Home Is Pensacola

Target Shopping 10/17/2011

2011-10-17T07:38:00.000-10:00

1st Transaction
Dove Shampoo Conditioner $3.49 x 4
Q B1G1 X 2

Bought 4, so I got a $5 gc back.

Retail = 18.96 OOP after gc and tax = 2.66

2nd Transaction
Vaseline Lotion $2.99 x 4
Q $2 off 2 x 2

Bought 4, so I got a $5 gc back.

Retail = 16.96 OOP after gc and tax = 3.49

3rd Transaction
Axe Bodywash $3.49 x 4
Target Q $1 off 1 X 4
Manu Q $3 off 2 X 2

Sensodyne Toothpaste $.99 X 2
Q $1 off 1 X 2

Q tips $2.69 X 4
Q $1 off 1 X 4

Bought 4, so I got a $5 gc back.

Retail = 26.70 OOP after gc and tax = 8.11

Total Retail with tax = 65.73 Total OOP with tax = 13.16 savings of 80%

So I spent more than I told you Megan, but still not too shabby!

More random food ramblings

2011-08-26T07:44:00.001-10:00

First of all I went to the store and made sure I bought my multigrain tortilla chips to eat with salsa. I came home, put all the groceries away, fed the baby and laid her down for nap, prepared to make salsa and alas I forgot the flippin' tomatoes. Grrr. And then I was kicking myself for not buying any hummus so I could at least dip SOMETHING. So I made myself actually eat a sandwich, not just the lunch meat like I usually do. I started buying Ezekiel bread because it's supposed to be so much better for you than even the 100% whole wheat stuff, but every time I've tried it with previous to today it just tasted healthy. Come on, you know what "healthy" tastes like. Not horrible gag me, but not good either. I couldn't find the sugar free bread that is my usual purchase, so I was stuck with this stuff that I need to eat and get out of my fridge anyway. Apparently you can make some mock french toast and a whole bunch of other stuff out of it, but I just wanted a turkey sandwich! So, I toasted it until it was uber crunchy, threw a little mayo on it so it wasn't completely bland and dry, the turkey, and then I cut up a green pepper to eat on the side. Can I just say best.turkey.sandwich.ever! I'm very excited I didn't give up on the Ezekiel bread and finally found it appetizing :)

Anyway, this is what the product looks like, and you can find it in the freezer section at your grocery store or possibly the organic freezer section. I know our Walmart Supercenter does not carry it, and I have to either buy it at Publix or the commissary. I avoid Winn Dixie like the plague so I am not sure what they carry.

Have a happy Friday and uneventful weekend! Hope this hurricane fizzles out.

2011-08-25T16:43:00.000-10:00

Surgery is scheduled, they did a bunch of blood work on him today, and he has to go back in next week for additional blood work. I hope in the end it's all a precaution, and that it ends up just being gall stones flat out period. He's going to be home with me until the procedure, and goodness I love that man but he's invading my territory. I stay home with the kids and enjoy having the house to myself. I can't clean and crash around and make noise, I can't blare the stereo and watch trashy TV during nap time, and I'm always afraid he's going to catch me eating the things that both of us know I should not be eating...but I do it anyway.

Other than that I have a serious Sudoku addiction going on right now. I refuse to buy more than a book a week for my Nook, and I hit my quota for this pay period within 4 days. So Sudoku it is. I've mastered the easy level in just over 14 minutes. I can solve the extreme, but I don't have an hour to sit there with one puzzle. The easy ones are good to sit down on a break and do. Yes, I'm a huge dork but I honestly think it's helping my brain function quicker. And since I just started reading again after a summer of nothing, I missed how my vocabulary always picks up when I'm actively reading. I know these words and they are always on the back of my tongue, but I can't spit them out and end up saying, well you know what I mean. Doh.

Enough of my stupidisms for the evening I guess!

I'm not Giada

2011-08-25T07:08:00.000-10:00

And I'm 100% sure I'm not Italian, but I am capabale of making a meat sauce for my spaghetti from scratch. Sometimes it's just more convenient to buy jarred sauce. Like when you are leaving the gym at 5:00 pm and have to get home and get dinner cooked and served by 6, but have to stop by the store first because you have nothing to make a complete meal at home. You can turn your nose up in the air, but the kids will eat it and that's all I care about! I've done well in the past couple of years with limiting certain foods from our house completely, only buy whole grain breads and pastas, and try really hard to buy things that don't contain HFC. Now, I'm narrowing that down even further and trying to eliminate partially hydronated crap and anything related to sugar if I can help it. So when I was reading labels in the 5 minutes I had to run in the store, purchase jarred sauce, and head home, I found this brand I hadn't tried. Organic and made with agave nectar instead of sugar, and tastes fabulous to boot. Just thought I'd throw a name drop for anyone with similar food habits.

Organicville Marinara! Threw some cooked ground white turkey in it and over whole wheat pasta. It was a little more expensive (like $2 more a jar) but I guess that's the price you pay for health. What I pay at the store I won't spend in future medical payments hopefully.

I kicked the habit!

2011-08-24T08:36:00.000-10:00

That is my horrible Starbucks habit. So much money wasted that should be going to pretty shoes. I had a coupon for the Starbucks Via ready brew. So yes, I kicked one 'Bux habit for another, but this one is cheaper and healthier! It's lightly sweetened instant ice coffee. Not sweet enough for me so I add a packet of Truvia in with it when I'm mixing. I pour half into my reusable 'Bux tumbler, add ice and then a splash of unsweetened vanilla almond milk and viola! Better than the real thing on many accounts.

On another note, Richard and I have both been doing a lot of thinking about our futures in light of some recent events. He's got a strong idea about what path he's going down that we will benefit from military or civilian. But I'm at a stand still. I know I need to go back to school. Addison won't be home forever, and well I like having my own money to spend on needless crap. I like the idea of teaching so I can have my summers off with the kids, but do I really want to be a teacher? I like the idea of being a nurse, because one thing I've learned as my stint as a stay at home mom for the past 6 years is that I don't belong behind a desk, and it would be a good transferable career to follow Richard around the world. And then I also like the idea of getting a degree in nutrition since I've become mildly obsessed with food and fitness. BUT and it's a big but...how do I get this done as a stay at home mom with a husband that has a demanding irregular work schedule??? Online would be the best answer, but finding the perfect online school is like finding a needle in a haystack.

2011-08-12T07:10:00.000-10:00

I'm not sure anyone really reads this anymore and I'm tired of posting random thoughts on facebook so I'm just going to start rambling here. With or without pictures. So, here it goes. We went shopping this morning for a small list of school supplies. School supply shopping with an 18 month old is my hell I believe. She wants, she screams, she throws things, she stands up in the cart, she screams when I make her sit down, she needs to hold the pencils, and on and on. Then I couldn't find the plastic pronged folders Gillian needs because the stupid supply list has "duo-tang" folders listed. I didn't know what the crap "duo-tang" was so I didn't buy any when we were out buying stuff before. Now my poor baby doesn't have plastic folders. Oh well. We'll either find them or we won't and I won't let a stupid folder stress me out.

We came home for lunch and although I said I need to be better about what I eat after my parents left, I totally just ate a whole bag of butter popcorn with ranch seasoning. The girls are mad at me that I didn't share. Today at the gym is chest, abs and cardio which will be interesting considering I can barely walk two days after leg day. I always kill it on leg day, and I always pay for it for days. Addison kept throwing stuff on the ground at Target and I looked like an 80 year old bending over to pick it up.

Not much else going on here. It's Florida tax free weekend and Richard said he was going to the mall with us. It might kill him. And if it doesn't kill him, then at the least he will probably make a lifelong protest of shopping. He's already allergic.

There's Nothing To Do In Pensacola

2011-04-05T18:28:00.000-10:00

Yep, nothing to do here at all. I sit and watch my plants grow. Look. The jasmine bush is growing new buds!

And I cut a branch off to transplant and start a new bush. It's growing new buds too.

But in all honesty, Richard and I heard that out of someone's mouth on Sunday night when we took the girls out for dinner. And we've heard it multiple times from other random people. Really? There is a ton to do here. There is more to do than we have time for the most part. Our next door neighbor, who is retired Army, also happens to be part of the Jazz Society here. He was telling us about the Jazzfest that they put on, and Richard offered to throw some soldiers his way for volunteer work. Richard headed down there early Saturday morning to make sure everyone was doing their job, and the girls and I headed down that afternoon after a certain stinkpot's morning nap. We got there just in time to eat some lunch (gyro nom nom) and for the children's jam. The big girls grabbed a seat and patiently waited for a few minutes.

Then they started handing out kazoos.

And then they were given some really nice harmonicas.

As you can probably imagine the amount of noise all those kids were creating, the girls couldn't hear the direction the group leader was giving. They finally asked if they could be done after sitting there for about half an hour. We walked over a few hundred feet and made a bracelet.

After they were pleased with what they had made, we decided to take a walk around and look at the arts & crafts tents. We found one artist in particular that we were absolutely in love with his work. We took his card in hopes to purchase something in the future. His name is Sidney Carter. You can take a look yourself at his work athttp://www.sidneycarter.net/home. In the meantime, the girls posed by a fountain so you can see that Addy was there with us. She just had to be strapped down.

We did a once over on all the tents and then decided to take a walk around the Seville area.

A few pictures from the historic village.

And this is Seville Quarter. We were supposed to have date night there that very evening to watch Senses Fail play. The Reggaefest would've just been an added bonus. No babysitter equals no fun for mom and dad.

Oh and Daddy! Looky what we found :)

Richard stopped in and grabbed a glass of IPA that he was pleased with. The tour is on during your next visit!

We then came home to relax after a long day of walking around and me flinging poo around the park (a story for another time). Late that evening after dinner we got a knock on our door and it was the neighbors from across the street with this.

A cherry cobbler dump cake. They came to say thanks because Richard had helped pull a different neighbors dog off of her a few weeks back. She had been bitten pretty bad, and I'm really sad to say if he hadn't ran out there I don't know how bad the incident could have gotten.

So people, morale of the story is there isn't anything to do in Pensacola if you don't want to do anything in Pensacola. Geez, drive 5 minutes down the road and go to the flippin beach.

Yummy Dinner - Grilled Bruschetta Chicken

2011-03-31T17:54:00.000-10:00

We have usually eaten pretty well in our house, well that is when I cook. Which I've gotten better about it and we don't eat out that often anymore at all. Every weeknight I'm guaranteed to cook and maybe once on the weekend we eat out. With all this actual cooking I'm trying to divise a better system to meal planning and making grocery lists. And of course in the midst of that, because it wasn't enough work, I decided I wasn't actually cooking as healthy as I could be cooking. So, ignore the statement about my organizational skills because this has nothing to do with that. I was searching blogs and websites and magazines for healthy dinner recipes that didn't take fifty million years to cook with fifty million ingredients that would make my grocery bill fifty million dollars. And you know what I found? So called "healthy" recipes that still call for all-purpose flour, butter, bacon, cheese, sugar, etc. I'm slightly disgusted that our society coins these ingredients as healthy which leads the majority of our nation believing that they are eating better and being healthy when they truly are not. I will step off my soap box because I love me a big ol' biscuit with tons of butter and honey, but I'm not disillusioned to think that I'm eating healthy because I've concocted it to be less than 200 calories. Again, off my soapbox.

