Making a House a Home

We should be having our housewarming soon, probably July 28. There were just a few things to finish up around the house, most of which has been painting. I've made the dining room lime green (it works trust me!), the study a dark brick red, and a soft sage in our master bedroom. And of course the guest bedroom had a blue stripe horizontally.

The yard and garden are coming along nicely! This has been Alec's passion these few weekends past and it has definitely become a part of the house to hang out in!

We got a great deal on a used smoker/charcoal grill; and a patio set which just needed to be primed and painted. We also bought a glider for the yard (have I mentioned that I absolutely love that we have a craigslist equivalent here?), and have installed a low-lying flower bed with some potted herbs and peppers and tomatoes. If I can just keep the bugs off them! Haha.

Meet (Orange) Julius, a.k.a.  "Pawsworth". 

 

He is all of 5 lb. full-grown, and super cuddly to boot. Ginger is learning to like him, and at least tolerates him for now. She's surprisingly wussy when it comes to getting near him on her own; but if he wants to cuddle next to her she stays put and lets him. 

I've been really impressed with how quickly they got along as well as they have so far!

Alec is getting settled in well at work. He's taking over the FCJ (Foreign Criminal Jurisdiction) spot, a unique position in the Marine Corps Judge Advocate community tailored to the circumstances of Camp Smedley Butler.  This mainly entails liaising with local police and informing SOFA status members/dependents of their rights and responsibilities if a crime is committed on island. It's a pretty cool job, actually!

I have applied for a few jobs but not gotten anything yet. I'm back to writing my novel (actually rewriting), and I babysit sometimes for a few close friends of mine. Fortunately, it's not hard to keep busy here!

Otherwise there's not much to report. Sorry to all you who keep asking for updates, but really no news is good news :)

Pictures in an Exhibition of our House

 

This is what the living room looked like after the movers dumped everything into it. We had our work cut out for us!

Ginger wanted to help unpack :-p

 The Master Bathroom 

 View out the kitchen window

[_]
 The 4 O'Clocks in our garden

 Mowing the yard. I got those bricks for free and plan to use them to define a flower bed in the back yard.

 Omigosh a real kitchen!!

 Shoes on the shoe rack in the entryway.

 Our nameplate :)

 Guest bathroom / Rav's bathroom

Hanging pictures in the master bedroom. 

[_]

Chilling in the study.

 

Our very nice government china hutch, and photo collages. 

 We have got to get some slip covers for these government chairs.

 

Tuckered out after so much unpacking and organizing and decorating!!

Don't worry, blog; I haven't forgotten you! Merely been neglectful. Soon to rectify!

A Place to Call Home

Our initial plan was to try and live off-base. Alec had done a lot of legwork touring our options and narrowing down the ones we liked best. But family emergencies have a way of reorganizing one's priorities.


We decided it would be less additional stress to just get moved in someplace ASAP, and turn-around for base housing is usually 48 hours or less. So, this morning I inspected our two "choices". They are basically identical 3 bedroom multiplexes in the same section; but one is on an end instead of sandwiched, and has all new wood flooring and carpeting. It is also at the back of the housing section and up on a hill. Tons of built in storage, including a porch and shed; each room is individually air conditioned. I accepted that one. 


So far we only have government furniture, and our express shipment which consists mostly of clothes, fragile items like musical instruments and the computer, and 2 of eacj kitchen item. I cannot tell you exactly how exciting it is to no longer eat off paper plates with plastic utensils. It is also really nice to have an actual kitchen again - I have to restrain myself, although having only one pot and one pan certainly helps! Also, we have a certain allowance for self-help items like caulking, and paint, as well as the rental of yard implements (although I went ahead and bought a mower). 


So before all our furniture gets here to take up space, I am going to paint the walls! We can use our allowance to get matching base paint when we vacate; and, because recycling is mandatory here (yay!) the hardware store has a locker for the exchange of leftover chemicals, which means if used judiciously we have free cleaning products and paint!! 


I hope to post pictures once it's all set up in a few more weeks; and once we have internet of course, so stay tuned! :)

Sharp Distance

Few things can make us feel farther from home than a family emergency. Getting news that a loved one is being hospitalized is always hard, but being unable to be there with the rest of the family is even more heartwrenching. Knowing that we can only wait for news from such a distance. ...

[EDIT] I am very saddened to report that Alec's father suddenly passed away last night (Memorial Day), Central Standard Time, of a suspected heart attack. Please keep him and the family in your hearts in this tragic time.

[EDIT 2] Alec was able to work with his sister and his command here to get a Red Cross message in and authorize emergency leave to go home for the memorial or whatever is being done. I put him on a plane this morning (Wednesday), and I will unfortunately be staying here to finish taking care of my check-in and set up our housing and goods shipments so hopefully he can come home to a real house instead of the BOQ.