Big Girl Panties.
I saw a quote today and it literally made me laugh out loud. It happened to come at a pretty comic moment with what is going on in our lives up here in the Windy City.
"If I have to put my big girl panties on one more time, the elastic is going to break then you're really going to see my ass!"
I really wish I had written that myself. I feel like the past few weeks have been full of me putting on my big girl panties and dealing with it. Mind you, I'm typing all of this with a smile on my face and laughing at myself. The military is a funny thing and there are so many instances over the past weeks I've still tried to find myself controlling the chaos around me. I gave that up today as I said goodbye to my husband for another three days. Well, he said goodbye - I was still sleeping soundly.
So what could I need big girl panties for? As if surviving Lilly's suicide attempt wasn't enough? I am going to apologize to our family members that we did not tell about this incident. I politely asked my husband not to say anything because I didn't want to worry anyone, and quite frankly it wasn't that big of a deal but now I find it utterly amusing so I'll share. The point of this blog is a perspective on the military lifestyle and I think this would be pretty hard to leave out of our memories. If you know me well, you know there is a running joke in our family that I end up in the Emergency Room at least once a year. It is a funny joke because it is actually true. Well Saturday James had duty and I came home from running errands and decided to begin the re-do of our bathroom. Don't get excited, it's the size of our crossover SUV so basically a new shower curtain and some new pictures is a re-do. I was taking a picture of how beautifully the new shower curtain was hanging when suddenly I have an AWFUL pain in my lower right back. And by awful I mean sharp, intense, took my breath away, and I couldn't move. I slowly lowered myself onto the toilet to sit down and thought about my options. My car was three flights down and across the parking lot, James was stuck on base, its almost 10pm at night. After a phone call to James (no baby I don't think Excederin will help) and then my Mom to ask where my gall bladder was (I was no where close) I literally almost passed out the pain got so bad. What does a military wife sitting on a toilet who can't move do? She attempts to take a deep breath, decides that hurts too much and calls 911.After I talked to the very friendly dispatcher at the Highwood Fire and Rescue I laid down on the living room floor and called James. *Sigh* Emergency Room 2011 In Effect.
By the time I arrived at the ER James had managed to get away and was on his way to the hospital and I was good and hopped up on morphine. They thought it was a kidney stone but after three hours, two more shots of happy juice in my IV, a couple of tests, they actually found through my CT Scan I had an IBS attack. I had never had one where the pain was in my back and not my abdomen, thus I couldn't recognize it.You think I'm exaggerating on how often I've been to the ER, here is the text conversation with my parents:
Mom/Dad: Everything ok?
Me: Yea. I've had morphine I feel better. Think its a kidney stone. Go to bed, I'm fine, if I have to have an organ removed we'll call.
Mom/Dad: Ok call me when you wake up in the morning. Goodnight, love you!.
Big girl panties? Check.
The next day is Sunday! Beautiful sunny warm 85 degree Sunday. It is picture day. James is in his dress whites, I actually went and had my hair done as I was exhausted from my adventure the previous night and didn't want to deal with it, and I had a new dress on. I wanted some pictures down by the lake and we met the photographer at 3pm. 4 shots in....I'm not exaggerating....the sky opened up. It rained fast and it rained hard. We have no umbrella, the photographer is holding her camera under a rock so it won't get wet, James is sprinting to the car to get her camera case and an umbrella. Here comes the hail. Big hail pelting me in the face and arms. At this point I'm standing on the beach by the lake and I'm soaking and Lilly is madder than I've ever seen her and I just start laughing. Big girl panties? Check. Clearly it just wasn't my weekend.
So for the Naval update and biggest reason I probably need big girl panties: For our "dream sheet", we got two choices to write down where we would like to go for our next station and we chose to put states rather than specific bases. Virginia was our number one choice and Florida was number two. James also got to put what field of work he preferred (he prefers communications systems rather than radars) and what type of ship he'd like to be on (he wants a smaller ship as opposed to an aircraft carrier.) So we submitted it and now what? Hurry up and wait. James told me last night that we will not get orders until 3-4 weeks after his June 10 graduation instead of right around the time of his graduation which is what we thought. That's the biggest lesson as a military wife you learn...don't ever expect anything is set it stone. I would love nothing more than time to browse online at houses, know when to start packing, make arrangements, but nope - we could get orders in July that have us moving in August or we could have orders in August that have us moving in December. Who knows?! Big girl panties? Check.
Everyone keeps asking me if I am nervous and really I am just excited. There will come a day when I will have to stand on a pier and watch my husbands ship sail away and I won't be sure when I'll see him again and I won't have the peace of mind that he will be completely safe everyday he is away from me. THOSE are the days when being nervous will be a completely justified state of mind. And since I know that day will come, I'm not going to waste my time being nervous about the next place there might be a Green takeover! And hey, anywhere is warmer than another Illinois winter, yes?
As for now, James is still trucking along in school, I'm headed to the coast of Carolina this weekend for some family time and Atlantic Beach sun, and we're looking forward to James Howard's graduation on June 10. Randy and Claudette are flying in to be with us and celebrate, and I can't wait. He has worked so hard! Below are a couple of pictures, last weekend we went to Wisconsin for some cheese and a picture of us before we left to take pictures Sunday. We hope everyone has a very safe and happy Memorial Day Weekend as we celebrate and remember those that made the ultimate sacrifice for our country!