A few weeks ago I pinned a recipe on pinterest that was bruschetta chicken. I was too lazy to go back to pinterest today to get the recipe, but spent painstaking minutes trying to find a recipe similar (See my delima with life? I'm lazy and make things harder on myself than need be. As Richard tells me all the time, work smarter Audrey, not harder.). What I ended up writing down had nothing to do with the orginal recipe I saved, so I winged it and what I came up with Gillian said I could call a keeper.

Ingeredients:

1 lb of boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 large tomatoes, seeded and diced
3 T basil chopped
minced garlic. I think 2 cloves. I dunno, I never measure garlic.
Grated Parmesan cheese
2 T olive oil, divided
salt and pepper to taste.

I pulled out my grill pan and glazed it with a half the olive oil and preheated it. S&P the chicken to taste. Once pan is heated toss the chicken on and cook until done.
In the meantime, cut and seed tomato. Dice tomato. Roll and chop basil. Add basil and garlic (mince if need be, but I used my nifty fav of all time squeeze garlic). Drizzle with the remaining olive oil and S&P. Mix together. When the chicken is done, remove from heat and dust with grated parm. Serve smothered in the tomato mixture.

Not sure of the calorie count, but it's got to be pretty low considering the recipe I tweaked was around 180 per serving and it included flour, butter, egg substitute and bread crumbs. I served it with roasted petite red potatoes that I halved, brushed in EVOO, S&P and threw in the oven for 30 minutes. I actually had my dinner for leftovers because of a meeting I had to run out the door for and it was just as amazing. I need to be sure to keep this for a regular rotation. Sorry for the lack of pictures!

Lorelei of the Sea

2011-03-30T06:39:00.001-10:00

When I was in high school I had an Eagle Eye Cherry cd, and on it was a song called "When Mermaids Cry" about a mermaid named Lorelei. Ever since I've had a secret obsession with mermaids and went as far as wanting to name Gillian, Lorelei. Richard veto'd and I've never tried to name one of the girls that since (and the reason being I have a nice "theme" going...and every child he's veto'd my top choice saying I'm trying to name an 80 year old woman), but I still have a secret love of mermaids and the name Lorelei. Did I mention the first baby item I purchased for Gillian was a blanket from Gymboree that is covered in mermaids?? And she still sleeps with it.

A few months ago I started a mixed media painting. I wasn't sure what direction I was going with it until I had a few of the pieces just click into my mind that they looked like the intricate detailing that could belong on a mermaid's tail. Once I formed Lorelei, I put her away and have either been too busy or no creative juice flowing to play with her. That is until this week happened upon us. It was supposed to rain all week and I haven't been feeling the greatest. I've only left the house by choice once, and that's because we had no food. So here she is.

I wish my camera took better pictures so that you can see the detail the way I see. Guess if I'm going to keep painting I'll have to employ Megan to take pictures for me.

I say she's done, but that probably isn't a whole truth. I said she was done yesterday and I've gone back in and added a ton more detail. Gillian asked me yesterday afternoon where her belly button was. I responded by asking her if mermaids had belly buttons. Since this is going in her room I obliged and gave Lorelei a belly button. I'm also thinking I may want to go in and throw an antiquing glaze over her to add interest. That would require me getting dressed and leaving the house though, and that interests me right now as much as watching paint dry. Literally.

Working for the Weekend

2011-03-27T17:36:00.000-10:00

Richard has put in a lot of hours at work lately, so Addison and I decided to head down to his office to catch a few minutes with him one afternoon. Some nights he is lucky if he gets to see her for five minutes before she heads to bed, so I take small opportunities to go to him for her sake.

We weren't in the office long before she started making herself way to comfortable. She began pulling books off of shelves and running into the other offices. Of course none of the soldiers mind, and they think she's adorable, but I booked it out of there before she stirred up too much trouble. Now that she's walking(running) I try to let her walk instead of carrying her if the area is safe enough. She found the stairs on the way to the car. We don't have these at home.

And this is the random picture of a Blue Angel flying by the house. It really is no where close to being overhead but it's loud enough to feel like it's in the house with you.

We all loaded up in the car on Friday night and headed out to buy a powerwasher. We have major concrete areas due to the pool in the backyard and the front sidewalks were just disgusting with caked in dirt. Saturday afternoon Richard started to powerwash and the girls and I decided it was warm enough to try out the pool.

Winnie went swimming too.

All the meanwhile poor Daddy worked.

And I'm sure right now you are thinking, you said you went swimming, but there aren't any swimming pictures. That dang baby is impossible to coral next to the water. I couldn't have the camera taking pictures and keep her from drowning at the same time. I have to work on my strategy.
We finished off the night by setting up the Wii outside and playing Just Dance next to the pool in the dark. Gillian said she is going to start using it as her after school work out. I think these girls are going to grow up not knowing that they have a choice whether or not they exercise. Of course, towards the end of the night I was the only one dancing and R+girls were back in the pool. I didn't get any pictures of the night because my camera stinks in that setting.
Today I took the girls' to Perdido Kids Park for a birthday party. It was blazing hot and all I could think about was coming home to get back in the pool.

I once again failed at taking any actual pool pictures, so I made them get back in for me.

I love this picture even though I cut Gigi's head off.

G jumps far,

Nenna jumps high,

and Winnie cowers under the lounge chair because I keep throwing her in the pool.

And poor Richard...still cleaning.

Hopefully this fixes my lack of big girl pictures from the past few weeks! It's supposed to rain alllll week. Blah. Not that I should complain because most of my family and friends are STILL dealing with snow. So, if I don't blog for a while that's why. I'm doing a lot of reading and watching movies at home in my downtime and letting Addy run wild in nothing but a diaper the other 15 hours of the day.

Dining Chair Re-Up

2011-03-25T17:41:00.000-10:00

Back when Richard first joined the army he bought me a beautiful dining room table and chairs with part of his enlistment bonus. I love(d) this table, but I've always had conflicting feelings toward the chairs. #1 the seats are upholstered. #2 I wasn't crazy about the fabric choice on the chairs, they just really didn't reflect my personal style at all. We've moved several times now and have been through the red dirt of Hawaii and the gritty black sand of Arizona. The outside elements take a toll on your upholstery believe it or not. I attempted to oxyclean the upholstery about a year ago and it helped for a while, but then the fabric started looking dingy again.

I bought some fabric a while back on major discount that I had intentions of using as roman shades in the breakfast nook. Months later and it was still sitting in my laundry room on a shelf with the rest of my fabric remnants. All the sudden yesterday I had an epiphany that I could use this fabric to recover my chairs! I started off with one chair and I loved the result, but then started thinking I wanted more. I didn't want to tire of the same fabric overwhelming all six chairs. I played around with a few schemes with Megan over @. I finally decided to go with the flow of one pattern for every two chairs. I love the end result.

Here's the before picture of what the chairs look like straight from the manufacturer plus a few years of dirt, grim, and kids spilling stuff on them.

And after 2 days of pulling and stapling and running out of staples and buying four sets of the wrong size of staple, here is the end result.

And the fabric up close.

See the peacock and hummingbird??? This is the original fabric. I bought it because of those details. I love it!

^This one is on the two chairs with the arms. I like the pattern a lot but wasn't sure it was good to stick with my birdy friends allll the time, so it went on the two chairs that get stuck in another room occassionally.

And just a simple print to pull it all together.

I think I'm going to take the scraps from the three and attempt to make a table runner out of them. Or maybe some wall art?? I dunno. Guess you can't know if I don't!

And just for your viewing pleasure, what happens when Mommy is busy decorating the house....

They were all over my house. I was finding them at 4 o'clock when I do a one last clean up in preparation for daddy to come home from work. Oh well, there are worse things for her to be playing with, huh?

I can't wait to share some other projects I am either working on or have formed in my head. In the meantime I'm going to attempt to take some pictures of those other two kids that live with me this weekend.

New Friends

2011-03-23T04:51:00.000-10:00

Being in this strange situation as far as the Army goes, with such a small company occupying a naval base, making friends as a spouse can be difficult to say the least. Finally after sitting here for months, lots of random trips to the mall, craft stores and Target I decided I needed to meet other moms. I joined a playgroup and was fortunate enough to have a few moms reach out to me on a personal level and not just the regular group setting. I'm thankful for these women even if I don't see them on a daily or even weekly basis. They help me keep my sanity. A(mommy) and S(baby) are Addison and my friends that we play with during the day while big sisters are at school. After meeting we discovered that we actually occupied space in Sierra Vista at the same time, but never met. We've attended a lot of the same playgroups together and have done a few things out on our own without the playgroup.

Here is picture of Addison from a playgroup at the beach. We got together with a group of moms at Blue Angel Recreation Center. It's a private military campground/beach/paintball/disc golf/playground kinda place.

I took her bathing suit but never changed her in to it. It started out way chillier than expected. I forget that the temp drops a good five degrees the closer to the water you are. Didn't really matter though, because she refused to go close to the water. She just wanted to sit in the sand and steal other people's snacks. I literally had to pull her off some person we don't know's blanket five times because she was trying to get into her cheez-it box.

Yesterday, A(mommy) texted me and asked if we wanted to drive down to NAS Pensacola with her and S(baby) to watch the Blue Angels practice because they are finally back in town. Loaded the girls up and drove down there only to have practice cancelled due to visibility. We decided to let the girls go inside the Naval Aviation Museum to run some energy off so it wasn't a totally wasted trip.

Addison inside the miniature aircraft carrier.

She isn't quite ready as far as her motor skills go to move the cars around the map, but she was diligently working on it.

Addy and S(baby) deciding which way to have their moms chase them. I love how only the stroller is in focus.

I guess she needed a break.

We went upstairs to kill more time until lunch. I hadn't visited this section of the museum when Mom and Dad were down here at Thanksgiving. All we really looked at during that visit were airplanes. I think we actually missed the part of the museum the bigger girls would enjoy. I'm marking it down as a place to keep them busy during spring break.

She had to be wrangled at this point. She was getting tired and I was getting hungry. Too much work for me to chase her. And we have a molar on the verge of busting through. Hence the hand in the mouth ALL the time.

