A Beautiful Day

Today was so much fun! We all had a great time and got to spend time together as a family. Mike got home at 7pm last night and I picked him up from work. He was wearing his cammies, so I stopped and bought him an outfit at Sam's Club. I snagged a pair of Nautica shorts and a Polo T-shirt for $30. I told him it was his early Father's Day gift. I wouldn't have purchased him an outfit except that I was no where near the house and was already one street away from his office, so instead of wasting gas I just picked him up some clothes.

Anyway, so I picked him up and we went to the video store. It's similar to Best Buy except they only sell movies, CD'S, video games, and books. We picked up Yogi Bear and Gnomeo and Juliet for Mya and her friend and rented Just Go With it for us. (Check out my reviews of the movies here) The kids loved their movie, Our movie wasn't that great. I thought it was going to be a romantic comedy, but it wasn't that funny. Personally I thought Spanglish was better. But I'm not trying to do a movie review. I'm telling you about my day instead!


We got back to the house and ate pizza while the girls watched the movie in their room. Mya had her friend sleep over and Lily watched the movie with the girls. Mike and I snuggled up on the couch and watched our movie. It was so nice to spend time together, but we were both exhausted. After the movie was over, we crawled into bed and Mike fell right to sleep. I listened to him snore for a while before I drifted off. A few times I thought about holding his nose shut, but then realized that probably wasn't the best idea. Eventually I fell asleep.


Mike actually got up early this morning. He got the girls breakfast, changed Lily's diaper, and let me sleep in. I slept until 10am! Oh, it was so great to be able to catch up on some sleep and not have to worry about anything.


After lunch we took the girls to the pool. I love the pool here. It's only 4 feet deep at it's deepest, but it's a huge pool. Not an Olympic size pool, but still really big. The same size as most hotels have. The beginning of the pool is like a beach and then the water goes from an inch deep to 4feet and there are 3 lifeguards. I love it and so do the children.


We all played around in the water for awhile and then Mike laid on a lounge chairs. He doesn't really like the water. But he did come in and play with us a few times. After the pool we stopped for ice cream before coming home and watching another movie. We had rented three and bought one. I had to return the three movies tonight, so we wanted to make sure we watched the all. Mya and her friend watched a movie in her room while Lily took a nap. Mike and I watched Battle Los Angeles. (Read Review) Mike loved it. I thought it was pretty good. It was about Marines fighting Alien invaders. It was well done and very realistic. Not over the top like I expected it to be.


Anyway, after we finished the movies I took Mya's friend home and then we ran to the store. I picked up a few items and Mike gave Lily a bath while I was gone. We got home and I put both of the girls to bed and Mike played a video game. Overall it was a very normal day.


 Days like today may not be glorious or memorable. They may not be over the top, but they are special to me. Days like today are the moments that make us a family. It's the little things that make the time meaningful. Mike let me sleep in when he himself was tired. He went swimming with us even though he doesn't like the water. He went because he wanted to spend time together. He took care of the dogs, gave Lily a bath and watched a romantic comedy with me that was awful. He did all of those things to make me happy and because he didn't care what we were doing as long as we were together.


These are the moments that mean the most. It's not the fancy dinners, the expensive gifts, or any of the other things we do for special occasions. It was just an ordinary day when my husband went out of his way to make us all happy. It was a plain old Saturday when he could have been sleeping late and playing video games. But instead he spent his time making us happy. These are the days that make me love my husband even more.


Marine Corps Recruiting duty is hard. But so is every thing a Marine does. The hours are long and we are uprooted from family and friends and left alone in an unknown area. Recruiters have to spend their time tracking down applicants, attending community events, going to meetings, driving kids to various places, and over all not being home with their families. When a Marine deploys we know he's gone and we hope he'll come home safe and come home soon. When a Recruiter is working it is sometimes hard to understand why he can't be home with his family.


I try everyday to remember that my husband is just as stressed as I am, sometimes even more so. I know it's hard for him not being home. I know he hates missing out on events as much as we do. It is so easy to feel like he doesn't care, or he doesn't think we are important. But I know that this is his duty. He has to be away from us and while he may not talk about it, I know it bothers him as much as it does us.