WARNING: Some side effects may include. . .

Absence truly makes the heart grow fonder. As much as being apart from your spouse sucks, it is always so exciting to be back together. It reminds me of when Philip and I were dating long distance during college and how it would be so incredibly exciting to step off the plane and see him during the few visits we had throughout a year.

Philip as been away from what has been our "home" 4 out of the first 12 months of our marriage. It's crazy - that's a third of the year. It really hasn't bothered me. I knew what I was getting myself into when I married him. It has been interesting really learning and discovering that God really wired me for this role in life. Now is the first time that Philip knows that he won't be leaving in a couple of months (when we got married we knew we were leaving for the UK, then he found out about training in Alabama, then he came back to CO and we turned back around and moved to the UK, when we first got here we were a month in temporary housing on base and then 2 more weeks in temporary housing right off of base and then finally moved into the house, after 5 weeks in the house he packed up and took off for Texas). He's excited to be done living out of a suitcase.

Philip is home safe and sound. After a flight where he couldn't sleep, he had to wait at Heathrow all morning for the military shuttle but finally made it home safe and sound. He was slated to arrive here at noon, but wasn't able to get back until around 3 so that meant that I had a couple of extra hours to finish the final cleaning, organizing and unpacking of the house. As of 1130 am on Thursday we were completely moved into our house. It felt SO good. (I had been avoiding the spare bedrooms full of boxes for as long as possible but knew he'd appreciate coming back to a house that really was finally home). Most people say for an overseas move, it takes 6 months to settle into the house and 12 months to feel fully connected with people. Well, we beat the 6 month mark. . . hopefully the same thing happens with really feeling at home with relationships.

So to explain the title - the night Philip got home I gave him some of my Ambien (a perscription sleep aid - I use it to help adjust to dramatic time zone differences when I'm traveling). I am not easily affected by pills (I can take a sleeping pill and still be wide awake an hour later) so I figured that it would take awhile for it to kick in and knock him out. Nope. 5 minutes after taking the pill the room was spinning and he was hallucinating (he was seeing 4 of me - now that's a scary thought). I felt like I was putting someone who was high on drugs to bed. Needless to say, there won't be any more Ambien for Philip :)

I had really wanted to go hiking in Whales this weekend but knew it was a bit of an ambitious venture for someone with jet lag. We decided to take it easy and that after church tomorrow we will drive to the coast and take in the beach. I'm very excited.

Right now dinner is in the oven (I'm trying a new recipe that I found in my mother-in-law's Rachel Ray cookbook - pretzel covered chicken w/ cheddar mustard dipping sauce to accompany broccoli and twice baked potatoes (I'm going to experiment with some of the reeeeally good garlic cream cheese we can get here)). I love to bake but am not as much of a cooker. I'm the kind of person who is content with cereal, pbj, salad or a smoothie every meal. However, now that Philip is back I'm going to try to make a concious effort to find things that we will both sit down and eat (we're both super picky, so that makes cooking even more challenging).