We ended the morning at the Hip Pocket Deli off of Barrancas Ave for lunch. Richard had visited it a few weeks ago when he had a work lunch and gave it rave reviews. You truly could drive right past it and never know...I almost did even though I was looking for it. I wish I remembered to take a picture of it so I can show you exactly what I mean by hole in the wall. But it was freaking amazing. Best gyro I've eaten. Again cash only (I had to run across four lanes of traffic to an ATM), only open for lunch the hours of 10-2 and most of the sandwiches/pitas are $7 with drinks costing $1. They only had one highchair and a couple of boosters so that made lunch with Addy and S(baby) interesting. It reminded me kinda of Maui Mikes for my Hawaii ladies. Not much to the place and heavily military influenced. I will be returning as often as my wallet and waistline allow me.

Spring has Sprung

2011-03-22T11:10:00.000-10:00

Richard and I have been spending a lot of time outside the past few weekends trying to get the yard and pool in order to enjoy with the warmer weather. We've worked our hinneys off and it's starting to pay off already I'd like to think. A few weeks ago we went to Home Depot to talk to the garden center about plants. We wanted to know what would thrive in our yard and what did best with little care because Richard is so busy and I'm kind of a space cadet about feeding anything other than my children. The worker in the garden center said that their Spring Expo would be on March 19th and we should wait until then to buy any plants. They'd have the Easter bunny and be serving lemonade (sold the kids!) and cheesecake topped with blueberries (sold me!). So, we packed up the crew and headed there to get out business done and had the kids picture taken with the Easter Bunny. Best family picture to date.

We then returned home to get to work again. The previous weekend we hacked down a yellow jessamine that had claimed the fence as hers and was swallowing it whole. It's now a big pile of sticks. It's already sprouting new vines, so we bought a few plants to place in front of it in the meantime so it's not a big eye sore of a stick pile. If someone knows if we need to cut it back more please let me know. Richard and I are not green thumbs and are winging it most of the time.

We also have this flower box that also serves as a waterfall for the pool. We had the yellow flowers above in it, but they were shedding into the pool and driving Richard crazy so I repotted them elsewhere and put a lot of different annuals in there that are smaller (for the time being).

These are supposed to die out in May, but they are doing really well right now! I put some Miracle Grow on them and the next day it looked like they had new 10 inch high shoots on them.

And here's the pool. I'm not sure I can ever live without one now.

And me by the pool with a well deserved beer after busting my butt all day.

Richard and Addison having a drink too.

And Addison explaining to her Mommy the importance of sunscreen. Apparently I've missed that memo a few times

I know I'm failing as a mother to include all three of my children in this blog post, but the older two won't hang around me long enough for me to snap their pictures. Especially that middle one. She's always a giant blur.

Foley, AL

2011-01-19T09:27:00.000-10:00

Yesterday was an important day in the Overcast household. We also had the good luck that the big girls were off of school, so Richard came home from work early to take us to a late lunch. We started to drive down towards Perdido Bay to find a restaurant and also to grab some sand off the beach for the girls hermit crabs. Only once we had driven for about 15 minutes we realized we didn't take the right road and were no where close to being at Perdido Beach. On a whim I told Richard, that the outlets should only be another 10 minutes down the road in the direction we were heading so we could just do that instead. So we headed further into Alabama towards Foley and the outlets. And guess where we ate!?!?

Home of the throwed rolls! I was so happy we finally found it. I got my birthday dinner at a place that reminded me of home. Nothing could be better! Just a note of caution to anyone planning on eating there, they do not accept debit or credit cards. For your convenience there is an ATM right in the entrance, but it was still kind of a 'say what?' moment.

And of course, because I planned on taking a bunch of pictures, my camera battery died. This was the last horrible picture I took until I was able to get home and charge it.

Anyway, they have giant rolls the size of your head that they throw at you from across the restaurant. On top of whatever you order (which is plenty I might add, I had enough on my plate to last me three meals), they walk around with what they call pass arounds. The fried okra was my main reason for wanting to go and I got some bygosh!

The waitress was sweet and talking to the baby, and of course the baby was flirting right back. In this process, she asked how old she was which the husband responded with the fact that it was her birthday...and mine. Next thing I know, she's on the loud speaker announcing to the whole restaurant that it's our birthday's and she's 1 and I'm 30. Gee thanks lady. Lucky I'm secure with that number! But, as we were paying to leave with lots of leftovers, she plopped down a giant cinnamon roll the size of a dinner plate for us as a birthday gift and a bunch of balloons. I love walking around like a giant cinnamon roll eating circus.

Then we moved onto the reason for us visiting Foley to begin with, the Tanger Outlet mall. A dear friend had forewarned me about the tax being sky high and there being another fee on each purchase. For anyone else planning a visit there EVER, the tax is 9% state and then another .5% for city. I honestly would probably only shop there for unbeatable bargains and stores that we don't have here in Pensacola like GAP. The big girls got stocked up on jeans shorts for the summer at the Justice outlet and then a couple of other purchases that their daddy couldn't pass up. I sometimes think he likes playing dress up with them as much as I do.

I'd love to go back and visit Foley when the baby is in a better mood and when it's a tad warmer. The small town square that you turn into is all these amazing old brick buildings with little mom and pop shops. They gradually dissipate as you move closer to the outlets and chain restaurant/corporateville slowly pops up. It's only about a 30 minute drive from where I'm located, which isn't bad considering it's all highway and it takes me 20 minutes to get to the mall with stoplight after stoplight.

Quietwater beach and boardwalk

2011-01-17T11:06:00.000-10:00

We had a friend in town this past weekend, so we decided to drive down the Pensacola Beach for a late lunch/early dinner and do a little walking. It finally was above 50 degrees outside and figured it was warm enough to enjoy without coats. It was still a little chilly, but overall we had a fun time. Richard has now been to the Pensacola Beach Hooters at least three times that I know. I can't complain. I got snow crab legs and he took care of the baby so I could enjoy my food in peace; although I was a little disappointed that when I ordered crab legs that's all that I was served. Not that I was expecting more for the price, but I think the waitress should have warned that I would need a side order of something like a salad for it to be a complete meal. End rant! After our meal, we took a walk on the boardwalk and visited one of the shops. Most everything was closed being it was a Sunday afternoon in the middle of winter, but we made the most of it.

We took turns posing with the giant shell. I'm guessing that when it's warmer and more of the tourist season they probably have a band play here.

Then we took a gum break.

This is the view going down the boardwalk into the bay.

And out in the middle of the bay looking towards the strip of hotels and condos.

One big happy family.

Walking back to the car.

One screw shy of a full toolbox

2010-08-03T18:48:00.002-10:00

Hi. Yes, it's really me. Where have I been you ask? I am not really sure or prepared to answer that question. It really is a broad question. So, I've been absent for 11 months give or take a few days. I am no long in Hawaii and am now a resident of Arizona. I've added a child to our family. My husband was broken and is now healed (which is really the majority of the reason for my absence). I've visited Phoenix to see an old friend and gone home to Kansas City for a few weeks to visit my amazing family. I've lost all my time for creating and painting and have replaced it with taking care of a baby and couponing. Piglet has lost a few teeth and broken her arm again. Ladybug has grown like a weed and will start kindergarten next week. So, in a nutshell not a whole lot has happened in the last year in blogging standards, but at the same time my world has been turned upside down and shaken vigorously and then turned right side up like a snow globe.

I promise to keep you in the loop this time. Every tiny boring aspect of my life. I'm awesome at saying it, but can I do it? That is the question. If nothing else I'll post all my coupon and freebie finds here.

And for your viewing pleasure, the most recent addition to our family - Boobah!

Who's Got Twinkle Toes???

2009-08-01T17:26:00.002-10:00

We do we do we do!!! Some of you know I was on an island wide monster search for these teeny tiny shoes. I could find them everywhere, but never in Gillian's size. I had also come to the conclusion when I was looking for them that they weren't made for bitty feets like Brenna's. So, with a little girl's whiney request I started my search online for them. I mean how can an almost six year old start first grade without shiny sparkley things on her feet? To begin with I found the black one's very quickly at the never fails me Zappos.com. My mom then calls no joke five minutes later to ask me what size shoes the girls wear because she found them online too. I told her not to worry about it because I just bought some for Gillian and that they didn't make them small enough for Brenna. Oh contrair! They do make them small enough for Brenna. So mom ordered the blue and pink sparkle toes for bitty feets. And then of course I of all people can't leave well enough alone, so I'm off looking around online and find the pink shoes. And OMG the sparkles are in the shapes of flowers...and they are sparkley all over. As the mom that wants to give my children everything that they want I ordered them too thinking that she could make her mind up when she saw them in person, and we'd send the extra pair back for a refund. They came a week and a half ago. Guess what I haven't done???? That's right, I'm still the proud owner of three pair of twinkle toes. Too bad my preggo feet are too big for them. I'm just so scared her feet are going to grow a mile a minute and that I just spent a small fortune on two pair of shoes she's going to be able to wear for a month.

In other news, Gillian starts school on Monday. I'm sitting here getting her prepared by labeling school supplies and doing a last minute check that I bought everything I was supposed to. Like the box of markers that I purchased that now clearly state that they are BOLD colors when her supply lists CLASSIC colors. Last year for her art projects I just sent in an old t-shirt of mine for her to wear over her clothes. She got so messy on some days though that the paint seeped through the thin material of the t-shirt. This year we decided that she needed an apron. We bought a plain denim one and jazzed it up a little bit. I figure even if she doesn't get much use out of it at school, it'll be fun for her to play in at home in her various make-believe worlds. I'm still thinking about sewing her a few out of fun material...maybe later on in the pregnancy when I get super bored and decide I just need something to do with my time.

And what blog would be complete without a picture of the kid that puts a smile on my face every day???

Boy am I going to be sad the day she decides to turn her attitude on me. So far I'm the only person immune to it :)

Happy 14 Weeks To Me!

2009-07-18T21:12:00.002-10:00

I'm finally officially in the second trimester. This pregnancy is dragging major butt. I don't have decent pregnancies to compare it to though. The first child that entered my world didn't inform me she was in there for almost the whole first trimester. The second child that took up residence in my uterus did so when I had a 9 month old to take care of. This go around I have completely self sufficient children to contend with and an absent husband. I'm not even wiping butts anymore...guess I counted my lucky stars too soon on that one.

The second trimester comes very bittersweet to me. For one thing I get to find out the gender of the baby in just a couple of weeks. Some are betting boy, some are girl. I have my own educated guess, but if you really are that interested in what I think it is you could just ask...or you could wait two weeks to find out the truth. We are ready to welcome a healthy baby, no matter the sex. Although I'm finding it hard to wrap my head around anything boy related...even names.

The bitterness. Evil pubic symphisis dysfunction. If you get grossed out easily by pregnant women and their bodily functions, please read no further. Pubic symphisis dysfunction or otherwise known as pelvic separation happens when your body prematurely excretes the hormone that allow your pelvis to separate and the baby's head to fit through the birth canal. Thus, your pelvic area starts to loosen and separates while you are still pregnant. I never had this wonderful side effect with G, but was blessed when I was pregnant with B. It's rearing it's ugly head again. Feeling the bones between your legs grinding into each other as you are shopping in the mall is not a pleasant experience. Neither is feeling your crotch pop as you are rolling out of bed in the middle of the night when your bladder is being smashed like a pancake. Throw in the severe back aches, the sharp pains running down your legs...getting the point? I hope so cause just writing about it is making me ache. So, it has kicked in already. No fair. No freaking fair.

