Pros and Cons

I left my heart, and a couple of limbs, in Colorado.  But because the earth continues rotating, so must I.  So I started thinking of a list of pros and cons for the current situation.  So here is what I came up with so far.

Pros
No more Sunday morning fights
No more scraping the windshield in sub-zero temps
Don't have to drive across the country next Christmas
Nice warm, sunny days
Weekends with Aunt Beth
Fairy Princess Birthday Party

Cons
No more Sunday morning "kiss and make-up" after the fight leading to a very relaxed Sunday evening
No more weekends with Andy and Jess
No more girls nights
...and the big one - No more Daddy, at least for a while.


So it's good that the pros are outweighing the cons right now and I'm sure I will think of more things to ad to that list along the way.  Every day gets easier, but there will a few bad sprinkled in there I'm sure.  I can do anything as long as I know it's not forever!

D-Day

Well, today was the day I have been awaiting with dreaded anticipation. I took Mike to the airport. We had lunch in the airport cafe and tried to joke and make light of things to come. I've been down this road before, at that same airport. I really hate that airport. There is nothing but goodbyes in our history together. I'm waiting for the day in eight months when it will hold a cheery hello for me. Until then, the Atlanta Airport is my mortal enemy. I've held up well, considering. Aside from the raging headache I am now harboring because I've been holding back my emotion all day. The kids are fine. Gracie broke my heart tonight when she asked if she could lay down with Daddy at bedtime, like she always does. So I laid down with her and tried to explain where Daddy was going and why. I was just a second rate replacement to her one and only Daddy, but she seemed satisfied enough. I feel how hard these deployments and separations are for me, but I just can't imagine how hard they are for her. My sweet little princess. I just want to give her everything and make all the bad go away. Hopefully in time it will, but for now I will just do what I can to make her happy. She has a birthday coming up and Mom and I will be planning a Princess Fairy Extravaganza. I think it will be a welcome distraction for everyone. I am also going to be throwing myself into making her the very best princess fairy bedroom there ever was, along with unpacking and maybe creating a little getaway bedroom for myself. One day at a time...that's all I can do.

Not Singing a Different Tune

Well, the truck is unloaded...including the stupid, heavy, broken, useless, oh and did I mention heavy piano! It took a while and a lot of careful calculation and deliberation to get that oversized hunk of firewood off that truck. Why am I so hateful towards this unsuspecting piano you ask? Well, because we received this piano before we moved the last time. I swore I would never move that thing again. So at one point I had someone in the garage for a completely unrelated reason and found out that he was certified in piano repair, so I asked him to take a look at our piano to see what it was worth and what needed to be fixed. He found a cracked soundboard, which is the heart of the piano. To fix this would start at around $3000 and the piano simply wasn't worth that much. So I planned on getting rid of it before we had to schlep it across the country again. Much to my chagrin when I brought this completely logical plan up to Mike he acted as if I was tossing a priceless antique into the Husdon River. So I agreed to let him have his precious piano but that I wanted nothing to do with it. So you can imagine my demeanor when there were no other options today except for me and him to get it off the truck. It was the last thing left. After weeks of lifting boxes on and off a truck, driving 1800 miles through a snowstorm and trying to keep the children sane all the while, I just wanted this last thing done and behind me. I had considered leaving it on the truck when we turn it back in, leaving the door open on the truck and hoping there was a piano theif on the prowl and pushing it to the edge and letting it "slip" smashing to the ground. But lastly we were left with no other choice but to just get it off and in the garage for it to sit for yet another year. We pushed, pulled, grunted and cursed until it was on the ground and rolling towards it's new home. All the while I kept reminding Mike that if he didn't like breaking his back to move it, well, I'm sure you can fill in the rest. But, all that said and done, we are officially done moving. Now to the unpacking!! I need the strength of a superhero to get through the rest of this week, but I can do it. Just be sure to stop by my next yard sale...there will be a pricess antique piano up for grabs!! I just have to wait until Mike is a couple thousand miles away so he can't kill me!

A New Journey

Well, we finally made it back to Georgia. I can't say that I'm relieved although I am glad to at least be done with the drive. All I know is that all this moving and driving and packing and unpacking has kept my mind busy and off of the one very large pink elephant in the corner of my mind...Mike's Deployment. Now this is my second deployment with him...and I hate it when people say that it's my second, so it must be easier than the first. Let me fill you in. It never gets easier. More manageable, maybe, because you know what to expect, but never easier. So I propose this: For the next year while Mike is gone, I will use this blog as a project of sorts. My 365: A year of Missing You. It will be mostly therapy for me, but also a way for anyone who wishes to keep up and check in on me, Mike and the family. This should be quite the adventure for everyone.

Ok, let's do this...

This is my very first blog, so I will leave the good stuff to the second blog so I can figure this out.