Dear Diary

It's my first blog...not really sure what to with it.

I now have a whole 'website' dedicated to me and what I write...which is bizarre. Kinda like leaving your diary laying out on a busy park bench for the whole world to see.

Introduction: I'm a thirty something WV transplant (Tankersbabe) living in the middle of a subdivision in Central Virginia. I'm married to my High School sweetheart (The Tanker) and we have The Toddler, who is the light of our lives.

We share our house with the most obnoxious but sweet Boxer and a cat that has learned to pick at the weather stripping at the back door to get me out of bed in the morning. She's gonna get a rude awakening one of these days when I coat the weather stripping with super glue.

I can birth most farm animals... I can grow green beans, tomatoes, and cabbage, and I can can them up too! I can also take care of any wildgame that my husband drags in during hunting season. Living in a subdivision, and very close to a chain grocery store with a prepared foods selection, I really don't have to make much use of my country skills...except during hunting season, but you'll hear more about that later. Right now, the Tanker is not allowed to bring home his deer. They are to go straight to the meat processor and let them take care of it. I don't care if it cost $70 each time (not like he gets THAT many deer a year), but it saves me days of having to deal with it.

My best friend up and moved to Maine over the summer. I really miss her this time of the year. Our husbands hunt together, so that left us with open Saturdays to goof off together and drink wine. Not so much this year...she's way the hell up north and I am stuck here trying to figure out how to fill an open cold rainy Saturday with a very active Toddler while the Tanker is at Drill.

Speaking of The Toddler...he's a booger. We love him. He keeps us VERY busy and on our toes. He's the light of our lives and the King of Ear Infections. He loves his Wonder Pets, his books and anything to do with Dinosaurs and Elephants. He's still rocked to sleep every night and we are ok with that decision.

Speaking of Drill... Tanker is a full time National Guardsman. We've been together for 18 years, married for 11, and I think, at last count, he's been gone four or five years due to deployment, schools, training, etc. I knew it when I married him, and I am OK with that. After a while, you get used to the absences...but I will say, Deployments suck raw eggs. But I am proud of the job that he does and would follow him to the ends of the Earth.

Speaking of Deployment (notice how I keep leading into my next rambling subject), we are eyeing our second deployment somewhere out on the horizon. Not thrilled, but it will be OK and we'll get through it just fine. When he comes home, it will suck and we'll fight...and The Toddler will have to get used to him all over again. While he's gone, I'll be in charge of dog, kid, house, full time job, long commute and everything else. Just an extended Drill weekend right? Yeah, right.