Life As of Today
By now all 12 of my faithful readers have heard the news that we are (surprise!) headed back to Japan again.
Yes, we just bought a house. No, I'm not completely insane. We really thought we could sit tight for awhile.
I should have written before now, I know...but this was not the space to pour out my feelings. Those posts were best saved for my personal blog. Let's just say that while I am thankful for this opportunity for Hans and for us, I went through the stages of grief there for a couple of weeks. I'm not as depressed as I was two weeks ago and it's getting better every day, so that in place of the unrelenting sad thoughts, the excited and happy thoughts are slowly creeping in...I fully expect to be 100% onboard and excited about this on or about August 1st.
Dear faithful readers, you remember my last foray into the Land of the Rising Sun...hell, you can go back on this very blog into the annals of 2005-2006 and read about those days. Most of you know that I was not terribly fond of Japan. I will freely admit that it was probably on the dismal bottom of my list of favorite duty stations. A lot of my dislike of Japan was situational: pregnant with Annika, saddled with a 14-month-old and living the lonely life of the forward-deployed/department head spouse. On the other side of the world.
I was ecstatic when Hans' orders for war college came through and I hightailed it out of Yokosuka as quickly as I could. I think it took me three weeks from start to finish. I could NOT wait to get home. I remember crying as the plane started its descent into Seattle and pilot said "And for those of you who have been away from home awhile, welcome home".
Ack, it still makes me tear up.
So WHY, WHY are we doing this? There are a number of really boring, stick your fingers in your ears and sing la-la-la type Navy reasons. Truly, they are boring. The bottom line is that this was a great opportunity for Hans to step into the role he needed on a ship that he wants.
And lo, where he goes, I follow.
So that means giving up this house that I almost fell completely in love with...but stopped myself just in time after finding out that Japan was happening. People keep asking me when we knew...well, he was approached before we closed on the house, but by that point, it was too late to back out. If they had been a month earlier, we could have backed out, but it was literally the week before we moved.
Oh stress, my friend, how we are never parted! How you stay with me from day to day and year to year!
I am in like with my house. It is lovely and I'm enjoying my three months in it, but I'm not allowing myself to get attached. It's like a foster child...I know I'm just going to have to give it up. I'm taking good care of it, of course, but I'm not hanging up very many pictures and I've given up my little dreams of making cute curtains for the laundry room and putting a garden in the backyard.
I wonder constantly if we'll ever come back to this house, or if these three months will be it and his next duty station will wind up being Pearl Harbor or something. Rachel's Folly, that's what we should name our manse...
Big sigh.
Of course, I went into this whole house-buying deal fully aware that these things DO happen to people in the Navy. I knew that there was a good chance that he could get orders somewhere besides Norfolk. It was such a leap of faith. For some reason, here we are, with this house and going to Japan. There was a reason it was meant to happen this way...I guess that will become clear at some point.
In the meantime, we have found some great tenants, who are coming from DC in August with their three children and little dog. She is a JAG and a judge in the Navy and he works for NCIS and was a policeman at one point, so I feel quite secure that our lease and other legal documents are in good order and that our home will be well-protected and well taken care of. And the rent more than covers our mortgage, so we won't be scrambling to pay for this house while we are overseas.
I keep telling myself that the one bright spot in the whole house thing is that this will still be OUR house, even after we leave. We CAN come back. We've only ever been able to say that about that townhouse in San Diego and we knew we wouldn't come back to it since it was too small for our family. Our house in Norfolk we could actually return and settle back into, into this beautiful neighborhood.
Sigh. Enough about the house.
Today was the last day of school. Josiah and Annika didn't go because it was only from 9:00-10:45. I guess it's pretty sparse on the last day. Josiah and Annika had doctor's appointments this morning anyway. We are doing our overseas screenings, which include immunizations (I had THREE!), TB tests, dental screenings and a quick screen for the kids today.
We have a line on a car over there already, we have the moves scheduled for the end of July. I have the kids pre-registered for school. Hans is heading to Norfolk tonight and tomorrow we are getting Annika set up for her passports. The rest of us have up-to-date passports, for some reason, we just didn't get Annika's updated. I'm hoping to fly on or around 8/15, so that we can get into Yokosuka and hopefully settled before the kids start school on 8/26. We have head of the line privileges for housing and we will be living on Yokosuka's main base, so I'm happy about that. I enjoyed the satellite housing area at Ikego, but always felt isolated from the "real" action at Yokosuka. Hans must live onbase at Yokosuka to be near the ship in case of emergency. We're getting a good car this time (vs. the crappy old Nissan van that was constantly breaking down) and a GPS and we're taking steps to make sure that we'll be a little more comfortable and able to travel this time around.
That's about all I've got for today. In the meantime, I'm planning this trip home to Minnesota and all that entails. I'm looking forward to some relaxation away from Norfolk and the stressors here. By the time we get back, we'll get our things in order and then the packers will be in the last week of July to do our pack-outs. There's another bright spot: at least I don't have to pack us up this time as I have the last two moves. This time, the move is on the Navy!
