Returning To A Mess

So while we were enjoying our lovely vacation in Hawaii we learned that Dennis is being transferred to San Diego.  I have been waiting for 6 years (note I did not say I waited patiently...my poor husband) to move back to California, so needless to say I was thrilled.  Problem is that we didn't have paperwork making this transfer official, at least not until about two weeks ago.  If you are familiar with the military moving system, than you already know that unless you have orders you can't do a damn thing.  All the money to fund the move is attached to those orders.

We got back from Hawaii on the 18th of January, we knew we were going to have to be in San Diego by the 1st of April.  Even with orders 2.5 months is a short amount of time arrange a move across the country!  Finally at the end of January the orders came in, the race has begun!!!

I have feverishly worked on what we can schedule thus far.  There seems to be about a bizzillion things to do.  First on my checklist is the list of medical crap to be completed.  Tball and I are both what they call "Exceptional Family Members."  It is because we are awesome!!!  Appointment, scans and referrals.  Ugh, a pain but a must.  My least favorite is Tball's MRI, which they will have to sedate him.  If you have ever had to give an IV to a two yr old, you know it ain't fun.  As a parent you have to be the one to hold them down as the nurses (or as I like to call them, heroes) try to get the catheter into your fluffy (that's how they describe Tball) boy.  To make it worse Tball is crying and pleading with you to make them stop.  I can take the crying, but the pleading takes it to a whole new level.

Second on the list is to find a new place to live.  I'm making the pilgrimage to America's finest city (move over Barnum and Baileys, San Diego has stolen your position as the Greatest Place On Earth (yes I know it's Show, but that doesn't work now does it?)) next week.  Our pre-approval is set and our real estate agent has lined up slew of homes for me to look at.  I have to admit that I'm a bit nervous.  It's a big purchase and I have every intention on making this our forever home...unless I win the lottery and than in that case I'm moving to Coronado.

Last is the logistics of it all.  The packing here in DC and getting our condo painted, cleaned and rented.  Selling Dennis' car here and buying him the Toyota truck that he longs for in San Diego.  I made him sell his old truck 4 years ago since it was impractical with kids.  I don't think he has fully forgiven me for that yet.  Getting Budgie prepared for her last day of Pre-K.  I have no concerns about her education, but I kind of feel bad that we have to pull her out two months early and she won't get to finish with her friends.    Oh and there is the logistics of getting us all across the country.  We are road tripping  it, so wish us luck!  BTW, to my friends and family from Missouri, we will be rolling thru in late March.  Look for the crazy women riding in a overstuffed van with two tots and a cat!

In the mean time we are also focusing on the day to day stuff.  Biggest non moving item on the list is BUDGIE's BIRTHDAY!!!  My little girl turns 5 this week.  Wow!  My little 8.5 lb (yes I have BIG babies) fuss budget is now a tall, sweet, smart and inquisitive young girl.  It is amazing to watch children grow.

Budgie at birth

First Birthday

at 3

Budgie at 2

Budgie at 4

And now

I love this kid!!!

   

Hawaii Part 2

So where did I leave off....?  Oh right Dennis and I got two nights kids free!  It don't get no better than that.  I won't bore you with the details, we basically maxed our relaxation efforts.  Thanks Mom and Dad for watching the rug rats for us!!

Is that adult beverages I see???

I don't think Budgie and Tball suffered much from our absence.  Nini and PopPop spoiled them.  Took them to Sea Life park, fed them pizza and pretty much let them do as they pleased, just like grandparents are suppose to do.

We met up again with the kiddos at the Hale Koa pool.  Pool was warm and the kids loved it.  We splashed about for an hour or so until the kids were ready to head home.

                      

 We had one big thing to do when we got back from our mini vacation within a vacation. Any one visiting Hawaii has to go to Motsumoto's for Hawaiian shave ice.  Monday morning we headed for the North Shore.  It was drizzly and gray the whole day thru.  You would have thought the weather would have deterred the crowd at Motsumoto's, but still had a fairly decent line.  We got the li hing mui flavor (also an absolute must) and dived in.  Sorry no photos of this car trip as I was to busy stuffing my face.  I asked Budgie what she thought, reply was that it was very cold.  Who knew?

We only had a few days left in Hawaii, so we tried to soak up the warm weather the best we could.  We took the kids out to the beach in Kilua.  The view was amazing and the kids could have spent all day playing in the sand.  What fun!

The beach shower was great fun. 

One of the last things we did was take the kids to the Honolulu Zoo.  Mom and I ran down there for a few hours to see the animals.  They have a great little kids area with a small petting zoo.  The kids favorite spot was the fish tank that has a tunnel thru it.

I'm not sure why but I have no pictures of any animals except my own monkeys.

Oh I almost forgot.  We did have to make a quick stop for some Hawaiian style breakfast.  The Monty Python skit with SPAM comes to mind....mmmm SPAM!

Excited!!

Maybe not as excited as Budgie and Mama or just really serious about the arrival of his food.

Budgie with her plate of banana crepes completely decimated.

Possibly more of a local boy than we know.  Tball couldn't get enough of SPAM with coconut syrup.  That's my boy.

After about 10 days I was ready to get home, but I have to say it is my favorite trip to the islands to date.  The plane left late in the evening.  Kids were surprisingly well behaved....it helped that they were asleep for pretty much the entire 9 hour flight.

They had such a good time and were so punch drunk at the airport. They were all huggy and stuff!

This was dinner our first night home.  We did our best to keep him awake and get him back on east coast time.  FAIL!

