Sam called to me thusly as I tucked him in – antares is a star in the eastern sky which is a supernova about to happen. Sometime in the next 100,000 years. But it could be any day. You never know. After the boys get jammies on we go to check on the stars, and antares to see if it’s gone “supernova” yet. Sam reminded me of white dwarfs and red giants this morning. I asked if I could dress up as a white dwarf star for Halloween and he looked at me like “Duh, mom, no!” He told Dave tonight as we were out on the deck looking at the stars that “They use hydrogen for fuel and when the hydrogen is all out they die.” I, on the other hand, said some very silly things tonight. Such as “I am not sure we can see the North Star from here. It might be too low on the horizon.” Dave quickly corrected me that the North Star is named as such since anyone in the northern hemisphere can see it. Ahhhhh… Then I told Dave that Sam had asked this morning about scientists – specifically “What kind of scientist studies fires?” Tonight I was relaying the story to Dave while we were putting jammies on boys and slipped right into the trap of saying “it must be an arsonist, right?” (It DOES end in ist!) Dave shook his head and tried to fight off a little smile 🙂 I saw it – there was a smile “Well, I guess so!”

"You can call me Mr. Whiteface!"

Here’s Sam cleaning up with baby powder after a visit to the beach this morning for a little snorkeling. This afternoon I finally watched one of his favorite DVDs with him – “Searching for Superstars” from the Starry Night software program set (astronomy program). It describes supernovas, black holes, binary stars, pulsars…very interesting and very complicated stuff for me to remember. So Sam refreshed my memory tonight before bed with the above statement about hypernovas. He also asked me to tell him what all the different kinds of scientists are in the world, so we talked about astronomers, and about entomologists (he’s met the state entomologist here – a super nice guy (Mike) who goes by “bugman”). I think Sam is a really science-minded analytical sort – he really studies and asks questions, then considers and asks follow-up questions. After the DVD he reflected on how all the elements that make up all matter in the earth first came from the death (explosion) of a star. I tried to relate it to all the Lego pieces that come in his sets, but he has to put them together to make a “creation.” God helped organize everything into His creation, too – to which Sam said “God is pretty clever, isn’t He? How did He get so clever?”

Yesterday before the birthday party, Sam was buckling into his seat and had a little drool on his shirt. He looked down and said “Hey Mom, I think this shirt knows it’s going to a party because it already has a balloon on it!” The drool was indeed shaped like a balloon! He actually made me laugh out loud – kids are so creative!

On our hike yesterday - these roots were incredible!

Thankfully, Sam’s eye is fine today. He woke up last night pretty uncomfortable but it seems Tylenol did the trick. I am grateful for a good outcome. We said a prayer of thanksgiving this morning as we set off on a run. Sam said “Oh, and mom also say ‘Don’t let sand or dirt get in our eeeeyyyyes’ in our prayer.”

Thanks to Michelle for snapping a picture of the kids playing on this incredible tree. Today we went on a little jog, then bumped into a good friend and her kids at Lanikai Juice. Sam is enjoying watching “Searching for Superstars” (not the kind you’re thinking of but nebula and supernova!)…

Last update – just got back from a great party thrown by a friend of mine. This was the first time I have had a babysitter put the kids to bed since Ben was born 15 months ago. Everyone did great and I just sneaked in to check on them – sleeping soundly. What good boys. Probably helped that they went to celebrate Caliegh’s birthday – complete with castle bouncy house – just a couple hours before bed! I really enjoyed talking to other grown-ups, and also enjoyed some time just sitting quietly and eavesdropping. I am not used to being around so many people! Funny side note…people really loved my hair – several compliments on the style. It was fun to respond when they asked where I went that I hack off a ponytail every three years or so for charity! How lucky am I that my hair looks good with that simple cut. We’ll see how it looks in a couple months, though 🙂

I’m pasting an email I just sent to a friend here…no energy to even retype or revisit the events of the day. Unbelievable…

At the hike, wanted to greet visitors from Russia with a nice “dobre utra!” (“good morning!” – can’t believe I remembered that from my travels many years ago) so I belted it out. They were, after all, getting off a van inscribed in Russian with “Russia Hawaii Tours.” Felt it was a pretty safe bet. I also heard them speaking what I thought was Russian, but I was too far away to be sure. All I got was icy stares. Wow. Hmmm… Had to ask – ah ha – they were from POLAND! Nice. Of course I remember from my travels that Poles, and many other Eastern Europeans, do not wish to be addressed in Russian at all. DORK. HUGE DORK. How could that have been my luck? I smiled and said “Ok sorry! How about ALOHA!?”

