18 hours and 30 minutes

...that is until my plane takes off from RIC! I can't believe it's finally here. After those 18 hours and 30 minutes have passed, my flight will be soaring off the runway, on its way to Hawaii. It doesn't even seem real that I'm about to see my husband for the first time since September 8th. My stomach is doing flips just thinking about it. Even though I've flown to Hawaii and back once before, flying is always a crazy experience. It never is the same twice...different planes, different passengers, different airports, etc. I think what I'm most nervous about it my shirt getting wrinkled, my hair getting flat, and my make-up wearing off in the 18 hours it takes to get there. I just want to look perfect! I'm wearing a dark gray tank top that has silk sleeves with a cut-out in the back (my favorite), skinny jeans, and black t-strap sandals. Simple, comfortable, but still stylish. I had to find a balance between Virginia weather and Hawaii weather, that way when I'm in Virginia at 5 AM and it's still under 50 degrees, I can still be comfortable then and when I get to Hawaii with 80 degrees temps. I'm taking the giant suitcase as checked-in, then a carry on weekender bag and my purse. I have forgotten all of the TSA requirements seeing as the last time I flew there was December 2010, so I'll have to look all those up tonight. I know about the 3.4 liquid oz. thing with the carry on, but I forget all the rest. I will be so upset if they make me throw away my eyebrow scissors because they're a weapon! I'm so excited to get there and see our home. He's been living there for about a week now, but he hasn't put up all the decorations, etc. so it's not quite complete yet. It takes a wife :) And almost as much as I miss my husband, I miss my car! I'm just so ready to feel that relief, relief in knowing that he'll never deploy again, that we never have to go months at a time without seeing each other again, that we can just be normal. I'll be there for two weeks, then I come back here to finish my last two weeks of student teaching. Then, I finally take my one way ticket out there :) Oddly enough, I'm sad about leaving my students. One girl this morning told me I was "the prettiest white girl" she had ever seen. Umm...thanks? You just have to love them. Even if they're smoking weed in the bathroom, texting in class, not doing work...they provide an extreme amount of entertainment every day. I'm really furious with one student right now. He never, and I mean never, comes to class, and when he does, he just sits there. There's no way in the world he's going to graduate in a few months with the F that he has in the gradebook right now. And today, he got suspended for truancy, so he sat here and did nothing all class because he said "it wouldn't matter." I tried to make him realize that today's activity was a grade and so he could at least improve his F by a few points; he didn't care. Then, when I was returning graded work, as soon as I laid his down on his desk, he balled it up--right in front of me--and threw it in the trash. I guess I should be angry, but really I'm sad. It really hurts as an educator to know that some kids just really don't care, and it's sad to think about where they're going to end up after this school year when they don't graduate. Either back in 12th grade, or--most likely--the streets. But sometimes, there really is only so much you can do. I have a few students who are much like this, although most of them have kicked it into high gear now and are like the perfect students, in hopes that they can turn their F's into C's in two months. The chances are slim, but if they're putting in the effort, I'm willing to work with them. Better late than never. Anyways, just an update on today--the most exciting day evvveerr. I've already decided that tomorrow, when we finally see each other and hug and kiss, it will be even better than our wedding day. Well, my students are about to come back from their lunch, so I must go. Adios!

Vent Session

Today is mine and David's first wedding anniversary, and here I am, in my bedroom in my parents' house, already changed into pajamas after work. What is supposed to be an amazing day filled with dates and flowers and things has been a crappy day.

First, and most obvious, my husband and I are spending our first anniversary almost 10,000 miles apart. So, our anniversary has just felt like any other day. I woke up at 5:45, got to work at 7:00, left work at 2:35, and came home. I've been here since. I guess you could say that the best anniversary present I could ask for I am receiving. My husband has less than a week left in this year-long deployment. These last few days have been the longest, though. They feel like they're crawling. It doesn't help that only days away from when he is signed up to leave, we still aren't sure exactly when that will be. It could be this day, could be the next. I'm just so ready for him to be back in the U.S. and safe. It's driving me nuts because it's dragging out! We've been dating for two years, and married for one, and we've spent three months of those two years actually together. Those three months were spent sleeping in our teenage bedrooms in our parent's home, running back and forth all over to see all kinds of people. We have yet to have the chance to be a normal, married couple. We don't know what it's like to wake up, eat breakfast, head to work, and go back to bed that night, and wake up and do it all over again. We don't know what it's like to clean on the weekends, or cook dinner at night, or lay on our couch and watch movies. This homecoming doesn't just mean he's home safe, but it means we get to start our lives together, and I couldn't be more anxious and excited about it.

