Sunday, August 30, 2009

The ship is in.

And, soon my man in blue flies to it. So, soon I will be awaiting his plane to come in some time around next....ah, you thought I was going to divulge that information.

Last night we had the perfect date night. Nothing says happily wedded bliss like a gift card for a fine dinner and a trusted babysitter to watch over the young ones. Our dinner was an early one. Think senior citizen early. The restaurant was posh beyond my wildest expectations--very 1930's swanky. The menu prices did shock me, but again, we had the gift certificate, which is so very appreciated. After all, when you are making an effort to feed and clothe a family of five a night out is to dinner and a movie is often a luxury we do not afford ourselves. Over the past year though, we have been making more of an attempt to do so, to reconnect and have more us time away from the family setting at home. Heck, we do not really want to see ourselves as empty-nesters trying to remember what we liked about each other in the first place. So, preventative maintenance in the way of continuing to court each other, if you will, and canoodling as much as possible, is what we do. But, I digress.


So, dinner was divine. We laughed. I drank wine. It was superb. It was Shiraz by Peter Lehmann. Mmmmm. Filet Mignon was my entree, though it was not as perfect as I would have dreamed up, the atmosphere and my husband's company made the dinner more than I could have hoped for. Oh, and to top it off, I convinced him to share a decadent molten chocolate cake for dessert. To make things better, this was far from the end of our evening. We were able to do a little shopping (for the children of course) and to catch a movie. Truthfully, this one night makes his upcoming trip tolerable. We had such a blast.


Upon returning home, we vegged on the couch, and somehow one of the little ones managed to end up in my arms for a bit. Still, we just enjoyed being together, in our home. I talk a good game about actually enjoying the deployments and that the separation is good for us, but deep down, I do miss the man in blue. After all, home would not really be much of a home without him. He drives me batty, as I do him. We have our spats and we certainly do not love to do everything to other does, but we love each other. Sometimes it takes a deployment or some sort of trip to put all of that in perspective.

For the past 3+ years, we have had the luxury of being able to take each other for granted. Sure, he has traveled here and there, but technically he is at a land unit. We know the likelihood of him going back to a cutter is imminent. We are realistic. At one point, we thought he was going to be in a position to never have to get underway again. Not surprisingly, that change did not take place, but as things tend to change in this military life, it turned out to be alright. The possibilities we are now looking at for the future of my husband's career are promising. We are excited and anxious and just thrilled to be sharing this time together.

Now, I just have to go out and pick up a bottle of that lovely Shiraz to enjoy upon our reunion when his plane comes in. Or, if things get really wacky (as Murphy's Law often requires), I can start enjoying it before he gets home.

2 comments:

Paulina said...

Very cool! Date nights are the best. My husband just finished his tour on the cutter the gallatin and we are in transit until we report to our next unit. In the meanwhile we have been taking lots of dates while leaving the kiddo with the g'rents. It has been awesome!

Crystal said...

I just stumbled upon your blog. I love your storytelling ability.

Nice to read about another happy Coastie couple.

C