[ groh . together ]: normal

I have found there are two different, separate - yet connected - sides of normal life with the army and deployments.

When we moved to Fort Rucker, our first duty station together, I was recently out of college, out of an internship and quickly found a good job in my field. Donovan and I both worked and we had a normal life of a newly married couple. This consisted of doing many things together: cooking, doing the dishes, Sunday house cleaning and laundry, working out together and day trips.

We moved to Fort Hood last May where Donovan quickly deployed with 1ACB and normal soon became spending as much time together as we could. I cleaned and cooked and planned fun trips for the weekend before he shipped out. That was when normal became something very different, especially for me. I woke up alone, and went to sleep alone. The house was unusually quiet all the time. I don't cook much because the chaos of cooking for one turns out to be so much more work and energy, except for the occasional egg for breakfast or lately bread cooking in the oven - very yummy - the kitchen stays clean. I tend to wake up and not want to get out of the bed because there is nothing to get out and do for the day, which has caused my sleep schedule to shift very much. I go to the gym in my complex across the street just to get out of the house most days. I have found volunteering makes me happy and makes me feel needed and important, so I take all the opportunities I can.

Donovan just left from him 2 week R&R, which made me re-adjust to another normal again. The normal where I had to cook and messy the kitchen so we didn't eat out for two weeks straight. Where there is another person using my shower, computer, TV, spot on the couch and favorite fleece (which is his). Two weeks is never enough time with the one you love. Adjustment takes time and it is time we don't have to waste. It seems that just as we are getting comfortable and back in the grove again, it is time to adjust yet again.

Back to being alone in a quiet house, too quiet. To waking up with no one to say good morning to and back. To eating toast or a quesadilla or carrot sticks or jelly beans for dinner.

Adjusting from one normal to another is hard.

We had a great two weeks of R&R together and the end of this deployment is in sight - thank goodness.