Fireworks

I'll never look at them the same again.

The hubby and I used to love watching fireworks. I can remember our New Year's in Heidelberg. We walked out on the balcony and watched the fireworks from our apartment, and loved it.

Things have certainly changed. His first 4th of July home from Iraq, we went on post in Vilseck and watched fireworks with the kids. I didn't really notice anything different. Then his parents came to visit us. We were in Paris for my daughter's and mother-in-law's birthday, which also happens to be Bastille Day, France's Independence Day. There was a parade, the museums were free, and there were fireworks that night. The hubby was on edge all evening. I didn't really put two and two together then either.

Last year we went to watch fireworks with my mom and her boyfriend in the town we live in. P was, again, on edge from the time it got dark, knowing the fireworks would be starting soon. I finally got it.

So this year, I just told him I'd take the kids to see fireworks and he could stay at home. The problem? Fireworks are legal in for individuals NC now. That's not a problem, except for the fact that for the last two days we've been hearing them here in the neighborhood. When I got home tonight with the kids after seeing the fireworks, he had the TV quite loud, trying to drown out the sound of the fireworks here in the neighborhood.

Just a reminder of one way our lives will never be the same.