'02 VW Passat

Well... we did it, we purchased a used car. It's not my dream car, but it wasn't falling apart or full of rust or have 150,000+ miles. I tried to make my dad proud by asking all the right questions, looking at all the right places, freaking out the guy as I let go of the steering wheel to test the alignment during my test drive. The answers to the questions seemed to check out, the VIN# came back clean, and Quinn bartered on the price. I ended up going back the next day alone to finalize the title transfer & bill of sale because Quinn is in class for the rest of the week.

So, why do I feel so nervous about the decision?
The car has a stack of receipts an inch thick.

From what I can tell 2009 & 2010 were the midlife crisis for the car... everything that should be replaced seems to have been within those two years. Timing belt, turbo, A/C freon boost, tires, etc. It's just kind of overwhelming receiving this folder after you've exchanged the money and had the title notarized to your name. In no way am I saying that I'm not grateful they kept all of the records, but whew! The prior owner was a Navy Officer, he was very open and nice, his wife attended Bible college... one of the sweetest women I've met. You could tell she was sad about selling the car (just like I was with the Mazda...).

I'm just praying we didn't get ourselves into a disguised fixer-upper that we ultimately can't afford in the end. Also, I just went to fill it up... and found out the question I didn't ask. Evidently German engineered cars (the turbo) only use Super Premium Fuel... *sigh* that's 20cents/gal more than Regular Unleaded... live & learn right? At least I can buy gas on base, and premium here is the same a regular off base...

I needed a car, he's back in class/work and we still have to house hunt... it was a necessary purchase. We'll see how much fuel ends up costing us, if it's a lot we may purchase a different car/sell this one after he returns from deployment next year.

Life is crazy!
Keep us in your prayers!

Our 1st Easter in Hawaii

This is my third Easter away from home, my first ever spent in a hotel. I couldn't let it go by without any decoration so I bought a cute little welcome sign at Hawaii's closest thing to a Dollar Tree (Price Busters').

As you can see the "Easter Bunny" treated us well... cadbury eggs, dark chocolate peeps, & reese's!

The sun peeking out from the clouds at sunrise surface on base!

We had an amazing hula group called "Dancing for His Glory" they did 3 dances for us during the service.

Right after service on Ft. Hase Beach.

The cross they fork-lifted to the beach specifically for service!

After sunrise service we took a much needed nap! Then we took the hour drive to north shore to visit with the Day family...

Courtney's kids love exploring all of the caverns at the end of the point on their street.

Mikey ended up getting stuck at one point so Quinn had to go to his rescue...

With Great Aunt Cecilia & Great Uncle Randy

All the cousins!

So... we didn't have a home, I didn't have a car, our guinea pig (?) is still waiting to join our family, and neither of our families were any where near. But we did have a great day, worshiped the Lord, and got to visit with family I hadn't seen in years and some I had never met!

Taste of Waialua

On Saturday Quinn and I decided to attend a food/art festival I read about in the newspaper, A Taste of Waialua. The have a farmer's market in the location every Saturday, but once a year they throw this huge event.

There were many beautiful pieces of art, tons of wood carvings, bone & driftwood necklaces, fused glass, blown glass, paintings, mosaics, purses made out of coconuts... I am always so inspired after attending a festival. Sadly, all of my art supplies are still packed up.


We ended up purchasing a beautiful multicolored blown glass ball, some organic Hawaiian dark chocolate, and we got a free sample of chocolate-mint soap from the factory that is now in the old sugar mill!


For lunch we ate some shredded Hawaiian pig with passion fruit bbq sauce, red cabbage, Hawaiian tarter sauce, served on a toasted Hawaiian roll & palm fronds... DELICIOUS!

Missouri, Oklahoma, & Arizona (Pearl Harbor)

After checking out a town-home we didn't have anything else planned for the rest of Thursday... so, why not be tourists? We headed over to Pearl Harbor and toured the USS Missouri & took the boat over the the USS Arizona Memorial. It was a humbling experience to say the least. I'm confident we will go again, especially when we have visitors!

Boarding the USS Missouri

"Over this spot on 2 September 1945 the instrument of formal surrender of Japan to the Allied Powers was signed thus bringing to a close the Second World War. The ship at that time was anchor in Tokyo Bay."

This door/wall was as wide as I am! It was to protect the captain during battle.

The row of flags leading up to the USS Missouri or going the other way the USS Oklahoma Memorial.

USS Oklahoma Memorial

MANNING THE RAILS

"As Navy vessels pass through Pearl Harbor Sailors and Marines stand at attention along the ship's railing and superstructure. The crew's dress uniforms contrast sharply against the grey vessels.

The design of this memorial is a bold expression of the USS Oklahoma's lost crew members.

The symbolism incorporates Navy tradition, giving life to the memorial.

