So Much Grateful

As the Filipinos say, I am so much grateful for our year here. There were stressful elements, to be sure. Traffic in Manila is truly a nightmare. No, seriously, you have no idea. I work five miles from home and have a 90 minute commute, 3 hours if it's raining. Walking is not a viable option for reasons I will leave to your imagination.

But Filipinos, as a group, are really the best; optimistic, hard-working, respectful. And they are always so much grateful for everything.

Katie and the kids are gone. As of Friday, the house is packed out and completely empty except for a couch, a bed, and two suitcases of basic living items. Just me and the cat (who is turning out to be a pain to get back to the states). Lots of time to reflect.

With the house empty, as it was when we first arrived, I recall all the excitement of those early days here. And it reminds me of what we liked about this lifestyle that we are leaving behind. I enjoyed the constant excitement of a new place and a new challenge. I will miss that. I will miss getting to know new peoples and cultures.

And in this case, I will miss specific people. Katie hired Tin as a household helper. Katie hired her over more experienced candidates because she felt right about her. A year later, Katie and Tin wept as they said goodbye. When the others were gone, I thanked Tin for taking care of my wife this year. She wept again. At the end of each day she would say, "I go-wing now, sir."

And I will miss my Boy Scouts. I almost didn't accept the new job out of loyalty to these great young men. We had them over every Tuesday night and they comprise a uniquely outstanding group.

I am so much grateful. I go-wing now.

Annual Hart Family Brand Relationship Post

You can see the top 100 brands here: BrandZ. 

Since many of the brands are American icons, I figure it is appropriate to post this on the 4th of July as part of my celebration of America. Instead of a list, I tell the story of our year in brands.

One year ago today, we got caught in a crazy rain storm on our final day at Disney (18) World. We spent about 30 minutes hiding under the faux rocks near the Animal Kingdom entrance before deciding to just run for it. We got drenched and five minutes later, the rain stopped. Life, right?

Disney World to us is more like a competition than a vacation. We gained considerable advantage this year with Katie's new iPhone (2). We knew all the wait times and scheduled our fast passes through the phone. And we totally owned Disney World.

We had a devil of a time getting to Manila last summer, with visa complications and flight confusion. And of course, as vanity demands, we posted it all to Facebook (5). I got to take a crazy same-day round trip from Boston to New York via Amtrak to resolve our visa fiasco. It was during the return trip that I discovered Stranger Things on Netflix (92). We are big fans. A few days later I got to fly to Manila without Katie because of the "how pregnant are you" disaster with Cathay Pacific. Loved that so much.

The kids attended The International School of Manila (ISM), which uses Google (1) as its primary teaching platform. Caleb especially took to the Google user interface and became the first member of the family to question our loyalty to Apple's walled garden. As the year progressed, Caleb's gaming interest picked up. And now he talks of owning a device with a Microsoft (3) OS. I mean, he is a Broncos fan, but Microsoft?

We added Manila (several locations), Tagaytay, Subic, and Tokyo to our impressive list of cities in which we have eaten McDonalds (10). Amazon (4) and Walmart (31) provided steady shipments of comfort food--and Pampers (42)--from home. Yes, Pampers. I almost forgot that we had another child this year. Katie sometimes says to me, "Tim, can you take this?" as she hands Michael to me. As far as I can recall, he is the first child to be regularly referred to as "this."

I fully embraced LinkedIn (79) for the first time this year with the happy result of a new job in my hometown. So I guess I like LinkedIn.

With such bad traffic in Manila, our outside time decreased. Thus, this was the year of YouTube (65). I could live without ever hearing DanTDM's voice again. It got to the point that I was begging my kids to actually play a video game instead of watching YouTube videos of other people playing video games. I think I actually said out loud at one point, "You should do something real, like play a video game."

Homeward Bound

I'm coming home. Katie and the kids depart Manila tomorrow with a 10-day stop in Boston en route to Idaho Falls. I will stay behind for 10 days to finish pack out and exit procedures. We will all be in good ole IF by July 15. It is crazy.

I am very excited about my new job as Internal Audit Manager with Melaleuca. I enjoyed the interviews so much. Really great people. Great opportunity. And I loved growing up in Idaho Falls so I figure my kids will as well. Idaho Falls is really good at 4th of July (thanks in large part to my new employer), Halloween, and Christmas.

On the other hand, I love my current work. I have really taken on the identity of "Guardian of the Taxpayer" as I audited US government programs overseas. We enjoyed living in Cairo, Frankfurt, and Manila. I am thankful for so many wonderful friends and experiences.