The New Girl

I have been really bad about keeping my blog up to date, though I often think of things in my head to write down they seem to never make it out of my brain and onto the page. We have now lived in Hawaii 4 months and it is starting to feel less like an adventurous, vacation and more like where we live and work. Speaking of work after this week I will have been working at my new job for a month. I finally got a job as a tailor for Men's Warehouse. Moving here I knew it would be a big lifestyle change, but I didn't think about how much I would have to change. I have been outside my comfort zone way more than I thought I could handle before moving here. Starting my job as the "new girl" reminded me of how uncomfortable it is to starting out in a new place. You feel like everyone is watching you, especially in my field where they are making sure you can actually do your job right and not mess up someone's clothing. It is stressful trying to make a good impression and let people see your true self. But I am so thankful to be done interviewing and job searching since that is probably my least favorite thing to do and we are so grateful to have a second income to help out with the high cost of living here. I am learning that good relationships are so important in the work place. If you can learn to care about the people you work with it makes the day so much better and even when you feel like your job is meaningless the people make it worth while. I definitely experienced this in my last job. Me and my co-worker, Gloria became best friends over the 2 years we worked together. We had several differences....she is around the age of my mom, she is from another country and English is her second language, we have different religions and backgrounds, but I learned so much from her. She taught me an amazing amount about sewing, but more importantly she taught me how to work hard and she always wanted to push me to be better. I miss her so much, especially starting a new sewing job. I am praying that I can be a friend to my coworkers and we can help each other out when working gets hard.

Now to the good stuff...my off days with my husband!! A couple weeks ago we went to this place called Shark's Cove on the north shore.

It is a really good place for snorkeling. You climb down a rocky area and into the shallow water. Then when you swim out it opens up and is about 10 feet deep and crystal clear with tons of beautiful fish.

A pretty nice place to catch some rays:)!

There are a bunch of little shallow pools of water that we walked around in and you could see the fish swimming around your feet. 

In florida, we always seem to find starfish, but here we have never seen one so I was really excited that we found this little guy. I looked online on how to preserve it. We soaked it in alcohol for 2 days and then you are supposed to bleach it white, but it turned out to be a pretty orangish red color so I decided to keep it natural.

Then we found the most beautiful tree swing on the other side of the water. You can swing and look out at the beautiful ocean so cool!

Okay okay the last picture of the day....I LOVE TURTLES! Everytime I see one I go crazy and make Landry dive down and try to get a picture with me beside it haha!

 

ALOHA!! 

Aloha!

  We live for Landry's off days here in Hawaii. Landry works crazy retail hours, which include late nights sometimes and pretty much every weekend since those are his best hours to get sells. When we lived in Nashville I went part time after we had been married a couple months just so we could actually see each other during the day. It was one of the best decisions we made. I worked 10 less hours a week but we gained so much more time together. We tried to plan it and get almost every off day off together. So pretty much all week long we would plan as to what we were going to do on our off day.
It is the same way here, but our adventures are a little more exciting! I am currently still unemployed which is another story for another blog coming soon, but that means I am counting down all the time for the next day that Landry is off with me!
  Last Thursday was Landry's day off and we took surf lessons!!! We absolutely loved it!!! We bought a groupon for a two hour lesson but somehow they accidentally over booked it. There was supposed to be 4 people with the 1 instructor but we ended up having 6. So 2 people were gonna have to wait on the beach for an hour and a half and then go. Landry and I gladly volunteered! We surely didn't mind sitting on the beach on a beautiful, sunny day and plus that meant a private lesson. Which normally would be outrageously expensive here, but we only paid 35 bucks for 2 hours(man do we love groupons). The instructor holds the back of your board and tells you when to start paddling and when to stand up and also gives you a huge push which really helps out. But we were just catching a wave paddling back in and catching another one over and over again since it was just the two of us. I am afraid this whole surfing thing could be addicting. Do I really need to get a job here?? Unfortunately, yes! We are planning on renting some surf boards next week and giving it a go on our own. The rentals are only around 7-10 dollars an hour so its not too bad.
  So, what else has been going on in our lives?? Well we have now been here almost two months which is a little crazy. But it is starting to feel more like home. We have a bunch of miss match furniture all donated to us from people at church, which is a huge answered prayer. We really didn't want to buy a bunch of furniture that we are gonna have to try to sell before we leave and lose a bunch of money on probably. But God has continually been faithful to us! We did buy two pieces of furniture from salvation army, a desk for my sewing machine and craft supplies. Which I am currently painting bright, beachy colors to hide the ugliness haha. Also we got a tv last week, we still don't have cable but we just have been streaming netflix which is good enough for us. So our tiny 515 square foot apartment is not fancy by any means, but it is home. We are taking things day by day and trying to enjoy the simple life. No kids, no house, no huge responsibilities just the two of us enjoying each other and enjoying life.
  Another new thing for us is helping with the youth group at our church here. Most of our friends know that Landry had an interview with a church in Columbia, TN about 6 months ago for a youth ministry position. Obviously it didn't work out for us, but our pray was for whatever God wanted to happen to happen. So we were dissapointed but we knew God's plan is always better than our plan. Then we began praying hard for this Hawaii thing to work out and when it did we knew God's plans were way different than what we thought they were going to be in Columbia. As I have said before the church we attend here is 95% military families. Which also means it is continually changing families move every couple of years and new families come. Well along with that Elders, Deacons and other vital members have to move and be replaced. A lot of people from church are leaving this summer and new positions are needing to be filled. So we have been asked to start helping with the youth group now and if things go good take it over this summer. God is so good. His plans are ALWAYS better than ours. It is so difficult to see when you want your plan and you want it now. But I trust in him and I know that he always leads me to where he needs me to be in his time. He has proven this to me time and time again yet still my faith is weak and sometimes I try to do things on my own.

