Army Announces Nine Month Deployment Cycles

I know I am not the only Army wife who is cheering at the news release from the DOD about the newly shortened deployment cycles.  Nine months is nothing to sneeze about, but when you are used to a 13, 15, or even 18 month cycle, this news rocks!  Check it out.  Basically as our operations slow down, the length of time our soldiers will be deployed will also shorten.  

Read all about it here.  

I am doing the happy dance!

Biopsy

I went in Friday to have my biopsy performed. Basically they brought in another Radiologist, who looked at my mammograms and the ultrasound and talked with my Radiologist about the concerns they had over my breast tissue. They pulled up the ultrasound machine so they could mark where they needed to go in on the breast to perform the biopsy, decided they did not like the machine they were using, and sent the tech out the door to grab a higher powered machine.

Here is where it gets funny. The room they had me in was at the end of a long hallway, which basically intersected another hallway in the middle. When the tech left the room, she left the door wide open so I was in full view of anybody coming down the hall. This was NOT the experience I wanted to have since my arm was extended above my head, I was turned out at a 45 degree angle, and my breast was exposed to the world. My radiologist about lost it and yelled at the tech to shut the door. AWKWARD!

They marked the spot on my breast for where they needed to make an incision, numbed me with local anesthesia, and then made an incision. I barely felt the cut, but I could feel the biopsy needle going in and it was uncomfortable. They took a bunch of samples, stitched me up, talked to me about next steps, and then told me I would know Wednesday. Not good enough. My mother made a call to her breast center in Knoxville, and set up an appointment for me for Monday morning. So here I am in Knoxville waiting for my appointment tomorrow morning. Early results point towards a form of breast cancer called DCIS with a mass of unknown makeup. They are running tests tomorrow and will determine what my next steps are in the process. If need be, I will undergo a lumpectomy this week to remove any of the bad tissue, and will also start radiation treatment. Til we know for sure, I am keeping my fingers crossed and my prayers lifted.

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Navy Federal to Advance Military Pay to Members

Navy Federal to Advance Military Pay to Members

Now if somebody could redirect me to a word from USAA about how they are planning on responding to members, it would be much appreciated!

Silence is Golden

One of my favorite things to do at night is lay in bed and read a book. Since my hubby has gotten back, it has been a lot harder to do. He likes to get to sleep much earlier than I do, but also likes to spend as much time with me as possible. To effectively problem solve this issue, I downloaded the Kindle application to my Droid phone and turned the reader to black with white lettering so as not to disturb his rest. So far it has been working out great. I get to read well into the night and he sleeps soundly beside me.

One of my favorite things about this experience is feeling his breath lightly dancing across my bare shoulder in an air kiss. As his sleep deepens, his breath starts to slow and I find myself relaxing in its rhythm. I treasure these moments because I know that he will deploy again one day and I will be left with memories and the scent of his cologne as gentle reminders. The silence is golden and the experience is priceless.

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Sacrifice, Duty and Honor

I am numb. I just found out that a friend I used to talk to on the phone almost daily lost her husband to an IED on 7th of December 2009 in Afghanistan. No wonder I have not heard from her or seen her on yahoo. The amazing thing about this lady is she was the ultimate example of an Army wife and did so much to take care of her Soldier and the Soldiers within his unit. She loved putting together care packages, was a hopeless romantic and has been through hell these past four years. First, she lost her best friend to an IED in 2006 and now her husband has also fallen. I wonder how she is shouldering it all and caring for her young child.

This is the second wife I have known who has lost her husband to the War on Terror. I am grasping for understanding and with my own husband deployed, it makes me realize just how valuable every single moment spent with him is in the context of life. Let me tell you what it is like to be an Army wife and send your spouse off into a warzone. It can be devastating emotionally and hits every single army wife hard in one form or another. Most of us have learned how to handle it by sucking it up out in public and learning to smother our tears in the remnants of our husband's clothing. Our Soldier's essence is what we cling to in place of their absence.

One of the things which has frustrated me the most is how people react to the news that we have sent our loved ones off into battle. They treat us as if we are mourning a death and more often than not leave us alone to fend for ourselves. For most of us, that is the last thing we need. I feel like a failure for not having paid more attention to those around me and even more of a failure for not being more intentional with my friendships. My heart grieves for Jenny. I could have done so much more to invest in her life. Her husband's death is why I am going after my Master's Degree in Counseling. I want to make a difference, for everytime I close my eyes I see the faces of families all across the world impacted by the sacrifice they make for family and country and their pain drives me forward.

You Know You're An Army Wife

You know you're an Army wife when...

...you can unpack a house and have everything in place in 48 hours
...you string Constantina wire to keep the neighbor's kids out of your flower beds
...your husband's work and dress clothes cost more than yours do
...you've changed more oil and mowed more lawns than your husband because he's never there to do it himself
...you use a crook-neck flashlight with a red lens during power outages because it's the only one you can ever find in the house
...your children say "hooah" or "roger that" instead of "ok"
...you know that it's normal to light shoe polish on fire and that the best way to spit-shine boots is with cotton balls
...your husband does a route recon and takes a GPS for a trip to the mall
...you only write in pencil because EVERYTHING is subject to change
...you need a translator to talk to your civilian friends, only because they have no idea what DFAS, AER, TDY, ACS, NPD, PCS, and ETS mean
...you have a larger selection of curtains than Walmart does
...you can remember where you kept the Scotch tape in your last house, but unfortunately, not in this one
...you mark time in duty stations, not years
...you refer to friends not only by name but by the state that they live in
...you know that "back home" doesn't mean at the house you live in now
...you tear up when you hear "Proud to Be An American," even though you've heard it 50 times by now
...you know that a 2 month separation IS short, no matter what your civilian friends say
...you ALWAYS know when payday is and get ticked off if there are more than 2 weekends during that pay period
...you know better than to go to the PX or commissary between 11:30 and 13:00 unless it's a life or death emergency
...you show your military ID to the greeter at Walmart
...you know that any reference to "sand" or a "box" describes NTC at Ft. Irwin, not your kid's backyard toys
...you know that "Ft. Puke" is a completely accurate description of Ft. Polk
...you find yourself explaining your husband's LES to him
...you have enough camouflage in your house to wallpaper the White House
...you don't have to think about what time 21:30 is
...you've ever been referred to as "Household 6"
...you're the TC, not a backseat driver
...you start ripping open MREs and looking for the M&Ms when you run out of Halloween candy