Are we there yet?

 It's been 11 months, 5 days, 22 hours, and 52 mins since we gave "knucks" to daddy and said "see ya later" at the hanger.  But who's counting, right?  Anyhow...if you're wondering why our goodbye sounds so informal, it's because it was.  I never got out of the car, never unbuckled the boys carseat.  We didn't hug, we didn't kiss...there was no long embrace, no tears.  While some would say that sounds terrible, you should know this...We've done that before.  We did the tears, the hugs, the painful goodbye, and it was HORRIBLE!  It's like having someone you loved ripped from your arms.  We couldn't put our son through that.  He is still too young to fully grasp a deployment, though for weeks leading up to the deployment, we had many many discussions about daddy's job, where he was going and what he would be doing.  He seems to understand, but like I, has not shown much emotion regarding the deployment.  I attribute this to the fact that we don't often refer to it as a sad thing, but instead an honorable situation.  Our son tells his friends, "Daddy is my hero, he's fighting the bad guys".  He is very proud of him.  But as strong as we have all been these past 11 months, the last several weeks are certainly proving to the hardest & most trying.  While I'm doing anything and everything to keep my mind and body busy, the days are CRAWLING!  But even so, I'm seeing signs of a redeployment in our future.  Tough boxes are beginning to show up on our porch, my husband has recently moved out of his room to allow for his replacement soldiers to take over, the FRG's are having redeployment briefings, my "Welcome Home" signs are arriving in the mail this week, and I've been making "Welcome Home" daddy outfits for friends all month.  In case you were wondering why I had not added any new care packages to my posts lately, it's because we've passed the mail cutoff date.  To help my son (and certainly myself) get through these next few weeks, here's some of the things we've done to pass the time and prepare for daddy's return:

 I made my own camo purse...still don't have a name tape for it.

 Making Welcome Home signs at an FRG function. 

Made my own door wreath for daddy's welcome home decor.

I've also created a Popsicle countdown for our son.  He gets one Popsicle per day.  When they are gone, daddy will be home!!

This week, I'm breaking the rules and I am sending out one final care package...it's just a box full of cookies and nothing but cookies...7 dozen cookies to be exact!  My husband has no intentions of keeping them all for himself.  He just wants something to hand out to everyone before they head home.  Hopefully they make it, but if not, no harm...someone else will enjoy them I suppose.  I'm also beginning to nest this week.  I've redecorated my kitchen, started repainting some rooms, replaced bad light bulbs throughout house, organized closets, and there's so many more (unimportant) things to do.   Preparations are finally underway for the hubby's return and I couldn't be more excited!

It's the little things...

Typically, I send my husband a care package every 2 or 3 weeks.  I'd send them more often, but getting to the post office hasn't been easy this winter (I hate you too, Fort Drum).  Now that the snow seems to have melted for good (fingers crossed), I plan to make up for the shortage of care packages my hubby has been receiving these past several months.  Recently, my husband sent me on a mission to clothing and sales with a mighty large shopping list.  Apparently, getting your standard issue isn't so easy in the sandbox.  I wonder what men without families back home do about getting these things??  Okay, back on point...So I went to the clothing and sales, purchased everything he requested (which I might add was not cheap...why do we buy the uniforms anyway?...okay another blog...) and then took my son over to the PX and tried something a little different.  I told him to pick out whatever he wanted to get daddy.  I guess he's done this enough with me now, because he did REALLY good.  He picked up cheese-its, gummy worms, instant mac n cheese, oreos, oatmeal, beef jerky...you get the idea.  I think he might have done better than me.  When we returned home, I took some photos of Jagger packing the box and I threw in a DVD slideshow I made of us.  All in all, it was an awesome care package.

I also found time today to make a countdown chalkboard frame that I discussed in a previous post.  I promised if I ever made one, I'd post a photo.   Here's my completed masterpiece. It's not great, but I'm proud of it.

Making time fly...or at least walk at a fast pace

My husband's deployment recently hit the 100 days mark!  It was an exciting day for us.  Though we hadn't discussed the countdown with one another, ironically we both remarked that day that we had reached 100 days.  While my husband was counting down the blocks on his calendar, I was watching my iphone app.  During his last deployment (2 years and 3 cell phones ago), I did not have the luxury of a convenient phone app to tell me how many days we were into the deployment or how many were left.  So at night, while laying in bed, I would count the days on my phone calendar. Just knowing how close he was to coming home comforted me and always helped me to fall asleep.  Thanks to technology, I no longer have to count every block on my phone calendar...I have a simple and free app that quickly tells me how long I have til he returns!  I just hit the app button and ta-da, there is a photo of my hubby and the days left before he returns for good. It's a free app, so I cannot put more than one countdown on there. Otherwise I would also include the days left til R&R, as well as the days he's been gone.  But I'm cheap, I'm not paying $1.99 when the freebie is sufficient.  The phone app is called Big Day Lite and can be found here.

Here's a screen shot of mine (For OPSEC reasons, the countdown in this photo is not correct)

If you are lucky enough to own a mac, you can download a free countdown widget for your dashboard, which can be found here.  

If you do not own a mac, first let me say that I'm sorry...macs are amazing (but that's another blog another day), secondly I'll tell you that you aren't out of luck on countdown widgets for your PC.  When I had a PC a few years ago, I used the military deployment countdown clock found here. I'm sure there are better ones out there now though.  

Now, in case you live under a rock and do not own a smart phone nor a computer, there is still another way to keep up with the deployment countdown without an actual calendar.   You can purchase a desk countdown clock.  This clock is actually customized for an army, navy, marines, or airforce deployment! It comes with 4 faceplates and it costs about $13 and can be found here.   

However, if you are crafty (or just a cheap person) like me, you can always make your own like the one shown here that I found on etsy.  

All you need is a blank wooden picture frame (from a craft store), chalkboard paint, different colored paints, chalk, and a creative mind.  I think this is really cute and I know my son would have fun changing the days on it every day.  I think I'll make one soon.  If it comes out cute enough, maybe I'll put some on my own etsy site.  I don't think mine will come out this cute though.  

I also found this cute one here.