Deployment Positive Monday- Week 1

I've decided that since Thursdays are my late night at work I will give Mondays a try for my weekly positive post. Plus it gives me a great distraction from all the housework I've been avoiding since Andrew left. 

I was really struggling with the idea of getting back into the weekly posts, but looking back on my blog from the first deployment, I can't imagine ever going through a deployment and not having that time in our lives documented. Even now, it is so cool to look back on all of the emotions, activities and events of 2011. When I read those old posts, everything still feels so fresh, and I have a feeling that in the years to come reading my own words will always have that effect on me.  Having a weekly blogging "responsibility"-if you will- also seemed to help the time go by just a little bit faster. 

So here I am, back to my weekly posts. I have been finding myself constantly comparing the two deployments and we aren't even a week into it yet. I don't know if that's normal for people who experience multiple deployments, and I don't know if its some sort of coping mechanism that my subconscious is somehow reminding myself that I've done this before, but its been happening. A lot.  

The biggest comparison I've been noticing is how much has changed in the 17 months since Andrew's return home. The little technology improvements that we don't notice on a day-to-day basis have made a huge difference in our communication already. Last time we didn't video chat until 92 days into the deployment and already we have facetimed twice since Andrew has been overseas. He is still in transit so I know that is likely to change, but it has been so comforting to see his face and hear his voice. We have also been able to TEXT... Not just email but text each other every day, all thanks the the invention of iMessage, which will continue to work for Andrew as long as he has wifi. 

I'm still adjusting to this new phase of our lives, but honestly the transition has been pretty seamless so far. The hardest part is the nighttime because of my active imagination, I'm always convinced that somebody is trying to break into my apartment, but as the days turn into weeks and months, I'm sure I will get used to sleeping alone. Plus, lucky me, my wonderful husband left me with not one but two hand guns on my bedside table and a teddy bear he got me when we were in college that wears an Army T-Shirt, so what else does a girl really need to feel safe?