High Five for Friday #28: The "I Quit My Job!" Edition

It sounds so dramatic to say it like that, doesn't it?  In reality, it was a couple of phone calls to my supervisors sharing with them something that had happened and arranged to be on a leave of absence until we fly out in two weeks.  I won't go into details but it involves our nanny,  Ms B, and it's not something we're going to put up with any more.  Today is my last day of work and I already have play dates an library trips lined up for next week.  High five, friends, I'm finally getting to be a stay at home mom!

Our Last Trip to Roi

  We managed to squeeze one last trip to Roi last weekend.  We usually try to spend the weekend when we go but since it would have been too much to manage the little boys sleep up there, this last hurrah was just a day trip.  

  Fire was so excited to get on an airplane!  He's been having tantrums lately because he wants to get on the big airplane but getting on the little airplane placated him enough that he stopped all the hitting/spitting/name calling that's been happening lately.

First stop, feeding the chickens

(or spilling food in the chickens general vicinity, since you're not supposed to do feed them anymore)

Packing Out

  One of the benefits of our jobs here is moving service and that includes having a team come to pack up the house for us.  To get ready for them, D and I left the kids with our family on Ebeye for a day and made a bunch of "stay" and "go" piles.  This is the "go" end of the kitchen:

Five for Friday #27: Earth's Baptism, D's 40th Birthday, and Every Day Life

High five, friends, we made it to Friday!  This week was a busy one for us, starting with Earth's baptism and ending with D's 40th birthday.  There was a bunch of normal family stuff in between but here are the high lights:

#1

Earth's Baptism

Job and Earth before the baptism

"Disturbed" by Suburbia

  As I've shared here recently, we're moving back to the US.  We've known this move was coming for a long time, we just didn't know exactly where in America we would be living until recently.  I alluded to a decision in this post - I couldn't give specifics at the time but I can tell you now that D got offers from jobs in Tucson, AZ and Green Bank, WV.  Those are very, very different places and we had a terrible time choosing between them. 

Water's Baptism (A Very Belated Post!)

This post has been sitting in my draft file for over 6 months! At first, I was just waiting for a friend to send me photos and then life just took over and it got lost. In preparing for Earth's baptism this weekend, I was looking for the other kids baptism posts and realized what happened. Although Water definitely gets his share of the limelight here, I feel bad that his special day didn't get shared.

One of the wonderful things that the Protestant congregation on Kwaj does is a sunrise Easter service at the beach, with baptisms in the lagoon following the service. It's a really beautiful thing to be celebrating the Savior's resurrection while watching the sunrise and then to affirm other's faith with "island style" baptisms.  We wanted Water to be a part of this island tradition so we waited for Easter rather than having it done sooner.

For Water, it was just another day of looking adorable

High Five for Friday #28: The Island Adoption Edition

High five, friends, we made it to another Friday!  This post is about celebrating, both the big things and the little things.  Let's start with something big:

#1

We finalized Earth's adoption!  As the post title says, it was a very island adoption.  I'm so relieved that this isn't the first time we've done this dance, because if it had been the first time, I would have been freaking out in that picture instead of smiling.  Here's what happened:

When Sadness and Fear Look Like Anger

  Fire is struggling a little bit right now.  Part of it is just being three and the growth and change that happens at that age and a bigger part is sadness and fear.  The last few months have been full of ups and downs and he's having a hard time coping with all of it.  First, he and D went to Hawaii for his surgery, then Sky started Kindergarten (he'd never been at the preschool without her), and D left on a plane without him and was gone for three weeks.  As soon as D got back, Earth joined our family and we started talking about a move to America. 

Halloween

Happy Halloween, from three of my little elements and their princess and knight friends!

The First of the Lasts

  This past Monday was my family's last Kwaj Running Club Fun Run.  D and I have been participating in the monthly event ever since we moved down from Roi and we've loved sharing it with our kids as they've joined our family (see past posts here).  Sky started doing the 1/2 mile runs last year and Fire did his first one on Monday.

Sky running towards the finish line