Lookee Here!

Lookee what I won!  My friend Marianne (the one who is coming to see me in February!) has a blog about their baby (Finn, the golden retriever) and has passed me the "Versatile Blogger" award!  I am honored to receive it!  Marianne and I met in grad school when we were hall directors together at the infamous Arizona State University and she was a reader in our wedding!

The award requires me to share seven things about myself, so here goes:
1. My kids crack me up.  Olivia insists on having all doors closed at all times.  No door shall remain open!  If a door is opened, it must be closed immediately!  This morning Wyatt told me that he wants to move back to Iowa NOW because it is way too hot here. When I reminded him that there is a lot of snow and ice in Iowa, he said "that's okay because I can make a hole in the ice and we can have a swimming pool.  But only for kids who are three, four, and five years old."

2. I am really, really, really afraid of driving over long bridges over water.  So living in DC was not a good choice for me.  My father-in-law used to take the "long" way and find a bridge to drive over (or under, through the water tunnel as is the case in DC sometimes) just to see me freak out!

3. That reminds me...I miss my father-in-law more than I ever thought, and think about him every day.  I especially hurt for my husband's loss and am so sad that my kids won't know their Papa!

4. Staying at home with my kids is waaaay better than I ever thought it would be. It is also way harder!  But they amaze me every day. I am so proud of the (usually) well-mannered little people they are becoming!

5. Being a military wife has been a huge blessing in my life.  It has forced me to become more flexible, adaptable, and patient - many things I still need to work on!  I love the friendships I have made, the places I have traveled, and most of all I am so proud of my husband and his service to our country!

6. I consider it a good day if I have not been pooped on, peed on, thrown up or spit-upped on.  However, I know that while the days may seem long, the years are definitely short and I am enjoying this crazy ride I am on called motherhood!

7.  I cannot wait to go to Taipei in a few weeks!!!! I am going with two friends on a girls' weekend and this will be my first weekend (first night, actually) away from Olivia ever.  I am super duper excited to get to travel and not have to plan around nap times and Mickey Mouse!!

And now, I am happy to pass the award on to my friend Nerissa, whose blog about her little ones never fails to bring a smile to my face.  She is full of great mommy ideas, fun family time, yummy recipes, and is the most thoughtful friend I have. She has sent us care packages for absolutely no reason since we first arrived on this island and they are always chock full of great surprises for me and the kids.  She just recently sent me a deployment care package and this is just one of the many reasons I love her!

Bye, Bye Baby

Some very good friends of ours (Jen & Kyle) are expecting a baby in early March, and we are SUPER excited for them!  This is their first, and their little bean will arrive just a year after our own Miss Olivia made her appearance.  So as Livy has started to outgrow her "baby" things, I have been passing them along to our friends in hopes that they can have another life.  Kind of like in Toy Story where the toys just want to be played with again :)

I happily parted with the first round of things... baby swing, boppy pillow, pregnancy/nursing books, baby play mats, baby sling, etc.  I couldn't wait to get that stuff out of my house and was so happy to have someone take it!

Now round two is upon us...another swing, a bumbo, the exersaucer... but this time I am feeling downright SAD about it!  Psychologically speaking, I am sure it is because these are things that the kids both used and spent quite a bit of time in, and were using at a time when they started "doing" things and reacting to the world as little people instead of screaming infants.

It couldn't possibly also have anything to do with the fact that this likely means we are done with the baby stage of our lives.  Right?  Right?? I mean, I seriously dislike the baby stage.  Sleepless nights. Constant nursing. Quite a bit of crying. I should be rejoicing that this stage is coming to a close!

Except I'm not.

They just grow up too fast.

And now I'm practically in tears. Stupid hormones!

You Take the Good, You Take the Bad...

...And there you have, The Facts of Life.

The other day I was at the commissary (military speak for grocery store) with the kids, and Tommy got off early* so he met us there.

*Early = 5:00 p.m. He "only" worked 12 hours that day.

We were almost finished getting our groceries when a woman approached us and asked how old Olivia was (she has a 7-month old at home).  I answered her, and then she proceeded to blurt out her entire story to us.  She and her family had just arrived to the island a few days prior and she was having some serious culture shock. I think it had something to do with being like 8,000 miles away from the States.  She was fighting back tears the entire time we were talking and I thought she was going to lose it at any minute.  I felt so bad for her!  Been there, done that.

