Military Mondays

Woo! Another week down and only one more Monday to go! I’m already almost bursting out of my skin. My back tingles every time I think about how close it is to our reunion. Matt said that he was assigned a seat on the plane out of there, but still no news on the commercial flights bringing him the rest of the way. Hopefully soon. I contacted a photographer from Operation Love to come take pictures at the airport and they need some advance notice, of course the military doesn’t know what that is.

Mom and Dad stayed the whole weekend. They left yesterday morning when I headed to work. I got up early this morning so I could vacuum all the fur off the couch. I am waiting until my days off to sweep the clumps off the floors and mop up all the paw prints. It was really nice having so many warm bodies in the house. The only time I heartbreakingly missed Matt was when a beautiful bouquet of flowers was delivered to my door with a sweet message from him. I cried uncontrollably for 10 minutes, thankfully no one was there to see it.

Working on Christmas was actually pretty awesome. Our latte stand was the only coffee place in town that was open. Thanks to that and people’s Christmas spirit I make some killer tips and reached my savings goal for Matt’s homecoming. I have 6 more days of work before he gets back so we will have lots of cash to blow on whatever he wants and maybe a new snowboard for me.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are my last days off before Matt comes home so I will be trying to get a lot done. On Thursday I have a doctor’s appointment downtown and Bravo is scheduled to be groomed. He will smell like candy canes. Friday is Mom’s birthday. I’m very concerned that her gift hasn’t arrived yet. It will really suck if it doesn’t show up in time. I am going to join her and dad for dinner somewhere. I have only one invitation for New Year’s Eve, but I would have to drive to CDA and drive all the way back, get basically no sleep and be to work at noon on the first. I think I will just stay at home and eat ice cream in bed while I chat with Matt and reflect on the 7 years we’ve been married.

Military Mondays

Holy crap it’s Monday again! In hindsight that was pretty fast. The individual days seem to be taking forever, but looking back now the countdown has moved along pretty quickly. Matt will be leaving in 2 ½ weeks and my world will be filled with bliss. We have been talking lately about our reunion and what to do during his two weeks of R&R. Both of us are nervous and excited. It is a weird feeling to want to touch someone again so badly but to worry if it will feel weird. Does 6 months of not kissing make you forget how to kiss? What if all of my favorite things about him have changed? Does he smell different, taste different? What if he’s picked up some terrible habit? What about me? What if these things have changed about me? I know it is silly to worry about these things, but six months is a long time. So much can change in 6 months.

So sadly, even though we are so close to his return, he will still be missing Christmas and our Anniversary. It is depressing to say the least. People have been getting very concerned about my spending Christmas alone. I tell them that I’m working that day and they make a sad face. “But you can’t be alone on Christmas!” most of them say. The Chandler’s actually decided that they were going to show up at my house and bring me dinner, which is the sweetest thing anyone has thought of doing for me. Of course, my folks couldn’t keep away either. Since I have Christmas Eve off they decided to load up the gang and head over that day. They will stay the night and possibly hang out while I’m at work on the 25^th. I’m not too excited about the prospect of wet paws on my couch, but I am looking forward to having a full house for those couple days. I even decided to do something of a Christmas dinner. I’m going to cook a turkey breast in the slow cooker and cook up some stuffing & vegetables.

New Year’s is another story. On Matt’s last deployment I came across the perfect New Year’s dress. I was fully intent to wear it to ring in 2009 with my friends at the CDA bars, but at the last minute I changed my mind. It didn’t feel right to look so pretty with no one to kiss at midnight. So I saved the dress for another year; for the perfect New Year’s Eve out with my perfect husband. I thought about getting fancied up and going out this year but a) I’ve gotten zero invitations and b) it wouldn’t feel right to go out and have fun without him. So I’m going to do my best to treat it like any other day. Maybe if Matt isn’t busy we will be able to chat through midnight and sort of be together when our anniversary arrives.

