Video Tour of our House in Hawaii

I know, I know, I haven't blogged since we got here. Consider my wrist slapped. I'll try to get better. Believe it or not, I haven't actually had much to tell... it's mostly been work and unpacking. We saw a few sights, and I saw Jarrod off at the pier, and then it was back to trying to create something resembling "normal."

I did get a new phone, and it's got a pretty good video camera... my first video is of our house. Hope this satisfies your itch for pictures. Would love to show it to you in person!

Someone bug me about posting more often!

Hawaii

Hey there!  Well, the trip ended up being more crazy than we expected, and we managed to make it all the way to Hawaii without one blog entry! So, I'll come back and tell everyone about our visits with friends and family along the way from Colorado to the Islands, but for now, I'm just dropping for the big update:

We're here, we're safe, we have the dogs, and we're moving into a house next Friday!  Things are moving quickly, and we have to thank everyone for your prayers and support along the way. We couldn't have made it here without you all!

So, for all of you who have been asking, here's what we know about our house so far:

We're going to be living in military housing, in a neighborhood called Moanalua Terrace.  Our place is a combination of a townhouse and a duplex - we have a two-story, two-bedroom place on the the left side of a two-unit building.  The community is run by a private leasing company, so it'll be mostly like living in an apartment complex.  Here's a link to the community website: http://www.fcnavyhawaii.com/neighborhoods_listing.asp?tab=overview&ccc=21496547

We'll post pictures of the actual place once we move in.  We pick up keys next Friday morning, and our household goods will arrive later that day.  We have called to get cable & internet set up, but the first available installation date they could guarantee was September 1.  They have put us on the waiting list for an earlier date, but wouldn't make any promises. If we don't have internet at home, I'll have to find another place to work, so pray for our installation to get moved up!

More updates soon!  Until then - here's us at Waikiki beach:

On the road again...

Westward Ho!  We're finally started on the second leg of our journey.  After a month apart, with Jarrod in Seattle and me in Dallas, we're so glad to be back side-by-side!  Jarrod got into Dallas late on Thursday night, and we spent Friday finishing up final details.

Friday night, we had a wonderful party with our families at the neighborhood pool.  My parents, Jarrod's parents, and my sister, brother-in-law and their kids were all there. Tony (my bro-in-law) grilled for us, which is his favorite way to entertain, and our favorite way to eat!  Jarrod had a great idea while he was in Seattle to pick up some wild-caught king salmon from the famous fish-throwers in Pike Place Market.  He had them shipped in Friday morning, and we devoured them Friday night.  We had 3 fillets, so Tony made three distinctly different flavors to complement the tender, creamy salmon.  Even my sister Alisha, who usually isn't a fan of fish at all, went back for seconds.  All the sides were just as delicious, and I ended up too stuffed to swim anymore!

We spent the rest of the evening in the pool, playing around with our nieces and just soaking with all the adults.  It was a perfect way to end the visit - relaxing and fun, and very low-key.

Saturday morning dawned entirely too bright and early, but we were on the road by 6:30, only 30 minutes behind our goal.  First stop, my brother and sister-in-law's house in Colorado Springs. We punched Josh & Joanna's address into the GPS, and just started driving.  What a contrast to the way the drive went the first half of the journey!  This time, we have just one car (which is packed to the gills, by the way!).  It's so nice for both of us to have a conversation to pass the time.  Jarrod and I love to point out funny signs and silly town names and just generally enjoy the scenery. I didn't really realize how much we did that until we were in separate cars and couldn't easily share those things with each other.

The other thing that really struck me about this drive is how different it looked. Dallas really is the dividing line for terrain - east of Dallas is hills and trees, where you have to exit the highway to see what's actually there. West of Dallas is wide open spaces, with roads that line up straight in front of you until they disappear into the horizon.  There's not much on the sides of the road, and you can see for miles in every direction.  I've driven to West Texas many times, but I've never really realized that DFW really is the portal from East to West.

Our route took us north and west, through Amarillo, cutting across the corner of New Mexico, and straight into Colorado.  It was a total of about 12 hours of driving, but didn't feel like it was as long as some of the stretches we did between Connecticut and Dallas.  I think having company made all the difference.  Jarrod bought the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" book series on his Kindle while he was in Seattle, so we started reading that aloud to each other.  It's a kids' series, but it's a well-written story and is a fun, easy way to pass the miles.  We traded drivers pretty frequently, since the straight, never-ending highway can induce hypnosis pretty quickly.

