December 31, 2008
ANOTHER GOODBYE
So today I have to say goodbye to my husband again. It's just for the weekend -- he's flying home alone to see his family -- but I hate the idea of saying goodbye again so soon, of eating and sleeping alone, all that. Ugh, and I get to do it again next month when he goes to SERE school.
Posted by: Sarah at
04:09 AM
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December 19, 2008
HE'S HOME
I got a call that they were arriving early, so I raced out of the house at 4:25. Guess what? More delays. We just got home, at 10:45.
Longest.
Week.
Ever.
But the look on my husband's face when Charlie tackled him in the kitchen was priceless.
On Tuesday, my husband apparently told his roommate in Iraq, "Do you know what this is?" His buddy said, "Your uniform?" My husband said, "The uniform my wife's gonna peel off of me tonight."
Yeah, three days later, he's still wearing that exact same uniform. Ewww.
We solved the mystery of where he's been all week. The story is too horrible and annoying to repeat.
But it doesn't matter anymore.
He's home.
Posted by: Sarah at
06:06 PM
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It's over at last!
You don't have to tell us anything more.
I am so happy for you and your husband.
I hope you two have one of your best weekends ever.
After the last week, the pendulum's gotta swing the other way!
Posted by: Amritas at December 19, 2008 06:35 PM (o2B2q)
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Upon return from my 1st deployment, (way back in 9
I spent a few hours going through photographs and telling the stories behind them to my wife.
That time could have been MUCH better spent (which would have left us both spent.)
My point is, Get off the damn computer. Take that hiatus. Stay nekkid for a week. Order delivery. (Begrudgingly) throw on a robe when the delivery guy comes. (Or don't bother.)
You have MUCH better things to do than tell us what you're doing.
This applies to knitting, too... unless you're knitting a new thong out of licorice ropes.
--Chuck
Posted by: Chuck at December 19, 2008 06:52 PM (q4psF)
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Ha! I agree with Chuck! Enjoy him while you got him!! Hooray!
Posted by: T at December 19, 2008 07:02 PM (/UP5m)
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Completely jocund I'm sure.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/jocund
Posted by: tim fitzgerald at December 19, 2008 07:07 PM (rASAT)
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I third what Chuck said. No blog posts for a week, Young Lady! You've got better things to be doing!
Posted by: Miss Ladybug at December 19, 2008 07:15 PM (zoxao)
Posted by: Beth at December 19, 2008 07:50 PM (qkeSl)
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Hooray!!! Have a beautiful weekend.
Posted by: Pamela at December 19, 2008 08:06 PM (NqRYi)
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YAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Hallelujah! :-) Enjoy your hubby being home!!! :-)
Posted by: kannie at December 19, 2008 10:20 PM (iT8dn)
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WOO HOO. Great news!!!! Now go enjoy each other!
Posted by: Keri at December 20, 2008 03:20 AM (HXpRG)
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most excellent news, it was starting to feel like watching honey exit a bottle.
speaking of honey, use in small amounts. It can be like glue....
Posted by: AWTM at December 20, 2008 05:28 AM (A0AhX)
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Welcome Home! Enjoy your time together.
Posted by: Susan at December 20, 2008 05:42 AM (kOpTG)
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WOOHOO!!! The wait is over!!! Go have some fun reuniting with your man.
Posted by: Reasa at December 20, 2008 06:30 AM (2W7Iu)
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I clicked on your blog with a knot in my stomach, hoping so much he was home. And now I have a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. I am so happy for you. Have a wonderful, enjoyable reunion. You deserve every moment of happiness.
Posted by: Amy at December 20, 2008 09:30 AM (I9LMv)
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Congrats, and Welcome home to him!
Posted by: That 1 Guy at December 20, 2008 11:50 AM (8l3lA)
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Yay!!! So exciting! We are very happy to hear that you two are reunited at long last.
Posted by: Butterfly Wife at December 20, 2008 05:39 PM (1DRG/)
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Congrats! I'm sitting here smiling for you--you made it!
Posted by: FbL at December 21, 2008 05:32 AM (HwqvF)
Posted by: Green at December 22, 2008 12:33 AM (6Co0L)
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That's awesome, I can conjure up exactly how you feel. Merry Christmas!
Posted by: Pia at December 26, 2008 03:32 AM (SMV/V)
Posted by: cifiiqh at January 06, 2009 11:51 AM (sDqen)
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A MYSTERY
When my husband finally gets home, we will have a big mystery solved. The Mystery of Where He's Been All Week. Because I have no idea.
