What’s going on….

Not a whole lot! Nicholas is finished with all his reintegration stuff and just signed out on leave for a month. We’ve been working on getting the house ready to go on the market and plan to have it listed my the middle of next month. That’s nerve racking because we want it to sell fast but not so fast that we haven’t found new jobs and a new place to go yet. I’m sure it will all work out the way it’s suppose to in the end. The garage is cleaned out and packed. Nicholas threw all the wood away. It was a sad sad day for me. He also packed up my saw and all my tools. I guess we won’t be building anything for a while. I thought we would work on some stuff after he got home but his organizing OCD got the better of him and it all had to go. We are still debating what to do with the  grass in the front yard, I think we are going to go with sod but spending that much money hurts so we are putting it off. Something has to be done though because the front really does look bad with all the bare spots and tons of rock and gravel. I’m just tired of fighting with it and not seeing results. If we ever build or buy a new house again we will had sod put in from the start.

Nicholas is having a little harder time adjusting to life this time around. I guess after 3 yrs of being over there that becomes your “normal” life and it takes a while to get used to the social norms we take for granted here in the states. He says it’s really weird being around kids because for a year he hasn’t had to see or be around them at all so that’s very strange for him. Also having to think about things before saying them to make sure he won’t offend someone. It’s just an adjustment and until he gets used to it he just wants to stay home where he’s comfortable. I think one of my best friends put it really well when she said this

“ I totally understand the antisocial thing after a deployment. You've spent waaaaaay too much time with people... there's people at the DFAC, people on the flight line, people in the shower, people in the port-a-john next to you, people in line at the PX, people people people people. You know where there are no people? In your own house. People free house. You can walk around without pants on. You can drink milk from the carton in your under-roos. People-free house... highly UNDER-rated in the civilian world.” –Maj. Wings

She’s deployed 3 times so she knows a little something about the people freeness. So for now (and for a while?) we will be staying home a lot in our people free house.

We will be making a quick trip to Rucker this weekend because N has to take a test to get his Commercial (Private) Pilot’s License. I wanted to go to Destin for a few days but it’s not quite people free enough. lol Instead I’ll be doing a little day trip down to Destin shopping with the girls while he takes his class and test and then plays x-box with Steve 2. I still get to see the ocean, eat Dewey Destins, and outlet mall shop which is all I really need to do in Destin anyway so I’m happy.

All in all things are going really well. He’s happy to be home and I’m happy to have him home. We’ve enjoyed being able to spend time together and it’s nice that he’s on leave for a month. Once his leave ends he will start outprocessing from post and that takes 2-3 weeks and at the end of May he will be officially done with the Army and will start what’s called Terminal Leave which will last until the end of July. After that well….. I’m hoping we have a sold house, a new job, and a great new chapter ahead of us.

I’ve been thinking about a new blog name and Aunt Elaine even asked me if I was planning to change it, I just need to come up with something different.

Go. See. Do.

There’s an old Hunnie tradition of planning a little fun for our birthdays. We call them “Go. See. Do.’s”. We Go somewhere, Do something, and See something. We’ve made weekend trips to Memphis to visit the King, a few trips to Nashvegas to have some drinks, and a few trips to the beachy areas. This year for Erin’s birthday a weekend in Nashville was planned and we had an AWESOME time!! Most people would question how I could leave the boy less than a week after he got home for a weekend with the girls but he told me to GOOOOO and he would enjoy his weekend alone. And he did. On Sat we went to the Predators Hockey game and it was so much fun. I don’t care much for sports but I like hockey because there is constant action, something is always moving and there are fights. The fights are awesome. Maybe that’s the redneck in me coming out but who doesn’t love a good fight now and then. There’s a reason for the old joke of “I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out” lol. Nikki got us box seats and we could go to a special area and eat, we were expecting some little snacks and maybe some hotdogs and nachos. Ohhh no, the food was fabulous! They had a pulled pork area, tomato soup, a salad area, dessert area, a carving station!!, a cheese and cracker area, and last but not least they did have an area to make a hotdog!

Dessert and Patti. Oh and Ishmel, he was funny! And behind him there is a SUSHI bar. Who goes to a hockey game and says “you know what would be awesome right now? Sushi, yeah I need some of that.” At a hockey game!!!!!!!! wow.

Carving Station

The girls. Birthday girl in the jersey.

The old group.

And a few of the game. How close we were to the ice.

On Sunday we went to Fancy Mall and did some shopping with a quick lunch at Cheesecake Factory then for dinner we went to The Melting Pot for a FABULOUS meal. I love that place! It was a awesome weekend. I miss my girls and wish we were all still up here at Campbell together again.

