sunshine served daily

My Aaron

2012-01-26T21:42:00.000-08:00

I just need to take a moment and stand up on my high horse and shout a little.

My husband is my hero.

I've had some things happen recently that have been hard for me to deal with and I haven't been myself, at times. And I'm sure I haven't been the nicest, funniest, happiest person to be around lately. In fact, I can be quite a brat-especially to the one person who loves me the most. Why do we women do that?

Aaron, sensing this, has decided to spoil me silly!

Not only has he kept up with the house work, he has decided to tackle the gaping hole (that was there prior to our moving into our current home from a leak) in the ceiling because he knows it bothers me, and I'm embarrassed that every person that walks into our house sees that right off the bat (even though we don't own this house and it's not our problem and the people who are paid to fix these things don't.)

He has surprised me with breakfast in bed, lunch ready and on the table when I come home from work, and many other goodies that he knows I love.

He surprised me by making me a hair appointment at my favorite salon because he knew I wanted to go but had been putting it off--and he knew the money I had saved to go would eventually be spent on other things if I didn't go soon. I have a bad habit of feeling guilty about spending money on myself--so I always end up spending money designated for 'me' on bills.

He surprised me by taking me out to dinner that same day and let me order anything and everything I wanted--without regard to price.

He's skipped opportunities to surf and spearfish to just hang out at home with me.

He plays JUST DANCE 3 with me whenever I want, even though he HATES to dance.

Aaron could give me a million dollar diamond bracelet and it wouldn't mean as much to me as the little things he does everyday. The little things mean A LOT to me, and he sure is hitting the ball out of the park!

I sure did get lucky. I thank the heavens every day for you my boyfriend!

I love you Aaron!

Out of the Swing of Blogs

2012-01-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

I feel like I've been apologizing a lot lately for not blogging.

I'm just out of the habit and enjoying my little family.

95% of my life consists of Aaron.

The other 5% is spent on the beach, with my Swede.

And I kind of like it that way.

I've been somewhat reclusive lately, not necessarily by choice, just have been, and that has seemed to translate over to my blog as well.

Here's what I've been up to:

Aloha Weekend

2012-01-19T16:00:00.000-08:00

*****Written a few weekends ago*****

This weekend reminded me (although it's hard to forget) why I love where I live.

The weather was perfect all weekend. Clear blue skys. Light winds. Sun sun sun.

A pooped sandy pup!

And a wonderful homemade sandwhich. You know I had to include it!

More Pictures

2012-01-12T13:04:00.000-08:00

Just some last pictures from our recent family photo-op.

I've had them for awhile but wanted to wait a bit so this blog wasn't all covered with our faces!

I'm in love with these.

I finally feel like we had pictures taken that were 'us.'

Most of the time we dress up and wear things we hardly ever wear and pose in positions that are weird.

But this time, we didn't fuss, we just went with it.

And luckily, we had some stellar ladies behind the lens' making it happen.

See our other pictures click here (as well as for the contact info for the photographers)

Dusk on Saturday

2012-01-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

Words can not describe the beauty that was Saturday night. Aaron and I took off on our usual nightly run, and I looked to my left to see the following.

No filters, just straight from my phone.

I'm lucky to live where I live. I don't care about the bugs and the distance and the $$ and whatever other people decide to complain about whilst living in paradise.

None of that holds a candle to the beauty I get in giving those meaningless things up.

the boys checking the low tide. Do you spy swede?

I was there too, although a bit sweaty, I'm a happy girl.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year friends!

We rung in the new year with a hike, that we made a little video of.

It was a perfect way to end the year; together, in silence and in the beauty of nature.

No tv, no facebook, no blogs, no cellphones (at least for a few hours).

We only did half of this hike (the end of it is a waterfall) because our little four legged friend was a little pooped, but we were proud he even made it as far as he did.

The view from the top is beautiful.

All filmed with the GOPRO 2, duct taped to an old tripod. Ha.

I love the feeling of this video.

Just calm, serene and relaxed.

That's how I want 2012 to be.

Here's to hoping!

The rest of the night was spent among friends staying in to a movie and our own personal firework show thanks to some law abiding neighbors (not) that lit up the beach behind our house.

A Year in Review

2011-12-29T21:38:00.000-08:00

Bits and Pieces: Our year in review

January

Got a contact high while watching one of my favorite local artists play. JBoog: our short lived romance was just that: short lived. Also, he's short.

February

Decided it was time to move on from my employment of two years. My favorite post from February: By Night

March

Lived through Tsunami 2011 (#2 for us). Our beloved rat Oliver died. And we both caught the flu.

April (the big cahonna!)

Aaron's family came, Aaron graduated from college, Ben + Carrie got married, my Dad and brother came to visit, I had my last day at work, we moved AND I started a new job. All in 10 days. WHEW.

May

I blogged ONCE in may. It was an uneventful month, apparently.

June

Our other rat (ollies brother) Walter died. My favorite post from that month, and we had some crazy weather during that time as well.

July

We dogsat that sweetest little puppy Riley for the whole month, and spent A LOT of time at the beach. This is pretty much what it looked like.

August

We welcomed a Swede into our family (our miniature dachshund). And I think this post (pre-swede) sums up that month fairly well.

Septemeber

I turned 24. We visited my brother, sister in law, and baby niece Elise in San Francisco.

October

We found a shark in the backyard but still spent plenty of time at the beach

November

All you need to know

December

Well, you're looking at it!

Bring it 2012. I'm ready. Lots and lots of things waiting and ready to happen. I'm looking forward to it. I naturally have a lot of anxiety about a lot of things; and this is the first year in a long while that I've actually looked FORWARD to the future. And that my friends, is a good sign. Right? Right.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-26T14:17:00.000-08:00

Again, apologies for my non blog ness!

When things gets hard, busy, fun, exciting, sad, overwhelming, or anything not BORING I stop blogging. We've had all of the above lately.

CHRISTMAS WAS WONDERFUL!

We went on the Christmas Canoe ride at PCC. It was beautiful and wonderful! I enjoyed it immensely.

We had a lovely Christmas Eve dinner at Lei Lei's with our dear Ben and Carrie.

Then we watched "It's a Wonderful Life"

Christmas Day started with 8am church, christmas present opening, a delicious breakfast cooked by Aaron, nerf gun wars (boys vs girls: WE WON), more Christmas movies, a very Cafe Rio dinner, Christmas games, and lots and lots of JUST DANCE 3. l

I have a Christmas hangover.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

me with my neck pillow (yes I asked for this)

In my absence

2011-12-21T20:58:00.000-08:00

So sorry for the prolonged absence.

We've been busy.

Then we got sick.

And I'm finally better.

Aaron is still barfing.

Hopefully he's better soon, too.

We are spending Christmas at home, on our island. This will be our 2nd Christmas spent Mele Kalikimaka-ing. It always makes for a good time, although we do miss our families and wish we could spend the holiday's with them; there will be other Christmas'.

Here's what we've been up to when we weren't being sick:

Pick-cha's

2011-12-14T14:59:00.000-08:00

A few pictures I just recieved. More to come. I love.

We haven't had 'pictures' taken for over three years, so when the opportunity arose, we took it!

Plus, we have a new member of the family! Don't you love our furry child?

And my husbands furry beard?

Post edit:

Three photographers where involved with this shoot. Click their name to see more of their work:

My lovely dear friend, Chelsea Scanlan of A Bunch of Lovelies (who currently has THE CUTEST picture of my Swede up on her blog right now)

Ashlee DeCaires of Ashlee DeCaires Photography

and

LeeYen Lobendahn of LobLee Photography

The pictures in THIS POST are all courtesy of LeeYen Lobendahn

Like I said, MORE to come from the other lovely ladies.

The Weekly Swede

2011-12-12T13:17:00.001-08:00

A mess of images of little swede from this week:

1.Being cute
2. Making us feel guilty every time we leave the house (without him).
3. Sleeping. Please disregard my hair, it was a long, shower less day.
4. Got to be the center of attention at all times. Placing himself conveniently between me and me iPad
5. Guarding his most prized possession (the Christmas tree)

The backyard at dusk

2011-12-07T20:20:00.000-08:00

I ventured out of the house with pup in tow to escape the 'i've been stuck at home all day/week' blues because Aaron's been working a lot. In the winter time around these parts, the sand pulls off the shore and exposes the reef. It makes for a nice walk 'on' the water or just a walk on the beach. Just as I was about to make the journey in the water, to my surprise, Aaron popped up around the corner--home early. He scared the ba-jezzzus out of me, as I was sure at first glance he was a homeless man come to kidnap me and eat my dog. Alas, upon closer examination, it was not.

Ah. Bliss.

I carried Swede out, but he swam the whole way back. What a good little pup.

He was a little unsure at first, trying to climb as high as he could to get away from the water:

And completely unrelated: there is a part on the path from our backyard to the beach where Swede becomes the 'gate keeper' and refuses to let anyone pass. He ALWAYS does this, ALWAYS in the same spot. He will growl and charge at you like he owns the place. It's pretty funny. I tired to get a picture of him doing it below, but it was getting dark and was a little hard, but you get the idea.... Here he is taking Aaron on as he tries to pass.

A few pictures from the last little while that make my heart happy

2011-12-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

That is all.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-11-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

[Above]

Thanksgiving Day (too busy cooking and eating to take too many pictures!)

1. My yeast ROSE!!! (this has never happened before)

2. So proud of my rising yeast.

3. Homemade apple pie.

4. Ky and me after eating.

******************************

[Above]

Kahuku Football State Championship. THEY WON!

