Space 2

I've been meaning to write this for awhile, and frankly it's amazing I'm doing it now. I've gotten pretty bad about planning posts and never getting down to doing it.

This week has also been a weird one. Somehow I contracted a staph infection in my nose, so besides dealing with that, I'm on powerhouse antibiotics that make me feel sick to my stomach all the time. The doctor said he's seen several cases, so I guess it's not uncommon here. Wyatt actually had an infected toe a few months back that required two rounds of antibiotics. Ah, the dark side of life in the tropics!

Anyway, moving back to the real purpose for this post: I asked Wyatt if he wanted to get up really early and watch the space shuttle come back. He got all excited about it, so I set the alarm. When I went in to get him at 0515 (after making sure it was actually going to land, as there is always a chance they will have to change it), he got up right away when I reminded him why I was waking him up. I didn't touch Oscar because he would have been a bear to deal with the rest of the day, and I knew a replay would be enough for him.

It was really nice snuggling on the couch with my six year old while we watched them track the progress of Atlantis through the sky. I'm absolutely not a morning person, and neither are my kids, but sometimes it's worth it to get up for something.

I did feel a little bit badly when Oscar got up later. Their room is right off the living room, and though I kept the TV low, he is easily disturbed and got up just after the shuttle landed. He got all sad that he missed it, so I promised him we'd find it on the internet for him to watch. Luckily, that mollified him.

As it turned out, though, I didn't have to do that because the NASA channel replayed it over and over again that day. How do I know this? Because it's all we watched all day. The boys whipped out their spaceship Legos and played in the living room. The space shuttle Legos didn't come with a whole fuel tank and launch pad set up, so Wyatt built his own out of Duplos.

It's been, what, a week since the landing? They still ask to watch the NASA channel, and are still playing space all the time. I hope they will have the opportunity to be involved in the space program if they are still interested in it as they grow up. Or at the very least, they are able to do something they care about or are good at.

I've found one of the toughest things about parenting for me is this whole schooling issue. We've been spoiled here with a tiny classroom and teacher that is able to teach the kids at their level. Wyatt's gone way beyond what he would have done in a typical kindergarten classroom because of that. After another year of that, I know we're going to have to look to more unconventional solutions for their schooling.

For now, though, we're all learning a whole lot about space.

Space!

Our boys have been very into space lately. When we were in Orlando, we picked up a couple of the new LEGO space themed sets for them. So, now they have their own space shuttle, astronaut, and astronaut van. They've been getting a lot of play around here.

Interestingly enough, our first day in Orlando coincided with the launch of Atlantis. Unfortunately, we weren't paying attention and didn't realize that until after we were there. Because of our lack of planning, and the huge traffic jam to get over there, plus the cloud cover that nearly cancelled the flight (which would have made it much harder to watch much of the launch), we decided to just watch some coverage of it on TV before going on about our merry way.

The last few days, here at home, the boys have been obsessed with the NASA channel. I guess you can watch it on the net, too, but for some reason it's part of our cable package, along with all the overseas military channels (and I do mean all of them). Oliver's been rolling his eyes a bit at it because much of what you see is shots of mission control with no sound - not the most exciting thing to have on. We have, however, been able to see interviews with the astronauts both on the shuttle and in the space station, video from the launch from all angles, including one one attached to a rocket booster that followed it all the way to splash down, and shots of the astronauts floating around doing their jobs. The boys have been fascinated by it all, and astronaut is the vocation of choice this week. Today, we caught a special they made about the shuttle program, and it was really awesome, if a bit sad, to go over the last 30 years.

With all this space stuff, I figured it would be great if we could catch the landing on Thursday. So, I looked it up this afternoon. The time its scheduled to land? 0556 bright and early. Um, yeah, not sure about that...

Because You Just Never Know

I haven't really gotten on here in awhile. I think about blogging a lot, and I even write posts in my head, but I almost never get past that. I'm hitting a bit of a low, and guess it will just take some time to refocus and get over it.

We just got back from an amazing week in Orlando. Probably one of the best vacations we've ever taken. We rented a little condo with three bedrooms for less than $100 bucks a night about 15min from Disney (for orientation, although we didn't go there for Disney World). We saw three movies between us (one Oliver saw while I spent the time at the LEGO store with the boys), went mini-golfing at an awesome pirate-themed place, did Go-Karts, ate ourselves sick at an authentic Brazilian Rodizio, and even managed to fit in a few very needed errands (we took a leaky tire and had it replaced - never flown on a plane with a tire before; good thing it was small). And then there was the visit to Sea World and a few other things thrown in. We weren't bumped once on the flights, and everything went pretty smoothly.

