2021 Year in Review

 Just Sat down with Meghan and jotted down things that happened this year. A bit of a word vomit, but here it is, the Blansett Family's 2021 year in review. (Pay no attention to the careless hopping between 1st and 3rd person)

Blansett Family Year in Review: 2021

January: 

• Due to extenuating circumstance we had to be out of our house by the end of February – all out sprint to figure out what we were going to do – looking for new rentals in town, looking into living on base, looking into moving trucks etc.. Finally ended up deciding we would have to move everything into storage, Meghan would have to take aspen and the dogs and live with her mom until we were able to buy a house at our new duty station (we still didn’t know where this would be).

• Announced Pregnant on Christmas Day 2020 to Friends and Family

• Aspen turned 7 months old

• Meghan began to slowly pack up the house into boxes

• Courtney Bergeman Visits

• Meghan begins to show the house (that we are renting and she is packing up) to potential buyers per our property management company’s request.

• Infantry Officer Course Starts January 12 with the CET (Combat Endurance Test).

• Meghan helps me weave together a homemade ghillie suite (cobra hood) for an upcoming field exercise. 

February:

• Able to be home for Valentines day and take Meghan and Aspen to the Metro Diner (one of our favorite places to eat breakfast, enjoy coffee, and maybe play scrabble if Aspen was behaving.)

• Trade in the truck to get a Ford Fiesta. Reliable and good gas mileage.. But TINY. 

• Feb 21 I spend my last weekend at home before a long field event during which the girls would be moving to missouri. We had to say goodbye for the next 5 months until we are albe to all live under the same roof again.  We had a great last Saturday morning at Cracker Barrel and Aspen grabbed the menu all by herself. 

• Feb 26th Movers come to pack up the house in Fredericksburg and move our entire house into storage – Financial help from family made this possible. 

• Meghan drives to Missouri with Dana, Aspen, Olive in her Tummy, Rogue, and Mattis to spend the next few months living with Dana awaiting our orders to find out where we will live, and where we will need to buy a house. Unsure of when we will find this out!

March:

• Get orders to Camp Lejeune on Jo’s Birthday March 5. Meghan is now able to begin looking for a house and putting in offers. (She does this all by herself as Jo was in the field for almost the entire month.)

• March 27 Palm Fex is over (The last major exercise of IOC – There is no no chance of injury or being dropped, I will graduate!)

• Return from 29 Palms California and prepare to Graduate the hardest school I will go through. I feel too relieved to put it into words. 

• 29th after Palm Fex Is over I get my phone and meghan tells me an offer was accepted for a house! We are going off of a few pictures on Zillow and spending way over budget. But it is a house!

April:

• Meghan flys into DC and we spend the night together in the Trump Hotel April 1st and 2nd.

• Aspen crawls for the first time in the hotel on April 3rd. 

• IOC Graduation on April 2nd. 

• Spend easter together in DC as a family. Eat at the hard rock café and then on easter Drop Meghan off at the airport/ tears as I watch her carry both of my daughters away. One in her arms and one in her womb to spend another month away from their Dad. And to spend another month away from eachother. Begin to think about the sustainability of this career path. Watching your family walk through the airport terminal away from you is a sombering and saddening moment. But just one more difficult school to get through and then the rest of the year we will be at least within a 4 hour driving distance and be able to spend every weekend together. 

• Scout Sniper Employment Course Begins

• April 21st. Beth meets Aspen for the first time in Odessa. 

• Scout sniper Graduation April 30th. 

• April 30th at 1 am Meghan, Bill, Beth, Aspen, Olive in the tummy, and the doggies begin the drive from Missouri to Virginia Beach to an Airbnb that I will meet them at. 

• April 30th I arrive in VA beach at the air bnb later than expected around 9 pm and reunite with my family. 

• Meghans Birthday!

May:

• May 1st Aspen Goes to the Beach for the first time. 

• Tactical Intelligence Officer’s Course starts in Dam Neck VA

• Meghan is able to spend time with Mom and Bill in the Air bnb. Such a joy to see my Mom with Aspen. I love seeing her be a grandma and wish that I could see that more often. Such a treasured time. 

• May 6th Move to a different Air Bnb

• Celebrate mothers day on May 9th at Blue Petes restaurant. 

• We say goodbye to mom and Bill on May 7. I never feel like I am able to say enough of a goodbye. After they leave I feel I didn’t say enough to make them appreciate how much we love them and miss them. This is likely always the feeling when you are saying goodbye for the next year to two years. 

