I'VE GOT ALL MY DUCKS IN A ROW...EXCEPT THE ONE IN CAMO

This isn't about kids...I don't have any. And this isn't a rag on my man, either. So now that we have what this isn't about out of the way...

I'm a grad student, and my life is busy. I recognize that a lot of moms and people with ridiculous work weeks would laugh at me for saying that, and honestly they probably should. I have adult conversations, and I pay rent and go to class and work with appropriate amounts of sleep. I don't mean to complain, because I am blessed with so much and my problems are quite miniscule in the grand scheme of things. Let's be real for a second here though. Even though I know I have more positives than negatives going on right now, saying I don't mean to complain is still a blatant segway into a complaint. It's like the phrase, "Not to be rude," or "No offense." These are the phrases that make us suck in our breath a little when we hear them. I hate to break it to you, but unfortunately, I am chronically human. When things go crazy, or my carefully arranged house of cards gets knocked over with a bulldozer, I'm likely to yell, even if I don't truly hate the person who did it. This week, the Army bulldozed my house of cards. And of all the parts of my life that I juggle, sometimes the one called the Army just doesn't seem to be able to fall in step with the rest.

My "student," "wife," and "professional" hats happen to be operating pretty well at the moment. I've got a handle on the semester, and my dry erase calendar is on point with all my appointments and responsibilities. We recently planned a time to hang out with a couple we know 6 weeks in advance to make sure we could get together before deployment. That's right - 6 weeks. And I don't mind it. But seriously, the limited weekends I have with my husband before he deploys, and then the Army flubs up and throws a rift in my little newbie military wife world.

Hubster has been chosen/voluntold to be the SHARP representative for this deployment. He was supposed to go to the 2-week training during the 3 week AT on a certain date, but all the guys that are going have to have been enrolled at least 30 days prior to the class. This is not a surprise. This is old news. Yet the well-oiled machine apparently could not handle this seemingly simple task. Somebody in the battalion dropped the ball and didn't enroll anybody by the time they needed to be enrolled, so now they decided to move the SHARP training to - ahhh yes, the best time ever - two weeks before deployment.

Yep. That's right. The training is 2 weeks long and deployment is maybe 2 days after he gets back from that. Fun story...We are supposed to be at a destination wedding out of the country for 4 days when the SHARP trainnig is slated to start. Thanks to our well-oiled machine again, they haven't officially confirmed the dates, so we can't try to see if any arrangements can be made to let us still go. We've been planning this for well over a year, it isn't cheap, we've already paid, and it's not exactly "just a vacation." It's the last chance we get to have time together and get away, and is also serving as our first wedding anniversary since he will be gone when the date actually rolls around.

I knew I couldn't trust dates I had been told. When he was deploying, not deploying, and then deploying again, I knew this was something that happens. When he was going to be going to Egypt, we didn't really believe it, which worked out well since that is precisely where they're not headed. Now, though? Come on. Hubster is going to be gone 3 weeks, be home for 2 weekends, potentially leave for 2 1/2 weeks for ALC (Advanced Leadership Course), return the day before our DR trip, and either cut short the trip or leave immediately upon our return to 2 weeks of SHARP training...followed by 2 days at home and then deployment. After AT, I counted weekends because he commutes and I won't see him for most of the week while he is at work, as he comes home Friday evenings.

Because of a mandatory yellow ribbon event, it is unclear whether or not my husband will really be able to go to ALC and miss a day or not...it seems like he should be able to. As for SHARP, a lot is up in the air right now. So, we don't know what is happening or how it's happening, and that's stretching for me. Yay for organized people working for our government. It sounds like it is more a battalion issue and not necessarily an Army issue...but regardless. It's ridiculous.

So, I just can't seem to get that last dang Army duckling to fall in line. Something to get used to, I suppose. Here's to hoping the SHARP training doesn't mess with anything else, and here's to building more resilience if it does. Resilience for days...apparently it's something I'll be learning a lot about this coming year. If I can't get my ducks in a row, I guess I'll just have to keep tabs on them and figure out some other way to get where we're going...wherever that is. At least they're fuzzy and cute, right? My man's pretty cute himself, so that's a plus. Also, it's 20 days until spring! That's not too shabby either. Here we go...