Missing our other pea in a pod

These two…

….melt my heart

Oh Daddy we miss you around here.

Two peas...

Even this kid does, even though he did sleep through your farewell. Its how he got through it without falling apart, he just slept through it.

He misses you I swear :)

Three is just not as good as four. 

And yes, this is the best and only picture I have of me with my littles so far.

We love you Daddy Giant.

Looky who I found!

The Giant is home!!!!

So thankful that a friend took the picture above and sent it to me because my brain was so scattered once he landed that the only picture I remembered to take was the one below…in the parking lot before we loaded up to head home. I'm learning.

I did get a few videos but nothing like I should have. Once I saw the Giant climb down the steps, all forethought of blogging escaped me. That and I was going on 4 hours of sleep… See?

This is the plane coming in. Captain obvi here at your service.

And here we spotted the Giant. The end. HA!

Cheyanne didn't know what to think at first. It was cold and there were a lot of people screaming. Oh and she was not thrilled when the plane came right towards us to turn and unload. It was too close for her comfort. Not for me though! The closer the better at that point. 

Once we got to Daddy, she wouldn't go to him but she wanted to keep her eyes on him. If you have never experienced a deployment return, the process goes you wait for their return, you greet them, then you have to go your seperate ways again for a while so they can in-process with blood work, etc. It was at that point that Chey was NOT cool with saying goodbye again to Daddy. She didn't understand why he had to leave us again. Thank God for the yummy muffins someone brought that waited for us inside and helped take her mind off of the confusing separation. God bless that person.

Chey actually took to her Daddy amazingly fast. Both the Giant and I are still a little perplexed at how well she has responded to him. Let me just show you a picture that says it better than I can even explain. 

More on their, I mean our day later.

Not long now

Update on 3/3/12: As I am now learning in the military, things change. We will be waiting a little longer after all for the Giant to get home. I wish I could tell more but I'm not able to at this time. I'll be sure to announce it once I've got him home though.

___________

This is a good sign! The lights are on and the presents are under the Christmas tree.

Giant, don't look too close under the tree, especially not the next picture… not that you probably will get a chance to see this in the next few days :)

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In case you are new to This Wood House… No I'm not a Griswald keeping my Christmas lights up all year. And no, I'm not a tacky Christmas holly loving crazy person celebrating Christmas every day of the year. I am the proud wife of an United States Airman that has been deployed for far too long and has missed way too much of our life. We have been waiting for him and Christmas waited for him as well. 

And now, it won't have to wait much longer. Not long now at all!!

Husband??

I've lost track of when I've heard from the Giant last. I don't think I realized how spoiled I actually was hearing from him in some way every few days before. Now I know. This is not me complaining, but this is me working it out so I can sleep.

Tonight I miss him. Clearly, I miss him every night, but I just try not to think about it. I shut that thought part off at moments when I'm just not sure I'm in a good place to handle it. I do things to ensure that I don't add the extra worriful thoughts on myself. I don't watch war related news. I instinctively turn the channel or leave the room. I pray LOTS. I send up little prayers pretty much at every hour of my day. I have even sent him good thoughts and vibes, because I figure, what can it hurt? No idea if that stuff works, but shoot, I don't care. It makes me feel better so I imagine I'm sending him some of my rest or laughter or alertness. Whatever comes to me that I think he might need at the time, I think it in his direction. Ha! Instead of thinking how far away he is, I tend to  imagine all of the amazing places he's seeing at that moment of where all he's been. Places that one day he'll pin on map and tell Cheyanne stories about. I think of how beautiful even the desert mountains would look from his viewpoint in the sky- even if right now he wouldn't admit it because he's just plain tired of looking at it. At Christmas I didn't watch any of the troop greetings or welcome home clips. You know what I'm talking about.
I go on with our life like I'm supposed to. Cheyanne never knows the difference of my heart. If I get sad, I only get sad after bedtime. That's my me time.

So, tonight I miss him. Tonight, my minds wandering. I thought if I blogged about it, I could clear my head faster and sleep. I think tonight instead of being sad, I think ill just smile because I know I'm one day closer...
....
Yep. That did it :) Goodnight friends!
Love, an Airman's wife

Half way mark

What could this picture possibly mean?!!

Hmmm…

Finger nails growing and a mostly clear face? (Don't judge the absolutely no makeup look I'm rockin'- it was necessary for effect- and I'm lazy)

It can only mean one thing!

