I haven’t spent any time writing this summer. And the longer the gap, the harder it is to figure out where to start. I could write about waking up one morning to an email announcing that our storage shipment was being delivered that day, to the wrong address, and the subsequent scrambling to reschedule it and find a storage unit big enough to fit everything temporarily.
Or I could tell you all about Carter’s meetings with the Army and Navy recruiters and more scrambling to find his birth certificate, social security card and high school transcripts. (Thankfully Josh brought them from UAE because he needed them as part of starting his new job). He was just going to meet with them, but now thinks he wants to sign with a guaranteed job so it’s all set for next summer.
And Josh’s new job is another thing that could be a post of its own. First he was planning on flying to Texas to start work, with stops in Washington DC and Southern California. Wait, let’s change that to a week in Southern California with a future trip to Texas/DC. That change meant we had to fly back to Abu Dhabi early, so Josh could come back to the US at the end of August . . . wait, let’s stay here, Josh work remotely, we head back to Abu Dhabi as originally planned so I can start work and then he joins us when he’s finished his time with his new team. I don’t have plane tickets yet, but I’m pretty sure the kids and I are flying home in two weeks. Maybe.
But the new job on-boarding process has been as smooth and and as painless as we could have ever hoped for. A huge contrast to Josh’s experience last summer. It’s organized, well communicated, and there is a team in place for overseas elements . . . instead of Toby and his “we don’t do that,” it’s “Hi, I’m the person who takes care of XYZ. Oh you have a school tuition bill that needs to be paid for the upcoming year? Send it to me and I will work on getting that processed right away.” It’s a miracle.
In the middle of all of the new things happening, it’s been a summer of family. Time with Calvin (yay! I really missed him last summer), cousins, grandparents, and aunts and uncles from all sides of the family. It’s been a perfect time of reconnecting and resetting relationships that need to be recharged. Lots of games, corn hole, imessaging, and running around together. It’s no wonder they wish we lived in California, because that’s where all the fun happens.
Time is flying. It always does in the summer. Next week the boys (including Josh) are going down to Monterey for 4 days to get their PADI (scuba diving) certification. Meanwhile Camille and I will be receiving the storage shipment of my nightmares. When we called to reschedule that was the soonest they could do it. Of course. We will survive. I just hope it all fits in my TWO storage units. When we went to rent the units I almost asked the administrator what would happen if I abandoned them (AKA Storage Wars), but I thought that might be poor form . . .
