One month.

Today, The Mister is coming home! He's been gone since February 28, so you can probably imagine how excited we are. :) While this hasn't actually been our longest time apart by a long shot, this month has been particularly busy. Since my husband left one month ago...

• My laundry room floor has been installed incorrectly TWICE. (Most recent iteration earlier this week. I'm in vinyl flooring HELL)
• My barely-one-month-old tire got a 3"-long siding nail stuck in it and was unfixable. Thank goodness for the warranty (This was yesterday's disaster)
• My toilet leaked
• My washing machine leaked
• Porter knocked heads with another kid hard, threw up, then went to sleep, making me terrified all night long that he had a concussion
• My beloved grandpa died unexpectedly, devastating my entire family. I had to load up my kids and drive four hours to the funeral alone.
• My dog got sick the day after my grandpa's death, requiring an emergency trip to the vet, a $100 antibiotic and a frantic search to find somebody willing to take my sick dog for the weekend while I went to the funeral.
• My mom slipped on a piece of food in a grocery store and tore her ACL and then had the subsequent repair surgery
• We had two major snowstorms, one of which was the day of Maren's birthday party, which meant we had to do a pinata in my living room
• Some little stinker girl was stealing food from Maren's lunch and snack repeatedly and we had to get the teacher involved to stop it
• I made the disgusting mistake of buying California rolls sushi from Costco
• I had a mouthful of canker sores all at one time, making eating and drinking anything absolutely miserable
• Porter dumped a giant new bottle of nail polish remover, a lip gloss, and a $45 bottle of face serum down the bathtub drain while I was downstairs vacuuming up the neverending dog hair because Bronco is shedding his winter coat
• My vacuum died
• I haven't cooked in a month so we have eaten terribly
• I basically quit blogging

On the upside, this also happened:

Maren turns 8

• Maren turned 8 years old and I managed to pull together a fun birthday party for her mostly at the last minute with my Party Ninja skillz
• Porter started preschool, giving me five hours of blissful alone time each week 
• I was honored be able to give the eulogy at my grandfather's funeral
• My dad came out for a weekend to help me around the house and give me some moral support
• We got to see much of my extended family at my grandpa's funeral
• I thrifted some cool stuff including a 1943 letterman sweater

My friends were so, SO wonderful! They brought me dinner, invited us over for dinner, watched Porter to give me a break, volunteered husbands for fixing the toilet, took my sick dog and loved him for a weekend, brought brownies and ice cream and flowers and cupcakes when I was sad, consoled me and commiserated with me when I complained on Facebook, jumped in to lend a hand in the indoor pinata debacle, sent condolence cards and texts and generally lifted me up and supported me in so many ways. I am truly blessed! I couldn't have made it through this without them and their kindness.

Porter's first day of Preschool

And now, The Mister is on his way home. Sure, I complained about being home and facing all that nonsense alone but I know I had it better--he spent the month in the barracks (hello, cinderblock walls and hard furniture) with a stranger for a roommate and eating in the chow hall (just like living in the dorms. When you're 40 and married and have two children.) and the course he was taking was HARD--much, much more difficult than he had anticipated. He got the highest grade in the class and I am SO proud of him!

Bring on April!