Deployment Blues

*WARNING*

In this post I am going to complain about deployment. Yes I realized I am blessed to talk to my husband on a regular basis and to know he is relatively safe. However, I am human and somedays I just need to put it all out there. That being said if you don't want to hear it don't read it.

Today we are approximately 80% done with this stupid year long deployment. I should be excited about this, right? Instead, however, I am cranky about it. My husband was home just a few weeks ago for R&R why did he have to go back. The deployment is practically over anyway. It's hard to readjust after R&R. You would think that R&R is a nice and relaxing, but really it's a cheap whore. I loved having Andrew home and seeing his face, but it was such a tease it's not even funny. Two weeks isn't long enough for anything except upsetting your schedule and making you have to go through the deployment readjustment stages all over again. I'm very happy for my friends who have their husbands home or are getting their husbands back soon. BUT I hate that my husband has been gone long before theirs and will be home long after theirs. It just freaking sucks. I want someone to come walk the dogs because it's cold outside, take care of me when I'm sick, make me coffee in the mornings and cuddle with me at night.

On top of my deployment blues I'm cranky that LSU is about to play the game of the century versus Alabama and this is the day my freaking satellite chooses to go out. SERIOUSLY!!! My one guilty pleasure in life is sitting on the sofa, eating crap and yelling at LSU while they play football. I just want to mope in my comfy pjs and yell at some football. UGH!

Deployment Induced Insomnia

I don't know about the rest of you military spouses, but I definitely believe Deployment Induced Insomnia is real and here to stay! Whenever Andrew leaves I always have trouble falling asleep. I keep the oddest hours and it generally makes me a cranky person to be around since I'm not getting enough sleep nor am I getting quality sleep. I know some days it's just because I've had a bad day and I'm lonely. It's hard to face the empty bed on days like that, but I don't want to sleep on the sofa and start bad habits for the pups. Normally when Andrew leaves for a couple of days I sleep on the sofa with the pups, I can't do that for a whole year though. Tonight I just can't seem to fall asleep. I'm sure this whole day light savings time isn't helping me. My body feels like it's only 1 am while it's really 2 am. Everyone else in my house is sleeping though. I wish I had the life of my dogs or cats for that matter.

Tango sleeping on the sofa. She has been refusing to cuddle since I got back from Louisiana.

Shadow snuggled up next to me. She's such a cuddly dog.

Sue and Munchie snuggled up in the bed.

What I've been up to

Holly and I left early Thursday morning to go to Louisiana to celebrate Mardi Gras and what a great trip it was. The trip down we were entertained by Mr. Bear. He so kindly danced and told bad jokes. He also gave the bear butt to the rude drivers around us.

Friday we went out to eat several times so that Holly could experience all of amazing food that Louisiana has to offer. We had lunch at Peck's seafood where we ate boiled crawfish, fried pickles, and roast beef po-boys. After our huge lunch we headed to the Abita Brewery for free beer and a tour of the brewery. Then we had dinner at Shaeffer's with mom where Holly had seafood gumbo and a stuffed crab po-boy and I had salad and a stuffed crab po-boy. Then we went off to meet my crazy friends from high school and watch Selene, a night parade that rides in my home town.

Saturday all of the New Orleans parades we had been planning on seeing were cancelled due to weather. So, we went outlet mall shopping in Gulfport instead. Then Saturday night I took Holly to the drive through daiquiri shop. Gotta love the south!

Sunday we went into New Orleans where we started our day on Bourbon St. at Pat O's with hurricanes. Then we went to Jackson Square and watched a performance and then went to Central Grocery to get muffalettas. We walked down by the river to eat them and then walked towards the French Market and picked up some daiquiris. After wandering the French Market and some of the art galleries on the French Quarter we headed back to Bourbon for hand grenades from Tropical Isle. After we walked Bourbon Street we headed home to Slidell to sleep off our eventful trip. Monday we recuperated so that we could have one last hurrah on Mardi Gras.

Tuesday we met Michelle and Ginny and headed out to Metairie for the Mardi Gras parades there. We got to see Argus and Jefferson roll. We didn't stay to watch the East Jeffersonian roll because we opted to leave early.

Wednesday we headed home in a huge storm. We managed to get ahead of it for a while, but we didn't stay ahead of it. We ended up driving through the rain all the way from Mobile, AL to just past the SC state line. It was freaking miserable. We ended up taking like 16 hours to make the 13.5 hour drive. Luckily we got home around 10p so I was able to pick up the puppies. Then I came home and immediately passed out.

Thursday was our 4th wedding anniversary. I wish that Andrew could have been here to spend it with me, but since he couldn't my wonderful friends stepped in. We went out to a sushi lunch. Then we went to Gus' for line dance lessons and lots of drinking. It was the best anniversary I could have had without the hubby there.

Today marks 2 months down in this stupid deployment. I'm spending it in my pj's until I head to knit night tonight with the girls.

Let him eat cake

So, I sent Andrew red velvet cake in a jar for his birthday. Now he is requesting cake with every package! (Not happening love!) Anyway I figured that Easter is coming up and I've been wanting to make these rainbow cakes so I figure hey rainbow cake in a jar for Easter!

I cheated and used a yellow cake mix instead of making it from scratch.

Then I sectioned it into 4 bowls and mixed in lots of food coloring.

After I mixed in the food coloring I realized I had forgotten to wash the canning jars. (oops!!) So, I washed and dried the canning jars.

When I make cake in a jar I always put them in a 9x13 pan to make them easier to handle. I know in this picture there are 8 jars, but I ended up only making 6. I also preheated the oven to 325 degrees.

Next I filled each jar one color at a time. I used a little more than 1/8th of a cup of each color in each jar. I thought that each color would spread to touch the sides of the jars, but they didn't.

My filled jars. It's amazing how much the cake expands in the jar.

At this point I realized I forgot to put water on to boil so that I could boil the lids and rings. (Oops again!) Anyway bring the water to a boil then turn it down to low.

Once you turn it down put in the lids and rings. I just let them simmer while the cake bakes. I ended up baking these for about 30-35 minutes. I used a bamboo skewer to do the toothpick test. Once it came out clean I knew they were done.

Take your cakes out of the oven. Use tongs to carefully remove lids and rings from the pot with the water and place them on the jars. Finger tighten lids so they are just screwed on. Let the jars sit over night to seal then finish tightening rings. Once they are sealed they'll keep just like canned goods. So, in this case long enough to make it to Afghanistan in a care package. I guarantee you they don't last much longer than that. I don't think Andrew waits at all to open and eat them.

Missed phone call.

If you've ever been in a relationship with someone in the military you know that sick feeling you get in your stomach when you miss a phone call. I've had that feeling for most of the day now. Thanks to my wonderful AT&T service the phone call never rang through I only got the notice that I had missed a call. AT&T proved to be even more wonderful when I went to check to see if there was a voice mail only to discover that my voice mail box had been deactivated. So, I guess you can say that I was upset for nothing because I can't even prove it was Andrew. I just know that it was a call from a random number at an odd hour so all signs point to it was a call from my husband. I keep hoping he'll call back, but so far nothing he hasn't logged into facebook either. I'm super bummed since I've been sick and could have used a little pick me up.

I guess that tomorrow I will pick myself up by my bootstraps dust myself off and wait for another phone call that hopefully AT&T will let through to my phone or at least let him leave a voicemail so I can hear his voice.