I started this post the last week of December, but started PCSing, so I'm trying to finish it now in late January. I was just reminiscing on my first with year the USAF...to say this year was a roller coaster is an understatement, but I wouldn't trade it for anything! Trent left in April so it hasn't been a full year, but it's the end of 2014 so that counts, right?
April
April 14, 2014 at 2:15 pm I said goodbye to Trent as he headed off to BMT and had absolutely no idea what I was in for. It was pretty tough not knowing when I would hear from him next, if I would at all...anxiously clinging to my phone, stalking the mailman, and writing him books for letters. Each letter consisted of about six pages and I tried to send out two a day. I finally got my first letter at the end of April. I was SO excited! I was jumping, squealing, crying, and shaking all at once. I didn't think my body could handle the level of emotions I was having that day.
April 14, 2014 at 2:15 pm I said goodbye to Trent as he headed off to BMT and had absolutely no idea what I was in for. It was pretty tough not knowing when I would hear from him next, if I would at all...anxiously clinging to my phone, stalking the mailman, and writing him books for letters. Each letter consisted of about six pages and I tried to send out two a day. I finally got my first letter at the end of April. I was SO excited! I was jumping, squealing, crying, and shaking all at once. I didn't think my body could handle the level of emotions I was having that day.
May
Still stalking the mailman, writing books, and clinging to my phone for dear life. May 3rd around 4:00 pm I got a call from a payphone in San Antonio and it was Trent!! The best minute and fifteen seconds of my life, nothing much was said besides "I love you" and "I miss you". Tears were shed on both sides and talking to him that day was one of the best phone calls I've ever received, at the same time it was the worst... it left me begging for an extra ten seconds, one more I love you, just to see him. The aching and desperation for him was multiplied by a million.
Still stalking the mailman, writing books, and clinging to my phone for dear life. May 3rd around 4:00 pm I got a call from a payphone in San Antonio and it was Trent!! The best minute and fifteen seconds of my life, nothing much was said besides "I love you" and "I miss you". Tears were shed on both sides and talking to him that day was one of the best phone calls I've ever received, at the same time it was the worst... it left me begging for an extra ten seconds, one more I love you, just to see him. The aching and desperation for him was multiplied by a million.
June
Finally it was graduation month! Trent's parents, grandparents, best friend, little brother, and I were all getting ready to leave when I get a surprise phone call from Trent! I was so excited, he told me he received honor grad! Such a proud moment for all of us. Then 2 am rolls around on June 11th and we all piled in the car to start our eighteen hour drive down to Lackland, AFB in San Antonio, TX. At 10:00 pm, we finally pull into Lackland AFB and I was so excited that I started crying and crying hard at that! Needless to say I didn't sleep a wink that night. I was finally going to see him again!
Graduation day was here. June 12th, I saw him run by me and we exchanged a quick smile and he blew me a kiss. Then the graduation ceremony happened and the announcer said "Go hug your airman!!!" It was like a stampede. Hundreds of people running into the crowd, everyone searching the name tapes to find their airman and finally I saw Trent and I tackled him, almost knocking him to the ground! :) so many happy tears that day.
Finally it was graduation month! Trent's parents, grandparents, best friend, little brother, and I were all getting ready to leave when I get a surprise phone call from Trent! I was so excited, he told me he received honor grad! Such a proud moment for all of us. Then 2 am rolls around on June 11th and we all piled in the car to start our eighteen hour drive down to Lackland, AFB in San Antonio, TX. At 10:00 pm, we finally pull into Lackland AFB and I was so excited that I started crying and crying hard at that! Needless to say I didn't sleep a wink that night. I was finally going to see him again!
Graduation day was here. June 12th, I saw him run by me and we exchanged a quick smile and he blew me a kiss. Then the graduation ceremony happened and the announcer said "Go hug your airman!!!" It was like a stampede. Hundreds of people running into the crowd, everyone searching the name tapes to find their airman and finally I saw Trent and I tackled him, almost knocking him to the ground! :) so many happy tears that day.
June 14th, Trent and the rest of us made our way into San Antonio. We went to The Magnolia Pancake Haus for quite possibly the best breakfast any of us have ever had. I highly recommend it! Right after breakfast, Trent told us he wanted to show us something that everyone said you have to see. He took us to the Tower of the Americas. We were 100 stories above San Antonio and Trent is deathly afraid of heights, so he was staying away. I walked over to the edge to look at the city and Trent followed behind. I was taken aback and asked him "are you nervous?" And he responded "I'm more nervous for what I'm about to do." He got down on one knee, made the most romantic speech that I've ever heard, and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes! :)
July
July was filled with a bunch of waiting for Trent to start his EOD training. I went down one weekend to see him for the first time since he graduated, he still had to wear ABU's and dress blues everywhere so we didn't go out much, but we were able to go out to Bed Bath and Beyond and register for our wedding, picked out the venue, and that's about it. He is too modest and is embarrassed by all the attention he gets while in uniform so we stayed in the hotel room the majority of the time. He says he's just a normal guy doing his job, no need to make a big deal out of it. (I do as much as I can though because it is a big deal)
July was filled with a bunch of waiting for Trent to start his EOD training. I went down one weekend to see him for the first time since he graduated, he still had to wear ABU's and dress blues everywhere so we didn't go out much, but we were able to go out to Bed Bath and Beyond and register for our wedding, picked out the venue, and that's about it. He is too modest and is embarrassed by all the attention he gets while in uniform so we stayed in the hotel room the majority of the time. He says he's just a normal guy doing his job, no need to make a big deal out of it. (I do as much as I can though because it is a big deal)
August
This was a big month for us. The wedding was booked and ready to go for August 29th. About three weeks before the wedding, Trent called and said he DOR-ed (dropped on request) and that he was going to be waiting for a new job to be assigned to him. Two weeks before the wedding, Trent was assigned his job and we weren't sure he was even going to still be at Sheppard or be at the wedding (silent bridezilla freak out). Then I went down to Texas a week early because Trent's birthday is August 24th. When I got down there, we found out he was going to continue training at Sheppard in the field of Aerospace Propulsion. We were thrilled he was going to be there for the wedding. For his twenty-second birthday, we went to go see a band with friends and shared an ice cream cake and some drinks the night before and on his actual birthday, we went to Texas Roadhouse for a steak. Delicious!
This was a big month for us. The wedding was booked and ready to go for August 29th. About three weeks before the wedding, Trent called and said he DOR-ed (dropped on request) and that he was going to be waiting for a new job to be assigned to him. Two weeks before the wedding, Trent was assigned his job and we weren't sure he was even going to still be at Sheppard or be at the wedding (silent bridezilla freak out). Then I went down to Texas a week early because Trent's birthday is August 24th. When I got down there, we found out he was going to continue training at Sheppard in the field of Aerospace Propulsion. We were thrilled he was going to be there for the wedding. For his twenty-second birthday, we went to go see a band with friends and shared an ice cream cake and some drinks the night before and on his actual birthday, we went to Texas Roadhouse for a steak. Delicious!
The 25th, we had to go to the courthouse to get our marriage license. Well, the only way we could get our licence was if we got married that day (with the way everything was working out with people coming down and timing of their hours). So Trent and I got married at the courthouse, very unexpectedly, and we kept it a secret. Well, the 28th finally rolls around, the day before the wedding, and everyone started coming down from Illinois. Little did Trent know, five of his closest friends drove through the night, to make it in time for the wedding. One of those friends was eight and a half months pregnant as well! He was completely surprised and had no idea. It was truly perfect.
Within a matter of two weeks, we had orders to two different bases. Our first base was to Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Two weeks later, Trent traded bases with a fellow classmate and we were approved to go to Yokota AFB, Fussa Japan. We were scheduled to be there no later than November 20th.
September
September was a very uneventful month. Nothing happened, besides just waiting and waiting. Trent was in tech school and I was working, I went down to Texas one weekend to go see him, other than that, we didn't do much at all.
October
October was very stressful. I went back and forth between doctors and the air force trying to get paperwork approved and finished up medical appointments. Well after weeks and weeks of stress and fighting with doctors we turned in the paperwork. We found out the weekend before he graduated, we were denied to go overseas because of my medical history. We were devastated. It was so hard going through that while being 1,000 miles away and trying to get over it. We were so excited and had our hearts set on Japan and knew that was where we were supposed to be. Trent was really upset because we lost our chance to go explore a new country and didn't know if we were ever going to get that chance again. They said it wouldn't take long to get a new assignment and should be at his new place by the beginning of December. So now we were back to waiting. I quit my job so I could finish packing and Trent was supposed to be home within the next two weeks.
November
November 4th, 2014. Graduation was finally here! Trent was finally done with tech school. We went out for a wonderful steak dinner to celebrate, spent a lovely week together, and were extremely disappointed when it came around and no word on any assignment. We had to cancel our wedding reception because they wouldn't let Trent come home for anything. Again, disappointed. Every week we waited for an answer. It was such a draining roller coaster of emotions every week waiting for a yes or no and every week being a no. I spent the first week of November with Trent and then left him the car so he could have a vehicle to drive around in and not feel like he was stuck on base.
December
Still with no assignment, no job, no car, no school, and Trent was just working midshift on CQ every night, we were running pretty low on energy and emotions with a constant no everyday. We were emotionally drained and knew we couldn't handle much more...it had been eight weeks since we lost Japan and finally Trent and scheduling talked to the Commander of his squadron and within two days, we had an answer! December 18th, at 10:30 am, Trent calls me and says "Hey, sweetie, I've got a question for you. How do you feel about Georgia?" I said "What are you saying, sweetie?" He said "You better finish packing because we are moving to Georgia!!! We have an assignment. We are finally going home." I was in tears, I was SO excited, after eight weeks of disappointing nos, we finally had a yes! Thing was, it was the day before exodus, he couldn't come home until after exodus was over so that was another two weeks. So I packed everything up, got a flight down to Texas to go spend exodus with him, needless to say, it was a very exciting but long two weeks. We went to Dallas for Christmas and Oklahoma City for New Years.
Finally, we got orders on January 6th, left the next morning and came home to surprise his family, it was his little brother's birthday and no one had any idea! It was a very tearful moment, very exciting and glad to be back home!!
So here I am, Jan. 25th, sitting in my hotel room at the Moody Inn, waiting for the landlord to finish painting our entertainment room. Impatiently waiting for tomorrow for move-in day!!! It's a dream to me that this is finally coming true. Our wedding gifts have been in storage since August, it's going to be like we are opening wedding presents all over again!
Here's to 2015 and a year full of excitement at the new Banwart household!
No comments:
Post a Comment