If she had the proper words to say,

It's been a few days now, but Philip is indeed home. :-)

He didn't arrive as anticipated on Saturday, and even in coming on Sunday, things went awry. Online, his flight showed to be arriving a bit early, at 12:42pm (for a 1pm arrival), but as things turned out, we waited forever at the gates. Finally I went to check the screen again, and his flight had been delayed until about 2pm. Since his group had been re-routed from the original flight on Saturday night, they all flew into Omaha at different times on Sunday, and Philip was the only one on that particular flight.

He's coming at us, walking up the gate ramps, and I say to the boys, "There he is! Go get him!" They look for a tiny bit and say, "Where?" "Right there, guys!" "Where, Mom?" "Behind that man in a blue shirt. He's wearing his uniform." They both searched the floor and ceiling intently, somehow missing the ONLY person in uniform walking straight toward them until the last second, when, "Oh! THERE he is!"

And then we were all group-hugging. We were still hugging him when an elderly lady cut into our hug to pat him on the arm and say, "Good man." She was very nice, and Philip nodded his head at her words, but that is exactly the kind of attention that he doesn't like to draw. He'd been pretty upset when his commander had ordered the team to fly back in uniform, rather than "blend" in civilian clothes.

Oh, but he looked awful SEXY coming off that plane. ;-)

And since the time he arrived home, we've just been enjoying our time. He's had to do some things at the squadron, of course, and his leave should start today (yes, Wednesday, as strange as that is). I don't know yet how many days of leave he will have, either. But we kept the boys out of school on Monday so that we could spend another day together (having only had less than half a day on Sunday), and it was a laid-back, rainy sort of day. We went out to a park later in the afternoon one day, and we've just taken things in stride.

I do have pictures, but I've barely been on the computer. I'm not sure when they might surface online. *shrugs*

Edited to add: As it turns out, I put up a few pictures just now. :-)


Gathering up Daddy's luggage.

( More pictures. )

I'm not sure what today holds, but it is an important day. September 12th is our wedding anniversary, and Philip and I have now been married for nine years. We decided to celebrate with a movie and dinner on Friday evening, rather than today, to make things a bit easier for our baby-sitter. And we both want to see several movies playing right now, so we haven't yet decided which one we're viewing, but I'm pretty sure that all of them are popular enough that we won't be left as the only couple in the theater this time. ;-)

We dropped the boys off, and then we headed to Village Inn for a quick bite to eat. I'd written down all the movies and available showtimes, and we couldn't decide while we were eating. We ordered chili (it was actually Philip's idea, as I'm sure those that know me were thinking it was mine), and he had fries with his, whereas I finished with a piece of triple chocolate cake. We skedaddled out of there after paying the bill, and got to the theater quickly. We stood at the counter and debated some more. I wanted to see Step Up, World Trade Center or Hollywoodland. Philip didn't really want to see Step Up, but he was willing to watch it (he knows that chick flicks get me "in the mood," I think). We both decided that although we do want to see World Trade Center, that we didn't want to watch it tonight. It's bad enough that we will forever associate September 11th and our memories of that day with our annivesary (we were separated for our 3rd anniversary because of his having to immediately go to action), and I wasn't in the mood to cry (as I was sure WTC would make me do). So Hollywoodland it was.

And it was a good movie. We both enjoyed it, and the actors did a very good job in their roles. I would recommend it, even if it might be better to watch at home.

The boys were adorable and asleep when we arrived at midnight to bring them home. They'd both wanted to take their new "military sleeping bags" from Nana and Pawpaw (their birthday gifts) over to Ryan and Sara's house, and they were sleeping peacefully, with their daughter Emma lying on a pillow between them. Even Ryan had fallen asleep - heehee.

We packed them up and told them thank you many times over. And when we arrived home, Philip carried the boys into the house and laid them on their beds, still wrapped in their sleeping bags. It was so cute.

The kitties missed us, it seems. They decided to poop about fifty times in the litterbox while we were gone, and it was the first thing I noticed as soon as we hit the front door - that undeniable smell of poop. Philip cleaned the box again (we clean it several times a day), and now we're back on the way to good-smelling air.

Happy 8th Anniversary to my honey! It's been a good trip, hasn't it? I hope we've got many more miles to go. :-)

I'm surrounded by anniversaries lately! Today is the 3.5 anniversary of my LiveJournal, and I was surprised last night to learn that Brian remembered and marked the day for remembering as well.

