Home Sweet Home

Living in Hawaii was hard. Especially for someone like me. Family is the number one most important thing in my life. Being over there was fun at first, but once I realized how hard it was to see my family, it stopped being fun. The trips I did take home were 3-5 weeks long because it was so expensive to get home. 4-5 thousand miles, 10 hours of total flight time, and 12-14 hours of travel, made going home a huge pain. But I did it anyway because I needed to see them. 
With my husband's job, it made it that much more difficult to coordinate these trips. He is always gone and his hours are unpredictable! Planning around everyone's completely opposite schedules was really hard. Not to mention the 6 hour time difference. That was rough on everyone, especially my children. Half the time, I traveled alone with the kids because my husband couldn't leave. It made me hate it there. Hawaii was a beautiful place. So many fun things to do. The things we did do, I really liked. The views were stellar. But I hated it!! And I hate that I hated it. I wanted to enjoy it and do all the fun things, but couldn't because I just wanted to go home. That was the only thing I wanted to do. I was almost depressed. Not quite to that point, but seriously on the verge. Especially around holidays. Christmas in particular. All my siblings at home with mom taking pictures and posting them online, and I'm over here like, "Well, I see it's 82 degrees and sunny outside, darling! Fetch the bathing suits!" Everyone keeps asking me now if I miss Hawaii and I say I REALLY wish I did. But I do not. I do not miss being so far away. I do not miss how expensive it was. I do not miss driving 45 minutes just to get 12 miles away. Another reason why we hardly ever went anywhere. I do not miss not being able to pronounce any of the street names because they are mostly Hawaiian. I just don't. I also get asked if I could go back, would I. I often reply not so much and if I did, it would not be that island. Then FINALLY we moved!
Now I live on the east coast. In a nice little town with a lot of neat history. I like it much better here! Do you know why? Because my mom is only a 14 hour drive away! What's the difference between traveling 12 hours and traveling 14 hours? 
A. A car. 
B. I can stop whenever I need. Not like a plane where you're 30,000 feet in the air in a tiny metal case(well not tiny but you can't leave) where the air is mostly never fresh. The temperature is either Satan's bath water hot or Arctic elephant seal cold. And if you do need to go to the bathroom that little button you push on the toilet makes you feel like you're gonna get sucked out. The person in front of you wants to sleep and reclines his seat giving you....zero room to do anything. If you're me because I traveled with infants. The flight attendant says things like "in case of a water landing..." a water landing??? Oh you must mean if we crash into the ocean!!! That's comforting! and "Please do not get up until the pilot has brought the aircraft to a complete stop." Like he's just gonna slow down to a nice and steady 5 miles an hour, OK EVERYONE OFF!!
C. I don't miss out on important family occasions like weddings, births, and in my case funerals. That.is.so.hard!
D. IT'S ON THE MAINLAND!! That is probably the best part ever! 
Not to mention I have other family members close by. Again, FAMILY. It is so nice to be so close. Where my mom can get to me for free if she needs. Where I'm in the same time zone and can still talk to people at 8 at night. 
That is the difference that makes that 14 hour travel SIGNIFICANTLY better than the 12.
This may seem silly to some. I know a lot of people who are not close with their family. I feel sad for them. I wish everyone was close to their siblings and everyone the way I am. I like to think that I am a pretty good pen pal. I'm a good communicator. So keeping in touch is no problem for. THANK YOU INTERNET! No really, ask my mom. That woman will get a text, email, or phone call at least once a day from me. Sometimes on rare occasion all 3. That is reserved for trips we are planning! I'm sure that can get quite annoying, but my mom knew I was having a hard time and I like to think she made an exception. Well at least I hope she did.
I love that I can go home whenever I want now! I am closer to my parents, nieces and nephews, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, friends, and best of all, MY SISTERS!!! I don't know what I would do without those chicks!! All 4 of them are my heroes and I love them all dearly!!
Even though my husband is gone 19 hours a day, I'm okay with it. I am perfectly capable of holding down the fort. It would be the EXACT opposite if he was gone this much over there. Now that we are closer to home, just knowing that makes things so much easier. Especially while the hubster is gone. 
Sigh, life if good right now!