"Go Find Your Soldier"

Those are my favorite four words ever. At least they are right now. That may change but when I heard those words spoken on early Sunday morning, all the stresses, all the fears, everything evaporated because in that moment it was finally over. Not that they went away entirely, not that they ever totally will but in that moment the relief, the awe that we'd made it was there. Less than a minute later we had our soldier in our arms.

For any of you fellow MilSpouses out there, having a pre-arranged meeting spot is the best ever especially when it's dark and there are several hundred other soldiers there.  We'd talked about it weeks in advance and stuck to it - we were reunited less than a minute from when they said "Go find your soldier!"

This year has been long, nothing like stating the obvious right? Overall though, it hasn't been a bad year. Not having the hubs home was definitely hard but I'm an independent soul and we definitely made the best of it. Our boys definitely helped make the time easier...nothing like two little monkeys to make the time go quickly.

Right now we're still adjusting to having him home but overall everything is going amazingly well. Helps that the hubs is an old fart and this was far from his first rodeo but it never gets easier. Right now I just catch myself just gazing at him with a huge smile on my face still in disbelief that he's actually home. I know it'll last a few more weeks and then it'll be back to business as usual. But for now I'm going to enjoy this "honeymoon" period and thank my lucky stars that I was blessed with such an amazing husband and little boys.

Hurry Up and WAIT

Last night at the convenient time of 3:30am I got a call from my darling husband telling me that they've just put out that instead of arriving at 11pm which is late but manageable, they'll now be getting in at 3:15am. Which is significantly less so. The welcome home ceremony will also be outside and to add to the fun, it's supposed to be the coldest night we've had since last winter. Not freezing but in the low 40's which is pretty darn cold considering that yesterday it about 85 and will be about that today as well. Then there's the fun of dragging out two small boys in the middle of the night. That will be FUN! YAY! Except you know, not. I'm also sitting on the knowledge that once the Army has changed times they're very likely to change again. Usually the end result is the families sitting out on the field for most of the night. Delightful. 

At the end of the day though, whatever the time, I will just be glad to finally have him home. 

The last few days...

It is a well known fact in MilSpouse circles that the last few days of a deployment are not made up of 24 hour days. They are, in fact, approximately 240 hours long...each. Okay, okay, maybe that's an exaggeration but really it's not much of one. As busy as we are with school and sports and the general chaos of two small boys, the days are draaaaaaaggggging. If today were any other, normal day it would be about 8pm with all that I've done already. But noooooo it's instead barely 1:30.

Before the hubs goes anywhere when he'll be gone for more than a few days, I slack off on the house things - I'm not alone. Every spouse I know does too. Not much of a shocker, I mean who really wants to be doing laundry and vacuuming when your loved one is packing to leave for weeks or months at a time. Of course you want to spend every minute just being together. Once he leaves I spend an hour or two or day catatonic on the couch cuddling with my boyos. Then I start cleaning to make up for all that I've ignored and just to be DOING something. Like if I'm busy time will go faster. In the beginning it sort of does.

We're at the very tail end of a year long deployment. Knowing that I'll once again be ignoring all but the basics of housework, I've been cleaning like crazy. Hoping that the time will pass faster. Keeping myself physically occupied. Like its a way to prove "Look I'm ok! Look I didn't sit on my ass for the last 12 months" even though he knows that I didn't. I'm cleaning things that I know for a fact he won't care about or notice, some things that don't necessarily even need to be cleaned but it makes me feel better. It a way of dealing with the homecoming anxiety in a productive way. By this time I should be an expert, I'm one of the older more experienced wives but I don't feel that way. I know what to expect, I know that no matter what there's an adjustment to having him home again, that there are always little conflicts, stresses. Knowing doesn't make any of it easier. If anything its making me clean harder as if to prove just how "ok" I am. Honestly I am ok. It hasn't been an easy year and we've had our share of trauma as well as joy. But it's over...well almost anyways.

Now I think I need to go vacuum my ceiling fans....