You look just like your kids!

Andy is home.  Life is lovely.  Life was good before. No real complaints.  But now we are all together and getting ready for our next adventure and, really, truly, it's lovely.  The big are so excited to have Andy home and able to take them to football and the pool and talk science with.  Emerson is SO in love with Andy and Andy is wrapped around the baby's little finger.  I was worried about how Em would react but that was silly of me.

Sunday was my last morning at Chapel.  It was sad and difficult.  I have been blessed to have great jobs with great bosses everywhere I have wanted to work, but this job was incredibly special.
It was also the first Sunday Andy has been to church with us since I started working at the Chapel.  His schedule leading up to deployment didn't allow for many Sunday services and being gone for six-months meant he was only known to our church family from stories and what the boys shared.  So he got a lot of "welcome back, sorry to see you go" and "wow, you look just like your kids!"  It was interesting for him, I think, to see my role in the Chapel and to see me at work.
I kept the tears mostly at bay (save for a little as we stood in front of the congregation and said "aloha") until we were home for the evening.  Leaving a job/church family is hard and I am already praying for us to find some where amazing in Savannah.

We are still in travel limbo.  No official date/flights set.  Which means it is difficult to plan our last days here and hotel in Savannah.  It will work out fine I am sure, but the control freak/planner/worrier in me is antsy.  We do have a "window" of travel time and it is coming up too fast.  I swear I say it every move: I thought I would have more time.

We are going to be making the most of our last few weeks in Hawaii.  We have a beach cabin trip, a "May the Fourth" party, Em's dedication, dinners and lunches with friends, and some pool and beach time coming up.  All good things.  And all things we are blessed to be doing as a family.

Surprise!!

On time from Guam

The boys think they are there to welcome a friend of Mrs. Karen's to the island

Seriously NO clue

Calling to say "meet you at Customs"

Waiting

Here he comes...

"Are you really here?"

 

"Let's go home, dad."

Wednesday

It is emotional and disconcerting to watch your worldly goods be packed away.
It is happy and sad and lovely and good and crazy.
It is hard to sit still and chat with friends, text, surf the internet while complete strangers touch your things because you aren't allowed to.
There goes the couch.  The baby's high chair. Your favorite mug.  Your books.  Your pictures.
It is weird.

It is hard to pin down the way I feel knowing the packing and emptying of the house is a prelude to our family leaving of the island.
Leaving our friends. Oh, what amazing and lovely friends we have been blessed with here.  I prayed for good people and had those prayers answered.
Leaving our church.  Where I have worked the past 8 months and fallen in love with.  I didn't know a job like the one I have existed, and I could never in a million years come close to re-finding what I have in my employment or chapel ohana.
Leaving our home, the second one since we have lived here.  A beautiful big place that my dear husband had a grand total of 22 nights in.

Island life and Ohana will not come along with us.  We are starting over (nearly from scratch) in Georgia.  I cannot imagine the "goodbye's" yet.  Do not want to think about boarding the plane and having a final look at the gorgeous island and Pacific as we take off.  Going to put all that on the back burner for now.

And really, I am happy.  Happy to have our family whole again.  Happy to start a new chapter where job demands will not be as 24/7.  Happy to be close to Illinois and family in Florida.  I guess I just wish I could smoosh Hawaii and all the good people here closer to Georgia.  Build a bridge, create teleporter, or tow the island a few miles off the Georgia coast.  But my ohana here know (I hope) they always have a place to stay when they are in Georgia (and where ever else we may end up).  And I know that the Navy is small, and I will undoubtedly run into my friends again.
Also, east coast friends and Illinois friends and family: expect a visit scheduled soon!

I feel a little like this...

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/surprise-party/n12233

It's all sunshine and rainbows...

It is.  Kind of.  Hawaii sunshine and rainbows.  Where it will be pouring down rain on one side of the island and gorgeously sunny and lovely on the other side.
I feel like life has been like that the past six months.  Half of me bummed and sad and missing Andy.  Half of me loving the life we built together.  It's weird.

Boys update:
Matthew is a reader.  Like a devour-a-book-in-a-day reader.  He got that from both Andy and I.  It is exciting.  I can't wait to read books with him.  At the moment I pre-read his books (he is way into the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and just starting the Magic Tree House).  But in a few grade levels I can read the series with him.  My dreamer self envisions evenings snuggled up on the couch in front of the fire place (oh yes, our next house MUST have one) Matt reading on his Kindle, me reading on my Nook.  I hope our next house also is close to a library.
Nicolas is beyond words.  He is funny and sweet and sensitive and just a good kid.  Wednesday night the Chapel hosted a Military Child event.  A group came and had lots of cute freebies--stress balls, airforce pins, glow sticks.  And gave away a lot of stuff to the kids there.  One of the ladies was charmed by Nic (imagine that) and made him this really cool multi-glow stick necklace.  He and some other kids were running around and one of the older kids noticed Nic's necklace.  He started crying throwing a fit that he only had one glow stick and Nic had so many.  Without any hesitation, Nic took off his necklace, disassembled it, and gave all but one of his glowsticks to the other kid.  I had watched from across the room and a little later when Nic was buzzing around my end of the room I pulled him aside, hugged him, and told him what a sweet boy he was.  He just smiled, kissed my cheek, and went on his way.
Emerson is fun.  He absolutely has a friendly, trusting, loving personality.  He smiles and laughs at his brothers and the dog.  He loves peas and avocado.  Not so much a fan of carrots. He is finally getting a little chunk on him.  The meds he started on a month and a half ago are working.  Less puke=more food in his belly.  I am a little sad that he will never have the happy rolls Matt and Nic had at this age, but that is ok.  Little man is healthy, gaining weight, and will hopefully be able to go off meds by a year old.

Move Update:
We have official orders to Savannah, Georgia.  Our house is getting packed a week from Wednesday.  Estimated arrival date in Georgia?  My birthdate.  Yes, for real, that long.  While our stuff is in transit, we will be using furniture and "stuff" (dishes, cookware, etc) from the Navy loaner closet as well as friends. We still are not sure of when we are leaving yet...and that is ok.  It is easier to be without our things here  than when we get to Savannah.
I have been a craigslist/internet junkie looking at places to live, neighborhoods, schools, commute times to try and make it easier to find a home when we get there.  I have seen several houses that I LOVED and were in great areas, but, I am not about to sign a lease without a walk through and I know I can't ask for the homes to be "held" until we get there.  It will be fine.  I know we will find a great and perfect place.
I am hoping to get to talk with Andy sometime and figure out how to plan travel.  Flying with all three kids and the dog with all of our stuff (clothes, baby gear, toys) is going to be CRAZY.  But fun and awesome at the same time.

Easter

"Official" photos courtesy of the lovely and talented Karen