Waiting. Planning. What does that even mean?

2 things that never go together... military life & planning a fellow military wife on twitter couldnt have said it better. I think that this is a perfect topic to cover today.. well always but mostly today. Everywhere around me People are waiting. Waiting to see their SO come home from a deployment. Waiting for a TDY to end. Waiting to PCS this summer. Waiting to hear where they are going, even though they know they ARE going. Waiting for orders that might not even come. Do you catch what is going on here??? Waiting?? Yup you guessed it. that my friend is the word you need to identify, learn, and say often. Its something you will hear too often. You wait. You sit at home, wherever that is, and you wait. That is what us military spouses do . We wait. Come on now you should be good at it by now. Now read that again. I said good at it.. that doesnt mean we are not impatient, frustrated, and a little tired of waiting.. Lord knows I am.

How about 'I dont Know' Yup another thing you need to learn. Isnt it frustrating to hear that..I.DONT.KNOW.. I hate when Matt comes home with news, only half of the news of course, of an up comig deployment or TDY or PCS or traning exercise and you ask a question only to have him say 'I dont know' What do you mean I dont know?? You have to know!! Nope, nope he does not. The military is great at this. Dates change. Orders Change. Everything changes. Oh and dont think that because he said he would be home this week..that it wont get pushed back another week or two. Dont think that because his deployment is supposed to leave Saturday, that it wont get moved to tonight. Yup it happens. Its happened to us. I cant tell you how many times Ms last deployment times changed. He is on the deployment, he is off.. no he is back on. Nope off. Wait its the week the deployment leaves and he is back on!! Then oh they leave next week.. Oh no wait they leave tomorrow. At 9pm..on the way to drop him off at the squadron, get a call they are on standbye..come in, dont come in. Oh and did you see I mentioned PCS orders? Oh yea those change too. Especially with these budget cuts. I know too many spouses who have been ready for a PCS and it get cancelled that last minute..bummer right!? Just tell yourself this, I wont believe it until we pull out of the drive way. I wont believe it till his plane takes off or lands...

Ok another side of I dont know. You have family right?? of course you do, we all do, doesnt matter if we act like we dont or not. How many times have you talked to your family and they ask a million questions. When will he deploy next? Where too? When will he be home? What time and day EXACTLY? When do you get to PCS move , because we all know they dont say PCS, next? Can yall move home yet? When can he get out? What do you even say to those?? "I dont know" is all there is to say, because well...you dont. Of course they dont get it. How frustrating.. you are already frustrated that YOU yourself dont know whats going on but now to add on having to explain it to a non military member... yikes. Not that non military members are dumb, its just they dont really understand the military, hell I dont even understand the military. So ' I dont know' is just what we are told..and its what we tell others.

Planning.. if you are a planner FOR.GET.IT yup forget that. Im a planner. I plan...major OCD right here! I have a clean, organized house, and I know what preschool, kindergarten, high school, and collage my kids will attend. Yup MJ is 1... see I plan I a military wife..I should know that planning is not something that does with the military life. But I do it anyways..I know some of you do too. We need to have some organization in our lives right?? RIGHT! We plan..but guess what.. it changes.. yep, everything that I wrote above happenes and it changes. You are moving to Germany?? Oh that is awesome. Oh they cancelled your orders the month before and instead put your husband on this upcoming deployment that leaves in two weeks!! Oh Im sorry. JK that doesnt happen that often. Well it does but try not to think about that. OR do?? Plan to not have a plan.. Yep thats it.

How does this relate to my life, and maybe yours, today?? Well how doesnt it relate to a military spouses life?? No, but really. If you have been following me you know that M has got accepted into recruiter school. after having the same job in the Air Force for almost 8 years, he decided he needed a change. He was part of a squadron that deploys every year, a squadron and a job that he was just over. 3 years in Guam, 4 here.. he was ready for a change. So we looked at our options and recruiting it was!! After the long WAITING ( see there is that word again) period and application and interview process, he got accepted. Then we WAITED some more to get the list of open recruiter offices that he could choose from.. OHIO woow woo. We put two in Ohio ( both about 45 min from his family) and two in Florida..nice beaches..im there. Then we WAITED some more..ugh that word is overrated. You know what I did..am doing..because Im a planner of course.. I have a list of houses on my realtor.com app just WAITING for Matts mom to go look at as soon as we get the word of where we are going and when. We wont be by a base so it isnt just as easy as getting on the housing list,bummer. March 30.. that is the next milestone. March 30th we find out his class date for recruiter school. & weeks back in lackland TX..I bet its weird to be back at the same base as BMT.. haha  SO yaa March 30 ( probably not I bet they make us WAIT until next week). When we get his class date we know that we were given one of the office choices we picked, but we wont know which one, seriously?? Your gonna do that to me? I mean us of course... You know where we are going so tell me! Next milestone April 30. By April 30th our RIP will be in... we will know where we are going and our ANLTD yes!! FINALLY I can plan!! I can plan our San diego vacation we are trying to take before he leaves, I can plan when I am going out to look at houses, I can know where we are going to live for the next four years of our lives..and I can say that I DO know..something..I know something! Yes! I can plan! as much as you can plan, beaing a miltiary wife and all.

Do you get this post?? I know you relate! To those of you who are young and new to this life, take this post and read it..over and over. Get it in your head that you wait. You dont know, it changes, and you cant plan. Stress comes with the job. But you have a million other military spouses who are going through the exact same thing and are there to support you. Use those spouses... it can be the spouses right next door or a spouse you met on a wives page who ives across the country. They can help you.

Until then. Wait. (hehehe)