Day 45: Leftovers and an Early Night

I am supposed to be working on Lesson Plans and trying to come up with a Bulletin Board idea. Something I used to do on a weekly basis. Only, I'm exhausted after having a GREAT day at work. Since it was another great day, can't I just go to sleep?

Day 44: Back to Work!

First Day back at work.

Day 43: Happy Memorial Day!

Day 42: Video Chat With Daddy!

Day 39: Wet N Wild Hawaii

Day 34: Sunny Days, Sweepin' the Clouds Away...

Day 33: Rainbows and Burgers and Tots

Day 13: Lost Ring and Dinner at the Johnson's

Day 12: Dinner with the Girls and a Phone Call!

DH tried to chat with me at 4 AM, on a night that I was finally, FINALLY, getting something similar to sleep. I did fall back to sleep shortly thereafter, but then neither Nik or myself woke up until 9:45 AM. I like to have Nik at school by 9.

I've pretty much been in rush mode ever since. Dropped Nik off, ran to the commissary, came home and baked garlic biscuits for dinner with the girls tonight, and went back to work. We had a "Family Fun Day" at work, where the kids were able to jump in bouncy houses, got cotton candy, played games. Only, our game was going to be an outside activity where the kids got to run around a bit, and, of course, it poured. It never sets in and rains all day in Hawaii, it always blows off, but not today.

When we were on our way home, I told Nik that we were going to go have dinner at Lucas's house. He got all excited, but he doesn't remember who Lucas is. He just wanted to go play! We girls had a great time. I'm glad we have friends to do such with. It's nice not to be entirely alone all of the time. 

When we got home I did get a phone call. DH got a prepaid cell phone and he called to talk for a few. We didn't get much of a conversation, but at least we got to talk. I miss him so much. 

Day 11: Ummm... Nothing New Really

Thursday started out much the same as the day before. We fought the Afghan internet connection, I got really emotional, we finally got to chat a bit, then he had to get offline, all before 7:00 AM. 

I took Nik to school, balanced the checkbook, paid some bills, went to work myself. Then when I got home, I did some more budget work, and put Nik to bed. Nothing new, really, just another Thursday. 

Day 10: No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems

If only those lyrics could work for today!

VT finally got his internet hooked up and was able to chat this morning. There were a few problems that damn-near ruined my day, though. 

First, he woke me up at 5:45 AM, which is approximately 8:15 PM his time and wouldn't be so bad if I had actually gone to sleep at a decent hour. But for some reason, it takes me forever to fall asleep, then I wake up with every little noise. My son, on the other hand, fell asleep last night after watching his "Puppy Dog Movie" (Lady and the Tramp) 1.25 times.

Second, and probably most important, his connection was so terrible that by 6:30 AM, he had decided to give up. Only I was awake and my body felt like I'd been hit by a Mack Truck. I'm guessing he could feel it from 9,000 miles away, because he gave it another try and we were able to chat for a bit longer.

But after that, nothing felt right. I was exhausted, but the day had already started. I took Nik to school, came back, did some laundry and a little bit of house keeping and then it was time for me to get ready for work. I attempted to make dinner before I left, but the ground beef that I had thawed must have been put up in the freezer bad. It was green when I tried to cook with it. 


About thirty minutes before I needed to be at work (it takes five to get home, mind you), the neighbor comes home with her house rattling sound system and proceeds to blare R&B for the entire island. Her system sounds like she bought a $10 boom box at Wal-Mart and hooked it up to her factory car stereo. It bothered me so bad that I left for work early and spent several minutes listening to Kenny Chesney and trying to enjoy the tropical breeze. And cried.


It's been such a teary emotional day. I know it's because I'm exhausted, but I don't know what to do. If I take anything, even something as simple as Tylenol PM I'm out so hard that I wouldn't be able to help Nik in an emergency. So Tylenol PM is not an option. 


As I type this, I am almost falling asleep. Nik is in the bath, and I laid out his clothes on his bed just in case I fell asleep before he decided to get out. 


But how am I doing with the deployment? My answer for everyone is that I'm staying busy. And I haven't really thought about it much until today. And when I did, it reminded me of a person I don't want to be ever again. I will not be depressed about this. I will function for my child. It is not like we signed up for the Army thinking that he'd never deploy. Heck, we knew he would and thought he would right from AIT, so six months (five really because of NTC) in paradise before the deployment was just a bonus, right?

Day 9: No Rest for the Weary

Besides not sleeping well at night, and passing out in the wee hours of the morning only to wake up with the birds a few hours later, the today was rather uneventful. We woke up, I took Nik to school, I skipped PWOC to cut coupons for my Coupon Swap ladies, did a little laundry, went to work, and came back home again. 

I am exhausted, but I can't get to sleep, nor can I stay asleep at night. Everyone suggests sleeping aids, but the problem with that is I am home alone with a three-year-old. What happens when I take a sleep aid and then I cannot get up to help him? 

My mother-in-law told me not to hesitate seeking help if I needed it. That my doctor can prescribe mild antidepressants. Sometimes, I swear that woman forgets everything I've ever told her. I've pretty much dealt with depression my entire life, even as a child. I had a grandmother and a mother who both battled regular bouts of depression, and when you add a violent ex-husband to the mix, I did, too. Only I took the last one I ever want to take the day I kicked that ex-husband out of my life. I know the signs. Social reclusivness is second only to wanting to sleep it all away, at least for me. Pretty sure I've got that one backwards at the moment. 

I also know that it can be a slippery slope and it can be sneaky, too. But I have work and I have friends and I have a child who needs me. I'm not saying it won't happen, I'm just saying I'm not going to jump on that bandwagon. I will not say I'm "depressed" or "having a depression" unless I am. And even then, I'll probably only say it to my doctor. 

