Well today I am really missing my husband. (I mean, obviously I do everyday, but some days are just harder than others. This is one of those days.)

When I find myself feeling super alone I do
2 things: I read his deployment letters over
and over and over,
then over again...

...and I daydream about his homecoming/play out his last one in my head. I look through the pictures we took at his last homecoming. I hired a photographer- which I HIGHLY recommend if you can do it- so I have tons of amazing shots of us seeing each other/hugging/kissing for the first time. I can almost feel that happiness just looking at those pictures. My girl, Brooke, took some outstanding pictures of the event.

 There's no feeling quite like welcoming your soldier home. You are so full of excitement, pride, joy, and nerves..
From the moment you see that bus pull in, to your soldier stepping out, to the moment you feel his arms around you for the first time in months- your heart is so full of this beautiful euphoria that I'm afraid words cannot do justice. At that moment you've made it. You struggled through 6 months, 9 months, a year of lonely nights, tearful holidays, and dateless events and now he's finally back by your side. It's a tough role we play at home and it takes a lot of strength that you don't know you have until you have to have it. And you're proud of yourself for that.
You're so proud to be one of the few who has a soldier running up to you. People come from the town and surrounding towns to welcome guys home and witness this occasion, so you get to hold your head so high when you've got your hand in a returning soldier's.
And remember that first kiss you had with your partner? Well, we get all over again. I remember on our first deployment when Andy came home on leave after being gone for 10 months I had butterflies going 90 to nothing as I stood at the gate watching his plane pull up. I laid eyes on him and immediately tears filled my eyes.
I really do wish everybody could experience this overwhelming perfection that we feel with our spouse in that moment.
Wow..

So if you're getting ready for a big homecoming here are a couple of quick resources:

Build a Sign offers free homecoming signs for soldiers
After Deployment is a great website filled with assessments, videos and workshops related to different aspects of redeployment for both you and your returning soldier. (I'll share this again in the future when I do a blog on reintegration)
Aaaaaaand, nursery furniture/decor ;)


For those of you going through this Bravo deployment with me, we're on the downhill! Every night marks another day down. Live it and love it ladies- we are blessed. It won't be too long before we're welcoming our boys home and in a state of complete and utter bliss.


Live this life.Love this life!
M.

I really wish Hubs liked eating baked goods as much as I like making them, because he's got lots coming! I put together my Halloween box today and filled it with all sorts of yummy treats. Pinterest was a big help putting together this box..

And there you have it, friends. One Halloween goodie box. There are lots of ways you could go with these. You could get every kind of Halloween candy and stick it in a homemade trick-or-treat bucket. (Fun project for the kids of you've got 'em.) You can send it after Halloween with lots of pictures of you and your kids in costume and some trick-or-treat candy that the kids wanted to share from their night. Also- I've got some orange Gatorade in there (orange for Halloween, of course,) but mostly because Gatorade is an inside joke for us that pretty much kicked off our relationship. So that being said, I encourage you all to add as many items that remind him of good times you had together as you can. A little inside joke, a ticket stub, a story in a letter, pictures of a vacation you guys took together- anything that brings him home for a second.

Happy Halloween, everybody!



M.