Double Take (Funny!)

Our refrigerator sort of broke this weekend.  The door has that ice and water feature in it, and the water quit coming out when we pushed the lever sometime on Saturday.  We then noticed that there was water coming up out of the seams in the laminate flooring and it was starting to warp.  We yanked the fridge out away from the wall, turned off the water supply, used towels to sop up the water, and called the property manager.  We asked her to send a repairman out and then to come and document the damage so we wouldn't be docked for the damaged refrigerator or flooring.  She came out this morning to take pictures of the floor.  As she was about to leave, she stopped mid-sentence and said,

"Did that picture come with the house?!!?"

I turned around to see what she was referring to, because when we moved in their were definitely not any pictures still hanging on the wall.

I asked, "What picture?"

She answered, "That picture of Jesus!"  

I said, "No.  That is our picture.  We hung it up there."

She was really confused for a minute...it was kind of funny.  She said, "The people who lived here before you had that same picture hanging up right there when they lived here!  Are you guys Mormon too?!"  I told her yes, we are.  The people who lived in this house before were LDS (mormons) and many of the members of our ward here have mentioned that they were friends with them (the Gilliams) when they lived here!  It was pretty funny though. =)

1st Day of 3rd, 5th, 7th, & 9th grades

The kids started school on Monday, Aug. 2nd.  This year, our family will have a student at every available (regular) school.  London and Isaiah are in Elementary School, Caleb is in Middle School, Brooklin is in High School, and I am going to college!! (but I don't start until Sept. 2nd).  The two little kids have a partial uniform they have to wear Monday - Thursday.  It is just a school T-shirt and then whatever kind of pants/shorts they want.  On Friday they get to wear whatever they want.

Monday is also the day the movers picked to deliver all of our things!  Lovely!  I was so excited to get our things, but putting that on the same day as the first day of school...while husband was gone...was not my idea of an ideal situation.  I had to ask for help.  There was no way I was going to get all the kids to school (at three different times) and pick them all back up (at three different times) and "babysit" the movers by myself.  Lucky for me we have a "family" where ever we go.  I am so grateful for my membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!  I can say in Relief Society, "I need help" and there WILL be someone there that is ready to help.  I don't have to know them personally (they are all Mormons...what an honest, trustworthy, service oriented bunch of people...lol) but I can count on my Brothers and Sisters in the gospel to be there for me from day one...EVERY TIME we have moved.  There is a missionary couple here in our ward whose mission is a "Military Relations" mission.  I have never even heard of that...but they are here for all the military families in the area.  They were ready and willing to come over and help "babysit" the movers while I went and picked up my kids from their first day of school.  Brother Webster checked off the box numbers as they came off the truck and Sister Webster unloaded boxes of books into the bookshelves.  I'm so grateful for the service they gave to me and my family!!

The kids had a great first day of school.  Brooklin also started Seminary this year (on Tuesday).  She has to be at the church at 6am ready to learn.  They are studying the Doctrine & Covenants this year.  The class is 50 minutes consisting of a devotional(by one of the students), singing hymns, scripture study/instruction, and usually some kind of game.  After that, she has 90 minutes and just over a mile to walk to get to school.  She hasn't walked yet...someone always offers her a ride.

We're Here!

We made it to Oahu on friday afternoon.  The kids and I are staying in our house, and Darwin is off gallivanting in Virginia...hehehe.  (actually, he is going to a school in Yorktown for the next three weeks)  We have exactly one week to get everything ready for the kids to start school.  Our house is empty...we are sleeping on air mattresses and eating on the floor.  It is a little like camping. =)

We got to meet our new ward family today.  They are great. =)  Caleb said his teacher was the best.  London and Isaiah had fun in primary.  Brooklin got lots of treats.  I volunteered to play the piano in Relief Society since their pianist wasn't there and I was technically never released from that calling in my last ward (at least not while I was there). 

