Support Systems

Any military family knows that in order to survive (and keep your sanity) through the deployments and TDYs, you must have some sort of support system in place. For me, I am blessed and lucky enough to have 3 (yes, three) different ones that help me through this crazy lifestyle. They all help me in some many different ways - but they all mean the world to me:

1. My family - Of course I mean all of my family (and Brian's) who support us and send us their love, but I especially mean my mother (who lives less than an hour away) and my in-laws who live just a few miles away. Without the ongoing help with the kids, company they provide to me on the lonely stretches and even the simpliest things like having dinner or coffee together - I could not endure the separation from Brian in nearly the same way. Thank you so much for the help, the support and most importantly the love.
2. My RED HORSE gals - I have to admit that I am not very involved with the spouses group for my hubby's squadron. The is probably because of my 2 other support systems I already have. Not to mention that I am BUSY, BUSY, BUSY and when they do have meetings or get togethers, they just seem so formal or they take place when I can not attend. Instead of an organized group lending support to me, I rely on a few of my girlfriends whose hubby's are in the same squadron - Marsha, Kim, Laura and Patty. They are the ones who are going through exactly what I am going through. They are living it and can absolutely empathize with the situation. They live the same stress, sadness, worry, and exhaustion that I do daily. But on the flip side - they share in the excitement and anticipation when the guys are coming home. They get it. They are living the same thing I am. I love them for that and thank them for all their support.
3. My Choctaw family - These are the people who are with me day-in & day-out. They are the ones who I work with and know me so well. I have so many friends at work that help me out in so many ways, whether Brian is home or not. Several of my girlfriends (Ashleigh, Sara, Beth, Jeannie & Jordan) planned a home-cooked meal for me on Friday night and brought it out to the house already prepared. They did this 1) to help me out because hubby is gone, 2) to meet Abby and 3) to get me "mentally" ready to come back to work this week. It was so awesome to just be with them outside of the 4 walls of school. It's little things like that which help pass the time while Brian is gone and also let me know that my friends keep my family in their thoughts and prayers and want to take care of me.

OK... enough... moving on...
Here are some pics of little Abby this weekend. Good news to report - her eyes are still gorgeous blue which means that it is looking better and better that she actually may have one of my characteristics! Yeahhhhh!!!!