Baaaaaaaack in the saddle again

We have internet at our house! Yippee! It's sad how empty the house feels without internet. Granted, our house IS empty and will be until July 30, but still. Baby steps.

Isn't our empty house gorgeous though?! I adore it.

Since my last post, we moved to Maryland. Nadine did so well on the four separate flights. It probably helped that the Army bought her a seat on all the flights, which was wonderful.

On our way east we stopped in Utah for 36ish hours to visit Todd's family. It was a really fast but fantastic trip. I'm glad Nadine has now met most of her paternal aunts, uncles, and cousins. While there we had a BBQ, and Todd's dad bought the coolest water slide. They so didn't have stuff like this when I was growing up.

Pictures of Nadine are on the baby blog.

The rest of this post is whiny. If you don't want to read my "woe is me, boo hoo" post, stop now and just look at adorableness. But if you don't mind joining my pity party, keep reading.

I doubt I am alone in this, but I have a really hard time moving. I've realized moving gives me a major case of the blues, so I'll admit it: I have had a tough time since we've come to Maryland. It probably doesn't help that we don't have our household goods and won't get them for a couple more weeks. That's a lot of sitting on the floor.

I dread getting to know people again. Not that my cup runnethed over for a social life in Hawaii, but I at least had one person I could call who got me out of the house a few times a week. During our previous move I learned I need to be proactive instead of just sitting in the shadows complaining that no one talks to me. So I was excited to put myself out there. But I went to a church activity last night and left more depressed than when I arrived--that's never a good thing. It totally takes the wind out of my "be assertive, can-do" sails.

I understand people get busy and forget to stop and think of others (I know am guilty of it), but my goodness why don't people remember what it's like to be the new person? Again, I know I need to make the effort and blah blah blah, but sometimes it's nice when someone else is trying too. Hopefully I'll have wind in my sails again in a few days.

What have you guys done to successfully fit into a new area?

OK, waaa waaa waaa I'm done. Sorry this post is so Debbie Downer.

To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction

I will miss many things about Hawaii.

This mountain range.

The ocean, and especially this beach.

There are also a fair number of things I will not miss about Hawaii.

Such as this 5-inch centipede that was on the inside of our screen this morning. I noticed it an hour and a half after I opened the door; who knows how long it had been inside. I'm so grateful it didn't sting me when I opened the curtains, and I'm especially grateful Raid kills these buggers.

But I will especially not miss where the centipede was located.

Yup, right above the spot where Nadine plays every single day. All it had to do was drop on her, and she would've been in some serious pain. Eesh. I have the heebie jeebies.

Aloha.

I got all my sisters and me

My youngest sister graduated from high school on Wednesday, and I was able to fly out for a 10-day vacation and for the graduation.

We now have five of these sister graduation photos. They're some of my favorite photo ops. I need to track down the other ones and compare.

Being "home" showed me, again, how important relationships are with good family members (notice I say "good" family members; I do not believe you need to maintain a damaging relationship with someone just because he/she happens to be related to you).

I have been blessed with a wonderful family with whom I have fantastic relationships, and this is especially true with my sisters. They are some of my closest friends, and I miss them terribly. They are supportive, fun, wonderfully honest, independent, kind, accomplished, hilarious, righteous, and mind-blowingly intelligent. And beautiful.

Especially Ms. Valedictorian 2010.

I am so thankful we were sent to earth in family units, and that I was sent to a good one.

Family pictures

My friend took some amazing pictures while she was visiting us in Hawaii. You can see them here. We took them at the gorgeous beach near our house. I love how they turned out and can't wait to hang our Hawaii pictures in our Maryland house (we move June 25--it's coming so soon).

Thanks Jess!