Independent Lady

This is the first week that Chris is gone ALL week. I get to talk to him at night and sometimes he sends a text in the morning. It reminds me of OCS where you hang on to every word and can't wait for the next. I made him a care package on Sunday night and sent it with him. It had a bunch of stuff in it: seven kinds of cookies, a box of granola bars, K-Cups for the Keurig, banana bread, and leftovers. He laughed when he saw it, wondering when he would even need it all, but I reminded him that if he wasn't eating my food he would be eating the chow hall food.

I have kept myself busy so far. It's not hard to do when you have been sick for a week, because your house gets TRASHED in a matter of hours when you aren't feeling up to cleaning it, especially with a Marine for a husband. They start undressing right when they walk in the door, leave a trail of dirty cammis, they have dirty tupperware, PT clothes, you name it. It manages to get everywhere. And then the dogs get hyper because he is home and then fur is flying. It's a process to get it back to standards. I have things to do every day this week, which really helps the time go quickly. Especially if you plan it for the afternoon, because then you spend the majority of the day getting ready for it, you go to it, and before you know it you're home and it's almost time for bed.

Monday, the wives got together at one of our houses for a Scentsy party and potluck. Another one of the wives sells Thirty-One so she was there, too. They gave away a Marine Scentsy warmer which was super cute, so I ended up getting one, too. :/ I need it for Chris' basement because it smells. The hostess was super cool about my allergies. She said she wouldn't have any of them on just in case it bothered my allergies. I dosed up on loratidine anyway just in case. The swelling that my faces exerts when exposed to allergens is worth very little in the world. NOT fun. But luckily I had no reaction with the medication at my side. There were some really great new ones, and I was sad to see that only one of the six I have now are still being made. It just made me feel old. A lot of things have been making me feel old lately. It's probably in anticipation of my 23rd birthday coming up in like a month.

The party was also great because some of the moms have kids, so there were five little tykes running around while we were there. The hostess' son reminds me of my nephew, Benny, whom I miss dearly. So it made me kind of sad to think about the kiddos and what I'm missing out on right now, but it did help me make friends with the hostess' son. I got a high-five at the end of the night. Score!

Yesterday Rachele invited us over to the pool at her complex so we could sit out and tan. I didn't go until later because Ruby had a vet appointment, just a follow-up after I dropped off her urine sample. I really, really liked the vet at this clinic. I was very happy because she was very honest with me about everything. I had been a bit worried Ruby might have diabetes because of her symptoms, but the vet confirmed no glucose had spilled in her urine but she had a really, really bad infection. She gave two options, to start with abdominal x-rays and all that fun stuff, or to just try the antibiotics and see if they worked. There is a chance her infection could have reached her kidneys. If it did, we are going to have major vet bills on our hands. So I hope that our prayers are enough and that it is just her bladder being affected.

Ruby and I go in spurts. I tell anyone who will listen that she lives to tick me off and that I ruined her life when I came into Chris'. She thinks of me as her evil stepmom. I think of her as my evil stepdaughter. She only likes me when she needs me for protection or when I have food. Or beer. This is why I was telling everyone that she wiped back-to-front to give herself a UTI on purpose. No one believes me. Yesterday at the vet though, I felt serious compassion when the vet pushed on her bladder and she yelped. It must hurt. They gave me the option to come back for pain medication if she looks like she is having pain while relieving herself.

I did, however, mention to the vet that Ruby is a drama queen. She actually confirmed that almost all huskies are a little bit of drama queens and that they will ALWAYS let you know where it hurts, whereas a German Shepherd will come in with a broken leg dangling below them and act like nothing is wrong. I can affirm that, as I have seen Nalli slip on ice and become a three-legged racer in a matter of minutes. Nalli definitely has the mentality of a German Shepherd.

After the vet, I headed over to the pool. We sat out for about an hour and drank pina coladas. I think that I might be off rum for a while, because it made me a little sick last night. This morning when I cut into my over easy egg, that was a little too much for my stomach. Darn you rum. After the pool, we walked over to Buffalo Mo's for dinner. It was not bad for bar food and we had great conversations. We all make each other laugh and the more we get to know each other the more we are willing to share, which makes our conversations more and more funny.

