Blog-itis and the Ensuing Life

Looking back at the blog, I am stunned to believe that it has been more than two months since my last entry. And it amazes me how much life can occur in such a short time. I'm not sad that I took the time off from blogging though. I needed a break to do some things more important, like keep a journal to Dereck while he was TDY at Sapper School (combat engineer course, similar to Ranger school), pump out some major work projects, and invest a little deeper in people around the Puget Sound, whether through church, socially, or for Army events. It was like I had blog-itis and the only medicine was living life and using this contemplation time for Dereck's journal. He left at the end of August for Sapper school in Missouri, and every step was a lesson in faith, from whether he could go (ankle injury) to whether he could get in (missing paperwork) to whether he would tab (decided by a single event of land navigation at the end of the course). Luckily for you the reader, you get to find out now, just like in the movies, rather than waiting the exhausting month like I did with little to no contact. Sometimes I wish I could choose areas of life to set on fast-forward; patience has never been my strong suit. Dereck passed the school, got his tab, and came home a happy boy in the end. The journaling part came out of a wedding gift from church members who wrote to each other during separations and would then swap and read during the next separation, and I have to say now after doing it, it was a great idea. Each day I got a chance to reflect on the day and tell him things that would become obscure by the time he got home, from the funny moments with the puppy, to the days that were rough and not so stellar. It all went in there, with nothing polished for his reading. I felt like that would be dishonest in recording life here at Lewis. In fact, Dereck is currently (not so much this moment as these three weeks) reading the journal while he is out doing trainings at Yakima, Washington. That's right, he was gone for a month, home for a week, and is now gone for three weeks. I am trying to take it as an opportunity to practice for the 2011 deployment, and surprisingly this time has been much better than Sapper, but I think a good deal of that can be attributed to the lack of stress that was omnipresent the first time. I feel much more chill. The only thing that would make this better would be if he had phone reception in the field, but a girl can't have everything, so I am spending three weeks guessing how he is doing, and whether he ate all the beef jerky we bought at Costco yet- those fascinating aspects of being married and sharing the most intimate and mundane tasks simultaneously.

In my two months of life since last blogging I have been doing the work thing, going to physical therapy, and trying to get my behind more involved at the risk of becoming one of those ladies who talk to their pets otherwise. Might be a little too late in retrospect, but to date Ritter hasn't talked back. You never know though, they say Vizslas are a smart breed, to which I want to ask why they eat poop! But I digress. The physical therapy has been going well, and they are getting my back and hips back to neutral, something they haven't been in quite a while. The drive out to the office takes 30 min one way, but I am finding that I get some great thinking and phone calling done along the journey. I also had the exciting event of my parents coming to visit in September. We have been planning for the Eller invasion for quite some time, so Dereck being gone for Sapper was never part of the plan, but it worked out nicely to have some family in the midst of the long month. In one short week we traveled to every part of Washington I could show within reason. Each day we made the most of the time by hitting the road early and coming home late. My favorite part had to be visiting Vancouver, Canada. Surprisingly, given all my travels, this is a country I have never seen before, and I really liked how international and blended everything felt. It also didn't hurt that we hit the jackpot on weather for the whole visit, and only our visit to Mt. Rainier was cold and rainy, the norm up here for any time of the year. I tried to point to the clouds and explain where the peak was, but it wasn't quite the same. The best thing about the visit was that it helped me realize that I am happy where I am. I loved having them visit, but I also wasn't crying at the airport demanding that I go home with them. Living 2,500 miles from home is harder than I expected, but has also been a good chance for Dereck and I to grow up fast, as we only have each other to lean on this far from home.

In the time Dereck was home we did manage to sneak in a visit to a pumpkin patch, and we had a blast! We got to scout the patch for the best looking pumpkins and settled on buying three, one for each member of our little family (Ritter simply licked the pumpkin when we brought it in- not too much excitement there). Picking them out was quite the task since you have to balance size, color, markings, and overall pumpkin likability. Dereck also insisted that he carry the pumpkins rather than us using a wheelbarrow, so I got stuck holding his caramel apple while we picked out little gourds for the table. We then had a rather interesting conversation about the Vibram Five Finger toe shoes with the lady who weighed our goods for pricing. In the end we came home with three pumpkins, three mini pumpkins, and three mini gourds for $14- what a deal! And the caramel apple was a bit extra, but it was a necessity of celebrating fall and the pumpkin adventure. I even talked Dereck into helping me pick out a wreath for the front door, so we now own our first holiday decorations. They may not beat the giant inflatable black cat down the street, but I gotta think we style points for not having an inflatable cat in the front yard. Army housing is nothing if not a giant mixing bowl of people, lifestyles, and areas of the country. Case and point, our new neighbors are from Kenya and just moved here when the husband came back from Afghanistan.

Which reminds me to mention the small fact that in the last two months we have had upwards of 30,000 soldiers come back to Lewis from various deployments. That is a number hard to imagine in the first place, but I quickly got an idea when I tried to drive anywhere on post, or tried to go to the commissary or PX (food and general goods store). This place is packed! I feel like a sardine, and that can get pretty stinky and sticky. Luckily, I have quickly learned adaptations, and plan my travels around post on a certain schedule that doesn't coincide with all the soldiers trying to get to PT (morning workout), work, or home in the evenings. Now I'm ready for soldier 30,001- the husband- to come back home and be within cell phone reach. This single dog parenting is hard work!