A month of thanks giving...

November...my birth month, my favorite season (even though Hawaii has less Fall than South Texas), my favorite holiday, and Christmas Shopping starts :-)  It's the time of year we all can take a moment to think about all of those people and things we are truly thankful for.  While we should all do this more often, I will be the first to admit I take things for granted sometimes.  Not this month!  Time to make an effort to think of all of those "little things" that make life sooooo amazing.

Nov. 1-thankful for my parents Kyle Gleghorn and Tracy Gleghorn. They took me in for over a month while Robbie was traveling and we were between houses....and even let the dog come and kept the cat :-) 

Nov. 2-thankful for my husband....do I need to say more? He does everything that I don't want to do and only complains a little bit :-)

Nov. 3- thankful for my Aggie family.  There is no greater university and I am thankful everyday for the lessons I learned and the friends I made.  God Blessed Aggieland and blessed me by sending me there.  BTHO Mississippi State!  P.S.  I don't know how I feel about watching football at 6am Hawaii time, but I am doing it!

Nov. 4- Farmers Markets :-)  I love supporting local agriculture and love how much easier that is to do here in Hawaii than in Houston TX.  

"Vog"...sounds like the name of a drink

Now I realize that I have not really updated this blog since I set foot in Hawaii, but there has been so much to do!  A "pet friendly" hotel, new keys, painting, beach-going, etc.  Point is...I have been busy, but because I still have almost an hour until the Aggies BTHO Auburn and both the Tech/K-state and UGA/Florida games are ridiculously boring, I will update as much as possible now.

First off...for future reference "pet-friendly" may or may not mean the same thing here in Hawaii as it did in Texas.  We stayed at the ONLY hotel that allowed dogs over 20 pounds without a huge fee (this one was $25 a night).  We reserved our room for a week, but quickly decided to cut that stay a little short.  Now when I say quickly,I mean as soon as we walked into the building, smelled the marijuana, and saw the security guards... :-/  We did stay the one night, but got up the next morning...looked our "roommate" in the eye and went to Kmart and bought a futon!  (our roommate was of the roach variety...living, not the one our neighbors were smoking)  It was great!  Luckily we were planning to buy a futon anyways.  We had water and electricity so all we needed was a bed for a few nights until our stuff arrived.  No big deal.

Second, for everyone wondering how life is on this island...I honestly don't feel that it is that different.  I  mean it gets a little awkward after about 7pm when you realize EVERYONE you know is asleep and you have no one to text your funny jokes to, but I am getting past that.  But other than that...we have Wal-mart, Kmart(which I am not used to, but it's nice), Lowe's, Home Depot, Target, Ross...McDonald's...Pretty much everything except for a handful of restaurants that I miss somewhat, but I never really ate at them so it's not too bad.

Third...what am I doing?  No, I have not been to the beach everyday...It gets hot at the beach!  The Hawaiian islands have been a little lacking in the wind department...which is rare.  Take the wind off the beach and it gets pretty hot, humid, and a little crazy feeling.  I have never in my life had the opportunity to sit and watch a flag on the beach NOT move.  It was slightly confusing.  However, the weather up here on the mountain is amazing!  It rains almost everyday, but it has not reached 85 degrees yet.  most days it has been about 78-80 degrees.  I dig!  

We have been working on making our condo...ours.  If you remember, we had this PURPLE master bedroom.  It is now "del Coronado Tequila" (a shade of tannish white) and "Island Orange."  Our dark tan living room is now also the tequila color!  We ordered black countertops for the kitchen and they should be getting here in the next few weeks.. Hopefully, it will look really good!  We will see.  Other than that, we are taking it slow. living on island time I guess.  

Here are a handful of pictures I have taken so far.  Hope you enjoy.  Sorry we haven't done anything "cool" yet, we are LAZY! haha no, not lazy...we are on island time :-)

our living room...notice that Robbie still has painting to do

 my new beach bummin pal :-)  

Yes! you can actually order Pizza Hut from your TV...I think this is great!

some wave action...waves were over 10 ft yesterday

Patio...we still need an umbrella

the haze is called "vog"  aka volcanic fog!

The purple that will not die..

Well, we are moved into our condo...sort of.  We bought a futon so we could sleep in the condo instead of the roach and pot head infested hotel we stayed in last night.

We spent all day today doing for the things we need to live in the condo for about 4 days with no furniture...a futon, a dog bed, sheets for the futon and....groceries.  Oh wait we forgot about towels.  Them we forgot laundry detergent....it was a long day, but we had to find time for some Aggie football

We then spent hours trying to come the purple bedroom walls with primer. We are two coats in and the people is almost gone...in some places. Don't ever paint a wall people unless you are serious about it...it is not temporary. Purple...is for-evvv-errrrrrr! Er! er! er.

One way tickets....

One way tickets for two (plus a very expensive dog) to Honolulu are bought!!

For those of you who have sent texts wondering where I have been the past few weeks, the answer is Buffalo, TX or rather...Oakwood?  the sticks?  or...the place technology has not reached yet?  Sorry :-(  I promise I am not sitting on a beach ignoring everyone...YET!

In spite of the lack of cell phone service, I have have had a pretty good time in Buffalo.  Don't get me wrong, I am soooo ready to take off and go spend some time on the beach, but I will miss being a around here.  I have been able to spend time with my parents, see the kids I had as 7th graders start high school (I subbed at the high school quite a bit...that principal kept calling), and even got to spend a few game days in Aggieland.

