Tag Archives: military wife

We have a house!

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So we moved into our house this week, it has been WONDERFUL to get out of a hotel room. Everyone needed a door to close to get away from everyone else. I love my children but I am really, really glad that I can send them upstairs to play, or to the park right behind our house.

We have some hideous awesome temporary furniture that we get to use until our stuff gets delivered. But really, it’s nice to have beds, a couch and a table and chairs. The same day we moved in we had our temp furniture delivered, our express shipment delivered and had satellite tv hooked up.  So we at least have enough stuff to cook and get through the next month. It’s been great to be able to cook dinner again. It’s going to be a long time until we eat fast food!

There is a LOT that I want to do to this house. I really want to paint some walls but we have to get approval first… Also our (tiny) yard is pretty much just red dirt. So I am really looking forward to getting some grass seed in there and doing some gardening. I have a little papaya tree in my front yard and I am hoping I can actually get it to produce some big ol’ papaya.

Oh, and one of the perks of living in Hawaii? I found a roach today in my kitchen. Since we have hardly any food it must have already been here. Needless to say I was throwing up in my mouth, I have NEVER had to deal with roaches before! First thing tomorrow I am calling maintenance to have them come spray the crap outta my house. I can deal with ants and spiders but roaches are a deal breaker.

Need to take some pictures to show, but we’ve been so crazy running around getting errands done. Really looking forward to relaxing and settling in!

Sunday in Waikiki

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So Sunday I had wanted to head over to Kaneohe Bay on the eastern side of the island, but we ended up deciding to make our way back down to Waikiki and go to the Honolulu zoo.  Of course the parking near the zoo is an absolute madhouse on the weekend.  When we were staying at our hotel down here we had purchased a month long parking pass at the hale Koa hotel parking garage ($90 for the entire month!) So we decided to park there again and just walk to the zoo, stopping for lunch along the way.

We stopped for lunch at the Yard house, which I definitely recommend. They have something like 130 different beers on tap. Omar got a 1/2 yard of some local beer, Kona blonde something, I got a pint of a pear cider (yum!). Lunch was good, I got the BBQ chicken salad and it was delicious… avocado, roasted corn, shredded BBQ chicken, can’t wait to go back. Prices were pretty standard for Waikiki and they do have lunch specials.

This is also the point where I realized that I didn’t have my memory card in my camera. I was SO upset! And I didn’t even have my back up point and shoot in my purse like I usually do. So now I get to lug around my DSLR for no reason all day. I did take some crappy cell phone pictures but it’s not the same.

After lunch we keep walking. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea. Omar is getting ready to turn around when I spot the zoo.  They have a military and local price so we got in pretty cheap. We only had a couple of hours before the zoo closed so we had to make it fast.  The kids really loved the howler monkeys, those suckers are loud!  For the most part the exhibits are nice, reminded me a bit of the Norfolk Zoo in some places.   The elephants didn’t make an appearance, nor did the lions.  I was most bummed about the fact that by the time we made it to the kids area of the zoo they were closing it. That area closes a 1/2 hour before the zoo closes so we only had a couple of minutes to crawl inside the big koi tank, check out the cool guinea pig house and see the goats.  The kids liked it so we’ll have to go back.

Loooooong walk back to the car, passing some shops that I really wanted to stop and peek into but everyone else was just done.  I keep seeing Hawaiian style quilts and they are just beautiful. They are going on my to buy list for Hawaii!

Also, yesterday we went and stocked up on snorkeling supplies. I can’t wait until my stuff gets here in over a month and Omar needed some of his own. he actually got this really nice mask that I’m a little jealous of, but he couldn’t get a good seal on any of the cheapo ones.

So this weekend we are going to try a new place to snorkel, hopefully one that isn’t as crowded as Shark’s Cove was. It seems like all the best places are going to be crazy crowded.  We’ll have to see what we can find.

North Shore Trip aka Best. Day. Ever.

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We decided to actually do something Hawaiian and touristy and take a trip up to the North Shore. On the way up we took a quick stop by the Dole Plantation. We weren’t trying to stay all day so we didn’t do the maze or train.

Not even a minute after walking in did Omar spy a pineapple! They have groups of different varieties growing all over the place and it’s amazing to see the many different colors and sizes. Who knew?!

The koi pond was also pretty cool. The koi were outta control, trying to swim on top of each other to get food. Unfortunately for us, the food was all gone out of the dispensers. Go before noon if you want to try to get some!

