The Past 4 Months Part 2

I'll need to backtrack briefly just a few days, which is good in my eyes because that would mean my husband was still home. Nov. 29th we made yet another trip to the airport. I've been to the airport more times in the past 2 years than I've been to any airport in my entire life before moving here. That's actually a good thing. I love having family and friends comes to visit. It's just the return trip to drop them back off that's no fun. I'm no good with goodbyes. You'd think a person would get use to it at some point, but it never fails to make me cry. Anyhow, we went to the airport to pick up my parents. They came to stay with us for 6 weeks. Those were probably the busiest 6 weeks of the year. Again, a good thing! The faster time flies by, the sooner it seems my husband will be home. He was here for a few days while my parents were here, but all too soon we were headed back down the highway to the airport. This time for the not so great reason. Actually, the worst reason ever!

Looking back, the time my parents were here was more like a staycation for me than a vacation for them. They helped out around the house with everything, and I do mean everything. They helped with laundry, dishes, cooking, mowing the yard, and taking care of the kids just to name a few things. It was so nice to have the help and get a little break from everything. Don't get me wrong, I still did some of it too, but not near as much as I have to do on a daily basis when it's just me and the kids. It was great waking up to my dad already having the coffee ready too. I won't lie, I probably took advantage of it a little bit. They know how thankful I am for everything they do for us though. God certainly blessed me with the greatest parents.

I'm not really even sure where to start with everything we did while they were here. I won't bore you with all the details, just the highlights for us. My mom had been walking at home in order to prepare for hiking. Her goal was to make it to the top of Diamond Head. With that goal accomplished, we also hiked to Kaena Point to see the sea lions and to the top of Pu'ukea. I think that's the name of it. My mind is drawing a blank right now. We got plenty of exercise while they were here. I can't remember but maybe 4 days total where we didn't go anywhere. Pretty much every day we found something to do. The kids each took a turn going to breakfast with Grandpa. I took my mom to lunch one day and my dad to dinner on another day. We drove around looking at Christmas lights. We went to Honolulu Hale to see the lights and to get our pictures taken with Santa. We took the tour of lights at Pearl Harbor. We went to Waikiki a few times. Of course we ate out several times and we did not have a shortage of ice cream going into our bodies.

I forgot to mention that while Trint was still home and my parents were here, Shay and Syd had performances we got to enjoy. Shay had a Hula performance and Syd was in a theater and chorus performance. They both did great and were fun to watch. Daddy actually got to participate in the theater performance too. He played a soldier along with three other dads. All they did was walk up on the stage in uniform and stand there, but Syd was so excited to have daddy there. At the end of Shay's Hula, they had the parents come up and do the Cupid Shuffle hula style with our kids. That was interesting. I'm not one to get up in front of people, but I did it. I grabbed my husband's arm and dragged him up there with us too. I was not going alone!  The day after daddy left we got to watch Tristan perform with his school band in a Christmas band concert. He's the one standing in the back with drum sticks. It was several schools combined and made for a long evening, but they all did a wonderful job and afterwards we enjoyed some ice cream!

January came all too fast, and it was time, once again, to head back to the airport for yet another goodbye. Okay so maybe for the reason of my husband coming home soon, it was not too fast, but for the reason of my parents leaving, it was too fast. It's kind of a catch 22. So now that Christmas break is over and the new year has begun, things are getting back into somewhat of a routine. The kids are back in school and the girls are back in their Skies classes preparing for their next performances this spring. Now we're just waiting for daddy to come home. It won't be much longer now.

The Past Four Months, Part 1

When I started this blog around the time my husband deployed, I did it thinking that it was a good way for him to keep up with our daily lives back home. It was also an outlet for me to write down my thoughts and share a little bit of what life as an Army family is like. I had decided up front that I wouldn't stick to any particular theme, but simply write down what was going through my mind and what I felt like sharing in the moment. I kept it up for several months, but at some point, for some unknown reason, I just quit. I don't know if I was just too busy, or tired, or just didn't know what to write. Maybe a little bit of all of it. Whatever the case, I'm back now, for the time being anyhow.

So much has happened since my last post. Seeing as that was close to 4 months ago it's no wonder. Honestly with this memory of mine, or lack there of, I can't even remember everything that has happened. I'll briefly share some of the highlights. Okay who am I kidding? Brief? I guess we'll see...

