One Day

It’s all gone.  Out the door.  On its way.  Except for the dirt.  And our luggage.  Oh, and yes, 1 – 2- 3- kiddos still here too. 

Florida – or Bust!

One Week

The packers arrive in one week from today to start wrapping and boxing up all of our things.  We have done this many times, but this one feels so different.  This is it, the last shebang, the big kahuna, le fin.  I took a car load of clothes and other items to the thrift store yesterday.  Today I am doing a little yard work and plan to finish going through a few other boxes I never really got around to unpacking when we arrived here.  If I didn’t use it while we were here, I wonder if it shouldn’t just make its way to the thrift store as well.  I thought about having a garage sale, but in the end, I don’t know that we had quite enough for one, and I don’t think we really have the time or energy while trying to prepare for all the cleaning and packing we’ll be doing next week.

I’m not sure how much blogging I’ll be able to do over the next few weeks.  I thought I might have time to start writing about our time in Paris, but I think that may just have to wait until after the move.  I’m very behind in checking in on my blog friends’ sites but will have to catch up as I can on those as well.  I’ll try to stop in and write a few lines when I have the chance.

Comings and Goings

We start packing out in 12 days; that’s less than 2 weeks.  Yesterday we loaded up our Sequoia because my husband needed to go back down to Florida to do the final walk-through inspection on our new house.  Water and electricity should be up and running before the weekend is over.  He’s also put in an application for a job, so he wanted to be there in person to check on that.  There are things the moving company will not pack and things we don’t want them to pack – too many broken or missing items in previous moves – so he took some of that down with him. 

So, another week alone with the kids.  They are not out of school til next Thursday, so I still have my days to myself to get ready for the move.  I’m also trying to keep a regular routine going with working out, blogging, etc., but I know that some of that will have to be put on a back burner for a couple of weeks while we are packing, cleaning, travelling, and unpacking.

The kids keep going back and forth on their feelings about moving.  In general, they are excited.  We are going to be closer to lots of family.  We aren’t going to move again (well, except down the street when our final house is built).  We’ll be in Florida, where they were all 3 born and my husband and I were raised.  They can go watch the UF Gators sports teams live just about anytime they want to. 

Last night, however, our oldest son started to back-track and say he isn’t looking forward to the move as much.  I think some of that has to do with his girl friend of a year and a half.  She is the first person he’s ever gone out with, and they’ve had each other’s friendship for the past 2 school years.  I can understand his feelings.  Our daughter and youngest son have made a few good friends but no best friends.  They are used to leaving friends behind and stay in touch with several through e-mail and Facebook now.  As with all of our moves, we try to make it as easy a transition as we can.  I know as they are getting older, that it is getting harder, though.  I am glad that this will be our last military move.  We really have been lucky to have been stationed in so many great places.  The things we’ve seen and experienced most people wish for.  But now it’s our time to pass the torch.  My husband officially retired Monday morning at 12:01 am.  We just happened to be up watching the women’s college softball world series, so I was able to congratulate him and give him a little retirement gift. 

I wasn’t there when he joined the military 27 years ago yesterday.  He served in the Army Reserves for 7 1/2 years during high school and college.  After graduating, he decided he wanted to fly for the military, and the Navy recruited him.  Lucky for me, the Army didn’t have any slots for commissioned aviator officers at the time, and he went to Pensacola for Navy flight school.  We met about a month after he arrived, and here we are today, 19 years later, with 3 wonderful children.  I am so proud of my husband;  of his 44 years, 27 1/2 have been serving his country.  He was also an Army brat his first 12, so most of his life all he’s known is the military.  Here’s to his (and our family’s) smooth adjustment to civilian life – or maybe I should be saying, “Watch out everyone; here we come!”

The Weekend

The kids and I have had a very nice 3-day weekend.  Saturday started out going to the beach with a couple of the kids’ friends.  The water was freezing, but they managed to get used to it and floated on their boogie boards for a while.  The boys dug and built sand castles and buried my youngest.  I tossed the frisbee around with my oldest for a bit, stuck my toes in the freezing water and ran back to my chair screaming like a girl and then took up my book club read for the rest of the time. 