A few tips for those of you who decide to follow in our footsteps:

• The rest-stop just before Hedley, TX is the cleanest I've ever seen.  It's a pretty view, and enough shade to actually get out of the summer heat for a few minutes.  It's a must-stop.  It does not, however, have a dog run, no matter what you've been told.
• Gas prices are higher in New Mexico than Texas or Colorado.  Fill up before the state line, so you can make it through NM without needing to stop. 
• The "deer crossing" signs here feature much more muscular deer than up north.  We've decided the signs here are more like markers - "if you're looking to hunt big deer, here's a good place" rather than "be careful, cute little deer might be crossing the road."
• Don't forget - Texas and New Mexico are sparsely populated out this way.  When it says "rest stop" or "gas," take the option - you probably won't get it again for another hour at least.  And there are no trees to go hide behind if you stop on the side of the road! 

We did make it safely to CO Springs, enjoyed a delicious dinner with Josh & Jo, and are now relishing their back patio and cool Colorado weather.  We opted to sleep in rather than go to church with them, which I think was a good choice.  We'll actually have energy to go out exploring with them later this way!  

The great news is, Molly and Ella get along famously with Josh & Jo's dogs.  Ella and Cheyenne woke me up with their wrestling this morning, and now they're both napping hard, working up the energy for another round.  Molly's already gotten herself stuck in the fence (don't worry, we got her out with minimal trauma), and is loving this back yard that has cool temperatures and sunshine too. 

Pictures and more updates coming soon!

Northwest Passage

So I'm in Bangor, WA for the course of three weeks to complete two schools for my new assignment on USS HAWAII (SSN 776), unfortunately Tiffany wasn't entitled to accompany me on this part of the trip. I realize that this would be a great chance to explain what I do on-board a submarine for all you who don't know.

First off I'm a Navigation Electronics Technician or Nav. ET, which doesn't really provide and accurate description of my job at all. As you might assume I deal with navigation systems including GPS, Radar, and a Ring Laser Gyro (RLGN). GPS and Radar I believe most people are familiar with, the RLGN probably not. It is an inertial navigation system that utilizes a series of lasers and accelerometers, and electromagnetic sensors to equate ships movement into a position from a known location and provide the ship with an accurate position while submerged. The other part of my job is to monitor and maintain the ships electrical indications to include the ships control (steering/diving), atmosphere and internal communications. If you have any questions please feel free to email me and ask I really do love my job and talking about it.

I've completed the first school that was for an updated atmosphere monitoring system, after a little hiccup here on base. The second day I was here was the hottest in quite a few years here in the northwest we had a high of 95 F, not exactly a crisis down south but here it was quite dramatic. Unfortunately the "extreme" heat caused a fire in one of the power substations and took out power to about half the base, resulting in my five day course becoming three. I'm now starting class for our newest radar system which will take the remaining two weeks to complete. Both these courses are heavy on the practical application which is helpful to me.

Last weekend I took the oppurtuinity to catch a Mariners baseball game against the Yankees (see my blog http://thatguyssports.blogspot.com/ for more on that) with my friend James whom I served with on the USS FLORIDA. I took a couple of photos with my iPhone while on the ferry since I didn't bring a real camera. If you look closely in the center of the picture you can see Mt. Rainier which is over fourteen thousand feet high and about 50 miles away in this picture. I had some pictures of the baseball game but I've apparently lost them. The heat wave has stopped and it gets down in the low fifty's at night and beautiful sunshine during the day. I'm missing everyone back home both in Texas and Connecticut, love you guys.

Whirlwind!

Wow, I can't believe it's been more than a week since my last post! Since South Carolina, we've been to Tennessee, Arkansas, and finally Texas.  Once we hit Texas, we started going so fast and furious, today's the first time I've had a few minutes to sit on my own!  We didn't take many pictures in the last few days of our drive, but don't worry - we have a ton since we've gotten here, so you won't be picture-less for long!

