Dear Mom: Change of Address

Dear Mom:

It has been almost 7 months since we spoke last. I hope you are enjoying your "vacation" and are having fun being reunited with all of your family and friends that you haven't seen in a long time. I know I promised you I would start blogging again on a regular basis, but life got crazy shortly after my last post. So let me take a few minutes to catch you up on "The Jacobs' Family Adventures".

As you know this was to be our last year here in Japan and we have been anxiously waiting to find out what and where was next. At the end of November Matt found out about a job opportunity in the Mining Division. After a few weeks of interviews, waiting and alot of praying Matt was offered the job. Put down your golf club and your old fashioned just for a minute, because I would hate for you to spill or break your club from shock. Ready? We are moving to Dallas, Texas at the end of this month. I know you and I talked at length this summer about Dallas and I firmly believe "There Is No Coincidence in Life, Only a Purpose". And as hard as it will be to leave Japan, there is no doubt in my mind that this move is exactly the path that God wants us to be on.

The kids are anxious, yet excited. This has been the longest place they have ever lived. They have grown up here. We came with a kindergartner, 4th grader and 7th grader. The kids will be in 5th, 9th and 12th in the fall. Sami and Chris will start school for the last 9 weeks in Texas and we are leaving Emily in Japan to finish out the end of the school year. Don't worry, we have her staying with a good family that will make sure she is okay. I will be coming back to Japan in May for prom (there is NO WAY I am missing that) and will stay until final exams. I will let my friend put Emily on the plane to come to the states. Yes, I know I will owe her big for that one.

For me the move will be bittersweet. I have fallen in love with Japan and I think this will be the hardest move I have had to make. Wait I mean the second hardest. The first was leaving you of course. But I am excited to see what the next adventure holds. I mean, what can go wrong with cowboys, rodeos, Tex-Mex and FOOTBALL! And yes, unfortunately this means there is a chance Emily could become a Longhorn. You will just have to learn to tolerate them if so. Maybe I can watch Matthew McConaughey bongo on the Texas sidelines up close and personal.

I think the hardest part of this whole move is you not being here to talk things through. I never thought I would miss hearing "I am not telling you what to do but...". I really could use that right now. Dad is way better at not giving his opinion. You two always evened yourselves out.

I will try to be better about blogging in the coming weeks. We will be living the "Suite Life of Zack and Cody" and staying in a hotel for 6 weeks starting this Thursday. We have to buy two cars and move a household across the ocean. Life will be busy, but I am sure it will present some great bloggable moments. After all, it is our family.

I miss you.

Love,
Alexis

The Red Bag

My mom had a fear of flying in an airplane. She loved to learn about places outside of Ohio, but there were very few places she ever actually went. She went to Florida (via car of course) as a child to visit her grandma. She took a group of her Spanish students to Mexico when I was younger. She went to California to watch the 1968 Ohio State National Championship game. She snuck off to Washington D.C. to attend the events after President Kennedy's assassination (apparently sending a postcard to your parents when they do not know you have left the state is not a wise decision). She and I took a road trip in 1998 to New Orleans to watch Ohio State play in the Sugar Bowl. Besides her fear of airplanes, she was also a creature of habit, so that meant going to Indiana to visit family or to surrounding states to watch Ohio State play was what she enjoyed doing.

When Matt and I moved away from Ohio in 1998 it meant mom had to expand her traveling horizons a bit more. For nine years she drove to visit us in Illinois. When we moved to North Carolina she realized it was easier to face her fear and fly rather than driving through the mountains. She also started to fly every winter to visit her friend and her sister in Florida. When we moved to Japan at the end of 2008, I begged her to come visit me, but between her stubbornness and fear she adamantly refused every time. I even tried to bribe her with a deal that I would take her to Ireland, her dream, if she just came to see me. It's funny what you learn after someone has died. My mom and dad were in the process of getting their passports to come and see us in Japan. It was supposed to be a surprise.

My mom had a red suitcase that she used when she would go anywhere. It wasn't a big one, but it was exactly what she needed when she would travel.

