Out of the Hotel and Into Our Villa!

Finally! In the end of March we were able to get out of our hotel! Now, don't get me wrong, the dragon was amazing, especially the part where I got to eat a breakfast every morning of fresh fruit and I did not have to do a damn thing to make it! Ha! It was great but it was also nice to move into our new villa and start making it our own.

To move out of the hotel and into our villa we had to pack up all our stuff from the hotel, both what we had brought with us and what we had acquired since getting to Bahrain. We had to load it all up into the car and the van hubby brought from work. Then Bill follows me to the villa because he has never seen it! He trusted me to find something we would love. We get there and pull up to the villa and before we start unloading, of course, he wants to see the inside. I show him around and he loves it! I'm so happy that he likes it!! 

After Bill's little tour of the place we have to bring in all our stuff. It is a crazy amount of stuff that we have amassed since we got to the hotel. SO much stuff! Seriously, because even our express shipment had already arrived while at the hotel. We carried it all in and then collapsed onto the couch. 

The day before, I had gone to the Al Jazira complex to get internet. I ended up going with Viva because it seemed like the best deal at the time. However, I had managed to somehow forget about the Zain tower RIGHT NEXT to our darn villa. Dang. Anyway, we had internet so we could at least use the computers and not be completely bored out of our minds.

I also had to schedule our HHG delivery once it finally arrived. Fortunately, it was not too long after moving in.  Our stuff actually arrived before a friend's stuff that had even been packed BEFORE ours! Certainly do not know how it worked out that way but, hey, I'm not complaining.

From there, the movers unpacked and re-assembled EVERYTHING and even got it to the correct room (for the most part.) Wow. We always knew they could do this but had never taken advantage of it with stateside moves. Now, our movers will never be getting off easy again! I don't have to un-pack anything and it will be even more glorious than not having to move ourselves! They took the boxes and packing material when they left and while our house was definitely dirty and needing cleaned again, our stuff was there and I could begin to make it feel like home.

Helpful Websites For Living Overseas: Places That Will Ship to FPO!

We may not have been here (Bahrain) very long but it did not take me long to figure out I could not get everything I wanted on the local market and especially at a reasonable price! Yes, some stuff is insanely cheap, which I love, but there are some things that just are not worth the price on them!  Over the last few months I have found a few very helpful websites which will ship to FPO addresses and some are even free or free with a minimum order. I am sure the list will continue to grow as we live here but so here is what I have so far:

Walmart.com
You can get most of your dry good needs taken care of here! The best part is that you can typically get free shipping for spending just $50.00, which, believe me, is not hard to do! If you don't qualify for the free shipping it is still extremely cheap and so worth it! I have found that there are a few very random items that cannot be shipped here (Bahrain) for either size restrictions on FPO boxes or other unknown reasons. Typically your estimate delivery time will be anywhere from 1 week to 1 month away but my stuff has almost always gotten here within a week! Crazy fast!

Amazon.com
How did we ever live before Amazon? I mean really...You can seriously buy anything there! I have, so far, ordered some crafty stuff, stuff for our wedding invites, books, movies, and even an external hard drive since being here and not only does stuff get here fast, but my Amazon Prime membership has already paid for itself at least twice over because of the free shipping! It is almost always worth it to pay the few extra dollars for something that qualifies for Prime instead of ordering something that does not even thought it might be cheaper. I actually just ordered 10 different TV seasons today with my husband so we shall see how soon they get here!

Usgrocer.com
For those things you cannot get from Walmart that you just HAVE to have. The prices are a little higher, but you do get free shipping with no minimum order. They have daily specials as well. I found a few things I wanted that walmart was out or just simply did not offer online. Certainly will not be using it for my regular grocery shopping but only the items I cannot find elsewhere and cannot live without.

OldNavy.com
Oh how I love Old Navy. They have such cute stuff and always have great sales going on!

HobbyLobby.com
I cannot tell you how thrilled I was when I figured this out! I could get all my acrylic paint shipped to me and didn't have to pay the crazy out-in-town prices!

