America the Beautilful

So here we are, josh has been gone  a little over 5 weeks now, well lets be real i am counting almost 6 weeks.....Just gotta make it one more week till i am in the home stretch, May will be busy (I hope) or at least i plan to make it busy with play dates and soaking in time with those I love to because i am hoping once june hits i have a SEVERE shortage of time before i move to California.  I have learned a LOT this time that josh has gone, one of which was so true from my mother who said, times like this make you realize that the orders God puts in place are there for a reason and it makes you appreciate them.  Now all of you who know me also know that I am EXTREMELY stubborn and indepentdant, i often feel like i have to do everything on my own or its failure on my part, well some of that is still true, ok MOST of that is still true...i am absolutly awful at asking for help from MOST people....i know, its a curse....Sorry...but I guess ya'll still love me cause i still have friends haha.  But one thing I do appreciate is that My family roles are where they are supposed to be.  Now the past 3 or so years have been rather tough and the traditional bread winner roles were honestly switched not out of desire out of need and God has so more than graciously provided for EVERYTHING PLUS A LOT than we needed and we are/were/and hopefully will continue to be thankful of those needs despite our lack of faith at times and our stubborn struggles, but needless to say, i was the one working multiple jobs and still craving to be just mommy and do everything on my own, Josh had his personal demons and struggles to deal with because that is not the life he wanted and hated every minute of it (don't worry he will tell you the same thing)  BUT God as always has pulled us through that and put us back in our place (as he often does :0)  however it also isn't without some trials and teaching time...(WHEN IS IT?!)  All within really a 4/5 week time period i had to quickly adjust to the idea that not only was my husband sworn in to the army but we would be hopefully selling/renting our house soon and moving...not just anywhere MONTEREY CALIFORNIA....NO lie look on a map...it is almost dead even with south carolina (plus or minus a few) and the FARTHEST place across the country we could POSSIBLY go with staying on the continental US grounds....talk about wanting an adventure...yeah....tell me about it.  Funny thing is when josh and i started dating i swore i would NEVER be a military wife....I would NEVER marry someone who would have a job like CIA or intelligence where its so secretive i can't even ask about it (which IRONICALLy was carreer path josh was on when we first met and became friends)  and I would probably always live within 30 minutes at most of my parents...yeah try 40 hours away, 2 time zones, 3 hour difference in time, a hubsand who after we have been together almost 10 years has now gone into the army in no less job than the first one that i met him wanting to do AND well....thats enough to deal with lol.  Its so funny to look back at how god TRIES to show you what he is gonna do with you but then when you say UH HUH he will say alright fine lets do this the HARD way!   He always did say ask and you shall recieve i think we are just the stubborn ones who make it harder than need be 9 times out of 10....granted most of us learn by making our own mistakes.  Funny enough for josh one of the first things he told me was he will NEVER go live in california....why i remember that, im not really sure but it stuck with me.  So the next question or statement rather that gets thrown at me is ...well the Army huh, that came out of no where didn't it.....actually no, not in the slightest.... as open as you all think i am and social and friendly and NOT shy, there are part of me and my life that i do not typically air out, the military was one of them.  Josh's dad is Retired Navy after 20+ years of service so growing up imlitary is something josh always knew, honestly it was one of the first things he ever told me was that he tried to go active duty at 18 but through a random bit of circumstances he didn't go through with it, thank goodness he didn't because not only would we both have totally different lives (IE nothing with each other cause we wouldn't have met) i would have 2 of the greatest boys in the world...(well my personal opinion is THE best lol but i am biased and do have several other sweet boys I ADORE!)  So that brings us back to College, at the time we met his actual Major was Criminal justice because he wanted to be a language specialist in the CIA or FBI or something "cool like that" i think were his words...i scoffed and said i couldn't ever marry a guy like that it would freak me out to never know what he was really doing at work!  he even said so you wouldn't even DATE me if that were the case?  i told him first off yeah like we would ever date lol and second nope i can't date someone that I have no chance in marrying......again....Irony.....about a month later he changed his major to Music Ed becuase of another series of random events which i honestly don't remember much of just the actual day he decided to change his major was pretty funny....and then my world started to change...that was also kind of an Epic day in college Through a another series of events one of which i think was even josh getting turned down by another girl (which he claims he only talked to her cause he didn't think i would date him yeah right lol (i do love you honey :0p))  I walked up in the middle of drama central with some of our other friends and He said I have a question...never mind don't hit me and then kissed me...well lets just say the rest is history....4+ years of college 5 years of marriage and 2 kids later we are where we are, In the army and he is away at BCT learning to be our own personal GI joe (as my nephew informed me he was...love you jackson :0)  Though everything i am going through isn't alwasy fun, one of my best friends asked me this weekend after i once again spilled my guts to her (sorry Alicia you get all the fun stuff lol)  she asked me knowing what i know now and after all i have told her would I got back 6 months and still say yes when he asked if he could join the army, and honeslty without skipping a beat i said Yes.  the Change i have seen in his pride, his self worth, his strength, his boldness for Christ, and his Love for us (not that he didn't love us before but its different now) is something i would suffer a 1000 times more for.  Yes its been tough, but nothing ever worth it is really easy after all is it?  someone if it comes easy you just don't really appreciate what it brings you.....So here's to the last 5 weeks of being a single mom this time (at least for a little while) and to my awesome husband who is not only making his own dreams come true but making me the proudest army wife of them all...so here i will go sporting my "eclectic variety of army wife t-shirts" as one of my patients called them lol, and i will probably succumb to the fad of the ACU purses and anything else cool that I see becuase well, i am proud, and any way i can show my pride in him is what i am going to do....just for you guys are some pictures thanks to the 3-60th River raiders page and the wonders of Facebook (yes i know boot camp has changed...no he doesn't get to talk to me on facebook but is commander posts updates in general and once a week they can post up o 25 pictures of each company to which i have been fortunate to spot josh in a few)  just to let ya'll see what he's been up to...and i can't WAIT until may 30th to tackle my husband and have my world complete again even if it is for 2 days :0)