Missing Friends...

Military life. It has its charms, its benefits, its sense of belonging and duty and patriotism.... yada yada. But one thing that I don't think I will ever get used to is leaving friends. The hubs grew up like this, so for him its "normal". For me, not so much. I grew up with the same people my whole life until I joined the Air Force, I am still friends with some of the people I was in 3rd and 4th grade with. So to me, not so normal. When I make a friend, a TRUE friend, I will do pretty much anything for you and we will be friends for a very long time. That's just how I am (or was apparently). Its not easy to settle into a place and create real friendships when you are moving around all the time. ESPECIALLY when you are a Stay At Home Mom, with no flippin LIFE outside your immediate Family. So when you find those friends and you become so close and your daily life almost always includes them, it is so friggen hard to leave them. When you spend Family dinners and Holidays and share milestones and run errands together, it changes part of your life when you leave, or when they do. You will remain friends, even close ones, but its just NOT THE SAME! The one benefit is that the bonds that you create are strong because without Family around, you create your own extended family. So in the end, you have close friends all over the world. Not a bad thing. My Best Friend lives in Italy. And I got to go see her! HOW fantastic is that? I miss Her Dearly though. She is the Ethel to My Lucy. She is the person I can tell EVERYTHING to. The person I would do ANYTHING for. And I would be so happy to live in the SAME STATE at least/
But I miss the Thanksgivings together , the Christmas parties, and the random shopping together, and sharing kids milestones, and even yelling at each others kids like you yell at your own. Because they feel like your family, and why not treat them like it? When we left our Last base, we left our close friends who we called our Step Family because we spent all our time together. How I miss the chaos. I miss their little girl, and I miss the twins. I missed their First Birthday, and their First steps and it kills me. I was looking at her Facebook page and the Pictures of their daughters First Day of Kindergarten. And the pics of the Twins who are now almost 18months old. They look HUGE. And I cried. Because I missed them, and I cried because My BUBS will not know who I am the next time I see him. My Friend Ashley, I miss her honesty and her humor, and I miss venting on the phone and escaping the hectic houses together. Hanging out in each others messy house and not feeling embarrassed because its "just them". I miss having BACKUP!!! Once, we were in Target will all 5 of our kids ( I know, NOT SMART, we should have known) and the kids were TERRIBLE (shocker). And My son, who if you have read my blogs, you know has some issues. Well, all hell broke loose. And I was carrying a screaming kid over my shoulder while pushing a stroller and carrying bags. She was still paying at the register and was following closely behind. This random woman who is coming out of the bathroom, I'll call her "Bitch", Pipes in "SOMEONE needs to get control of her kids". Oh, no, WTH, I HATE THAT. Well, I didn't hear this. But my BACKUP did!! hehehe so Ashley looks at her and says "Mind your F*ing Business! Who the hell are you?! Mom of the F*ing year?". THANK YOU ASHLEY for having my back. Thank you for Not being afraid to cuss out a stranger. After this Target episode we called BOTH of our husbands and demanded they come pick up "their" children. They did, and we continued shopping. In peace. I miss Midnight to 3 am Walmart Trips when the base gate is closed and we have no where else to go.
I digress, Having to leave friends really Bites the Big One. And Today I just found out that they got orders to a base RIGHT BY my awesome in-laws! I'm so freakin Jealous! How awesome would it be to finally live by family. We would have our Real Family and our "Step Family"!! Ugh, I wish we could just move. Damn it.