Day 2

(yay! we're on the right day!)

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Woke up in the middle of the night to a normally quiet sleeper having a full on dream conversation with her daddy.  (She sleeps in my room when daddy is gone, so I don't get lonely)  I gently woke her in hopes of getting her into a silent sleep: "Oh, hi mommy. I was talking to daddy on my iTouch." She was instantly back asleep and I was wide awake. (ugg! only 43 days till I sleep again)

Fast forward to 6 a.m.- I make my first attempt at waking the baby and then turn the oven on to make the ridiculously yummy cinnamon and sugar toast recipe I found on one of my favorite sites: http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/   

Second attempt at waking the baby and then go let the dogs out. 

Third attempt at waking the baby and then put clothes in the wash. 

While standing in the garage, the smoke alarm goes off.  From the bedroom I hear "Is it time to get up?"  Run to the kitchen to turn off the oven and on the vent fan.  In the oven I find the pan hubby used to broil steaks for dinner before he left. We're all awake now!  At least I know she'll hear the fire alarm even if she tunes me out.

We made it through the rest of the day without a major incident.  (I did forget she had a club meeting after school and drove through the car line at normal time.  Hopefully none of the teachers noticed!  It's better to be early than late, right?) 

I finally heard that quirky little Skype ring around 5:30.  It had been over 24 hours since hubby left and I was getting anxietous (my made up words annoy him, so I try to use them often!).  We were able to talk for a bit and for now, everything is right in the world...

Day 1

(actually yesterday, stay with me!)

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Next time I will have a list. 

A nice little list of all the things I will not do on the day he leaves.  The only one I knew from last time was to drop him off instead of going into the airport (it's impossible to carry a crying 9 year old who's almost your size). 

Next time I won't wear mascara, that way when I cry in the restaurant I can avoid that raccoon look. 

We made it home with as little drama as possible.  My baby immediately transformed into a creature that possibly needed an exorcism!  All of the crazy mood swings and bad behavior I expected during the last deployment were condensed into a lovely 30 minutes. 

When her head finally stopped spinning she requested one of the two things she will demand for dinner- split pea soup (oddly appropriate for the situation!) 

Her other highly requested meal is Swedish meatballs, though she will never say mine are as good as the ones from Ikea.

I'm going to settle in for a sleepless night.  The travel to and from is always the longest stretch with no contact.  I will be so happy when I can talk to my honey!

(Oh, and I'm now taking suggestions for things to add to my list.)

The Final Countdown.....

(actually two days ago, stay with me I promise to get on track!) 

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My brain knows I'm lucky, but my heart still has issues. 

Many families out there are facing year long or more deployments.  My hubby is on a 45 day on, 45 day off rotation.  This means he doesn't miss huge jumps in our daughter's astronomically fast growing height and I don't die from lack of back cracking.  This also means we have to do the whole good bye thing several times a year.

So, the first deployment didn't go so well. 

It didn't help that he managed to miss my birthday, our baby's birthday and Christmas.  I white knuckled the whole thing! 

Tomorrow he leaves for the second rotation and now I know what I'm in for.  I'm really not sure if that is going to make it better or worse. 

If there are any other wives out there who know magical deployment coping skills- HELP!!!