Highschool football's a pretty big deal around here.

Awesome game, awesome crowd.

I screamed myself hoarse!

I think the coolest part of the entire thing was on the hour long drive home on our little two lane highway. MASSES of people were out on the side of the road, yelling, screaming, dancing, people were honking their horns the entire way home (the guy we were with said once his Dad honked his horn so much on the way home that his car battery died!). The support for this team after a rough last year was amazing and inspiring! I love where I live.

****************************

[Above]

1. A rained out Saturday beach day turned Christmas tree hunt.

2. Hunt complete, Christmas tree up and smelling lovely.

3/4. Swede's new favorite place to hang out. So many branches to chew on, dangling ornaments, and a new place to hide when we suggest any sort of activity he doesn't want to do (kennel, bath, etc.) He's in heaven.

All in all, Thanksgiving weekend was a success and a much needed break!

Getting in the Thanksgiving Spirit

2011-11-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

Aaron and I were engaged in tracing back Thanksgivings past for a reason I can't recall at this exact moment. In that process I was reminded of a funny little story, that definitely brought me into the thanksgiving spirit.

For your reading pleasure.

The Thanksgiving of my 17 year of life, I was happy, healthy and thirsty. I apparently drank a lot of water or whatever we were drinking at the dinner table that year. I filled my stomach and my bladder.

Off I went after the majority of my day spent with my family feasting, to my then boyfriend's house, to spend the last few hours of the day with his family and his extended family. I bolted from my house to his house (about a 20 min drive), to which I was met with his entire family, and extended family, already waiting in the cars for me.

I trotted from my car, into theirs, and off we were onto our 1 drive north to reach the house of the grandparents of my bf, followed by his extended family in the car behind.

About 45mins in to the trip, it hit me. It being my bladder trying to explode. I had to go. So I bounced my knees and got real quiet.

My bf asked if I was 'okay.'

"Yes, I'm fine" I replied.

I bounced my knees a little faster, repositioned, and stayed silent. How much farther was it?

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked again

"Well, I really have to use the bathroom, how much farther is it?" I whispered

"Like 10 minutes? Can you hold it? I can ask my Dad to pull off to a gas station or something?" He kindly offered.

"Um, NO! Don't say anything. I can wait" I said, completely mortified.

About 30 seconds passed and I was positive if I didn't get somewhere within the next 60 seconds I was surely going to pee my pants, in the car, in front of his entire family.

"Okay, tell him." I said rather quickly.

"Hey, Dad, Erin has to go to the bathroom, can you find somewhere?"

"Well, we're almost there, I'll step on it!" He said happily, and step on it he did. We were flying.

I think the faster speed made me have to go more. This was it, this was the end.

"I'm going to pee my pants!" I exclaimed! I threw all inhibition to the wind and figured actually peeing my pants would be more embarrassing than letting them know I was going to pee my pants and avoiding the problem.

"Well, what do you want me to do? There's really nothing around here hun!" He sympathized

"I'm seriously going to pee my pants!"

"Well, I can pull over?"

Pull over? Pull over.

Out I jumped onto the shoulder of the six lane 5N freeway, full of Thanksgiving Day traffic.

His mom pulled off her jacket to block my bare butt as I dropped my pants in rid run to the biggest (smallest) tumble weed I could find.

"I won't look!" She exclaimed as she turned her head away.

And then I peed; while staring at the backyards of a new housing development of 20 houses, with the freeway blaring behind me, while a jacket held by his mother blocked my dignity.

Don't forget his family, and the extended family that was caravanning behind, pulled over to inquire as to why we were stopping.

To say I was mortified would be an understatement.

And that's nearly my only memory of that Thanksgiving, thanks to me and my bladder.

So what am I thankful for this year?

That I will not be traveling any distance and that I can drink as much liquid as I want without risking my dignity and a flashing incident! BRING ON THE MARTINELLI'S!

The Weekly (Friday) Swede

2011-11-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

Swede has some questions for you

Do you think it's strange that I love to stick my head in this bag and roll around and around for hours?

I claim this blanket. Not a question.

What is that human on that thing with wheels doing?

Why ride in the passenger seat where I belong when I can bother the driver?

Am I cute when I sleep?

Do I look handsome with my nails cut? Thank you petco.

Have a happy friday. From the hotdog dog.

On Patience and Bookshelves

2011-11-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

I used to think patience was simply waiting for things to pass so you can be happy, once they are over.

So patiently I would wait for the passing of time and the inevitable healing of my heart or the resolve of the trials I face daily; and the ones that pop up unexpectedly. It was as if my heartache and trials were books, titled and written, on my bookshelf. Untouched, the only power they had was over me as I waited for the time I could take a book down and retire it to the trash (where it belonged).....Waiting for the bookshelf to be empty, so I could be happy..... I'd wait patiently.

Just as love is kind, patience is active. It's a verb.

Patience requires action. Patience requires work and just the same, patience works on us. Patience allows me to take each book down in it's due time, hold it my hands, and know it. It allows me to learn. I survive in patience, even when I feel like life isn't being very fair to my little bookshelf.

So what do I do when all I want to do is topple the entire bookcase onto it side and burn all the books?

I cling to patience.

I act patiently. I don't complain about the bookcase. I don't hate the bookcase. I don't question why the book(s) came into my life. I don't rip the books apart. I don't try and rewrite them. I don't skip to the end. I don't let the book consume my life.

Instead I learn from my little bookcase full of books and patiently wait for the understanding that comes with slowing filtering through my many books. If I wait long enough, little happy books begin to appear, reminding me that all of life is not a heroic tragedy in which I try and fail. The happy books, they've always been there. Although, at times, I am not patient enough to sift through and find them, or even see them plainly before my eyes; they are there, all around me, shining so brightly.

Sometimes I'm much too familiar with my bookcase; I could name every book that lines it shelves. Other times, like lately, books appear that I never thought I'd see. Other times, they come flying at me so fast I can barely catch their meaning before they hit my straight on.

I may never understand some of the books on my bookshelf. I will never take some of the books on my bookshelf down. Why they are placed the way they are? I may never know. But patience is accepting that fact and realizing, although bizarre, they make my bookshelf complete and each book has meaning. Those books make my bookshelf mine. Those books make me, me.

Patience has her perfect work.

I used to think happiness comes after the hard part is over, when my bookcase is cleared, uncluttered and full of only the books I choose; but lately I've come to realize that happiness comes from the most read books, the most studied, the ones that are hard to read and understand, the ones that are coming apart at the seams (literally and figuratively), the ones that make us feel a little crazy, the ones that cause our hearts to hurt, the ones that make us weep, the ones that make us happy, the ones that we share with others; the one's that change our lives--page by page, chapter by chapter.

But we're not really taking about bookshelves, are we?

“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God … and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire" Orson F Whitney

Weekend

2011-11-14T08:30:00.000-08:00

This weekend was forecasted to be rainy and windy. But along came Saturday with it's sunshine, and it was much enjoyed.

1. The backyard

2. The boy

3. Gas Chambers on the North Shore

4. Massaman Curry, with tofu and brown rice. A staple food in my opinion!

5. My little weenie crashed after running around psychotically for 4 hours straight at the beach. He goes ballistic every time we go.

6. "Will wake when food is involved" -Swede

Ended the weekend with a Sunday sunset. Doesn't get much better.

And the Rain Came Down

2011-11-11T10:31:00.000-08:00

It's a rainy, blustery day on our little island today.

'Winter' has arrived.

I don't mind. We get sunshine almost 100% of the year.

I can stand a little rain.

Happy Friday!

The Weekly Swede

2011-11-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

This is all you need to know about Swede this week:

I can't stop laughing at these pictures.

That face says one of two things:

"I just farted" OR

"Am I's a cutes hot-zog (dog)?" (in an accent.)

Yep, I just said fart.

I'll let you decide.

And that is the look into the life of a hotdog.

A little video happy

2011-11-08T15:22:00.000-08:00

Had some down time lately and have been a little video happy.

Enjoy! You might recognize a few of the shots from Swede whipping his head.

HAPPY MONDAY!

Word to the wise, go down to the bottom of the video, right hand side and change it to from 360p to 720p, it will make a world of difference--in quality, because that is what it was shot in.

Boo Hiss

2011-11-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

The world was feeling heavy yesterday.

Everything came crashing down, me with it. I felt lost.

And I kind of gave up on 'dealing with life' for a bit.

I threw in the towel.

Does that ever happen to you, or am I just crazy? I'm leaning toward the crazy.

Husband, being the sweet soul that he is, tried to piece together my broken heart with jamba juice.

That man knows me.

Life you suck sometimes. Yes, you, life. I'm talking to you! Give me my towel back! I'm not done yet! I won't be your victim!

Ah, that made me feel better.

Here's to better days.

Aaron being creepy to try and make me laugh.

Farewell Week: Friday

2011-11-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

1. It's been down pouring here for the last week, makes for some boring, beach less days!

2. Driving into a rainy Honolulu.

3. Swede's favorite 'lounging' positions of choice.

4. Family nap time; nothing else to do when it rains!

5. Before and After: Cut 4 inches off my hair, although it still looks relatively long, because it was already TOO long. I went to a legit salon in town (at the referral of a friend) and I was in heaven! My hair feels so light, flowy and styled. The lovely serbian man (a first for me, having a guy cut my hair) fixed all the weirdo problems I was having with grown out layers--after not cutting it for over a year! How lazy am I?And I no longer need to pin my 'bangs' becaue they didn't sweep right. I now have the perfect sweep (according to serbian).

