Day 148 / 49 To Go: Aloha Aunt Wallie & Oma!

Posted by: Cris

Friday started with a beautful morning sunrise:

Juneau and Nova wanted me take a picture of them "real quick" while I was on the way out the door for one more morning of Japanese anatomy.

Nova was still trying to wake up:

I missed lunchtime today but made it home in time for the girls to come upstairs after nap andget all excited when they see me waiting for them.

Tonight we headed over to Alyssa's house for her 4th birthday party.

We got there exactly at the same time as Melody and gang pulled up. As always, excitement ensued.

As Beth and I were talking about the coming months tonight, I am reminded of yet another reason to be very unhappy with the Army and it's inability to follow through on commitments...when Juneau and Nova leave here in about 7 weeks, it is likely they won't see Melody again for at least a year. This is going to be heart breaking for everyone involved, especially my little Juneau who loves her cousin Melody SOOOO much...makes me sad for them.

The girls had a great time playing in the yard and Nova loved the motorized four-wheeler Pinata time - the birthday girl goes first

It was at this point that my camera battery died and I had forgotten to bring my spare - it's as though I'm an inexperienced blogger.

So, the rest of the pictures are courtesy of Tim's phone which did the best it could in the fading light.

Juneau lighting up the pinata:

Birthday cake and ice cream for the four princesses:
FINALLY! The moment Alyssa had been asking for the whole time: Presents!

This party alone kept Melissa & Doug in business for another month.

Tonight was the last Friday night outing with Aunt Wallie and Oma. After 6 months here in Hawaii, they have to return to Alabama on Tuesday. Aunt Wallie was remarking tonight how quickly the last 6 months have gone for her but how slowly she's sure that same time has gone for me waiting for Emilie to be home. Yes, time is very relative :)

I know my girls will really miss Friday afternoons at Melody's house playing with Aunt Wallie and Oma. We all wish they could stay and can't wait until they decide to move to Hawaii for good!

Day 147 / 50 To Go: Do Not Watch This Show!

Posted by: Cris

The girls and I had quite a busy day. This morning was full of general rowdiness and play time around the house.

Juneau came up to me like this (pictured below) and the following conversation ensued:

"Look at me daddy"

me: "yeah" (unsure what she is pointing out specifically)

"I'm doing what you do with your glasses"

me: "yeah, you're right, I put my sunglasses on my shirt like that when I'm not wearing them"

"Yeah, you always do that with your sunglasses...I do that too"
The playing predictably led to Play-Doh. Juneau called me over because she wanted to show me that she had made me with her Play-Doh (I don't think my hair is that long though).

Juneau's next Play-Doh project was making this cool watch:

Finally around lunch we headed out so I could stop and get the part I needed for the air conditioner in my truck. I knew when I bought the truck that the air conditioner didn't work and talked the guy down $500 based on knowing I'd have to get it fixed. Thanks to the extended contacts I have through my friend Sean (who knows an expert for any occasion), I was able to work through the process of diagnosing and fixing it with just a few pointers from his (and now my) mechanic. I had never tackled an air conditioner before but it was surprisingly easy. Pump some ultraviolet dye in there, go out at night and using a little blacklight flashlight look all around the system for the dye, figure out where the leak is, depressurize the system to take the piece off, replace it, refill the system...and now I have an ice cold AC in my truck. The girls will be bummed though becuase they have actually love riding around in my truck with their windows down. In the end, the fix only cost me $100 for the part and about 1 hour of my time...definitely came out ahead on that one.

Since putting up the fence in the yard, I had noticed (and my neighbor mentioned it to me also) that the chickens were not nearly as bad in our immediate area...much fewer rooster calls in the morning and those that are around are definitely further away now that chickens aren't coming directly into the yard.

The last week or so though, this hen has been finding a way into the yard with her chicks in the late morning. I haven't been able to figure out if she is just flying over the fence while the chicks squeeze through the mesh or what.

This afternoon, the girls and I went out to go play and work in the yard awhile to I let the dogs into the lower yard. When I opened the gate, the chicken was just outside the fence at the back corner of our property. Denali took off at absolute full speed toward the corner and even though there was a fence in between, quickly was within a couple feet of the hen (and I assume her chicks were nearby based on the ruckus that ensued. My neighbors were out on their lanai at the time and watched the whole thing and we all had a great laugh. My neighbors are crediting my dogs with creating a quieter environment in the neighborhood.

Finally, do NOT watch this show...unless you are prepared to cry like a baby: I had seen several weeks ago a preview for this show that was getting ready to start on Lifetime network. This show chronicles homecomings including surprise reunions with unsuspecting children and families of soldiers coming home from deployment.

Today, I happened to see on the channel guide that an episode was coming on later so I made a point to catch it. Obviously, our current pending reunion and my anxiousness for this last stretch to be over makes this hit a little closer to home but still, I'm not ashamed to say I watched the whole hour with a tear in my eye the entire time.

If you don't get Lifetime, you can watch clips or full episodes on the show's website here: Coming Home. Take a box of tissues with you when you check it out!

Day 146 / 51 To Go: My Princesses

Posted by: Cris

After 2 days of nothing but stay-at-home fun, I actually had to spend a somewhat long day running around and actually working. I ended up in the anatomy lab for the afternoon stumbling through more Japanese vocabulary and realizing I might actually want to devote the time to using our free Rosetta Stone resources through the military and see how much Japanese I can learn next year while I'm sitting here in Hawaii without my girls.

