Welcome Home X2

When David came home for the weekend after his first week away this month, these were waiting for him. Strawberry cupcakes with strawberry icing and red hots. His favorite! (Well, I don't know how big a fan he is of red hots, but me and icing letters just don't get along). Reese helped me make them and I forgot to tell her to keep it a surprise. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have kept her from blurting it out to him within the first five minutes after we met him at the airport though.


The second week he was gone didn't quite go as smoothly as the first. The trash didn't get taken to the curb in time to be picked up. (Not sure why they have to come at the crack of dawn/2pm in the first place). Our daily newspaper was only brought in from the curb by my mom the 2 days a week she comes to watch the kids while I go to work. The dogs' bowl rarely had water in it and I found them licking the shower floor multiple times. Bedtime routines were shot to heck and it was all I could do to slop some toothpaste in the girls' mouths, throw some mismatched pjs on them, and sing a rushed version of "You are my Sunshine" before padding across the hall to my own bed (sans snoring husband) and collapse for 15 minutes before Tate woke up for his last feeding of the night.

I'm sure three of my good friends (Heather, Kelly, & Alice) and my mom (who are all military wives) are rolling their eyes at me right now. They can all operate a household while their husbands are gone one-handed with their eyes closed. And for years at a time, not just a week or two. Hats off to you ladies! Honest to goodness, you've earned a new respect from me. I may get the hang of it one day....

Needless to say, there were no special homemade treats waiting upon David's return this second time. Nevertheless, we wanted to make his homecoming special. Reese played dress up with a little friend of hers who came over the day David came home. So I asked her if she and Drue wanted to dress up to meet Daddy at the airport. Of course, this is like asking them if they'd like a piece of candy or if they'd like to stay up until midnight watching cartoons....it was met with a resounding Y-E-S!

I thought I'd join in the fun and dress up also to surprise David. Poor Tate was out of luck. I couldn't very well have us girls dressed to the nines and him wearing footie pajamas....so he donned a tie and black felt driving hat for the occasion. I figured out how to set the camera to snap a picture on a timer but didn't really expect it to turn out. Imagine my surprise when I saw this:


Besides my less than ladylike pose, I was quite proud that it didn't cut anyone's head/arm off and we were all looking generally in the direction of the camera. If I hadn't already mailed our Christmas cards, I would have been tempted to photo shop David in and have this be our holiday picture!

So that's how we met David as he got off the plane (at 9pm when his flight was due at 6pm...grrrrrr!). People in the airport kept giving us strange looks. Not a, "She's a hottie and has cute kids" look. But more of a, "She must be drunk and think she's at a nightclub all dressed up like that...those poor kids" look. A few people did comment how fancy the kids looked--thank you kind souls.

I was covered in spit up by the time David's plane arrived, but doggone it, I held my head high & tried to look suave as I hid the cloth diaper/burp cloth behind my back after dusting off Drue's tights and dress as a result of her running and sliding on her tummy across the floor.

Welcome home dear....I'm going to bed....and not planning to wake up until Tuesday.