A Wonderful Surprise

On Saturday, January 12th, Thomas called.  Unfortunately, we were at the library and didn't notice the phone ringing.  However, a few minutes after the call, I noticed he had left a message.  That is pretty unusual; it costs a ton of minutes on the calling card to connect, so he will usually just call back later.  We played the message and heard a big surprise--they were sending Thomas to a meeting in DC!!!  He was going to fly in on Friday for the meeting and spend the long weekend with us.  We were all very excited.

On Monday, he called again, saying that the flight he was originally going to take was cancelled and he would be flying in tomorrow (Tuesday). There was actually a lot of back and forth on the details of which day/flight, but, to make a long story short, he was able to come in on Tuesday and was going to spend an entire week with us!

He arrived on Tuesday night and Kara and I picked him up.  Jack and Anna had their first gymnastics class and I didn't want them to miss it.  It was a huge production to get them there that involved renting a car to pick up Thomas with so that Jennifer could use the van to take them.  The things parents do for their children!  Anyway, I wasn't going to take Kara, because she is Terrible in the car.  She has always hated being in the car.  When she was a baby, she would start to cry as soon as you fastened her in.  When she was 4 months old, we moved to Tennessee and the drive was marked with 16 hours of crying (Thomas and I alternated who had to drive her every 3 hours--Jack and Anna happily played with their toys in the "quiet car").  She doesn't cry anymore, but she whines and complains.  Her favorite complaint: "it's taking too long...my back is sweaty."  This occurs, on average, 10 minutes into a drive.  So, I told her she could come with me, but no whining or complaining.  She agreed.  We got to Hughesville and she started whining.  I reminded her of our deal and she responded, "well, you aren't going to turn around."  She had me there.

So, whiny Kara and I picked up Thomas at the Branch Avenue metro.  I felt kind of bad about making him take the metro, but it was prime traffic time and it just made sense.  Although, I still feel lousy about it, so I should have just faced the traffic and gone to the airport.  We went to a Mongolian restaurant in Waldorf, which was really good.  It was almost surreal to have him with us.  We got home shortly after 7, just minutes after Jack and Anna came in from gymnastics.

We had a great visit.  The kids were so well-behaved.  After Thomas left in September, Jack began having a lot of behavioral problems.  Some of it has been kind of severe.  But, he was his old self with Thomas here.  It was amazing to see the difference.  It also provided me with a sense of relief, that hopefully there will be  an end to what we have been going through.  Anyway, we went to restaurants, did a nature walk, had a fun day in Annapolis, played a lot of hide and seek and other games in our house, and generally just had a good time.  Thomas also set-up our surround sound and got rid of the crazy way I had things hooked up in the living room.  It was a super-productive, laid-back week. The kids loved having him here, they insisted he do everything for them (brush teeth, read stories, etc.).  It was heart-warming to see them fight over who got to sit next to him or hold his hand when we were out.  It made me feel very lucky to have such a wonderful man as my husband.

Unfortunately, the visit ended at 5 this morning when I took him back to the airport.  The kids and I are sad.  Next week, we will finally cross the halfway point in his deployment.  It will be so nice to have our family back together again.