One Month DOWN!

Wow, it's been a little over a month now.
Cant' really say if it's gone by fast or slow, it's had it's fair share of moments, but boy am I glad the first one is out of the way!!

Within the last two weeks since my last post I have gained sympathy from my next door neighbor who is now my lawn mower hero. I came home from work one day last week when the doorbell rang. These neighbors have the last house on the street which really fits their lifestyle of being quiet and fly very low under the radar. I have met him maybe once or twice before, but know John has talked to him several times.
His wife is a nurse at our local hospital and he is retired and stays home all day.
When I answered the door he proclaimed, "I mowed your lawn for you."
Embarrasingly, I hadn't even noticed until he pointed it out.
Even more embarrassingly was that I wasn't sure if he mowed it to be nice or because it looked so bad!
I had actually called a landscaping company who was supposed to come out the next day. I told him they were going to charge me about $55 a trip for my puny little yard and he told me not to worry about it anymore and that he'd take care of the yards.
He also said that if I left the back yard gate unlocked he'd go back there the next day and mow the back too. My hero.
He also told me that part of my back fence blew down today and if I tossed the boards over the fence he'd fix them.
Well, another embarrassing moment, I didn't even KNOW part of the fence was down. I NEVER go out in our backyard, so Lord knows how long it was down like that.
The fence wasn't DOWN, but some boards that were loose already were blown down from the wind during the day.
We're in hurricane and tornado season here, so guess I need to pay better attention!!
Anyways, this neighbor said that his daughter is married to military so he knows how hard it can be-don't worry about mowing the yards, our yards are small enough and he has nothing else to do, so he'll mow my yards when he mows his.
I'm tempted to name my first born after this man. THAT'S how much of a burden he lifted off my shoulders.
Our stupid mower has been driving me nuts.
Through it all I did learn more about how mowers work, I learned to change a mower spark plug, I learned that mowers need oil AND gas....
Sigh.....obviously, as much as I like to be independent and take charge of things on my own, this is not ever going to be a strong suit of mine.
Oddly enough, I am ok with that.

Went to my second ever FRG meeting on the 22nd of April.
Family Readiness Group is almost a support group for families who have a deployed spouse/family member. It's main purpose is to be the medium between the soldiers and the families left behind. The Commander passes any news of anything going on through a SGT that stays behind to act as a FRG relay, if you will, to educate the families on what the soldiers are doing, where they are (if we're allowed to know), and any other news that may be applicable.
Christie, who is dating one of John's friends, drove down from Greensboro to go to the meeting too.
Although I had been to these meetings before, I hadn't been to one while the guys were deployed, so I wasn't sure what to expect.
There were three of us, besides the SGT, FRG leader and her minions.
There were counselors there from ACS who spent the hour and a half meeting talking to us about how to handle stress during deployments.

Although this isn't my first time at the rodeo, I did learn/notice some things about myself that they pointed out as stress coping mechanisms.
I learned that I have been lacking in the sleep area, I learned that I work too much, I learned that I DO too much (which I beg to differ!!) and that all these are ways that I deal with stress.
In other words, what I took out of it was, I work a lot and keep myself extremely busy so I don't have to deal with the emotional sides of this stuff.
Fine with me!
I'd rather be making money and losing weight than sitting at home moping around.
And it's NOT like I haven't had my moments.
During this whole lawn mower issue I cried several times because I felt so powerless!!
I've had "debbie downer" moments where I am bored and catch myself getting lazy.
So I just go walk the dog, or go work out, or cook something, catch up on GLEE, or FB stalk. ;)
As I always say, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Goodbye April, hello May.
Glad to see you and will be glad when your gone too. :)