We're at the half-way mark of the Giant's deployment!!


Holla'!!!

Three things DO. NOT. HAPPEN when the Giant is away. One- I don't sleep. Between being a military wife and a mother to a toddler that does not yet appreciate the beauty of sleep, I just don't get much rest. Two- my nails don't grow. I'm pretty sure that its just physically impossible, I think they actually shrink back or immediately just crack the minute we say goodbye. Nerves… (and now I'm wishing I had waited to paint them after the picture so you can see how long they actually are!) and Three- No sooner than his plane's wheels lift off the ground, do I suddenly look more like a pre-teen middle schooler going through major hormone changes than an actual 26 year old woman despite my best efforts.

The light at the end of the tunnel is starting to shine brighter around here y'all!! Join me as I do my happy dance!

You know you're a deployment spouse when

1. Your one goal for the day is just to get out of the house.
2. You are constantly checking your phone's reception for bars.
3. Skype stays online 24/7 just in case your husband rings.
4. You find yourself on your knees in prayer more than you sit at your own dining table.
5. You just can't bring yourself to wash his pillow case on laundry day because his smell still lingers.
6. You have reorganized every shelf in your house moving every day things to a lower shelf within your reach instead of your giant husband's.
7. The memory of an argument about paint color choices makes you roll your eyes and laugh now instead of annoying you like it did before.
8. You think in Zulu time instead of local time.
9. You and your daughter have frequent daily conversations about what Daddy might be doing right now on the other side of the world.
10. Your  get excited at the thought of spouse get togethers with complete strangers because these are the only woman who know what you are going through right now- and because you crave an actual face-to-face adult conversation not involving any form of technology.

And since there are no pictures that really go along with this post, here's a few recent ones of my beautiful girl.

What a day

Not the best one in the books but thankfully my parents are here to make today better.

After an hour of wanting to throw my phone across East Bay Street into oncoming traffic because my phone was not allowing my husband's calls to come through, I thankfully still have a "working" phone. I say thankfully because it means we can try the phone call again tomorrow if he gets the time. Fingers crossed so tightly. Seeing him calling and not being able to speak to him made me almost jump out of my own skin. My parents can attest. Thank God that they were here to help me with Cheyanne. I tried to keep it together in front of her, but my blood was boiling inside. I think boiling is actually putting it mildly.

Anyways, after trying for an hour to answer his calls, we called it a day on touring downtown, and in effort to save my nerves, we headed home to internet to catch him on Skype. Unfortunately, it was too late. I'm really hoping tomorrow we have better luck. Say a little prayer for my nerves.

Even though that little fiasco altered our plans, we still enjoyed the day together. We did a little halloween shopping, home decorating with all the fall wedding beauties my parents unloaded brought down, cooking AND baking, and reorganizing the kitchen. Gotta love my mom- the Queen of Organizing.

Wanna see all we've done?

Improvement right?!

And Chey of course helped us relocate and organize the tupperware cabinet.

and unorganize

and then reorganize

In fun news…

Guess who had her first set of pigtails in today!!!! 13.5 long months and we finally have enough hair for pigtails- and she hated every minute of them being put in thus the little lopsidedness. Still, doesn't she look ridiculously cute with them?!

Her expressions kill me.

Ok, so tomorrow will be a better day and hopefully I'll be a much better/happier hostess. Its gotta be better, right? Its Halloween! We're ready to have some fun (and a whole lot of trick or treaters.

Here's a sneak peak at Little Miss' costume. Can you guess what she's going to be? I'll give you a hint- she's going to be one cute little fluff ball.

Yay for Grandparents!

The grandparents have arrived and I couldn't be more excited! I love my parents and I'm so glad they are here to visit for a few days. Cheyanne is too. It's obvious she's missed her Nana and Skipper. And their timing is perfect.

We've got a fun 3 days planned if the weather permits. Its gotten a little cold (high of 65- brrr- for my Northern Virginia friends in snow this weekend) so that might squelch our walking downtown Charleston tour tomorrow, but fingers are crossed. If it gets too cold, I guess we'll just have to revert to plan B and stay inside to bake my airman some cookies for care package number one instead. Which plan do you think we should go with Hubs? No comments on my lack of baking abilities allowed peeps. They'll be delish.

Skipper and Cheyanne wasted no time. Skipper got to "fixing" her walker after she ran into the wall a few times.

