the old-fashioned way at first... you know... we used a sprinkler that actually connected to a hose and that we had to turn on and off ourselves. But we weren't so great about remembering to turn it on. That coupled with the fact that our dogs are maniacs and run around like crazy and our lovely grass area turned to mud.

Mike re-sodded the area exactly twice. And it turned back to mud exactly twice, mostly when he was on deployment, and I wasn't doing such a spot-on job of keeping up with the yard on my own.

Mike swore that he would not waste another weekend of his life re-sodding our backyard.

I swore that I would not stand for another rainy day with the dogs tracking muddy footprints into the house, nor could I bear to look out at our utterly disgusting muddy pit we had once called grass.

It was quite a predicament indeed.

I set my sights on synthetic turf months ago. In my mind, I figured it would cost about half of what it actually ended up costing. But, really? After I got over the shock of the exorbitant cost for a few square feet of fake grass I realized that it is what I want. More than anything else, I just want to have grass in my backyard. I don't even care if it's fake.

The great things about synthetic turf are: 1. DUH. You don't have to mow it. Ever. Again. A huge plus for people like us who don't enjoy the idea of an afternoon working in the yard. 2. They claim that dogs can't dig it up. They actually have a warranty that covers it incase dogs have super dog digging strength and manage to put a hole in it. Therefore, NO unsightly holes in the backyard. How many dog owners can say that? 3. Did I mention you don't have to mow it? Or pull weeds? Or weedwhack. yes. It is awesome. I cannot wait.

Also? My lovely community offers special rebates for putting in synthetic turf. You see, San Diego County is in this awful water shortage situation and they are really promoting what they deem to be environmentally friendly synthetic turf. Yay!

So there you have it. I'll have to post a picture when it's all finished so you can see how it turns out.

Good Week

A couple of cool things have happened since I last wrote:

First of all, every year students from schools all over San Diego County take placement tests to get into the 4 Catholic High Schools in the area. These high schools then give out scholarships to the students who have received the highest test scores. Well, this past Monday I found out that 2 of the top 5 scores for one of the high schools came from my teeny tiny 17 person 8th grade class! That news is incredible. I am still in slight shock over it. The craziest part is one of the people who scored in the top 5 was this girl who didn't start speaking English on a regular basis until she was in 6th grade, still never speaks to her parents in English, and reported to me just this Friday that though she is an avid reader now, she never cracked open a book for her own enjoyment until she came to this school in 6th grade. In any case, I was a little bit grumpy this past Monday morning, but that didn't last long after I heard the news. All I can think about right now is an annoying cheer that our school does at assemblies instead of clapping..."Good Job! Good Job! G-double-0-d-j-o-b! Good Job! Good Job!" :)

Also, I have a new friend. Yay! The new teacher and I went out to happy hour after work which is officially a first for me. Considering that the other teachers at the school are all at least 10 years older than me, it is good to have someone to call friend. Finally.

All in all, I would have to say that this was a good week.

As March sets in, I am praying that it will go by in slow motion. It's possible that as this deployment approaches, I just might be less prepared than ever before. There's 4 things about this deployment that make it a little bit more unpredictable and a tad bit more anxiety inducing: 1) He will be gone for a YEAR. a year is 5 more months than he's ever been gone before. 5 months is a LONG time.
2) He's going to Afghanistan. That's different. Neither one of us is completely sure what to expect.
3) I don't know any of the people he's deploying with! Well, that's a lie.. I think I know 2 people, but neither one of them has a wife. It's going to be weird when he tells stories about all these people and I will not be able to place names with faces.
4) I don't know what I should do with myself while he's gone!

But, #4 is old news.. so I digress.

Recently, I have been thinking about how great Mike is...

1. He lets me be me. He doesn't pass judgment on how I dress, what I say, how I want to spend my money, what I want to do with my time. I, on the other hand, give him a hard time about all of the above. I feel bad about it on a regular basis; because, he is so easygoing when it comes to me.

2. He's the life of the party. Sometimes I think my friends much prefer hanging out with him and me *together* rather than just me alone. Can I blame them? He's interesting and funny and a great conversationalist. When he's around, things are just more FUN.

3. He works hard at being the best husband he can be. At times it doesn't seem like he hears or acknowledges the things I say... he is generally defensive at first when I bring up issues. But, I have noticed, that he contemplates the things I mention and in his own way and in his own time he works to improve them.

