Military SO (Significant Other)

My Air Force guy and I have realized that in light of everything we are pretty badass and can most likely make it through even a difficult time such as what we will begin enduring in February. It doesn't come without question that we are insane after only 2 months to think we will last but hey...someone always has to defy the odds so why not be us this time!

With that being said I am starting to venture out into the blogosphere and also the support group area (yeah, that is not normally my thing) in order to speak to other military significant others and share experiences, rough patches etc. Who knows. It could help.

Well in my search I came across this awesome blog and as I stated in the very first sentence of this post...we're badass...so it seemed only oh so perfect to post this here...

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Definition of Military SO:

A Military SO is the girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband of an individual in any branch of any Military.

There is no higher civilian level of badassery.

To be a military SO (besides having a significant other in the military) you must:
-be able to survive a long distance relationship.
-be able to go for long periods of time without sexual intercourse.
-forgive any forgotten special dates.
-forgive lack of contact.
-have decent handwriting (for letters).
-have Skype (or any other video-chat service)
-have a charged phone on your person at all times (for unexpected calls or texts from your SO).
-be strong.
-be a badass.

"Don't mess with her, she's a military SO."
"Your point?"
"Her boyfriend can crush you with no effort."
"Oh..."

Makin' Memories

So it is without question that these days it seems the ONLY time my normal camera comes out of hiding is when the holidays have peeked there little heads into my vision and I all but squeal with delight at the memories to be made and captured on film...err...on a digital memory card. Ha.

This year of course with a new brood and many more faces to capture its caused my brain to melt slightly and you will never guess what I did. I have deleted all the memories from the very first Crazy 8 holiday. Deleted. Gone. Forever. Will never been seen. GAH! Sadness has been brought into my life with a vengeance. However, I cried and now I must suck it up, there are still many more memories to be made or so my sweet Air Force guy has reminded me. We still have ACTUAL Halloween right!?!

So for the sake of remembering these things here is what I can post. This weekend was a memorable one and not all just for the good stuff. All the kids are fully aware that the hunny will be leaving in February and all of them are none to happy, some more than others and really the youngers probably have no idea what is going to change and won't until it happens. Boo. We realized that multiple birthdays will be missed, that my littles are far more attached than originally thought and that I am sad sad sad and I almost don't even want to celebrate Thanksgiving for the simple fact that I don't want to hear the word...TURKEY. GASP! Its the new bad word in the house.

We went to the pumpkin patch a week ago and that was a blast. We did the corn maze and I met my guys momma and although it's never the comfiest of situations it went over well enough. So this weekend we decided to carve the pumpkins so the entire Crazy 8 was at my house and we gutted, and carved and painted and it was fabulous! The kids were in rare form, crazy and ornery and seemed to be extra whiney all weekend but that's okay we got through it! They each carved a pumpkin, and sweet Alyssa gutted about a billion (she loved that part) and then Sunday as the guy was sleeping (thank you night shift) me and all 6 littles went to another pumpkin patch and grabbed 6 tiny pumpkins for them to paint and that we can keep on our table as fall decorations. They had a blast and while they did that I was able to make breakfast for lunch with Carina, Tyler and well...when the guy wasn't trying to catch up on football he helped to :)

Real Talk. We made memories this weekend!!!!

Even with all the fun Halloween stuff, we also went to Aidan's final football game of the season. He won. Yep. We were there to witness the first win of the season. I'd say we brought the good luck but I'm sure it has more to do with the team they were playing having at least 3 players who I swear weren't taller than 3 feet. Little bobble heads walking around on the field. So cute. I met my guys dad and his wife and also the kids' mom. Again, not always the comfiest but by far some of the best moments of my life just being there watching our little (gigantic) family coming together to support one of the littles.

Pretty amazing weekend even with me deleting all the pics. We just have to make up for it this week by taking even more pics! Yay!

On a serious note, and more to keep in line with making sure I document the good and bad, this weekend was a rough one. Its setting in the length of time I and all of us won't see my sweet Air Force guy and although I am keeping my head up and know we will get through this, it doesn't change the fact that its sucky. With all that's going on, the meeting of families and the knowledge and preparation of the departure to come by brain was super emotional. This may or may not be also due to the hormones that are brought on by 'thisistheweekiturncrazyitis'.

We all know what that means.

Either way, my guy reminds me. Its only 15 months at the very beginning of our forever and then that's it. He will get to see us half way through and the only thing that could make it any more sad is that we still aren't sure if he will be returning back here after he is done with his deployment. I still have my fingers crossed and I will still be as optimistic as possible either way, but that won't be without a few tears and quiet nights to myself to just think. I have 6 little bodies to worry about and their hearts are far more fragile than my own so onward and upward!

