There is so much happening in my life right now, that I haven't had time to even think about writing. 


Right after G was born, so about 2 months ago, Honey's boat started getting ready for Sea Trials. They've been in the Shipyard for almost a year, and it's basically crunch time. Honey started working insane hours, and we rarely got to see him. All of a sudden, I was a single mom of 2 under 2. Let me tell you, those were some of the hardest weeks of my life. Honey was leaving at 6 am and not getting home until almost 9 pm most nights. Most weeks he only saw Katie for about 20 minutes every few days, and none of us were dealing very well. Especially me.


Some things fell into place where it became possible for my mom to come help me for a while. It was initially supposed to be for the "two more weeks" that Honey would have awful work hours. Then one day he came home and said "It's not going to get better." I almost cried at those words, but I made plans instead. We asked Mom to stay for a full month, and made plans for me, KB and G to leave with her. This puts us leaving Hawaii a full month before Honey. I wasn't happy about that, but I had two options: I could be in Hawaii without him, or anyone else helping me, or I could be in Mississippi without him, but with family and friends to help me. Needless to say, I chose to move back to the Mainland.


So in this last month, we've packed out our house, cleaned it and moved into the TLF at Hickam AFB. Our stuff is officially on it's way to Tennessee, and we will follow in two days. Honey is moving in with some of the single JO's, and I know he'll have a good time -- occasionally, when he isn't at work.


People keep asking me if I'm excited, and I'm not sure how to answer. I am THRILLED to be leaving the boat, but sad to be leaving some of the people that are attached to the City of Corpus Christi. I am sad, sad, sad to be leaving Hawaii, but excited for the time we'll have with our family and friends in Tennessee. I am more than a little excited for Honey to have a normal work schedule. Dinner with my husband every night?! How extraordinary!


So here we are in the TLF, which, by the way, is fantastic. Friends in Hawaii, you have to remember to check Hickam when you are PCSing out. For $65 a night we are in a 2 bedroom fully furnished town house! We're talking a full kitchen with a dishwasher (!!!) and a full sized washer and dryer. A-mazing! And have I told anyone that it has AC?? After a full year of no air conditioning, this is bliss.


And now I finish out this over-due post with a picture from this morning. This was the first Mother's Day that I got to spend with my own mom since I became a Mommy myself. It was lovely.

This is long, sorry about that.. But I've been wanting to get it off my chest for a while, so here goes!

When we were looking for a rental home in Hawaii, we were thrilled to meet our current landlady and landlord. They seemed like (and truthfully, are) wonderful people, with wonderful Christian attitudes. They made us feel like we would basically be welcomed into their family if we were living in the top part of the house. I was willing to look past a few little things because I wanted to find a home quickly, and these people just seemed so darn nice!

Well, here we are, 9 months later, and I have a different attitude. Yes, my landlady and her husband are very nice people, and obviously they are also very good Christians, but had I known about the little quirks that come with living here, I would have opted out.  There seriously needs to be a Yelp for rental homes! Couldn't someone who lived here before us just have given a little review? Let me know some of the things I'm about to tell you..?  Isn't that possible?

Psst.. If you would like to see some of the things I'm bitching about, please refer to the blog I wrote when I still had happy stars in my eyes over this house:  Our New Home, Sweet Home

First of all, the idea that having a closet for a laundry room was acceptable because the kitchen was so wonderful.. Where the hiz-ell did that come from, Emily?? Know what's NOT fun? Banging your head on the dryer door almost every single time you transfer clothes in and out of it. And it's not like I'm just an idiot.. the friggin door never stops moving! Even if I push it all the way back, and hold it there for a few seconds, the damn thing has swung back into my head space the instant I bend into the washer. I HATE my laundry closet.

Secondly, why did I think it would be ok to have to park on the street when we a) have a baby, and b) live in the rainiest area of the island? Why?? The land-couple have the garage and driveway, you see.. so we are forced onto the street. Which, really, wasn't *that* big of a deal.. until we realized how often they have company, and that their company also parks on the street in front of the house.. in "our" spots! Wouldn't it be considerate to tell your visitors that your tenants park there, and that maybe said visitors can park further up the street, or on the opposite side?

As if that wasn't enough, we have recently realized that the land-couple's adult daughter, her husband, and their infant seem to have moved in. I think that's the only logical explanation for the fact that her Corolla has been either blocking my mail box, or flat out IN MY SPOT for the past 3 weeks. I'm starting to get really angry about it, but of course I can't say anything.

Also, I find it extremely inconsiderate that the land-family's dog poops in my match box sized front yard every morning, and landlady never cleans it up. I mean.. I get that it's her house, too. But they have the entire back yard! While most people on the street walk their dogs and have little baggies for their doggy doody, landlady just opens up the garage door and lets Hoku out to poop in the front yard.. or on the sidewalk I have to traverse to get to my car on the street. Sigh.

And here is my kicker, but I warn you.. it's quite a story.

When we were about to leave for Thanksgiving vacation, we let land-couple know that we would be gone for 3 weeks. They were actually relieved, because they told us they needed to do a little work on the house, and it would be easier if we were gone. They explained that they were having the house appraised, and they would need to prove that it was a single residence, not two separate homes. So, where there was currently a wall at the top of a landing that created the separation between our floors, they would need to put in a door or tear the wall down all together. Since we would be gone anyway, they would just come in, do it, have the appraisal, and then build the wall back afterward. No problem, right?

