Family...Love em or wanna kill em?

So I took a little time off of the blog because Hubby and I were "getting back to us" so to speak.  We went on a marriage retreat provided and paid for by his unit.  I have to say that I thought it was going to be a waste of time and a bunch of views being shoved down your throat but it totally wasn't.  There were classes on learning how to communicate better and learning what kind of personality we were and why our personalities meshed so well together.  I got a lot more out of it than I ever expected to.  I mean we pretty much only originally went because it was 3 days off of work for him and it was a reason to get away for free.  HELL YEAH! It was up past LA in the mountains.  Almost by Big Bear.  No cell phone reception (which if you're wondering, for somebody that NEVER turns their off or pretty much goes anywhere without it, you can go through some SERIOUS withdrawals) but surprisingly enough I was ok without it.  It was a nice break from the outside world.  We went hiking and I seriously thought I was going to die.  Hiking up a mountain and down a trail marked "Dangerous, experienced hikers only" is not necessarily the best of ideas when you are out of shape and have gone hiking idk say like twice in your whole life.  I'm very happy to say that I was sad to have to come back to the real world and it was good to feel like Hubby and I were where we felt we needed to be relationship wise.  


We are leaving in a few days to go back to home for his post deployment leave and I must admit that I'm having mixed emotions about the whole thing.  I like going home don't get me wrong and I know that he is excited to see his family because for him it's been over a year.  However, when I left home after my stint there for Christmas, I didn't exactly leave on the greatest terms with a few people and I'm not exactly sure I want to go and deal with any of that.  I'm sure I'm going to get the backlash from my dad since I have made the decision to cut him out of my life.  He has spent the better part of the last 23 years making his bed and now it's time for him to lie in it.  I will no longer go out of my way to work on a relationship with a man who has picked and chosen to be there for me and a "dad" when it is convenient for him.  


I am looking forward to going to New Orleans.  I hope I can convince the girls to go.  It would be amazing to be able to take a couple of days and just let loose seeing as the three girls have never done that together.  MMMM...hurricanes and dirty midget strippers, how could that not be a good time?