Pity party for one please. Is it not hard enough that I have to parent both of the girls alone while Richard is away at school, grow this baby as good as possible, prepare for said baby, pack out our house, clean and clear our house, ship our car on a boat cross country, fly 4000 miles with the kids alone to meet my husband at 8 months pregnant..... But no. I have to do all of this that I had every intention of doing with a smile plastered on my face. I have to do all this, smiling, all the while my crotch bones are grinding and popping.

So is life. So is life.

Brenna's Got Bling!

2009-07-14T17:38:00.002-10:00

I took Brenna today to get her ears pierced while we were out doing her sister's school shopping. She was so excited as you can see above. I asked her multiple times if she was sure she was ready for this, and explained how it would hurt. She kept telling me it was okay, and that she was a big girl.

I knew I was in trouble when she said "OW" as the girl was marking her ears with the marker. There were no sharp pointy things anywhere near her. She cried...she cried for a long time. I wasn't prepared for it because her sister didn't shed a singe tear when I took her to have hers done last year and she is my crier. I was at least a nice mommy and took no pictures of her sobbing, but as you can tell she was not happy afterward.

She did want to show her daddy though that she got stars in her ears.

Now let's just hope she doesn't throw a fit when I make her clean them tonight! She won't let me touch them, so I may have to pin her down.

12 Weeks

2009-07-08T18:32:00.002-10:00

I don't think it looks like I've gotten much bigger after seeing this picture but I feel bigger! I'm definitely out of all of my regular jeans and am in dire need of buying more than the one pair of maternity jeans that I'm sporting right now. I've got a couple of selections sitting in "checkout" waiting for payday because I'm breaking down....the cheapest pair that I've picked out are $75. I cringe at that thought, but then I think...I'd spend that much on a normal pair of jeans to have a GOOD pair of jeans so why should now be any different? Especially when you buy so little for yourself because you will live in these clothes for such a short period of time, but the things you buy you wear the heck out of???

I get to go hopefully (fingers crossed) hear the heartbeat at my first official appointment with the doctor on Friday. I at that point will make a good guesstamation at the gender of the baby. Both of the girls had heartbeats around 140 or slightly higher. I know they say that the gender doesn't determine the heart rate while they are in the womb, that it takes a few weeks after they are delivered for it to change per sex, but if both my girls were the same then you would think there is a little truth to it right? Who knows. I guess all babies are different! I can still drive myself crazy though until August when I can officially find out :)

Time Flies When You're Having Fun (or sick)

2009-07-06T11:32:00.002-10:00

So, I'm not going to lie. I've been neglectful of my blog. Richard came home and tossed me up in a whirlwind of cuddling on the couch and we were in the middle of full blown t-ball season. That and getting a kid to and from school. We originally only planned on him being home for two weeks and it somehow stretched into two and a half months. I'm glad I had the time with him though. I get to play single parent and have a long distance phone relationship with the man I'm married to for the next five months. He'll get no more leave, so we just have to suck it up!

So here he is with the girls when we picked him up at the airport back in April.

It's amazing how you forget little things like the way they make you feel when they look at you when they are gone for so long. The separation stinks, but the reunions make for great reminders of why you fell in love in the first place.

Here we are the next day at Gillian's first official t-ball game.

See we look happy! This is because it's the week prior to me locking my purse in the trunk of my car along with my keys and my cell phone. How lucky was I that he was here and drove separately to the game that day. I never do stuff like that! I remembered why once I realized how infuriated with me he was ha ha.

Richard took the girls shopping...

They were so excited to wear their dresses and tell everyone that their dad picked them out for them. Richard was then (by no surprise to me) shocked to find out that Gillian got told dresses like that weren't allowed at school. Eh, I'll just stick a tank top under it from here on out.

This is Gillian at her May Day celebration at school.

They were sassy little mynah birds. Funny story about that. Only a week after this we actually had a mynah bird nesting in our exhaust fan duct in our half bath downstairs. That thing gave me the heeby jeebies and I wouldn't let the kids pee in there until it was removed. Yes I'm a freak, I know.

Gillian had water fun day at school.

We had to go out and specifically by one piece bathing suits for the girls because to my wondering eyes they only owned bikinis when I went searching. They allowed little brothers and sisters to join in the fun, and I think Brenna had just as much if not more fun that Gillian. It made her feel like a big girl, and she's all about being like her big sister right now!

Oh ya did I mention I'm pregnant???

That's what happens during reunions I guess ha ha. I'm 9 weeks there. I know people say "you shouldn't be showing yet" and "are you sure you aren't further along than that?" Yes, I know I in the worldly view not be showing yet, but I am. I get huge. I get huge fast. I'm short and have a small hip to rib cage ratio. I have big babies. And I'm sure I'm not further along than that because well...that would make me the Virgin Mary. Not possible. I'll try to scrub the grub off of me in a bit and take a 12 week picture in a few. I don't think I'm any bigger now, but who knows. Only the picture will tell!

We took a trip to the zoo.

We decided that our dog Winnie looks like a meerkat. I think we spent half an hour watching them dig for cool sand and guard. They really are fascinating little animals with hella long sharp little claws. I wouldn't want to be cornered by one of these little guys to put it lightly. They were awfully cute snuggling up on each other though. The girls were so intrigued with them and laughing at the resemblance to Winnie that Richard bought them each a stuffed meerkat at the zoo store on our way out of the gate.

And finally the fourth of July.

This is the girls with their friend Elizabeth. We had just dropped daddy off at the airport. He wouldn't allow me to take any goodbye pictures. I think he was too upset about leaving. It was a sad day for all of us. Gillian and I did have a little fun during the fireworks though playing with the camera.

I will be better about posting from here on out!

Hula Hoop

2009-03-08T23:44:00.001-10:00

Pretty much self explanitory...she's a rock star!

Baby's got a brand new bed

2009-03-08T14:50:00.002-10:00

After months of saying that I needed to buy Brenna a big girl bed I finally got around to it after Richard left. It's amazing the things I get accomplished when I have no wifely duty distractions. My mom purchased the bedding for her as her birthday present. The headboard was party of her crib and it has a matching footboard, but I think I'll probably just ditch them some time before we move and buy her a new one when we get to Kansas. The quality of the crib has been crap since we took it a part to put on the truck from Kansas City to Hawaii a little over three years ago. I'm totally disappointed in it since Gillian's lifetime crib is still doing it's lifetime purpose almost 6 years later.

I'm a little perplexed on how to totally accessorize the rest of the bed, but I'll get it figured out. I'm dying to finish off her room as the rest of it is bare bones (no curtains, etc), but I am attempting to behave and not spend unneccessary money on those kinds of things until we move into our next house. That way I can totally go all out and get it done right away without having to put things together piece by piece like I normally do.

If only I had the time, energy and money to give my own bedroom an overhaul.

Meow

2009-03-08T14:28:00.003-10:00

Yesterday was Gillian's school carnival. She hadn't expressed much interest in it until I started questioning her about it. She told me she didn't have time to go to it because her teacher was having a hair painting booth at the same time and that she needed to go get her hair painted. Too bad the kid didn't see the correlation between carnival and hair painting booth. Once I broke her the news that the hair painting booth was at the carnival I got asked every five mintues how long until we could go.

I got tired of hanging around the house and having them ask me questions so I decided maybe if we left and strolled around aimlessly somewhere then the time would go by faster for all parties involved. So where does a person go to waste time you ask? Target of course! It's just too bad that once we got there that whole section of Kapolei had lost power and they were running on back up generators. Shopping in a dark store with two whiney kids = no fun. We made that last as long as the kids and I could possibly stand it and then hit up Starbucks on the way to the carnival. And let me just say that I find it a good thing that they are starting to sell things like bananas to grab and snack on along with their other fattening pasteries. Makes making the right eating decisions easier when you have a banana sitting next to ooey gooey blueberry coffee cake.

So off to the carnival we go, oh and did I forget to mention that it freaking rained all day? Ya, not so sure why that didn't make much of a connection in my brain. We totally didn't dress properly to go stand in a wet muddy field during a Hawaiian barely there rain storm. Gillian had her platforms on and that's all I'm going to say about that. Oh and my new cute sandals are all grossed out now. Blah, whatever.

So like a good mommy who is totally over compensating in every way possibly because their daddy is 5000 miles away I gritted my teeth and bared through it. I bought them 40 tickets a piece and told them when the tickets were gone we would leave. Luckily the food booths and everything took tickets too so we honestly didn't have to do much to rid ourselves of the 80 tickets, except I didn't give much thought of how long it would take to get through a line. Only so many kids can get in a bouncer at one time, so you have to wait several minutes in that line to get a whole minute of jumping time in. It also didn't help that they only had four ladies in the face painting booth. Not a very smart move made by PTO or whoever set that shindig up. I'd say it was taking them an average of 8 minutes to paint on childs face. And of course every child there, with their miserable wet parents, under the age of 8 wanted their face painted.

We got through it though and the girls had a blast. Their joy at this point is the only thing that matters to me even though my Roxy jeans were soaked and muddy up to the mid point in my calf and I had loose pieces of wet grass sticking to my toes. They were so exhausted by the end of the night. As I was tucking Brenna in and saying my goodnights, I didn't have to warn her too many times to not get out of bed to get toys. I shut her light out and turned to go into Gillian's room to shut the blinds for her and to my surprise she was konked out already. I hadn't even noticed until I got no response when I asked if she wanted her fan on or off. It's just a shame that they didn't sleep in any longer than they normally do!

She blessed it within 30 minutes...

2009-02-18T14:22:00.002-10:00

I've been researching five point harness booster seats for both of the girls for about a week now. I have had both of them in a seat belt booster, but I'm beginning to get paranoid about them not being safe enough. That along with us having a lot of road time in our near future (most likely 4 hours a weekend until Richard comes home!) I decided I needed to bite the bullet and get the best of what I could find. I did a lot of research and ended up with this baby.

It's a Sunshine Kids Radian 80 in the color princess (I wanted the black and gray to streamline with my interior, but who can deny a four year old a pink flowery carseat???). It stands up well against the more popular Britax brand, but it has two things that made it worth purchasing over a Britax. #1 look at the base...see how skinny it is??? My little Honda's backseats sit like bucket seats. So every other carseat that I've tried in the back of this car wobbles trying to balance on the higher cushy parts of the seat. #2 The seat folds up against the back of the carseat so that it folds flat. Awesome for travel, needing to carry it though at airport (has straps for that too), fold it flat to allow more room in the car, or even to pull it out and fold it flat to stow in the trunk.

