Life As We Know It

Will be totally different in about 6 weeks. Jason will be mobilizing to TX for a year, and the boys and I will stay in Memphis to hold down the fort. We only have 6 weeks to be as family and get a lot of things done. He will miss birthdays, holidays, vacations,baseball games, and our anniversary. A bit of background: Jason has been in the United States ARMY Reserves since 2002. He has been through 1 deployment already in 2004. He was gone for 15 months. At that time we were just dating, but preparing for our future together. 3 months after he came home from Iraq, he proposed to me. I guess I showed my faithfulness and loyalty during those trying months! When he left I was in my 3rd year of college, and I can remember sitting outside many of my classes writing him letters, and then actually getting up in a lecture class to take his phone calls from Iraq. I even had to reschedule a history test one time because the test coincided with the 2 weeks he came home for R&R. As a married couple, the ARMY has kept apart for bit and pieces of time. Whether its his 2 weeks, or a school he has to go to. The longest we have been apart as a family has been 3 months, and that was last year. 12 months seem like a life time compared to that. When Jason went to Iraq the first time he was in a transportation unit. He drove the huge tanker trucks all across Iraq to different bases; it was a very dangerous job, and luckily he and his unit all came home. Jason is now a Drill Sgt., so this mission will be a bit different; he will not go overseas, but he will train soldiers who are. We heard earlier this year that he may have to go to GA for this mission. We were not thrilled with this news, but the base they were going to be at was only 30 minutes from my sister and brother in law. I thought, "well, if he has to go, it's only 6 hours away and we could see each other at least once a month, and visit family." In March we got a phone call that he would not be going because he was on a temporary medical profile. Jason had knee surgery back in October,and because of the restrictions of exercise, his Orthopedic put him on a profile for both MPD and ARMY. There a sense of relief that he wouldn't have to go. However, just a month later, he hears that there's still a chance he has to go. Last week he went to KY with his unit to prepare for the mobilization, and he was told that since his profile ends at the end of May, he will be leaving in June. When I got that phone call, I will be honest, I was mad, pissed even. I took 2 days to pout and cry. I have a bit of anxiety, so things started to set in and I had a hard time wrapping my brain around it all. Being in Memphis, we are by ourselves, meaning, our families all still in Louisiana. We have wonderful and great friends here, don't get me wrong, but they all have their own families and lives. I realized that we should be thankful that he is staying state side, and that we will be able to come home a few times that year. I've always thought that Jason and I had a special relationship; he truly is my best friend and we have great communication. With this knowledge, I know we can get through this, but it's not going to be easy. My main concerns are the boys. Jay will totally understand what's happening. The other 2 will not know exactly what's going on, but when Jason is at work now, they say they miss him. I can only imagine how much their hearts will ache for him this coming year. All 3 of the boys are so close with their Daddy, so this year will be rough. I am just hoping that we can get a routine going, and that the time passes by fast. We are hoping he can come home every 4 months or so, so we will be looking at this in sections. I have ordered a countdown for us to use to help countdown the days he comes home. I have also realized that they ( and me ), will have to stay busy. He will miss Jackson's 4th birthday, Jacob's 3rd birthday,and Jason's 7th birthday. We won't be with him for his 31st, or my 31st. And he and I won't be able to celebrate our 8th anniversary together. It's weird because I acknowledge myself as a Police Wife, not an Army Wife. I have so much respect for military wives who's husbands are Active Duty. Jason's brother is active Marines and has been deploy multiple times, each time leaving his wife and kids. Liz is such a strong military wife, so I will be turning to her for advice on how not to go crazy. Jason and I are lucky that he will not be in a combat zone, and that our main problem is just being apart. But, for this year, I will embrace the role as a full time ARMY wife. This summer the boys and I will be going to NC for a family trip. Jason's Dad, step mom and step sisters will all be heading NC to Jimmy and Liz's house. We planned this months before Jason found out he could leave, but I will still be going. The boys are looking forward to seeing their cousins, and I haven't seen our NC people for over a year now. Also, my sister has been bugging me about coming to visit her. She and Justin have been in Atlanta for almost a year, and we have not made a trip down there. I am hoping we can get down there before school starts back up. Throughout the school year, Jason will work hard on trying to get home during our breaks. I would HATE if he came home for 10 days and I had to go to work. No Bueno! So, that's what's going on. Never a dull moment in this house. With 3 boys, a dog, and a husband who has a terrifying civilian job and military career,you never know what's going to happen next. I ask for prayers during this time, not for me; I've got this. But, for my boys. They will struggle with the fact that their Daddy, their best friend, their hero, is gone. Also, pray for Jason's safe travels. It will take him 18 hours to get to TX, and he will be driving it!! We have 6 more weeks with him, but for most of that we will both be working. We will be taking about 8 days off prior to leaving, which is great because that will be my first week off for the summer!!

Spring is here, right?

