Pre-Deployment Checklist

So Lane's gone. The whole departure process is sucky and painful, but I did learn a few things. I made this list over the past few weeks in case any other (equally terrified) military spouses come looking for help. This is the last of my pre-deployment posts, but I do plan on doing a weekly deployment check-in post starting this weekend.

Hope this list helps anyone currently facing a deployment

1. Understand that it is perfectly normal to want to fight A LOT right before he leaves. This didn't happen for Lane and I, but I have a ton of friends who couldn't understand why they couldn't stop fighting. If you go into it realizing that you are  predisposed to fight, it is easier to let stuff go. 

2.Make a list of all passwords and usernames for every account you can imagine. 

3. Get a general power attorney, a special power of attorney for army finance, and then an additional power of attorney for USAA. 

4. Take the car in for a complete tune-up 

5. For my squeamish readers, skip this one. Talk about having sperm frozen. If your husband gets blown up (god forbid) and can no longer do his part to have a baby, what are your plans. I was amazed at how many women didn't know that Tricare covers this. 

6. Give him your phone and have him schedule your calendar with random sweet messages throughout deployment. I hinted that I wanted this, but eventually just straight up told him to do it. 

7. Order new credit/debit cards that won't expire during deployment. 

8. Check on when your car's registration and insurance will expire. 

9. Give your parents (and his parents) all the contact information for a Red Cross Message. If something happens to you, they need to be able to contact him as well. 

10. Make sure you can login into MyPay. This is where you can see his LES and also get his W-2 for filing taxes.

Anyone else have suggestions for things you should do before deployment? I would love to add to this list for  future deployments and other military spouses.