Tales of #MOMLIFE

Well guys, today has been hard. The movers came and took everything away except what we could fit into our suitcases. Bye bye worldly possessions, until we meet again... in September! Anywho, I didn't know that having an empty house and sleeping in a hotel would hit me this hard. I'm a straight up mess. No lie. I keep thinking back to all of our memories here in Hawaii and how this is where we started our family. Aria was born here, we had our first home together here, I started my career here. So many firsts and now it is time to say goodbye.

So I've been sitting here reminiscing and decided I would share my top 10 memories of Hawaii. Maybe it will help me a little bit to share them and maybe they will make you smile. So here goes:

10. My first day at Honowai...
       Wow. The beginning of my career. How can I forget showing up in my best professional wear unaware of the laid back style and that my outfit was going to make me sweat buckets within minutes. Everything was new but I immediately knew I could trust my new teaching team. And that's where it all began.



9. Florida Georgia Line Concert...
    My dad is awesome! Because he gave me one heck of a 24th birthday present, Florida Georgia Line tickets. This is still the greatest concert I have been too and a night out with Ethan that I will never forget. Plus, seeing them in Aloha shirts was pretty awesome.

8. Valentine's 2013...
    This was definitely a night I will never forget. Where we live in Hawaii, it's rare to see a sky full of stars and that is one of the things I miss most about Pelham. I used to love looking at the stars and took the beauty for granted until I didn't have it anymore. So Ethan decided he was going to take me to a part of the island with no street lights and we were going to sit in the back of the car and just look at the starts... Well, it was super duper cloudy on that part of the island and no stars in sight! He was so disappointing, but it turned out to be a great night. We just drove around and talked for hours.

7. Swimming with my sister in the ocean at sunset...
    The calm of the ocean and the colors of the sky. Just me and Ariana out in the ocean having conversations about anything and everything. No one knows your soul quite like a sister does.

6. Our Anniversary at Aulani...
   Aulani is such a beautiful resort and I was so excited when Ethan surprised me with a night away for our anniversary (After I got over the amount of money it costs for one night.) It was the first resort I had stayed in and the first place with fluffy robes!! Ethan covered the floors with every FB post we had sent each other over our years together and we got a signed photo from Mickey and Minnie!!



5. Swimming with sharks...
    This one is really recent and I've already posted about it so I won't say much except that it was an adventure I will never forget and I'm so glad I got to share it with Andrea!

4. Camping on the beach and kayaking out to Chinaman's hat...
     This is still one of my favorite memories and one of the first great weekends we had here in Hawaii. I finally felt at home. Even though Kim didn't know me very well, she reached out and invited Ethan and I to go camping with her and Pete and their friends. So many laughs and scrapes from the coral (I fell out of the kayak.) I love the sound of the ocean right outside of the tent and the beautiful scenery. I fell in love with the ocean a little more that weekend.



3. Aria's first Christmas...
    5 months old and the girl knew how to open her some presents! And it was so great to share the holiday with my dad. The funniest thing was how tired she got after opening only a part of her presents. We had to take a nap break!



2. Our first night in Hawaii...
    This night will forever be embedded in my memory. After a day of traveling and being exhausted we had finally made it to our hotel room and reality set in. We were in Hawaii, thousands of miles away from everyone we knew. We laid in bed, had a good little cry (much needed) and passed out. It's always a great thing to not even have to say anything, but to just have someone who shares what you are feeling.

1. The birth of our daughter...
    I won't go into detail about Aria's birth story or anything like that because most of you have heard it and what mother doesn't put this as number one. haha But the birth of Aria is the greatest take away from everything that has happened here in Hawaii. No matter what, this is where her life began. This is where it all started and I will be forever grateful for the wonderful nurses and doctors who helped us through the 36+ hours of her birth. My greatest gift and fondest memory is from Hawaii... It's hard to say goodbye.



Aloha Hawaii

Well everyone, the time has come. We have officially taken everything off of the walls in our home, and the reality of the move has finally set in. Crazy... Three years here in Hawaii. Two homes, one amazing daughter and a lot of learning experiences later we are moving from the island and heading back home. (Or close to it.) This has been such an amazing and crazy adventure, filled with both the good and the bad. I don't even know how to describe the rush of emotions I'm feeling.

It's sad to think that it will be a long time before I see these amazing friends that I've made again. I'm not very good at saying goodbye. But I'm also filled with this amazing sense of relief. I don't want to sound horrible or anything, but guys, we made it through! We made it through our first duty station and we are better for it. You don't know how scary this adventure was for the two of us. We had never lived this life before or lived this far away from family. We didn't know anyone and we didn't know what to expect. It was so huge for us and we made it! I want to shout it from the rooftops!!!

Now, I'm not saying that it was a rough life for the past three years and that we really struggled. I don't want to sound as if we made it through hell. haha It's just a great feeling to have done this and move on. To start fresh. To meet new people and to have new experiences. To say goodbye to the crap that we did endure while here (because it wasn't all sunshine and aloha.) To be grateful for all the things we learned and experienced. To breathe a sigh of relief because soon we will be breathing southern air!

