Hitting a New Mark

Ok...this is a post I had to write. It has been on my mind for a while or at least for the past week and a half as we scoured the area in search of car #2. I had high hopes. No minivan for me! Why join the ranks of all mothers out there relegated to minivan status and the least spunky car from what the dear hubbies get to drive? Well, being raised to pay more attention to money matters than what your heart is really telling you that you "need" I made out my matrix of what I wanted out of car #2. It went something like this:

HH, I need one that is going to:
1. keep us safe with the wild and crazy drivers on this island (this comment was made several times just driving the 5 minute stretch to get us to the NEX)
2. cost less that 10,000. Why buy a 20,000 one if we may not bring it back to the Mainland in three or four years.
3. get us from point A to point B safely...see need "1" above
4. make me feel like a mom but be spunky and not old lady feeling... (ok I'm having difficulty with turning 34...I'll deal eventually...when I'm 35!)
5. haul kiddos from home to school in a carpool (purely selfish...with gas at $4.20 the idea of having some days not driving is very appealing. Plus, can you imagine the giggles I would have received saying, "yeah, I'd LOVE to be in your carpool but ummmm...well...I can only take one more pressed in between LD's magungis car seat base and HS's booster...no really, I can make room....oh please oh please let me join your carpool of 4!)
6. make me feel young!!! I'm not ready to grow up into "minivan mommy!"

Well, let's put it this way. Craiglist is awesome (for those of you who like to surf the net check it out...the site is kinda fun!) and within a few days I had located vehicles being sold by military members. Funny, they were all close to the 20,000 mark or older than the hills models with no space, they were spunky and would have made me feel BC (before kids), but really, is it illegal to put a kid as a hood ornament because the car only seats 2? So then I started looking for my dream...the Honda Pilot. Spunky, seating capacity that I wanted with a third row, and still qualified as a SUV. My kinda car. I was ready to buy. Only one problem. The price. Sorry, not paying the price for a dream. Back to reality. Enter the Nissan.

Looking over the postings I finally gave in. Minivans aren't bad. They fit the matrix. And they fit the desired price. So, looking at the Odyssey and Sienna we thought we were on our way until we both decided that maybe we should give another a look. Our little eyes caught a posting for a Nissan Quest being sold right on Ford Island.

My heart leapt. Could the price be right? Could this be the one? Oh my goodness it looks spunky and not minivanish! We went looked and hit the mark. We purchased the vehicle yesterday after a week of debate and I'm not embarrassed to say I'm a minivan mommy. I'm not a soccer mom (well, not yet anyway) but a martial arts mom. I'm proud to say we have seats now for visitors. I know, you're wondering about that desire to be spunky and younger. Oh yeah, I feel spunky and sassy driving my two kids and will feel happy to carpool with the friends from school knowing that they will be in a safe and secure car even with all the crazy drivers on the way to school this year!!!

Listening to a Cookie Legend

Last week as we were hanging out with our friends, my girlfriend and I began to plan for an adventure to share in this week. "'Famous Amos' is coming to talk at the base library...how about coming over for that?" she threw out as a suggestion. I heard library and special speaker and even giggled over the famous Amos part. "Is he bringing his yummy cookies,too?!?!" I giggled. "Yeah, but since he sold his name he can't go by the whole Famous Amos name." she giggled back. Hmmm, it pays to listen and believe our dear friends.

Figuring that there was someone on island who was a famous storyteller of Hawaiian stories for kids and his name just happened to be Amos, I headed over to the Windward side yesterday with my friend, HS, and her boys to have an afternoon playdate with Wally "Famous" Amos as our highlight. Showing up at the library, I'm still oblivious to who is coming to read to our little darlings. I'm just as excited as the kids...who doesn't get giddy when they know someone's reading to them? A toot toot of a kazoo turned our attention from watching kids ansy on the carpet to a very tall man walking into the kids section with a crazy watermelon hat perched on his head, groovy watermelon shoes and the brightest red socks I've ever seen on his feet, and a Aloha shirt with watermelon slices all over it. His swagger lead him to the front chair of honor and he began reading.

The kids were mesmerized. They were hypnotized. They were line love with the words that Mr. Wally read. He was interactive and with each story he continued to suck them further into the world of books (the occasional little tyke dropped aside from the reading, but the bigger kids were hooked!). He sang, he told stories of his own family, and by the end of the hour you didn't want him to leave. But the end did come and with the end of storytime came....cookies....yummy delicious cookies. This man was indeed the one, the only, the creator of Famous Amos cookies! He lives on the windward side and has a passion for literacy and appears at the base library every so often. As I starred again with huge eyes of shock that I had not believe my friend, she put her arm around me laughed and said, "would I have lied to you?!?!" Nope. She wouldn't and the time spent listening to a cookie legend with friends was great. We'll look forward to the crazy hat, shoes, and shirt and wonderful storytelling for his next visit.

