The Hackworths

And I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon. A brief recap in photos…

We went on vacation to Tokyo:

We went to a Hiroshima Carps baseball game:

I cooked without burning the house down (and it was good!):

I visited a Buddhist priest with a friend:

We gave up brushing our hair for the summer:

We watched fireworks:

We (and when I say we, I mean Justin) Sumo’ed with the neighbors:

We (this time when I say we, I mean I) harassed the dog:

Fun things we’ve done without photographic evidence include lots of movies at the theater, lots of playing outside, and lots of flower planting. I’ll actually take photos of that when my solar lights get here. Can’t let the opportunity to catch the flowers still alive pass me by.

Things still left to do this month…

1. Meet Nikki and her gang when they move out here to be close to me. (Okay, really the military is moving them out here, but whatever…)
2. My mom comes for a visit! Yay!
3. Celebrate Lauren’s 8th Birthday
4. Lots of sightseeing with mom

My bad.  Again.  Moving on.

So, here in the land of Iwakuni we have limited American shopping options.  And when I say limited, I mean we have The Exchange.  The Exchange hates me.  I want some tiki torches, so of course, there are none at The Exchange.  I proceed to my default second option, Target.com.  It can never be as good as stepping in to a brick and mortar Target and getting smacked in the face by the smell of popcorn and seeing all of that shiny, pretty red, but you take what you can get.

So, I find some tiki torches online.  I like them.  I put them in my virtual shopping cart.  I go to check out, but no.  There will be no shipping of the tiki torches to APO/FPO addresses.  WHAT?!  So, frantically, I check Amazon, Lowe’s, and Home Depot only to be shot down again and again.

I thought about taking my neighbors’, but it’s an awfully small base and I’m sure I’d get caught.  I could ask The Exchange if they’ll be getting any more tiki torches this summer, but I’d have to talk to 95 people before one of them would finally give me the wrong answer, so I’m stuck checking in every few days to see if some miracle has occurred and they actually have something people want to buy.  Besides Roxy purses, because they usually have an awesome collection of those.  Until I see them anyway…

It’s been a busy sort of week here at Hackworth Headquarters. Since the tooth fairy was so busy last week, the girls and I decided to head out to the Â¥100 store (aka Daiso or The Hundred Yen Store which is the equivalent of a dollar store in the US) to spend her yen.

While we were out, we also decided to hit Tokai (the craft store) and generally just have ourselves a girls day out. I got lost. Twice. But then I realized I wasn’t really lost, which was a huge relief, let me tell you. In reality, I found a quicker and easier way to get to that side of town. It was so nice because I am the Queen of Lost. I grew up in a city laid out on a grid. I went to college in a town laid out in much the same way. Super simple to navigate, and still I would occasionally get lost.

Then we move to Pensacola, FL. I seldom drove. Not only was I about 20 months pregnant in the middle of July and barely able to fit behind the steering wheel, but it was just easier letting Justin chauffeur me around. Fast forward three months to us moving to Jacksonville, NC where there is absolutely nothing grid-like about their streets. I got lost our first night in town looking for the Wal-Mart. See? Queen of Lost.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to call Justin from a pay phone or gas station and ask him to find me on Google Maps.

The point of all of this? Yeah, I’m not sure. Except I have no pictures of the kiddos for you since we’ve been so swamped this week. But I got that cute little bucket at Daiso for (you guessed it) Â¥100 and the pretty purple flowers the next day at You Me Town for Â¥398. All in all a cheap ($4.29) way to make me happy and give me something other than my kids to show you.

So, we’re all still alive and kickin’. I can’t believe I’ve neglected this place for so long. I have no excuse, so instead I’ll just jump right in with the latest.

Lauren turned 7 a couple weeks ago, then promptly lost some teeth. Soccer will be starting soon and she’s very excited to start the 2nd grade. She’ll more than likely be in a multi-age class again this year since it worked to her advantage last year. She’s growing like a weed and already she’s nearly as tall as my shoulder.