Lots of love,
Jules and James
"If I have to put my big girl panties on one more time, the elastic is going to break then you're really going to see my ass!"
I really wish I had written that myself. I feel like the past few weeks have been full of me putting on my big girl panties and dealing with it. Mind you, I'm typing all of this with a smile on my face and laughing at myself. The military is a funny thing and there are so many instances over the past weeks I've still tried to find myself controlling the chaos around me. I gave that up today as I said goodbye to my husband for another three days. Well, he said goodbye - I was still sleeping soundly.
So what could I need big girl panties for? As if surviving Lilly's suicide attempt wasn't enough? I am going to apologize to our family members that we did not tell about this incident. I politely asked my husband not to say anything because I didn't want to worry anyone, and quite frankly it wasn't that big of a deal but now I find it utterly amusing so I'll share. The point of this blog is a perspective on the military lifestyle and I think this would be pretty hard to leave out of our memories. If you know me well, you know there is a running joke in our family that I end up in the Emergency Room at least once a year. It is a funny joke because it is actually true. Well Saturday James had duty and I came home from running errands and decided to begin the re-do of our bathroom. Don't get excited, it's the size of our crossover SUV so basically a new shower curtain and some new pictures is a re-do. I was taking a picture of how beautifully the new shower curtain was hanging when suddenly I have an AWFUL pain in my lower right back. And by awful I mean sharp, intense, took my breath away, and I couldn't move. I slowly lowered myself onto the toilet to sit down and thought about my options. My car was three flights down and across the parking lot, James was stuck on base, its almost 10pm at night. After a phone call to James (no baby I don't think Excederin will help) and then my Mom to ask where my gall bladder was (I was no where close) I literally almost passed out the pain got so bad. What does a military wife sitting on a toilet who can't move do? She attempts to take a deep breath, decides that hurts too much and calls 911.After I talked to the very friendly dispatcher at the Highwood Fire and Rescue I laid down on the living room floor and called James. *Sigh* Emergency Room 2011 In Effect.
By the time I arrived at the ER James had managed to get away and was on his way to the hospital and I was good and hopped up on morphine. They thought it was a kidney stone but after three hours, two more shots of happy juice in my IV, a couple of tests, they actually found through my CT Scan I had an IBS attack. I had never had one where the pain was in my back and not my abdomen, thus I couldn't recognize it.You think I'm exaggerating on how often I've been to the ER, here is the text conversation with my parents:
Mom/Dad: Everything ok?
Me: Yea. I've had morphine I feel better. Think its a kidney stone. Go to bed, I'm fine, if I have to have an organ removed we'll call.
Mom/Dad: Ok call me when you wake up in the morning. Goodnight, love you!.
Big girl panties? Check.
The next day is Sunday! Beautiful sunny warm 85 degree Sunday. It is picture day. James is in his dress whites, I actually went and had my hair done as I was exhausted from my adventure the previous night and didn't want to deal with it, and I had a new dress on. I wanted some pictures down by the lake and we met the photographer at 3pm. 4 shots in....I'm not exaggerating....the sky opened up. It rained fast and it rained hard. We have no umbrella, the photographer is holding her camera under a rock so it won't get wet, James is sprinting to the car to get her camera case and an umbrella. Here comes the hail. Big hail pelting me in the face and arms. At this point I'm standing on the beach by the lake and I'm soaking and Lilly is madder than I've ever seen her and I just start laughing. Big girl panties? Check. Clearly it just wasn't my weekend.
So for the Naval update and biggest reason I probably need big girl panties: For our "dream sheet", we got two choices to write down where we would like to go for our next station and we chose to put states rather than specific bases. Virginia was our number one choice and Florida was number two. James also got to put what field of work he preferred (he prefers communications systems rather than radars) and what type of ship he'd like to be on (he wants a smaller ship as opposed to an aircraft carrier.) So we submitted it and now what? Hurry up and wait. James told me last night that we will not get orders until 3-4 weeks after his June 10 graduation instead of right around the time of his graduation which is what we thought. That's the biggest lesson as a military wife you learn...don't ever expect anything is set it stone. I would love nothing more than time to browse online at houses, know when to start packing, make arrangements, but nope - we could get orders in July that have us moving in August or we could have orders in August that have us moving in December. Who knows?! Big girl panties? Check.
Everyone keeps asking me if I am nervous and really I am just excited. There will come a day when I will have to stand on a pier and watch my husbands ship sail away and I won't be sure when I'll see him again and I won't have the peace of mind that he will be completely safe everyday he is away from me. THOSE are the days when being nervous will be a completely justified state of mind. And since I know that day will come, I'm not going to waste my time being nervous about the next place there might be a Green takeover! And hey, anywhere is warmer than another Illinois winter, yes?
As for now, James is still trucking along in school, I'm headed to the coast of Carolina this weekend for some family time and Atlantic Beach sun, and we're looking forward to James Howard's graduation on June 10. Randy and Claudette are flying in to be with us and celebrate, and I can't wait. He has worked so hard! Below are a couple of pictures, last weekend we went to Wisconsin for some cheese and a picture of us before we left to take pictures Sunday. We hope everyone has a very safe and happy Memorial Day Weekend as we celebrate and remember those that made the ultimate sacrifice for our country!
Lots of love,
Jules and James
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