This is the first moment I've been able to sit and take stock of what has happened in the last week. Actually, what has happened in the last year, because that's how far I'm taking this flashback.
End of September 2012, I arrived in New York City to hang out with some friends for a few days, go to another friend's wedding, travel from Northern NJ down to Baltimore and catch a flight to Greenland so that I could visit with Scott for a week. But, instead of all of that, I found out on the day that I landed in NYC that Scott had broken his ankle and was going to be transported to an army hospital in Virginia. He and I spent the majority of October in a hotel in Fort Belvoir, having him go through two separate surgeries. We were still able to have fun and I was even lucky enough to catch a post season MLB game at the Washington Nationals stadium, thus crossing that off my "list of stadiums to go to." Not too shabby.
Montage time: Scott finishes his time in Greenland, we pack up our home in Colorado, have a loooong awaited reception for our wedding, move to Japan, live in Yokota for 4 months.
In all that time, Scott was still limping. He finally gets a doctor here at Yokota to look at it and then flew down to Hawaii for a further assessment, came back and told me he needed to get another surgery because a) the bones never healed properly and they are fusing incorrectly and b) a screw that was placed in his ankle has broken. Keep in mind: Scott had previously broken THE SAME ANKLE back in August 2009.
Conclusion: his surgery must take place in Hawaii again, he is required to have a chaperone to travel and stay with him. Sounds fantastic, right? We'll get back to this, because in the meanwhile....
One of our mutual and close friends gets engaged and was to be married 6 months after the engagement. Scott and I made the decision to send me to represent the Fourres and have Scott and Violet stay behind. I went, I cried, I partied, I laughed. I was also a walking zombie because of the jet lag and time difference, but I was able to cowboy up for a good time.
I then flew back and only after one good night's sleep, I tried to tackle the possibility of Scott having to leave for Hawaii a day before Violet and me. Looking down the barrel of an 8 hour flight and being the only one to wrangle a very active 2 year old was a little bit too much for me to wrap my head around. Especially considering we had less than a week to nail down the details and were coming up against a 4 day weekend (stupid Labor Day....)
In order to nail down said details, we needed Scott to receive his orders. In order to do that, I had to fill out some paperwork, though it took me three trips to the hospital offices to do this. Time check? Wednesday the 28th and Scott is (semi-)scheduled to leave on Monday the 2nd for a surgery on Wednesday the 4th. On Thursday, it took some major wandering (and LOTS of patience), only to have to wait a bit more for Scott to finally leave work early to sort out Violet's plane ticket.
The final outcome to this story is that we finally got our flights, our hotel and Scott's surgery all arranged by 3pm Thursday, cutting this really close to the 3:30pm end of office hours and a Friday and Monday closure of these offices.
Yes, it turned out alright in the end. But I am not an adrenaline junkie who needs the rush of success at the last minute. I'd much rather not go greyer than I have to and have a few more years on my life.
Showing posts with label Orders. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Orders. Show all posts
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Monday, December 5, 2011
We're leaving together, But still it's farewell.. It's the final countdown
We have made it to December. We should be just concentrating on Christmas and decorations, but I'm finding it hard to psych myself up for Violet's first Christmas being that we have to break it all down within a matter of weeks to pack up for Thule/Pagosa Springs.
Since hearing the news of Scott's orders, I keep reminding myself that when he and I discussed the possibilities of what could happen in our first years of marriage, this was definitely a possible reality. And I also keep reminding myself that a year is not that long, especially when factoring in Scott's leave time, the visits to my parents' and the support I'll be getting from my sister and her network of mothers. And yet, the freaking out is starting to set in.
It's partially because we are now in the month before all of the crazy transitioning is going to happen. It's also partially because Scott and I got to see the house I'll be living in Pagosa Springs. And another part is due to the great progress we made over the weekend in clearing the garage from all of the random boxes from my move from TN, Scott's move from ND and our move from the first apartment he and I shared across town. We have whittled things down to very manageable groupings of "stuff" and I feel better prepared for the packing that will happen after the Christmas holidays (and after the short trip to KY to visit with Scott's family.)
But something else set me off this past weekend. The reality of a year apart. The realizations that things will be slightly (if not significantly) harder than I'm believing (pretending?) it to be. A day sidelined by hurt feelings, stewing about it and the eventual discussion and a so-so resolution. I'm still trying to get over it, but my own self-image problems (I'm still about 20-30 lbs away from where I'd like to be), in addition to me being mad at myself for being so ticked off by the origin of the hurt feelings. All in all, I'm starting to question my confidence.
I know I'm just allowing myself the freak out in the hopes that if I mostly get it out of my system now, I won't be crippled by it when things need to get done. People have asked if I'll be ok and I'd say, "sure, no problem" and a really good friend called me separately and gently asked again "are you sure", knowing that sometimes a PR line is not the whole truth. I said, "yes", and I still think I was telling the truth at the time. It's still mostly the truth now.
The the other part is that I'm starting to definitely freak the f-- out and letting the slightly small things get me down.
Since hearing the news of Scott's orders, I keep reminding myself that when he and I discussed the possibilities of what could happen in our first years of marriage, this was definitely a possible reality. And I also keep reminding myself that a year is not that long, especially when factoring in Scott's leave time, the visits to my parents' and the support I'll be getting from my sister and her network of mothers. And yet, the freaking out is starting to set in.
It's partially because we are now in the month before all of the crazy transitioning is going to happen. It's also partially because Scott and I got to see the house I'll be living in Pagosa Springs. And another part is due to the great progress we made over the weekend in clearing the garage from all of the random boxes from my move from TN, Scott's move from ND and our move from the first apartment he and I shared across town. We have whittled things down to very manageable groupings of "stuff" and I feel better prepared for the packing that will happen after the Christmas holidays (and after the short trip to KY to visit with Scott's family.)
But something else set me off this past weekend. The reality of a year apart. The realizations that things will be slightly (if not significantly) harder than I'm believing (pretending?) it to be. A day sidelined by hurt feelings, stewing about it and the eventual discussion and a so-so resolution. I'm still trying to get over it, but my own self-image problems (I'm still about 20-30 lbs away from where I'd like to be), in addition to me being mad at myself for being so ticked off by the origin of the hurt feelings. All in all, I'm starting to question my confidence.
I know I'm just allowing myself the freak out in the hopes that if I mostly get it out of my system now, I won't be crippled by it when things need to get done. People have asked if I'll be ok and I'd say, "sure, no problem" and a really good friend called me separately and gently asked again "are you sure", knowing that sometimes a PR line is not the whole truth. I said, "yes", and I still think I was telling the truth at the time. It's still mostly the truth now.
The the other part is that I'm starting to definitely freak the f-- out and letting the slightly small things get me down.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Hello! Is it me you're looking for?
I'm back after a long, news-packed hiatus. I've been leaking updates here and there on Facebook and Twitter since those mediums allow for the hurried, half-thoughts, but because Violet is FINALLY taking a decent morning nap, I feel the urge to blog away my thoughts of the last couple of months. There are certain subjects I'll expand on in another entries, but here are the basics.
I posted two months ago that Scott will be in Greenland without family for a year, starting Jan/February-ish of next year. There are lots of cons and only a few significant pros to this, but overall, we are happy with the timing and location. It's better for him to volunteer to go now to this location, rather than being told at a later time to go to some place like South Korea. I'll be ok with the separation for the most part, and I am thankful that Violet is too young to realize all that's going on. If she were older and all of a sudden Scott wasn't around, I would constantly feel my heart breaking anytime she asked where Daddy went. So, instead, she'll be having fun with her cousins and her Aunt Heather and Uncle Jason, as well as visits to her overjoyed Grandparents.
Which leads me to the next bit of news. After considering a lot of different aspects, mostly financial, of the two possible areas of where to live in Colorado, I think I have finally decided on going to live in my sister's town of Pagosa Springs, CO. It's partially because of the cost of living would be cheaper down there as compared to the suburbs of Denver, but mostly it is so Violet can have a lot of children close to her age to run around with, including her very excited cousins. My sister has already checked out a possible house for me to rent and going by her description, it sounds wonderful. I'm looking forward to this location because this would be the first time Heather and I have lived anywhere near each other since she moved away for college back in 1998.
And after the year(ish) in Colorado, Violet and I will be packing up to go to Yokota AFB in Japan for Scott's next assignment. This was our top choice and we were pleasantly surprised we got it, considering that Scott didn't turn in his list of preferred orders until a couple weeks past the deadline (it was a misunderstanding of when we were supposed to do it. Who would have thought that some details of the military are confusing? haha.)
