Good Times

well, life is going pretty well in our neck of the woods! charles' return has provided us with a fairly easy transition. you really can't prepare for this type of situation and i'm learning that every time he comes home, it will never be what i expect it to be. since the separation always gives us plenty of opportunity to strengthen our marriage, i wasn't worried about that; but rather expected the frustration to come from co-parenting and all the adjustments that come along with that. much to my amazement, the parenting stuff has actually been going really well! mostly because i am working very hard to stay aware of the fact that i have to keep my mouth shut and actually allow him the opportunity to be a parent instead of steamrolling him every chance i get. pride - it's an issue. but we are doing very well with that. even better - cameron is doing very well with that! from the minute he saw his daddy in the airport, they have been BFFs. charles has an influence with him that i definitely do not; and since charles is much better at conrolling his emotions than i am, he keeps it all cool as a cucumber. given the circumstances of the last year, i think i did pretty well at that, but charles definitely wins the zen award. which is amazing. so yea, parenting: good. marriage: good. being husband and wife: what? i'm sure this is a typical issue, or maybe not, i really don't know. there's no handbook for this crap and if there were, i wouldn't have time to read it. but i had some difficulty switching out of mom-mode and into wife-mode. i'm good now, but that first week was really tough. we both had to adjust to being in close proximity to someone else like that again. it was odd. but as adjustments go, i think it was definitely pretty minor and i'm feeling really good about where we are now. i still have issues when we're making plans or out in public; i'm not used to having help and i get frizzed about handling things on my own, when in reality, i don't have to anymore. it's hard to get used to. but i'm working on it. more good news: they were trying to send is to hays for recruiting, but my the grace of god, that has been changed. as of now (army disclaimer - nothing is permanent or official until it happens), we are not moving. he will be working about 15 minutes from home and life is good. he actually signs in this week, so we won't be able to go home for thanksgiving as planned, but i'm actually not all that upset about that part (see above statements about going out with a toddler by myself and ensuing issues). so yea, that's the latest from us. i have lots of cute pictures on my phone, so imagine that i've posted them here.