Lyrics of Music

I don't intend on this being as long as my typical blog entries nor do I intend on the intellectual level (if there ever is any) being near that of my other writings. Additionally I do intend on making a sequel to the Garmisch Was Legendary blog very soon but something else has been on my mind worse than Gwen Stefani singing "I aint no holla back girl." How many times have you listened to a song and never really paid much mind to the lyrics? I do it all the time, especially with rap music. I'm 27 years old and still enjoy hearing a good rap song. The problem with rap music, at least for me, is that every song says the same thing. I've grown immune to hearing about the hardship struggles of the ghetto, slangin' that rock, and making money. What I do enjoy about rap music is the beat; you give me a good rap song with a good beat and there is an 80% chance I do not have a clue what is being said. I typically don't ask any questions about what I'm listening too unless I have the song stuck in my head for a couple days and realize I don't have the slightest clue what the words are. Have you ever had that? You have a song stuck in your head and you're singing along all day to the beat, except you don't know the words, so you're making up your own words to fit the beat. This is what happens most of the time when I listen to rap music. My hearing is going bad and I'm far too white to understand what is being said so I typically mumble right along and Google the lyrics later if I so choose.

Last week when Celia and I were taking the kids to Garmisch for our first family vacation we shuffled through a couple of CD's to help pass the time. We listened to a song that had a lyric that was so infinitely stupid that I had to rewind a bit just to hear it again. That song made me think about other songs I have heard in the past with ridiculous lyrics. Below is a list of my (sarcastic quotation marks coming) "favorite" rap lyrics. All of the rap lyrics are in quotation marks because I could never dream of being this creative; it's like listening to Shakespeare write from his grave.

Jermaine Dupri – Welcome to Atlanta

"I'm the MBP most ballenous player." You can thank me by leaving a comment on that one. That one is bad but there are a few that are worse.

Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby

"If my rhyme was a drug they'd sell it by the gram." For the longest time I would claim this to be my favorite rap lyric of all time. Does anybody truly remember Vanilla Ice? How many of you remember his clothes, the Ace Ventura haircut, and the dancing in the video? Vanilla Ice is a legend. I could not get enough of Vanilla Ice and in my eyes, he was immortal. All of the kids were singing it on the playground, every word of every song. I just closed my eyes and forgot I had two kids because for a moments time I was back in 3^rd grade playing Montana State (great game) singing Ice Ice Baby. Also, did you know that growing up one of my favorite movies was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Part 2 all because of Vanilla Ice's cameo? Once I saw Ice on stage I wanted him in the rest of the movie rapping about how the turtles rolled up Toka, Razor and Super Shredder. Vanilla Ice is the product of all the rap stars properly aligning and to show his appreciation he gave the world Ice Ice Baby and Play That Funky Music White Boy. I also want to point out we are rapidly approaching the 20 year anniversary of the lyrical wordsmith chart topping hit. If you don't think that Ice Ice Baby was a great song I want to ask you one question, how does Ice Ice Baby start? You know the answer and if you don't check in the comment block, I'll leave it there.

Shaquille O'Neal – How's It Going Down

"But what about rhyming, I can hold my own. Knick knack Shaq attack give a dog a bone." Oh my God! I feel the irresistible urge to say that one more time so here goes, oh my God! I honestly do not know if ever in the history of music has there been a lyric as awful as that. Shaquille O'Neal had been in the NBA for about 2 years when this album came out and he capitalized on his newfound stardom. I don't blame him for trying to make an extra buck; I just wish that extra buck didn't come from a gullible Midwest boy who had yet to learn good from bad. Yes I bought this album. Do you want to know the worst part, initially I liked it. This was during the time when athletes and celebrities were my heroes. I wrote before about how I Idolized Patrick Ewing and this is very similar in comparison. You see, Shaq was the cool new thing in the NBA. Since I was so young and impressionable I thought "if he's good in the NBA then he's good rapping." It was as simple as that. If I like you doing "A" then I like you doing "B". That was the absolute justification for buying his album and now I just wish I could get that $15 back.(Note: That Patrick Ewing blog was on my other site. You can click on the link I provided or scroll down and read the blog before this one if you are curious to what I'm talking about.)