Here's the story, to catch you up:

Saturday: After leaving my Aunt Janet's in South Carolina, we drove back north, past Asheville, NC, on interstate 40.  What we didn't know was that I-40 had an avalanche more than a year ago, and was still down to 1 lane for about 5 miles.  That part wasn't really a problem - it was the 3 miles of backup to merge into one lane that caused such a problem. We sat in almost stand-still traffic for about an hour and a half!  When we finally hit the Tennessee state line, we were ready for lunch, and to get moving, for sure!  We made a quick stop at the first Sonic we found, then hit the road for Nashville.  We still managed to pull into my cousin Daniel's house around 5pm, thanks to the switch to Central time right before we hit Nashville.  He lives on the east side of the city with his wife, Charissa, and two kids, Bennett and Norah. We played with the dogs and kids in their great backyard, then shared a delicious pot roast with all of them.  About 15 minutes after we sat down to dinner, we heard a HUGE clap of thunder, and then came the biggest downpour of the whole trip.  Charissa said it looked like the kind of rain they got when Nashville was flooded, just a few weeks back.  Thank God, this storm didn't last nearly that long, and was done before we woke up the next morning.

Sunday: We all got up early Sunday morning, Daniel & family to get to church, and Jarrod & I to get moving to Little Rock.  It's about a 6 hour drive from Nashville to Little Rock, which made this one of our longer days of driving, but it would be our only overnight in a hotel, and we actually were looking forward to it!  As much as we love our friends and family, after 5 hard days on the road, we were ready for a break from people and driving. We stopped for breakfast, then headed out.  The drive was very uneventful, and we made it to the hotel before 5pm.  We settled in, ordered a pizza, and proceeded to do absolutely nothing for the entire evening.  The dogs got a whole bed all to themselves, in the same room with us, so I'm sure they slept hard that night. I know they slept comfortable - Molly arranged the bed all by herself:

Monday:  We slept in and got a pretty late start - we didn't finish with breakfast until 10am.  It was nice to have some leisurely time with no agenda.  This would be our last day on the road for a while, and we only had to make it to the Farm (my parent's place) in time for dinner.  The drive from Little Rock to the Farm is about 4 and a half hours, so we had an easy day ahead of us.  We stopped in Arkadelphia for a quick trip down memory lane: I graduated from Ouachita Baptist University there, and we walked around campus a bit.  They've made alot of changes and improvements, but it's still the same OBU.  It was fun to see the place again.  Maybe I'll have to make more of an effort to get to Homecoming one of these years.

We sure were excited to cross the state line into Texas - it felt so good to be home.  I know it was hot outside, but it looked beautiful!  Check out the sky that day:

We were both disappointed - there was no giant "Welcome to Texas" sign at the state line.  So I snapped this as we drove in instead:

I also caught this sign as we drove by, and I thought, "ahhh, it's so good to be back where we don't hide our crazy people - we give them state sanction instead!"

We made it to the Farm around 4:30pm, and found my sister Alisha with her kids waiting there for us with my Mom & Dad.  We were so glad to see all of them, and to finally be home!  We introduced our pups to my parents' two dogs, Ginger and Walker, and they introduced them to the horses and cows!  Ella and Walker both thought chasing the horses would be fun, but unfortunately, Walker didn't teach Ella to steer clear of the back legs.  One of the horses literally kicked her butt, and she learned to keep her distance!  She's doing fine now, and hopefully learned her lesson for good.

So that's the first half of our journey, in a nutshell. I'll keep posting things that happen as I'm here in Dallas, and hopefully lots of photos too.  For now, it's time to hit the hay - I actually have to go to work tomorrow!

Carolinas in the Morning

Thursday dawned bright and early as we headed off to North Carolina to visit my Uncle Paul & Aunt Jane in their "mountain hideaway."  The drive was pretty uneventful, and we made it there in time to join them for dinner.  We put the dogs in their outdoor kennel and headed into town. They treated us to a local mexican food restaurant, which wasn't Tex Mex, but it was delicious anyway!  We headed back to their place, and found that Molly and Ella had managed to slip out of the kennel and had been roaming around the mountainside on their own! Paul & Jane's dog Onyx had shown up at some point, so we're believing that Onyx showed them the ropes and kept them close to home.  A flash thunderstorm had popped up as we were driving home, so the girls were wet and a little dirty, but none the worse for wear.  We brought them inside, and they proceeded to win over everyone with their perfect manners and sweet dispositions (no, really, they were complete angels!).

We sat up entirely too late with Paul & Jane, talking about everything from dogs to kids and plenty in between. After a good night's sleep, we were ready to enjoy the beauty of the front porch on top of the mountain. The morning was foggy, but we knew it would burn off and be warm later (they were having a heat wave - highs in the 90s!), so we wanted to maximize our time.

