This is why you shouldn't move...

All the joys of Hawaii:

We ordered pizza the other night and had it delivered only to realize that the Pizza joint is literally 20 feet from our apartment. (Not smart.)

I went to register the car in Kailua and waited for 20 minutes outside of the place, only to be told my a passerby that the place was closed because it was some random Prince holiday in Hawaii. A sign would have been nice or not having the holiday in the middle of the week.

A roll of paper towels at the grocery store off base is over 3 bucks - and that's the CHEAP stuff. (Not joking.)

Our dryer hose is not hooked up to the outside of the house. The hose just releases the air back into the laundry room. Apparently, Hawaii doesn't build houses with dryer hoses connected to the outside of the house because they have infestation problems - aka rats. Nice to know.

Sarah warned me about the huge roaches, but until you see one without your contacts while washing your face above you in the mirror late at night, you ain't really seen one. The things are HUGE.

Dave and Busters

Hawaii is getting a lot nicer! We finally got our stuff. Most of you know that we sold our house in NC in October and moved in with my parents until we left. So a vast majority of our stuff had been in storage or transit here since September. It had been a long time since we had slept in our own bed or sat on our sofa! It is really nice to have our stuff back! Unfortunately, the movers lost a part of the metal to our bed frame, so our bed is currently on the ground. We will have to sort through all of that tomorrow with the military moving office. At first, I thought it was the end of the world that our bed was on the floor; now, I could care less. It will get fixed eventually. Until then, our bed is just a lot lower than it should be!

Luke is adjusting to his new room - the walk-in closet! We were only able to find a one bedroom apartment that was nice and clean. We found other places with more bedrooms, but they were smaller than this place. So, we will make due with a one bedroom until base housing opens up. We were very fortunate that our landlords who live below us are allowing us to rent month-to-month. As soon as a place opens up on base, we can move. (That should be in the next 2 months. So really we moved just to move again. I know the military is backwards sometimes!)

Last night, Jason and I were able to go out to eat without Luke. This was my first time being away from Luke since we left Hawaii with one exception of a doctor's appointment. Our friend, Deanna, from NC watched him. We ate at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki and then bought a birthday present for Sarah. The food was WAY over priced, but our view from the table was amazing! Tonight, we went to Dave and Busters in Honolulu with Luke. We had a blast. I tried to win Luke a oversized flat football from the claw machine and ended up with this HUGE ugly stuffed bear that is dressed in basketball gear, complete with a headband and high tops. Jason was impressed that I won it, but I was embarrassed to carry it around the place the rest of the time. The thing is UGLY! I'll have to take a picture and post it. It is bigger than Luke!

Wow.

It's been a while - sorry! We arrived safely to Hawaii and have been trying to get established ever since. Our car arrived about 5 days after we got here. If you ever doubt how important a car is, try going without it for a couple days. Jason and I were logging a lot of hours walking the first couple days here. It was definitely interesting. So far, the weather has been dark, cloudy and rainy - not exactly what you think about when you say Hawaii.
I think Luke has been taking steriods (not really!). He is growing up so fast. I can't believe he is already 10 months old. Pretty soon we will be celebrating his 1 year birthday - UNBELIEVABLE!
I have gotten lost on the island quite a number of times. Jason, of course, has not! He's way too good with directions. It makes me sick! Jay is still adjusting to being back with a grunt unit. There's a lot of PTing, formations, and standing around. Right now, he's scheduled to go to Squad Leaders course at the end of April. He needs to do this for promotion and for his job. His unit is scheduled to deploy in November - I'm not looking forward to this, especially since November is his birthday and his favorite time of year is Christmas. I've never done a deployment married, with a kid or away from home, so this will be a completely different experience. Last time, we were engaged, I was teaching my first year and going to grad school. I was very busy. This time, I won't be. I think it will definitely be interesting and very hard.
Alright, well Jay's heading out to go for a run and I'm back on Luke-duty.