This picture was taken by Mike in a nearby town to Ramstein . . . I would probably butcher the name and how to pronounce it, so we'll leave it as a pretty fence in Germany! He said the heart made him think of me, so I'm now on a mission to get to this fence when I see him next month.
When I started this blog, I made it less of a personal thing, and more of a fun, general, random thing. I think I may go back to my old roots of writing personal blogs, just because I like it.
If you follow me on Facebook, you'll notice I have a number before each status. I've been questioned on why it's there, so I'll just 'splain it here for you. The number represents how many days Mike has been deployed. Why count up, you ask? For starters, counting down from 179 days is ridiculous. Maybe his deployment is "only" six months, but it's still hard. Second, as that number gets higher, I feel encouraged. Mike and I have already been apart for 52 days, and that is definitely something to be proud of! We have both been working hard to maintain a positive attitude.
I hear often that this deployment is "easy." That may be so- he is in a safe location, doing a safe job. However . . . doing a long-distance relationship is not easy in the slightest. Granted, I was used to being alone at night due to his overnight work shift, and on drill weekends, I'd only be with him twice during a week. Honestly, the first two weeks of deployment were a breeze, because I felt like he was just working, so it felt normal. I really didn't feel any emotions until just after the first month had gone by.
But you don't realize how many little things you take for granted. Skype has now replaced date night, and emails have replaced texts. The thing I miss the most is cooking dinner together, before he'd go to work and I'd go to class.
Our biggest rule during this deployment is not to end a conversation on a bad note. We each have our bad days, but taking things out on each other is not going to help the situation. Some people say I have it worse . . . I beg to differ. I won't say exactly what kinds of things he's seen at work, but he's a critical care nurse working on injured troops from both war zones . . . use your imagination. Then picture it 100 times worse. He's been opening up to me much more than I thought he would about what he's seen, which is a big relief.
The only aggravation I've experienced with deployment has come up fairly recently, with the news that I will be visiting him next month. I'm not kidding when I say that all of my family, his family, and our co-workers are expecting a proposal . . . if it doesn't happen, I may be the only one who is not disappointed. Even my Nana said, "Katie better come home with a ring!" I would be lying if I said I wouldn't be thrilled if it happened, but I also don't want to get my hopes up. The last thing I want to feel is disappointment when I leave, because I know an engagement is on its way at some point in the near future.
We're planning an overnight stay in Paris while I'm there, and I told him not to pull a Tom Cruise. He laughed nervously, then asked me what I meant. When I told him that Tom proposed to Katie Holmes on top of the Eiffel Tower, he said (without missing a beat): "Oh, I can't do that. My friend Chris that you met proposed to his wife Deanna there. I'm going to be original." That's amore!
One world for driving in Texas: INSANE. See below.
Someone at the airport gave me wrong directions to my sister's street (who knew there would be two Cunningham Roads, each on one end of town?), but I managed to get back to the airport with no problems. The driving took a little getting used to! 