We got home from vacation, and the first thing I noticed was that my cute little Martha Stewart kitchen rug was outside on the front steps, in the rain.

Um? Pardon?

Then, upon reaching the front door, I saw that my huge foyer rug was now the outdoor welcome mat.

Huh??

We opened up the front door, and saw where the outdoor welcome mat had become the foyer rug.

Well, that makes sense..

Not a single rug was in it's original location, my living room was completely re-arranged, and items were simply MISSING from my kitchen! Seriously, it took me 2 days to find my large chopping block that normally lives on my island, nearly a week to find my stove top covers.

Landlady told us that upon tearing down the wall, there was a ton of dust, so they had to clean up after themselves. Ok.. so why are my rugs still outside??  Then later, when I still hadn't found my broom or Swiffer, she laughed and said that her elderly mother had been helping her clean, and her mother must have thought those items belonged to her. Ok, fine... blame your elderly mother. So my Swiffer showed up on my front step 2 days later, but my broom was still nowhere to be found. Jason stole her's from the garage, and we've been using it ever since.

1. Our house can officially hold at least 3 extra adults comfortably.  I think we could really hold 4, just so y'all know.  Plan your vacations!
2. When family visits, it is best to have more than one vehicle.  The grandparents were happy to rent one, which was a huge help since our second vehicle is still being worked on.  (I still need to write about that cluster-eff)
3. You see, there are rarely more than 2 adults in our house, so we have enough furniture for 2 adults.  We have a large couch and a large recliner.  With 3 extra adults, we were in desperate need for more seating. We got two of these bad boys!

In my short 26 years, I've been to a lot of places that have national significance.  Washington DC and Arlington are the two that stick out the most. I think as far as places themselves go, the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl is the most patriotic.  I know a lot of people will shoot an eyebrow up at me saying that anywhere is more patriotic than Arlington, but for me, Arlington is more somber than patriotic.  It's a sad place, though an honorable one.



The National Cemetery at Punchbowl is bursting with patriotism to me.  I think I see it this way because it's one of the only places where Americans have ever been attacked in a place that we call home.  I have visions of soldiers, sailors, Marines and civilians taking to the skies and finding guns to pick up and defend their homes and families.



I grew up in a very patriotic family, with many military members.  I've always known what Memorial Day is about.  In fact, I was attending ceremonies like the one I attended to day for as long as I can remember.  - Watching people tear up because your Daddy is playing some really sad song on the bugle [Taps, of course] is a proud moment for a little girl -  Days like today make me so glad when and where that I do.  So with this I say thank you to our service members past, present, and future.  And to the family members of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, I humbly give my thanks and respect.

I can't believe it's only been 4.5 days.  I am loving having them here, but I am so tired!  I feel like Mammaw, Pappaw and Uncle John have been here for weeks!  Months!  I think that's because I automatically adjusted to them being here - like I was just home again.  It doesn't feel like anything has changed for me.  My day is a little different.  For instance, I don't have to load KB up just to take Jason to work.  That part is super awesome.  Know what else is awesome?  Having more people to cook for and cook with.  I am loving having a chunk of my family here for meals.  I miss cooking for a crowd, even though Jason sometimes eats like one.  Having 3 extra adults in the house has remedied that for me.

So here is how our first few days went:

Checking out Kaneohe Bay - KB was just beginning to latch onto Mammaw (permanently). Then we headed over onto Kaneohe Marine Corps Base Hawaii and checked out the beach there.  Pappaw was stationed at Hickam AFB in the 50's, so he had a lot of fun reminiscing about the island.  Of course, a lot of what he said was "Things sure have changed over the past 52 years.."

One of the beaches on Kaneohe MCBH

I promised this one to you yesterday, and I will not fail you!  I'm going to tell you about the second house we looked at.  We knew from the pictures online that it was in a really rural part of Kaneohe.  We also knew that it was the "back house" on the property.  So the people who owned the house lived in the "front house".  The info online also told us that there were bananas, mangoes, guavas and some other fruit on the property.



So we figured we'd check it out.

We drove up to this.

Gorgeous, eh?  Yeah, that's pretty much the view that every house in Kaneohe has.  It's amazing here.

Anyway, speaking of the front porch:


It was huge!  That was a big perk for us.  We really wanted somewhere to hang out and grill.  Know what else we could do on this front porch??

Take a shower.

Which matched the Master bedroom walls.

Oh wait.  No, it didn't.

You guessed it:  Orange.  As much as I adored this house so far, I was slightly put off by the fact that there weren't closet doors.  Or curtains.  Or Japanese walls.

For some odd reason, Jason and I were still interested in this house.  Maybe not so much interested as intrigued, but we were something.  The other two bedrooms were, I kid not, a shade that was a mix of Lime and Kelly green.  Grass green, maybe?  As much as it pained me to do so, I asked the landlord if we would be allowed to paint.  His response:  "WHY would you want to??"  This man was serious!  The look on his face was genuine!  "The last renters just loved it!"

Sadly enough, we had to pass.  Even though it had an outdoor shower.

Jason is gone, so I am not constantly distracted by my hot husband.  So now I have time to sit and write.  The last three weeks have been a blur.  I'll tell all about the flight over here at another time.. for now I want to talk about our lovely home.  We got here on Wednesday night.  We saw two places on Thursday, and neither were for us.  Pictures of them to follow at the end..  You'll be glad I did!