6. The ocean peaking out on my drive home. I love where I live.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

The Weekly Swede

2011-11-03T07:30:00.000-07:00

Swede turned hood. Don't mess.

Post-Halloween Blues

2011-11-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Working all day, wishing I was here. With him.

Is anyone else sad about Halloween being over? I don't want to take my decorations down! I had to change my blog header, AND get a new ringtone. I suppose

monster mash' is no longer appropriate? No? But hey, I guess we are moving onto bigger and better things right? Thanksgiving and Christmas, here I come!

A Haunted Story

2011-10-31T15:40:00.001-07:00

There is this small corner of a large room where a dark cabinet sits atop a cold, peeling, granite floor. The many misplaced drawers look like a maze biding passerby's to open the labyrinth inside. The plant perched to the left stretches its palms straining to reach beyond its bounds. Get close enough and a sheen of corroded salt may blind the sight for a moment, causing a stumble into cobwebs.

On a particularly gloomy day, I was asked to clean in this corner. There were stains on the cold, peeling, granite. Red stains, stains the resembled blood, spastically placed all over the floor. My mind quickly jumped to the easiest solution, the men must have dripped paint. Armed with my supplies I got on my hands and knees to scrub. After an hour of scrubbing I was satisfied with my removal of the stain and skuttled off.

A week later, I was called back to the same spot and asked why I hadn't cleaned the stains off the floor. They were back. I again, repeated the process, scrubbing and cleaning. I was sure this time, it was blood, from where I do not know. Maybe someone had cut themselves? More than once?

The next day, the spots were back and in different arrangement. A shiver sent down my spine as I realized that whatever was doing this was repeatedly crossing this path, and continually dripping.

I informed my boss that these spots where coming back every time I scrubbed them off. Was she cut? Did she know were they coming from? She informed me of the 'bleeding ghost lady' that often haunted residents, or so she had read.

I tried to remove all those thoughts out of my clouded mind and soon forgot about the blood stains, although I avoided the blood corner.

Until today, when watering the plants I noticed a huge puddle of water right next to the blood stains. I thought it odd as no one had been here all weekend, and why would somone just dump a bucket of water on the floor? I got spooked a bit, thinking this corner really WAS haunted, with the blood and water mysteriously materializing on the floor. I turned to walk away quickly, and I swear to you, when I passed by the sliding glass door, I saw the reflection of a woman looking directly at me.

Booooooooo! Happy Halloween! (this story is completely true, but whether or not I saw myself in the sliding glass door is for you to decide.....)

Shark Bait

2011-10-29T07:40:00.000-07:00

Remember that nice little beach behind our house that the husband and I love to go to everyday?? And swim and surf and play??

Well, yesterday, after we where both done working (it was a late work day for me thank you JGR), we decided to go out and play and catch the last of the sunshine. I stayed in the house for a bit, eating a late lunch. Aaron went ahead and went out to get started in the water.

About 15 minutes later, I met him on the beach. He said "I found something floating in the water!" And showed me this:

An interesting little device, maybe tracking the tides? Some sort of sea creature? Aaron wanted to take it apart. I told him we should probably call the number on the thing.

After our short lived playing was over, we returned inside and called the number on the little device. Aaron explains what we found and where. Guy on phone says he will send us a picture of it's owner,

Yep, that's a 15 foot Tiger shark.

Did you know tiger sharks are #2 on the list of recorded attacks on humans, #1 is GREAT WHITES!??!

I think I just peed my pants! The guys said once they come pick up the little device, they can tell us more about what this little guy did, most importantly WHERE it fell off and WHERE he likes to hang out, because I'm going to stay FAR AWAY.

Let's hope it's not the little bay that makes up our little beach???

Seeing sharks in the ocean is something that happens fairly often (according to Aaron). But I would just block that out of my head. The only time I ever really think about sharks is sometimes when I'm in the water and I'm about to duck under a wave I think for a split second "What if I suddenly felt something huge bump into me right now?" (especially after I watched the Bethany Hamilton movie). If I see something (like a leaf) floating in the water, I have a split second of panic. But now, I have an IMAGE to go with that thought and a thought that this guy MAY have been a little closer than we thought.....

AHHHHHHH!

The Weekly Swede

2011-10-27T16:17:00.001-07:00

A mess of random photos from Swede's week.

He got a Halloween costume. It was so hard to get a picture because he would NOT stop moving. This is what he thinks of it:

A new collar because he destroyed the other one. This one is very manly:

He slept a lot. He got lucky this week; with Aaron working late, I didn't want to sleep alone, so it was a kennel free week for Swede:

When we leave the house, he gets all pathetic and clingy because he knows that means he's going in his kennel:
And the pathetic face "Please don't put me in my kennel"
Attack of the weiner:

And there you have a look into the life of a four legged brown hotdog!

Scenes from the Weekend and Stealing

2011-10-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

[above] Yogenfruz @ the Kaneohe Mall. Also where I upgraded my GET-TOE blackberry to the iPhone 4, thank the heavens!

[above] My sleeping pups (both of them!). Swede looks pretty innocent huh? Until you look below and see the sweet little koala toy he beheaded!

[below] We went to the Haunted Lagoon. This is what our faces looked like the entire time:

[above] Us at the Haunted Lagoon. Aaron says their is a ghost in this picture. Upper right hand corner. Note the orb of light.

[below] Alicia and I after our haunted lagoon ride. This year was just as exciting/scary as last year. It did not disappoint.

Now, let's talk about the [above] picture. Over the weekend, I spent the last of some birthday money I had laying around on a sweater. Sales girl forgot to take the ink tag off, which apparently wasn't a sensor because I got all the way home without noticing. I was super frustrated when I finally noticed they had forgotten to take it off because the store was over a two hour round trip endeavor and I really didn't fell like driving all the way back to have them remove it in .5 seconds.

So what did I do? The natural thing, I asked facebook, then youtube how to remove ink tags. It was pretty simple and with the help of my husband, the ink tag was off in no time, and there was no ink explosion. My sweater was safe and sound.

Quite a few people [on facebook] responded that when they first saw the above picture, they thought I had stolen something.

Do I look like the stealing type? Really people? Really? Me, a kleptomaniac?? I think not.

And that got me thinking back on my 25 years of life, trying to remember if I HAD ever stolen something.

One incident popped to mind.

I had to have been under 12 yrs old--My friend and I used to go into grocery stores (usually while our Mom (s) where off shopping), look at the teen gossip magazines, rip out all the pictures of JTT we could find, you know, this guy:

put the magazine back on the shelf, stuff the ripped out pictures into our pockets, and take them home to glue into our JTT scrapbooks. Because, of course, I was destined to marry JTT because our birthday's were in the same month, and I needed to keep track of his movements if I was going to marry him.

I'm not even joking. Being an adult now, I realize that-that probably wasn't the best idea, but at the time, I didn't really understand it was wrong because I wasn't actually taking the magazine from the store. I'm sorry if you ever bought a magazine and pictures where ripped out. It was probably me and my friend.

Do you still think I'm a dangerous kleptomaniac? I need to be locked up.

What to do on a Thursday afternoon?

2011-10-21T14:00:00.000-07:00

Remember that cold weather I was talking about? Yeah, didn't last long. It never does! If you haven't noticed, we go to the beach a lot. We love the beach! So what else would we do on a perfectly sunny day, when neither of us have to work in the afternoon??

There are so many wonderful beaches on our little island, but we think the best one is just a few steps away, right in our back yard. Even better, this beach is always deserted, expect for the occasional naked person or homeless person or both combine in one (which is the lease desirable option), and trust me, it happens. More often then I would like. I had to call the cops a few days ago because of it. Another time, another story. It's our own little paradise. Give me an empty beach, my man, my dog, the sun, and I'm a happy lady. I love our backyard!

The last sequence of photos, of Aaron and I being attacked by a wave, is just a preview to the awesome video we made of multiple wave attacks. It will be available soon......

Decorating Frenzy

2011-10-19T20:00:00.000-07:00

Advertiser's are sent from satan! I'm am such a sucker for advertising. If I had the money to purchase whatever every informercial I've ever seen was selling, I would buy it ALL. All of it!

So it comes as no surprise that upon walking into Safeway for bananas, I came out with more fall decor for our house, and no bananas. All the decorations where placed right there at the entrance, just smelling like fall and glittering like fall in my direction. So sneaky. (although, not all picture below is from safeway). I thought I was done with decorating for this month, Safeway thought differently.

I tried to stick with more 'fall' decor so I can leave it up longer (than skulls and halloween stuff).

I also got A LOT of pumpkin spice candles and have been burning them non stop! I might just turn into a pumpkin spice because I have so many. It's ridiculous.

I better be kept far far away from any sort of department/home store/holiday decorating stores, or the result will be devastating to my bank account.

Now it REALLY fells like fall (other decorations here), especially since it's been raining alot, and it's was 67 degrees outside last night. People, I live on an island! That's unheard of! I guess the island was tricked by all this fall advertising, too, to change weather patterns. I feel ya, mother earth, I feel ya.

Last of the SF Posts: My Dear Elise

2011-10-19T00:21:00.000-07:00

I've been putting this post off because I don't want to think that our trip is REALLY over. I still think about how much fun we had almost everyday. And I miss my little niece! I die to think she's already changed so much since I've seen here. Don't grow up too fast little Elise!!

The Weekly Swede

2011-10-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

I don't usually do The Weekly Swede on a Monday, but I needed a happy post. And Swede makes me happy.

Swede does this funny thing were he just can't get close enough to your face. He will try and squish his ENTIRE body on your neck, which doesn't really work real well when you're such a long little guy. Aaron took this sequence of photos and I found them on the computer and just thought they were too cute to pass up!

