Jarrett's first month home

Jarrett has already been home a month now! Yay so exciting! Within his month, we've already done so much and already gotten a lot done in regards to our orders. At this point, we are waiting on the paper orders and then we can officially put in our vacancy notice at our town home, figure out exactly when the movers should come and figure out exactly when we will drive off to Alaska for four or more years! Nothing will seem real until we actually get there, so at this point I am just staying calm, cool and collective! 

This past month we have been busy busy busy running around on base to appointments left and right! My husband has to be at way more appointments than I do and he has to do it all while balancing work too. He has so much on his plate, but I am already so proud of him for getting everything done that needs to be done. 

Aside from dealing with our orders, we have spent a lot of time going to the gym together, cooking meals together (healthy meals too) and seeing family and friends over this month. Pretty much every weekend has been packed for us. The first weekend Jarrett was home we just spent time with each other and some time with my in laws. The weekend after that my dad and Kelly came down for the weekend and we went out to dinner and went to the movies. That weekend we also spent time with the in laws. Pretty much every weekend we do dinner at my in laws. It's the perfect little once a week get together! 

The third weekend we went home to Maryland for my brother's graduation. We had a blast then! The next weekend was my trip to Massachusetts of which Jarrett could not go so he stayed home, got some more stuff done on base then had dinner with his parents a couple nights in a row. I missed him a lot, but I was glad he got to spend some quality time with his parents! I just updated about this past weekend where my best friend Christina came to visit. Jarrett and I both had a blast with her here. This weekend coming up, I promised him that we wouldn't make a lot of plans. Maybe just eating dinner at the in laws Saturday night and if the weather is okay, going to Busch Gardens on Sunday. Other then that, we are going to take it easy this weekend!

The next two months are going to be so hectic with going home to see family and friends as much as we can and getting final things done for our move. A couple of peaceful weekends at home with Jarrett before all the chaos starts will be just the thing we need!

Here is a little article about Jarrett on the Joint Base Langley-Eustis website. I love how the article is focused on Jarrett and Leo's homecoming haha! It's the sweetest article ever! LOVE! 

 

Katie<3

A homecoming letter to my husband

Dear Jarrett, 

So, I wrote you a deployment letter a little while back and just realized that I didn't write you a homecoming letter. There were so many things going on in my mind when you walked off that bus on homecoming day. Every homecoming, my heart literally jumps out of my chest when I see you for the first time. This time was no different. I cried. I cried like a baby. You walked off that bus, reached your arms out for me, took me into your arms and I lost myself. When we hugged, it was as if the world stood still and we were the only two on the planet. You have this amazing power over me that you've always had. 

You are absolutely amazing! I am so proud of you for all of your accomplishments over the past eight years. I am so confident in the man that you've become and will become in the future. You simply blow me away every single day! I mean, I always feel so strong when you are deployed, but you have to stay strong for everyone that loves you while you are gone. You have a ton of people missing you when you're gone, but you have a ton of people to miss, so everything is so much harder on you. You have so much to deal with and so much to deal with now with our orders.

Ever since you came home you've been running around all over the place trying to get everything done and in order for our move, and I am so proud of you for working hard. I am really looking forward to finishing everything for this move and finally starting our next chapter in Alaska! Our adventure there will be one that we will never forget!

I love you

xoxoxo

Katie<3

My homecoming check list

Okay military spouses! I think I can speak for all of us when I say that it is easy to go a little stir crazy the week before homecoming day. Kind of like I am this week! I have even made myself a check list of things to get done after work every night this week. I am very funny when it comes to getting things done. I like to set myself a daily schedule and I like not being interrupted when I am getting my stuff done! It always seems like there is something in my way when I have something that I need to get accomplished, but this week, nothing is getting in my way! :) OCD much? Oh yes, you betcha I am! I might be a little late, but here is my week to-do list. It might look a little similar to your weekly schedule too!

