Nearing the End

I received an email from Shawn Friday that they had gotten their orders to return home. Finally this ordeal is coming to an end for a second time. I am happy to report that Shawn will be back on or around July 25th. My life can return to normal again. No more will I be the only one to deal with the major malfunctions life throws at me from the gate breaking on our fence to chasing Maverick around the living room with whatever trinket he has decided to pick up this time. How I am looking forward to having another set of hands at my house. Oh don’t get me wrong. There are many other reasons I am happy to have Shawn coming home. I just don’t think I need to go into detail about those. They are obvious. The deployments wear on you after a while. We have a picture in our office that was taken at the Auburn/Arkansas game in 2002. It amazes me to see how much we have aged in the nearly 5 years we have known each other. I would say that 2 deployments in less than 3 years would do that. I am just tired of tackling life on my own. I am ready to have my partner back. On a side note, I am being the nice daughter-in-law. I have invited my mother-in-law and sister-in-law to come to Texas and be there when Shawn arrives. I don’t mind them coming. I just wish I wouldn’t have had to extend the invitation. I would hope that she would want to be there and would be seeking me out for information on when to coming instead of the other way around. I often have to remind myself that Shawn’s family and my family are very different in how they handle things. Twenty-seven days!!!