Mele Kalikimaka

Merry Christmas from Hawaii!! Here are some pictures of Santa at the end of his tour around the world after a very long night. He and the Mrs enjoy a very nice vacation here in paradise.




We have been MIA from blogging since our last post. Sorry if I caused any worry to anyone and thank you for those who questioned our whereabouts. We are doing great. Since moving in to the house, it has been hard to stop and rest. We have been very busy getting unpacked and settled. Brad's work has picked up pace and they are pushing to get the boat back into the water. Anyway, we wake up to beautiful blue skies and warm weather. The temperature is a toasty 74 degrees. I hope everyone else is staying warm and toasty wherever you are. I will update some more soon. Wishing everyone a happy holiday! Mele Kalikimaka!

We are no longer homeless in paradise!!!

So we are closing on our house Friday, Nov 9th!!! What a birthday present, right??? Anyway, after a very long road here in Hawaii and living in a hotel forever, we are finally getting the keys to our new house. The other great birthday present is that we get to bring the dogs home. The kennel called me today to verify that they were going home tomorrow and they even gave us a discount since the girls have been there for 55 days. Now the moving starts. We won't get our stuff for another week because Brad is in class for the next week, which means he can't take a day off to help me receive it. Yes, I have received our stuff before, but I have a bad feeling about this one. I am sure that everything is okay, but I was sick when they packed it up, so I did not make sure everything was done like it should have been. It traveled such a long way that I just want some extra help if something is wrong. Besides, my pregnant head has been so foggy lately, there is no telling what I will have them do or not do.

Here are some pictures of the house with the seller's stuff in it. I will take some new pictures once we scrape the ceiling of the popcorn and we paint.


I will start upstairs since this is how the pictures loaded. This is the upstairs bathroom. I am not sure where the cabinet doors are but they were not sold to us when we bought the house.

This is the upstairs hallway from the master bedroom looking into what will be the nursery.

This is the nursery. The blue in here is really loud; the pictures don't show the electricness of it. I am not sure if we are going to paint it the same color as the rest of the house or if we will do a nursery color. It will all depend on the bedding that we find for the kiddo. I think this is a queen sized bed in here to give you an idea of the size of the room.

This is the closet in the nursery. All of the closets have really nice built ins so they are much more usable than just a single or double bar.


This is the view from the nursery window. If you look past the telephone wires you will see the ocean.

This is the master bedroom. This is a king sized bed, for room size. It has a wall of closets opposite the bed. There is also a crawl space/attic in the corner of the room on the right hand wall.


Here is the living room and dining room. This picture really shows the back porch and back side of the house. It is really open and has windows along the whole back wall. There are no overhead lights but until it gets dark you don't really need any. I will be untying the curtains during the day though. I just have something about people being able to see into my house.
Here is the living room from the dining room. It is pretty big and will house our tv very nicely. I miss our tv very much. I am hoping that it made the trip unscathed.


Here is the living room from the back corner of the room. It looks into the kitchen and the stairs.

Here is the hall leading from the office to the living room. There is a neat shelving unit built in that I will use to display the little knick knacks that we have.


Here is the office. It is painted a bright yellow orange color. It is horrible. It will be the first room to be painted. It is a very large room that looks out on to the lanai. Since I expect to spend most of my time in this room I know that the girls will be outside on the deck in the sun for most of the day.

Here is the entry way. The owners before the people that we are buying from enclosed this area. It is kind of hard to explain how it was before. I really like it because it opened up everything inside. It also gives an inside place to take your shoes off. We learned this custom very early on while looking at houses. In Hawaii, you take your shoes off when you enter a home. I plan to put a bench in here so that if needed you can sit down to take off or put on your shoes when you visit.


Here is the other side of that door and the outside of the house.

Here is the back porch. I will probably spend a lot of time out here with the girls on a long leash in the yard.

So that is the house. We are very excited to get back into our own house. I love being able to have color on the walls and a sense of ownership. If you notice there are no pictures of the kitchen. Oh the lovely green kitchen. If you scroll down to October 13, What Next?? post, you will see pictures of the kitchen. My battery died before I could get the pictures. I saved it for last because the house inspector was in there doing his inspection. Anyway, I will snap some better ones and post them once we get settled.