And in just 20 short minutes, I'll be celebrating 500 days since I first registered on the Chamber of Secrets forums, which means that it's a day or two to either side of that since we Editors began creating discussion threads for each editorial and column we post on MuggleNet. Wheee!

*throws confetti*

The alarm went off this morning, and I went into the kitchen first thing to get a drink. Oddly enough, I happened to check the answering machine - something I *never* do in the morning because no one *ever* calls before 7:48am (the time that my alarm goes off). This morning, though, it was already blinking with one message.

I played the message, and it was Sara Zivny. She'd called at 7:25 to tell me that there actually wouldn't be childcare available this morning for the scrapbooking group due to the fact that the Monday morning Bible study didn't start until NEXT week. She asked me to contact the gals that had planned on coming.

*sigh*

I was really looking forward to that, but I can also understand waiting one more week and just starting everything together. I called Janiece as I roused the boys and told her. I had to wait to call Jackie until after taking A.J. to school, as Janiece knew that she would be dropping off her daughter at the same time. And the way it worked out was actually much simpler: as Jack and I entered the house from dropping A.J. off, I heard Jackie in the middle of leaving a message for me. I snatched up the phone and caught her just in time. She was having to cancel herself because she had to take a kitty to the vet, and she was happy to hear that she would, in fact, NOT be missing the first meeting.

So I suppose it worked out okay, anyway. I wasn't able to reach Ann by telephone before school, and she was bummed to hear when I caught her at 9am, but we've all got time to be get more ready for next week now. :-)

Since Janiece and I were still standing around, I asked her if she'd like to have breakfast with me at Panera Bread®. She thought that sounded good, and I agreed to drive us both there in my van. She headed back to get her purse out of her own van, and she returned back to me with a gorgeous bunch of flowers and a card for mine and Philip's anniversary! I was very touched and quite surprised! :-)

We had a nice long breakfast and didn't return back to the preschool until shortly before time to pick our boys up. Afterwards, Jack and I went and paid the deposit for A.J.'s birthday party. We ate a late lunch then, and I talked to my my daddy for a while on the phone. I don't get to talk to him much, but he called last night as well, so I really felt spoiled to talk to him twice in two days!

We picked up A.J. from school, and then headed over to Heather's to check on the kitties again. We've been watching them for the past 2+ days, and we'll continue to do so until her and Shane return home from their vacation in Montana. Tasha Lou has been a bad girl, though: she got out yesterday when Jack left the garage door open (he was heading to the basement to put food in the kitties' bowls, and I was bringing in Saturday's mail [which we forgot to do that day]). Then today, she jetted out the door as soon as I opened it to enter the house, and I had to chase her around the house and then over two backyards to grab her and bring her back in... and oh, she was NOT happy with me! I seriously feared for the survival of my wrists, as she kept trying to bite them while I carried her back.

I fully expect Heather to act as my nurse should I contract "cat scratch fever" now. ;-)

I pulled up the last zucchini plant from the garden today. We only planted two, but we've had an amazing run - 55+ zucchinis (I say 55, but Annie thinks I forgot a few and am understating), and 90% of them were between 14-18" long. Annie, her mom and I gathered the cornstalks on Saturday, and they are now decoratively adorning my carport posts and the little flag stand - cute! Annie also pulled up the bean skeletons that day, so now there are only the pepper plants and the tomato bush left in our big garden space, but both of them are still going strong (the peppers a little too much so, in fact).

I just got out of the bath (yes, marshmelococoa, I took a bath tonight from your suggestion last night) and shower, and I'm going to go finish up A.J.'s party invitations while my hair dries a little bit. I might start a movie, but I doubt that I'll finish one. Oh, and speaking of movies, I borrowed Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights from Heather yesterday, and I watched it while the boys took naps after church. It was AWFUL. I absolutely H.A.T.E.D. it, and I was quite surprised at that. In fact, after I watched it, I sat there and stewed about how awful it was for about 20 minutes, and then I finally decided that the only way to get the awfulness out of my mind would be to watch the original Dirty Dancing movie. So I did just that. I pulled out my old VHS movie and watched it - ahhhh! MUCH better.

Alrightee, I'm off...

Actual post coming up soon. But first - I must change into my jammies!

