Fish Pants

My husband and I are about to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary ... apart. He will be in Guam walking and running on the beach, swimming, enjoying the beautiful weather, enjoying the peace and quiet only a parent with 3 kids under the age of 4 can imagine ... in short he will be living the life of a bachelor for about a month. He won't be asked to wipe noses and bums, to take out the garbage, to pick up milk or get dinner on his way home. Instead he will have his room cleaned and bed made daily, meals will be special ordered to be exactly to his liking, and all his non-working time will be quiet time ...

I think he will owe me big time when he returns ... like new diamonds sorta big time. Right before our 10th anniversary he pulled off his diving glove and his wedding ring sailed into the air and plopped into the ocean ... never to be seen again. Luckily for him I was there to witness said event.

This was good for me because I never liked his first wedding band ... now he has a great one. He commented back then that he wanted me to get a new one too or to at least redesign mine. I was about to have our first child and put it off until later.



Well "later" is "now" !! ... I want me some new diamonds ... I'll be working on that while he's gone ... in my spare time.

* * * * * * * * * *

Ok on to the fish pants ..


To get the full effect you need to know that my husband is 6'4". At some point he decided that elastic waist pants with wild patterns were going to be his new uniform and he set about purchasing every horrid pattern in existence. I soon came to understand that the more awful a particular pair were ... the MORE likely he was to wear them. So I learned to keep my opinions to myself hoping that this phase would pass.



One day he opened a package from some company or other and I was pleasantly surprised to see a pair of pants in a blue and white batik pattern. "Those aren't too bad", I thought. He drops trow and slips them on ... they were too short. The pants stopped at the top of his ankle ... a good 6 inches off the floor and when I inspected them further, I was shocked into saying, "You can't wear those out ... your junk looks like you are a porn star ... you might as well not be wearing anything".


Well this was his ticket to wear them everywhere we went ... unfortunately I don't have a picture of those pants that I can find. But let me tell you he wore those pants EVERYWHERE!!! Finally, one day, he ripped them ... it was a 90 degree tear that started about 6 inches above the hem, went up to his knee and across about 4 inches ... he had a flap that hung down and just about impeded his walking ... "Just about" being the important words here.


He continued to wear those torn pants until one day our hair stylist confronted him and told him to never wear those pants in her salon again ... it was a great moment that will live in my memory forever.


I'd like to say that this type of dressing is in his past ... but now he has a pair of silky type basketball shorts that he wears without undies ... and when he walks his junk is outlined by the material.


So I feel justified in posting this photo of him in his "Fish Pants" for the world to see. The photo is not the best and I should let everyone know that these pants were (my husband just looked over my shoulder to tell me to change "are" to "were" ... "They're gone", he said in a sad voice) more neon then they look. We were hiking up Mt. Whitney that day and I know that everyone who saw us that day remembers those fish pants.


So here you are ... "The Fish Pants" ....

(Note the matching shirt)

For Better Or For Worse

So there I was innocently having my morning cup of coffee, reading blogs and news, and my husband walks in ... we restart a conversation from the night before about his job interview in Austin ... it doesn't look good, he's not a perfect match and is probably over qualified ... the pursuit of this assignment is mostly about getting us closer to family in Houston. He tells me that he spoke to the national boss and that guys ending comment was "Well we do have that mega project in Guam" ...

In January of 2006, two days after having two embryos transferred into my perfectly primed body, during a discussion my husband and I were having, he casually says, "Well, what if it's twins" ... I was shocked beyond belief ... I had never considered for a moment that I was pregnant with twins .... I wasn't the first time ... why now? But I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was pregnant with twins. Every fiber of my being was telling me this was so ...

I had that same feeling the moment my husband mentioned Guam.

And that looks like where we are headed.

So much happened yesterday that my head is absolutely reeling. I started the morning excited at this new adventure and then the day ended with sadness for my kids ... they will miss their cousins and grandparents that have been a big part of their life since we moved to Texas two years ago. Jack cried when we left Houston last weekend ... he didn't want to leave. Jamie has cried before too about leaving.

I know that they will adjust, but are we taking something they will never get back ... something I think is important.

But this opportunity is amazing in many ways and if it was just the two of us ... we wouldn't have a doubt. Actually me ... my husband is on board 100% ... he thinks it will be great for the kids. But he was born and raised in Saudi Arabia. His parents shipped him and his siblings, when they each turned 14, back to the States to attend boarding school. They then spent their holidays with various relatives or made their way back to Arabia BY THEMSELVES .... at 14 ...

Obviously he is from heartier stock than I am ... I'm a fairly pampered girl from California who has been around my family my entire life ... I felt a huge separation from my family when I moved from Texas ... I can't imagine how it's going to feel being 6000 miles away.

But I think I'm on board. I'm excited about a totally new way of life. I hope the kids will look back on the experience and say that they loved it. My husband and his family loved living in Arabia and have great memories of the experience.

I have concerns ... will my kids regret being pulled away from the cousins and grandparents? Will our parents live long enough to see us back in the states in a few years so our kids can get reacquainted with them? (We would have been moved away from Texas anyway ... and we would have only been visiting once a year as was our practice before we moved here) ... and will our 13 year old dog make the trip without dying in transit?

Uggghhh ... The start date on this new job is probably going to be June 1. The amount of stuff that needs to be done between now and then is overwhelming. Just the doctors appointments alone that need to be done before we move, to get everyone as up to date as possible, is huge.

Well there it is ... our life right now. I can use any and all suggestions from everyone.

Anyone know anything about Guam?