California Baby

Well the trip is technically over, but Jess is still with me in California so the vacation continues on. :)


Bryce called at 5:00 this morning, just in time to wake me up. We were able to talk for a while, which was amazing, if frustrating. I left Kyla’s early to head into Camp Pendleton to get new tabs for the car (hello traffic), which of course I couldn’t get. On the bright side, I did get a temporary pass, which means that getting new base stickers are now Bryce’s responsibility (thanks hun. :) ). Then it was off to two different housing offices to get the place set up. At the first I was helped by a woman who was almost from the same hometown. Upon recognizing the area code of my phone number as Washington, she asked where. My vague answer of Vancouver is usually enough to confuse people not from the area, but she asked again where, and it turns out we were town-neighbors. She was helpful and apologetic when it came to explaining why it was taking so long for me to move in, and soon sent me on my way to the next housing office. There, I spent an hour signing my name (and Bryce’s via POA) on our lease agreement. Then, just like that, she gave me the keys and I headed over to check out our new home.


I LOVE IT! The house was renovated in January, new carpets, cabinets, everything. When you walk in the front door, there is a laundry room immediately to your right, with a door to help silence the (currently non-existent) washer and dryer. Next are stairs, and a bathroom on the other side of the hall. If you continue on, you reach a dining / living room, and a doorway to the (big!) kitchen. From the kitchen you can either exit through the garage (also big!) or go out to the patio.





Taking a left at the top of the stairs puts you in the extra bedroom, which I am thinking about finding a desk for so that we have a place to put the printer and wireless router. Next to that is a door to the full bath, which also leads into a back door of the main bedroom. That door leads to two closets, with the bedroom on the other side. From there you can exit out to the main hallway/stairwell. Oh, there is also this random room upstairs. It looks like it could have been a laundry room, except there aren’t any hookups. Unless anyone has any better ideas, I’m thinking of commandeering it as my closet. Bryce can have the other two for uniforms and civilian clothes. :)



After I made my rounds of the house, I began the lovely process of unloading all of the stuff from the car. It’s weird to finally see the backseat again and have an empty trunk.



Jess and Kyla (and Ben!) finally made it over to the house, and we hung out for a bit before heading out to Vista to pick up some stuff from the storage unit. We unloaded the car back at the house, and Jess watched Ben while Kyla ran a quick errand. Once she came back and picked him up, Jess and I made another trip out to the storage unit. The boxes were heavy and awkward, but we managed to fit a few in the car and bring them home. I hope to have all of the small stuff out of the unit by Friday afternoon (we’re taking tomorrow off to have some fun :) ), and then one of Bryce’s friends is going to help me bring the furniture out.



On our way back from the storage unit, we stopped at the Commissary to pick up some groceries. Kyla met us back at the house and Jess cooked up some Mac & Cheese and grilled some chicken on the barbecue. Jess convinced me that it was okay to set the barbecue on the (plastic) table. I’m sure you can see where this is heading…Fortunately nothing caught on fire, but the table is pretty much done for. We also met the some of the neighbors tonight. The wife, Cathy gave the three of us mini pumpkin pies. :) I have a feeling her and I are going to get along well.



With that, it was time to head to bed. I have been trying to organize things all day (which, I might add, is very difficult to do when you don’t have places to put things, like bookshelves or dressers), so the house doesn’t look too bad. I can’t wait until I can get the furniture in here and have a place to put everything. I think I will spend an entire day just putting pictures on the wall.