Day 8: Bad Word TV

I've been on a kick of watching Glee or something off of Netflix while eating dinner or folding laundry. Right before Vitaly left, we were watching a lot of Rescue Me. I don't remember what we were watching tonight, but it had some not so great language in it. I wasn't even paying attention, and Nikolas was playing with his train table in the dining room, when all of a sudden I heard him yell, "Bad word, TV, that's a bad word!"

Day 7: Meet Princess Mia!

We got Nikolas a dog on the day before Christmas Eve, but it was a bigger dog, a Border Collie "Mix" that turned out to be a mix between Border Collie and Pitt Bull. 


He was a good dog, and I probably would have been able to re-train him right, but he got to where he would get aggravated with Nik and tried to bite him twice before I posted him on CraigsList. Nikolas cried and cried, and we've gone two months hearing him talk about his De-Jager dog and ask for another small dog that doesn't bite. And I decided that when we did get another dog that I would get a small lap dog, and wait and get it through better channels than CraigsList. 


Only, I do random searches on CraigsList every now and again. I put in our Post and look at everything posted under it. And this beautiful puppy came up. The owner sounded desperate, like she was about to leave or something, and needed the dog gone ASAP. 


So I emailed, just to see, thinking the "rehoming" fee would be ridiculous, and found out that the girl who owned her works with me. She came down on her fee and even asked if she could just bring the dog over and get the money from me later.


The story is that the previous owners' neighbor had a friend over and Mia supposedly got out and bit this visitor. They all went to the community center about it and the community center manager said that the dog had to go. Apparently the neighbor even went and told the manager that he thought his friend lied, but they said there was a no tolerance policy in place. 


So, Nikolas got a puppy at 10 PM on Easter Sunday. I'll let ya know how this one works out.

Day 7: Easter

The Easter Bunny brought Nik a basket with some M&Ms, Play Dough, and a book about a sea turtle from Hawaii. His favorite part has been the Play Dough and he's doing a great job of keeping it all cleaned up. 


We spent the rest of the day relaxing and cleaning. I steam mopped the floor, did some laundry, and generally relaxed. I actually got a lot accomplished. I even used the grill for the first time ever. I grilled hot dogs for lunch, then grilled a pack of steak that's been in my fridge and needed to be cooked or thrown out. It was a really great, but uneventful, Sunday.

Day 4: Egg-stra Hours at the Workplace

They asked me to come into work early again today. Only, when I got there, they didn't need the help. I ended up stuffing Easter eggs for the festivities that will be held on post on Saturday.

I eventually went to my regular shift, where I was promptly screwed into being the last one there. Again.

Nik threw tantrums all evening. He's been so hateful, I hope it's just because he's tired. We've been keeping odd hours. He wants to stay up until almost midnight, and then he's impossible to wake up in the mornings.

 He will have to wake up earlier tomorrow. They won't be calling me in, I've been on the schedule to come in at 9 am all week.

Day 3: Just Keepin' Busy

They tell you that the best way to get through a deployment is to keep busy. And, so far, so good. They called me into work both yesterday and today, and before I left this afternoon, they asked me to come in early again tomorrow. And it works great until I come home.

There's been a lice scare in my class, so we have spent the last two days cleaning and talking to pissed-off parents. I've come home exhausted for two days, and it has nothing to do with the deployment and everything to do with the work at school.


On an up-note, Nikolas is in the bath and he's said, "Daddy, I'm done!" about six times. He finally just said, "Mommy, I'm done!" so I better get offline and go help him get dressed.

Day 2: But, Daddy's Not Home

No no pictures today... Last night was a long, long, night. Nik and I don't sleep well when it's close to a full moon, much less when it's a full moon the night Daddy leaves for a year. I tossed and turned all night, and somewhere around 2 AM, Nik joined me. All night long, whenever I thought about getting up and going to work, I dreaded it, knowing how tired I would be.

But when I got up, Nik wanted to go to school. So, I took him to school. When I got there, a co-worker had called in, and they needed me. That was all it took. I forgot about how tired I was, forgot about the full moon, and decided that, if I got busy enough, I'd forget that my husband wouldn't be home that night.

And, it worked. Between the full-moon's effects on a class of three-year-olds and a lice epidemic, I forgot. I forgot up until he called and told me that they'd made it half way there. And then I forgot again until we came in the front door and Nik ran in and stopped, realizing something was missing, and said, "But, Daddy's not home."

Day 1: Good Night, Little Buddy

 Daddy left today for a year in Afghanistan. Mommy is keeping this to show Daddy what we're doing while he's away. 

Today, I came home and watched Thomas and Friends. I fell asleep while Thomas was on and took a long nap. Then Mommy woke me up and I had Chicken Nuggets for dinner. 

I took a long bubble bath and then it was time to go to bed. Mommy let me watch more Thomas, and I hugged my soldier bear tight and went to sleep. 

I missed my Daddy hugging me and telling me, "Good night, little buddy."

~ Nikolas ~

My soldier left today. I spent the rest of the afternoon Spring Cleaning and organizing. I cleaned all of the leftovers out of the fridge, de-boned all of the leftover chicken, boiled the bones down and made two quarts of chicken stock, scrubbed down my canisters, the microwave (inside & out), moved every kitchen appliance and cleaned the counter top underneath, steam cleaned the floor, balanced the checkbook, paid the bills, fought with the car finance company until they fixed our payments, played on facebook, cleaned a bunch of junk out of our dining area... And he's only been gone 6 hours.

And do you know what I missed? I actually missed him sitting on the couch watching Netflix while I tried to get all of that done.

~Kari Lynn~