Sunday, April 27, 2008

Vagabonds

That's what you can call us right now. We're still in temporary housing. Still unsure as to when we're able to move into our house. Still living out of suitcases (side note: I naively thought that we would only be homeless for a week or so, and that's how I packed. Big mistake!). But, we're still loving it here. Seriously. I feel like we live in paradise! We go to check on "our" house every couple of days, and are in awe of the view that we will have, and can't wait to see sunsets over the Pacific on a daily basis.

Which brings me to the status of our house...

We have not been given a move-in date yet. What's holding it up is the fact that the countertops are not in. Which is kind of a necessity. What's holding up the countertops not being in, is that there's not a contract in place for that. What's holding the contract up - who knows. We have been told multiple times that this house will not be given to anyone else, and that it is our house. Just to make sure of that, we pretty much go into the housing office everyday to make our presence known. And maybe, just maybe, they'll get so sick of us coming in everyday, they'll be motivated to get the contract for the countertops in place.

So that's where we are right now. In housing limbo.

But, we did meet up with Mike yesterday at the beach! We haven't seen him in close to 2 years! I was really bad and didn't take any pictures, but Mike has a few, so I'm hoping he'll post them on his blog soon, so I can steal them from him. Also at the beach - Melissa of Galloping Cows fame, her soon-to-be-born "Yipper," her husband, Dave, and Grant's brother, John. The boys played beach volleyball, and the girls chatted. A very fun day, to say the least.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

We're Here!

We've been here since Friday, but we've been pretty busy, so I haven't had a chance to blog yet. So here's just a brief overview...

We had a great trip out here. Long, but good. Kendall was a great little traveler, only having a few meltdowns. Who could blame her, though, after about 36 hours in a car seat?

Our visit in Albuquerque was awesome! Thanks to Pinky and the kids for opening up their home to us. While we were there, we started wondering why we ever left in the first place. The weather was awesome, the mountains were beautiful, the people were great, as always. Then we remembered...the military moved us.

Arriving in Cali was great. We, of course, ran into traffic about 80 miles outside of LA. Coming here to Ft. MacArthur in San Pedro (where the temporary and permanent housing is), we were pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it is here! Well, Grant wasn't so surprised, because he was here back in November. But I was! It's just absolutely gorgeous!

It was unseasonably hot our first 2 days - like, in the 90s. But we weren't complaining! Coming out of dreary Ohio, we were happy for the change. Since those first 2 days, it's been as "cold" as the low 60s, and as warm as the mid-70s. Not too shabby!

I met Melissa over at Galloping Cows in person for the first time on Monday! We kind of dropped in on her unexpectedly, but she was more than gracious to us.

As far as finding a house goes - we were blessed to be stuck between two really good choices. I think we'll be getting our first choice! It's actually just down the road from Melissa, maybe 200 yards or so. Can anyone say beautiful ocean views? We're so happy about this! But, since it's not set in stone yet, I don't want to talk too much about it. If everything works out, we should be signing the lease in about 2 weeks, so I'll talk more about it then, and of course, post pictures.

And now, Grant's waiting for me to finish blogging, so we can go to the beach. We're really living a rough life out here!

So, stay tuned for pictures and posts about our adventures. Until we get settled into a house, I won't be able to put pics up, so it will be a couple of weeks.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

One Last Post...

...Before the movers pack up the computer. We had a great time last night with our friends, Shawn and Jessica. We went to BD's Mongolian Grill, located at one of my favorite places in Dayton - The Greene. It's a shopping area with a lot of good restaurants, stores, and a nice movie theatre.

Anyways, BD's is a great place where you get a bowl and pick out meats, veggies, and sauces, then they grill it all up for you. You can get either one bowl at one price, or unlimited bowls for a few dollars more. Whenever we go there, Grant usually gets the unlimited, but can only eat about a bowl and a half, so he doesn't really think it's worth the money.

Not this time.

He found out from someone how to get the most out of one bowl. It's a technique in which you put the veggies on the bottom, then pile the meat on top. The meat sticks together, so you can pile it really high. Grant bestowed this knowledge to Shawn, and they both took advantage of it. Needless to say, one bowl was plenty.




After we filled our bellies with good food, it was time to fill them some more with dessert. So we went to Cold Stone, which is always a good choice. Winston and Elaina provided plenty of entertainment for everyone there.






So that's it for Dayton. We're done. I've been so excited about moving to California, that I forgot about how much we'll miss our friends that we've made here. And I hate good-bye's. I'm not good at them. I never feel like they're sufficient. But that's life in the military. The good thing is, by the time we're out of the Air Force, we'll have friends all over the country!

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Amazing!

My mom sent this to me, and I was truly amazed, so I wanted to share it.

California - here we come!

Well, not quite yet. The movers come Wednesday and Thursday. Then we hit the road on Friday. We'll make it to Albuquerque on Sunday, and stay until Thursday (thanks Pinky!). Then to Arizona. And finally, Cali on Friday.

I think it's going to be a really fun trip. And of course, we're so looking forward to seeing our friends in the ABQ again!

Since we have 2 cars, and have to get them both out there, my mom is coming up here to help me with the drive. I'm really looking forward to that time that we'll get to spend together.

So, this means that I'll not be around a computer that much until we get into a house - and who knows when that will be. We'll be in temporary housing until we find something. We're hoping for base housing, but haven't ruled out non-base housing - if we can find something we can afford.

Lots of changes coming up, so I'll try my best to keep everyone updated.