-Sunday: Clean both bathrooms, clean and scrub upstairs shower/tub, clean all mirrors in the house and clean off pollen on patio table and chairs. CHECK!
-Monday: Dust whole house, vacuum whole house and sweep and mop front door floor, kitchen floor and both bathroom floors. Also finish the Fifty Shades of Grey series since my goal was to finish them before Jarrett came home. CHECK!
-Tuesday: Pay rent balance and get all grocery shopping done. CHECK!
-Wednesday: Run by Petco to get Leo more food, do the dishes and do laundry. CHECK!
-Thursday: If it does not rain, get both vehicles washed, dust inside both vehicles and paint finger nails and toes.
-Friday: Buy a little something extra at work to put in Jarrett's birthday bag, get Jarr's birthday bag and card together, give Leo a bath and pick out outfit for tomorrow.
Saturday: Take down American flag on our patio and put out spring flag(I only keep it out when Jarrett is deployed so that everyone knows) then grab the in laws and go get Jarrett and squeeze, hug and kiss him until he can't see straight! :)

Do any of you military wives ever do any of this stuff before your husbands come home? What are your check lists like?

Finding blessings during deployment

So it is no secret that deployments are tough and down right mean sometimes! They never ever get any easier no matter how long or short they may be. Jarrett has been gone since the first week of January and I have definitely had my hard times especially when he told me he wouldn't be home until May now. If I have learned one thing from deployments it is that us military wives are incredibly blessed to live this life! When our husbands are gone, we have to play superwoman! Literally! We have to take care of EVERYTHING!

We have to:
-Play mommy and daddy(to puppies and children)
-Take care of the house, the laundry, the dishes and all the grocery shopping
-Work full time while managing everything else
-Pay any bills and run any errands that our husband needs us to
-Handle anything else for our husband's since we are their POA
-Deal with a sick puppy or baby on our own
-Deal with hearing bad news on the television or radio that could impact our husband's mission
-Go days at a time without talking to our husbands
-Deal with receiving orders all on our own
-Learn how to run our household and keep everyone in it safe when needed(learning how to use a gun when needed)

I'm sure there is more that I could add to this list, but these are the main things that I have come up with and had to do myself! When I think about all the stuff that I have had to deal with since Jarrett left I feel so accomplished and blessed by it all. I am finally realizing how strong I have become since becoming an Air Force girlfriend/fiancé/now wife! I've been with him for over seven years meaning I've been basically married to the Air Force for over seven years! Seven years of having to endure all of this and with every new year there are more things that I am responsible for when Jarrett's deployed! Before we know it I will be at home with our future children while he is gone and when that happens I will deal with that too! I am not afraid!

So heres to all my military spouses out there! One step at a time we are getting through these deployments and working our butts off to get things done so that our husbands do not have to worry about us on the home front! We are blessed more than we know!

A deployment letter to my husband

I found this idea from Sarah over at The Not Quite Military Wife. Her husband is deployed too, plus she is at home with their new baby girl, so she decided to write a letter to him updating him on the home front. Since Jarrett will be home next week I find it fitting for me to write him a deployment letter as well.

Dear Jarr,

I cannot believe you've been gone all this year. You left the first week of January and will be home next week. It feels as if you've been gone for six months or longer. I hate when you deploy this time of year, but I know it's not your choice. This year, you missed my birthday, Valentine's day, the Raven's Superbowl, Leo's first birthday, Easter and your birthday. Wow, that's a lot! It's okay though, I still love you!

Even though you missed some important stuff, there are so many exciting things coming up when you get home. We are going to be planning our big move to Alaska, we will be having lots of visitors, we will be taking many trips home, we will be going to Busch Gardens a lot and getting good use out of our passes before canceling them and we have our family trip to Massachusetts at the end of May too. We have a very exciting summer ahead of us, so I am getting very excited for your return.

I feel like this is the strongest I've ever been on a deployment! I know I've still had my share of whining as usual, but I feel like with every deployment I become stronger, braver and more independent. During this deployment I stayed extremely busy with working full time, taking care of Leo, taking care of the house/lots of laundry/grocery shopping trips, running tons of errands for me and errands for you, having visitors, going home a lot and hanging out with friends a lot. I hope with each deployment that comes, I'll become even stronger, braver and more independent. I just want to always be supportive and strong for you while you're gone.

I feel so thankful every day to be apart of this military life. I never saw you or this life coming, but I am so blessed to have it. People say all the time that they could never be with someone in the military, but I think it takes a special person to marry into this life. Women say all the time that they would never choose this for themselves, but what they don't realize is that we don't choose it, it chooses us. Babe, we chose each other. I chose you, this was just part of the package. For as long as I live, I will be thankful and blessed by my decision to spend my life with you. I am honored to be your wife!

I love you and I cannot wait to be with you again!

Love,
Katie

Pinterest care package ideas!

So, as I stated in an earlier post, I sent Jarrett a Valentine's Day care package about two weeks ago. He actually got it before Valentine's Day even though I felt like I was sending it too late. This was my first package, so I had no clue what I was doing and kind of rushed the whole process. I did not have a lot of time to decorate the box the way I wanted either, but I did find a ton of awesome ideas on Pinterest. I mean, when can you not find an amazing idea on Pinterest? There are so many creative packages out there and it is so awesome to see what my fellow military wives come up with. I found Christmas packages, Halloween ones and Valentines ones that sure put my package to shame! Regardless of what it looked like though, my husband loved his so much! In the end, that is all that matters! Hope my fellow wives find some inspiration in my findings below!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hated being away from Jarrett today, but I pulled through like a big girl. Jarrett usually gets deployed around this time every year, so it is rare if we get Valentine's Day together. Even though we are apart on this day a lot, he always makes up for it. Today I had roses and a beautiful note on the porch when I got home from work, and I cried like a baby! I hate being so emotional, but sometimes a girl has to belt out the tears! I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day and to all you military wives with husbands deployed, I hope you all got through the day too! Here's to hopefully being with our husbands next Valentine's Day! :)

Weekend stuff and deployment!

This weekend was the last one with my hubby before he deployed so we made it count! Saturday after I got off work, we used our Cinebistro gift card from mom and went to the movies to eat a yummy dinner and see the movie Django. Jarrett absolutely loves Quentin Tarantino movies so since we weren't sure about what movie to see, we saw that. I can honestly say, it was amazing! I really liked it. I love that we're going to movies more because we use to go all the time and then we just got too busy and rarely ever went anymore. We've been so good lately with allowing time once a week for a date night. I love our date nights so much!

Sunday, we slept in, which was out of this world amazing, then we ran some errands to get Jarrett ready for his deployment. Later on we watched our Ravens kick some Colts butt and move on in the playoffs and then we cooked a fabulous steak dinner together. Perfect end to the weekend!

Yesterday, we finished some more errands and I attempted to apply for my passport for my upcoming trip to visit him in March, but oh no, you have to pay $110 as a check and the rest of the fees as cash or money order of which I had planned on just using my credit card for the whole thing. I now have to wait until pay day on Friday to get apply for my passport. So annoying! If I would have known all that then I would have planned out my money better instead of just using my credit card. Blah! Oh well, I will still get my passport in time if I apply Friday!

Today was not such a good day. On top of Jarrett deploying, this morning I got a disturbing phone call from my brother about my mom. She has type two diabetes and she had a huge spike in her blood sugar and had to go to the hospital. They had to run all kinds of tests and put her on an IV for a while because of dehydration. They also gave her insulin shots which brought her levels down a ton. She was then able to be discharged and the doctors upped her medication and the dosage and also gave her another medicine. If the medication works well for her and she makes some more life changes then she should not need to be on insulin. Thank The Lord!

Hold the people you love close to you tonight and never ever take them for granted!