This is my new favorite lyric and the song I was referring to at the beginning of the blog.

Mims – Like This

"Gimmie that all of that break it down. Girl shake it up now drop it to the ground. Girl you're way to hot, Go a little lower, Now baby beat it up like Rocky Balboa." What can I say to that? Every time I hear that lyric I see Rocky in the ring. His face is swollen and bloody but he's poised to knock the Russian out and give the "If I can change and you can change" speech to communist Russia. I'm almost positive that when Sylvester Stallone came out with the latest Rocky Balboa movie in no way did he think this iconic character was going to be a lame simile in a rap song. But I wouldn't be telling the full truth by leaving out the part where I love to rewind the song to hear that part again and again.

Sure there are plenty of songs that have terrible one line lyrics and if I happened to leave one out that you find overly amusing let me know. I hope you all enjoyed my tangent on rap music.

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Idolizing Patrick Ewing

When I was a young boy I used to do things that I get embarrassed about. I know everybody at some point in their childhood did something or said something that they wish they hadn't done. Not that we necessarily acted or said anything offensive but more of pure embarrassment. When I look back at my life and think about everything that I did I think that I should be embarrassed to hang out with myself. Now that I am a parent though I know that the time will come when my children do something that is truly pure and expected of children. That's the beauty of children, the innocence and care free lifestyle. During the pre adolescent years kids never worry about perception or attempting to be cool in every facet of life. I never realized this as a boy and wish that life could be that simple once again. Everybody does and that is one of the reasons why every parent is so supportive and encouraging of their children. You think back to your childhood and first wonder how time has slipped you by so quickly then relive parts of your childhood through your children. At least I do. I know when Jadon gets older his Christmas and birthday presents will be gifts I wish I had, or things that I had and truly loved; embracing the time with him and at the same time passing part of my childhood through to him. I also know with Hailey, Celia will do the same thing with her. While it sounds so little it's definitely worth looking forward too. However, with all of that being said I still did things as a child I wish I could take back. I can only wish that my dad had kept a running diary of some of the things I did and said during my elementary years documenting just how "silly" I was. Now since I can't not travel back and change certain events what I can do is tell about them.

As a child I could be described as what one might call a dork. Who am I kidding, I'm 27 years old and still a nerd. When in the company of myself I still pick my nose, sniff my own farts, talk to myself, and bite my toe nails just to name a few. You know what, I'm comfortable with that. I can admit it and not worry about what anybody else thinks, I don't have to worry, that's my wife's job. Everything I just stated though is fine because it is the traditional embarrassing part of life that everybody does; well maybe everything but biting toe nails. The thing I used to do so masterfully was subject others to my moments of "uniqueness."

Now from like 1^st grade to 6^th grade I read a magazine called Sports Illustrated For Kids. Yes 6^th grade, which would have made me 12 and well into the era of trying to be cool. Certain parts of childhood were harder than others to let go, mine was SI for Kids. I read the magazine for one reason in particular. Every so often they would have a featured sports player, a brief biography given along with some "cool" facts regarding the star. Obviously I was easily influenced and no matter who was featured that person became my favorite player of that sport until the next guy came along. So I grew up thinking that people like Patrick Ewing were my hero. What contribution to humanity did he make and what else did I really know about him other than his "biography" listed in Sports Illustrated for Kids? I wasn't even a Knicks fan, I was a Bulls fan. I should have hated Patrick Ewing with a passion. At that time I was unable to understand the dynamics of a rivalry and SI for Kids failed to put Michael Jordan as the featured player which prompted my loyalty to be shifted out east. Here comes the best part, an address was given for you to write Patrick Ewing. So a young Andrew Romick hopped right on that wagon and did just that, I wrote my hero a letter.