I could tell she was older than us, but then she dropped the bomb.  Her husband has been serving in the Marine Corps for 27 years. Twenty-seven years!!

To put that in perspective, Tommy just hit his 13-year mark in June. Meaning she has been doing this twice as long.  And she still cries after every. single. move.

I kind of thought that the longer you did this, the easier it got.  Guess I was wrong. 

We tried to reassure her that it gets better, but the truth is, living this far away is both a blessing and a curse. The island is beautiful, there are so many adventures to be had, and what a great opportunity we have to travel and experience another culture!  But the reality is, it is HARD.  You have no family. You have few, if any, friends.  You are half-way around the world with young children, have no support system, and your husband out-of-country half the time.  When he is home, he works at least 12 hours a day.  It is truly a double-edged sword!

I have been thinking about her for a couple of days now, hoping she is adjusting.  It does get better, and it does get easier, one day at a time until your three years here are up. And then you put on your big girl panties and do it all over again.

One in One Hundred

Today was the last day of swimming lessons and Wyatt "graduated" from Pre-Level 1 and is officially ready for Pre-Level 2.  That is, if I decide I want to brave the line again at registration!  The jury is still out on that one.

Anyway, since it was the last day they sang a bunch of songs, had a pool party, and a pot luck. It was a lot of fun and Olivia even got in on the action by "swimming" with me in her new little infant floatie ring thing. Wyatt got to go down the big curvy slide and all was right with the world.

At the potluck portion, I asked the Camp A staff how their experience has been so far (you know me, ever the student affairs practitioner).  As they were telling me about their experience, I could empathize with them on so many things because I had been there, done that.  Turns out one of the girls has been dating a Marine she met last year while doing Camp Adventure, so I told her "our story" about how Tommy and I met & got married.  She said, "I'm so excited to hear that!  I always hear these stories from so many people about how it doesn't work out. You're the first one I've ever heard of that it worked out for!"

I've been thinking about that comment all day. This is a girl who has spent FOUR summers doing Camp Adventure.  She probably knows or at least heard about a hundred others who have tried and been unsuccessful at dating the Marines they meet over the summer and making a relationship work from different continents.  And here I am, little old me, happily married to mine...with two beautiful babies to show for it.  What are the odds?  I'd say one in one hundred, at best.

Life is crazy. Absolutely crazy!

Camp A is the Way

Wyatt started swimming lessons on Monday, and its going surprisingly well!  I say surprising because it took some convincing to get him to get in the pool with someone other than mom or dad.  And by convincing I mean telling him that if he did the whole lesson we would take him to play games that night. The second day we told him we would give him a bell for his bike. Convincing...bribing...same thing, right???

Well, it only took two days and now I can't get him to get out of the pool!  He loves it.  Three days ago he didn't even like to put his head underwater and today she had him holding his breath and going to the bottom of the pool to fetch a dive ring! 

Here are some side notes in this crazy parenting adventure I'm on...

First, I am embarassed to admit that I am officially a "helicopter parent."  And I didn't even realize it.  Monday was the first day of lessons and, as I mentioned, Wyatt wasn't about to get in the water with some college girl no mattter how cute she was. So I stood there (with the other parents, I might add) and bribed him during the lesson.  On Tuesday, however, I (along with the other helicopter parents) were actually asked to take a seat over in the shade and let the kids be.  HELLO, Wake Up Call!  I was mortified.  I have now become the parent that I complained about for 3 years during orientation!!!  Tommy won't stop teasing me about it... first swim lessons, then college advising sessions, he says! Yikes.  I backed off immediately.

Second, apparently being the parent of a 3-year old means waiting in long lines to register your child for events.  And I am tired of it already.  So far, I've stood in line for hours on end at the Sesame Street Live show, Preschool signup, Swim Lesson Registration, and I am about to brave the Soccer Moms at soccer registration here soon. God help me! I have no patience for these things.  Haven't they heard of online registration?

