First Deployment

So, many of you know that Chris has now "left the building." In fact, he not only left the building, he's left the state, then the continent, then the hemisphere, and now is in his new home for at least the next 6-8wks. While Chris does not consider this a deployment due to the short term nature, the fact that his new "home" is more likely to get bombed than ours, makes it one for me. He's so excited and by now has completed a day or two. He's only 7 hrs ahead of us so that makes him almost done with a day when we start.

He sounds good and loves to receive emails and texts. His address for both is the same, but the connections are a bit spotty so be patient. He has access to a little media, but not much and what he does have access to he says he has better things to do. So far, he's right in line with our family. We just mailed back our DVR and cancelled our subscription to Directv. We save money and actually get off our bums to do things.

The kids are doing very well. Evie is pretty much guiding the behavior of the other two. She's been through this before and though a little bad behavior is manifesting, it's not like the last time at all. We had a lesson on where daddy went and why he's there. We even talked about his job and colored pictures of the countries in the surrounding areas of where he's working. They seemed to really like it and now look at our map a lot. They were surprised by a phone call from daddy this morning during breakfast and all three (even Lizzy) got all excited (she did that whole shaking like crazy thing). It was so cute.

Anyway, so we're several days into our deployment and we have just finished our "missing daddy" time. I give our whole family about 2-3 days to be bummy, miss dad, do nothing, and cry or talk about him as much as we want. Then, though talking doesn't stop, our days get "hyper-scheduled" and the kids settle down into a routine while I begin massive project mode. I usually do the projects that will take the most time or make the most impact when Chris gets home first. Then I do the projects that I've been avoiding and no longer have an excuse not to do. Finally, I do those projects that have a time-limit from when they are completed until Chris gets home (like massive cleaning, fixing up the car, whatever). It seems to work out well for us here at home.

That's about it for the moment. We'll keep you updated and Chris might even post a time or two!