Really, how can you pass up this view?  So, we sat, with our coffee, and enjoyed.  

Ella loved the yard - a nice long space to chase her ball.  We threw it as hard and as far as we could as many times as she could stand.  After all the travel this week, she's itching for the exercise!

 

See that tiny black speck by the grapevines in the second picture?  That's Ella!  She ran and ran and ran until we lost the ball!  The only time she took a break is when Onyx took over. Onyx is a "senior" dog, so she mostly just swiped the ball and sat with it, reminiscing about her younger days. Ella was patient with her, up to a point. Then she'd just swipe it back and want to play again.

After we had our fill of coffee and porch-sitting, Uncle Paul took us into town to show us around. He works for a local coffee roasting company, and had a few minutes of work to do, so we wandered around downtown while he finished that up.  We went to the local dog park and let the girls play, but they were actually much more interested in walking around and exploring the city than they were playing off-leash. So, we left there and Uncle Paul treated us to lunch at The Gateway Club. The delicious burgers were a great send-off, and we left feeling spoiled!

We got on the road to Greenville, SC after noon, and arrived there at 2:30 that day. It's a quick drive, and was probably the easiest of the trip so far. We were all glad to be able to get out of the car so quickly!  We went straight to 609 and were greeted warmly by Aunt Janet & Uncle Dennis.  (For those of you who don't know, "609" is our family home. The "609" is a reference to the house number - we never actually use the whole address, we all just know it by heart. My grandfather built the house when the family first moved to Greenville, SC 50 years ago, and Janet & Dennis bought it from him years ago.  It's still a gathering place for family events and memories.)

We settled in quickly, ducking over to the neighbor's house for a quick swim before the rain rolled in (have you noticed it's rained everywhere we've been so far except DC?  Apparently the request we got to "bring the rain with us" is working...).

Aunt Jan and I drove just down the road and picked up Pop and Sis (my grandfather and his wife) to bring them back to 609 for dinner. It was really special to spend time with them for so long - they had dinner, dessert, and stayed to talk for more than 2 hours.  Aunt Jan made a delicious dinner, then we got to have chocolate cake and coffee ice cream - a Brummer family tradition! Pop didn't eat much dinner, but he had a huge slice of cake and two servings of ice cream.  Now Jarrod knows where I get my obsession with ice cream!  We had a great conversation with Sis, and got to tell her all about living in Connecticut and moving to Hawaii.

Pop is in his 90s, and he and Sis have lived in assisted living for several years. Last year, he moved into the dementia unit, and he is having more and more trouble communicating.  The thing that's so hard to see is that he clearly still has the memories and has things to say to add to the conversation, but he can't locate the correct words in his mind and then speak them.  He starts and stops several times, and often doesn't ever come up with the words to say what he's thinking.  He has trouble remembering who people are, and why they are important to him.  We told him several times who I was before he really remembered.  We showed him pictures of my sister's family, and he understood that they were a family, and that they were beautiful, but he couldn't understand their relevance to him.  He wanted to tell me about his visit to Hawaii, but couldn't get his thought out. I was frustrated for him, even more so when I saw how difficult it was for him.  He kept saying how surprised he was that he couldn't get his words to cooperate - he knew there was a problem, but didn't remember that it has been ongoing. So, it made me even more glad to see him, and to have the small bits of conversation we did get to have. I really appreciate Aunt Janet for spending as much time and effort with him as she does - thank you, Aunt Jan!

After a great visit with Pop & Sis, Uncle Dennis took them home and we spent the beautiful evening chatting and watching the girls run around the yard.  The backyard at 609 is huge, and the view is gorgeous.  Check out this sunset:

Saturday morning, we got up early with the dogs and watched the sunrise over the same yard, then enjoyed coffee and breakfast with Janet & Dennis.  We made a quick stop at the Greenville Farmer's Market for some fresh SC peaches, and then headed out to Nashville to see my cousin Daniel and his family.  We're getting to the home stretch now - we're really looking forward to getting to Dallas and settling in for a little while!

Oh, Virginia!

We had such a good time seeing our friends in Virginia!  Rex & Lisa Hamaker were fabulous hosts, providing a warm and welcoming home, and even playmates for Molly & Ella.  At first, Ella couldn't understand why everyone was just sitting in the bushes, but after a few rounds of fetch, she needed a nice cool break too!

