Finally...

WE GOT A HOUSE!!! It is nothing spectacular but for now it is ours. I made this decision after loads of hmmm and hawing. Was this what we wanted? Would we be happy? Would there be enough room, so that we aren't climbing all over each other and everyone can have their own space? Where am I going to put all the crap (and it is crap) that I wasn't able to get rid of before we left Charleston? Well friends, I am not sure I have the right answer to any of the questions. I had to make a choice. I had to decide. So I did. I was done playing the "maybe we can..." game. I am going to have to be very creative as to where we store things. I see a big storage unit in our future. No house was going to be perfect. All of them had flaws. I actually made a PRO/CON list between new or historic. Here is what my list looked like.

Historic

PRO CON 1. Neighborhood 1400 SQFT 2. Huge already fenced yard no garage 3. I can paint Window A/C's 4. house has character no storage 5. close to school away from most friends 6. no traffic construction across the street 7. Feel like you live in Hawaii far from Steve's work 8. privacy small kitchen 9. only 1 neighbor 10. sewing room 11. Can move in ASAP (like Friday!)

NEW PRO CON NEW feel like you live in Arizona garage no yard 1880 SQFT no privacy (on top of neighbors) plenty of storage! 4 plex (we would be in middle unit) playgrounds can't paint huge kitchen all look the same close to work noisy lots of friends farther from school kids can ride bikes to friends houses can't move in until middle of April central A/C

In the end what it came down to was that, we need a yard and I can't live in the middle of 4 houses. I made a choice between a garage and a yard basically. Ok the kitchen was a struggle. It was hard to give up a new big kitchen. But hey I will make it work. I am excited to start on this journey here. I finally feel like we LIVE here and I can get off this weird vacation where my kids go to school and husband to work and I have no where to call my own! So like I said was it the right decision? I don't know. What I do know is that it is made and I can now start shopping and painting and decorate! I will post pictures as soon as I get into the house again. If anyone has ideas on how to make storage in such a small place work let me know! I will leave you with the one picture I have. I took it while sitting in the car waiting to see it for the first time. Don't judge a book by its cover! Oh and another maybe CON for the historic...I asked if it was haunted. Yes I seriously asked. The leasing manager said she hadn't ever heard anything about this house...but some of the ones across the street being renovated she had heard that the maintenance guys don't like working on them!


Our house!!!!!!

USS Abraham Lincoln...I think

So this post is oh I don't know about a week late. Last Monday our friend called and said want to go see that big ship leave this morning? Why the heck not! The "big ship" was the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

It was returning from a 6 month deployment and had pulled into Pearl about 4 days before. The coolest part other than how GINORMOUS this thing was, is the families could fly here to Hawaii and get on board and cruise home with their sailors and pilots! HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE??!!! (this also explains why we saw so many kids and civilians standing and waving to us) You can read the article from the Star Adviser here. You can also read, if you are really really interested about its arrival to Pearl Harbor here.

So here are a few pictures that we took while standing out by the O club. Oh and while sitting at the beach the other day we watched another submarine come back into port. It just cruises by like no one's business. Apparently there is a Japanese Sub here right now. They had no idea what had happened, or at least to what extreme things had happened until they docked. They don't get the news or Facebook while out to sea. I think that should be changed.

Anywhooo enjoy the pictures!
Watching the "big ship"

Jet inside the ship

Our first view

twidling my thumbs

So I have this really bad pain in my butt. No its not the kids, it is a legitimate pain from my run yesterday. I stretched and stretched, drank loads of water but still it hurts to walk. Hmm maybe no 7 miles for me tomorrow.

So March begins the 3rd month of being in Hawaii and living in a hotel. Rock on...NOT. Again it hasn't been terrible, kinda enjoyable to have someone clean your bathroom, give you clean towels and make your bed. But it does get old not having your own things. Yes things I have mentioned before.

So today I went to the housing office to get an update. I didn't get good news, but I got news that made me optimistic. Hopefully Friday we will know one way or the other. What it really means is if we get this house SWEET! If not we wait till the end of April. Well I don't want to wait till the end of April. I don't want to be in a one bedroom hotel room with two kids and a husband. So hopefully we get this house. The downside to the situation is that this house is a duplex and not renovated. That means that its OLD and has window a/c units. I guess it could be worse. The best part is that it has a yard and is fenced. No work on our part! With the renovated houses you cannot install a fence and um hello..I have a 70 pound dog to contain not to mention 2 rambunctious kiddos. So I think if they offer we will snap it up. Now I just have to wait and see if they offer it to us. Fingers, toes, legs, arms and eyes crossed!

Hopefully I will have an update Friday...with good news!

XO

****well still twiddling my thumbs. The lady never called me today so I have no idea if we have a house or not. I am taking it as or not. It is really annoying. When you say you are going to call just call! It's called being professional for gosh sake! So now I get to wonder all weekend and you better believe I will be at their office first thing Monday morning.****