While I was away today, apparently Juneau and Nova were in full princess mode:






The drive home was an adventure as they were warning of a high wind advisory up in the mountains (which I have to drive over everyday on the way to and from work). Sure enough, coming up the hill toward the tunnel I thought I was on the verge of getting blown off the road.
And even though it had been sunny in Honolulu, when I came out the other side of the tunnel, it was quite the different picture.

Just so everyone doesn't think EVERY day is perfect here in Hawaii, the normally beautiful view from my lanai looked like this when I got home at 5:00.
But, even that was kind of cool as I could sit and watch the wind blowing the sheets of rain out of the cloud out over the ocean and rolling up the side of the mountain.
When the weather is TOO perfect ALL the time it actually gets a little boring so last night and today's wind and rain has been a bit enjoyable. :)

I haven't given a report on Emilie for quite awhile: She is doing well and alternating between crazy busy work days and slow, almost boring at times, off days. Things have been relatively quite for the most part and her business is luckily due to stupid run-of-the-mill sickness, injury, etc. and not anything catastrophic. The first people from the unit that will be replacing hers will start arriving soon and then the slow process of swapping out will commence. Unfortunately, Emilie is in the last group out and not the first so it still seems quite a ways away until she is headed home. But, the days keep ticking down slowly but surely and eventually we'll get there. My target at this point is 30...I think at that point it will be a small enough number that it will seem like we are actually getting close...only 21 blog posts until we get there.

Day 145 / 52 To Go: "I'm going to turn INTO yogurt!"

Posted by: Cris

This week so far is reminding me of those days in Colorado when I was home all day with the girls without a ton of other work concerns (I've been bad and ignoring my work projects the last 2 days) so the girls and I have just been hanging out and having fun.

Aunt Coral's last package also included the dreaded Play-Doh. Play-Doh is just a mess waiting to happen.

Juneau was proud of this carrot she made with her orange Play-Doh today. It looked remarkably like a carrot too. The Play-Doh mess prompted me to actually get on the internet today and order more Flarp...it's much less messy.

Nova still loves wearing the dinosaur mask from a few weeks ago at the Bishop museum.

"I'm going to pretend to be a pteradactyl"

I love my sister

After a trip to Costco and a nap...it was back to the Play-Doh:

Dinner included rice and apparently Nova thought Elmo would enjoy the rice as much as she did.

Nova's favorite new phrase:

I don't know where she learned it but any food that she really is enjoying and chowing down on is included in the following: "If I eat too much strawberry yogurt, I'm going to turn INTO strawberry yogurt" (throw in a raised voice inflection on "turn INTO" and you've got it.) It totally cracks me up.

Well, the stars are starting to align for being back together with mommy. As of today, we officially have plane tickets for Aunt Coral to come out here and then for all 4 of us to fly back to Ohio to see mommy.

Day 144 / 53 To Go: Spring Break Should Be 3 Weeks!

Posted by: Cris

For the first day of Spring Break it was great to play with Juneau and Nova and relax a little bit. We started with a beautiful morning - I don't know if it is from the lunar perigee but the low tides have been SUPER low lately. We got to have breakfast with mommy...Juneau munching away on an apple as usual.

Nova recently rediscovered her front pack carrier for her baby doll

Kisses...

The highlight of the day was busting out this Ohio State Jenga game that Aunt Coral sent in a care package a couple weeks ago. The girls have no idea what Jenga is but just love the "Buckeyes blocks" to build with.

We spent well over an hour sitting and building all sorts of things

including what I think was Juneau's attempt to build a replica model of Stonehenge - seen here:

Juneau concentrating super hard on her task:

While the girls napped, I went down in the yard and let the dogs run around in the lower yard while I hacked away at the weeds on the hill for awhile. They had a total blast. At one point, Denali dove into the weeds down the hill and for a moment was so literally wrapped completely up in vines that he was actually stuck. He kept thrashing around and eventually came bounding out of the mess.

It had been a REALLY long time since we had done a thorough grocery shopping so things around here were very depleted. So, we headed to the NEX for dinner and groceries. By the time we made it home, both girls were wiped out and ready for bed...and so was dad.

Looking forward to more fun tomorrow (and probably a trip to Costco).

Day 143 / 54 To Go: Things I Missed Today

Posted by: Cris

While I was back in the lab all day today expanding my limited Japanese vocabulary as it relates to anatomy (it's funny because I know how to say thoracolumbar fascia in Japanese - cyo yo kin maku - but I couldn't begin to figure out how to say "where's the bathroom), here's what Juneau and Nova were doing:

Juneau made mischief of one kind and another in her wolf suit...


I know, my girls are adorable. I'd argue with you if I could but you just can't.

By the time I got home, I was wiped out but super glad to see my girls. I'm so glad I'm on spring break this week with limited work duties and can spend lots of time with Juneau and Nova. I couldn't believe how much I missed them this week...makes me dread next fall/spring.

We had a couple left-over ice cream bars that my friend Bret had brought over last night to watch the fights and the girls thought it was the greatest treat ever.

Juneau especially is so funny about stuff like this because 30 minutes after she has been done eating her ice cream bar, she will say something like "That ice cream bar was really good...Thank you for giving us those ice cream bars." So sweet.

Then it was off to bed for a Toy Story storybook story (of course)...and soon it will be off to bed for daddy as well. I'm looking forward to laying in bed in the morning and waiting to hear those footsteps coming down the hall and (lately it's been Nova) one of them peaking into my room and coming running to jump in bed with me once they see me laying there. A good cuddle and probably an episode of Dora will ensue.