Dark, dark, dark!

I am amazed how dark it gets so early here. When we landed at O'Hare it took us so long to go through all the motions anyway that I didn't really notice when it got dark.

The second day I went to Great Lakes Naval Station to check in for my temporary duty while I do my final admin for leaving the Navy. After doing my business on base, I visited the Navy Exchange at probably 4:30 or so. When I came back out at 5:00, all was dark. I called my father on my cell and asked him who turned out the lights! On Guam it never got dark earlier than 6:00, and that only in the wintertime. I drove to my sister's home through the darkest night - so many cars on the road, so many cars, period! All of them dirty and covered with salt.

My kids are constantly amazed at the darkness too. When we lived on Guam we did dinner around 6:00 and had them in bed during the 7:00 hour. They almost never were out after dark. In fact, that was a special treat when they were out after dark because they could see the moon and the stars very clearly. Now it's dark even when we just go to my sister's house for dinner. They don't get how early it really is.

We're still adjusting to the major time zone shift after arriving on the mainland two days ago. My oldest slept all night last night and was the only one of the family to do so. My wife and I were wide awake at 1 AM (that's 5 PM on Guam). Both the boy and girl twin woke up during that hour, and we were fine with that because we couldn't fall asleep anyway. The girl walked into our room looking for mommy just a few minutes after she convinced the boy to go to sleep, bribing him with a cup of water (his favorite nighttime treat).

I can see how seasonal affective disorder can affect people!

7 Quick Takes Friday - Stories About Moving Week

Now that we're safely back on the mainland and the crazy stories of the past week are over, I can finally blog about them!

--- 1 ---

Our oldest daughter does not have pressure on her brain. Of chief concern for us this past week was that she was vomiting at night, in her sleep, for no apparent reason. At first we thought it was connected to her cough or fever that she had early last week, but then those went away and the vomiting was still there. Worse, it wouldn't wake her up and we would walk in to discover her with it at night. This concerned us greatly and led to a last minute doctor's visit with her pediatrician.

The doc ordered a CT scan just to make sure nothing was wrong inside her head, since the day afterward we would be boarding a plane and flying across two continents for 20 hours. The scan was clear, so she determined she is suffering from acid reflux. Why our daughter has that, we don't know and didn't have time to find out. We just threw a prescription at it and will solve the overarching problem when we arrive at our final destination.

--- 2 ---

Tumon, Guam is really like a Japanese resort town. I didn't realize this until we actually stayed at a resort hotel there during our last few days on Guam. When you are staying in your neighborhood with all your other military neighbors, you forget that the other chief industry on Guam besides the military is tourism, mostly geared toward the Japanese.

Taking a late night fitness run made me realize how tourist-oriented that area is. Many of the ads on buildings are written in kanji, and many happy Japanese couples and families were out for a late night stroll. I saw very few Chamorros or other locals there, except working at the businesses. Gave me quite a different perspective.

--- 3 ---

It is nice to no longer be a player in the island's political madness. Without going in-depth about my job, it suffices to say that I was involved daily in the island's bizarre political crises (more on that later). When I was driving to return the Beast to our friend on my last night on Guam, it was nice to not care how Senator Rector's corruption scandal would turn out, or how the military buildup might drastically change life on Guam. No, it was relaxing to just drive with the windows down and smell the island salt air one last time and enjoy wearing shorts and flip flops.

--- 4 ---

Our littlest boy was very brave at the water park, but probably won't be so brave again. The resort where we stayed the last week had an incredible water park which included a magnificent water playground for the kids. My wife and I were so amazed that our littlest boy climbed through all the water obstacles on his own, getting water all in his face and barely being able to see in the process. He cries most of the times when we bathe him. He usually makes bath time miserable for everyone else.

But there he was, climbing right up to the top of the structure and jumping in the tube waterslide. Of course, what he didn't realize was that I was still running over to catch him at the waterslide when he jumped on it, so when he landed in the shallow pool at the end, it took a second or two before I was over there to lift him out. He has a set of very prominent, large eyes, and those eyes were wide with surprise by the time I got to him, quickly lifting him out of the pool.

He didn't go down the slide again after that.

--- 5 ---

Our twins make adorable elves. Due to the last minute trip of my daughter to the doctor, and us having only one loaner car, no cell phones and having to figure out the day on the fly, I took our twin children to my last day of work. All that was really left was for me to do my final checkout interview and grabbing my orders and records, but these were things that absolutely had to happen before I could transfer. I brought the twins into my work and politely asked my former employees if they would watch them while I did my final checkout.

