Moving

We have been busy getting ready to move. I have missed the last two weeks of Project Life but I am hoping to get back into the swing of things soon. The last two days were spent with the packers here packing up all of our stuff. The truck won't be here until tomorrow to load everything. Then it will all head to Texas and sit in storage for about 3 months.

We went house hunting about 2 weeks ago. This is the first time we have ever looked at houses that were being occupied at the time and boy was it interesting. There was one house we barely made it in the front door before we high tailed it to the car! We found one house that we really liked but there was already an offer put in on it and there were several things that we would want fixed/changed. There was one other house and it was just ok. There were several things in that house that we would want changed as well. Then we met with the builder at the model home and found out we could build a house like the one that was our favorite!

We put in an offer and with the help of our realtor we ended up getting a lot of extras included. So the last two weeks have been full of paperwork. We also had to make a quick trip to Dallas to visit the Design Gallery and choose all of our options for the house. Then a visit to Sherwin Williams to pick up paint swatches to choose our exterior colors. 

Since the house won't be ready until the very end of August that leaves us needing a place to live for 2 months. I finally found an apartment that will give us a two month lease! And since we won't be moving from this house straight to our new house that leaves a lot of extra stuff we needed to hold out and move on our own. Plus all of the things the movers wouldn't pack... there is a lot more of that this move than all our others. The craziest thing they wouldn't pack is Kleenexes. I have no idea why either.

An end

Our time in Okinawa has come to an end.
We have been back in the states for one week now.
Our last morning in Okinawa we were taken to breakfast by our friends James, Kelly, Maggie, and Lanie.

We took two pictures together before we left. I thought it was pretty cute that the girls were all looking at each other in the first one but in the second they were all 3 looking right at the camera!

The

We headed to the airport shortly after breakfast. Check-in went very smoothly and we never once needed any sort of ID. We were able to take a little leave on the way back and stayed 3 nights in Tokyo. Look for another post soon about our 2 days spent exploring the city of Tokyo!

Busy Days

We have had such a busy week! I just transferred all of our pictures from the camera to the computer. So this first one is from last week but I thought I would share it anyways.

Last Monday Grace had to say goodbye to our mama-sans.
I don't quite think she understood that we wouldn't be picking them up this week like we have been doing every Monday for quite a while. They have been coming since Grace was just 5 weeks old so they have become her friends. Every week she would run to the door as soon as she was dressed so she could go pick up her friends. And lately she was so excited about coming home to play with her friends that she couldn't nap! Of course we enjoyed having a clean house. And they sure did a great job and cleaned things that I would never think to clean (who cleans the light fixtures EVERY WEEK?) We are really going to miss them!!

{Kuniko-san, Grace, and Jinko}

This last weekend was a 4-day, which when you are moving and trying to out-process it just means less time to get things done and more time in lodging. We had the final inspection at our house that morning. It was supposed to be earlier but our housing agency wanted to move it to Friday. That afternoon we transferred my van over and now we are down to 1 car. Dustin's car is sold and transferred but the guy who bought it is letting us drive it until we leave!

Saturday morning I went to breakfast with a friend and then to the second hand kimono sale that was going on. Dustin took Grace to get a few things done that morning and then they went to the sea wall and watched the waves in the ocean. After that they went to a park where Grace ended up splashing in the puddles! That evening we went to a friends house for dinner and games.

Sunday morning we decided to take a walk to the BX since it is practically just across the street. We started looking in the little souvenir shops and then ended up almost finishing up our Christmas shopping! That evening we had church and afterward we headed to American Village to ride the ferris wheel! The tug-of-war contest was going on that day down in Naha and we had thought about going but after a tough week with very little sleep for Grace last week we decided to stay in the hotel and rest Friday night instead of going to church then and skipping the tug-of-war. We had heard there would be fireworks to close off the festivities so we wanted to try and see them from the ferris wheel. We timed it just right and did 2 rides on the ferris wheel (almost 30 min!) but never saw any fireworks. But that is OK because the pretty lights on the ferris wheel are just as good as fireworks to Grace!