Tomorrow we have to get Brooklin registered for school, set up garbage collection, and call the water/sewer people so they don't turn off the water.  We also need to get the van inspected and then go buy school supplies.  I am thankful I don't start classes until September 2nd!

I am "borrowing" someone's wifi connection and it is super slow and unreliable...so I can't post any pictures...but I just wanted say that we are here, we are happy, and we can't wait to start out on our new adventure.  It must be an amazing one...why else would God have ripped us out of Juneau on short notice and planted us in a place we never expected to be?!  I can't wait to find out what is in store for us here! =)

We found it!!

I always get to the point (in house hunting) where I feel like I am just going to have to live in my car...or the hotel, forever.  I remember feeling the same way while we were looking for our house in Juneau.  I feel like nothing is going to work out.  BUT...Heavenly Father knows everything will work out ok, most of the time even better than I could have hoped for.  He was watching out for us again, like he always does, and we were able to sign a lease on a 4 bd/ 2 ba home in Mililani.  It seems to be a little smaller than our Juneau home, and the homes are super close together...but we are on a corner lot and there isn't a fishpond inside the house or rat poison on the floor...lol.  The entire house has wood floors and the washer and dryer are inside the house, which is really hard to find in Hawaii.  Most are located either in the garage or on the lanai, so I feel really fortunate.  I went out on Wednesday and got all the kids registered for school.  The elementary and middle school are on an Army Air Base...so I have to use my mil ID to take them to school!  We are also really close to a commissary and a PX.  I haven't shopped at a commissary since we lived in Washington DC, and I'm so excited...the prices are amazing and there isn't any tax! =)  Darwin will have about a 45 min commute each day, so we may get him a motorcycle to help out with the gas costs (which are around $3.35/gallon right now)..we'll see.

We are just really excited that we found a place to live before we leave on vacation for Idaho/Wyoming/Utah...tonight at 9:30pm!

View from the 18th floor

We are staying at a hotel in Waikiki while we are searching for a home.  We are up on the 18th floor!  The elevator only goes up to the 17th floor, and then we have to use the fire escape stairs to get up to the 18th floor.  The above picture is the view from our lanai (deck, patio...lanai)

We have been to look at about five houses so far...none of which have felt like we were home.  I was looking through my notes (I take very intricate notes so I can remember which home had which features) and had to laugh.  This is from a house we looked at yesterday, "rat poison ?? on the floor."  "Family room used to be a lanai, now it is enclosed and there is an empty fish pond (complete with bridge) behind the couch."  "My feet felt offended walking without shoes on".  "Isaiah just told the realtor that someone REALLY needed to clean the toilet".  From another house we viewed on Thursday, "Washer and dryer are outside on the side of the house...there is no door to them".  "Brooklin just asked me where the master bedroom was...the three bedrooms couldn't have been more than 8x8 each!!"  And from another house, "small. broken down.  darwin kept saying the entry/living room was a bedroom, because it wasn't big enough to be the living room"

So, things are not moving as quickly as I would like them too, but God put us here for something, so he must know what's going to happen and when.

We went to church today at the Honolulu Stake Tabernacle.  It is a beautiful building.  Not like any other church building you could ever imagine.  It is huge and has a huge mosaic of Christ on the front of it and a reflecting pool.  The chapel is very large, the benches are all wooden, the choir loft is gigantic, they have a real pipe organ, and the seating goes in two different directions.  The ward we attended was the Makiki ward.  Their boundaries include mostly condos and apartments, so the primary and ym/yw was very small.  Brooklin said that there were only two young women, and one of them wasn't there this week, so it was just her and one other girl!

We are going to take a drive up to the North Shore this afternoon and visit the temple grounds.  The temple is closed right now for renovations, and from what we've heard, they will be having an open house this fall before they rededicate the building!

Please pray that we will be able to find our home this week!  We are leaving on Friday for Idaho/Wyoming/Utah for three weeks and then three days after we get home, Darwin is leaving for three weeks for a school.  I don't want to live in a hotel for very much longer (the parking garages in the hotels have RIDICULOUSLY small spaces and it takes me 45 minutes to calm my nerves after trying to park in them) and its just no fun unless you are on vacation.

