So, I wait.

“There is time enough for everything. Take it easy.” ~ Eleanor Kirk

One might say I’ve adopted this mantra as of late or at least I’ve attempted to. My existence has become a waiting game. How strange it feels to be on the cusp of motherhood, a period of time, change, and role replacement that will alter my path forever. Yet, I’m still sitting around, staring at my ever-growing middle and wondering how this will all work out.

Is there really a 7lb, bouncing baby boy inside me? Am I really to be trusted with this new life? He has been mine for nine long months, how will I learn to share him now?

These are just a few questions that float freely through my mind throughout the day. My life is about to change forever and it’s no little thing. Anticipation. Excitement. Fear.

I told a friend earlier today that the end of this pregnancy has felt much like the end of a deployment. It is by far the most excruciating part emotionally. If you aren’t accustomed to military life, then I’ll let you glimpse it for a moment…

Wives, mothers, sisters, brothers- none of us know exactly when our soldier will be home. We hear various rumors and are often pushed to our limits being told, “The plane should pick them up tomorrow” only to hear the same the next day. What you may not know is that there are several plane rides that eventually bring the service member home. Layovers are days or weeks long and all we can do is wait. All we can do is think about that meeting, eyes finding one another, that first touch that makes everything right with the world again.

I feel much like that now.

Good things come to those who wait, though. I might just have a little bit more wait in me than I thought. I suppose I have the U.S. Army to thank for that.

I waited a whole year to take this homecoming picture. One entire year on the man I love.

Surely, I’ll make it a couple more weeks on my sweet baby to decide to make his way into my arms. So, I wait.

Military Mondays- Care Package Edition

It’s time for one of my favorite blog hops– It’s Military Mondays with Candace over at Army Wives Lives! Go link up your recent military related post with her and then hop on around to see what everyone else has to say today. As for me, I’d like to help my ladies in waiting out. If your military sweetie is deployed this year for Valentine’s Day, this post is especially for you.

Care package preparation is an art form, isn’t it? It can be so much fun. All the love and longing for that person has to be summed up in one little APO flat rate box so that when the service person opens it, he/she feels all the love from a million miles away. That’s how I liked to prepare my boxes for Captain J anyway. And if it happened to be a holiday, his pride had to go out the window (For those who don’t know, the army will go through the box to make sure there’s nothing that isn’t supposed to be in it)! For Valentine’s Day that year, I went all out with pink and red and other embarrassing things.

I didn’t go out of my budget, though. I was in college, people. Broke! Just because you don’t have funds to buy something nice doesn’t mean his Valentine’s Day can’t be special. Here’s what I did:

Lots of cheesy stuff involved in this package! I used my crafting skills to put together a sweet note for him and various other reminders of why I love him 😉 The dollar store helped out with this package, too. They had a ribbon there (see photo) which I can’t remember for the life of me what it said, but it inspired another idea that I’ll get to in just a moment. Captain J isn’t a sweets man (which is nuts!) so I had to get creative with the food I sent. Wrapped up in pink tissue paper, I sent one of his favorites that he couldn’t seem to get in Iraq- popcorn! On it, I left a silly note that probably said something along the lines of: “My heart is poppin’ with love for you” or something equally corny (no pun intended there!)

Get a Valentine’s picture frame with your photo in it so he can place it by his bed and think about how next year he might get to be with you when Feb. 14th rolls around! I also placed a candle in there (but you’ll have to make sure that is an approved item).

Next, decorate the inside and outside of the box and fill it with red, decorative foods. I used kisses and twizzlers.

Voila! You have the beginnings of a sweet box! My favorite part of the whole Valentine’s package was this, though:

The trophy! I went to my local goodwill and picked up a small trophy to recycle into something fun. Choose one that looks festive and not too sporty. Because Captain J and I weren’t married yet, I gave him the “Best Boyfriend Ever Award”. I personalized it by putting his name at the bottom. All I needed for this project were some markers, construction paper or card stock, and ribbon. Measure the parts of the trophy that need to be covered and then decorate accordingly. I had some extra heart stickers so I used them on the base, too for extra color.

I’d love to say he cherished this and it’s sitting on our bedroom dresser now, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t make it home from the deployment. As you probably know, being in Iraq surrounded by hundreds of bored soldiers can create some pretty interesting scenarios. This trophy ended up being re-gifted to someone in some sort of prank. At least they’re having fun, right?

