Homecoming, the 4th of July, and some randomness!

He's Home!!!! Yep yep on July 1st his battery (along with a couple others) came home from Iraq :) It was a big ol' to-do though. I got there in time to watch the live video feed of the guys waiting after they got off the plane at McChord AFB and then they bused them over to Ft. Lewis. With our luck though I-5 was jammed and so they waited and waited and then got off and went some back woods way to get to the gate....and then....if you can believe this....they wouldn't let the buses through security!!!! I know!!! They did (obviously) finally get through and they all marched into where we all were waiting and then after about 5 min they let them all go to their families :) It was a great evening!!

Because of the 4th of July the guys got a 4 day, but we spent the evening of the 4th on base watching the fireworks!! It was great!! There was like a mini carnival going on and the bleachers overlooking the HS football field were packed. They presented all the state flags and said when they were brought into the US and then they set off a canon for every state (very cool). The fireworks were great and it was a perfect night for them. Then we got back to the truck and wouldn't ya know one of the starter cables have broken off (yeah yeah yeah--it's old ok) so Gib climbed under the truck--being his mechanically inclined self--was able to fix it so I could start it and then the next morning we drove to Napa and got the part and he fixed her all up :)

He went back to work on Tuesday and is working half days for the most part. Just doing medical and dental and getting a bunch of briefs out of the way. I finished up my Language Development class that I have been taking all summer today--I am thinking I might have even managed an A :)

On to the randomness--so I also belong to a board for military spouses and one of the girls asked an interesting question--"When you get to see Gib, does he come stay weekends or weeks with you, or do you go stay weeks with him, or how does that all work out?!" So here was my response--

This is kind of an interesting set up I must admit--and as such I am meticulous about planning--mostly out a year sometimes out 1 yr 6 months lol We are still in that getting used to living each other stage and have been for over 3.5 yrs.

So here is how it works. We both maintain apartments in our respective areas--I won’t pay more than 550 a month for our apartments because of how much he gets paid and that I can’t work to make sure BAH covers it all. Next when do we see each other. March almost always because it is spring break and I travel to see him for about 5 days...even when we were both in college that is how we did it. So that generally covers St Patrick's Day and/or Easter. Then November he comes to see me for Thanksgiving for about 4 days because his family lives in AZ and Christmas is spent in NY where we will be spending about a week and half. The past couple years we have rotated 2-3 weeks in the summer--either consecutively or he comes out here/I come out there kind of thing. We haven’t pulled off a Christmas/New Years yet due to weather and the Army but baring anything else we should be able to make it work this year. We also have not done Halloween (which to me is literally like Christmas). This year was our first 4th of July together.

We divide up all our dishes, furniture, bedding, towels, and we keep 2 of everything else--2 toothbrushes, 2 razors, 2 sets of first aid stuff, he has a small TV and all his video games and such in WA, I have a bigger TV and DVD player in AZ, we split the DVDs by pretty much what each of us had when we came into the relationship and by who watches what the most, I have the bed and he has one of the larger air mattresses, overall he has the nicer apt but I have most of our things, I gave him my truck and we bought the Jeep out right so there are no car loans, all the bills including his electricity and rent come to my apt so I can pay them.

So since I like to be thorough here is all the time we have spent together and this is pretty much how it goes :)

March 2007-May 5 2007—lived together at NAU
March 2008—4 days—Flagstaff, AZ
June 4 2008—1 week—AZ and Vegas
July 2008—1 week—NY (3 days before basic)
Sept 2008—8 hrs—Ft. Knox, KY (Basic Graduation)
Nov 2008—17 days—HRAP, Tucson, AZ
Feb 13th-15th 2009—Tucson, AZ
March 2009—4 days—Ft. Lewis, WA
June 2009—2 weeks—NY and AZ (married)
July 15th-22nd 2009—Ft. Lewis, WA (deployed on the 22nd
April 16th-May 2nd 2010—RnR, Tucson, AZ
July 1st-20th 2010—Ft. Lewis, WA (Home from the deployment)
July 20th-Aug 10 2010—Tucson, AZ
Possibly 4 days Nov 2010—Thanksgiving
Possibly 1.5 weeks Dec 2010/Jan 2011—Christmas/New Years
Possibly 5 days March 2011
Hopefully living together May 2011!!