• Celebrate our 3 Year anniversary at the melting pot. 

• May 14th able to move into house early – We have an air mattress, pack and play, and no furniture but begin painting that weekend. 

• May 17th Movers arrive to move all of our household items that have been in storage the past couple of months. 

• May 29th Aspen gets her ears pierced for her 1 year birthday present. She did great!

• 31st have aspens zoom birthday party with cake . 

June:

• June 2nd Meg drives up to Dam Neck  - we go to the beach for crab hunting with Aspen. Stay the night in my hotel room (twin bed). 

• June 3rd Meg fly’s out to Missouri for Dana’s wedding. 

• June 4th Jo fly’s out to Missouri.

• June 5th Dana’s Wedding – Aspen has about 10 crazy poopy diapers, and unbeknownst to us is beginning to get sick. 

• 6th. All fly back to VA Beach together. Aspen gets very sick on the plane, A nice bystander gives us a pair of clothes in the airport because Aspen pooped and or threw up on all the clothes we had for her. 

• 20th Celebrate Father’s day together. 

• 26th finished our first home project, downstairs bathroom remodel. 

• 27th Finished a homemade babygate for the stairs. 

• TIOC Graduation

July:

• Ground Intelligence Officer’s Course starts in Dam Neck VA

• Same routine for Ryans wedding in Missouri – meg drives up and flys out of VA, I follow a few days later day of the wedding. 

• July 3rd – visit our old friend Ralf in St. Louis , Aspen goes swimming in a pool for the first time. 

• July 3rd. Air conditioner goes capoot while we are out of state and floods the stairs. Our dogsitter is able to coordinate getting a tech in to fix. 

• July 3rd. visit Ken and Alex. 

• Aspen walks for the first time!

• GIOC Graduation July 27– Receive the Terrance C. Graves Award for being the Honor Graduate. Receive the Captain Brent L. Morel Award for being voted by peers to be the 0203 who will make the greatest positive impact on the USMC and Intelligence Community.

• Make the Drive from Dam Neck to Jacksonville NC for the LAST TIME and am Finally Home!!!

August:

• 3rd begin Garage project to make a home gym. 

• Become Members at Pillar Church of Jacksonville. 

• Keith visits for a weekend.

• Start taking Aspen to the Beach regularly.

• 13th False alarm. 

• Dana drives out to stay during expected due date to help.

• 17th Jo checks into 2 Marine Division

• 20th Begin work on the Fireplace

• 26 Meg goes into Labor

• 27 Olive is born at 8:02 Am!

• Meghan is Bed ridden for over a week due to bad epidural. ER visit unsuccessful/very frustrating, they want to separate meg from Olive for her to get treatment for her epidural and wont let me or aspen in the waiting room or the treatment room due to covid. The obvious hysteria is very evident as covid is valued over separating a mother from her newborn baby. We are disgusted with cool aid drinking going on all around us. 

September:

• 2. Olive’s first bath at home!

• 6th Family Photos!

• 7th. First outdoor fire in the partially completed fireplace. 

• 10 Cook Pizza on outdoor oven for the first time

• Spend lots of time at home together as a family this month. Also lots of work on the fireplace. 

October:

• Morgan Shippy visits for a weekend. 

• Aspen Wears bell bottoms to our small group for Halloween. 

November:

• 5 Jo checks in to 1st Battalion 6th Marines as the s2 Alpha. 

• Tony visits for a week. 

• Dana visits 

• Both girls get sick

• Olive spends the night in the ER. High temp and heartrate. 

 -     Jo shares testimony to the church

• Caleb and Lily visit for thanksgiving and we eat our meal on my moms old Africa plateware. 

• Caleb helps me put the mantle on the Outdoor fireplace. 

• Go to a Christmas tree farm and find a tree. 

• Caleb takes our Christmas family photo. 

• 27 Decorate for Christmas

December:

• Advent starts (Meghan makes a full calendar of events for each day and we follow a reading plan at dinner each night. Really helped us be in the right mindset to anticipate Christmas Day and be thankful and at peace. 

• Promoted to 1st Lt on 14th. 

• Hayride Christmas light show. Surprised that at the end they played the national anthem and everyone on the ride stood to say the pledge of allegiance (its been years we had seen anything like this outside of the military.) Was great to see patriotic americans in the public when so often this isn’t what is conveyed or observed. 

• Dana Visits for Christmas

• Deana suprises us and shows up on Christmas eve. The more the merrier! 

• What a year it has been!!!