So since we are moving in tomorrow, we will be out of touch via email and blogging for a little while. I set up internet for the new house to be turned on tomorrow so hopefully it won't be too long, but there is no telling. I will post as soon as I can get back on. I hope everyone has a great Veteran's holiday weekend. I know that we will; Brad has Monday off and we have lots of stuff planned for the weekend (mostly painting and scraping). We will also be attending the New Baby and Kids Expo here. We will be going with a few other families from the wardroom. I am hoping to get some great information about the new addition to our family and the stuff that she will need once she gets here. Time to get some sleep and enjoy our last night in the hotel.

Leave us a message telling us what you think about the house. Check back often so you can see the updating that we are going to do as well. Much love to all-

Brad and Lauren

Pictures of Lauren Preggo!!

Here are some updated pictures of Lauren's belly.













Here is a view of several weeks apart.












Week 22 - Things are going well. I have had some really bad pain in my hands. I am learning how to sleep to minimize the pain, but most nights I am up every few hours. I was hoping to be able to have some good sleep before the baby came, but I guess those nights are over. My hands are also going to sleep while I am awake now, too. I am having trouble doing things with my hands for periods of time. The dr gave me some braces, but they seem to be making things worse because they are restricting and tight. I am hoping that once we get into the house and change our diet to a healthier one that I will not have so much water retention. The dr said it could be a pinched nerve in my back too because of my scoliosis. Who knows why or how but it is really annoying!! I changed my doctor at the hospital. I found a very knowledgeable and personable dr who has been doing ob work for 25 years. My other dr was nice but he was very young and did not have the experience that I wanted. Since this is my first kiddo, I don't know what questions I should be asking. My last visit with him was very rushed and impersonal. We will see how this new dr is.

Sorry for the delay . . .

So I know that I wanted to write every week but this past two weeks have been very crazy. Let me recap for everyone:

Week 20 - We had the big dr's appointment where we found out we are having a little girl. It is very nice to be able to put a pronoun to this growth. She is moving around a lot and everything seems to be going normal with her.

Week 21 - The baby is about the size of a large banana. There are some great fruit references that are made to put into perspective how big the baby is during the pregnancy. She started out as a grain of rice, a pinto bean, a lima bean, a medium olive, a ripe grape, a small plum, a large lime, a peach, a grapefruit, and now a banana. I looked ahead and there are no more fruit references for this little one. It has been really funny looking forward to what fruit is coming this next week. Now all I can think about is a banana with little arms a legs that are flailing about in there. Now for how I have been feeling. This is supposed to be the best time of the pregnancy, well not for me. I have been having some problems with my hands. I am waking up at night due to my hands falling asleep and causing pretty severe pain. So much so that I can't get back to sleep for a few hours. I have been told that there is not much I can do about this; it is pregnancy induced carpal tunnel. Because pregnancy makes you retain so much water, your wrists swell causing a pinching of the nerves. You can wear wrist splints to keep you hands in a neutral position, but mostly you just have to adjust the way you are sleeping. For me that is not too bad, I usually sleep on my left side anyway. Unfrotunately, my left hand is the one that is going to sleep the most. So I am having to learn how to sleep on my right side, or sleep in a recliner to keep my head above my heart and let the blood flow down to my lower body. I am not sure that I can take another 18 weeks of this because it is starting to happen during the day as well. Ughh!!! There is a good note to this, it is supposed to go away by itself after the baby is born. We will see about that. I forgot to take pictures this week so I will post a new picture of me at 22 weeks this weekend.

We had a change of command with Brad's boat. There were several evenings of festivities for both the new CO and the old CO. For those who are not Navy, the CO is the Commanding Officer of the boat. He is basically the boss of the whole boat and is responsible for everything that happens to it. Brad will be a CO, one of these days, but right now he is the low man on the totem pole working his way up to the top. There is a special ceremony that the Navy does where the orders are read for both the incoming and outgoing CO's with a lot of pomp and circumstance. There are guest speakers and even the Navy band plays. The whole boat is there to witness the ceremony and there is a reception afterwards. This ceremony really made me realize that we are a part of a truly awesome organization. Of course, I cried during several parts of the ceremony. I have been to a lot of ceremonies but this one really hit home. It is the start of a new begining with the boat and with us as well.

