Today marks a week since Eric came home. I'm so happy he's home. We've been having such a wonderful time together, just like he never left. The only difference between then and now is that we're closer than ever and we have grown so much in each other over the past year. I know that our relationship is stronger and more wonderful than before. Saturday he starts leave, so we'll be going to Oklahoma for a while, then to Hawaii. I think we're going to spend Thanksgiving with my family this year. Better food there than at his, ha!!!! It was his choice too. Of course then we'll be at his families for Christmas. I'm really looking forward to holidays this year. I dreaded them last year, but they've never looked better than they do this year. We bought new furniture for the apartment. It looks so good. The last of it was delivered today. I also got Eric a Line X bedliner for his truck, which he loves. We have a ball in December for his unit and I got my dress yesterday. I also got my rings back from the jewelers yesterday. I had to put them in to get sized, and I went down 2 sizes! I was excited about that. Everything is going good, but in case I don't update for a while, since we will be on vacation, I hope everything is going good with everything else. Courtney and Charla, enjoy your husbands, and congratulations on very soon homecoming!!!!!!!!

I would like to thank all the blogger girls who helped me through the year of deployment. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the support you gave me during the rough times and for understanding during the bad days. I can't say now that it's over that looking back it went by faster then I thought it was. I guess some people can, but I'm not one of them. It went slow, no doubt about it, but thanks to the many friends I made through blogger, it wasn't as rough as it could have been. I made it through with relatively few break downs and without making myself and everyone around me miserable. I'm stronger because of this deployment and I know that both Eric and myself have grown because of it. For that, I'm extremely grateful. I appreciate every word of comfort and for all the support from all of you. Thank you all so very much!!!

The last couple days have flown by since Eric's home again. He had 48 hrs off, but had to go back to work today. Thankfully the next couple weeks are just half days and then he gets his 30 days block leave. We're planning on going to Hawaii for a few of those days. Then of course spend time with the rest of the family. His mom and sister were here until yesterday. It kind of irritated me because of course I wanted to spend alone time with him and they were always there. Oh well, at least we got most of the day yesterday alone. We went furniture shopping yesterday. We bought a new couch, table/chairs, coffee table, end table, and dresser. We also bought from three different furniture stores and so we have deliveries coming today, tomorrow and Monday, lol. I think Eric wants to drive down to Oklahoma tomorrow so he can watch the OU game with dad. He told me a while back he really missed that, so I think that's what we'll do this weekend. It's so wonderful having him home. It's amazing how much you really realize that you missed their company once their home. I knew I missed him, of course, but I don't think it really hit me until he got here. My friend is so great too, she stayed up until 3 a.m. the day he came in just so she could tape the ceremony for us. She hadn't even met Eric until that point. I'm so grateful she did that. Here are a couple pictures of when he came home and was released. After they came in (which took forever and I was really irritated when we had to watch that stupid video while they were standing right outside the door!) it didn't take long for the guy to say what he had to say and then release them. Although he said that there were 3 other people who wanted to say something and I about committed murder, lol. But apparently he was either kidding or didn't know what he was doing, because there wasn't, Thank God!!! So, I bolted towards Eric and the first picture is the first hug we had. Also, my weight loss the day Eric got home was a total of 75 lbs. I've lost 11 inches in my waist, and my rings keep flying off my fingers. I hadn't sent pictures of myself to Eric in about two months, I told him the end result would be a surprise. I think he was very pleasantly surprised. After he hugged me he held me out at arms length and said, "Wow." lol... I took that as a compliment. I'm not sure if you can tell in the pictures, but that's my new haircut too.

He's home! Safe and sound!!!!!! After sitting at the gym for about 2 hrs and having to watch a video that they made for the new Army slogan "Army Strong" they finally came in. They saved the stupid video until they were outside. I was so irritated. They couldn't have showed it to us the last 2 hrs we were there? Geez... Oh Well, the Army has their own way of doing things and most the time it doesn't make much sense. It doesn't matter now though. He's home and it's so wonderful. Aahhh.... I finally get to have a good night's sleep, I can't wait.