A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks!! It is officially spring, but the weather here in west TN is just not cooperating! The temperatures here have been in the 40s lately!! Jay has started spring soccer and t-ball and so I am waiting for the gorgeous weather to come in! Standing out in 40 degree weather for soccer practice is no fun!! We did go down to New Orleans last month and we had so much fun! Jason and I stayed downtown one night and celebrated our anniversary. It was a night that we needed; no kids and we could just do what we wanted! On Thursday we left the boys with my parents and granny and headed to the French Quarter. We spent the day just walking the Quarter and eating!! That night we dressed up and went to our anniversary dinner at Crescent City Brew House! The food was so good,and so was the beer! Our hotel was one block from Bourbon Street, so we went back to the room, got into Bourbon worthy clothes, and headed out! We had so much fun just walking up and down the street and turned in for the night at 10. Yeah, I know, we are such party animals!! The rest of the weekend was spent with our families and just getting in as much quality time as possible. I was very sad to leave because we truly had so much fun. The following week I finally had my LASIK procedure done. I am just 1.5 weeks out from the procedure and things have gone good. It's amazing that I have 20/20 vision now! I've had glasses/contacts for so long, so it's still weird to think I can see and there are no contacts on my eyes!! I had some major bruising to both of my eyes, so my students at school were very worried that something had gone wrong. Nice to know they were worried. Right now, we have a so much going on at our house. Jason is still working his crazy shift, but we are going with the flow and getting use to it more and more. We are almost ready to move Jay into his new room!! The painting is just about finished and our new furniture is in!! I hope that we can officially move him into his room within the next couple of weeks. We also decided to keep Jack on the bottom bunk of the bunk beds and move a toddler bed into the room for Jacob. They will probably stay this way for awhile. We only have 6 more weeks of school left, so things are getting hectic. My students are prepping for a very important state mandated test,which will take place in the beginning of May. Rachel and I are looking forward for the test to get here and for our students to do well. We have all confidence that they will. We have been preparing them for the test since the first week of school. Also, Jay's 6th birthday party preparation has started! For whatever reason, I feel the need to over do it when it comes to their parties. Jay's party theme is super heroes and will be at Andy B's Bowling Alley. He is so excited and can't wait. Also, I will be turning 30 in 3 weeks!! I'm looking forward to this birthday, and not sure why. I am not sad by any means that I will no longer be in my 20s; I am embracing my 30s!! Speaking of my 30th birthday, a few months ago I set a goal to try and reach my goal weight by the time I turn 30. Unfortunately, I have realized that the goal will not be met. I have struggled with weight lost since I started have babies! My weight fluctuates constantly and I have a hard time with being consistent, also, my love for food does not help. I have lost some weight and made so great strides towards my goal, but still feel like I am in a rut. Finding time to go to the gym has been difficult with our new schedule, but I am trying very hard to be dedicated and not to put too much pressure on myself. I will put so much pressure on myself and when I see no progress I get very emotional and feel horrible about myself. I am working on this and trying to stay positive. I want to be healthy for all the right reasons, but it is just so damn hard. I really need to embrace this new lifestyle and stick to it, but like I said before, consistency is not my strong point. So, a good friend of mine suggested CrossFit. This is a method of working out that I have heard of and have been afraid to try because the people that do CrossFit workouts are so hard core!! If you don't know anything about it, it's what Bob Harper does for the contestants on The Biggest Loser. Think flipping huge monster truck tires, pull ups, pull ups on rings, row machines, etc. We have a gym here in Bartlett called CrossFit Bartlett that is doing a bootcamp starting in a couple of weeks and Brooke and I have signed up to do it! I am so nervous about, so today I went to the gym to meet the trainers and to do a sample workout. Man, was it tough, but I actually did pull ups!! I could not believe my trainer got me up there had me do 10 pull ups. I was impressed with myself and loved every minute of it. I am really looking forward to the bootcamp starting and I can't wait to see the results! I will let yall know how it's going and my gains. I have also signed Jay up for summer camp at our gym that we are members of and I know he will have so much fun. Jackson and Jacob will also being going to Mother's Day Out once a week this summer, so they will be busy too. We are also planning a trip to NC at the end of June to have a family vacation with Jason's family. His older brother lives there with his family and I can't wait for the trip. Jimmy's family and our family are so close, and when they moved from LA last summer, we were sad because we knew we wouldn't see them as much. However, gives us a good excuse to go see them and go to the beach!! Oh, and our baby girl, Remington. She is getting so big!! She will be 10 months this month and is probably about 60lbs! The funny thing is, she thinks she weights 10! Whenever we sit on the floor, and she comes up to us, turns around, and sits right in our laps. She loves doing this because she knows she will get some love! She is such a great dog and she is so awesome with the boys. Jason is still training her for duck hunting, and she is still doing well. I can't wait to see how she does this winter! So, as usual, our life is crazy and hectic, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Well, except for some extra sleep, that would be nice. Just 6 more weeks of school though, then I can sleep in some!!