You Asked for Pictures?

This illustrates generally the shape of the house. Our front porch is like this one, too. The colour of the house is not my favourite shade of browns, but . . . I think I'll adore having the front and back porches!


Again, this is not the house we were offered, but it's like it. This is the back porch . . . basically this will be Hol's home outside the home. Yeah?
I'll be more specific. We'll be living on Ford Island (for those of you who may not have already deduced that by my hints in the previous post).

What changed my husband's mind about even looking here? Everyone at work said to him, "If I had been offered Ford Island, I'd have taken it in an heartbeat!" Now, some would balk at living in military housing for the main reason that it's too easy to stick to the base and not mingle with local life. We're not like that.at.all. We will leave base and go local shopping and tootling about. I'm all about diving in to the culture of where we're at (unless it's East L.A., ahem). You all know what I mean. I like living in a 'gated community', so to speak, for there is more security there. In my mind, and, maybe for real.

The island used to be a place where infertile couples went to change partners (chosen by the chief). Nice, huh? Well, if the woman conceived, the baby belonged and was considered to be the woman's husband's, not the donor. Uff da. Anyway, just a piece of island trivia. I find it all fascinating! Then, of course, you all should know the WWII history of the island and Pearl Harbor (not based on the glitzy film, but the truth). It's just cool to drive where it all happened . . and to live there . . . the Missouri right.there! Awesome.

My sister and I were speaking on the phone a bit ago and she asked me, "Remember when we toured the Missouri as kids and mom bonked her head on one of the guns?" Yeah, I remember that. You never forget your first battleship, nor, your mum being knocked silly. She was unconscious a lot as we were growing up. ha ha ha! Mean, I know. I'm going to confession Saturday and I'll include this one.

Ya'll have a blessed day now, ya here?

Something Good

My husband is on his way to pick us up to look at a house that was offered to us today. I thought, surely, he would have refused this house based on the fact it's not in the neighbourhood he's holding out for. I think he saw it as newly constructed (relatively speaking, just three years old, I think), and, I'm wondering if they told him the usual "line": take it or move to the back of the wait line. I'm just guessing.

I looked up the schools and the middle school is the same as the other neighbourhood, the high school and elementary (k-6) different. They all rank okay and the students are mostly military. The student to teacher ratio looks good and . . .

. . . so we'll go look.

No news on the carpet yet . . . . I'm not holding out anything but indifference about it. Well, not exactly that, but that it's more likely we'll be taking care of it. That's the discussion for the car on the way to see our possible home.

More later.

Cheaper

Well, I found a cuppa 100% Royal Kona coffee (vanilla macadamia nut flavoured; black) for buck. Yum. They also sell packets for under a buck for hotel coffee makers. I'm thinking about it, but why? I only want twelve ounces at least once a day. It keeps the headache away, you see.

The little shop also sells hot dogs. We all had lunch for $8. Alright!

We are going to check out some places in Kailua . . . but in all seriousness, we'll likely be living month to month (up to three months) in a 29th floor furnished flat. It's two rooms and two baths and a nice kitchen/living space. It will be expensive relatively speaking, but we'll just be able to do it. In the long run, it is more cost effective to rent that place than to stay in the hotel here. Eating out is really killing the budget. The downside is: Hols will have to stay with our sponsor until we move into housing. Poor Hols, poor us, and poor sponsor. I mean, it does put some out . . . we have to be sure that it's not putting our sponsor out. And, we'll have to make arrangements to see her frequently so she doesn't forget us!

The thing is, we are not on holiday here. We are residents trying to find a place to live . . . so we are seeing this place from that angle. We will sight see as much as we are able, but for the most part, we are focused on finding a roof, yeah? Anyway, there's a link to my O'ahu blog on the upper right side . . . a place where I will share where we go visit and sight see. I'll update as often as I can with those things.

Aloha!

Mass On The Beach

Last night we attended Fort DeRussy's Mass on the beach. The visiting priest (he may actually be stationed here again, as he has a small place somewhere nearby) was one of the priests at MCCW WorldWide conference in San Antonio. Father Joe! It was wonderful to be able to thank him (again). Mass was lovely. We all sat on bamboo/grass mats and had Mass. There was a traditional hula after Communion . . . it was tasteful and, well, we are in a region where "liturgical dance" is acceptable. I'm not in white-bread America anymore . . . but it's okay. If anything in the past couple of weeks I have learned that one must just allow oneself to accept what's going on in the moment. I do not mean this loosely. I mean that I can't help it that we are without all our belongings and an address. Not this very minute. We are working toward that . . . we know in a month or two or three, we will be living in one of those lovely houses on post . . . we drove by them yesterday and now we are all praying hard!! For now, we are enjoying our resort then we will be living in a furnished place - we hope! - that will be more than our monetary allowance in our regular pay . . . but, whatever. We are doing our best and "this to shall pass". There is always another day to look forward to, so live today the best you can.

It's hard. I won't lie. But I know it's hard only because we are "homeless". Once I have my arse on my own sofa and the walls surrounding me are "mine" . . . well, I'll finally feel I'm at home. I know this is coming.

I won't let it not coming today break me. I am going to let God control and just allow the Aloha spirit to float in and out.

May God richly and thoroughly bless your Sunday - and may He allow your senses to be open to recognise it.