Near and Far

Disclaimer: First paragraph is a little insight on how my brain bounces. Please remember this as you bounce along for the rest of the blog :) I have very little patience. My mind goes in thirty directions, takes four U-turns, and then starts taking hard lefts and rights. My brain in a funny thing and my mind is an odd place. Add some pregnancy (yep, it happened again) hormones, and things just get really strange. While pregnant with Levi, I watch Scarface. A lot. Actually, I watched quite a few gangster/mob themed movies. They aren't typically my favorite movies, but for some reason tiny baby Levi inspired me to watch them often. I'm not really into Scarface with Baby #2, but my mind has definitely not been what I was classify as "normal". I have NO memory, rational decision making skills(poor Ross), desire to eat healthy food, or many other things that I normally would be perfectly capable of doing. Tonight, for instance, I attempted to put the leftovers from s...

When I was writing the update post on Thursday it came to my realization that I never did a blog about when Ross came home. At the time it felt like a very personal experience that I wasn't sure I wanted people to be a part of, but then I remembered how many people we had backing our little family up for that time and I think it was a pretty awesome moment in our lives. So, here we go. Four and a half months late, but here is that amazing night. Ross had left his FOB a week or so before, but thankfully we had a website that kept us at home updated when the welcome home ceremony would be. To most that was not needed, but for some reason Ross and I had very little contact that week and I was very happy for that website. We were the fourth or fifth ceremony from this particular deployment and every single one had been delayed anywhere from 3-30 hours late. I was a little internally torn on this, because our ceremony was scheduled to be at 2:30 am and I was not looking forward to t...

December was an absolute blur. We celebrated with friends at a wedding, had our house packed up, dealt with the cleaning of the Drum house, drove back to OK, had 5 Christmas gatherings, bought a car, signed another rent lease, and closed out 2013.  Our move was an amazingly smooth process that resulted in very few fears of moving in what could be as soon as 5 months away. We had nothing broken, only a small hole put in our couch, and one missing flower pot. All things considered, that is a win.  The move though, involved what we hope will be our final drive from New York to Oklahoma. Traveling in the snowy part of the country in winter is absolutely insane. I despise driving in snow. DESPISE! We drove for a day and a half in the snow, with frozen windshield wiper fluid, on over salted (not a complaint!) roads. Ross and I were in separate vehicles so we would call and tell each other when we couldn't see at all anymore and find a gas station to clean our windshields. It ...

The move is happening. Right now. We have strangers in our home, packing and rearranging beautiful brown cardboard boxes, all around. It is an odd feeling, looking at the boxes and hoping that the belongings inside of said box make the journey to our new (although, yet to be determined) home in once piece. This is our second PCS move in three years. We have moved from three different addresses in those three years though. This one has been the least stressful, easiest thus far, and the snowiest of them all. Ross and I realized on Monday, a mere four days ago, that we should attempt to prepare for the move. Luckily, we haven't been around much in the last few weeks, so the house wasn't a complete wreck. We will really learn how well we prepared when we unpack in a few weeks. That is, if we figure out our housing situation. We are not sure how long we will be at Fort Sill. Could be six months, could be 5-6 years. We do not know if we will be moving in the Oklahoma August heat...

This blog is difficult for me. I enjoy it. I work on it. I hate it. It regularly defeats me. I have started 8 entries since the last public post, but they all won the patience battle. Instead of trying to make something more interesting than it really is, here is what life has given us lately. The last entry was written on day 78 of the deployment. We are currently winding down day 230. We have been back at Fort Drum for a bit over 3 weeks. Fall has hit quickly here in the North Country and is reminding me of how beautiful this area truly is. This will be our third and possibly last autumn here in New York, and I would be lying if I said that I was happy to see it go. In return for our surprise 8" snow falls, we receive those amazing postcard picture falls. Tree lines full of the most vibrant reds, oranges, gold, yellow, and dabs of green that you can only appreciate when you see in person. I am soaking it up daily while running errands (aka wasting time) and seeing the ever cha...

I am known for being a top notch worrier. I will worry about pretty much anything. My mom always teased me growing up that the question of "paper or plastic?" at the grocery store would send me over the edge. While it is a bit extreme, she isn't far off. But for some reason, I am not worrying about Ross during this deployment. We were assured about 100 times before Ross's team left, that this was a safe deployment and that there was nothing to worry about. I, being the worrier that I am, am not typically comforted by things like that at all. This time however, it worked. The three month mark of Ross being away from us is approaching in the next couple of weeks. After spending so much time away from each other while Ross was in college, this doesn't seem as unnatural as people would think. We haven't done time apart for this long in about 7 years, but I guess part of life is like riding a bike. Ross and I went right back to our norm of video chatting (diffe...

We have made it 46 days into Ross's deployment and have had no serious issues! A couple bumps here and there, but nothing that has made me feel like curling into the fetal position (yet). Ross has made it to his final destination and is getting settled into things. He is learning the ropes and getting used to the time difference. (He's 10.5 hours ahead of us here in the central time zone.) We have been able to talk so much more than I ever expected to be able to in the first few weeks. We have only had a handful of days that we haven't been able to chat online and I am extremely grateful for that. Technology has really made deployments much different than what people once had to endure. Leading up to Ross leaving I found myself following him around and watching things from an outsiders point of view. I watched him eat, crawl around with Levi, feed Levi, play with Juno, nap, and just be with us. The thing that made my heart ache was watching him put Levi to bed the night h...