We are in the middle of pre-deployment madness and it has
been a crazy couple of weeks, only to be followed by some more craziness. It is complete insanity around here to put it
mildly. We have Town Hall meetings, Family Readiness Group meetings, will
appointments and various other ceremonies and commitments. Add to that a revolving door of family at our
house the past couple of months, schoolwork, my own personal roller-coaster of
emotions and trying to get ourselves ready to face this deployment and it is a
recipe for being institutionalized or to just laugh at the craziness and drive
on. As I have three kids and a hubby
that might need me around, I tend to aim for the laughter rather than the
strait jacket. I have to admit that some days the strait jacket seems imminent,
though!
The past week had several events that really put just how
close our upcoming deployment is in to perspective. We had our Casing of the Colors ceremony and
a Warrior Send-Off ceremony and lunch hosted by our chaplain. For those of you that
aren’t familiar, the Casing of the Colors is a ceremony where the unit colors
(flags) are cased (put in protective sleeves) in preparation for the upcoming
deployment. They will travel with them
to their destination at which time they will be uncased. It is a wonderful
ceremony, steeped in history but quite bittersweet for all it signifies. The
ceremony was held on the Parade Field here on post which has a fantastic view
of Mt. Rainier and while a little chilly, it was a beautiful day.
Also this weekend, my sister and brother-in-law came for a
quick visit from Georgia. For those of
you that don’t know, my sister married Cory’s best friend, Brian. It was an awesome time and we really enjoyed spending
time with them. The only thing that was
missing was our nephews and niece. I can’t
wait to see them all when we travel home around Christmas. It was their first time getting to meet
Grayson, so that was pretty great. Of
course, the worst part of the entire visit was having to drop them off at the
airport on Sunday evening. I think
sometime being 3,000 miles away from home; I don’t always realize how much I
miss my family until I get to see them.
I have to admit that it made me a little homesick. I am so very thankful
for the time that we did get to spend together, though. It was a great visit and full of laughter. We didn’t really do a whole lot of travelling
and seeing, but just enjoyed spending time with each other.
It has been crazy and the negative to all of it is that at
the end of this weekend, I started realizing how fast time is going by and how
close it is to putting my hubby on that plane for his “Army-mandated extended
vacation” as I like to call it, although it will in no way be a vacation for
him or us. I am such a mixture of
emotions these days, rotating between melancholy, sad, a little scared and so
very, very proud of my husband and all the soldiers with whom he is
deploying. I know that as with all
deployments, this one will have moments that I will remember forever, some sad
but also so many that will leave me with an immense sense of pride and purpose
as a military spouse and pride for my fellow spouses. I will find myself awestruck by the dignity,
strength, compassion and support my fellow Army wives will show and I know we
will make it through…together.
3 comments:
Love you Temp! We're all praying for a safe and speedy return from this deployment as well as you keeping out of that straight jacket while he's gone!
Thanks, Joe! We love you guys, too! I wish there was some magical way we could see you while we were in Georgia at Christmas!
Temp I just love you and I am so sad I cannot be there with bottles of wine to get through this together. Anytime of the day you need anything just skype with me and we will both prolong those straight jackets together. I will def come visit in Dec and I cant wait until then!!!! Tell Corey safe travels and we have to plan another family vacation when he gets back!
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