There you have it- a very cheap and easy way to show your man you’re thinking of him.

Now, this post was geared towards those who will be without there significant others this year. It’s about time to send off those packages so they’ll get there in time! For those of you who get to be with your lovers this year (lucky!), I’m still thinking on ideas for us. Look for a post soon!

Happy Monday!

Darn dog and Dear John

I’m so frustrated. I feel like I have a two year old running around, getting into everything, and disobeying all orders. I’m babysitting a holy terror without any of the cuteness that comes along with even the most disobedient children. Sometimes I just want to let, “I told you so” slip out to J because I requested that we get an older dog, one that’s already set in their ways. One that is a couch potato, is house trained, and already has good manners. Ugh! I’ve already had to use Drifter’s full name three times today and it’s barely 0900.

Last night I went to see Dear John with a friend. I really liked it, although the ending wasn’t quite how Nicholas Sparks described it. One of my favorite quotes from the book is- “I fell in love with her when we were together, then fell deeper in love with her in the years we were apart.” It just takes me back to when I met Captain J. Similar to the movie, J and I only had a few short weeks together before he left me for a whole year. The movie reminded of that time period in my life. I was scared to death, excited, and completely in love all at once. I couldn’t believe that I had found such a great man, only to say goodbye to him and send him off to Iraq for twelve months. It was hard, but looking back now it was totally worth it. We learned so much about each other!

The friend I went to the movie with had the same situation going on with her then fiance. He was also deployed with J so when the credits started to roll, she said, “It’s a good thing we didn’t see this while they were deployed!” That was so true. It’s always hard for me to watch a military couple say goodbye to each other because it takes me back to the end of R&R when I felt like all my happiness had been drained out of me. It didn’t matter that I was watching a fictional couple. It still made me tear up. Seeing that made me remember that we’ll have to do it all over again. I better cherish this time now.

Social networking–Love it or Hate it

What a day. I woke up and drug myself to the kitchen to make Jordan some breakfast. After he left for work, I went back to bed and I suppose that set the tone for my day. Where to start? I found out several annoying things today: UPS sent my wedding announcements back, door knob is very broken, my Valentines are going to be very late and dried burnt cheese is extremely difficult to get off a slow cooker! As Wynn Varble would say, that “sounds like life to me.”

To elaborate, though, I will say that the highlight of my day was definitely walking around the snow in the neighborhood, meeting all the neighbors because I couldn’t get back in the house. I finally found a neighbor who had a cell phone (Welcome to Alaska!) that I could use to call a TN number to tell Jordan to come home and break down the door, as I had no cell phone with me. Yes, that was by far the best part of the day. Insert sarcasm as needed.

Oh well. I’ll try again tomorrow 🙂

Anyway, I was surfing the internet when I came across Chris Brogan’s site. Brogan is all about using social media to connect with other people to build networks and relationships worldwide. I think it’s awesome how far we’ve come in just my life time. I remember reading an article in fourth grade that warned of the dangers of the world wide web. While it certainly can cause problems with privacy and security, the net has also brought me closer to family in other states and friends that I’ve lost touch with. It provided me with a small group of contacts of other military spouses when I arrived in Alaska. It gives me a way to reach many people when prayer is needed. There’s a wealth of information at my fingertips now. Prior to the internet one would need hours of library time to find what I can in just a few seconds. Ahh, technology. Do you love it or hate it?

There’s nothing better than having that tangible book in my hand or sitting around, chatting with a group of friends. Not much else can beat that. But social networks and circles have done me well. As a military spouse, I am incredibly thankful for the advances in technology. Jordan and I lived our whole first part of our relationship via emails and Skype conversations. To this day, I know that I wouldn’t change a single thing about the deployment. His words and mine were all we had and they brought us together and they kept us together. Perhaps it’s odd to be thankful for the deployment. Believe me, I didn’t always feel that way. I know now that God has everything in His plan. We were supposed to go through that time apart because it’s true what “they” say–Absence does make the heart grow fonder. That being said, I’m fine with the fondness that I hold onto in my heart for J–deployments stay away! (hehe)

Have you ever thought about how having the world at your fingertips has affected YOU personally? It’s a cool thing–in my opinion, of course.