Joey says "Hi!" from Hawaii- that is a pic of him on the right, waving to you all. He is really tan right now and sort of resembles a chocolate teddy graham!

Also, Chris's luck RAN OUT and he got his first (and last if he knows any better) Hawaiian speeding ticket. Hmmmmmm.
AND the other day Chris left the Van door wide open because he forgot to shut it with our $250 GPS sitting inside just waiting for someone to walk by and snatch it. Luckily one of our friends noticed our van door was  open and shut it for us. Lets just say that Laura has quite a bit of wiggle room right now I  what could I possibly do that would be equivilant to all of that? I think I need to go shopping or something....I could drop my phone in an iced coffee and Chris wouldn't be able to say a THING.

Today I realized the cut-off for kindergarten here on the island is DEC 31st. NOT Sept 1st like back on the Mainland! Sophie is eligible to begin kindergarten. At first I was against her starting because I don't want her to be the youngest in her class- but she won't be, all here peers will be in kindergarten also. PLUS when we move back to the Mainland in a few years I can always hold her back a year if I think its necessary. 
   
I asked Sophie if she wanted to go to school and she excitedly said "Yes!" She will do so well- she loved her pre-school last year and she loved being social and doing art class and music class, and playing on the playground. I know she will love her teacher and make lots of friends, she'll be invited to birthday parties and be able to invite her classmates to HER birthday party in September.

I WAS just going to keep her home with Vangie and me for the year but she would be bored. This is the best thing for her. I was a bit sad (okay, really depressed!) thinking about Sophie starting Kindergarten- How did she get so Old? When did this happen? But I know she will have such a good time. I have been working with her on writing her name, counting and her ABC's so she is already ahead of the game.

Joey had orientation for 1st grade today. He met his teacher and saw his classroom. I had to buy him and Soph each a "Uniform" - a school T-shirt that all the kids wear each day. They are both going to Aliamanu Elementary- Home of the FALCONS! "Caw! Caw!"  ( that was the Falcon battle cry in case you were wondering!) School starts for Joey on Aug 4th and for Sophie on Aug 13th.

I looked down at Stella earlier today and noticed all these black spots on her....and the black spots were moving around. Gross! I think she was infected by the carpets in this apartment! The lady who lived here before let her cat pee all over the bathroom floor (which I had to scrub with bleach and am still recovering from the fumes...) so I am sure she had no problem with her dog having fleas!

The carpets were professionally cleaned before we moved in but that kills everything except the EGGS- they hatch up to two weeks later. Which would be about right now. YUCK!

Stella has had two flea baths and the carpets and furniture have been thoroughly vacuumed. I still need to wash the kids bedding.

This is very disgusting. I called our landlady to give her a heads up that these fleas are NOT from Stella. She just flew over from the mainland clean as a whistle. ( I have the documents to prove it, she basically had to go through a cavity search just  to be allowed on the plane!)

These fleas have been living here. Listening. Watching. Waiting for the perfect host body to attach themselves and set into motion their plan for total world domination.  

-Hawaii became known as the "Aloha State" by a 1959 legislative act.
-Hawaii ranks 42nd among the other states in population, but has the highest population density.
-Hawaii is the most isolated population center on the face of the earth. It is 2,390 miles from California; 3,850 miles from Japan; 4,900 miles from China and 5,280 miles from the Philippines.
-Hawaii is the only state that grows coffee.
-More than 1/3 of the worlds commercial supply of pineapples comes from Hawaii.
- There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet- A,E,I,O,U,H,K,L,M,N,P and W (this explains the crazy names of all the roads around here!!)
-Hawaii has its own time zone- Hawaiian Standard Time (6 hours behind EST)
-There are NO racial or ethnic majorities in Hawaii- everyone is a minority- 34% Caucasian, 32% Japanese American, 16% Filipino-American and 5% Chinese American.
-Honolulu is the nations 11th largest metropolitan area.
-More than 100 world-renowned beaches ring Honolulu.
-Iolani Palace is the ONLY royal palace in the United States.