My prayer today is a prayer for trust and greater faith in my Creator. He created all things and has a purpose for my life. Most days I feel clueless as to what his plan for me is, especially as a struggle to find the job I want here. I pray that I can completely trust that he has a plan for me. Lord, help me to remember that it is less about me and more about you!
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know that plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for GOOD and not for evil, to give you a FUTURE and a HOPE.
Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who LOVE GOD ALL THINGS Work Together for GOOD.

Koko Crater Railway Trail

Our first of many mountains to climb was Koko crater it is an interesting hike because of the history behind it. You climb up old railroad tracks that where used in World War II. It was a very strenuous hike at one point it feels like you are just climbing straight up. At around the half way point Landry said, "next time I think we should come up it twice to get in better shape." I looked at him like he was a crazy man. Half way up I wasn't sure if I could keep going I sat down and got up real quick and felt so dizzy I thought I was gonna fall backwards down the mountain. Needless to say I should have probably started out with the beginner hike. I am so excited to be able to enjoy the outdoors year round here. What a blessing to be able to use God's creations to exercise. We are looking to buy a good trail map and going to try to hike all that we can while we are here. So any visitors get ready for a guided tour!:)

The view from the top as always was defiantly worth the hike up. We went back down the same way we came up, but a lady from church told me that you can hike around the crater on the back side, so we will have to try that next time!

Officially Residents.

The long search is over! One week seemed like a month of searching. We are now living in a high rise on the 14th floor right behind Landry's work. God is so good. Our very first day on the island we went by Verizon to look at the area and see if we saw any near by apartments. I saw two big twin towers directly behind it and said that's it Landry those would be perfect. We drove up to them and got in the security gate somehow and went into the lobby. The office manager told us first of all he is surprised we made it past security and second of all you have to find an individuals or a company to rent the apartments from. So we found a guy(Randy) on craig's list renting one out. We called him and set an appointment up to come take a look at it. We liked it but it was a little more than we wanted to spend and it was our first place to look at. We looked at 2 more places and at the end of the day we tried to call him and he didn't answer nor did he answer the following days phone calls or text. Two days later he text Landry and said he was trying to make a decision on who he wanted to rent it out to. That's how it goes here when you find one you want and tell them they say thank you I have to show some more people and then I will make a decision. There are so many people trying to rent places here because its so expensive to buy that the renters actually just choose who they want based on who they like the most, stability, money, etc... Which is great for them, but stressful for renters. So for a whole week we kept going to appointments and either waiting to here back, getting denied, or not liking the area. Which was getting old and frustrating plus we are in  beautiful Hawaii and not working yet so all we want to do is go to the beach or do something fun. Landry kept joking everyday saying I know old Randy is gonna call us back. It was the one we wanted most. Some we found were cuter but just far away from work and since we only have one car here location is key. Finally on Monday Randy text us and said he was renting it out to some other people and we were sad. But we kept looking for other apartments in the same building and we put in a couple more applications in for other places that were pretty far away but we liked how they looked and the area. The next day Randy called and said the people he rented it to had some bad situation happen and they can't rent it and offered it to us. Crazy we of course said yes and met up yesterday morning and moved in! The apartment we saw and wanted from day one God gave to us! Walking distance to Landry's work, huge windows all around with a perfect view of Pearl Harbor on one side and mountains on the other and a washer and dryer which is rare here! Last night at church in our class our teacher said, do you thank God when you ask him for something or after he gives you an answer? Philippians 4:6,7  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with THANKSGIVING let your requests be known to God. And the peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. This is a verse I've read and heard several times but I always just thought it meant to not worry but instead to pray and God will give you peace. But our teacher pointed out that when we pray and ask God for something we should go ahead and thank him not wait for a result. We know God will provide for us what we need and thanking him in advance shows our faith and trust in him. I normally do not pray this way. As we were looking for apartments I kept praying to find one but I waited till he answered to say a prayer of thanksgiving. Today I pray that I can have a stronger faith that God will provide and I can praise him daily for what he has blessed me with today and what he will bless me with in the future.