Also, I am absolutely fed up with fake, surface-level people. I'm so tired of people saying meaningless things, or trying to prove things with baseless words because their actions prove otherwise. I'm tired of people just saying things to make them look better. After you say the same things over and over again, they become even more meaningless than before. My husband and I are both just fed up with these people--and there are multiple. I guess that's what comes with being in a deployment, though. People who really don't care, and never wanted to care, go overboard with caring words because he's a soldier and I'm on the home front and it makes them feel like a good person. I can't wait for us to be out of the Army, living back near our friends and families, living a normal life--just to see how many people still say all of their "I'm so happy for you" "You too are so great" and "I miss you, I love you." To see how many people bother to call us or visit when we live 15 minutes away. All the words in the world mean nothing if you don't prove them.

So needless to say, my anniversary day was just filled with me being angry and irritated. Thankfully, tomorrow is a new day, and one day closer.

The Good and The Bad.

Well today has been a roller coaster, and I am currently at the bottom of a hill, hoping to start climbing again eventually. This morning started off great. My husband has been a PFC since AIT, and not because he didn't deserve to be promoted. Only 8 months into his first duty stations, he got deployed. Anyone who knows anything about being a 13F knows how deployments work with them. They are managed through Headquarters and sort of, contracted out to the platoons. While all of the infantry guys can be promoted through their platoons, the 13F's have to be promoted through Headquarters still. And of course Headquarters deals with eight million things at once, so they took forever to get his paperwork done. That and they were on E4 overload. So finally today, my husband got his E4. And he says that they're going to send him to the board for E5 in July, so he could be an E5 for a year before we ETS. So that's my good news. It's been a long time coming, and they told him he'd have it months ago, so we were so happy to finally get the news.

The bad news is just horrible news. Well, I guess there's nothing we can do about it, but I'm still pretty upset about it. Yesterday my husband told me that he's leaving a day later. I was kinda irritated with that, but expected it and wasn't too upset because it was just a day, which wouldn't be much in the scheme of a year. However, tonight he told me they have now added another five days onto that. All because the new unit coming in doesn't have their crap together like they were supposed to and are getting there late. Thanks a lot whoever you are. So, it looks like he'll be getting to Hawaii only like 4 days before me, instead of a week and half like before. So I'm just super bummed out about that. It pretty much ruined how well the day was going. I guess I can only try to find the positive in it, and that's that he won't have to wait as long by himself and that we'll get to do more of the house unpacking and setting up together. Or like I told him today, I'd be able to unpack everything now so that he can find the PS3 and play COD while I work...

In the Teens.

No, not the temperature. No, not age. Yep, the countdown! We are in the teens, and I can hardly believe it. Different than we had planned, I won't be at the Homecoming Ceremony for his chalk, which kind of stinks, but because we are sacrificing that special time together, we will get an additional seven days together, thanks to my Spring Break as a teacher. So we both know it's worth it. My schedule is absolutely nuts for the next three months. It looks something like this:

March 31st - April 14: Hawaii

April 15 - April 28: Virginia

April 28 - May 10: Hawaii

May 11 - June 1: Virginia

June 1: Back to Hawaii until Christmas

Yes, insanity. I'm never going to catch up to a time zone until like...July. When I was in Hawaii last winter and came back to Virginia, it took me a good two weeks to feel normal again. I had some serious jet lag, but I'm hoping now that I've experienced that 16 hour (sometimes a little more or less) flight, it won't hit me as hard. I've been doing all kinds of preparation for his homecoming. Have to get his phone service reinstated, electricity and internet turned on in our place, different things ordered, car keys and paperwork shipped, and so on.

