An Intro to why....

I have always wanted to start a blog, it was just coming up with what to say! As a spouse of a Marine, we are given our fair share of obstacles and challenges. I have learned that it isn't the challenge or the obstacle that is important but how you deal with that given situation. During my husband's second deployment, he was in Afghanistan, his Commanding Officer told us that he did not want us to just survive this deployment, but to thrive during it. It was that simple statement that made my attitude completely change.

During our first deployment together, I was miserable. I was solely to blame for my misery too...I lived for 6 months with the mentality that "my life is so awful" and did not realize that I was the one making it miserable. I knew that for our 2nd deployment, that I could not live that same way for 7 months. I vowed to better myself, and made a set of "rules" that I enforced to make sure I did not slip back into my old ways! I'm sure I will share my rules once I kick back into "deployment mode"! During Kale's 2nd deployment, the time ended up flying by! I became actively involved with the Family Readiness Team and volunteered to work for many events, I made a lot of new friends, and I got closer to the friends that I already had. I truly had a family away from my true family. We all became inseparable, if I went more then 3 days during deployment without seeing one of my friends, it was a RARE occasion.

Now that training for the 3rd deployment has started, I want to continue growing and learning new things while expanding my "family away from family". In the next few weeks some of the ladies who I have gotten to know over the past 3 years will be moving away, the thought of not having them around me is surreal. These ladies were my rock, and now we are all going to be living all over the country. Some are staying at Lejeune, which I am so thankful for, and can not wait for the adventures we will have when they are deployed.

I hope to use this blog to show the struggles, surprises, ups and downs that come with a deployment and the lead up training which proves to be just as stressful as them actually leaving sometimes. I want to focus on bettering myself both professionally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, financially, and socially all while strengthing my relationship with my husband from hundreds to thousands miles away. With graduation just around the corner, and no Physical Education jobs avaliable in the area, I hope to better my resume with various certifications that I will begin my adventure on recieving in the next few weeks.