Once he figures out he just won't fit that close to your face, he's stretch right out, legs dangling and all (see last picture)

Happy Friday

2011-10-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

Some cute video's to make start the weekend off right.

Man, this girl has more personality at 8, than most people do ever! So cute!

Favorite part ever (below) is 2:45

I love Nicki Manaj!! Here's the original (clean) version if you've never heard this song. And again, do you even need to ask if I know all the lyrics?? No, no you don't.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

The Weekly Swede

2011-10-13T12:16:00.000-07:00

Swede has decided he is interested in the ocean. He's been terrified of it for a while now. I mean, he's only a few inches off the ground, any ripple let alone wave looks like a tsunami to him. Every time a wave would crash, he would back up or bark.

There was a nice little puddle near where we were sitting the other day and Swede decided to take the plunge. He still will NOT stick his tail in the water; hence the tail straight up in the air.

Hopefully he gets braver soon. The lady we got him from said the dad dog of the bunch surfed on her husband's long board (with her husband, obviously). That's our goal for Swede. Can't you just picture this little hotdog on a surf board??

A Dose of the Tuesday's

2011-10-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

Monday was a doozey. Work was crazy and I wasn't feeling very happy after it. At the urging of my employer if I "wasn't feeling up to coming" on Tuesday, I didn't have to. So Tuesday morning, I woke up and said "Self, do you feel like going to work?" I bet you can guess the answer.

I slept in. I took my time getting started for the day. Around 11am we headed to Haleiwa to visit one of my favorite sandwich places. It did not disappoint, to no surprise. After, we shopped around for a bit in all the cute surf shops.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the beach. These activities are nothing out of the ordinary, but they made me the happiest little thing on this island! I get excited about the simple pleasure in life. I'm easy to please. Swede even experimented in the water (more on that later), which was an improvement from his usual galloping AWAY from the ocean or barking at the waves. He must have been happy, too! All in all, all I needed was a good dose of the Tuesday's to rid me of the disease that was Monday! Success!

Ocean Beach and My Birthday

2011-10-11T08:33:00.000-07:00

We visited the beach a few times in SF.

I love California beaches and miss them a lot!

I miss the never ending beach stretching as far as the eye can see.

I miss the seaweed. I miss the sand dollars and shells.

I miss the flatness of the beach.

Eveytime I set foot onto these lovely little creations, I'm instantly transported back to my childhood of summers spent at beach houses with family.

The sights, the smell--I love it!

But, one thing I don't miss--the temperature! BRRRR!

Also, I turned 25 on the Sunday we were there. I'm old! Sunday birthday are always kind of low key and I was kind of not ready to be 25, so I was happy with the calm day we had. I ate the biggest coconut tart I've ever seen for the lovely Tartine Bakery. It was beyond description!

Halloween

2011-10-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when you live on an island, that doesn't change climate with seasons, it's hard to feel like you are in 'holiday' mode. There is no fall clothing, layers and boots here. Sad day. That is why I make a point to decorate for every holiday possible. Even SPRING!

I broke out the Halloween decorations last week and now our house is sufficiently spook-i-fied (I even spooked my blog header). Oahu even gave us some gloomy, rainy, windy weekend weather, too! We added a beach bonfire in our backyard, s'mores galore, and a scary movie---and the perfect October feel has been achieved!

My orchid (that won't bloom dagnabbit!!) became a haunted forest:

Glowey Dusk

2011-10-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

Just liked the look of all these pictures together, although they weren't taken together. Gets me in the mood for the weekend!

Glowey Dusk. My favorite time of the day; right as the sun goes down, but hasn't gone to sleep all the way.

Everything seems to stand still, completely motionless, like jello. And all the earths colors come alive. It's like my own special little present from mother earth, everyday!

How to Rice'a'Roni while in SF

2011-10-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

This is Arica. She's a friend champ. She drove all the way up to where I was to spend the afternoon with me while I was visiting SF. I love her. Isn't Aaron's background choice for this photo wonderful?

We got trolley riding down pat. First, wait patiently in the blinding light.

Wave your little ticket. I was skeptical of this step, because my brother has told me to do many a stupid thing in my life, and I have done many a stupid thing in my life at his urging, and I thought this might be one of his tricks when he told me to run out into the middle of the road waving my trolley ticket. It was not a trick, you really have to do that.

Mad dash to the trolley car

Find your place amoung many a person who also wants to ride the trolley car

Wonder how you got separated from your trolley buddy

Reunite with trolley buddy as you bust a RICE A RONI as stranger man smiles at us and asks if the paparazzi man following us is my boyfriend

Feel slightly silly, then ride like the wind to Fisherman's Warf as you high five passing passengers on other trolley cars. Beware of your arm being ripped off.

And THAT's how you rice'a'roni while you are in SF

The Weekly Swede

2011-10-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

This week Swede has slept, a lot. Half the time he will just crawl onto us and knock right out. He's a warm little snuggly dog. The other half of the time, I find him in the weirdest places/ sleeping positions.

Swede has also spent the week attempting to bite/attack anything that moves or looks slightly interesting to a little puppy dog. His new favorite toy is the bathroom trash can and all it's contents. We keep the door closed at all times now. He squeaked his squeaky toy so much, he broke the squeaker. He also learned how to play fetch. He returns with the ball about 90% of the time. This may be TMI, but after we spend the day at the beach with him, he poo poo's sand. I'm not even joking. Sand terds. This is a result of eating sand, and sticks, and leafs and my head and crabs (please view his cute little sandy nose below). Swede also has a new fascination with licking my feet?

He also has become a professional stalker. He follows me everywhere! Below are pictures I've snapped when I've turned around to find him just sitting there, staring at me. Sometime he appears out of no where. He's pretty elusive. And that is a look into the life of a hot-dog puppy named Swede.

Happy Birthday to my Aaron

2011-10-04T01:33:00.000-07:00

From top (left to right)

1. My Aaron at his favorite Mexican restaurant, El Marachi's, for his birthday dinner

2. A bunch of kittens at the pet store that were apparently enthralled with Aaron, just like me.

3. Me stuffing a chip into my mouth. SO GOOD.

4. The 'love machine' that told me how tall I was, how strong I was, how wealthy I will be and how smart I am. It was pretty spot on! Best .25 cents I've ever spent!

5. Our chips and salsa

6. Had to do a bathroom mirror awkward picture.

7. Me and more with those chips and salsa!

8. Again, with the cats. They stayed like that staring at Aaron for nearly 5 minutes!

9. The birthday boy and the chips. We were really obsessed with the chips.

Aaron didn't want to make a big deal about his birthday this year, so we just kept it simple.He enjoyed a work free day while I was at work, then a nice surf session at one of his favorite surf spots. We went to dinner, then spent the rest of the evening at the mall spending his birthday money! We followed up by some frozen yogurt and an opera rendition of HAPPY BIRTHDAY, by me to Aaron. He was happy, so I was happy.

I love that man more than life itself. I don't know how else to describe it but to say that our souls are the same and are forever fused together. I don't exist without him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY AARON!

Under the sea + Weekend

2011-10-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

Aaron and I had a good laugh looking at these pictures.

How pathetic are we attempting to get a somewhat decent underwater picture together?

So we just took one above water:

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

I know we did. We spent it watching the October Conference Session! And snuck a little beach time in, a little puppy time in, and a little family dinner time in!

Hawaii Makes me OCD

2011-10-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

Photo booths rendition of me tonight

First, let me throw this out there: I love living on Oahu.

Now, among a tan, a laid back life style, wonderful food, fresh off the tree fruit, and a good life, Hawaii also offers me OCD.

Sometimes, I feel crazy because I think I have a problem. But then I remember that my OCD is rooted in Hawaii's climate and bug population.

If I don't hang my towel up after I shower, it will SMELL within minutes.

If I don't wipe the counters down after every meal, ants WILL come. By the thousands.

If I don't do the dishes at night and leave them for the AM, ants will come. By the thousands.

If I don't ring out my sponge after every use, it will smell within minutes.

If I don't close my windows when I leave my house, it will rain, and the area surrounding my windows will be soaked, including but not limited to, my bed.

If I don't sweep daily, cock roaches will appear.

If I don't wipe my feet off after going to the beach before getting in the car, my car will fill with sand and sink to the bottom of a puddle during the next flood.

There are many more.

In a way, I feel like this will make cleaning a PIECE of CAKE if I ever live anywhere else. I've got it down.

But it's also tiring.

And I guess I should realize that if the ants come, the sponge smells, my towel stinks and my sheets are wet, life will go on. And then I will go to the beach.

Thanks Hawaii but, no thanks.

My Future Staircase

2011-09-30T00:34:00.000-07:00

An old boss asked Aaron to come take some pictures of his house, because he is selling it.

I tagged along because I was bored.

But I was glad I went, because I happened upon the staircase of my dreams! How beautiful is this thing? I love curling staircases.

And I couldn't leave out the awkward picture with the naked statue.....

The view from his place is amazing!

Can you find me in this picture?

Now if only I had over 1 mil just lying around......

The South Shore

2011-09-28T19:31:00.000-07:00

I wanted to take a quick break from our San Francisco trip to remind myself of the beautiful place that I live, particularly the SOUTH shore of this lovely island. It just doesn't get any better. What do you think?

The Farmer's Market

2011-09-27T08:00:00.001-07:00

One word.

Heaven!

I wish Oahu had a farmers market like this every saturday!

[below] Have you ever seen peppers so big? And PURPLE!? Never in my life...