This is essentially my last week teaching in my first placement. I have to finish this week, and then I have one last week. However, my final week at MMS will be SOL review and testing Monday through Wednesday and movie days on Thursday and Friday as a break for the brain-fried kids. So that will be an easy, effortless week. Then, I'm off to my next placement, which I'm quite honestly dreading. It's 12th grade, which I've done before. They are nightmares of students, especially in the Spring when they're burned out and the work they do has no purpose because they've already passed final exams and SOL's and everything else they need to do to graduate. And I can't exactly tell them that what they're doing at the end of their senior year is important--because nine times out of ten, it isn't. Especially this school--an urban one with one of the highest drop-out rates in the state. They're higher education rate is next to none, which means research papers are pointless, which about all seniors could do. The only thing that would be useful to them is career preparation: resumes, interviewing, career reflections, formal versus informal speech, writing, and dress, and so forth. So I'm thinking in the five weeks I am there, I'm going to do a unit on just that: "Real World Readiness." We'll see how it goes!

My graduation gown, hood, and medals are hanging up on my closet door, just waiting for May 12th to roll around. David and I were talking this morning, and we decided we aren't going to know what to do with ourselves when there's no more deployment and no more schooling. But then we realized the answer was pretty simple: HAVE FUN!

Oh, Valentine's Day.

I guess it would be blasphemous if I didn't make a post about Valentine's Day. Yet another Valentine's Day without my husband home.

First, I went to Michael's craft store and bought all kinds of pretty paper and stickers and ribbon to make the perfect Valentine's Day card. Then, I bought his favorite candies, including an R2D2 Pez dispenser (he's a Star Wards nerd). Two days later, my husband says they're starting to turn mail around to the sender because they're close to coming home. So great, I've bought all this cool stuff, and now I can't even give him anything on Valentine's Day...

On my way home today, on Valentine's Day, I had an epiphany! When my husband is home, I sing to him. Non-stop. Every day. Sometimes pop songs. Sometimes country songs. Sometimes Disney songs. When he's away, he likes for me to sing to him over Skype, send him videos, or send him music tracks (mp3's or what-have-you). I did so every now and then, but life kind of took over and I didn't have the time or patience to sit down with my guitar and record over and over. So, I think it's been about 8 months since I had sent him any of my music, and every other phone call, he made sure I remembered how much I was slacking. I decided on the way home, that the perfect impromptu Valentine's Day gift--that he'll love more than any card or candy or other gift--is a song. So I got home from work, grabbed my guitar and decided on Taylor Swift's "Ours" because he sent me the lyrics to that song a while back when I was having a rough time. Interestingly enough, the video is about a military wife/girlfriend living in a world where no one understands what it's like for her soldier to be gone. So, I recorded a video of me singing it and just posted it to his Facebook profile. It took me like 5 minutes to hit post because I don't like other people to hear me sing or even know that I do. He's currently sleeping, and likely snowed in, so I'm so excited for it to be the first thing he sees tomorrow morning when he gets up and makes his way to the MWR :) My video is below! I'm not great, but I just did it for him. I'm not too worried what others think about it.

And now on to my presents! This morning, well at 3AM this morning when I woke up in the middle of the night, I checked my Facebook and had this cute post from him:

And so I'm sailing through the sea, to an island where we'll meet. You'll hear the music fill the air, I'll put a flower in your hair.....I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend. lucky to have been where I have been, lucky to be coming home again. One last holiday missed love due to me being a BA in life but this is the last one, I promise. I love you so much. Happy Valentines Day Love. ♥ 

Yep, he's adorable. It made me cry. I know that sounds dumb, but when a husband is deployed, it's a lot harder for them to show their emotions. So, I don't get to hear stuff like this too often these days. Not because he loves me any less, but because he has to be persistent at keeping tough to survive there. He's still plenty sweet to me, but little messages and notes are a cherry on top.

Then, I got home to find flowers on my front porch. I wasn't expecting those at all, so they were a nice surprise! The lilies in them are so pretty! The card inside them was so cute. The whole "eat these chips" thing is an inside joke. When we first started dating, we stayed somewhere in a hotel, and the moron left a bag of chips on the nightstand and wrote a note to the cleaning lady and said something along the line of "These chips are perfectly fine and I didn't want them to go to waste. PFC Hirn." I laughed hysterically before telling him they would probably throw them away anyways.

Dragging On.

