Catching up...

In an effort to try to blog every day while Scott is deployed, I'm going to post a "catch up" post.

December 2012:

Scott came home on block leave. This was back-to-back with his pre-deployment leave, so he was able to spend an entire month home with us. It was WONDERFUL! We spent time just being a family again. Doing the regular, every day family things...including arguing here and there. But because we've been married for 14 years, we both know how to deal with the arguments a bit better.

January 2013:

Scott left on January 13 to head back to Ft. Campbell. There were rumors that the deployment was being pushed back and this worried both of us. Thankfully, when he got there, he discovered it wasn't true (at least not for him). He is scheduled to be part of the ADVON (advanced party) so he'll be one of the first to go. Scheduled deployment is tentatively 1FEB, but that date is subject to change. On January 17, the kids had a half day, so I picked them up from school and we headed out to Ft. Campbell for a long weekend. This will be the last time we see Scott before he deploys. I didn't care what we did, as long as we did it as a family. It was quality time and I am blessed and thankful that we were able to go and be with him. The rest of this month ends up quite busy for Scott, with training, meetings, packing, repacking, packing one more time. On our end, we come home and try to start establishing the routine we had before the holidays. Scott lets me know he's got a definite deployment date, 4FEB. Now I KNOW it's real.

4FEB:

Scott called me from the motor pool, where they gathered for family time. I am wistful and wishing I was there to say goodbye, but it would have been hard on both of us. I'm thankful he's ready to go, since it seems like we've been preparing for this since the day he left home to go to Ft. Campbell, back in 2011. I got phone calls throughout the day. Scott let me know when they were about to leave, at about 3:00. They were flying to Cherry Point to pick up Marines. He called me again from Cherry Point, around 8:00 and they were flying out to Germany.


5FEB:
I didn't hear from him early when he landed in Germany, as it was around 4 or 5 EST, but he did call just as they were prepping to fly out from Frankfurt. He called on his cell....OUCH. That's gonna be a hefty call! It was less than a minute, though, and I'm glad I knew when he was headed out! They left Germany around 7:00 a.m. EST...about noon Germany time. I didn't know where they were headed, or how long it would be before I heard from him again. I can honestly say, I was in tears. It's hard NOT to worry about the man you have loved for well over 16 years!

I have a special ringtone for when Scott calls me. It's one of those weird, digital voices that says, "your husband is attempting to reach you on your cellular device"...it's always nice to hear that go off randomly in my day. After his last call before he left Germany, I realized I won't be hearing that again for a long time. Wow. That hit hard. The random and unexpected tears flowed.

The kids and I had dentist appointments, so I got them out of school a bit early. Dentist went well for both of them: no cavities! 12 years for Hannah, almost 9 for Scotty. Great teeth, those two. For me...well, some of my fillings are needing replaced. Not looking forward to that, ugh!

Around 7:00, I heard the ringtone. I was finishing my supper...reading the paper. It was a FaceTime contact! I was terribly excited, and when we connected I exuberantly exclaimed, "Hello, my darling!!!" Apparently, all the folks around him heard that! He was in Manas, Kyrgyzstan. They had a wifi hotspot in the chow hall. What a blessing that was! It was loud, jerky, and a poor connection, but I still got to see him and know he was safe!

6FEB:

9:00 a.m., I got a FaceTime request from Scott. It's now night time in Kyrgyzstan. He and his guys slept for several hours and were getting a late dinner. I'm glad I got to talk to him. He doesn't know how long he'll be there...could be several days. For his sake, I hope it's not too long. He said he would try to let me know when they're headed out. We made tentative plans to chat in the evening (a.m. for him).

The kids and I had a busy Wednesday. I did my regular Wednesday volunteer work at church (First Baptist Church of Lexington) where I print all the music for the orchestra, clean and reset the pit, then usually put the songs up into ProPresenter for the big screens on Sunday. Because it was an early release day, I couldn't get it all done before I went to get Scotty from the bus stop. He and I went to Moe's for the RCE fundraiser day, then we headed to the neighborhood clubhouse for a "Half Day Party" that my friend Amy Jo always organizes. Hannah and her friends met us there when they got home from school. The kids played and had a good time, till about 3:30.

We headed home, and no sooner did we get there, then we turned around and headed back out for Hannah's 4:30 flute lesson at FBC. While she was having her lesson, I finished off the last of my work putting the music up in ProPresenter. We ate at church for Wednesday Night Supper, then headed off to our activities: Scotty to DiscipleZone, Hannah to The Fallout, and me to orchestra rehearsal. As we were getting ready to leave at 8:00, I got an iMessage from Scott asking if I was ready to chat. We headed home, and got in a nice FaceTime session. Both kids got to talk for several minutes. Scott let me know he thought they'd be leaving that same day (while it was 8:30 p.m. for me, it was 7:30 a.m. the next day for him!). He said he'd let me know more if he knew.

Around 11:30 p.m. he sent me a text telling me they were getting ready to head out. I sent a message to our friend Keith, who is currently in Afghanistan (the 101st is replacing the 1ID) to let him know the 101st guys were heading out, and to ask him to let me know when they got there. Then I went to bed, though I didn't sleep well; the not knowing is hard on me!