{We got a free "mini can" for doing 2 rides. Grace liked the grape Fanta}

{Glow sticks we got as prizes in our kids meal at Antony's Pizza - we got 3 slices of pizza and 3 drinks for $3.79 with our buy one combo meal get two kids meals free coupon}

{The Ferris Wheel all lit up like fireworks}

On Monday morning we headed to Torii beach to collect a little more sea glass (boy are we going to have some boxes to mail back!!). I want to get 2 clear vases (a small one that will fit inside the big one) and fill the space between them with sea glass. I think I will try to find some silk hibiscus or cherry blossom flowers to fill the vase and put it in our entry way. I have not been happy with the amount of blue, turquoise, and green sea glass I have so I had to go back. If we end up back at the beach I am sure I will try to find more :-)

{Tired of picking up sea glass and ready for a snack}

Yesterday evening we bought Grace an inflatable Pooh kite. She got to choose between Mickey, Pooh, and Elmo. She didn't like it when Dustin had the string and the kite went into the air. I think she thought the kite was being taken away from her. But she did enjoy holding on to the string!

Today was our last day at Bible study which was a bit sad. Some of the ladies I have known the entire time we have been here. We have some more errands to run this afternoon after Grace wakes up. And tonight we are going to Kiddie Disco at the O'Club. I heard they may even have a clown there!!! And tomorrow is going to be another busy day. I have my last doctor appointment here and we get our deposit back from housing. I am sure there are some other things Dustin will need to do. Friday is his final out for all of his military stuff here.
We are getting so close to Tokyo and Disney!!!

And my van will be waiting in my garage when we get home. My parents are picking it up this Friday!! So all the busy days equal exciting days as well!

Lodging

We have been in lodging for 3 nights now. Today we turned in the keys to our house. This afternoon we are transferring our van to a new family on island. We have got a lot of boxes checked off! We have already transferred Dustin's car but we are still able to drive it. We will actually hand over the keys the day before we fly!

Grace seems to like lodging OK. She has been sleeping really good at night! And there is a playroom on the first floor that she loves. This morning she got to play down there with Maggie since they stopped by to pick up some stuff. We are a very short walk from the BX and commissary - just a little farther than we park when we go on payday weekend :-) Yesterday, after we had pretty much settled in, we changed rooms. The room we were in had a broken phone, broken internet, a broken exhaust fan above the stove which was stuck on, and basically no place for Grace to sleep. She is at an age where she is too big for the pack-n-play but not quite big enough to actually stay in bed without rails. The floor was nasty so I wouldn't even consider putting her there. The pull-out sofa seemed a bit dangerous since if she were to roll off she would most likely hit a large piece of furniture or the metal frame of the bed. So we stuck her in the full size bed, which was pushed up against the wall with the comforter of the bed folded to keep her out of the small crack. The bed is way too small for the 3 of us and the sofa bed was covered in mold so Dustin ended up trying to sleep there so I could at least have a little more comfortable bed. After 2 nights of that and then finding out the internet and phone were broke Dustin called and asked if we could move to another room. We were moved up to the third floor (and no elevator!) but we have a double room. It is MUCH nicer! And we have working internet, no loud exhaust fan, and 2 beds! If they could have fixed the internet and provided a bed for Grace we would have been happy. Why do hotels not have small beds for toddlers??

Packing and Moving

Our first set of movers came this morning and they were gone within an hour. They got here sometime after 7:30am and they were pulling out of our parking lot at 8:30am. Now we are working on getting ready for our big day of moving tomorrow. Today they just took a few things - kitchen stuff, laundry baskets, hangers, trash cans, a few of Grace's toys, our wireless router and skype phone. But tomorrow EVERYTHING goes! We have to make sure everything we are going to need for the next couple of months is already in the car. We have a bathroom that is empty and clean so that is where we will put anything that the movers aren't taking. And then on Wednesday we have our government appliance pick-up and cleaning day. Fun, fun!

Grace will be going to two different friends' house the next two days!!
She will be having a lot more fun than we will.

