Considering all of the Options

I feel gross today. I'm not sure why. I showered pretty much immediately after waking up this morning. I'm wearing freshly laundered clothing. I should be good to go in the cleanliness department. But I just feel...ew. Weird. I think I'm just tired and have way too much thinking time on my hands as I sit waiting impatiently for Anya to show signs of arriving soon.

I really have nothing to blog about. I'm supposed to say something about the Allied health institute, but otherwise I only seem to talk about Anya's impending birth or the arguments Ryan and I had recently. Since there hasn't been anymore fighting between the two of us (Which is a good thing even if it does mean less blogging material.), and I'm sure everyone is tired of hearing me repeat how ready I am for Anya to be here, that doesn't really leave much else up for discussion.

I mostly occupy my time with Sims 2 in between web cam conversations with Ryan. He attempts to spoil me with several conversations a day. It's nice to be so loved that he would sacrifice sleep or other free time just to talk to me for a while. Lately we've been talking about our options for when this enlistment is up in a couple of years. Right now we're seriously considering going back to Knoxville to finish school. Things would be a bit tight financially, but Ryan is thinking about using the UT Air Force ROTC to become an officer afterward. So there would be a stable paycheck as the light at the end of the tunnel. But making everything work with both of us having jobs, full time college course loads, and daycare costs for Anya might be a bit intense. We're sorting through the possibilities, though. It's definitely our favored option. We'll probably get into more details with our plans once he's home to really sit down and talk about it.

I'm just really liking the idea of being together in Knoxville again and finishing my degree at UT. Though I'm thinking about majoring in Graphic Design and switching to a minor in Japanese instead. That would be more realistic with my goals of eventually doing design work from home while Ryan does his time in the Air Force as an officer. I worry about trying to find decent work that would allow us to pay our expenses comfortably, but we've made it work on crap jobs before so I know we could do it again. Day care and health coverage are the big concerns. But as students at UT we would receive free care at both the walk in clinic and the UT hospital. Anya could probably be covered under the state coverage Tennessee has for kids without other insurance, but Ryan and I loathe the idea of taking any kind of handouts like that. But I guess we'll do what we have to until our schooling is finished, and Ryan has that stable paycheck and military health benefits back.

It would be a lot of work, but I think the end result would be exactly what both of us wanted before the USMC happened. We're both glad for this experience and what it has allowed us to do and have that we wouldn't have otherwise, but we'd like to get back on track with our ideal goals when Ryan's contract is up. I guess we'll just have to really look into what kind of jobs would be available to us and make up some budgets to see if doing things that way with the added expense of daycare is even remotely realistic. Especially if we ended up with another child before or during that timeframe. Because no matter how much we plan, stuff happens. Anya = stuff. And now I wish this amazing "stuff" would greet the world and give me my body back for a little while.