The last part of the week has been dealing with our home purchase. We have been in escrow on a property since the middle of October. We were scheduled to close October 31st. So, are we in a new home yet????? Nope, we aren't. Why you may ask??? The seller's have asked for 2 extensions on the closing date. So it looks like we are finally going to close on Nov 9th. A great birthday present for me!!! We will let you know as the date gets closer if this date is going to hold or not. We are really tired of being homeless.

So that has been to story for the last few weeks. I have been very frustrated with the house situation. We have been in the hotel for almost 2 months now, but it looks like there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully we will make it to the end this time.

I hope everyone is doing well. We miss everyone terribly. Leave us a comment and let us know that you were here. You can do this by clicking on the comment count at the bottom of this post. Much love and baby kicks to everyone!!!

We are Expecting a . . .

We went to our 20 week anatomy ultrasound and found out that we are having a little girl. Here are the pictures of the ultrasound.







We are going to have an obstinate one on our hands. She kept her hands over her face towards the end so the ultrasound tech could not get a look at her mouth. We tricked her into moving by having me lay on my side instead of my back, Ha ha!! She is measuring 14 ozs. I also had a doctor's appointment this morning. Everything is doing fine.

We are looking forward to our new little princess. I hope that you all enjoy looking at her grow as much as we are. Please click on the comments and let us know that you were here.

Happy 5th Anniversary to the Foster's!!!

Well on October 6th of this year we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. It was really cool that we could celebrate it in Hawaii.

So what did we do that day???

10:00 am - We had a special vow renewal ceremony on the beach with a Hawaiian Minister at the Waialae Beach Park. It was truly special. The minister and his wife sang a beautiful Hawaiian song, then the ceremony was closed with a Hawaiian prayer. There was a photographer taking pictures during the ceremony as well as some pictures afterwards. I will post pictures as soon as we get them. Here are pictures of the leis that we got at the ceremony.

11:00 am - We went walking along the boardwalk of Waikiki near the aquarium and zoo. We saw some really cool fish in a reef right off the boardwalk. This is a picture are of a fish that came out to eat Fruit Loops that a little girl was throwing into the water.

12:00 pm - We had a special lunch at Costco, $1.50 hot dogs and soda. We laugh because we did a beautiful ceramony then go get a cheap lunch at Costco. We were meeting the realtor at 1pm so we needed something quick and easy. Not know any other places along the way, we knew that Costco had something that we liked.

1:00 pm - We had an appointment with the realtor to see some additional houses including re-looking at the one that we ended up buying.

4:00 pm - We headed down to Waikiki to Duke's Canoe Club on the beach for our anniversary dinner. We sat right on the front row of seating so we could see the sunset perfectly. We had a wonderful dinner with a band playing and gorgeous surroundings. These pictures are of the sunset off of Waikiki and one of us after dinner.

Then, we went back to the room and watched tv, then fell asleep kind of early. It was kind of an anti-climatic end to our evening, but we had a very long day.

To another 5 years with my best friend. I love you, Brad!!

Pictures of the baby

So I took pictures of all the ultrasound pictures that we have received. They turned out pretty clear, much bettert than the scanner. Here is the little wee one.

1st Ultrasound - Charleston, SC 7 weeks

2nd Ultrasound - Groton, CT 8 Weeks

I don't have any pictures from the 3rd Ultrasound.

4th Ultrasound - Groton, CT 12 Weeks

4th Ultrasound - Groton, CT 12 Weeks

5th Ultrasound - Aiea, HI 16 weeks

This one the baby is big enough to see a lot of its body parts. I have labeled the most prominant features.

This label says foot.

