Living in Washington

It has been a long time (again) since I have posted. I decided since I have only had 11 people respond to my privacy request I am making my blog public again. If I see that a certain person in Middleton, RI is lurking again, I may have to put it on private again. You see when you visit my blog I am able to see where everyone is from, makes it so much easier to locate those lurkers.

Since my last blog posting, we have departed Kodiak Alaska. We left on June 15th on a cold and rainy evening. After spending what seemed like eternity we were finally able to get on the Kennicott ferry. We visited Chenega Bay, Whittier, Yakutat, Juneau and finally Ketchikan. We spend four lovely days visiting with friends and eating great food from our favorite places. Then we boarded our final ferry, Columbia, for our final destination Bellingham Washington.

We arrived in Bellingham the same day we left Bellingham for Ketchikan three years ago. June 25th, my mom's birthday. What made this homecoming wonderful was the fact that Jim (my mom's beau) and my mom were waiting for us at the ferry terminal.

We drove the two or so hours to my in-laws house in Kent. We were greeted by homecoming signs with all of our names on it. It was so cool. In the first weekend we were here, we were able to spend time with both sides of our family. Mostly my side for the first weekend. My in-laws invited my mom and Jim to hook up to there power and stay the weekend. It was wonderful. I got to spend so much time with my niece Kylie and her boyfriend Josh. What fun!!

Once mom and Jim left for home, we started the house hunting job. It finally became clear that we would have to rent an apartment for our first year home and next summer move to a house. So this Friday we will be picking up our keys to our apartment that is located in Covington, WA. Why Covington you ask??? Well we have a good friend that has gotten orders to Seattle and will be living there and his son is best friends with Patrick and we decided they both need to finish there final two years of high school together. So Covington was the place to put down some roots.

Within the first week we were here the temperatures soared to the hottest we have been in for three years....93*. I literally felt like I was melting. Mark went out on the first day we knew we were hitting those highs and bought a pool. Needless to say not only did the boys soak in it, but we put a few dogs in it also to cool down.

Anyway, the beauty of being back in the lower 48 is the nurseries!!! We have visited at least six since we have been here, not counting The Home Depot and Lowes, and to see all of the flowers, trees, roses, and water features is amazing. My mother in law bought me a black eyed susan, which I love, and will be ready to bloom out very soon. Her back deck is looking like a nursery from all the plants we have purchased.

About a week ago, our friend and his kids showed up to move into their new house. We spent the first weekend having a few buckets and clear cutting his property. Patrick and Matthew has spent a lot of the past week over at Gary's house.

We have also discovered IKEA!!! Love IKEA!!! We have purchased one dresser and one chair for the apartment, since we can't have our large sofa in due to the fact we are on limited space. We still have to purchase one more dresser and one more chair this week. We also got a great deal on two new desks for the boys at Staples. So their rooms are pretty well set.

Our HHG's are to be delivered on the 2nd and then starts the fun of trying to figure out what will fit in the apartment and what we will store in our garage.

Patrick is already registered for school at Kentlake High. Matthew and I have to go down to the college and take our COMPASS tests, get our student ID's and get set up with the VA rep. So many things to accomplish and it is amazing how the days seem to go by so fast.

So there you have it....we are here and ready to start our new life being "retired" Coast Guard Family. Mark is putting in all sorts of applications for all sorts of government jobs. It won't be long until he has a new career.

I am still really bitter about how this came about. The XO off the MUNRO is now in charge of his own ship and I am VERY concered about who he is going to throw out or force to retire because he feels they aren't fit to "wear the blue uniform". I pray for those families under his command.

Well, I have typed long enough. We will keep you posted on how things are progressing.

Love to all!

Annie