 God put us here for a reason and I've had to remind myself of that so many times while being here. I guess he knew I needed to meet the people I did. To meet my first friend here, Kim, who took me under her wing and showed me what aloha really means and kept me sane when I thought I couldn't take anymore. For Andrea who became the military wife friend I was craving and helped keep Hawaii and daily life as interesting as can be. For Noreen who mothered me and always made sure I knew how much she cared for me. For Li-Anne who helped me become the teacher I am today. And those who weren't as welcoming who showed me that I'm much stronger than I ever thought I was and kept me in check. God knew we needed the sand and the sea and the warm weather to keep our spirits high even when we missed home like crazy. This is where we were supposed to be and now He has called us somewhere else.

Hawaii, I am going to miss you. Maybe not as much at first, but I'm sure when the cold weather hits I'll be longing for you again.

Aloha Hawaii.

                                   

So I've been on the island for almost three years and haven't spent much time on the North Shore. Today, my friend Andrea and I set out for a fun-filled last hurrah before we leave the island. To say this day was amazing is an understatement. I'm so proud of myself for venturing out and letting loose. We had a blast!

First, we headed up for some breakfast at pretty much the first place we could find. We hit Breakers which I absolutely loved! I haven't had decent biscuits and gravy in three years until today.



And then it was off to swim with sharks!!! Ahhh! This was the craziest most awesome thing I have ever done in my life. As we pulled up to the cage, we could already see the sharks swimming around the boat. I was sooo nervous watching the first group go into the cage. That was the longest wait of my life! When it came to our time, it was so exhilarating. Above the water, it seemed to be hardly any sharks at all but as soon as we went under they were all around. It was so cool to look below me and see a HUGE shark right underneath me. Watching them swim all around. God is so awesome! These creatures are so beautiful and we learned a lot while on the tour.
















We then hit lunch at my first ever shrimp truck. It was yummy but I'm sure it was no Kamekona's (my Hawaii Five-0 fans will get that one.) We followed it up with some yummy shave ice of course!

















Thanks Andrea for spending this crazy awesome day with me! I'm so lucky to have you as a friend!!



As always, I ended the day with my beautiful family. Tonight we hit up a Sam Hunt concert on the local Army base. I do love this crazy beautiful Military Life!

I've been really struggling with what to write about this week with everything going on in the country and all of the craziness going on with preparing for our move. Last night it hit me though, as we went to a dinner to celebrate Ethan's supervisor's promotion.

Our time in the military life has been brief thus far, so I cannot claim to have any kind of superior knowledge or insight into military life. I have not gone through what half of military families have gone through and I cannot say that I have had any serious life-altering realizations in our three years, but this life means a lot to me and not for all of the reasons you may think.

When Ethan decided to join the Air Force, it was a decision that was not an easy one for me. My heart and my mind were at war with each other and in my mind the military meant separation and death. Yes, I know. How very narrow-minded of me. But I did not grow up with anyone close to me in the military and all I knew of were the stories of young wives grieving over the loss of their husbands who they barely got to start a life with. And, I had my life figured out. Settle down near my family, raise a family of my own and live happily southern ever after. But God had a different plan.

It took me a while, a lot of prayer, and a lot of people praying for me for me to become good with his decision. I knew it would not be easy to move away from all I knew and being away from Ethan would be hard, but I've been through a lot in my life and God didn't show me how strong I am for nothing.

During Ethan's basic training, I found the community that I knew would get me through hard times. Military spouses. It was amazing how Facebook could unite all of us who were going without our loved ones and use that to help us get through the hard nights alone. I started to better understand the life I was going to live and I started to get excited about being an Air Force wife. When we got our orders for Hawaii I was filled with about 10 million emotions at once. Oh my goodness, I'm moving to Hawaii! I never thought I would ever go to Hawaii, much less live there! Oh my goodness, I'm moving to Hawaii. I'm never going to see my family! And back and forth and back and forth.

Moving here was hard. I will not lie. Being in a strange place, not knowing anyone and for the first time in my life being the minority. A very different place with very different customs and lifestyles. The beauty of Hawaii will take your breath away, but so will the places where poverty is prevalent. For the first time, I was working with students who were homeless or living in homes with several other families. I can't say that I've found a forever home in Hawaii or made a ton of friends that I will always stay in contact with. The friends I have found are few and far between but I guess that's what makes them so special. They are the people that went out of their way to make me feel at home and include me in their lives.

While here, though, I have seen what our lives could be in the military. The community and the families (I have learned that at the next base I will try harder to get us involved in the military community). I have seen Ethan work harder than I've ever seen him work and be rewarded for all he puts into his service. I've seen him find what he is good at and make the best of situations he may not love, because he loves this country and the Air Force. I've seen him gain a sense of purpose and become the leader I always knew he could be.

As I watched everyone at dinner last night, joking around and laughing, I was reminded of why I do love this life. Even though it is hard sometimes and will get harder. These people are family. They have each other's backs and all share very important things in common; service, bravery and sacrifice. They don't do this job for money (and all you military spouses know that's true) or the glory of it all. It's not always glamorous and it's not always easy. They do it because they love it. Because they felt a call to serve.

So what does this life mean to me? Just about everything. I am proud to be a military wife.



Happy 4th everybody!