Running Army Wife

This has been a post that I've been wanting to write for a while. I don't claim that I handled the deployment perfectly. There were more than a few moments of heartache and complete meltdowns. But this is the list that I've compiled from my own experience and from talking to women much wiser than I. 1. Don't compare. James's unit was the last one to deploy for a full 12 months (deployments this long do still happen but they aren't the "standard"). The month after he deployed, they switched to 9-month deployments. I was really bitter about that for a while. But you know what? Deployments were 18 months not so long ago. And I'm sure there were plenty of people that envied the 12-month deployments when that happened. There will always be someone whose husband has a shorter deployment. Or who gets to talk to their husband more than you do. Or one who gets more flowers in the mail than you. Wasting time on comparison will only make the time go slowe...

I haven't been keeping up with my blog. I feel guilty about it. Truthfully, I'm at my computer 8 hours a day, and getting on my laptop when I come home at the end of the day isn't all that appealing to me. I miss blogging sometimes. It was something I needed during all that training and the deployment. Now I've got a job I love and a husband that loves me (that is actually home!) and there's just not a lot of extra time to blog. However, I do continue to have people that keep on stumbling to my site from pinterest or from googling about Ranger School. I really do appreciate getting comments and tweets from you. And there are those couple blogger friends that I made when it was hardest. I thought I'd give you all an update. :) On April 26th, James and the rest of his brigade competed for the Expert Infantry Badge. It's a little backwards, because a lot of them, including James, already have the Combat Infantry Badge, which basically means that you've ...

My husband got his PRK surgery done today! About a month ago, he found out that he got a slot to get the surgery done. The Army will only give a certain number of slots out for the surgery. If you've recently come home from a deployment, you're more likely to get a slot. They also tend to give priority to infantrymen- because, let's face it, they do need it the most. If they lose their glasses out there in combat, that's a bad thing. James had the choice between PRK and LASIK. For those of you that don't know, PRK is like LASIK eye surgery with a few differences. If your eye gets knocked the wrong way playing football years after you get LASIK, it can mess it up. PRK takes long to recovery initially but is more "sturdy" in the long run. Getting PRK also means he gets to keep his "jump" status (apparently jumping out of an airplane is too much turbulence for LASIK). Because he's an infantryman and an overall pretty active person, my husband ...

I’ve been trying to figure out why it’s been so hard for me to keep up with blogging (both reading my favorites and updating my own). It finally dawned on me the other day. I started my blog when I was still living long-distance from my husband because of training. That was about a year and a half ago. Since then, I’ve haven’t a full-time job AND had my husband at home at the same time. Until now. Now I have a full-time job AND a full-time husband*. I’m struggling to find the energy to wake up early and run twice a week. I’m still incredibly happy that he’s home. But it’s a very tired-happy while I still struggle to adjust to this major life change that still has me reeling months later. I miss my family and friends in Illinois so much that it hurts sometimes. Thank goodness for skype and facetime. But we do love Washington. More than once, we’ve swiped over to Chicago on the weather app and giggled that it’s 9 degrees there while it’s 40 degrees here. We decided we love ski...

I know, I've been a bad blogger lately. I just finished my first two weeks of work and I'm still getting used to working full-time again. I do hope to get back to blogging more routinely soon. But I did want to at least tell you about my first BALL experience on Friday. :) Fortunately, the ball was about a block away from where I work. So instead of commuting home (~1 hour each way), I brought my dress, make-up, shoes, and curling iron to work with me so I could get ready right after work and go with James straight to the ball. If that sounds kind of awkward, it's because it kind of was.  awkwardly getting ready in the bathroom at work I tried to pick a bathroom that wouldn't have as many people come in, so I picked this first floor bathroom in my building that is kind of hidden. Some ladies still came in and I apologized for the mist of hair spray hanging in the air. Most asked where I was going and wished me a good night, but I still felt kind of awkward. ...

James has only been active with the Army for two years, but in those two years we've learned something very important. When he finally has time off, milk it for all it's worth. Since my last update, we've had family visit for 2 weeks and then we went off on a cruise together for a week after that. At the top of Crystal Mountain for our 3 year anniversary! Crystal Mountain had a military appreciation day on our anniversary so we got to ski for half price! That's one awesome thing about living in Washington. We are about an hour and a half away from really great skiing. We went two different days with James' family that came to visit us. I love skiing.  Then the day after his family went back home to Chicago, we left for our cruise. Let me just say this... a cruise is wonderful for a post-deployment vacation. We had no phones or internet (well.. we could have but it was really expensive), which was amazing after being attached at the hip to my phone for th...