Hurry Home Honey!

Of course I am MOST excited to spend quality time with my husband when he gets home, but there are other little things I'm starting to look forward to...

1. Him doing the laundry. I did at least 5 loads in the last 2 days. I'm sick of it. He always does the laundry and seems to enjoy it. Seriously. I know that makes me a very lucky lady. I like to vacuum and when he's here I do it more regularly. So, it balances out.

2. Driving places on my own. Yesterday I met a friend for breakfast. I brought my daughter because I can't very well leave her home alone and I brought the dog because it was a sunny day and he enjoys hanging out in the car. It starts to feel crowded and loud with all of us in there. I'm looking forward to the solitude and silence of driving by myself every once in a while.

3. Along with #2 is being in the car alone and listening to what I want to listen to. My daugther thinks she's a DJ and yells her requests for specific songs from her carseat. I haven't listened to the radio in weeks. When she's home spending quality time with Daddy I look forward to running errands, alone, and listening to anything my heart desires!

4. Coming home to dinner. Again, I'm lucky. He likes to cook and he's good at it. I am looking forward to walking in the door and having someone greet me WITH FOOD.

5. Someone to help with the dog every single day. I like to walk the dog...sometimes. I don't like to walk the dog when it takes 20 minutes to get out the door because my daughter wants to watch one more part of Annie and then wants to run around before I can put her jacket on. And the dog is running around stealing things. So I'm chasing him and retrieving stuffed animals and toys. I'm yelling at my daughter to get her jacket on. Somehow we all get out the door. I'm sweating and out of patience. Then we have to examine every snow pile (daughter) as we sprint full speed down the icy street (hyper dog). I think my arms are getting longer. Sometimes the dog acts like a person and stands on his hind legs because there are squirrels up in a tree and he wants to get them. Sometimes my daughter acts like a dog and crawls on all fours. That happened today. She got filthy. All her outdoor wear was one of the loads of laudry I had to do(see #1).

6. Someone else to answer questions. There are some days I can't even come up with any more BS to answer the million questions from an almost 3 year old. "Why did the sun go nigh night already?" "Why is the snow dirty?" "What is that thing?" Now I can use one answer for ALL the questions..."Go ask Daddy".

7. Someone else to get kicked and hit. I'm not hoping that she hits him. I'm just hoping that I will no longer be the sole target of her angry outbursts. It's hard to be the ONLY target of all that toddler wrath. It's quite possible that Daddy being home will help stop some of the outrage because we'll both (all) be happier and more patient. It's also possible I'll continue being the only target, but at least I'll have a teammate to take my side!

8. Less tears from the dog. A sad dog makes me feel guilty on top of any of my own sadness.

9. Someone else to sort through the mail. I hate looking through the mail. Most of it's bills or junk addressed to my hubby. Now he can deal with it all.

10. Someone to change light bulbs regularly. I'm totally capable of this, but for whatever reason I don't do it. My parents have changed 3 or 4 light bulbs during this deployment. My sister changed one. When my husband was home he changed 3. He also found an obscure bulb for our entryway light and held onto me while I leaned out over the ledge and changed that (see I CAN do it!) I cleaned up pounds of mouse poop so I have no guilt over not changing light bulbs.

11. Ahhh! That reminds me. He gets to finish dealing with the mouse housing development downstairs. I did all the hard work (with some help from the exterminator). There have been no mice since. The crawl space needs to be cleaned out a little more, sealed off, and all the random stuff I pulled out of it and left in the laundry room needs to be dealt with. That will make it easier for him to do all that laundry!

Geez...I hope this post won't convince him to take the free ride the Army is offering to Afghanistan (I have a lot to say about THAT too...but will save it for another day).

I'm just kidding about the long list of things for you to do, honey. We'll bring you beer and baked beans as you sit on the couch and relax. (Although the house might be dark and I might be humming children's songs while screaming at the dog and child to cooperate and get ready for a walk.) It will be fun. Really. Hurry home!