Let the Faux Single Parenting Begin... Again

The Husband is somewhere between here and the big sandbox now... he called from their first stop over a few hours ago to report that he'd chosen chicken over beef & had slept for several hours. Lucky him!

We figured out last night that this is the eighth deployment in the 15 years we've been married and the sixth since the boy one was born. We usually try to get everything ready early so we can relax and create fun memories in the last few days of the home cycle. Most of our plans for fun times together went out the window in the last couple of days. We got notice for a housing inspection to be completed today. The Husband very sweetly spent most of the last couple days helping me put the house in order. Normally its pretty tidy, but honestly with him getting ready to leave the last thing I was worried about was if the laundry was put away or the surfaces dusted. We tried to get them to reschedule due to the fact that he was deploying today & I have confidential files here for my temp job (so they couldn't have full access to the house unless I were home to monitor). The lady we dealt with was anything but helpful and insisted they could not change the inspection date/time for any reason. She pretty much told that I had to choose between saying goodbye to my husband as he was leaving for deployment or protecting the confidentiality of those work files. That the company the military has partnered with to manage their housing would force me to make such a choice is something I find nothing short of deplorable. But, the lady that actually showed up to do the inspection was really nice... and the inspection went well... but still to have to deal with that stress on top of everything else was exhausting and frustrating beyond belief.

After that fun, the rest of the day was spent with "normal" stuff... my work meeting, babysitting & the boy ones speech therapy appointment. I collapsed for an hour long nap (after only two hours sleep last night I needed it badly) and am feeling somewhat refreshed now. I don't think the reality of the day has hit me yet because I was so busy & at this point its still kind of like he's just having a long day at work... which is so typical that its the norm.

I'm still thinking about Melissa's idea of a "deployment challenge" and how I can incorporate that with my 1750 miles by Chicago thing. Hopefully, I'll have something to post about that in the next day or two.

In the meantime, here are a couple of "deployment day" photos... the first one is from last deployment, June 2008....


My weight was 241 lbs. in this photo...


And deployment day... May 2010

Weight in this photo 198.4 lbs... which is ugh... but probably not totally accurate in comparison to my last weigh in because I had to hit the scale way earlier in the morning than I'm normally out of bed even.

Today was pretty much like a transition day between home cycle & deployment... food and exercise were the least of my worries. However, I did make sure I have something healthy in the house for breakfast and lunch tomorrow.

So... my plan for the rest of the night and tomorrow is to really focus on planning my meals & time so that I get back to my gym regimen. One might think that after seven of these lovely experiences I'd have time management down to a science... One might think after five times with the boy one I'd have the single parenting system down... but yeah, not so much.

The Husband asked me what my goals are for while he's gone... I told him to maintain my sanity, lol. Naturally, I told him about stuff I want to get done in the house & my travel plans... but what I left out is my ultimate goal...

To reach a "goal weight."

I still don't feel totally comfortable trying to pinpoint an exact number for that because I haven't been anything smaller than 180 since my freshman year in high school. I also have a hard time with it because I focus so much on doing the basics of living a healthy lifestyle & and not so much on the number on the scale. But, maybe I need to be more number driven... or at least have a range to work with...

So here it is...

My ultimate goal is to be 150-160 pounds by the time he comes home from deployment!

There I said it, its done, no backing down now!!!

Btw, I have an award to pass along... will work on that tomorrow too. :)