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!