These days.

Gosh, I can’t believe that it took so long for Friday to get here!  And I am afraid the day is going to just drag along.  There are a lot of folks gone at work today because of the upcoming three day weekend, and color me jealous, but my workload decreases as the number of people I support are out of the office.

And as slow as this week is going (and the past couple of weeks, now that I think of it), I still can’t believe that tomorrow is September.  Where has this year gone?  I remember being younger and thinking that it took forever for the year to end.  Christmas took eons to come, and the summer, well…could it ever come fast enough?  But now, I feel the whole “life is flashing before my eyes” kind of sensation.  I know I wished some of the year away just to get Joel back sooner, but wow, September?  Really?  That’s too fast.  Hopefully the lack of plans this weekend slows at least the next few days down a bit.

Speaking of plans, I am pretty excited about some of my plans for the remainder of this year.  We have at least one (maybe two) trips planned to Chicago, a trip home to Indy (and man, I know I am only four hours away from there, but it’s always a magical feeling to return home) to see my Miami Dolphins, who I hope are going to have a better season than pre-season, face-off against my hometown Colts, a TDY (work trip, for you non-military folks) to Jacksonville, FL, a trip somewhere for Thanksgiving (any recommendations?), and a trip to the Smoky mountains, probably on the Tennessee side.  Was that long enough of a ramble/sentence for you?  Whew.  I love traveling, but it was so much easier to do it while living abroad.  Hopefully the Air Force will make my puffy heart dreams come true and will send us back there someday.

In other news, grad school started back up this week.  I have three classes this term, two next term, and that will be basically it as far as actual classes go.  There are a bunch of state assessments to be passed and a student teaching semester to accomplish, but right now I can only concentrate on my classes.  With five classes to go, I have a 4.0, and I would like for my GPA to stay that way.  I struggle each semester with the fact that I am 28 and still in school, but when I think about the kind of opportunities my M.A. could present to me, it makes it all worth it.

Life with the hubster is still going great, and we are getting back to “normal” with him back to work and us getting back into a routine.  As boring as that sounds, I really thrive on being in a routine.  Structure helps me keep focus and prevents me from procrastinating too terrible much.  I’m the girl that could sit on the couch all day watching t.v. if nothing else presents itself.  And, that is no bueno for me or my waist line.

And the rest of our family?  Our furry guys are doing fairly well.  Gomez had surgery on his eyes to prevent him from possibly going blind someday, and 24 hours post-op, his actions would suggest that he had never had any kind surgery in his whole life (he’s had four, btw).

Ain't he the cutest?

Pugsley, the old man of the group, is still hanging in there.  He really is the best little guy and pet momma could ask for.  I hope he continues to hang in there, but being in the 15/16 range, well…  That’s all I have to say about that.

Our old man, doing what he does best.

 

 And our trusty steed Jaeger?  Well, basically it’s his house and he just lets us live in it.  Although, he’s none too pleased with his slaves (us) at the moment.  We bought a new couch and loveseat, and “the King” took that to mean that we got him a new and very expensive scratching post.  Since that wasn’t our intention, we bought some kitty caps to put over his claws to try to get him to stop clawing the bejeezus out of our new couches.  He is now making it his personal mission to get every last one of those off of his claws, and then defy us in plain sight.  Game on, kitty.  Game on.

 

His majesty.

 

Writing Funk

So, if you can't tell by my super creative title, I have been in a writing funk lately.  Not just blogging, although I am sorry about that, I am also talking about writing professionally and personally.  I feel a lack of creativity in my schoolwork, at my job, at home...and I'm not sure why.  I hope to snap out of it, because I normally love writing, but I can't even think of something witty to say on Facebook.  And my twitter followers (all, like, 10 of them) probably think I've died.  So, in an attempt to get my groove back, I am starting with this blog post.

And can I just say, I love my blog?  Because I do.  I know I know a few of my followers in real life, for the most part the people that I interact with on a consistent basis don't know that my blog exists.  And with good reason.  I feel like I can't really express myself or complain about things on facebook because of all the judgement that comes my way.  I am even on a message board where I tend to keep my controversial opinions to myself to not offend somebody.  But here, I can be real and serious or I can be lighthearted and talk about food and travel.  I love that.  I can really express myself here.  So thanks to those of you that hold on through the good and the snarky posts.

With all of that out of the way, I am so glad that I will have three whole days off coming up!  Sure, two of them are the normal two days I get, but there's something magical about a three day weekend.  It seems more relaxing and much longer, and hey, who doesn't like a Monday off?  I started back school this week, and am happy to report I won't have classes on Monday, either.  I am doing a happy dance on the inside.  Maybe I can work on my "101 in the 'Lou" list a little bit...

He's home.

Joel has officially been home for nine days now.  Picking him up at the airport couldn't have been any smoother or sweeter.  Even though I didn't cry the ugly cry when I saw him, it was so emotional seeing him again.  It was even better than I had imagined, and because he came in on a Friday, we were able to have the whole weekend together before he had to report to the base for his inprocessing / reintegration.

I was worried about him coming home.  I have read stories about how hard it is for that person to "fit" back into home life, both for the service member and the spouse.  I have to say that in our case, it is like he had never left.  Despite the nearly 48 hours of travel, he adjusted pretty well to the time difference, and we were on the same sleep schedule on night two.

I'm sure I'll have much more to post as the time progresses, and I finally get to take a few days off of work to hang with him, but right now I am still in the honeymoon/re-deployment stage, and I couldn't be happier.

The package has landed in America!

We are so stinking close to this deployment being over!  I apologize in advance, but I may be MIA for a week or so.  Fingers crossed the final legs of travel go smoothly for the hubster!