It’s silly really but when he opened the door I fell in love all over again. His hair was a little long on top just like when we first met, it gave him a boyish look I thought he had grown out of. He wasn’t wearing anything special or doing anything but opening the door but as soon as I saw him my heart skipped a beat. It’s silly really considering he was home 10 days ago. But my first thought was man my husband is cute. We’ve been married almost four years so I guess technically we aren’t newlyweds but with deployments and being apart sometimes I still feel like a newlywed. When you are with a military man you get to enjoy that honeymoon phase over and over again because the excitement of being together again after a separation feels just like when we first got married. When it didn’t matter what you did as long as you were together.
When I loaded the girls up in the truck on Friday to head down to see him I knew that we had nothing to do for 3 days but be together. It’s different when he comes home because life interferes, there is always something to do at the house. When I go down there though there isn’t anything to do so we just are together. We took walks on the beach and laughed as the dogs played in the sand. We talked while he cooked dinner (which I really miss when he is gone!) and we played Wii! We learned that we can never downsize to a Queen bed because with two large dogs it results in us being squished in the middle. I learned not to try to interject logic into a video game, David bought me a volleyball game for the Wii and when the second pass of the game didn’t go to the setter at the front middle of the net I was perturbed to say the least. Don’t even get me started on the special plays he kept doing by pushing extra buttons, it was not true volleyball and I was ready to throw my remote at the tv!! We did enjoy the Wii Party game and the cooperative mini games, it was fun to team up with each other.
Even though it was a work-free weekend (meaning I didn’t bring the laptop but I did have my iphone and ipad) we sat down and talked about my goals for 2012 and 2013. David is great about pushing me to do things that scare me and supporting me the whole way. He helps me see my successes even when I feel like I’m not quite good enough or I haven’t done enough. There is something to be said about celebrating how far you’ve come and not getting weighed down by what you still want to accomplish. It’s hard for me to see my successes because I see others that have done so much more then me and I’m always trying to catch up. That is what he is for, that cute guy I met on that fateful rafting trip years ago and that same cute guy that opened the hotel door and made my heart skip a beat this weekend.
So when I get the chance to just be with him and do nothing those turn out to be the most amazing memories. I’m so thankful that this time he is doing his pre-deployment training on the East Coast instead of the West. I’m scared because January is almost over and I know February will fly by so that leaves March and it isn’t enough time. I’m thankful for a busy wedding season to keep me distracted from not being together and I’m excited to maybe go to Italy for our anniversary to visit him!
So this year I expect to fall in love with him again every time he opens the door after we’ve been separated. I expect to have butterflies in my stomach again at the thought of seeing him in October when he returns. I know I will feel nervous and a little weird after being apart so long but then I’ll see him and I’ll fall in love once more.
