Work, Dwain, NC, Road Trip -- Longest Post EVER!

I would like to apologize for two things: #1 -- I have not written anything in over a week (I was beyond busy) and #2 -- Because I have so much to write about, this post is going to be ridiculously long. I will do better in the future, but there was just too much going on last week and this weekend. Let's do this post day by day, it will be easier to follow (and write) that way.

Last Monday, I was very rushed. I took my car to Dave's Body Shop to fix the mailbox damage, and I waited til the last minute so I was running behind and felt like I was going to be late for work that afternoon. I wasn't actually late, but I hate that feeling more than anything. I had a full day (5 massages), which was great. After work, I went home and spent time with Tim. I don't remember what all we did exactly because it was over a week ago, but I'm sure we had a good evening.

Tuesday was another busy day (you are going to notice a trend here pretty soon). I spent the morning working like crazy in the office. My secret project was keeping me very busy as well. I can tell you now what I was working on because I have finished it. Most of you know what it was because you participated, but I didn't want Dwain to find out about it. I sent out a message to everyone, friends and family, that we know and asked them to write a few words of support to Dwain. I wanted him to know that the people who love him will be behind him 100% while he is in Afghanistan this year (He leaves the first of next week). I laminated each letter to make it more durable, and bound them all together in a nice book. I am completely humbled by the number of people that responded. More than 50 people sent him some very beautiful letters. He is very loved by everyone who has had a chance to get to know him, and I even got some letters from people who have never even met him. My hope for his book is to help keep the homesickness at bay while he is gone. The rest of Tuesday was also busy. We had a staff meeting at 1:00, then I had 4 massages in the afternoon. After work, Tim and I went to Mom's and wound up helping her work out at the barn. She was building a creep feeder for the goat kids, and she looked like she needed a hand. Dixie was having the time of her life running around with Annie and Sela, but she smelled DISGUSTING afterwards, because there is a rotten raccoon in the yard that they just couldn't resist rolling all over. Why is it that dogs feel like they have to roll on dead things? What is so appealing about that? She made my eyes water! She went straight to the bath after we got home. It's very difficult to give a water-proof dog a bath, but she is such a good girl. She didn't mind it too much, and she smelled like No More Tears Baby Shampoo instead of rancid, nasty, raccoon -- So I call that a WIN! Other than giving Dixie a bath, we threw something together for a quick supper and watched Top Shot. I was more than ready to call it a night.

Wednesday at the office was just like most Wednesdays -- Busy. The schedule was hopping in the morning, so I didn't get much productive done besides checking patients in and out. Then I had 5 massages in the afternoon. I worked like crazy on Dwain's book over my lunch break, but I didn't get everything I needed to done, so Sammie helped me finish up that afternoon. 3 out of my 5 massages were large, burly, knotted up men -- Which means that I was completely worn out by the time 6:00 came around. I wasn't done yet though. After work, I had to make a mad dash to Wal-Mart to pick up some groceries and such before our big weekend trip. Mom, Dad, and I went down to see Dwain in North Carolina this weekend. We were planning on leaving after work on Thursday, so I had lots to get done Wednesday night. After Wally World, I ran up to Mom's to wash a load of clothes so that I had something to wear on the trip. I also needed to work some on making Dwain's book look nice, so I did that while the laundry was going. My plan was to pack Wednesday night as well, but I ran out of time. There just aren't enough hours in the day, and I knew that I was going to have a busy day Thursday, so I opted to go to bed. It wasn't really early enough, but it was the best I could do.

Thursday never really ended. I spent the morning working at the front desk, then had 3 massages in the afternoon. One of my appointments forgot they were scheduled, which is not good because we had a waiting list of people wanting to get in. That's what happens when you take 2 days off work -- You run out of openings very quickly. After work, I headed for home as soon as possible. I had to unload Tim's birthday present out of the truck (an Inversion Table for his back pain; I picked it up from Wal-Mart over my lunch break), get my bags packed, make Dixie tired enough that she would sleep the whole night while I was gone and Tim was at work, and bind off the letters for Dwain's book. I accomplished all these things by 7:30 and was headed to Mom and Dad's to meet up with them. We rented a Chevy pickup to take down there so that we could bring Dwain's stuff home with us. Turns out, we didn't leave until around 9:30 or so -- But we were headed and that's all that mattered. We stopped in Jasper for a bite of supper (McDonald's), then there was a long haul ahead of us. Dad drove first, then swapped out with Mom. We took turns sleeping, talking, and driving. Dad finished up the last leg of the trip while Mom and I slept.

