My Dear Husband

I realized that when I refer to my husband as "my DH" many people might confuse this with his real initials.  When I refer to him as "my DH" I mean "my dear husband."

After reading my blog, my DH loved his new nickname and started referring to me as his "DW" or "dear wife."  Now in no way am I staking any physical claim to him.  I love my DH and there are times when I can become a *little* controlling.... but he is his own man, with the freedom to do whatever he chooses to do!

Twilight ... New Moon movie (not a review)

Before my DH went back to the sandbox, he requested that I go and watch the new Twilight movie with my friends.  We watched the first Twilight movie together only after my DH told me that he was interested.  Being crazy, I told him that I would only watch the movie if I read the book.  I went and picked up a copy of the book from my closest bookstore and finished within several hours.  I became completely obsessed and read the next three books in four days.  In the end, I hated the series (the reason why will be posted in a future blog).

My DH called today and asked me if I had found anyone to watch "New Moon" with me.  I argued that I only wanted to watch the movie with him and that I would wait the six months so that we could watch the movie together.  My DH was insistent that I watched without him and we came up with a compromised;  My DH would wait off on watching the movie if I couldn't find anyone to watch the movie with me within the week.  Another condition was that I must sincerely try to find people to watch with me.  

At this point, it felt as though he wanted to watch the movie so much that he was going out of the way to make sure that I would watch the movie (Just read the book!).  But, I gave in and convinced two of my friends to join me in watching the movie.

However, a part of me understands that my DH wants me to go out and start hanging out with my friends instead of staying at home and moping around.  He sincerely wants me to be more sociable and keep my mind off this deployment through social interactions.  

Another part of me also wanted to see this movie because my DH had requested that watch.  A part of me wants to do all the things that he's asked of me.  For some odd reason, it helps me feel closer to him.  I know that having watched this movie will genuinely make him happy.   

I am glad that I was able to go and spend some time not thinking about my spouse (mmm... this could go either way...).  I think I definitely needed the distraction.... Thanks to my friends RL and JHK.

Deployment Blues

As many of you know, I am a social worker in the PA area.  The trouble with my job is that I tend to psychoanalyze just about everyone I meet (What a job hazard)!  Seriously, even the girl at the cash register in my local grocery store; I start to wonder what her childhood was like, what she's doing working at the grocery store, what problems are going on with her social, family and emotional life.

If I am able to psychoanalyze the girl at behind the counter, I am definitely going to apply this to my own life.  In short, I am grieving about the loss of my DH for a short while (another six months).  Many therapists use the Kubler-Ross Model that goes through the five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.  Mind you, you go through these five stages before and after a loss.  You can also regress or even skip a step depending on how you grieve.

Here is my depiction of the last few days:

*As I am reading through this little cartoon, I realized that there are a billion grammatical mistakes.  I don't have the time now to go through all of these so please forgive me and I promise to fix them later!  Thanks!

My next topic: The Emotional Cycle of Deployment guidelines written by the U.S. Army vs the Kubler-Ross Cycle!  More to come!

Back to reality....

The last two weeks were absolutely fabulous!  My DH and I truly enjoyed our time together; gourmet and cozy bed and breakfast in PA and a gorgeous views and fantastic weather in Jamaica.
 

Here is an interesting fact: every time my DH leaves to go to Iraq, I am sick!  During his first deployment I had a small cold, when he left after R&R I had a severe cold.  When he left for his second deployment, I had another severe cold and this time I had a bout of the flu and cold.  So I physically get sicker and sicker every time he leaves... I wonder if it's psychological....

Anyone else have this problem??

Too Many Husbands....

There are not many things in the world that beats sleepily waking up next to a warm and cozy body.  Mmm.... Luckily my DH is back for R&R and we have been spending our most of our mornings in bed (this is my way of making all of you jealous...).

So I was extremely perplexed when I received a message from my DH's rear detachment unit, two days after my DH came back, informing me that my husband would be coming home in the next few days.  I immediately called the operator (Debbie) back at Fort Riley to clear up this mistake.

When Debbie picked up the phone and I gave her my information, she went on to congratulate me on my DH's return home.  I graciously accepted her thanks but told her that my DH had been home for two days and she answered "So, he missed the re-deployment ceremony?"

Now, I was really confused!  I informed her that my DH was back home for R&R, not coming home permanently.  As Debbie checked the Army database she found out that there was another soldier on post who shares the exact same name as my DH!  This man came back to Fort Riley right around the same time as my DH was coming home for R&R.  Somehow, the databased had wiped out the other soldiers' Point of Contacts (POC's) and decided to just list me as his wife!

As I was telling my DH about this interesting situation, he grinned and slyly asked me if I got married to another man while he was deployed.  I jokingly told him I had but that I divorced him before he came back.  To this my DH replied "Then, perhaps you should ask him for alimony."  Lol... hilarious...

R&R

My DH is home for R&R! Yay!  Will see you all in two weeks!