Fabulous Army Life

It is true that I am an emotional person by nature, and the onset of a deployment takes even my highly emotional self up a notch or two.  I don't think I'm entirely alone in this ... or at least that's what I tell myself to preserve some sense of pride.  The first days of a deployment find me in a haze of sorts as I sort through my new situation in life.  Emotions run amok and the most innocent of comments can cause my eyelids to sting as the tears form.  It's really quite embarrassing which is why I typically avoid public places for a few days.  This highly emotional state creates some interesting moments for me.  I find myself doing things that would otherwise make no sense at all ... and perhaps don't make a lot of sense no matter what.  So here's the question for military spouses the world over ... Have you ever ... saved a load of laundry just to see something of his in the basket? stretched a pot of coffee over three days or more because ...

Does anybody else have one child who is a near carbon-copy of themselves? My little mini-me is my almost-ten-year-old son. Since he was a baby, he has physically resembled me ... except his gender, of course, and his eye color (I share that with my youngest). In most other ways, though, my eldest child and I are very much alike. I taught at a junior high school parttime when this child was three and four years old. Even then, our resemblances were striking. The custodian at this school would always ask me, "Where's your twin?" talking about my toddler boy. I also learned early on that we shared an emotional tie as well. His personality, quirks, and tendency to have overwhelming emotional moments ... that's all me. Isn't that crazy? Who knew the DNA strands that would replicate in our offspring? We are both book addicts (to the point that it's sometimes debilitating), highly emotional, forgetful, and math-phobic. In fact, it is eerie to me to watch this male ch...