Mil-Spouse Blog Hop

My name is Amy. I am 29 years old and currently I work part-time at an elementary school with special needs students who are 3 and 4 years old. While my job can be very challenging it is also highly rewarding. I am also currently taking classes to complete my master's degree in Human Resources. In what little spare time I may be able to find these days, I love reading a good book and am always looking for suggestions.

My husband and I have been married for four years this August but we met when we were 14 in high school and dated on and off throughout the years! He is my best friend and the love of my life. He is currently mobilized and will be deploying to the sandbox sometime soon.


We also have three children (whose names I don't use). The oldest is a 9 year old girl, the middle is a 6 year old boy, and the youngest is an almost 3 year old boy. Between school work and sporting events, they keep me quite busy!

I hope you'll take time to poke around if you are coming over from the blog hop and see what is going on around here. Hopefully there will be some new features here soon as I'm currently working on some changes. Hope to see you around!

**Riding the RollerCoaster is hosting this awesome blog hop for military spouses!

Ch...Ch...Ch...Changes

As I'm sure you've noticed, I'm working on some changes. I am by no means happy with how it looks as of tonight but it's functioning again and I need to get some sleep!

Please bear with me as I work through this and if you have any suggestions or ideas, I'll be more than willing to listen. (What that really means is give me some feedback!)

Weekend Snipets

I had a pretty awesome weekend. Friday evening the kids went to my parents house and I got some much need R&R....actually I went out - got a manicure and pedicure and then came home and sat around bored!

Saturday morning put me on the road for a road trip to see my hubby! Yup, I drove up to the mob site to see him and it was wonderful! We got to spend the day and the night together.

Woke up this morning at 6am though to hit the road to come home. My dad and I were taking the boys to see Thomas at the B&O Railroad Museum. They absolutely loved it! While the oldest was feeling a little old (he's 6 and I knew he'd be at the age where he was on the fence whether he thought it was still cool), he still had fun and even let it show in a couple photos I was able to capture. The youngest (2.5) of course was in Thomas heaven! And Dad - I'm pretty sure he had as much fun as the boys....

So after a full fun packed weekend - why did I find myself coming home and yelling at the kids? Is it because I'm tired? Because I realize I'm alone again? Did the stress of having to leave my husband again finally get to me? Did knowing that so much still had to be done since I was gone all weekend stress me out? Or is it even me - or are they acting out more?

I wish I knew. Hopefully I'm not the only one who feels like I'm on an emotional roller coaster....

We're Getting There

Slowly, but surely we've (or should I say I've) been knocking out that to do list and trying to get back into a routine. It's been an exhausting week, but I had a really productive day today and I'm feeling good. (It also helped that my Mom and I met for TTT last night too!)


Tonight, the kids and I watched this:



Surprisingly it was better than I was anticipating and the kids loved it.

I am thoroughly exhausted now though, so I'm heading to bed. First time I've been in bed before midnight all week! We're making progress :-)

Drained

Hmmm....where do I start? It has been a long, hard weekend. Not just for me but for the kids too. The oldest two broke down and cried (or should I say bawled) their eyes out last night. It was so unexpected as neither of them have really showed too much emotion up until that point.

We've been talking with the kids since December about the deployment and none of them cried when we told them or at any other point, so we were thinking they viewed it as any other time that Daddy has left. (Which has never been for a whole year, but it's frequent enough that a month to the kids is no big deal.)

I'm not sure what exactly happened last night though. As I sat there on the couch with my kids sobbing in my lap, I was waiting for myself to break down again and join in with them. I really thought that's what was going to happen. Instead, holding my children, I had this incredible strength come over me and I realized I had to be strong for my kids. I couldn't let them see me break down at that point because they needed to pull their strength from me; and how could they do that if I was a puddle on the floor.

When my husband left for the mob site today, (they are already there and have made it safely if anyone is wondering) I knew I had to do the same thing again today. I stood strong - hugged and kissed him goodbye and left. We decided that we would leave before the bus so it was us saying goodbye instead of him leaving us.

It seems to have worked out, the kids did the same as I and have been much better today as well. It also hasn't hurt that I've kept all of us busy all day and haven't allowed for much down time. I'm sure there will still be many more tears shed over the next year, but for now it feels good to be reassured that I am a strong person and I can get through the next year.

It's Looming....

The time for him to report to the mob site is getting closer and closer. Closer than I care to really think about. Of course do you think he has even begun to pack - NOPE! Not at all. Nothing! He just today, brought home his foot locker for all of his personal items. Seriously, I'm wondering if this would have been easier if it's been done for weeks now? I'm thinking probably because I would have gotten use to seeing the piles of his stuff. Now we're down to the wire and this is consuming his time - my time! And I'm not happy about it.

I also had a final test due for one of my graduate classes this week and I have a group assignment due next week as well. I am so glad that I only decided to take one class this semester! And to think at the beginning of the semester I was thinking it was going to be a really easy semester and was ready to pick up another class.

And to top it all off, I sent all of our requests to the banks to drop the interest rates to 6% due to SCRA back in January in hopes of having it all completed by now. Is it? Of course NOT! I have spent over 4 hours on the phone with banks in the past 2 days. 4 HOURS!! Because that's exactly what I want to be doing right now instead of spending time with my hubby.

Oh yea, and I also told the teacher I work with that I won't be returning next school year. Boy did that suck! Her and I have become great friends this year and we were both looking forward to next school year but I've decided that I just can't handle working 4 days a week, 3 kids, and sports practices at least 2-4 nights a week and still be able to maintain my household while my husband is gone. I'm sure there are some of you out there that can do all that and more, I'm just not feeling up for it.

Needless to say, with all going on and all the goodbye's to my husband I've had to hear over the past 2 weeks, I've been on the verge of a break down. It finally happened this morning - where I just sobbed uncontrollably for about 10 minutes before I was able to collect myself, gather my thoughts and remember that I'm a strong person and I can do this!