Now I wasn't the smartest kid and wrote like all boys do so you can just imagine how the letter looked, hell, it wouldn't surprise me if I wrote the letter crayons. I also inserted one of his sports cards with a request for a personal autograph and gave my phone number away to Patrick Ewing, thinking the letter was going directly to him. See, the innocence of a child once again. At the end of my letter I wrote, "Please call me at 1-259-2287" that was before area codes were part of the phone number. To this day I still do not know what we would talk about. Maybe his highlights I saw on Sportcenter or for him to be on my basketball team during recess; it really is wide open.

We have now come full circle. I was so cute and special (translation being a nerd and uncool) that everytime the phone rang, I sprinted to answer it. I was thinking that Patrick Ewing, my hero, was on the other end. I remember one time I was in our living room when the phone rang and my dad answered it. I jumped up, sprinted into the kitchen, and asked him if it was Patrick Ewing. He looked very confused, eyeballing me and replied, "Umm. No son."

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Garmisch Was Legendary Part I

As a young boy I always enjoyed when we went on family vacations but I never had the full appreciation for a vacation. You see, kids simply expect things; it's who they are and will forever be. When I was younger I didn't hope and pray for a vacation I simply asked when it was going to be because as I previously stated, I expected it. I always had fun on vacation when I was a child but never did I realize the planning that went into a vacation and the fun that was had by my parents. The difference in the fun-o-meter had by parents and children is about as striking as the amount of weight gained by Daniel-San Larusso from The Karate Kid 1 to The Karate Kid 3. Now would be a good time to say that yesterday Celia and I returned from our first family vacation to the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort which is located in Garmisch.

This vacation was booked a few months ago, while I was still in Iraq, because there is very rarely any vacancy and it was the best way to ensure we were guaranteed a spot. Even better about going there was that the first two nights of our stay our room was almost 50% off and a large portion of our meals were comp'd, it was part of a post deployment special the resort had going. Prior to arriving Celia and I had discussed if we should take the train or drive. The train was appealing because it meant we would not have to do any driving and would not have to make frequent stops to accommodate the kids. In the end we decided to drive because the price of a train ticket far exceeded the amount of money we would have spent on gas. I got our car loaded up the night prior so all we had to do was wake up and walk out the door. We began driving early in the morning to combat the 6 hour trip (8 hours with kids) the best we could. For the first few hours everything we saw was very similar to our view from Baumholder but that all changed once we had to exit the Autobahn.

There was some construction being done to the road that Helen (our Navigon GPS) was not aware of. We updated our maps prior to leaving and she let us know 200 km out of virtually every minor construction site but she somehow missed the construction that forced us off the Autobahn. So here we are in the heart of Germany with so many fluent English speaking residents capable of pointing us in the right direction, we weren't sure what to do. We gave Helen the benefit of the doubt that maybe she would find and alternate route, but she kept bringing us back to the Autobahn. Once we exhausted all possible options, Helen being all possible options, we stopped in a small German town to get gas and hope to get some guidance. While Celia went inside and got a small piece of paper that told us what small towns to follow that would get us to Garmisch I pumped our gas. Mind you we still had a quarter tank of gas but fuel is so expensive on the German economy that the price to fill up was 84 Euro. 84 EURO!!!!! Yes, I felt it was necessary to repeat myself, capitalize Euro and leave 5 exclamation points because the price is that outrageous. Now keep in mind that the exchange rate for that day was 1 Euro = $0.69; the price in dollars was about $120 to get ¾ of a tank of gas. Fortunately for us we stopped at an Esso station where we had an Esso card with a prepaid balance, and were charged the price per gallon that we would pay back in Baumholder, $2.95. That's the first time ever I thought gas that high was cheap.

Once we began following the piece of paper Celia was given at the gas station Helen quickly saw what we were doing and rejoined the party and guided us the rest of the way. Once we were about 45 minutes to an hour away from Garmisch we began to see exactly what we were driving to. We came over a hill and off in the distance we could see the mountains and continued to move straight towards them. Before we knew it we were driving through the mountains and it was one of the most beautiful things I've seen. In some areas there would be a lake engulfed by mountains and when I wasn't sightseeing we were twisting and turning down the mountains. My initial thought was that I wish I could have the words to describe everything I saw. Celia and I talked about how amazing everything looked but truth be told there were no words or phrase profound enough of capturing all the eye see's to properly serve justice. I didn't want to miss the slightest bit as I drove along hearing U2 sing "It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away" and as lame as that is, and trust me it is lame, it seemed to be the most fitting way of putting everything I was seeing.