On Tuesday night, we had a quiet dinner with the Hamakers, including fresh blueberry sorbet made from blueberries hand-picked by us from their personal crop. It was delicious!

Rex & Lisa threw us a party on Wednesday night, and quite a few of our Virginia friends came out to visit.  What fun to catch up with everyone, and share a bottle or two of wine and delicious food. The Hamaker house is always a great place for a party - we gathered in the kitchen and talked and laughed until late in the evening!

On the drive to Virginia, Jarrod discovered that the air conditioning in the Jeep was blowing, but it wasn't getting cold at all.  Rex helped us find a mechanic, and we were able to get it fixed and road-worthy in less than a day, praise God!  While it was in the shop, we took the dogs to the beach for their first experience with the ocean.  Molly wasn't sure about the water that never stopped moving, but she eventually got used to it.  They both waded in and cooled off, though neither of them was very interested in swimming.  Ella loved walking just at the water line, keeping her feet wet, and Molly found she could to much more interesting smells if she stayed on drier ground.

All in all, we had a wonderful visit with everyone, and were blessed, as always, to be able to call them friends.

Finally on our way

We were so excited to finally be on the road. We got moving around 2pm with Jarrod out in the lead, and I followed close behind with both dogs.  Here's proof that my car, Angel, has officially left CT: 

We took I-95 to the Tappan Zee bridge to bypass some of the New York traffic. 

From there, we took the Garden State Parkway south through New Jersey.  

I had no idea such a small state could take so long to get through!  Between rush hour traffic, rubberneckers, and toll booth bottlenecks, it took us until 8:00 to actually get out of New Jersey.  There was no sweeter phrase at that point than "Welcome to Delaware."

After a quick stop for dinner, we got back on the road, attempting to make it to Alexandria, VA before Monday became Tuesday.  We had planned to visit with a college friend of mine, Rachel Kibbe.
We were hoping to have time to share a meal and a visit with her, but those plans were cut short, as we didn't pull into her place until around 10:30pm.  We were so glad for the chance to get out and stretch our legs.  The dogs were ready to move, too.  She lives in a busy neighborhood with permit-only parking, so we parked a couple of blocks away and used the walk as a chance to unbend from the drive.  We arrived at her beautiful new condo and were "welcomed" by her canine-unfriendly cat, Conex.  The dogs and Conex had quite the standoff before we finally put her into her carrier for the night.  Her other cat, Bonkers, was cautious and distant from the dogs, but not openly hostile.  Ella was fascinated by Bonkers, and spent most of the night trying to get closer to him.

Molly wasn't sure about any of it, and was actually pretty happy when Rachel offered to cuddle on the couch. She settled in pretty quick, don't you think? 

It was great to see Rachel, and catch up just a bit.  I wish we had had more time to visit, but the travel furies were against that plan.  We told her, as we tell everyone, our door will always be open in Hawaii.  We'll just have to schedule another visit soon!  We were all up early the next morning, and we headed out from Rachel's, ready to get moving.  Jarrod and I had breakfast at a diner in town, and then tried to find a dog park to let the pups use up some of their energy.  We got directions to what we thought would be a dog park, but when we got there, there wasn't anything there.  By this time, it was 9:30am and we decided we should just get to Virginia Beach, and we could deal with puppy energy there.   The drive to Virginia Beach was easy and uneventful, and we made it to the Hamaker's just after 2pm.  

Praise God for safe travels, and good friends who are happy to host us and our "kids!"  

Next update: fun with Lisa & Rex and the rest of the VA Beach crew!

Final Preparations

Wow, what a whirlwind weekend it's been!  Sunday we went to our last Bridge Celebration Service (for a while, not ever!).  It was so tough to say "farewell" to all our friends and family there.  We did get a great photo of almost the whole crew, which is a miracle in itself, I think.

(click the picture to see it full-size)

After church, we headed back to the house to finish the last of the cleaning. We called our dads to wish them a Happy Father's Day, and loaded up as much of the stuff as we could.  We had some last-minute items left til Monday, but just what we needed to get ready and get out the door. After that, we pretty much hit the sack - it had been a long weekend, and we have a long week in front of us!

