I apologize in advance for the lengthy-ness of it all

I'm about to sue Subway hahaha. Not really..but that danged commercial! Not only does Calix sing it..but Maddox does now too. He goes around all day "five. five dollar..five" cause he can't say footlong yet. It's cute..ya know, the first few times. It's just irritating now.

Two days ago, Calix randomly announced he wanted to be in commercials. I didn't even know he knew that word or what it meant but he came to me and said "mommy? I want to be in commercials" "you want to be in commercials?" "yes" "go ask your dad what he thinks about it" so he did..and Orion and I just looked at each other like..should we? Should we do that to our kid? He's the one who asked and I'm far from a stage mom. I don't know. I didn't expect my 3 year old to want to do something like that without being nudged.



While driving around Aliamanu military reservation yesterday after washing the van and filling the tires with air, I suggested to Orion the possibility of us moving there. The lease we have on this house is only a 6 monther and then it goes month by month after that. It's because we're army living in navy housing. We've almost been here for 3 months already and it's like..ugghhhh because if they get a flow of navy here all of a sudden? We need to leave to free up a house for them (and so do all of the special forces guys that are here, too. I'll miss watching them and some Seals running shirtless down the peninsula every morning. Reow. Not that I know for sure that's who they are..but they totally are..so still reoww.). And now what with all of this talk about Orion deploying next year, I don't really want to move an entire house to another house..with 2 small kids in tow and also in everything so for me, it makes sense to move into army housing.


We would have lived there from the beginning BUT because they're building all new houses and what not, they still have all of that old crappy stuff up and said we'd have to live in one of those for 3 months until a new house was ready for us..but that we'd for sure get a new house out of the deal. I looked at the houses and they're beyond disgusting so no, I will not live there for 3 months. But navy housing had this one ready for us to move into right away and it's not horrible, so why not, right? Anyway..so Orion's putting our name on the waiting list this morning and a new house should be ready for us around the time our lease is up here.

It just makes more sense. Yeah, this is a great location because Sam's Club is literally right outside the gate..Walmart is behind it (they don't have Target or Michael's here. Yeah, I'm irritated too.)..Pearlridge shopping center (it's a huge mall with a freaking monorail system, ya'll) is down the street.. and there is every kind of restaurant and everything inbetween you could ever need. We're right off of the Kamehameha (Ka-may-ha-may-ha) (Kamehameha was the last king of Hawaii) highway..so it's totally ideal to live here for those reasons. BUT..we're also spending more than we need to on gas (down to $3.25 from $4.07 a week ago!) because Orion works and has PT about 30 minutes away. He goes to PT in the morning..comes back. Goes to work..comes home for lunch..goes back..comes home at 5. And then does that every day assuming he doesn't need to go to physical therapy or anything (he's developed flat feet over the years and was in denial about it even though I kept telling him they were and all of those road marches and running on flat feet that were being treated as still having arches caused him to develop shin splints that then turned into bi-lateral stress fractures. He's fixable..but can't run or anything right now..which is part of the reason why he's getting a tummy and he's more than angry about it. But I digress.) so we're spending a crapload of money on gas every pay period (the Buick gets filled twice..sometimes 3 times and that's about $50 a pop and the Dodge gets filled once..bigger tank and I don't drive nearly as much as he does..but that's still roughly $75..so it adds up.) and if we moved to Aliamanu..we're literally 1/4 mile from his work which would mean he could be home for longer periods of time (I actually SEE him for about 10 minutes in the morning..15 in the afternoon and if he's lucky enough to get home by 5:30 with traffic (and Honolulu has nasty traffic), I see him for about 3 1/2 hours before he goes to bed to do it all over again the next day) which would make me happy because I feel like I just don't see him anymore (oh yeah..he's also in school again..so there goes more of my time with him) and we'd be saving ALL kinds of money on gas and I'd feel better about living around all army people. It's not them..it's me. Okay..it's partially them. I think we're one of probably 5 army families that live where we live right now. Navy takes the majority of this place..so all 3 of my neighbors are..ya know..navy. And they hate me. I don't know for sure...but the girl on the end, at least, must. She gives me dirty looks EVERY TIME I see her. EVERY TIME! For what??? She walks by me all the time to get her mail and just..sneers. Lady, what did I ever do to you? I don't know. And they also don't understand my life as much as army wives do. Yes, their husbands go away..but not for super long periods of time. They're home more than they're not and my husband is gone more than he's home. And what with him doing this secret crap he's doing now..he's going to an extra scary place and ya knowwww..that's not a fun feeling. I don't know..I'd just feel better about living around people of my kind than people who think they're above me (which dude, you're in the NAVY..shut up..sit down.).


This must be my longest rant ever just to say something as simple as "hey, we're trying to get housing on Aliamanu because it's much closer to O's work and we'd live there for sure, until we leave the island instead of keeping our fingers crossed that we stay in this house for another month" I talk too much..but I feel like I need to explain things too (especially to family who don't understand all of this and to give them more information on what's actually going on around here).


Oh! Fort Knox FINALLY re-routed our last month's pro-rated rent check to us. Ugh, FINALLY. It wasn't easy to be the one to call them everyday in an attempt to fix this issue because they're 6 hours ahead of us and leave the office at 4 everyday which means if I didn't call them before 9:45am my time..I wouldn't get them..and mornings are busy around here! But we were at Knox for 9 days of July and they hold onto your rent until they go through the house and determine whether they need to take monies from you to fix anything you damaged while living there. We lived there for 3 years and never had any major damages (and anytime something happened, I'd call maintenance to come fix it so there wouldn't ever BE anything wrong with the place) and I *scrubbed* that place till it shined (and mopped my way out of the house when we left) so all they needed to do was slap on a coat of paint and it was move-in ready. They're welcome. I've heard horror stories about the carelessness young couples have while living there and it's like..dude..you end up paying for it in the end..why not keep it nice? So yeah..we got the entirety of our rent back (minus the 9 days)..it just took until last week to receive it. So when that finally hits our bank account..I can start Christmas shopping..which is great because I'm more than ready for it! I was all listening to Christmas music yesterday and O's like "it's not even Halloween yet! It's too early for Christmas" "no it's not! It's NEVER too early for Christmas!". I'm happy like that.




...did anyone even read all of this?