We Found a House!

Yep, as the title suggests we found a place to call home for the duration of my hubby's deployment (though it's hard to fathom it really feeling like 'home' without his presence!). It's a cute little house in a beautiful setting, set back from the road and relatively private. My mom was awesome and did all of the running around checking out the various houses we have been looking into, taking pictures, and then promptly e-mailing us the pictures with descriptions and thoughts (thanks Mom! :).


We submitted applications for two different places, but one of the places--though it had a nicer house that was somewhat more convenient in a lot of ways--we had some concerns about, so we prayed that God would close the door on their end if it wasn't the place for us. To make a long story short, the door was closed. We were accepted for the second house and sent in the security deposit today.


As I'm sure you can imagine, not having to worry about finding a place to live now is a HUGE stress reliever!! Though the house isn't perfect and I'm going to have a LOT of baby-proofing to do, I am very grateful to not have to worry about finding a place to live anymore (especially one that fit all of our specifications!). So, without further ado, here are a couple of the pictures my mom sent....

 

Off to the right is the horse pasture....

 Just another view of the front....

So there you have it! Our future home. 

Oh, please be praying for the truck to sell quickly! The guy that was going to buy it last weekend backed out, but there is another guy who wants to take a look at it tomorrow, so we are praying that will go well. As much as we hate to see it go, we do need it to sell so we can have the money we need for the move. 

I will try my best to keep updating more often as we prepare for the move and deployment...I know things are bound to become pretty hectic and stressful at times around here, but I will *try* to post more often. I do miss blogging!

Life Update

Hello everyone! Hello . . . anyone? Hellllllooooo? Anyone still here reading this thing? I wouldn't blame you if you're not (though I guess if you just read that, then you haven't given up on me quite yet--YAY!). :-)

Well, for those of you who are in fact still reading this, I shall attempt to give you as much of an update as I can before something catastrophic happens and I can't write anymore, ha ha.

My hubby came home the first week of September (WOO-HOO!), and it has been SO wonderful having him home again (of course :-). Munchkin still gets worried though when Hubby has to leave for work and he gets clingy to his daddy as soon as he realizes that Daddy is about to leave. I try not to dwell on it much, but seeing him react that way makes this upcoming deployment even more difficult. . .it's not like I can effectively explain to him at such a tender age why his daddy has to leave and when he will be back. I think that breaks my heart more than the thought of being apart from my Hubby myself--at least I understand where he is going, why, and for how long--and therefore have the ability to come to terms with it--Munchkin doesn't have that luxury at this point in his life. :-(

Anyhow, before I go getting all sad at the thought of my sweet Munchkin's utter confusion at the disappearance of his daddy, I guess I'd better change the topic to something else (albeit still deployment related--as is most everything in our lives right now!).

We are still searching for a place to live in Virginia. We have a couple of prospective places, and are supposed to hear back on one of them this weekend, so we shall see. We are trusting God to open/close doors as He sees fit, though I am really hoping He will open doors sooner rather than later! Not as I will Father, but as you will. I have to constantly remind myself of that.

I am slowly starting to put things in boxes to be put in storage here while the Munchkin and I are in Virginia . . . it's slow going with a Munchkin who rarely naps these days (unless we are out driving during naptime--and sometimes even then he won't nap) and would get into everything I'm in the process of trying to box up if I let him. So I think I've gotten a grand total of 4 boxes packed in about 3 weeks time. Yay me. :-p I'm on a roll y'all! Okay, so maybe I'm not quite going at the pace I should be yet, but I intend to get there . . . I just don't know when. :-p Thankfully, after we first moved here I insisted that we start organizing and categorizing our random "stuff" so quite a bit of that is already boxed up in plastic tubs, so at least I don't have to worry about all of that.

Oh, we are selling our truck. A guy from another island is buying it tomorrow morning . . . to tell the truth, I'm glad he lives on another island--if I had to see someone else driving our truck around I would be so sad. I know it's just a worldly possession, but we are still very sad to see it go. We knew it was going to have to happen before we left the island since we will need to get another bigger truck at our next duty station (one that is actually able to haul the weight of a horse trailer with horses in it without straining), and though we did contemplate keeping this one as my primary means of transportation, it just isn't practical as a Baby-Mobile. Plus, now the Army has suddenly announced that they aren't going to pay to store anyone's vehicles like normal during the deployment, so it's not like we had much leeway to change our minds anyway in the end. I'm going to miss it. I didn't realize last Sunday would be the last time I would get to ride in it until this afternoon. *sniff*

One last thing, please, please, PLEASE join with us in praying for a homeless friend of ours--we don't know much about him yet--just that he has fallen on hard times somehow (doesn't matter how), but we think he might be a Brother in Christ and he could really use your prayers. So, please, won't you take a minute of your time and remember to pray for Raymond and his dog, Coby. I know he would appreciate it--more than you might ever know. If we are able to track him down this weekend we are going to give him a weatherproof Bible, so please pray that God would use us to minister to him. THANK YOU.