We checked into our hotel about 5:00 p.m. and just relaxed for the rest of the day. Celia and I put the kids down for bed and stayed outside of our hotel on the small deck our room had. The view outside of our room was so breathtaking you could easily spend your entire night sipping your drink of choice in complete silence and wake up the next morning with absolutely no remorse. Does anybody remember in the movie Forrest Gump when Jenny is on her death bed and Forrest is talking to her about the many adventures of his life? At one point he begins describing the mountains when he was running for 3 years and told Jenny "I didn't know where earth stopped and heaven began." That is what the view outside our hotel looked like that evening as Celia and I shared a bottle of wine. We were completely captivated and marveling God's creation that the night slipped us by. Celia and I didn't sit in complete silence though, as we were sipping our drink we were talking about our kids as we so often do and the movies that they watch. That talk got me thinking and spawned a tangent of epic proportions.

Jadon is to the age where he watches nothing but Disney movies. Recently I did some shopping on Amazon and EBAY and broadened Jadon's movie selection to include the likes of Toy Story, Bolt, Monster's Inc., and Cars just to name a few. Well as Celia and I were talking I interrupted her and made sure I had her complete attention. How many people have seen Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin? Most likely everybody reading this has seen at least one of those movies. Did anybody ever notice there was an unspoken connection in all three movies? All are love stories involving women this we know, but how many of those women had mothers? Not a single one of them? My question is this, where did mom go? How come Mom is nowhere to be seen or never spoken of? In Aladdin no queen in the palace, in Mermaid there is no queen of the water, and in Beauty and the Beast there is not a word of who Crazy Old Maurice scared out of Bell's life. You know what I think happened? Well with Crazy Old Maurice it's quite evident why Bell doesn't have a mother isn't it. She threw in her cards, she cut her losses, and she accepted that never seeing her daughter was a worthy sacrifice to never spend another day with Maurice. However with the other two the only thing I can think of is a replication of King Henry by sending the wife on a long, permanent vacation for not delivering a son. Princess Jasmine's daddy had Jaffar take care of the mom Tony Soprano style like the when Tony found out that Adrianna was working with the Feds. I haven't come up with a theory for the Little Mermaid yet but I think it would involve Ursula and a double cross somehow but I don't have a strong enough gut feeling to go ahead with it. Seriously though, where's the mom in these Disney features? I'm sure if I thought about it longer I could think of another example.

Getting back on track, as Celia and I watched the sun set overlooking the mountains we noticed there was a family just across the way from us that had their blinds open. They had three children that we could see for sure, possibly more. Of the children we saw all were over the age of 4 but under the age of 10. Presumably the parents enjoyed the fact they could deliver such a fun vacation for their children because that is the real joy of vacation for me, seeing my children happy. You rack your brain for hours of ways to please your kids. I know I do it because once I see that smile on their face all the money I spent, the hours I spent thinking, and the hours I spent traveling would be redone in a heartbeat, just to see a smile on their face and to hear them laugh. The laughter is one of the most beautiful parts of being a parent and giving that laughter to your children on vacation is what makes a vacation memorable to a parent. That is what I was referring to above when I spoke of the fun-o-meter when parents and kids are compared to in regards to vacation. The other part of vacation for parents is the romance aspect, am I right? Oh yeah! Parents want to stay in a nice hotel with pleasurable accommodations and as a father planning the trip you do your damndest to ensure the wife is happy and wooed, because if the wife's happy then daddy's happy. Well I'm sure that the dad across the way from my room was/is no different than I in that he wanted to give his kids a good time but also hoped for a little romance from the misses. I was thinking that exact thought when I turned to Celia and said, "There room is exactly like ours. They have three kids in that room with two beds. There is no way they're having sex on this vacation. Now I know what my parents went through every time we went on vacation."

