Early Christmas, ready for Honolulu!!

Well, here I am the day before we leave on our vacation to Honolulu, and I'm writing a blog post. I haven't even started packing! This is my dedication to not falling behind on blog posts! We have had a busy month, there's no other way to put it. Brian had his second week of training last week, and me and the kids managed without going completely crazy! It actually was going pretty well, until Adam started having some trouble towards the end of the week. The night before Brian came home, he woke up around 12:30am and started asking to "talk to Dad". For some reason I resisted, thinking that it probably wouldn't help anyway and why bug Brian, but he wore me down - I called him at 1:10. Hearing Brian's voice seemed to calm him down, but when I went back to bed, it wasn't long and I was hearing him again. He was eventually quiet for something like 45 minutes and then I started hearing him again! I went back to him, and he ramped up very quickly to wanting to talk to Dad again. I called Brian again (it was almost 3am at this point!) and it seemed to help a bit again. Shortly after this exchange he was finally quiet for the rest of the night. He knew that Brian was coming home the next day, and so on Friday, I told him he needed to go to sleep but he would see Dad in the morning. Well, as tired as he must have been (I'm convinced he was awake for at least 2.5 hours the night before), he resolved to keep himself away until Brian came home at 10:30pm! I couldn't believe it. If fighting sleep was a sport, he would be the world champion! He was so happy to see Brian - it was nice to see the tension melt away when he saw him.

The kids opened their presents Saturday morning! It was a lot of fun, the kids had a great time:). We were building Lego, figuring out an interactive puppy, looking at a scrapbook I made Adam, playing on our new walkie-talkies, all in all a really fun day! Sunday was a bit rough because Brian lost his wallet on the way to bring Adam to swimming lessons (he didn't realize that was when he lost it until later, but that's definitely when it happened). It was a bit stressful. Thankfully he didn't have much cash, but it was a pain because of our trip coming up and having to get all new cards. He was pretty sure it fell off the van on the freeway, so we were pretty sure that thing was gone. Well, Tuesday morning, as he is standing in the line at the DMV (to get a new Driver's License) waiting for it to open (there were already 30 people in line ahead of him), I get a phone call from our insurance company. A freeway maintenance worker had FOUND Brian's wallet on the freeway!! And he saw the insurance card and called the insurance company, who then called us! Instead of wasting time waiting at the DMV, Brian was able to meet up with this guy and get his wallet back! Unfortunately we had already cancelled all the cards, but still really great to not have to get a new Drivers License, and not worry that a copy of his Drivers was floating around somewhere. So thankful that most people will do the right thing when something like this happens! I actually believed that it would be returned to him sometime, just really glad it happened before the trip:).

So tomorrow we are off! We have a 6ish hour flight to Honolulu and we will get there pretty late. I am hoping the kids sleep on the plane, and that airport time isn't too hectic. I haven't had a lot of time to get excited for this trip, but it's starting to set in now! I actually started a weight loss challenge with a friend to try and lose 5 lbs before the trip, and I reached y goal yesterday! Woohoo! Now my goal will be to NOT put it all back on while we're there! We'll see how I do:).

Talk to you all when we get back!

One week down, one to go!

What is this countdown for, you ask? Brian had his first week of training in Menlo Park this week! We actually survived okay this week. The kids were really good about him being gone, even Adam, whom I was really worried about. We kept things simple, didn't do much outside of school and coming home, except for tonight when I took the kids to McDonalds to eat and play at the Play Place (it went really well, low stress:)). I fear next week might be rougher because they will have Dad back for the weekend and then he'll be gone again, might start to get a bit old. Hopefully it's better than I'm picturing!

I took Adam to the Seattle Children's Autism Center for a consult with a behavior "expert" so to speak (he's a Psychologist, is a BCBA and has a PhD in something, so I would classify him as an expert in something at least!!). We were looking for some advice on how to deal with Adam's rants and high anxiety, and I found the appointment quite helpful. As an added bonus, he was able to witness the exact behavior that I had been trying to explain to him, so he has a pretty good idea of what I was talking about:-S. They are going to get him in for 10 visits when a spot opens up (will probably be a few months) so I am hoping that will give us some extra tools to deal with some of the stress we see from him fairly regularly. Right now we are just trying to talk him through his episodes, but we are only human. I can only reassure him that, "yes, I have to cough sometimes" and "yes, Adam, we are going to sleep in the new house" so many times before my answers start getting more tense and impatient:-/.

In two weeks we will be basking in the Honolulu sun! Or possibly the rain, apparently it does rain in Honolulu in the winter sometimes. It would be warm rain, though. Hoping for the sun. Anyway, starting to get a bit excited!! Trying to figure out what we want to do while we're there, it will be so different than any other vacation we've ever done. We are meeting Brian's parents and his Aunt there, so it will be a different dynamic than we are used to on vacation. It will be so nice to be able to do a few things on our own, just Brian and I! I definitely want to do a luau with Brian, and I will go with Brian's parents to Pearl Harbor. I think we'll visit the Dole Plantation with the kids, and of course, tons of beach time! We bought one adult set of snorkeling gear and one set for Lynsey, so there will be some of that, too:). I have been doing lots of Amazon shopping trying to get everything we will need for our trip as well as finishing up the Christmas shopping. I would be so lost without Amazon!

We put up our tree and Christmas train the day after Thanksgiving, and I will wrap the presents this weekend. We'll do our main gift exchange next weekend and just take some stocking stuffers to open on Christmas while we're on vacation. Hard to believe it's almost Christmas!

Halloween, birthday fun and Vancouver!

Wow I am really behind! We had a nice enough Halloween. The kids enjoyed carving the pumpkins and Nathan and Lynsey had some fun going trick or treating. Adam wore the police jacket of his costume briefly at school but would not put it on again, and we didn't even attempt to take him trick or treating this year. Lynsey got a 24 inch bike with gears for her birthday which was very exciting! She got the hang of it really quickly, glad we didn't get the smaller one! Brian had a few days of training in Menlo Park, CA for his new job at Facebook at the beginning of the month. The kids and I did fine considering so that was good. So far so good on the new job! I took Nathan and Lynsey down to his office on Veteran's Day and we had lunch with him - we'll be doing that again! They paid for my parking and the food was free, what's the downside?! Lynsey had her party a few weeks back as well, 6 of her friends joined our family at the bowling alley. It was a fun time for all! I get so stressed out at parties, I was so glad when it was over - maybe one day I will find them enjoyable:-S. We went to Vancouver last weekend to hang out with Brian's parents, which was a lot of fun. We didn't do too much, a lot of swimming. We also went over to Granville Island for dinner on Saturday which was nice!

So yeah - November has been a bit crazy! Lynsey is still in swimming lessons and piano lessons, still enjoying both. Nathan is still enjoying soccer and as always, Adam loves his swimming lessons! Brian is still feeling pretty overwhelmed at his new job, but his (and my) first impression is that Facebook is a great company and that he will find a place for himself there. He is just in the process of finding the right team to join, and then next week (after Thanksgiving) he will be off to Menlo Park for more training! Apparently some of the teams travel to Menlo Park a lot, he has been instructed to steer clear of these teams so his wife doesn't lose her already fragile mind!

I can't believe it's 3 and a half weeks until we leave for Hawaii! I haven't really thought much about our trip, it kind of snuck up on me! Time to start an inventory of our beach items! Should be a lot of fun!