So far, the only things I know about Yokota is that it's about three hours away from where I lived outside of Tokyo, I've visited the base as a young child because my parents were friends with the base chaplain at the time and we already know one of the captains for the air traffic control. I will be spending a chunk of my time in Colorado trying to regain my Japanese with the help of my Dad (and a computer program or two.) There are so many details of how to move our stuff, what we can take, about our cars which we cannot take with us, and so many other things, that I decided having a separate notebook to jot down questions and answers would be necessary. Yes, an old school spiral notebook with pages and pens! I remember more when I write things down, rather than just reading it on a screen. Call me old fashioned ;p
With Greenland and Japan on our horizon, Scott and I are still trying to figure out if we can have a wedding celebration like we wanted. It'll be tricky to try to plan this. It may happen sooner than I think or not at all, and there are a couple of families I'd like to give as much heads up time as possible to ensure their presence. But at this point, I just don't know. This does bum/stress me out because I wanted to have as 'normal' of a celebration with friends and family, as belated as it is, but it may not be in the cards for us. I know there are more important things to concentrate on, but it's still something I wish and will try my darndest to make happen, within reason.
Violet is growing like a weed and is starting to show lots of personality. I've been trying to be diligent in updating her own FB page with pictures of her cuteness, but I've been neglectful of posting written updates of what's she's been doing. She's doing her army-crawl at a pretty fast clip now, but has yet to master the hands-and-knees crawl. She's got two bottom teeth, front and center, and I thought it was because of those (and possibly others trying to break the gumline) that was making her thoroughly impossible to deal with several days this past week. Now I think it was because she had a scratchy throat and was fussing big-time during her bottles because she was having difficulty swallowing. Why do I think this? Because couple days since she started fussing like mad, I woke up with a scratchy throat, and this was the morning after she was finally in better spirits to try to give me kisses. However, her version of 'kisses' is to just lick my mouth and nose. (She's still learning.) So, I think I got her scratchy throat germs from that and after a couple days, we are both doing better and are a lot less cranky for Scott. More specifics on Violet in future posts.
Well, I think that's a lengthy, but good first step back from the non-communication. I'm hoping to have more time for more detailed updates soon. It all depends on Lady Violet! ;p
Happy Clocks-Fall-Back weekend, everyone!
I posted two months ago that Scott will be in Greenland without family for a year, starting Jan/February-ish of next year. There are lots of cons and only a few significant pros to this, but overall, we are happy with the timing and location. It's better for him to volunteer to go now to this location, rather than being told at a later time to go to some place like South Korea. I'll be ok with the separation for the most part, and I am thankful that Violet is too young to realize all that's going on. If she were older and all of a sudden Scott wasn't around, I would constantly feel my heart breaking anytime she asked where Daddy went. So, instead, she'll be having fun with her cousins and her Aunt Heather and Uncle Jason, as well as visits to her overjoyed Grandparents.
Which leads me to the next bit of news. After considering a lot of different aspects, mostly financial, of the two possible areas of where to live in Colorado, I think I have finally decided on going to live in my sister's town of Pagosa Springs, CO. It's partially because of the cost of living would be cheaper down there as compared to the suburbs of Denver, but mostly it is so Violet can have a lot of children close to her age to run around with, including her very excited cousins. My sister has already checked out a possible house for me to rent and going by her description, it sounds wonderful. I'm looking forward to this location because this would be the first time Heather and I have lived anywhere near each other since she moved away for college back in 1998.
And after the year(ish) in Colorado, Violet and I will be packing up to go to Yokota AFB in Japan for Scott's next assignment. This was our top choice and we were pleasantly surprised we got it, considering that Scott didn't turn in his list of preferred orders until a couple weeks past the deadline (it was a misunderstanding of when we were supposed to do it. Who would have thought that some details of the military are confusing? haha.)
