Settling into the "boring old routine"

Many of us complain about the "routine" of daily life. That's what marriage is about. Taking out the garbage, walking the dog, grocery shopping and cleaning house. For a while, I had to do all of this on my own, now he helps me. I must say, that I have a new respect for routine.

In the past 10 months I have missed it a lot. Now I am happy when the alarm clock goes off at 5:30 a.m. and I set it for one more hour, because that means he is home and getting ready for another day of work at home, not off in some foreign land.

I no longer panic when I come home and see missed messages on the machine. I know it was not him and if it was, he's probably already caught up with me to tell me what it was.

Lunch has a new meaning now. I get to meet him about three times a week. It's nice. I no longer take drive-thru food back to my office because I don't want to eat alone.

This past week we also went running together. I'm not saying I'm Olympic material or anything, there is no marathon in my future, but he was happy with the distance I could run. I started running while he was gone because he kept commenting on how much he'd like us to run together. I pushed a little further than I usually would, but I was nervous that he would be disappointed. If he was he made no comment on it. He said I did good and he could tell I was working on it.

My main goal was to lose weight and I have. 20-plus pounds since he left, buttthen I commented on how I had gotten stuck in a routine and stopped losing. He promptly made me a new workout schedule which has made me regret the plateau remarks to my infatnry-officer husband. Now I know why his Soldiers mutter under their breathe, the man is a machine and my 5-foot frame and short legs struggle keep up.

On the plus-side, I am more motivated and when it is all said and done, at the end of each run, I realize its not so bad.

We walk the dog together a few times this week and I enjoyed it. George walks the puppy everyday, although sometimes I am cooking dinner or something. The puppy loves it too. He's got a new playmate. They wrestle all of the time.

This weekend was truly "routine" as my husband worked on my truck (with my help of course, my tiny hands are quite useful in that cramped engine.) The gas pedal was sticking in the cold weather. Last year we had a problem with the idle and he kicked it up a notch so the proper amount of gas would go to the engine. Thus the sticking pedal. Stupid Ford!

We also sat around doing nothing, which I assume he quite enjoyed. I read and wrote my second-to-last paper for the semester while he played XBox. The puppy slept, when he wasn't busy barking at the grill on the back porch (he's very protective and you know how those grills can get!)

We did get a little shopping done. We went the Alexandria, about an hour away from post, Saturday night. It is the nearest decent shopping (if you don't count WalMart -- scratch that . Our WalMart sucks!) We went the the Chevy dealership to look at the new Tahoes (can you say "best Christmas present ever!). There was little these small towns have, which is why we are only looking here and plan to buy in Houston. The guys gave us a printout of a Tahoe about four hours away. George said, "I wouldn't buy anything I haven't seen first," and the salesman was surprised. "Really?" he asked. "We'll I'd hate to pay nearly $40,000 and my wife (yep it's for me!) not like it." "The guy who bought that truck did," he said point to a black truck at the front of the lot. I just laughed at him inside my head. He must really think we are suckers! George said they tend to do that a lot to Soldiers returning from deployment. They think they have a wad of cash burning a hole in their pocket (which some do) and they don't offer very good deals. I can bide my time for the one I want and let me tell you I am very specific.

Then we went the the mall and walked around. I think I have a new appreciation for the Soldiers on deployment who have to use port-a-potties. There were two bathroom and both were nasty! One had random puddles where someone squatted on the floor, I guess. I mean in fromnt of the sinks, not even in the stalls. Another surprise was apparently people in that city don't flush. The second bathroom was just as bad, but none of the six stalls had locking doors. They were placed crocked too, so they swung open as soon as you closed it. It was like peeing in prison. There is now a lady in Louisiana whom I know more about than I ever wanted to know about a stranger.

We left the mall, after snacking on two Aunt Annie's pretzels and headed to heaven, I mean Old Navy. Quick as a whip, since we were going to dinner, I ran in to get another pair of jeans (I keep losing weight and have nothing that fits), a cute silk hatler top (on sale for $4) and a mid-length jean skirt. Now I haven't worn jean skirt since high school, but it was more classic, less trailer trash and George thought it would be fun on our trip to Mexico (that's right ... we're going to the land of cheap blankets and unidentified alcoholic beverages!) So I took a risk and bought it.

Dinner at Johnny Carino's (sp?) was amazing, although we were full after the bread and salad. We took a stab at out dinner, then got a to-go box.

All in all that's what a normal weekend is for us. Nothing glamorous, but fun just the same. I kinda missed the whole "boring routine" of life and am so thankful to be back together ... now for the Mexico thing ... you'll have the check back later for the 4-1-1 on that!