Day 189 / 8 To Go: Heading Home...

Posted by: Cris

As the days keeping ticking away (single digits...can you believe it?), things keep getting busier. There is so much to get done before we leave next Friday. Today was our final annual meeting with our adoption agency for a post-placement report for Juneau. After that we headed over to Melody's house for a full afternoon (and evening) of playing. Yes, Nova is talking on a cell-phone while she poses for this picture...there must be some of her mommy in there after all.

God bless Aunt Beth for including cooking making as one of the activities for the day. Tim and I just kept our distance. I don't know how well these 3 look like they can cook up goodies but it is clear that they can cook up a whole bunch of mischief.

Chef Juneau

Everbody took a turn with the rolling pin.

Cookie decorating time

This whole plan for the girls to spend the evening with Melody was hatched so that I could attend our end of the year get together for our 4 graduating PhD students.

Jen, Rachel, Rachele and Kaori - I love you all and will miss you more than you'll know!

When I got back to Tim and Beth's at 10:30, the 3 little girls were all peacefully sleeping together in Melody's bed...ABSOLUTELY NOT!

One little girl was nearly asleep but was being kept awake by the one little girl who was being the major instigator for keeping everyone awake and the 3rd little girl was realizing how much crazier her life would be if she had to try to go to sleep with another person in her bed every night.

Figuring out which "little girl" is which should be pretty easy if you've ever met Nova, Juneau and Melody (okay, that pretty much covers the answer in order).

The highlight of the day was during dinner when Emilie was finally able to get back in communication after arriving in Kyrgyzstan. After sitting back down at dinner after talking to Emilie tonight and hearing that she was finally out of a combat zone, I felt like a big weight had finally been lifted after 6 months. In just a short time she will be on her way back to U.S. soil and is scheduled to arrive in Columbus, Georgia on Sunday morning, just before noon. A wonderful way to celebrate Mother's Day! If only we could be there to welcome her off the plane but we will leave that to others to hug her for us.

Day 188 / 9 To Go: A Special Anniversary...

Posted by: Cris

Three years ago today was one of the greatest and most defining days of my life...On a beautiful Sunday in Hawaii my little Nova girl was born and immediately wrapped me tightly around her little finger.

Who knew three years later how much this little bundle would love running up and hugging her "Uncle Tim!!"

My little girl is growing up quickly. Today, I actually felt really bad that it was her birthday and we didn't tell her (see previous posts for that explanation before you start judging). So, I took them to the McDonalds with the Playland. As she always does, Juneau was playing around and taking forever to eat. When Nova finished eating her food, I told her she could go play but she said she wanted to wait for Juneau...and she did. She absolutely ADORES her big sister.

There has not been a day in the last 3 years that I haven't just been in awe at how much this little girl has changed my life and how much I can't imagine my life without her. And I still just completely melt EVERY time she says: "Daddy, I'm a princess and you're my prince!"

Day 187 / 10 To Go: Aloha Grandma!!

Posted by: Cris

Today was the girls' final day with Grandma before she headed home "because Grandpa needed Grandma to come home and take care of him." It is unbelievable how fast the 2 weeks went by. Having Grandma here was beyond awesome and thanks to her, I got SOOOO much done that I might be ready to leave for the summer come next Friday.

The girls enjoyed one final cooking project with Grandma this morning...Chocolate brownies for daddy to have when he came home from work. Add this to the list of pictures where we catch Juneau making a hilariously goofy face without trying.

Adding the chocolate chips because the Giardelli brownie mix isn't rich enough on it's own.

Come down here and put your pants on!!

Before heading to the airport, we made one last trip with Grandma to shopping play.

Finally it was time to go to the airport. The girls loved helping Grandma get her bags out and checked in...

Reassuring them that they would see Grandma in less than 2 weeks was about the only thing that convinced them to let Grandma go get on the airplane.

The reassurance that Aunt Coral would be here in a few days was also helpful...

At home tonight, I had 2 grouchy girls at bedtime without Grandma here to lay down with them and put them to bed. It will take several days to deprogram them then Aunt Coral will come and start spoiling them all over again.

In closing, 2 awesome videos:

1. A cute video of Nova and Daddy play "stack hands" at Moe's on Sunday.

2. In honor of my wife's imminent arrival home, this video that without a doubt could have just as easily been made with her as the star back in 1993. I love my wife more than anything but yes, by her own admission, she was this big of a dork.

Day 186 / 11 To Go: Early Mother's Day

Posted by: Cris

It is hard to believe our time with Grandma is almost over. If every 2 week period during this deployment had gone as fast as the last 2 weeks, we wouldn't have hardly had time to miss mommy before the six months would have been over.


This evening, amidst a severe storm that apparently sparked a couple tornadoes here, we headed out for an early Mother's Day dinner. The power was off at our house and apparently half the island when we left home so we just drove until we found electricity...which eventually landed us clear on the other side of the island near our old neighborhood so of course, we ate at Auntie Pasto's.


The other bonus was that we were near the Leonard's truck which meant Grandma got to partake in malasadas for the first time ever. The girls waited patiently all through dinner...


finally, the payoff:

Sports highlight of the day goes to Alex and Lyndsey Matus who PR'd in the mile at their track meet and dropped to sub-6 minutes for the first time at a blistering 5:54...an unbelievable pace for 7th grade! Alex and Lyndsey finished in the same time, just a half step apart as they crossed the finish line to take 1st and 2nd place in the event.

Day 185 / 12 To Go: Bad Timing

Posted by: Cris

The girls and grandma finally made it home last night about 11:30. The girls were out cold and I just tucked them in on the couch and we had an impromptu version of our weekly slumber party.

So, today I finally have the pictures grandma took yesterday:

There were plenty of pictures from their morning playtime in the pool out in the yard but since they just ended up playing in the pool in their undies, I've removed all but the least embarrassing pictures:

Juneau practicing her innocent look:

The girls and grandma all decked out in their Hawaiiana wear for the Luau.

Juneau enjoyed the parade of canoes...

Juneau looking "local"

Playing games and getting tattoos

Grandma and her girls.

Today we just did our normal sunday shopping and threw in a trip to Moe's so grandma could share the experience.

Because it was only 5:00 p.m. here in Hawaii when the news came down, I sat and watched the coverage for quite awhile of our nation's best having tracked down and killed one of the worst people on the planet. Unfortunately, I would have been happier if this had happened about 3 days from now so that Emilie was safely out of Afghanistan before some of the world's stupidest people decide to retaliate by strapping bombs to themselves and trying to kill more Americans. Please continue to pray for her safe travels out of Bagram (hopefully in the next day or so) and on to Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan and pray for the continued safety of our soldiers as there will likely be an uptick in violence this coming week.