This Deployment Is Over

Butterflies.

That's what you get to feel again when your husband comes home from a deployment.

I was nervous over the prospect of seeing him again. I had colored my hair to cover the grey ones. I had shaved...oh crap, wait, did I forget to shave?

I forgot to shave.

I realized this after I hopped out of the shower. So then I got back in the shower. Who forgets to shave?

I put on a dress and added makeup so I didn't look like Edward Scissorhands.

"Is it almost time to get my Daddy?" Natalie asked hopefully when I came downstairs. "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"

She had been waiting six months to see him again.

"Almost time," I assured her.

When we got the airport, Natalie held up her sign proudly. She had glued basically everything in the house onto the paper. She's lucky I'm not one of those parents who like perfection in a project. No, I told her to have fun.

Yes, Tommy was on his Nintendo 3DS hoping to get a StreetPass. I was checking my phone because Tom had just texted saying he was on the ground. Thank goodness I remembered to keep my legs closed. I don't always sit like a lady in a dress because I rarely wear them. But unlike Britney Spears, I remember underwear at least.

"Daddy should be out soon," I said.

"YAY!" Natalie shrieked.

We stood in the only spot that passengers came out of.

At least I thought so.

As we waited, from the corner of my eye I spotted someone familiar...

"TOM!" I yelled.

"DADDY!" Natalie shouted.

"Where are all the StreetPasses?" Tommy wanted to know.

He thinks it's funny to surprise me. I scare easily. He said there was another way out so he picked that one. He surprised me when he came back from Korea too. If he could just come out PROPERLY I could get a better picture. Stubborn man.


Natalie was not shy. She ran right into Tom's arms. Pardon my Gary Busey face.

Natalie was like, "I put everything on this poster because I know you like everything."

This is me going, "If you'd stop coming out the wrong way, I could get a good picture!" Tom was amused by it all. He actually wanted to come up behind me and make me yelp.

Tommy pulled away from his StreetPass to give his Dad a hug and to say hello. He was very matter-of-fact about it all.

"Welcome back, Dad. I'm hoping to get a StreetPass."


Then we got a picture together. And big thank you to my mother-in-law Joanne for taking all the pictures! I like Natalie's expression in this one:

Never being the one who likes the spotlight off of her, Natalie began talking about her poster again.

We headed to get Tom's luggage:

As we waited, Natalie was like, "Daddy, I missed you so much."

"Daddy, don't go away ever again!"

After we grabbed his stuff we took him where he belongs..

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