Today is an important and special day! I woke up early and spent the morning visiting with my wonderful housemates. Lori, Marina and puppers Bleu have been kind enough to share their home with me over the past 4 months and have been a huge contributing factor in making our move to Oahu successful. Marie was the mastermind behind the idea of me staying here and she lives in the room next door. These special ladies have been in my life for over a decade and it’s been nice to spend more time around them and to get to know Lori and Marina better. I can’t wait until they come to Oahu and we can return the hospitality, collect shells, and hell, maybe even do some yoga.

My parents and sister Samantha are hosting an event today at my parent’s house to bring everyone in our lives together for a proper send off. David and I are so excited for our families to meet for the first time, and to be surrounded by so many people that have had an influence and shared memories in our lives. I have been putting so much of my mental energy and time into work in the last month that it will be a nice break to completely shift focus and just be drowned in love and well wishes. Though Oahu is known as the gathering place, today that place is Mom & Dad’s house. It means so much to David and I to have our families join hands and get to know the people who we’re so proud to say raised us.

I have made so much progress in downsizing my wardrobe, so I am starting to feel like I’m coming up for air and can actually stuff the rest of my life in California into a few pieces of luggage. We’ll be shipping some last little boxes of random belongings, but for the most part, we’re ready!

Update: sick car was the first non-convertible BMW to say it’s top was down. Luckily it’s all better now, but we had the dealer highly confused. Also, David is now a certified Bio-Mechanics specialist, so if your shanikwazoid is out of whack, you now know the guy to talk to.

Happy weekend! So much to do, so little time! How exciting! I thrive under pressure…life deadlines make your to-do list so real. I’m feeling the excitement and good anxiety more each day. With only 3 weekends between us and the move to Oahu, David and I are narrowing our focus on what needs to get done, while keeping our work and life momentum going full speed ahead.

After the heavy rains of a few weeks ago (where my car was totally submerged in water in the work parking lot), my car thinks it’s a convertible with it’s top down. I keep trying to tell it to relax, but it just tells me to put my seat belt on, and stop swerving in and out of lanes. It’s very confused. Luckily it has an appointment with the dealership this morning, which means I will have a loaner car for a while. Once I swap sick car for loaner car, it’s time to sort through the remainder of my ridiculous accumulation of clothing. Mom cleared some space in her guest room closet for me, so I will be keeping some cold weather clothes there for our return trips to Cali. Thanks Mom!!

For the last few weeks David has spent his free time working on a certification program on Bio-mechanics. Listening to the lectures he’s been watching has been interesting…who knew there was a shanikwazoid and watermelonikwafilange in my arm? Seriously though, if I didn’t know this was an accredited program, I’d think my Dad wrote it and just made up a bunch of words to mess with people. In all seriousness I’m so proud of David for continuing on his journey to become even more of a health and fitness badass. I feel pretty lucky that I have him to lean on for health and fitness questions, and regular assistance with getting out my knots and tight spots. (Thanks Kevin for the frozen ball of pain!) I need to pause to give a quick shout out to my amazing trainer Carléna Henderson! What a passionate wealth of knowledge she is – I will miss her so much! If you are ever looking for a coach in life, fitness, balance, well-being….she is so real, sweet, talented AND hilarious. I highly recommend knowing her!

Okay – off to downsize my wardrobe. Here’s to the weekend!

So we’re actually doing this: packing up our belongings and moving 2,400+ miles across the Pacific. Away from the foggy Bay Area mornings and into the balmy Hawaiian days. No more scraping the ice off of windshields; tsunami warnings replace the threat of an earthquake. Where we’re going the weather is consistent year round. Highs in the 80’s, lows in the 70’s. A little rain some days, a little more on others. One of the things I love about Hawaii is that the seasons are so apparent in the ocean. With calm waters to the north in the summer, shifting to the south in the winter.

but let’s rewind the beat…

It seems like not so long ago the thought of moving to Hawaii felt like a pipe dream. I have been saying ‘I want to move to Hawaii’ for over 10 years. I went on a solo trip to Maui back in late August of 2015 to do some due diligence on a small accounting practice that was for sale. I went thinking, okay, this could be it. This could be my ticket to the life I have been dreaming of. When I got there I met with the business owners – a nice older couple from California. They ran the businesses like a well-oiled machine. The books and processes were clean, the clients loyal. I could have taken over and easily had a life in Kihei. A dear friend met me there and we spent the weekend talking it over. For how turnkey the business was, something in my gut was saying this wasn’t the right time, and Maui? I wasn’t convinced. I also couldn’t stop thinking about how, if I bought this business and moved to Hawaii, I’d really really miss my personal trainer. Weird, right?

Turns out a few weeks later said personal trainer confesses that if I left he’d really miss me too. The rest on that is kind of history. 🙂

fast forward…

David and I first stepped foot in Honolulu together in May of 2016. We both knew that this trip stood for something more than just a tropical getaway. Hawaii makes me feel at home, and gives me a  greater sense of connection to people, the ocean, and myself. My hope was that David would see this in me, and maybe even feel it in himself too. I can’t recall when, but I remember David saying, “babe, we gotta move to Hawaii.” The slower pace, the reggae music streaming from car windows, the letting you in rather than cutting you off, the food!, the beauty and adventure, the aloha spirit won him over.

There’s been many details worked out between then and now, and I will be sure to dedicate future posts to our research and experiences, but for now here we are…27 days away from take off. What’s left? Getting rid of lots of clothes, sorting out the shipment of our smaller boxes (all of our furniture is there waiting for us), prepping and shipping our cars, and saying goodbye to our amazing and supportive family, friends, mentors, and colleagues.

We are so excited to be moving in together! We’re anxious to make our house a welcoming home and we’re blessed to have enough space to have our loved ones come stay with us and experience the island! We just signed a 15 month lease and will be living in Kapolei. Our home has 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a nice fenced yard for BBQing, and for the pups to run around. We are less than 4 miles from the beach!!  We encourage you to come visit!

Things to do in Kapolei

Our schedule for the first few weeks looks something like this:
Feb 14-21: Staying in Kahuku in a vacation rental – taking this time off of work to vibe out and enjoy the island
Feb 21 – March 7: Moving into a temporary house in Kapolei and going back to work
March 8: Moving day! Our furniture will be delivered and we will officially be home

Mahalo for hanging with me on the long post!