My MIL and SIL came up yesterday. I'm going crazy here with them by myself. Nobody else is here to take up the slack. My friend was over most the day with me yesterday and she stayed for quite a while after they got here. I was so thankful that she was here to occasionally slip in the conversation and give me a break. I told my mom I thank God for her! lol...It's the truth. She's been a blessing. Of course I can't say when Eric will be home, but I can say, the next time I post he will be here! I'm so excited. Although my inlaws are taking some of the joy away from me because my nerves are being tested very badly with them here. I love them, don't get me wrong, but they sure do know how to test me. My MIL spent about 3 hrs yesterday talking about her crocheting and then got onto me about leaving the lights and TV on. Um...last I checked she didn't pay the electric bill! Ugh...well I just keep telling myself, keep your eyes on the end, it's all worth it! I can take my inlaws, but in moderation. The past 24 hrs have been so stressful! I was telling my friend about them before they got here. I don't think she quite believed me until she seen it with her own eyes. I talked to her today and she said she just kept thinking, "how do you stand it?" lol... Constant talking and droning on and on about nothing. AAAAHHHHHH. Ok, that's my vent for today, actually that's the third time I've vented that today, lol. Anyways, I'll post later, and my husband will be home!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had another FRG meeting today. We mainly talked about the ball we're going to have around Christmas time. We did, of course, talk about the homecoming. They narrowed the day down a little for us, which is super exciting. Of course because of OPSEC I can't say anything about that. I guess the most I can say is soon, very soon. I'm just ready for the whole thing to be over. I'm tired of waiting. Nights are longer than ever and sleep doesn't come easy. All my days of having something to look forward to are over, so the next date to look for is his actual homecoming. I feel like Courtney on the updating thing though. I just feel like I'm saying the same things over and over again. I can't give out specifics and there's nothing else to talk about. Except, classes started yesterday. I'm trying to keep busy with that. Our anniversary wasn't as hard as I expected it to be, thanks to my friend. She came and got me and we went out to eat and went shopping. Then she spent the rest of the day here at my place. She's been so helpful. I'm so thankful that God sent her my way. It's nice to have someone to talk to who understands and who will help pass time away. I told her that my neighbors probably think I'm the one who flew over the coo coo's nest. lol...Sometimes I think I'm going crazy.

Sorry it's been a while. I haven't been busy or anything, it's just been kind of depressing the past week. I know it's getting time for him to come home, but I don't think time could go any slower. Although I thought that during the bulk of the deployment too and low and behold it IS able to go slower. I've been hanging out with my friend and trying to keep occupied, but still time goes by so slow. I didn't go make signs with the FRG yesterday. I thought a few weeks ago when I was still in Oklahoma that I would be handy and change the windshield wipers on the truck. Well, I couldn't, for the life of me, get the stupid things to lock on. I asked my dad to look at it before I left, but I asked him at night and he forgot. So, they are just kind of sitting on the arm, and not actually operable without flying off if I turned them on. Well it rained all day yesterday, so I wasn't about to drive the 30 minutes to the place without wipers. Oh well. Tomorrow is our 4 year anniversary. At least he'll be home soon, if time would go by at a normal speed that is.

I went to an FRG meeting. It was the first meeting (besides the redeployment briefing) that I've been to since Eric left. The only reason I went was because they were going to talk about the homecoming ceremony and I wanted to know what was going on. The time frame has changed a little. They pushed them back by three days, no big deal. I was already expecting that time frame anyways, since Eric and I have talked about the different things we've heard, so no real change. Other than that, they didn't really say much. Everything is still so tentative. They're not even sure where they're going to have the ceremony at yet. Of course I wish they knew more, so family could make plans and such, but there's nothing anybody can do, so no use in worrying about it all. They did talk about the ball they're going to have in December. It will be my first military ball, so I'm kind of looking forward to it. I think it will be neat to get all dressed up with Eric and go for a night out. Right now though, I'm just looking forward to him coming home!

I’ve kind of broken up the time until he comes home with stupid stuff. For instance, on Oct 1 I broke it down by the 3rd I was getting a haircut, today was the FRG meeting, the 12th is our anniversary (celebrating 4 wonderful years of marriage to my loving husband) and so on and so forth, little dates to help make it not seem so far away. I was telling my friend that I’m sure that to civilian people, military wives seem like nuts jobs with all the little things we do to break up the time we’re away from our guys. Oh well, we all do what we have to do to get through, that’s what’s important. They are getting together next week and the week after to make signs and such for the homecoming and I think I'll go, if for no other reason then to add more stuff to break up the time until he's home.

I got two compliments at the meeting too. The first was on my haircut. It was actually my third haircut in the past two weeks, ha! I just couldn’t get it how I like it until this time. I love it! It’s not short or anything, but it has lots of layers. Then another lady complimented me on my weight loss. She told me I was looking really good, which made me feel pretty good. I have lost 70.5 lbs now! My mom said that another 15 lbs and she thinks I'll be just right. My goal is another 25 lbs though, but I'll just have to wait and see what looks best when I get down some more. Not much more to go though, so that's wonderful! I'm pretty proud of myself. I told Eric the other day, no more pictures of me until he gets home. I want the end result to be a surprise. I can't wait until he's home!!! Lord I hope the next few weeks go by quickly!

I did myself a little dance today while turning the page on the calendar over. Why? Because I can officially say, "I'LL SEE MY HUSBAND THIS MONTH!!!!" I thought September would never end, but it finally did. YAY!!!! Now, just a few more weeks and it'll all be over.