So far, the only things I know about Yokota is that it's about three hours away from where I lived outside of Tokyo, I've visited the base as a young child because my parents were friends with the base chaplain at the time and we already know one of the captains for the air traffic control. I will be spending a chunk of my time in Colorado trying to regain my Japanese with the help of my Dad (and a computer program or two.) There are so many details of how to move our stuff, what we can take, about our cars which we cannot take with us, and so many other things, that I decided having a separate notebook to jot down questions and answers would be necessary. Yes, an old school spiral notebook with pages and pens! I remember more when I write things down, rather than just reading it on a screen. Call me old fashioned ;p
With Greenland and Japan on our horizon, Scott and I are still trying to figure out if we can have a wedding celebration like we wanted. It'll be tricky to try to plan this. It may happen sooner than I think or not at all, and there are a couple of families I'd like to give as much heads up time as possible to ensure their presence. But at this point, I just don't know. This does bum/stress me out because I wanted to have as 'normal' of a celebration with friends and family, as belated as it is, but it may not be in the cards for us. I know there are more important things to concentrate on, but it's still something I wish and will try my darndest to make happen, within reason.
Violet is growing like a weed and is starting to show lots of personality. I've been trying to be diligent in updating her own FB page with pictures of her cuteness, but I've been neglectful of posting written updates of what's she's been doing. She's doing her army-crawl at a pretty fast clip now, but has yet to master the hands-and-knees crawl. She's got two bottom teeth, front and center, and I thought it was because of those (and possibly others trying to break the gumline) that was making her thoroughly impossible to deal with several days this past week. Now I think it was because she had a scratchy throat and was fussing big-time during her bottles because she was having difficulty swallowing. Why do I think this? Because couple days since she started fussing like mad, I woke up with a scratchy throat, and this was the morning after she was finally in better spirits to try to give me kisses. However, her version of 'kisses' is to just lick my mouth and nose. (She's still learning.) So, I think I got her scratchy throat germs from that and after a couple days, we are both doing better and are a lot less cranky for Scott. More specifics on Violet in future posts.
Well, I think that's a lengthy, but good first step back from the non-communication. I'm hoping to have more time for more detailed updates soon. It all depends on Lady Violet! ;p
Happy Clocks-Fall-Back weekend, everyone!
Friday, August 26, 2011
You gave my love direction, A game show love conneciton, We can't deny
It was only this morning when I got Scott's phone call confirming the orders he got via email and my mind is still whirling. His next base is Greenland. Because we knew this was more than just a small likelihood, he and I have already been discussing what will happen to Violet and me if he were to go to a base where we wouldn't be able to join him.
I know that I plan to move closer to my family in Colorado. Whether it be near Littleton, which is about 40 minutes outside of Denver or to Pagosa Springs, my sister's town in the southwestern Colorado, I don't know. There are advantages to either location and I have to really start nailing down logistics of budget, benefits to active duty spouses/family and what I need to get through my year apart from Scott.
When people have asked me how I would feel about Scott being away from me for any amount of time for his remote, I would answer with, "Well, we spent most of our relationship apart so far, so I guess it won't be too much different." I still mean that, but I feel as though I should clarify.
It's true that we held a long distance relationship in the past, plus the eight months it took from the time I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him to when I finally got to move to Idaho, these past experiences would only help us with the upcoming time apart. I will feel badly about the things Scott will miss out on in Violet's "firsts" but technology is our friend and will help with talking, Skyping, video recording, or just minute-to-minute updates on Facebook. In all honesty, I do feel like my life just got REALLY good and now I have to adjust to a new dynamic, but I'd much rather this happen now than later.
My optimism is convincing me that a year apart is a cake walk when compared to the years we've already spent in each others' lives but not quite together.
I know that I plan to move closer to my family in Colorado. Whether it be near Littleton, which is about 40 minutes outside of Denver or to Pagosa Springs, my sister's town in the southwestern Colorado, I don't know. There are advantages to either location and I have to really start nailing down logistics of budget, benefits to active duty spouses/family and what I need to get through my year apart from Scott.
When people have asked me how I would feel about Scott being away from me for any amount of time for his remote, I would answer with, "Well, we spent most of our relationship apart so far, so I guess it won't be too much different." I still mean that, but I feel as though I should clarify.
It's true that we held a long distance relationship in the past, plus the eight months it took from the time I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him to when I finally got to move to Idaho, these past experiences would only help us with the upcoming time apart. I will feel badly about the things Scott will miss out on in Violet's "firsts" but technology is our friend and will help with talking, Skyping, video recording, or just minute-to-minute updates on Facebook. In all honesty, I do feel like my life just got REALLY good and now I have to adjust to a new dynamic, but I'd much rather this happen now than later.