They had some really pretty plants as well. I am constantly taking pictures of all of the plants and flowers I see (I really need to buy that macro lens I want!) I love how well landscaped everything on this island is! Just beautiful!

My little pineapples… There was a group ahead of us who were doing this as well but they had way more people and a million cameras and were taking FOREVER. It was super annoying and they refused to get out of the way so my kids could take a picture.

Everyone raves about the Dole Whip, and I admit it was good. But really, it’s pineapple soft serve. For $5. But now I can say I ate it.

Guess what? MORE pineapple pictures! They were SO cool, and the baby ones were adorable. (Yes, I realize I just described a fruit as adorable.)

I don’t know what kind of tree this is, but Mckenna and I are now calling it a rainbow tree.

Continuing on to the North Shore, we passed this horse farm. Nothing happened, I just love how this shot turned out. (As we were creeping along in traffic because our bright idea was the same one that half the island had!)

Quick pull off right after the horse farm. Turtle Beach! I was hoping to see at least one sea turtle, or honu as they are known here. Instead, we saw DOZENS!

I just love those sweet faces! But not enough to touch them as they are protected and will cost $250K!  The volunteers were actually really great and I would love to join them! hang with turtles all day? Sign me up!

While we were having a religious experience with sea turtles, Omar was happy to watch from the shore.

Next time I am bringing a snorkel!

One of the turtles up close. This is why they are here, to munch on all this yummy algae.

Onward! This time to find something to eat! We ended up purely on accident at Ted’s Bakery. Ended up having a GREAT lunch wishing we had room for dessert. They are apparently quite famous for their cream pies (which looked outstanding!)  I did end up having my very first Hawaiian plate lunch. Fantastic!

After lunch we tried to make our way to Waimea Bay, one of the most famous surfing beaches in the world. Parking was INSANE. No where to park for miles, so back up the coast we go, finally stopping at Shark’s Cove. I had read that they had great snorkeling and even though we hadn’t brought any with us, we were hot and ready to cool off!

Omar and Mckenna went in first and I couldn’t tell whether they were enjoying it or not. Once they came back they said they saw tons of fish. We all ended up going out (with just goggles) and ended up seeing hundreds of convict tangs, parrot fish, wrasses, puffer fish, a moorish idol, and a humahuma trigger. I can NOT wait to go back here with a snorkel!

Still can’t believe this is my life. I’m kinda digging it so far.

Hotel Living

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I am officially over living out of a hotel room. One week, that’s all it took.  Plus we’ve been lucky because I’ve been dropping Omar off at work then running around with the kids so we aren’t stuck in here all day. But man, it sure didn’t take long for me to miss cooking. And dressers. And a bedroom door between me and my children.  We moved from our hotel right smack dab in the middle of Waikiki to one right near the base. Our temporary housing allowance was getting cut off because we refused a house to wait for the house we really wanted, and that means we have to start paying out of pocket for a hotel. So goodbye beach hotel, hello cheap hotel. I’m not complaining, it’s clean, has wifi in the rooms, a pool and is SUPER close to the base.

We did have some delicious Chinese food for dinner tonight. Let me just tell you that Chinese food in Europe? Is not what you are used to, we got used to it over there but man was it so good to have our unauthentic American Chinese food again!

Also Cinnabon for breakfast (yes I know I will soon be 200lbs). Little Omar said to me “Mom, you need to learn how to make cinnamon rolls like these!” Honey I am sorry, the closest you will get will be from the tube. I haven’t had the patience to make yeast breads in forever.

It’s been pretty fun taking Omar out to eat everywhere, it’s all a first for him. First Cinnabon, first Taco Bell, second time at Popeye’s (the first was in Germany of all places!) Although I did almost disown him for saying he didn’t like the cheddar bay biscuits at Red Lobster (and yes we are planning on hitting up EVERY SINGLE chain restaurant on island!)

Found out which school my kids are going to. Not 100% happy with it. I can change it to another school but I am not sure how much of a pain in the butt that will be or even if they will approve it.  I hate the way they draw district lines. We end up going to a school that is across a highway instead of the one that my daughter could ride her bike to.

I think we are going to explore the beach on Hickam tomorrow since it’s just up the road. I’ve heard that it’s nice. I’m still kicking myself for not packing my snorkel stuff. I’m trying not to buy more but I don’t know if I can wait until our stuff gets here in September!

