Our last weekend in Dallas in 2007

I was at work late Friday night. By the time I got home, I had just enough time to rush through dinner and then finish getting ready for K's arrival in Dallas. Since he won't be here for Christmas, we celebrated Friday night.

I was excited for the gifts I'd gotten K. I'd had one for a few weeks, and the other I knew K would love. I wanted to make sure his gifts were things that he could use in while he's deployed -- things that would even make the time go by faster for him.

Being the gadget guy he is, I decided on a game for his Pl@ystat!on Port@ble (Yes, he has one. Answer to your next question: He's 29. [I know, I know. But trust me, it's kind of endearing.]). And with K being the big J@mes Bond fan he is, I decided on the 007 game.

The bigger gift was the one I was most excited about. I got K a webcam. I'd done my research, and I felt like I'd found the perfect one for K: It had a five-star rating from people who'd bought it, the quality of the audio and video was supposed to be really good, and the people at the electronics store said it was a great webcam. That tiny electronic would help us to stay in touch in a way that would make us feel a little closer together.

I rushed to put up Christmas decorations around my apartment. By the time K got here around 11, I had lights up and on outside on my balcony, and my Christmas tree was up in my living room. I had left the ornaments off so K and I could put them on together. I even had awesome pine-scented candles in my living room and kitchen.

K always goes overboard for Christmas, and this was definitely no different. He had a small pile of gifts, but they were all small, so I hoped that meant he hadn't spent a fortune. He opened his first gift. I had him open his PSP game. Then, he chose my first gift to open. I tore open the paper, and a mix of emotions flooded over me when I saw what was inside: a webcam.

It was funny that we'd gotten each other the same thing, but it was disappointing too. Here I'd had this great idea, and K thought of the exact same gift. "I thought it would be good because we could use them while I'm gone," he said.

"Yeah, it's a really great idea," I said. And I handed him his second gift. He laughed when he opened up his webcam. I was a little more disappointed by the whole thing than he was, since that was supposed to be his big gift.

Next, K had me open a gift in a small bag. It was an envelope with a spa emblem on the front. When I opened it, I immediately started crying as I read what K had written on the gift certificate: "For those times every month when you need to relax." K had gotten me a package at a spa near my apartment. I can choose between three different spa treatments -- a Swedish massage, a facial, or an aromatherapy pedicure and spa manicure -- every month for the next year. There were a few things about last week that made me realize how stressed out I'm feeling about this whole deployment, so the fact that K had thought to do something to relieve that stress while he's gone really meant a lot.

I was also worried about how much it had cost. I could only imagine what 12 sessions at a spa could cost. I know you're not supposed to think about things like that when people give you gifts, but so far K had duplicated my big gift for him and gotten me a year at a spa. And I still had a handful of gifts sitting next to me!

I was overwhelmed for a little while, but K dismissed the multitude of gifts by telling me that it'll be hard for him to send me things while he's gone. I'll be sending him care packages, which will include many, many movies that will come out while he's gone. Care package costs add up a lot faster than you'd think. Since we won't be going out to eat or to movies, K explained that the spa is nothing per month. He wanted to be able to do something nice for me to still take care of me even though he won't be here to do it himself.

So the insane gift-giving continued. The next gift was one I actually had suspected K would get me (I just had figured it would be the biggest gift): an iPhone. He had wanted to get me one for a while, but I kept telling him there was no need for me to have such an expensive cell phone. Then one day at the gym, I was thinking about how I was about to have to have my cell phone with me everywhere I go. When K was in Afghanistan, I didn't have an iPod, so I just took my phone with me to the gym. If it rang, I could hear it fine.

Now, though, there's an iPod in the mix. And since my gym plays the worst music ever to work out to (think Jackson 5, Boy George and little teenyboppers like Jesse McCartney singing about how he wants my "beautiful soul" -- I could throw up just thinking about it), my iPod isn't going anywhere. I realized if I had the iPhone, I would be able to listen to my music on it. That way, if K called from Iraq, I wouldn't miss it.

K told me that as soon as I told him I could actually justify it, it was done. He'd planned on the iPhone anyway, but he knew then that I wouldn't be so opposed to it.

The other gifts were some iPhone accessories -- a car charger and a case for the phone.

Of course, we spent most of Saturday playing with the iPhone. We went over to Jeremy's to watch the OU-Tech game. That was a disappointment. We didn't play well at all. I can't help but wonder how different the game would have been had our quarterback not gotten a concussion. Our backup was really disappointing. And we also a touchdown in the 4th quarter that wasn't called a touchdown. The same thing happened the last time we played at Tech, so a lot of Sooner fans are discussing that. I missed the game two years ago, so I don't know what they're talking about. But I do know our guy caught the ball and had full possession of it when his foot landed in the end zone. That was clear. But any Sooner fan knows we always get screwed over in reviews (Side story: A funny memory from an OU game last year is when the officials announced a time out for a review. The entire stadium simultaneously started booing so loud. It was awesome. We hate reviews.).

Sunday was a relaxing day. We both hooked up our webcams and relaxed. The weekend went better for me than I'd expected. I figured I'd be a bit emotional, considering it's our last weekend together in Dallas for a long time. It could be 2009 before K comes here again.

K didn't leave here until 9 last night, which meant I was up late waiting to go to bed until he was safe at home. With everything I had to do tonight, it's another late night and an exhausted me. Here's hoping the next week goes slowly!