I'm Alive!

Wow.

So have I been MIA or what?

I bet all 5 of my loyal readers have been downright perturbed about my absence... or... possibly a little curious?

I don't really have much of an explanation about my absence. I just... haven't been writing. It's that simple.

I was on the East Coast for a week visiting mi familia. That was lovely. And I actually started a blog post about my adorable nephews when I got back from that trip but quit because I was writing on my mini-laptop and I generally suffer from writer's block when I use that thing. But I have my desktop computer up and running again, so here I am.

Back.

And let me tell you... my nephews are A-Dorable. I mean, you all know about Lucas and how he breaks my heart every time I am around him. He's so cute I can barely even stand it most of the time. He's definitely 4 going on 14, though.. which I hate. I want him to be a little kid forever, but he's waaaay too much of a big boy for that crap. Sometimes I call him a baby just to bug him because he ALWAYS responds with an ANGRY expression and in an even ANGRIER tone exclaims, "I'm NOT a BA-BY!"

He sure isn't.

Actually he schooled me on dinosaurs one day which was quite a humbling experience. I was trying to give him a very simple explanation and he interrupted me with facts about meteors, climate changes, and pal-en-tol-gists who dig up dinosaur bones and put them in museums. Okie Dokie. He's well on his way to beating me at Trivial Pursuit already, I see.

And Nathaniel? Or should I say, Baby Nathaniel (the REAL baby)... well, he's quite the little heartbreaker himself. Though he doesn't quite have the personality of his brother just yet, he is oh so much fun to hold and talk to. He will talk back to you if you catch him at the right moment. His baby smiles are darn cute, and I sure do miss that baby smell.

There was one thing about my East Coast visit that wasn't terribly pleasant. The pollen. I have always suffered from terrible allergies and this past visit was no picnic. I'm spoiled out here in the desert, I suppose.

In other news, the dogs and I are hanging in there. Or should I say here? I think they might be a little bit tired of hanging out with ME and only ME all the time, but they're being troopers for sure.

Mike seems to be doing well over there in Afghanistan. He is very busy which in my opinion is a good thing. My theory is that if he's busy he won't spend too much time missing home. He does seem to have high spirits, so I don't think I have much to worry about. He seems to be getting along with the other Marines and when I talk to him he cracks a lot of jokes and laughs a lot which is nice to hear. Communication hasn't been so great this deployment. He only has internet access through a couple of work computers that he shares with a bunch of other people. The time difference has us on totally different schedules.. when I'm awake, he's asleep when he's asleep, I'm awake. It'll be easier over the summer when I don't have a work schedule to work around, but for now we often have trouble catching each other online. Supposedly, he's going to be getting wifi in his room sometime in the near future, but I'm not exactly holding my breath for that one.

All in all, just about a month has gone by now and we both seem to be doing just fine. Of course, I miss his daily presence in my life, but I have grown pretty accustomed to being alone and not agonizing over his absence. This is only temporary. I did, however, send him a card recently in which I wrote, "I hope we can both agree that this will be your LAST deployment for a long time (if we have anything to say about it, that is)!!"

I'm sure he does agree.

In any case, thanks for coming back to see me even though I was gone for so long. I'll try not to do that to you again. I'm sure you must have been just agonizing over my absence. ;)