let's talk about the weather...

Let's talk about the weather ...instead of why our shipment isn't here yet. It has been a very emotional week. I can't let myself get excited about the stuff coming, because the last two times the build up was so great and the disappointment equally so. But not letting myself get excited means there is nothing to get excited about.

Oh yeah, we're on a tropical vacation island.


Nope, I can't seem to grasp that yet.

This fascinates me on some levels, how is it we (our family) can proclaim that stuff is just stuff. Stuff comes and goes, people... family... love... those things are everlasting. So why am I so uncomfortable and unhappy without my stuff? What do psychologists and sociologists and anthropologists say about people and ownership, belongings, and comfort? For my part.. my understanding of the situation, is that I can't get routines solidified with only half of a household present and operating. Example? Cleaning bathrooms. Normally, I have cleaning supplies tucked under the sink of each bathroom, if I am in there and I see that it needs to be done, I can do it very easily. Now have to go downstairs, gather all the supplies, and remember to take a trash bag because I only have one trash can - and it's not up there - go back up to clean it, then go put everything away. Laundry baskets are being used to corral everything from swimming gear to toys that wandered downstairs and are on their way back up. I usually have baskets and bins and buckets for all these sorts of jobs. This means the laundry baskets are not being used for laundry, so there are piles of laundry all over our laundry room, and no where to dump clean laundry. So then, maybe my problem is that I can't wrap my brain around how to get organized without all the stuff that needs to be organized and the receptacles with which to do it. HOLDING PATTERN. It's paralyzing and exhausting being bored with nothing to organize.
Maybe some of you readers didn't know my secret obsession with organizing. I like to think I hide it pretty well. Someone once told me the secret to controlling - or staving off - her OCD was to only let in control one part of her life, not the whole thing.


anyway, here's news...

NEW...US Postal Service offers first-time military discount! A new flat-rate box will be available from the Postal Service after March 3 that is 50 percent larger and delivered for $10.95 to an APO/FPO address -- $2 less than for domestic destinations. The boxes can be ordered at usps.com/supplies or by calling 800-610-8734 (Send this to your family and friends back home!!!). Some of the new boxes are co-branded with the logo of "America Supports You," which is a Department of Defense program that connects citizens offering support to the military and their families. For more information, read the Air Force Print News story at http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123085338.

source: www.time2pcs.com


I think someone from home told me about this new postal service recently, but these are the details. Maybe someone should tell Old Navy, it has been three or four weeks since I ordered summer clothes for myself and I still haven't got them! I desperately need summer clothes! I don't like the selection of American clothes at our base exchanges here. They carry high end stuff, at lower prices than American department stores, but you could still pay $80 for a handbag or $100 for a Tommy Hawaiian shirt. It is getting pretty hot here - 88 for the high today, and evenings are only down to 75 or so. We are supposed to go to the pool after lunch today, good behavior depending. The late afternoon and evenings are pretty nice in the front yard after the sun goes back behind the house. We finally set up that plastic Geodesic dome toy that used to be in our basement back in the States, and the kids are loving it. Tim bought himself a charcoal grill Sunday, and we have been grilling and playing and spending some time outside in the evenings. [Thanks, Grandma - for the 'buggybands' (that's what the kids are calling them now.)]

And more news... our shipment of household goods is apparently on the island now, and going through customs. I was told to call Wednesday afternoon to schedule a delivery time. The lance corporal I talked to mentioned something about them being booked up on deliveries. I. dare. them.