One very happy lady

Last night, some friends invited us over for dinner. A good time was had by all as we discussed conversations that never would have been allowed at the table (or ever) growing up. It's really surprising we made it through dinner in the first place as there were several bursts of laughing through out the meal. I hear my phone ring in my purse (on the floor) and was about to ignore it until I realized that it was Derek's ringtone-- the Mario Brothers song. Dada, da, dada, da!

I'm sure I've never moved as fast in my life as when I jumped up from the table, shouting "That's Derek's ringtone!!" digging in my purse, and saying "Hiiiiii!!!!" in like two seconds flat. It was such a surprise. I'm still a little bit giddy over the whole thing. DS Hosea (the guy who runs the facebook group) had mentioned the boys have earned the privilege to use their phones on Sundays. Derek did call on Sunday, but because of an incident involving one of the soldiers attempting to purchase candy, the guys only had 5 minutes to power up the phones, talk, and have their phones back in the box. Needless to say, it was a VERY short conversation. But last night-- we talked for an entire 12 minutes and it was fabulous!!

Jackson was close by so I put the phone on speaker, and when Jackson heard Derek's voice, his eyes lit up and said, "Dada!!!!!". He said "Hi, Dad" and waved to the phone before getting distracted by matchbox cars. I was so glad to realize that Jackson hasn't forgotten him!

Later in the evening, after Jackson was in bed, Linda (my mother-in-law) came over and we purchased our plane tickets and made our travel plans for Derek's graduation in October. I'm quite giddy about that too. We are flying into Atlanta, driving south to Columbus (Fort Benning) where we'll stay for a couple days, driving over to Augusta (Fort Gordon) to stay a night before we drop Derek off at his AIT training, and then we're gonna party it up in Atlanta for a few days and have a mini-vacation. It's gonna be so much fun. What's even cooler, is that I finally was brave enough to use the Name Your Own Price gadget on Priceline and got Derek and I a 3 1/2 hotel for $79 (yes, that is half price). Check out our place:

Meet the Augusta Marriott Hotel

Check out the gorgeous lobby!!

Okay, this isn't the room we booked, but I'm thinkin' of trying

"This is the one night my hubby and I have together before I have to send him off for five more months of training"

card to see if we might get an upgrade. Things like that always happen in the movies. So, it's bound to work in real life!

I am so excited to get to see the hubs. Just to get to talk in person, hang out, relax!! I know I shouldn't be so excited yet because it's still six weeks away, but that also means, "It's only six weeks away!!" It's been exactly one month today since dropped him off and it's gone by so fast that I just know the next six weeks are going to fly by!