Blackberry weekend

2011-09-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

Friday was beach day! Psychotic sand eating puppy was in tow.

Saturday we headed to the airport to drop my brother off, then went to the Honolulu Academy of Art.

There was a free exhibit there called 'Thirst' which presented different artist interpretations of the term 'thirst'. Very interesting and thought provoking. I love that art can have so many different angles, and even when given the same term-produce so many different ideas!

After, we headed over the main museum and walked through all the different galleries. Everything was beautiful and very interesting to look and learn about. Art/culture is so

beautiful!

The museum is free on Wednesday, so I think I may go back then and revisit some of my favorite galleries.

I was also stalked by a curious little puppy. Everywhere I went, sure enough, if I turned around, he would be sitting like this, ears cocked trying to figure out what I was doing. He's so cute!

Fancy Schmancey Sunday And A Secret

2011-09-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

To prove: to the general public that I do get dressed at lease once a week, despite my many sightings around town in yoga pants and a tee-shirt.

But, I will NOT do my hair. That just a'int going to happen. If you can't tell, Swede was more interested in the leaves then trying to take a picture...

Speaking of hair, I have a long-kept secret involving my hair. I have had a gray patch of hair on the left side of my head since I was 12. I hated it when I was 12, so my mother took me to a lady that would dye only that one spot. As I got older and dyed my whole head more--it was never to be seen. I have successfully hidden it for about 10 years now! But, I haven't dyed my hair for over a year, so behold, the gray patch! Needless to say, I still hate it and try to hide it.....! Can you see it trying to peak out at the top of my twist?

My only accessory today was my horse shoe nail ring. It's simply a old fashion horse shoe nail, bent into a ring. Aaron got me this little present when he visited Nauvoo a couple years ago and I really love it!

Oh, and husband grew a beard. Doesn't he look manly?!

Boudin, A lookout and a baseball game

2011-09-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

After Alcatraz, we headed to the world famous Boudin Bakery for their signature soup in a bread bowl dish. I am not a huge fan of clam chowder; at the advise of my SIL I went for the tomato soup. It did not disappoint. It was warm, creamy and delicious. Aaron got the clam chowder (lower corner) and said it was delicious as well!

Next we headed off to a lookout point. We could see the entire city! And the cute winding road where they filmed the 'zoom zoom zoom' car commercial. It was beautiful and windy.

d

Next we took the subway to a baseball game. This was my first subway ride and I was throughally entertained by all the drunk/homeless/crazy/pyshco people on the subway. I took a secret video with my phone, I'll post it one of these days.

The game was The Oakland A's VS Detroit Tigers--I had an AH HA moment when I thought back to a little fan I had won at Dave N Buster's once. It spun around and lit up saying 'Athletics' and I had no idea what that meant. I found out this night that the Oakland A's are also know as the Athletics. If you can't tell, I don't really follow baseball.

We got free hot dogs because we were 3 of the first 10,000 people to arrive. I don't think 10,000 people were even there. The game turned out to be very entertaining and we had a really good time. I'm glad we went. My favorite part was when the big screen shot to scenes in the audience, and they happened about 4 men--in tank tops, hard hats, dancing their hearts out. Who comes to a baseball game dressed like that? It was awesome.

As the night worn on, I sent my little errand boy in search of the hot chocolate cart man, and he returned with a lovely little chocolate hot drink that warmed me right up.

Alcatraz Island

2011-09-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Our first day in SF we went to Alcatraz Island.

I went as a child many many moons ago but only vaguely, vaguely remember it.

I, at once, put myself into character and let my mind run wild!

I think that's part of the reason, this time, that I was so creeped out.

I've got a very good imagination and I can freak myself out pretty good!

Being IN the prison was even creeper.

But a cool creepy, if that makes sense?

Just thinking about the people that inhabited these places, and the general feeling that existed there. Should I say it again? CREEPY!

I used to tell Aaron that I would like to spend a week in a simulated 'prison' experience (I'm weird) but not anymore! Alcatraz did it for me!

I highly recommend doing this if you have the chance.

[above] documenting the 'afgahan' Aaron and Jon can make fun all they want, but I was warmer than them, so there!

[below] During this part of the tour they stop you by windows that the wind howls through. They said that on New Years Eve, around midnight, the entire prison would quiet down as the prisoners, if they listened hard enough, could hear the music, parties, and laughter of those just across the shore in SF. A stark reminder of what they were missing. I look as if I am praying, no?

[below] Elise is a vicious criminal

[below] But she was released due to excess cuteness

Stop Looking At me Swan!

2011-09-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

I got a shirt with swans on it with some birthday money.

I love it.

Aaron calls me bird lady when I wear it. Good or bad thing?

What do you think?

We are back from our lovely little moment of time away.

Looking through 500 pictures to decide which to post.

Stay tuned.

PS

2011-09-13T01:35:00.000-07:00

What's a post without a little Swede??

Watch and love.

PPS. Watch it in 1080p..It will be sooo much better.

Beyond Stoked

2011-09-13T00:02:00.000-07:00

Aaron said to me tonight "I haven't seen you like this in a long time"

People. I feel like spring has sprung.

Tomorrow might as well be Christmas.

It feels like the last day of school.

Or a Friday

Or something.

JGR let me have the day off tomorrow--so that is awesome. I will spend the day shopping and spending some birthday money I've already gotten from some LOVELY family members.

THEN, then. THEN, the next day I get to see some of my favorite people for a whole week, and I get to meet my newest favorite little person.

I CAN'T WAIT.

And I don't have to work for A WHOLE WEEK. GENUIS!

Now, I'm going to stay up all night watching Netflix and eating cookies with my little puppy, BECAUSE I CAN.

And I will sleep in tomorrow, if I don't die from excitement first!

YEAH ME!

Longhi's @ Ala Moana

2011-09-08T19:53:00.001-07:00

Name: Longhi's

Location: Ala Moana

Price Range/plate: $15 and up

Food Type: Upscale lunch

The scene: I LOVE checkered black and white floors, and here, there is more than enough to go around. Very spacious and open. All the walls are windows that are sliding glass doors--that are open to a beautiful balcony. The view of Ala Moana beach park/the ocean is one of the best. No AC but the breeze more than makes up for it. I've been here a few times with JGR and this was the first time that the service kind of sucked, but the food this time made up for it....

The food: For a nibbler they bring out this 'pizza bread.' Half has green chilies on it, and the other half has a tomato sauce on it. Very very good. Then, JGR and I shared the Longhi's house salad. Also, very good. When I came here before I got the lunch sandwhich special and I was NOT impressed. So this time, I went for something a little more fancy. I got the Chicken Marsala over a thick slice of sourdough bread (or you can get pasta.) I can't even describe the deliciousness of this dish. The sauce soaks into the bread and it was just YUM! I ate the ENTIRE thing. YUM YUM YUM. JGR got the fish and chips and shared the fries with me. The fries were good and crispy and she didn't say anything bad about her fish. It looked good (and I don't even like fish).

The Service: This trip wasn't that good. When we walked in four hostess' where just standing around and talking and didn't even acknowledge us at first. Our waiter was kind, but overwhelmed. The bus boy said he was the only waiter on the floor (to about 10 tables)--so our service was a tad slow. He forgot JGR's drink until she loudly complained and our entree's took a little long to come out. It was just strange bc the hostess just stood around. I know they aren't waiters, but still, it seemed like they could have helped somehow. Anyway, this trip, I was not impressed with the service.

Suggestions: Sit near the balcony to get the best view.

Recommend?: Expensive but worth it. I probably wouldn't go back on my own dime, but I wouldn't be upset if JGR takes me back (which I know she will.)

swede sleeps alot

2011-08-31T22:14:00.000-07:00

Aaron said I should change the name of my blog to 'the daily swede' because all I'm ever going to do until we have a child is blog about swede.

He is my first furry child. And I love my little burrito, bean, poop maker!

He sleeps a lot. Proof.

swede sees the sunset

2011-08-27T12:10:00.000-07:00

me tellin swede he slept through the whole sunset, sucker!

And they called it puppy lovAAAvvAAA

2011-08-25T23:05:00.001-07:00

Get ready to get sick of Sweder--because you're going to be seeing a lot of him.

It's only day three and he has already stopped having 'accidents' in the house, except at night, but I don't blame him--8 + hrs is a long time for a puppy bladder to hold it in!

I hope I didn't just jinx his potty training-ness.

YEAH SWEDER!

Meet Swede

2011-08-24T11:32:00.000-07:00

Meet Swede (pronounced sweed)

Aaron said swede and it sounded good. So Swede he shall be called.

Swede is a miniature dachshund. He currently weighs 2 lbs.

He's legs are so miniature that he falls over when he walks/runs.

He hops along and it's soooo cute.

He follows us everywhere.

He doesn't whine in his kennel, even on the first night. GOOD BOY!

He poops SO much (i had a dog growing up and I do NOT remember this much poop).

Because of the above, potty training has already commenced.

WE LOVE HIM and we are glad we finally found a weiner dog on this dang island!

West Side Saturday

2011-08-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we decided to leave our little East/North Shore world and head to the West side.

We decided to hike first, at 12NOON.

This was not the greatest idea, since the sun was RIGHT above us and was blisteringly hot.

We thought the "hike" was a lot shorter than it was, so we didn't think it was a big deal to go at this time, and I barely put sunscreen on (only my face), thinking we'd be back in less than a 1/2 hour. BAD IDEA!

ANYWAY.

The 'hike' wasn't really a 'hike' --more of a trail. Hour or so in, hour or so out.