I'm sure this is typical of any military wife in the home-stretch of a deployment, but O-M-G, could time be moving any slower!? I'm having to look at the number of days, not the months/weeks. Even though my husband will be home before (so this is technically not a violation of OPSEC), there are FORTY EIGHT days until I see his handsome face for the first time since early September! It's just dragging out for both of us. His days there are relatively quiet now, which, while a good thing as far as getting rest goes, definitely makes the days go by slower too. You would think with teaching full time, my days would be flying, but I think I feel like they're flying, then I look at my calendar and it's been shorter than I thought, then that's just discouraging. David has decided not to look at the date on his phone anymore to help the days go by faster. I just wish I could do that, too!

I sent our car off to Hawaii this past Friday. The process was almost easy. Besides not getting very good directions on what paperwork to bring, we ran into a few roadblocks. I knew I had to have 1/4 tank of gas or less, so I only brought it up to 1/2 tank before we left for an hour and 45 min. trip to Portsmouth. My 80 minute commute to and from work each day uses about a 1/4 tank, so I figured I would be fine. I didn't consider that I'd be driving highway miles east (downhill) towards sea level. So, I got to Portsmouth and had to go to an auto shop to have my gas siphoned from my vehicle to my aunt's. That took 45 minutes. Then, I got to the POV shipment place and began my paperwork (the wait wasn't long at 10am). I'm half-way through when the woman goes to look for my registration in the stack of paperwork I brought her when she says, "I don't see your registration." And I'm like "Well, I know I brought it. It was attached to the insurance card copies (which I didn't need), which are right here. So it must have fallen out if it's not here." She double checks by flipping through all my paperwork to not find it again. So, then I'm driving 20 minutes to go to the nearest DMV when I decide to check my paperwork stack behind her. The lady stapled my registration to the back of our orders, so of course she passed over them! So then, we turned around and drove BACK to the POV shipment place, and I completed the process, including an inspection where I found out ON THE WAY THERE (because it wasn't there before), a rock hit my front bumper and chipped the paint! Thankfully, it's small--a little smaller than a dime. Then we went to Applebee's in Suffolk on the way home and had the worst service ever, but that's another story for another time.

As far as the deployment goes, my husband is featured in a 25 minute long documentary on Al Jazeera. It can be found here: The Winter War. It's a really intriguing video. It shows the 18-day mission my husband went on during Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving Day, it shows the OP taking incoming and then returning the favor--but I'd like to think a little more successfully! Here's a screen shot of him (front-right) in the video:

So handsome <3

This video is by the same filmmaker that made the 25 minute video, but this is of Checkpoint 2.5, where my husband has spent about half of his deployment in 3-4 day trips every week.

So that's about it. Other interesting tidbits: I have my first scrimmage in just six days. I'm nervous! Student-teaching is going great. My workout life is pretty excellent. I haven't lost any weight, but I'm looking much better. I really don't care about the number though. I can tell a huge difference in my muscle tone. I "deleted" Facebook in that I came to a compromise with my Mom and Aunt and kept Facebook, but deleted everyone who was not a blood relative. Their argument is that they want to see pictures and stuff from Hawaii, and that Facebook is easier than pulling up my blog. So now, my Facebook exists for the sole purpose of filling in my family on life in Hawaii. I really just wanted to delete it, but this way, everyone is happy--at least as close to it as possible. I'll be happy when we move back home and I delete the whole dang thing.

But anywho, off to watching Cupcake Wars and writing my reflection for last week's student-teaching!

The Turning Point

So as of this week, I think we are officially getting into the turning point of our time is a long-distance, deployment-smothered couple. Things are finally feeling like they're right around the corner, and we're having so many positive experiences that I can just feel it--it's just so close!!

I taught my first full day today, and it went really well! My supervising professor came and observed me, and afterwards the only things she had to say as far as improvement goes were (a) I messed with my bra strap--which was kind of weird to me, and (b) I need to walk around the room more--but we were watching a video clip for a good portion of the class, so I couldn't block their view. So, I think it went well and I did pretty good for my first day taking on all classes all by myself.

Also, a colleague (even though I'm not technically employed) of mine at school asked me if I played soccer, and I was like "Well, yeah!" and he invited me to play on his team in the adult co-ed league in the area. So, if you've been following my journey, you'll know how much this means to me. I'm so excited to play again. It's only a game a week with no practices, but that's enough for me. I want to help coach girls soccer at my student teaching school, too.