Homeless in Hawaii

The search continues on. We have now been looking for an apartment for five days with no luck. They are either too far away from Landry's job, over our price range(which started out high we thought), or in a very scary area. After staying in a hotel four nights a couple from church offered to take us in and we gladly excepted. They had company already and we planned on sleeping in their living room on our air mattress(thank you Heather and Caleb). Anything to save some bucks, because staying every night in a hotel our money was leaving quickly. "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no where to lay his head." Matthew 8:20 This verse has a lot more meaning to me right now. I obviously have no clue how Jesus felt. We haven't even been searching for a week but I now feel as if in some small way I can empathize with him. Before the Booker's took us into their home I was starting to get concerned at how long this could go on. We can't keep paying for a hotel and we need to find a place before Landry starts to work. Jesus stayed with different people as he traveled and I think there was a good reason behind it. Tonight will be our second night with this family and I already feel so close with them just simply because they have opened up their home to us. They have fixed two meals for us and made us feel as if we were family not strangers. What amazing Christian examples they are to me. Before this experience, Landry sometimes would ask for people to stay at our one bedroom apartment in Nashville and I often said no I think its too small and they will have to sleep on the couch. But now my mind has defiantly changed. I want to be more hospitable to people.What better way to show others God's love than to welcome them into your home. We went to church again today at Pearl Harbor Church of Christ and I was so encouraged. This congregation is made up of primarily military families(probably 80%). One family was moving to another place, which is very common as most families stay 2-4 years and then there are all new families that come in. As we sang love one another everyone went to the front to say goodbye and hug the family. There were lots of tears and I had to really try to hold mine in(since it is strange because I've never even met the family). It just amazes me how quickly the love of Christ unites people. I am so excited to be getting involved with this new congregation. It is very different with lots of people coming and going, but there are no clicks. Everyone just loves each other and tries to help each other because we are in the minority as Christians here in Hawaii and we need each other. My prayer today is to invite others into my home often no matter how big or small or nice. 

All I Need Is You, Lord!