The end of the month can not get here soon enough, I am ready for a house!

Wednesday.. Already? Finally? I don’t even know.

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This has been a very weird week. I feel like time is dragging and flying by at the same time. How is that possible? It’s kinda bizarre because it’s almost like I can’t yet get excited for Hawaii. I mean I am excited, I think we’ll love it there, but there is still so much going on here that I have to get through. Packing out in two days, still stressing about the dog, sad about missing Spain.

Speaking of Spain, I am SO mad, I totally forgot to go to the gypsy market today (it’s like our local flea market and I LOVE it). I wanted to go one more time and I totally forgot until this afternoon and it’s only on Wednesdays. And I am so sentimental about it, like it really makes a difference that the last time I went I didn’t know it was going to be the last time? I am so weird.

I feel like I am running out of time. There were all these little things I wanted to do one more time, there are still a dozen places off the top of my head I wanted to go get more pictures of. I HAVE to go get pictures in the sunflowers. If we have to pull over on the way to the airport I am getting a picture in the sunflowers.

Leaving is just hard. Mckenna is going to have a hard time going from being with a million friends all day long to having none. (Thank goodness she has an email address!) I wonder how much Omar is even going to remember about living here. That is the craziest thing, he has lived here for most of his life, this is all he knows, I really can’t imagine him not remembering this house. Our beach. His daycare.

It’s hard to be getting ready to finish this chapter and start a new one. Starting over will all new friends. (Oh God how I hate trying to find the normal ones out of all the military wives!) Starting the kids in school, which is a HUGE change, both of my kids in school. It’s going to be so hard to watch them pack up our stuff this week. So much has changed in the four years we’ve been here in our tiny little house. We have to say goodbye to all of our stuff and who knows how much is going to change in the two (or more!) months until we see it again.

Change. I love it and hate it and it’s exciting and it sucks. That just about covers it.

Lazy days of summer…

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On Friday after graduation my love took me to my favorite place for a graduation lunch. Puerto Sherry, Blanca Paloma, my happy place. I’ve mentioned it a time or two.

This is the place my heart will always think of when I think back to my time here. I just love it.

 

Oh and my favorite yummy, delicious salad. Ensalada Spagnola. Fresh mozzarella and pesto. Yes please.

And little Omar and I have been splitting this as well, the provolone and feta bruschetta.

And Omar gets some version of the pizza… ham and mushroom this time…

The rest of the day was spent hanging out at home. Got Omar’s sea bag packed so that is ready to go for the plane. I was giving him a hard time wondering if he even remember how to pack a sea bag because it’s been so long since he’s had to do it!  He does need some new uniforms as he can get by with less than what is required here but we can buy those in Hawaii.

Also made of list of EVERYTHING else I need to try and get done in the next few days, lots of checking out things.  Still stressing out about the dog situation. Just hoping everything goes okay with getting him on all three airplanes, picking him up, and dropping him off at the pet sitter.

Rented “Wanderlust” off of iTunes… Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston, I really expected more of you. It was one of those movies where most of the funny parts were shown in the preview. Omar did make a comment that I was a likely candidate for a commune after I made a remark about how they were living sustainably. Whatever.

Saturday we ALL slept in and it was wonderful, in fact I almost overslept for my hair appointment. I woke up at 9:40 for a 10am appt! Out the door in 5 minutes and still had time to grab a caramel macchiatto from the coffee shop next to the salon! Was just getting highlights and a trim, the girl left the color on for a bit longer than I would have liked so it’s pretty blonde when I really just wanted caramel.  Omar says it looks good and he’s not one to sugarcoat my hair choices! It’ll work for summer, especially since I am moving to the land of endless summer…

I had to stop and do some shopping for a baby shower I was going to this afternoon (what, I almost ALWAYS shop the day of a party, it’s terrible I know!) I swear, nothing makes me want to have another baby like shopping in the infant girls section.  (And no, no more babies for us, we are done!)

I was shopping for a gift for this lovely lady Amber. She is having her second baby, her first girl! She is such a great person, always smiling and happy!  We used to work together, she quit before I did so she could relax for the rest of her pregnancy. We had lots of fun friends there, and TONS of food. Oh my, the hostess outdid herself. I must have had three helpings of berry trifle!

(I want that dress in my size! Seriously, how adorable is that!) Congrats Amber! Wish I was going to be here to meet your baby girl!