The other most awesome thing is that we are winding down the housing search! We've found a few different properties and have contacted the agents. It's just so scary because I have to put a lot of money into a place that we can't step foot into until it's already ours. I have a friend who agreed to checking out some places for us so that she can let us know if they're gross or not, and that will be a huge help to making me feel better about committing to a place. We have two favorite places that are in two different complexes, both in Mililani, which I consider to be a "suburban" area in Hawaii. Nice housing, nice schools, movie theatre, lots of restaurants and stores, but not quite a busy city area. The best part is that it's only like 5-10 minutes from base. My husband likes to come home for breakfast and lunch so that his dearest wife can cook for him and take off his boots (don't worry, I don't really take off his boots for him).

The first place has amazing floors and is over 700 sq. ft. with 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom, which means the bedroom will be a decent size. The second one is a little more expensive, but has AC (unlike the first) and two bedrooms, which will be nice for an office space and occasional family visits from Virginia. So we shall see!

I also am almost finished moving everything into our storage unit. The movers come this Friday, so I have one more day (plus a few hours Friday morning), and all I have to do is move about 4 more bins in to it--so like one more trip! Then, I send our vehicle off a week later. Back to the good 'ole '93 Jeep Cherokee for a few months!

We're almost there...

The Whirlwind I Call Life.

It's been quite a while since I've had time to blog, and I still technically don't have time. I just figured I'd take a break from life for a second. So this is where I'm at on this twenty-sixth day of January.

I'm now almost done with my second week of student teaching, and I'm really enjoying it. I was heavily considering switching from English to guidance counseling, but that was before I experienced middle school. The kids that everyone thinks are the worst are the best! I adore middle school, and I think I'll stick around in the English world a little bit longer. I have 6th and 8th grade gifted students, and I really enjoy creating lessons for them because I can dig into those deeper concepts and higher-level thinking skills. I'm going to look into getting my gifted certification, too. It's only 12-15 credit hours (4 classes and usually a practicum experience). I have a great cooperating teacher which helps, too. She's very organized and innovative. The planning is a lot of work because of the particular county I'm teaching in. I have gifted curriculum, IB curriculum, AYP school improvement plan curriculum, and technology strand curriculum, all to fit into each unit.

In my three eighth grade classes, we are reading Linda Sue Park's A Long Walk to Water. It's the true story of Salva Dut, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, and Nya, a girl that lives in Southern Sudan now.

They will be then using Photo Story 3 to write persuasive photo essays that bring awareness to the various issues in the novel.

For sixth grade, we're doing an "alphabiography", where they'll be picking something about them that starts with every letter of the alphabet, and they'll have to write a poem (in a specified form) for each letter. I'm also going to do a mini-lesson on phonetics and we're going to learn how to write the Chinese alphabet. They'll use their new calligraphy skills to create the alphabet dividers for their poetry alphabiographies.

So yeah, that's school right now.

My neck issues are back, so I went back to the doctor--a different doctor. I found out the real reason for my pain. I have an extra rib, formally known as a "cervical rib." So I'll be doing a lot of physical therapy, and if that doesn't work, the only other option is surgery to remove the rib.

The best news in my life right now is that we are SO stinkin' close to the end of this deployment. I ship our HHG on February 3rd and our car on February 10th, and then it's just the waiting game! My plane ticket is ordered for a two-week visit right around when he gets home. Then I have to come back home and finish student teaching for two weeks, then I'll be flying out ONE WAY! I've waited for that for so long!

So that's the update. The days are flying by so fast that I feel like I'm in the middle of a hurricane. But it's a good hurricane if there is such a thing, because it's all moving towards the life that my husband and I have waited so long for!