Now you are all a little smarter.

Today we woke up and I made us all waffles and eggs. Yummy. It so nice to be able to cook food at home and not eat out all the time. I was SO SICK of eating out! Then we went to church- Hope Chapel in Kaneoe. Joey and Sophie go to childrens church and they love it. Vangie sits with Chris and I am usually falls asleep during the sermon.

After Church we came home, had lunch and took the kids to the pool. They LOVE the pool. We have been going twice a day so they can burn off all their energy. Now the girls are napping and Joey is playing the wii. I am about to go over some school work with Joey because tomorrow he goes in to his school to be tested- I guess they want to make sure he is smart enough to be allowed into 1st grade.

I am relaxing on the Lanai enjoying my view and breathing in the fresh ocean air. Ahhhhhhh.

Check out the picture above of the view from our Lanai- And its WAYYY better on person! (Its hard to capture the beauty on film.) I am sitting at our dinning table (which is on our Lanai) and I can see the bay, the mountain, sailboats...... it is truly breathtaking! Chris and I both cannot believe this is actually our view and that it is so beautiful here.

We are mostly moved in. Our "Aloha furniture" came yesterday- the kids each have a twin bed and dresser, nightstand and lamp. Couch, 2 chairs, coffee table, more lamps. Also 2 dressers for Chris and I. It is SO NICE to put our clothes in a dresser and hang them in the closet- I have been living our of suitcases for over a week! Chris and I bought a Day bed with a trundle for US to sleep on- we needed a bed for Vangie/our guest room so we needed to buy it anyway and it really worked out. It is being delivered today.

A little issue with our place- our landlord is Judy and she is really cool and a positive person. She is a strong believer in pet ownership- and she allows her renters to have pets. WELL, the lady who lived here before  us had a CAT and the bathroom REEKS of cat urine.  Judy brought the lady back last night along with a man with a black light- they went through the apartment looking for cat urine. The lady was angry and kept insisting it didn't smell and that HER CATS are perfect. (obviously her sense of smell was GONE.) Judy basically said the black light will not lie- and if there is cat pee on the carpet the lady would have to pay to fix it! Chris and I and the kids went to the pool- it was becoming very heated and uncomfortable;  after about an hour Judy met with us and told us the carpets are fine- they had been thoroughly cleaned before we moved in and there was no cat pee on them. There WAS cat pee in the grout on the tile floor in the bathroom. This is an easy fix with some bleach- I will clean the floor today and the smell should go away. We got some Glade Plug-ins which also help with the smell.  Judy is an awesome landlord- we are so lucky to have found her and this place!

Today we are leaving this hotel room and moving into our 3 bedroom apartment. Its a small apartment, but it has all we need, plus a killer view that you won't find anywhere else. Yesterday we went shopping and got the kids sheets and blankets for their beds- plus dishes, a few pots and pans, silverware..... the stuff you need to live on on a daily basis. We got a lot of what we need at ROSS- those stores are very popular here and HUGE- two stories. We also went to the NEX. Believe it or not a lot of things are much cheaper at ROSS.

The Navy is delivering our "Aloha furniture" today between 9:30-11:30am. I am a little nervous about this loaner furniture.....  Just the general condition it will be in. I just hope it doesn't have an odor.  It will be so GREAT to have a kitchen! To have a WASHER and DRYER! To be able to put the kids in their own BEDROOMS to sleep! To have a DINING ROOM TABLE! This is such an exciting day- a place of our own again. Its been since April 28th that we have have had a family home of our own.

Chris and I also bought a second family vehicle. What a drama THAT was. We ended up very, very happy with an Acura MXD. It is plenty big for our whole family (has a third row that pops up and down.) It is a 2001 with about 95,000 miles but was owned by one family for its entire life and was well taken care of so it looks great, runs great and we are happy to have it, especially since we got a very good price of it and our payments will be LOW. (That was MY biggest concern, I didn't want to drop a lot of money on a second car payment!!)