Then we returned, and I realized how much I didn't want to go back. Oliver looked at me and asked if we were done with this duty station, because he had some of the same feelings.

Sigh. It's complicated. In some ways, absolutely. I'm tired of crappy, draconian internet and the utter lack of anything outside of beach combing to do. I've struggled to find friends in what is a rather insular community. Surprisingly, being Navy has marked us even more here than in the States, something I didn't expect. I miss fresh food, and I'm so, so done with having to plan meals around the 4 or 5 things in the produce department (okay, who a I kidding here - it's a produce bin) actually nice enough to consider buying. I miss being able to go to Church (something we also were able to do in Orlando, the first time in a year). I want a library to visit, and a store where we can pick up in five minutes what can take hours to locate online.

But, I also know the grass isn't always greener on the other side, which is why I'm not quite done. When we leave, we welcome back deployment. We lose the weekends and holidays, the birthdays and anniversaries together. I lose the parenting partnership we've developed in the last year and a half, and will have to once again take up most of the family responsibilities. We'll lose having a beach in walking distance from our house and Oliver's work, and will no longer be able to count on having it to ourselves when we go. We'll have to leave behind the coconut palms right outside our living room window, and the silent streets the boys can ride their bikes on without fear.

So, it's never so simple, is it? I'm a girl who tends to want to move when things get difficult, but after a lifetime of doing that, I am aware that you tend to just trade one problem for another, although the trick is discovering which problems you can live with and which are unbearable. (Since I've yet to decide on that one, I suspect it is why I can't think of one place I'd like to settle down in.) We've had some really good times here. I've grown a lot in ways I didn't expect. I'm not going to be sad to leave, but I'm not anxious to go because I also realize I just might be wrong about that in the end. You just never know about a place.

Ten Year Plan

Oliver and I had a long talk yesterday. We went through where we are at financially, where we want to be, what we want our future to look like, and how it all might play out. We've now mapped out a plan that will take us from now until retirement in about ten years.

It's been hard to plan until now. We've been so on the fence about sticking it out in the Navy. Now that we've decided on that, however, the rest is finally possible to debate.

Despite my penchant to do things last minute and my inability to schedule my days effectively, I like having a plan, goals to work toward. It's hard to do things without that. Sometimes it just feels like you're drifting and getting nowhere. The last time we really had any financial goals was back when we were married and facing down 30k of student loan and car loan debt (mostly mine). Two years later, the car was ours, and after another year, the loans were knocked out. We started saving for retirement and living small to save more, but it was more with the idea that we didn't know what was ahead and just wanted to be prepared.

Now, though, we've looked at what he's likely to make in retirement, what we'll have saved by then, and what we have to do now to make that all look better. He's got some career goals, I've got some goals of my own to focus on. Ultimately, my hope is that when his time in the military is done, he can have the freedom to choose whatever job he feels like without feeling locked into another job he doesn't love just to have the money it makes.

So, we'll see what happens. Obviously, there are plenty of things that could go wrong. But it's not worth stressing over those things. We'll just approach our plans again if we have to and adjust.

Just So I Don't Forget About It

On Tuesday, I dropped Oliver off at work, then took the boys to the beach after they had eaten breakfast. I didn't take a camera, and maybe I should have. It was cloudy most of the time there (we've been getting a lot of rain lately, which is fabulous). The water was calmer than I've ever seen it, which meant almost no sand was being kicked up in the waves. There is often seaweed floating around, too, but I didn't see any that day. Just beautifully clear water.

We spent a lot of time tunneling through the sand, building sandcastles, and burying Wyatt per his request. Oliver showed up at lunch time to get a ride home (the building he works in is literally steps from the beach we typically swim at), but we weren't ready yet. So, he took off to find us all some lunch while the kids and I took to the water.

Wow, so much fun! We saw fish, both tiny ones and larger ones as big as my hand. They were white with darker stripes on them that looked kind of like seaweed. Against the white sand, they were almost invisible. We sat still for a long time letting them dart around us.

After splashing around for awhile after the fish watching, Wyatt caught sight of a huge orange starfish sitting quietly a few feet from shore. I was carrying Oscar, as he is both short and uneasy in the water, and he started freaking out when I got closer. Apparently, he saw the starfish as something dangerous. Considering all the things in the ocean that truly are dangerous, I was okay with this even as I assured him we were perfectly safe.