Kate also celebrated her birthday back in May. 5 years old and so ready to start kindergarten already. She’ll be playing soccer this year, too. She’s enjoying Japan so much. Every time we leave the base all of the kids ask for sushi.

Ryan turns 3 this month. I am seriously confused about where my baby went. He’s done with the whole potty training thing. No more diaper changes for me! We’ll be putting him in Yochien (Japanese preschool) in September. If my poor little Mom heart can take it. I’m excited to have the day child free to do whatever, but at the same time I’m a little… I don’t even know. But what am I going to do with myself all day?!

We’ve been spending lots of time at the beaches and running around town. We do some of our grocery shopping in the Japanese grocery stores to get ourselves out and experience some of the culture. We love many of the local restaurants, too. It helps me keep my mind off the fact that I miss Target. And Old Navy. And Chili’s, Starbucks, and lots of other places, too.

All in all, we’re enjoying our time here. And I’ll try not to stay away for so long.

Currently we’re on day 3 of “Justin is Missing Potty Training Again and it is SO Not Fair”. I know it’s been a while since I’ve been over here and I feel bad. Really I do, but life is hectic right now. There’s a lot to talk about so here goes.

As you might have gathered, Justin is not home. He’s gone on a little TDY (temporary duty) that has put him back in the states and it completely sucks. It might be for 2 months it might be 4 months. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely positively ecstatic that he’s not back in Iraq, but we’ve only been in Japan for a month and a half. It’s only been 6 months since the last absence. The kiddos and I are seriously ready to have him home for a long time.

Miss Lauren, my little super achiever, got citizen of the month for February. I’m so proud of her. She truly amazes me on a daily basis. She’s only in the first grade and she’s already been to 3 different schools, yet she manages to make friends quickly (she’s already wanting to call them on the telephone) and adjust better than I could have hoped. She loves going to school and I’m so thankful that she is nothing like me in the friend making department. I’m a total spaz in person.

Kate is also doing very well. She’s loving gymnastics. I can’t believe her birthday is right around the corner. She just doesn’t seem like she should be 5 yet. Since she didn’t get to go to preschool out here, she’s very excited about going to kindergarden in August and I know she’s just dying for the warmer weather to hurry up and get here so she can go to the park and make friends.

I’m trying to potty train Ryan these days. I hate this part of my job. I’d rather get up in the middle of the night to crying babies than potty train. He’s doing okay, but we’re definitely a long way from being done with diapers.

As for me, I’ve got a big thing in the works. Still waiting on something that should’ve been here this week before I can go ahead with it, so until I get that I don’t want to announce it and jinx myself. But it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long, long time.

Our house looks like it might finally sell. If this deal falls through, I’m totally going to cry. Oh! Last bit of news, since we had to leave Tessa behind with Justin’s parents we decided to get a kitty here. It’ll be easier to take a kitty home than it would’ve been to bring one here. We found a wonderful sweet guy named Smokey-san to join our family. He’s a 3 year old Russian Blue and just as cute as can be. I haven’t been able to snap a photo of him yet because he’s still a little shy around the kiddos, but he keeps me company at night.

I think that’s about it. I better go check on Ryan and make sure he didn’t pee all over my rug. Again.

Tonight is our last night in the states.  I’m excited and nervous and completely stressed out.  Are we going to make all of our connecting flights?  Will every single piece of baggage we check get lost?  What if we lose a kid?!

Lauren cried a little when I tucked her in bed tonight.  She doesn’t want to leave.  She’s had such a great time with all the grandmas and grandpas and aunts.  I tried to entice her with promises of new friends and old, but she’s so sensitive and I’m just not sure it helped.

Tomorrow is going to be an early day.  Our flight leaves at 8ish unless we can get a standby spot on the earlier flight.  Then it’ll be over 24 hours before we actually make it to our final destination.  I don’t know how long it’ll be before we have access to the internet, but it’ll be as soon as absolutely possible.  I cannot wait to get back to regular life.  Living out of suitcases and not having a place to call home is really getting to all of us.  See you all on the flip side.

