Lawton’s central post office is located across the street from where I work. Every month I make at least one trip over there to mail something to somewhere in the United States (normally something scrapbook related LOL!). Today was no different. I was mailing my Mother’s day gift to my mom and today was the LAST possible day that I should do it. Anyway, back to my topic at hand. I was dwelling on the fact that having idle hands at work was given me far too much free time for my thoughts to wonder and with everything that had and was going on in my life, this available time was not helping my mental state. The miscarriage, Rich’s PCS to
Korea, and the stupid SWINE FLU have been occupying my every thought and stressing me out. I had told myself that going back to work full-time will help keep my mind busy and by the time I got home from work, my son would occupy all of my time and I would have no spare minute to agonize over any of those thoughts. Well, it did not quite work out as I had planned. As I walked over there, I was pondering on how slow it has been for me at work due to all of the leave time I had just gone though. All of my files and daily work had been completed for me by my coworkers, leaving me nothing to do once I came back. This has been both a blessing and a curse. I am so grateful for every single one of them and how they were so supportive to me while I was on leave. They truly were there during one of the darkest times of my life (and still are actually). With every step, I was trying to come up with ideas that I could do to fill the time (that wouldn’t directly come between me and actual “work”). And then it hit me! My blog! My poor, beautiful, abandoned blog. All the time and effort I had put into obtaining my site and trying to build the most eye-catching header and then I just drop it like a bad habit. So as this idea grew in my head, it took on form and swirled and danced until I had more thoughts than I could ponder in that short walk. I came right back to my desk, opened Word, and started to type. I would write about what it’s like to be a scrap-a-holic, Army Wife, trying to make it in the day-to-day reality that is the military. One that was also trying to maintain her mental sanity while her husband was away for a year would be a great start, right? Yay! I was riding the creative wave again!
So what to write about first? Well, I guess it’s always best to start with what you know, right? I currently live on an Army installation so my life is submerged in all things military. I deal with housing, I shop at the commissary, I run into the PX when I absolutely cannot get off-post to the closest Wal-mart, and I even go to the post library for something to read. Despite all this, my life was still really separate from the “Army way” and I found this out, first hand, at one of the first real spouse events I went to. I have been blessed that my husband has always been “around” and I have never had to fend for myself in terms of figuring things out regarding the Army. Now that he is away, I am finding out there is a lot I did not know and there is a lot of information out there for spouses if you just look hard enough. So how would I approach this wonderful possibility of not only having an outlet for my crazy thoughts, daily antics, and military humor but also of my passion for scrapbooking? Could it be done? I guess we will find out together.
Love Always!
-Brianne