Oliver finally got back with some food. He had to go to the store, then home to assemble a picnic lunch as the one eatery on base was unaccountably closed. (They do that when they can't staff it, is my understanding. That seems to be happening just about every time we want to get something from there lately.) We finished up our perfect morning making sandwiches and trying to keep the boys from getting sand all over the food. Luckily, the wind was much quieter than it normally is.

Then, it was back home to clean up and listen to the huge thunderstorm that rolled in a few hours later. Curiously, it seems to rain here at about 1400 every day lately. Oliver told me one of the chiefs in his office had made a joke about it, so we started paying attention to it. He was totally right, and we now look at each other and laugh when the clouds blot out the sun once more around 1330.

The one bad thing? The internet went out during a huge clap of thunder. Who knows why, but it was another day before it was fixed. I'm crossing my fingers it will stay fixed for a good long while now.

Internet, Welcome Back!

We got the internet back today, and I am so happy. Last Wednesday, someone somehow cut power to the wifi tower on our street. It took us a couple days to finally figure out who the right person was to call, and by the time it was actually looked into, it was Friday afternoon. Nothing happens here over the weekend. Nothing.

So, we had to wait out the weekend, then see how long it would be until it was repaired this week. Happily, it only took until this afternoon. Ironically, I was walking back from dragging both kids and our laptop to the playground so I could take care of some pressing business when I spied them finishing up the repair. Ah, well, it did get 'em out of the house (sometimes a huge feat - between the massive biting flies, the heat, and bright sun, they won't go out unless they have friends, we are entertaining them out there, there's running water involved, or we give them no option - or bribery; that sometimes works).

The net is my contact with the outside world. A few days of no internet has all of us pacing around this place. Luckily, I got a new book in the mail a few days before the net went out, so I had something to do when I'd otherwise be online. I am very sure, though, that we'll be ditching the cable when we move back to the States. There really is nothing on. I'm so glad I don't pay for it here.

House Buying

Every time I turn around, there's another article online about house prices being depressed. I knew it would happen; I mean, at what point do houses get so unaffordable that everyone stops buying them? I had no idea the banks would end up being such a huge part of that problem, but the high prices made us not even consider buying when we lived in WA for fear of what would happen there. Plus, we are military. The last thing we have wanted is to complicate our lives with a house that could be a huge pain to sell last minute.

I have to admit, though, my resolve has wavered a bit looking at home prices today. Especially since we will be at our next duty station for five years. I brought the topic up with Oliver the other day, thinking he might be warmer to it because it was more me than him that said "No way" to buying before. He surprised me, though, by kicking the idea to the curb immediately.

I was a little disappointed at first, but I'm thinking now that he's on the right track. We will be better off if we rent a house that's less than our BAH. I'm determined to find a place we can paint, but otherwise, I don't mind living in someone else's house. Ultimately, I value mobility over staying put. And why on earth would I want to do anything more than call the landlord when something breaks while Oliver is out to sea? That is not a stress I want in my life.

So, no houses for us until retirement. And even then, we might pass if we can find something more interesting. Like a job overseas. One can always dream...

He Loves Me, This I Know

I love getting flowers, and all those traditional expressions of love. There are no florists here, so it's been a long time. Yesterday, though, Oliver gave me something better. We were walking home from Wyatt's graduation, and I took one bite of the chocolate cupcake I'd picked up on the way out. It tasted strongly of mocha, which I detest, so I tossed it in a nearby garbage can and bemoaned my decision of what flavor to pick. Oliver told me I should go back and get another one (we are literally a five minute walk from where it was being held, and we'd only gone halfway home). I told him I'd thought about it, but I was too lazy to go back. On hearing that, he turned around without saying another word and walked back to get me a cupcake. I watched his departing back and realized once again how much I love that man.

One of the first things that attracted me to Oliver (other than his dashing good looks!) when I met him was his willingness to jump in and do things when someone needed help. He doesn't hem and haw over it, ignore it, or try to get out of it. When someone asks, he just does it. Even if that desire is as small as a cupcake for his wife.

I love that man.

Traveling About - Spouse, or No?

I have a friend here who plans on spending most of the summer off-island. She's going to visit family, and travel around in between. The catch? Her husband won't be along for most of the trip because the Navy isn't so willing to hand out three months of leave. Hopefully, he'll join them for a few weeks along the way, but that's it.

Listening to her outline her trip for me, I was just a tiny bit jealous. I'd love to get off island for three months, and spending it traveling around? Even better. (Yes, we do like living here, but it's an island. There's a reason they coined the term "island fever".)

