A month of Thanksgiving: Days 5-12.

Oops - I've been absent awhile. Last week was a whirlwind of, Oh, time for him to go! ...PSYCH! Delayed. Time for him to go...PSYCH! Delayed. Etc etc etc.

The very last day they left he had to be there at 8am for a formation so we left our house between 6:15-6:30. The day was full of formations, checking out weapons, sitting, and waiting. In the morning he had to make sure the Marines rooms were nice and tidy before they checked out, so Evelyn and I hung out in the car. Thankfully it was nice and breezy -- I shut the car off, put a blanket up in the window to block the sun, and rolled down the windows. She napped while I started Hunger Games.

The plan was that they'd leave that afternoon. I had done a pretty good job (if I do say so myself) of remaining calm, cool, and collected. Once the buses showed up, though, I started crying.

When I cry it isn't a cute, little cry. My face gets beat red, my eyes get bloodshot, and I have a vein in the middle of my forehead that likes to make itself known. Ugh. So everyone knew that I was crying but I was not the only one.

They had one last formation which seemed to last for-ev-er. At that point I just felt like, "Hurry up and get it over"; I was annoyed it was taking so long. It finally broke and they came back saying, "It's delayed." ...seriously? Seriously.

We sat around a bit more, they had another formation, then were filled in with the plan. By this time it was around 5pm and the next formation was at 2am. That left us with two options -- stay up on base and try to sleep in the Midge (the midget car), or go home. We chose to go home.

At midnight we woke up, got ready to go, and got out the door. I slept in the front seat of the Midge while they were in their formation and woke when I heard the brakes of the buses hissing. Evelyn was sleeping soundly in the backseat so I left her there and stood outside the car, where I could see her.

They were very time-efficient this time, by 2:10 they were lining up to get onto the buses. We said our goodbyes, and I stuck around for a little bit. I didn't know if I should hurry up and leave, or sit and watch the buses leave, which would seem depressing to me. I noticed his water bottle was still in the car, so I called him and asked if he wanted it. He did, so he got out of line to come get it, gave me another quick hug and kiss, and got back in line.

I ended up leaving shortly thereafter.

Anyway, onto my gratitude list. I've missed logging quite a few days so I'll share them now.

I am thankful that we had a few extra hours together after it was all said and done. It was an emotional roller coaster with all the delays but in the end, I'm glad we had the extra hours before they actually left.

I am thankful for the recordable books that Hallmark produces. I bought them one as a dual birthday gift, and we've read it every night except last night. At least twice. The first night we read it, Evelyn was all smiles, giggles, and even looked around like, "Hey, where's he at?"

I am thankful for all the support I have received from friends, but especially from family. Even if I haven't responded yet to your email or Facebook message, I received it and am very thankful for the support. So thank you.

I am thankful for friends whose husbands are also deployed around this time, or will soon be deploying. It is a bummer that they have to deploy but it is what they train for, so ...duh, it'll happen. It is just nice that we have each other and have each other's support at the same time.

I am thankful for my friend hosting Thanksgiving at her house for the "singles". Obviously we're not single but three of us have husbands who are deployed, the other woman's husband is training for his upcoming deployment, and her good friend she is bringing is a single Marine, so that would be lonely, I'd think. I'm bringing the mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and a dessert salad. YUM.

I am thankful that Dan was able to shoot me an email when they got to their layover destination. I am even more thankful that I got home about 20 minutes after he sent the email because I was able to get onto the Skype. The connection sucked and dropped more often than not but I was able to see him for a brief amount of time, and we were able to instant message for the rest of the conversation. It was brief, but talking is talking!

I am thankful that Dan was able to email me when they got in country. He emailed me about midnight my time two nights ago, so when I woke up yesterday, it automatically made my morning.

I am thankful that our friends gave Evelyn a gift card for her birthday (which is coming up so quickly, eek) because it allowed us to go to the bookstore and pick out three new books to add to our collection. The girl is a bookworm, let me tell you.

In other news, I have lots of pictures to share ... I do truly want to get her 11 month post up before I get her 12 month post up, but obviously it has not been on the top of my list. I also have pictures from her & Dan's dual birthday party we had in early October, and a few more. Hopefully I'll get around to it sooner than later.

I am still learning to manage my time so blogging has been on the back burner. I am trying to keep us as busy as possible so everything goes by faster but I am not figuring out how to fit everything into one day yet. Someday soon I'll figure out how to add blogging into the mix. :) Hang in there with me until then, por favor.