My Grandfather has a saying, excuses are like assholes, everybody has one. So I'm not going to run down the list of excuses as to why I haven't been writing, I'm just going to tell it like it is and you can decide for yourself if I'm making excuses.
So the last time I wrote was May 20th and here we are now July 25th. Give me a little credit please because we all know I have gone much longer for as you will soon read, lesser reasons. I'll begin at the end of May. Gunnar and I were doing everything to make sure we were ready for Curt to get home, and keeping busy (busier than we maybe should have in hind sight).
It all honestly seems like a blur now. I was having FRG meetings and in the middle of a change of command for Curt's unit here at home. I was helping with the FRG for the unit he was deployed with and trying to get friends back and forth to the airport as needed. Memorial Day came and went as was rather emotional for me, especially after a call from Curt's grandparents to tell me how proud they are of him and us as a family. It was incredibly heartwarming. Gunnar was still playing baseball, which meant practice 2 nights a week and games on Saturdays.
Then came the day we had been waiting for, for what seemed like an eternity and in reality was less time then AIT. It was finally time for HOMECOMING!!! I think that day (and night) dragged on forever, in fact I'm quite certain there were more hours in that day than any other day I've lived thus far. When he walked onto that tarmac though all that time just melted away with my tears of joy. I will never fully be able to describe how it feels to wrap my arms around my husband after having not been able to, or seeing the joy in my sons face the very moment he lays eyes on his daddy. There's nothing like it in this world, and it makes everything perfect, even if just for that moment.
After the delay in homecoming and all the excitement of having Curt home, it was well after 2am when we got to sleep. The next morning we decided to go to the outlets about an hour away to find some new PT sneakers for Curt and just wander around. Lucky for us, Curt adjusts amazingly well to everything, including timezones and lack of sleep. I think he has to to compensate for my inability to adjust to just about everything.
We'd been at the outlets for a few hours, had an early dinner and were heading home. My neck had been bothering me for a few days but I assumed I pulled a mussel while I was cleaning the carpets. It started to get progressively worse as we got closer to home, so I tried to massage it and just rest. About 10 minutes after we walked in the door my face a head started to go numb and tingle and I was nauseous and dizzy. I could barely stand up.
Curt had been home less than 24 hours and we were heading straight for the ER. The good news is they got me in pretty quick, the bad news is at first they thought it was meningitis so they send Curt and Gunnar home, the worse news is I was there for four days. Poor Curt had to do everything, take Gunnar to and from school, baseball, cook, clean and even go back to work before I was able to come home. On the bright side it wasn't meningitis so they were able to visit me in the hospital, but I was on too much medication to know who was coming and going. It's an awful feeling to not be in control of anything.
I apparently had an infection of the sphenoid sinuses and that only happens to a lucky 0.1% like myself. I received multiple rounds of IV antibiotics in the hospital, then another 28 days course of oral antibiotics once I came home. Followed by a CT scan and an appointment with an ENT who has since put me on another stronger 28 day course of oral antibiotics which will be followed up with another CT scan in mid August. Hopefully I will be feeling better by then. I was doing better until this course of antibiotics kicked in. I think they have taken everything, good and bad, out of me.
On a brighter note, this summer we had a water slide party for Gunnar's 8th birthday. We went to Washington, D.C. for the first time, and I cannot say enough wonderful things about our trip! We went on a marriage retreat with the Army and were able to go to the Smithsonian Air and Space and American History Museums. The three of us took an amazing free (gratuity based) walking tour from a company called DC by Foot, and our guide was so engaging we didn't even notice the 100+ degree heat and 90% humidity until the tour was over. I learned more in two hours of walking than I did in all of my history classes combined! Gunnar was truly enthralled and I couldn't be happier about it. We also visited beautiful Kure, N.C. beach for a day trip while my mom was visiting. She surprised Gunnar the day before his birthday and it was priceless!
After mom went home we made our way to the famous Outer Banks or better known as OBX for another marriage retreat. I am a self proclaimed beach snob, I spent my summers on a pristine white sandy beach with beautiful water and great waves and very residential, so where we stayed in OBX was much too touristy, yellow sanded and dark watered to lure me back. We did have a good time though. Gunnar got thrashed in some waves and had three lifeguards circled around him at one point. He also did a great job climbing two difficult rock walls in one of the surf shops. Curt tried to eat his weight in ice cream for a free t-shirt, but instead we bought $16.99 worth of ice cream just for Curt (and no shirt). I even had to leave at one point because I was getting sick just watching him try to do this!
