applepie

Alright, well I'm not officially finished with college until Saturday at midnight, but by my standards I've completed my degree. I finished my final this evening, so there is nothing left for me to do but wait for my grade:banana: It's been four years and some change to get my degree, and I've only take two breaks this whole time. I took off one term when my husband returned from deployment, and I also took an eight week term off when I gave birth to my daughter. I took classes every summer, and I was also taking more classes than what was considered full time for a while, but I am finished. I feel as if the weight of the world has lifted off my shoulders. If I've calculated my GPA correctly I only graduated cum laude instead of magna cum laude like I would have liked to, but I can't complain over maintaing a 3.65 GPA (or something really close to that). So, now everyone has to imagine me doing a happy dance, because that is exactly what I would do if I didn't feel as if I've been hit by a car. I really hate colds that make your whole body sore.

There are still a bunch of things to straighten out with my life, but at least this is finished. I need to make sure I have all the paperwork ready for consolidation and for starting the repayment on my loans. I am also waiting for a call back from the marketing agency. My resume was being passed up the the hiring manager, because he likes to see them before scheduling an over the phone interview. My husband and I are planning for me to have to make a trip home at the moment, but we'll wait to buy the tickets. We decided that I would go home to interview after interviewing over the phone as a preliminary. It would not be smart to front the money to fly back to Cincinnati for an interview if I'm not a serious contender for a position. If I do go back to interview, I'll try to line up a few more while I'm there. We figure that if nothing comes of it, then the kids and I had a nice little vacation, and I will have some time to scout companies that I want to send out resumes to. Five years is a long time away when the area has been growing so quickly, and I'm not too sure what is in the area now. So, if I don't get this job or another one, the kids and I will come back home in time for Christmas, and we'll continue working with the end of February/start of March time table.

Everything is basically settled, but we are still stressing out a bit at the separation. We are determined to look at the big picture, though. We're not willing to sacrifice our drem of a nice home over a few extra months. We figure that we'll have that much more money for a down payment, and our financial security will be better assured. We are not really looking towards the separation with excitment, but we know that our marriage can weather this. We've made it through two deployments, and more than a year of work ups. I remember days when he was on the island and I still wouldn't see him for days. It can't be any worse than what our marriage has already endured, and the end prize is a good one. He'll be out of the military, we'll have a home of our own to raise our kids, and hopefully our lives can assume a normal schedule. I know most people don't long for living a life with a dull 9-5 schedule followed by sports, parent teacher conferences, and birthday parties. When you have missed out on anneversiaries, birthdays, Christmas, and many firsts that you experience with your children, monotony sounds like a blessing. We want nothing more than to spend our weekends doing yard work and taking the kids to the park. I would love to not have to worry if the husband will be home for major events, and more than anything I look foward to having the man I'm madly in love with home each evening with us. At the moment we are sort of sharing a house. I get up with the kids in the morning, he gets up about lunch time and sees them for an hour or so. I do housework and try to spend maybe 30 minutes with him while the kids are napping. The hubby goes off to work for the night, I spend the evening with the little ones, and I'm normally asleep before he get off. Our only time to really be together is once every 6 wekks when he is on duty. Otherwise, I'm working on the weekends and he gets a bit of alone time with the kids. We can't wait for something a bit more normal:)

Well, I'm off for the night. I'll drink my tea, maybe write a little on my story, and then I'm to bed. I hope all is well with everyone else.

Meg