On the way to buying our Acura we had to look at 5 vehicles, debate car prices for 4 hours, walk out of 3 car dealerships and deal with 1 VERY slimy car salesman who made my skin crawl and LIED to us about the price of a car we were looking at. It was a 2005 Charger and he was trying to get us to buy it THAT day-- I kept saying that we were not buying anything THAT day- we would have to leave and THING about it. He was having a hard time accepting that! We prayed about this before hand and things worked out perfect! We are learning that if something is God's will it usually runs very smoothly.  We are learning to be patient and wait for God.

I will post pictures as soon as I can!

Things have been an adventure here in Oahu- I am finally getting to understand the roads better. Thank GOD for our GPS! I just put in where I want to go and SHAZAM! It gives me exact directions. How did I ever live without it?

Since I last posted a lot has transpired. We found a condo that we are going to lease monthly- One of the nice  women at the housing office gave us the name of a Realtor who does month-to-month leasing and who works with a lot of military- families on the base housing waiting list like us! Her name is Judy and she was an answer to our prayers. We never would have found this place without her. She showed us a condo is a cute little community with a pool- where there are lots of families, its safe and pets are welcome!  It's a ground level, 3 bedroom with a view that is unimaginable. We move in on Thursday and I will be able to post pics of the place.  It is in Kaneohe- a town on the other side (the windward) side of the island- where there is a nice breeze and its a bit cooler.

Its only about 1200 square feet- We are not going to get our household goods delivered because they just won't fit- instead we are using "Aloha Furniture". This is beds, table, chairs, couch and lamps that the navy will let us have for 90 days free of charge. (So hopefully after 90 days we'll be in base housing! If not we will have to reevaluate our plan...) There is also a "Loan Closet" that the Navy has where you can check out dishes, pots and pans, microwave, kitchen stuff.... also for fee. The only catch with that is when I went there yesterday everything they have is checked out and they have nothing available for us! And they don't know when they WILL have anything back and available. Soooo...... It looks like we will be buying new dishes, pots and pans, towels, sheets and all those other little things you kind of need to live. Thats okay because we honestly need a lot of these things anyway.

I also got the kids and I checked into medical. I stopped by Joeys new school and found out what he needs to be checked in- School starts August 4th. Hawaii requires that the children are tested for TB so I took Joey into medical yesterday and did that.

Today we are going car shopping..... my least favorite activity..... I will update more on this later.

Yesterday we picked up our van- it is soooo nice to have our van back! We really missed it. Plus it is hugely helpful to have transportation around Oahu.


Today we met with the housing office. Everyone we worked with was really nice and helpful. They had one house that we qualified for- we get a 4 bedroom because of the three kids and since Chris is an 0-1 we qualify for certain housing, etc. Well, they had one house to show us in a neighborhood called Pearl City Peninsula.  Outside of this neighborhood is the total GHETTO. The neighborhood itself was nice looking- large trees, a community pool and playground. The house they showed us was one story- 1400 square feet, 4 bedrooms. IT WAS SMALL. I don't know if you can grasp how small 1400 square feet is...... especially if you put 4 bedrooms in it!! Three of the bedrooms were so small a king size bed would not fit in it at all. The bathrooms were old and scary- it smelled like urine. It was dark, and sooooo tiny. I almost started crying. THIS WOULD NOT WORK!

We officially have until Tuesday to either accept or decline- and for the next 10 days the Navy pays for us to stay in our swanky Wikiki hotel- so we are enjoying our time here- we plan on declining the tiny house and getting on the wait list for the nice, new, HUGE Navy housing- this housing is soooo pretty and the neighborhood is great. Also, it is TWICE the size of the small house. The bad part is we need to wait for 2-3 months. Tomorrow we are meeting with a Realtor to see some homes we can rent on a monthly basis. This will all work out, we just need to be patient!

We have been having a great time here in Oahu- we have ate at some AWESOME restaurants, and the kids love the pool. Tomorrow we are going to the beach!