New Cars

Not only do we already have our house when we get back but we will both have new cars! Right now we don't own a car in the states and we will have to sell both of the cars we drive here before we leave (can't ship them and we would have to have major alterations to meet all the regulations in the states). So we got hit up by the car salesman at our local BX. Back in May (I think) there was a great rebate on something similar to what we planned to get for me. After doing some research we discovered that even buying something used with low miles we would be paying almost what we could get this brand new vehicle for. So we got it! It was custom built and everything. It will most likely even beat us to Oklahoma.

And then we just heard that since we are close to our PCS they have some great deals on already built vehicles. We went in yesterday after doing a little more research to see what we were looking at in the way of something to get Dustin to and from work. He said he wanted something basic and with good gas mileage. Well, they sold us on a 2nd vehicle! They were offering a good rebate plus an additional incentive since the car wasn't being custom built.

So.....

Dustin will be driving this:

2010 Ford Focus in Blue Flame
(I think he is most excited about the color!!)


And me and the kiddos will be riding around in this:

2010 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT
in Deep Cherry Red

and, yes, we are getting it with the heated leather!

This is just another reason why we are so excited to be moving back.
I will admit it was a little weird looking at the cars here. I think someone must have put the steering wheel on the wrong side of the vehicle ;-)
Hopefully learning to drive on the wrong side of the again will be pretty simple.

Moving!!!!

WE ARE MOVING!!!!!!!!!!

We finally got an RFO (request for orders) last Saturday. Then it was off to set up a meeting to get the official orders. After we got the RFO everything else has happened QUICK. Dustin went to a meeting to see when he would get orders and the lady was prepared to type them up right then and there. However, since we are taking a little vacation in Tokyo on our way back there was a memo he had to get and have signed but his commander. So he went back with the memo the next day and had orders in hand by 9am!

Then it was off to set up plane tickets. Which, again, take a little longer since we are going to be stopping in Tokyo. We have to wait for an airline to approve a free stop-over.

And then we had to set up transportation for our household goods (HHG) and unaccompanied baggage (UB - a smaller shipment that is somewhat "express"). CHECK. Then I went to set up government appliance pick-up. CHECK. Then to give our notice to the housing agency. FAIL. With the time frame we have everything else set up they housing agency would not sign off on our papers so we can clear housing until the day Dustin is scheduled for his final out. Major fail! So it was back to square one. We changed every single pack-out date. Everything had to be moved up by 2-3 days. This means we also had to extend our time in lodging by and extra days. So as is stands now we will be living in a hotel for over 2 weeks. But on the brighter side, we MAY get our stuff (or at least some of it) before Thanksgiving :-)

So right now we have been trying to organize and sell things that we aren't planning on taking with us. None of our curtains will fit in our new house. The Japanese have some really neat rods with eyelets and the curtains have hooks that hook right on. They are SO easy to open and close. I really wish we could take them but I know I would have to find someone to alter them to fit our windows and then I would have to find a place to special order the rods. So now we need to sell 7 sets of sheer curtains and 7 sets of the decorative curtains. There are also lots of other things we are trying to sell or have already sold - AFN Dish, Dehumidifiers, rugs, recycling bin just to name a few. So now our house is starting to look a little bare (we have already taken down a few sets of curtains!) I have been keeping my calendar withing reach. There are only a couple of days between now and when we move where we have nothing scheduled. I am sure that will change!

But we are really excited about getting back close to family! I know Grace is going to LOVE having her cousins to play with too. And she is also very excited about meeting Mickey Mouse! Yes, that is right. We are taking Grace to meet Mickey before we come home. We are spending a few days in Tokyo on our way back. One of those days will be spent at Disney Land. We really haven't planned out too much of the rest of our time in Tokyo though. We do know we want to see the Tokyo Tower and the Imperial Palace. I am sure Dustin will come up with more to see and do, that just might have to wait until we get on the plane though since we are going to be BUSY from now until we leave.

I think this picture that we took of Grace last weekend at Mona Kids Jungle shows just how happy we are to be moving back to the US!

While we were without internet...

Here are some pictures of what went on at the McGriff house this last week.

