Whoops!

It's been awhile. Here are the past 4 months in a nutshell...

Play wifey... clean, craft, cook dinner, sleep, repeat.... UNTIL

I got a job! Now I barely clean, never craft, sometimes cook, try to sleep...

I teach fifth grade now which is a huge change from teaching the little first graders! I love how they can work for ever fairly quiet and are still very cute and little! My first few weeks I was imtimidated by the older students, some of them are WAY taller than me... I thought they would be all serious and no fun but it turns out they are quiet a bunch of goofballs!

The bummer about teaching again is trying to get enough energy to do, well... anything really. I am always so tired in the evenings and can't seem to find time to do what I love on the weekends. because fifth grade is so different I basically have to start from scratch as far as lesson plans go... which takes hours upon hours of looking on the Internet for good lessons.

Anyway, I started going to some of the spouse events and met a few girls over the summer... I will have to admit that I was about to go INSANE with my clean, craft, cook dinner, repeat schedule... I needed adult contact and around July I finally gave in and went to a book club where we basically sat around and talked about everything BUT the book. It was a much needed girl time... then, I decided "OOO I know! I'll host a craft night for all the girls!" Well. Boy. Did. That. Ever. BACKFIRE! For some reason or other everyone who RSVP'd yes to the craft night (and even bought supplies) ended up not being able to come! And so lucky me was stuck hosting two of the STRANGEST women I have ever met. I would go in to more detail but I really don't want to relive that evening... so basically I am scarred for ever going to or hosting another spouse night IN MY LIFE!

Thank God I got a job and have my own little life on the side. I couldn't keep doing the stay at home wife thing for long... maybe someday... when I have kids and need to stay home for them.

Married life in Fayetteville is going well. It's not easy, like everyone warned me. But, I think our arguments are funny and healthy... after the fact of course. Like on Friday for instance. Daniel was STARVING and we had been out at one of my co-workers happy hours. If you have a man like mine, that means you know when the grinch comes out to play... man. So it was late and he wanted something quick and cheap... So I said how about Little Ceasars... he said OK and we went to where I thought there was one. Once we arrived to the place where there definitely was not one i thought "Oh.My. God... I'm screwed", I think I saw a monster emerge. He wanted Taco Bell, and the light took too long so he wanted to eat at this Cook Out place, then the line was long and he then wanted nothing he just wanted to go home so I basically drove into every restaurant for him to yell he didn't want to eat there... UGH! Such a butt... It ended in me peeling out of the last place and not talking to him afterwards until the next morning. Horrible way to end a fun evening at the time... hysterical story to tell down the road!

I could totally tell that story better but I am in no mood to edit today.

Daniel leaves in 3 months for Afghanistan... not too concerned about it for now. I'll have to check back in when the time is closer and see how I feel then.

I made it!

It's official... I am no longer living in Florida... Florida and I had a wonderful 28 years together... the break up went smooth with only a few tears shed.

I really, truly had a wonderful week of going away parties. I saw family, co-workers, and the best group of friends send me off. I went to favorite bars, saw my favorite people, and enjoyed every minute I had. It wasn't until I drove away that it really hit me that I was going and not coming back... and it didn't help that my mother called me bawling on her drive home from work (I think she forgot that I will be seeing her in a few weeks out in Colorado).

Well, now I am here... I've unpacked the last few things... cleaned the house... and now what!? I know I'm a teacher and it is summertime and this is totally normal to not have to do anything all summer but for some reason... I am already stir crazy. I am working on finding my groove living here and have been cooking dinners and making beds and all that other wifey stuff but man I'm bored!

Not only am I bored but Daniel and I have really been trying to get used to living together... we lived together in Little Rock last summer but that was very different- I was leaving at the end of the summer! He's said his fair share of annoyances and I've said mine... but I'm stubborn so let's see how much I actually change my ways bwahaha. jk... i'm trying, not really, but I am...

2. MORE.WEEKS!

So... everyone is officially sick of the countdown. Or maybe... I'm sick of telling everyone how much longer. But today, for the first time, I got butterflies in my stomach when I saw we have exactly 2 weeks left until I move in! So exciting... well for me anyway. For Daniel though, it's more of an invasion. Check out his calendar:

He said he is preparing for me to move in... he has boarded up the windows. I feel the love!

