Settling In

We're pretty much unpacked, and most of the things have been put away. There are still some decor items like pictures to hang, etc. but it looks and feels like home here now.

It's kind of funny that no matter where you live, things don't change too much. Dinner still has to be cooked, the laundry done, floors cleaned, kids taken care of, etc, etc, etc (and etc.) So we still go about our normal routines here, but the thing that is different is that everywhere you look, normal life has this backdrop of tropical beauty. Driving towards lush mountains makes even a mundane trip to the grocery store more intriguing. The people we have met so far also are very warm and friendly. Hawaii has a lovely, easygoing culture here and so far we are really enjoying it.

Organized chaos

It was an eventful week, we got our cars on Wednesday and all the stuff came on Thursday. The day the movers were here was sheer chaos, or so it seemed. Thankfully, one of the older neighbor kids came over to play with the boys so they were preoccupied much of the time while I was dealing with the delivery. There were boxes stacked to the ceiling and coming out of every doorway! But it was good to have our stuff. It took us about 4 days to clear through the bulk of the boxes, now it is starting to look like home.
Adam and Cole started unpacking everything out of the boxes in their rooms. Pretty soon there were so many toys on the floor that you couldn't even walk through. They dumped every toy, every lego, all of it onto the floor. They were glad to see their stuff back :)

What's new

Well, the cars are supposed to be in tomorrow and our stuff on Thursday. Got part of a bunk bed set up, Cole is sleeping on the bottom half tonight. The rest of us should have beds in a couple of days. It will almost seem wierd now having so much stuff in the house. :) We got rid of one of our furry friends today too. Caught a mouse after I set a trap in the stove. He came sniffing around the stove after we had baked cookies that afternoon and we saw him near the bowl that the cookies were stored in. So I baited a trap with a bit of chocolate chip cookie. If you give a mouse a cookie... you catch him in a sticky trap. (or at least that's how the book goes in our house.)

We also just found out that we're in the home stretch on selling our old house. We had already come to agreement with the buyers on the building inspection findings, now it has cleared the appraisal (we were sweating this one a little). Once we get the gas company inspection and complete any repairs, the sale is a done deal. Whew!

First day at the beach

Home sweet home

Here are a few pics of our new place. Adam and Cole have their own new little house nestled between a couple of palm trees in the back yard.


Right now it is just big and empty. It will look so much different when we fill it up with furniture in a couple of days.
So we're doing a little 'camping' on the floor. It has been almost two weeks sleeping on the floor. At least the air mattresses are holding up ok.


I'll post some pictures once we have furniture!

Aloha

I think for me, aloha must mean something like 'have a crappy week'. So here we are headed to live in paradise and the first thing I do is get Cole's cold. I was sick for about the first 8 or 9 days that we were here. And of course, I didn't just get a little cold. It wore me out completely and then turned into a sinus infection. Of course, I had to keep two boys busy in a big empty house with no toys except for what we brought on the airplane and no car to go anywhere in since Dan was working. At least I got to communicate with civilization and check e-mail on Dan's computer in the evenings, until the computer died that is. My favorite thing that first week, Dan got up early before work one morning to go get a patio set for outside so I'd at least have a chair to sit in. You know you don't have much when a chair makes you happy.

So really, there has been good stuff that has happened. :) We did get our air shipment a little over a week after we got here. That was 500lbs of stuff, so I then got a computer, pots and pans to cook in, a coffeemaker (!), more toys for the kids, etc. We bought a new washer/dryer too (clean clothes made me really, really happy),

The neighbors are all friendly. Adam has two girls he loves to play with, Jordan and Chanel (sounds like the perfume Chanel No. 5). They are about 11 or so, and they both love little kids so they come over to play pretty much every day. At least it entertains the kids.

I'm really hoping to have some furniture soon, and I'd really, really like a real bed to sleep in. We bought bunk beds for the kids and should have those in a couple days. So at least the kids will have a mattress to sleep on (the other mattress we'll use is in the seatainer or I'd probably sleep on it!). The cars are in Hawaii, hoping to get them Monday. They didn't get off the boat in time on Friday to deliver them.

I'll have to post some pictures soon, but it's getting late here.

San Diego

We spent a week's vacation in San Diego. First Monsanto put us up at the Loews at Coronado Bay for the manufacturing excellence award that Dan won this year. That was a great resort, so beautiful. The first picture shows the little citrus grove that was right outside our building. Dan, Adam, and Cole would go out in the mornings for a little breakfast treat. It doesn't get any fresher!

I loved San Diego, the scenery was gorgeous and the weather was just fantastic.

A view out the balcony of our hotel.
Boats in the Coronado Bay
We rented a surrey bike and took it for a spin down the bike path.
I could have stayed in that hotel forever I think. But we did switch hotels once we were footing the bill :) The next couple days we spent at the San Diego Zoo and the Birch aquarium. Both were very cool. We also managed to meet up with my friend David from grad school for dinner one evening while we were there.

Below, Dan and Adam on the bus around the San Diego zoo. Cole was sick on this part of the trip so he was completely wiped out.
But he did perk up when we got to the children's part of the zoo. He loves the baby goats...
Then after about a week in San Diego, we hit the road again. Here we go on our way to Hawaii.

For a bunch more pictures from San Diego, check out this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/amykerkemeyer/SanDiegoTrip

And we're off...

On July 21, the movers arrived and by July 24 they had us all boxed up and packed on the truck.
Dinah, Joey, and Dani came over to visit that week. They even brought some toys over to play with since ours were all packed up.
Here's the seatainer that they packed us up into. I can't believe our whole house of stuff fit into this thing.
The boys thought the moving truck was really cool.
July24 - Waiting for the taxi to pick us up. This is everything we have left. We're off to San Diego for a week's vacation.
More to follow...

Last Hurrah

A few fun things before we hit the road to Hawaii. We went to the zoo with Dinah, Joey, and Dani. They also had a dinosaur exhibit with big fake dinosaurs that roared and moved. Joey and Adam loved it, Cole was utterly terrified.
Then we also had Joey's fourth birthday party. Poor Cole was sick so he missed the party but all the other kids had a great time. The water slide was up and Dinah had a pinata for the kids. The theme Joey picked was to have a pig party, so the cake was in the shape of a pig. All the kids picked out the pig parts they wanted.

I am going to miss these outings so much while we're in Hawaii.