Furlough Fridays

I mentioned earlier that I would write about Furlough Fridays. What, you may ask, is Furlough Friday? Well, to put it in terms everyone can understand: The Hawaii State Budget is so messed up that the Department of Education (DOE) is facing "unprecedented budget cuts totally $468 million over two years". Their solution to this ridiculousity is "Furlough Fridays" - or 17 Fridays throughout the rest of this school year in which there will now be no school. That's more than 3 weeks less of school! Hawaii already boasts one of the worst public school systems in the country.

(visualize Ange getting up on a soapbox now)

I understand that we are in a global economic crisis, and that with these budget cuts it might require job cuts, but this is asinine. In order to save jobs, which I do not disparage by the way, they have opted to take a pay cut by working fewer days throughout the year. From my perspective, which I recognize might be skewed, it seems that the DOE is opting for more time off resulting in less pay. (Who wouldn't want more time off?) Hawaii's keiki (children) are the biggest losers in all this. Not only do they have the worst (okay, California was pretty bad too) education system to begin with, now they have less time to learn the stuff they are supposed to learn, which they aren't learning anyway. The Elementary schools already have half-day Wednesdays; so now, B & D will have 3 1/2 days of school most weeks left of school. I've just re-looked at the new school calendar, and determined that there is only one full, five-day week of school in February, April and May. Count 'em... 3 full weeks of school for the rest of the school year. UNBELIEVABLE!

But wait... there's more! Believe it or not... it's buy one get one free! That's right. This will affect the next school year too!

Obviously there is a positive here. The kids will have more play time... more time at the beach, more time to enjoy this beautiful place we live. However, give them enough time here and they won't know how to read the signs at any of the places we visit.

Moving?

(sigh) Sighing seems to have become a regular part of my life lately. A sign of my discontent?.. maybe. Or maybe it is just an indication that I have accepted the fact that I am not in control of my life.

We've been in Hawaii a little over two months now, and last week attended a housing demolition meeting. Our little section of Ghetto-dise is slated to be demolished and must be empty no later than October 2010. At this meeting, we were told that there are 78 new homes nearing completion on Ft. Shafter, just up the way a little bit, with the first of the new homes being available for occupancy as early as November (next month). These 78 homes should be occupied by the first few weeks/months of next year. In determining priority, the housing office has decided (wisely) that it is important to keep continuity for kids in the Middle Schools and High Schools, so families with children in Moanalua Middle, and Moanalua High, will have priority for these new homes. We have one in each school. (sigh) There is another meeting on Monday with more details and possibly a more specific timeline. Here's my understanding so far...

We will be moving sometime in the next 3 months.

Cons:

• leave fantastic neighbors
• we live in a great location with proximity to swim team, schools, Target, base shopping, etc. Moving will put us farther away
• car-pooling will be way messed up!
• change wards
• B & little D will have to change schools
• I HAVE TO MOVE AGAIN!

Pros:

• brand new, bigger house with a garage
• if all MS and HS kids are priority, then A & Z will have lots of friends in the neighborhood
• did I mention new, and bigger house?
• the sooner we move, the longer we get to stay in the new house before we have to move again.

Well, there you have it... at least for now. I'll update again after Monday's meeting. (sigh)

Used, abused, beat up, stung.... and going back for more!

Don't ever get tired of this... (insert sigh of content)

Saturday morning we took Grammy Joan to Bellows AFS for a rockin' day of Boogie Boarding. We were seriously beat up by the ocean, but despite our nasal/brain salt water enemas, our pulled muscles, and repeated attempts by the ocean to toss us out, we had an amazing morning. Because the waves were so huge and strong, when we did actually manage to 'catch' one, the ride was awesome! Grammy Joan put up a good fight and enjoyed her first attempt at boogie boarding. She and I were the only that emerged from the ocean unscathed by jellyfish. Supposedly, it hurts like the dickens, but the pain subsides after 20 minutes or so. I'll let you know when my turn comes.

D's poor little leg after the jellyfish stings. Both legs were stung, but he's a real trooper.

A got stung on the hand, but eventually got back in the water

Dave & Grammy Joan preparing their attack strategy

Ghetto-dise

So, some peeps have been buggin' me about pictures of my ghetto-dise. Here you go!
This is our very inviting entryway.
Our living room/office - very light and airy.
Our patio, or lanai- as they call it here.
Dining room from lanai, kitchen seen behind, living room is off to the right.
Dining room from kitchen entry
Kitchen
Kitchen - take 2
Hallway - 1/2 bathis off to the left, storage room ahead
Entryway
Upstairs laundry room.

There are no bedroom pictures, because there were no bedrooms even remotely presentable; which, sadly is the cast 9 times out of 10. (sigh)