It’s Sunday night, after 9 o’clock. I’m in my pajamas. Nothing unusual is happening… or is it?

The doorbell rings. I had a dream about this once. It was not a pleasant dream. The dogs bark in alarm, and I’m half expecting a man with a hook for a hand to break down the door. Should I even answer it? The doorbell rings again. I can only guess that this hook-handed bandit is very persistent, and I may as well save the owners of the house the trouble of having to repair the door, so I open it, only to find...

…it’s not a dream (not a bad one, anyway), and it’s not a hook-handed man - it’s my long-deployed husband!?!?  There he is in his uniform, looking dashing. Here I am in my pajamas, hair all mussed up. “What are you doing here?!?”

“I had a very elaborate plan to surprise you, but it rather involved getting here about 4 hours and $250 ago.”

“What are you doing here?!?” I repeat, “You’re not supposed to be home for two more weeks!”

”I had no reason to stay on the ship for two more weeks, so I flew home from Hawai’i. I’ve been planning to surprise you for a few months now. I guess it worked!”

D has already reminded me that my greeting was a bit like my response to his proposal (“I don’t know what to say!”) . But come on! How would you react to your husband showing up on your doorstep (unexpected) on a Sunday night, in his uniform, after being away for SEVEN MONTHS?

So I’m very happy to have him home. The girls are ecstatic to have their other favorite lap back as well, though it was amusing to see their reactions; Luna reacted much like I had – thrilled but in shock – and Penny took a few minutes to remember that she was crazy about D.

So here are a few pictures. In order:

(1) Standing majestically at the base of the Petronas towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

(2) Jumping off a perfectly good ship in the Northern Arabian Sea

(3) Reading a Motor Trend on the bridge of his ship, with a pair of F/A-18 Hornets launching from the flight deck (photo care of Camden Bennett)

(4) USS John C. Stennis