Creepy, crawly critters and other observations

Well, we have officially been here for one week. It feels MUCH longer than that! I'm actually surprised and quite pleased with all that we have accomplished in one week. We heard back from the realtor and it looks like we were approved for the house! She is just contacting the owner about a few things. We will probably be able to move in soon. We enrolled Jenna in school today too. She will start on Monday. It feels good to have those things taken care of. Now, we just need to get the house settled and then I can get my resume updated and start looking for jobs! The fun never ends! :) One thing that I have noticed is all of the critters roaming about. I guess in the past I was always gone somewhere so I didn't notice all of them. There are chickens everywhere! They love to cackle or crow or whatever it is that they do...VERY early in the morning! It's very annoying! There are geckos everywhere too. They're kind of cute and I don't think that they do any harm. They just startle you every once in a while when they dart across the wall. I'm told that the tan colored ones are native to Hawaii and they are being "attacked" by the green colored ones. The green ones were brought into Hawaii from Bangledesh, and they are aggressive towards the tan ones. They don't hurt humans though, so I guess I won't worry about it. There are a lot of creepy, crawly critters that I could do without! There are ants, millipeds, ants, fruit flies, ants, roaches, ants, and really big, ugly spiders all over the place!! Mom, it would drive you crazy! The ants are always, always everywhere you look! In the kitchen of course, but also in the bathroom, living room, and bedroom. I'm not sure why, but they are everywhere!!! It's a very good incentive to always have the kitchen cleaned up, or else you risk having the entire colony in your house! The spiders are huge and creepy! There are lots of the yellow and black garden spiders that spin HUGE webs. The webs are actually kind of cool to see, except of course when you WALK into it and it gets in your face! I'm learning to pay attention to where I'm going when I walk through Gus's plants in the backyard. The absolute worst ones are the BIG, really BIG, really fast, black spiders that move so fast you'd think they have a hundred legs!! Fortunately I've only seen one so far, but I've seen them other times when we have been here and it still creeps me out!! OK, enough about the critters! On to other things. In case you were wondering, a gallon of gas is about $4.50 a gallon. I've seen it a little less than that a few times. A gallon of milk costs...ready for this?...$7.00 a gallon!!! Isn't that crazy?? Groceries definately cost A LOT more here than in Wisconsin. I'm hoping to shop at local farmer's markets and buy in bulk to save a little money. Unfortunately, it's just something that we are going to have to get used to. The sun sets at about 6:30 or 7pm and it is completely dark soon after that. That's kind of hard to get used to, but we also have beautiful sunsets over the ocean every night too. It's a trade off, I guess. I love reading your comments and emails. Thanks for your interest in my babbling about our lives. It makes us feel closer to everyone, even though there are many miles between us. So until next time...aloha!