I keep calling people to give them updates -- my mom, his mom, friends -- and they want to know what's going on. They keep asking me questions that I simply don't know the answer to. They want me to speculate; I have learned it does no good to speculate about the Army. All I know is the one-line sentence I keep getting from the FRG: "We are meeting at the company area at ___ o'clock." Period.
I have no idea where he has been. I don't know if he was flying commercial or military. I don't know what he's been eating, what he's been wearing (he sure didn't have an extra week's worth of clothes in his ruck), where he's been sleeping. I don't know why none of the soldiers in the company have called home. I don't know if my husband has been getting this same hurry-up-and-wait treatment. I don't know if the delays have been due to weather or plane malfunction or what.
I wonder if he is hungry. I wonder if he gets on planes and gets back off of them, or if he's been sitting in the same room the whole week. I wonder if he's getting enough sleep, if he has a book to read, or if he has been as jittery as I've been.
I wonder if he's wondering what I've been thinking all week.
I can't wait to see him and give him a big hug. And I hope to solve the mystery in the car on the way home!
Posted by: Sarah at
07:54 AM
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"I wonder if he's getting enough sleep"
In the military? Sleep? That's what Leave is for.
Posted by: tim at December 19, 2008 08:01 AM (nno0f)
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So it isn't just my family that does that?? I'm always amused by it. They keep asking the same questions almost as if they don't believe it when you tell them you don't know. Frustrating!
Posted by: Kiki at December 19, 2008 08:14 AM (XgNcW)
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Wow. Just thought I'd check in... This is crazy, Sarah. Just nuts! But, I guess you know that.
Posted by: T at December 19, 2008 11:15 AM (KV0YP)
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UPDATE
With no new info this morning, I came down with a case of the screwits. I put no effort into looking nice: didn't shower, just threw on some clothes and went out to run my errands. And the morning was not going well. Fifteen minutes in line behind some guy buying a coat with no price tag using a tax-exempt number. Went to the military pharmacy -- 10 minutes to find a parking space -- and found 40 people in line ahead of me. Nevermind. And then the phone rang.
My husband is crossing the Atlantic as we speak.
Several people told me not to believe any info I have until it comes from my husband's mouth. Well, that's all fine and dandy except none of us in the unit have heard from our husbands since Monday. The only info we have is the official stuff. So I will head to pick up my husband at the designated time tonight and just hope that it's right. And that it doesn't change again.
It's not like things can get any worse, right?
Oh yeah, and I have to go back to work in the morning. I am trying to get out of that one.
Posted by: Sarah at
07:00 AM
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Well, that sounds like a decent plan. Except the going back to work part.
Assuming he hits US soil somewhere before home, hopefully he'll find a phone and call you to let you know what's going on. I guess I was lucky with my husband in that he was able to call and/or email me all along his travels home.
Posted by: Butterfly Wife at December 19, 2008 09:25 AM (1v+h3)
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Quick...give me your number at work and I'll call in sick for you in the morning!!!!!
Posted by: Pamela at December 19, 2008 07:54 PM (NqRYi)
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December 18, 2008
GETTING TO THE POINT WHERE IT'S POSSIBLE I MIGHT CRY
No news is good news, right?
So I got in the shower, shaved my legs, put on nice-smelling lotion, got out fancy underpants, and was just putting on the outfit I was going to pick my husband up in when the 1SG's wife called and said they did not get on the flight, that they have been completely scratched from the flight list, and that now we don't even know which day they are coming home, much less a time.
I was supposed to pick him up three hours from now.
This really, really sucks.
Posted by: Sarah at
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... to put it mildly.
I keep visiting your site, hoping for good news.
Two Real™ blogging posts this morning - a sign things are looking up? - ah, a new post! - an announcement of the return?
... but no, the ordeal goes on, with no definite end in sight.
Is ignorance bliss? Not here. You don't even seem to know why this is happening. The unbearable can become tolerable if there's an explanation, even an excuse. But apparently no one gave you any.
You await the next call, uncertain if it'll be for real.
I hate "seeing" you suffer like this. If only there were something I could do beyond restating the obvious, or asking questions like ...
How are your tear ducts?
Posted by: Amritas at December 18, 2008 07:05 AM (+nV09)
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That seriously sucks!!!! I'm really sorry to hear that. I'm sure you are thinking "just put him on the darn plane already. My husband had several moments like that when he was deployed to Iraq last year and it was really frustrating. Hang in there.
Posted by: Slightly Salty at December 18, 2008 07:07 AM (GX+J9)
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Yup, the ole 'hurry up & wait' routine. ItÂ’s as old as the military.
Hang in there, all good thingsÂ…blah, blah, blahÂ…
Posted by: tim at December 18, 2008 07:11 AM (nno0f)
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no words. just hugs. damn.