Finally (That was a long night!), we made it. It was about 11:00 a.m. on Friday when we rolled into Jacksonville. We had talked to Dwain, and he wasn't going to be done for a couple hours so we met up with Caitlin and went to the beach house. We stayed on Onslow Beach in a really cozy little beach "hut" that Dwain had rented for the week. We were about 200 yards or so from the water. The house wasn't big by anyone's standards, but it was nice. Dad spent most of the afternoon trying to figure out how they made the house. He finally decided that they were manufactured houses that they just trucked onto the beach and set up. They had a loft and a nice front porch. There was a bathroom and a full bedroom as well. The hot water heater sucked (only about 20 gallons), so we had to take very short showers. Luckily, we brought an air mattress with us so the sleeping arrangements weren't too bad. I wound up sleeping on a futon, which means that my neck hurts like crazy today, but at the time it wasn't so bad. We didn't do much at all on Friday besides take a nap while waiting on Dwain to get off work, then when he did make it out to the house with us, we spent the rest of the afternoon watching movies and being a family. We had lasagna and Texas toast for dinner, but the oven didn't work very well, so it took about 4 hours to cook a big pan of lasagna. We were all basically so worn out that we didn't feel like doing much -- So we didn't. Even though I was sleeping on a futon, sleep was one of the most welcome things in the world.

Saturday morning, Mom and I woke up and went for a walk on the beach. The day was warm already, which was better than Friday's chilly weather, and we really enjoyed spending our morning together. Even though it was a little chilly, we took off our shoes and walked in the edge of the ocean. It was really nice to have the sand between our toes. I started picking up some nice rocks from the shore to start a collection for a hot stone massage set, but I decided that it was a bad idea when I dropped my phone into the ocean. I had it in my pocket and when I bent down to rinse the sand off one of my rocks, it slipped out and into the water. I snagged it as quick as I could, but it still got pretty wet. The worst part was that not only was it salt water, but there was sand in it as well. I took the battery out immediately so that it could start drying out. After we got back to the house, we all took turns taking showers. We needed to make a run onto base to get a bite to eat for lunch (Subway) and go shopping at the PX store. I picked up some neat things at the store -- a slingshot for Tim's birthday (I couldn't resist; it was too awesome) and a couple pairs of sweatpants. Then we went grocery shopping -- Going grocery shopping on the Saturday after payday on a military base was STUPID! We wound up splitting our food into two carts so we could go through the fast lane, otherwise we would have been in line for hours. The place was packed, and the people working there were not getting an "Employee of the Month" sticker anytime soon. After battling with the morons, we headed back to the house for the evening. We spent the rest of the evening just hanging out and enjoying our family. It was a great day!

Sunday was a day of sleeping in. There were no more walks on the beach for me (My phone survived it's swim, but it has a couple minor problems now. Some of the side buttons don't work anymore). We had sandwiches for lunch and enjoyed laying around some more. Somewhere around 4:00 or so, we loaded up in the truck and went to go pick up some of Dwain's stuff. He is only allowed to take a certain amount of weight with him to Afghanistan (that weight includes the Marine), so we were taking his stuff with us back to Indiana. It took us a couple hours (we were waylaid by the cutest little red-headed girl ever at Barlow's house, then again when Dwain locked his keys in his locker), but we got everything we needed loaded up in the bed of the pickup. Then we once again headed back to the beach "hut" for the night. We went to bed earlier Sunday night, because we were leaving pretty early on Monday morning.