Monday morning, we both got up and moving early.  Jarrod headed into the office to finish the last of his paperwork at his old command, and I finished up the work the I knew absolutely had to get done while I still had internet access.  Kristin McKenzie and the kids came over with breakfast. It was good to see them one last time. Not long after they left, the Norwich utilities guy came to take our last meter reading and shut off the power.  After that, there wasn't much point in sticking around - it was hot and muggy without the fans going, and the modem & router don't work without power, so I couldn't work!  By the time I finished loading all our last-minute stuff, and double-checking to be sure we didn't forget anything, Jarrod was done at work.  He came home, we split up the borrowed items that needed returning, and met back up for lunch before getting on the road.  We finally left Norwich around 2pm on Monday, after what seemed like a very full day already!

I'll post again later today with thoughts and photos from our drive yesterday and today.  In the meantime, here's some photos of the empty house, and Molly & Ella enjoying the last few minutes in their old backyard.

living room                                           kitchen

  

 

dining room                                       bedroom

Molly & Ella, giving me the "I know something's up, Mom. What's going on?" look

HELLO!!!...Hello!...hello...

Did you know your house echoes when it's empty?  At least our house does!

So it's really official now - 235 items and boxes fit into 7 crates, and it's all on its way to Hawaii.  We'll know on Monday how much it weighed.  The head mover estimated between 7,500 and 8,000 pounds. As long as we're under 9,000, I'm happy. (Any more than that and we have to pay for the difference.)

The dogs have been at Doggie Day Care every day since Wednesday, and they were pretty confused each night when they came home and more of our stuff was gone. I'm actually really proud of them - they came home last night to the empty house, and I think that phased them less than having a ton of boxes around. They didn't even bother to explore the house - I guess they just figured it all disappeared, but they still had their people, so it was ok.  We set up to sleep in the coolest room, the office, and we put an old comforter down in the corner. They settled right in on it and slept all night. I'm sure it helps that they're exhausted from spending 3 beautiful, sunny days at day care.

Today we're cleaning up, sweeping floors, filling holes in the wall, & washing windows. We still need to paint over the patched holes in the walls, deep clean the kitchen and bathrooms, and mop the floors, but it's always so easy to clean an empty house.  We'll be done in no time.

Ella found her ball and has been carrying it around all day with this very protective look on her face.  It's as if she's saying, "I don't know what you did with the rest of the stuff, but you're not getting my ball!"  Molly's just happy to sit in the sun, as usual.  She's really going to love Hawaii!

Tomorrow we'll go to the Bridge Celebration service, then probably visit the last few places we need or want to see before we leave.  Monday Jarrod will go into work for the last of his checkouts, and I'll have some work to do in the morning while I wait for the meter reader and the cable guy to show up and disconnect our services.  Once all of those things are done, we're hitting the road!  First stop, a visit with our friend Rachel Kibbe, who lives outside Washington, DC, then on to Virginia Beach!

The Dust Bunnies

Now that there is no where to hide, the dust bunnies have come out to play!  The movers packed 3 crates today with items they boxed up yesterday. We still have both bed frames, several larger pieces of furniture, the washer & dryer, and the entire contents of the basement.  Jarrod and I were talking about how this move is very different than the last few we've done.  This is the first time we've moved cross-country, and CONUS (CONtinental United States) to OCONUS (Outside the CONtinental United States), so the experience has completely changed.

When we moved from Virginia to Connecticut, Jarrod had been out to sea until two days before the move.  He came back into town, the movers showed up the next day, packed our entire apartment and storage unit in one day and we were on the road the next morning.  The next afternoon, we were moving into our new place here in Connecticut, and our moving van arrived a couple of days later. It was very quick and clean, and it took no time at all to get settled.

When we moved from the apartment to the house, they packed half of our stuff the first morning and moved it to the house that afternoon, then went back the second day and did the same thing with the rest.  So we were in both places at once, and we didn't have any down time between when we packed and unpacked.

This time, they're packing our things for the long haul, literally.  These items will be in boxes for probably 2 months or more, depending on when we get housing. The furniture has all been wrapped in paper or plastic wrap, and they are required to pack everything into crates, which are then glued and nailed shut.  It kinda feels like our whole life is being prepared for long-term storage.  (I can just imagine a warehouse like the one at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.) We're still surrounded by boxes on the first floor, but the upstairs is completely empty except for the beds (they were sweet and saved our bed for the last day so we can sleep in it again tonight.).  I was sweeping up in the guest room after they left today, and the room literally echoed.  It was so odd.  When they're done tomorrow, we will literally be in an empty house, with nothing but the clothes in our suitcases and the air mattress to sleep on.  We will still have the computers, and the utilities don't get shut off until Monday, so at least we'll have the internet to keep us occupied, but it's going to be very strange. It will be bittersweet to say goodbye to our first home.  We've loved it dearly, and it's been such a blessing to us!  I hope it will bless someone else soon, too.