Let's talk about goals

One of the reasons that I wanted to start blogging was to keep in touch with everyone while I was pregnant. I want to be able to share pictures with everyone like the many ultrasound pics, ones of me and my growning belly, ones of the house, and ones of the dogs. I know that pictures take up a lot of space in email so I wanted to be able to post them somewhere quickly so everyone can see. Yes, we still have the website but it is a little daunting to get it up and running right now. It probably is not going to be that hard, I am just having a hard time trying to get it done.

So, here is my goal.
I will be posting at least once a week to update everyone on my pregnancy and life. I hope to post more often but I am only going to force myself to do it once a week. There is a place for you to comment on my postings. Please do so. That is really the only way I will know that you were here. Also feel free to pass this along to anyone who you think would be interested. If you have a blog, I would love to read it, so please send me the address. I think this is going to be a great way for us to keep in touch with everyone that we know and meet in our adventures in life.

What about the Baby???

Yes, we are expecting our first child. It will be a little hula baby that will be arriving March 7th, 2008. I am 19 weeks or almost 5 months. We are very excited and ready for the little one to come. Well, maybe not really ready for things but we still have some time to prepare.

Let me give kind of a run down of the last 19 weeks to bring everyone up to date.

Week 4 - I found out that I was pregnant on July 4th, 2007. I took one of those really cool digital tests. Here is the picture I sent to Brad.


Brad was in Groton, CT, at the time I found out. We had been trying in June before he left. So I went to the clinic and took their pee in a cup test. Then they scheduled the new baby class for me to attend.

Week 6 - This was where they tell you that you are pregnant and things are changing for you. Eat right, don't drink, stop smoking, and the rest of the do's and don'ts of the next 10 months. They give you a book "What to expect when you are expecting". The class is really informative and great if you are going to be in Charleston the whole pregnancy because you fill out all of your paperwork for the civilian hospital and everything. For me it was a complete waste of my time, as I was moving in a week. Anyway, after the class I scheduled an ultrasound appointment to make sure that everything was okay before I left for CT.

Week 7 - I went in for my 1st ultrasound. Here I got to see the little one moving around and heard the heartbeat. They gave me a few pictures. They also took a lot of blood to run lab work on. When I say a lot, they took probably 10 vials full. They wanted to schedule an appointment to see the doctor in 2 weeks but I was leaving the next week so they gave me my records and sent me on my way.

Week 8 - The Navy packed up the house in Charleston and sent it on its way to Hawaii. I packed myself up and drove to Groton, CT. I was able to switch insurance and they made an appointment for me there very quickly.

Week 9 - I saw a doctor and had a 2nd ultrasound to make sure that everything was still fine and growing properly. Since everything was doing well, I made an appointment for the week before we left CT to get a clean bill of health and because of the traveling we were going to be doing.

Week 11 - We went to Maine to see family and went on a pretty vigorous hike to see some really great waterfalls. I over did things and had some bleeding and cramping so I went to see the doctor. They did a 3rd ultrasound and found that the placenta was covering the cervix, also known as placenta previa later in pregnancy. The doctor also said that my ovaries were very enlarged and that we would watch everything to monitor but that there was not anything else to do except get a Rhogam shot. Well, this really did not satisfy my need to know what was going on so I called my trusted friend Ronee, who happens to be an ob doctor. She gave me a little more information than the doctor so I was a little more at ease about the situation. She said that the placenta could move upwards as my uterus grows and it would not be a major factor in the pregnancy. I needed to be on bed rest and not be on my feet for more than an hour. She also told me to drink lots of water and just chill out. Well that was kind of easy and hard at the same time. Since we were living in an hotel at the time, there was not much for me to do besides lay in bed watching TV or go down to the lobby to use the Internet. It was hard because that little room got real small real quick. It is amazing how when someone tells you not to do something, you can't think of anything else. But I had to make myself be good for the sake of the pregnancy. So I spent the remainder of the time in Groton on bed rest. The bleeding and cramping stopped within 1 or 2 days of seeing the doctor and being on bed rest.

