Leaving On A Jet Plane & Returning In A Car

As some of you may know our dear friends are finally getting to tie the knot over Labor Day weekend and Jake has been fortunate enough to be asked to be the best man. Although we have only been out here for 6 weeks (well...when Labor Day approaches it will be 6 weeks) It will be so nice to see our family and friends for this eventful yet short weekend. We are also going to finally get our other car out here which means no 4am wake up calls for me to take Jake to work! whoo hoo!

{ Disclaimer: the following blog should no way, shape, or form reflect our excitement to be there for some our closest friends. We would have done anything and everything humanly possible to get there for their big day!! This blog is more or less me venting about how annoying this situation has become because of the military. Yes, I do understand that this is military life but please give me a break - it's my blog, I can do what I want :) }

The stress of making this happen is finally half way over...well maybe a little more than half. Since we are so new to this whole military lifestyle we knew that it would not be easy for us to make this endeavor happen but in our reasonable minds we had taken some precautionary actions so that it would up our chances. When a military family gets stationed somewhere the military personal usually gets up to 10 days off to assist in the move and to look for housing. These are not part of the liberty that Jake has earned because he has been in for so long. This is somewhat standard. Other married Marines in Jake's unit got to take these days off, other Marines who, based souly on performance, are not as good as Jake (did I mention that even though he isn't a lance corporal yet he is a team leader for his unit (this is a really good thing!)) We opted to not take any of these days off at first so that we could enjoy ourselves at the wedding and drive the other car back out here afterwords. Technically he would be assisting me in a move...technically.

Now, in anyone's reasonable mind, wouldn't this help our cause? Jake hadn't taken the days he is suppose to get, and really we were only asking for 5 or 6 of the days, not all 10. Jake has shown that he is a very capable Marine and in most other work environments this would be rewarded. Not in the military. We didn't get any of the days off - none. And, to top it off he has to be on duty tonight (which means he is gone all night long). Needless to say, I was ticked.

Here are the repercussions of not getting any of the days off:

Jake (God willing) will get off work Friday night before 6:30. I will pick up up and we will drive 3 hours and 40 minutes straight to Las Vegas to catch a plane that leaves at 11:15pm. We are going to try to make this easy on ourselves by bringing carry on luggage only. We then will fly through the night and and get to Indianapolis where our car will be waiting for us (thanks to my wonderful in-laws) and will then drive another 3 hours and 30 minutes to Evansville, Indiana where at 2:00 Jake will need to be in his tux for pre-wedding pictures. The actually wedding will begin at 5 and all the festivities will be held after. We will get to see our brother and sister-in-law for less than a day (since they are leaving Saturday night) and our nephew and brand spankin' new niece will be leaving with them :(. I also don't get to do a cross country trip with my husband. He will be flying back Sunday night and I will being driving the other car with the next best guy in my life - my dad.

Now, since I am such a planner and I have such wonderful family and friends that are willing to help us we won't have to pick up the tux because the bride and groom will be picking it up with their tuxes. No one will have to wait for us at the airport because my wonderful in-laws are going to drop off the car at the airport so we can just hop right in and take off. And I will still be able to drive the car back home since my dad, luckily, had a business trip not to far from Twentynine Palms scheduled for the week after the wedding so he will get to see where we live and have a short visit :)

If I look hard enough the good can outweigh the bad...but sometimes it takes real focus to remember that. I am very grateful for my friends and family that are making this possible. We wouldn't have missed this wedding for the world! However, without the help we would have been cutting it even closer then we already are. We just happy that we get to go and on top of it all I get a cross country trip with my mom first and then 6 weeks later with my dad. It should be something to remember :)