Slowly getting back to the grind

A girl can really get behind on things when she disconnects herself from the rest of the world for 20 days. It's amazing what you can do in that length of time, though:

• Visit in-laws in another part of the country
• Go to the movies twice
  
• Eat Italian food many times (each at a different place, even!)
  
• Eat steak a couple times
• Get Pac!ugo ... twice (mmm!)
• Spend three and a half hours working on a wedding registry ... only to realize you've done just the kitchen and dining room (and you're not even finished with the appliances)
  
• Go on a hot air balloon ride
• Eat two whole (well, actually, it was four halves) Spr.inkles cupcakes in one 24-hour period
  
• Visit family in OK
• Tour America's oldest brewery
• Ride a jet ski
• Meet with your wedding photographer
• Meet with your reception coordinator
• Interview two DJs
• Visit an electronics superstore (HAD to get that in!)
• Have an awesome night at the piano bar with fun friends
  

And those are just the things I can think of off the top of my head. It's amazing to think of everything we crammed into the 20 days K was home. We had two big milestones, though:

1. We broke our record of consecutive days spent together. Before, we had hit 11 days on two separate occasions (once in 2005; once in 2006). This time, we made it all the way to 20 days.
   
2. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary. In our entire marriage, we have been on the same continent only 2 months and 25 days -- and those weren't even spent in the same city for a lot of that time. It's definitely not quite how I pictured married life would be when I was little!

Anyway, so obviously 20 days of time off with your husband can leave you with lots of stories and quite a few pictures to share. But it also leaves me with lots of things to catch up on. I've spent my weekday mornings getting up at 5 a.m. so I can be at the gym by 5:30 to whip my butt back into shape after nonstop eating and drinking and very little working out for 20 days straight.

I'm hoping I can give you more details and pictures from R&R tomorrow night. For now, I've got to get to sleep. 5:00 a.m. will be here before I know it ...

Long day back = vegetative evening

Today was my first day back into my little routine. I had half-joked about being afraid that after I was gone so long, when I came back to work, my boss would tell me, "You know, we worked things out really well while you were gone. We don't need you anymore."

Not the case.

I heard more than a few times today, "We're glad to have you back! We really missed you!" And work was insanely hectic. Staying busy was not a problem today.

Which means that I have vegged out tonight instead of loading pictures. Which means that my R&R posts will be delayed another day. But they will come soon. I promise.

An ironic relationship for a girl who doesn't do math

K is gone again. I can't believe how quick his R&R went -- and we even managed to get two more days together than we were supposed to. We had an awesome time, and we did quite a few cool things. We even managed to relax a little.

I'll blog about everything we did over the next few days. I've got pictures to load first, and frankly, I'm too exhausted to do it right now.

I had wondered how today would go with K leaving again. The day he left to begin the deployment was really tough. I didn't know if today would be the same.

The day K got here for his R&R, he told me, "I don't have to be back until noon on the 24th. And that's the last I want to hear of that date until it gets here." It was fine with me, so aside from mentioning the date when other people asked when K had to go back, we didn't talk about it.

Not that it snuck up on us. I started counting down in my head on Sunday night. I didn't ever say anything about it, but I know K was doing the same. Considering our relationship has been pretty much a constant string of countdowns (Five days until we get to see each other, Three hours until he has to start his drive home, Three more weeks until he's out of the field ...), we're both very used to and very aware of the little internal calendars.

Neither of us wanted to get out of bed this morning. I hit the snooze button every 10 minutes for at least an hour and a half this morning before we reluctantly got out of bed. Every once in a while during the snooze time, K or I would sit up, rub our eyes and prepare to get out of bed, only to decide the idea thoroughly sucked and plop back down onto the pillow. I think we knew it was our last morning together for a while, and neither of us was eager for it to end.

We had gotten used to sharing my little one-bedroom apartment over the last 20 days, so we went about each of our little routines to get ready for the day. When we were both ready to go, it was time to head to the airport. It was when we were walking out to my car that I felt myself tearing up for the first time. I put on my sunglasses and moved my bangs to the other side of my face to shield the tears from K. It wasn't very long before he figured it out. He started talking about something to take my mind off of it, and I was tear-free just a few minutes into the drive.

We got to the airport about 15 minutes before K had to be there. We headed to the gate K had been instructed to report to, and I was given a paper that would allow me to go through security with him. We ate lunch together and hung out with another friend who'd had the same R&R schedule as K. We were able to spend another three hours together at the airport.

A little after 3, the soldiers started boarding their flight. K and I hugged and said goodbye. I managed to surprise myself by not crying. As I watched K walk onto the plane, I was thankful I didn't have anyone around to talk to. I had a pretty large lump in my throat, but as long as I could stay quiet, I knew it would stay put and my eyes would stay mostly dry.

