Thankful VIII-The end of the beginning

We are finally making it to the end of this chapter of the story of Us.  Thanks for reading.  Well if you have followed my blog from the beginning you pretty much know how this story went.  After returning to California I spent 5 months flying back and forth, job hunting and shutting down my life in my beloved City by the Bay. It was wonderful and terrifying at the same time.

Memorial Day weekend was our wedding celebration and it was pretty awesome. Though of course there was ridiculous family drama from my side. Nice bookend to my time in CA, sigh.  The week before the celebration party I went in for my annual ob/gyn appointment, had my pap smear and IUD removed and left with a prescription for Ativan.  Yeah I was pretty stressed.  But everything got done and on June 16, 2010 I boarded a plan to Georgia.

It was an adjustment for sure. And it was really only the beginning. On July 13^th I peed on a stick and the next chapter began.  Since that time we have built a marriage, a family, birthed a child, closed an active Army duty career, job searched too much, moved crossed country, moved in with in-laws, started University, got a job, moved into our own place and right now we are working on two major projects.

We hope to be in escrow the end of this week on our first home. And as of today I am 19 weeks pregnant with our second child, a girl! I am basically flabbergasted that this has all worked out.  I have never been so happy in my entire life.  It has not been all rainbows and unicorns, but what ever is really.  That all over body buzz I felt during those early days….. I don’t really believe in signs…..but ya never know. That is the thing for me. You never really know. So you gots to be open. That is the biggest lesson I learned over the past four years. Be open. Let life in. In my case it apparently also involved opening my legs. HA! But seriously, you just never know what can happen, so keep your mind, heart, eyes (and yes sometimes legs-use protection) open.  Your life could just become your wildest dreams. Happy Holidays everyone. xo

Thankful VII

 Sorry for the long pause. Sickness and Hanukkah got in the way.  Alright, so one of the many things discussed on R&R was his Army career.  I knew once his return from Iraq he had a little more than two years left on his contract and he was strongly considering leaving the service. I was good with that. I did not imagine myself a career military wife for a multitude of reasons. Judge me, it is the truth. 

I learned that he was set to leave Alaska after his return and he hoped to have several options for his next duty station. Among them being a recruiter in California or being stationed at Ft. Irwin in Southern California. Both of those sounded great to me and I had lots of fantasies about how that would all work out. BIG MISTAKE. Within days of his return to the warzone he got his orders for Ft. Benning Georgia.  The plus side was that it was a training brigade and he would not deploy and finish out his contract stateside.  We had this conversation over skype and he looked devastated telling me this news. I was the girl who had never left Northern California.  Though I was considering Alaska so I am not sure why he was so worried. I took a few deep breaths, googled a bit and then said, “Georgia is not a deal breaker. Not even close.”  The color literally came back to his face. Yes I was very sad for about a week, which was just stupid, and then I got to work.

I began the necessary paperwork to get my credentials instated in Georgia and wrapped my brain and the timetable of what this would mean.  It would be fine. Let’s just get through this deployment. 

Times were changing in Iraq.  The US was no longer allowed on combat patrols so my man was not in as much danger, though he totally still was.  He was on a big base too that meant regular showers, better food, and much better communication. He had his own storage container to live in and we were occasionally able to skype.  Planning was in full force. So was the redeployment countdown.  Five months to go.

It did not fly by.

Of course he was the last group of his brigade to leave and his return date was uncertain and it was falling at the beginning of my school year. There was no way for me to be there when he got back to the US. It tore me up. But it just couldn’t happen.  So instead I had some bitchy FRG  woman supposedly supposed give him a card (she never did!).  (A side note: A few days leading up I started sexting him only to find out that his mobile number had been reassigned and I exposed myself to a stranger. Lovely.  Glad I waxed.)  Anyhow I waited for his block leave, about three weeks which were excruciating, and he flew down. I made sure I looked damn good, so much so a foreigner in the terminal asked me if I was a hooker. His plane came into the international terminal. And we had our airport reunion. It was awesome.  I was working during these weeks but we still managed to have lots of fun. Celebrated Halloween. He won a bet involving working out, so he got to pick my costume. 

I no longer look like this, and I fear I never will. 