Design Sacrifices

The last thing on our house/moving checklist was to buy our sofa, chair, and ottoman. Unfortunately, because the Army couldn't decide whether they would pay to ship anything for us, I had to wait up until this week to look for all of it. I didn't want to buy more furniture if it was going to cost twice as much to ship it to Hawaii. Literally just this past week, I got the travel authorization orders and go ahead for the HHG shipment. Anyone who has done furniture shopping knows that unless you buy the furniture off the floor, getting a couch, chair, and ottoman made and delivered in 3 weeks is impossible. After going to multiple furniture stores today, I just affirmed that. So we tried one last place, The Dump. They buy out furniture from major furniture stores (Ashley, Broyhill, etc.) that wasn't sold in time and then sell it themselves. I knew that it was either looking there or buying our furniture in Hawaii and sitting on the living room floor for a month and a half or more. Well, sure enough, I found something similar to what I was looking for. It's not as attractive as I had planned. A lot less modern, a lot less sleek, and a lot less chic, but when I saw the price tag, I knew it was time for me to sacrifice a little bit of design beauty for our bank account. The gorgeous couch, chair, and ottoman I had picked out made by Rowe was $1999. This sofa and ottoman was on sale for $754 all together. After tax, we saved about $1200. I managed to also have a breakdown in the middle of furniture store. I stared at the set for like fifteen minutes, just wishing that I could call my husband and ask him whether he'd want us to get a not-as-pretty sofa for much cheaper, or whether he'd want us to find the perfect one for a lot more. My husband always likes for us to have the best we can, just because he never had amazing things growing up. So based on that, I wouldn't have gotten this set, but based on it being $1200 and us starting our new life together with new expenses, I knew it was the best decision. Of course, thinking about the fact that it was impossible to call him, and that it was impossible to have his input, just upset me. It reminded me how far away he is, and how alone I feel sometimes. I feel so much pressure to make all of the right decisions for our life, too. I want it all to be so perfect for him. Hopefully I can use my design skills to dress this set up and make them a little more chic to fit in with the rest of the living room.

The couch I picked out made by Rowe, that I was getting until today.

Matching chair and ottoman, entire set (couch and this) $1999

What I got today for $791

I'll make it work!

Workout - Day 2.

I didn't get to post a Day 1, so to catch you up...

My mission to get hot for my husband has begun! On Day 1, I worked out for two hours, and today, I worked out for an hour and a half this morning and an hour tonight. Needless to say, I am so sore that I can barely make it out of bed tonight. Not that that stopped me from wearing five-inch heels today. It feels good to be sore, though. It reminds me of those first two weeks of soccer practice where we were throwing up, sweating through our clothes, muscles burning. Although working out in the gym isn't the same as having 100 yards of green grass and a ball at your feet, it feels good to just be athletic again. It's been so long--about a year now--since I've been in "perfect" shape. I'm just hoping I can get back. I'm used to my workouts being practices, so they were always scheduled and I didn't really feel like I was working out--it was just me playing a sport I love. So now, it definitely takes more will power to push yourself when you don't have 10 other girls depending on you. But so far I'm doing it, even if it is only day 2. I have yet to weight myself after the two days of working out, but I know that when I weighed myself a week or so ago (pre-gym) I was at 122.4lbs. I'm not really using weight as a measure of my fitness, because I always weighed about 3-5 pounds more during soccer season than during the two-month off season. I want to be around 115, but I'm not setting that as a goal. My goal is to look in the mirror and see muscle definition all over, and thank "Holy crap, I am smokin'!" If that's at 110 or 118, then it's fine by me. I'm going to do updates, say...once a week with a weight and a picture. Maybe I'll get creative and do a sort of "survey" I fill out. I'll try that out below :)

Week One

Weight: 122.4LB

Favorite Workout Lately: 

The crunch stride machine.

Most Sore Muscle:

Pectoralis Minor (the upper part of your pecs--or in my case, boobs...)

What I'm Seeing in the Mirror: My stomach still isn't where I want it to be, but I can feel that it's definitely more firm. My legs have snapped back so fast. Just in two days, there is already a huge difference with them. All my strength has always been in my legs, though, and with being a soccer player, I think they just know when it's time to snap back into shape. My arms are still just so-so. I don't feel like I look thinner, which I shouldn't after just two days, but I feel better on the inside.

What I Really Look Like:

From the side. I'm not sucking in, but I feel like this is deceiving because you can't see any curves!

Need arms more sculpted and love handles trimmed down with ab muscle definition. You can see my legs are still muscular and tiny in comparison to my upper body.

