Housing, car hunting, and lack of sleep

Now that I’ve gotten the trip out of the way, let’s see what else we’ve been up to lately.

We got here on Tuesday around 10pm and Christian was called to work on Wednesday at 8am. He didn’t get much sleep that first night but his quick check-in at work was just that – quick – and he was able to come back to the room to relax. He’s been doing a lot of running around trying to get errands done and the first day that was a pain because he was relying on people to drive him around being we don’t have a car and all. We ended up renting a car to save our sanity but sanity comes at an expensive price…almost $600 for a week not including gas. We decided that we were willing to swallow that pill but we’d need to jump on the car hunt asap or before you know it our car fund would instead be the rent-a-car fund.

They have two options for cars here: dealership or what they call the lemon lot. The lemon lot is where people resell their POV (personally owned vehicle) because they want a new car or before PCS’ing to another location. You’re not allowed to leave the island while still owning a car so you can sometimes get a really good deal from a desperate service member trying to get rid of their car in time to head to their next duty station. The first day we went we got a general idea of what people found to be important in the car (when the JCI is due next and working A/C were the top of the list) and kept our eyes open for ads that listed those two bits of information while still keeping our budget in mind ($2500). We found a lot of really nice that-would-be-fun-if-we-didn’t-have-kids cars but all of the family vehicles were pretty big. After seeing some of the roads and parking spots we decided we didn’t want to go any bigger than necessary really, so mini vans and most SUV’s were off limits. We found 3 sedans priced $350, $1200, and $1700 along with one mini-SUV for $1000. The $350 sedan went right away (I mean come on, who doesn’t want a cheap car?!), and the other two sedans ended up being so-so and the owners were in a big rush to get cash in their hands asap which is easier said than done when all you can really do is withdraw your limit in cash every day. The mini-SUV we found around 8:30pm so Christian didn’t want to call then…when we called the next morning at 10am it was gone. We decided we were going to sit back and just hope to find a car and called the next 2 we liked right away. My absolute favorite ended in an incorrect number (boo!) but the other was a winner from the start.

The couple is selling the car because they are hoping to add one more child to their family before they leave the island at the end of next year. (Side note: the wife had nothing but awesome things to say about the hospital here. She delivered with a midwife and was able to walk around, use a birthing ball, eat & drink, etc.) They have owned the car for 3.5 years, and have two daughters of their own (6 and just-turned-3). We asked questions about the battery, JCI, A/C, how is it space wise, any mechanical problems, etc. and they were completely open and honest with their answers. The JCI is due next year which is a little crappy (that just means that we’ll only have to do it once while we’re here), but the car is in great condition and actually has a lot of space for its size which surprised me. The backseats are super adjustable so car seats fitting between the two rows isn’t an issue at all, and the car isn’t too much narrower than our Kia so I’m sure we’ll get the infant seat in just fine. Christian said it drives super smoothly (I don’t have a license yet so he test drove it tonight), and besides a messed up windshield wiper (that they are fixing tomorrow morning) it has no mechanical issues. To me it looks like it’s in excellent condition and the fact they only want $2500 for it is a steal. It’s the newest of all the cars we looked at (besides a 2005 Skyline that was being sold for $5500) and for being a family car it looks great inside and out. They are willing to take payments if we’re unable to get the cash up front which is really helpful to us, and they even offered to take us by the insurance office to get everything switched over to our name. The wife also volunteered to help me out during the day if I need a ride somewhere which I thought was really kind of her.

So the point of all that? YAY WE HAVE A CAR!! No more paying to rent our awesome, but expensive, Mazda and no more stress over whether or not we’ll find one that is compact and still capable of carrying 2 car seats.

It’s 10:17pm and Christian is out cold next to me (I’m typing this on Microsoft Word in our room then I copy & paste when I’m able to get to the lobby) and Leah is getting tired, too. Leah adjusted to the time difference fairly easily from the get-go and we were all up by 8:30am on Wednesday. Currently our sleep schedule is everyone out by 10:30pm, Christian goes to “work” (aka in-processes) around 6am then Leah and I are up between 8 and 9am. She usually naps from 11am-1230pm then again around 4 or 5pm until 6ish. Sometimes I nap with her but lately I am trying to stay awake so I don’t become reliant on the naps this early in my pregnancy. Come September/October I’ll be taking naps any time I can sneak one I’m sure so I should do my part to be a responsible parent and all while I can still manage. Today she is a teething monster, however, and she is not on a sleep schedule of any sort. She took two really long naps today and has had more meltdowns in the last 12 hours than I think she’s had in her entire year of life. Her bottom gums are definitely swollen in two spots so I know she’s cutting a tooth of some sort. Patiently we wait for it to make its appearance.

Leah is also a walking master and hates to be carried at ANY time right now. She still uses those tip toes of hers but has no balance issues of any sort. She tried climbing stairs today and didn’t do TOO bad but she did trip over one and almost gave me a heart attack (I was standing right behind her, but still!). When I took her away from them she melted down (of course) but she is still fairly distractible right now so she calmed down pretty quickly. After getting her back to a zen state Kairi decided it was time to break out of the room and managed to get loose. Of course Christian had Leah at the time and I was tripped by the dog running out but Kairi had some bad cabin fever I guess. She ran around outside our door, used the bathroom real fast, ran around some more, then ran back into the room. She’s on quarantine for 63 more days so she’s not supposed to be outside unless she’s using the bathroom or going to the veterinarian – and we take it seriously out of respect – so we were pretty annoyed with her after that. Needless to say she did not get praise for going potty outside since all she had to do was sit by the door if she wanted us to take her out, not run me over when I am trying to go get laundry. I gotta admit I can’t completely blame her for going crazy after being in this room nonstop for a week…there’s really not much room in here for ANY of us.

Oh, speaking of that…housing! We went to our “appointment” on Friday to find out it was supposed to be a service member only briefing which left Leah and I in the lobby for an hour and a half which Christian went in to the mandatory meeting. When he finally came back out (Leah had been an angel at 8am thank god) he asked me if I had proof of pregnancy with me. I gave him a look of “I’m not just fat you know” and he said it was for our housing folder. During the meeting they asked if anyone had a pregnant spouse and when he said he did she asked if we had any other dependents. When Christian said yes she said she would authorize us for a three bedroom house instead of a two bedroom if I could provide documentation of pregnancy. We gave them a copy of my last ultrasound notes stating there was “positive fetal heart movement” with all of the baby’s measurements and my due date noted. She said it was acceptable and put it in our folder. On our way out they told us they have 3-bedroom houses available on base, so we should hear from them by this Wednesday. Here’s to hoping one of the houses is on Kadena instead of a neighboring base…that would cut down Christian’s drive time to work considerably.

Go figure that as I write about all these good things happening for us I accidentally spill a cup of sode directly into my pair of flats. Oh, universe, you and your ability to balance things out!

Flickr was updated with tons of pictures the other day and I’ve added a few more today so check ‘em out if you’re curious about what we’re doing here and what things look like. We haven’t had the chance to explore too much so the pictures are a little generic still, but once we get out and about I’ll take photos of EVERYTHING we see from cool vending machines (seriously, I love them here), to what Yen looks like, and the beaches.