Third, I can't help but smiling every single day at swim lessons, because the college students that teach them are from Camp Adventure.  For those of you who don't know, I did the Camp Adventure program some 12 years ago and was sent to London, England for the summer...where I met my eventual husband-to-be!  It was an amazing summer and the experience of a lifetime. So everytime I see the Camp A girls here on base I just smile.  I told one of them our story at swim lesson sign-up, and she said, "So you mean there's hope for us!?!? (to meet guys, I assume)" It was hysterical.  I hope they know what a great Adventure they are on.  Sooooo many memories!

Can't Get By Without A Little Help from My Friends...

I hate asking for help.  I didn't really realize this until we moved 8,000 miles away.  I guess I never really had a need for much of it until now... but this move has put me outside of my comfort zone in more ways than one.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I've spent more time outside my comfort zone than in it the last 7 months. 

Growing and learning, learning and growing... famous last words from a student affairs practitioner...

In the last two weeks, I've asked my mom to send me a package of stuff I can't get here, like a toddler backpack for Wyatt, hairball treats for the cats, etc.  Robin and my mom both sent me a huge stack of coupons (we can use them up to 6 months after the expiration date here, and I love coupons!)  My friend Kim sent me some Tylenol & Motrin for the kids because there's none available on the island that hasn't been recalled.  And today I asked a new friend to watch my two kids on Friday night because our babysitter is busy, but I don't want to miss my husband's promotion party.

Looking at this on the screen, it doesn't seem like such a big deal.  So I asked some people for a favor - not a huge deal.  The problem is, I feel like I do it all the time here, because I am without the comforts of "home" and I have two small children and a husband who is frequently MIA.  Before Japan I never would have considered asking a friend I just met 3 months ago to watch my two kids for the night, especially my 3 month old baby.  In fact, I debated about it for a solid hour before doing so, and probably only did it because she had offered before and then I just happened to run into her at the commissary today. 

I don't know what my problem is, but it's just hard for me... you know, the whole independent woman thing.  I am so grateful for people's help... I feel like I write these thank you notes to people, but I wish there was more I could do to return the favors people do for me on a regular basis.  I just feel like every time I turn around, I am asking someone for something.  The list is endless, ranging from "Can I please borrow your water hose," neighbor I hardly know? to "Can you please watch my kid while I am in labor," random person my husband works with?

It's humbling, really. Apparently I can't do everything on my own.  Which makes me super excited about trying to for 7 months when Tommy is deployed.  Move over, comfort zone...or maybe please just expand a little so I don't feel so bad all the time. ;)

Things I am Thankful For

Most people don't realize what they've got until they lose it. Fortunately for me, life in the Marine Corps doesn't allow you that "ignorance is bliss" mentality. I know full well what I've got, and I'm serious when I say that I am thankful for it every day.  Every day that I go to sleep with my husband by my side - instead of in some Godforsaken desert like Iraq or Afghanistan - I think how lucky I am that he is here with our two beautiful kids.

The past couple of weeks I would say I have had my first case of true homesickness. I think it's the combination of baby hormones, my grandfather passing away, Tommy leaving, among other things. It's funny to me though that we've lived here for 5 months and I'm just now dealing with this, but I guess it affects everyone differently at different times.  All the more reason to remember everything I have in my life and what I am thankful for!

Here are just some of those things I am thankful for:

- The roof over my head.  I've lived in nicer houses... ones without friendly creatures like ants or cockroaches and mold, but I've never been happier in my entire life.  This move to Japan has taught me it's not what you have, it's who you have in your life. After we received our "big" shipment of belongings, I wondered why we even needed this stuff since we had survived for almost 3 months without it all.
- Bladder control.  Overheard in the ICU this weekend by the woman with pneumonia next to us: "Every time I cough I lose my bladder."  I immediately began doing Kegel exercises!
- Our overall good health.  A corpsman at the hospital this weekend told me they just released a man who was on 39 different medications because he was injured in training, life-flighted to Hawaii, and during transfer to Okinawa was accidentally dropped on the tarmac. I forget how many different bones they told me were broken.  Then he waited for 2 months until a flight was available that could take him back to the States in his current medical condition.
- Friends who are family, and family who are friends. I appreciate every single e-mail, letter, card, blog comment, package, phone call, playdate, babysitting assistance, and Facebook comment of support from those near and far that make it seem that I am not quite sooooo far away. If you are reading this blog, you are likely one of those people... so thank you for being part of my life and for helping me along my journey in Japan!