So it began....

Growing up, I had no REAL intention of marrying.  I would have LIKED to.  But need to??  Nope.  I really just wanted to be happy.  I grew up with the understanding that there were worse things than being single.  Marrying the wrong person and/or jumping into a situation that I did not think I could handle were worse than being alone.

I actually enjoyed being alone.  Not all the time, mind you.  But I had no problem seeing a movie or going out to dinner by myself.  I enjoyed the ritualized routine that came with coming home from a long day at work, greeting the cat (yep...EVERY single gal has a cat, right?), making & eating dinner while I listened to NPR, reading a book, going for a run, and then heading to bed.  Yep, that was the end of my day. There were no entanglements.  No outside demands.  I had my own, little, self-centered  universe.

Then I met my husband.  Oh Lord Almighty, did that turn everything on its head!!!  I had dated other people.  But they had never infiltrated my space the way he did.  All of a sudden, dinner was lonely.  The thought of a "quiet weekend alone" didn't set so well.  This witty, intelligent, quirky engineer had shattered what I had thought was supreme happiness.  All of a sudden, conversations with the cat were not enough in the evening.  So, my journey began.

When we had first started planning our future together, it did NOT include the military.  He was a design engineer with 4 years under his belt and I was heading to Grad School.  Life was good.  He was settling into work, and I was heading toward a life filled with learning and teaching.  The future was bright, peaceful, and filled with "picket fences."

However, the picket fences weren't to be.  Instead, a month before we were to marry, due to swift changes that demanded immediate decisions, the transient lifestyle of a nomad became our lot.  I braced my shoulders and decided that if Ruth could drop everything and go where ever Naomi went, I could do the same.  Two days after we wed, my engineer signed on and became a US Air Force man.  Neither of us had the slightest idea of what this life would hold.  Nor did we have any clue as to the "adventures" we would have.  This young spouse's quiet life was about to be completely disrupted by the US Force.