The movers came and packed up our house and then delivered everything to the new house all in one day. 263 boxes is what I think they said!

Grace was a little helper with all of the unpacking

Time to try out her pool on the big balcony

I think she likes it!

Grace's best friend Maggie came over for the evening and they got to take a ride in the wagon together.

They play really well together!! And Grace will be getting to play with Maggie a lot more now that I am finally able to join the co-op at the gym!

Moving!

We got the keys today! There is toilet paper in the bathrooms and shower curtains are hung. We bought curtains today and I plan to hang all of those tomorrow while we are there for the delivery of our government appliances and furniture. Grace has a pile of toys in the middle of the living room to keep her occupied. She even has some food there! Things are coming along.

We won't have internet access or a phone for the next week so most likely I won't be posting anything for a while. I plan to try and find a wireless connection sometime but probably won't update on here until we get internet in our new home! So, since I won't be able to put any new pictures up here is one I took a couple weeks ago while messing around with the different settings on my camera.

All Set!

We are all set for the move! We will be doing a walk-thru of the new house on Monday and getting the keys. On Tuesday our government appliances and furniture is being delivered. Apparently, we will be getting different stuff than we have now and the stuff we have will just stay here and someone will pick it all up after we move out. It seems like a waste of manpower if you ask me. And on Wednesday the movers will be packing up our entire house and then delivering it all that very same day! We are going to start moving some things on our own Monday and Tuesday. I want to make sure we have enough clothes in our closets and linens for the beds, all of our toiletries, and some of Grace's favorite toys all accessible. We are also planning on moving a lot of our dishes and cookware because I think that would be easier than unpacking it and washing it all. Yesterday I signed up for internet. It will probably be about 2 weeks before they can install it. I guess that will just give me more time to get unpacked and settled before I can post pictures :-)

Signing the Lease

Dustin signed a lease today. We are going to be moving into the Blessing Hill apartment sometime next week most likely! Now we need to start getting ready for the movers to come and I have no idea where to start. Tomorrow is our pre-inspection for our base housing. Then we will take all of the receipts from the housing agency showing we paid all the move-in expenses and set up a date for the movers to come and our final inspection. I am going to assume that pretty soon we will be without internet for a day or two and until then we will be pretty busy trying to figure out what we want to move and what we want to sell, trash, or give away so I might not update on here very much for a while.

In other news, Grace had her 6 month well baby appointment today. She got her 3 shots and was so brave! She is right on track with her growth - 15 lbs 9 oz. and a hair over 25 inches. Developmentally she is doing very well also. She has found her toes (7 month achievement) and can sit up very well. We will also be getting her 6 month photos done pretty soon. My mom has made arrangements for us to go with a professional. I guess my snapshots aren't good enough for 6 months pictures ;-)

And the housing hunting continues... Days 4 & 5

Day 4 we started off pretty excited for our first appointment. We thought we would be seeing another apartment but since it has not gone through the housing inspection she didn't want to show it to us. But we did get to see a wonderful apartment! It is on the 3rd floor (there is a picture and it is the one with the For Rent sign) with a HUGE balcony. It has nice ocean view too! The inside had a nice kitchen with a dishwasher (!!!), 2 full bathrooms, a walk-in closet in the master bedroom, a huge living area, and you can tell it is brand new. It really isn't in the area we are wanting to live but it would be an OK area. Basically, it is just a little inconvenient for me since I go to other areas more than Dustin. He pretty much drives to work and comes home and then on the weekends we might do a little shopping and go to church but it wouldn't be any further than the are we want except when I want to go to my weekly Bible study, the pool, or the hospital. The other problem with this apartment is that they want about $300 more a month than our housing allowance. We are trying to negociate rent which means talking to the agency who then has to talk with the owner and then get back with us. If we could get them to come down a little more and include some utilities we might be OK with paying a little out of pocket. But the rest of the day and today didn't really turn up anything. I quit taking my camera in the houses with me. I was shown a house in the are we want and was really excited until I realized that it had a Japanese kitchen (the oven is literally a microwave!). I had specifically said I was only interested in a place with hook-ups for the government appliances! Tomorrow we have 3 appointments and 1 of them is only showing us houses in the area we really like. We drove by some apartments to see who the agency is and Dustin called to see what is available and they are showing us 3 places! We also went over to a friends on-base house to see what the new stuff looks like and it is really nice! So we have our gameplan: We are going to keep looking but not settle and not pay out of pocket. If we find something we love, GREAT! If not, when they offer us a house we will take it if it is new. Otherwise we will find something off-base that is nice but maybe not perfect. Right now we are both excited about possibly living off-base. We have been on-base for over a year so it would be a nice change, especially if we could see the ocean everyday!