We're here...a travel log of the past 24 hours.

We made it to Honolulu last night.  We got on the airplane around 8am in Juneau, flew two hours to Seattle, wondered around the Seattle airport for nearly six hours (it was a long layover, but the airport there has more stores than Juneau so we had fun window shopping), boarded the plane for Hawaii at 4:30 pm and flew for nearly six hours to Honolulu.  We landed in Honolulu at 7:30 pm, found all 12 of our checked bags (plus we each had a rolling carry-on and a backpack...making a grand total of 24 bags!!) and then started the hunt for the paperwork with the name of the hotel we would be staying at on it.  That took at least 45 minutes.  I guess we both forgot to print off the reservation and neither of us knew the name of the hotel!  oops!  We headed over to the USO to see if they could help us (and so we could get a snack and use the restrooms).  While Darwin was going through a list of hotel names to see if he recognized one, I pulled out my laptop to see if I could find the email Darwin sent me with the reservation on it.  I prayed for wireless service...and it worked!  We found the reservation details!!  We took a breather and then realized that I didn't print off the car reservation paper either!  (Man were we not prepared or what!?)  I took the laptop out again, sorted through more old emails, and came up with the reservation...I am so thankful for yahoo email and for free wireless service!!

We got on the shuttle to the car rental place and got our rental van without a hitch.  The best thing was that the van they gave us fit all six of us and our 24 bags!  We couldn't see out any of the windows, but we didn't have to leave anyone behind with bags!  The other gadget I am extremely grateful for is our TomTom.  It is a little talking GPS that told us every turn to make and what lane to be in.  We drove straight to our hotel and were able to check in by 10pm.

This morning we got up and ate at Denny's.  Then we took Dar to his new office so he could get our check in stuff started.   After I had a slight freak-out moment (I misunderstood what was going to happen and felt at a complete loss about where I was supposed to be and what I was supposed to be doing...and Darwin was late for work and grumpy at me for freaking out) we all went in and met some of the people he would be working with.  I took the kids back to the hotel for the rest of the morning and spent the day calling about rental houses.  We went back to pick up Darwin from work at 3pm and went up to Tripler to get our medical stuff in order.  (On a side note...we haven't had to use military doctors for 10 years and we were really ok with that.  We'll see how this all goes...I am just really grateful that we have medical coverage).  We ate a yummy (extremely overpriced) dinner at Chili's and then went to the biggest Borders Bookstore we have ever seen!  It was gigantic and was two levels!  Brooklin thought she was in heaven...hehe.

I don't love the traffic or trying to park in parking garages, but I am so excited to be here.  I hope we can find a place to live soon and I really hope our car gets here FAST!  Sorry this was kind of boring...but I just want it recorded and had a few minutes to hurry and type it out.  I'll try to write a better post (with pictures) soon.

2,818 miles

The kids and I walked to downtown Juneau today from the hotel.  We went to the Alaska museum, ate at Pel Meni's, and played in the Del Sol store.  On our way back to the hotel, we found this signpost...

It is 2,818 miles to Honolulu from the parking garage in downtown Juneau.  We have five days left here, and then it is off to our next adventure.  The movers have pretty much packed up the entire house...with the exception of a few random things they just leave in the middle of the floor (which irks me to no end).  They are going to be bringing the container truck tomorrow and loading up all our stuff.  We will be cleaning til our elbow grease runs out, and then we are going to paint the entire upstairs (well minus the bedrooms and bathroom...and plus the stairwell).  We hope to have it all done by Saturday night.  Logan will be helping with the painting and anyone else who might want to help clean or paint is welcome to join us! =)  please?! =)  (I got the entire bottle of maple syrup chiseled out of the bottom of the refrigerator yesterday, so the rest of the cleaning should be a piece of cake, right?) ;)

Well, I should go to bed now.  I have a fun day of cleaning ahead of me tomorrow that I need to rest up for.

