Settling in.

Well, we're in Hawaii and in a house.  I am so thankful.  There was not much to look at as far as base housing so we started to look around town for a house to rent.  It was much harder than we had originally thought.  When we were in Newport we spent a lot of time looking at houses and had a big list of "favorites" to go look at.  Well, we discovered that a lot of pictures can make a house (and neighborhood) look much nicer than it really is.  After a first showing that was a total disappointment we drove past a ton of houses and pretty much crossed them all off our lists!  We finally started looking at houses in an area of the island we thought we didn't want to live in because of the heat.  However, the neighborhoods are nice and the houses are large enough to fit, well, a large family.  Some of the previous houses would not have even fit 2 beds in a room and with six children we needed two kids in each of the bedrooms!  We found a house we liked, in a neighborhood we liked, with a yard we liked.  Too bad we turned in the application and then the property manager disappeared and would not return our calls.  It was so hard for us!  We thought we had the house and had even set up our household goods.  We had to start looking again and we were getting nervous.  Thankfully, we found another house in the same area that is even larger.  We got that house and are so thankful we did.  It has a kitchen and small attached "office" area.  A homeschool/preschool room, a dining room, a living room, 4 bedrooms and a wonderful walkin closet and big bathroom in the master.  I really love the house.  I'm not sure if I ever blogged about it, but I despised our house in Newport!  It was so difficult to be organized and efficient in that house.  I felt like it worked against me constantly.  It was such a struggle for me to be thankful and positive about it.  Anyway, it makes this house just seem so much better.  I cant' wait to post pictures.  Right now there are boxes everywhere and stacks of random things so I won't be taking any pictures quite yet. 

We're loving Hawaii.  I love the weather and the beach and driving to the store always means a view of the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen.  We went to church today and met some homeschooling families.  We plan to join them for P.E. that they have each friday as part of a homeschooling group.  We were also pretty excited that two of the families at church have seven children!  Hooray for big family love.  This weekend one of the large families is starting a youth group at their home and Quintin can't wait to go.  We also heard about a chess club that the older boys would love to join...thankfully it's very close to our house. 

My New Year's resolution is to get the house organized and unpacked.  Slow and steady wins the race though.  I find myself exhausted every afternoon and needing to nap or rest.  Thankfully my energy is pretty good in the morning.  I am still getting over a terrible respiratory cold that I caught on the mainland a few days after getting over a weird flu virus. 

That's about it.  I'm hoping to blog each day about our adventures here in Hawaii.  I don't want to forget anything!