You say Goodbye, I say Hello

He is home!!! It honestly feels like he never left. I know the past 6 months were difficult for both of us, but in retrospect it seems like this deployment never happened and we picked back up right where we left off. The homecoming in San Diego was really fun. We won the first kiss, so he got to be the very first one off the boat, even before the new dads! First kiss tickets were earned by attending FRG events, but they could also be purchased. Since I couldn't attend any events I bought 20 tickets, figuring that I was making a donation to the FRG. I thought other people would buy many more tickets, but it turns out I was one of two people that bought tickets at all. I was not expecting to win, and was actually a little embarrassed that we did. He wasn't even a permanent member of the Topeka, so it seems a little unfair that he got to get off first. Nobody complained to me, but Justin definitely got shit for it. In the end, he did the same 6 month deployment that the other guys did, and we can't complain about getting to see each other 5 minutes sooner!

First Kiss!

friends at the pier

The past month has been emotional to say the least. While my husband and I were reunited, our best friends had to say goodbye to their spouses. In the military world they don't like the word goodbye. They prefer we say "see you later," but I don't tend to find that euphemisms make life any easier. Get out your tissues. My best friend, who only just said hello to her husband, had to say goodbye again. This was an extra difficult goodbye because she is pregnant with their first child. They tried so hard to plan it that he would be home for the birth, but the Navy put the kabosh on that. They made sure it was pretty much impossible, scheduling his carrier to be home for only 5 months before sending them back out for 8 months. My husband's best friend deployed almost immediately after he got home. We are all still in disbelief that these two were not only stationed in the same corner of the country, but living 2 miles away from each other, and got their first deployments for opposite halves of the same year. They enjoyed the couple days that they got to spend together, drinking pumpkin beers, smoking cigars, shopping for cars and boating.