As of right now, we will be closing on our condo next week.  Then we will fly to Honolulu next Friday (October 12th).  Hopefully all of the dog's paperwork went through and he won't have to stay in quarantine, but since the paperwork was pretty ridiculous we won't know until we get there.

Anyways, just wanted to do a quick update.  I will post pictures and whatever else when we actually get to Hawaii.  I think I may have started this blog a little early.  I really haven't had  much to share while sitting in Buffalo.

The hunt continues...

Quick updates- I just finished my last drill...YAY! There will definitely be some people that I will miss hanging out with every month and even some "activities" I will miss being a part of, but I probably won't miss doing inventory 2 days a month...lol! Ok, I might...we will see.
We sold our house...officially and will be moving out and having our belongings shipped across the country and the Pacific ocean to Oahu. Pretty exciting stuff!

Last week we flew to Oahu and searched for condos only to realize that the nice ones (looks & price) go really fast. But it wasn't ask work we also spent some time playing...

Updates...July.

Ok, so before I go spend the next 18 days melting in the desert somewhere between the Old Mexico and the New Mexico with only a tent to sleep in (let's hope this part changes because I really like beds), I thought I might post a few updates.

1st- Robbie is in Hawaii this week looking at condos (and going to meetings, but that is boring stuff).  Hopefully he will get to look at a handful so we can narrow it down to at least an area that we really like.

2nd- While Robbie is playing around on Oahu AND Maui I am preparing for my Annual Training.  This year we are going to Fort Bliss.  If you look up Fort Bliss on a map you will notice that the word "bliss" is supposed to be a joke.  Last I heard, the plan was for all of us to recieve a 1 person tent when we arrive.  Now, everything in the Army is always subject to change and I wish I could say that I thought this would change, but the "crappy" parts always stay the same.  The up-side, yes there is an up-side, is that this is my LAST Annual Training...EVERRRR!  I will not have to go again next summer and I can finally have a whole summer to relax!

3rd- One of the most amazing things about "Bliss" is the lact of internet and cell phone signal.  Now we can all wish that Verizon decided to stick a tower in the middle of this blissfull country, but I doubt it.  So if you text me, email, call, skype, facebook and I don't answer. I apologize now.  I would love to talk to you, but....nada.  (hopefully Verizon saw a need for a tower and none of this will matter!!)

4th-  We have received an offer on our house...maybe 2.  I haven't heard from Robbie about the second.  But, anyways, we have not accepted anything yet, but an offer is a great sign!  We are excited and hope we will be able to get all of this underway soon, so we can buy our sweet little condo and all of you can start planning vacations :-)

5th- Django, in case you are wondering what the little guy is going to do while we are both out of town, is spending the next couple of weeks in Buffalo. He pretty much thinks Buffalo is the most amazing place ever! There is a pond, a kiddie pool, and 25+ unfenced acres of woods to chase other dogs and rabbits through. He may not WANT to move to a condo in Hawaii :-(

I wish I had more to tell you, but mostly I just didn't want to go off for 3 weeks without giving some sort of update.  I promise to let everyone know when I get back and update you again as soon as possible. Have a great July!!!  (and think of me...maybe eat some ice cream because I won't get any in the desert).

Our House is for sale!!!

I know, I haven't posted much on here, but there really has not been much to post. We are now checking another "first" off our list of "things grown-ups do." Get married-check Buy a house-Check Get a dog-Check Sell a house-CHECK!!! (Well, technically...List a house as "for sale," but you get the picture) Robbie will be in Hawaii next week looking at condos. We are pretty excited. Too bad, I have to do Annual Training for the National Guard and can't go with him. I will be in West Texas/Mexico/New Mexico...I will probably get plenty of sun and sand, but not much water :-( Oh well, I will go soon enough and Robbie promises to get lots of pictures, so eventually when I am home from the desert, I will share some :-) Happy 4th of July Everyone!! Krista. Our first house looks way pretty when it's all cleaned up and the lights are all on...wish I would have thought of that sooner!!!

Finding our own kind of paradise...Oahu, Hawaii

That's right guys! We are moving to Hawaii. Don't ask me when, because I really do not know the answer to that question. The first site will start up sometime in the September-October time frame and Django (the dog) can't move until the end of September. They have some crazy rules and regulations and processes when it comes to getting animals into the state. Apparently they are rabies free and want to make sure they stay that way. We will probably end up in some crazy situation in which I will be at my parents (with the dog) and Robbie will travel back and forth and who knows. I am sure it will be very hectic for a few months, but we are extremely excited. Also, please don't feel left out, upset, unloved that you didn't know about this sooner. It has been a long process, but one we wanted to keep to ourselves a little bit. We didn't want to get your hopes up...or our hopes. Anyways, we will definitely keep everyone updated and in the loop from this point forward. We are probably not going to post a whole lot to Facebook, because I have dreams of becoming a crazy blogging fool! No, just kidding. I want to keep all of our adventures in one place and the cool thing about blogs is that I can share them with YOU and at the end of the adventure have it printed (pictures and all) into a bound book. Sweet deal, huh? We welcome you to post your comments, call us (Robbie won't answer he is in Amsterdam) so...me, or hit us up on Facebook. I will still check it, maybe. Please enjoy the video and can't wait to hear from all of you! Love you! Mahalo and Aloha, Krista & Robbie.