But, as the title of the blog tells you...this isn't the end of the story. Anyone who knows Diva knows she spews. Yep, we were all the way back from the one and only USA Baby on island sitting right outside of McNair gate when she started screaming that it was coming. Luckily we had just stopped for a happy meal on the way to pick G up from school so she had her little paper bag to barf in, but she slightly missed and got her new favorite dress coated along with a spot on her new carseat. Oh did I mention she got my actual car seat too that I just vacuumed and cleaned the upholstrey yesterday?? I should've known better. It's just like every time I wash my car it rains, or anytime I change the kids sheets after an overextended period they pee on the clean set the first night. I wonder why that ALWAYS happens????

Happy Love Day cough cough

2009-02-14T21:37:00.003-10:00

Today is Valentine's Day whooptie woo. The first we've been a part in three years...and I'm sick as a dog. I fought off this thing for two days with Zicam. It normally doesn't keep me from getting sick, but it definitely lessens the symptoms. Well, that lasted until last night, I am soo soo sick right now. But what can a girl do when she's at home alone taking care of her kids? March on as usual. I never get an oppurtunity to be sick even when he is home, but it's still nice to have someone here to run out and get you chocolate ice cream at eleven o'clock at night because your throat hurts.

Richard sent me a pajama gram, delivered right on time. I am swimming in them, but I have a feeling a run through the wash will make them a little tighter...at least I'm hoping. The girls were so jealous that daddy sent me pj's and not them, that I had to make an emergency run to the mall to get them so pj's. We promptly got back in the car and headed home where we all immediately threw on our new duds and laid on the couch.

I really do love my kids so much. Gillian kept making sure that the blanket never came off my feet and Brenna sat behind me and brushed my hair for an hour straight. They worry me a little bit though because I feel like they worry about me a little too much for being only four and five.

As far as an update on the family goes, we are all doing exceptionally well given the circumstances. I was told at Gillian's parent teacher conference this week that she is already ready to proceed onto first grade, so we have nothing to worry about when we transfer to Riley. Brenna is just busy being my little shadow. She's the one that gets me through most days. And Richard is doing really well at school. He had a test at school (call for fire or something??) and he aced it. Apparently about 20 of the soldiers in his class did not pass it, so getting an A is something to be said. I think he is being challenged more than he expected to be, and I think it's harder for him to be away than he expected it to be. It's kind of like us being so far away from our families. Our lives go on here, and we don't realize how much we are missing out on until we visit for a few short weeks once a year or so. It goes the other way too. Now he's the one getting glimpses of our lives ticking by while he feels like times standing still for him.

Well I'm off to choke down anther Mucinex and try to go to sleep although I feel like I want to pound a shiv through my eye. I'll try to update pics when I'm feeling better. I need to do some other random crap for Richard too that I'm gonna be in trouble for if I don't do it soon!

Chore Charts

2009-02-05T20:55:00.002-10:00

We've been giving the girls for a while now one dollar every time they clean their room without help. If one cleans and the other doesn't help then the cleaner will get two dollars and the non-cleaner gets to be jealous ha ha. Well...I never have dollars on me! I'm always having to tell them, Mommy will give you your dollar tomorrow after I go get some cash. So I think, what about a chore chart? That way I only have to give them money once a week and I can prepare myself for say Friday being allowance days. I've also decided that Gillian at the least is getting big enough to help me with some of the other stuff around the house like feeding the dog and dusting (after a brief lesson of which way to not point the can so we don't spray polish in our face). And for Brenna I think I'm going to get creative and make up *chores* for her like no biting nails, keeping things out of our mouth (do you see a trend here?), saying please and thank you, etc.

So, I go off on my journey as self-proclaimed master googler to scope out chore charts and see if there is anything worth my husband's hard earned money to buy. Everything pretty much out there is a free printable chart. Well anyone out there that knows me, and knows me well that just won't do. Neither will a giant poster board full of stickers. I've ran across this Melissa and Doug chore chart at Borders and Macy's both.

While I think it will do what I want it to I don't want to buy two different charts for my two different kids at $20 a pop.
And then I ran across the Super Nanny chore chart which actually sparked something else in me.

I like the idea, but I think it's God awful ugly. So I'm going to make my own! I'm pretty sure that I can get all of the materials right at good old Wal-Mart, and with a bulletin board and a bunch of pretty scrapbook paper, pretty stickers and a few clothespins I'll make it work (and it'll match the house ha ha, there goes my anal rententiveness).
Now I think maybe I'll have a little help around the house, but I'll add one more thing to my list of to do's...keep them out of the chore stickers!

Happy Birthday Diva!

2009-02-02T23:21:00.002-10:00

Diva is four. Four whole big, short, long miniscule years. It seems a lifetime ago that she was born. But just last week she was a sleeping little gorgeous lump. I hate to admit that I go into her room at night after she's asleep because it reminds me of how little she still is. When she's sleeping she can't say words like 'fabulous' phrases like 'you're making this the worst day of my life'. When she's sleeping she still has the face I remember watching sleep right after she was born. I cling to her being my baby.

Her daddy was sweet enough to record himself singing her happy birthday before he went on lock down. I think it made her day. She pretends not to notice he's not here, but when she has time to let her mind take over she is really bothered that he's gone.

And mommy was evil. Mommy made her get shots. She told mommy when shopping for cupcake ingredients "I don't ever want to go back to that kid doctor cause they hurt me" complete with a perfect pout. Well, chicklet, mommy didn't intentionally hurt you....and boy is mommy in for a tongue lashing in a couple days when you figure out that you have to go back and get three more.

And of course, in Diva fashion, no birthday would be complete without turning yourself into a pixie and spreading pixie dust all over the house. If her Poppa was here he'd be covered in glitter and sparkles right now. Sister had issues sharing all of her new fun dress up costumes. Our next splurge will be a trunk or chest for all these tutus, fairy wings and dresses!

It happened...

2009-01-22T19:51:00.002-10:00

No pictures today. Just had to share that Gillian's perfect streak on the green light is history. As soon as she walked out of her classroom she came clean that she had gotten in trouble and put on the yellow light. I asked her why she was on the yellow light and she couldn't give me a straight answer, but didn't seem too concerned about it. I finally proded out of her that she was actually trying to help a friend not get in trouble by telling her that she shouldn't be standing outside the classroom, but she got caught outside the classroom too in doing so. I'm not really sure. I want to believe her, but I want to ask her teacher too since no explination was sent home...just the little stop light circle filled in yellow.

This whole parenting thing is a rollercoaster of emotion and never knowing what to do or how to react. I want to be proud of her for trying to help one of her little friends do the right thing, but at the same time I want her to stay out of trouble. No ice cream tomorrow!

Happy 28th To Me!

2009-01-19T14:34:00.002-10:00

My husband truly loves me. Last week when I was up at the PX playground with my friend M I got a phone call from R telling me that he booked us a weekend trip at Turtle Bay Resort and that I had four hours slotted at the spa for some me time. Let's just say it took all of two minutes being on the property and none of us ever wanted to leave. He booked us the cottage style room, which by the way gets a great military discount. Those that are still here and want a little mini trip or would like to stay somewhere special before you leave the island, this place was it for us. I'd like to take another mini trip backt there before we leave for good this summer. Back to the trip. As soon as we walked into the room and set our bags down we had a phone call. Complimentary water, t-shirts, fruit, and POG was on it's way. Free stuff ha ha! Okay, so it wasn't much but anything free is awesome for us. Our room had an all glass sliding door wall that opened up straight to the ocean, equipped with a hammock right on the beach edge. But of course we have two little girls with us, screw relaxing! We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool with the kids and then off to dinner after we got cleaned up. They have an excellent seafood buffet on Saturday nights. All you can eat everything, but of course I was happy with the crab legs.

The next morning was my actual birthday. I woke up and headed straight to the spa for an hour long massage, facial, pedicure, and manicure. Believe it or not although it was very relaxing, I have a hard time being away from my kids. Must be ingrained with the lack of babysitting we have around here. I was ready to see them by the time I was done. Back to the pool we go since the horseback riding was completely booked by the time we checked in. Another long afternoon at the pool, kids swimming, parents drinking lol. They have a really good blended drink there called Monkey's Lunch. I don't know all what was in it, but it definitely had bananas and Bailey's in it. Yummo.

We ended up having a very low key dinner of pasta and wine. I was wiped from all the massages and oils and creams and lotions I'd endured all morning. I think we were all in bed by 9:30. It didn't take me long to fall asleep. And of course all good things have to come to and end and usually end too quickly. We basically got up out of bed, packed our clothes and headed home. We had a very sad puppy here at the house waiting on us.

All I can say now is that poor Richard has a lot to live up to after what he did for me this year. I'm thinking The Elms in Kansas City next year. They have a spa ha ha. Just no beach, warm weather or pool. So, if anyone wants to go spend the day up at Turtle Bay...just the beach and lunch (well and maybe a drink!) I'm sooooo down it's not even funny.

Oh and did I mention that my camera battery died the first night we were there? A lot of my pictures had to be taken with my phone. I have to figure out how to upload them to my computer and not just facebook.

The living area of the room

The giant soaker tub the girls used as a swimming pool after they got out of the actual swimming pool

The double sinks and shower

The view from our room

And just a few of my favs (Brenna spent the weekend hiding from me)

352 hours

2009-01-17T09:05:00.002-10:00

That's how long we were on vacation from Honolulu airport to Honolulu airport. It was a rough start but once we got in Kansas City everything was good despite the 7 degree temperature. Brenna learned quickly that she doesn't like being cold or confined by a bunch of clothes. Everytime we'd get the in the car and the heater would get warm she'd take her coat, socks, and shoes off. We may have slight issues with her when we move back there next fall and winter. Gillian on the other hand loves the cold. Even just the little bit of snow that she saw she was in love with. Grandma and Poppa bought them all the equipment they needed to go play in the snow. Snow pants, snow boots, gloves, stocking caps, a sled....they didn't get to use anything but the boots and gloves...and that was just because I think they were new shoes.

It was such a whurlwind trip and we felt like we were pulled in fifty million directions all the time. We didn't get really any "Kansas City" time in, but we squeezed it in when we could. My mom and I ran the kids down to Crown Center on Christmas Eve to see Santa Claus and just to have the Crown Center experience. The kids couldn't wait to go back and I really wanted to get back down there with them to go ice skating, but it didn't happen. Just like with the exception of Christmas shopping I only made it to Target once.

We did have slight tragedy while we were home. On New Year's Eve I got a phone call from my grandma looking for my mom. She said that the hospice nurse had just left and had given my grandpa 2 to 24 hours to live. Not five minutes later I got another phone call from my grandma hysterical that he had already passed. I was good and held it together until I had to call my mom at work and tell her. I think I freaked the kids out a little. And how appropriate that we had just had explained what a cemetary was to them the day before (you have to drive passed one to get to my parents house, Gillian wanted to know what all the flowers were for). So of course the first thing Gillian asks me is if Poppa is in the ground now.

