April Fool's!

Man...it feels like forever since I've written in here.

This will be a long post, since I have a ton of catching up to do...so bear with me!

My last few weeks since St. Patty's day has been INSANELY busy!

With Nick coming home early unexpectedly, my knee surgery that happened the day AFTER he got home, and BOTH of my parents being out here at the same time...life has been one giant roller coaster.

I guess I'll start with the homecoming.

Nick was scheduled to come in at 2230 on Wednesday evening, so I took the entire day off from work to clean the house and do last minute things to get ready.

When I found out Nick was coming home early (2 weeks ago), the first thing I thought of was, "Oh crap! I haven't even ordered a welcome home banner for him!"

That's probably my A.D.D. kicking in, so I had two banners rush delivered to my house JUST in the nick of time!

This one was hung on Pulgas Road right on the baseball field. 

I wanted to make sure it stood out :-)

Thank you and a shout out to my Marines who took 30 minutes out of their workday to drive me down to Pulgas to help me zip tie my sign up :-)

The sign over our garage...Rated PG-13....

I headed down to Pendleton at around 2200 lookin' extra purdy to pick up my man.

I don't know what I was thinking...I should know better than ANYONE that if the Marine Corps says 2230, it really means 0100.

I guess every time the Marine Corps gives me a timeline of some sort, I pray for a little miracle that they will actually be on time.....I'll keep dreaming.

Did I mention I was wearing 5inch heels on a bum knee that got operated on the DAY AFTER we picked up the boys?!

Oh, and it was like FAH-REEZING outside, and I wore a short dress.

Maybe not my brightest idea, but gosh darnit, I looked cute!

Just waiting on daddy....

Patiently waiting for our men....

The boys...ahem...men...started marching in at around 2330.

It's weird because I felt that I wouldn't feel the same as I did last deployment because he wasn't gone the full 7 months.

As soon as I heard Nick's voice marching the platoon in, I immediately began tearing up, my heart started pounding, and the butterflies felt more like hummingbirds in my stomach....just like always.

I realized that when you're in love with someone, it's not the length of time that they are gone.

I wrote this on Nick's facebook wall:

" Even though our time apart has been shorter than we anticipated...the feeling and anxiousness I have right now of seeing your face and kissing your face again is like I haven't seen you in a year. In our love...a week can feel like a month, months can feel like a year, and years can feel like a decard. Even if it's for 2 short weeks...I am going to cherish EVERY minute I get with you..."

Pretty much sums it up :-)

I LOVED Dannika's reaction!

When Nick walked up, she gave him a dirty look at first because she couldn't recognize him with him cover on.

As soon as she realized who it was, she screamed, "Daddddyyyy!" and lept into his arms like they had never been apart.

That's when I started to uncontrollably tear up.

It is definitely one of the most memorable homecomings of my life thus far!

THANKS TO TAMARA FOR BRAVING THE LATE NIGHT AND THE COLD WITH ME TO CAPTURE THIS MOMENT!!!

Like we've never been apart.

First Newcastles...their favorite beer :-)

Dannika giving Jackson a goodbye kiss!

We got home around 0100, and we were up by 5am to take me to my knee surgery!

Tired and ready!

My knee surgery went just fine.

I haven't had my post op appointment yet, so I don't know the exact findings.

I do know that she found extensive cartilage damage in my patella and trochlear (????) and shaved a lot of cartilage down.

 I have been in a lot of pain...needless to say.

Here's my gorgeous swollen leg.

 

LASTLY...

Nick surprised me on Friday night at the Swallows Inn (a dive bar by our house) as a late birthday gift to me.

When we got there, a bunch of my closest friends had made it out to celebrate!!

The Gilbert family and the Yubetas!

It was SUCH a fun night.

Even though I couldn't dance.

Just sitting there hanging out with everyone and drinking made for an amazing night!

Here is Nick and I at MY final Sundried Tomato date of the deployment...

He actually made it this time!!!