Surprise phone calls

It's been awhile since my last post. We're now down to 40 days to go. We have moved in all of my stuff with the exception of a closet full of clothes. I am moving into my parent's house within a few days to live out the remainder of my work year and I am getting my house ready for a new tenant. I spent last weekend at our house in North Carolina getting the guest bedroom ready for Daniel's parents to make their first visit to our new home.... now it really makes not being there hard! Our first house guests and I am not there to be a hostess! We spent Easter away from our families and with our new Air Force family at a friends place in off base housing. We ate greek food and had a good time. We also checked out a new local church which was, to say the least, WAY different from the Catholic Mass that I am used to. We walked in to a live band with crazy lights and loud christian rock music being sung at the 10:30 AM Easter service- wow.... I liked it because it was different but it was a bit of an Easter Sunday SHOCK! It reminded me of The Tree back in college... a Wednesday night college youth group we used to have at USF.

All in all the past week was a good one... and then I get the phone call.

Daniel: "I was offerred a chance to deploy. I would be trained in a different plane!"
Me: silence...
Daniel continued: "I would go to training in Georgia from mid May to July. And then be deployed in August for 180 days! I would get a ton of flight hours!"
Me: "Where would you deploy to?"
Daniel: "Afghanistan. What are your thoughts"
Me: silence.... (because I'm starting to cry)
Daniel: "Hello?"
Me: " That would mean I would move to North Carolina and you would be gone training for two months and then deployed for 6.... so I've been counting down for no reason... we've been married for 4 months and we haven't even had a chance to live together!"
Daniel:" Yea, but afterward we could move to California. You want to move to California?"
Me: "No! I want to actually feel married and live in the same state with my husband... I hate California! " (not really... but I really don't want to even think about moving again after we just got settled in NC)
Daniel:" What's wrong?"
Me: "What's wrong is that you are actually considered taking this deployment instead of spending some married time with your new wife!"
Daniel:" I'm sorry, that's why I wanted to talk to you about it...to see how you felt about it"
Me: " I feel like it's a dumb idea... No, you're not going!"
Daniel: "Ok, I will tell them no... I was just excited to finally do something that I have been training in for the last few years..."
Me: "Well, I've been training you to be my husband for the last few years so how about you get excited about finally being a husband!"

BAM! Yes, amazing answer... I know. Now I am just praying he doesn't get volun"told" to go... :(

I was feeling pretty safe with our choice with the C-130... but seeing that the Air Force can just up and change our assignment and life within weeks is very scary and stressful... the other wives I have met are about to go through their first deployment which has been planned for awhile... while I am here freaking out about some drastic change of plans... the possibility of not living with my husband for over a year now. Life. Is. Not. FAIR! I need consistency in my life after 4 years of traveling back and forth... I need to start my little family and move forward... I am DONE pushing pause for now. Please, help us not get deployed any time soon and pray for us to stay together... at least for the next 6 months!

The beginning

Daniel and I have been married now for 2 months, 5 days. We still have 95 days to go before we will actually be living together, in the same state... for the first time in 4 years. This... is the beginning of my life as an Air Force wife.

We met in 2006, the last few minutes of it anyway. Minutes before New Year's Day 2007.... and we married in the last few hours of 2010 just before New Year's Day 2011. In those 4 years of dating we probably have seen eachother an equivalent of  one year, 365 days.

My concerns aren't the typical persons concerns "How do you do the long distance!?"... they are more geared toward... "How are we going to do seeing so much of eachother!? "We joke about it often and we shall see very soon how we will do actually seeing eachother for more than a few days a month.

Daniel is stationed at Pope AFB.... and I have chosen to stay here and finish out my year teaching. It's interesting how different the distance feels now that we are husband and wife. The strange difference only last while I see him and a few days after I return home to Tampa and then it goes back into the regular feelings of going through the motions and a numbness until we're together again. We recently bought a house in North Carolina and I feel that now more than ever the life here in Tampa is stagnant and pointless. My home is now in NC and no longer here and for now... I feel lost in my time here.

I've recently been introduced to a group of young Air Force wives. The fortunate ones who actually got to move around with their husbands and not work in the meantime. I feel so different from these women. They know so much more about the life of an Airman than I do and act like everything is second nature. They know some of the acronyms, the spouse club calendar dates, and meet up with eachother regularly. I feel so far off from these "seasoned" wives that I am afraid I have a lot of catching up to do. I pray to find friends with common interest who are down to earth and easy to talk to... 95 more days until my new life begins.