Yesterday, we just hung around the house.  It was nice to do basically nothing (well I did do a little bit of work on the computer).  We were a little wiped out from the sun.

Today, we went over to a friend’s house whose husband is deployed on a ship.  She lives on a lake – I want to move in with her.  The view was gorgeous.  The food was great (but I had too much and am now paying for it – lots of running scheduled for the week ahead).  Her 2 little boys are so cute.

Tomorrow, my husband comes home from his 2-week trip to Florida.  The house down there is just about ready for us.  It’s strange to think we’ll be moving into it in a month.  My husband had a couple of job interviews while he was there and now has to decide the path he wants to take after his military retirement.  I will be looking for a job once I get down there.  I’m trying to take it one step at a time.  I am known to get a little stressed at move time because I think about all that has to be done and I want it all done right.  We’ll get there, and it will be easier if I try to remain calm.

Getting Ready to Leave Japan

Continued from my earlier post Our First Overseas Adventure:  Japan 2000 (part 11).

“7/25/01  (e-mail to G8r’s parents) We pack up tomorrow and our time in Japan will be finished…for SR and the kids at least.  We are getting excited as things get closer and the kids keep asking when we are going to see you guys.  Our departure date was moved to the 4th of August, but we are still set to arrive in Jacksonville on the 9th.  Sunday we did something a little nuts.  We should have done this earlier, but we were clinging to the memory of the piano we left there in Florida.  We bought a Casio digital piano.  It was on sale.  Yes, I know, either SR is rubbing off on me or the Mamoo gene is revealing itself as dominant.  It feels just like a piano, but you can make it sound like an organ, etc., and it has a lot of neat features that we hope will keep the kids interested.  I had a blast buying it; the store I bought it from had no English-speaking people, so I had to buy it and have it delivered in Japanese.  It was fun to give them directions.  I’ll bet Stephanie and I know more about getting around Kyushu than some of these Japanese people.  Our housing is only a few miles away, but they had never delivered here and didn’t know the area at all.  Jay is playing with the record feature now and the sounds coming out of it are horrendous.  The good thing about it is that there is a spot for headphones, so you can limit the pain incurred upon the rest of the family during practice time.  We are heading out to eat now because there is no food in the house, and I don’t have to go to work tomorrow due to packing out.  G8r”

“7/30/01  Our exact itinerary is still in limbo but we know we will arrive in Jacksonville on the 9th.  We will spend five days in Toronto (with SR’s sister) before we come home to Florida.  The kids are excited and can’t wait.  We packed everything up last Friday, so we are in an empty house standing by to check out.  The kids made a cardboard TV complete with a remote control to make it easier to change channels.  We have the sports channel and several international channels.  One channel is completely dedicated to our neighbor Carrie.  It only plays ‘The Carrie Show.’ So you see things are pretty good here.  Looking forward to seeing you guys on the 9th.  G8r”

From NYC to Florida

I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with my daughter this past weekend.  Our trip to NYC was fun and exhausting.  We arrived Thursday night and went to dinner and a play, Mary Poppins.  It was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!!  Really, it was awesome.  Friday we got up (not so) bright and early to a rainy, gray day.  But that didn’t slow us down.  We headed back to Manhatten where my daughter’s choral group performed in the largest cathedral in the world, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.  Their voices echoed throughout the building; it was amazing.  Next stop was a tour of Radio City Music Hall; the group got to meet 2 of the 200 present-day Rockettes and see how the revolving stage works from down below.  Next was free time for lunch and some souvenir shopping.  That night we saw another play, The Phantom of the Opera.  Saturday we packed up for our 7-hour trip home.  But before we left the Big Apple, we went to Top of the Rock and saw a 360* view of the city 70 stories up.  Afterwards, we had lunch at Hard Rock Café and arrived home just before midnight.

