The end of a decade(plus) in his life...and mine.

This Sunday was a bittersweet day for Ess Gee and I.
He said good-bye to the Army Reserve unit he has been apart of for the past 12 years.  He has been promoted and has to transfer to another unit because the current one did not have an opening for his new rank.  This weekend he received his Congratulations and Best of Everythings and See ya's Later.  He has experienced three deployments under their regiment.  He has seen Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan with them.  Ess Gee and I were reflecting this morning about the crazy stories he has lived through with these soldiers.  Unfortunately none can be told here:-).

   With this unit I learned what is it is to be the spouse of a deployed soldier (TWICE).  I have so much respect for spouses who have to be without their partners while raising their kids.  I have learned the language of the military and even the culture.  When we were first married and Ess Gee was deployed 8 months into our marriage, I was not a fan of the military.  I walked around our one bedroom apartment saying outloud on many, many occasions, "I GOT MARRIED SO I COULD BE WITH MY HUSBAND!!"  On the second deployment, I found some really sweet friendship's with fellow soldier's wives. I seemed to keep them an arm's length away on the first round.  It was the space my head was in at that time, but this time, we got together in each other's homes, went out for dinners, even took a weekend trip away simply for fun.
 
   I learned more and more about my husband and the kind of man he is as a soldier in this unit.  As a soldier in leadership he's dependable, well-informed, full of wisdom, a bit of a quiet Pied Piper (has a following of soldier's who may not even be in his platoon, but call on him for help), a grace giver--he won't rat a lower-enlisted soldier out...he'll take that soldier aside, have a good talkin' to 'em, give them a chance to get squared away and then watch to see if further consequences should be pursued.  He's fair minded and a bit old-school, which makes him grumpy when the Army tries to do it differently then what he remembers:-).

If I write about my husband/soldier when he was deployed I will start to cry.  Let's just say, I can count on only one hand how many days I wasn't able to speak with him when he was away.  He was gone a year each time.  That's soooo big a thing to give a wife.  The ability to communicate with your spouse, to hear his voice, almost everyday.  L-u-m-p in my throat.

Yep, lots to be reflected on with the leaving of one thing to move on to another.  We have another three more years to go.  Ess Gee will have 24 years in the military by then.  That's almost 2/3 of my lifetime:-).  We'll, I don't really know if that's true, I'm too lazy to do the math, but it sounds funny.

Maybe a little bit too much like us:-).

Something that struck me as funny today is that dogs yawn and stretch.  Animals do this.  Isn't that strange?  The international sign for waking up or I'm sleepy is a yawn and/or stretch and I think God has the funniest sense of humor that animals (a lot of the furry kind) even bother with these actions.  I watched this dog with his head outside a passenger side window this morning while I was driving.  We all were stopped at a light.  The dog yawned a huge yawn and I was like, "I totally get how you feel, Buddy."
  This makes me wonder if whales yawn.  Ya' know what I mean?:-)  Things like that.  So weird and awesome to think about:-)!!

Alike. A tribute to my mother.

Yesterday when I was driving to work, I had gospel music going--real loud with the windows rolled down and it was 50 degrees outside, but sunny.  I was playing a song called "Lily in the Valley".  It's super old-school in it's arrangement, like you are sitting in a hot, humid church in the South in the 60's, waving a fan, while the congregants and the choir, all African American, sing like they just learned how or like they've been singing it since they've been born--with gusto, earnestness, honesty and a smile.  The harmonies repeat "There's a lily in the valley, bright as the morning star...there is a lily in the valley, bright as the morning star, there is a lily in the valley, bright as the morning star. Amen.  Amen. Amen."  And the author of the song has many people finding beautiful things in this valley...they find love, joy and peace, and they find it repeatedly.  There's even a solo from "grandpa"--They call him up to the mic, "Let Grandpa say his peace."  His voice is shaky, but when he says, "Somebody found love in the valley bright as the morning star" there's the authority of a life behind those words that tell you they cannot be contradicted.
  With the music playing and I'm singing just as loud as the volume, my voice catches involuntarily.  These words matter deeply, that love in the valley matters deeply.  And I think of my mother.  I remember growing up, singing next to her in church or singing next to her in the car, and her voice catching.  The words couldn't come even if she tried, because something was so stirred up in her that caused her not to be able to say them...even if it was just for a few seconds, I heard it.  Here I am now, a woman of 37, and this thing that moved my mother moves me.  And I respond in the same way she does.  Isn't it funny what gets inherited, even involuntarily?  I think I began listening to gospel music because of her.  I was introduced to prayer because of her.  I sometimes preach too many a sermon to people who may tire of a sermon...just like she preached to me:-).
  My husband and I got to spend some time with my mom and the rest of the fam around Christmas time.  Of course, we took tons of pictures, and as my mother was looking through a few of them, she said as she was looking at a picture of me, "This looks just like me.  I thought that was a picture of me."  I heard the in credulousness in her voice.  Like she couldn't believe it.  It really is a wonder.

The Lady's Suggestions

The post subject sounds like a title of a covert/not-so-covert romance novel written in the 50's:-).  Not to worry, it's nothing close.

The woman I am now working with is a bright, creative, funny one.  I will call her Maggie.

Here are a few suggestions Maggie has offered to me in the past couple of days:

It goes like this--

She says, "Do you like waffles?"
"Yes, I do."
"Do you have a waffle maker?  Did you get a waffle maker for your wedding?"
"I do not and I did not."
"Well, for Valentine's Day you should get a heart-shaped waffle maker for you and your husband."
"Not a bad idea:-)."

Or it goes like this--

She says, "What do you have on your walls?"
I say, "Only art, no family pictures."
She says, "Well, you should get a blank canvas, two fern fronds, and three different colors of paint.  Paint the canvas one color and dip the fern fronds into the two remaining colors of paint.  Press the ferns onto the canvas, leaving their print, and then you have a nice piece of art."
"Not a bad idea:-)."

Or like this--

(Her husband worked for a major airline before he retired.)
She says, "Take this section of the newspaper home after I am done reading it:-) and let your husband see this job opportunity.  It's a paid training position for an airline mechanic."  (She knows my husband is a Maintenance Manager of an apartment complex.  I'm sure that position could translate.)
I say, "Not a bad idea:-)."

It's nearly everyday I work that I get a Maggie Suggestion.  It's almost like a desk calender:-).