Let's see if I can write this post without the cellphone ringing, Ross coming in the door, or the dogs going insane. I've tried for the past 3 days with no luck.
Things almost got a little bad for us. On January 18th I woke up, with what I thought, a UTI. Normal for me. Water & cranberry juice typically takes care of it without a visit to the doctor. The pain was getting worse & spreading. Around 5, I felt it in my back & diaphragm. I called the Tricare Nurse & she recommended me to the ER. I panicked since I have never been to the ER, for myself, I got stitches for my finger at an urgent care even. We waited 3 hours, did a catheter, blood-work, & a CT scan. It went from UTI to ectopic pregnancy to golf ball sized cyst on my ovary to stomach ulcers & acid reflex. Ross stayed by my side the whole time. He had been up since 4am and by the time we left it was 2am. He only got 2 hours of sleep & told the flight commander he refused to fly because he considered himself a flight risk. So he lost flight hours. By the time it came to have his last checkride for instruments that he had to pass to continue with his class at BWS, he didnt have enough. On the last day for him to obtain hours, his helicopter had a maintenance problem 18 minutes from being able to do his checkride. He had to land the aircraft & medevac had to come pick them up. They told him that he would not be able to continue with his class...putting him two weeks back....UNLESS he got up at 4am to take his checkride, passed, & then go to BWS in the afternoon. All depending on the weather. We had a line of storms heading right for us. Seeing how upset Ross was with the thought of being held back again, and seeing the odds against us with the weather the only thing I could do was ask for prayers & trick him into drinking decaffeinated coffee so he would actually rest instead of studying all night & worrying. Thankfully the weather held off for us for Ross to take his checkride & pass! We were so happy! The weather caused the base to shut down, so he didnt start BWS, so he never fell behind with his class. He loves BWS so much. He doesn't have a stick buddy right now, because they were unsure he was going to pass or not, so he gets alot of focus on him & he gets home early before his class. Seeing how much his attitude has changed, makes me think that each student needs to have his own IP. Make it easier on the families atleast!
Ross didnt like instruments very well, he wasnt in a good mood, and then they gave him a map project. (Bless anyone who has a husband do a map project!) He was never at home. I wanted to be at home, with my family. I got a stomach bug, I was having horrible headaches, started feeling stressed/depressed/worried majorly which all factored into causing stomach ulcers...& if I worry or stress out that bad anymore...I'll get them again. I'm trying to take deep breathes, I go outside to play with the dogs or read, I try to take one day at a time....but my mind can't get off the fact, that in 4 weeks Ross gets to select his airframe & where we will be moving next. Ross changes his mind everyday what he wants to fly & where he wants to move. The move stresses me out are we going to Kentucky or are we going to Korea? At first we were only going to pick bases closest to Tuscaloosa...now we are thinking Washington & Colorado. Which brings up the concerns: What if he gets deployed? What if I get pregnant? That's 17+ hours away from family. Stress & Worry. What if the army really sends us to Korea or Germany, even if we dont want it on our list? It costs $2,000 of our own money just to fly the dogs there. Which is unsafe for them. Double Stress & Worry.
4 weeks until we will have some idea. We just take one day at a time so the flutters of flight school dont turn into ulcers anymore.
This is my first post for the 2012 year. I haven't posted much, because honestly nothing has really changed. Ross started Primary, had family day, passed his check-ride, started instruments, had Thanksgiving DONSA where we got to come home, he continued instruments when we got back, then I left two weeks early to help mom & dad out, he joined me later for Christmas, now we are back at Rucker and he is finishing up his instrument course and will be assigned his map project next Friday. Which means, this is his last weekend of freedom before I take away all electronics from him until he completes every last map! They are very time consuming and he has to have them all completed before he starts his next course, which is Basic War Fighting Skills, where he will be flying some old Kiowas.
Christmas time with our families was much needed. Ever since SERE it has been an emotional roller coaster ride for us and I think time away from Rucker with our family help get the old Ross back. SERE was a marriage tester for sure. I don't think civilians will ever understand what military wives/familes go through whether it's just training or an actual deployment. Sometimes men come back a little different & you learn to give them their space and have patience. Don't push them to talk, just support them, and be there for them to help them recover. We, wives, change too. We are like pancakes. We are flip-flopped back & forth & change to meet their needs. Not that it's a bad thing, it has helped me become a better, stronger, do things on the spur of the moment, and more independent kind of woman.
