why hello there, 2012

NYE was low key for us. We went to dinner with Nick, Kristie and their little guy Kaden the night before. We knew we wanted to stay in and focus on US on NYE. I only had one meltdown way late on NYE so I did alright. I think I got all my tears out NYE bc NYD I was calm as a cucumber. Anyway NYE was a great day. We went to a new place in town that I love for lunch:

It was such a nice day (seriously, 65 degrees ) so we sat on the back patio and watched Cooper talk to his friends through the gate. That is...until...Lee got poo'd on by a squirrel! Soooo funny. I laughed incredibly hard. Lee's surprise face was classic. I'll never forget it or the face he gave me when I told him I needed a picture for evidence:

We recently discovered The Big Bang Theory so we were ecstatic to learn that there was a marathon NYE. We did take a break to warm up a can of blackeye peas. We both hate those darn things so instead of wasting time trying to disguise them in a recipe of some sort we each stuck a utensil in the bowl and ate a spoonful. We had a good time laughing at each other trying to choke them down and decided to make it a tradition every year to eat our annual peas just like that. I'll be shipping Lee his peas next year!

Knowing Lee had a long drive the next couple of days, we ditched champagne and toasted to sparkling juice at midnight instead (actually really really good):

Lee made it to his destination tonight. A bit dramatic that he had to leave on NYD. New year=new adventures. And the adventures are HUGE for us this year. Mercy. BUT-It's really great that I'm able to talk to him as much as I am. As far as phone privileges go, the training is like a normal 8-5 with the exception of the nights spent training in the field. Ha! There is probably no other comparison to a normal 8-5 job.
I miss him like crazy but I'm doing really well despite the obvious. As soon as he left, I started cleaning our closet hardcore and all my rat holes our drawers throughout the entire house as I tend to misplace stuff. Then I moved my cleaning to the bathrooms, took the trash to the curb, paid the bills, cleaned the sheets on the beds, and made some soup for dinner.
I've found that if I focus all my anxious energy elsewhere then I fill mucho better. Otherwise, I catch myself staring into space or comparing memories to every country song on the radio. Like last night when I was getting ready for bed. I only needed to fold over one side of our king size bed. Lee took his favorite pillow so it's just mine on there now. Makes me choke a tear back just thinking about it. This is what a Military wife's bed looks like:

Happy New Year! I go back to work tomorrow after an 11 day vacay. Wish me luck bc I'm not eating anymore peas.