little love letters.

Dear Boo,

Tomorrow will mark the third week since you left for your Detachment overseas.  That is twenty-one days that we have spent apart in total.  Only about four more weeks left, give or take. 

It's been rough, Squishers.  Really rough.  Not just emotionally, but physically as well.  I don't have the time or patience to be the one who has to take care of everything.  The apartment, our cars, Riley, etc.  So, maybe sometimes I let Riley run wild and have toys all over the place and his blanket wherever he likes.  And maybe I only take the trash out twice a week instead of three times (give me a break, we have significantly less trash when you're gone and I don't cook as much).  Perhaps, I let the mail pile up until the weekend and then just glance at who it might be from and throw it away if it doesn't look interesting (or looks like a bill).

It gives me renewed awe of the spouses, fiances, boy/girlfriends, families all across our country who do it for months at a time.  Some with children.  Some with children and full-time jobs or schoolwork.  I can honestly say I'm proud to be one of those significant others.  I'm proud of my fellow military lovers, who make the day-to-day seem so easy, when their other half is half a world away.  But I always find myself wondering, How do they do it!?

So, tomorrow, Veterans Day, a day we salute the men and women who have served our country, and the men and women who still do, I will also salute their wives, husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends...and their children.  Especially their children.

And especially you, Ernest.  You're my best friend, and I miss you so much (and so do our dirty dishes), but I understand the importance of you having to go halfway across the world.  I know that not everyone knows why you joined the military.  Some people may think they know, but I don't believe you've ever told one soul the absolute reason why.  I know why you did, though.  And even if I wasn't involved in that decision, even if I wasn't the person who guided you through it, I'm still so very, very happy you chose to.

Now I stand by you, your best friend, your other half.  I'll follow you to the moon if they send you there.  I'll follow you to Atlantis if that's where you want to go.  I'll follow you anywhere, Squish.  And I'll always be here waiting when they send you to the other side of the globe (trying desperately to not go crazy...or let Riley take over our house). 

Love you.