We started laying the ground work for the future. He went back up to Alaska, cleared post, sent his household goods to Georgia, drove from Fairbanks Alaska to SF and we got very busy. In a three week period we got engaged, packed half my house into a U-haul, drove to So Cal for the holidays, then drove to Georgia, found a duplex to rent, moved in, got married and I went back to California for five months.  Crazy right? It was. Many people thought so and some said so. But ya know what, it felt right. Guess who was right in the end?

Some pics of course……….

Union Square SF

He put a ring on it, he better have I was moving to Georgia!

Our first holidays together. Note: He was newly engaged, he will never do this again for me.  

Thankful VI

It was a long winter but spring was coming soon. Amazingly despite the distance and communication difficulties our bond was growing. I thought of him all the time. I found myself only wanting to think about a future with him. It all seemed pretty farfetched and I wondered if I would really go for it. Could I leave my life and move to Alaska? Was this person as great as my feelings were telling me? Or was I simply idealizing a fantasy because I was tired of being single?

I spent time learning every single thing I could about the Army and Army life. That is the time I began to read blogs and make a few blog friends.  His R&R was scheduled for April around my spring break. My birthday was also the beginning of April.  He was not supposed to be back until around the fifth, my bday was the second. So to distract myself I planned myself a bday party. Bought tix for my friends and I for a Giants baseball game. Well wouldn’t you know it, that was the evening he came home. 

All day long I was monitoring flights since he was sitting in Houston hoping to get on one, of course there were weather delays. And then his cell phone died and we had no way to communicate. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. I eventually just went to the ballpark and figured if he found his way around Iraq he would find me.  I proceeded to drink A LOT at the ballpark. Finally around the third inning I got a phone call he was outside the gate.  I ran out, I looked like this, yup

I had the hat on too!

It took some time for us to find each other. He had been traveling two days from a warzone and  was in stinky ACU’s, and the last thing he wanted to do was go to a ball game with a bunch of people he didn’t know, and the girl he was corresponding with was sloshed on top of it. We found each other and it was awkward.  We somehow got through that and eventually made it back to my house.  Friends finally took the hint and left and we were finally alone. And yeah the magic was still there, so relieved.

We spend the next 15 days together, he met my family, we traveled to Southern California to meet his and see Mickey. I got a photographer friend to take pics of us. We had an absolute blast and we had many talks about what we wanted out of life, timelines (I was 37 the clock was ticking), celebrated our birthdays together, told each other we loved one another, and knew where we both wanted to this to head. It was surprising but it really was not.  I wasn’t going to buy into the clichés, but I knew I had finally found my soulmate, my beshert. Now we just had six more months of deployment to get through and to figure out how we would be together. Easy peasy.

To be continued….but some pics of course……

 Those dog tags : )

Thankful Part V

I arrived in Fairbanks, Alaska after 16 hours of travel. Who knew it took so long to get to the Artic. And it was on like donkey kong. We spent an incredible 4 days exploring Alaska.  It was the time of year when the leaves turned yellow and it was just incredibly gorgeous. We hiked, ate, drank, yada yada, met friends, I waited around while the Army packed his stuff for storage during the deployment.  I managed to get an interview with the school district so I could “write off” the trip. I even got a job offer. (If it would have only been that easy in the years ahead.) 

I also had diarrhea which when you are staying in a hotel and trying to still be romantic was pretty hilarious. I just kept going to the lobby, but finally admitted the truth. The four days flew by and soon we were saying good-bye. We never had any formal talk about where this was going, but we both pretty much understood that we both had some serious feelings for one another.  We said good-bye and promised to keep in touch, the best we could.  I had no idea what was going to happen.  Would I or him loose interest? How often would we communicate? Would he come back alive and well?

For the next six months we instant messaged at least once a week.  Phone calls were pretty much impossible. Skype as we had hoped was a figment of our imagination. But we emailed too. And when I heard that ping of yahoo instant messenger I sprang from my bed. We decided to IM in the middle of the night because we could guarantee I would be around.  I went out on a few dates, but was just not interested. I sent lots of care packages with sappy cards. And I waited for the spring when R&R would be.

To be continued………..but first some pics!

I swear you can totally see he is falling in love with me in those eyes! Right?