Posted by: Lane at December 18, 2008 07:30 AM (X666r)
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*Might* cry? I would've been a sobbing, angry mess (except when I was on the phone) for the last... erm... few days.
If I could be there, I'd play Hungry Hungry Hippos with you! (Or at least pay your range fees, LOL... ;-) *hugs*
Posted by: kannie at December 18, 2008 07:31 AM (iT8dn)
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You, my dear, are a pillar of restraint.
I think I had half the doo-dah dance that you're going through at the end of Hubs' first deployment (when I still didn't know how things operated) and I was literally screaming at the FRG leader in a tear-covered, snot-flying type fashion to STOP calling my house UNLESS he was actually HERE. It was not pretty.
You know the rule at my house: I don't need to know about it until it's in writing.
I think that's a good rule for homecomings too.
I hate this for you, you know?
Posted by: Guard Wife at December 18, 2008 08:03 AM (N3nNT)
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this level of frustration is just not conducive to a calm and loving reintegration... and why don't they [the amorphous "they"] understand this??? Return from the last deployment of ours was very similar, I finally decided that until I heard from DH HIMSELF, I refused to believe it. When I got the leprechaun call, I believed... until then - nope. I'll be the same way this time. And we never got calls from the FRG leader! she was no where to be heard from or seen... Although Guard Wife - I'd have given a lot to see you doing the screaming down the phone!
LAW
Posted by: LAW at December 18, 2008 09:17 AM (tqDBA)
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And this is why the military spouse has the toughest job in the world! Hang in there!
Posted by: Tracy at December 18, 2008 09:24 AM (sGtp+)
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Sarah - I too keep checking back, hoping for a one line update.. Hoping he is able to catch a flight back here soon and back to you.
Thinking of you
Posted by: keri at December 18, 2008 09:49 AM (HXpRG)
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If this keeps up I will forget I am supposed to be a stately, grandmotherly type and just let all the words fly. What was that guys name in Lil Abner who had the cloud over his head? Darn!! Any kin to him? (that is supposing some of your dear peeps are old enough to know who Lil Abner is.)
Soon, Sarah, Soon. Just keep smelling good.
Posted by: Ruth H at December 18, 2008 12:20 PM (wWMQq)
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So this was our R&R experience completely. Days and days of waiting. I actually got to a point where I was convinced he'd never make it home. So I went to the liquor store and drank a bottle of wine. I was all dressed up and had word he was supposed to get home the next day...sometime. And then miraculously he got home that night. Thank god I had some time to sober up! Otherwise hubby would have had to get a taxi. I didn't even care how I looked at that point and we didn't take any pictures. we were tired. Good luck. I feel your pain. Its breaking my heart that things aren't going right for you guys. Just get home already!!
Posted by: Sara at December 18, 2008 12:35 PM (er4b7)
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Here's hoping for a speedy and safe arrival... fingers are crossed for you!
Posted by: Tucker at December 18, 2008 01:13 PM (iu62Y)
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I know it is no fun - the waiting game.
Wish the Rear D would do the dirty work so poor volunteers don't have to take the flak. Not saying you gave the 1SG's wife any - just relating to other commenters. It is not the FRG's fault - but they are the closest ear sometimes when the stress is too much to hold back.
Our soldiers were delayed repeatedly coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq. In Iraq, the mission changed and they had to unpack everything from pallets in Kuwait and head back to Iraq! Now that one was especially hard to take, as people lost money on vacation cruises and flights/hotels thy'd booked. Then when it was time for them to really come home, we knew up front not to make cruise/vacation plans or take off work unless you could eat those days - because until wheels were up on their last flight, you could not expect them to come home. Flights were the issue. The Airforce deadlines planes much more frequently than civilian crews. I think they are safer - but much less reliable timewise, especially when trying to arrange troop transport.
I had friends who were twisted out of shape at the unfairness of it all. How? Who? What incompetence!
Here we go again.... same old stuff again... Marching down the Avenue...
I know it is blah blah blah "this too shall pass" but really... this pain will be but a distant memory soon when you get in your man's arms. My best to you two on reintegration!
Army Wife in VA
Posted by: awiv at December 19, 2008 02:19 AM (2PqnM)
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Monique, a Leaf fan, originate this absolutely well-defined to believe. Now, let me core out that this was in no way an crack to official one pair is more wisely than the other. It was objective a regarding to official two things.
Posted by: picsir at January 05, 2009 11:38 PM (1nmQ+)
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December 17, 2008
DELAYED AGAIN!