Leaving Oliver home, however, is not a happy plan for me. I'm very aware that we'll be back to a deploying command at the end of next year. Even though I could really use a break from here, I am not interested in a self-made break from my husband. So, I'm going to stay here, and we'll take a couple week long vacations this summer.

I'm also looking at it this way: when he starts deploying again, I'll be traveling with the kids on my own every time. I plan on taking a decent trip in the middle of every deployment, now that I'm over my fear of flying alone with them. Plus, they are a lot older now and much easier to take along. Having a trip in the middle of deployment helps so much in breaking it up. I wish I'd done it more in WA.

Eh...

I keep coming here with the intent to post and never finish it. So, I'm just going to ramble a bit and get off when I'm bored. Or someone interrupts me and I have to help them.

Wyatt is almost done with school. He's only got three days of actual school left, due to Memorial Day this Monday. Then, beach party Friday morning and graduation ceremonies that evening. And, we're done! I'm pretty excited to have him home all summer. We've missed having him around.

In order to keep the boys busy, as well as prevent brain drain this summer, I've got some things planned. We've got a set of Lego Robotics to delve into, a package with the beginnings of a trip around the world (basically, it follows two kids as they visit ten different countries - we'll get a package a month with a new country, but I'm also going to take the world map and plan some activities that will introduce them to other countries not covered), origami from an awesome package sent by a friend in Japan, and some other things.

I am doing this also because I've challenged myself to see if I have it in me to homeschool the boys. I am pretty sure I won't be sending them to public school when we go back to the States for a lot of reasons I don't feel like getting into right now. So, the only options for us are finding a good charter school or a private school we can afford, or homeschooling. Homeschooling is kind of a last resort, but I still think it is potentially better than public school if I can pull it off effectively.

So, I have to find that out and summer here is a great opportunity for that because of the lack of resources. It will challenge me to really work at coming up with stuff, so when we return to the States and I have the ability to go to the library (although, there is a reading program run by the Navy we're going to participate in in July), put the boys in sports, get music lessons, etc., plus museums and all that, it will hopefully seem easier. We will see.

In other news, I had a medical issue this last week and ended up having a blood test, EKG, and chest x-rays all on the same doctor visit. It was interesting because our dispensary is tiny. One doctor, a corpsman, and two nurses, plus a receptionist, run it. I remember the first time I needed to take one of the boys there. I called to get an appointment, and was told to just come down if I had the time. Turns out, no one needs an appointment. It's more like an emergency room, although you never wait more than a few minutes before you can see someone. When I had my tests done, I sat there and waited for the results with the corpsman and nurse. It was a weird thing to watch my x-rays come up on the screen and sent to the doctor who was down the hall to take a look at!

And in case you wondered, I'm fine. Got a clean bill of health. Just some freak thing that happened. The nurse said my heart looked very healthy, so guess the running is paying off.

And that's about all I got. Have a great weekend all!

Fire and Drought

It's odd to think about drought when you live on an island surrounded by water, but it happens. This has been a bad winter for us. Almost no rain, and everyone's "lawn" (mostly a collection of stiff grasses and weeds) is dead unless they water it. We have a nice little green circle going on our back yard because of the sprinkler I use to keep our garden alive.

This was more impressive a couple weeks ago - it was literally a green circle in all dead brown grass.

I remember our first winter here was full of freak, short lived thunder storms. I remember having to brave one for a dental appointment one time. I couldn't find the umbrella, so I bundled Oscar in the jogger with its weather shield, put rain coats on Wyatt and I, and then we ran as fast as Wyatt's five year old legs could manage. It's maybe a five minute walk, but we were soaked when we got there. I went inside long enough to find out the flight had been diverted due to high winds and the hygienist wasn't there yet. I walked back outside to sunshine.

This winter, though, nada. Every time we get a little shower, I pray it keeps raining for awhile, but it never does. The last couple days, it was all clouded over, and we even got some thunder, but the rain stayed away. I seriously could not have picked a more opposite place to live weather-wise from Washington State if I'd tried! I can fully appreciate a nice cloudy day here.

All this drought has lead to some problems, as you might expect. Andros has a lot of fresh water, and actually imports quite a bit of it to Nassau, so I'm not worried about that, but all the dry brush has meant a lot of fires. Every few days, I catch a whiff of smoke and know something is burning somewhere. About a week ago, I left to go pick up Wyatt and nearly choked on the smoke outside. There's very little in terms of fire fighting equipment in the communities here, so as long as homes aren't threatened, they let them burn.

We could really use some rain.

