Mama On The Move

"Ben, it's time to start waking up." Grumbling, shifting nosies come from beneath the sheet. Ben wakes up in stages. Ten minutes later I go back in his room. "Come on, Ben. Time to get up." He shifts around and manages to unpin himself from between the dogs and lies there blinking owlishly at the light. Ten more minutes later I go back in again. "All right Ben, it's time to get up." "I am up." "No. You are awake . You are not up . There's a difference." "Well, I'm not comfortable, so that should count."

The week before Kerry deployed, we had some friends come to Hawaii from their home in Alaska. They were staying at the Marriott Ko Olina Beach Club and they asked us to come swim with them one afternoon while they were here. Wow! This is one amazing hotel! I think this is my favorite hotel in the world now, and I didn't even make it inside to see what the rooms are like! I'm thinking that when Kerry comes home, we may make this our "second honeymoon" location! This is the view from the pool to the beach. You can walk to the beach in about thirty seconds or you can swim in the pool and still be able to see the ocean. The pool is not like any rectangular, ordinary pool you've ever been in. The entire thing looks like a lagoon with separate pools connected by waterfalls, tunnels and slides, all formed to look like natural rock outcroppings. This is one of three hot tubs in the area we were in. The waterfall splashing into it made it seem like we were on a tropical...

Any one who knows me well, knows I love Ace of Cakes . In fact, when I started this blog, my third post ever was about how much we all love Ace of Cakes. It is such a wonderful show! It's clean, it's artistic, it's funny. It's amazing to see what they can do with cake! To check out some of their cakes, look at their Charm City Cakes website! You'll be amazed! Imagine then, my surprise when my neighbor told me that the Ace of Cakes crew is here right now, on this base, two blocks from my house, making a cake for their show! She asked me if I wanted to go. Uh.............Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!! The Ace of Cakes crew came to Hawaii to film two shows. They made a cake for the cast and crew of the television show "Lost" which is filmed here. And they made a cake to honor the soldiers here. It looked like most of the cast/bakers/decorators of the show came. I had thought maybe just one or two of them would come, so it was great to see so many of our favorites! Th...

***************************************** The furniture will come Tomorrow! Bet your bottom dollar that Tomorrow! I'll have a chair! Just thinkin' about Tomorrow! I'll have all my stuff Tomorrow! It won't be so bare! When I think of my house With my bed and my sofa I just shake my broom At the empty room And I saaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH! My coffee pot will come Tomorrow! My TV and towels arrive Tomorrow! Didn't have to wait 'til May! Tomorrow! Tomorrow! My household goods Tomorrow! They're only a day away!!!

I have a few moments (and 15 minutes of Internet use that I just bought!) to write. I am unable to navigate the international phones so I will try at our next stop. I knew it was going to be tough on Katie. I was good until she started crying. Then it hit me. Then we were all crying. However, I told the kids that it is fine to be sad and show emotion. Of course, Ben and Emily are stoic! Bangor, Maine was really neat. We arrived at around midnight and I was surprised by the reception. There were about 30 people lined up to meet us once we entered the airport. This group was made up of retires, spouses of active duty military, and normal citizens of the area. They had set up a reception area with free food and drinks and free cell phone use for service members. It was really nice and refreshing. I spoke to an older gentleman named Gaynor who has been doing this since 2005. He informed me that over 800,000 service members heading to or returning from both Iraq and Afghanistan have cycled ...

Kerry should be on the plane now. I haven't heard anything to the contrary. He doesn't have his cell phone any more (it's been given to Emily) so if there was a hold up of some sort, I don't know about it. He had to report in at midnight. We told everyone to take a nap so that they wouldn't be as tired and grouchy since we would be out way past our bedtime. Katie really took to that idea and slept for three hours. Emily, who can usually nap every day, was only able to sleep an hour. I tried to nap, but was too keyed up to sleep. Ben flatly refused to try (and yes, he was the grouchiest of us all at 2:00 this morning). Kerry brushed the girls hair for them since he won't be able to do it for a while. This was really a job that I pawned off on him because I was busy, but they all enjoyed it. As I said, he had to report for formation at midnight. Being the "Type A" personality that he is, we arrived 45 minutes early. No one else was there. Surprise! He...

