And we're off... 3 weeks later

The dreaded d-word began almost 3 weeks ago. I can't believe it's already been 3 weeks. I also can't believe that it's been 3 months since I've written on here! Where has time gone? If I write every 3 months, I'll be writing at halfway through the deployment then again after homecoming with the track I'm on. I keep telling myself I'll get back into blogging, but keeping myself busy and not reflecting on the deployment makes more sense to me right now. It's just another thing to pass the time when I'm not running on high octane fuel.
I have actually been handling it much better than I expected. Our relationship has been strengthened more than I could ever imagine by having to deal with this. Just the fact that I am able to do this and hold down the homefront amazes me. I have never been what I like to call a truly independent person; however, when forced into the situation, I persevered. EMV did not feel like it went this fast and it was about 4 and a half weeks long. I can't imagine that 6 months will even feel long if time continues to move at the pace it is.

This deployment has showed me that time really is relative. I could make it go SO slow if I just sat at home and moped about the fact that my husband is not only missing our first married Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Ollie's birthday (haha, yes I love my furbaby), our together anniversary for the 3rd year in a row, Valentine's day for the 4th year in a row, my stepbrother's wedding, and our very first anniversary. Good thing it's the paper anniversary and I have already planned my paper present for when he gets home.

The thing that I think I am having the most difficult time dealing with is the fact that I am going to need surgery to remove my gallbladder and Dan will be missing that, as well. I'm completely ok with it and have tossed around the idea of going home so many times, but this is something I have to do here. It would just create an even bigger hassle if I went home. I'm glad I made the decision to stay here, I think it shows that I can truly be independent. I do have my sister hopefully coming down when I get it done, if not I have so many friends who have offered to help me, it's wonderful. I will have an update about the date of surgery tomorrow.

Other than knowing I will want Dan when I get out of surgery, everything else is going well. I've been able to talk to him more in the almost 3 weeks that he's been gone than in the 7 months he was deployed last year. That in itself has made me so grateful that I sorta had expectations going into this deployment and they were completely thrown away. It really does help that we have been through this before. I don't want to say it's easier, obviously it isn't, but I do know what to expect and how to handle things and how NOT to handle them. Thankfully, that deployment was a growing experience for us as this is, too.

I can't wait to be back in my amazing husband's arms. We got to Skype today and it was great! Totally worth the waiting 2 weeks to see that man's mustache ridden face. I can't say I don't like it though, he's quite the handsome man, but I know I'm a little biased. Hopefully, tomorrow brings the same type of Skype call, but I appreciate any communication even if that means an email!