The three of us have been really enjoying getting set up in our new home. Everyone was asking if we were on a high with home-ownership but truly it didn’t hit until we left our home for a birthday party and realized we were going to be coming and going from this ONE place as a family for the next FIVE years! It was an amazing feeling, to start setting up our little routines. We feel so incredibly blessed. Just last night Dave said again that he still can’t believe we’re here, in our new home, exactly where we were hoping to live. Having Dave home at a very reasonable time (1730-1800) each night feels like we’ve already retired compared to the last five years of sea duty and shipyard work. We’re even talking about instituting “duty” nights where he stays at work late every couple nights so I can have my alone time 🙂 He wouldn’t have to stay over, though. Just come home late 🙂 That way he’d get a lot done after hours and not work late on the other nights. When he gets qualified and has his own project, he’ll have much more work to do and this system would probably help a lot. He has a cell phone and pager already…those will be ringing at all hours eventually. I got to meet a bunch of his coworkers at a birthday party on Sunday – his boss’s daughter turned 2. Sam enjoyed meeting all the kids and especially enjoyed decorating and eating a cupcake! He put the M&Ms on then sprinkles…much to my surprise. I thought he’d take a nose-dive into the cupcake before decorating. He loved the M&Ms of course – he’s not had candy before. I have been taking movies of all this, just haven’t had time to upload and edit them. Soon!
We took a break from unpacking yesterday to try a cute restaurant in town for lunch – Zia’s Caffe. It inspired us to rethink some remodeling we were planning on doing, so we’re excited to get an estimate on knocking a wall out and putting in some large, chunky doors we can throw open to the outside from the dining area. We want to invite the outside in, and put down outdoor tiles on the floor so it’s like a patio. We’ll maybe rip out the existing deck and expand the yard for Sam to play in and capitalize on the private back of the house for an expanded deck/dining area. I found a guy on Craig’s list who will barter his flooring installation work for stuff he needs to set up his home. He’s young and lives here to surf. He’ll be by on Wed to take measurements. It’s cool that we can trade for work – things we were going to sell anyway. We’ll get a lot more from them in a trade than we would in a garage sale, I think. Tiling is not cheap. So after lunch we went to two thrifts stores (all furniture stores on the island were having sales this weekend – Sal’s was 50% off!). We didn’t find what we were looking for, but I got two awesome margarita glasses for $1.25 each 🙂 So exciting! They are big and chunky, light blue with a dark teal rim. They look like they were made from the ocean water. We stopped in at a couple other great stores in Kailua and ended up getting a room screen (divider) in old Hawaiiana style (picture regal old royal hotel) with coconut tree botanical prints on it. We put it near the door, next to a cool vintage surfing advertisement. We are so excited about setting up house! Can you tell? When we headed across the island to check out some other furniture stores, I was talking to Angel on the phone – she was laughing about our extreme nesting and taking a break from unpacking…a 6 hr break!

Update on unpacking – because I think some accountability is in order. We finished the kitchen!!!! Yeah! We were even able to make lattes the last two mornings (well, Dave made them). The bathrooms are done, the guest bedroom/office is a total wreck/staging area. The living room is waiting for an entertainment center (we had sold our old TV several months ago in Poulsbo – Dave bought an LCD widescreen so it will be very thin and unobtrusive). We will be getting a bar – wine storage and place for cocktail glasses and stuff – with Hawaiian floral carvings on the front. It looks like it belongs in a tiki bar, which is our long-range plan for the counter area of the kitchen. The new dining table should arrive today as well. I am really excited for that. It was such a steal! The bedroom (Dave’s clothes) remain in a heap on the floor. I think I will try to sift through them. We need a closet organizer BADLY.
I’m in my running clothes already. As soon as Sam wakes up, he’ll have some milk and we’ll head out the door and down our nature trail along the marsh to test out our new running route.

Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes as we move in. We enjoy hearing from you and hope that you have fun staying in touch with us as well. I really love sharing our lives and hearing about yours. It makes the miles between us seem fewer – in fact so much so that I picked up the phone to call Dave’s parents in NY yesterday and it was 4:30pm here. Dave caught me just in time. It was 10:30pm there!