I was singing the song "She's Gone" by Hall & Oates today. Katie was listening to me and she said, "I don't really understand that song." I tried to explain. "Well, it's a guy singing that his girlfriend left him." "Why did she leave him?" Katie wanted to know. "The song doesn't say." "Maybe it says something at the beginning of the song about why she left him," Katie offered. "No, honey. I've heard that song lots of times, and it never says why she left. But he must have done something wrong for her to leave him that way." Katie mulled this over a bit and then decided, "I think at the beginning of that song they should have a girl's voice saying, 'You....have.... failed .'"

The two Emilys went wandering around the neighborhood to talk and explore without all the icky grownups around. Kerry had gone to Lowe's when he got a call on his cell from The Other Emily. "Your Emily is stuck in a tree and can't get down," The Other Emily told him. "I'm at Lowe's. I can't do anything to help," he told her. "We don't know your new home phone number yet so we couldn't call our moms." So I'm at home and I get a call from Kerry telling me Emily is stuck in a tree one block over from the house and I need to go help her. Of course I grabbed the camera. She had gotten a boost from The Other Emily to get up into the tree in the first place and then discovered she was a little too high to just jump down. There were no branches to step on, they had all been cut off by our friendly neighborhood gardeners who hate all things that are green and grow. It took a little maneuvering , but we finally got her down. "Yo...

Monday is the Chinese New Year. This year will be the Year of the Ox. There were big celebrations going on in Chinatown so we headed down there this weekend to check it out. The streets were really, really crowded. There were many vendors selling food and souvenirs, but we couldn't get to them without fear of losing each other in the crush. We just glanced at everything as we went by. I want to go back down there on a normal day when it isn't so crowded and check out the stores and markets. We found a spot to watch the parade and it happened to be right in front of a produce market. The prices were excellent, I just wasn't in a produce purchasing mood. I can't usually watch a parade while hanging on to my carrots and green onions. The food they were selling smelled heavenly, so we broke down and bought some grilled corn on the cob and egg rolls. The parade got started with with firecrackers and confetti showers and one obnoxious teen girl near us who felt the need to ...

Emily is not the only child in our family who can cook. Ben made hamburgers for lunch today!

From someone "in the know" - To those neighbors who are thinking they need help... RUN! Run fast and far away... until Monday. Signed, A former neighbor who's futon was never the same...

Kerry read my blog post about building the shed and wrote this response: I must protest! The shed looks fantastic (if I may say so myself) and the flooring is expertly built and solid. I actually used both a power drill and a power saw during the construction of this shed and the flooring. No small children or pets were injured and the pieces fit together nicely. The neighbors all flocked around and stared in awe as I wielded the power tools with panache and grace. They actually wanted me to come build stuff for them, but alas, I have to take a long trip on Monday and will be unavailable for a while. I asked them to e-mail me their requests and I would carefully consider which ones to complete upon my return. Cheers, The much maligned but manly, power tools trained husband

One of our more pressing problems in our new house is a lack of storage space. We have tiny closets, and no garage. There is no place to put Christmas decorations, winter clothes, baby clothes that I can't bear to get rid of, the lawnmower, bicycles, etc. So we got permission to put up a shed in our backyard. The shed we bought came in four very large boxes which we (meaning Kerry) had to pick up and bring home in four separate trips since our little Honda couldn't hold more than one at a time. It looked like it would be really easy to put together. Sort of like giant Legos. Alas, this was not the case. First, a base had to be built. Now I'm the first to admit - Kerry is an amazing husband, remarkable father, and incredible soldier. I could sing his praises all day long in all these areas. But handy with a hammer? Not so much. We have a standing joke that every bookshelf in our house has at least one shelf on it upside down . And it's not just a joke, it's really t...

We interrupt this winter to bring you greetings from today in Hawaii: We now return you to your regularly scheduled January, already in progress.