The day K had arrived, the volunteers at the US.O told me that on the day he leaves, I should stick around until the plane takes off just in case it was delayed. So I stayed and watched more soldiers load the plane. After a couple minutes of that, I turned to see how many were left to board. It was clear they were all boarding, so I decided to just rip off the Band-Aid and head out.

As I walked through the terminal to head back to my car, I could feel my eyes tearing up again. I picked up my pace, skirted through a baggage claim area, threw on my sunglasses and stepped outside right as my eyes spilled over. I only cried for a minute or two, and I was fine after that.

It was much easier today than it was 10 months ago this Saturday. At least this time, I know I have less than five months to go before K is back for real. That's a countdown that's much easier to handle -- especially when you consider we've got twice that under our belts already.

And the cool thing about this new five-month countdown is that it's almost a countdown to end the countdowns. When this countdown ends, we'll have three months to go before our Dallas wedding. After that exciting event, K and I will be sent to his next base.

The base where we'll get to make our first home together.

And we only have three more countdowns to go!

Maybe I should become a detective

I did quite a bit of detective work this morning (including a phone call to Amer!can A!rlines, where I wound up crying before I finished explaining my dilemma!) to figure out which flight K was on, but I did it.

I was able to get to the gate in plenty of time. In fact, I was an hour early. But better an hour early than even five minutes late!

K's flight arrived at 9 a.m., and he was on a plane full of soldiers headed home for their mid-tour leave. They got a nice welcome from the Dallas Fire Department, which had trucks on either side of the runway dousing the plane as it taxied the runway. K said it was really neat.

The U.SO and Lock.heed Mart!n had groups of people there to welcome the soldiers. It was wonderful of them to do that!

Soon after 9 a.m., they lined all of the families up on either sides of the doorway the soldiers would be coming through. As soon as the war veteran volunteer who was standing in the doorway caught sight of the first person in uniform, he cued someone to turn on patriotic music on a stereo nearby.

Two soldiers came through the door, which instantly brought tears to everyone's eyes. We clapped for them, and they shook the hands of the volunteers, who were holding up signs and waving flags.

















There was a bit of a lull before more soldiers came by. After a few minutes, I caught a glimpse of K coming toward the door.

I had wondered many times if I would cry when I saw him. But the moment I saw him, with the emotion of the music and having so many volunteers there -- not to mention my excitement over seeing my husband for the first time in nine months -- my eyes flooded and spilled over. He had the same reaction. (Honestly, I don't think anyone left there with a dry eye!)

We hugged for the longest time, and then a volunteer offered to take a picture of us. We kissed quickly after the photo, and a few female volunteers ran up and said, "Kiss her again!"






































It's wonderful to have him here again. I didn't know what it would be like for the first day or so (it took about half a day for things to feel normal again when he returned from Afghanistan), but it really feels like he never left, which is amazing.

Now, if you don't mind, I'll leave you with these pictures for a day or two. I'm gonna go spend time with my hubby!

(By the way, Piper TOTALLY remembered K! She was really excited to see him and has been lying by him and enjoying playing with him all day!)

Guess his itinerary left him with no time to call

There's nothing like waking before 5:00 in the morning and realizing that in mere hours, I'll get to see my husband for the first time in over 9 months ...

and then realizing that I have no idea what flight he's on, where the flight is coming from, or which of the five terminals (and umpteen billion gates) I'll need to meet him at.

It's funny how I THOUGHT I was completely ready for him to get here

I got a call from K just after 1:00 this morning. He had gotten his flight info, which told him he was scheduled to arrive in Dallas bright and early Friday morning.

EEEEK!

I haven't slept well since Monday night. Last night was no different, but that news definitely didn't help. I tried to go back to sleep after we hung up, but my mind was reeling over the things I needed to do.

I knew I wouldn't be able to clear my head until I made a to-do list, so I got up and turned on a dim little night light so I could organize my thoughts. It helped a little. It at least made me feel better, although once I finally got back to sleep, I was still stuck in that torturous state between dreamland and being awake thanks to a subconscious that was going over everything from possible things I'd forgotten to add to my to-do list to how Piper will react when she sees K again for the first time in over 9 months.

When I got to work, the coworkers I work closest with had all planned a surprise patriotic party for me! They had decorated the area with miniature American flags, and we had a delicious homemade casserole with sun-dried tomatoes, homemade bread, eggs and who knows what else (it was amazing!). We had mimosas, strawberries and canteloupe ... and brownies! It was a really sweet surprise.

