10/1/08
Aloha,
We are back in Hawaii and finally settling in. I thought I’d keep you up to date on what’s happening.
We did put an offer in on the land we wanted in NZ. A low offer. The seller replied with a high counter offer. That happened the day the US economy free fall started. So we decided not to counter-offer and just let that land go.
We feel we need to see where the economy is going before we put out any money right now.
So here is the newest and latest NZ plan:
We are going to work on all the things we need to finish from our 2007 remodel on our Hawaii house.
While we were gone, our new roof over an old lanai was mostly done. This will be our new entrance. So that needs to be completed and tiled by our contractor. This particular project cost way more than we expected and Jack and I (mostly Jack) will be doing a lot of finishing work. Jack loves to do that, and I like to be the helper.
We need to create a better yard
We need to create a driveway to the new entrance.
We need to choose colors and completely paint the house. It hasn’t been painted since the original paint job 12 years ago.
We have a bunch of inside touch ups to be done - including finishing off the living room ceiling repair (where someone doing the roof put his leg through our ceiling.)
In addition, we are going away for another 7 weeks - to Florida and to San Francisco. So nothing will be done during that time.
Also in addition, I am having surgery on Oct 7th to handle my “old lady problems” (my falling bladder, etc.) It should be pretty simple - one night in the hospital. As a nurse on a surgery floor all those years, I consider surgery as a “normal” part of life - not something that scares me. I’m not supposed to lift anything for 6 weeks afterwards, so Jack will continue to wait on me hand and foot and treat me as a queen - and then add lifting everything to his duties. I could really like this!
Also in addition, Jack has a work trip to Fiji in January, with several other trips possible this spring.
So, as you can see, there is still a lot to be done before we can move. I don’t know why we ever thought we would be out of here in January or February. As much as my plan-plan-plan personality wants to have a leave date in my mind, I guess we will just need to go with the flow. But the bottom line is that I will be surprised if we get out of here before mid summer. Part of that is if we can’t leave until at least May, we might as well stay until Elizabeth gets out of school on May 30th. Then we would go to the mainland and Marisa and the family in June before moving.
So - the house is open! Come visit anytime. We may try to put you to work. Or we may chat with you while we work. Or we may be exhausted and glad to just hang out with company.
We are coming to the mainland in early November - originally planning to spend 3 weeks in Tampa with Jack’s parents, leaving the day after Thanksgiving. His dad had lung cancer many years ago, was in remission for at least 10 years I think, but it is back with a vengeance. He seems to be getting worse quickly and is close to being terminal. However, this family has its own (military, stoic) way of dealing with things, and his mother doesn’t want us around. They are doing fine, she says. She doesn’t want a lot of people around, she says. So we told her we were coming anyway - we need to see Dad, but we won’t stay long. Our new plan is to visit for a few days, then go away for a week, then come back for a couple of days, then leave again - etc. We have a meeting in Orlando that Jack needs to go to - that was already in the plan. But in addition, we’ll visit a high school friend of mine in Delray Florida and a St. Luke’s friend of mine on St. Simons Island off Georgia. We will also drive through Ashville, NC (another visit with a friend) - seeing fall color hopefully - and go to Raleigh where Jack will have another meeting. Our friends Jamie and Greg from California just moved to an island off North Carolina last year and we will visit them too. I am hoping to get one really sight-seeing stop in Charleston. All this is a “possible” plan, totally dependent on what happens when we get to Tampa. When we get there, his mom might change her mind and we’ll just hang around there.
We’ll see my daughter Kimberly and her family when we are there as well. That is always great. The older girls are in college now, so there are the 4 kids as well as a boy-friend or two usually.
We’ll be in California for the first couple of weeks in December. This year, we will have less time than usual, because we are planning to spend more time in Fresno. We haven’t seen Jack’s daughter in two years and her daughter has a new baby we want to see.
When we make the actual move to NZ will now depend on when we get the house ready and what the financial system is here in the US. We originally planned to rent out the house for two years until we get permanent resident status in NZ. But we may change our mind on that. If the market is bad, renting this house will bring us less than we want monthly. It may be that it makes more sense to sell, even in a bad market, if the NZ dollar is weak against ours. We have a new motto that we learned in NZ: SWATU (pronounced the way it looks). It stands for Some Thing Always Turns Up.
Jack’s consulting business is starting off fabulously. We love saying he’s retired, but we knew that actually he was just retired from his USDA job, not retired from working. He has several jobs already and more in process. The best part is that he totally loves what he’s doing. He was frustrated at USDA because of all the administrative stuff and because he always had to follow the USDA line. Now his paper work is simple and he is free to say what ever he feels is best. He gets off the phone beaming because he can help solve another problem.
Now here’s a shocker - I am planning to work as a nurse in NZ !!
I thought I’d never do that again. But if we want to travel and have a nice home in NZ, it seems like a necessary idea. I am thinking 2 or 3 days a week in a clinic. Apparently, most nurses do work part time there. I will have to take a refresher course - but can do that on line, so it is really convenient.
This is the end of this blog - I will probably start another one. I really like not having to send lots of emails saying the same thing.
My closing words - COME VISIT NOW WHILE WE ARE STILL HERE!!!
Lots of love and blessings,
Lily
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