What's left...

 
We have just over 8 weeks left in Juneau.

I have 3 accounting assignments, 2 accounting quizzes, 4 economics assignments, 15 (or so) photography assignments and 3 final exams before I can even start to think about moving.

We have found a Coast Guard family of six to rent our home.

We found out it would cost $3000 to sell our truck...or $2400 to ship it to Oahu,

so we are shipping our Expedition to Honolulu on our own dollar. (the coast guard will only pay to ship one vehicle).

We will be down to one car in about 3 weeks...when we ship my van off to Hawaii.

We decided that it would be best to sell our boat...and we are sad.

We have our plane tickets to Oahu.

We leave on the 22nd of June and fly straight to Honolulu (via Seattle).

We got the ok from Darwin's command to take leave from July 3rd - 23rd.  We don't have those plane tickets (which they are paying for) but we will be somewhere in Idaho/Utah/Wyoming (maybe??) during those dates...
(This is one of those things I will think about after I am free from the homework monster)

We need to have a garage sale...bad.

I hate garage sales.

Darwin and Caleb are out on a boy scout campout this evening and I am up late, trying not to think too much about all this moving stuff.  I need to, but it just doesn't seem very real to me yet.  I'm sorry...mostly to myself...that I haven't been very good at keeping up with this blog.  I've had a pretty consuming semester this time around and have been pretty stressed.  I won't be able to take any classes this summer, and that is probably ok.  I have signed up for 9 credits in the Fall and am going to finish my degree via online classes within the next 3 semesters.  I will be taking the second half of the Accounting class I am in this semester in the fall, along with an English class (Technical Report Writing) and a computer spreadsheet class.  It was only supposed to take three years, but moving has thrown a wrench in several of our plans.

I know this move will be good, and I am excited for the new adventure...but as I have said before, "I like moving around and experiencing new things...I don't like actual moving."  Many things have been quickly taken care of for us that we were not anticipating, and it has been a great weight off of my mind to know that God isn't necessarily going to make this easy, but he has made it easier than I thought it was going to be.  I'm really glad he's in charge...He always seems to know what is best for us, even if at first it doesn't seem like the best idea. =)

I could write lots more stuff, now that the house is silent and I don't have a warm body to sleep with tonight, but it is midnight and I need to get going.  I'll try harder to just mention stuff on here now and again so I don't get so far behind.

Oh...

and by the way...

Brooklin got an early birthday presents today.

We let her get contacts!
=)

So....we're moving

 from this....

...to this.

I have visited Oahu three times in my life.

Each time, I distinctly remember saying something like "Nice place to visit, wouldn't ever want to live here."

For me, there are just too many people in one place.  I decided to see just how many that was.

There are approximately 900,000 people living on Oahu.  There are only 31,000 people in Juneau and 625,000 people in the entire state of Alaska!!  71% of Hawaii's total population lives on Oahu, which is only 9.2% of it's total land area.  Oahu has an area of 607.7 square miles with 112 miles of coastline. (44 miles long by 30 miles wide).  Juneau's land area is 2716.7 square miles

Today we got orders to move to Oahu.

We were actually made aware of this situation on February 16, but couldn't tell anyone for sure since we didn't have orders.  Darwin called me and told me the detailer called him and told him that they wanted to move him this summer to Sector Honolulu Investigations Division.

(I guess I should insert here that we kind of knew we might have to move this summer and were hoping that we wouldn't have to.  Darwin had a rank advancement in September, and is now the same rank as his boss.  Originally, his command wrote him a letter of recommendation requesting that he stay in his position for the remaining year we had in Juneau, but somewhere along the way that letter became obsolete...just because...)

Anyway...

After he got that call, he called me to let me know.  I have to say that the second he told me, I had an adrenaline rush...like something amazing just happened.  I was so excited!  Then I caught hold of myself and tried to be upset that we had to move.  I've tried not to act too excited either, but really...I am excited.