The puppet and the puppeteer

Then it got a little confusing and I'm not sure who was leading whom.

Chey snuck in some sweet hugs while loving on her Nana before bed time too.

We can't wait for more fun tomorrow.

On another topic:
I did get a Skype call from the Giant today. Despite the fact that the reception was beyond horrible and we could only understand every other word each other said, I saw his face and it settled my heart. He's now in Qatar and ready to start work. One step closer…

Sweetheart, you are loved and missed tonight. I'll be seeing you in my dreams. My love always and forever.

Deployment Day One

Well, he's gone. By now I'd say he's probably on the other side of the world. That's so weird to think about. Yesterday he was here. Today he's in the middle east. I haven't heard from him yet so I'm just guessing but it seems about right.

Yesterday was rough. You ever heard that Rascal Flatts song that's lyrics say "what he don't know is how hard it is to make it look so easy?" Yeah, that same line kept playing in my head ALL. DAY. LONG as I was trying to keep it together. It didn't help. I choked and teared up a couple times throughout the day, despite my best efforts to put on a straight face and think of all things happy and sunshines. Damn you Rascal Flatts. It doesn't even matter that that song is actually about a break up. Whatever- somehow those lyrics still applied and kept playing over and over.

By last night at 9pm we were on base checking him in at the departure center along with about 130 other members of the squadron and their families. It was loud and chaotic and had this overwhelming feeling of anticipation. The single guys were chatting it up, laughing and talking like they were just hanging out at a party having a good ol' time. Wives were holding on to their husbands and sneaking kisses every chance they could get. It was obvious who'd been down this road before and who hadn't (me). Daddies were smothering their laughing babies who were up way past bedtime with kisses while others were rocking their brand new sleeping little ones.

And my family, we were in the middle of it soaking it all in. Cheyanne was as awake as she could possibly be, oblivious to the fact that her Daddy and "uncles" were leaving, only wanting to run around with the bigger kids who all seemed like pros at this.

Some of our guys even came to see the my boys off.

We all took turns entertaining Cheyanne.  It was especially great they were all there because they were able to stroll Chey around allowing Hubs and I a few moments to ourselves amidst the chaos (which I have no pictures of because I was ABSOLUTELY not camera ready).

Here's Cheyanne with her Uncle Mahoney before he left.

After 3 hours of waiting around, finally the call came through the building announcing time to load up. At that moment, there was no more escaping it in my head. (I'm sure this sounds overdramatized, but until you're in these shoes, well, its not). It was by far the hardest thing to do- hugging them goodbye. I pray that people are right and it gets easier with each deployment. This wasn't easy. Not at all. All I could process to say was be safe and come back to me.

Lordy, I'll miss them all in this quiet house. He's been gone a day and I already miss my husband too much. Thankfully, though, today was much easier than I thought it would be. Since Chey and I slept most of the afternoon away with a very nice nap, I didn't have to think too much. I know from experience that this time away does actually get easier. Once she and I get into our groove, we'll be cruising to the end of deployment. The hard part is behind us- saying goodbye. Now, thankfully we're on the other side of the deployment- the countdown side to his return. I don't know when that will be since there is no actual "countdown" but we're told he'll be home March so let that countdown begin.

(Can you tell who was happy to take our family picture before deployment…and who wasn't?)

Day one of deployment- CHECK!.


Sweetheart, whenever you get to read this- I love you and am more than proud of you. We're doing fine. My love always.

You'd think

You'd think they were twins...

cause they sure are two of a kind.

AND

You'd think I was feeding an army...

and you'd almost be right. Actually this is all for feeding Airmen at our pre-deployment early Thanksgiving dinner that I'm having tomorrow for the guys. All this plus a big ol' turkey and ham in the fridge. 

The time is coming up so quickly. I am a little afraid to shut my eyes in that as soon as I open them it will be time to say goodbye see you soon all over again. How have the last two months flown by so quickly? I'm actually not ready to think about that yet. I can't. I'm not there. I'm living day to day with my Giant and our Giant friends that we've made soaking up all I can of loud stinky men in the house before they all fly away. Whoever thought a house with a baby could be quiet? I'm not looking forward to that day that's right around the corner. For now, I'll cook. I'll cook every holiday food that my Giant wants. 

Anybody know how to cook a ham? I haven't the slightest clue!