Today and Background on Hubby

Hello again Blog world! :-) I'm loving this. It's better than a journal because for some reason I feel like it's not a waste of time... and like someone else actually cares about the craziness that is my life. I also feel like it's a place for support and not judgement. I'm not a fan of journaling, but this is basically the same, it just feels different!

Today was AWESOME and very productive. Works been basically a fight for the last 3 weeks (we had some new guy come in who just wanted to know who he could boss around). It's been SOOO much better for the last 3 days, but today was just awesome. I was busy all day and got a TON of stuff done! Feeling productive again is such a great feeling. Sounds corny, but because life at home is crazy at best (if not tumultuous), I get a lot of validation through my job. Not that Hubby doesn't support and appreciate me... I just know I can go to work and not screw up a conversation or a job. At home, I don't always feel as successful.

So, some background on Hubby. He's 14 yrs my senior. He moved here Sept 2004, I move here Dec 2004. We met several months later and neither of us knew the others' age when we started dating. He had a birthday about a month after we started dating and both figured out how old we were. EH! We figured we were a pretty decent fit, so we kept on dating. I think we were right, because in my opinion, we're a GREAT team! :-) Anyway, he got married when he was 18.5 or 19 to the girls BM (i'm totally stealing that from Mean Stepmom). They had a "happy" marraige for the first, eh, 3 years. He deployed to Desert Storm between the girls birth. Anyway, they moved a couple of times and things weren't so happy at home. BM is an alcoholic and I guess he didn't realize that for a while. He was sent over to Korea when the girls were 6 and 8. As soon as he was gone, BM started cheating on him like crazy (trust me, I didn't take his word for it... I went ahead and asked around... it's a small Army), having the girls lie for her when he'd call (12 or 13 hour time diff, so he had to stay up late or get up really early to catch her... "oh, mom went to the store), was either leaving the girls at home or taking them with her to bars or on dates. So the madness began. Hubby found out. When he got back from Korea, he tried to work things out... counseling, church, all that. She didn't want to try. So, they got a divorce. Basically before the ink was dry she moved the girls up here (Hubby and them live in GA at the time) to move in with her BF. So, Hubby went on 3 more tours to Iraq to gather up enough favors to move up here to be with the girls. It was just about too little too late by the time he got here. He did his best though... going on field trips, PTA meetings, meetings with the principal, rides... all that jazz. It's paid off though, at least with Older. He's an amazing, compassionate, loving, fair and hard working man. I'm sooo grateful to have met him! :-) He grew up in American Samoa. He learned love, family, and hard work there. He joined the Army for honor for his family. Everyone in his father's bloodline had been in the Army except his father. His father was turned away 3 times b/c he's legally deaf and has been since his dad was 18. So, Rick decided to continue the tradition. :-) Did I mention that among his amazing qualities he's soooooooo honorable! :-) I love and respect him. No offense to the husbands out there, but even through all the crap we've been through b/c of the "baggage" he's "brought" to the marraige, I still feel like the luckiest girl in the world (almost 4.5 yrs later). His "baggage" is two beautiful daughters that (Older) is beginning to realize how worthy she is to live a great life and (Younger) will figure it out eventually... it takes time. His 'baggage" he "brought"... by "brought" I mean, I could have sat there and been a non-committal, non-active stepmom who didn't give 2 shits about the relationships... none of those I chose. So I negate his baggage. They've been me joy and heartache/heartbreak, but I'd never trade his "baggage" that he "brought" and lose out on him. :-) Don't get me wrong.... he's a HUGE pain in the ass sometimes... but that fades compared to the positive. After all, he's still the opposite sex. We don't get each other all the time. :-)

So, that's all for tonight :-) It's a long blog again. Thanks for reading! :-)