There will be at least one more part to our vacation, maybe two. Keep checking back for updates and I hope you enjoyed.

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Trip To Trier

Before I jump right into what is on my mind I want to say one thing first. I just finished watching Rocky II for approximately 350th time (I really think that is accurate) with Jadon. Now Jadon’s attention span isn’t long enough to sustain an entire movie that was not made by Disney’s Pixar; however he did easily sit through 30 minutes and the final fight scene. When both Rocky and Apollo hit the mat together in the closing seconds of the final round Jadon gasped out, “OH NO!” It was the funniest and best moment of my morning thus far. One final closing note on Rocky II, regardless of how many times I watch that final scene I still get goose bumps. Since I enjoyed Rocky II so much I unintentionally have begun a Rocky Marathon this morning/afternoon while Celia is out doing Yoga.

Yesterday Celia and I had the opportunity to visit the oldest city in Germany, Trier. Since I had returned home from Iraq, we had not seen any historical sights and agreed that we would get on the road early and make a day out of exploring Germany. By the grace of God we were out the door and on the road by 9:30 a.m. and if anybody knows how we move in the morning with the kids knows that 9:30 is a time we were quite proud of. We saw from Google searches and from Rick Steve’s book on Germany that Trier had tourist info at the Porta Nigra (picture to left), which ended up being our starting location. We were also fortunate that Helen (our GPS) had the Porta Nigra listed under tourist information for Germany.

Now I understand there is only so much that I can tell about a family outing before what you are reading becomes increasingly redundant and boring. I also know that I am in fact not a tourist expert nor am I gifted in historical stories that accompany each ancient structure. What I really did enjoy about Trier was how the city incorporated the past with the present. It truly was fascinating seeing historical buildings that have been around for centuries and have withstood the test of time and war, so perfectly integrated with modern society. You know what else is funny, foreigners; and not Chinese in New York funny but Iowan’s in Germany funny. Celia and I were the absolute epitome of tourist from the west and we loved every second of it. I was walking around downtown Trier with a camera hanging from my neck, a video camera in one hand and a map in the other. The only thing I was missing was a fanny pack and visor to complete my tourist wardrobe. Has there ever been more of a poster boy for “mugging” than I yesterday?

If I can still use the Chinese in New York and Iowan’s in Germany from above it would be great in explaining my next story. I used to work at KFC when I was in high school and held various other food service jobs. Now if you have ever worked in one of these places there is a good chance that what I am about to explain you witnessed but if you never had the opportunity of holding such a job then there is a chance that you have seen what I am about to describe somewhere. How often have you ever been in an establishment where somebody who did not speak the native tongue was attempting to communicate with a local? It’s funny as hell to watch isn’t it? How often do you ridicule the individual who is trying with every creative bone in their body to articulate their point? Almost always right? These people are pointing things on the menu, talking with their hands and drawing pictures. They are trying so hard to communicate but all you can do is try your hardest not to laugh at them. It’s nothing personal, it’s just really funny to watch. I never once thought what it must be like for that person in a strange, foreign land, until yesterday.

Celia and I went into a very small restaurant (seating room for maybe 15) and attempted to order a Doner Kabob, which is homemade bread with lamb and various other condiments shoved inside. Ordering was extremely difficult and we were the ignorant foreigner’s in their restaurant. I was pointing at the menu and other various other things, saying the word bread very slow and asking Celia for help while she pointed at completely different things. The man behind the counter was confused, very confused. Thankfully, there was a woman ordering a pizza that looked at us after about 3 minutes and asked, “Do you need any help?” Gee, what gave away we needed help ordering? I personally think she milked the comedic aspect of it for as long as possible before asking us if we needed help, I think this because she stood one foot away from me the entire time. Generously this woman completed our order for us and saved us from further embarrassment.