Chris called around 1900 to say they had been released and he just wanted to talk, but I asked if he wanted me to bring him some stuff he had forgotten at home. He said I could if I wanted to, so of course I jumped all over that. I had been planning on not seeing him until Friday, but I really didn't want to pass up a chance to see him. I packed up some leftovers, an extra set of cammis, and his civilian shoes. If I didn't take him the leftovers, they were just going to go to waste or to the dogs, so I was happy I could take them to him.

Even though he had dirt rings around his ears and he could have smelled better, it was great to see him. He still looked pretty sexy. When he is in uniform, you really aren't supposed to show affection, so he gave me a one-armed half hug and snuck a teeny, tiny kiss when no one was looking. TBS is funny, because one minute there can be a mile stretch with no one on it, and then suddenly you can find yourself swarmed with a bunch of lieutenants coming out of the woodwork like zombies. We were able to talk about our days a little bit so it was really nice.

The spouses love to get together. I think we all generally like being together because it takes our minds off of everything else. And nobody understands like another military spouse. Regardless of how much we enjoy each other's company, we will run out and to our spouse if given the chance to see them. I apologized to the girls of course, but they all understand. And they would do the same thing if given the chance.

Today I plan on going to get frozen yogurt with the desperate housewives and husband of Quantico. Mine will actually be free because I am going to attempt to give the desperate husband of Quantico a haircut. He might be crazy, but he trusts me. I don't know how much haircut luck I have, but we will see. I may have used it all up this week because I gave Chris a PHENOMENAL haircut on Sunday. Which makes sense since the are outside all week which means he will hardly ever take his cover off for anyone to see it. We also didn't argue ONCE during this haircut, which I thought was a great step for us. It is very rare for me to give him a haircut without a few snide comments sliding back and forth. Hopefully I don't get in that mindset with poor Ben today!

Last night, seeing Chris, helped a lot. I always miss him, even when he's gone for just a few hours. Even when he is driving me absolutely insane and I can't stand to be around him, the feeling goes away within minutes of him being away. I always manage to fill my time with things that remind me of him without actually knowing that I do it. This week I've almost memorized all of Stairway to Heaven on the piano, I put 90s Alternative or Led Zeppelin radio stations on, I sleep on his side of the bed, you name it.

I wonder what I will be like during a deployment.

This past Saturday, we went and picked up our good friend Krueger from TBS. He is going to be graduating in just a couple of weeks so it was one of the last times we would be able to see him! He had the idea to go out to Paddy's Pub so we did and had our friends meet us up there, who invited their friends out there, so we managed to get quite a large table going. It was a lot of fun to be around everyone and it was karaoke night, so some interesting locals came out to show us how it's done. Dinner was great and Chris had a great time. He drank a lot with Mike, so they racked up a nice bill I believe. At the end of the night when we went to pay, the lady at the bar just gave Chris a note that said, "Have a great night. -Mike". That STINKER paid our bill and snuck out with another friend. We were only able to have him over for dinner once since we have been here and then he went and did that. He is such a sweetheart, and I hope we end up at the same duty station as him someday. He and Chris have been friends since they were rackmates at the first summer of TBS I believe.

Our house has been a mess this week partially due to the fact that our grill and other things from our deck have been in our kitchen since they started re-doing our deck. The boards have been torn up since Thursday, but not much got done since then because of all the rain we have been getting. The guy who is working on the deck is an interesting guy. I've seen him hit himself in the head with boards more than once. He swears a lot and then apologizes if he knows I might be within distance of hearing him. Sometimes I hear him singing and most of the time he is talking to himself. He is SO nice though, and I think he does great work when he gets going, so who am I to judge? The deck looks great with brand new boards, so I think once it is all stained and everything it will be beautiful! We are hoping it will for sure be done by Memorial Day. That's all Chris cared about, was being able to grill out on Memorial Day. I should really go get some T-Bones to enjoy that day.

Well, I suppose I should go do Insanity so I can shower and get ready for FroYo.

Hope you enjoyed the long post!