I have posted some pics of the beautiful scenery.

We made it! The Schmitts are in Hawaii. It was a great trip! I have to make this post a bit short because we need to go pick up our van but I will try to add as much as I can.

We left Grams and Gramps house yesterday at 6am and drove to the airport in Grand Rapids, MI. Our flight to Chicago let at 9am. The kids LOVED the flights, they are great travelers! It was all so exciting and new to them and I had to laugh at there joy and enthusiasm. Stella was loaded in the cargo hold so we said good bye to her in Grand Rapids and didn't see her again until Hawaii- but she did well and survived and is with us again.

We got to Chicago and them walked to our connection and got the kids some Mcdonalds. The kids and I had a 4 person row- the VERY LAST ROW on the plain. Chris's seat was WAYYYYYYY forward of us, but thankfully a flight attendant was able to get him a seat about 3 rows ahead of us- once we were in the air he came back and sat with us the whole flight. The good part about being in the WAYYYYYYY back is that we were close to the bathrooms! (and little kids like to go potty a lot....) We left Chicago at 11am Eastern time and arrived in Hawaii at 8:30pm Eastern time (about a 9 hour flight) but really it was only 2:30pm Hawaii time..... we still had a whole day in front of us!

A group of people from Chris's sub met us at the airport- That was SO NICE AND WONDERFUL! We got to met them, and they loaded up all our luggage, and took us to get Stella from Animal quarantine and then to the Hotel- I am SOOOO thankful that they met us and were able to help us out, it made us feel so welcome and things went a lot smoother!

We got to the hotel, checked in, Moved into our room- 2 queen beds plus a pull-out couch. Then we walked to dinner, walked to the beach and walked back. We were EXHAUSTED and fell asleep  at 8:30pm. The time change is taking  some getting used to- I was up at 4am and WIDE awake so I decided to go to the fitness center and ran 10 miles. The kids were up at 5:30am. We walked to IHOP and ate breakfast at around 6:30am.

Today we hope to look at a couple housing options...... please pray for us that we find OUR new home!  I will update more tonight- we love you all and miss you all.

Today we are relaxing at the pond with our family- its our "Going-Away BBQ". My sister Diana and her boyfriend Trent got us a beautiful ALOHA cake- what a sweet thing to do! It looks amazing. We are so happy to be able to spend the day together (it's finally nice and sunny out!) and we are so thankful for the time we have spent here with everyone.

Chris got back last night at around 1am. He is FINALLY DONE with sub school yeah! He won't be away from us any time soon. We are so happy to have him back- He already fixed my double jogger stroller! 
 
Only 3 days to Hawaii !!! Chris bought us a new camera so I am now able to take lots of pictures! He also bought me a gold necklace with a beautiful pink sapphire- its my gift for surviving without him for 10 weeks. I have a feeling I will have a lot of "surviving without you" jewelry by the time his career is over- but I am not complaining.

I will post more tomorrow- ALOHA!

Okay, so I have been a really terrible poster lately- but I've been busy! And living with my parents (although wonderful in so many ways) makes it hard for us to have any schedule. I am looking forward to having my own home in Hawaii and getting on a schedule!

Yesterday I completely RIPPED the front wheel off my double Jogger. This is simply horrible! The day prior I put all three kids in it and we jogged to the park and back (8 miles altogether) most of this is on a paved bike trail so it was pretty easy and fun- and the kids really don't mind because I bribe them with a trip to Mcdonalds and the park! PLUS what a good workout for me- and trust me, I need the stress relief! 

SO, yesterday morning I loaded them all up AGAIN for another 8 miles ( and we do this quite ofter, so it is not really a lot although I know 8 miles sounds like a lot...)  Well, There is an immediate downhill when I leave my moms house and we were jogging downhill when the front wheel began to shake- then ripped off!!! The stroller fell forward and the kids screamed. They all hung on tight and no one was injured- All I could think was MY POOR STROLLER! I bought this stroller before Sophie was born about 5 years ago. This stroller has been pushed.... probably a few 100 miles. And now she is definitely disabled. The kids and I walked home- thankfully we were only a few 100 feet down the road- But did I let that ruin our day? Or our trip to the park? NO WAY! My sister-n-law Krysti has a bike with a baby-seat and bike cart- so..... we went for a 16 mile bike ride instead!

