Reasons I enjoy deployment

A few weeks ago, I wrote a guest blog post for my friend Kathryn about deployment. One of the things that I encouraged her to do in that post was to “enjoy the deployment.” Shortly thereafter she responded on her blog by writing a post entitled “Reasons to Enjoy a TDY.” I enjoyed reading her post so much that I thought I would steal her idea and do a similar one here on my blog!

Reasons I enjoy deployment:

1. More freedom in scheduling and caring for our baby.

While raising a child with my husband overseas is definitely not the easiest situation, in other ways it does have some perks. I only have to focus on one thing: my baby. Not my baby AND my husband. It has been helpful to be able to stay up late, co-sleep, and even play with the baby during the middle of the night without worrying about disturbing daddy who has to wake up at 0500! I don’t have to walk down the hall and out to the couch when Ezra is crying during the night.

2. Sleeping in!

My body clock (and my baby’s) has always functioned better on an 11PM bedtime and a 9AM wake time. Even when I was pregnant Ezra was active late at night and liked to sleep early in the morning. When Russ is home, we don’t have that luxury! He has to be at work at 9AM and most mornings Russ is trying to drag me out of bed at 0730 or 0800. So, the ability to sleep in and cuddle in bed in the mornings til 10AM sometimes is incredibly nice! Little Man and I are very much not morning people!

3. Less laundry.

Russ goes through 3 changes of clothes every day…PTs, ACUs, and then playclothes at night. That makes for a LOT of laundry! With him gone, there’s a lot less laundry, so a lot less work for me!

4. Getting to listen to and watch TV show theme songs.

Russ has this highly annoying habit: whenever we watch a TV show (and we watch online so we have rewinding, fast-forwarding, and pausing capabilities), Russ wants to fast forward when they play the show’s theme song. I guess he gets tired of hearing it and seeing the same clips, and he thinks it saves time to skip it. In my opinion, it doesn’t save that much time as he tries to fast-forward, usually going too far, then having to rewind and find the spot. I actually find it pretty humorous that he’s so intent on skipping it, and we tease back and forth about it. When we DO let the theme song play, Russ insists on making fun of it, in some way, shape, or form, EVERY time, no matter what show it is. While I miss his crazy antics, sometimes it’s nice to be able to watch the theme song…and I never fast forward it!

5. Pausing TV shows and movies whenever I want.

Now that I’ve made fun of Russ, I get to make fun of myself. I rarely watch something without pausing it multiple times. To get a snack, to go to the bathroom, to check facebook, to check my email, to go to the bathroom (again), to go get a hair-tie or find my Burt’s Bees or my phone which I misplaced for the 15th time today, to get another snack… It’s highly annoying to anyone else who is trying to watch the show or movie with me. But with Russ gone, I don’t have to worry about annoying anyone!

6. Never having to adjust the seat or mirror in my car…EVER!

Russ and I use the same car a lot of times so we are constantly having to adjust the mirrors and seats. And you know how it is–it’s hard to get it “just right.” For a whole year I don’t have to worry about it!

7. The ability to take spontaneous trips.

There’s no worrying about leave paperwork, car inspections, and the “not signing out before midnight” rules. As I type this I’m up at my parent’s house in Chicago. I decided to come at 10AM yesterday. All I had to do was throw some things and the baby in the car and take off! Woohoo!

8. The ability to eat healthier.

I don’t have Russ begging for macaroni and cheese every other night, or wanting Taco Bell for lunch. I actually went close to 3 months without making any macaroni and cheese, and then took about 3 bites and was like “YUCK! How in the world can we eat this stuff?!?!”

9. The distance and time apart makes for some AMAZING homecomings!

It’s like being a newlywed all over again! OH the BUTTERFLIES!

Lest you think it’s all fun and games, the list I have for “reasons I hate deployment” is probably twice as long as this list. I’m just trying to count my blessings here!