We didn't get to stay for the funeral with Richard needing to come back to Hawaii to clear for OCS. As of today I have less than two weeks with him. I've heard from several military friends that you fight like cats and dogs before they leave, I'm guessing because it makes the separation a little easier. I'm a little mixed up on that. I'd hate to have him leave us on a bad note. Right now we are making the most of our time together, and more than ever I don't want him to leave. Seriously, like a few months ago I probably could've helped push him out the door. Not now, I'm just trying to soak him all in. It's what we have to do though to make out lives what we want, and I know we have be very lucky through the last three years that we need to let him get through school and deploy. It's our duty and I'm comfortable with it.

Several of our family members and one friend pulled me to the side and told me they didn't know how I do this whole military wife thing, and I do it with a smile on my face. I can be honest and say there was a point in time about four years ago that I cried and screamed for a month straight before he left for boot camp. I hated him for joining the military, I hated him for making our family go through this. I had a lot of ignorance about what the military pertains back then. I love the military, I love what it's done for us and given us. It's also given me a better sense of pride in our country that I never had before. I know even if my husband is just a little link in the chain, what he is doing is making a difference for more than just my kids and I. And in the end it's what makes him happy. He loves what he does, so how could one be bitter about that?

Anyway, just a few random pictures from our trip. I think I took over 300, but about 250 of them were of Gillian's tongue and Brenna's just a blur.

The Diva and I...look! Long sleeves and pants!

The chicks with Santa Claus and the rest of Crown Center. The actual Santa picture came framed and is super cute. I'll have to take a picture of it and post it. Better than anything we've ever gotten at Pearlridge.

The chicks with their Uncle Luke and Aunt Monique on Christmas

The chicks with Grandma and Poppa by the big ball outside of Jack Stack and the Plaza from a dirty window in a moving car.

We took the girls to Rainforest Cafe. Gillian asked me if the animals were dead, so I had to explain about them being robots which ruined the fun for Richard. He did have Brenna convinced though that the monkeys were going to come steal her banana. She didn't want to stand in front of the elephants either. It's a bad picture, but it's the only one I could get.

What I woke up to on New Year's. The love of my life...can you see why I'm going to miss him?

And finally the day we were orginally supposed to leave my brother and Monique drove back to Kansas City from St. Louis for a second time to see us and check on my mom. We went down to the Power and Light district. If you EVER get to Kansas City or come see me at Fort Riley you need to go here. I will drag you if I have to! We went to the Lucky Strike to bowl with the kids and my parents to start the night out. After a certain time everyone 21 and under has to leave so my mom and dad took the chicks home and put them in bed so the four of us could go and have some fun and bonding time. We went to the Flying Saucer first which made Richard declare my brother the prince of beer. Then we went to Angel's Rock Bar where I got to see one of my best friends from elementary school Akeisha. I wish I would've gotten a picture with her! I was too busy chasing my husband around. He kept trying to sneak up to the VIP tables (he actually succeeded!). Then we went to Howl at the Moon, a piano bar. We had a lot of fun there too. It was standing room only, but once again my husband somehow weasled his way to a table front and center. I didn't really get any good pictures of that night, but the memories will do for me.

Four drunk people being photographed by a drunk person on the street. You should always expect this situation not to turn out the best!

P.S. - I'm sorry my blogs sometimes get so windy...do you see now why it took me so long to sit down and do this????

Great Grandkids

2009-01-15T21:06:00.004-10:00

While we were back home we had pictures done with some of the family. They are a little fuzzy because I downloaded them off the website, but here they are! All six of my grandma's great-grandkids. They'll go up on her wall of fame in a giant frame as in family tradition. Watching them get their pictures done made me miss being little and doing stuff like this with my cousins. I can't wait until I can get my copies in the mail so I can put them up on my wall!

We also took the oppurtunity to have the girls picture done together and get an updated individual picture of them too. Now I'm itching for actual family pictures....

Quick Wednesday Music

2009-01-14T19:48:00.003-10:00

Life has been more hectic in the last few weeks than I expected. I hate thinking of R leaving, but if it means slowing down just a bit I may actually enjoy it the first few days. That's awful of me. Anywho, just one addition to Wednesday Music.

A whole album, check out Company of Thieves. I love their song Old Letters.

Off to bed. Pua's getting shots tomorrow and the Diva is going shopping with me for her big girl bed!

Wednesday Music

2009-01-07T20:16:00.002-10:00

We're back in town! And while I'm going through all my photos to post I'll just stop by with my latest iTunes purchases. I think maybe I'll add a new list every Wednesday. I'll need something to keep my busy while R is gone. And I love find new and old music so why not? I knew I wanted to come home and buy some Foo Fighters, but iTunes concocted a 90's one hit wonders compilation that caught my total attention.

Feed the Tree 3:29 Belly
Just Like Heaven 2:54 Dinosaur Jr.
Joey 4:09 Concrete Blonde
Novocaine for the Soul 3:08 Eels
In the Meantime 4:58 Spacehog
Mother Mother 3:01 Tracy Bonham
Possum Kingdom 5:10 The Toadies
A Girl Like You 4:00 Edwyn Collins
I Got a Man 3:49 Positive K
Bad Reputation 4:09 Freedy Johnston
The Pretender 4:29 Foo Fighters
Best of You 4:16 Foo Fighters
DOA 4:12 Foo Fighters
Time After Time 3:05 Quietdrive
Sex On Fire 3:23 Kings of Leon

And the new movie quote for the year is "Whaaaaaaaaaaat?" ala Joe Dirt ;)

Maybe In The End It Was Worth It

2008-12-21T18:13:00.002-10:00

I don't have any pictures to add because my camera is still packed away snuggly in my suitcase BUT something good did come out of staying home for a couple extra days. Last night while we were bored in the living room we noticed Gillian trying to tie her drawstring on her skirt. She's horrible at knotting things up because she's been trying to teach herself for so long. We just haven't had the time to sit down and actually have a lesson in tying bows. So she as of last night officially can tie her own shoes!

Every day it seems I pick her up from school with the shoe laces flapping. This is even if I double knot them, so I suspect that she's untying them herself during circle time to try and tie them herself. When school starts back up she can take care of herself! Now we just need to work on the reading and writing. She wants to make her teacher proud on how much she's accomplished over break. She's a nerd and she's my nerd :)

Take Me Down In A Blaze Of Glory

2008-12-20T13:05:00.002-10:00

Love my Bon Joviness???? Well, day one of vacation and we are still in Hawaii. I'll give a total recap of our evening just so I can come back here and read this and two years from now still get pissy about it.

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. Security sucked, but when does it not suck. I will say though, it's the first time I haven't had to have my purse searched by hand! I must have done really well packing this go around. We got through security and it was about 10:15PM Hawaii standard time. Luckily we had about fifteen minutes before they started closing up all the shops and whatnot, so we scored some Starbucks (yes coffee for a midnight flight...hindsight it was my savouir) and popped a squat for some rest before trekking to the back end of the aiport with me of course carrying all the bags because my kids are wimps and their backpacks were hurting them. As we sat there starting to relax because all that was left to do was get on the plane and go to sleep I heard what sounded like beads scattering all over the floor. Yep, Gillian snuck one of my bracelets out of the house, was fidgeting with it and broke it into a thousand little pieces. Great start to a trip. I think she was more upset that she broke something of mine than she was about getting yelled at by her dad. Anywho, that was butter compared to the rest of the night.

We get back to the gate and our friend that just so happened to have booked the first leg of her flight on the same plane was already there with both of her kids asleep in their chairs. At least I had some company until we boarded the plane. She was in the bathroom with her youngest when they came over the intercom to announce familes traveling with children under the age of 5 to board (I'm gonna be so sad when I lose that perk!). Once B came out of the bathroom we all grabbed our bags and went to get in line behind first class. First class got on the plane...and then they shut the door. We stood there with four kids that we had to wake up to get on the plane. 5 minutes passed. 10 minutes passed. Finally a flight attendent announced that they were no longer boarding at the moment and that we all needed to take a seat. Strange??? So we go and sit down. By the way did I mention it was a midnight flight?

30 minutes pass and then they made their first announcement. The pilot found something while he was running his diagnostics and needed maintence to come in to look at something. It would be a few minutes before they could board us. Next thing we know there are two fire trucks sitting on the tarmac next to the plane. Another 30 minutes pass and they make another announcement that they are waiting to hear something and they would let us know as soon as possible how long it would be. By this point in time our flight should've been up in the air already. I knew we were going to be missing our connecting flight in Phoenix. Another 30 minutes pass and the first class passengers are now being taken off the plane and sent back through the gate. They make another announcement. There was a small jet fuel leak that they found. They knew how to fix it and it would be at least 30 minutes before we can board. And then the man said stupidly over the intercom "Hopefully they can fix it". I've never seen so many people in one room screaming "hopefully" at one time. That gives you sour tummy when you are about to fly over the ocean. Hopefully should never be used by a flight attendent. It should be banned from their vocabulary.

After another HOUR and me being completely delirious at this point laughing until I cried and hallucinating about donuts, they came back on and said "they've decided to drain all of the fuel from the plane" okay...not comprehending what this means yet "draining all of the fuel will take about 5 hours, so at this point your flight is cancelled." Yep, the stupid plane caught fire...they put it out found the leak fast enough for it not to freaking explode thank goodness. So we had to drag 4 sleeping kids yet again back through the airport to get our luggage all the while one of them is screaming and crying because they want to go see their grandma. I was on the verge of tears myself. We were on the slow end of getting to the baggage carousel so we were one of the last to get the information to get our flight changed. It pushed us back to not be able to leave until Sunday night (another midnight flight ya!). They thankfully allowed us to push back our return date by two days so we won't be cutting our trip short in the end. We just get to unpack and repack which sucks. We got home at 3:30. At least I stripped the beds and put clean sheets on before we left the house earlier that night.

Dad said that it's probably best because it's very windy and only 4 degrees today. Talk about a shock to the system. Oh and that the snow's almost all gone...just little blobs all over the ground. I don't think that would've impressed the girls much.

I guess I'm off to two days of movies and board games with the kids. And my Christmas shopping time got cut off by two days. Maybe now if I wasn't completely prepared I will be by the time we actually leave. I just wanted to be home.

Off Into The Wild Blue Yonder

2008-12-19T19:53:00.002-10:00

We're outta here in about 30 minutes to drop my puppykins off and then to deal with the madness at the airport. We don't land in KC until 1PM tomorrow afternoon, so I'm sure we'll be exhausted! Sunday I have to try and cram all of my Christmas shopping in because it's the only day mom doesn't have to work and can watch the kids for me. But, instead of going to Starbucks I'll be hittin' up Panera! Omigosh I love their coffee, and their bagels, and their sammiches, and their soups, and their salads, and their bread...I could go on longer??? No???