Today Stella has a vet appointment to get her Health Certificate for her jouney to Hawaii- I will try to get her some drugs so she will sleep during her lomng journey. ALSO, my camera also DIED and Chris bought us a new one so there will be updated pictures very soon.

Tonight is my last night in Groton.  I have successfully completed 10 weeks of Submarine Officer Basic Course without coming close to failing anything.  Overall, it was a good experience with the only downside being the family separation, but we survived.  Tomorrow morning is graduation which should be done no later than noon which will allow me to be on my way.  I will be driving 870 miles back to Michigan so I should make it home around 2 in the morning.  Then it will be a busy weekend getting things packed up in an orderly manner so that we only have to enter select suitcases during our stay at the hotel. 
We fly out of Grand Rapids Wednesday morning, connect in Chicago, and then fly for 9 hours to Hawaii.  We land in Hawaii a little after 2 and then we will head to our hotel right at check in time which is 3.  Couldn't have worked out better.  We will have our 3 children hopefully, Stella, 10 pieces of luggage, 5 backpacks, a double jogging stroller, and 3 carseats so we will probably have to take a large van to the hotel.  I also hope that we are all able to sleep on the plane since by the time we get into our room at the hotel, it will be close to 10pm in Florida and Michigan.
Then the next day, I need to get up and go pick up our van which has been waiting for us since the end of May, check in to the Navy Base, and then try to get our vehicle registered in Hawaii and have its emissions test done.  On Friday we meet with housing but we have come to realize that we will almost certainly not get the base housing we want so we will have to find a place out in town which makes things more complicated because of the horrible traffic.  So we need to find a house in a good strategic location so I don't spend hours everyday, hours that I don't have, sitting in traffic.  I'm sure it will all work out.  Were just staying positive and we will figure something out. Ideally, we would like to find a good place to live and be moved in by the end of the following week before I actually report to work.  Well, I need to get to bed so I'm not tired at all on my 14 hour drive tomorrow. We'll keep everyone updated on our travels!
 

This past week was SO MUCH FUN. We camped all week at Perkins Pond. Lots of family and friends came for good food, talking, bon-fires, face painting, ping-pong and relaxing! Our wonderful friends the Ross Family camped with us the whole week. We love seeing them every year! We had great fireworks last night that everyone really enjoyed.

The kids played hard all day everyday with their cousins- right now they are napping- they will probably sleep a lot this week to make up for last week!

Chris flew home to see us on Thursday and we are so happy to have him here with us this weekend- they kids and I really love being with him. He will fly back to CT on Monday but will be back with us for good on Saturday. Tonight we are going to the Movies to see Ice Age. Chris is in the kitchen making Tacos for everyone- he is quite the Chef!

This week I will spend getting our things ready for Hawaii! Only 10 more days to go!

We are at our annual camp-out at Perkins Pond- and it has been the COLDEST year that anyone can remember out of the 26 years we have been camping here! The last few days have been overcast, rainy with highs in the 60's. (if we're lucky!) Papa Perkins had to bring out his huge shop heater to put under the pavilion so we can stand to be outside! But we are a group of dedicated campers and we refuse to let a little bad weather bring us down.

The pictures I have posted of the kids swimming are actually from LAST week when it was in the 90's for a few days- Michigan weather is so crazy! For the first time in history all of us campers actually went to the movies to get out of the yucky weather.  Today is going to be yucky as well- rainy with a high of 65- but tomorrow the high is 79! SO hopefully the kids will be able to swim.

Chris is flying home to see us tonight and we are so happy and excited. He will be here until Monday! The kids haven't seen him in 6 weeks and they miss him SO MUCH.