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been a month since I checked in here. Things have been crazy. We’ve been visiting family, shopping for Christmas gifts, and spending more time in a vehicle than should be allowed. So lets back up a bit.

We had a great Thanksgiving at Justin’s aunt and uncle’s house in Columbia, SC. We went to the zoo and saw all of the Christmas lights at night. I did a bit of Black Friday shopping with cousin Becky and scored some awesome deals. Justin went hunting and scored himself his very first deer. It was a good visit and we’re so sad that we won’t get to do it again for 3 years.

We made our way out to Oklahoma and we’ve been here since the 26th of November. We celebrated the 2nd anniversary of my 25th birthday where I scored a new lens or two. I’ve obviously been a good girl this year.

The kids are all enjoying this time with family so much. I can’t believe how fast the time is flying by, though. Oh! I had the pleasure of meeting up with Miss Brandi from Baby or Bust. If she ever emails you and asks you out for drinks, do it. She is the sweetest, funniest person. It doesn’t hurt that she’s an OU girl, either. We sat at The Mont in Norman for 4 hours.

Friday, I had the pleasure of taking Lauren to see The Nutcracker. Thanks to Pepaw, we had awesome seats. I’ve seen it at least 6 or 7 times and I never get tired of it. Lauren really enjoyed it, too. She kept asking to peek into the pit to see the orchestra, which is one of my favorite parts, too.

For now, that’s about it. We still haven’t sold our house yet, which is stressing me out, but I have faith that it’ll go soon. Other than that, we’re just spending time with family and eating as much Taco Bueno as I can. Hopefully it won’t be another full month between updates.

Moving is a lot of work. Moving to a different country triples that work and makes the days fly by. Between passport photos, parent teacher conferences and appointments I don’t think we’ve had one day on our calendar that hasn’t had the square filled with things to do.

This weekend is our last one in this house. We’ve got a million things to go through and tons of planning to do. We’ve got to separate our things into what we’re packing to take on our trip to Oklahoma and subsequent flight across the Pacific Ocean, what we’re having express shipped out there, and what is going in the big shipment of all of the rest of our stuff. TMO (the movers) will pick up the express shipment on the 9th.

Next weekend we’re headed up to another Hackworth clan member’s house for a chicken stew and general lazing about. It promises to be a good, picture filled time. Then on the 13th and 14th the rest of our stuff gets packed and sent off. On the 15th we close on the house and on the 16th we’re off to Columbia, SC through Thanksgiving. Anyone want to go Black Friday shopping with me?

So that’s what is going on with us right now. There’s all the usual issues going on such as area clearance packages being turned in but not getting submitted, but nothing that has had me pulling out what little non-grey hair I have left.

There’s only one word to describe our lives the past few weeks. Ca-razy. If you keep up with us at Flickr, you’ll know that we’ve got orders to Japan. The amount of paperwork this move is piling up probably destroyed a small forest. There are passports to be applied for, screenings to do and today is dentist day.

The easiest thing out of this whole ordeal has been selling the house. After only one week on the market, we got an offer. A very good offer. We close November 15th and then we’ll be homeless until we get to Japan.

Now here comes a really long paragraph about what we’re going to be up to for the forseeable future. Today is dental and passport photos then over to the overseas screening office to drop off all that paperwork. This weekend is shopping for winter clothes and things we need to get so they can be packed and shipped with the rest of our household goods (HHG). These things include, but are in no way limited to, a corded phone, extra long shower curtains and some bicycles for the kiddos that are staying in the box until we get there. Also getting a new laptop since mine crapped out on me a week after Justin came home. Next week is decluttering and trashing of items no longer wanted/needed. Next weekend are soccer tournaments then Halloween. Before we know it, TMO will be here to pick up our crap, we’ll close on the house and trek halfway across the country one last time.

It actually feels weird to be moving away from here. I think I might miss it a little. A place kindof grows on you when you live there for 6 years, huh?