Here’s hoping this week flies by like the last one. I actually have things to do on my days off (2 new books arriving Wednesday, haircut & groceries on Thursday) and then Christmas so that should help.

Military Mondays

Week 23

Ladies and gentlemen all we have to do is make it through December!

If any of you have been keeping track of the weather in the Northwest, you know that it has been freezing and snowing for about a week now. I had a nice Thanksgiving with the families and after purchasing my Black Friday deals online my folks and I decided to skip the tradition this year as this Christmas will be a lonely one. I was able to head home early Friday afternoon when the roads were decent. I arrived home to 4 fresh inches of snow on my driveway that I promptly removed via snow blower. (Perhaps it needs to be named? No machine can be loved so dearly and not be given a name. Suggestions welcome.) Bravo and I spent the evening on the couch, I with a book and some hot tea; him cuddling with his teddy bear. This morning I tried to decide if it would be better to remove the next 3 inches we received overnight right away or to wait until I got home for work. I opted for right away. After Bravo and I returned from our walk, I was ready to head out the door when the snow plow came by and pushed a 2 foot birm of heavy, sticky snow right in front of my freshly cleared driveway. It was irritating to say the least. But this was another opportunity for me to hug my Jeep and tell her how much I adore her. I hopped into the heated leather seat, gave it a little gas and we bombed right through that barrier. I giggled as I drove away. If I had some dinky little car or even a lesser SUV I would have spent a good hour having to shovel a path to the street. I heart you Sheila. And I heart Matt for making sure I chose a safe & capable vehicle. Thankfully we had a little break from the snow on Sunday and Monday, but there is another 8 inches coming in tonight. >insert unenthusiastic ‘woo’ here< If I hadn’t promised myself I wouldn’t go shopping in December I would be more excited because I would be ordering a new snowboard and getting boots and hitting the mountain. But alas, I am going to be a cheap ass.

Even though it is the final month my loneliness seems underlined by the romantic holiday commercials and the family traditions that are utterly depressing to attempt alone. Coming home last night I noticed several homes in the neighborhood with their Christmas lights on. So I decided it was time to drag out my decorations and put up the tree. I drug the 5 (yes 5) totes of Christmas paraphernalia into the house and assembled our 7ft tall tree. I plugged in the lights and opened the tote holding our ornaments and started to cry. There was no way I could bear the effort of hanging all those shiny globes only to take them down just before Matt arrived home, let alone unwrapping our sentimental ornaments and reliving the memories attached to each one. So after enjoying a good 5 minutes of freedom the tree went back in the box and everything went back out into the garage. God this is depressing. But now I don’t have to clean any of it up and my home will be reminder free of the fact that I am utterly alone for Christmas and most likely our anniversary. Bah Humbug!

Military Mondays

Week 22 and we have SNOW! Snow people! That means it is winter and Matt will be home soon! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I totally adore driving my Jeep in the snow. It is my tank and I love it. What I don’t like are the people that drive like they forgot it snows here. Come on. I really want to believe that you’re not all morons.

Bravo had a ball frolicking in the white stuff on this morning’s walk. He sniffed the trials of other dogs and found his favorite spots to mark. He didn’t get enough apparently because when we got back to the house he immediately wanted in the backyard where he ran down the steps and did a somersault! He came back to the door with his face all white and covered in powdery snow. Hilarious!

I am soooooo ready for Thanksgiving to come. Because the last week of November is going to fly by with activities and work and then it will be December and I can finally start saying that Matt will be home in a month. There are already advertisements on TV for shows and movies releasing in January and I keep telling myself ‘Matt will be home for that.’ It is awesome. With the arrival of snow I’ve started reconsidering my Bah Humbug attitude toward Christmas. I had to move some things around in the garage yesterday and found myself digging through the Christmas totes. Perhaps I will decorate a tiny bit. Maybe put some lights around the front entry and put up one of the trees. It wouldn’t be right to not have a Christmas tree. There is little that can compare to the calm of sitting in the glow of a lit tree, watching the snow fall.