The last thing before I stop is how great it is to see children at historical places. Hailey slept almost the entire day so there is nothing else to report from her end. Jadon had a blast walking around Trier checking out the ancient Roman architecture. What Jadon enjoyed most of all was the abundance of the rocks at the historical places. We visited the Amphitheatre and Roman Baths and the only thing Jadon cared about was how the groundskeepers kept a fresh batch of gravel out for him to play with. Never mind the fact that people once died in that theatre, there were good rocks that had to be played with. Jadon’s only two years old so it is hard to expect anything else but it was very funny and adorable of him.

All in all it was a very fun day and a place that we will most likely visit again in the near future. Below are a few of the pictures from yesterday, hope you all enjoy.

Below is the Cathedral (St. Peter's), which was absolutely beautiful. I took a lot of pictures but they do not do it justice.

To the left is St. George's Fountain and to the right is an ancient Roman Bridge.

Both of these are different ancient Roman Baths.

And of course I had to squeeze in a few family pics.

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Welcome Home Daddy Dale

Procrastination, Webster defines this as to put off intentionally and habitually, or to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done but in laymen terms the short definition is Andrew Romick writing his Welcome Home blog. I had every honest intention of finishing this last Monday on Memorial Day but got sidetracked doing something. It was going to great, I was watching Wall-E with Jadon for the 237th time since I got home and the ideas were endless. I was watching my son’s amusement grow with each passing minute as if it was the first time he had ever seen Wall-E. Speaking of Wall-E, how adorable is it when a child latches onto a certain movie? It’s cute in the innocent way but downright annoying on the 3rd viewing of the day. It’s a real horse race between Wall-E and Finding Nemo as to which is Jadon’s favorite movie. I try to lead him in other directions, like The Lion King, Aladdin, Cars, etc., but he has stayed true to his roots. In a further attempt for Celia and I to keep our sanity we recently splurged on plethora of Disney movies to broaden Jadon’s television viewing; besides, it gives me an excellent reason to buy A Bug’s Life. Before I dive into everything that is my “Welcome Home” blog there is something else I’ve noticed recently. I spoke in my brief update (see previous blog) about how I have lived near the grill since I got home from Iraq. On many of nights I have grilled the most mouth watering, flavorful tenderloins you could possibly imagine. They were so delicious that they. . . . . I’ve been thinking for 10 minutes for the proper analogy but nothing is worthy; they were truly LEGENDARY! As good as they were Jadon felt differently. I could grill a steak worthy of starting my own business but my son will instead opt for a cheese hot dog, I don’t get it.

I tell these stories of Jadon because it feels so good to be home. From the moment I saw Jadon, Hailey, and Celia in the gymnasium holding up a sign that read, “Welcome Home Daddy Dale” I have had nothing but good times and good stories. I tell more stories of Jadon than Hailey because Jadon is to the age where his personality is really coming to the surface. Hailey is still living the good life and the little princess knows it. She knows that all she has to do is smile or let out a small cry and I cannot resist to do anything other than hold her. I’m a total sucker and my daughter the diva knows it. She has managed to manipulate her way into bed for the evening with Mommy and Daddy, and even more impressive is how a 13 lb. girl can hog a queen size bed. I do have a funny story of Hailey sleeping in bed with us. This morning at 3:00 a.m. Hailey woke up crying so I grabbed a few diapers to give her a late night change. In the middle of her changing, she decides to dirty the clean diaper before I could finish. I woke Celia up to get me a few more diapers because if I left Hailey alone with the diaper unsecured she would roll in the sheets giving our bedding a nice shade of baby green. In the process of putting on clean diaper #2 Hailey snuck another turd by me and dirtied that diaper too. It was bad enough that it was 3:00 a.m. and I had to wake up in just a bit more than 2 hours but to add insult to the changing marathon was Hailey was laughing at me saying, “You know you love me Daddy!”

