Upon returning back in Minnesota, I started working again and started thinking about wedding planning. We set our wedding date for June 5th, 2010, firmly believing that Steve wouldn’t have to go on another deployment for the remainder of his service. Generally, after returning home from a deployment, they are given a year to “recuperate” before being deployed again. He returned from his first deployment in March of 2009, which meant that the year would be up in March of 2010. With his 4 years up in February of 2011, that left less than 1 year for “work ups”, an 8 month deployment, and enough time for all the necessary “checkout” steps. Unfortunately, the military doesn’t always play by the rules. Actually, sometimes I wonder if they ever play by the rules. So, a short 8 months later, we got news he would be deploying again. What happened next, you can read HERE.
Despite being told deployment was a possibility in November, I don’t think we found out it was going to be a reality until about 1 week before he came home on leave. His pre-deployment leave became a part of his Christmas leave, which was a little less than fair. They added on 3 days to his Christmas leave and called it pre-deployment leave. Usually they’d get about 2 weeks for Christmas, and 10 for pre-deployment. Instead, he got 17 total for both. Doesn’t quite equal out, but, like I said, they don’t really play by the rules.
I threw together a small wedding in a couple weeks, while working and going to school. Finals week turned out to be the week before the wedding, but I somehow managed to get everything done and even found a dress to wear.
His leave started on the 18th and he began to head for home. He had a flight out of North Carolina, and a layover in Chicago. It turns out there was HORRIBLE weather in both places. Shortly after boarding the plane out of North Carolina, they closed the airport and grounded all planes—for probably the rest of the night. I’m sure he caught the last flight. Upon arriving in Chicago, he had a series of delays and was stuck there for longer than anticipated. He finally made it on a flight and shortly after, they closed the airport down, and grounded all flights. I’m sure he caught the last flight out of there also.
I opted to stay home instead of going with his parents to pick him up. They had been finding ways to waste time as they had to leave home BEFORE he even boarded the plane in North Carolina in order to make it to the airport by the time he arrived—assuming there were no delays, of course. I’m not sure what time hw was supposed to get in, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t actually get in until 2 am, plus a 3 hour drive home, plus an 11 am wedding the next day made for tired Blair parents, and a tired Blair Marine.
I know at one point I wasn’t sure whether he would actually even make it home, and, oddly enough, I didn’t really care if we had to move the wedding again. It already had to be moved once. What was another time?
But, he did make it on time, although very tired!
We had professional photographers there, despite it being a small wedding, and they were able to capture the “groom’s first sight of the bride” moment. Not only was this the first time he had seen me in my wedding dress, but it was the first time he had seen me in 4 months. That was one of the agreements he had to comply with in order to do the small, early, December wedding, and also the reason that we had the wedding the day after he got back, and not at a later date. I decided that in order to make the wedding a little more special, I wanted it to be the first time we had seen each other—the main reason I didn’t go with to the airport. 
I don’t honestly remember much of what was said during the wedding. I don’t think I paid much attention to the sermon (oops!)—but, really, if it was within a couple hours of seeing YOUR soon-to-be husband in 4 months, would YOU be paying much attention to what was said?! I do remember that I panicked upon needing to put the ring on his finger and couldn’t figure out which was his left hand—a constant battle with me to start off with, never mind adding in the fact that I now had to compensate for the fact that it was “mirror image”, and therefore opposite…
After the wedding, we had all planned on going to lunch at a local “Italian” restaurant, and Steve had arranged (with some help, of course) for a horse and buggy to take us from the church, to the restaurant. Although it was a little chilly, it was so much fun! And something that I hadn’t really done before. Luckily, the guy who operates the horse and buggy was well prepared and had about 10 blankets piled in the seat!
After eating at the restaurant, Steve and I headed to our “tropical” (yeah, right) honeymoon location. We went up to Brainerd for a few days, which is rather “dull” during the winter season. However, it was kind of nice at the same time. The place we stayed at was beautiful, and the “suites” were VERY nice, and rather cheap as well (one of the perks of traveling during the “off” season). I think we were one of MAYBE 5 couples/families staying in a lodge that had about 7-8 different kinds of “rooms” spread throughout about 20+ different buildings. It was nice to get away for a few days, even though my honeymoon wasn’t what I had initially planned.
It was a rather short honeymoon, as I had to return to work (they were working short as a result of my “last minute wedding”) and we had to return to attend the Christmas festivities. While we were in Morris, we stayed at a hotel—a wedding gift from Steve’s parents, and we also spent a week at my apartment in Marshall. Time went WAY too fast, and on January 2nd, at about midnight, Steve attempted to “check in” for his flight the next day. Upon trying to confirm it, he was greeted with a message that said “there has been a problem with your flight, please call U.S. Airways”. He called, upon which time he was greeted with another message that informed him that all the phone lines, where currently busy, but if he stayed on the line, someone would help him in approximately 90 minutes.
With no other choice, he stayed on the line—thank goodness for speakerphone so you don’t have to hold it up to your ear constantly! We wondered what, exactly, was going on. After about an hour, someone FINALLY picked up on the other line, and informed us that his flight tomorrow had been cancelled. Now, in many instances, it wouldn’t be a HUGE deal. Usually people are able to alter their schedules to account for another couple days to catch the next available flight out of there. The military, however, isn’t very compassionate, and they don’t care if you have to ride your bike halfway across the country—you better be there. On time. So, Steve and the airline personnel attempted to find him another flight that would get him there on time.
His initial flight wasn’t supposed to leave until the afternoon—I think 4 or 5, so his parents had planned on going to church in the morning, and leaving right after church. His new flight, however, was scheduled to leave at 10 or 11, which meant we needed to be on the road by about 5 the next morning. For the record, it also required him flying to a COMPLETELY different airport than the one he flew out of—which meant, when he got there, he would have no vehicle. Luckily, he had a friend who had a car and was willing to do pretty much anything! Anyway, since Steve was still on the phone with the airline personnel, working out his new flight schedule, he told me to call his parents to inform them of the new flight time—since this meant they would have to get up earlier than they would have otherwise.
Now, by this time, it was probably 2 am, and I’m not really a big fan of calling ANYONE at 2 am and waking them up, much less my brand spanking new in-laws. I think it probably took me a good 5 minutes to convince myself that I HAD to do it and that they probably wouldn’t hate me for the rest of forever, for waking them up in the middle of the night.
At about 4 am, we packed up everything in the hotel room, and headed to meet his parents, who would be driving us to the cities. Notice I said us. I went with to drop him off at the airport for the first time. Bad idea.
Although I knew the route pretty well (of course, I probably couldn’t get there if I was driving by myself) and noticed certain “landmarks” that I knew indicated that we were getting closer and closer to the airport, I tried my hardest (and was pretty successful) to not think about how close we were getting, and just enjoy the last few minutes I had with him before he left.
His parents do the “drop and go” drop off at the airport (and I don’t blame them one bit). The one where you practically have to push the person out of the moving vehicle in order to not be harassed by the ridiculous amounts of policemen that monitor the “drop and go”. So, we all got out of the car quick and hugged him goodbye. I was crying so hard that I couldn’t even tell him, “I love you” to his face. I couldn’t even squeak it out, so with a quick hug, and a quick kiss, a voice that made no sound, and a face that was streaming with tears, I got back in the car, and watched him walk into the airport as we pulled away.
That was probably one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, and I don’t wish and airport goodbye like that, upon anyone.
I am seriously in shock every time I read stuff like this. I am so glad that I never had to go through it, you know? I'm sure, like you, I would do it if I had to, but wow, I certainly wouldn't choose it.
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