My optimism is convincing me that a year apart is a cake walk when compared to the years we've already spent in each others' lives but not quite together.
Friday, August 5, 2011
So if you've a date in Constantinople, She'll be waiting in Istanbul
A couple of days ago, Scott was able to see the list of possible bases to which he could get orders. The lists consisted of the places we already knew there was need: two bases in South Korea, one in Greenland, and one in Honduras. The two other countries I didn't know about are Turkey and Japan.
The last two bases were a surprise to me, mostly because on the slim chance he gets orders to go to either of these countries, Violet and I could go with him. The two in Japan are Kadena (in Okinawa) and Yokota (about 2.5 hours west of Tokyo) and the one in Turkey is a healthy distance east of Istanbul. If we need to go to Turkey, I'd better buy a Turkish phrase book.
However, if the base is in Japan, this will give me the strongest motivation to purchase the Rosetta Stone language program to relearn my Japanese. I've been saying for years I'll be buying it, but procrastination always got the best of me. Now, I have a no-excuse reason to follow through.
The other detail to all of this base-talk that was a surprise to me is that we will find out in several weeks where Scott is going to go. Weeks. Here I thought I was at least a couple months. He won't know when he'll be leaving for a little while, but he'll know where soon. That sneaked up on me.
The last two bases were a surprise to me, mostly because on the slim chance he gets orders to go to either of these countries, Violet and I could go with him. The two in Japan are Kadena (in Okinawa) and Yokota (about 2.5 hours west of Tokyo) and the one in Turkey is a healthy distance east of Istanbul. If we need to go to Turkey, I'd better buy a Turkish phrase book.
However, if the base is in Japan, this will give me the strongest motivation to purchase the Rosetta Stone language program to relearn my Japanese. I've been saying for years I'll be buying it, but procrastination always got the best of me. Now, I have a no-excuse reason to follow through.
The other detail to all of this base-talk that was a surprise to me is that we will find out in several weeks where Scott is going to go. Weeks. Here I thought I was at least a couple months. He won't know when he'll be leaving for a little while, but he'll know where soon. That sneaked up on me.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
As a matter of taste to be exact, He's my ideal as a matter of fact
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| This is an older picture of Scott, but I couldn't find a newer one with him in his blues. |
After 4 months of waiting, the promotion list was finally posted today and Scott has made Technical Sergeant. Considering the fact that he was studying for the exam during the last full month of my pregnancy and went to take said exam about 3 days before my projected due date, the fact that he scored high enough to pass is a immense relief to me (and I'm sure for him, too, but I haven't spoken to him yet =) .)
What does this promotion mean? Well, for the immediate future, it means he can go to tomorrow night's Pass-over Party (a party to celebrate/commiserate with those who have/have not been promoted) and celebrate with the other guys who have also been promoted.
Beyond the immediate plans, this promotion also means that things can get a little interesting for our little household. Because there are not enough people of Scott's rank of TSgt (I've got to get used to the abbreviations and acronyms) with his skill sets, there is a high need for him at other bases. Other overseas bases. Bases that will have us separated for about a year, with only a few visitations sprinkled through his stay.
We've already had several discussions about this and I'm fully aware of the sacrifices as well as the benefits of Scott's strong possibility of being stationed far from Violet and me. I am actually encouraged by the thought that this can happen within a year because this would make things easier on Violet. Rather than her being older and can understand that her Daddy is far, far away, she can remain blissfully unaware of his absence.
Another result of this promotion has a good news/bad news twist to things. When Scott and I got married last July, we had only immediate family and a few close friends (most of whom were already in the Denver area) join us for the ceremony my father and brother-in-law conducted. We've always wanted to have a bigger celebration with more of our friends and extended family. It was tentatively planned for spring of 2012 and we've even gone as far as to looking at a handful of venues around the Denver area when we went to visit my family a couple weeks ago. We already had it in mind that if Scott did make TSgt, these plans will have to be deferred until... I'm not sure when. That's the bad news. The good news is purely based on my vanity. Because of all of the weight I gained while pregnant, I've been self conscience about my (larger) appearance and would rather not be this big for my 'wedding' day. Delaying the celebration gives me more time to lose the weight.
I'm sure there are other implications of his recent title change and more will be discussed when he comes home from work tonight. As of right now, I'm filled with joy and pride for him and for our family. Any other detail will fall into place, as it always does.
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