Bringing Sexy Back

Today was one of those crazy errand days for me. One of the days where I have no make up on, and of course get stopped as the "random vehicle" to be checked at the gate of the base. I got a lot accomplished, including the shoes I've been looking for for months now which were on an amazing sale for $30 off. The highlight of my day however, was joining a gym! I've been back and forth about gym, no gym, which gym. Last night, my husband I talked about what was a reasonable amount to spend on a gym membership, and I went searching. I looked into the infamous American Family, and it was ridiculous. Well, it's ridiculous if you're in my situation. I'll only be in this area for four more months before I move, so contracts are a no-go for me. So when you go month-to-month, the prices always rise by a bazillion dollars. With the military rate, month-to-month, tanning included, Am Fam wanted $69.99 a month. Are they crazy!? So, instead, I went and checked out the new gym in town that just opened up. Month-to-month, unlimited tanning included = $19.99 a month. Take that, Am Fam. I was planning on tanning for a month or two before going to Hawaii anyways, because last time I went in December, I was the only pale person on the island. I looked like I was Swedish or from some other European country where their citizens never see the light of day. It was horrible. Most tanning places around here are $30-50 a month for unlimited. I not only get tanning, but I get a gym, too, for half that much. I'm super excited to be able to go work out now. My plan is to go Monday through Friday as soon as I'm done teaching. The gym is on the way home, so it works out perfectly. I haven't had the time or strength to work out in the last year, and that's been a major void in my life. Now that I am just focusing on teaching, instead of teaching and classes, and we're nearing the end of this deployment, I have the motivation to get the athlete back. I'll try to give lots of updates on my workouts and weight and so forth. Here's to bringing sexy back!

Me "glowing" on the beach. Yikes!

Let the Games Begin!

It's a week before I start student-teaching, and my break is officially over. Life has become hectic again, but it's chaos for which I am thankful.

We got our Travel Authorization orders this morning, which make me moving to Hawaii official. I'm so confused by what they say in all of the different sections, and I've tried to Google some sort of forum or Army publication that explains the different sections and terms, but no such luck. Things get tricky because of the fact that he already PCS'ed to Hawaii before we got married. They say "all travel expenses incurred will be borne by the individual" and I'm not sure if that means we have to pay for everything, or if our HHG is still paid for. It says my "travel [must] be completed by March 3rd" but I can't leave for Hawaii until April. I'm worried that's going to cause problems. And what is an availability date? It says "command sponsorship is approved for the Soldier's dependents" so I'm not sure what that means as far as our entitlements for shipping, etc. go either. It's all so confusing. I'm going to the Transportation Office at Fort Lee tomorrow to get them to explain the orders and proceed from there with setting up my travel and HHG/POV shipment. Just having the orders and being able to now go up there is one step closer.

My university, the school system in which I am teaching, and the VA State Police have made it a marathon achievement to be able to student teach. No one is ever on the same page when it comes to all of this. I have to go to the State Police Dept. tomorrow to get finger-printing and a background check. I was supposed to have already taken the VCLA but when I looked in December, all test dates through February were full. So I can't take that until February 20th. Thankfully that test is pretty easy. My Teacher Work Sample hasn't arrived in the mail to my professor yet, either, which is annoying considering I sent it within plenty of time to get there by now. I have an Incomplete in that class until it gets there and is graded, and I'm not supposed to even student teach with an Incomplete. So I'm praying it gets there tomorrow. I am meeting with my cooperating teacher on Thursday to prepare for the following week. I'm not really nervous about student-teaching at all. I'm looking forward to just being able to do my job without all of the extra papers to write and books to read. It's long overdue. Now if only student teachers got paid...

I'm hoping by the end of this week, every issue will be solved--or at least progressed further--and I will feel much better. We shall see...

Circumlocution

I will mainly be venting, so prepare yourself for not so nice words. I never liked to listen to my Mom when she said "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all." So what do I have to vent about? I am so sick and tired of people using circumlocution, or in other words, using every other word and phrase to disguise what they really want to say. It's most often used in the context of persuasive speech, mainly by politicians, a.k.a liars. JUST SAY WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY. SAY HOW YOU FEEL. AND SAY IT TO MY FACE. In my dream world, for just one day, everyone would say exactly how they feel to everyone about everything. Every one would hate each other for two days, talk it out, fight it out, whatever, and get over it. That, my friends, is how world piece is achieved. Growing up, I was a jock and hung out with the cool kids, but I also got picked on for being nerdy. I got picked on because I wasn't afraid to be nerdy and a jock at the same time. I got picked on because even if I was friends with the cool kids, I wasn't going to pretend to like what they liked or do what they do just to seem one way or the other. And now, as an adult, I feel even stronger about that. I really don't give a crap who you are. If I have a problem with you, or if I feel a certain way about something, I refuse to say anything other than that. I'm going to tell you exactly how I feel, and nothing more or less. Just the same, I expect you to be the same way with me. I don't care if you're going to piss me off. I just want you to be real. So yeah, that's what I have to say, and now that I've vented, I can take a deep breath and keep on trekking forward.

