March, march.

August 2009 was when we found out that my husband was finally getting promoted to Staff Sergeant. He found out while he was on a week long duty in Georgia. When he came back, he needed to do some formality and Airman Leadership School was one of them. One of the things they had to do was march for the
Veteran's day parade. It went so successfully, he decided to volunteer again this year.

I woke-up really early this year though. Part of it was anxiousness, part of it was because I was home alone. This year was different. I started with some tribute videos for service members and it was a sure fire way to just start with the water works. My son also picked out his outfit and he was so excited about the fact that he gets to wear his Air Force kid shirt. He's been so giddy and so proud about the fact that Daddy is in the Air Force. It warms my heart and breaks it at the same time because I know just how much of a whiplash military kids get. My kid is particularly one of the luckiest because he sees his dad daily. He was looking for him tonight after we came home from a friend's house, and I just explained how he'll see him tomorrow morning. That's a dream for a lot of kids out there of course.

Yesterday, Brian went to work Wednesday, came home Thursday then just ate breakfast, put on his unform again, then hopped in the car to drive downtown. The crowd was wonderful and brought tears to my eyes the moment they clapped loudly as the airmen, one of which was my husband, marched perfectly in sync down the street. My son waved his flag proudly and my friend's niece exclaimed "I love how their feet march all at the same time!"

Three and a half hours after he came home from work, drove to go on formation, marched at the parade, it was time to go home again. He was welcomed by a broken closet door in my son's room and by the time he was done, he's been up 22 hours straight. Even though Air Force duty was done, dad duty couldn't wait. He was running on fumes and a can of energy drink. He was up for that long because he needed to do a job for his country, provide for his family so we can eat, and seriously, the warmth from the community was a great enough thank you to him and to us as well because it makes all this worth it.

We survive this lifestyle with ample support from family, friends and one another, and without it we'd be a wreck. We would crack more often than not. Having a positive yet realistic outlook also helps. There is no perfect schedule, no perfect base, no perfect command, not even assignment. It's just making the best of what's given to you. It's all the key to survival to this military life. My husband has been gone for months, he's been gone for hours, sometimes just days. It's not miserable, but it's hard, but looking at it as some sort of punishment will just make the hours and months longer and less tolerable. If I complained about anything and everything that came my way, I wouldn't get anything out of it. Seriously, I get enough gray hair from stressing over my own schedule. I'm due to dye my hair again.

Being in the military is like buying a house for a family. There will be that wishlist of all the needs that house has to have, but maybe only 70% of the dream is actual reality. That reality needs to be embraced instead of mulling over the 30% and figuring out how much worse it can be. A lot of families have it a lot worse than others, but it takes everyone's effort to make the system a functioning one, whether it be in front of a computer, or behind weapons in the middle of the desert in Afghanistan.

There's an upside to everything, even this crazy pick-up and go way of life. Some people might not like this idea of life, and we have gotten our share of words and looks, mostly because of political opinions. The bright side of all this though is that my kid has his own personal superhero. Nothing can beat that.