In October I had signed up with a friend to run in the "Strides Against Breast Cancer" 5k. Unfortunately my friend's child ended up getting sick so she wasn't able to go. I'm not one to go to big events alone. For some reason or other I feel out of place when I'm alone in a crowd. This time though, I decided to suck it up, say a prayer for strength, and conquer my fear. As always I arrived there early. I hate being late so I almost always end up early. Not always a good thing. It was a little rainy and pretty wet out so I just stood around waiting. Luckily during a deployment I never go anywhere without my phone in case my husband has a chance to call. That gave me something to do while I waited. Before the race started I heard someone call my name. I just figured that someone else was there with the same name and I didn't turn around. I heard it again so I looked up and to my surprise they were calling to me. Two of my "sisters" from here on the island were running in the 5k too. I was so happy to have someone to run with. Not only did God give me the strength to conquer my fear of going alone, but he went the extra mile and gave me someone to run with, two someones in fact. It's a miracle in itself that we even crossed paths with all the people in attendance. Together we ran/walked the 5k and had a great time together.

Halloween also happened during my blog absence. I'm not one to dress up for Halloween, though occasionally I do. This year I hadn't planned to. My kids were begging me to find something out of the usual to wear so after a little thought and a look in my closet, I decided I had everything I needed to be a biker babe. I knew my husband would appreciate that since he loves Harley's and we were planning on getting him one after his deployment. I called my friend that we were planning on trick or treating with and got her on board too. The only thing we were missing were bandanas so she stopped and got us each one before coming over. We got our kids, with the exception of Tristan who was already out with his freinds, and ourselves ready, took pictures, and headed over to her house to start knocking on doors. Part way through our evening Trint called on skype so he got to walk with us for a little while too. I love it when he gets to join us, even if he is only on the phone and thousands of miles away. He gets to make memories with us even from a great distance.

The number one event that has happened in the past 4 months... My husband came home for r&r! That had to be the best two weeks of the entire year. After about 8 months he was back under our roof, sleeping in our bed, eatting at our table, sitting on our furniture, having fun with our family! We were living a complete daily life once again.
                                         
 During his first few days home we decided to go look at the South Seas in anticipation of getting him a Harley once he was home for good. However, it did not work out the way we had expected at all. Once we got there he saw the perfect bike, a Fat Boy, the exact bike he was wanting. And... it was blue, his favorite color and the exact color I wanted to get him. Just out of curiousity we asked about the price and if they happen to match the prices that our soldiers can get while deployed. Our answer wasn't what we expected. The salesman said yes. My husband gave him the numbers that he was quoted overseas and the salesman took those numbers to the finance guy. We honestly thought it was too good to be true and that we'd be walking out of there with a plan in mind for when this deployment was finally over with. Not so. The numbers were approved and within 20 minutes we were the proud owners of the perfect Harley. I am so happy that my husband finally got his Harley after all these years of waiting. We spent much of the rest of his R&R on his bike, while the kids were in school of course.

When the kids weren't in school we just spent time together as a family, doing what families do. We got to spend Thanksgiving together, went to Wet-n-Wild for Tristan's belated birthday surprise, went to Waikiki, played games, watched movies, and so much more. My parents flew in towards the end of R&R so my hubby and I had the opportunity to go to Waikiki for a night while the kids stayed home and spent some time with Grandma and Grandpa. A wonderful friend of mine had a voucher for a free night in a hotel and she blessed my hubby and I by passing it along to us. We sure have made some amazing friends here on the island.
Unfortunately our two weeks had to come to an end. The kids decided it was much easier to say goodbye to daddy here at home and stay with Grandma and Grandpa while I took him to the airport. Let me just say that I'm really glad they made that decision. I highly doubt I could have been strong for them. I know I wasn't strong for myself or my husband. It was the most awful terrible goodbye ever. It's always hard to watch him walk away, but this time was the worst. After he walked through the tunnel and was out of sight I went outside and watched the plane. I just stood there until it was completely out of sight, crying the whole time. I later found out that he was in the plane, on the side facing where I was, watching me too. I tried my best to gather my thoughts and walked back to my truck. I convinced myself that I had cried enough and I drove home in a daze, just wishing I could turn back time. That or push time forward and jump back out of my truck and welcome him home for good. I prayed the whole way home that God would just keep him safe for the next few months and bring him back home to us once again. To be continued....