Anywho, I'll try to update with a post as soon as I can full of pictures of snow! Miss all my Hawaii chicas while I'm outtie ;)

I just have to remind myself before vacation starts

2008-12-17T09:14:00.001-10:00

He's gone in 6 weeks....

More of a rant than anything

2008-12-16T22:59:00.000-10:00

So I started the Couch to 5K last week officially. I've tried it a few times before, but after the first session being such a breeze I push myself too hard too fast and end up hurting myself or giving up because I can't breathe. I'm doing it right this time. Even though the first week was easy, I completed it as written. I started my first session of week two today and it was a bit more difficult to get through. I just hope I can find a gym at home willing to let us use it for free for two weeks or for a small fee so I can keep it up and not have to start all over again. *I refuse to run on ice* With that said I've been becoming increasingly more irritated everytime I go to the gym with people that are there doing not a damn thing to really exercise. 20 minutes peddling on a bike like you are on a sunday stroll, 4 leg presses..not 4 sets of leg presses...just 4 leg presses, and then 15 crunches aren't going to really do you much good except maybe burn off a single m&m. Walking on a treadmill *while* watching BET, reading a magazine, and gossiping with your girlfriend for an hour...well I'll give you the fact that you walked at an extremely slow pace and you never got your heart rate up for an hour...but you are in my way and I want to bust my ass.

Why can't I get to the normal gym during normal gym hours??? This little community center gym is going to make me go postal. Oh by the way did I mention that someone took the remotes to BOTH tv's. So these idiots are using the equipment to stand on and change the channels and volume? I love walking into the gym after I put my kids to bed only to meet head on the freaking cartoon network at full blast. My iPod couldn't go loud enough to drown it out.

I forsee hourly care in Brenna's future!

End of the Competition

2008-12-14T15:41:00.005-10:00

Well, we are about to go home which marks the end of R's and my competition to be "the biggest loser". I'm winning by a fraction, but I think he's looking better! I think it's because he's gained more muscle mass than I have. I just started doing the couch to 5K program this week too. I asked R why I have this pocket of grossness right under my butt (I hate the word saddlebag uck) and he said he doesn't know but he never worries about his legs cause he runs. So I thought I'd give it a try. I lost my before picture because of all our computer issues, so the best I can do is a picture of me this time last year. I think it does enough justice just by my face. I think I'm going to start doing montly up dates too on this blog because we aren't quitting going to the gym and eating right just because our trip is here! Sorry my now pic sux, I used the auto edit button on my camera and it turned it to crap.

BEFORE - December 2007

NOW - December 2008

I hope you can see the difference because I can! Down 9 lbs and a pant size :)

Christmas in Waikiki

2008-12-12T19:29:00.000-10:00

Gillian's class took their annual field trip to Honu Hale (Honolulu City Hall) to see the Christmas tree and wreath display along with a short trip to Ala Moana to visit Santa. Her class also got a bonus of being able to go "build" a Build-a-bear for her class. They all stuffed a heart inside the bear, so they will forever be with their teacher. I thought it was kind of sweet. I was able to chaperone on the trip because my awesome husband stayed home with the Diva, so I got a lot of pictures..and a lot of pictures I had the settings too high on my ISO...oh well. Anyway here are some cute shots!

The giant Christmas tree that almost toppled over on them because they were replacing blubs while we were trying to get a good pic.

Giant snowman family (obviously)

My group of kids (which were all good minus one..I won't name names) sitting with the Big Guy.

And finally my Gillie. This is our weekly routine. She stays on the green light all week, she gets Baskin Robbins on Friday after school. It started as an incentive to get her to stay out of trouble...but guess who's on a perfect streak? I had to quit ordering for myself weeks ago. I got told buy one of the little boys today that I have a fat booty. I told him I know, and that's why I go run on the treadmill every night. I'm sure it would've hurt a lot of people's feelings, but I've come to accept my ass for what it is ha ha.

7 Days til Kansas City! I need to work on perfecting my camera skills still. I'm still holding out for a fancy Canon or Nikon...but I think I'll have to buy one for myself once Mr. Man heads off island ;)

Forging

2008-12-07T23:04:00.000-10:00

I found this on the kitchen island last night when I was doing my nightly clean up.

Dad,

I luv yoo vire much,

Brenna

Mome,

I luv yoo vire mech more.

If you need a translation from phonics sentences that says Dad I love you very much. Signed by Brenna. Mommy I love you very much more. I'm guessing that part was meant to be signed by Brenna too but she ran out of room.

Guess which child is learning how to phonically write sentences at the moment??? And we've been writing letters to Santa non-stop??? Yep, that's right..not Brenna. Little stinker. I was seriously laughing so hard when I read that she signed it by Brenna and kindly inserted the fact that she loves me more (R and B are having a power struggle at the moment...I'm not placing my bets yet because the Diva seems to be all powerful but he is drill sgt dad). At least when I showed it to him he found the humor in it too.

By the way, here is my student of the month!!!

Stage fright hits at 5. She was freaked beyond her wits.

Later on in the car I was having a personal conversation with the Diva. I asked her when she gets bigger if she wanted to be like her big sister. She flat out told me NO. I then repeated myself, but added don't you want to be smart and kind, respectful and follow all the rules? Then you could get an award like your big sister. She said "No Mommy, I will do all those things and THEN I will smile for you". She seriously is a little shit.

2008-12-04T20:38:00.000-10:00

Woo I'm a shopping machine! I did Black Friday with my friend M this year and we headed out to Toys R Us. Hell on Earth one day a year. It honestly wasn't that bad until it was time to get in line to check out. That was freakin' ridiculous. Luckily when I accidentally got in the line for the electronics department I overheard that it was the line for electronics a few seconds later. Can you imagine how pissed I would've been if I stood there for any length of time? Of course the rest of the weekend I still got up at butt freaking 4:30 to go get a lousy free $20. What can I say, I'm crazy. Between saturday and sunday's $20 I got a free pair of Roxy jeans. I lurve them. They fit with the exception of being twelve feet too long on my stubby legs. R keeps calling me a sailor. I was mopping the floor in them and he asked if I was swabbing the deck. I'm gonna deck him...

Richard gave me the task of building us a temporary winter wardrobe before we leave...like that was going to be pulling teeth or something! The sucky thing about spending money though is it's hard to stop. Just for the hell of it I bought green earphones to match my green iPod, because well...they matched ha ha. Not really a winter neccessity, but I felt like I NEEDED them. Oh by the way my dog is snoring on my lap right now. Quite commical.

Anywho, I've gotten some great bargains and some uber cute things. I have to share these with you. I bought them for Paris Hilton Jr. tonight. If I haven't told you she's already coined the next 'that's hot'. It's 'you're so fashion'. She told me that a few months back after I had gotten dressed and walked out into the hallway past her room. Her eyes got all bugged out and she said "oh mom you are SOOO fashion!'. I thought it suited her divaness pretty well. So, now she is so fashion! Here they are...

That's just a little update for now. I'll write more later.

Oh ya, and our computer is fixed...ya!!!!!

Kansas City, Kansas City here I come!

2008-11-05T16:10:00.000-10:00

We finally have our plane tickets! In 44 days I will be in freezing cold Kansas City, 2 days after my dad's 57th birthday and 4 days before my mom's 56th. Now that I haven't lived there for just about 3 years I finally can appreciate parts of the city that I always took advantage of while we were there. The girls are now old enough too, that I can take them to the places I loved to go when I was little.

I definitely want to take them to see the plaza lights at night.

And then I want to take them down to Crown Center. There's nothing like Crown Center at Christmas. I think that's where we'll visit Santa Claus...and they'll love the Crayola area!

Probably after that we'll take them over to Union Station to see the trains, see the mayor's tree...and then maybe down to see the apartment we lived in before Richard joined the army. Can you see it?

And can you tell what this is??? Num yummy. Burnt ends, french fries and cheesy corn bake.

I also want to take them to see the giant shuttlecocks. I think they will really like them, of course visit the art gallery until they start misbehaving, and then over to Winsteads for steakburgers and chocolate shakes!

Richard will probably want to drive out to Riley just to check it out, so between that, family, and Christmas shopping I think we are pushing our limits on time.

I can't wait to bake cookies with my mom! Expect me to come back to Hawaii slightly larger than I left. We may have to buy me an extra seat!

Politics and Religion

2008-11-04T08:19:00.000-10:00

The two things that you shouldn't discuss with friends if you really want to be sure you'll stay friends with that person. A friend and I had this conversation the other day, but we left it at that. Just the simple fact that it's not really a couple of topics that need to be out there on the table. People get butt hurt too easily, or make snide remarks that don't need to be said. I bet the majority of the people that I'm friends with would have a ton of issues with my beliefs, tis why I keep them to myself!
No one with the exception of my husband knows where I stand on all of the issues and it's good that he has about 95% of the same beliefs. I feel bad sometimes because I feel as if I corrupted him in small ways here and there, but I have to look at it as that I opened his eyes into becoming a man that can think for himself.
Ignorance is not bliss. I am proud of the parents that we have become. Gillian did a mock election at school last week. She came home and we asked her who she voted for. The response that soon came out of her mouth was a bit of a surprise to us, because we hadn't talked about that particular candidate much in our home. With that said we didn't chastise her, or question her decision. It was her choice to make, not ours. One day she will be old enough to vote in elections just like this one and I can only hope that she votes for her beliefs and not ours.
There are so many people in this society that can't break past their mother's apron strings and develop a complete rational thought on their own. Put aside what your church is telling you, what your family is telling you, what the media is telling you. Sit down on your own and write out the issues that are important to you, and rank them in importance. Then do a little research on your own and make an informed decision. A decision that has no spin on it. With that being said, neither of the candidates are perfect for me. Neither one of them are perfect for you either most likely. But I do know what direction I don't want the country going; therefore, a person has to chose one.
Our country is at war and it's economy is in the toilet, but I still hear every day people voting strictly because of how they feel about abortion. Broaden your horizons a little. If you turn your back on all the issues with the exception of one, then how do you know exactly what you are signing off on?
Off my soapbox now. I just woke up a little preterbed this morning.

Trick or Treat!

2008-11-01T20:32:00.000-10:00

The girls had a really fun Halloween this year. They are at the perfect age to start enjoying all of these fun holidays. It makes me wish I were still a kid. Christmas is going to be so awesome this year!

Brenna and I started off the day finishing up the decorations on the front of the house since I had been sick all week previous to this. We then ate some lunch and headed off to see Gillian in her kindergarten parade at school. Let me tell you, I think cliques start way early! Her and all of her little girlfriend were such divas in their little group posing for all the pictures about five feet away from the rest of their class.

The only problem with these costumes is that the girls not only looked like cats, but they thought they were cats. I heard meowing all night and pretend licking. It was all I could do to keep them from not rubbing all their make up off their faces because they were trying to do kitty nudges. I think we need another cat.

