Planning a Future

 One highlight of deployment and well marriage in general is planning your future. Deployment it's amplified because you can't do anything together so all you talk about is what you can't wait for and things you'd like to do together. Rarely this conversation is about children, despite being 23 my husband and I just aren't in the place in our marriage yet. I enjoy being 23 and not having a bunch of responsibilities. But baby talk is a different blog all in itself. So one of my favorite things to plan is adventures. Last year my husband and I went to Legoland and Busch Gardens. Despite not liking roller coasters we had an amazing time. This time we are thinking about going to Universal Studios and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Dylan's a big Harry Potter fan so I know this trip will be awesome for him and I saw the movies so I'm pretty excited to go also. I even bought a pair of Ravenclaw leggings to wear to get into the spirit. So that's one thing I look forward to and enjoy planning. The other thing I love talking about with him is school (his and my education) and our home. I currently am going to school and I'm about to get my associates degree and he's getting ready to return to school. It's so very exciting for both of us. I think we're applying to the same university in Florida, he's just going to take a couple online classes and I'm really excited for him and I'm going to start on my bachelors degree. It's pretty exciting to think about. Then there's our new home, that's the most fun to think about, Dylan and I are looking at buying a home and looking and talking about our future house is just so much fun. We talk about the furniture, the bathroom, hanging out on the couch watching movies and pretty much every aspect of getting a house together. It's so exciting to be headed towards this huge life step. Buying a home, having him back with me and going to school together is such wonderful things to look forward to and I think doing this during deployment can really bring you a positive outlook. The important thing is to remember these things aren't set in stone, maybe we won't go to Universal, maybe we won't find a home we love and we'll rent for a while and keep looking. These things are unknown and as long as you remain flexible it's fun to plan. 

this is a painting I made for our new home. We love our home town and I wanted to recreate that feeling of coming home late at night and seeing that beautiful arch and all those buildings lights reflecting off of the mississippi. This is one way I plan for the future, I create and collect art in order to make our house into a home. I'm just not interested in having a "pinterest home" I need a house that's unique and filled with unique and interesting things because that's what we are. This painting maybe rough but planning for the future and making things for my home really help to put a positive spin on deployment. And in such a crappy circumstance it's important to find something positive.