Today we decided to laugh instead of cry. The last two mornings we have gone to the front desk and asked to stay one more night just hoping that we can find an apartment. Oh yea and we have moved rooms each time with our four giant suitcases and four (to large to qualify as carry-ons but somehow we made it work) smaller bags. Today when Landry said I think we are gonna do another night they said as of now they are full. O goodness, we have been calling other hotels but the pro bowl football game is sunday and everywhere is booked. This could get really interesting. We started thinking about buying a tent and camping. Someone told me of a place called tent city when I looked it up it is more like a homeless shelter, but technically we do qualify as homeless at the time. I started laughing hysterically and Landry said "Babe, I like your attitude," that is when I said I am laughing so I don't cry. I don't know why I feel so calm when this seems to be a stressful situation. God's arms are holding me so tightly right now. More than ever in my life I feel as if every step and move I make has a purpose and God is leading me everyday to the place he wants us to be. After we got our hotel room for one more night we began frantically searching for apartments. As I have said before it is so different finding an apartment here than in Nashville. There is no main office to go in and ask someone if any are available and if you can see them. They are sold by individuals or companies and they only way to see them is to find them on the internet and call to make appointments. Plus the are way more expensive with less square feet and few amenities. We have been searching craigslist like crazy. We set up two appointments back to back. The first one we went to was a high rise right behind Landry's new job. He can walk to work everyday which is a huge bonus since we only have one car. I can then take the car to my job instead of the bus. It is on the 14th floor and has a huge picture window with  the most breath taking view. You can see all the way to pearl harbor on one side and diamond head on the other. The windows were open and the breeze was fantastic. Which is a good thing because there is no air conditioning. I never thought about it I guess, but most places here do not. I love it, how amazing a place is this that you can leave your windows open and God can keep the temperature just right for you. It is a large one bedroom with everything we need fridge, stove, and wash and dryer( which is also very rare) most apartments have coin laundry or if you do have machines they are on the outside. There are tennis and basketball courts and a pool outside which also are added bonuses. We left feeling excited and in awe of all God is providing. He is providing all we need and also several things we just want. The next appointment was did not go as smoothly as the previous. We waited a while in a pretty sketchy area for the lady to show up and I wanted to leave several times. She showed us two apartments way over our budget and neither one of them were the picture or price of the one we saw online and had called about. We viewed them quickly and were glad to check them off our list of options. Then Landry found on craigslist a guest house behind a house for rent and it is so cute. I fell in love with the picture. We called and the tenant was out of town but they gave us the address and said we could take a look at the outside and if we are interested we could see it tomorrow night. We drove over immediately. It is on a hill with a great view, has a little swing in the yard and a mango tree (how stinking cool). It is a tiny 2 bedroom one bath and yes the washer and dryer are in the back yard. It is surrounded by tropical flowers and plants and just want I envisioned living in here, but it is not as practical as the high rise apartment. The neighbors all live very close and I am not sure if it is a safe area or not which is a big concern for me because Landry works late hours and I will be alone often. It is right behind another house which means walking up the hill through their yard everyday and there is little to no parking on the street in front. I think it is more of a fantasy than a reality. We left there and rushed to our hotel to meet a couple from church that was bringing us out to eat. They picked us up and brought us to one of the military bases. He was in the navy for several years. We went to a Mongolian barbecue. You get a bowl and fill it up with fresh veggies and raw meet then put whatever sauces you choose, they cook it on the grill and then you add rice of your choice. The food was delicious and I embarrassingly devoured my bowl and Landry only ate half. I think it tasted so good to eat vegetables since we have been driving through every meal to save money. We ate in a pavilion right on the water, he told us it was the only channel to get in and out of pearl harbor and a lot of times you could see submarines come up to surface there. After supper they drove us over to a place called the "lemon lot" where when military people leave the island and don't want to ship their car they put it for sale. All the cars have a paper in the window with the price, Landry was in heaven. It was raining but he still got out and walked around looking in the window of every car. There was a mini cooper, a couple jeeps, a convertible car, a baby blue volts wagon van (that I am strangely attracted to) and lots of other kinds. They showed us around base and then brought us to the Navy Exchange, a big store with no tax that only military people can shop in. We are figuring out more and more that most people that are not local here are military and we don't fit into either category. God is opening my eyes to see how it feels to be a minority which I have really never experienced. We came back to the hotel and crashed at nine o'clock since I have been waking up between 4 and 5 am every morning still not used to the time change. My prayer today is to see past skin color and culture. Lord help me to see people as you see them.

