The last 10 years

For my 30th birthday in January 2016, we went to Denver for the weekend. I was very apprehensive about turning 30 and facing down 2016 because it was a deployment year. Scott was in Afghanistan from February-November 2016. While I’m “grateful” for the “opportunity” to “learn and grow” that year, it was not easy. I didn’t exactly feel like I was being set up for success and had no idea what the rest of the decade would hold for that reason alone. I had already spent full years of my 20s alone because of deployments. 

2017 was failed fertility treatments and, ironically, pregnancy. 

2018 was having a baby and moving. 

2019 was moving. 

2020 was moving. 

2021 was moving. 

2022 was having a baby. 

2025 was moving. 

I also taught at 4 schools in 3 states in the last decade, and took 4 years off to stay at home. 

Sprinkle in lots of TDYs and a few shorter deployments too. 

One dog passed away and we gained a puppy. 

We sold a remodeled house, bought 3 more, and took on remodeling another house as our family’s personality (again). 

We also traded in a truck for a bigger truck and bought a new SUV. 

Truly, almost everything looks different than it did 10 years ago. There is nothing familiar in my surroundings except Scott and Scout the Dog. Super weird, right? I guess we do have a lot of the same furniture. You only buy new furniture as a must when you know it'll get all dinged up during moves. 

While being a military spouse isn’t easy, it’s never boring. I literally had no idea where I would be at 40 so this last 10 years was a lot of big and little decisions that added up to what life became for my 30s. I couldn’t have planned it or done it any better and have been blessed with much more opportunity and goodness than I deserve. 

So I’m going to be super cryptic and superstitious and prayerful when I say I literally have no idea what’s next because I could not have laid out any of this 10 years ago.