Then the hike this morning – 3 moms 6 kids – despite some whininess and a rocky start, we all did fine and the kids had fun. Little 2 1/2 yr old Cameron wins the big trooper award for doing all 1.7 miles on his own two legs! We almost didn’t find the cache but finally did…Sam got dirt in his eye, rubbed it, got corneal abrasion. Has been alternately fine then screaming every 15 min or so all afternoon. He is usually a very tough guy so I imagine this is really bothersome.

Went out for pizza – ladies behind me were cracking up while eating. Finally had to ask why – they said “it’s about YOU!”  I’m like – no…not again. Don’t want to be center of attention and a DORK again. A plate had blown off their table and onto my HEAD, stayed there long enough for them to deliberate what to do, finally get up, retrieve it, get back and seated, and I never knew about it!

Went for ice cream, then home and in bath, finally.

Just get Sam’s head washed without a major freak out and I turn to look at Ben and there’s a huge pile of poop in the tub! Like huge pieces of grape and other misc food that won’t even fit down the drain! So I have to evacuate Sam before he rubs his eyes with poop-water hands…clean his hands, evacuate Ben, figure out if we’re calling it a night with the bath or not…decided to call it a night and head them to bed. I’m hoping he’s ok now, and will be even better tomorrow. There’s not much that can be done anyway and in kids it heals really fast. Poor guy. What a trooper. I feel like everything that could happen in a deployment – just about – has happened in 7 days. What a week!

Can you find April? (Click photo for most recent batch of pictures.)

Today we checked out a bike path in Pearl City with my friend April – one of the charter As who lives here now! How lucky for us! I called her yesterday and said be ready for us to pick you up at about 9am – be in your bathing suit with running gear on top. And she was ready, game for anything! We chased Sam down the bike path, spotted some fish swimming in a little stream outside the HECO plant (electic co) and had snacks under a beautiful fern tree in bloom with it’s red blossoms. Then we tooled back by way of a few swings on a banyan tree, then assualted April’s beautiful pool, and finally raided her pantry – our favorite part! The two boys chomped on snacks outside on her lanai – they looked like zoo animals wolfing down pretzels and grapes. Then Sam goes “What ELSE does she have???!” in a little voice that got cuter and higher with each word. So in April went to raid her fridge this time! While she was inside, the boys gathered at the door, peering to see what she was doing. Speaking of that sliding glass door – I totally bonked Ben’s head into it when I first arrived at her house – I didn’t see it was closed because her glass is SO CLEAN! I like to think my house is more safety-oriented, what with the greazy nose prints (boy and dog), paw prints, and dog hair that clings to all surfaces. Not to mention the mouse prints that are probably all over things. April and I had a really good laugh over that one 🙂

On top of Radar Hill, waiting for Felicia to come through.

Sam wanted to go on a bike/run around the fish ponds on base so we packed up and headed over the day Felicia was going to come through (Tues I think). I thought we might see the storm, some planes taking off to go survey the storm (P3s from base) and who knew what else. So Sam biked and I ran the 4.7 mile loop. We try to catch any Marines we see out running – if they pass us during a water stop, we like to run up on them from behind (they are often listening to ipods) and enjoy passing them. Not fun for them so much but fun for us. Well, we couldn’t catch one this particular day. Every time we gained ground, someone needed to stop for water, run through a mud puddle, or something. Sam wanted to know why we couldn’t catch him so I explained how tough Marines are.

Last night after I tucked Sam into bed and walked over to Ben’s crib, Sam whispered out to me “Mom!” so I went back expecting a question about bad guys or some other topic covered earlier. He said “Thanks for taking me campin’.” Wow. Made my night, actually my whole weekend and likely my whole year. Those are the moments we treasure, aren’t they? That short camping trip switched up our getting-stale dynamic and renewed our bonds. Funny how the outdoors can really ground you. Pun intended.

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Late-afternoon tidepool time.

One of the most precious rituals for me is tucking the kids into bed. I read to them, say prayers, sing, then tuck Ben into bed. I go back to Sam and chat about his day. We always end with “I love you more than . . .” and I think of something from the day. Like “all the toppings at Yogurt Mama piled up one on top of the other high into the sky.” He’ll then say “I love you more than all the toppings in all the galaxies in the universe!” or “…all the stars in the sky.” Tonight I said “…more than all the waves that will ever come into the tide pools.” We both thought about that for a minute, and realized that the waves will never stop coming. (For once I could beat Sam!) He said, “I’ll love you until the earth dies. Does it ever die?” I wonder what this routine will be like in 5 years, 10 years…There are so many times I can’t wait for the kids to be a little older to do certain things, like heli-biking for their birthday, or whatever. But these moments are the ones I want to last forever. On the days I feel like a bad mom, an impatient mom (I have been lately, tired of repeating myself), I am thankful that I have so many days to try again, to be better. I don’t have to wait for the weekends to have that time to hit the reset button. The days are few before I turn them over to someone else…unless we decide to homeschool and live out of an uber-cool Airstream travel trailer!!!