Well, it would be an understatement to say that this has been a week of interesting news. Duncan's medical mystery was solved and he is back to his usual happy self. He has become allergic to his food. That's right. I paid $1100 to find out that the dog has allergies. Secondly, the promotion to Captain! Ah, it was an exciting day! To be honest, at this point, it could have happened in the janitorial closet with no one but me to celebrate and I still would have been happy! I'm already making plans about what I'll do with my new salary. I have visions of Coach purses dancing in my head. This weekend, Ben will be home from out west and we'll have a nice relaxing week together on leave. If there was anything I learned about deployments last weekend, it was this: After the initial airport hello, it is NOT easy to welcome one other back into each other's lives. Perhaps if we had children to focus on or a house that wasn't falling apart, it would have been easier. But for Ben, he's stressed that he can't help me with all these issues while he's away and for me, I've developed my own way of coping which unfortunately, doesn't involve him because it can't involve him. I realize this sounds harsh to people. In fact, even my sister was shocked to hear the annoyance in my voice when I called to whine about how Ben and I were bickering. "Kelly, he's come home from war. You sound like a snot." Okay she used an entirely different word than "snot" but I'll leave it up to your imagination. And yes, it's entirely possible that I sounded awful. But you know who didn't judge me? My mom. Mom didn't judge because she knows exactly what it's like to develop a whole life alone and then have your husband return and have to reintegrate him into your life. It's not easy, even when you want it to be. It does not happen without arguments and disagreements. And anyone who tells you it does, it lying. So originally, I had anticipated a fairytale reunion full of laughing and happy meals and cuddling. Instead, we bickered about small things (like leaving the windows open when the AC is on...I have no idea why it made me so angry) and I forgot to take anything out of the freezer to make him dinner. So the plan for our week of leave is to escape to my parent's house where we have no worries. No broken house. No bills to pay. Just a week of laying by my parents pool snacking and floating. Perhaps I can get Duncan to wave a banana leaf and feed me grapes. But by far the most interesting part of my week was yesterday, during my orthopaedic surgeon appointment, trying to solve the issue of my broken leg (in my kneecap) that has caused me pain for the last 6 years. Basic training was not kind to me! I was told this was the last stop and this Doctor would not want to operate and there would be nothing else they could do. I would live with my knee pain forever. I would never play basketball again, run again, or do a big hike again without being in agony afterwards. I had resigned to that. But apparently this surgeon has found a whole raft of things wrong with me and he plans to go in there and annihilate it all. Neuromas (little balls of nerves that hurt like you wouldn't believe), inflammatory disease, bone bruising. You name it. I think I have it. So he thinks he might be able to seriously improve my quality of life by removing the neuromas and the lining of my knee. But this means major surgery...no longer arthroscopic. Big stuff. Slicing and dicing and hacking...Oh my. So it's been a week of highs and lows. Changes. Restarts. Hope. But I tell ya, I'm hoping next week is a little quieter. Because I have to tell you, right now, all I want is a really big nap. Kelly