PS: You can read about him at http://www.wallyamos.com/index.html

High on Blue Waters

Life is good. Yesterday we headed over the mountain via the tunnel to experience life on the Windward side of the island. The views did not disappoint and the tunnel opens to another world of living on Oahu. I am in love with the windward side. The mountains tower up to the sky in what looks like waves rippling in a vertical fashion. I've never seen anything like it.

We were excited to visit friends of ours who we have known since Jax and are stationed on the windward side. Their house overlooks the Kaneohoe Bay and has direct access to a beach. HH and HS spent the greater part of the afternoon enjoying the surf while LD and I marveled at the blue of the water. It is as blue as can be and has the most amazing clearness that I've ever found outside of our honeymoon to Bermuda. LD loved getting her feet in the sand and giggled as they were covered by more sand as the water lapped around her feet. HS enjoyed the body surfing and loved trying to build the biggest sandcastle and deepest moat he could with his new found friends.

While driving back to the Leeward side all you could hear from the backseat was the snoring of two pooped kids and from the front seat excitement that the day proved that we are all hooked and high on the blue waters of Hawaii.

Leaving the Mainland for Paradise

We have had a long June already and it is only the 21st of June. The past months seem like they flashed by and are already left far behind, already collecting dust in the recesses of my mind.

Moving this time was a struggle as I had grown to love Newport long before the detailer saw us fit to be there. The years in Japan hoping for Newport came to fruition and the year of what I had only thought a dream was over in a blink of the eye and the time to move on to another duty station was upon us.

Keeping true to our spirit of adventure and never looking for the status quo we have found ourselves once again outside of the confines of the United States. Although we are not technically in another country the preparation to move to Hawaii and complete the three-tiered stages of packing out the house from storage, express, to main shipment. We are now officially part of the island life of Hawaii and have found the transition to be full of twists, turns, and the overwhelming feeling that we are back outside of the U.S.A. and ready to embrace the oddities, coolness, and special nuances that have kept this state in a league of its own.

I chose to drive "Hans" (our friendly Passatt for those of you who don't know that we name our vehicles) with my mom, kids, and Kendo in tow down to Virginia in order to spend some time saying goodbye before sending Hans on his own vehicular adventure that would lead him to Hawaii while we all boarded a jet plane. I must admit that I'm rather delighted that I chose to stick to that option. The memories I made with mom will forever be relived as we drive with Kendo anywhere (Frebreeze anyone?!?!) in the car, looking at the Big Bad Wolf rollercoaster will now be remembered as R's first ever real big person coaster, and after spending only a year and a half on the Atlantic side of the country for the first time in at least 10 years it was nice to know that I had fallen in love with New England and had the opportunity to be close to family for awhile.

We arrived in Honolulu a painful 10 hours or so later than we departed the East coast. As we approached the islands, I looked over at J and said "oh my...the island is tiny!!!!" Thankfully I was looking at the wrong island. The islands we flew over were gorgeous from the air and I am definitely thrilled that the water is so blue. My kind of water color. I can see!!! No murk and gurk. We crammed our heads out of the window of the aircraft to get the first glimpse of our new "home" in the middle of the endless Pacific...gasps, wows, and ahhs were heard as we caught the first glimpses of Oahu. I think I'm going to like this place I remember thinking....if only they give me Kendo! (Preparing Kendo for this tour took the entire year and a half and then some more as we ran into the Commonwealth of Virginia laws governing Animal Health Certificates...they have more laws that don't make sense but somehow as a trained jumper through hoops I ended up following the quirkiness to the tee).

I see Ford Island, the Arizona Memorial, and Pearl Harbor and I'm still wondering how we got these orders. People would love to be in my shoes and I'm worrying about the cat!!!??!! I'm still thinking I'm going to like this place...especially with a Dunkin' Donut cawfee, my family, and my cat. The nerves mounted as we landed and were quickly calmed as we were greeted with beautiful smelling leis and smiling friends that we have known since J's first assignment as a lowly Ensign at VFA-82. Elation doesn't even describe how happy we are that they are here. We are looking forward to having the two families blend together and enjoy the island's offerings. Without them being there to greet us at the airport I doubt we would have know which way to go and getting to the Lodge would have taken twice as long.

We have arrived. We are in Paradise. As for Kendo, the State of Hawaii determined in less than 10 minutes that we had met all the requirements and we were leaving with Kendo to resume our adventure as a family into Paradise only without a cup of cawfee from Dunkin'.