Week 12 - We had my last appointment in CT before we headed home to see family and then on to our new home in Hawaii. I saw the midwife and had a 4th ultrasound. Baby was doing just fine. This was a scary appointment because she tried to find a heart beat with the doppler and could not find it. We have a history of this that I will share in week 15 that will explain why this was such a heart wrenching moment for both of us. So the midwife pulled the ultrasound machine in the room and we saw the little one dance around. She gave us a few more pictures and copied my records for my travels.

Week 13 & 14 - We were traveling across country stopping in Memphis and then in Texas. Nothing to report on the pregnancy.

Week 15 - We left the mainland and flew to our new home in Hawaii. This is a big week for many reasons. We are starting a new chapter in Brad's Navy career and in our life in a new place. An island to be exact in the middle of the ocean with nothing around but water. This is also a huge point in our life because this is the week that we found out that we lost our first baby back in December 2006. We went to the doctor to have lab work done at 15 weeks 3 days. The nurse tried to find the heartbeat with the doppler and could not find it. The doctor took us over and used an ultrasound to see what was going on. There was no heartbeat and there was no blood flow to the baby. I was scheduled for a D&C the next day. The surgery went okay. I lost a lot of blood and they almost had to give me a transfusion. I spent the night in the hospital because of this. Brad was on leave and was there with me every step of the way. Let me tell you, I knew that I found a truly awesome mate to spend the rest of my life with but he really reminded me of this during this time. When someone can change out your bed pan, you really know what that person is made of. Even though we were dealing with the biggest loss of our lives, it was a true celebration of our love for each other too. The doctor was great, truly made the situation bearable and even counseled us in the best way. I don't think I would have made it through without Brad first and foremost then Dr. Loveier for giving us the science behind what happened. The Doc sent things off to be tested and results came back as a partial molar pregnancy. To give a really short and dirty explanation of what a partial molar is, it is a pregnancy where there is a fetus that develops but at some point in the development it is over taken by a 'mole' because of a chromosomal imbalance. There were 2 sperm that fertilized one egg. The baby would not make it to term normally. This happens 1 out of 1000 pregnancies. After the termination of the pregnancy, there is a waiting period of 6 months to 1 year before you can try again. There is a serial testing of your hormone levels to make sure that the 'mole' if completely gone and not regrowing. I was tested 2 weeks after the procedure and my hormone levels were down to 2. Doc told us that we should wait 6 months before we tried again, which was June of this year. So we tried and got lucky right off the bat. So once we hit this point in this pregnancy we were really scared. We tried not to get too excited about things until we knew that it was going to 'stick'. So maybe traveling during this week was not such a great idea but I think it kept us from dwelling upon the loss. My first priority once we got to Hawaii was to get things checked out and make sure that all was well. Needless to say, we don't like using the dopplers very much at all.

Week 16 - I got everything switched over to Hawaii and luckily was able to book an appointment for a 5th ultrasound and see the doctor the same week. The ultrasound was really kind of heart wrenching to begin with but after we saw the heart beating, things only got better from there. The little one woke up and did some dancing for us too. This ultrasound was pretty awesome. It is really amazing how technology has changed over the years. Both of our moms said they might have had one ultrasound during one of their children's pregnancies but nothing like this. I can't imagine not having the ultrasounds just for my peace of mind. The tech did a complete anatomy scan of the little one this time. This is usually done at 20 weeks but because of my history they did it early. They took measurements of the brain, the spine, the leg, the arm, the stomach, the liver and the heart. They showed us the blood flowing in the little heart both to and from color coded blue and red. We saw 5 fingers on one hand and 5 toes on one foot. It took probably an hour. We also had an intern watching and learning. It was neat because she asked questions that the tech explained so we got to know what was going on medically too. It was really neat how they took some of the measurements. To see the liver and stomach they machine showed a cross section where the tech froze a view of the spine so you could see the vertebrae section along with the organs. Brad commented how amazing it was for the tech to be able to pic that out of what looked to us like a bunch of black holes and voids. They checked the placenta again and it had not moved so they are going to do another ultrasound at 20 weeks. This will also be the time that we can find out the sex of the little one. The tech also checked for another molar pregnancy and had a different tech verify her findings. So far it does not look like anything is going to go wrong. Needless to say, we both spent the rest of the day on cloud 9. We meet with the doctor a few days later. He did not give any indication that this was to be a high risk pregnancy and that we could breathe a little easier. There were some anomalies in my blood work but it looked like it was from the Rhogam shot I received in CT. I go back October 22 for both a checkup and the 6th ultrasound.

