Photos from Hawaii

Here are some of my favorite shots from the past month in our old home in Makakilo and from our 10 day stay at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. As you read in my previous post, we had such an incredible time. But by the end of the stay, we were READY to get back to the Mainland! Oahu surely is beautiful, huh? Some of my favorite shots were taken on an hour long mai tai cruise my girl friend, Melanie, and I took together.

Our Fun Boy

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Lazy Day at the Pool

Pools in Hawaii are just not like the pools anywhere else in the United States. This pool - just several miles down from our house - has a sandy shoreline with water that doesn't get more than 1' deep, salt-water with chlorine to sanitize it, fruity drink service (or you can brown bag it like we did!), and a playground right next to it. Stacie and I took our boys there today and had such a good time. I really love that girl and baby David is becoming like a 2nd son to me - we both discipline each other's boys without a second thought! That's how you know you are truly friends!

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Moving Purgatory

Sheer exhaustion caused by the Air Force moving process has begun to set in. I go to bed entirely too late thinking of all we have to do and all we have going on and I wake up entirely too early thinking of all we have to do and all we have going on. We are officially down into the last 4 weeks of living in Hawaii and all of the sudden, our lives have become so insane.

We have our packing date which will take 5 days before it is all packed and shipped the 5,000 miles to Louisiana, we have our tickets off island for the end of the month but they will only take us as far as Dallas (thus, we have to buy tickets to D.C. then to Alabama), we still have to make arrangements to get both pets off island in 2 weeks (thankfully Maria's going to my mom and dad for 2 months and Piper is going to my sweet sister-in-law, Annie and Dan's brother, Todd for a while in Pennsylvania and then to Dan's parent's home in Virginia... wow, lots to coordinate), we got a date to ship our Camry off island and that will take 30 days to get to Dallas (150 miles from where we are moving), we are starting to advertise our Pathfinder, I am having to organize ALL of my make-up, toiletries and things that the movers won't pack so I can pack them myself and avoid throwing hundreds of dollars worth of good stuff away, we are taking inventory of our valuables along with photos in the event one of our shipments gets stolen (like it did when we left South Carolina for Hawaii... not cool), am I frustrating you yet? If not, just email me and I can go on and on with other things we have facing us!

Moving from and to Hawaii is for the birds; no one looks forward to the process. It is so far from the Mainland and there is so much to do - it is considered an "overseas assignment" for us. On top of all we have going on, we are going to Maui in a week so we have my friend Stacie housesitting (gotta organize for that trip), we have many dinners with friends planned so we can see everyone before we leave, going away lunches and dinners, and, brace yourself...Dun, dun, dun: NOAH BEALL HANGING ON MY LEG AT ALL HOURS OF THE DAY!

If you will reference my previous post "Trying Not To..." you will see that my stress levels have only increased. I just want to shut down, go to bed and wake up in our new home in Louisiana with everything unpacked and organized. Pray for us!!

1 Month Left

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We still have no orders but now that Dan's major exercise is over, we are down to the business of MOVING. We literally are down to 4 weeks... with no pack-up date at all. However, we did get a date to ship our Camry off island to LA yet we still have to sell the SUV (boo - but that means new car when we get to LA: yay!). We also were able to book a luxury suite (chargeable to the Air Force!) at the Hilton Hawaiian Village for our last 2 weeks on island. That will be awesome to look forward to since we ship our animals back to the Mainland mid-June and then ship our car and pack up our earthly belongings in a matter of 3 days.

We also are going to Maui the first week of June and cannot wait! We are staying in an incredible resort there for 3 nights/4 days, are going to spend major amounts of time on the beach and go to the Maui Aquarium. In addition to our luxury resort experiences in Maui and Oahu, we are going to be spending a lot of time on the beaches for Dan to surf, as well as spend a ton of time with our dear friends - all of which we will miss way too much. Thus is life...

