Category Archives: military

Living in Hawaii {4 Month Update}

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We have officially hit four months of living in Hawaii.

And I am in love with this state.

Hawaii can be a difficult place to live. It is so very different than living on the mainland. It can be hard to not have every store and restaurant you are used to having around the corner. (No Olive Garden, Michael’s or Chik-fil-a!) Living here means that you are living far from family, at least a 5 hour plane ride away. It can be expensive, housing is expensive, food is expensive, we are on an island so you will pay more for everything. We are lucky to be able to shop at the commissary and exchange which offer a huge savings over shopping on the local economy.

But with all that it is still magical to live here. I will be driving and then all of a sudden see a gorgeous rainbow, a vibrant green volcanic range, or a stunning sunset over the beach.

We did come here with a bit of an advantage. After living in Spain for four years we learned to live without many of the American conveniences that people complain about not having here. Plus we’ve been living far from family. So when we moved from Rota to Pearl Harbor it was awesome for us! We had Target and Starbucks and T-mobile…

It is like most places for me, it depends on what you make of it. If you spend your time here complaining about how much you hate it, you’ll end up hating it.

We’ve had a great time getting out and exploring the island, learning about the culture and customs and eating!

Don’t get me wrong it’s far from perfect here, the DMV is a nightmare, the traffic is the worst, and the bugs are out of control. There are shady parts of the island, it sucks being 6 hours behind all my friends and family on the east coast (especially when your husband deploys!)

I have found some fun friends by stepping outside my comfort zone and playing football, volunteering with the PTA and getting together a FRG for the Paul Hamilton.

The only thing that would make it better would be if my husband were still here to explore the island with me!

One Month Down!

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It’s amazing how a month can both fly by and feel like it took forever…
Most people will tell you that it’s the first month and last month that are the longest. The first month is hard because its so fresh in your mind and you have to get into the swing of things and get into a routine. Then then the months start to go by a little faster. The last month is terrible because homecoming is so close you can almost taste it, it’s like Christmas!
So one month down, out of ten. Because this deployment is the longest one we’ve he’s ever done I’m sure there will be some surprises. Just ready to have my man home already!

Care Packages!

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While I hate pretty much everything about deployment, the one thing I do enjoy is sending care packages to my husband.  It’s been years since I’ve had to do it (5? 6? I don’t remember!) So I’ve been having fun coming up with ideas of what to send as well as making the boxes themselves fun.

This was the first box I sent out. I LOVE these large size priority boxes from the post office. First off, you get a discount if you are sending these particular ones to an APO/FPO. Second a 12×12 sheet of scrapbook paper fits each side perfectly!  I decided to put some pictures on here, just printed them out on copy paper so I could glue them on. I was hoping it would give him a little boost to remember why he is doing this and what he has to look forward to when he comes home.

 

The next box I sent was my favorite and I forgot to take a dang picture of it! I am so mad at myself! I had it all decked out with a Navy theme, that one had the PS Vita he wanted as well as his iPad cover/stand he forgot to take. You’ll just have to picture it in your mind. It’s terrible but it was a good use for the Navy embellishments that I didn’t like and wasn’t going to use for actual scrapbooking but didn’t want to throw away. So don’t throw away your ugly stuff! Just use it on your husband, he doesn’t know the difference!

 

Okay, I normally try to split the box at least half and half between snacks/junk food and meal type food but this one went a little overboard on the junk food. What can I say? I am trying to eat less crap so when I see something tempting I just buy it and sent in off in a box. Seriously, those Pocky sticks were tough, I LOVE them!

 

 

And here is the latest box, just sent this one this weekend and I am a little mad at myself, didn’t realize how late it got in the month! I want this to get there before Halloween but it probably won’t.  This is my first ‘theme’ box.  I didn’t want to just sent a crap load of candy so I sent some other snacks in there too… The little jack o’ lantern tin was in the dollar section of Target, I put some of those single piece candies you see, pumpkin shaped snickers, rotten egg cadbury, etc. Also Target had the crinkle paper filler in lime green so that is in the bottom of the box. Oh and I found a stupid creepy mask at the exchange for a dollar so I threw that in too…

 

There are some things that I know I am going to put in (like the gel insoles, those steel decks are murder on feet!) febreeze to make his rack smell a little nicer and not like ship. Yes, ship. It is a VERY distinct odor. And haribo gummies, his favorite candy (which will hopefully bring back memories of the haribo candy store we couldn’t stay away from in Germany!)

But then a lot of times I just cruise the aisles of the grocery store or exchange and just see what crazy new stuff is out there.