It was a slow day, so they gladly did so. Of course, what ended up happening was that someone had perfectly sized elf hats and elf shoes for a set of two year old twins. The girl looked cute and all, but the boy looked like the real deal. You'd swear his ears were pointy. He also had on a red shirt to go with the red hat and shoes, and the shoes had jingle bells on them that tinkled every time he stepped. He had this scowl on his face, like he was suspicious of what he was being made to do but going along with it anyway.

They were paraded around the various offices by one of my former office-mates, who got them to follow him by feeding them chocolate. He brought them into the lobby where I was waiting to be seen, and the command held an impromptu photo session with their two little elves in front of the Christmas tree. Had I not been so stressed out about my daughter's well-being and getting everything done for the last day on Guam, I probably would have enjoyed it more.

--- 6 ---

Cutting food into cool shapes really is entertaining to two year olds. The twin daughter had a children's meal for dinner on the flight from Japan to the mainland US. Of course, this flight originated in Japan, and so did the food. While she didn't like all the Japanese childrens' food, she did enjoy the veggies that were cut into different fun shapes.

She especially enjoyed the pickled red ginger cut to look like an airplane. I've never seen her pick up a piece of food and pretend that it was flying like an airplane, but she certainly did it with this one. I was grateful for anything that would keep her from getting upset about being strapped down for an 11 hour flight, and it was very amusing to us both. US airline industry, take note!

--- 7 ---

Three and a half is our magic age for airline travel. I always wondered what the age would be for our kids to be tolerable on long airline trips. I think we found it. Our oldest daughter finally entertained herself through most of both flights, either by napping, looking at books or magazines, drawing, looking out the window, and talking (of course). When the twins were freaking out about being strapped down on yet another flight, our oldest was very tolerant of my ignoring her to make sure one of the twins didn't choke themselves on their seatbelts during a tantrum. All this without whipping out the DVD player. It was amazing, and I finally feel like I can take her on a trip around the world and do it sanely.

Sure, she didn't really want to carry her very small backpack of books, but she would when I told her she needed to "support the family." For the most part she was a team player. Even with her and the twins and their occasional freakout sessions, I still feel like we did better than the family that had one kid flying over from China that we met. Their kid only slept an hour or so during the 11 hour flight, whereas our three kids slept probably 3/4 of the flight.

 ***

All this being said, it sure was nice to show up at the baggage claim on the mainland to the waiting arms of grandparents who just made things so much easier. We're finally spending the night back in my homeland of Illinois. This is the first time the twins have ever left the eastern hemisphere and the tropical climate, but the warmth of our family will make up for the lack of warmth in the air.

The Plan

We’re in the waiting game now. I’m phasing myself out of a job at my current command and planning our move; what to bring with us on the plane, what to send as an “express shipment,” and what to put in storage until we find a new place to live.

I managed to finagle a good deal out of the Navy for my detachment from active duty. When stationed overseas we’re encouraged to complete our final outprocessing paperwork at a Navy base on the mainland. Since I’m from Illinois and much of my family still lives there, including my parents and sister, I arranged to complete my outprocessing at Great Lakes Naval Station north of Chicago. While I’ll have to report in for work through the week, my wife and kids will have more time than they have ever had with grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins.

Coincidentally, my time at Great Lakes will also coincide with the Christmas and New Years holiday – nice.

Once I’m done at Great Lakes I have 31 days of terminal leave where I will be using up my remaining vacation days before I am completely released from active duty – but I will have no active duty obligations. We’ll be visiting our friends who live in southern Illinois and then flying out to our new home of Denver, Colorado where my wife’s parents live. We’ll be with them until I can find a job with a steady income and get back on our feet.

Inaugural Post

A quick introduction: I’m happily married and we are the parents of three children – Melissa, Josephine (Jo) and Lukas. Jo and Lukas are fraternal twins. All three kids are younger than four. In this blog I'll be using pseudonyms for many of my family members, including my immediate family.

I’ve been stationed with my family on the island of Guam in the Western Pacific as a U.S. Naval Officer since February 2007. The last time any of us were back on the mainland U.S. was October 2007. The twins are young enough that they have never been on the mainland outside the womb. We’re about to experience a huge transition in our lives. We’re all moving to Colorado and I’m leaving active duty service to start a new life as a Navy Reservist and civilian.

I view this as a time of great renewal for us as a family. Having lived on an isolated tropical island for years, we’ve adapted to the lifestyle. Everyone knows everyone else here, traffic is light, local cuisine is awesome, and the weather is enviable. However, there are drawbacks – airline flights are expensive and long, food is expensive with limited selection, and a two hour road trip takes you right back to where you started, just to name a few. We’ll have a fresh perspective of America as we come home and we start a completely new life outside of the active duty military. This is our story – our Mainland Voyage!