We're settled in!

An overdue update...

Our stuff from Iowa finally arrived last Friday morning! It took about 3 hours for the movers to move everything inside. After that, they left Chris to start unpacking. He tackled the boxes of clothes, DVDs, and the electronics! I got home from work, ate dinner with Chris before he left for work and then began unpacking. I unpacked the kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. This past weekend we did more unpacking and organizing. We are all settled, except for the desk things in our guest bedroom. No worries, the sheets are on the bed and it's ready for you to visit! See pictures below!

Besides finally getting our stuff and organizing we have been extremely busy with our work. Chris continues to do inpatient cardiology and will actually switch to inpatient wards on Thursday. He has enjoyed this past month, but is also glad to have one month behind him. He is looking forward to working LESS already! His days have been starting around 5am for a half-hour commute and then he arrives home around 6:30-7:00pm after another half-hour commute. He has been on call the last few Fridays so that means going in at 7pm and staying until noon (or 1pm or 2pm) on Saturday. This next rotation he will be on call, but no Friday nights! :)

My job has been very busy as well. I am scheduled for 8 hour days right now, but I either go in early to finish charting from the day before or stay late to finish charting. I stay at work as long as Chris is still at work as well. My experiences thus far have been very eye-opening and challenging. It's been hard to know what to do with patients who have no money for any testing, no money to buy medications, no insurance, etc. It's hard for me to accept the idea of "you can only do so much." I feel like I'm not doing my job adequately, but it's true....I can only do so much! Starting in August I will be working 4 9-hour days and 1 4-hour day. I'm not sure that will be a better schedule, but we'll see.

Here are the pics of our unpacked house!

Hawaii Firsts...

This week has been a busy, but fun week! It started with a busy day of golfing for Chris on Monday with his friend, Scott. Scott's wife, Jamie, and I went shopping! That evening Chris and I enjoyed our first Hawaiian luau together. We went to the Hale Koa, which is the military hotel. The entertainment was great and the kalua pork was fantastic! We had a great time!

At the luau

On Tuesday we were able to pick up Stratty (the Dodge Stratus). It finally arrived from Iowa. Once we got the car we had to go to Tripler to get a form to fill out for our Hawaii registration. We then had to get a safety inspection. Hawaii requires that all cars have a safety inspection done on a yearly basis to be sure they are in good, driveable condition. This was our first inspection since the Kia we bought already had one done. Unfortunately, Stratty's tires were worn and they required us to get new tires before it would "pass." This meant more $$$$ spent! Since it's the end of the day by now, we couldn't finish the registration because the place closed and we didn't have our completed safety inspection. This was extremely frustrating! It was something that shouldn't have required a whole day to finish. Tuesday night was our last free night since we both had to start work on Wednesday. We enjoyed dinner at Red Lobster.

Wednesday was Chris' first day of residency. His alarm went off at 4:15 am and he got home around 7 pm. Overall, he had a good day, however he was amazed at how busy he was and how many things (other than medicine) he'd have to do! This was also my first day of work at the Waikiki Health Center. Much like Chris' day, mine was a lot of orientation-type things and not much medicine! I will start seeing patients next week! We attempted to finish the registration for the car tonight, however Chris wasn't with me at the city hall so he couldn't sign the form we needed. Not a huge deal though because she gave me a temporary registration and our new Hawaii license plates.

Thursday was day 2 for us at work and each of us had better days....more medicine for both of us!

Today was another busy day. We went to our townhome this morning and assembled our furniture. Our living room is now put together, except for our TV. We even took some pictures (see below). There are also pictures of our first painting job. Yes, we finally finished painting our bedroom and bathroom. It actually looks pretty good! Tonight is Chris' first night on call. He's going in at 7pm and will stay all night until tomorrow at noon. This will be my first evening alone in Hawaii and I will be going to see a movie (yes, by myself).

Our newly painted bedroom!

And bathroom!

Our living room!

This is our entertainment center (we want our TV!) and that is a chair with an ottomon (hard to see that in the picture).

Tomorrow we will be celebrating our first holiday in Hawaii with fireworks at the Ala Moana beach park! Have a great 4th everyone!