This weekend we head to Florida for Spring Break, and hopefully we will find a place to live when we arrive in June while our house is being built.  I can’t believe we are 70 days out from our pack-out.  My husband and I sat down last night with our kids after dinner to talk about how they feel about this move.  It will be different than any other they have done.  I hope that we can make this move as easy as we can on them.  Some of our (my husband’s and my) anxieties have transferred to them, so I’ve got to work harder at trying to remain as calm as I can with this move.  I tend to seem a little stressed at packing time.  I just feel like there is so much to do, and I want it all done as close to perfection as possible.  I need to try to not get anxious when things don’t go like they are supposed to and just breathe.

Our First Overseas Adventure: Japan 2000

Somedays I sit at the computer wondering what to blog about.  I thought I would have a whole lot more to write about with a husband who has been in the military for 27 years and our three children.  When I think back over the last 19 of those military years I have been apart of, there are a lot of stories there.  We are nearing the end of our military journey, and our children are older now and aren’t having those funny kid moments as often.  So I thought it might be neat to go down memory lane…..

“1/27/00  Hello, Hello, Hello… Well, we are here and in a house!  We moved into a 4-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, townhouse in base housing on Tuesday.  We got our first shipment (all of 750 lbs – not too much stuff); it’s some basics.  The housing office loans out furniture until ours gets here – supposed to arrive March 14.  G8r* leaves next Wednesday for training in Okinawa; he’ll return Saturday and then leave again Monday on the ‘boat’- a huge ship!!  the USS Belleau-Wood.  They are supposed to be gone for 7 weeks, so he will miss all the cold weather we are getting right now.  It has either snowed or rained every other day since we’ve been here.  It doesn’t stay cold enough for the snow to stay on the ground though.  We actually live 25 minutes from the base; there is a playground right behind our house with lots of dirt for the kids!  And we can see a few mountains from our back windows – it’s really beautiful.  We are also right next door to a resort area for the Japanese called Huis ten Bosch.  It recognizes the Dutch who settled in this area a long time ago.  They put on a laser light  and fireworks show every night.  Kinda neat.  We got a van last week, and it hasn’t taken too long to get used to driving on the left side of the road.  It feels weird, but it’s not as hard as I thought it would be.  (now I’ve just jinxed myself)  Hello Kitty is really big here; Pokemon was big last year and is still selling.  Send me your requests for (Japanese Pokemon) cards or other things.  Love, SR”

“2/8/00 Hello.  G8r left today.  I think Lulu* did enough crying for all of us.  She wailed almost all the way home after dropping him off.  We’ll be all right – it’s only 52 days.  Did G8r tell you he has to go to a school in Pensacola in May for 10 days?  I don’t know what it’s for, but I guess that’s the only time they offer it.  We are trying to see if we can get flights over for the rest of us, but I don’t know if it would be a good idea to do that long flight with the kids again.  Mr. DL* is really having a hard time; I really hope getting our regular stuff will help.  Love, SR”

My mil saved a lot of the e-mails between her and us when we were stationed in Japan 9 years ago.  These were the first two I wrote.  She put them together in a notebook for us, and I thought it might be neat for the friends and family who didn’t hear about all of our adventures over there to go down memory lane with me.

• G8r=my husband (for his alma mater) 
• Lulu=our daughter (it was her name in French class last year) 
• Mr. DL=our youngest son (DL=Dog Lover …  He’s been begging for a dog since he could talk.  He hasn’t gotten one yet because of all of our moves back and forth overseas.  He has been promised one when my husband retires and we move back to Florida.  He probably expects one to greet us the minute we drive up to our new house this summer.)

All Is Calm…

…once again.  As much as I love it when the kids get to take breaks from school (I can sleep in with them, there’s no rush to do homework or projects, we can play games all day or watch tv or do nothing, and there’s a more relaxed atmosphere around the house), I get another kind of calm when they go back to school.  There are no squabbles to break up, there aren’t quite as many messes to clean up, and I don’t have to yell, “Close the door!” every time they go in and out to play.  The best part is I get my schedule back.

