Holy cow- has it really been four months since my last post?? I feel like I'm slacking. I'll throw out an apology to anyone who feels like they need one. Haha
Sorry, guys.
Since we last met, Caleb has been promoted to a temporary position as Corporal to give him a little extra responsibility until he can be promoted to Sergeant, which will probably happen in January-ish. Woo! He has been playing sports like there's no tomorrow. He was on a football team, now a basketball team, and just played another small bout of football.
Side note: I don't understand people who have this innate NEED to compete. I absolutely do NOT like to compete. For my husband, he's not having fun with an activity until he's competing. For me, I AM having fun until I'm competing. This, apparently is the reason he refuses to teach me to snowboard: because I'm not good enough (I'm not good at all, really) to compete with him and ride the "challenging slopes". Thus rendering me boring, apparently. Which would bother me if I cared more than not at all about snowboarding.
Bahahaha!
I've been getting more involved with the FRG (Family Readiness Group- basically all the wives planning fun stuff to do.) and it has been a BLAST. I love the ladies who were picked to be our leaders, I love the other wives in my troop, and I love the opportunities that have been presented to me because of them. I even joined Crossfit, with a lot of encouragement from Kristin and awesome support from Emma in the form of being my ride there. They've both been great friends and great motivators for me.
I'm doing better(ish) with getting a little more business for my small apartment massage gig. Some of Caleb's single soldier friends have come over to get a massage, some more than once, and it's helped. I really enjoy the guys he's friends with. I try to actually befriend them and not just be "Haight's wife". I try to joke with them like we're buddies, so I guess it would be really awkward if we aren't. Hahaha
I spend most of my time with Jessica and her baby, though. We see each other basically every day, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I laugh harder with her than almost anyone else. Even when we're not doing anything, I always manage to enjoy my time with her. She gets me, ya know?? PLUS, A FEW DAYS AGO HER BABY WALKED FOR THE FIRST TIME- RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!! It was super cool.
(The fact that I am this excited about HER baby walking should probably give you an indication of her importance in my life. [hashtag]bestfriends)
So, this CRAZY thing happened the other day. I was under the impression that we had several months to decide if Caleb was re-enlisting and where we would go. We have been talking about it a little bit, but we never really decided on anything. I get a call from him a few days ago basically saying that there was a re-enlistment spot open and we needed to decide what to do, "time now".
OIY!
Have you ever been in a situation where you had to decide your future in like, 30 seconds?? Let me tell you, it's a stressful thing.
In a jumble of confusion and only half talking to me, he told the retention guy that we would probably stay here for another year and be sent somewhere else after. (We don't get to pick that "somewhere else" though, so there was some risk involved.) I asked Caleb if he had made that his final decision, and he said that he had not. He was going to go to a meeting with another retention guy to discuss which would be the better option, then we would talk about it more.
For those of you familiar with the way the army does things, this next part will not surprise you.
Turns out that the first retention guy just told the second retention guy that we had made our decision, so (without talking to us or having that meeting with Caleb to confirm anything) he put us down to stay in Germany an extra year.
Boom. Done.
Just like that.
I was a little floored, to tell you the truth. Part of me felt like I hadn't even really made the decision- I felt like someone else had just made it for me. Luckily, it still was not technically set in stone at this point either. But Caleb and I talked about it, and since he is going to "try out" for a different unit in a few months anyway, we decided that staying this extra year would be the best option after all. I feel a lot better about it now that I know we definitely want it. Now that I feel like I actually got to have something to say about it.
Of course, this means another several years in the army. A couple years ago, I would have groaned. Probably complained. (Let's be honest, I will still probably do those things in the future.) Right now, though... I'm deciding to be okay with it. I'm accepting (very slowly) that this is going to be my life. I'm learning to be okay with the fact that it's probably going to be another 10 years before we're done with the army. I'm glad to have been able to spend this time in a foreign country with my husband, it'll be really cool to tell our kids one day. It's just sad that my very first impression of the army had to be them ROYALLY screwing me over. Maybe that's why it's taken me this long to start being okay with him staying in.
Baby steps, I guess.
Anyway, last, but not least...
Enjoy your families, food, and festivities!
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