The best place we have seen!

Master bedroom with bathroom and walk-in closet

Kitchen

Dustin and Grace on the big balcony

The view

Day #3 of House Hunting

Yesterday, Grace and I went and looked at 7 more houses/apartments. Remember the picture of the little blue bucket of a tub from yesterday? Well, that was the very first stop! We didn't even go in. I told the agent that someone had shown us that house already so we were off to stop #2. I loved this one! Some pros: very nice kitchen with a big pantry, nice bathrooms, a walk-in closet. And of course, some cons: 3rd floor, 30+ min commute, no dishwasher, no view. But here are some pictures I took of it.

After seeing this house we made a quick trip back home for a little snack before heading to our next 2 appointments - which were both a waste of my time. I saw three 2 bedroom units, a house with ALL Japanese appliances (this means the oven would be the little microwave they had) an apartment with a tiny kitchen and no pantry, an apartment that was barely bigger than the little place we lived in while we were in El Paso for 5 months, and a couple places that had the same ugly tile that is in our current government house. I will spare the pictures from these. I am actually just deleting them all now.

Why can't we find something like the pictures above, on the first floor, with a yard, a dishwasher and a view like this?

House Hunting Day #1 and #2

On Tuesday Grace and I walked out the door to run a few errands only to find a note taped to the front door. The time has finally come for them to renovate our house. When we moved in we were told we would probably be moving in September (of last year!) Well, that didn't happen so we painted Grace's bedroom pink and got it all set up for her. Now we have a house full of furniture and just a week before we had organized our kitchen cabinets again!

So now we must move. They are giving us until the end of October so we have plenty of time to weigh or choices. Do we want to stay on-base or do we want to live off-base for the rest of our time on Okinawa? We are looking off-base to see what is available and if we find something we just totally love we can move right away. Otherwise we are going to stay put until they give us an option on-post, which could be a couple more months away. We just want to make sure we know all our options so we can get something we really like.

So far we have seen 7 apartments/houses and we are looking at LOTS more this weekend. At least 6 today (3 different agencies), we have appointments with 5 agencies tomorrow and then on Monday are going with 3 agencies and 2 agencies on Tuesday. Whew!

I will leave you some pictures of our house hunting adventures!

The first 4 pictures are of our favorite house so far. It is about 15-20 min. from where Dustin works. A single house in a quiet area with all Japanese neighbors. There is no yard but it has a big deck overlooking a golf course. Very pretty! The downside is the kitchen. Japanese oven (small), no dishwasher, and I don't recall seeing a pantry. But the bathroom is beautiful with a huge tub!

This house was only 2 bedrooms (I don't know why they even showed it to us when we said we needed 3) but it had a huge living area and then off of that was a tatami room. Not quite sure what we would use this for. We said no to this one!

This is the shower/tub in a house we looked at

This next picture shows what I would see waking up every morning.

However, this is what Grace would see. Totally not loving the red tile floors and wood panelled walls! And it only has 1 parking spot so this would definitely not work either.

This is right outside Gate #1 so it would be very close to work for Dustin. However, this is one of the busiest roads on Okinawa!

And this house we wanted to leave before we ever went inside. I could live with the mustard yellow house and it did have a really nice yard. But to get there we went through a grave yard and then turned into an alley and then we had to wind through the alley until we finally saw this. This house looks like a castle compared to everything around it!

So now we are off to meet some more agencies to look at more houses! The first appointment of the day is in 30 min.