When I went back to Ohio in September to visit my dad and brother, I needed an extra suitcase because I bought too much to bring back with me to fit in the two large suitcases I brought with me. Dad gave me the red bag to use. Little does he know (until he reads this) the suitcase is now mine.

The red bag has finally visited Japan. We took the bag with us when we went on fall break to Boracay in the Phillippines.

I am taking the red bag with us on our Christmas holiday to Singapore and Cambodia. My hope is to take the bag to places Mom never experienced herself. I am planning to travel more of the United States after our assignment in Japan is finished, and the bag will come with me.  And someday,  in the smallest way, I will makes mom's dream come true and the bag and I will go to Ireland.

It's the Little Things

There are many quotes that start out with the phrase It is the little things... that mean the most, that matter in life, that make a house a home, that make you smile.  You never know just what may be the little thing.

My kids and husband love to tease me about my weird love and fascination for The Muppets. When I was younger I belonged to the Muppet Fan Club. I received a monthly newsletter in the mail. I had watches, collected the glasses from McDonald's, owned the stuffed animals. My TV schedule centered around The Muppet Show and reruns. I even begged my parents for a Muppet theme bedroom. I am embarrassed to say that at 37-years of age my childhood bedroom is still decorated with Muppet wallpaper and bedding, and I have no desire to have it changed.

My mother also loved The Muppets. In fact, when my brother got married this past summer the mother/son dance was to "Rainbow Connection" from the 1979 Muppet Movie. Tonight I was flipping through the TV and the 2011 Muppet movie with Amy Adams and Jason Segel was on the Encore channel. As Kermit and Miss Piggy started singing Rainbow Connection at the end of the movie, it reminded me just how much I miss my mom. It has been 68 days since I last spoke with her. Sixty-eight days since I last heard her voice. There has been so many times in the past two months I have picked up the phone to call her, to talk to her, to vent to her, and a even a few times to cry to her, to instead remember that she will not be the person on the other end of the phone. (Although dad you are great to talk to!)

I was blessed with 37 years of having a mother. That is so many more years than many people get. Don't get me wrong. Not all of them were rosy. My mother was not perfect and to be honest I was many times a pain-in-the-butt daughter. But she was my mom, one of my best friends, and I miss her deeply. There are times when a daughter just needs her mother. (Especially when raising daughters of her own!)

So sometimes it is the little things. Little things like a shared love for The Muppets. Because you never know when the little things, may just be the memories you remember the most later in life.

"Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending." ~ Jim Henson

My Mom

My mom says I never talk about her in my blog. So in honor of Mother's Day next week I thought I would dedicate a whole entry to her.

Growing up I would have to admit I had a "love to hate" relationship with my mother. At the time I saw everything she did and said as being "out to ruin my life". As an adult, and a mother myself, I know everything she did and said was because she loved me.

My mom is such an interesting and a fun person to be around. You never quite know what she will say. She is so innocent on worldly things that it is cute. I never will forget her telling the story of using "slang" terms in her classroom thinking it meant the same thing it did 40 years ago.

My mom eat, sleeps and breathes Ohio State, especially Ohio State football. She is who I got my passion for books from. She spends even more money on books than I do, and except for her goofy "Murder She Wrote" series, we love the same type of books. My mom loves ballpoint pens. She had a thousand speciality pens made for her classroom (of course they said Vayan Bucks, or Go Bucks in Spanish). She has a weird habit of collecting hotel, restaurant, bank and any other type of ballpoint pens. The cheaper the better. Give her a set of golf clubs or a swimming pool and she is a happy camper. She loves animals and has been known to save injured animals she finds laying on the side of the road or ones that seem to wind up in my parents yard. She can't cook worth a darn, but she can order some great takeout.

My mom was one of the people who helped me through Allison's death. I never will forget how she helped me those last few days in the hospital nor the insightful words she said. I also thank her for making me laugh during some of the darkest days of my life.

We haven't always gotten along, but what bratty teenagers do? (yes I was a brat) But I am proud to call my mom one of my best friends. I pray that someday I can be as much of an awesome mom to my kids, as she was, and continues to be to me.

Happy early Mother's Day mom. I love you.