We had a new ETA for late tonight, so I ran some errands today and started getting excited. I came home to a new message on my machine saying that this timeline is also not happening anymore. The husband is stuck in Europe, waiting on his next leg of the journey. Maybe tomorrow will be our lucky day. Right? This is excruciating.
Posted by: Sarah at
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DOUBLE ACK!!!! Time to break out the kickboxing... or maybe make something that keeps well in the fridge to celebrate - like your favorite flavor of cheesecake? {:-)
Posted by: kannie at December 17, 2008 09:32 AM (iT8dn)
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Got booze? Time flies when you're drunk.
Posted by: tim at December 17, 2008 09:35 AM (nno0f)
Posted by: T at December 17, 2008 10:22 AM (KV0YP)
Posted by: Lucy at December 17, 2008 12:03 PM (0p14c)
Posted by: srfmrwv at January 06, 2009 01:41 PM (f8EL1)
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December 15, 2008
SO CLOSE
Aw, crap.
I just KNEW it was too good to be true.
Just got word that the husband's return has been delayed.
Man.....now there's no excuse for not washing the dog or cleaning the carpet.
Posted by: Sarah at
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December 10, 2008
SOON
My husband has moved on, from where he was to where he will be. He is still In Country, but he is making progress towards home.
I keep finding myself doing the opposite of what I did with the tortillas earlier this year: every time I hear a deadline, I rejoice that it's after my husband's return. My husband gets home before our milk expires. He gets home before the movie I rented is due. He gets home soon.
God willing and the Creek don't rise, as they say around here.
(And in answer to the couple of questions I've gotten about what actually constitutes a "single digit midget': less than 10 days.)
Posted by: Sarah at
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When I was in the Air Force, we always said "You're not short 'til you're next." Sounds like your husbands "Next". This is me smiling for you too.
Posted by: Pamela at December 10, 2008 04:52 AM (LQdV7)
Posted by: Keri at December 10, 2008 05:04 AM (HXpRG)
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Although this is something I will never experience, so I will never know first hand what you go through while your husband is gone, I am just so very very excited for you!
Posted by: sharona at December 10, 2008 03:34 PM (BeRta)
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I'm WAY excited for you, friend! It's hard to believe, but next year this time, I'll only be about 1/2 way done. UGH!
Posted by: Guard Wife at December 10, 2008 03:44 PM (eb8pN)
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Hell, Guard Wife, this time next year I will be waiting for my husband to come home again! We can wait together...
Posted by: Sarah at December 10, 2008 04:12 PM (TWet1)
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I'm excited for you, too! Just in time for Christmas!
Posted by: Miss Ladybug at December 10, 2008 08:02 PM (zoxao)
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Oooh oooh oooh this me excited for you!!
Posted by: Darla at December 13, 2008 04:55 AM (UcAbT)
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December 05, 2008
THIS IS THE END
I had my FRG meeting tonight. The ladies were nice. I love our Rear D commander.
And we have a return date.
The end was so much harder for me last time. Last time, my husband was one of the last people home. I watched all my friends and neighbors welcome their husbands home three weeks before I did. That was rough. Last time my husband came home with a whole brigade, so there were ceremonies and fanfare. This time it's just a handful of families, and since all my friends are imaginary, it doesn't matter like it did last time. I honestly haven't been thinking about it. Even when Sis B's husband came home yesterday, it still didn't feel like my turn was coming up.
Even when I heard the dates and started talking about the return process -- where to pick him up, what he will need to do afterwards, when block leave starts -- it didn't really sink in.
But since I was on post, I had decided to make a stop at the Class Six: the husband has put in his booze request. And as I circled the store shopping, I started thinking that soon we would be drinking that booze together.
And then shit just got real: I am a few days away from being a single digit midget.
Couldn't wipe the grin off my face in that Class Six.
Posted by: Sarah at
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WOOHOO!!! I am dancing in joy for ya.
Posted by: Reasa at December 05, 2008 06:01 PM (2W7Iu)
Posted by: Lucy at December 05, 2008 08:45 PM (nzG0t)
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Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Terrific news!!
Posted by: Guard Wife at December 06, 2008 04:04 AM (eb8pN)
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Hey, we're double digit midgets here! Can't wait till he's home again for you! How exciting!
Posted by: Angie at December 06, 2008 06:09 AM (yvfxR)
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Yay!!! Can't wait for you to have your Hubby home again! What wonderful, happy news!!! :-)
Posted by: kannie at December 06, 2008 06:56 AM (iT8dn)
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Congrats! And you've already got the booze to celebrate, so you're set!
Posted by: Tootie at December 06, 2008 09:46 AM (xIMg9)
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