Max, Penny, & Maple

It is true what they say: there is never enough time.  I am one that will focus on time in an abstract way such as, "in two weeks this stress will be behind me", or "three more days until vacation".  It is always on the forefront of my mind, but never the actual focus.  

This time, there just wasn't enough time and there would never have been enough time.  We lost Max on December 10, 2023; two days shy of his 10th birthday.  We woke up that morning and took a walk like we always did, and after the walk he acted a little strange.  Given the fact that he had ACL surgery January 4, 2023, Max acting strange post walk was not unusual.  Sadly, we wouldn't know until it was too late, but a tumor had ruptured on his spleen.  

I often joked that Max was my support dog as no one understood my moods quite like my boy, but it was true.  After we let him go it felt like I was off balance for days, my constant was gone and I was feeling overwhelmed by grief.  He had helped me through 3 deployments, countless field times, 5 moves, fertility struggles, teaching, school, the works.  His loss felt like a tangible entity, a companion that I was not happy to have.  Penny would sit on the couch and just look sad and to be honest, Phil and I weren't much better.  We arrived at my parents house for Christmas looking like the lost souls we felt like. 

But, the saying, "time heals all wounds" is also true and we began healing day by day, little by little.  After she got to spend time with my parents dogs, it was clear that Penny really needed a friend.  Penny is not meant to be an only dog, she has never been one, and that adjustment was not going smoothly.  I probably overwhelmed her with my love and devotion, but what can you do?  

We brought Maple home January 27, 2024 and boy what a fun time this has been! She is the sweetest, cuddliest, goofiest little girl around and we just love her to pieces.  She gets into enough mischief and butt wiggles so big, that I think Mr. Max has been dropping a few hints to help her handle her new humans ;)

She adores Penny and we are in a constant state of canine chaos in our house and I could not be more grateful.  Thinking of Max always gives me a pang (that whole time thing again), but sweet little Maple is definitely helping all of our hearts heal and love fully again.

Christmas, Classes, & Homecoming Prep

 There is a huge part of me that still semi believes that I am trapped in this endless loop of October, but we are officially in January! It feels incredibly strange that Christmas came and went, Fall semester ended, and I am in the home stretch of this deployment.  Time is such a funny thing to me.

Even though Phil was deployed, I still made him do Christmas card photos with me:

Our photographer is super talented and Phil definitely indulged me with doing his part of the photo (shoutout to his awesome 1st Sergeant for being his photographer).  These turned out so well and are a sweet reminder of this deployment.

The puppies and I had a great Christmas with my parents (they came to spend it with me), and they each got new collars, leashes and bones!  

Spring semester is going to start soon!! I am so excited!  I really enjoyed my first semester of my doctoral program and cannot wait to keep pursuing this dream.  The only downside is that I have to take statistics this semester and I am NOT a math person in any way, shape or form, so think good thoughts for me please :)

We are definitely on the downward spiral of this deployment and I am so excited!!!  I am so ready for Phil to be home and re-establish our "normal".  It is so strange because for a while the deployment seems like it will last for eternity, and then you look up and you have less than a month left....I am not complaining about that process in the least! 

I hope you all have a great week and have had a great start to your New Year!

I am looking for fun destinations for Phil and I to visit when he gets home, he will get a little leave time, any suggestions? 

Classes, Flowers, & More Truck Stuff

 THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL CAME!!!  I have been thinking about this day since I officially accepted the offer into the University of Tennessee's Doctoral Program in June, and it finally came!

The occasion obviously called for a First Day of School picture: 

GO VOLS!

I was full of excitement Monday morning!  However, my classes are at 5pm, so by 3:30pm, I began to pace.  The dogs were huge supporters as they too walked laps around my house.

By 4:30pm I was in full pace/panic mode when I received a very sweet surprise:

Phil is the sweetest :)

About halfway through class I realized that this is just school, and it felt really good to be back in the saddle.  The build up to my Tuesday class was a lot better. 

                                                

Max and Penny were there to cheer me on!

Also good news: in addition to four brand new tires, I am now the proud owner of new rear and front brakes!!  I can do all sorts of truck stuff now with my new tires AND stop when I want to...life is good and hopefully vehicle maintenance free for now.

This made me chuckle because as much as my dogs hate anyone who rings the doorbell or heaven forbid someone knocks, they have a canny ability to tell when its the Chewy delivery...then they look at me wondering why it's taking me so long to bring that beautiful box in....that's because its heavy and I have to wrestle it inside the door with a doggy audience.

I hope everyone has a great week!! How is school going for everyone?  Are you all doing online or in person learning?

Doggy Daycare, Audible, & Truck Stuff

Life in OK has been HOT!!!!! And by hot, I mean 105* with a real feel of 115* hot.  Days like that make playing outside with the dogs super difficult: they want to play, but we can really only do about 20 minute increments before we need to head back inside.  As a treat, I loaded up the puppies and took them to doggy daycare so they could play and socialize with all of their friends in the air conditioned playrooms.  When picking them up, I received the most interesting report on my little bud Max: he is always the last one out of the playroom when they go outside for breaks.  This time, he managed to find their food bin, unlatch it, and take a nibble on his way out....he also managed to do that on the way back in to the playroom....I swear I feed them

Do not let those soulful eyes fool you....

Phil reads/listens to a lot of leadership books and one thing we try to do together is listen to them and chat about the parts we find interesting and how we can both incorporate what we are learning into our fields.  I am currently listening to this one:

We have listened to some of Jocko Willink's other books and enjoyed them thoroughly and he is really nice to listen to (I don't know what he looks like, but I think he sounds like John Cena, so that is who I picture reading to me lol).  We also really enjoyed Dan Crenshaw's book Fortitude.  

The last time Phil was deployed (about 4 years ago) I had put new tires on the truck.  Before he left, he told me that they would probably last me through the summer, but that we needed them pretty soon.  That day came yesterday!  Somehow and somewhere on my in town travels, I picked up a nail in my rear drivers side tire.  I begrudgingly took it to Firestone after needing a pep talk from my mom, dad, Phil, and my mom's boss who is a retired Colonel from the Army....vehicle maintenance is not my thing and makes me nervous for reasons I do not understand.  The man at Firestone was really nice and as he looked at my tire he told me apologetically, " Ma'am I cannot fix your tire, it is so worn down the only thing you can do is replace the tire...please let me put new tires on this truck".   He helped me pick out some good ones (I think?) and on they went and I was good to go in an hour.  

I'm also going back next week because I need both rear and front brakes....the adventure continues...

An actual photo of me this summer:

I hope everyone has a great week!!  Does anyone else out there dislike vehicle maintenance or is it just me?  Let me know what y'all are listening to on audible!

Books, Syllabi, & Care Packages

I received both of my syllabi for my classes this semester!!!!!  I am soooooo excited!!!!  And ridiculously nervous; I am really hoping I am smart enough for this...

For my Leadership Theory class, we had to choose a leader ( could be any) to analyze their leadership tactics and write our final paper on.  This gave me pause for concern as the term "leader" could be taken in many different directions.  I finally settled on Lt. General Hal Moore

We Were Soldiers is my favorite war movie and I am always inspired by his leadership as it is portrayed, so I decided to get up close and personal with Hal and his leadership qualities over the next semester.

Along with reading about Hal, I finished Voyager and am now moving onto the next installment of the Outlander series, Drums of Autumn and I am pretty excited!  I have not watched seasons 4 & 5 yet, so no spoilers! 

In true Outlander spirit, I also preordered this gem:

Such fun! Maybe it will spark ideas for that Scottish vacation I was talking about... ;) 

I received a surprise care package from my brother and sister-in-law and it was so cute and thoughtful! I was just completely touched!  And how cute (and fitting) is the card they sent:

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!  The pups and I will be taking short outdoor breaks to combat this crazy triple digit heat and drinking plenty of water!  

Anyone else wilting in this summer heat too?  Is it too early to wish for Fall? 

Baby Shower, Toothache, & Outlander

One of the things I truly love about Army life is the people you meet along your journey.  Phil and I have met people that will be lifelong friends and we will have connections with them for all times; even if we aren't stationed together again, or we are stationed together after a crazy amount of years.  It is something that truly makes Army life special. 

That being said, this weekend I celebrated our two friends M and B who are expecting their first child in October!!!!!!!  We were all stationed together in CO and were lucky enough to be stationed here in OK together as well!  M and I met at a Family Fun Day Live Shoot and have been besties ever since.  It was such a fun day and I cannot wait to meet Baby G this Fall :)

Also on Saturday I woke up with a toothache, which was odd because I didn't do anything that should provoke its' crankiness.  I slept super poorly Saturday night due to ridiculous tooth pain (I also spent my time in the ridiculous hours of the night/morning Googling random things, making myself terrified and then going down the Pinterest rabbit hole instead).  Sunday passed in a blur of Advil and smoothies and I even left a message with my dentist to hopefully get in on Monday.  They did call me back and I did not get an appointment until Wednesday!  By Wednesday my tooth was feeling much better, but I kept the appointment and went anyway.  It turns out my tooth is absolutely fine and in good shape and I just had a bad reaction in my gum so that's why it was swollen...go figure!  I can now continue my supreme avoidance of the dentist for the next few years :)

Each deployment I end up binging a certain or a couple of shows, and this time it is Outlander.  I had read books 1 & 2 a bit ago and discovered the series on Netflix and am obsessed.  I ordered books 3 & 4 and am halfway through book 3 already.  

This has me thinking about a Scotland vacation once Phil returns and everything settles down a bit.  Phil and I don't normally take too many vacations: we do weekend trips (Waco, Fort Worth, OKC, etc) but the last vacation we took was to Jamaica four years ago when he returned form Deployment #2....we tend to be slight workaholics.   So maybe an adventure in the Highlands is in order ;)

This meme made me laugh so hard as it continues to be a thousand degrees in OK and I brush Penny out 2-3 times a week to keep up with her fluff

Sad, but oh so true!!!

I hope everyone has a great week!!!!  Any factions planned for the future?  Any Scotland advice?

Hello Again

Hello!!! It has been a very very long time since I have written!  Life has been crazy and really so much has happened over the past year to really recap.

We are still in Oklahoma!  We bought a house last summer and have loved every minute of being homeowners

We are working through our 3rd Deployment; due to COVID Phil's deployment date changed quite a few times, and even though I had secretly hoped he wouldn't, he did in fact deploy in May

It is tough as always, but I have these two cuties to help me through it!

Look at those faces!!! :)

I am embarking on my own new journey career-wise: I have been accepted into the Doctoral Program of Educational Leadership at Tennessee University!!! I am beyond excited as this has always been my goal! I am starting their online program this Fall and am literally counting down the days until my classes start!

If you don't wear the swag, do you even go there?? ;)

It feels good to be back!  Maybe I will make this a regular thing again???

How is everyone's summer?  What are you all doing to stay sane during the heat and during COVID?