June 25th

Saturday June 25, 2011

We took our time getting ready this morning and left for my parent’s house after lunch.  My parent’s didn’t waste any time putting us to work.  They are getting older and they are opportunist’s when young people show up.  Especially that young studly guy I married…he’s a hunk and he has big muscles so I don’t really blame them.  I mean shoot as soon as he showed up I quit opening my own jars. 

I fired up the grill for my pops—er well I attempted to but first I had to change out of my cute outfit and put on my “proud army wife” shirt.  By the time I got out there the old man already had it going.

Ben played—I mean mowed the lawn for my folks.

We played with our puppies in the backyard and took a walk down the street to my sister’s old house.  It’s just not the same with out her kids here.  We miss those cute little boys!

Ben sat down and took sometime out for my 102 year old grandma, Irma.  I walked in just as she said “So are ya surprised to see me alive?!”  followed by her big laugh.  She’s a witty woman even at 102 years old!  I discovered last year that Irma’s name means ‘goddess of war’, so we have enjoyed teasing her about that.  Ben named his rifle for this deployment ‘Irma’, when I told her that early on in the deployment she told me she thought it was a great honor!

 

A horrible treat!

How could something be horrible but also be a treat you ask...2hr c130 flight followed by 18hrs of Kuwait, a 2 hr bus ride with no AC, 4hr layover in Germany at 2am and a 16 hr flight to the states…here is where the treat comes in...I was traveling home!

It was a long process to get home. Little if any sleep but two days later I was home.

It was horrible but so worth it. Now to dwell on the treat...when the 16 hr flight was over I landed in Dallas Fort Worth. There were around 100 soldiers traveling home for R&R.

We landed and were immediately greeted by two fire trucks. The announcement over the loud speaker "DFW fire department salutes you". The fire trucks pull up alongside the plane and blast water over top of us. All of the soldiers talk like we don’t care and it is not that big of a deal...we just want to get home, but in that moment every eye was looking out the small airplane windows and there was silence. I could feel the honor of the moment throughout the plane.

Although the seatbelt sign was still on everyone is up getting bags ready to leave the plane. Repeated attempts by the stewardess to keep us seated failed. The doors opened up and the race began. The excitement of being so close to home was overwhelming.

The gate for returning soldiers if different than average incoming flight. We are ushered up ramps and then diverted to an escalator. Down a long deserted hallway until one wall breaks to windows that overlook the airport passengers waiting to get on their flights. We are above them and our arrival was anticipated. People below stop what they were doing, stand, and clap...some cheer some blow kisses some wave. Kind of weird at first but I couldnt help but wave back. The kids would jump for joy when I would wave at them wave looking at their parents with satisfied eyes. Hundreds of people cheering and waving... awe struck!

The end of the hallway brings us in to an empty floor with an international customs gate. We all gathered around our escort. Looking around I could see some misty eyes. The soldiers and marines quickly gather composure as we are given instructions about our R&R stay. After the brief we are pushed through customs and down an escalator where to my surprise there a few people shaking hands and welcoming us back. A few hands to shake and some thanks...not quite...around the corner there was a gauntlet of people to walk between. Veterans line the aisle way as well as many other people. The soldiers in front of me shook an occasional hand but I couldn’t bring myself to miss one of them. It took me 15mins to walk out the door.

The phrases, "Welcome back soldier", "We sure love you guys", "I can’t say thanks enough", "God Bless You" were everywhere. I feel bad because once the right side of the aisle way got hold of my hand I couldn’t stop to catch the left side.

Shock... That is the only way to describe how I was feeling. The love was permeating the building.

My trip home was horrible but the treat at the end was amazing. I can’t say thanks enough to all of those people at the airport.

I wasn’t supposed to fly out until the next day. I managed to get on a standby to SLC but didn’t make it on the next stand by to get home. I happened to be with two other soldiers trying to get to the same place so we decided to split a rental car...3 hours later the treat was turned into a dream come true when Melissa pulled up to get me.

He's Home!!!!

Oh how I have missed this cute guy!! We haven't seen eachother since last October.  He was able to get to me almost a whole day earlier!  He had to rent a car and drive the last 3 hours.  When I went to pick him up at the airport where he dropped off the rental car I didn't even recognize him at first because it has been so long since I've had to pick him out of a line up...er I mean crowd ;)

Really I wasn't sure if he was my soldier or not, because he said he was traveling with two other guys.  It was the strangest sensation.  I was a little hesitant to kiss him at first, it was a bit like kissing a stranger.  It's ok though I like kissing strangers...well this stranger anyways.  He kept saying over and over "who are you?!" and "you're not supposed to be here". 

It was such a strange sensation having him home all of sudden, and being able to hold his hand.  He asked me to drive us home, because he couldn't remember where we lived.  He tried to walk into the wrong bathroom when we got home, and it took him a minute to get re-oriented to which bedroom is ours.  He couldn't remember.

