A Year in Jacksonville

I could clog up my tear ducts blubbering about being alone on Valentine's Day, but I won't bother. We're not really Valentine people, anyway. I'll miss my sweetie this weekend but I have one so I'm not complaining. Sure, I would have gotten the most beautiful lilies (he always gets lilies, my favorite), probably some of his super-awesome chocolate belgian waffles with a raspberry coulis. Heck, he probably would have even gotten lucky.

No, no, I'll leave the Valentines Schmalentines to someone else. Instead, let me bore you with a recap of our year in Jacksonville.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. That was about it.

Really, there wasn't much interesting about it. Day to day was hectic and sometimes painful. Weeks and months of John working incredibly stupid hours all leading up to a deployment I was dreading.

Our year here was a slap in the face, a punch in the gut of "Welcome Back to Sea Duty!" It's been a tough road, but I think it's prepared me for what's to come next: something interesting. I'm glad we were in Jacksonville; something vaguely familiar, nothing too grand. I was able to learn to balance the boys and the mom/dad/cleaner/poop wiper/toy picker-uper/chef/laundry bitch/chaufeur/banker/candlestick maker and not have to worry too much about seeing the sights because we only had 18 months to do it.

We did't do much in a year, but I learned how to be a better mom. The limits of what I thought I could handle were tested, retested and then thrown in my face again. Most stay-at-home-moms are able to at least have their husbands do bath time or read stories at the days end. I usually got a phone call saying, again, that there wasn't going to be any daddy that night. When left to do everything, you learn to plaster the smile on your face and use your funny voices to read the same book for the 62nd night in a row...because that's what your kids need. I think that counts for something.

Oh, and I got knocked up again.

Onward and upward! Six more months here!