New Year, New Beginnings

2011 will bring a wind of change to the Rowland household. We started off the New Year by de-cluttering and re-organizing ALL of our bedrooms. I think we got rid of 2 bags from J's room, close to 4 from L's and 1 from ours. We then headed to what I deem the happiest place on earth(second to Disney! LOL), the organization store! I was SUPER bummed to find out that the Container Store(like SOO many others) doesn't ship to Hawaii, so it was a God-send to find Simply Organized in Kapolei! There we got some under bed storage to prevent the kids from shoving crap under their bed and to give us a little bit more storage since our closet is about half the size it was previously. We've had them for about a week and it makes SUCH a difference in the kid's rooms!! Not to mention that they've kept their rooms clean all week. The proverbial foot will be coming down on the picking-up-after-yourself too. It seems they have forgotten about this or rather I have let it slide way too many times.... it is oh so exhausting to be THE ONLY one CONSTANTLY telling them to pick up this and that. BUT I have made a concerted effort on getting them to take care of stuff like, shoes, book bags, lunch bags AS SOON as they walk in the door. They have moaned and groaned but I remind them that if they spend the 30 seconds it takes NOW, they will be able to get outside that much quicker! AND they won't have to spend ALL day(or a large part of it) tidying up. It seems to be working and makes me feel less like a maid!

With New Year's come and gone, that means only one thing...B heading out for his LAST underway on the boat. It's bittersweet for both of us. He's SO ready to just be done with boat life for a while and everything that comes with it. He's incredibly proud of how far his newbies have come! He's tempted to go on deployment with them, but he's burn out and knows it's time to hand them over. The new div chief and ANAV will have it sooo much better than he did and that utterly pisses him off, but I guess it comes with the territory! He jokes with everyone at work how it takes 2 guys to replace him! LOL It's really insane to know just how much responsibility B has. He's definitely a master juggler. I know he'll miss being at sea, so thankfully he'll get an opportunity here and there to ride a boat for a few days to wet his sea legs. :0) He's also ready to be able to have the opportunity to work out with guilt. Sounds crazy considering one of his 'jobs' is to stay fit, but when there's a ton of work and all of his guys are on the boat too he has a real hard time leaving them just to go work out. There are have been many PT days where I have tried to guilt him IN to going to work out and he tells me "there's just too much work and I'm not baggin' my guys with it all". I'm just ready to share the burden of raising the kids and taking care of the house. I'm also ready for us to start hanging out with friends more. It seems every time we've tried to B's stuck at work! Not to mention getting out and seeing more of what the island/islands have to offer. It's been a loooong time since I've had a fully rested lets go do everything NOW husband!!

PS..As nothing is ever really set in stone with the Navy, we very well may NOT be heading to shore duty as originally planned. Just today I learned that they need to keep B a wee bit longer, with the possibility of keeping through the end of the year. I will update as soon as I know more!

~K~