And then my day really began. I had to email all our family and friends and tell them when K is arriving. I had to email anyone who could possibly need to know that my time off work had been bumped up a day. I had to ramp people up on my projects.

And in the middle of the day, I had to go get a Brazilian wax.

(You didn't think that was all I was going to say about that, did you?) For a girl who's never even had her eyebrows waxed, let's just say it was an experience. It was painful at times. It was uncomfortable most of the time. But it's done. (Whew!)

So now it's time for me to leave work. For the last time for almost the rest of the month. Crazy!

Which means it's time for me to go do all those things on my to-do list.

I'll post pictures of the arrival tomorrow. Eee!

How the heck am I supposed to concentrate like this?

I just got a call from K. He left early, early this morning to start heading this way. So far, he's ahead of schedule, but he's got 24 hours until his next flight.

He'll get his itinerary around 11 or 11:30 my time (tonight), so we'll have a better idea of his scheduled arrival time (could be earlier or later, obviously) then.

He's already finished with the first half of the traveling, which is the hardest part because it's the part where you're most likely to encounter random, unforeseen delays and such.

Now, he could be here as early as Friday!

Looks like my "for ultimate freshness" tasks might need to be moved up to tomorrow night!

Xanax, anyone?*

I had such a productive weekend! I was supposed to go to the lake with Heather and Elle, but I had to cancel. I realized that although I was really looking forward to going, it would leave me hardly any time to get things ready for K's arrival.

Saturday morning, I was able to sleep in until around 10. Considering it was the first time since the week before the 15k (that was mid-July, people!) that I'd gotten to sleep in past 5:15 (OK, one time in there I got to sleep until 5:45), I took full advantage of it!

As soon as I woke, I started cleaning. I steam-cleaned my carpet and my couch. I dusted. I did laundry. I cleaned my bathroom.

I took my car to get my tires rotated and balanced. I had my car inspected.

I shredded papers and organized. I cleared off my cluttered kitchen table. I vacuumed twice (once before and once after the carpet cleaning).

AND I managed to watch a little football when I glanced up from my chores from time to time.

Saturday night, I had company. One of our friend's wives is staying in Louisiana while our husbands are deployed. I had talked to her a few times online and over email, but I'd never met her or even really spoken to her. Well, last week, we were getting email after email from the colonel's wife and the family group about hurricane preparations. I sent Krys (the friend) an email telling her she was welcome to stay with me if she wanted to escape the storm.

She called me Thursday night, and the plans were set! She arrived in Dallas Saturday evening, so we met for the first time. My productivity halted once she got to my place, but considering I'd done so much already that day, I didn't mind.

Sunday morning, I drove her to the airport so she could fly home to her parents' house in case she had to wait out repairs from the storm. I think she was worried about her stay extending into K's R&R.

When I got back home from the airport, the productivity continued. I got the oil changed in my car. I organized more papers and straightened up my closet. I did more laundry.

I ran errands and got a pedicure, since I'd managed to stump my toe and lose half a toenail in Saturday's feverish cleaning. (I know, ew, I'm sorry. But it HAD to be done before K gets back!) Then, I met Dan!elle and some other friends for dinner, since they were in town shopping for the day. (The weekend couldn't be all work and no play!)

Monday, I went through all of K's things that were stashed around my apartment. I found his sunglasses, his phone charger, his cologne, his watches (dressy one and the casual one I got him for his birthday the first year we were together) ...

I started rewashing all his laundry. When I realized we'd set aside only one pair of jeans for him (especially since they're loose fit, eek!), I ran to Amer!can Eagle to take advantage of their sale on jeans (fitted boot cut, thank you!) so he wouldn't constantly be wearing the same pair if he wasn't wearing shorts.

I bought a little three-drawer bin for him to use as a dresser while he's here. Eighteen days just isn't enough time for me to go through the impossible hassle of clearing enough room for his things in my dresser and closet! And I'm sure after being in "the sandbox" for over 9 months, he won't mind if his dresser is a plastic bin. Plus, this way, he gets his own space, which I honestly thought would be nicer than squeezing his stuff in with mine.

So aside from buying Miller Light (I'm waiting until Friday night for ultimate freshness!), baking cookies (waiting until Saturday or even Sunday, again for ultimate freshness!) and giving Piper a bath (waiting until Saturday ... you guessed it, for ultimate freshness!), :) I'm all set for K to arrive.

The trouble is, now I'm incredibly anxious. I can't quit thinking about it. It's hard for me to concentrate, and I can't ignore this intense, constant feeling of excitement and urgency!

And I still have five days to go!!!

I'm going to be a total basketcase by Sunday!


*I'm pretty sure the ridiculous amount of parenthesis in this post is further evidence of my extreme anxiety and increasing insanity.