4. He LOVES me. So freaking much. And it is so freaking great.

5. He's a homebody. Even though he's the life of the party (#2) he prefers spending quiet time at home alone with me more than anything else in the world.

I could go on, but I might bore you with my sentimentality... so I will quit while I'm ahead.

Suffice to say: he's the best; I love him, and I'm going to miss him like hell when he's gone.

Ain't Life Grand?

Can you believe it? I am actually succeeding in keeping my Lenten promise. I don't think I have complained about my job once!

I did almost get hit by a car while walking through the school parking lot this morning. That was an odd experience. I was walking with another teacher on our way into the building when all the sudden we heard an acceleration of the gas and a subsequent slamming of the brakes. We turned around to see a rather bewildered looking student and her mother stopped in a car only a foot away. Odd indeed.

Despite the fact that for the last few days I had myself convinced that I would be sticking around for another year at my place of employment, last night and this morning I started to have some doubts again.

I have officially decided that I won't officially make a decision until after Mike leaves. Then I will have a better idea of how unbearable the crazy hours (in and out of work) and the long commute actually are while living alone and trying to keep my dogs from destroying the house. Sure, I've done it twice before but apparently I've blocked the experiences from my memory because I can't decide whether or not it's something I would be insane to attempt again.

I have, however, officially decided that I will be pursuing my Master's Degree while Mike is gone. I have pretty much settled on a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) distance learning program out of Shenandoah University in Virginia. If they'll have me, that is.

What's that you say? You don't believe me?

I know. I know. This isn't the first time I've claimed that I was going to start working on my Master's. You have reason to doubt me; I understand. But this time I'm really going to do it. I swear!

And you want to know the really cool thing?

Thanks to recent changes to the GI Bill, my education will be paid for entirely by the Gov't. Mike has the option of signing his GI Bill over to one of his dependents... and... well... that's me! Because he can get a Master's through the Marine Corps as part of his ongoing officer training for free... he doesn't really need it. Lucky me! Ain't life grand?

To sum things up: I am actually succeeding in not complaining about work! Shocker! I'm still confused as ever about what I will do next year; I am, however, going to pursue my Master's Degree; I swear! And the Federal Gov't will be paying for it. Niiice.

The End.

The Dreaded Countdown

One of the worst things about deployment is the countdown to deployment. I believe it might be comparable to the countdown of, say, a death row inmate.

Other military bloggers have written about the awful countdown to deployment and how sometimes you just start to feel like you want them to get out of here already so that you can start the good kind of counting down. The countdown to the homecoming.

I certainly haven't reached that place yet. I'm not quite ready to kick Mike out the door. I want my hubby to stick around as long as possible.

But he doesn't make things any easier one me, that's for sure. I cannot tell you how many times he has lamented (out loud) the fact that he will be gone when that movie comes out in theaters, or he won't be able to watch a certain tv show to it's season finale because he will be gone before it's over. He does it multiple times a day. Every day.

Just today, I asked him to call and order some food for dinner so that I could pick it up. His response? "You might as well get used to doing it now because in x days I will be gone, and you'll have to do all the ordering."

Grrr...

Or when I asked him to help me fold up the elliptical the other day... he tsked me like a disappointed parent and sighed, "If you can't remember how to do it now, how will you manage to do it while I'm gone?"

I don't say anything, though. Because, I realize these comments are part of his coping method. I mean, I'm losing him for a year, yes. He's losing his whole life as he knows it for a year. It must be an odd thing to wrap your brain around.

I recently read a blog post about a lady whose husband got sent off on a deployment at the last minute. She said she much preferred it; because there was no dreadful countdown. It was quick and easy.

I can certainly understand.

Recently, the calendar has become my worst enemy. Every time I look at it I think x days until Mike leaves. We have x weekends together before he leaves. We only have x amount of days to accomplish the things we need to do before he goes.

All of this anticipation could really drive a person crazy.

But, you know, to be quite honest.... I'm just happy he's here. For now. For a moment last night and a couple minutes this morning I actually let my imagination run away with itself and started to get really miserable about our impending 1 year separation. I refuse to put myself through that for very long, though. Because I want to cherish the time I have with him now.

If only he would stop the constant... "I will be gone when..." talk. And if only I could find a way to live in a world with no calendars.

If only.