When we found out that moving might be a possibility (I would say that we have know this might happen since December) Darwin went in and filled out his "dream sheet"...the list of places that he would like to live that had jobs that he was qualified to do.  His top few picks were Seattle, Portland, Yorktown,VA, and I think one in California.  He did have Honolulu somewhere on his list, but not for the job he is going to do.  We haven't ever had this happen before.  We have pretty much picked everywhere we wanted to go, because EVERY SINGLE ONE of our moves have been overseas...Idaho to Kodiak, Kodiak to Washington DC, Washington DC to Juneau, Juneau to Maui, Maui to Juneau, and now Juneau to Oahu...and when you go "overseas" you typically get one of your top picks.  Now this Juneau tour was #20 on our "dream sheet", but the detailer called us and asked us if we would like to go back to Juneau or Kodiak (and we could turn both down if we wanted)...and we picked to come back to Juneau, so I count that as picking where we got to go.  

The only person that isn't really excited is Brooklin (she cried when I told them all).  We set her up with an email account and a facebook, and I think that this time will be a little easier on her.  She is trying a little to not focus on it or be too sad about it.  We keep reminding her of how much fun she had scuba diving and going to the beach.

My only concern is what we are going to do with our house, but God seems to even be helping with that too...almost even before I had a chance to worry about it.  We have had three different people call and ask us if they could rent our house before we even had our orders!  I don't know anything about renting out a house, but that is on my list of things to do this week...call around and find out what there is to know about renting and property managers and that kind of stuff.  I'm pretty sure that we couldn't sell it for what we owe on it anyway because since we bought it, prices have fallen a little and we financed some of our closing costs.  Who knows...but I'm glad that it is hopefully going to be a small worry and not a big one.

So that is the big news.

This is also my 300th post!!  hehe =)

another quick one

Well, my house is driving me nuts. There are boxes everywhere, and I am running out of places to put stuff. I made it through orientation on Tue. & Wed. and this is me on the whale watching boat for orientation. I got lots of cool pics, but don't have time to upload them yet. My first day of classes was today, and I got the times mixed up and had to come home and go back (I was an hour early). It was a little weird to be in a classroom and assigned homework, but it was easy (probably only for the first week or two). I had Elementary Algebra today. Brooklin babysat for me and Darwin went to work. I hope to have my house together by the end of the three day weekend. Wish me luck, then I'll have time to post my cool whale and stellar sea lion pictures

Very Short

I went to orientation all day. The movers were at the house all day. Darwin and the kids were at home directing the movers all day. Now we are unpacking a trillion boxes....and we are all pooped!

We're in!

We are IN our house! So exciting. It is a total mess, with boxes, packing paper, and half put together IKEA furniture, but we are here and got to sleep in OUR house last night! We got our IKEA furniture out of Wendy's garage and we also got our express shipment of the basics that we sent out in May, delivered to the house yesterday afternoon. Dar and I stayed up until 11pm putting together our table and the desk (which didn't get done because I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.) Today I need to finish the desk and start on the dining chairs and the filing cabinent. At this point in time, "they" don't know where the rest of our household goods are, but we are praying that they find them soon. "They" didn't know where our express shipment was either, until a few days ago. It was in a container with someone elses information on it, and there was also a Harley in with our stuff! We didn't get to keep the Harley, I'm just glad they found this shipment.

I'll have to go and take a few pictures today when more of the stuff is put together, and try to post them tomorrow. I really don't want to share the giant mess on here, lol.

