Good Morning, America. How Are You?

A song being stuck in my head always seems to be a great way to start off a blog post. I'm in a random sort of rant-y mood today, so bear with me and I'll try to keep it short.
I took two days of Army Family Team Building classes this week. For those who may not know, AFTB classes are designed with the purpose to better educate military families and soldiers (who get promotion points for them, FYI) about the military, customs, abbreviations, purposes and other things. There are three knowledge classes and a fourth class if you'd like to be certified to teach the courses within the classes. I graduated class level one yesterday. I was quite happy to see a certificate with my name on it! It's been a while since I did something for myself like that just to learn and feel productive. I'm also signed up for class levels two and three as well as Key Caller classes one and two. (A Key Caller works for the Family Readiness Group as a go between and point of contact between the FRG leader and the members.) I think if I can continue to take classes and enjoy it, I may like to teach an AFTB class or work at ACS. (Army Community Services)
Moving on, not this coming weekend, but next weekend I believe, my friend Yuri is supposed to be visiting. (She's the one who drew the lovely lady you can see to the left of the blog in the background.) Anyway, she's one of my best friends from high school. (She, Heather and I are very close, as is Amber even though Amber and Yuri try to kill each other sometimes. Haha!) I'm looking forward to a visit from her. Heather is scheduled to visit sometime after the dreaded D word  begins, and though I initially asked that it be right after he leaves, I am reconsidering and wondering if maybe I should see if she'll come around my anniversary so that I won't have to be alone on it. I am hoping to maybe, if I don't make it into the phlebotomy program (*crossing fingers*,) that I'll be able to go down for a while in May-June to Tennessee for Amber's wedding, Carter-buggy's first birthday, and a little visit with my mom and dad. Ideal circumstances, are hard to come by though so I'm not holding my breath.
Speaking of ideal circumstances, I wish I could get some sort of guarantee Erik will be able to get leave in October around the time of John and Beth's wedding. It's tricky to plan what I'm doing when I don't know when he'll be home. If he's home that week but we didn't have enough time ahead to get him on the cruise, neither of us will be going because I'm not going on a cruise while my husband is here. At the same time, if we know ahead of time he'll be home during that time period I'll have to scramble to get a ticket and separate room for us both. What a pain in the butt!
I wish I could just write him a note.

Dear Army,
     Regretfully, I must inform you that Erik is not feeling well, so alas, I have decided to keep him home for the next twelve or thirteen months. This, as I am sure you have perceived, means he will not be able to go play in the sandbox with the other boys. My sincerest apologies. Do take care!
<3s
Fae