Fine.

I changed it.

The name of the blog.

I figure getting confirmed tickets that will fly us to San Diego next Saturday probably means it’s time to give up on the Navy changing its mind and sending us to Whidbey after all.  So, on to:

Paradise Next:  San Diego

Read Full Post »

Reenlistment

In order to accept these new orders to San Diego, Brent had to commit to four more years in the Navy.

That may not seem like that big of a deal to most of you.  What’s four years?  Especially in this economic climate — he’s lucky to know he’s got a job for four more years.  But it is a big deal, because for us, four years puts us COMPLETELY over the edge.

See, when Brent joined the Navy he intended to do six years and get out.  Then we decided to get married and heard about England and thought, heck, that’d be fun.  So he reenlisted.  We planned to get out after that.

Then we had Jake and we heard about Okinawa, and so he reenlisted again to come to Japan.  But then we were REALLY going to get out.

Then the economy tanked and we heard about Whidbey Island and one thing led to another and Brent decided to stay in.  But this reenlistment is the biggie.  The one that means there is probably no turning back.  We’ll have put in too much time after this one to get out.  So signing his reenlistment paperwork today effectively meant that Brent is choosing to finish out 20 years in the Navy and retire in 2018.

If he were single, he wouldn’t have signed those papers today.

He signed for us, and for the life we have and the life we want.

And for that he got a cake and a 2 day liberty pass which he won’t get to use because we leave next week.

But the boys LOVED the cake!  (So did Kira, just don’t tell her mom.)

And they blew out the candles together…

And I had to put in the this pictures just because of Kira over in the corner.  She has a new no-one-is-paying-attention-to-me scream.  It’s loud.  Can you tell?

Brent decided that since only four of us are eating and we certainly don’t want to SAVE the yummy commissary cake for later, that we’d just each get a big piece.  A BIG PIECE.

And since I haven’t posted pix of her in awhile, I’ll give you a little series here.  I’m not sure what this face says.  But it’s something a little more manipulative and flirty than I like.

And then she has a new “sniffing” face and then there is the hand-like toes.  Can NOT keep them off the table.  It’s like she waited so long to eat that she now needs 3 appendages to get all the food she can.

And a closer shot of the Sniffer.

And will leave you with a pretty one — so that you know she still has that face!

Read Full Post »

All the time…

The stress around here is running a little high.

Understatement of the year.

Easter weekend sort of put me over the edge.  I had committed to too many events and was trying to organize and plan in between.  I cried a couple a few many times over the weekend and realized I was in over my head a bit.  Mostly the stress was because we STILL didn’t have tickets or dates to fly or dates to pack-out our stuff or or or or…

On Tuesday, we finally got our ticket information and found that we are flying two days later than requested and into LA instead of San Franciso, as requested.  I was mad at first.  How can the Navy mess up something as simple as a date and a city. However, the more we talked about it, the more it seemed to be the perfect mistake.

I’m not the most happy go-lucky, ready for a vacation and spending time with family kind of person at the moment.  I’m nearly a homeless mother bear who just wants to get settled.  So, we’ll go get settled.  THEN, we’ll happily go see our families.

The other major stress this week has been the issue of our car.  Everyone on Okinawa drives an old car.  I know very few people who have cars younger than about 10 years old.  We had a ’95 Civic and have a ’96 Odyssey.  We bought both for just under $5k total when we got here 3 years ago.  Both have run great for three years and we were happy to be able to sell them on.

Back in the day, when I thought we were moving to Whidbey at the beginning of April, I began to plan.  As I do.  I planned so well, that I got Brent’s Civic sold back in February.  We figured we’d hobble through til we left 30 days later.  And then we didn’t leave.

So for 6 weeks now, we’ve been juggling one car.  But now that it’s time to sell the van, there is no way for us to leave it in the Lemon Lot (where people leave cars to sell).  We have too much still to do.  So I put it on our local “Craig’s List-Like Site” and Japan Update and put a sticker in the window.

And there’s not been a single inquiry in 10 days of listing.

NOT ONE.

Yesterday I was driving and stressing and worrying about the car.  I began to pray about it and suddenly realized that I wasn’t trusting that the Lord could handle it.  I was trying to do it myself.  Ahhhhh…  are we there again???  This feels OH so familiar. So I began to pray faithfulness into my heart.  Prayed thankfulness to God for having a plan for our crazy van.  And I came back to that prayer several times yesterday.

Today, after a wonderful goodbye lunch with my Bible Study gals, I came home and packed the boys’ suitcases and was suddenly struck with a pretty good migraine. Migraines I get once every 4 years or so.  I went straight to bed and Brent brought me Advil and I just laid there quietly for two hours.  I wasn’t tired, so didn’t get to sleep at all.  But spent the whole time sort of smiling to myself, “Yes, God, I get it. CHILL OUT.  You’ve got it all covered.”

When I got up around 5pm, I checked my email and found one from a friend saying that her friend (a woman I know) might be interested in our car, hers having just died.  But that they only had $XXXX to offer ($400 less than we were asking).  Brent and I talked it over and felt that if they could wait for pick up until Monday, that we’d be happy to take what they offered.  I called her and they said they’d come look at the car and test drive it this weekend and then take it from us on Tuesday morning.

WOOHOO!!!!  We were so excited.  I just sat at the table grinning and occasionally yelling out, “THANK YOU JESUS!” at which the boys just giggled.

Ten minutes later, when Brent had the boys upstairs for bath (oh and Kira, too, cuz when I went looking for her, I found her 3 steps from the top!), the phone rings.

It’s a guy calling about the car.

Ten days and no calls.  Then 2 calls in ten minutes.

I told him it was probably sold to some people coming to look this weekend.  He said he’d come tomorrow.  So I called the first woman back and she committed to it over the phone!  Bought it without driving it!  Just trusted my description.  So I called the guy back and told him sorry.

And it’s done.

God is good…

Read Full Post »

Milk Date

So one of the weirdest things about PCSing is getting to the point in the countdown where you are buying grocery items that expire after your leave date.  I bought sour cream two weeks ago that would be good til we left.  Last week, bought some yoghurt that would make it.  And this week, it was the milk.  There is milk in my refrigerator that will still be good when we will be MOVED. BACK. TO. THE. USA.

Crazy.

Read Full Post »