With each of my blogs, I have been counting down to when Bill will be home. If you have not noticed yet... there is a plus sign after the number. Here is the reason, I was told in the predeployment brief that he would be gone roughly 12-14 months. How does one count that down??? With a plus sign, it is such a small nonthreatening sign, it keeps my bubble intact. I surely would not want to still be looking at a number greater than a year...UGH...that would not be a countdown especially in the beginning. I also keep thinking that as the number dwindles... I can start counting up but hopefully by then I will have made it to the phase of "what is one more day ..who cares!" I am not there.. I am staring at 346+ and that number is HUGE!!! I truly hate posting the number, it reminds me. It wears on my bubble.
There are all these amazing spouses that do cute countdowns for themselves and for their kids. Some spouses make a giant paper chain and their kids remove one a day until dad is home, one has a jar filled with Hershey kisses and they remove one a day, one has a calendar with cute stickers for each month mark so when they get there, they celebrate because they are that much closer. As for me, this is the first countdown I have ever done...I do not like it!!! I will admit...that I am only counting on this blog, I have to view my previous posts and count down from it..I can not recall the number from the day before. I am not going to say that this is a memory issue...no jokes about me getting old! I tend to be happier when the days remaining are not looming ahead of me. I also do not have any type of countdown for my kids. I do not want a visual of how grand the separation is. My kids are not missing out because I have never done a cute countdown and therefore do not know what they are missing. Not to mention...the jar of Hershey kisses would not last 346 days...maybe one week if I was lucky. This lack of creativity on my part thus far has been sufficient for my kids and I see no need to set new standards that are much higher than my own. I have parented well... I have taught my kids how to live in my bubble!!!!
Bill-
We loved skyping with you today, we are disappointed in the fact that once again you were not wearing your helmet or flak... here soon your family may think you are on a vacation to some remote island. Remember, my geography skills still have you located somewhere like RI.
Bill, my absolutely amazing and handsome husband has left for a one year plus tour to Afghanistan with RCT8. He is a Marine, a dad and a husband. This blog is for me, his wife to share the trials of being a military spouse.
I only did the countdown from a week. And it was because I had purchased Reeses minatures, and instead of eating the bag like I was going to be executed later that night, I thought why not do it this way. I would never have the patience to do the chain thing. One bad day and that bitch would come tearing down.
ReplyDeleteHoney-
ReplyDeleteYour blogs are truly entertaining! The predeployment brief was funny, but I think I enjoyed this one even more. I myself try not to count down the days; A) I'm too busy, and B) it's too depressing. However, when I looked up at the number on this blog I though, "Holy crap," it's been 20 days already! I've found myself counting Sundays. I look forward to Sundays for a couple of reasons. Most importantly because I know I will be Skyping with you and the kids the next day. Secondly, I don't have to be at work until noon on Sundays. I have the morning to sleep in a little bit, get in some PT, do laundry, and get a haircut. This is how we mark the passing of yet another week in Afghanistan. We have nothing else to differentiate one day or one week from the next. Every other day is exactly the same as the last. I get up at 6 am, go for a run, clean up, eat some chow, work all morning, work out, eat noon chow, work all afternoon, go to evening chow, work until 11 pm, go to bed, get up at 6 am and start all over again. Some days are better than others. Some days the enemy makes heroes out of Marines. Some days the Marines make martyrs out of the enemy. Either way, my days are pretty much the same. The monotony broken up by brief periods of joy when I am able to hear your voice or see your pretty face. Those moments help get me through the rest of the week. Each day I wake up is one more day I'm closer to coming home to you. That's my countdown. I love you, Honey!
Thanks for the tears honey!!! Even from far away, you get me...!!!
ReplyDeleteBill, you got me too.... i just had a very similar discussion with my other half... be safe out there....
ReplyDeleteAwww.... I just spent about 30-45 minutes catching up and reading ALL of your blog posts that I hadn't read. Then I saw your comment on fb and had to come back and read Bill's comment. So sweet. Love reading your blog. Hang in there. You are doing great!
ReplyDeleteOkay, great you guys, thanks for making me bawl my freaking eyes out and ruining my bitch reputation.
ReplyDeleteBill, please listen to your wife and wear your damn helmet and flak jacket or she's buying a ticket to Germany and I will take her shoe shopping in Italy....
The first time Jim was gone, I didn't start any sort of count down for Reagan until he was a month from coming home.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I did was take some Christmas paper so that the back of it (the white part) was facing out and I rolled it out across one of the walls in Reagan's room and every day we wrote a little message and drew pictures and colored on it. Reagan was so excited for him to see it when he got back. I think it helped her to have something positive to do while he was gone instead of just focusing on the negative...how much longer he was going to be gone.
Obviously you'd need a lot of Christmas paper to have the kids write on it everyday! Reagan was really little, so it was easy for me just with her. You could just put some up and let them write on it etc whenever they want.
It's just a positive activity to think about.
Bill,
ReplyDeleteYou are too sappy for words!!! Be sure to brief Jim and leave him an adequate tutorial before he leaves! Haha
Stay safe!
365+ days without Bill but still together in mind and heart, that's what a great family.
ReplyDeleteWhen Lew was deployed with RCT8, every night either Keller or Keifer would say, "Will you tell Daddy to come and sit when he gets home from work?" The first night I answered "Yes, I will tell him when he gets home." And then in the morning when they woke up, the first question of the day was "Did Daddy leave for work already?" I answered, "Yes, Daddy is at work already, and he loves you and misses you."
I started to feel a bit guilty about it... but we had very few nights of worried tears and better conversations about deployment during the days... and so I answered those questions the same way evey day of that deployment, and I felt pretty darn good that everynight they had a better chance for sweet dreams knowing Daddy would tuck them in again when he got home from work. And I never did any cute countdown either, that would have been harder for me.
Stay strong,love to you all from the Voglers.
i look forward to your blogs for a couple of reasons: they are entertaining and when Bill comments on them, i know he's safe. ;-)
ReplyDelete