Mele Kalikimaka

Kelsey flew in from Oahu yesterday. We picked up some malasadas and took them to Coconut Island in Hilo to eat and mess around. Then we drove out to Akaka Falls. Getting internet access connected in the afternoon was my Christmas present. I added some photos to previous blog posts so look back and check them out if you like.
We spent Christmas Eve with cousins Leona and Mike Rodriguez and their family. We had a wonderful dinner. The kids liked playing with their cousins and the adults talked story and laughed a lot. Today was our first Christmas in Hawaii. We went down Makuu to the water. The tide was pretty high and the waves were crashing hard.
After being here for two weeks I finally found a hairbrush. You can see from the photo that it has made absolutely no difference to the condition of my hair!
Our realtor had a YouTube video made of our house. She did such a nice job staging it that we think maybe we should move back!

Monday, December 19

We finished unloading our container on Friday with help from friends. MAHALO! Saturday we went to Oahu for Kelsey's graduation. It was lots of fun and we're so happy for Kelsey. She'll come here for a few weeks while she waits to hear about a job on the mainland she applied for. She'll celebrate Christmas and her birthday with us. We're looking for good airline ticket prices for Kaela to come in January.


Our Microsoft friends in Seattle will be astonished to hear that we aren't scheduled to get internet service at home until January 12th. More than a month since moving here! Things move at a different pace. Also, most homes here have metal roofs and that makes our cell phone reception "humbug." We hadn't planned to get a land line but we're reconsidering.
Robert was asked yesterday to be the Scoutmaster for our Troop. Tomorrow they leave for a winter camp out. Solomon is looking forward to winter camping with night time temperatures in the 60's instead of below zero. Abraham and I will unpack boxes while they're gone and try to really make our rental house seem like home.

Thursday, December 15

Melody visited Monday and brought kitchen, cleaning, and other supplies to make our lives easier. Maxine has been taking good care of us, too, and keeping us supplied with lau lau.
Our container was delivered Tuesday morning and now (Thursday afternoon) it's more than 80% unloaded. I already wish we'd gotten rid of more stuff before we moved. We have a few people lined lined up to help with the heavy items tomorrow.
On Saturday we head to Oahu for Kelsey's graduation. Then she'll come to the Big Island on Dec 23 and stay with us for a little while. Kaela plans to join us in January. It will be fun to be all together here.
There are no post office boxes to be had in the area so we're on a waitlist at the two closest Post Offices. In the meantime, you can write to us at GENERAL DELIVERY, KURTISTOWN, HI 96760.
Here's what our new neighborhood looks like:




More later...got to get the car registered at the DMV.

Friday, December 09

Aloha!
Here's a recap of the last few days. Photos coming in another week or so.
On Tue, Dec 06 a friend threw a going away party for us. It was wonderful to see so many of our family and friends. We appreciate people who made the trek and took time during this already busy season to spend time with us.
We were up by 6:00am on Wednesday morning to do the last minute jobs. We've been surviving on four to six hours of sleep a night for some time and still there was so much to do. In fact, we worked literally all night Wed night. Abraham went to bed about 12:30 and Solomon at 2:00am. We got them up again at 4:00am to mop, take out bags of garbage and thrift store donations, and get suitcases in the car. Then off to the airport at 6:30am. Needless to say, we all got a bit of sleep on the plane. It was 81 degrees when we landed in Honolulu. That felt good!
We got to Hilo yesterday evening. Maxine (Robert's sister) had already stocked the rental house with food, sundries, and bedding. It was wonderful to be pampered!
Today we've run errands and tried to get a little bit organized. We met our landlord and made this library stop to get internet access.

Thanks again to everybody who has helped us along the way. We love you!

Wednesday, December 07

Friends threw a going away party for us last night. There are so many people here we will miss. Thanks to all who came to see us off. Today we have to make at least one dump run, recycle those obsolete electronics and CLEAN the house. As soon as I'm seated on the plane I'll fall asleep!

Friday, December 02

No photos today. Our computer is packed -- along with everything else we own -- and it will leave Seattle on Sunday, Dec. 04. Phew! I'm writing this at the library. I'll upload photos when we're set up in Hawaii.
Now we're doing the last touch ups on the house and cleaning everything. We found a house to rent in Hawaiian Paradise Park. Doesn't that sound picturesque? It's just a few blocks from Robert's sister, Maxine.
All is a whirlwind but check back often for updates!

The 40' Container

On Saturday we moved our furniture and everything to Tacoma and then loaded it all into a 40' shipping container. Wow! I apologize to those of you with overseas moving experience to whom I never showed proper awe and respect. Up until now it's felt like we were getting ready to get ready to move. Now if feels real.

A big MAHALO to our friends who helped with the move: David E, Dave W, Taylor T, Bob K, Jeff L, and Iain L in Seattle. And here's some of our good-looking crew on the Tacoma end:
Thank you so much! We couldn't have done it without you.
The container ships next Sunday, Dec 04. It takes about two weeks to get to Hilo so we'll live out of suitcases for week on either side.

Friday, November 25

We spent Thanksgiving with Donna and Patrick's family. It's exactly two weeks until we move!
Friday, Nov 25th is Abraham's birthday. He's 10 today. We got a 26 foot truck to move our household goods to Tacoma tomorrow and load them into the container. We hope for dry weather.

BIG ADVENTURE!

We move to Hawaii December 08 -- 19 days from now. I've been telling myself that I should blog about our BIG ADVENTURE. Here goes!
First, here's our property in Hawaiian Acres. We have three acres about 15 miles southwest of Hilo. Elevation is about 1000 feet.

We've done many home improvement projects to get our Seattle house ready to sell. You know, all those "weekend" projects that you never get around to. In our case, those weekends have added up to weeks of work. Robert is doing 95% of it while I make sure that there's food in the cupboards and clean underwear for everybody. Here are some recent projects. Sorry, no photos of the clean underwear.