Hurricane Season is Almost Here

I'm in the middle of project today. I've got to go through our emergency backpacks and cycle the food, plus figure out what else needs to be put in there. I never really prepped them adequately, so it's going to be a bit of a job. It does, however, need to be done. Hurricane season is nearly here.

Luckily, the Bahamas is rarely hit, but it happens enough that I know we need to be prepared. While there is a chance we will have to weather it here, most likely we would end up evacuated if it was going to be a direct hit. Or at least, the boys and I would be sent off-island. Oliver would probably have to stay through it.

So, keeping that in mind, I've had to prepare a little differently than I would have before. I've got two backpacks, one for me and one for the boys' things. I have a separate bag for Oliver. I'm packing not only food and the usual emergency things, but with the idea that we will be leaving. So, things like our rarely used laptop are being thrown in, and I'm going keep a list of what would have to be thrown in last minute so we aren't scrambling too much if an evac order is made. His is also heavier on things like a camp stove and fuel than our backpacks are because of the different circumstances we will face if things go bad.

Here's the thing, though - emergency preparedness overwhelms me a tad. Not because I'm scared about whatever may come and this makes me think about it, but because it just seems like this huge job that I can't wrap my head around. There are a million different lists about what you should have, and they are all a little bit different. Then there are issues like, how can I possibly pack my kid's favorite toys when they are constantly used?

I'm determined to make myself finish, though. We got lucky last year and only moved to a condition 4 once, which basically meant we had to pick up outside things and stow them. The hurricane completely missed us in the end. Who knows how it will play out this year. I'd prefer to be overprepared than caught scrambling.

Separation Anxiety....Really?

I caught a show a few days ago on TLC that had a spouse redesigning a house while his wife and kid was put up in a hotel for three weeks. Was kind of fun to see his take on what he thought she'd like, but I really eye-rolled when they kept bawling over how they were going to be apart for three weeks. Really, three whole weeks? Do people actually get that worked up about such a short time apart? Three weeks strikes me as a little vacation where you get to do your own thing for a bit.

Clearly, my military lifestyle has changed my outlook on many things.

P.S. I feel the need to add that my marriage has always been about time apart, starting with right after we were engaged, so I have never not had that part of my life (until we moved here, however, but the damage has been done!). So, I just don't have the same perspective at all.

In an unrelated note, I spent some time perusing creative kids' bunk beds today. I've always wanted to do our kids' room up fancy, but have yet to live somewhere where that was possible (we might have done so in WA, but by the time Oscar showed up, we really didn't have any real time living there to make it worth it). So, when we return to the States, it will be a great time to do so. We'll be wherever we land for five years, so I can see doing it then. And they are both old enough to have opinions on what they want. I've got a whole space theme worked out in my head, complete with a black magnetic wall with glow in the dark star magnets, and a space shuttle bed, but we'll see if they agree by the time we move.

Osama Bin Laden is dead, ya'll. And it was the Navy Seals that took him down. Hooah!

Car Rental Return Woes

Update: I just heard back from AVIS and they have a record of someone else renting the car we had the same day we returned it. So, they should refund our money soon. I'm really glad I caught that charge, and relieved it was so easy to resolve!

We spent nearly a week in Florida a couple weeks ago. We had a rental car through AVIS for the whole time we were there. I returned it on time, even spent extra on a hotel that had a shuttle that would take me to the AUTEC terminal the next morning so I wouldn't have to keep it any extra time. Everything seemed fine, and I saw the guy who returned it check our odometer and tell me all was well.

Fast forward to this week, when I noticed a charge on our credit card account that was more than we'd initially paid for our rental (we booked it through Priceline, which is SO much cheaper than anything else we've tried) from AVIS. So, I sent an email disputing the charge. They came back and told me that we'd supposedly returned the car four days late, so we were being charged for the extra days plus late fees.

Wow. I was a little blown away by that. We've rented a lot of cars since we've moved here and this is the first problem we've had. The return was exactly like all the others, too. I don't really blame AVIS in particular since we've used them before with no ill effects, but clearly some paperwork was not done or filled out incorrectly. I'm waiting for them to get back to me about it, but we've been debating how to prove we returned it on time. We didn't fly commercially, so don't have a plane ticket to prove we left the area, but Oliver thinks he can get a letter from his command stating we returned the day we did. Clearly, we have no need of a rental if we weren't even in the country, right?

Anyway, just thought I'd pass this on with a tip - if you are renting a car, make sure they actually returned it for you. Otherwise, they will sock you with big charges. This is kind of aggravating, too, because car rental companies almost never give you anything when you return your car. They just look at the paperwork, check the odometer, and send you on your way. I guess I can't let that be it next time...