One Day Closer To You

I cannot explain to you how it feels to be the spouse that gets left behind during a deployment. I know I've covered this already. All the emotions fighting to get out of you. Fear, relief, sadness, happiness. I've faced all of these during the past 6 months. As our deployment comes to it's end, and we still don't have any dates for a return, I feel like I'm stuck in quick sand. It's going just fast enough for you to know that something is going to happen to you, but not fast enough for your agony to be over with already. I don't know how we'll readjust to being together again. I know it will be trying. We've both been doing our own things this deployment. Me taking care of the household, him doing his job. He's worked some pretty crazy hours and I've taken to keeping the house maintained. Things I didn't have to worry about before he left became my priority. I know we'll really need everyone's prayers for not only maintaining...

I don't mean the football team. There is a team called the hurricanes right? Any sports buffs or guys reading this, please answer my question. Okay so as most, if not all, of you know hurricane Irene hit right where I live. It was supposed to hit more east of us, but God and Irene had different plans. Friday was a day full of prepping. My husband's parents came up to help me board up the house and then they "whisked me away" to visit Aunt Ruth and Uncle Ric. It was a busy weekend, but a fun one. We never got any of the hurricane in South Carolina! It was sunny and beautiful the whole time. We came back about six p.m. on Sunday to find no damage whatsoever to my house. A lot of the house around me had at least ten or more shingles missing. We didn't find any of mine on the ground. Thanks to my husband, Matt, Low and Warner. About this time last year, those guys were busy slaving away in the heat to reroof my house. I didn't like it at first. I was upset that...

The term roller coaster, for most people brings thoughts of adrenaline and excitement. For others, nervousness and anxiety. I think it pairs well with deployments. Many of you reading this do not know, nor ever personally will, the emotions of a deployment. I can't give you just one term to describe it as a whole accurately. There is a chart that is shown at every pre-deployment briefing that explains the high peaks of emotion in the few months at beginning and end of deployments. It's not lying. This is our third deployment and it never changes. I can tell you limited knowledge of what was going through my hubby's brain in those weeks leading up to this deployment, and plenty of what I was thinking. He was focusing on taking care of things that might cause problems from me later in the deployment like setting up auto payments for most of the major bills. He didn't want to worry about us while he was gone. I was focused on spending as much time with him as possible so...

We named our puppy Jak, pronounced like Jack. Sammy is head over heels in love with him. I'm in love with him too, when I'm not having to make five trips outside in an hour for Jak to potty. Or when it's one in the morning and he decides to whine and bark. As a matter of fact right now, Jak is sleeping under the pack and play in the office and Sammy is laying on his belly with his hand reaching under it saying "here boy" Now for some pictures!

A new member will be joining the Swan clan soon. I need boy name suggestions! NO, I am not pregnant. Danny's letting us get a dog! End announcement.

Today began out pretty decently, but it has recently gotten better. As many of you may or may not know, being in the Marines has always been Danny's dream job. Well he landed it in 2008. His four years of service is up in January but he wants to continue on with this as his career. At the beginning of June or July, he began working on his re-enlistment package. A few snags came up that he couldn't take care of being over in the middle east. That's where I, Super Wife, come in the picture. In a span of a week, I went to the courthouse twice for paper copies of a traffic ticket and proof that it's been taken care of, bugged my pastor twice about scanning and emailing said papers, and worried and prayed A LOT! We didn't expect to hear anything back until the end of August or September at the earliest. For me personally, it's been a rough battle trying to keep the negative what ifs out of my mind. I've had to keep telling myself God would put us where He wants u...

This post is bittersweet. This afternoon, I mailed out what will be the last care package for this deployment. From here on in I'll be trekking towards homecoming without being able to send or receive mail from Danny. It's a bit exciting and nerve wracking all at once! Making up care packages are so exciting for me! I enjoy going to the store and buying snacks that hubby has asked for and finding snacks that I know he'll say " oh wow, I can't believe she sent those!" I like to imagine how excited he'll be not only to get mail, but also how excited he is that I put so much effort into them. Heck, I knew this would be the last one I could make for him, so I loaded it up. I must say that there is a lot of excitement and sorrow in my mind right now. Well sorrow isn't the right word, but bear with me. I know that now that there is a mail cut off date, we'll have a homecoming date soon. It's so hard to not know yet when he'll be home. It can'...