On another note, my husband was supposed to be back on the FOB two days ago, and I haven't heard from him. From the sounds of it, I think it has started snowing on the FOB, which means any schedules between now and when it stops snowing will inevitably be delayed. This is why I'm venting to my blog, and not him. Sorry :)

Oh, and I'm on steroids for my bronchitis. Every time I take them, I get the "roid rage" which makes me a combination of irritable and anal about cleanliness and organization. So, sorry again.

New Year

Well, considering I have a blog, and blogs are about reflection and sharing thoughts and ideas, I'm somewhat required to write a post about 2011 and 2012 this New Years.

My husband playing with fireworks last New Years in Hawaii

2011

This past year has been the craziest year of my life, by a long shot. I spent New Years 2011 in Hawaii with my husband (then, fiance) and two friends. In Hawaii, everyone shoots off fireworks at midnight--and I mean everyone. At 12:00, the entire island was in a haze of colored smoke as I kissed my husband with our first New Years kiss of many. Then I watched my husband light off firecrackers and run from them as they exploded. He has some sick obsession with fireworks. I guess it's a man thing. In just one week of 2011, I married the most amazing guy on Earth, and sent him off to Afghanistan, and life has never been quite the same since then. Like with any deployment, life has been full of ups and downs. Our first few months were rough as we fought to get used to the new lifestyle: one phone call a week (at first), the phone saying "You have 60 seconds" and having to rush to say our goodbyes, having to show affection with simply words on a phone line, having to get through disagreements on just a phone line (it's much easier to say things you don't mean, people), not understanding what one another are going through. After the first month or two, we figured things out, and we've been growing and pushing through ever since. I learned how to be stronger than I ever knew possible. When he couldn't be there to talk me through a rough day, I had to get through it on my own. When we bought our first car and did financial paperwork, I had to learn how to do it on my own. Although I've gotten a few wrinkles (hopefully just figuratively), I've grown so much over the last year. Even though I've been past 18, I actually turned into an adult. We had our R&R in August and September, and it was nice to be married and together and normal, without all the wedding craziness of his previous leave. Now, with only a few months left in the deployment, we're starting to get those exciting jitters that come with the realization that it's almost over. This new year is the year that we've been waiting for since May of 2010, and we're so excited to see what it has in store.

2012

Well now that 2012 has begun, it's really sinking in that in a few short months, my husband will be home and we will be starting our new life together. We've never been able to just be a normal couple. We started our relationship during basic training, and have been pushed and pulled by the Army ever since. We've spent 3 months in each other's presence in the last two years, and those months were spent bouncing back and forth between all different family members and places on two week leave periods. We have yet to walk into our own home and plop down on the couch and just relax and talk about our day, without anywhere to go, or anyone to see. It will be so nice to just experience a normal day as a normal, married couple. We're excited to also be not so normal in that we'll be leaving on a vacation island with so many adventurous things to do. I can't wait to go hiking, run on the beach, go to Sea Life Park, and do all of the awesome things in Hawaii together. This also means that I can back to being the athlete that I used to be. While I probably won't find any soccer teams to play on, I'll be able to run and work out every day without limits, and I cannot wait for that! I also graduate with my Bachelor's of Arts in English this year, a degree I've been working on since I graduated high school. If all goes as planned, I'll be graduating with Honors, too. College was always part of my plan, and I always knew I'd graduate and do fine, but back then, I never expected to be dealing with a deployment while trying to finish my degree. College was a peace of cake...until he left. Now, what seemed like no big deal feels like a huge accomplishment. There were many days when I though I wasn't going to make it to graduation because it was too hard to handle everything. In just the first few months of 2012, there will be my birthday, our one-year wedding anniversary, his homecoming, my graduation, and moving to Hawaii. I couldn't be more excited for what is going to be the best year of our lives--at least until 2013 :)