Life with the Military

When you are in the military, deployments are inevitable. Which means that this includes Aj and I. We have the final update on what is going on during the next year, and so I thought I would give you the information that we have.

Aj is deploying the first week of June, about a month and a half away, to Saudi Arabia. He will be leaving for a year with approximately 14 days of R&R (time frame for that has yet to be decided). As far as block leave before deployment is concerned, Aj and I will be taking about a week of leave in May, from the 15th-23rd, in order to come to Idaho and visit/ meet family. Believe it or not, my husband has yet to meet a single family member or friend of mine. This will be his last opportunity to do so before he deploys.

As far as how we are handling the whole thing, relatively well. I will be staying here in Oklahoma, at the home Aj and I have created together. We both know that the other one is going to be just fine, we aren't worried that the deployment is going to hurt us or our marriage, we aren't thinking any type of "what ifs" that a lot of families tend to go through, we are just going to miss one another. We are both happier being with each other and having each other in our lives everyday, that's why we got married. Life is better together than apart. But, we are still together. We will still be in contact, we are still one another's best friends, just from a distance for a while. Emotions come in waves here and there for both of us, but, as my amazing brother put it (who himself has been through deployments), "The sooner Aj leaves, the sooner he can come back home."

Happy Easter!

Aj and I wish everyone a very happy Easter holiday! I hope you were all able to enjoy friends and family and celebrate Jesus keeping his promise. Thankfully, Aj and I were able to make it down to Dallas this last weekend.

Aj has been working very long hours the past week, from 5:30 in the morning till around 10 at night. They kept going back and forth on whether or not they were going to make the soldiers come in on Saturday, and sadly, Aj came home Friday night to inform me he was needed back at 8 am in the morning. We cancelled our Easter plans in Dallas and decided to be thankful that he was still coming home at all. But wonderfully, after arriving at work on Saturday morning, a good majority of the soldiers were sent back home, including Aj. So we packed our bags, jumped in our car and drove to see family.

It was a wonderful weekend. Aj and I stayed with his Mimi and Grandpa right outside of Dallas in a town as small as Howe called Rocket. I had the wonderful opportunity to meet relatives of Aj's that I had only heard stories of and Aj was able to play with his cousins and brothers for a while. It felt like a mini vacation. Then on Sunday, we made our way to his mothers house and had the opportunity to join her and her husband Ben at his Aunt's house where we had a wonderful Easter dinner and met some great new people. All in all, it was an amazing weekend (by the way, it was in the 70's and 80's. :) ). Here are the pictures!

We had to take the "with our Easter Goodies!" pictures with the rest of the kids. (Don't you love Aj's expression? Lol :)

Grandpa got all the girls their own Happy Easter Bunny!

Then we were able to get a family photo taken with Aj's dad Anthony, his wife Shannon, brother-in-law Blake (on the far right), little brother Ethan (in my arms) and little brother Jonathan (next to Aj).

Aj went swimming in the FREEZING cold water with his cousins and brother Jonathan.. And yes, he purposefully picked those shorts. :)

And then we were just able to relax the rest of the weekend.. Including Blitz.. :)

Here we are..

Here we are, starting a blog site.. Never thought we would be part of this trend, but with our families and friends scattered over so much of the country, and both of us being terrible at giving any updates to anyone, this seemed like the best outlet.

For those of you who are totally confused about Aj and I, where in the world we met, how we ended up together, and scratched their heads when our "relationship status" went from single to married in a matter of 5 months, I promise to give our entire ridicluous story in an up and coming post.

For now, I'll just give a little update on where we are and what we are up to. Currently, Aj is stationed at Fort Sill, OK. Which means we are living in the quaint (being nice) town of Lawton, OK, probably for the next two years. It's been interesting for me getting used to Oklahoma.. I was a little agoraphobic for a little while. I'm not used to being able to see the horizon in a 360 degree radius and still miss the mountains. But thanks to my wonderful job with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife, Aj and I have had a lot of opportunities to find hiking trails, fishing holes, and site seeing opportunities.

The last month has been a whirl wind of fishing and dogs! We got a puppy, part boxer and part german shepherd, who we affectionately called Blitz. (Although I did have the right to call him, Aaron, Roger, Charlie or Woody, I was bipartisan on the name and agreed to Blitz..) He has become our child in almost every sense and has really completed us as a family.

Aj and I also discovered fishing in the area and thanks to the sympathy of the guys here at the hatchery, finally caught some catfish. Aj cooked it that night for a delicious dinner and I am now hooked on catfish.

Currently, we are preparing ourselves for Aj to deploy sometime this summer. I'm not going to post where or when, mainly because the military keeps changing it's mind. We do know that he will be deployed for one year. Which is hard for the both of us but from what we have already been through in our relationship we know it has nothing on us. :)

I'm going to post some pictures from the last month or so. Thank you to all of our friends and family and we miss you!

Aj watching his line and his first catish.

Blitz and I fishin and our first "family picture".