But here is a list to help get started on packing those boxes:

Food – meals

Precooked rice packets

Cup o’ noodles

Microwave soup

Single serve mac & cheese

Tuna steaks

Tuna salad kit

Single serve oatmeal/cold cereal

 

Food – Snacks/Junk Food

Trail mix

hostess/little debbie stuff

Combos

Gum

Mints

Nachos

Pringles

Beef Jerky

Single serve cookie packs

Popcorn (I love the new bowl one)

Goldfish

Energy shots

Granola Bars/Clif Bars

Toiletries/hygiene

Insoles (I bought the ones made for work boots)

Travel size toothpaste, shaving cream, qtips, shampoo, medication (they take up less space and I replenish them as needed. If your husband has hair a full size shampoo may work better for you!

Foot powder/spray (wearing those dang boots)

Febreeze

hand sanitizer

sanitizing wipes

Etc.

Cards, letters, notes from the kids

Entertainment such as playing cards/dvd’s or handheld games

Magazines/books

I do tend to send lots of food, the galley food isn’t the best and I want him to be able to have something to snack on if he’s hungry. If there is ever something he doesn’t like he can just give it away to someone else.  I am going to try to do the cake in a jar, we’ll see if it works and if it is still edible when he gets it however many weeks later!

 

 

 

Back to School…

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So today was a back to school day for the kids. They were off ALL last week for fall break (yeah I don’t know what that is either) and then were also off Monday for Columbus Day. We had planned lots of activities to keep us busy and I think we did an okay job. But man, was I happy when I dropped them off this morning! Ten days! Ten days off from school! And my darling sweet Omar does not like leaving the house, he is my little homebody. Want to go to the beach? No. The pool? No. A movie? No. Mckenna I ruined at a young age by taking her anywhere and everywhere. Omar grew up in Rota where we didn’t have a ton to do. So I have been having to balance the child who wants to get out of the house to do anything and the child who will do anything to be able to stay home. Go figure. We managed to get to the beach, the pool, the library, the movies, paint pottery, Child and Youth Day downtown, my football practice and games, Omar’s soccer practice and games and did not kill each other!

Today I also had a Scentsy party at a friends, damn I am a sucker for those burners. I am happy I got a pretty new burner for my guest bathroom and my bedroom. I reaaaaally need to get some paint so I can start hanging all my crap up on my walls. I got the most BEAUTIFUL new comforter and I can’t wait to get my room all put together, it’s going to look great with some of my watercolors from France hanging up! I can’t wait!

Also sent out another care package for my sailor. Mail call came and he got his first two care packages I sent so now I can post pictures on here. I had a lot of fun packing them and decorating boxes. Care package ideas and post coming soon!

Now I have to try and get myself back on a school schedule because I was staying up WAY too late while we were on break. In fact last night I was still up when my bestie in Virginia was waking up in the morning… And no, 5 hours of sleep did not cut it. And yet, here I am again. 11pm and not tired in the slightest. NyQuil it is!

Sometimes a Phone Call is All You Need

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So my darling sweetie pie pulled into a port today and I got to talk to him for the first time in a couple of weeks. Even with emailing every day, it’s just not the same as talking to him. I was super happy he had access to wifi so we could facetime him.

The kids were fighting over the chance to see him and talk to him, they showed him every minute change in the house since he left. Omar even decided to show him how well he is reading (surprised the crap outta me today when we brought home hop on Pop from the library today! Who knew!)

So we all got to have a nice long talk with him and hopefully I’ll get another call tonight so can chat without kids jumping in on the conversation every five minutes.

I know these calls may be few and far between so I am loving the opportunity to talk to him. It’s so much better than email!

My only complaint is that we had just gotten home from my football practice so I was looking like hell on a holiday sweaty with no makeup… Love you honey, just look at what you are missing at home!

I am also going to start a little Five for Friday (yes it’s still Friday here, just barely) a little love list to my husband…

1. I love the way one of our kids can do something and we can catch each others eye and just laugh and laugh.
2. I love how you encouraged me to finish my degree and to go for my Master’s Degree.
3. I love how you are so dedicated to this family that you are doing a job that you don’t love to support us.
4. I can’t wait to be able to snorkel with you again, seeing that turtle was magical!
5. I love when we are watching a movie and you pull me over to snuggle under your arm.

Book recommendation: My Sailor Dad

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So my bestie Janelle recommended this book for deployments. I’m not much into these kinds of books normally because they are generally pretty dumb and I don’t like them. I was spending a gift certificate (finally!) That my mom had gotten me from Barnes & Noble and grabbed it along with some cookbooks. (Can’t wait to dive into the newish PW!)

Anyway, this book, My Sailor Dad, is ADORABLE!  I love the writing, even if it’s in rhyme, why every children’s book must be in rhyme is beyond me. I love the illustrations and how each page has additional artwork like flags, or semaphore as well.

And yes, it is very Daddy-centric. No sailor mommies are present in this book.

At this point I got a little misty, especially when Omar pointed out that daddy did the same thing when he left (manned the rails).  Although there was none of that waving nonsense going on, parade rest, Sailors!  I think the book did a pretty good job of explaining why daddies have to leave in terms that my five year old could understand.  You can find it at Amazon & B&N.