Week 17 - Nothing major going on. We are getting excited about things now. Not that we weren't excited before but we are allowing it to become really real now. Or at least I am.

Week 18 - I had a physical therapy appointment for my back. I have scoliosis that has given me problems in my day to day life before the pregnancy so I knew that it was going to be a problem now more than ever. So I wanted to get a start on the problem and find some exercises and stretches to do now and for the duration of the pregnancy. Most of what I did before I got pregnant I can't do now (for example, taking ibuprofen for the pain). The appointment went well. I have a list of daily exercises that I need to do and if I don't do them I really can't complain about my back. So here is to doing my daily exercises.

Week 19 - We are currently in this week and there are not any problems or goings on right now. I am anxiously awaiting the next ultrasound. Now that we have a house in mind, I really want to start thinking about the nursery. That is so crazy to think about. I have not let myself get too involved with thinking about baby just to protect myself. I know that things can still go wrong but I am also trying not to dwell on the negative too. Things happen for a reason too so if it is not meant to be with this one than we will try again. Okay, enough bad thoughts for now.

You might be saying, so you have had a few ultrasounds, where are these pictures??? What do you look like now that you have an alien growing inside of you, is it like the movie where you see the creature moving on the outside??? Well, I will work on getting those posted. Brad is asleep right now so I can't take pictures of the ultrasounds yet. I will do that as soon as I can get some time this weekend. Patience and a drum roll please!!!

Aloha and Lots of Love!
Lauren

Pictures of Lauren

I have had brad take pictures of me in the same outfit for about five weeks now. The first was at 12 Weeks and then at 16 weeks, 17 weeks, 18 weeks, and 19 weeks. We will continue for the rest of the pregnancy and hopefully in the same outfit to get a real comparison.



Here is a front view.


Here is a side view.

What next?

Okay so I have told you about moving here. How about where we are going to live besides the hotel???

So that is really the million dollar question. Housing here is very expensive, but it is paradise. We have decided to buy a townhouse to live in instead of renting or living in base housing. Are you out of your mind??? Yes, we ask that question everyday. So here is our justification and thoughts on the situation. We will be here for roughly 3 years. Our experience with buying a house in College Station was pretty good. The Navy is giving us a beefy housing allowance and cost of living adjustment now that we are here. We looked at base housing and simply can not justify paying all of our BAH for a 2 bedroom home. We also can't seem to justify paying an increased BAH in May when Brad makes rank for the same 2 bedroom home. We can see renting something in town for that amount or smaller but renting just seems to be a waste of money in our eyes. Yes, we would not have the commitment and huge mortgage to deal with once we move. We would not have to figure out how to keep the place rented once we move. We would not have to worry about what is going to happen with the housing market as much. But as you can see we do chose to worry about these things since we are buying.

So yes, we are totally out of our minds for even considering purchasing a home in Hawaii. We will be able to say "We have a second home in Hawaii" or "We winter in Hawaii" if we get stationed somewhere awful in the snow. So we won't tell anyone that people are living in our home in Hawaii so we can afford to say these things. We just won't talk about these things for now.

