DD#77 Where did January go??

I feel like I've been missing in action for the last month! I can't believe I haven't written anything since Christmas. I haven't done much of anything besides studying Spanish since Christmas. Six weeks isn't a very long time to cover a semesters worth of Spanish! I'm definitely learning the language though and its made the last month of this deployment fly by! I can't believe we're already to day 77 since Scott left...that's 2 months and 3 weeks. It doesn't seem like that's possible, but I'll take it. It also means we have less than 2 months until R&R. Hmmm....that also means 9 months and 1 week left to go give or take some weeks.

My kids seem to have adjusted to the deployment. I know they still miss their dad, but we aren't having the meltdowns and continual arguing we had the first few weeks. I think I worry more about my husband and the toll that multiple deployments have on him. Its not just that he's far away from his family for a year, but the incredibly long work hours. Its often between one and two in the morning in Iraq before he logs onto messenger so we can talk to him a little. As Army families we don't normally sit back and contemplate the toll it takes on our soldiers and our families, we just keep going regardless of what the army puts in our way.

Scott will hit 16 years of service this June. I'm wondering how long past 20 he'll stay in. You can only ask so much of people and I know we're both worn out and tired of living apart. How can we expect them to miss 3, 4, 5, or 6 years of their kids lives? What's really sad is that after the first few deployments the kids become used to their parents being gone. I realize that for Megan this has become her normal. Mom does everything and takes them to all of their activities and Dad is off working halfway around the world. As much as I love Army life, more and more of me longs for the day he retires and we get to settle down and be a normal family again.