Texas

Ben was asked to lead a group of soldiers on a mobilization at Ft. Bliss Texas. He would be gone for a period of 6 months. To me is was actually 7 because he was gone all of March for an A.T. and special class. Ben was excited for this opportunity, but I wasn’t excited for him to miss 6 months. I told myself, this is just training for when he’s gone on a deployment, which are generally longer. I think the thing that made it worse was all the stuff we have planned they he would now be missing. However after talking it over and over, we both decided this was where he was supposed to go and what he was supposed to be doing. So we said our goodbyes.

We were able to talk and text all the time, which was good. The kids were even able to face time him a few times, but with his receptions those calls never lasted that long. In between all those calls, texts, and leading his soldiers he was even able to take a few pictures of his adventures. I’m not sure what all of them were or what they were doing, but at least it looked like he was able to have some fun.

May

June

July

August

September

Ben's Home

 

This was the longest time for Ben to be gone since we have been married. We've had a few weeks here and a month or two there, but this surely "takes the cake." With the combination of a TDY for work at Ft. McCoy (2-25-2018 - 3-2-2018), ADVON for work (3-4-2018 - 3-6-2018), A.T. for Reserves at Ft. Bliss (3-7-2018 - 3-27-2018), and last but not least a mobilization for Reserves back to Ft. Bliss (4-8-2018 - 9-30-2018). In total he has been gone for just shy of 8 months, or 31 weeks (plus 1 day), or 218 days, or 5,232 hours, or 313,920 minutes, or 18,835,200 seconds (2-25-2018 - 9-30-2018). That was a very long time to be gone.

In all that time we were able to see him twice, right before he left (3-28-2018 - 4-7-2018) at home getting ready for his mobilization) and for the few days when we went to visit him while he was in Texas (6-14-2018 - 6-18-2018). Those little visit and the numerous phone calls and text made those 8 month, not fly by, but go fast enough that it didn't seem like he was gone for that long. It was also a saving grace to have a few things planned to keep our minds off of him not being home. 

We weren't able to do much when he got home because we weren't exactly sure when he would get home. He was driving himself home and the time he got home would depend on traffic and how many times he had to stop on the way. Plus it was a Sunday which meant we couldn't really go out and do any kind of celebrating. I did buy stuff to make a nice dinner of Turkey Steaks and mashed potatoes, but he told me not to worry about it for the sheer fact that neither of us knew when he'd be home. To go with dinner, I asked him what he wanted for dessert. With his sweet tooth he said anything sweet would be fine. I decided to make a Texas Sheet Cake to go along with the Turkey Steak dinner. I planned to do the dinner whether he could join us or not. If he was home in time to eat with us that would be great. I not, he could he could eat it for lunch tomorrow. 

Along with the special dinner and dessert the kids made him a "Welcome Home" sign and some cards with pictures that they had colored in them. I hoped that this would be enough considering that he wasn't coming home to anything normal. He was coming home to our "new" place at Mom and Dad's. We lived there before, but this was a different circumstance and a lot of time had passed since we lived here last.

Ben kept in contact the whole way home. He left really early because he woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep. Despite leaving early, he still had a 14 hour drive ahead of him. He stopped to eat breakfast, lunch, and to fill up the tank 3 times. I was surprised that we was making great time. I was happy to hear at his last pit stop that he thought he would be home in time for dinner.

We waited impatiently for him as time to dinner slowly crawled closer. When time got closer the kids went outside to watch from the driveway. I could tell when he pulled into the driveway because they started to scream. When I heard that, I headed outside. When Ben got out of the truck, the kids ran over to him and practically jumped on him. I was surprised he didn't fall over. I then walked over and gave him a hug and a kiss and the kids made an "oh lala" sound that made me laugh. I then helped him grab some of his stuff, the kids grabbed some, and we all headed inside. We put all of his stuff in our bedroom and then we went into the front room to sit down to eat dinner.

During dinner he talked about his drive home and some of the big things that happened since we saw him last. Watching him and listening to him, I could tell that he was beat. When dinner was done, I cleaned up the mess and told him to go ahead and go lay down. When I was done, I came in to see if he had and of course he didn't, he was unpacking. I told him we could do that later, but he said he couldn't relax with all of his stuff just sitting on the floor. We worked together to get what we could cleaned up, put the kids to bed, and then went to bed ourselves. It was so nice to have him home, to fill him in the bed with me. I had missed having his side of the bed full. 

His homecoming was short, but sweet all at the same time. We were all very happy to have him home.

Dinner with Nelson and Deann

This would be the last time visiting Ben's Dad and Deann while he was gone. I am a firm believer that family is important. It doesn't matter if it's my family or Ben's, family is family. While he was gone, I made sure to keep up our visits, even though it was only once a month. I'm grateful that I did too, it was nice being able to get out and see other adults instead of my kids 24/7.

As usual, we kept it simple. We planned to eat and visit. With it still being nice outside, we of course did hot dogs and all the fixings. We also had a few different sides to choose from. There was plenty to eat and if the kids went hungry, that was their own fault. 

After dinner the kids were happy to see Nelson pull out the marshmallows and stuff to make smores. They had a hay day and made a ton. I thought for sure they were going to get stomach aches. I tried to get them to stop, but every time I turned around, they were sneaking another marshmallow. At least they only had one smore each. I can't tell you how many marshmallows because I have no idea.

Hope Week

Hope week is a week long event put on by the Hope Squad's in the district. The Hope Squad's (from the High school's) go to all the Junior High and Elementary school's with presentations to spread awareness about suicide and to inspire hope to all those dealing with those kind of thoughts. They are trying to show the kids that there are always a better option.

I had no idea what Hope week was when I heard about it, but as a PTA board member, I discovered it was a PTA sponsored activity. Well kind of. It's an activity put on by the district and all the schools are asked to help participate in order to make it a great event. All of the schools were asked to work together to provide all the entertainment, prizes, and refreshments for all the different activities during that week. 

North Ogden Elementary was asked to provide 3 different prizes for the event. They told us that we could spend no more than $100 and we could get whatever we wanted. This assignment landed on Amber and she bought 3 large toys to be donated as the prizes. She got a large Lego kit, a hover board, and a remote control truck. I was surprised that she kept that to $100 dollars when I heard what she got. When she submitted her receipts, she actually went over. Thank heavens it wasn't by a ton, but that now meant either she had to limit herself on the next activity or I had to move money around with voting approval of course. Either way I was just glad our assignment for the event was done and over with.

Despite it being a PTA sponsored activity, the kids and I didn't go. Each event was held at a different place and with the whole district being involved that was going to be a lot of kids. Not to mention, I had way too much to at home to worry about going to these very crowded events. The kids didn't seem to mind either, which made it even better when I told them we weren't going. The only thing they were upset about was not getting a free Zeppe's. Needless to say, we went and got a treat of our own that week and it tasted just as good as if we got it at the event.