Welcome to my life! I've decided to keep a blog rather than post random bits and pieces of my life all over my Facebook page to people I barely know outside of their blurred family photos and vague rants about their lives.
Who am I? My name is Jolenta, I'm the mother of two adorable boys--Johnny, age 4, and Jackson, who's 18 months now--and the wife of Justin, a very patient man who's stuck with me for the past 14 years. I'm a medic in the Army, and have been for about three years now. We're all stationed in Fort Benning, Georgia for the last two and a half years.
My kids are the light of my life, though from time to time they push me to the brink of insanity. Johnny is in his first year of school; though he does very well, I can tell he suffers from the same crippling shyness that I did as a kid. I don't think it helps that we keep him inside most times instead of letting him roam free amongst the hoodlums in the cul-de-sac. He gets better about it every day, though, and hopefully it will wear off before High School. Jackson (Jack) is walking and nearly talking. He is a wild man, and loves to act like a baby daredevil. He can be found standing on the seat of his power-wheel while it's rolling down the driveway. Jack is a lot happier of a baby than Johnny ever was, he spends 99% of his day in smiles and only cries when he's tired or hurt.
Justin is a stay-at-home Dad right now, as we decided together that we'd never put the kids in day-care. It's been rough at times, between associated money issues and his manly pride. He does a spectacular job of raising the boys while I'm away at work, which can be anywhere from eight to twelve hours per day. Justin loves riding his motorcycles--that's right, plural--and has three of them down here in Georgia (the rest were left in Michigan, for lack of room). He is a whiz when it comes to vehicle repairs, and can fix any bike in a matter of hours. He is also great at cooking (my own personal Chef!) and general house repair. When we bought our first home in Michigan, we were naive and didn't think to check into the electrical and plumbing of the house. Well, Justin was savvy enough about both to redo the entire electrical and plumbing system, as well as fixing every square foot of drywall in the house! He wasn't too keen on my joining the military, especially with Johnny only being 16 months old at the time, but agreed to it on the basis of establishing a secure income for our family and my furthering my medical career. There have definitely been ups and downs over the past three years--especially through my 25 weeks of training, through most of which he was basically a single Dad for Johnny--but he has never faltered in his support and love for me and our son.
As for me, I'm on the wrong end of my 20's, but have led a life of adventure and intrigue, almost from birth. My parents were both career Marines, so we moved around a lot. I was born in Camp LeJeune, North Carolina and from there moved to Okinawa, Japan, Camp Pendleton, California, then back to Okinawa for the last part of my childhood. When they retired, we moved to Quincy, Michigan. Quincy is the quintessential rural American town, complete with its 3,000 person population, one stop-light, and overflowing racism. Being a military brat, I'd grown up around people of all sorts, so ignorance was something new to me. After high school was over, I dove right into college; I bounced around from one major to the next before finally setting my sights on an Associate's Degree in business management. This, unfortunately, got me nowhere. I was still working entry-level jobs at or below the poverty level. I didn't care too much back then, all I had to worry about was rent and where the next bag of weed was going to come from. After I got pregnant with Johnny, I rethought my lackadaisical view of money and got my certification as a Nurse Aide. It wasn't much, but it put more food on the table and we were able to buy the house. Shortly after I had Johnny, we got married (10 years of dating and it took a baby to get a ring!). I couldn't stop wondering if I was going to live in small-town USA forever, and I didn't like the idea of it. After 6 months of thinking, and a lot of convincing Justin, I rose my right hand and gave my life to the Army.
I love being a medic, knowing that I can help save someone is one of the biggest points of pride that I have. It is somewhat odd that I almost want people to get injured around me, just so that I can see if I'm up to the task. I've been accepted to the Army's Physician Assistant Program, and am waiting patiently on my orders to go to Texas for schooling. There have been set-backs to my plan, though. I've recently learned that I have bilateral pars interarticularis fractures along with grade II anterolisthesis. Basically what all that medical jargon means is that my back is trying to make me a paraplegic. Two of the bones that keep the spine connected to the pelvis have fractured apart, and now my spine (from the pelvis up) is slipping forward and pinching the spinal cord in the process. I'm waiting for word from a neurosurgeon, so I can find out more about what comes next, but it looks like surgery is the only option.
Whew! What an intro! Well, feel free to leave any comments, questions, or anything inbetween--I'll do my best to respond in a respectable amount of time. I'm brand new to the blogging world, but we'll get there together!
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