Homecoming came and went and now my husband has been home for almost a week! Homecoming itself was a long day of waiting. The classic, "hurry up and wait" situation that the military often provides us. Travis woke me up bright and early with a nice conversation from him in transit across the world. I hurried up and got the house ready. Then stalled for a bit and forced myself to sit long enough to eat something. Then hurried up and took a shower. Then waited around because it wasn't quite time to get ready. Then hurried up and fixed my hair and got dressed. I got over to the battalion and waited around for the Marines to turn in their weapons and such. Finally after a long day and lots of waiting in the cold at almost midnight, they came marching out! Sharing that first hug and kiss after several long months was amazing!! It's like our first kiss all over again! I wish I could put into words what homecoming means to so many military families. It's something you can only experience if you've been there. So much good and bad anxiety is built up over deployments that homecoming just waiting for the other shoe to drop it seems. It's exciting, magical, relieving, like a big weight lifted off your shoulders, wonderful, and relaxing all at the same time.
Our first week reunited has been wonderful. My cheeks literally hurt from all the smiling and I don't think I've laughed this much in a long time. It's wonderful to be able to see my husband laugh. I truly missed that.
We are also in the midst of some serious nesting. Again like last deployment, I moved while he was deployed. So this is a new house for him and fairly new for myself too. We're having a great deal of fun making this house our home. We've done some decorating and gardening which has been exciting. Hopefully soon we will have fresh tomatoes and squash popping up in our back yard.
As if this past week hasn't had enough excitement, tomorrow we celebrate our third wedding anniversary! I can't believe we've been married three years, yet at the same time it feel more like a decade!

Things are coming together! I am really enjoying our house on base. I was a bit skeptical about it at first, but it has ended up being a great place. Over the years living here I have grown accustomed to the artillery noises and tremors. After a while it just becomes the low lulling booms in the background. It almost seems too quiet when there is no artillery. This house however is different. Now instead of artillery helicopters fly over constantly. Monday through Friday every ten to fifteen minutes a helicopter is flying over our backyard!  There is still some artillery to be heard but it's even different. It's Naval artillery instead of the Marines playing. New house and new things to get used to.

This is a great Wednesday for a "What I'm Loving Wednesday!"

I am loving our new place! I really like the layout, the location, the fact that everything is coming together. Boxes are slowly disappearing and it's starting to really look like we live here.

I am loving my husband! We haven't been able to talk much recently, just little short conversations here and there. But they are wonderful conversations. I  have absolutely loved hearing him laugh on the phone and I can't wait to hear it every single day again.

I am loving that homecoming is getting closer and closer!! We are right around the corner and I am so close to seeing my husband for the first time in 2012! Woohoo!

I am loving the view from our bedroom. It's beautiful! I have the bedroom layout done so when I am sitting in bed this is what I see..

I am loving the California weather! It's kind of a weird state, but I'll admit I did miss the wonderful weather while I was gone.

Well I have been missing for good reason.. I have finally made it back to Camp Pendleton! Home sweet home!!! I have the house, have groceries in the fridge, just got the internet all set up, the place is filled with boxes and stuff is everywhere! I am very happy to be back home.

The only thing left is my wonderful husband.

The trip across country went very well. I was bit nervous about driving across country during Memorial Day weekend. I usually stick to driving during the week to avoid traffic and such. But it went off without a hitch. This is also the first time that I really took the time to stop and see some sights. Well worth it! It is amazing what you can find in some of these small towns across our wonderful country. This is just the tip of the iceberg!

These trees were in the Deming Museum in Deming, Texas. The museum covered a wide array of history but this was my favorite part. The tags covering these trees were placed by visitors either commemorating a fallen veteran or celebrating a currently serving military member.

A beautiful view of the Texas sunlight right after driving through my first dust storm.

I have officially been to The Center of the World!! A very odd stop, but someone somewhere decided that Felicity, Ca is the center of the world. There are long granite walls etched full of world history. A very hot trip in the middle of the desert!

A stop off at the Desert View Tower in California. Amazing to see the difference between the east and west coast. 

Now it's just a waiting game for the husband to arrive home. As deployments and homecoming always go, the end always seems never ending. The very long drawn out wait for that first hug make every day seem like an entire week. I can't wait to have our family whole again.