*opens dryer, vacuums lint filter with DustBuster®, unloads dryer of fresh jammies, scampers to bedroom nekkid after tossing 'dark' clothes from today in new wash load, dons warm jammies, pees and comes back*

Alrightee, so I decided to fold and put away the entire load of laundry while I was in my bedroom changing. Sue me. ;-)

Oh, and I don't want to forget this: do you ever get blisters inside your mouth where you've bitten your lip or your cheek? You know, the kind that hurt like crazy and you keep re-biting because the area is swollen and it gets in your way? Tip #1 for dealing with the pain: Squirt a teeny, tiny amount of Chloraseptic spray onto the blister or onto your fingertip and apply to the blister (cover your finger, or it will go numb also!). It works instantly! (And thus makes you wonder why you never thought of it before... grr.) Baby Orajel or something of that sort would work too, I'm sure, but I no longer have any of that stuff in the house.

Ahhhh - relief. Relief for the next 2-3 hours or so.

Today Yesterday was Sunday, so we went to church. And you know, arriving at our church for a service is a tricky thing. See, if you arrive at 10:45 for the 11am service (which allows the perfect amount of time to drop off the kids in their separate Sunday school rooms and get to the sanctuary and get settled in myself), you can't find parking. That is because the 9:30 service is not out just quite yet. But if you wait until those in the 9:30 service trickle out closer to 11, then you are late getting into the sanctuary for the 11am service, and it's nearly impossible to find a seat. You can't win, I think, unless you go to the 8:15am service... which is *so* not an option in this 'I-don't-wanna-wake-up' household. Heheh.

And speaking of church, as I was pulling into one of the secondary parking lots this morning at 10:50am (hey, I keep trying different times), I didn't notice my friend Janiece until after she'd already passed me. At least, I think that was her; she was sporting a new 'do, and it looked very good on her. Nice and summer-y. :-)

After church, we came home and had a simple lunch (corndogs for the boys and a BLT for me). We putzed around, waiting until late afternoon so we could go play. I try really hard to keep the boys inside until after 2:30pm - I don't feel that they are nearly as 'safe' outside before then, regardless of how much sunscreen they might have on. To pass the time, we did go to Wal*Mart and buy more milk. We also picked up a new necklace for Baby (aka. collar). She's the only one who wears one anymore, and her new one is blue and green, whereas her old one was purple). Jack was so proud to carry out the new collar for "[his] cat." We put it on her as soon as we got home, and I think she's thrilled. (Well, she's thrilled to have the old fuzzy-looking one to bat around the house, anyway.)

The boys played outside for a good while tonight. Marissa walked over later, and we man-bashed for a while. :-D (No, dear! I would *never* tell *anyone* *anything* that you've *ever* done - NEVER! [No, really. I was just agreeing with her frustrations for the evening. Heehee.]) I need to give her back a bowl, too. She surprised me with an awesome dinner the other night: orecchiette with spicy sausage and broccoli rabe topped with parmesan reggiano. It was SO GOOD! Spicy though, and I had to down two glasses of milk when I'd finished it. Her bowl's going in the dishwasher tonight, and then I'll get it back to her. :-)

While we were outside, I checked on the garden again. We've had so much precipitation these past 4-5 days, so there's been NO need for water. However, I did notice that a couple of the pumpkin leaves and also some of the corn stalks received a little hail damage from yesterday. Nothing huge - just slits in the leaves where the hailstones zipped straight through. The two little zucchinis that were growing (each was about 2 inches long already) had their flowers pummeled to death by the hail. Those two won't make it now, but I can already see two new flower buds that are about to bloom - yay!

( Garden pics, if you'd like to see them. )

Lastly, Philip's parents' 40th wedding anniversary was yesterday (the 5th). As such, the boys made something special for them. Earlier in the week, we all decorated two sheets of posterboard with paint and sponges. I then took a picture of the boys holding their gigantic 'card' outside in the yard (hee - that rhymes!). Then I printed the picture onto card stationery, and we stamped the inside with smaller stamps and signed our names. They should be getting it in the mail, but they've been on vacation at Niagara Falls over the weekend. :-)


Jack and A.J. wish Grammy and Papa George a happy 40th wedding anniversary!

(I couldn't get a single picture with BOTH of the boys looking and/or smiling at the camera. Ah, well. It's the thought that counts, right? You can see the rest of the attempts HERE).

I guess that's it for right now. Quite a lot of things all thrown in together. :-)