Our Hawaiian Vacation

Did I say a blog post once a week...wow, not even a month into the new year and I've f-ed that up.  Moving on.....

Well boys and girls it has been a crazy couple of weeks.  We have planned a trip to see my parents in Hawaii about 6 months ago.  It was a bit touch and go a few days before the visit wether or not we were going to have to cancel, but I'm happy to say we went.  Nothing like a little drama moments before a 10hr flight, you know what I'm saying??

It has been 3 years since I was last in Hawaii.  Budgie and I lived there while Dennis was stationed abroad.  I went to high school in Hawaii, my sister still lives there and my parents returned about 10 years ago to "retire."  (I am using those quotations because although my father "retired" he now has a second career, so I'm not sure you can really say he's fully "retired." Let's just say he has the skills to pay the bills; and when a gallon of milk will set you back $6 thats a good thing.)  Needless to say I was excited to be returning home.  I was a bit nervous about a 10hr flight with two small children, one whom is in the throws of potty training, but actually they proved to be very good.



We arrived in Hawaii at about 7PM (12 AM east cost time).  Budgie hadn't slept at all and Tball was about to get his second wind.  (While getting our bags, Tball kept dancing around and singing "I like to move it, move it!")  We loaded up in my dad's truck and headed to Kaneohe, where my parents live.  Both kids were asleep before we hit the H-3 tunnel.


First night was pretty tame.  Kids slept, well they slept on east coast time.  They were up at 2, then 4, then 430.  I had them out in the backyard playing at 430 in the morning with the back porch lights on.  Somehow kids don't understand time zones!  It took a day or two before the adjusted.  

Here are some pictures of our first morning.  Budgie was completely enamored with Mily (my mom's cockatiel).  She would talk to her every morning and read her stories.  It was pretty cute.  Funny thing is that the word "budgie" is also another word for parrot (cockatiels are also known as companion parrots).

 While adjusting to the new time zone, we decided to take our first day pretty easy.  We spent some time just hanging out my parents house.  Dennis picked up the rental car, our fabulous Dodge Avenger.  Or not so fabulous as the case may be, the car is a terrible design.  If you have ever tried to put car seats in it you will learn just how irritating it truly is.  In the evening my sister came over for dinner.

Wednesday we finally took the kids out to the beach.  Well first we hit the flea market, a Hawaii vacation must!  Picked up some Li Hing Mui mango, Hawaiian sweet bread and some hats for us whities. Next we headed for lunch, mmm Korean BBQ.  My mouth is watering!  Sure Yummy's serves the fast food version of Korean BBQ, but it is awesome!!  They serve it with some green leafy stuff (not sure what it is or what it is called, but I don't care) that is off the hook.  Finally after a lot of heckling from Budgie we headed to Hickam Beach.  It isn't a place where the tourist go and there surely isn't anything special about it, but it is a great beach for little kids.  The water is calm and not very deep.  I use to teach sailing at there and that is the only reason I know the place even exists.    

 The kids loved the beach, or I should say the sand really.  They didn't spend a whole lot of time in the water, except to get buckets for their various concoctions of sea soup.  I haven't seen them enjoy the outdoors like this in a long time!

 

Tball enjoyed the bucket with the water spout and Budgie enjoyed making "sand angels."  They were truly disappointed when it was time to go.

On Thursday we headed down to the temple.  I bet you didn't know there was a temple in Hawaii, I didn't either until about 4 years ago (I first moved to Hawaii in 1993, so I feel kind of dumb for being so late to the game.) Anyways the Byodo-In Temple is a small scale replica of a temple in Japan and commemorates 100 years of Japanese immigration into Hawaii (thank you wikipedia!).  I like to go to see feed the koi fish and see the black swan.  The kids also like to ring the giant bell for good luck.

Tball didn't get into the feeding of the fish, he preferred to run around and act crazy.  Love that boy!

Ring my Beeelllll, ring my bell!  How long will that chorus line be stuck in your head!

Friday, things went a bit awry.  We were all headed over to my sister's place in Honolulu.  Budgie was riding with my parents and Tball was with us.  Dennis and I decided to stop for gas, then we left the station headed down Kamehameha Hwy.  We were in the left hand lane, and Dennis was getting ready to get into a turn only lane on the next block when all of a sudden someone from a strip mall pulled out right in front of us.  There was nothing we could do and we ended up T-boning her, hitting her at the driver side door.  It was like slow-mo as I watched the air bags deploy and the windshield crack.  I felt like I was hyperventilating.  After doing a momentary mental check and realizing I wasn't hurt I looked at Dennis and Tball, both were ok.  Tball was crying, but mostly because he was terrified.  Within minutes of the crash fire, EMT and the police arrived on scene.  By some miracle all parties walked away with nothing more than a few bruises.  I wish I could share with you some of the pictures from the wreck, but I wasn't in a with it enough to take any.  It was the first real wreck I have ever been in and I hope it was also the last.

Budgie and my sister

After the crash fiasco was over, all of us but Dennis headed over the Pali to my sister's place.  Dennis stayed back to work out the insurance and rental situation....somehow we didn't have to pay anything, I ain't complaining.  A few hours later my parents headed home with the kids and Dennis came and picked me up in our new ride a Dodge truck.  The thing was MASSIVE and it was also the only car that had left on their lot.  I don't understand why anyone has anything that big on that island.  Gas is expensive, the roads are narrow and traffic is always heavy.  Anyways with the crash behind us we headed down to Waikiki for two kid free nights!!!

Wow, this is running a bit long!  It may just have to be a two parter.  I wonder if I write back to back entries if it makes up for my lack of earlier entries.  Works for me!!