No Car, No Apartment, No Problems

When the words, "Welcome to Hawaii" finally came out of our pilots mouth it finally felt real. We are really doing this. I couldn't wait for the over 100 people in front of us to get there carry on out of the overhead bins. I wanted to run off the plane. We walked off the plane to the smell of tropical flowers as several passengers were welcomed with fresh leis around their necks. The airport is partly open air and when we walked into one breezeway with giant trees all around us I felt butterflies, no this is not a vacation this is really our relocation can it be true? We arrived at our hotel 11 pm honolulu time which is 4 am nashville time. Grabbing our bags from the shuttle and checking into the hotel this late at night and sweating, it feels so good. So exhausted from a long day of travel, but overtaken by excitement and relief to have made it safely with no glitches. 
I am an early riser normally and it is really annoying to Landry especially on his off days when he can sleep in, but I shake him and wake him. I'm always excited to spend day time together since his work schedule usually allows for very little of that. So of course how could I sleep in when we have all day off together in Hawaii? Although I woke up a couple hours before I was able to convince Landry to arise around 7. We got ready put on shorts (which feels like a dream in January) and headed to find breakfast. We went down to the lobby and the hawaiian man behind the counter looked at us funny and said there is 2 gas stations walking distance and a wendys that opens up at 9 and handed us a tiny highlighted map. We headed out thinking he probably just doesn't understand how far we are willing to walk. As we left the hotel we realized we are in the middle of an industrial area and there is seriously no eating places anywhere close to us. Not having a car is really feeling tricky right now. We walked a couple miles just to make sure there are no options and then settled on a chevron gas station breakfast. Now the reality of this is no vacation really sets in. To our surprise we find 2 Jimmy Dean croissant sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches in the refrigerator and some mini blueberry muffins a water and some juice and we feel very satisfied. Head back to the hotel to immediately figure out how we will be transported to pick up our rental car at noon. Since we are already seeing the importance in transportation. We booked the rent a car 3.5 miles from our hotel because we considered that walking distance. Much to our surprise the front desk worker told us we could not walk there because the was a highway we would need to cross. Ouch! Did not plan on it, but we had to call a taxi and pay 30 bucks for 3 miles. We felt like we were 16 years old again getting the keys to our first car, when the enterprise worker handed over the keys! Yet another convenience I have taken for granted every day as I normally just hop in my car and go where ever I need to go. Lord, thank you for never making transportation a problem for me. We jumped in rolled the windows down and headed to Aloha Stadium to the swap meet aka trashy flea market. Landry and I both love to find cheap things that may be trash to others but treasure to us. There were booths set up in a circle all around the stadium. Our buying list consists of ugly brown plastic sandals for landry $5 bucks (not my chose of fashionable footwear but I am working on caring less about outward appearance and those sandals really tested me haha), mixed fruit bowl with pineapple, papaya, coconut, apples, and two mystery fruits that were very interesting, hawaiian bread stuffed with cheese and several meats, and a giant coconut filled with chilled coconut water(which neither of us liked and Landry embarrassingly offered it to strangers which promptly denied us). We plan on coming back as we saw several signs and decorations that will make our apartment feel beach worthy. Now the apartment search begins! We left feeling energized to find a place to live, but quickly were deflated. We first drove to Landrys new verizon home. It is in a really cute new outdoor shopping center, which definately excited me way more than Landry. There is a movie theater, a 24 hour fitness, ross, dry cleaners, craft store(which means trouble for me), food court, pier one and several more shops. Directly behind them are 2 large apartment towers how perfect, but no not really since here there are no offices to walk in and just say we are here to find and apartments. It is only through craigslist and other companies that sell them, which we quickly learned the hard way as we followed someone in the security gate. Next we went to several grocery stores(and yes there is a wal-mart right by Landrys work yay) searching for apartment guides and finally found one, but it was no help. There were few near the location we need and all way over our budget! We rushed back to our hotel to get ready for church and arrived 7 minutes early, but there was only one car in the parking lot we pulled back out to read the sign but we were right about the service time and pulled back in. Walking up to the buildings I started to feel nervous about being new and not knowing anyone. We have been so blessed with our congregation in Nashville and all the friends we've made. The first person we meet is the preacher which Landry had spoken with on the phone last week and he told us they operate on hawaiian time which is about 5 minutes late. Perfect! Landry and I are gonna fit in just right here since we usually are always 5 minutes late. People started arriving and we had a quick devotional inside the building with the doors open and a great breeze, reminding me of church camp days. We were introduced and were asked to stand up, which anyone who knows me knows I really don't like to do, but I survived. Then we headed off to class. Of course the lesson was on money, the thing that my mind has been filled with lately...will we have enough to survive, can I be happy living "simply", will I find a good paying job?? Ecclesiastes 5:10 He who loves money, will not be satisfied with money...We discussed how the love for money and material blessings can never satisfy it only makes you crave it more. O so true I have seen this in my life so many times. Hello, wake up call. If I only buy this outfit I won't buy anymore new clothes for a while, but there is always some reason or justification in my head why I need something new even when I have a closet full. Thank you Lord for opening my blind eyes! Now the hard part is making a change. After class everyone came to meet us. My heart felt light again, how good it felt to already find new Christian friends. One couple in particular who have two children one graduated from Harding and one from Abilene really took us under their wing. She immediately gave me her telephone number and started trying to help me conquer our biggest problem now finding an apartment. She was telling me areas to look and not to look. Her and her husband invited us to dinner tomorrow night at a Mongolian restaurant. They are picking us up at our hotel. Wow there are no other people like God's people. I felt an instant connection just knowing we serve and love the same God. We left church and headed down to Waikiki because I wanted Landry to see all the street shops and walk on the beach since we hadn't even seen sand yet. We had fun, but were so exhausted from our long day we didn't stay long. God is watching over us and continually providing all we need. My prayer today is to let go of my cravings for security in money and possessions. I want to feel secure in Christ alone. Anywhere Jesus I can safely go. Anywhere, Anywhere fear I cannot know. Anywhere with Jesus will be home sweet home.