Thumbs up - house signing. Thumbs down - Frontier Inn & Suites

Tomorrow we are closing on our house!! We are so excited to not be in this hotel anymore. And just for the record, if you ever come to Juneau, and don't stay with us: First of all - Why would you do that! Shame on you! And second of all - DO NOT stay at the Frontier Suites. We have been here for exactly three weeks now, and our room has only been completely cleaned ONCE. We have had to take out our own trash EVERY DAY, we have run out of toilet paper twice, the sheets were only changed once - three days ago, (except for Isaiah's...he had a night accident, and I had to change the sheets myself.), and there isn't anywhere to hang the TWO towels they give us so they end up on the floor, and we have to ask for extra (make that any and all) towels EVERY DAY. We have even hijacked a vacuum cleaner from down the hall, and vacuumed the floor ourselves, because it was so gross. Just this morning, we had about 15 squares of toilet paper, and only hand towels left, so I went at 7am to the front desk and asked for towels and toilet paper. When we got home from church at 12:30pm, they still hadn't brought us any, and I had to go and track down a cleaning lady and ask her for some. This is the WORST service we have ever had at a hotel. The only time we've had a worse hotel experience, was in the roach motel next to the Laie Temple, but that was not because of the service...lol...and we ended up leaving there at 10pm to go to another hotel that had less critters roaming the room.

So anyway, we are grateful we had a place to stay, and especially that it had a full kitchen, so we didn't have to eat out everynight, and that the Coast Guard paid the bill, but we will never be staying here again.


This evening, we went on a short walk with the kids on a trail by the airport. We tried to find a geocache, but came up empty. =( There was a really creepy guy on the trail, so we didn't stay around and explore the area very much and luckily, no one won the dog poop award this week, yeah!

One thing about everyone.

Darwin: He seems to be at work longer and later here and has more phone calls about work. It could also be that we are all used to having him around all the time, and need to remember what it is like to have him working.

Melissa: I went into Joann Fabric on Friday, so Brooklin could get a little project to work on to keep her busy. I walked out of there with 60 yards of 20 different fabrics that only cost me $88!! They were having a really good sale, and I totally scored!

Brooklin: She went to girls camp here from the 4th to the 11th of Aug. and had an absolute ball. Her favorite things were kayaking and making new friends. She sang the songs she learned at camp so much, that I had to "hide" her camp songbook.

Caleb: We went walking out in the harbor in Douglas on Friday night, down all the docks, and found Caleb's best friend's family's boat. They have lived on it for the past four years, and we had heard that they were moored up in Douglas for the summer. They just happened to be home, and we got to catch up with them. His friend wasn't there, but his friend's brother and mom were home, and it was so fun to see them again.

London: She is being a good girl. We had to buy her some new pajamas this past week, because she is aparantly growing, and they were just way too small for her. She is almost as tall as Caleb!

Isaiah: We had to explain to him this week, that it wasn't ok to pat grown ups on the butt when greeting them. We would greet someone we hadn't seen in three years, and then while chatting with them, Isaiah would be walking around behind them and whacking them on the hiney! We kind of do that at home...kind of like love pats, and so I guess he thought that was how you said "Hey. How ya doin'. What's new?" He did this to a friend of ours in the store, and then he did it to our loan officer, who is a great big dude! It was getting really embarrassing.

Well, no pictures again, but this week we should have a few to put up. We get to sign papers on Monday; move in, go to a cub scout potluck, achievement days (London), and mutual (Brooklin) on Tuesday; and register the kids for school on Friday. We are leaving Wed and Thurs open to get a little settled. If I don't post for a week, you will know why!

C-Ya!

First house picture!

Here is a picture of the house we are buying. We're not entirely sure when we get to move in, but it will be by the end of the month. The elementary is right behind the house, and the middle school is within walking distance. We can't wait to be out of this tiny hotel room. We have been "homeless" for almost 8 weeks now, and I really just want to go home.

Almost Home

Well, we have been really busy. It seems like we got here weeks ago. Darwin went back to the dealership on Tuesday, and we got a good deal on a 2004 Ford Expedition. It is black and it seats 8 people. They kept it until Wed. so they could detail it and get the plates and everything on it for us. We also found out on Tue. that our van would be in on Wed, so we have both cars, and only had to rent a car for two days....saving us $1000.