Dwain had to be at PT (Physical Training) by 6:30 Monday morning, so we got up early to get on the road at about the same time. After loading everything up, which was fairly easy and only a couple minor things got left behind, we drove across the base to the meet up spot for Dwain's run. Then came the hard part -- We had to say "See ya later." I won't tell him "Bye" because I WILL see him again very soon. Just a few tears were shed, but it was still a hard thing to do. I know I was tempted to just stay around for a couple more days. I have missed Dwain so much. I can't wait until March 2013 when we get him back for good. Now we had a 15 hour drive ahead of us! Dad and I drove together, while Mom rode with Caitlin. This made it somewhat easier because we could switch off every couple hours. We made a detour in western North Carolina to pick up a couple rabbits for Mom. Man, that lady was CRAZY -- Heck, crazy is putting it mildly. I was sure glad to be back on the road again. Dad drove until we made it through the mountains, then we swapped out at Knoxville. Turns out that Mother Nature thought I should have to drive in a torrential downpour. It wouldn't have been bad at all, but my neck was cramping up from trying to see out the windshield through the rain and semi-truck spray. Finally, we made it to Lexington and switched drivers again. Dad and I were several miles ahead of Mom and Caitlin, so we pulled over at a rest stop to walk around and restore feeling to our butts. I tried calling Tim at work, but they told me that he called in sick. Turns out he had taken a day off so that he could be at the house when I got home -- I hated it that I ruined my own surprise. He is so thoughtful sometimes. I really missed him this weekend. It was great to see him when I got home. So after stopping at Mickey D's for supper, we were on the road again. Fast forward a couple hours and we were back in Daviess County. We made a pit stop to drop off Caitlin, then again in Plainville to pick up my car (my repairs look GREAT, and it wound up not costing me a penny because insurance paid for all of it! YES!) A couple right turns later (and one last left turn) and I was home sweet home! I think Dixie and Chuck might have exploded if I had waited any longer to come in the door. Tim seemed pretty happy to see me too. I unpacked the necessities (Tim LOVES his slingshot! Do I know my man, or do I know my man?), then headed through the shower to wash off the road dirt. Finally, after the longest day of driving I hope to ever have to experience, Tim and I went to bed. I have never loved our bed more than I did at that moment.

My butt was pretty severely dragging this morning when I got up to get ready for work. Like an idiot, I only got about 6 hours of sleep before heading to work for 10 hours. Tuesdays are usually one of my favorite days, but I think I probably should have gotten a little more sleep. I spent the morning catching up on things at the front desk, then enjoyed my chicken salad sandwich for lunch. I decided to stay at the office for my lunch break, and I wound up starting this blog post then. It's ridiculous how long it is. After our staff meeting at 1:00, I had a fully booked massage schedule (4 of them). I was able to make the most of a cancellation and get a couple different people on the books. I really played musical massages, but my schedule is full for the rest of this week. It won't take long at all to fill up next week's schedule either. There are just a few openings left. Sammie and I made a last minute decision to get Mexican after work, so we headed to Mi Pueblo (I made a run to Wendy's to get Tim's dinner first). One Quesadilla Jalisco and a Strawberry Margarita later and I was a happy girl. My plan was to come home and assemble Tim's Inversion Table, but I hit the couch and my engines stalled out. Now, after the longest blog post I have ever written (or ever hope to write) I am ready to go to bed. I had hoped to be there before now, but this post was a little too extensive. The last thing I want to do is upload a couple pictures from our trip. It was a bittersweet trip, but I loved every minute. I have the best parents in the world, and there is no one who has a better brother than I do. I love him very, very much and I can't wait to see him again. I will keep everyone updated on Dwain as much as possible while he is gone. I'll be counting down the days! Now, I pinky promise to never wait that many days before posting -- That was almost like work. Good Night All! Have a great Hump Day!   :^)

This is the building on the base where Dwain works everyday.

This was the sign by the bridge to Onslow Island. We thought it was pretty neat that they had a symbol for a tank on a trailer. 

This is what happened when Dwain tried tickling my feet and in defense I gave him a wedgie (after biting and fighting didn't work). I ripped the waistband on his boxers -- Guess I don't know my own strength; or they are just so stinking old that they might have disintegrated in a strong breeze. Gotta love fighting like in the old days -- I love you Dwain! 

Here is Dwain's book. You can't tell from the picture, but it's more than an inch thick! It turned out GREAT!

This picture was taken just before we left Monday at 6:30 am. Not the best picture we've ever taken, but I love it anyway. Stay Safe Little Brother, and Hurry Home!