She lost a tooth today. I had worried about this moment. Our first missed event. I was worried there would be sadness over dad missing it. Thankfully she wasn't sad it all. We took a picture so he could see it and she went about playing with her sister. Later she asked how many more days were left.... I told her a lot, too many to add up. She doesn't really understand how ...

My son says I have an addiction. An addiction to painting, remodeling, and moving my Craig's List furniture around the house. It's better than drugs, right? My husband's friend told me today that I have this habit - as soon as he deploys or goes TDY I break out the paint and the ladder and start tearing my house apart. Maybe I do. This week I re-started my stair makeover. I'm ...

Conflict. We had our first  deployment "fight" today, via text. I was upset about something else and he took the brunt of my frustration. I wish I could say that I quickly realized I was overreacting and apologized, but I didn't. I wish I could write some insightful story about working through conflict while separated, but I can't. It's lonely here. I'm never actually alone, yet the ...

Uncomfortable. I haven't been able to put my finger on it until now, but that's what it is. After the initial flow of tears and sadness, comforting the kids, and living through the first few days, things just become uncomfortable. He's been gone before. While this is only our second deployment he's traveled a lot over the past 20 years. We've had several moves where we've left early and ...

I knew this would happen and I'm surprised it took two weeks. "Mom." "Mom!" "MOM!!!" "I'm sick." My kids like to get sick when I'm the only parent. In fact I think they plan it. Whether it's the stomach flu, regular flu, strep throat, ear infections, general unnamed illnesses that cause them to wake me up in the middle of the night, they get it. Maybe it is because I've been a ...