Boxes, boxes everywhere

   

The entire house is packed, y'all! All that's left is the basement and a few boxes in the office. We also have just a few cleaning supplies left over...

I'm thinking we need to have a cleaning party - bring a broom or mop or vacuum, help us clean, and take home your pick of premium cleaning products! Who's in?

The Movers are Here!

We've got real-time results here, folks!  The movers are here, and they're making really fast progress.  Here's a few photos of the process, as it happens:

The dining room, in process

The kitchen

view up the stairs - this is the staging area

Guest room's almost done. They've already cleaned out the linen closet, and the small room is finished

See? All that's left is the desk and fan...

The bathroom and the guest room closet are our "safe havens" - that's where all the stuff that we're taking is stored. 

Looks like today will be most of the upstairs, the kitchen, and maybe the dining room. Tomorrow will be living room, office, and basement. Friday they'll crate it all and get it loaded. 

The way my mind works worries me sometimes

Woke up with Jarrod's alarm today, mind was racing with things that needed to be done. I made a list in hopes of being able to go back to sleep, but the list was a whole page in the mini memo pad I keep by the bed, and my brain wouldn't let me rest with that much still to do!  So, I'm up super early today.  I logged on to read Jarrod's post from last night, and he mentioned that we're done with laundry.  To which I replied, "Laundry!  Oh no, there's one more load in the dryer!"  It was heavy duty stuff, bathrobes and the like, so I saved it for overnight so it could get really dry.... I would have completely forgotten it if I hadn't seen that post.  Apparently my brain is *this close* to complete shutdown... is it vacation time yet?

Movers Eve

Well we spent the day working and then the evening working. The movers arrive tomorrow, and we've spent the evening doing the last of the sorting, removing and packing. Tiffany discovered which clothes she really loves and can't live without and I discovered that uniforms why the Navy allots me 600 lbs. for professional equipment...it's code for uniforms. The yard is mowed one last time, and the trash is out. Checkouts are 75% done at work, I'm signed out of all the maintenance programs so now I really have nothing to do. Well I need to go clean the kitchen one last time. The road is calling ready for my vacation.

One man's trash....

It amazes me every time!  We put a rusted out grill, a water-logged TV stand, and a junky little cabinet out on the curb last night to go to the trash, and they were all gone within 2 hours.  People in our neighborhood put things out on the curb all the time, and they sit there for weeks and weeks.  We put stuff out on the curb, and it disappears within hours. I guess our house has a reputation of having good stuff!

So, all that is to say, we're getting stuff cleaned out and we're almost there. The laundry pile is getting smaller by the minute, it's almost all done now. Tomorrow we'll pack up the box of last-minute things we'll need after they take our stuff away (air mattress, linens, wireless router, a few dishes and cooking utensils, dog food, etc), as well as the suitcases of clothes.

The good news is, Jarrod is officially cleared to reenlist, which is a prerequisite to him getting to leave his current command, so we're on track to actually leave on Tuesday. I called to turn off the utilities today, they'll all be shut off on Monday.  I guess we'll just sit in the empty house with our laptops, air mattress, and puppy dogs for the weekend. It's going to be surreal!  We'll be headed to The Bridge Celebration Service on Sunday morning, to say one last farewell to our Bridge Family. It'll be a bittersweet day, for sure.

Days away!

We're just days away from the big move now, and we're starting to really get ready to go!  The movers are coming on Wednesday, and they'll be packing and loading for 3 days.  We're staying in the empty house on an air mattress for the weekend, then heading out of Connecticut first thing on Tuesday morning.

We're finalizing things around the house - taking down curtains, washing the linens, going through the last of the storage spaces to get rid of things that are just hanging around. Next step is to pack up for the 6 weeks we'll be travelling between when we leave Norwich and when we arrive in Honolulu. It's tough to figure out how to pack enough clothes to last that long, but that will all fit into a suitcase that we can actually take on the plane.  I think I'm going to have the most trouble with picking shoes!  Jarrod's got so many uniforms that he has to have, I'm not sure how he's going to have room for anything else. I guess he'll have to have an entire suitcase of just uniforms!

Watch this space for photos of packing and finalizing in the next couple of days!