It Begins...

Well today the husband and his entire unit stood outside on the flightline for hours trying on and picking up their multicam uniforms and gear. This is the gear that they will actually take to Afghanistan. It certainly makes this deployment seem oh so real. They are not actually leaving until the summer some time but they will begin shipping their items soon.

Since deployment in nearing we want to try to do as much as we can afford to do before he leaves. So we have been planning a few trips. Our anniversary is coming up and the hubs surprised me by actually taking a couple days off. We originally planned to go out to dinner in the dark but after realizing they needed payment in advance we just went ahead and canceled with the intent to reschedule b/c that is too awesome to miss!!! So we have decided to take a trip to Switzerland. This will be our first time actually traveling out of Germany so we are both really excited!!! We also plan on taking a detour to go to Monkey Hill in Salem. Who can pass up free range monkey that you can hand feed! Hell Yea! LOL Well, actually the husband owes me this trip since we had planned to go last October and then went to Oktoberfest instead. Later we found out they closed for the winter. But they are reopened and I am ready!!!

Then later in May the girls and I are going with ODR on a Polish pottery trip. I am excited the ODR has put out their list of spring/summer trips. Hopefully it will keep us busy after the guys all leave. In June we have our big vacationed planned to the UK. I can hardly wait. After that trip I will be gearing up to throw a huge Deployment Sucks Party!!! One of the husbands good friends Crawford is actually letting me borrow his house for the night to throw this party. Since his house is on post and actually has a yard it will be a much better site for crazy infantryman to party b4 they deploy!!!!

As excited I am about the things we have planned, I know that after we do all these fun things the husband will be leaving. They say he could be gone up to 18 months. I am not looking forward to that at all. I could definitely handle 6-9 but 18, that is too long!

The only thing that may save me (besides having some good friends that will be going through the same thing) my mom & sister plan on visiting. I can hardly wait for them to be able to take in the beautiful sights I get to experience every day!!! Eeek!!! ;o)