 

What You SHOULD Say (A Follow Up on Yesterday's Post)

After posting to my blog yesterday and including the link to the list of "Things Not to Say to the Spouse of a Deployed Soldier" (see previous post), I came across another article that will probably be just as informative. It is the opposite of the first and is called: "Things You Should Say During Deployment" 



For me personally, most of these probably wouldn't apply on a day to day basis as I am not an 'I-need-to-get-out-there-and-socialize-all-the-time' kind of person to begin with. For example: my husband has been gone for nearly a month and I've only driven somewhere twice since then. Once to pick up a package--and thereby prevent it's being stolen--at the house of a friend who is home with her family while our husbands are away at training, and to the grocery store the other time. So, as you can tell, I don't get out much. Ha ha! I don't expect that will be the case to the same extent in VA because I know my way around that area a lot more and am more comfortable driving there than I am here. But I digress, back to the original topic. . . . However, it is likely applicable to most military spouses, and may on occasion apply to me as well--though we'll have to wait and see, ha ha.

Anyhow, I thought it might be something worth reading for all of my non-military friends who haven't ever been around any military spouses while their husbands are gone.

Cheers!

Of Training and Deployment

So, here I am--again. It's been a month since I posted anything, and I don't really have a very good excuse as to why I haven't. Here goes. . . .

The Hubby left for more away training back at the end of July, so the Munchkin and I have been holding down the fort since then. Thankfully it is nearly over with and my husband will be home soon! I will be SO happy to have him home again! This past month has dragged by--despite my efforts to stay busy and get some things done around the house.

This separation has made the upcoming deployment so much more real . . . up until he left I was able to kind of 'keep the deployment at bay' so-to-speak. I could convince myself that it was still pretty far off and that I didn't need to worry about it yet--never mind that the days, weeks, and months have been flying by since just before we hit the 'scheduled-to-deploy-in-a-year' mark. However, the fact that that he's already been gone for nearly a month for training with a bit left to go yet, and that by the time he returns we will only have a few short months together before he leaves us for a year (more on this in a minute) has really been starting to sink in while he's been away. It's made for some moments of sadness here and there . . . but I just keep reminding myself that "This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24) I don't want our last few months together to be filled with apprehension, tension, and stress. I'd rather that they be filled with fun times together and lots of good memories made.

Some of you who have heard about the Army cutting 3 months off of the standard year long deployment time may be wondering why my husband is still going over there for a year. Well, unfortunately, the 9-month deployment doesn't count for his brigade at this point due to many reasons (one of the biggest is probably due to the fact that they are an Aviation brigade--though I don't know that for sure, so please don't quote me on that!--they ARE trying to find a way to make it a 9-month deployment, but they don't sound very hopeful that it will happen before they leave. . . . That's not going to stop me from hoping that a miracle will happen though! We'll just have to wait and see). I truly am thrilled for the soldiers and their families who do get to cut 3 months off of their deployments though! I can't resent anyone else getting to have their husband/wife back earlier just cause mine has to stay longer.

While we are on the topic of the upcoming deployment though . . . as many of you know, the munchkin and I will be moving back to Virginia (to those of you who know where in VA--please do not post anything specific if you decide to comment on this or any future posts! Thanks!) for the duration of the deployment. Initially my husband and I were fully intending on my staying here, but more and more things kept pointing toward my moving back to Virginia, so after a lot of prayer and consideration, we decided that it would be better for me to move back for a year instead of stay here for that time. And, no, I'm not "running home to Mommy" as has been hinted at by someone I know. One of the biggest reasons I'm moving home instead of staying here is to give my husband peace of mind (and no, it's not cause he doesn't think I can take care of myself, ha ha) . . . there have been a lot of 'signs of the times' lately and in the event that some awful natural disaster affects Hawaii or if something horrific happens worldwide my husband feels much better knowing that for one thing, that I won't be completely isolated from friends and family--and also that I will be armed, because in VA I fully intend on getting another concealed carry license. There are other reasons as well, such as: why stay here surrounded by suburbs and city when I can move back the middle-of-nowhere where I'll feel like I have room to breathe again and not constantly be hearing traffic and sirens? Why stay here alone--considering the fact that all of the women that I consider to be my friends here are either PCSing or are also moving home for the deployment? Plus, why wouldn't I want to move away from the tropics to somewhere where the munchkin and I will actually get to enjoy snow?! Woo-hoo! :-p That wasn't facetious, by the way, I really am looking forward to being back in a place where it snows (if only it were under different circumstances! :-( ). So, there you have it: the abbreviated list of why I am moving back to VA.