Random tidbit. We bought toothbrushes for all the kids this weekend (even mine got new toothbrushes) and we bought bath scrubbies for them and once they are all hung up in the shower and the toothbrushes are in the toothbrush holder we will officialloy be on our way to making our house...'OUR' house.

Gotta stick together people. Its the only way to survive!

XOXO
G33KY Penguin

Follow-On

So I am totally new to all this Air Force (Military) lingo and I will not even pretend that Google has not become my best friend. In fact. Google. I love you. You have answered all my questions, even those I didn't know I had. You are great.

Follow-On. Two days ago my guy applied for his Follow-On to have him stationed back at Travis AFB. Great. Right? Well. Maybe. Initially we thought it would take 120 days to find out, but apparently we could find out in possibly 3 weeks. This could quite possibly be the longest 3 weeks of my life. Follow-On is where he gets stationed AFTER his return from deployment.

Things to take into consideration if he does not get stationed here (in no particular order)...

- He wouldn't see his littles for EVEN longer
- Me and my littles wouldn't see him for EVEN longer
- The initial 15 months that seemed like a piece of cake would now be 5 years of distance
- Could get spendy trying to visit
- I may become a Skype aficionado during all this
- We may want to buy stock in the Postal Service as many care packages will be sent
- His family and friends would miss him
- He and I may have big decisions ahead of us
- This would mean many missed holidays and birthdays, not just 15 months worth

Final thing to take into consideration.

I WOULD MISS THE SHIT OUT OF HIM!

Seems to me that I could choose to be a pessimist right off the bat and get down about it, but truth is, we haven't done that so far so I am not going to start now. So we will wait it out and think only the best. If I have learned one thing in the duration of all of this its that it doesn't pay to worry and worrying doesn't help.

So since worrying doesn't help here are some other neat things that I have come across while researching where my sweet will be stationed.

Country: Turkey
City: Incirlik (5 miles east of Adana 5th largest city in Turkey)
Base: Incirlik (35 miles from the Mediterranean Sea)

There is not much to do in Incirlik but Adana seems promising. I have decided that my goal is to make sure that I visit at least once while he is out there and since I have made that goal I have also discovered that its a 22-26 hour flight, its a 10 hour time difference, there is a Hilton in Adana, The Turkish Lira is equivalent to .50 in US Dollars and its also the nicest Middle Eastern Country for a woman to visit. No need to worry about the clothes I wear while I am there which is nice since it seems to get extremely warm. I got in touch with my girlfriend Lauren and she has some family of really good friends that have two homes out there, one in Istanbul (10 hours from Adana) and a house on the coast. Just waiting to see which coast its on to see if either of those can be a 'visiting point'. I'd like to think that I can make the most of this and if it gives me an excuse to get a stamp on my passport, why not!

I guess this is where we start to hit the challenges, but for now we will just consider them speed bumps. No problem!

XOXO
G33KY Penguin

Penguins

They say that penguins meet their mate and once they do its that penguin forever. That no matter, time nor distance that comes between them it will be their one true love forever.

Humans aren't like penguins. They fall in love, out of love and some don't even know what love is. This doesn't mean we are incapable or undeserving of finding our very own penguin it just means sometimes it takes us more than one try.

I found mine. He found his. Second go round but hey...we are after all still just humans. Our penguins came to each of us unexpectedly and without really any work at all and although we could joke and say we met at Target and bumped into each other in the Dairy Aisle, we both know how we met. Online. Really. So new age and seemingly impersonal. We met, we emailed, we melted and then we meshed. We are truly perfection in a super cheesy romance story kind of way and I am more than okay with that.

We have obstacles, we have issues and we have an insane amount of kids that all cause pressure and chaos but we have yet to let that stop us. We are a forced to be reckoned with and despite the odds, we are sure to beat them.

My sweet love. My Air Force Guy. He has received deployment papers to go overseas for 15 months starting in February. This may have come as a shock to anyone looking in, heck it's only been...well...details details. My point is some may have walked and we did the opposite. We are choosing to stick it out and hoping for nothing but the best.

The biggest of challenges are still to come I am certain, but I wanted to make sure we had a place to document the tough spots, the easy spots and all the in-between moments that will all inevitably become 'Our Story'. So join us in "Our Cr8zy Life" and see how we fare on this insane rollercoaster of life!

XOXO
G33KY Penguin