The black granite panels suggest the once formidable hull of the USS Oklahoma while the 429 white marble standards represent each of the lost souls. Each white marble standard is for an individual in his pristine dress uniform and is inscribed with his name and rank. Walk among the lost Sailors and Marines and understand their sacrifice.

In full dress uniforms the ship's crew stands at attention in a display of respect and honor. Coming home for the final time by manning the rails."

Dedicated December 7, 2007.

Approaching the USS Arizona Memorial by boat.

"To the memory of the gallant men here entombed and their shipmates who gave their lives in the action on December, 7 1941 in the USS Arizona."

Looking over the top of a gun turret.

The movie you watch before boarding the boat to head over the the Arizona is very informative and teaches a lot about the Pacific Fleet and why the attack was such a surprise. I also recommend taking the guided tour on the Missouri, it's not very long, but it's very informative! Our tour guide was really good at keeping our attention and knew tiny details that you may never think to even ask about.

Hawaii. Week #2

So we're still living in the lodge on base, we finally invested in a mini-George Foreman... Quinn has enjoyed Spam & rice, and tonight we enjoyed burgers complete with Mr. Yoshida's Gourmet Sauce & Montreal Steak Seasonings... from Costco! It's not complete cooking... but it's better than relying solely on the microwave.

We have officially looked at 11 houses/condos/townhomes... tomorrow & Friday we'll be looking at more. All of them have pros & cons, the hardest thing we are finding is A/C units & allowing a guinea pig. One of the most random ones was the house we looked at last night- they didn't want us to hang anything on the walls! Are you kidding, no photos, no shelves, no artwork. Lame.

We moved up the list for base housing, 184th now! Seems crazy, but I have to keep reminding myself that we were 432nd... so it is actually a huge improvement. We are praying this PCS season is massive and we can get on base within 2-5mo. I didn't care about living off-base in our last location, we had great neighbors and tons of military couples in the complex that we hung out with often. Here... I feel so out of place, Quinn is given preferential treatment wherever we go... I, well, I'm the little "haole." I don't get dirty looks or anything, but they are definitely more friendly towards Quinn.

We took a break from house & car hunting...
Enjoyed a couple of hours at North Beach on base.

As far as the car front... currently there are four cars we are looking at from the military lots:

• 1998 Mercedes Kompressor
  
• 2000 Toyota Celica
• 2001 Nissan Xterra
• 2007 Ford Focus

They are all between $4500-6000... they all have some "issue" most are high mileage, one has a salvaged title, only the Xterra is manual... we've invested in an unlimited car fact check with the VIN# for one month. Hoping to find something soon.

Well that's all the news from Hawaii lately...
This weekend should be fun, maybe a "day-trip" & visiting with family for Easter!

Snoopy Wisdom

Moving is stressful...

I've been in Hawaii for 2 days... I've seen some palm trees, glimpsed at the ocean, and experienced the tropical afternoon rain... but mainly, I've been sitting inside searching for houses/cars, and Quinn has been running around completing his "check-in process" (aka: 10 billion different signatures & paperwork).

{looking back at the entrance gate of base}

How was our trip here? Well... here you go:

We woke up bright and early Wednesday morning (4:45am EST) and were at the airport at 5:45am. We went to check in with Delta and SATO never paid for our tickets! The reservations were made March 12th... March 12th and sometime within that span of three weeks they didn't manage to pay for the ticket. Quinn was mad, and rightly so, when he picked up the itinerary they looked him in the face and said "these are paid for, you're good to go."

So standing off to the side of the counter he calls SATO, he waits 30min to even speak to someone... as soon as he does all they tell him is we have to fax him our orders. Seriously? We're at an airport! The nice lady at the counter faxes them for us (reminder: it is now 6:15am, our flight leaves at 7:45). 10min later we call back, put on hold AGAIN... after talking to another lady they tell us there is nothing they can do for us, at 7am. Excuse me?! PS: as we're standing off to the side the ENTIRE University of Maryland competitive cheer team is surrounding us and is checked in before we're off the phone with SATO.

We call his CO, they call admin, who calls SATO & I assume rips them a new one... SATO calls me back, a new guy, he's very nice... gives me info for another flight with Continental at 10:35am. Hubby passes the flight info along to the respective people... and we wait, and wait, and eat some dunkin' donuts, and wait some more. Come 9:45am I'm pissed... I am about to call SATO back (Quinn is on the phone with his CO -again) when the lady at the counter yells out our last name. Thank you Lord!

So we get to the gate for our tiny hopper flight to Jersey - DELAYED. I'm about in tears at this point, I'd been awake for nearly 6hrs already and completely stressed. We get on this tiny plane with 16 other people and finally taxi out, 20min late. WORST FLIGHT EVER... Quinn does not get motion sick, he was SICK by the time we landed. (I do, so you can imagine). Luckily the gate we needed to be at was directly across the terminal and that flight was also delayed.

Once we finally boarded our flight (now 40min past the original departure time) the tow bar snapped in two as we were being pushed back by the small truck..... We sat on the tarmac for 20min...