We were stressed for months with the Jeep. Not financially, but when we would have people ask us to go do things in our free time, we would have to say no after seeing that $500 payment and $140 insurance payment JUST for the Jeep. When the word "children" came up, Ross would always stress about how unsafe the Jeep was. We know children is in our future...the payments were making us bitter....so Ross took one for his family & sold it, to save up to buy a safer, family car. Instead of being "Fun Guy Ross" he decided to step up and start trying to be "Family Man Ross". I just wish he wouldn't worry as much as he does about our future. It's not like we can snap our fingers & be prepared for our children's college & our retirement, We've only been married for a little over a year and we don't even have a child yet. One step at a time. Even though after going into the stores he picks up baby items and says "Kassie! Look! haha! my kid is so wearing this!" For an example: Baby Crocs shoes...or the time I lost him in Toys R Us and found him looking at safety ratings on baby strollers.....yeah he is thinking about little Hunters running around. Maybe in about a year.
Towards the end of February we will know what airframe he will be flying & a little after that we will know what base we will be moving to. So we are trying to enjoy the last 4-7 months left here at Rucker. We are hoping we stay in about a 7 hour or less driving time distance to Tuscaloosa. But we know God will put us where we need to be. After we move Ross, will have 3 months at the base. So we officially have 7-10 months together before he is ready to be deployed. Chances are, he will be.
I will be posting more this year, due to more things are happening. I will try to keep everyone updated as much as possible.
Here is a video of Ross' Family Day I created. I hope you get to see how awesome my husband is! First scroll down & stop my music player before playing the video! The audio will mess up!
I have so much to write about I don't even know where to begin. I will try to sum it up in a nutshell.
Well, we've been at Mother Rucker since April. They call it Mother Rucker because it's home to Army Aviation, and all army aviators come back atleast two times in their military career. So it's going to be our main home away from our main home (Tuscaloosa/Northport).
Becoming a military wife & moving away from my family wasn't easy for me. I knew I needed to meet people as soon as I got down here, knowing Ross will be very busy. He only met the single guys, so I was alone for about 2 months and fell into a state of depression. Obviously, Ross saw I wasn't happy, but there was nothing he could do about it other try to encourage me to get enough confidence to get out on my own. At first I was nervous about going anywhere on base because it was so different from civilian world. Ross finally told me he thought a guy he met since day 1 had a wife and he was in his class. The guys started hanging out so I finally had someone I could talk to. It's funny how much a like our husbands are. We found a couple that looked out after us and we looked out after them. We started going to Army 101 classes for wives together and I learned a lot and met more wives.
During this time Ross was going through dunker and BOLC. He went to SERE, where he had heat exhaustion on Day 17, and they made him go through SERE again starting on Day 1. SERE lasts 21 days and we have no contact of any kind with our husband. No, not even letters. It was the hardest training for us to go through. We both learned a lot. Now Ross is in a different class and we are in a different FRG. At first I was real upset about it, because I had just started making friends in our FRG, now I have to make new friends in our new FRG....but Ross has done so much better in his new class. He is a lot more happier, which makes me happier and I don't stress out or worry as much as I would have.
I have been job searching, but the areas around base and on base aren't hiring and Ross doesn't want me working in Dothan since it's such a long drive. Here the bases encourages volunteering, and honestly, if people don't do it, I don't see how the base would run. I decided to be more active on base, than branch outside of it to the civilian world. I'm apart of the Fort Rucker Spouses Club. I am on the Scholarship Committee and I'm the Southern Travel writer for our monthly newsletter called Flightlines. I really enjoy it. I also have been trying to do some Bible Studies through PWOC, but with Ross' busy schedule It's becoming difficult.
Ross had his first flight Friday September 16th. It's call a Nickel Ride because he gives his IP (instructor pilot) a nickel with his birth year on it to remember him by. My dad gave him the Nickel with his birth year on it. It was sweet since my dad is a coin collector. On the same day I was previously selected to participate in Fort Rucker's Aviation Spouse's Day II. I got to shoot guns, fly a helicopter simulator, dunker, and do LRC ( Leadership Reaction Course). When I completed them I received my wings at a graduation ceremony. My parents came down and my dad got to pin me. It was awesome! I want a blackhawk simulator for Christmas! It was the coolest thing!
Well that about sums things up real quick! That was just the highlights from the past 5 months!
It's been AWHILE since I last had a post up. Sam's Club and Chick-fil-a about drove our marriage in the ground very quickly. Thank goodness that's over. To sum it up, the 3 months after my last post was "TWO THUMBS WAY DOWN". Then on February 14th Ross got a call to be the goldbar recruiter at UA.....BLESSING!!! He quit working nights, so I wasn't alone anymore with loaded guns to my right and left. Though I still had my crazy shifts at Chick-fil-a...one morning I would work until 11pm and then I would have to get up and be at work at 6am....Ross didn't like me doing that....So the plan was to quit at the beginning of March so I could have a month off to pack and spend time with my family. But there was an accident. I was sweeping off the carport when the metal handle broom that broke off and sliced my finger, back and front. Needless to say I panicked because I was alone and I couldn't get the blood to stop pouring. So I called my mom, she freaked out, which made my dad freak out and fly to me...seriously....he was there in 10 seconds. Loaded me up and flew me to the med-center where I had 6 stitches....and you can still see that my fingernail is sliced and black...and its been almost 2 months. Oh yeah, we also got a puppy. A yellow lab name Daisy Jane Hunter. We got her for Patriot. He needed a playmate. He loves her. We love her. We are one happy family. That pretty much catches us up until April. That's a whole new post in itself.
