The Bullet List {Amber From Goodnight Moon}

I have always been in complete awe of military wives, I actually always feel a little intimidated by them.  They have experienced motherhood in a way I hope I never have too, and because of them and the sacrifices their families make, I probably never will.  Whenever I happen upon one of their blogs I love the way they “tell it like it is” – they have no time for pretense.

Amber is one such momma that I had a chance to meet recently.  In her blog Goodnight Moon she writes letters to her husband, and shares stories with fellow military wives, with an honest and genuine voice.  Her Marine has been deployed to Afghanistan since January leaving her both mom and dad to 4 “little chickens”.  In her posts you can feel the days that are hard, the days she tries to find the humor in it, and the days that just flat out stink.  I tell ya, I don’t think I could do it.

I am happy to report that her family will be whole again in less than two weeks, and in every email I have received from her I can feel her excitement.  So it seems fitting that her list is on just that.

Amber Willis

How you know your at the end of your husbands deployment to Afghanistan:

• The kids are all use to eating cereal for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. In fact, when you actually make something GOOD to eat, they question who’s coming over to eat with us?
• When you actually get dressed, and the kids ask, “where are we going today”? Normally we all stay in our pj’s all day…sometimes….day, after day, after day. Why not when we don’t go out and do anything. I’m trying to save on laundry.
• You realize that all those “cleaning/organizing” projects that you told yourself you would do to keep busy while he is gone, hasn’t even been started.
• Finding gray hair, after gray hair
• Knowing when your kids cry for their daddy everyday, sometimes several times a day, is almost over.
• Getting butterflies in your stomach thinking about kissing all over your sexy Fox of a husband.
• Knowing that soon you will finally be able to enjoy an ENTIRE nights sleep again. My body has been on Afghan time from the day that he left, in other words…I’ve had insomnia for the last 6 months.
• Knowing that I can hand over the reins of the paying the bills.
• Coming up with “Welcome Home” sign sayings. Our is, “Our Superdad stayed away from the Kryptonite in Afghanistan. Mommy’s going to retire his cap tonight! We missed you Daddy”.
• Getting to shop for a homecoming dress.
• Knowing that once he gets home, we will be preparing for yet another move. This time, from coast to coast.
• When you answer your cell phone from an unknown number, thinking that your talking to a telemarketer who keeps saying, “hello, hello”…only to realize that it’s the voice of your extremely exhausted Marine.
• Knowing that he will be skinner that you are when he gets home. Barely any food intake+Barely any sleep=A very skinny butt.
• Being able to finally make a countdown chain for the kids to understand how many more days daddy will be home, instead of saying, “daddy will be home soon”.
• Knowing that he won’t have to miss all the small and big moments anymore. Birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, baby’s first words, a 2 yr old riding a bike, a 4 yr old telling funny jokes, and a 7 yr old who reads chapter books.
• Being able to just be a mother again. Playing mother and father for 29 wks/201 days is exhausting. Soon I can say, “go ask your father”.
• Already dreading the loss of our hazardous duty pay and tax free money.
• Not having to take all 4 kids to the commissary (base grocery store). I can either send the hubs, or leave him with all the kids.
• You are so incredibly proud of yourself and your strength for surviving all the trails and weakness along the deployment. All the lonely nights are coming to an end.
• Knowing that the moment that I first see my Marine step off the bus, and we embrace for the first time will be the most magical moment ever. I close my eyes every night and imagine that moment. And soon I will be standing there at his homecoming with the kids, awaiting my reality back into my life.