Until then, I'm just holding down the fort...
Yes, we just bought a house. No, I'm not completely insane. We really thought we could sit tight for awhile.
I should have written before now, I know...but this was not the space to pour out my feelings. Those posts were best saved for my personal blog. Let's just say that while I am thankful for this opportunity for Hans and for us, I went through the stages of grief there for a couple of weeks. I'm not as depressed as I was two weeks ago and it's getting better every day, so that in place of the unrelenting sad thoughts, the excited and happy thoughts are slowly creeping in...I fully expect to be 100% onboard and excited about this on or about August 1st.
Dear faithful readers, you remember my last foray into the Land of the Rising Sun...hell, you can go back on this very blog into the annals of 2005-2006 and read about those days. Most of you know that I was not terribly fond of Japan. I will freely admit that it was probably on the dismal bottom of my list of favorite duty stations. A lot of my dislike of Japan was situational: pregnant with Annika, saddled with a 14-month-old and living the lonely life of the forward-deployed/department head spouse. On the other side of the world.
I was ecstatic when Hans' orders for war college came through and I hightailed it out of Yokosuka as quickly as I could. I think it took me three weeks from start to finish. I could NOT wait to get home. I remember crying as the plane started its descent into Seattle and pilot said "And for those of you who have been away from home awhile, welcome home".
Ack, it still makes me tear up.
So WHY, WHY are we doing this? There are a number of really boring, stick your fingers in your ears and sing la-la-la type Navy reasons. Truly, they are boring. The bottom line is that this was a great opportunity for Hans to step into the role he needed on a ship that he wants.
And lo, where he goes, I follow.
So that means giving up this house that I almost fell completely in love with...but stopped myself just in time after finding out that Japan was happening. People keep asking me when we knew...well, he was approached before we closed on the house, but by that point, it was too late to back out. If they had been a month earlier, we could have backed out, but it was literally the week before we moved.
Oh stress, my friend, how we are never parted! How you stay with me from day to day and year to year!
I am in like with my house. It is lovely and I'm enjoying my three months in it, but I'm not allowing myself to get attached. It's like a foster child...I know I'm just going to have to give it up. I'm taking good care of it, of course, but I'm not hanging up very many pictures and I've given up my little dreams of making cute curtains for the laundry room and putting a garden in the backyard.
I wonder constantly if we'll ever come back to this house, or if these three months will be it and his next duty station will wind up being Pearl Harbor or something. Rachel's Folly, that's what we should name our manse...
Big sigh.
Of course, I went into this whole house-buying deal fully aware that these things DO happen to people in the Navy. I knew that there was a good chance that he could get orders somewhere besides Norfolk. It was such a leap of faith. For some reason, here we are, with this house and going to Japan. There was a reason it was meant to happen this way...I guess that will become clear at some point.
In the meantime, we have found some great tenants, who are coming from DC in August with their three children and little dog. She is a JAG and a judge in the Navy and he works for NCIS and was a policeman at one point, so I feel quite secure that our lease and other legal documents are in good order and that our home will be well-protected and well taken care of. And the rent more than covers our mortgage, so we won't be scrambling to pay for this house while we are overseas.
I keep telling myself that the one bright spot in the whole house thing is that this will still be OUR house, even after we leave. We CAN come back. We've only ever been able to say that about that townhouse in San Diego and we knew we wouldn't come back to it since it was too small for our family. Our house in Norfolk we could actually return and settle back into, into this beautiful neighborhood.
Sigh. Enough about the house.
Today was the last day of school. Josiah and Annika didn't go because it was only from 9:00-10:45. I guess it's pretty sparse on the last day. Josiah and Annika had doctor's appointments this morning anyway. We are doing our overseas screenings, which include immunizations (I had THREE!), TB tests, dental screenings and a quick screen for the kids today.
We have a line on a car over there already, we have the moves scheduled for the end of July. I have the kids pre-registered for school. Hans is heading to Norfolk tonight and tomorrow we are getting Annika set up for her passports. The rest of us have up-to-date passports, for some reason, we just didn't get Annika's updated. I'm hoping to fly on or around 8/15, so that we can get into Yokosuka and hopefully settled before the kids start school on 8/26. We have head of the line privileges for housing and we will be living on Yokosuka's main base, so I'm happy about that. I enjoyed the satellite housing area at Ikego, but always felt isolated from the "real" action at Yokosuka. Hans must live onbase at Yokosuka to be near the ship in case of emergency. We're getting a good car this time (vs. the crappy old Nissan van that was constantly breaking down) and a GPS and we're taking steps to make sure that we'll be a little more comfortable and able to travel this time around.
That's about all I've got for today. In the meantime, I'm planning this trip home to Minnesota and all that entails. I'm looking forward to some relaxation away from Norfolk and the stressors here. By the time we get back, we'll get our things in order and then the packers will be in the last week of July to do our pack-outs. There's another bright spot: at least I don't have to pack us up this time as I have the last two moves. This time, the move is on the Navy!
Until then, I'm just holding down the fort...
