A New Appreciation

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Greg went deep sea fishing last week. He just got home yesterday. He took the whole week off from work last week but he didn't leave to go out on the boat until Wednesday morning.

Monday and Tuesday he took care of Dakota, me and the house while I went to work all day. Talk about a change of roles - it's been ten years since I worked and he stayed home.

It was nice coming home to a clean house and a home-cooked meal and I didn't have to do it! He ironed my clothes and made my lunch both mornings too (I don't even do that for him because most times when I try he won't let me...saying "he can handle it.")

Well as nice as Monday and Tuesday were...he left Wednesday morning after I went to work and things weren't so nice anymore. Mon & Tues we finished our work and I was able to get off an hour early each day. Wednesday I was working in a city an hour away - Dakota was home alone all day - I didn't get off early and then there was an accident on the interstate on the way home which caused a 2-hour delay. By the time I got home Dakota was upset because he was supposed to be at church for a youth function ("an hour ago mom! I miss everything!"....I didn't think boys were supposed to be so dramatic??) Back in the car I go to take him to church and drop him off. An hour later I make it back home, change clothes, grab a bite to eat...since I've now been off work and sitting in a vehicle for three hours and haven't had a chance to even go to the bathroom and I'm thinking to myself "oh what I wouldn't give to have my dear husband here NOW to help me out." LOL

My dear husband would be sweet enough to go back and pick Dakota up from church while I crawled into bed to rest my aching muscles. Unfortunately (for me) he was out on a much-deserved fishing trip so back to the church I headed to pick up my son. By this time it was 8:15 and Dakota had not had dinner so a quick run through Arby's drive-through suited him perfectly.

I needed dog food and laundry detergent so I decided to stop by Target on my way home. I was too tired to even fool with coupons or look for any kind of bargains and I just picked up the two items I needed and went to checkout. After I completed my purchase and we were walking away, Dakota said "Mom! That was expensive!! Oh my gosh, why did those two things cost so much!?" LOL, I had to bust out laughing at that one...he's so used to me saving money on all my purchases by using coupons and getting things almost free that when I actually paid full-price for something it shocked him!

Thursday was my last day of work and we managed to finish our store early so I got home early enough for Dakota and I to head out for the evening. We rented four movies from Redbox and purchased some junk food to snack on from Walmart. Friday I laid in bed all day and rested my weary bones. I watched movies and slept off and on all day.

By Saturday morning I was feeling much better physically. But I started really missing Greg. Saturday's are our day together. We always go have breakfast early in the morning and spend our mornings together. I had not talked to him since Wednesday morning or heard from him - he was out of range where he was fishing. We talk several times a day and text each other all day so this is not normal for me to not talk to him for four days and I was REALLY starting to "feel" it on Saturday. I woke up real early and just started working around the house to keep myself busy. Over this weekend I ended up doing major Spring cleaning and re-organizing in our house. I threw away an enormous amount of stuff! The house looks amazing though!!

Saturday night we went over to our friends house for BBQ and fireworks. We had a really nice time. Dakota always wants to do fireworks on the 4th instead of going to watch them somewhere. He and Greg buy some and shoot them off every year. Dakota wanted me to do it this year but I told him he was going to have to wait until his dad gets home because "that's not my thing." He knows this...I'm scared to do fireworks and would prefer not to mess with them.

When we were invited over to our friend's house they said they were probably going to do fireworks...Dakota was thrilled! He had some fireworks left over from some other event - he took those with us and his Uncle Robert (in the picture below) took care of Dakota...he lit up the sky for 'em. :-) That's Robert's son, Alan and Dakota's best friend on the right...he came home with us Saturday night.

The guys did fireworks for 45 mins - good thing no cars tried to come down the street - we had them all over the road!

Robert's wife, Vicki on the right and her sister, Tina...we were at Tina's new house they just bought and moved into last month.

Me and my boy...

Tina took this picture...

Dakota and Alan stayed up Saturday night until about 2 am playing Xbox. I woke up early trying to finish cleaning the house before Greg got home. When I went to wake up Dakota for church he said he didn't want to go because they had stayed up late playing. This was fine with me because I actually had a mess in the house and wanted to clean so we didn't go to church yesterday. I did go meet a friend for breakfast around 8:00 and then made a trip to Walmart for some pretty matching storage containers to go in my newly organized kitchen rack.

When I got back home and started working again I was putting stuff in the back of my truck to take to my dad's house when I noticed I had a flat tire! What?! Oh great! I had no idea when Greg was going to be home...I still hadn't heard from him which led me to believe he was still out of range. Any friends I could call would be in church. AAA expired at the end of May and I didn't renew it (yet) - guess now was as good a time as any to renew! The tow truck guy that AAA sent out showed up within a couple of hours and changed my tire for me. :-) Then I made another trip to Walmart to get the tire fixed. I'm starting to REALLY APPRECIATE my dear husband right about now...and pray for his safety and traveling mercies on his trip home.

He finally made it home about 7:00 last night...the three of us cuddled in bed together and watched a movie. Ahhhh, home sweet home!