Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Home Again

I am once again back in Wisconsin and I have to say it feels wonderful. It is such a great feeling to walk through the door of your own place and sit on your own furniture. I'm so glad that this time I have been able to return with J.R. as well.

Speaking of J.R., he has been rather entertaining to watch. Since October of 2005 he has barely been inside the apartment. Add in the injury and the meds and his memories of the apartment are very limited. He no longer remembers what he owns and where it's located within our home. To fix this problem he has opened every box and dumped the contents on the floor. Needless to say I can no longer walk through the apartment or see the carpet. But I'm ok with that. It's just nice to finally have him here in the apartment with me.

Since J.R. has taken over every room I have been living in my safe haven of my kitchen. It is the only room that he doesn't dare touch as he knows I will chase him out with whatever kitchen utensil happens to be in my hand at the time. I enjoy cooking and since it's the only room I can move around in, I've spent most of my time making more food then we will ever eat in ten days. I have a feeling my neighbors will have full fridges when we go back to D.C.

As long as we are on the topic of neighbors, I have to say that I'm very excited to have another young couple living in our building now. They moved in to one of the upstairs apartments about a month ago. Tonight they are coming over for dinner. I'm buying a new grill today so we can enjoy the deck and a nice evening outside.

In a quest to find Monday's paper I also met the neighbors next door. Larry is 91 and Betty is in her early 80's. I was shocked that as soon as I knocked on their door they knew who I was. We had a very lengthy discussion about J.R. and how he is doing since the accident. I also found out that Larry is a World War II vet. He has some amazing stories from his time in the military. I have a feeling there will be many more visits with Larry and Betty in the future.

I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for Friday. I know it's going to be a mixture of so many feelings when J.R.'s unit walks off the bus. I'm so excited to see them all return to their families. I made sure to buy some waterproof mascara. I'm hoping that by using it it will be that Murphy's law kind of thing. If I didn't wear it I would be doomed to cry and have makeup running all over my face. So by taking a small precaution I'm hoping that I wont even cry at all and it never would have been necessary. It's a nice thought at least.

I believe it's time for me to go attempt to wake up J.R. He's been telling me all week how we have to go shop in Eau Claire. Now I just have to wake him up so that we can make it over there before the shops close! Wish me luck.

6 comments:

Tracy said...

Hope you got JR up in time to get some shopping done!

Being home must feel so wonderful to both of you. I hope you have great night with your new neighbors and many talks with Larry and Betty.

Kris said...

Good luck on Friday, I'm sure it's going to be emotional and wonderful to see those heroes get off that bus. God bless all of them and God bless you and JR. Thank you Josie for everything that you have sacrificed for this country, so often I think people forget that the families of the heroes are heroes themselves. I keep up with your blog and I gotta tell you that admire you so very much. You are one hot scratch, and for you to be able to keep your sense of humor during your ordeal is so awesome. You ROCK! :-) All of my admiration, gratitude and respect to you and JR. Thank you both for everything.

Anonymous said...

Welcome home! I haven't been back to Menominee in at least two years. My family lives around there, and my sister lives in the city. Good Luck!

Kat said...

Oh, yay! I'm so glad BOTH of you are able to be home for a while!!! :) How great! Will be thinking of y'all tomorrow when JR's unit comes home... a very emotional time, indeed.... (Waterproof mascara didn't help me any when one of my local Georgia units came home, lol... and the variety I got wasn't as waterproof as the ad said it was, either, LOL!)

seriously, tho - will be thinking of y'all tomorrow and look forward to hearing all about it. :)

God bless you both - so glad you got to meet some cool new neighbors, especially the WW2 vet! What a treasure their friendship will be to y'all! :)

Anonymous said...

Josie,
Looking forward to meeting you and JR tomorrow at the homecoming. We may have met in Mississippi, but that's been so long ago. I am so excited to see all the guys and especially my husband tomorrow. I probably won't wear any mascara because I know I will be crying happy tears and tears of relief. I can just picture JR trying to figure out where everything is by dumping it on the floor, you are so patient. I will probably have a few moments like that when Mike gets home too. As wives we forget how much has changed at home that they have to get used to again and us to having them home again after so long just taking care of everything ourselves.
wife of Sgt Rolfs

Anonymous said...

Welcome back to Wisconsin!
All the best to you and JR as you navigate this healing process. Keep writing and keep that sense of humor!
Thanks to you both.
Cathy and Gary B.