The Social Frog

Like most things & situations in life, every Navy wife I am sure, handles themselves and things differently. What might bother you, might roll right off me and vise versa. I have been married to the military  my husband, for almost 9 years now. I remember thinking that I had no idea what I was getting into or if I could handle it. Thinking about that after getting married did not help me prepare but honestly I don’t think much can. You kind of have to just jump right in, a little blindly. I wanted nothing to do with deployments, yet I found myself dealing with it head on, just a few weeks after getting married. I won’t lie… it was not fun, it was not easy and I almost thought it was going to be the end of our marriage. I learnt a lot about myself, my husband and just exactly what I could handle in those 6 months. Even though I was living right next to my family and friends it was rough, for me. His return 6 months later both made me happy and nervous. Some people might find that hard to understand but that was what it was like for me. I remember some wives were happy their spouse was gone for those 6 months and now, even almost 9 years later…I still do not understand that. That’s okay though because we all deal with things differently and there are no set rules of how one should or must feel in the absence of their spouse for 6 months or longer.

I know I don’t put it out there all the time or even talk about it but maybe a handful of times a year, but I am a Navy wife. I am sure most of my readers know this but maybe some of you who are newer to my blog might not know.

Moving away, that was another thing I was not okay with, for a long time. I think it has taken me at least 6 years to finally decide I can try and enjoy wherever we go,lol. I am and always have been really close with my family. I knew the time would finally come when we would have to move from Maine to a new duty station. The 1st move, to Texas was by far the hardest and I look back at it now and it still makes me sad. I was filled with so much fear of the unknown. I was afraid of missing out on my families lives too. I am the eldest of 9 kids, my youngest sibling was just a few years old when we moved away. I did not want her to grow up without me around to see it. Was I wimpy or a big baby? No, I don’t think so. I was/am just a girl who loves her family and I am not ashamed of that. I told hubby when we first got married that I would follow him to the ends of the earth, and I meant it. Missing my family and wanting to be with them never meant I loved him less or did not want to be with him.

In December we finished yet another deployment, but out of all the deployments thus far, this last one seemed to go by quick and did not seem to be as much of a strain emotionally as those in the past. Don’t get me wrong, not everything was perfect with sunshine & rainbows but it was better by far. Since we have moved to Florida, I’ve seen my family much more often and some of them have been able to come visit us every year as well as us going home. It has helped. I don’t know if it’s my age or just me mellowing out and wanting more out of life but I recently have gotten excited about moving somewhere else. We were set to get out next year but now I am even more okay with staying in. I am not sure what it was, it was like turning a light switch on. So we he will be re-enlisting next month and for the 1st time, I am happy about it and excited about what is to come for us in our future. Now I am just stressing out about orders, the great unknown about where we will end up next! We have several places in mind of where we would like to go, but I will keep that to myself for now. We have a few weeks till we can pick orders and I will hold my breath until then,lol. I almost forgot to mention, when hubby went on deployment in June of last year I started volunteering at the USO on base and I am still there and enjoying it. It has been very rewarding and fun. I now wish I had done something like this sooner, like many years ago.

Life Is Good.