You Say It's Your Birthday

Ben turned 27 on January 30th, isn’t he old?. At the marriage retreat a couple we met surprised Ben with a pastry and organized the whole banquet hall to sing “Happy Birthday” to him. It was so sweet! When we got home that night, it was too late for me to make his birthday dinner and cake, so we just had one of our frozen meals and played a board game of Ben’s choice. We ended up playing Babel, which is a great strategy game for two. After drinking sparkling cider and eating chocolate for dessert, he opened his presents. My parents gave him Fifa 2011 for the Wii, and I gave him a cordless mouse ( I know your jealous). I also gave him my old set of laser tag equipment that I had from when I was a kid. My mom graciously sent the set to me so that I could give it to him. Laser tag equipment is pretty expensive for a brand new set, so I was so glad that my parents still had my old set. He was pretty excited about all of his gifts, and I know that he will have a lot of fun with the laser tag. He really likes to play laser tag and now we can play whenever he wants.

On Monday I made Ben’s steak dinner and chocolate mouse cake with chocolate ganache. Unfortunately, right before everything finished cooking he got called to CQ. Someone forgot to tell him that there was a schedule change and he was supposed to be there from 6:30pm to 9am. Needless to say, I was not happy. I had spent forever preparing the dinner and cake. I even made the cake twice seeing as I have mad skills and knocked the first one off the counter and all over the kitchen. Fortunately, Ben’s friend covered the first two hours of CQ duty and we were able to eat before he left.

I almost started to forget the disorganization of the military after the marriage retreat, but luckily I was swiftly corrected. That’s the military for you, always screwing up your plans. Fortunately it worked out in the end.

The Army Life for Me

At the beginning of November Ben left for the Army. I know, it is a shocker. Before he left we had a lot of fun celebrating Halloween and such. We went to a farm and got to go through some huge corn maze. The night before Halloween we went to our church's Trunk or Treat. Ben and I dressed up as Chicago Bears Super Fans. Actually, he was a Super Fan; I was just a fan.




At the beginning of November Ben finally left for Basic Training. I say finally because it took three different tries before his recruiters submitted all of his paperwork completely. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband. But after saying goodbye several days in a row and getting up at four in the morning, I was ready for the emotional roller coaster to be over. Despite being numb with exhaustion when he finally left, it didn't take long for the feeling to seep back into me as I realized that he was really gone.

Basic Training was tough. Ben always said that the hardest part was being away from me. Obviously, with the lack of push ups and training I had to do, the separation was the worst part for me too. I did not like not being allowed to talk to him. Writing letters turned out to be rather cathartic but it was hard to feel the connection between us. I eventually wrote him everyday, but by the time I got a letter from him he was responding to something that I had written over a week before. I suppose my impatience with the postal system only goes to show that I really am a product of the times. Despite my protests I have really been spoiled by the many recent technological advances.

Luckily, Ben got a two week break for Exodus and came home for a visit around Christmas. It was a little weird seeing him at first. I was completely prepared for my husband to be unbearably ugly with his high and tight haircut, but, fortunately, my love goggles kicked in and I didn't notice (love goggles are similar to beer goggles but are activated with love instead of alcohol). I did however notice his weight loss. My dear husband (DH) is plenty skinny all on his own, but Basic sucked 10 pounds from him. Many people thought he looked like an old sickly man in our Christmas picture (at bottom of post). Poor DH, I still think you look good.




We had fun celebrating Christmas together and enjoying time together in our fully decorated and festive apartment. It was nice to relax with him the entire time. I had quit my job a little before DH came home, so I ended up only having to work two days while he was here. It was so amazing to spend so much time together. I realized during those days that I was truly happy. Unfortunately, I did not maintain that happiness for very long.