Where Did September and October Go?

Well I will be honest, when I first started this blog post, the title was simply, "Where Did September Go?" But wow, I blinked and hello end of October! These past {nearly} two months since my last update have been a whirlwind, to say the least! We moved in to our new house on base. Jordan returned from Japan. I left for California, only to then return and have Jordan take off for training in California. And then of course, there has been lots of unpacking, organizing and decorating in between all of these major events!

If you remember from my last blog, this was going to be our very first move-in that I was going to be doing all by myself while Jordan was gone for training in Okinawa, Japan. And while I was a bit overwhelmed at first, I was so thankful to have been blessed with a great team of movers. The movers had such great, positive attitudes, even though they were thoroughly convinced that we must hate, or at the very minimum have a genuine dislike, prejudice or grudge against, the moving industry in general. Apparently, we choose to buy the heaviest pieces of furniture known to man and inflict torture on the movers assigned to our job. We obviously know that our furniture is of solid and substantial quality, as that is one of the features we look for when purchasing furniture in the first place. Not only do these solid pieces stand up better to all the mishandling during each of our moves, but they also end up paying for themselves when we do a DITY move and choose to take on the task of moving ourselves, as opposed to using a moving company paid for by the military. The military reimburses you approximately 90% of what they would pay a moving company to do the job, and that price is calculated based on the weight of your household goods. So the heavier furniture, the more you make! And while back-breaking at times, it is definitely the worth it.

Before our first military move to Virginia, where we were moving from a 1 bedroom,  700 sq ft apartment to a 4 bedroom, 1700 sq ft plus basement house, we decided to purchase furniture in advance while still in California. There, we would have a wide selection of shopping options, as well as the opportunity to let this furniture pay for itself by doing a DITY move. Our shopping process went a little something like this: I would spend countless hours/days/weeks/months searching out the perfect piece of furniture, with the basics of style, function, and size in mind (but let's be honest, mostly just style). Jordan would then come around behind me and try to lift the piece of furniture. The weight of the piece would be his sole determining factor on whether he approved or not! Those countless hours/days/weeks/months of research, careful thought and planning all came down to this make or break, determining moment. And while it might have been a very long and frustrating process finding pieces that checked both my boxes and his, and then of course later on, eventually loading and moving these weight-approved, heavy pieces in and out of the moving truck, I do have to say that when we finally got the check reimbursing us for that first move, all of the manual labor, sweat, and TEARS were worth it! Emphasis again on the tears if the all caps didn't already stress that enough. Long story (not very) short, we know we have heavy furniture. We intended it that way. However, this move gave us perspective on just how ridiculously heavy our furniture pieces were compared to a "normal" household that a moving company deals with...

Our movers arrived at the house promptly at 8am for their first of two household unpacks that day. They had {wrongly} assumed that our move would be the easier of the two that they had scheduled for the day, as we only had 8 crates of furniture {see picture below for reference, the first truckload pictured held 5/8 crates}; whereas, their second unpack would have 15 crates of furniture. Their plan was to pump out our job as quickly as possible in order to move on to their big move job afterwards. Well, it didn't take long for them to discover that they had greatly underestimated our moving job when they experienced how heavy and substantial our furniture pieces were. After much discussion and further investigation, we learned that the weight of our 8 crates exceeded the weight of the entire 15 crates of the second job! Despite some teasing back and forth about us wanting to punish anyone in the moving profession, the guys assured me they were just kidding and would still take the utmost care in the job they were doing because, as they say, they do their job with "aloha."

The house next to the palm tree on the right is our house. How amazing is this backdrop? I still need to be pinched on a daily basis.