We have looked at several places in different locations on the island. We decided that we wanted to live in Kaneohe/Kailua on the Windward/East side of the island. The area is known as the country of the island. It is away from the hustle and bustle of Honolulu and Waikiki but only a 15 minute drive away. It is also away from the Aiea town with the mall and shopping, but still only a 15 minute drive away. Aiea, incidentally, is the only US city name without any constants in it. The language is a whole other post that you will have to look forward to. Brad will have a little bit of a commute but if we lived in base housing he would have about a 20 - 30 minute drive to go 5-6 miles. From the Windward side of the island, it is still a 20 - 30 minute drive but it is about 20 miles and it is through the mountains and lush green country side versus the concrete buildings and shopping centers. I will have to remember to take pictures of that area. We have friends that live in both places so it was just where we liked better. The drive from the base area is the most beautiful drive. We take H-3 which is a link between Pearl Harbor and the Marine Corp base out in Kaneohe. All of the big highways were built with federal funds to link the different military installations on the island. The locals will not drive on H-3 so traffic is pretty light on it in comparison to H-1 which at times is bumper to bumper traffic for hours. H-3 is said to be built in a ceremonial graveyard. I will have to figure out the whole story and post the history/legend story here soon. Anyway, when we were deciding where to live we just liked the feeling that both of us got as we emerged from the H-3 tunnel and say the Kaneohe Bay view. When you come out, you will see what we are talking about. It is just peaceful and serene. It is true Hawaii gorgeous landscape.

So what about the actual house? Well that has been an adventure. We looked at lots of places with very specific ideals of what we wanted and needed. Well, the wanted part kind of took over once we saw what we were getting for the money that we were spending. Everyone said that houses out in HI are a lot smaller so get ready. I was not ready at all. How in the world can anyone live in a 2 bedroom home that is 700 sq feet??? I know that I am from Texas and everything is bigger in Texas, but really how can I cram into such a small place. We have entirely too much stuff as it is, which we downsized considerably before we moved. And on top of that we have a new addition to add to the family who is going to have its own stuff??? Crazy talk. So we decided that we needed 3 bedrooms. I mean where else are we going to put our visitors??? Actually, many factors played into this decision, like how much we could get for rent vs. cost of mortgage. So we found a place and put in an offer. That really did not go so well. We put in the offer well under the asking price because in our minds things were not worth what they were being asked and we thought we could get it for lower and should. Welcome to the Hawaii housing market. Needless to say the sellers were not too thrilled with our offer and the realtor decided to be an unethical b(*&h and basically ignore our offers until there was another offer on the table that was higher. Then the realtor called back and said well that offer fell through are you still interested??? So we played her game again and the results were the same so we decided to move on. Yes, to bigger and better places. When we say bigger, I am talking price. A different property in Kailua had caught our eye, but it is more expensive due to the location (the other place was in Kaneohe). There are some good and bad with this property but for us right now it is the best choice. So we played the negotiating game again but this time we played with a realtor who was actually very ethical and professional. Unfortunately, we did not get to play with numbers as much as we wanted to because the sellers were already selling at a loss and were pretty firm on their asking price. So, with time ticking away we decided on a number and accepted. We are going to try and close by the end of the month which is going to be a very big push but hopefully everything will fall into place and we will move in the first part of November. What a great birthday present, right!!!

We are heading over today for the inspection. I am really scared that something big will rear its head and break the deal. I am fully expecting some items to be found and we will have to deal with those but I am hoping over all everything will be normal. I am planning on taking some pictures to post but here are a few that we took from the listing.


Here is the front of the house.

Here is the lanai with a bit of the view. We have not decided if we are going to pull up some of the decking to put in grass for the dogs, it all depends on what is underneath.

Here is the back yard looking at the house. There is not a fenced in section but there is enough room to let the dogs out on a long leash to play and potty.

Here is the salt water pool in the complex. We are going to use the heck out of this pool.


Here is the kitchen. Yes, it is green. We will be stripping the cabinets at some point to refinish them in a better color. We also want to upgrade the countertops this time so we can enjoy them. But for the time being, it is very livable.


Here is the living room and the dining room. The whole house has a wonderful berber carpet that is really soft on the toesies. We looked at a lot of laminate flooring and we are glad that there is carpet here. Especially when the wee one comes.


Here are the two bathrooms in the unit. The red one is upstairs and the white one is downstairs. The downstairs is also the laundry room. We plan to upgrade both of these rooms while we are here but that won't be for a while.

So that is the new place if all goes well. We are so ready to get moved into a home. I will get some more pictures today and post them so you can see the bedrooms too. There is one bedroom downstairs off the lanai and then the master and second bedroom are upstairs. There is a view of the ocean from the upstairs front bedroom and I think from the downstairs one as well. I think if you look over the lanai wall you can see it too.