Traveling Husband

How do you explain to this little lady where Ryan is all the time?

If you've been following our lives over the past few months, you know that Ryan's been traveling perhaps more than ever, and won't be surprised when I mention that I just said goodbye to him as he heads for a quick jaunt to Northern Ireland.  For the past four years it's been a large part of our lives, and although we really would love to spend every waking moment together, it's not realistic, so we've got a bit of a routine down (well, as much of a routine as not having a routine can be!) and are pretty used to it by now.

Since being pregnant, I clearly can't travel with him, so that's left me at home to man the fort and the business, which I've taken to quite well and am really enjoying.  Ryan and I have always worked (even on the side) for ourselves, and have included one another on projects on occasion, believing that we work well alongside but not "for" one another.  Over the past nine months, it's been really great to see that we can actually like being on projects together, although we've been working on taking one another's opinions more seriously, since we both naturally tend to believe our opinion is the best (of course). :)

It's funny how work, more specifically work that requires travel, comes in major waves, and this spring it's been SUPER crazy (thanks, God, for the business).  It's gotten to the point where Ryan's been traveling back-to-back(-to-back-to-back) with perhaps only a day or so at home in between--if we're lucky.  I've gotten into counting how long he'll be with us by hours, not days.   The upside is that he loves the airport, the excitement, the experiences and hasn't really grown tired of it, although he misses being at home and we miss him terribly.  Those days in between travels have become tougher as of recently, and always end up with me teary eyed as he heads down to the West Economy Lot yet again.

The saddest part of it all is the dogs.  Unfortunately they don't understand why Ryan isn't here lately, and Olive's taken to sleeping on the steps near the front door waiting for him.  Every night I tell her how long until he comes home and kiss her goodnight.  Depressing, right? The upside is that her little puppy heart nearly explodes every time he walks through that door, which makes up for her temporary depressions. :)

Oscar, on the other hand, I think relishes Ryan being gone a bit.  He really takes to being the man of the house (because he has an excuse to bark more), but I swear I can see relief on his face every time Ryan comes home.  (Hey, keeping a constant, watchful eye can be stressful and exhausting!)  Oscar sleeps in Ryan's spot when it's vacant, which doesn't help to curb his inflated sense of manhood, but it does give me some welcomed nighttime company.

Keeping watch for bad guys and for Ryan's return...

Happy to hear when Ryan's coming home soon!

The silver lining to having Ryan gone almost continuously over the past three months is that he'll be 100% at home during late June and most of July.  When we first talked about this crazy spring schedule, I told him to travel to his heart's content and that I preferred an extra set of hands once the baby's here as opposed to having him jet off once she's born.  Although he'll definitely have work to do, thankfully his craft can be done outside of the normal 9-to-5 parameters so that we can divide and conquer when it comes to the baby--and for that, I know I'll be truly thankful...a first baby + two crazy dogs = a wife in need of a husband's help! :)  Luckily I've always been good at deferred gratification, so as long as I can make it through the next three weeks, life will be back to a more normal "normal."