Mother's Day

Admittedly I am not a "mom" by the dictionary's stand point, but in my own little world I am a mom, to Oakley.

This year, Oakley really out did him self and made me this:

We spent the day at my favorite beach on island, Lanikai in Kailua, where we had a picnic style lunch. The weather was just perfect and it made for a glorious day with my two boys.

Aannd were moving

In true Army fashion, we got news today that we need to say aloha to paradise in 35 days! We fly out 15 June, and Chris needs to report to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., by 26 June and he starts the Engineer Captain's Career Course 9 July.


Chris was asked if he would be interested in attending ECC in FLW, early and said to throw his name in the ring. Like in the past, nothing comes of this, but this time this was a whole different ball game.


We thought the spot was open to engineers Armywide, but this turned out to be a one for one switch with someone on island.


Ay carumba!


Our initial PCS date was 5 October and I was going to be flying out a week earlier with Oakley because that is the date of my friend's wedding that i'm in. I wasn't in love with this idea because our original plan was to fly out earlier together, ship Chris's truck to Cali. and then drive cross country (something I have wanted to do forever). This plan would also allow for Chris to come to the wedding with me. I haven't been to wedding since my own wedding Sept. 20, 2009 and as a couple we haven't been to a wedding together.


Well, how things change.


Our timeline has been moved up exponentially. In a way it's great for Chris because he will be the only one from his year group in the career course (he will technically still be a Lt. when he starts the course) and it will put him in a better spot to get command right after the course. 


With that being said, this also puts him on the bottom of the totem poll for our next duty station. Since he will be a new captain without a deployment, we will pretty much be getting the scraps of a duty station, aka the undesirable locations like Fort Drum, NY or Fort Polk, La. 


C'est la vie, right?


This move is also giving me major anxiety. The longer we are in Hawaii the longer I am gainfully employed. The longer I am gainfully employed the more money we save. Granted the cost of living in Missouri is significantly cheaper, Chris will be making around $1,000 less a month in pay and we will no longer be getting COLA (Cost Of Living Association which was about an additional $800 per month). I also have to start over in terms of my career. It took me a year to land the gig I have now and i've been making pretty good dough which has allowed us to travel, save and be selfish in terms of going out to dinners and buying stuff we want. 


Instead of wallowing in the negatives, my friend and PCS pro Emily told me to focus on the positives:
We get to travel cross-country TOGETHER.
I don't have to fly with Oakley cross-country alone.
Chris will get to be my date for the Hoffmann wedding.
We have TWO sets of friends in the area.
This is great for Chris's career.
Aside from its less than appealing location, there is fun to be had in the area.
We will be closer to family and I will be able to see my grandma and other family members for my Vovo's 95th birthday in July.


She also said something that really resonated with me. She said, "sometimes short notice is a good thing because you just get stuff done faster. You just have to rip off that bandaid and get it done."


Sadly, I gave my notice for work, even though the environment hasn't been all rainbows, puppies and unicorns, I loved what I did. 


Lucky for me, I started to purge/spring clean our house in anticipation of my parent's upcoming visit later this month. It's amazing how much crap we accumulated during our three years here. When we first got here we didn't have much and now we have a house full of stuff. 


It's going to be super hard leaving this place (the weather, the scenery) because as far as we are concerned it's home for us. We spent our first three years of marriage here and got out first taste of Army life. We made some friends for life here and created some awesome memories. The next 35 days are going to be rough, I just hope they don't go by too fast.

You've been Yard Bombed!

Fun on the sandbar

In true Vanessa Lynch fashion, when I throw a party I either go big or go home. So for Kerri's Dirty 30, she said she wanted to do something different with an intimate crowd. We've pretty much done it all (Clubs, dinners, stripper pole lessons), but I did have an idea up my sleeve: 

A day on the Kaneohe Bay Sandbar!

I wasn't in love with the 8 a.m-noon window, but beggars cant be choosey. 
Since we were sailing on Cinco de Mayo, I made some breakfast burritos (we devoured them before I could snap a pic), fruit salad and Nutella butter cream cupcakes for our voyage. The weather wasn't super fantastical, but it didn't rain and the trade wind breeze was a nice change of pace from the heat wave we have been experience.

Easiest recipe ever: Jar of Nutella, stick of softened butter, tablespoon of vanilla and some powdered sugar.

Happy Dirty 30 Kerri!

Our adventure wouldn't be complete without a few blonde moments, so I am going to put the bday girl on blast. 

Our first blooper happened when we needed to anchor. I couldn't drive the boat and place the anchor at the same time, so I voluntold Rachel to be the sacrificial lamb. During my class, we never actually got to anchor on the sandbar, but our instructor did tell us how to do it and it sounded simple enough. He did tell us to be wary of the depth as we approach the sandbar because the water can get very shallow very fast and if you are not careful, it could damage the prop. Since this was my first time out, I was hella nervous and the winds were not helping me. I presumed that when Rachel jumped in the water would be to about her knees, per what my instructor told me. Lies! She jumped in and the water was over her head! Anchor Fail 1.

Our final blooper happened when we needed to unanchor. The bday girl was jonesing to go for a swim so I told her to unanchor us. Well apparently I didn't give her specific enough instructors and my idea of unanchoring and her idea were very different. 

I expected her to unachor us, swim to the boat and then pull up the anchor from the bow. 

Kerri, on the other hand, had something different in mind. She unanchored us, and decided to swim the anchor back to the boat! News flash, anchors are heavy and designed to SINK! I blame it on her age =)