Ross at UA being a Goldbar recruiter
Getting stitches
Back of finger
Front
Our new addition
Daisy Jane Hunter
They love each other
Last family picture we took before we moved. Close to where Ross asked me to marry him. UA quad.
I can't sleep. Ross is gone tonight to work. Last night he was sick. again. This time so bad he went to work and then came home. I must admit I was happy. We slept until 1:06pm and went to bed at 11:30pm the night before. We needed the rest since our weekend had been rough for us.
Friday we went to the Indian Festival at Moundville. Ross either has never been before or just couldn't remember it. I don't think he got out much as a child. I think he sat in front of a TV and watched movies for the majority of his childhood and teenage years.There were schools there with children, running around everywhere, getting lost, pitching fits......and Ross was my student. Bless his heart. "What's that?! Let's go over here! I don't want to go over there, I want to see the bow maker!"....It was boring to me. I kept on having to teach him and I said "I've already seen this/done before" atleast ten times which made him mad. Now, he wants to make his own bow. I mean find a fallen dried out log and make a bow. He also wants to kill a deer to use a part of it as a glue in case he makes a mistake making it. I spent over an hour in the hot sun, standing up next to him while a man explained in detail how to make a bow....and arrows...by hand....for something Ross said he will do, but never will. I support him anyways, I just know it will never happen....unless he reads this and decides to prove me wrong, because that what men love to do, prove their wives wrong....and they will gloat about it publicly, to make us sad until we have enough and snap back at them, and then they will say we dont care or support them. Yeah....I'm getting a hang of this wife stuff.
Anyways, though I have to say I was very proud of Ross when we were eating. He was wearing one of his ROTC shirts. again. when a man screamed "HEY THERE'S A FUTURE GOLDBAR FOR YOU!!" I automatically snapped into Army Wife mode without even thinking. Sit back. Shut up. Pay attention. Ross went from common guy to serious in less than a second. Hiss reply: "I already am, Sir"
I've been on Ross, even have had arguments with him, about ranks sometime means nothing. Especially out of uniform. Sometimes you just need to a better person to another person and forget the rank. Show respect to them. Treat them like an equal, because they are.....Ross did. The man's son was in the army. I was very proud of Ross' attitude and concern he had for the guy. But what impressed me the most was Ross started cleaning up the area where the family was with the guy's little boy running and playing, picking up trash people had thrown the ground or left....I saw my husband in a different light. I whispered "You're a good man, Ross, a good man" to him.
The next morning we went to T-Town PAWS Wag N' Walk where they held a 5k. Ross worked 10 hours and finished 7th overall and 1st in his age group. I was extremely proud of him. Had very little sleep the night before and had worked 10 hours before running. I mean WOW! Awesome! My plan was to walk with Patriot....Ross was next to us when the race started and he took off face and said "SEE YALL LATER!"....Patriot's buddy left him....Patriot did not like this at all.....Patriot made me run.....no he pulled me. He looks small for a lab, but my gosh he is so strong!!! Everyone was laughing at me.....because basically I was getting airborne by my dog. I screamed "PATRIOT! YOU'VE GOT TO PACE YOURSELF! YOU'RE KILLING ME!" I head people laughing, out of breath behind me. They had little pools at every half mile for your dog to get water. Patriot was afraid. I could tell he needed it, but he wouldnt drink it out of the pool....and he we still searching from Ross...smelling for him, crying.....it was heartbreaking. I had thoughts of quitting. For the humans half way they gave us cups of water. I had about two sips before I looked down and saw Patriot looking at me....so I sat down on the curb and let him drink about three cups of water. He wouldn't drink it out of the pool....but would drink it out of a cup, if I held it for him.... Anyways. We finished 60th....no doubt because of Patriot. He pulled me to get 60th.
After the race we got to swim in the UA pool with him. He had so much fun! He said he can't wait to go back!!
I figured this would be a good way of communicating with people on how we are doing instead of updating my Facebook status every hour. I used to enjoy writing in my Xanga (popular online journal) in high school, but I have failed many of times trying to start one back up again. Funny how one of my lasts posts on my Xanga was me letting go/ giving up on a guy I had liked for years. It ended with:
