Six years later...

Six years ago today, January 31, 2003 - Josh enlisted.   When we met in 2004 -  4 years and 10 months ago, it seemed so far off.  Of course, I never would have thought the night we met that I would be celebrating his last "official" day of his enlistment!  It is somewhat over.  Josh cannot be released until the "stop-loss" is lifted.  Even once that is done, it will be approximately 90 days, so we have a few more months of things to do (reintegration weekends, in particular), but the end is very near.  Beginning tomorrow he will technically begin his independent ready reserve commitment, which will end on January 31, 2011.  Josh is protected for some time from being re-deployed or called up for duty, and we cross our fingers that it will never be a remote issue for us.  

This is where we really celebrate the trip to Hawaii.  He was supposed to receive that surprise tonight, but I couldn't wait.  Many people have asked and the trip is scheduled for August 2009!  It is part of my month off from work; instead of July this year, I will be gone part of July and August.  We can't wait and look forward to being in paradise for 11 days.   A great celebration to look forward to in the months ahead.

Our celebration seems a little less important after learning of some extremely saddening events our friends and family have endured in the last 36 hours.   To all of the people who prayed for us in the past year, we ask you to say an extra prayer for the Brown and Sheppard families.    They need some extra support and strength in days and months ahead.  

Has it really been a month?

It's been a month since Josh came home. Either time just seemed to pass by easier or someone played a cruel joke on us for the past year. I swear not a single month seemed to fly by like January has! Our first few weeks did go by rather quickly, and the last few weeks have gone by at a nice pace. I think we are past the "is this going to end?" phase of reintegrating our lives and can just relax and enjoy all that we have waited for. It is wonderful.

Josh had a great first day back at Barry yesterday. He was FULL of stories last night when I got home. He really enjoys his kids and looks forward to today!

Call Me Mr. B

Mr. Bacigalupi returns to the classroom today!!!!! We spent the weekend getting materials for his return -- fabric for the bulletin boards, valentine's day goodies -- and Josh spent a lot of time printing out materials as well. As mentioned, he will be in the classroom Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in the morning only. He will spend all day in the classroom on Thursday and Friday. He will "officially" resume all duties in the room on February 2, with the kids first day being February 3.

I returned to work on Thursday afternoon and was in for most of the day on Friday of last week. Today is my first full day back as well. I am honestly looking forward to the return. We're both ready for it. To help with the craziness that this week will bring, I have planned out all of the meals for the week and have started ironing our outfits as well.

525,600 Minutes

How do you measure, measure a year?

This post is a week delayed and unfortunately in the past week, I have forgotten most of what I wanted to share. I meant to post on January 19, exactly a year after Josh left for Ft. Bragg.

It's amazing to think of everything that happened in the past year. I think it is easiest to see the duration of the deployment when you look at before and after pictures of our nieces and nephews. Dominic, Jonathan, Cassie, Francesca and Hailey each grew leaps and bounds. Dominic is now in kindergarten and Jonathan will be heading off to pre-school next year. When Josh left, Cassie, Francesa and Hailey were crawling. Cassie had no hair and Francesca's hair was about 5 inches shorter than it is today. Today they are running all over, getting into everything, developing very unique personalities that weren't so apparent a year ago and getting ready to take on the age of 2. Nephews #3 and 4 and Niece #4 - Takoda, TJ and Ella all arrived in the past year. Diane's entire pregnancy with the twins occurred while Josh was gone and he met them when they were 3 months and 3 days old.

As for Josh and I, I think it is harder to see the changes that occured while he was gone. We both think we have aged, but I am guessing (hoping) that is not so apparent to others.

It will be interesting to see what changes are in store for Josh and I in the coming year. Where will be on January 19, 2010?

"Just be quiet"

Yes, that is an actual quote from me to Josh. However, I do not remember it. Perhaps, it was because it was in the middle of the night, during one of Josh's chat sessions and I was half-asleep. It is a little reminder of how quiet the house is. We have had quite the transition involving the noise level.

I can comfortably listen to the television on volume 10 - 12, but that is not the case for Josh, as he did encounter a slight hearing loss while overseas.

I can go hours without talking and just doing things; however, Josh always finds something to share. It's not that I am not interested, but that I really did become accustomed to just living through the day, sometimes with no human interaction or phone calls. I guess it makes you wonder if I ever talked to myself and the answer is probably yes!

For Josh, it was lonely at times in Afghanistan, even sharing a 14' by 28' shack with seven others.

He is a great talker, and I a great listener - our ying and yang.

The Future of Blogging

I, and hopefully Josh too, will continue to post about our path to normalcy and our new normal as we discover life post-deployment. There are several events coming up worthy of blogging about involving Josh's transition home and his military exit, so we will be sure to share those experiences here on "they call him baci".

Down the road, when the time is right, I, and hopefully Josh too, will start a new blog, linking the old blog to the new blog and vice versa.

Until then, stay tuned here and we will continue to share about this journey in our life.

Settling In

Josh and I have enjoyed our time together since I posted last. We have enjoyed lazy days, doing some light work, shoveling snow, cleaning the house, watching tv (downstairs, of course!), visiting family and friends, meeting with school, grocery shopping, visiting the Veterans Services office, visting the town office with the DD214, and sleeping!

Josh's deployment officially began a year ago today! Worse case scenario, we were expecting him today, but enjoy the fact that he has been home for three weeks already!

Josh will be returning to school on January 26, being in the classroom for 1/2 days on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. He will be in the room full-time on Thursday and Friday. The whole week the substitute teacher will be in the room all day. On February 2, a teacher work day, Josh will return to his room as the full-time teacher and prepare for his first day with the students on February 3. He looks forward to returning and has been working on several items in preparation for his return. He wrote a very lengthy letter to the parents explaining the transition and introducing himself to the parents. He is also putting together a book a different pictures from Afghanistan to share with the 1st graders (his kindergarteners last year) and other students in the school. He will be visiting with the 1st graders and his classroom on Friday, January 23.

We celebrated the Contri Christmas last Sunday and had an opportunity to snap a picture with the nieces and nephews from the Contri side of the family in front of the Welcome Home sign.

From left to right: TJ (in bouncy seat), Uncle Josh with Cassie, Dominc with Franny, Jonathan, Hailey, and Ella (in bouncy seat).

Last year when we celebrated Christmas, Josh plugged in the red, white and blue tribute of lights. This year, he "ceremoniously" unplugged the lights with one quick yank of the cord!

(Uncle Josh with Jonathan)

Here a few shots of the kids...

Franny with her new set of Doh...

Hailey...

Dom with a big grin and Jonathan with some crazy curls (I love it!)...

This was a recent picture from the Pisciotti's blog... TJ and Ella after bathtime (3 1/2 months old)!

We are looking forward to wrapping up our post-deployment checklist in the coming week and returning to a routine with both of us back at work and life after the deployment. Countdown to Hawaii... 6 months and 17 days!

Check back soon for a Question and Answer post!

The First 10 Days

Today is Josh's tenth day at home! It has been wonderful to have 9 nights of sleep knowing that we are right next to each other. I know that the updates have been non-existent since he arrived home, so I will attempt to provide a re-cap of the last ten days.

Josh's Homecoming - December 27, 2008
The wait seemed forever in the Armory, especially once we knew that Josh's plane had landed and then once we knew that he was standing on the other side of the overhead door. The tricky part was that in the main group, there were four smaller groups - Syracuse, East-bound (Albany area), West-bound (Rochester area) and NYC. The Syracuse group was the group that Josh was in, the local guardmen. East and West bound groups each boarded a bus to be taken to an armory closer to home and the NYC group remained on the plane. Of course, each soldier had a few bags, of which they had color-coded with tape in Ft. Bragg. For those getting off the plane in Syracuse, priority was given to those who had to get onto a bus.

As I mentioned, once Josh arrived at the Armory, they were standing on the other side of the Armory's overhead door. Look closely and you'll see the soldiers standing in the dark...

At the appropriate time, the door rose up to show the men standing, ready to march in.

The "ceremony" was brief - maybe thirty seconds and then were released. Our first hug...

Several news outlets were there covering the reunions. Josh was interviewed by News 10 Now. You can read the transcript of the news story. Additionally, you can click on the video clip within the story to view Josh and I hugging, clips of our family and the interview of Josh.

Our arrival home... Dustin and Nikki had spent some time working on a special sign for Josh's return. As we arrived home, the spotlight on the sign could be seen from down the street. As we entered the neighborhood, I continued honking my car horn and then I realized someone else was honking theirs as well. Apparently as we were away picking up Josh, people would drive by the house, honking their horn throughout the night as they drove by our house. (This picture was taken earlier in the day during the "construction phase".)

"It will all be all right

I’ll be home tonight

I’m coming back home..."

