7 weeks later..and onto another countdown

So my last entry was awhile ago..like..forever ago. It's been 7 weeks as of tomorrow and guess what, I'm still alive.

Tim came home for his leave, Christmas Exodus, and went back yesterday. When he came home he was definitely in the military mindset. He was "walking with a purpose" (which means speed walking as fast as he could to the next place he was headed), speaking VERY loudly and almost told his sister "add a sir to that" when she was speaking to her manager at work. He was barking orders at me and the girls and calling people out in HEB for staring at him, which I dumbly pointed out one night. (I told him a man had been staring at him for a good 5 minutes and he turned to look at the guy who was less than 10 feet from us and pointed at him while saying 'you mean this guy?') I wanted to die. After a few days he calmed down and became old Tim again, which was nice. For about the first week, the girls refused to let him out of their sights and he didn't object. There were lots of cuddles and kisses and 'my daddy is here'.

It was definitely nice having him home with us. Since it was Christmas, family came into town and one of those family members is my brother, Trenton, who is also in the Army. At first Tim was intimidated of him, after 5 years of knowing the guy, because he has the rank that a DS has. I told him he was an idiot, but still thought it was funny. He had a good break from basic, and wasn't ready to go back. He was ready to have it over with, but the two weeks went way too fast for him. He was able to hang out with friends, drink a few beers and relax. It was nice.

Finally after not having a single professional photo done since Mackenzie's 6 months and mine and Tim's back in Dec 05...we had our first complete family photo. I had originally planned on having a friend shoot some outside photos, but it didn't happen before he left for basic and these were done less than 24 hours after I reserved them. They turned out awesome, especially the ones of the girls. They were both all smiles and playing to the camera. Tim even smiled in a few too. I'm so thankful I was able to get those before he left. Tim's family also wanted family photos so those were done too, but our girls weren't too excited about those, so they didn't smile.

He left yesterday and that was especially hard on him. We were leaving for the airport at 1:30 and at we laid the girls down for their nap at noon. Normally their naps are an hour long, but this one would of been longer had we not needed to wake them up. I woke up Mackenzie and told her 'you need to wake up, daddy has to go to the airport, it's time for him to go back to school'. (We had been calling it school, because it was the closest thing for our girls to relate it too. My brother Trey would come home for the summer and Christmas and then go back to school, and the girls were use to that, so we told them daddy was going to school and would be away for awhile.) Mackenzie went to Tim and wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly and said 'I don't want you to go' and it hit him like a train. We took a couple photos of the girls with their daddy and then we were off to the airport.

I had been told by a few other wives to get a gate pass so I'd be able to sit with him, so we left a few minutes early hoping we'd be able to get me one. I was thrilled that I was able to get one, it made it so much easier. We sat over in a corner by ourselves and took photos and talked. When it came time for him to board the plane, we did good, no tears! I did have a mental breakdown on the way out of the airport though, thank God for waterproof mascara.

So here we are...on another countdown. His family day is Thursday February 4th and graduation is Friday, February 5th. I will be driving to my brother's house in Columbus GA on Tuesday, February 2nd and staying the night..then driving the 5 hours from Columbus to Columbia, SC on Wednesday. I plan on buying a DVD player for the car with the dual screens to go on the headrests for the girls. It'll be my first long trip without Tim there to help me, so I'm fairly nervous! I already booked my hotel off post, and I'm hoping that I can book one ON post 10 days prior. You can't book more than 10 days in advance for your stay, so I plan on waking up 8am their time and calling the first day. Hopefully I can get it! They won't be allowed off post during family day, hence why people try so hard to get stay on-post, so they aren't stuck in an overcrowded mall or bowling alley with all the other families.

Well, there is my update/ramble.