Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou! Happy New Year!
(Pronounced How-oh-lee Ma-kah-hee-kee hoe)

I am back in Hawaii. Have you missed me? Say you have! I have missed you!

Our time in San Diego was eventful. Much of our time involved our new house. We managed some visiting time, but as my dad said, every time we called my parents, it was to put my dad to work! Needless to say we weren't working at the house. We do not own it quite yet.

We purchased a bank owned foreclosure. Let's just say the previous owners were not happy about losing their home. So the house is missing everything from appliances to toilet seats, and other things in between. However, the house met our long checklist we made six months ago of everything we wanted in a home. We were discouraged we would not find such a home. One day, if I ever catch up on my posting, I will tell you the long story of our new home, and how it is obvious the Lord went before us to San Diego. But for now I will tell you one of the crazier tales (they are all quite crazy, though) about our house work.

In the media room, the previous owners installed ceiling speakers. Now you know if they took the toilet seats and shower heads, you know they did not leave the ceiling speakers. So there are five rotund circles in the ceiling of the family room. Somehow, we had to find speakers for the ceiling, that were not standard sized. Hubs measured the circular pits, and it looked like it was going to take some BUCKS to replace the speakers. But then he had this random idea to go to L1nens & Th1ngs....yes, the store that just went out of business, to look around.

We walked into a near empty store with everything 90% off. You will have to visit to believe all that we purchased. Not a bit was actual merchandise once carried by the store. You know the racks that hold all of the merchandise? They will be mounted in our garage. And I am not going to go on about the minivan he shoved full, how I kept my children up way too late, the fire extinguisher that nearly poisoned us, or the 48 hours that just about killed us. OR how the children and I froze for seven hours outside in 40 and 50 degree weather. Well, I would tell you, but you would have no sympathy if I told you Hubs dropped us off at Legoland. See, I knew you wouldn't feel sorry for me! But, I had two whiny children that are both small enough to require an adult for most rides. So we could only get on a limited amount of rides over nine long, cold hours!

Hubs rented a 3500 pound Scissor lift to get those Bose speakers from the 26 foot ceilings. Here is a photo of what the lift looked like. The cage part had to be disassembled to get through the back door of the store. Driving this thing around the store was a huge challenge, especially with people walking around the store and other moving crews taking apart the 20 ft high shelves. Hubs was supposed to take the entire sound system, over 30 speakers and the console. However, after only getting 10 box speakers and 5 round ceiling speakers, he called it quits. There was just not enough time to get all of the speakers down without power tools in the short amount of time. He was seriously using a screw driver he bought at CVS. Lucky us, the store manager cut the price by 80% of the crazy low price he had quoted us already. So even with renting the lift, we got the speakers for a good price.

We left San Diego on New Year's Eve, and flew from San Diego through San Francisco. We changed planes, and the kids and I hit the kids spot while Hubs spent some time at the laptop station. He grabbed some dinner at the food court and some serious sin at a place that only served desserts. Meanwhile, the kids were bouncing in two different directions in the kids spot. Time to board was called, and Hubs took one look at my frazzled face and hair standing on end. He just apologized. I eyed him with my most loving look and told him he could make it up to me on the plane, the next FIVE hours to Hawaii. I gathered my things. I looked up. No Hubs!!! I turned from one side to the next, and he came up to me waving a ticket at me. "Here you go. Happy New Year!!" I knew what it was. I didn't even look at it. I didn't even take it from him. It was a first class ticket to Hawaii. Now don't ask me what New Year's hormones came over me, but I grew frustrated and said, "Why did you do that? I do not want that." I was pleading with him. He gave me his upgraded first class seat, since he is an elite member. He looked confused. "But you said to make it up to you on the plane?!?" Yeah, but I did not mean it like that. I begged him to take it back. I wanted our family to sit together. I know. Don't even speak your thoughts. Hubs thought I was just as nuts. But my eyes welled up (it must have indeed been hormone induced, because I clearly was not thinking) and I asked him to fix this mess. But the gate agent could not change the seat back because now she had placed someone else in Hubs' old seat in Economy Plus, the one next to me.

So...this story has more to it, but we are on our way out the door, and my kids are super hungry and ready to eat us alive....so I will be back to finish the rest of the story tonight!