And for the big reveal... As you know from the recent post, Josh had a little surprise waiting for him at home. He was really good, as soon as he entered the house, he went upstairs. He was shocked by the items hanging in the entry way and didn't even see the downstairs. I gave him his Welcome Home card and waited for him downstairs. His reaction...

Josh kept repeating that he loved it, but that he was completely shocked by it and therefore not as animated in his reaction as he normally would have been. I completely believe that he loves it considering how much time we have spent down there. He sat in the upstairs living room today because he felt that it wasn't getting enough attention! LOL

Christmas with the Bacigalupi's - December 28, 2008

On Sunday, we enjoyed our Christmas with Josh's family. It was a wonderful visit for all of us. I made meatballs and sausage, two different lasagnas and we capped off the meal with a variety of desserts from the recent Barry PTA Fundraiser.

Josh's family made the trek back to Virginia on the 29th after we enjoyed some treats at Dunkin' Donuts in the morning.

New Year's Eve - December 31, 2008

We enjoyed staying at home on New Year's Eve this year. The weather would have made it difficult to go anywhere, even if we did want to be out and about. Even more so, we enjoyed going to bed early and not feeling the pressure to see the ball drop. Our treat was chips and salsa!

New Year's Day - January 1, 2009

As some of you know, the downstairs was one surprise and then there was another in the works. The second surprise ended up coming 30 days early, as I had wanted to wait until January 31, the last official day of Josh's six year enlistment in the National Guard. However, I could not wait any longer. I kept it a secret for 3 months and 5 days and New Year's Day seemed like the next best time if I was going to spill the beans early.

I told Josh I had a surprise and I was thinking of a date, a 6 year date. He guessed the 31st and then I told him I was thinking about another date or range of dates. Immediately, he asked where we were going!! You can't keep much from him! So, I ran into one room where I had a shirt hidden. I gave him the shirt and he opened it, holding it five inches from his face. He first words were, "Oh my, I can't read it, it's in another language." He then realized he was just holding it too close to his face as he read "Aloha Hawaii"!!!! We are going to Hawaii!!!! After it sank in (he later told me that he thought I booked somewhere in the Caribbean), I then pulled out the folder with all of the reservations and clips from the travel brochures to show him it was for real!

Other happenings...

Since New Year's, we have laid low for the most part. We have enjoyed the movie theater twice in the past week, bought Josh some new clothes and have visited some my family. We are looking forward to celebrating Christmas with the Contri side in the near future. We are trying to visit each individual family first before the big gathering, as 17 of us is a large group to bring together all at once.

We are looking forward to spending more time together, as I am working from home and vacationing while we adjust to our new life together. Josh made a list this morning of things we should tackle this week and we will take each item one at a time. We have discovered how "odd" some things seem to Josh when he has been away for a year. Life's little conveniences that we take for granted/that he was without or how busy the grocery store can really seem.

And for those of you who are wondering... Yes, Josh has had coke since he arrived home and... I even restocked our supply today!!

A real welcome home treat!

Since the marathon, I have been very busy, so busy that I haven't ran since my little burst of energy on Election Day. I have missed the running quite a bit, but have created my very own masterpiece. While Josh was gone last year (2007) during one of his training sessions, a little idea popped into my head. I was cleaning the downstairs, annoyed because we always let that be the last area that got cleaned, but more so because I didn't think we actually utilized the space - just plain off white walls, with a lot of usable space! We had a futon, a couple of bookshelves, and a TV hooked up to a VCR and DVD player, but not to cable. The wheels started to turn...

I knew I wanted to do something special for his birthday, being that he was away, it was his 33rd and his birthday is on Veterans Day. So, how about a new TV...

I have always wanted a fireplace, so my parents bought this for our Christmas gift.

I decided I wanted to get rid of the futon and buy a real couch.

Of course, I couldn't have just a couch and I fell in love with this chair at Babies 'R Us on one of my shopping adventures.

Now that you have seen all of the "key pieces", here are some shots of the entire room, paint colors, and everything put together... Remember just off white walls before, no chair rail, no built-in!

Here are some pictures of the office...

The bathroom even got a fresh look...

As for Josh's reaction... Well, I scheduled this post to appear today. Hopefully, I got some great shots of his reaction and I will post those as soon as I can! Check back later...

December 27th

Hooray for this day that is finally here!!

We will forever celebrate this day as a special day in our house!

Press Release from New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs