He's Home!

HOLY COW what a whirlwind! 

First and foremost I have to say, Happy Veteran's Day! I am unbelievably proud of my vet and so, SO thankful for him and all of the other men and women who have and continue to serve our great country! 

Yayyy 'Murica! He's the best lookin' combat veteran I've ever seen ;)

Now that I have that out of the way...

I feel like October disappeared right in front of my eyes! I flew out to house hunt on the 3rd, flew home on the 6th, packed up my life in a Uhaul trailer and made the move on the 10th, and then arrived at my little house on the 13th. With the help of my wonderful sister Gracie, my gray babies, and my new favorite friend Amy, we got my house unpacked and in tip top shape before Mike's homecoming! Which, by the way, happened less than FIVE days later!

 So this basically sums up the road trip. Me being absolutely TERRIFIED of driving with a huge trailer, Gracie relaxing, eating, and laughing at me from the passenger seat, and gray babies freakin' EVERYwhere. 

This is my little kitchen exploding with groceries on October 17th. Can you tell my hubby was about to come home?? I had to stock up!

My head is spinning.

So, homecoming. If you have ever experienced a military homecoming then you already know :) But if you haven't, I will do my best to describe the feeling. I hardly slept the night before and getting ready the next day was so nerve racking. Forget the fact that I hadn't worn make up in probably the past two weeks (I was too busy driving cross country and decorating a home to remember to put on a face ;) ) I was seeing my (technically still brand new) husband for the first time in SIX MONTHS. Needless to say I was a disaster and I'm pretty sure my mascara ended up everywhere but my lashes, but eventually I was dressed, presentable, and out the door.

Mike's homecoming sign that I hung on the fence outside of base ;)

Before I tell the rest I should probably explain that I have two precious fur babies, Chunk and Booger, that made the 4 day road trip with me. Over the course of those four days they somehow managed to get cat hair, food, litter, etc. ALL over the inside of my car, which I was driving on base to pick up Mike. Being the wonderful wife that I am I decided to vacuum the inside of the car beforehand so that he wouldn't immediately sit in a big pile of cat. That being said, I am also a terrible procrastinator. So on the day of Mike's homecoming I still hadn't managed to clean out the car and naturally I thought I'd do it on my way to base..... Yeah.

The chalkboard sign that I had waiting inside the front door! He like this one ALMOST as much as the first ;)

So I was that wife - running late, throwing pieces of cat food out of the window while I was driving, chugging an energy drink, the works. Luckily I made it onto base with perfect timing! I arrived before the busses, but not so early that I was anxiously waiting/sweating/pacing for too long. Even though it was only about 30 minutes, it felt like a million years until I heard the busses pulling into the lot. Everything after that felt like a dream. The guys started to get off the busses and I was whipping my head like Willow Smith trying to spot Mike in the crowd. When I finally saw his face my body went into autopilot and just sprinted towards him while my brain was frozen in time. If it's possible for your body to feel weightless but your heart to simultaneously feel like an anvil dropping into your stomach then that about sums it up. After running what seemed like a marathon I jumped into his arms and it's like everything was in real time again. I just hugged him as tightly as I could and my whole body was shaking and I wanted to laugh, cry, and maybe throw up all at the same time. WOW. We were on base for a couple hours after that too but it's all a little fuzzy until we got home.

You can't tell in the picture, but I was shaking like a leaf! Mike was cracking up because I latched onto him like a little koala and wouldn't let go! My head was hiding in his shoulder too because I didn't want to cry!

Our first kiss in six months! Man oh man it was a sweet one :)

Showing Mike the house for the first time was so great :) We didn't have a couch or a washer and dryer, or a freaking vacuum (more on that later) but the fridge was stocked and the gray babies were all set for snuggling and he LOVED it! Since he got back on a Friday, we got the whole weekend to spend just the two of us and it was perfect :) On Monday, the guys from Mike's previous platoon got home so we went with Amy and our new friend Kassie, to welcome the rest of the guys home! 

Just goofing around, waiting for the Golf guys to get back! 

Kassie and Tony came to stay with us the next couple of days and they brought their precious and perfectly trained dog Bane too! We visited a local pumpkin patch and put up Halloween decorations as well as some shelves. We cooked and shopped and spent time with friends and had our first football Sundays together! Kassie and Tony eventually went to stay with our other close friend Joel, so we had our house all to ourselves again! At least for one night. Then Mike's work friend Gaven and his father came to stay with us while they were in town for Gaven's Navy Commendation Award ceremony. Thank goodness we finally got a couch because our little air mattress wasn't gonna cut it for these two grown men! Gaven and Bob stayed with us for about 5 days and then it was just me, Mike, and the kitties in our little house together!

Our couch! Please excuse my mess, I'm still trying to find places to put all of our stuff! I never realized how much crap stuff I had until I moved!

Maybe not my classiest picture, but one of my very favorites with miss Kassie! This is what happens when Marines and their girls play Mad Gab! 

Our first pumpkin patch! We had a ridiculous time trying to pick out pumpkins (that we never even ended up carving!). The huge one in the wagon is actually heart shaped :)

As of yesterday, Mike has been home for three weeks and even though they have been hectic and at times a little stressful, they have been three of my favorite weeks ever :) I can't even explain how wonderful it feels for Mike to be home and for us to finally be together. No more distance, no more static-y Skype calls, no more flying alllllll day long just to spend a weekend together. My life is finally complete! We have so many things to be thankful for and so much more coming up in the next few months and I can't wait to share them all with YOU! :)

My absolute favorite :) Family snuggles on a Friday night!