The flight, despite being 10.5hrs, wasn't too bad... I watched movies, read, played my DS, people watched, did some stretches & laps... the food was sad & way too expensive, and the bathrooms breaking with 2hrs left sucked! I can't believe I never fell asleep... I was so tired. We landed, picked up our rental car, got to base, and checked into our room at 10:45pm which with the time zone changes was a full 24hrs from the time we'd woken up... I was awake the whole time, it actually worked out for me, I went to bed at a "normal" time here in Hawaii.

And now...

We get this room until Sunday, then we change to a different room that night, then we get into our "final" room for 30 days. Lots of bed hopping and living out of suitcases... ugh. I'm not sure how I feel about living off base, we drove around and so many of the houses are run down shacks! But we are so far down on the base housing waiting list and there are only 50 homes for Quinn's rank.... in order to remain in this room we have to view 5 houses off-base in 10 days, if we still haven't found a house, we have to view 10 homes within 20 days... etc. It's going to get interesting for our little family!

I'm also nervous, Quinn is up for deployment this year... the deployments have changed, anywhere from 6mo-13mo... I'm not ready for 13mo... I'm so far away from everyone.

Please pray for us... for the moment we need a home.
Later we may need a 2nd car, and I need a job.
We miss & love you all.

The Big Apple

You've already read about our New Jersey Adventure, so now I will fill you in on the rest of last Friday's trip... New York City! We left the house at 4:30am and headed up to Whitemarsh (suburb of Baltimore) to jump on our MegaBus at 5:30am. We were SPOILED, each of us got our own row and slept the entire way there... talk about an awesome 3hr nap (esp. for me since I had been up the whole night). The bus ride cost us each $40/roundtrip... cheaper than the gas/tolls and no wear on Alex's truck!

Once we arrived we ate at this cute Cafe called PRET, it was reasonably priced for being in NYC and only selling All-Natural & Organic food! My orange cranberry muffin was delicious, everyone else enjoyed their breakfast sandwiches and coffee as well. After fueling up we grabbed our umbrellas and went off to explore...

There was some crazy rain all day long, excuse the blurriness...

All of us in Central Park!

"Dancing in the rain"

Times Square!

In the M&M's World Store... this Peanut M&M was quite friendly, he kept wanting hugs!

So how do you like our headbands?

In front of Radio City Music Hall!

Such an odd contrast.

Rockefeller Center, still had ice skating!

Grand Central Station, it's pretty crazy that the subway & trains all go here. The food court is huge and has pretty much every style food out there from Kosher to Sangria!

Ground zero... the black rectangle will be a reflecting pool where one of the towers stood.

The things you see on the subway!

Closest we got to Lady Liberty, maybe next time?

Good night New Jersey.... we headed back towards our bus stop around 7:15, grabbed some dinner at Lenny's and arrived as told at 8pm. Our tickets were for 8:30... unfortunately someone screwed up big time. We didn't get on a bus until 9:30, and it was JAM PACKED... FYI do not travel from NY via MegaBus on a Friday night. Whew... between the guys with way-to-loud headphones, the freight train snorer, and the chatty Cathys the most sleep we got was maybe an hour. It was also really hot! But we got home & the day was good.

We didn't get to see half of the stuff there, you definitely need more than one day. If (when?) we go back I want to make sure we see a show on Broadway, visit Wall Street, actually go in Macy's, and much more.

Alex & Kat- Thanks again for being our tour guides!
The day wouldn't have been the same without you.

New Jersey (well, just Hoboken!)

So we "drug" Kat & Alex from New York to New Jersey... for one reason & one reason only... we are in love with the show "Cake Boss" and the bakery is in Hoboken, NJ. We figured this was a once in a lifetime opportunity so we went!

The "path," which essentially is NJ's version of the Subway. It's a lot cleaner... unfortunately 2 railways broke down on the way back and as Kat put it "We were stranded in Jersey!" for 30min until they could re-route some trains.

The 2 hour line... yes, I said two hours. Oddly enough this was the only time in the whole day we got cold.

We had free entertainment while in line, some crazy driver somehow warranted 3 cruisers and 1 under cover car.

Finally inside, there are some awesome cakes!

It was jam packed, as you walked in you were handed a #, we were 38 Kat & Alex 39. When they call your number they come to you and take your order. It was interesting though, you almost had to know exactly what you wanted because you could barely see the display cases with the amount of people in there!

We were lucky enough to see Mauro...

Frankie...

& Danny!

So glad we got this opportunity.

Our goodies! ...3 cannolis, 2 lobster tails (I wish we would have gotten 50! They alone were worth the 2hr wait), 4 7-layer Italian cookies, and 1 mini St. Joseph's Day Zeppoli.

The view of the NYC skyline from our gazebo where we enjoyed some of our treats.

It was a fun detour from our day in NY,

I'll share those photos & details with you soon!