I'm alive!

Hello, friends! I certainly disappeared for awhile, didn't I? But I think I had a darn good reason (see previous post). Matt is home yayyyyyyyyyyyy!

Sorry, the excitement hasn't passed yet. I just can't believe he's home - and so early! But I'll let you in on a little secret - we've known that he was coming home early for the last month and a half or so. We kept this to ourselves, really only telling our families, in case something went wrong and he couldn't come home early after all. We just didn't want people asking us all the time when he was coming home.

And even though this seems to never happen with the Army, his return date kept getting ... earlier. I know - weird, right??! I thought so too. He made it to Kuwait about two weeks ago, and we were hoping that he could get out of there pretty quickly. By a week ago Saturday, he was on a plane to Ireland, and the next morning he called me from Atlanta. Craziness! He got to Camp Shelby in Mississippi late that night and we were maybe hoping he would get here on Thursday or Friday. Last Monday evening, he called and said that he was going really quickly through all his paperwork etc and thought he would be done midday on Tuesday, but we didn't think he could get a flight out until Wednesday. Eek! Wednesday! Amazing!

And then on Tuesday, he called late afternoon and said "I hope you don't have plans tonight!" I only had 5 hours notice before his plane was landing - which REALLY meant 3, since it's about an hour drive to the airport and I had to get there super early to make sure I could get a gate pass and get through security and everything.

Okay, I guess I didn't HAVE to get there super early, but ... well, it's just hard to sit at home twiddling your thumbs when your husband is coming home after being away for nine and a half months. You know?

So anyway. I got to the airport and the second I walked in, checked the arrivals board - his flight was getting in THIRTY MINUTES EARLY! Amazing! Good thing I got there so early, because once I got my gate pass, went through security, and got to the gate, I only had about 20 minutes before his flight landed.

Those twenty minutes consisted of me furiously pacing back and forth, alternately sweating and freezing, and texting various people. You know, the usual. Imagine my surprise when he walked off that plane in uniform! Matt HATES wearing his uniform and had planned to change at the airport in MS. However, he got so little notice about his travel plans that he didn't have time. That's okay, it made for a good photo op. :) So he walked off the plane ... and looked right past me! He didn't expect me to be there, so he was pretty surprised (don't worry, he eventually realized it was me). It was amazing.

And it still is! But you know what's not amazing? Having to go back to work. I was on fall break last week, so I was off Thursday and Friday - which was amazing, just perfect timing. I took Wednesday off at the last minute since he was getting in so late on Tuesday, plus I knew we'd be up half the night talking (we were). So after 5 glorious days off with my husband, I am up nice and early to go back to work today. And absolutely dreading every minute of it.

So - here's wishing that the week flies, and it's Friday again before we know it!