Autozone.com
For all of your car part needs when you can't find what you need locally or it is some kind of ridiculous price! They had fast shipping and their customer service was relatively helpful when we had an issue. Also, they were very quick to resolve mistakes with our order.


I know there are other wonderful websites that will ship to FPO as well but these were the ones I used most often! 99% of the time I could get what I wanted from Amazon and that made the Prime membership pay for itself in only a few orders. It was wonderful!

Planning Our First Dinner Party!

For Navy Officers there is this thing called the ward room. It is to keep morale up and get these crazy people to socialize in something other than a work setting! (There is SOOOO much more to it as well but, eh, we will go with basics (off ship) here.) It allows them to relax and have a good time and hopefully not have to talk or think about work! This, of course, doesn't always happen but they can still have a good time.

Getting a Place to Live......It Doesn't Always Work Out as Planned!

So, as it sometimes goes, the first place we had chosen to live fell through. This happened for multiple reasons:

1. I was never truly in love with the whole place, just really the master bedroom closet =)
2. The landlord was not only not willing to negotiate almost anything on our list (which we were fine
     fine with), but he also did not want us moving the furniture around. Um, hello? Who does that?!
3. Our realtor showed us two perfect places after we found out about the "no moving furniture" thing!

Corpus Christi, Texas & Surrounding Areas

The trip from Pensacola, FL to Corpus Christi, TX really is not all THAT long in the grand scheme of things but it sure seemed to go on forever. The drive is 733 miles following I-10 and it takes 12 hours.

Along the way we stopped in Mobile, Alabama to see the USS Alabama, the resident Battleship turned museum/tourist attraction. It was pretty awesome to see the ship along with the memorials they have outside of it. We couldn't stay long though because we had our little man, Iccabod, in the truck with us. It was worth the stop though!

So You're Going to Live in Bahrain....? You Can Negotiate Your Lease!

So before we ever got to Bahrain, I had been told how renting here was different than in the states. You can negotiate what a landlord provides for you! Now I’m not talking, ‘Hey, we lived here for a year already and if you make our rent go up $100 then we are leaving,’ type of negotiating. No. I am talking, ‘Hey, a 55-70” LED HD SMART TV would sweeten the pot,’ kind of negotiating. Crazy, right? I think it might be because so many people decide not to bring their entire household with them an just put a good amount into storage. Unfortunately, for us, we did bring almost our entire household and only put a few things into storage. So we will have lots of extras that we either can't use because they are not dual voltage or just won't have room (unlikely though). We mostly asked for stuff we don't really have anyway.

Moving to the Middle East: Manama, Bahrain!

So we knew when we got to San Diego that we would both eventually be PCSing to Manama, Bahrain. Both my husband and I were very excited for this because this now meant we wouldn’t have to spend 6 months together and 6 months apart. Much better that I get to stay with my husband and only miss him a few weeks at a time rather than several months.

Our Newest Addition {Save a Life: Adopt a Shelter Pet Today!}

     My husband and I both grew up with plenty of critters in our lives. Back in Indiana, at our parents' homes, he has 2 dogs and a cat while I have at my dad's 10 horses, 4 dogs, and 10+ barn cats and at my mom's 4 dogs and 1 cat. Yes, that's a lot of critters! I also grew up with an even wider variety from corn snakes to iguanas to tanks full of fish. I was very fortunate to have parents that loved animals as much as I did and allowed me to save all the strays I brought home.

Pensacola, Florida & Surrounding Area: What To Do, Where To Go

     Ok, so my husband was only in Pensacola for around 5 months and he did NOTHING except study and go out to eat with friends a few times. Crazy man did not have a social life...at all. Well, while I was there the two times I visited and the few weeks when I moved there before moving to Texas, I made that man get out and DO things! We were in FLORIDA and I wanted to make the most of it!

Planning Our DIY Wedding From Another State(s)

After my husband and I got engaged we decided to have a courthouse wedding. We wanted to have the benefits of being married since we were already living together and planning to get married anyway. We always had plans to have our "big" wedding in the future.