July has arrived!

Welcome July! We celebrated the 4th with family and friends in Oklahoma. During that time I received two very important phone calls... one from Christopher's unit about his eminent return and from Troy's unit in Virginia about going there to prepare for his return, too. Both are great news!

Christopher should be returning to his "home" unit some time between July 18th and the 29th. We won't know the date of his actual return until we are called 24 hours in advance. They will be having a welcome home celebration for his unit when they get back. After that he'll have 3 day weekends for the first month and then be home for 30 days. I'm hoping the days coincide with his father's return and before his brother (& Harris) leave for their deployment. It will be a challenge to get tickets to New York in that short of notice, but I'm planning on trying!

Troy's unit (the one he deployed with) also called and said they are having a "Redeployment" Yellow Ribbon Event mid-August for the families of the returning soldiers. It will deal with the changes the soldiers will experience, have experienced or how they have changed as well as we have during the deployment and how to work through it all. I know Troy's leave was a challenge, so re-adjusting to civilian life on the long term will also be a long bumpy road. We will deal with what happens as it happens and get through the challenges as they present themselves.

I've become more self-sufficient out of necessity and it will be challenge to give up the control over everyday things that I have had to take on over the last year. One interesting thing is that Troy will be the only one home to deal with my bossy-ness! Jeremy and Harris have been under my "rule" now for three months and they are often put to work on command. I won't have them to put to work or do the things I don't want to do. They have been gracious and most helpful. I'll REALLY miss their company and our wacky outings like bowling until 2am on a weeknight and going to see random movies.

Troy and I'll have to work out a new system of checks and balances. Should be interesting.

Let's not concentrate on the "far out" future of two or three months when the first two return from the sandbox. I need to focus on the here and now of summer and enjoy what life brings on a daily basis. I'm sure July will continue to bring lots of Army business and various surprises.