I’ve decided that my Christmas present to myself is going to be a new snowboard. It looks like this winter will be worthy and I have the work schedule that will allow me to miss the weekend crowds and prices.

There are today’s thoughts. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Military Mondays

This week sucked.  End of story.  I needed Matt so badly and nothing could change the fact that he can’t be here for me.

I’m feeling too overly emotional to write about it all at the moment though.  Funny how I used to want to get things off my chest and these days I don’t want to tell anyone how I’m really doing because the truth is I’m barely holding myself together.  I’m starting to wish I could just stay in bed until it is time to pick him up from the airport.

Military Mondays

Week 16.

My mom stayed with me for a few days last week while my dad was in Seattle. She was also trying to hide from my grandfather who said he was coming to visit and then didn’t show up. I never thought I could loathe someone as deeply as I do that senile old man. There is no excuse for him.

The big news was that after the dog fight that occurred in my garage (see what happens when you have too many dogs?) Mom and I spent the week monitoring the four involved. On Thursday morning Mom woke me up because Harriet, their boxer, had lost bladder control. We took her to the vet, who later informed us her kidneys were shutting down. Thankfully after a couple days of observation and fluids she is looking better. By the time this posts she should be heading home. To say the least this made for a stressful week.

We reached the 100 day mark. Sadly there are still 80-something to go. Matt was telling me that I should throw myself into the holidays. Decorate for Halloween, get a costume, and pass out candy to little kids. All I can think about though is that Matt is missing yet another birthday. Not like last year’s Starbuck’s run and trip to Lowe’s. But still.

My mom was telling me she heard that stress can cause short term memory loss, fatigue, and poor sleep. Really, what terrible effects doesn’t stress have? But it does make a lot of sense as to why I’m constantly tired and habitually forgetting what I was just doing or thinking or saying. The sad thing is that the only remedy for stress is to relax. Suggestions like ‘take a hot bath’ are such bull shit. When I get out of that bath there will still be the endless list of things to be done. A hot bath is not going to bring my husband home.

Military Mondays

Week 10 starts today!

I keep not wanting to blog. I am going through the motions of each day, losing myself in the routine of things which to me is not very interesting. So let me brag about my husband a little.

Matt beat a record on his run time for his P.T. test, the record happened to be held by the Squadron Commander. He shaved about a minute and a half off his time on his previous P.T. test. So he was running a 10: 20(ish) mile and a half and recently he was clocked at 8:56 beating the record 9:38. I started the whole Couch to 5k thing a couple weeks ago and I’ve seen a bit of an improvement in myself, but there is no way I could keep up with him. He is being extremely supportive and encouraging; telling me how excited he is to run with me when he gets home but I have to laugh at the idea.

Apparently my husband has become a little famous this month because of an interview he gave. The first thing everyone got to see when they logged into their computers was Matt’s handsome face and a Q&A with him. The questions were silly things like favorite tv show or favorite sport. Of course news of his run time has spread like wildfire and has only added to his local celebrity. Still, I’m proud of him.

I did a bit of back to school shopping last week on my days off. I have to say the retail therapy was pretty nice. I finally scored some nice pillows for the couch, and after spending an hour in the dressing room at American Eagle I found jeans that I love. Endless.com sent me my new moto boots free overnight. I like them so much I think I need to find a black pair.

Matt’s truck is almost finished.  While I’m at M&D’s place this week the front windows will be tinted and the new wheels and tires will be put on and then it is ready to go back in our garage!  Dad and I tallied everything up last night and the MegaMatt has gotten about $7,000 worth of upgrades.  But because of a little bit of craigslist luck & an awesome father in law who called in a couple of favors and wisely used his 4×4 connections I paid no where near that amount.  Matt is just about peeing himself with excitement because I still haven’t told him if the craigslist find was a new hood or a fiberglass bedcover.  I wish I could have gotten both, but not everything can be done at once.  Here is a cool Before pic courtesy of my mom.