Side-note: I love that word sentiment "aloha." Before moving to Hawaii, we thought the word "aloha" only stood for hello and goodbye. However, we quickly discovered that "aloha" isn't just a word here in Hawaii, it is a way of life. It's a noun, it's a verb,  it's an exclamation! You can drive with it, move with it, live by it, treat others with it and share it with everyone you meet. The literal meaning of aloha is “the presence of breath”; however, the cultural understanding of it is that one is living and treating nature and those around you with love and respect. I found a definition on the Hawaiian travel guide site To-Hawaii.com that I think explains it best, "according to the old kahunas (priests), being able to live the Spirit of Aloha was a way of reaching self-perfection and realization for our own body and soul. Aloha is sending and receiving a positive energy. Aloha is living in harmony. When you live the Spirit of Aloha, you create positive feelings and thoughts, which are never gone. They exist in space, multiply and spread over to others." Well for those of you who follow this blog and are aware of the hippie/spirituality kick that Jordan and I re-discovered during our time in Florida, you probably already have realized that we absolutely LOVE the Spirit of Aloha here and therefore, the culture here in these hawaiian (non-touristy) towns. It perfectly aligns with the positivity and gratitude we constantly try to incorporate in our daily lives. How beautiful to find a society and culture that actually celebrates selflessness, respect, and love, rather than greed, self-betterment, and egocentricity! However, there are a few downsides of the aloha spirit that you wouldn't expect, but I think I will save those stories for another post since I am already off on a tangent as it is! And as a follow up to this sidenote, I recently discovered {yesterday actually} this article that perfectly describes the Aloha Spirit, as well as a few other things that we have come to learn and love about Hawaii in only our short time here: 6 Things I Learned in My First Year of Living in Hawaii

In addition to positive, happy, grateful movers, who radiated the Aloha Spirit, I was also thankful to have a good friend on the island to be my other half on moving day. While the movers do all the heaving lifting, having two sets of eyes, one on marking the boxes as they come off the truck, another on directing the movers on the placement of various items, as well as someone to do a food run in order to provide lunch for the movers, is much needed. Thankfully, my friend Ashley selflessly volunteered to help me out, despite already going through the hassle and miserable unpacking and moving experience herself a few months back.

Side-note # 2: I am so thankful to have found/ fallen into such a wonderful and fun group of women here. I have often times found myself being so grateful because these are ladies that I would choose to be friends with in real life, not just out of the convenience of the Marine Corps forcing us together. This has made it so wonderful already, in only our 5 months here, to imagine the next 3 years of life in this place. We have already celebrated birthdays, baby showers and a bridal/bachelorette shower together, as well as countless other bonding experiences because the guys have been gone so much here training in other places.

Jordan and I before a joint birthday Mai Tai Sunset Catamaran Cruise

The birthday girls! Met this fun and sweet friend only a month before, but we had the best time celebrating our birthdays together off the shores of Waikiki!

All of us girls, with the famous Hawaiian landmark Diamondhead in the background

Baby shower for another sweet new friend. Although in Where's Waldo fashion, I bet you can't spot the pregnant one that the shower is being thrown for!!!!! She is so teeny tiny!!!

Painting with a Twist with the Officer Spouse Club group for the the Scarface Squadron

 The brand new Circus de Soleil inspired/ Burlesque Show CabaRAE in Waikiki

Celebrating Sarena's birthday at a Moroccan Restaurant in our small little town. It was fab-ulous!

However, at the end of the day, despite great help from wonderful people,  there is still so much unpacking and organizing left to be done after everyone leaves. It's the tedious unpacking and organizing which only you can do as you figure out how and where to organize and designate all of your junk stuff. And while unpacking boxes (especially unpacking and folding/hanging laundry) can be sheer torture, I was just so very thankful that we were not missing any pieces of furniture or boxes (like the box of wedding china that disappeared on our move from Texas to Florida) and that our stuff managed to survive 4 months at sea and in storage without mold or much damage. Inevitably, there are always a few pieces that don't survive. This time it was my beloved glass cake platter-a wedding gift, the glass on a professionally framed wedding photo, and a few other vases and odds and ends; however, I am always so grateful when it is easily replaceable items such as these, and not one-of-a-kind pieces like wedding albums, our wedding quilt made by my Grandma Anna-Lee, and other such collectibles and childhood keepsakes.