The girls scored big with their candy, but their favorite "treat" of the evening was the playdoh I decided to try out instead of candy this year. Apparently it was a huge success. Richard said that he overheard kids yelling 'that house over there has playdoh!'. Next thing he knew we had a line of about 30-40 kids down our sidewalk. He said he ran out in about 30 minutes. I was only gone with the girls for about an hour, so I was super surprised to see our porch light off and the front door shut.

Halloween was fun, but I'm glad we get to move on to the rest of the holidays now. I'm ready to put my tree up now...does that make me a nut? Oh..and I've already stocked up on the almond bark while I was last minute Halloween shopping lol. You can never plan too early!

Where have I been?

2008-10-22T13:58:00.000-10:00

Stole this from Megan...

visited 26 states (52%)

If you are the genius that can see the pattern and realize that I didn't visit California until after I moved to Hawaii, then you understand why I never saw the ocean before we moved here lol. I need to go northeast and northwest. Guess that means that Patti will have a visitor!!!!

It's been a no good terrible awful very bad month

2008-10-21T08:53:00.000-10:00

Our computer has decided that it wants to be stupid. It kept crash dumping on us and we tried every fix possible before we just erased the hard drive and started from scratch. I'm hoping I can find the pictures of Gillian's cast somewhere on one of my many random upload sites because they've all been deleted :(

Speaking of the cast, she's finally getting it off today! Woot! She should've gotten it off two weeks ago, but the doc said since we were just keeping it on for protective reasons that he wanted to leave it on for a couple more weeks. She's had the stupid thing on for 7 weeks today. I can't wait for the kid to be able to take a shower again! And no darn bags to cover it! And maybe we might be able to go to the pool or beach without feeling guilty about it!

Richard and I were having a conversation about how October is his favorite month of the entire year. It's the end of baseball, the leaves change, his favorite holiday is Halloween back home he gets to eat chili all the freaking time, and normally you get to pull out sweaters. I love sweaters. But then we started talking about how for the past 5 years of our marriage it seems that we've been cursed during the month of October. I won't go into details of how and why, but October hates us. November isn't much better until around Thanksgiving and our anniversary, and then everything always turns around by Christmas. Of course October seems to be hating the world right now with the financial crisis and economy. All I can say is that I'm soooo glad we made the decision for him to stay in the military for the time being and go to OCS.

Oh and for more blabbering before I end this, Richard and I have decided that we are going to have a little competition between the two of us from now until we go home for Christmas. We are both trying to lose at least 17 lbs by December 19th, but whoever loses the most wins. I know I'm in over my head trying to lose more weight than a man, but I think it'll be the shove that I need. I've been trying to lose that weight for the last 3.5 years. I should have a good head start on him because I've been eating really well for the last week with the exception of a trip to McDonald's and our weekly trip to Baskin Robbins for Gillian staying on the green light all week. I did get a kid cone though! Ha ha. I think he padded his beginning weight though. He lost 5 lbs overnight *rolls eyes*. I guess it's a good thing we didn't discuss what the winner gets! It's all negotiable now lol.

So, no pictures today until we get the computer totally fixed and I can reload all my software. We think it's a memory issue, so we need to buy new RAM. Much cheaper than buying a new laptop!

We're Still Alive!!!!

2008-09-08T16:50:00.001-10:00

We are still very much here, just haven't had a whole lot of exciting things going on. Richard had his pre-deployment exercises the past few weeks where he was working 7AM to 11PM every day. Then he started a new and one of his final semesters of school (doing the happy dance!). So, our life has been consumed of me playing single parent, him working and doing homework in his spare time..oh and sleep...I really like to sleep.

Other than that the dog went into heat AGAIN, and Gillian is experiencing her first broken arm. I'll try to get pictures up soon, but I'll admit..I've just been lazy ha ha.

Gillian says "Hey look Mom it's Dorie"

2008-08-18T20:26:00.001-10:00

P8160024, originally uploaded by audreyovercast.

A little late posting, but I just found the time to get all the pictures uploaded. The family all headed down to Waikiki to the aquarium to spend part of our four day weekend (Hawaii Statehood day). To begin with Richard asked me a faster way to get down there than to drive all the way through Waikiki. So smart me looks up the directions on the aquarium's website (we don't spend much time in Waikiki..I can count on one hand seriously). Of course the street we needed to turn right on had no street sign, so Richard and I of course get into a blow out arguement on who's fault it was that we got lost. After back tracking we easily found where we needed to be, but the next challenge was to find a parking spot. After searching for 20 minutes we finally found one and walked over to the aquarium.

The first thing we did was watch the seal show, which I have to admit are some of my favorite animals. We then walked past the gift shop where the girls used one of those machines that flatten pennies and imprints them with a logo. Gillian made a seahorse, and Brenna despite my insistance of a sea turtle made Nemo. I'm going to figure out a clever way to use them in a scrapbook whenever I actually learn how ha ha.

The aquarium was bigger than it appeared on the outside and had a lot of reef fish which made Brenna happy. They did have a Tiger Shark and another small breed of shark among another 5 types of fish in the supposed "shark tank". I think the jellyfish were my favorite and the eels Richards. They looked like snakes that had been painted like a rainbow. I unfortunately didn't get a picture of the eels though because I was frustrated with my camera not taking clear enough shots at that point.

We had a good day. It was another weekend spent well with the dreaded deployment looming over our heads. Can you believe he has to pack his toughbox and ship it out this week already?

Richard and the girls in front of Diamondhead (the wind was awful right at that moment). We are planning on hiking up it in the upcoming weeks.

The girls standing on a mosiac in the aquarium's entryway. Brenna always looks so happy to be with us.

I hate having my picture taken, but my mom keeps insisting I'll regret it when I'm older if I don't.

These are moon jellies. By far my favorite tank in the place. Can you believe that they have no brain making their bodies function. They are just one giant nervous system floating around by the ocean's tides.

My second favorite display was at the very end of our tour. It was a coral garden. The colors were amazing in person...very irridescent.

And a closer look. I kept telling Richard that the green and black spotted piece of coral was the prettiest thing I'd seen. It shimmered in the sun and was just absolutely beautiful in person. Guess what it was??? Not a piece of coral. It's a GIANT CLAM!!!!!

A Work In Progress

2008-08-18T20:14:00.001-10:00

P8180002, originally uploaded by audreyovercast.

I know it's not the greatest picture taken at a bad angle from the sun, but this is the bedding my mom bought Gillian for her birthday. I picked up the throw pillows on top for $3.99 (Tommy Hilfiger mind you!) at Ross. I knew I wanted something in that corner behind her bed so it would just be empty space. I found those tissue paper flowers at Wal-Mart of all places. The crappy thing is I paid $9 for them when I totally can make them myself. So I think I'm gonna grab some more tissue and add two more flowers to the mix, and of course Brenna wants some for her room now.

And yes Megan, I'm still planning my decor/craft blog...maybe instructions on this tissue paper flower would be a good place to start? I still have a couple projects in mind to spice her room a bit more, plus the curtains I have just aren't jiving for me. Look for a complete project in the future!

Gillian Turns 5

2008-08-11T21:03:00.001-10:00

The Birthday Girl, originally uploaded by audreyovercast.

I'm going to just post this one picture here to save on file limits until I can upgrade to unlimited capacity. I'll put the rest in my snapfish for anyone that wants to look; I just need an email address.

Gillian had a lot of fun today although we decided to not throw her a party. All she asked for was one Ponyville (miniature My Little Pony's), and she was given two which made for a happy little girl. Of course as she was opening all of her gifts from Richard and I, Brenna was telling Gillian that everything was from her. She ended up getting a ton of new clothes, cause the child certianly didn't need anymore toys. We talked about getting her very own Nintendo DS, but decided with better judgement against it due to conflicting with school. Between what her dad and I gave her, grandma and poppa, and her nana she made out like a bandit. Who would have thought of anything less??

I did make her cake. I couldn't bare to think of wasting a whole bunch of money on a cake that would mostly be thrown away, plus she told me without any influence that it would be alright if I made a cake for her. It was an oreo cookie cake, and I might add that I heard from all three of my children that it was the best birthday cake they had ever tasted. Nothing fancy, but it all goes down the same right?

We also gave the birthday princess her choice of where she wanted to eat dinner. Of all places she chose Maui Mike's. A five year old wanting to eat at Maui Mike's for her birthday was slightly bizarre, but whatever floats her boat. I will tell you though that she ate the yummy skin off the chicken and left everything else. A girl after her daddy's heart.

She's in bed now awaiting another awesome day at school, but for the last two hours I got non-stop hugs and I love you's. She's a pretty rockin' kid, but that's probably cause she has a pretty rockin' momma ;)

The Overcast's Play Golf

2008-08-10T17:13:00.001-10:00

We gave Gillian the option on whether or not she wanted to play golf or go to the zoo today for her birthday since Richard is going to end up having to work tomorrow. Obviously she chose golf, so we headed out to the leeward side of the island where they have a nice miniature golf course attached to the water park that we are known to frequent. I think Richard's dream may come true, because Gillian is an ace on the course. She had three hole in one's (not cheating!). We had a lot of fun. It was very hot and very bright, Brenna kept telling me she needed her mermaid glasses.

Oh, and we've officially nicknamed Brenna, Buttcrack Overcast. You'll see why below ;)

Gillian goes to school

2008-08-06T16:08:00.001-10:00

Gillian's first day of kindergarten went off without a hitch. As we were walking through the field to drop her off she said, "I am gonna miss you momma". I told her it was fine to miss me because I was going to miss her too, but when we got to her class I would give her a high five and leave her with the teacher. As I dropped her off she was excited because she already had a page to color.

The day came and went. Brenna and I headed up to the school early to be sure to get a parking spot. We stood outside and waited on the bell to ring for a good 15 minutes. As soon as her teacher released her, she was all grins. She couldn't stop telling me how much fun she had. Run on sentences non-stop about basketball, hula hoop, ring toss, and hop scotch among other things. She showed me the picnic tables they sat at and when I asked her if she ate lunch there she gave me a funny look and said, "No momma, we ate lunch in the cafeteria where there are chefs!" Well, pardon me! Ha ha.

She's so excited to go back on Friday, and I told her on Tuesday I was going to take in cookies for her birthday which she is super excited about. All in all her teacher is awesome and she thinks school rocks. What more can you ask for?

Good morning sleepy head!

Giving her sister a hug goodbye

Sitting at her desk waiting for school to start

Finally at home enjoying an after-school snack

I think someone else missed her too

Gillian goes to Kindergarten Orientation

2008-08-05T11:11:00.000-10:00

Well, at another attempt of keeping a blog our first post will start with Gillian's Kindergarten orientation. She was really excited to begin with, but soon lost interest when she realized there wouldn't be any playing or coloring and mom wasn't going to leave her.

Chocolate Milk

Cheesin' at Breakfast

Obviously not wanting to have her picture taken and very ready to go home.

Brenna telling me "I'll let you take my picture mom".