More Lessons.

I think that it is truly amazing where life takes you and which sets of plans don't work out and which do. In 2003, I had been accepted to three different colleges and I was trying to pick one. In 2004, I was going to my local community college and living in the ghetto. In 2005, I was pregnant. In 2006, I fell in love. In 2007, I was pregnant again. In 2008, I suddenly found myself in Washington State with my husband. Now, here I sit in 2011 (albeit, the end). My husband is over seas. He won't be back for several months. I had another baby ten months ago. I am less than six months from finally finishing college, after a lot of obstacles and breaks. We are less than a year from ending our association with the Navy. We plan on staying in Washington. My husband has decided that he is going to go to school for a second bachelor's degree, in music. Life has led us in such an interesting direction, that sometimes I just have to stop and shake my head. I love where I am right now, but that doesn't mean that there aren't some things that I would change.

In the last six days, I have learned that best-laid plans are for the birds. No matter what, something will always come up that changes the name of the game. Today, the book store was closed and I was unable to pick up some books that my three-year-old ordered on his school field trip. It was small, but it was still a part of my plan for the day and it was still a change. When it comes to deployment, nothing is certain. I am less than a week in and I have already learned that. I expected my washing machine to be exploding and my children to be running rampant. Instead, my trashcan broke and they are having trouble sleeping. Nothing is ever the way that you plan it to be. Here are some lessons I have learned so far:

1. You will get the one person at the NEX who doesn't comprehend "fade" when you take your little boy in for a haircut. You will also need to know certain numbers for a fade, otherwise it will barely look like a haircut at all.

2. Recordable books are really annoying in the hands of a child who doesn't use them correctly.

3. Porcelain trash cans can suddenly and inexplicably break into two pieces.

4. Your support network can change at any given moment, in the Navy world people are not the most reliable thing.

5. A ten month old who suddenly starts rejecting food will go back to having seedy, breastfed baby poop but they will have more of it and it will explode all over everything.

6. Grocery shopping is not so bad when you do it completely alone.

7. Skype freezes a lot and always when you are making a weird face.

8. Skyping on a laptop while in bed creates a really unflattering angle, which also adds ten pounds.

9. Dogs get weirdly territorial and overprotective when they sense a major change.

10. Cat boxes are absolutely disgusting and cats are foul, filthy little buggers.

That is all for today. Good night. I shall leave you with a picture from the unflattering Skype angle.