I'm not going to lie and say that I don't have any apprehensions about moving away from here though. Because I do . . . you see, when you live in a military community EVERYONE knows what you are going through and that can be an amazing support system. People know what topics are sensitive ones and what NOT to ask. It's kind of funny, military spouses have compiled lists of things that they wish their non-military family and friends wouldn't say or ask during a deployment. I'll have to see if I can find it and post it, because it's SO true (if you are a military spouse reading this, I'm sure you know what I am talking about! :-) So, yeah, the thought of being surrounded by a civilian community that doesn't have a clue what I am going through scares me to death. To any of my civilian friends reading this--I love you guys--please don't take offense to this, I'm not trying to offend anyone! I'm just being real here--I'm nervous about not having the support of other military wives going through the same thing as myself. Thankfully though, one of my good friends from here will also be moving home to VA, she'll be a few hours away, but at least I'll be able to see her every now and then--and we'll be in the same time zone, ha ha!

Well, I couldn't find the exact list that I was looking for, but this one covered the biggest ones:  Top Things Not to Say to the Spouse of a Deployed Soldier . Hopefully reading it will be somewhat helpful to anyone who hasn't experienced a deployment firsthand themselves.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll try to post some pictures in the *near* future, ha ha. If any of this post seemed kind of disjointed or random . . . I kind of didn't go back and proof read it to make sure that I finished my trains of thought. Hopefully it won't be too scrambled!

Not a Monday, but Still Miscellaneous!

So, I just realized that I haven't met my original goal of getting back into posting at least once a week, because it has already been a month since I posted last! Where does the time go? o.O


Anyhow...I'm way past due for posting an update! So much has happened this past month--and I really meant to blog about the events as they were happening, because I didn't want to forget any of them (which I'm quite certain that I have indeed forgotten something that I wanted to blog about). As you can tell though--it didn't happen!


Now to at least *try* to get caught up. Where to begin? .... Ah, I know: my sister. :-)

First some background; for years my sister has felt a calling to be a missionary--and more specifically--to go to India and use her life for God's glory working with the orphans and widows of India. So, last year after being disappointed by a door being closed at the last minute for her to go to Honduras for 6 months and assist a missionary couple who were already there, my sister was networking with native Indian missionaries to try to make some contacts and see if any doors would open. She began communicating with a man named Byju who runs an orphanage in Northern India. As they talked they began to realize that they had many of the same dreams and goals for what they felt like God was calling them to do with their lives. Byju asked my sister if she would think about marrying him, and after a while they began a courtship and--to make a long story short--earlier this month my sister traveled to India (along with our mom) to meet and marry her Byju. :-) They were married on July 10th and judging from the brief phone calls and Facebook statuses, my sister is blissfully happy and completely adores her new husband (but that's nothing new is it Sis? :-p). ;-)

 My beautiful sister and her dashing new husband on their wedding day!

If you ever read this Sis--congratulations again! We are so happy for you and Byju and can't wait to meet him (hopefully sooner rather than later)! Love you bunches! :-)

Well, in other news, Peanut Butter Cup has been cutting his canines (so far the lower left and upper right ones have broken through, but the other two are still below the surface) which that has been making him cranky, and is likely also responsible for his somewhat diminished appetite as well. We have been working on potty training (very slowly) since May, and have had some progress but still have a LONG way to go.... A very long way to go. o.O

My horse, Titan, is *possibly* going to be broken soon! I am SO excited about that, but am so sad to be missing all of his training. I'm hoping to find out an approximate date of when it is going to happen--before it happens (even if it gets changed and has to be delayed for any reason)--so that I can share in the excitement and anticipation of waiting for an e-mail or something to hear how it went. Silly, I know, but I feel like I'm missing so much with him and it would be so awesome to be able to feel more a part of such a big event in his life! Phooey--I miss my pony!!

My handsome boy! (Thanks to Karissa, one of my best and dearest friends, for taking this photo and sharing it with me! You're awesome!!!)

Well, I guess I should try to get some other stuff done before Peanut Butter Cup wakes up for the day. :-) I really will try to write again soon--and post more pictures! I'm so far behind....