I do better when I have a schedule.  When things are in order, I am more calm.  When new or unexpected things pop up, I sometimes don’t initially react well, but I eventually deal and adjust as necessary.  I’ve had to learn to do that a lot in the past 17 years.  This next and last military move has been on our minds since we arrived here in Virginia.  I know things will be fine; it’s going to be a little different, so I have to prepare for that.  I like to have all my ducks in a row, so when I’ve said that I’m nervous about this or that, I’m just getting ready for what’s ahead.

And what’s ahead right now is getting back to the gym.  I’m on my way out for a jog right now.

Birthdays

When any of my children have a birthday, I want the day to be special for them.  I always make the cake; sometimes I’ve spent hours in the kitchen with food coloring and icing bags and end up with red- and blue- and black-stained fingers.  I’ve made Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Spiderman, Batman, Strawberry Shortcake, Blue (from Blue’s Clues), and many others.  Sometimes, I let the kids help me mix the cake ingredients and then just use the Betty Crocker premade icing to slather the cake with when it’s done baking.  For my oldest son’s birthday this past year, we created a scavenger hunt to his birthday present.  It was a surf board, and it was so big, it was impossible to wrap and say, “Guess what we got you?”! 

This week is my daughter’s birthday.  She is our only girl, so it’s fun for me to do the girly present shopping this time each year.  Her birthday is always right after school starts, and it gives her a nice way to get together with friends she hasn’t seen since the end of the previous school year.  With a lot of our military moves in the summer, however, she sometimes feels she gets the short end of the stick with birthday parties because she often hasn’t had enough time to make many friends when her birthday rolls around. 

When I was a kid, I don’t think it was as big a deal to have friends over for a birthday.  Most of mine were spent with my family.  Today, I think some people go overboard with the parties for their kids, spending hundreds of dollars.  And then there’s a goodie bag that each child must have to go home with.  I thought the whole point was that the birthday child got presents.  Don’t get me wrong; I follow the lead and have a creative bag made up with each invitee in mind.

This year, my daughter wants to have a luau themed party.  Even though it’s not summer, per se, it’s still pretty warm outside, and it’s what she wants.  I want the day to be special for her.  Next summer we are moving again; it should be our last one.  But she will still have to contend with the fact that she won’t have made many friends before her birthday, once again.  So bring on the blue and purple and green food colors!

Hau`oli Lā Hānau!

MilVetSpouse

269 Days…My husband tells someone at least once a week how many days until he retires from the military.  I’m sure as we get closer to the date, he will be telling people to the second.  I am a milspouse (military spouse) that will soon be a milvetspouse or a retmilspouse (my made up “words” for military veteran’s spouse or retired military spouse).  The military comes up with acronyms all the time, like scatminewarn (something you could say to your kids?), hotphotorep (hmmm), and tactragrulant (not even sure).  I am a bit nervous to leave the support we’ve grown accustomed to over the past almost 20 years, but excited to start yet a new chapter in our lives.  We’ll move to a small town where my husband’s family is and where they have established lives.  I hope that it is not too difficult to become a part of their circle or get used to a one-traffic-light town.

I grew up in a military town (where I met my husband), but my parents were not military.  I have loads of uncles and cousins who were in all the major battles back to the Revolutionary War.  I am big into family genealogy (but that will have to be for another post).  I was 21 when we married, and the military whisked us and our new baby boy from one coast to the other less than a year later.  Since then, we have moved 10 times, lived in 14 different houses, and been in at least 13 commands (my husband would know better).  Since his father was also in the military, he’s probably double that on the moves.  He’s been deployed or tdy/tad (more acronyms for temporary duty or temporary additional duty) more times than I can remember.  But that’s the military life.

My kids have benefited so much from the moves.  When they study things in school, they have actually stood on the ground where the history lesson is talking about:  ground zero of Nagasaki, the beaches of Normandy, Loch Ness, the Danish fjords, the Great Barrier Reef, a Jewish concentration camp…  But when my oldest son graduates from high school in a couple of years he will have attended 8 different schools, 3 of them different high schools.  That is the hard part.  Making new friends, leaving the old ones behind, catching up in a subject that was taught differently at the old school, sitting through a class they already took (I just tell them, easy A!).  Just one more move.