After the movers left, I made it my mission to unpack and get the house somewhat livable before Jordan returned back from Japan. Although, I did have to fight the urge to run out and go shopping for curtains, rugs, and other "necessesties" that this new space called for. And well to be honest here, I may have given in to that urge and spent the better part of one of those two days at TJMaxx, Ross, and Target. Hey, you can't get mad when I am bargain shopping, right? Anyway, back to unpacking, I focused my attention on the kitchen, the living room, and our bedroom for those two one and half days I had before the husband returned. However, once Jordan did finally arrive, he was just so happy to be home that I am sure he didn't, or wouldn't have, cared about what state of disarray the house would have been in when he returned.  I think the only thing he did notice was the cool temperature of the house with the a/c unit running, as compared to the hellish temperatures and stagnant air of our old apartment.

Jordan returned with fun gifts from Japan: a Kimono, a couple of bracelets, a set of fancy chopsticks, and a bandana for him. We had approximately two weeks together before I was scheduled to fly home to my childhood best friend's wedding. Originally, Jordan was scheduled to leave for 4-6 weeks for more training in El Centro, CA on the 15th of September. With this in mind, I scheduled my flight to leave for California on Friday the 13th and to stay in CA for 10 days, in order to spend as much time at home with Jordan as possible but also 10 days in California with family because he wasn't going to be home in Hawaii to come back to anyway. However, wouldn't you know it but, his training date got pushed back till the 28th of September!  Now I was going to be spending 10 precious days of the {nearly} whole month we were finally awarded to spend together, gone. And while I couldn't have spent those 10 days with a better group of people, and I do not want to take anything away from that by any means, but these last four months have seen so much separation for Jordan and I, and these {now} 4 weeks were such an unannounced, generous surprise and treasured gift that it was hard to see them be passed by. From the months of July through October, Jordan has been cumulatively gone about 2.5-3 months out of those 4 months, so while I greatly enjoyed my time at home in California, it was also hard to be losing so much of that time Jordan was home in Hawaii by not being together.

When we got in to this military life, I expected the dreaded time apart during deployments, but nobody warns you about how much time you will be spending apart while they are "home" but gone for training. To recap, in July, Jordan was gone for RIMPAC on both the USS Peleliu and on the Big Island. In August, Jordan was gone to Japan {although Jordan was only 1 of 2 "lucky" guys that randomly got assigned to that temporary assignment duty while everyone else in the squadron remained home}; and in September, Jordan was sent to El Centro with the rest of the squadron for more flight training and then to San Diego to complete legal school for his ground job in the squadron. Through all of this though, I am just thankful that they allowed Jordan to be excused from the entirety of training in El Centro in order to go to legal school; otherwise, he very well could have been gone for 7 weeks, on top of his already long training sessions from the previous two months {4 weeks in El Centro for squadron training and then 3 weeks in San Diego for legal school}. Well the good news is, Jordan has officially completed legal school.  We have nearly made it through these 4 months that I had been previously overwhelmed by and dreading back when I was only at the starting line looking ahead and anticipating the challenges in front of us. I cannot wait to have my best friend home again finally on Monday, and to hopefully have at least 1full month together!!!!

Gunns is patiently waiting for his dad to arrive home!

My gifts from Japan

Jordan was told this says, "I Love the USA," but it probably could say absolutely anything!

Anyway, during our short overlap of time together, after we moved into our house and Jordan returning from Japan and before I left for California, we chose to put the rest of the unpacking and organizing on hold in order to just live life together and do "fun" move-in tasks, like painting a kitchen accent wall, making our own pallet herb garden, going furniture shopping, discovering new, fun and delicious restaurants, watching the Blue Angels perform, and of course spending a lot of time at the beach and enjoying our beautiful new home and neighborhood.

Our new "backyard"

 

Sunset from our street.

Literally, a two minute walk from our house!

Painting progression! This was the second round of painting, the first color didn't turn out like the paint chip promised! Isn't that how it always goes? Or at least we say it goes?

Haleiwa Joe's, an amazing new discovery! Don't let my face fool you, I was just annoyed at the picture taking and anxious to try my pesto salmon! 

After seeing the Blue Angels so many times over the years, it was fun to watch them in a completely new way this year: from a boat in the ocean!

How amazing is this shot?! Definitely of my favorites!

Well as I mentioned in the beginning of this post, I originally started this update nearly two weeks ago. So with that being said, I am going to choose this place as a stopping point, and continue with a part two {hopefully} very soon in order to at least get something on the books for now! 

Aloha family and friends!