"Normal Life"

Sometimes I wonder what "normal life" would be like.  Is there such a thing?  I guess this post falls under the category of "life in the military can be hard."  I really have nothing to complain about, since I have a wonderful family, a husband who has a job that also affords me the capability to be home with our children.  But sometimes it's very overwhelming to live this life.

Before you say, "but you chose this" or "you knew what you were getting in to" or "at least you're not in the army," just don't.  None of those phrases work.

The constant unknowns, schedule changes, ups and downs are stressful on everyone in the family.  There's no 8-5 job when you're doing what Mason does.  Dinners go uneaten, sometimes beds aren't slept in, babysitters get panicked phone calls because "he's not home yet" or last minute calls, "I won't need you tonight, his schedule changed."  There's always more work, more studying, more exercising to be done in order to stay on top of the game.

I know it will get harder from here.  I want Mason to have a career in the Air Force for a long time.  I hope he gets to be a commander one day, and I get to be a command spouse.  We joke that the end of Mason will be the day he comes home with his USAF issued blackberry.  Tonight I was at Bunco, and the Group Commanders husband came home (at 8pm) was literally there for 5 minutes and got called back in to work...that's his daily reality...so I know I have no place to complain.

The ups and downs have been hard lately.  We've been waiting for 6 months to find out if Mason was going to get into Weapons School. We were hoping and praying he would get in.  We had endless discussions about how things would be if he had to head to Barksdale for 6 months, especially when the baby was due.  We talked about all the studying and preparing he would need to do before leaving, which basically meant lots of flying, lots of long hours at work studying classified information he can't bring home, and lots of time studying the unclassified work at home.

Some rumors started surfacing that the July class (13B) was going to be cancelled, but Mason got emails saying it wasn't going to happen, the committee was still meeting to decide on candidates, and class would go on.  After 6 long months of waiting, we found out that Mason got in!!!  I was/am sooooooo proud of him!  He worked so hard to get there, and he deserves to go. Two weeks after he found out he got in, he got the official word that the class was cancelled due to budget cuts.  I think at this point we both had mixed emotions.

A blessing in disguise that Mason will now get to be home for the birth of BK2, he'll have more study time, but the biggest blow is that they all have to reapply for the January class (14A).  They aren't automatically in the class, so now, he's had to update and resubmit his application which is due this month, and we go back to waiting for 6 months to hear if he'll be headed down to Barksdale in January.

It's so hard to describe how that felt to have gotten accepted, and then basically told you're back at square one.  His application is better this time around, and I'm hopeful that he'll get into the January class, if not the one following, but it's hard to see the disappointment in your spouses face when they've worked so hard!

Now, instead, the AF has decided that Squadron Officer School (SOS) is still important enough to fund...don't ask me why...do Mason will be attending that, to check a box off on his resume.  He'll be in Alabama from the end of May until the end of July sweating it out.  Certainly not as exciting as Weapons School, but he'll have study time that won't be interrupted by a spouse or child.

The time will be flying by, hopefully, and soon we'll have sweet BK2 here to distract us from the waiting process.  Meanwhile, we have adorable and sassy Theo to entertain us!