Noah is at the perfect age for us to really enjoy him and being in Hawaii for one more month. He loves to go to the beach, play and really enjoys being outside here. And for how hard he plays, he sleeps just as hard! I have been worried because he's been sleeping upwards of 15-16 hours a day total; but I think it is because he's got a huge molar (his last of the 1 year molars) popping through and he's been growing so much. This growth spurt has taken him well into 2-3 year clothing and almost size 7 shoes (that is HUGE for 15 months). So, 2 naps a day + 12-13 hours straight at night: BRING IT ON!

Here are some sweet photos from the past few days.

Trying not to....

... pull my hair out.

I don't think unless you have been in the military and have suffered the lack of organization that occurs when one is required to move that you can possibly understand the amount of C-R-A-P that goes into a military relocation. This is something that we military families face every 3-4 years and while it is extremely exciting - and the life we have chosen - it can be extremely frustrating. When it is from an "overseas" location such as Hawaii, the details get even more tedious.

One thing we know to be certain is that we are moving from Hawaii in June and that we are moving to Louisiana. However, we don't have orders yet and orders are those crucial documents that authorizes all the pieces to a military move to fall into place. Without orders, you have no authority to book out processing appointments, flights, lodging, or even an appointment to have movers come to your house to pack up all of your earthly belongings.

If I went into the list of what we have to do between now and when we arrive to Louisiana, I can promise it would stress you out. But here I am on a Wednesday morning, unable to do anything since we don't have orders and so I blog about how frustrated I am.

Here's a small list of what we have facing us: we have to sell our Pathfinder because the AF only pays to ship one car so we chose to ship the Camry. That means that we will have to deal with all the mess that goes into selling a car (parking it on a lot, bill of sale, test drives) and then when we sell it and have shipped the Camry before we move, we will be minus any transportation. We have to decide what we want to go into the suitcases that we will live out of for the next 3 months before our stuff arrives to Louisiana. We have to book flights and make arrangements for our animals on both ends of the ocean. We have to get flights off the island booked for me, Dan and Noah as well as then buy more tickets so we can go to Virginia to visit Dan's family after seeing mine in Alabama. We have to stay indefinitely in hotels here in Hawaii once our stuff gets packed and shipped and then stay with family then stay in more hotels once in Louisiana because we have to buy a house AND a car when we move there. On top of the logistics of moving, Dan is in the middle of a huge exercise with work that affords him zero out-processing time so we are in limbo even longer till he's done with that at the end of the month.

I wake up every day and stare into my freezer wondering what in the WORLD am I going to do with all of our food that we can't ship, or our cleaning supplies, or lotions, make up, toiletries... that's a lot of money down the drain when you can't pack up all the liquids that you have stocked up on in the last few years!

And moving is quite emotional. I have several dear friends here on Island that I will struggle saying goodbye to in June. I am not good at goodbyes at all... especially when you know you will likely never return to the place you have called home for 3 years. We love our church, too, so that will be especially painful to say goodbye to the friends we have there.

I struggle with not stressing out too much about things and I think I am getting much better than I used to be. I know that inevitably, this will all work out. But the minute details that go into moving - and moving with a very active 15 month old - is so daunting to me. I am having to wake up every day and make a choice to not worry. So please pray that I can continue to remain calm and just get everything done that needs attention.

And doesn't it seem sometimes that when you have so much on your plate, everyone begins asking more of you!? Please pray that our friends and family will also be sensitive to the amount of stress we are undergoing in these next few months. It is a big responsibility making sure you say goodbye to all your friends and spend enough time with each of them while also trying to schedule visits with both sides of the family and accommodating everyones busy schedules so we can make sure we see everyone when it is good for THEM as well. Not to mention the amount of expenses that are facing us in this move! Plane tickets to visit families and friends and shipping animals halfway across the world are NOT CHEAP!!! AHHH!

I didn't mean to stress anyone of you readers out at all today. But this is what is going on with our family right now and as each day comes and goes, we are one day closer to the moving process that we are not ready for. There is a family across the street moving the exact same time we are (end of June) and they have already had their belongings packed and shipped as well as their cars. They are living out of their suitcases and in hotels as tourists till they move. I just told Dan last night that I am going to the grocery store each week and acting like we are never leaving this place!!

Prayers and encouragement sent our way are much appreciated by this frazzled mom.