Island Hopping

I'm pretty sure there is one thing we military wives have in common...planning the next move.  I can't speak for all of us on this matter, but I am often wondering where Uncle Sam is going to send us next before I've even finished unpacking boxes at my current abode.  So, we came to the great state of Rhode Island last summer knowing we would only be here for a year.  From the second I stepped foot on New England soil, I was visualizing doing it all again next summer.....not because I don't like where we are living.  It's beautiful here, and I am thrilled to see the sights and experience a proper winter.  It's just some sort of innate, masochistic thing we dependents endure.  What sane individual spends hours researching houses, schools, and activities in places she might live?  The hubs gives me his list of maybes, and off goes the roller coaster.  I swear, it is an illness.

Well, here it is, the middle of March, and I have houses picked out in about five different locations.  I've sent out e-mails and made phone calls to my AF sisters, and I've picked the school districts we just have to live in.  House at the Pentagon...check!  House in Colorado Springs...check!  House in Tampa....check!  Base housing in Hawaii and a possible rental back in Niceville, just in case the mandsome goes remote...check!  Now, all we need is the assignment...hmmm.

Monday, March 14, 2011 will certainly be a day I'll never forget.  For one, it was my oldest baby's birthday, and a milestone at that...double digits and the new ID card awaiting.  So exciting!  Secondly, my hubs found out he promoted to colonel, which is fabulous news.  Yippee!  And thirdly...wait for it....my world came crashing to a screaming halt.  We finally got the much anticipated assignment news.  All of those months of planning, and it's down to this.  My husband was talking to his commander on the phone as we were driving to the birthday celebratory dinner, and these were the words I heard from the hub's mouth:  "Andersen AFB, where's that?", and "Joint Marianas", and "No, I've never been there".  And these were the first words out of my mouth when he hung up the phone:  "I am not moving to Guam!"

Guam....really?  Where did that come from?  What about that Pentagon job that everybody gets but doesn't want?  What about all of those wonderful houses and schools I had picked out?  Guam?  A teeny speck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that's 30 miles long and 8 miles wide at its widest?  Fast forward almost a week, and I am fine with it.  I've scratched all of my glorious plans, and I am now making plans of a different sort.  Plans for a 24 hour plane ride, plans for quarantining animals, plans for the delivery and sorting through the 80% of our household goods that are in storage because we live in a furnished house here, plans for which elementary school and base housing area we should/could live, plans to sell a car and boat, plans...plans...plans.

So, here I am, planning our third overseas move, and I feel as if I should be a pro at it now.  I also realized that, at the moment, I live on an island much smaller than Guam.  The difference is that it is connected to other islands and the mainland by bridges.  The climate is just a tad different as well.  Don't think we'll be needing snow boots in Guam.  And we are all excited about traveling to places like Australia, Thailand and New Zealand.  Really, how many kids can say they've lived in Guam?  It is growing more appealing by the day, and flip-flops and shorts are sounding pretty awesome right about now.  We have approximately 3 months until we get this show on the road...from an island in the state of Rhode Island to a tropical paradise...two completely different locales and experiences that will hopefully provide us with memories to last a lifetime.  In the meantime, I just might need the best medication the Navy docs on the immediate island can provide.