The trail WAS beautiful. Coast line the whole way.

And at the end, we saw a cute little sleeping monk seal, just floating in the water as it slept (yes, it was alive).

Apparently you were also supposed to see some type of rare bird, but it must be REALLY rare because we never saw any.

I recommend the trail. Great way to see the West side of the island, SO BEAUTIFUL!

After was BEACH and BBQ and a beautiful sunset, again, on the West side beaches.

A successful Saturday! (minus the sunburn! OUCH!)

Oh, and, there are so many random picture because the GOPRO has having a bad day and would randomly take 40 pictures without us knowing....

About the time the gopro lost it's marbles....

Recently, according to my phone

2011-08-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

The future:
Beach + SunshineA sleepy Aaron:

Aaron w/our newest nephew Brayden

Dora's (the lady I work for's dog) sad attempt at roll over. She got stuck like this
Ky taking pictures of her cute chubby toesJGR, working hard playing solitaire on her Ipad while we wait for valet to bring the carA sideways AaronMy back yardThe moon out while it was still light, sooo pretty!

My toes, in water-- although you can't tell because it's so clear. I love were I live!

my face after just waking up from my sunday nap, photo by Aaron

Review: House Without a Key

2011-08-10T00:27:00.001-07:00

Name: House Without A Key

Location: Hale Kulani Hotel in Waikiki

Price Range/plate: $15 and up

Food Type: Upscale lunch

The scene: BE-E-UTIFUL! The seating is all outdoor, but covered so you don't fry in the sun. Right on the Waikiki shore line. Beautiful view of the ocean as far as you can see. We watched the cruise ships go by, catamarans wiss by, and the ocean splash over the walkway railing. Not to mention that this hotel is SO FANCY and clean and up to date.

The food: They start you off with a basket of bread--it looked/tasted like the Costco rolls, but it was good. I had the Tomato Bisque Soup and the Mediterranean Pita. The soup was something I had never had and I quite enjoyed it. It's served cold--with chunks of mozzarella in the middle--and a bay leaf. Refreshing start to our meal. The pita was fine. Nothing special, but I enjoyed it. And quite small (for $15). It came with a side salad, again, nothing special, and small. JGR ordered the salmon. It was more like salmon soup. And JGR kept saying it was "too healthy" because it had tofu in it. She later gave her leftovers to her BF, which means she didn't like it enough to eat it later. All the other items on the menu looked appetizing--and I think anything ordered would have been fine. I saw the burger at the table next to us, looked YUM.

The Service: Friendly, but so so so slow! SO SLOW! It took almost 45 minutes to get our food (good thing we had the bread and soup to keep us occupied).

Suggestions: I have none. That is neither good, nor bad.

Recommend?: Eh. Best part about it is the view. I guess if I was a tourist and didn't know any better, I'd go. But would I go back?--not if I was paying.

Can I get by?

2011-08-04T08:00:00.001-07:00

So, JGR and I are at Fabric Mart.

It's small.

It's crowded.

And it's HOT, that place has NO AC.

And of course, JGR wants to look at every single last pieces of fabric among the thousands of options around. After an HOUR of being in there, we were missing one match.

We con a young man worker into helping us find the perfect fabric to match JGR's new pillowcases. He leads us to a rather small aisle and we try to make our way down it.

To the left of us there is a rack of spools of thread, beading's, and ribbing. To the right are stacks and stacks of fabric.

I'm trying to get JGR through, but it's not really happening because her chair is too wide for the aisle.

The man helping us says

"Oh, I can move those racks, so you can get through" (the racks to the left)

To which JGR is still saying

"I can't fit! I can't fit!"

I then hear a lady behind me, as if to answer JGR say

"Well, I can fit!"

She pushes her way past me, practically climbs over JGR and waddles her way down to disappear around the corner of the isle.

All I remember about this lady is

#1 She's rude. If she can't tell that I'm obviously not blocking the isle on purpose, and I'm obviously struggling to maneuver a rather large woman in a rickety wheelchair--I don't know what's wrong with her. Instead of taking two seconds to help us move the rack and let us move, she's rude. Not to mention there are 3 other isles she could have gone down that connect to where she disappeared too.

#2 She wasn't--shall we say--thin. [That was mean, I know]. And all I saw of her was her backside waddling away in a jean skirt that had a slit so high, I could see the beginning of the skin that was surely her butt cheek. YACK.

[JGR didn't hear any of this because she's hard of hearing]

Anyway, I'm a bit frustrated at the ignorance of this woman, but proceed on my way. JGR is pointing here, pointing there, grab me this, grab me that. So I'm standing there holding about 7 different bolts of fabric while JGR looks over them, with the young man helping us, looking on.

JGR finds one she likes, takes it from me, and flips it onto her chest to make a 'suedo-dress' to see what it would look like on her. [She's been distracted to looking for fabric to make more moo-moos out of at this point].

I see out of the corner of my eye, rude jean skirt appear again. I purposely pretended like I didn't see her because I knew she was just trying to barge past us again. And I'm SO IRRITATED that she can't just go down the isle that is literally 3 ft from her.

JGR see's her and jokingly says to her [JGR likes to make friends when we are out, and remember, she isn't aware of what happened minutes earlier]

"You can put your 2-cents in on this if you want"

And rude jean skirt lady says with an attitude to match-

"Actually, the only thing I want is to get past. I'm in a really big hurry"

OH NO SHE DID-ENT.

I just stared at her as she moved a little closer as if she was seriously going to try to squeeze past us, which there was NO WAY she was gonna fit. And there was NO WAY I was about to move.

And before you think I'm a brat and wonder why I just don't move JGR; it's not that simple.

#1 These isles are SO SMALL, I can't turn her around, or move her to the side. I'd have to wheel her ALL the way down--IN REVERSE-- the isle and out, put everything away that I was holding, wait for the lady to walk out, and then push JGR all the way back.

#2. It's freakin hot

#3. I'm already frustrated with rude lady and was NOT about to move.

#4. There was a different isle 3 FEET away that she could have used.

So I say rather rudely [I learned from her!]:

"You know what, there are three different isles for you to go down and it's obvious that it would a lot easier for you to walk down a different isle then it would be for us to move." [I motion to JGR and the fabric I'm holding]

And she says, kind of caught off guard and with slightly less attitude:

"Oh, I uh, Oh I didn't know there where other isles that connected to this one."

I say

"Right there" and point 3 ft over.

And she whips off in that direction. If she wasn't so busy trying to push a poor lady in a wheel chair practically over, so probably would have seen it sooner.

Look, I know this wasn't the 'turn the other cheek' approach we are encouraged and I'm sure in this lady's world she thinks I am the rude one.

Kill em with kindness?

How bout just kill them!

I'm just kidding.

But seriously, if you see someone pushing someone in a wheel chair/stroller/any type of person who ISN'T WALKING and is being assisted by some else, PLEASE go out of your way to be helpful and kind. I thought that was common sense, but apparently jean skirt lady missed that lesson in 2nd grade.

I end with a quote from Full House:

"HOW RUDE!"

A Story about the destiny of a $5

2011-08-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

It was a Friday evening when Aaron and I made our way to Food-land for our weekend late night sweet tooth.

We made our way through the store, complied our unhealthy goods and sprinted to the register in an eager effort to receive said unhealthy goods into our mouths as soon as possible.

I got cash back because a friend had very dearly bought me lunch when I forgot my wallet, and I needed to pay her back.

One of the $5 bills handed to me was COVERED in writing, it had a few names on it. You know when it was a big trend to write your name an number/address on it and see where it ended up? Like that.

One name was a teacher at the school that I had taken a few classes from (with his address) and the other was Elder So and So (who Aaron knew).

I thought it was kind of cool that I had in my hand a $5 bill that was who knows how old (it was the OLD 5 bill) and it had a name on it that I knew. I wondered how far it had travelled and how ironic it was that I know had it in my possession.

I pocketed the bill, and called my friend to take the money to her on my way home. She didn't answer. So I headed home with the money still in my pocket.

The weekend went by and again, I still hadn't given her the money.

Monday comes. Aaron and I have a paper that needs to be notarized so we head over to HRI because they have a public notary.

We enter, they call the notary, she comes right out. I had never met her before, neither had Aaron.

We do our thing, sign the papers, she stamps them.

She says"That will be $5"

I didn't know there was a fee so I'm scrambling through my trash filled purse to find some cash, and I see the $5 with writing all over it at the bottom of my purse.

I snatch it out and hand it to her.

She says "Oh, colorful!"

And I say "Yeah, it was given to me that way. It's got [teachers name] name on it! He's a teacher at the school, weird huh?"

Her mouth drops.

And she says "That's my husband! Oh look, my address! How WEIRD! Oh, this is so cool. I'm keeping this $5 bill forever!"

I said "It's destiny!! It made it's way back to you!"

She smiled, holding the $5 bill on her chest with her hands over it as we thanked her and walked out of HRI.

Now, go ahead and try to tell me that was all a coincidence.....

DESTINY! FATE!

My friends good deed.

My not being able to contact her.

Needing to get something notarized (so random).

The name on the $5 bill is the notary's husband....

DESTINY!!

I believe!

;)

Dorky Helmets

2011-08-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

Aaron is doing a film project for Turtle Bay, and one of the projects called for a 'female on segway' and since all the recent tours seemed to be males, Aaron asked me to be his segway female.

They made me wear this dorky helmet (for the video) because apparently safety is important when one is riding a segway. As if segways couldn't get any dorkier--HERE add THIS helmet!