We went out on Tuesday with the realtor again, and she showed us seven more houses. Of those, we really only kind of like the first one, and it had some noticeable roof issues. By the end of the day, I had told Darwin that I just wanted to rent, and not give all our money to any of the houses we saw. I still wanted to take him back to the FSBO I had looked at very first (and for those wondering...FSBO is For Sale By Owner) but I had left a message and not heard back from them. We went out shopping after dinner, and while we were out, we got a call from the FSBO house. They said we could come right over. After walking through it again with the family, I was ready to offer right then and there! It is a 4 bd/2 bth, 1800 sq ft., built in 1996 and in our price range. I actually called them back right after we left and told them we wanted to make an offer, but needed to get the earnest money agreement from the bank first. It is in the middle school boundries we wanted, but it is in the other ward (the church here has two congregations, and it is not in the same one we were in before). We went into the bank on Thurs and got the paperwork, and met the owners at 3pm. We offered them $20,000 under their asking price, and they settled for $15,000 under! They still have to move out and such and we have a lot of paper work and other stuff to complete (the inspection and appraisal, etc.) but hopefully we will be in a house we love by the end of the month!

I'm really excited, and I hope everything goes well. This morning we went back to the bank to fill out some of the pre-closing paperwork and then I went grocery shopping because I am tired of paying for fast food. After we find where Brooklin left her camera, I will put up a picture or two of us at the Mendenhall Glacier...to prove we really are here....lol!

We're here!!

Well....we all made it to Juneau safely. Our plane unloaded us right onto the ground, and it was like stepping into a freezer to me. It was 50 degrees, misting, and cloudy....and it has been that way ever since. I'm not complaining, I was just really hoping that we were going to have some time to gradually adjust to the cooler temps. Oh well.

We got into Juneau at 9:45 pm on Sunday night, and after getting the rental car and hotel situated, I left to go and get milk and cereal for in the morning. When I got into Safeway, I had the most extreme case of deja vu I've ever experienced. It was very weird! It has been really interesting to drive around here and see all this stuff that I was very sure I wasn't ever going to see again.

Yesterday, I went and looked at an FSBO, and then went to visit the realtor that sold us our home here last time, and she took us to look at six houses. We are meeting with her again later this afternoon to look at seven more houses. Miss Wendy offered to watch the littles for us yesterday and today, so we wouldn't have to take off and put on six pairs of shoes....I am so grateful to her and her family for being such good friends.

After we ate dinner, we went to look at some trucks at the car dealerships around here. We waited until we knew they would be closed so we could look without pressure. At the last one, we were noticing that it appeared that the dealership was going through a name change, or maybe it was under new managment....the sign said one name, and all the cars had another name on the plate covers. Anyway, we know the guy who's name was on all of the plate covers, and were wondering if he had bought the dealership (we know that he owns at least two dealerships in the area, but he lives in Ketchikan) and just then this guy comes out, and it is him!! He sold Dar his gold and black truck that we had when we were here last time, and it was really crazy that he was here and that we saw him. We got to chat with him, and he told Darwin to call him directly to get a deal on a truck, and he would take care of us personally. I guess that he owns five dealerships now...and he said, "Paying tithing really works!!" It was funny.

Anyway, I need to get out of the house. I need to go and visit the bank and the university sometime today. Pray that we can find the right house quickly!

MeJ

Saying Goodbye...

Last night, I went out with a few of my friends for my last girls night with them. We went to a beach house (that was really awesome) and had some food and a bunch of laughs. These first four pictures are of Elena and I. She has been my best friend here, and I am really going to miss her. I have been the music leader in primary for the past three years, and she is my piano player. Every sunday, we sit behind the piano and crack jokes and laugh our heads off during sharing time. We have been scolded a few times, but mostly I think they just know that we are going to be being silly, and they just got used to it. Sundays won't be the same anymore. I am so glad I could find such a good friend here...and I am really sad I have to leave. I won't stay gone too long...Darwin got to go back to Alaska every year that we lived here, so he owes me. =) I've already said good bye to her, and it is too hard to write it here, but I will really miss her.

Me, Monique, Elena, Amy, Lisa, and Monique's daughter Melena hiding Elena's pregnant belly (she is due in Sept). Lynn, I really wish you could have come, but I will see you when I come to visit. Keep in touch!