My timeline for this story is way off; it’s about as crooked as Back to the Future Part II (BTTF2) when Doc Brown illustrates for Marty the alternate universe they are living in. Speaking of BTTF2, I was 8 or 9 years old when that movie came out and never in the history of cinema has a movie captured my creative mind the way Spielberg did. The flying car, the hover board, clothes that dry themselves, the tiny pizza’s, and finally the never ending fascination with the 80’s. The point to this unintended tangent is we are 5 ½ years from the year 2015, the setting for the beginning of BTTF2 and we are nowhere close to achieving the future I once envisioned as a boy. Don’t we, as a global society, owe it to ourselves and our inner child to unveil the flying car? However, in coming to terms with reality I can understand the setbacks to the marvels of the future given the economy and all, right hon? (That last part referring the economy was for Celia, a running inside joke we have.)

I was talking about the timeline for this story before so therefore I have to step back a bit. Before any memories could be created with Celia or the kids, I first had to be reunited with them. This came during the welcome home ceremony that was held for our battalion. I stepped off a bus that brought me to the gymnasium where the ceremony was being held and instantly could hear the hundreds of friends and family inside the gym eagerly awaiting our entrance. We were formed up outside and marched inside where we were treated like rock stars. The gymnasium was absolutely deafening that it was impossible for me to not get caught up in the moment. Instantly my eyes began scanning the crowd for Celia and the kids with no luck initially. I knew what sign to look for because Celia had shown me her sign on the webcam a few days prior with the intention of, well me knowing what to look for. All marching had stopped and our battalion was formed up and out of the corner of my eye I saw it, “Welcome Home Daddy Dale.” It was past midnight but Jadon was still up and so was Hailey. Celia was holding Jadon and I could see that her eyes were ferociously scanning the 200 plus soldiers that entered the gym. We were on opposite sides of the gym and I knew the possibility of Celia seeing me was very slim so I waited. I waited until my Battalion Commander said “Dismissed” and moved straight for my wife. Family members were dashing out of the bleachers and other soldiers were running towards their loved ones; I moved quickly dodging all of them while never once taking my eyes off Celia. I was getting closer and I could tell that Celia still had not seen me. 20 feet, 15 feet, and 10 feet Celia had still not seen me. Families were still running to every part of the gym while many others were already embracing in the long anticipated reunion. I never broke stride moving closer, 5 feet, 3 feet, and finally 2 feet where I eyes finally locked. Without breaking stride, I moved straight into Celia’s arms, closed my eyes, and kissed my beautiful wife like it was the first time we ever kissed.

Even though I had not endured the full 14 months of the deployment like the vast majority of the soldiers returning I was gone long enough to know that reconnecting with Celia was the happiest moment with just her since our wedding day. I kissed her over and over as we both were oblivious to the hundreds of other people who were surrounding us. After I finally unlocked tongues with Celia I moved toward Jadon who surprisingly did not shy away from me. I hugged and kissed my boy and could not believe at how much he had grown. The next thing I asked was, “Where’s Hailey?” I saw a woman holding a baby but did not think the baby was mine. Sure, I had seen Hailey on the webcam almost every night but this baby was huge. The last time I saw my daughter at the Frankfurt Airport she could barely keep her eyes open and weighed all of 6 lbs. I was speechless at how large Hailey had gotten since last saw her; but I picked her up, kissed her cheek and whispered to her, “I love you and missed you so much princess.”

Since that night we have done nothing more than be a family. I shared a few things so far but everything I have not shared is simple everyday life that makes being a husband and father so great. I do have to say that the other day I built Jadon a fort in our living room out of blankets that he absolutely loved. The only way into the fort was through a tunnel and that boy lit up like Christmas morning. In addition, I have not been able to step outside and turn on the grill without my wingman, my son, Jadon. It’s great.

There are many different directions I could have went with this blog, I know that. I let Celia have a quick glance at it and she was hoping I would have included more of the voyage back to Germany. I’m sure many of you envisioned this differently but doing it this way just felt right, telling why I love being home and ending with how I got home. I said there were a lot of different ways I could have approached this blog and there were a lot of ways I could have ended it too. There really is no better way to wrap this up other than locking lips with Celia and holding my children. In closing, it’s good to be Daddy Dale.

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