So, if you ever see the footage, note that I was forced to wear that thing. I for real love segways, but I just cannot get over how funny people look on them. Aaron would stick his butt out and screamed high pitched as he went zooming by and I could NOT stop laughing at how ridiculous he looked. All in all, it made for a fun saturday evening (expect the part where I almost fell off dude to high speeds. I'm still laughing about that one.)

In Memory of Riley

2011-08-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

After a month, Riley leaves us today.

We need a dog, can you tell?

She will be missed, but I'm sure she will be happy to be back on her old stomping grounds.

See ya later dog breath!

Again, attitude of gratitude!!

2011-07-27T20:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is me kissing the sewing machine! With the dog looking up at me wondering what the heck I'm doing.

After a long day of pushing JGR around town and listening to her talk about the tsunami a few years ago, and how she had she 'own tsunami' in her pants and it's 'lucky I didn't make a mess in the car!" as she snorts and giggles....I was ready to be home. It was a good day, but I max out at a certain point.

I walked into the house to find it spotless. AND in my office was the sewing machine my lovely mother sent me yesterday--all set up and ready to go (from being in the box on the floor).

I love my husband!

LOVE HIM!

And I LOVE YOU MOM, for sending me this wonderful gift!

And I can't wait to love sewing, even though I don't have the slightest idea how!

Attitude of Gratitude

2011-07-26T19:30:00.000-07:00

The onset of my migraines usual start with the disappearance of the right side of my vision. It always catches me by surprise when I look up and half of someone's face is missing! Then comes the blurry firework line through my right eye vision. I've never done drugs, but this is probably something similar. The pain wipes me out so, I usually take some [a lot] of ibuprofen, lay down, or sleep and within a few hours I'm always okay. OKay means I can function with walking around with my eyes closed or without feeling like I'm going to throw up. I call 'functioning' my migraine hangover because I can still FEEL it, but it's dulled.

Today when Aaron got home, I was laying on the bed with a blanket over my head to block out all the light. He got me some food, rubbed my back, my head, and pinched between my thumb and pointer finger until I fell asleep.

His acts of kindness kind of boiled me over the top of feeling so grateful for the good people in my life!

I am grateful for the family members who have invested so much help into our well being and offered everything short of their very lives to help us. I am grateful that I can talk, confide and find solace in the wisdom of their experience.

I am grateful for true friends that I can bear my soul to, who encourage me in my struggles and life me up in my happiness; the ones I can call (or meet up with) at anytime, on any day and talk to. Who don't judge me. Who respond with kindness. Who make me want to be more like them. Who invest an honest interest in our friendship. Who have an interest with my day to day happenings. Who look past my faults and like me anyway. Who love unconditionally. I've never had a sister, but the lovely ladies I'm blessed to have around me might as well be.

I've really needed the support, lately, that comes through the power of the prayers, the love, the care and the kindness that is transferred to your soul by those who bear you up. Today you are all my attitude of gratitude!

Moments that are still

2011-07-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

Originally written 5/1/11

Do you ever have moments that are just, still?

I had one yesterday when the sun was going down.

I was sitting on the tailgate of our truck, with a to-go box in hand.

The truck was softly chugging (the battery has been giving us trouble so we couldn't turn it off--fear of the car not starting again....)

My to-go box was stuffed full of a wonderfully leafy salad--pears, gorgozlana cheese, cherry tomatoes and a raspberry vinaigrette.

I got it from a truck that sells pizza.

Aaron was next to me, eating spicy poke.

The sun was softly setting beyond the pacific horizon.

I was still slightly damp from the day spent in the ocean.

There was a cool breeze.

And the only noise I really heard was the crashing of waves.

It felt like life was suspended in the swaying of the palm trees,

It was just still.

Still enough to remind a girl that her life aint so bad.

Kahuku Farms

2011-07-25T21:40:00.000-07:00

written 6/6/11

Have you been to Kahuku Farms?

Aaron and I discovered it this weekend.

They have the quaintest little eatery.

While they don't have a lot of choices, the choices they do have are DELICIOUS!

And the smoothie's--to DIE for. And they have algae in them, but don't worry, you can't taste it.

Located right past the hospital, across from the shrimp fields. Check the hours, they're only open certain days/times.

AND all there produce comes from their farm or local farmers, and I LOVE that.

AND they do farm tours. I don't know why that excites me so much, but it does.

I must warn, this is 'healthy' AND delicious food--so don't go excepting your average burger and fries. The 'burger' has an egg plant patty, green bell pepper, mozzarella, lettuce, balsamic vinegar, zucchini, bay leaf.....and some other delicious ingredients. And one last tip: because they have such fresh ingredients, it's a little pricey for a 'sandwich.' (around $8)

This is my new favorite place (aaron's too) to grab a quick sandwich or salad and/or smoothie.

AND it's close.

Plus, I get really excited when I find places that serve food that is actually GOOD for you, because the truth is, if Denny's was closer, I'd go everyday.

GIVE IT A TRY!

Songs we can't get enough of this week

2011-07-23T00:28:00.000-07:00

Beware, it's random. One song, for each day of the [working] week!

Ghost Stories

2011-07-21T01:43:00.000-07:00

When I was a freshman a few years ago, some friends and I had spent the evening in Honolulu. On our way back from Honolulu at around 1:30am, we hit some heavy, heavy traffic on our two lane road home. This typical signifies some sort of accident, and judging by the fact that all the lights where out--an accident that involved a telephone pole.

We decided to see how far we could make it before the road was closed. The road was completely closed off at Tamura's (we lived in the dorms). This is the only way to get home, unless we turned around and drove around the ENTIRE island and came the other direction (over an 1 detour, probably more with the traffic). No one really wanted to do that, so we decided to hang out for a bit until we found someone who could tell us how long the road would be closed. If the road was going to be closed for the whole night, we would leave the car, and walk. Our feet would get us home in about 20 mins.

While we waited, we bumped into 2 fellow friends in the same predicament as us. They decided to forget waiting for the news of when the road would open and start walking right away. Off they went, as we waited for possible news of the road opening.

About 10 mins later, a cop walked up to the parking lot we were sitting in and announced that the road would be closed at LEAST until 9am the next morning. Awesome.

Despite the warnings of many people in the parking lot of the 'crack heads that hide in the bushes' we pushed homeward.

We started to walk.

Remind yourself that someone hit a telephone pole, so all the lights are out. No street lights, no house lights, no cars; nothing but the stars.

It was hard to see the hand in front of your face, that's how dark it was. We all had linked arms and had formed a line across the road. It made us feel safer. I also felt safe because I was one of two girls in a group of 5 manly men.

We walked along happily, a little weary of the darkness. We are all startled by the ring of a cell-phone. It's a person in our group. We all stop, they answer.

It's the two girls that had left a few minutes ahead of us. One is hysterically crying and the other can be heard screaming in the background.

They swear they have seen a ghost, a ghost in a white, with white flowing hair, and lots of lights 'floating' around it--around the area of the big white mansion house.

We all kind of looked at each-other puzzled/concerned. We all slowly got our wits about us, reformed our line and started to walk--cautiously toward home.

When we realize.

We are standing right in front of the the big white mansion house!

Insert running.

Screaming.

Gasping.

Peeing of pants.

--some laughter--

Every since that day, we were all convinced that-that 'mansion' was haunted and if you happen to pass in the dead of night--a ghost wearing white would appear in the midst of darkness. It even scared a friend so straight that she would hold her breath and close her eyes every time we drove past the 'mansion.'

I had forgotten ALL about this, until today when we were talking about road closures, accidents, yadda, yadda.

And it occurred to me, (like a light bulb, ah-HA!), it was probably just JGR, in her white moo-moo, zooming around in her chair on her property investigating the cause of the power outage (she's pretty nose-y). And the lights, she's got these lights on her scooter, and she probably had them on.

Oh, dear. I think I laughed myself into a cry.

And this whole memory/realization, totally made my day!

Beware the ghost in the white moo-moo--she lives!

More Rye

2011-07-13T22:22:00.000-07:00

I don't think we are going to give her back!

Love me some weekend

2011-07-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

***Written a few weeks ago***

Visited our favorite Mexican restaurant on the whole entire island. We haven't been in months, so it was long over due!

Saw Mr. Popper's Penguins (thank you group-on). It was SO GOOD. I highly recommend it.

Castle's.

Celebrated the birth of a one year old and a cute little party at the beach park.

Went to catch our first glimpse of our new nephew.

And went to Oahu's 50th Carnival @ Aloha Stadium.

The best part of the whole night was the Fire Ball ride that just goes around in circles (upside down). They have the seats set up so you can sit across from someone and stare at their face while you're riding. So, when we went to get on, we were staring at our friends faces. Have you ever stared at someones face while you fly around in all directions, including upside down. It was awesome. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe.

photo credit: demartini and perkins. thanks guys!

Review: Mariposa in Neiman Marcus

2011-07-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

Name: Mariposa

Location: Ala Moana Mall in Neiman Marcus

Price Range/plate: $10-$30 (for lunch)

Food Type: Upscale lunch

The scene: Very chic. They have these huge bamboo weaved fans rotated around all over the ceiling. They almost looked like butterflies, hence the name "mariposa." The tables are huge round slabs of granite with pillowed wicker recliner esqe chairs--very comfortable. Spacious, beautiful view of ala moana beach park/ocean. I felt very comfortable and breezy there.

The food: To start you off, they serve you a popover (free of charge). Do you know what that is? SO DELICIOUS! They give you strawberry butter to go with it.

