Girlfriend Time

Friday, my two girlfriends, their daughters and I went to Providence to see the  Rockettes!  First, let me say what a beautiful theatre the Providence Performaning Arts Center is. I loved it!

My camera was having issues. Apparently, there was a sticky little finger print on my lense, (possibly from the three little girls who visited last weekend?) so I pulled these first two photos from the internet.

When we walked up, Christmas music was playing and there was a snow machine at the top of the marquis blowing snow out onto the sidewalk. Too much fun!

I couldn't take photos inside the theatre, so once again, I pulled this one from the internet. Isn't it beautiful?

This photo WAS taken with my camera.. thus the fuzzy part on Cindy's face. Sticky fingerprint.. I just found it and cleaned it off.

I'm so lucky to have found two great women to spend my time with here. We all have girls about the same age who love each other too. Deb and I have girls away at school that are so excited to come home for the holidays.

After the show we went over to Carrabba's Italian Grill and had a delicious dinner complete with dessert!

Yesterday, I stayed around the house still trying to get over the crud I have. Today, still cruddy, but I'm babying myself a little. Nice for me that Nick is here taking care of me as well. I have way too much to do this week to feel bad.



Our New Digs

If you didn't catch the entry where I posted photos of the empty house, check it out here: The "New" House
Yesterday, I took photos of what we've done so far. It's still a work in progress but you can see I'm making some headway!
The living room and dining room are one long room. This was taken on the dining room end where the sliding glass door leading to the backyard is located. I didn't take a shot of the full dining room yet, because it's a wreck.

That cord in the floor is to my laptop which I thought I had so cleverly hidden behind the ottoman. Little did I know the cord was there!

Here is a shot of the couch (notice the right cushion all smashed down, thank you movers, I get a new sofa)

                           

Someone PLEASE tell me how I'm supposed to hang a picture (or two) above this sofa with that big old thermostat placed right there in the middle? I'm struggling with the long walls and division of two spaces in one and hanging our artwork.

This is one side of the dining room. I will have to move the buffet down and center it below the picture, because I'm NOT re-hanging the picture. I am married to an engineer and hanging pictures around here is quite a project. It involves levels and measuring, etc. When I hang a picture, I eyeball and it move it several times if it's not right. Leaving little holes in the walls drives my OCD guy crazy!!

                                    

Here are a couple of shots of the kitchen. It's still a mess but I decided to leave the chaos out there for you

so you know how human I am!

                            

Quite a difference from when it was empty, huh?

These two walls are still a work in progress. As I'm finding more of my Hawaiian stuff to display, I'm hanging it in here. (OCD/engineer man informed me that my Waikiki sign was pointing the wrong way)

Here are a couple of shots of the powder room downstairs. I've put my Americana stuff in here. Being married to a Soldier, we have lots of Americana stuff. I've got a few pieces in other areas as well.

Here is the front door and entry way from my living room.

And here we have the front door. Does anyone else think this looks like a trailer???  It's actually a row house with four units and mine is the second one in. It's nothing to brag about on the outside, but baby does it have a view!

Last but not least, is this shot I took of Callie outside reading her book. Notice the dogs out there with her. They love being outside here. It must be the nice weather and the sound of the sea gulls!

Notice the water just beyond that fence? It's lovely!

Grateful

I realized that I may have sounded very negative in my last post. I was having a hard time with unpacking way too much stuff in a small house and the fact that our movers had been careless with our belongings.
I'm not really a negative person. I have always looked for the positive and usually can find it easily. This post will be positive and will point out things for which I'm grateful.
I live in a beautiful place. It IS a small house, but it faces the water! I have a beautiful view and I listen to seagulls and Canadian geese every time I walk outside. I live in a fourplex, but we are in the only occupied unit, so it's like having four yards instead of one. We have even "borrowed" one of the outdoor storage units temporarily until we sort through everything.
We can afford to buy replacement things while we wait for the Army and the moving company to fight over how much will be paid and how long it will take.
We have custody of the boy my husband has ached to have with him for years. It's a wonderful opportunity to give him the benefits of living with two loving parents, a gift every child should be given automatically, but aren't.
I have my daughter here for two weeks and am financially able to fly back to Texas with her and get her set up in her dorm.
I have a husband willing to do a job that so many can't do. He risks his life to protect what's precious in this country and because of that we can afford to live the way we do and we have a roof over our heads, without paying for any untilities or taking care of a yard.
I could go on and on but I think I have covered enough to feel good about my situation.
I'm now going into my kitchen to make pizzas for my family and then I'm dragging them and the two dogs down to "my beach" to look for sea glass. I'm truly blessed.

I'm a New Englander!

It has happened.. we have arrived in Rhode Island. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL here! I can't take it in fast enough. I can't believe the beautiful old buildings and towns. I'm in love. (ask me how I feel when the weather gets cold!)
We arrived on Saturday evening. Nick and I were thrilled to be starting this chapter of our lives. We were anxious to get Alex here to live with us and have him be a full time part of the family.. FINALLY!
We arrived around 5:00. We grabbed all of our luggage, the rental car, and checked into our hotel. Alex was due in around 10:00. We intentionally stayed close to the airport instead of driving down to the base so we could grab him that late.
As we're going to dinner, Alex called. He's delayed leaving Fargo. Mechanical problems. He had a total of 40 minutes between flights to get to us. I had a bad feeling. He ended up being delayed a full hour and we knew he'd never make the connection in Philadelphia. As luck would have it, he was booked on the very last flight of the day coming in to Providence.
Plan B: Re-route him to Boston and take our newly rented vehicle up north to get him. That's what we did. We snagged him right around midnight and got back to our hotel around 1:30. Of course his luggage wasn't with him. We were just relived that we weren't leaving a 15 year old in the Philadelphia airport overnight by himself. We contemplated driving up there, but by the time we would get there, he could've spent the night.
Sunday we drove on down to the base, checked out our house (the door was unlocked, I had to go in). The house is small. Smaller than the house in Hawaii and much more plain. That's military housing for you, at least the housing that was built 20 to 30 years ago. The stuff they are building now is much nicer.
I do have a view of the harbor from my back yard so I think I can suffer through for 10 months.
Today we drove down to New Jersey to pick up our vehicle. It was a 10 hour round trip drive but with the downpour going both ways, it was longer. We were supposed to go back to the housing office and pick up our keys but decided we would wait until tomorrow after that drive.
I'm looking forward to getting keys tomorrow, hearing from the movers on when our stuff will be here, and shopping for the essentials. I love getting new shower curtains, bathroom stuff and all those little things that you can use to start settling in.
I haven't taken a lot of photos yet, but here are a few. I will post about my trip to Arkansas in the next few days. It was mostly uneventful but we did do a few cool things and see lots of family.
I'm enjoying having Alex with us. It's a new experience that we're all loving!

The license plate from our rental car. I have to admit I didn't know Rhode Island was "The Ocean State" I'm so excited to be here!

This is where we had our first Rhode Island meal on the advice of the hotel staff. It was delicious!

Our appetizer at the restaurant. Stuffies! These are quahogs and they are so yummy!

We also had the best seafood chowder I've eaten and a calamari salad. I swore I'd eat lighter once we arrived. I am having a hard time with that so far.