I'm a Dependent... the work isn't over.

We got married... HOORAY!

I'm so excited to be married to an amazing man!  He make me happy daily, and when he frustrates me I can't think of anybody I'd rather be frustrated with!  Although I originally thought the hard part would be over once we got married (i.e. coordinating our families around the island and to marriage events), the work has just begun.  The most frustrating part of the whole ordeal is the delay that the State of Hawaii takes to take a signed marriage license and turn it into a marriage certificate.  Rumor has it (and according to their website), it is supposed to take about a month or so to get your marriage certificate if your a local, and if you're in the military they will try but they "make no guarantees."  What does that mean?  Well until you have your marriage certificate in hand... your marriage is meaningless to the US Government.  That means no military ID (which means no Commissary or access to the Base without a pass), no insurance and no upped allowances due to a dependent on my husbands finances.  All irritation aside, my persistence with the State of Hawaii paid off and we had our "Marriage Certificate" four days after our marriage license was handed in by Levus' big brother (he is a pastor in Arizona and flew out to Hawaii to marry us!)  By Thursday afternoon I had marriage license in hand, and by Friday we had most of our paperwork in order! We even found out that Levus hasn't been receiving his BAS (Basic Allowance for Subsidies) since he graduated from Basic.  This allowance can add up quite a bit, and the US Government apparently owes him back pay.  You can imagine our excitement about this situation as newlyweds fresh starting off our life and our financial life together!  We are so excited to be able to save money easily!

When we went to the housing office, we also found out another bit of awesome news... there is NO WAITING LIST FOR HOUSING AT HICKAM AFB RIGHT NOW!  On Friday we had the opportunity to go in and look at our future home because there were workers actually at the house that let us in!  The house is currently getting new carpeting, which will be very nice as carpet can get grimy with some people and their pets.  We are also THRILLED that it is an END UNIT townhouse.   Our yard is bigger, which means more space for Binks to run around when he gets here.  It also has a larger porch and a COCONUT TREE in the backyard, which Levus is pee-in-his-pants-excited about.  The unit is actually one door down from a co-worker in his shop.  Every time Levus went to this mans house he would talk about how he wanted to go in their yard and "steal a coconut."  He is now very excited because he "owns a coconut tree."  I am very happy because HE is happy.  I am also very happy because, although I love living in our condo in Waikiki... parking is expensive, traffic sucks, and 300 square feet is awful small for us and all of our belongings.  We don't have an oven, the stove burners are small, and the most exciting surprise... there is no bathroom door.  We've been forced to be extremely comfortable around each other very quickly.  I don't so much view this as a bad thing, but I won't complain about getting the opportunity to have an oven and a bathroom door and a 5 minute bike ride to work for Levus.  Although our condo isn't the most convenient, it does have its perks.  This weekend we have been able to walk to dinner two nights in a row.  We've also been able to enjoy this view from the top floor of our condo....

Levus enjoying the view from the 10th floor

Diamond Head: easily viewed from the sun-deck of our Waikiki condo

Okay... I can't hate a dwelling with a view like this.  Perfection.

We signed our reservation for the townhouse on Friday, sign the lease this coming Thursday and then take the keys on Friday.  Other than saving money on the gas and parking (as well as the above mentioned benefits of on base housing) I am VERY excited about three factors (they all just happen to be holidays, and I LOVE holidays):

1. HALLOWEEN.  We will be on base for Halloween... this will be the first Halloween in YEARS that I will be living somewhere that has little trick-or-treaters and I've ALWAYS wanted to be able to dress up and hand out candy and decorate my front porch with Halloween decorations.  This year I will finally be able to do so!  I've already figured out where the pumpkin patch is here, and we're going to get our pumpkins at some point before or on Halloween.  We even will get to care them if we so choose to do so!
2. THANKSGIVING.  I'm SO EXCITED we can have our first Thanksgiving in OUR home together.  With OUR oven and OUR smoker (we're planning on a smoked turkey to celebrate having our smoker).  WIN.
3. CHRISTMAS.  We don't have to worry about where we will be living and if we will have a home then.  I've also figured out where the Christmas tree farm is, and we will be able to have a place for our first Christmas tree together.  I should also *hopefully* be receiving my Christmas box by then when our HHG (household goods) get here in about 50 - 60 days.  This is exciting news as well.

Levus reserving our townhouse on Hickam

My only current concern is the fact that we don't have a bed.  Even when our HHG get here, we won't have an adequate bed.  I have a double (or maybe a queen) sized bed already, but that isn't going to cut it for us.  Levus is a big man, and we are both crazy sleepers.  I'm on the hunt for a budget friendly, but also dream, bed right now.  My dream bed is an antique (or antique looking) iron framed bed.  For it to be real antique, I realize this may be wishful thinking because they didn't used to make beds of that size.  I'm scouring Craigslist now on a daily basis, and I plan to do some serious hunting around Honolulu this week.  We can get furniture from the Airmans Attic to last us till our furniture gets here from Missouri, but they don't do beds (for health and sanitation reasons, which I agree with and support) so we will need to figure this situation out sooner rather than later.  And I may need to settle.  Grrrrrrr.

example of my dream bed