So, it's been a while since I've written and thinking about all that's happened and what I could write is daunting, so I'll just go ahead and start and see where we end up.

Lots of changes over the last month!  We finally got all of our household goods packed and crated and headed for Japan.  That was seriously stressful!  We chose to clean the house ourselves because the going rate was too much for what the pre-inspection indicated needed to be done.  And of course, if you know us, nothing is ever that simple!

We actually already had a TLF room.  That's how this story starts. It was our last Thursday night and we'd promised the kids a final Summer Nights with their friends (and--twist our arms--that meant we HAD to wait for them at the Tinderbox and HAD to choke down one last beer--the things we suffer through for our kids!  OY! Parenthood is such a trial!).  As it turned out, NZ wanted his two best friends to spend the night.  The only thing stopping us was the TLF room--it was already crowded with the 5 of us, adding two more teenage boys to the mix didn't sound pleasant.  But, we had the house complete with all our stuff so why not!  We decided that I'd stay with the boys at home and Nick would stay with the girls at TLF.  So, home we went.  Nick dropped me and all the boys off.  I dorked around with them for a bit then took myself and my Kindle to my room for some peace and quiet--that actually didn't happen but I did read until I fell asleep!

So, the next day comes and I'm out with the packers in the garage.  It smelled overwhelmingly like sunscreen.  Odd. Found out why after everything was moved out.  The boys decided to graffiti the garage floor with sunscreen.  We had a giant Miami Heat imprint on the garage floor.  In hindsight I guess we should have taken a picture so I could add a visual aid here.  Apparently the boys tried to wash it off with soap and water--no luck.  So, instead of helping me clean as planned, this meant Nick was off to Lowes for concrete cleaner.  To keep a very long and very frustrating story short I'll just say that two days, multiple trips to Lowes, and $80 in product later we had a bright orange Miami Heat logo proudly displayed on the floor.  Are you kidding me?  We went from darker colored concrete (original after the sunscreen) to dark grey/almost black lettering, to red lettering, back to grey lettering and ended up with the blaze orange.  How on earth are we going to pass inspection?

This takes us to Sunday--we had the inspection Monday morning.  I was finalizing cleaning stuff in the house and boxed up all the last of the cleaning supplies.  We had about half a gallon of bleach left.  Nick looks at me and says, "Should I just dump the rest of the bleach on the Heat?"  Sure why not.  It simply cannot get any worse.  And wonder of all wonders the bleach takes it all out.  All of it, no trace left.  I believe this is where my kids would put SMH...

We left bright and early Tuesday morning for Dallas.  We managed to survive the 13 hour flight from DFW to Narita with all 5 Pedersens and all 10 bags present and accounted for!

The hardest part of the trip was the 2 hour bus ride to Yokota.  Nick was busy talking shop with his Ops O and Shirt so it was up to me to (a) not nod off and (b) not let the kids nod off.  That first night sleep was just about the best I've had since we got here!   First things first! Nick and I were off to take the driving class/test for our licenses here.  (Ask me who got the perfect test score) And after a month in, I can tell you that driving on the wrong side of the road isn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be!

Nick's Assumption of Command happened bright and early Friday morning. 

                                                                        And can I just say that I loved the 9am piece of chocolate cake!!!  I could get used to that! 

We got our house (YAY!) and bought a minivan (GULP) and somehow got our bodies used to living in this time zone just in time for another 8 hour plane ride back across the international date line!  

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Nick and I had (here's that word again...what a hard life we lead!) to go to Hawaii for a commander's course.  Dilemma: we have three kids and no friends to leave them with yet.  (...and do we really want to do that to our friends??  hmmmmm)  We either take them with us or I stay here.  I'm NOT okay with the second option so the plan was to take them with us.  SATO told Nick back in Rapid that they'd go ahead and get the kids tickets to match ours and we could just pay for them when we got here.  All well and good except that our tickets cost one amount and the kids tickets would come to a grand total of just under ten thousand dollars.  Are you kidding me?? See, nothing's ever easy.

Now we're back to option 2--which did I mention I wasn't too happy with?  I sat down to do a little digging and found cheap flights for the kids with one tiny little snag--they'd be on a foreign carrier with a layover in Korea...alone.

The dinner table conversation went a little something like this: 

So how bad do you want to go to Hawaii?

Really bad!

Are you willing to go alone on Korean Air and find your way through customs without us?

...

...

YES!!!!!!!!

Now this is a significant emotional event for Nick and I.  Sometimes our kids do not get along with each other--at all.  Nasty fights are not unheard of.  Are we seriously considering trusting them to go alone and not cause an international incident?  Big sigh. 

We parted in Tokyo...

                                   ...lived large in first class......

                                                                                        .....and met back up in Hawaii!

Hawaii itself wasn't a bad gig...especially since I got to hang out with my very dear friend Toni all week!!!  However, a vacation it was NOT.  See, my bosses don't believe in time off. Are you kidding me?  There are 24 whole hours in each and every day.  Because I have the privilege of working from home with no set schedule they fully expect me to find some time during those 24 hours to sit at a computer and get my work done.  My time in Hawaii, while filled with completely fun and memorable moments, was flat out exhausting! 

In order to remain gainfully employed I got up early to work before it was time to dress and be at the conference center at 7am for breakfast...sat through classes until 4:30-5 (which is a whole other blog entry!), ran back to the room to change clothes, grab the kids, and go do all the vacationy things, come back to the room to shower and sit at my computer long into the early morning hours.  I can't help but feel a song coming on...

...second verse, same as the first!

Each day was a repeat of the day before!  Work, class, play, work, nap...work, class, play, work, nap...

Don't feel too badly for me, after all the view from my virtual office was spectacular!   

Who can be too sad knowing this is right outside??

That brings us back to the future.  (okay, that's just NOT going to get old for a while!)  We made it back to Japan with no international incidents AND our first shipment of household goods was waiting for us!  If we're still a bit jet lagged it's only natural--we've put our bodies through the ringer these past few weeks.  I'm looking forward to finding our new normal in the heat and humidity that is now home.