The Hackworths

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…

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.

We picked up The Mister last night from the air station. We’re all thrilled to pieces to have him home again. Well, except maybe Ryan. He thinks it’s pretty cool to have another person in the house, and another boy no less. But he still is a little shy at times. Last night when Justin first came over to us, Ryan kept saying in my ear, “Mama, is thunner!” when Justin would talk to him. I’m not worried, though because I’m certain that by the end of next week Justin will be his new favorite person and I’ll just be that Mommy person who wipes his hiney.

In other news, our baby girl started the 1st grade today. I cannot stand this another second. I keep insisting that she stop growing up on me so fast, but she just laughs and tells me she can’t help it. Before I know it she’s going to be moving away to college or something.

Anyhow, I just wanted to let everyone know that Justin made it home. I’ll be around here and there, but not necessarily blogging. Keep your eyes on the Flickr stream because y’all know I love to take me some pictures.

I get asked a lot how I do this. How can I stand being married to a man who has been gone for 2 of the nearly 6 years we’ve been maried? How do I take care of 3 kids alone without going crazy? How do I handle all of the housework/yardwork/bills on my own?

This is how I do it. I treasure every single second that I have with my husband. Yes, he’s gone a lot, but lucky for me he’s home more. I talk to him as often as I can when he is gone and I comfort myself with the knowledge that he will be home again soon. And when he does get here, it’ll seem like he never left except the kids will be a little taller and smarter and I’ll probably have a few more grey hairs.

I get my kids up in the morning, I dress them, I feed them and I love them. I do this all day every day like my life depended on it because it does. We talk about how much we miss Daddy. We talk about all the fun things we’ll do when he gets home and all of the fun things we’re going to do while he’s gone. We don’t stop living and enjoying things. I have bad days with them just like every other parent.
As for the housework, sometimes it doesn’t get done every day. That’s nothing new, though. The yard work gets done by me when I have time, by the neighbors when they take pity on me, and by a professional when I remember to call them to come by.
Do I sometimes feel like it’s unfair? Sure. Do I wish he was here? You bet. Would I trade our life for anything else? Absolutely not. I’m not stronger than any other person. I have bad days when I’m so frustrated I just want to scream. I’ve been known to raise my voice. I have thoughts of running away on vacation, but I’m proud of what he does and I’m proud of what we do here at home while he’s gone. So how do I do it? I just do.

It’s getting down to it, and I think it sucks. The Mister had to pack up all of his gear last night for an inspection this morning. There is a pre-deployment brief next week. All of these little things are making it seem more real. Just last week it didn’t feel as if it was really going to happen. It was just something that was there in the back of my mind. Now it’s right in front of me and it’s all I can do to keep from walking around bawling like a 2 year old who isn’t getting her way.

There is a going away party tonight. This seems quite ironic to me. I certainly don’t want to celebrate the fact that my husband is leaving to go to a dangerous place and possibly be shot at. Or worse. I don’t want to celebrate the fact that he’s going to miss the birth of our son and then miss the first 6 months of his life. I don’t want to celebrate the nights ahead where the girls ask where daddy is because they haven’t gotten their bedtime hugs and kisses. I don’t want to, but I will. For him.

The Mister got promoted today right at 12am. I was there for it. Thankfully, Lori came over and passed out on the sofa so we wouldn’t have to take the girls. I wasn’t too enthused to be up at midnight, but I missed the promotion to corporal since he was in Japan when that happened. Here’s proof that I’d rather have been sleeping:

*Picture removed.

Now to plan how to spend the extra moolah…

I’ve been debating all morning about wether or not to post about this, but I realized I could probably get a lot of great feedback from you guys about the situation. You see, we found out yesterday that The Mister has been selected to go to The Sandbox. He’ll be leaving very soon. As in he’ll be leaving well before the baby gets here. This freaks me out. The only person I have out here is Lori. I need more people than that. Someone has to watch my girls while I’m in the hospital, and I could really use someone in the hospital with me. Going home would be the best option, but how do I go about that? If I just go and don’t actually move out there, we’re looking at a 3 month visit. I can’t leave my house that long. Someone has to mow the yard. Plus, I’m a person who needs privacy and I’d really want to have our own place if we were there. If we move out there it will cost a fortune and we still have a ton of stuff to buy for the baby. I think it’s time for one of my mom’s famous pro/con lists.

We have keys. But we have no furniture. TMO will deliver our things on the 26th. I was a little disappointed that it was going to take so long, but I’ll get over it. I’ve got the cable man coming out and I’ve got the phone set up to be turned on. I have to go sit over there in an empty house all day on Friday because The Mister’s stuff from Japan will be here before our stuff from Oklahoma. Ah, well. We don’t mind an extra week with Lori. We won’t be moving far when we do, either. When we were here the first time, we were next door neighbors. This time we’re backyard neighbors. It’s a shorter walk now than it was living next door. I might try to take some pics later and show everyone how tiny it is. At least it’s a three bedroom and we’ll finally get our sofas.

We are no longer homeless! Now we have to make an appointment to have our things delivered. I’m so excited I can’t stand it! We have an actual real life address!