Finally getting settled...

We have been living life out of suitcases...for FOUR MONTHS now. And, just for fun, I have counted how many homes and hotels we have stayed at or lived in since December...NINE! Yes, I have carried my ginormous suitcase in and out of nine different places...well, I guess Blaine probably carried it for me most of those times. So, we were extremely excited to receive the keys to our house on base! We are in the process of unpacking box after box...110 of them to be exact. It feels a little like Christmas morning, unwrapping all of our household goods...some that I haven't seen since JUNE. I'm pretty sure I won't have to shop for a while and that I'll be content with just discovering the things I already own...maybe. ;)

Some of you may recall us throwing around the idea of living off-base...to make a long story short, we decided that living on base was a better fit for us and were offered the perfect place at the last minute. But I promise to take any of you who visit to see the sea turtles that would have been in our backyard. Anyway, back to the house on base and how it all came to be...

The housing office told us they had two houses coming up and that we could choose which one we wanted to be "considered" for. The first one was a historic (older and not renovated) home...we noticed the demolition of other homes going on right across the street and quickly marked this one off of our list because of the potential for a lot of noise. The second home was in a four-plex (I like to think of it as a townhome) and looked nice, but was in between two other homes. We still had our hearts set on a brand new home on base, but these wouldn't be ready until the fall. We thought about waiting for the new homes, hence the short-lived plan of living off-base on the North Shore, so we didn't even consider the "townhome". THEN, the couple who lived in the townhome called us to invite us over to take a look. FYI, this was in the last week of FEBRUARY! That's how long we've been waiting for a home. As soon as we walked into the townhome, Blaine and I looked at each other with the "wow, this is our house!" look. I'm certain the house was staged just for us...same tastes, decorating style, color choices, everything! Not to mention the couple who lived there are just the nicest people and we became quick friends. The house is a two-story, three bedroom, two and a half bath home, with plenty of living and kitchen space. There's a nice patio in back with a spacious yard...complete with a plumeria tree, a papaya tree, a lime tree, and lots of other tropical vegetation! And did I mention the awesome neighbors?! The families next door, on each side of us, have already had us over for dinner and another friend, Jenn, had tea and desserts at her place, and invited the entire neighborhood over to meet me! We are so very blessed.

Stay tuned for pictures to come soon...I promise to post them as soon as I have everything just right. Back to more unpacking!!