Aloha Oe Wailuku Ward!

Today was our last Sunday with our Wailuku Ward, and there aren't words to describe how much we will miss our ward family of the last three years. Each of the members will always hold a special place in our hearts. As a tradition here, when anyone is moving away, after the closing prayer in sacrament meeting, the ward sings Aloha Oe to them and present them with many lei, as kind of a final goodbye. The first time we experienced this tradition, I didn't know the person that was leaving, but the song and the love expressed through the giving of the lei, made tears come to my eyes. We have sung Aloha Oe to many family, friends, and missionaries going to their missions and going home from their missions. I cry each time. Today was our turn, and I could barely get through the first line. The people of our Wailuku Ward are the most loving group of people I have ever experienced. We will truely miss all of them. Instead of having our regular third hour meetings, the bishop took pictures of the entire congregation, and then we had a potluck dinner, so we could say our goodbyes. I hope that we will be able to keep the spirit of aloha that we have been surrounded with for the past three years with us, and that we will be able to share it with others. We received so many lei, we could barely see over the top of them. We told people that we wouldn't need scarves when we got up to Alaska, because we had enough to keep us really warm.

Good bye Wailuku Ward! We will miss you all greatly! Thank you for loving us. We have loved every minute of our time here, and are grateful that you could share it with us. You have taught us so many wonderful things. If you ever want to come and visit us up in Alaska, our door will always be open to you!

A Hui Hou!
Na Ohana Jensen

Ha`aheo ka ua i nâ pali
Proudly by the rain in the cliff
Ke nihi a`e la i kanahele
The creeping silently and softly up the forest
E uhai ana paha i ka liko
Seeking perhaps the bud
Pua `âhihi lehua a o uka,
Flower âhihi lehua of inland.

Hui:
Chorus:

Aloha `oe, aloha `oe
Farewell (to) Thee, farewell (to) Thee
E ke onaona noho i ka lipo
Sweet fragrance dwelling in the dark forest
"One fond embrace", a ho`i a`e au
One fond embrace, before I now leave

"Until we meet again."

Moving Day 3

Well, the computer is almost out of battery, but we are on the third day of packing, and it was supposed to be the last, but the mover guys are on Maui time, so they are coming back tomorrow. We got most of the upstairs cleaned today...the walls, mirrors, windows(inside and out...Darwin and Isaiah went out on the roof for this!), carpets vacuumed, and some of the bathroom tackled. I even vacuumed the screens. We are in the bed and breakfast now for the first night, and earlier we took the kids to see Wall-E. It was pretty cute. Darwin had to go to work and to get some nail hole filler, so I am doing this really quick. I sure hope the movers get a move on tomorrow...because I don't work on Sunday, and Monday is our checkout with the property manager.

Good-night!

Moving - Day One

My camera is buried somewhere in a suitcase, and the video camera wasn't so here is a video of our first day of packing...mostly boring, but hey...it's a post! =)

A lady from church took the kids for the whole day, which was really helpful. I left mid morning to take the sleeping bags to the laundry mat. I got some crocheting done, and listened to about 12 chapters of Genesis on my ipod. I've had a goal for a little over a year now to read the bible cover to cover, because I never have, and now I've read the beginning of Genesis like three times. I found out you can download the bible for free on lds.org, so I am changing my goal slightly and am now listening to it. I can multitask this way...lol. I can clean house or sew, and still make my goal. I actually learned some things...go figure. I'm not sure I knew that Joseph with the colorful coat was the son of the Jacob that worked for his wife's father to earn her, and then got given the older daughter, and had to work seven more years for the one he wanted. I know you all knew that...and I did know both of the stories, but didn't make the connection between the two.

Anyway... =) ...The movers will be back tomorrow at 8am, and this time, they are taking my computer. I may have a magic trick up my sleeve, so I might be able to post even after they take my computer, but we'll have to see. If not...see you on the other end!