He locked himself in the bathroom to take a shower.  I overheard him loudly exclaim "Wow! A real shower!"  I'm fairly certain my upstairs neighbor's heard and probably wondered if I'd picked up a homeless person off the street.

He is so used to driving diesel/stick shift army vehicles that he has a hard time remembering how to start our car.  He asked me if all those lights come on everytime I start the car...which made me smile.  He halfway turns the key like you would for a diesel vehicle, and waits for the right light to come on.

The first thing he wanted to do was go to a grocery store and see all the food we have access to.  As we walked around Costco he kept saying look at all this food and you can buy as much as you want!  Then he commented on how 'these people have no idea' and 'how can anyone live in America and find any reason to complain about it.'

 Amen.  It's kind of like people living in the golden age and complaining that things are just a little too yellow.

Ben was super excited to play with his puppies!

I love this guy!  I can't get enough of his smile!

$16 an hour!

Our neighborhood put on a big yard sale today and I was super excited when I made $16 in under an hour off of a pile of clothes I had sitting around waiting to go to DI.  What a great day!


So I decided to buy some ammo and go shooting.  I also felt like my hard work in selling my precious clothing was worthy of some new beaded necklaces.  Which cost more than $16...woops!  Sorry Ben!

Most people that came to the yard sale were friendly and just enjoying a beautiful morning out rummaging through other people's things.  There were some pretty funny people though, that were there to bargain shop.  I almost laughed when two ladies walked off after I told them all of my precious clothing was $2 each...that's cheaper than DI.  However, it was all I could do to keep from lowering the price when a really sweet Asian lady took 6 items.  I cut her a deal...I couldn't help myself!  I told her it was buy 5 get one free :)

Then I bonded with a sweet old lady over my Thomas Kinkade puzzles--which were purchased when we were too poor for internet or TV.  But we could afford a collection of Thomas Kinkade puzzles from DI.  Funny the old DI price sticker was on there and that's how much the lady paid me for it...SAWEET!



So after a relaxing day at the range I decided to come home and make this delightful greek salad I found on the pioneer woman's blog:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/04/greek-salad/

Followed by a delicious s'more made with a pink star marshmallow.  Yep today was a great day!

Not quite a perfect day though...it won't be perfect until Ben Brubaker comes home!  I love you Benjamin!!!!!

Dog days...

Today is starting off to be one of those days...

Notice these two paul mitchell products from the back?  They look almost identical...especially out of your peripheral vision when you are going through your morning routine on auto pilot. 

One is a heat seal product I spritz on before blow drying, it makes my hair soft and shiny and it smells delightful!!  The other is a spritz product I use on my dogs to repel fleas and ticks. 


Ruh Roh Reorge!!!


Can you guess which one I mistakenly grabbed and doused my hair with before blow drying this morning??

Let's just say that I am in no danger of having fleas or ticks in my hair this morning.

Drums Alive!

I went to the funnest class tonight that involved drum sticks and those big exercise balls...who knew they made such good drums?  And what a great work out!  It combined rhythm with dance moves and drum sticks...so much fun!  I even sweated, which is weird because I never sweat...or anything else even remotely similar to being gross :)  Just ask my husband...actually no don't ask my husband.  Because somewhere between dating and getting married he wanted to call and warn his brothers about some of the mysteries of girls that they never learned growing up in an all boy house.

So I repeat DO NOT ASK BEN.

Speaking of Benjamin, yes hon you were right 'Anne of Green Gables the Continuing Story' was super lame and really disappointing.  They were on such a good streak too with those first couple of movies.  Well you know what they say about trilogies! 

All the small things.

I was feeling very lonely on Saturday and not sure what to do with myself for the weekend.  I had an appointment to take my car into the dealership for a recall notice I had received.  It just happened to work out that I was 2 blocks from the Western Days Celebration and everyone and their dog was there.  I'm not exaggerating about the dogs just so you know.  There were a lot of dogs there! 

Anyway, I was beginning to feel very lost in the crowd of people and realizing that I don't have very many close friends here in Twin.  At least no weekend plans kind of friends.  As the parade came through the main street, all the American flag stuff had me close to tears.  I decided to split.  Just as I got to the last block before my stop I heard someone yelling my name and turned to see my boss Debbie waving me down.  I couldn't have missed her if I tried. It felt so good to see a familiar face in the crowd.  I thought it was so interesting that she ran into me when she did.

 It's just one of the many small things that lets me know someone is aware of me.

Church was lovely today, so many people are counting down the days with me until Ben's R&R.  I am always so touched by how many people know the exact amount of time I have left until Ben gets here.  I guess I am not alone afterall :)


On a side note I discovered a booth at the western days celebration that sold all sorts of emu products.  I had to stop.  I mean I HAD to.  There was no getting around it.  After spitting in Ben's face the night he rolled over in bed and told me he wanted to be an Emu farmer...I had to!  By the way it was laugh spit!  It's not like I meant to do it!

So I found a future manufacturer to buy Ben's Emu products from his farm...er our farm.