Oh we stayed at the Orpyland Hotel and I didn’t realize how huge that place is until we spent over an hour walking around! Beautiful!! I wish I had taken more pictures but most of our walking around was at night so the pictures didn’t turn out the best. Nicholas and I are planning to go spend a night down there next month during the AAAA convention so I’ll take more pics then.

Homecomings over the years

 

The homecoming from Iraq Aug 18, 2006

Homecoming from Afghanistan Jan 8, 2009

Homecoming from Afghanistan take 2 March 7, 2011

We are DONE

The flight landed at exactly 5:30 after a few delays here and there to “keep them on time” gotta love how the army works. Since I knew from the last 2 homecomings that they are rarely if ever early we waited to the very last minute to head to the hangar. When we got to family parking and got on the bus we heard the guys outside say “wheels down in 15” then the driver got on and said the same thing to us and we said “yep” and he shrugged and said “I guess you want me to go right?”. Of course the speed limit through a lot of post is 20 mph so we told him by the time we got there the plane should be on it’s way in. I think we made his day better, at the very least he got a few laughs at those crazy women he had to drive around. Mari was just excited to be on a bus because when her husband comes home they only have about 6 guys and it’s NOTHING like our huge homecomings.

So then we stood out waiting for the plane to land. It was colder than I expected and my hands were freezing. Of course you still had people there in tshirts and short and the poor women trying to look all hot and sexy in skirts and instead their legs were purple they were so cold. Us old pros had on jeans, thick sock, crocs, and jackets. Wish I had taken gloves though because my hands were about to freeze.

Finally starting to unload. It takes a while when there are over 200 soldiers on board.

There he is!! He was walking to fast to get a decent picture!

Stupid balloons. So so pointless! You have to lug all that crap onto the bus to the hangar, then the guys can’t take it with them when they leave so you have to take it all back to the bus and back home with you! I don’t get it at all but there was bunches of balloons here and throughout the hangar.

Opening the doors!

Here they come!

It took a little bit to find Nicholas because as you can see the backs of their heads all look pretty similar unless they are black or women! We found him at the same time and then Mari ran across the bleachers to a different spot to make sure that was him and get a good picture.

They cut them loose! I just stood there and waited for him to turn around. He knew I was wearing red because he saw me outside when he was walking by.

And I love this one because we both look like “eh ok, enough of this, lets get this show on the road so we can get home”. And that’s exactly what we were thinking because as soon and they said for families to return to their seats he said “thank God” and I said “no kidding”. LOL

The girls were so funny! I opened the door and they ran out on the steps and Ki peed all over the place she was so excited! It used to be that Pooh was the Daddy’s girl but Ki is becoming more and more of one now.

He asked for Chicken and Wild Rice soup and bread so I had that made and in the fridge when we got home. We ate and he showered. He was pretty tired from the days of traveling. He was on a plane or in a terminal somewhere for around 24 straight hours because I got the wheels up call Sun night at 8pm and then they landed at 5:30. We went to bed before 9 and he was wide awake at 1am and went ahead and got up. I heard the washer and dryer running so he did some laundry and just enjoyed being home and alone for the first time in months, well almost alone, he just had to ignore my snoring. :)  He’s at reintegration today and has to go everyday for a week. Most days he’ll only be there an hour or 2, the first day is usually longer because they have to do a lot of paperwork.

This was actually the quickest homecoming we’ve ever had! He landed at 5:30 and we were leaving post at 7. The actual homecoming part at the hangar took an hour and then Mari and I moved in the hangar so we could run straight out and get on one of  the first busses. When we got back to family parking everyone was going out to the pick up spot a way I’ve never been so I went the way I knew and was the only one on the road and beat a ton of people because the traffic was all backed up the other way. I was able to park close to the building and I was about to start reading on my kindle when one of the other wives from the troop called me and said that the busses were already there and some guys were done! I went in and found N in about 5 mins and we left. It’s NEVER been that fast in the past! We’ve always had to wait 2+ hours for them to turn in weapons and stuff. I guess it’s about time that Campbell gets this process under control!

Fancy Girls

Mari makes jewelry and we were joking around the other day and I said that she should make necklaces for the girls to wear when N comes home. Yesterday we went to Hobby Lobby and got beads. LOL We were standing in the aisle laughing about how ridiculous it was that we were there trying to decide what would match their hair the best. I think this is what happens when you get bored.

Pooh cracked me up because as soon as I put it on her she ran over to the arm of the sofa and sat like that until I took her picture. She loves to dress up.

The necklaces

Ki shaking. This one just makes me laugh.

Nope, I don’t spoil these dogs at all….

Still counting down!

Standby……………

 

That’s all I’ve got. Nothing is going on here but cleaning and raining. I did talk to the boy yesterday and everything is on schedule so that’s a plus. He has left where he was and is where he needs to be, that’s all I can really say about that. He did get pushed back and is getting home a littler later than I had expected so that’s why we are still counting down.