The Stanley Take Back Missouri

We have been back to our MO Home for one month now.  We changed our watches.  We changed our wardrobes.  We are back.  Just in time for Fall.  We really missed Fall.  The kids, of course, had no idea what this “Fall” was we were speaking of.   They couldn't understand why on earth we were looking forward to it.  I assume they thought we were all going to fall down on the ground as soon as we got off of the plane.

I know what you are thinking, because we hear it every day. 

“Why in the world would you move from Hawaii to Missouri?!” 

“I bet it was like one long vacation.” 

“Do you miss the beach?” 

“Are you glad to be back?” 

To be honest, I have no idea how to answer any of those.  They are unfair conversation starters, because they expect a one or two word reply, and there is no way to summarize everything that is this transition into a one or two word reply.  So I will instead reflect on how our lives have changed.  I’m good at lists.  And what I mean by that is I am good at making lists.  They usually last about an hour until I lose them and forget they ever existed.  But for the purpose of this, the final blog post, a couple of lists will serve us well. 

    

List #1: Things that we did NOT do this week:

• We did not eat pizza on the beach.
• We did not rush to Costco to stock up on bottled water and toilet paper, because yet another hurricane threatened our island.
• We did not name the lizards that peeked at us from between the rocks.
• We did not have a coffee play date with our sweet friends.  (Will, Kohnnor, Milla and Kaia, we miss you and we talk about you every day!!)

• We did not worry that a 9" centipede would make himself at home in our living room.
• We did not vacuum 3 pounds of sand from our van.

• We did not receive a shaka from anyone.  Not.  Even.  One.
• We did not receive a random phone call at 3am.
• We did not check the surf forecast for North Shore for this weekend.
  
  
                         
• We did not watch the Waikiki fireworks from our loft.
• We did not eat a Leonard's malasada, a Bubbies' DDCCC in a waffle cone, a Matsumoto shave ice, or a Ted's fried rice special.
  
  
                                           
• No one saluted Dan.
• We did not simply stare at the ocean for any stretch of time.
  
                        
• We were not offered any SPAM at all.

List #2: Things we DID do this week.  Things that would never have happened in HI home:

• We wore socks every single day.
• We sang the phrase, "ain't nothin' more than a..." in a song at church.  (I mean seriously, Ozarks.  We can at least try to sound intelligent here.  I'm just sayin'.)
• We showed our kids a deer for the first time ever.  (They finally got to see the difference between a mongoose and a squirrel, too.)

• We bought a house!!  (For substantially less than $400/sqft!!)
• We watched the leaves change.

• We ran into people we knew at the grocery store.  (This sounds like a positive, but it actually  means that I'm going to have to start wearing make-up in public again.)
• We ate soup, like, 4 times.  And it didn't even seem strange.
• We got to smell the house after you turn the heater on for the first time.
• We celebrated birthdays with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas.
  
  
                                  
• We ate Sonic.  And Chic-Fil-A.  And Krispy Kreme.  And Andy's.  (And gained more weight than we care to mention.  Stop wondering if I'm pregnant again.  It's just all the Sonic.)

• We got to go to the Maple Leaf Parade in Carthage!
• We drove for over an hour in the car (and we were moving the entire time).
• We received a strange look when I accidentally told the cashier at Wal-Mart "Aloha," as she handed me the receipt.  (Yes, that really happened.)

We miss Hawaii, but not in the same way you miss the beach after a vacation.  Because it wasn't a 3 year vacation.  For a while it was "home."  "Home" because any place your children learn to talk, walk, ride a bike, open their Christmas gifts and write their names for the first time will always be "home."

Thank you.  Thank you for reading, for telling us you were reading, and for commenting on each post.  Knowing that you were reading along and experiencing Hawaii with us somehow made it feel like we were not quite so far away.  Thank you for coming with us on our Hawaiian Adventure.  It was wonderful to have you there.    

Aloha,

The Stanleys