A long time ago...

It's been almost a year since I've blogged. I guess I don't have that much going on. Things are pretty much the same. Ryan and I were living in Ewa Beach which was on the west side of the island. To get anywhere of importance, we always had to plan our trips around traffic. However, avoiding traffic wasn't always possible. Ryan always hit traffic to and from work. Without traffic, it would take 30-35 minutes to get to work. With traffic, it would take 60-70 minutes to get to work. So traffic made the trip twice as long. Plus, if I needed to go to the grocery store, I had to make sure I went early enough so I wouldn't hit that after work traffic. Also, I was killing ants on a daily basis when we lived in Ewa. The homes were so old that ants lived in the walls. I bombed the house several times, I left ant traps out, I had raid out and ready constantly. Nothing kept the ants away. The airplanes flying over head were also something of a bother. A one hour show would take me almost 90 minutes to watch because I had to pause it so many times because the airplanes flying overhead made it impossible to hear.
So, because of all of these issues, we moved into navy housing. Now everything is super close. It's amazing how much gas we save. The place where we live is so nice. They're like 5-6 years old. We don't have ants ruining our food, there aren't airplanes flying constantly over our home, and it takes Ryan maybe 15 minutes to get to work. The only thing not spectacular about this place is the yard. The yard is super small for my dog. I can take him out front and throw his toy, but then there are neighbor kids who want to come over and throw the toy. I don't let them. I probably come off as the mean neighbor lady. Oh well. I don't want Niko biting a kid because he's trying to grad the toy from their hands. It's a lawsuit waiting to happen. So I'll just avoid it. We moved to housing in December. It wasn't but a week after we moved, we went home for a visit. My poor dog thought he was being abandoned. We had our friend Rick stay here and take care of our animals. At some point he had to leave, and a guy from Ryan's boat was nice enough to take care of the animals until we got home. Niko wasn't as familiar with the guy from Ryan's boat. So he had the nervous poops. Basically, he had diarrhea everywhere. It was awful. My house smelled like poop for days. The thing about housing is they have carpet in some of the living space. And of course, instead of pooping on the hard surface where it would have been much easier to clean up, Niko crapped all over the carpet. Man, what a mess. We got it cleaned up. I don't really see any stains from it.
So we haven't been here very long. We won't be staying that much longer either. In November, we will be moving to Guam. I've heard the navy housing in Guam isn't as nice as the housing in Hawaii. In Hawaii, if you have 2 children, you get a 3 bedroom. The same rules don't apply in Guam. So I think we'll be living off base. It will definitely be an adventure moving to Guam. We plan on visiting other countries while we're living there. It will actually be cheaper and closer for us to visit other countries than it would be to visit home. We're hoping to see what Australia is like. Ryan's contract is up January 2014. I'm not sure if we'll have a chance to visit more than one other country.
I had a goal of getting pregnant before the end of last year. Thankfully I was able to achieve my goal. I am now 24 weeks pregnant. We found out we're having a boy. We are both super excited about it. I told Ryan he could chose the name. Of course, I get to veto if I don't like the name. I have a name picked out. Ryan thinks he has plenty of time to pick a name. Boys don't understand how important it is for us to have a name before the baby is born. I want to know now. Ryan is so last minute. He'll pick a name the day before he's due. Since Abrielle was a c-section, I plan on having a repeat c-section. I really don't see the point in trying labor and it failing all over again just to end up getting a c-section. This pregnancy is almost exactly like the first one. Before we found out if I was having a boy or girl, I was certain it was another girl. I was wrong. I was disappointed, not because I didn't want a boy, but because I hate being wrong. The day after we found out, we went to Babys-r-us and spent gobs of money for our new little guy. It will be nice once the crib and dresser are put together. Then I can put the bedding out and prepare the room for my new little guy. While we're still living here, I'll probably keep the spare bed in his nursery, especially since we'll have company come when he's born. Once we move to Guam, I'll probably just keep the bed stored away so he can have a room all to himself. I really doubt we'll get any visitors in Guam. It is way too expensive.
In fact, we don't plan on visiting home once we move to Guam. It takes about 23 hours to fly from Guam to Fort Wayne. There is no way I'm making that trip with 2 babies. Guam is 9 hours from Hawaii. I'm already dreading the 9 hour trip. I think we might try to make a trip home before we move to Guam. If we don't, then it will be over 2 years before we see all of our family and friends. That's a long time.
After our last trip home, I'm in no hurry to make another trip home. If you're not in our situation, then you don't understand why I say that. Not only is it super expensive to fly home every few months, but the flight is long. It's even longer when you're traveling with a baby. Then once we get home, we're expected to go see everyone. Interesting. I think we made the biggest effort by traveling thousands of miles to get home. Everyone else can make the rest of the effort. Other people don't feel that way. That's why I dread going home. We get guilt trips. It's just annoying. Plus, my poor child got sick. That was no fun. So I'm telling you now, if we come home before we move to Guam, if you want to see us, we will be at our parents' houses. That's it. I might make some dinner arrangements with friends, but I'm not making personal visits to anyones house. That might sound selfish, but I really don't care.
On a happier note, Abrielle is now 15 months old. She runs around the house. It's so funny watching how fast her little legs will take her. The older she becomes, the more needy she has become. She needs to be near me all the time. I have to sit on the floor with her while she plays. Or if I'm sitting on the couch, she'll bring a toy on the couch. She's not potty trained yet. It's definitely a slow process. She still hasn't said a word yet. Everything is dada. The doctor says she'll give her a 3 month pass. If she's not saying words by her 18 month check up, the doctor wants to send her to a specialist. Geesh. The doctor gave me a handout on things to do to get her to talk. I already do almost everything on the handout. It can be a little frustrating. Abrielle understands what I'm saying. She knows where her belly is and her toes and her ears. She knows what a cat says. She knows who Niko and Loui are. She just doesn't want to call them Niko or Loui or belly or whatever. She wants to call them dada. I'm her mom. She'll eventually talk. I'm not that worried.
So I'm still working as a labor and delivery nurse. I work very part time. Lately they haven't been able to give me all the hours I sign up for. So I might work 4 hours here and 4 hours there. I still like what I do very much. My poor husband has been working 12 hour days every day. Then he has duty every 4 days. I mean, it's non-stop. Most evenings I'm not sure when he'll be home. I don't know how to plan dinner because I don't know when he'll be home. He's always tired. He needs a break. We went to the sub ball a week ago. It was fun. We got to dress up and look pretty. The ball was held at Hilton Hawaiian Ball Room. It was so nice. I think it was a good time for all of the guys to unwind.
Well, it's getting late. My mind is slowing down. I'm going to go to bed. I'll try not to wait a year before I update my blog. Hope you enjoyed reading.