Making up for lost time

I know you all are shocked that I am actually taking the time to blog. My only excuse for my two and a half month delay is that I am enjoying my family being back together again after a very long year that sped by and trying to get settled in our new home (more about that later) and not wasting time on the computer. I know that first part may not make a lot of sense to many of you, but those of you who have spent a significant amount of time away from your spouse, best friend, and father of your children know exactly what I am talking about! Let me fill you in...

In January of last year Bill moved to Kunsan Air Base in Korea for a year remote. Well, our year is over! Praise God! While there were days that I thought might never end, the year as a whole went by very quickly and I feel very blessed to have been able to spend so much time with our families while we were in Florida for seven of those months. I also feel incredibly blessed that we were able to see him as much as we did. He came home in June, I went out there in July and Bill and I went on a trip to Thailand (I will get the pics up eventually I promise!), and the kids and I got to spend 5 weeks in Kunsan over the holidays. We have many friends whose husbands are serving 365 day tours in places where they aren't able to see their families and that thought has never escaped my mind. I KNOW how lucky we are to have had Bill serve his remote in a place that is tolerant, if not welcoming of families (the people were all welcoming, just not the facilities...I am aware that could be read wrong ;D). Even though this was an unexpected and non-voluntary assignment, we have said from day one that it was a blessing and could have been a lot worse. I want to take this time to tell all of my friends whose husband are gone or are leaving soon, that I am praying for you and know that as a whole the year will go by quickly, but on those days or weeks that seem to last forever, they do eventually end. Usually in a fat glass of wine!

Bill came back to the States in January to spend a couple of weeks visiting with family before another two year assignment in Korea. This time though we get to be with him! He picked us up and took us to spend 4 fantastic days playing as a family on the gorgeous island of Oahu on our way to Korea (more on that later too). Bill is working for the 7th Air Force on a Staff job. He will be very busy in his role, but is excited that he won't only be flying his desk. He got a flying billet and his relationship with his mistress will continue as he begins flying with the Fiends in the next few weeks! I can't tell you how excited he was to get confirmation of his continued relationship with the F-16, as he wasn't sure he would be able to continue to fly anything with wings while stationed at Osan. We are definitely enjoying him being around a bit more. While I am sure there will be some 14 or 15 hour days while we are here, we are looking forward to that not being the norm after nearly nine years of long workdays in the training and operational worlds of the Air Force. Plus, any time we get now is way more than we got the past year, so we are all quite happy!

We found a great place to live off base and are getting settled out here. Pictures of our place to come soon. This one will be really soon, as we found out our stuff from Florida is on the ROK and our apartment will be decorated in boxes next week, so I need to get crackin' on the pictures! Kaitlyn still isn't in school, but she did start Girl Scouts and soccer this week and is really loving both. We are all making friends and enjoying our time here, but miss our family and friends back in the States. I apologize for not calling, writing back, emailing, facebooking, blogging, et cetera. You all know that we are bad about keeping in touch anyway, but have really been in our own little world half a world away enjoying being (and relearning how to be) a family again. It has been so nice, but has left little time for communication via the computer. Especially with both kids at home all day, every day and me working on school stuff with Kaity during Ryan's nap. We are working on getting a phone and a stateside number (and a semi-consistent routine once we get a second car), so hopefully that will help a little. I swear this is my New Year's Resolution every year, and every year I fail at keeping in touch. Maybe this year will be my year. ;)