People, I was in heaven!! These things are such a wonderful little ball of dough! At the same time, they serve you a small mug (very small) of Chicken Consomme. It was a refreshing little treat (both) before we dug into our food. There is a guy going around the whole time you eat with a basket of pop overs asking if you want more (free of charge) and I said HECK YES!

Choices for main dishes range from salads, to sandwiches, to pork tenderloin and seafood. As for my main dish, I ordered the Turkey Melt with a side salad. It was delightful. The turkey was cut of the turkey-turkey, mozzarella, bell pepper, tomato and some other delish stuff. The side salad it came with was more of a salad in itself--it was HUGE and very cleansing.

I also would like to note that on their menu was marked with what was gluten free, and how many calories each dish had. I thought that was neat.

The Service: Fast, friendly, no complaints.

Suggestions: Sit outside for the best view. And say YES to more than one pop over.

Recommend?: HIGHLY! I will definitely be back, when my pocket can afford/special occasions.

Review: Crouching Lion Inn

2011-07-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

Name: Crouching Lion Inn

Location: Kaaawa

Price Range/plate: $15 and up

Food Type: Buffet/Diner food

The scene: Crouching Lion Inn is very very quaint. Inside is small and dark, but outside was so so cute. Overlooking the ocean, you can sit under a green-vine overtaken thatching that was dreamy. I LOOOVVEE the look of vines over taking things, so I loved this roof! The breeze was wonderful, as well. One pit fall to 'the scene,' this place is a tourist destination, so 5 mins after we got there, a huge bus full of tourist pulled up and over took the restaurant. It kind of ruined the ambiance slightly.

The food: We ate at the buffet (bc JGR loves a buffet), but I looked over the normal menu. Typical diner food. The people next to us ordered off the menu and their food looked pretty good. The buffet was kind of pathetic. Very small and not a lot of choices. The lasagna had spaghetti in it, instead of normal lasagna noodles--which I thought was strange. The fruit was over ripe. I didn't try much else (fish choice, fried chicken), except salad, because it all looked a little scary, but JGR tried EVERYTHING, and she hated everything (which she will eat pretty much anything and not complain too much). The rolls+salad were the only thing that filled me.

Overall, I was not impressed with the buffet food.

The Service: Fast, friendly, and overly kind to JGR who was loudly complaining

Suggestions: Don't try the buffet! If you venture here, I would try the normal menu.

Recommend?: Overpriced + Underwhelemed = Tourist Trap. I don't think you'll see me there again, on my own dime.

Puppy Sitting

2011-07-07T23:21:00.000-07:00

We are dog sitting the sweetest little girl on the planet!

Her name is Riley.

And she is an 8 month old beagle.

She's a spaz (in a good way).

I now have a puppy shadow. She follows me everywhere!

She is currently licking my leg. (?)

She has a hard time getting used to people, but once she does, she'll love you forever.

She's super trained and super obedient.

If I hold a dog treat in my hand, she quickly sits, then lays down while simultaneously rolling over, popping back up while putting her paw out to me to shake, before I even say anything.

She wants those treats bad and knows how to get them.

We love her!

And she'll be all ours for the next month!

I tried to get a picture but like I said, she's a spaz.

Snorkel Saturday

2011-07-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

This next picture was in the middle of the ocean in 50+ feet of water with fish swimming around that were bigger than me! Aaron took me out there and I was a little scared, but he was proud of me learning about what he loves to do!

To Clear Up Some Confusion

2011-06-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Yes. Aaron graduated!

Yes, we are staying here. We are not moving back to the mainland.

I've been here since 2004.

Aaron since 2005. He wanted me to add that he moved here to LIVE here, not go to school. School was just a detour when he met me.

Which brings me to: We met here.

We were married here (as in we've never lived anywhere else married).

And this feels the most like home. And we want it to be our permanent home.

We love it.

We never want to leave.

And hopefully we never have to.

I am currently working.

And so is Aaron, on a lot of projects.

We've got big plans.

Wish us luck!

Review: The Counter

2011-06-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

A perk of my job is eating out once (sometimes twice) a week at places I could never afford/never knew about. It's fun to have someone else pick where we eat/pay. I shall review for your eating out pleasure!

Name: The Counter

Location: Kahala Mall

Price Range/plate: $8-15 (we had 3 people + an appetizer and we got out of there around $40.)

Food Type: Burgers

The scene: Upon walking in I was met with a cold blast of air, which immediately had me feeling relaxed. I work up a sweat pushing JGR around so I was super excited to have a cold place to relax. I loved that 90% of the walls are windows. Lots of natural light. There was a bar area with TV's if one was interested in that....JGR said she imagines this place to be a 'hot spot for the young ones at night.' The Counter had a young, fresh feel to it. It was nicely spacious and I didn't feel crowded next to my fellow eaters. The bathroom was up to date and clean (although small).

The food: This burger joint is build your own burger, literally! They give you a little survey sheet and you get to check what you want on your burger. There are SO many delicious choices!

My concoction was to die for! I got the veggie burger--highly recommend! They also have a small basic menu for those of you who would prefer to not put your own burger together.

The Service: Fast, friendly, no complaints.

Suggestions: YOU HAVE TO GET AN ORDER OF SWEET POTATO FRIES AND ONION RINGS. I died.

Recommend?: HIGHLY! I will definitely be back to The Counter. And I think the price range is very doable for a dinner date with the hubs!

Coconuts in the Backyard

2011-06-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

Juicing Carrots

2011-06-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

The other day Aaron and I ventured to Costco for a monthly food stach. I have no idea what devil possessed us to buy a 10 lb bag of carrots, but before I could think about it--it was bought and paid for. When we got home and I was putting everything anyway, I asked "Um, why did we buy this?" Aaron responded that he didn't know.

We try to eat any fruit and veggies as completely raw as possible (to derive the most benefit) so I decided the easiest way to devour them would be to juice them, because everyone loves carrot juice, right?

WRONG! A week of carrot juice every morning (about 10 carrots) and I'm almost [am] gagging with every swigg! I try to tell myself that it's really really good for me so it doesn't matter if I hate it, but I honestly don't know if I can gag it down any more?

I like carrots, but for some reason carrot JUICE is absolutely disgusting to me!

I tried covering the taste with a few celery stalks, but that made it even worse!

So I added an inch of ginger.

Didn't help.

Added some other things....NOT HELPING!

So here I am with about 6lbs of carrots.

Oye, here's to plugging my nose and drinking, which, by the way, doesn't help AT ALL!

Do you have any good carrot juice (preferably raw [click raw if you don't know what that means]) concoction's you want to share with me?

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T15:49:00.001-07:00

[me and dad 1987]

Happy Father's Day Dad!

I'll always be your little girl!

I love you so much!

To my Aaron,

You're going to be a wonderful father when our babies get here.

To Aaron's Dad, Wayne, Aaron's brother's Spencer + Jared!

We love you!

To my brother, Jon!

Happy FIRST Father's Day to this ham! I can't wait to meet her:

AND to Grandpa Haynie, Grandpa Harbertson and all the other wonderful father's we have in our lives (the list goes on and on) WE LOVE YOU ALL!

RIP Walter

2011-06-18T18:15:00.000-07:00

Walter, Oliver's brother, died last night.

Aaron woke me up at about 1 am saying he wasn't doing too well.

We wrapped him up in a towel and just sat with him until he was gone.

I know he was 'just a rat' but we treated him like he was part of the family.

Poor little guy.

His back legs had stopped working a few months ago so he would just scoot everywhere he went, it was quite comical. But we knew when that happened, that he was probably on the down hill slope.

We're glad he's with his brother, it was his time to go.

Bye Wallie! We will miss you!

And no, there are no more pet rats in our house. We had two, and now we have none.

The Cell Phone Pictures Chronicles AKA CPPC

2011-06-14T01:28:00.000-07:00

At the gas station

My Burning Ears

2011-06-07T19:21:00.001-07:00

[Today I worked, I took JGR out. We had a good time. Aaron worked up at the rental we take care of--and that's about all that happened today so.....]

JGR says a lot of off-the-wall things. I can't keep up. I wish I could write them all down, but I'd drown in papers if I did. Here are a few:

"If you get a ticket, you're on your own! But I guess the car is in my name. I'll just say '[JGR's full name]--I don't know who that is? Who is that!?' And then I'll claim that you kidnapped me and say "I'm just a old lady! She kidnapped me, and my wheel chair, see! It's back there'! " And then does her snort laugh.

"You know, I'm trying to teach those mynha birds to talk! And ever morning I say my name to them and hope they'll repeat it, but I don't think they can understand me because my mouth is so full of my breakfast!"

"Why'd you get a letter from the IRS (it was our tax return)? Are you an illegal immigrant?"

"I don't think anyone should ever wear deodorant,ever!"

To her boyfriend H "Why do you always were a hat? I don't think that's good for you, no oxygen can get to your brain!"

JGR often takes the Lord's name in vein--well, the Lord's son's name in vein. Often she'll catch her self because she knows I don't appreciate that so instead--when she catches herself--she yells "CHRIST-mas" to try and make it better......Like today, when we were driving through an area of the road that was a bit flooded. "Look at the water, good heavens! Christ-mas!"

JGR allows herself one Ben and Jerry's ice-cream treat a month. Today was that day. JGR was very sweet and bought me some ice cream too. We proceeded to walk around the mall while she ate and then went to the bathroom. When she was washing her hands, she noticed that she had spilled a lot of ice cream onto her dress and didn't want it to stain, so she rubbed it with a wet paper towel. To her dismay, when her moo-moo's get wet, they get see through, so basically her whole upper half was now quite present. As we were leaving she was laughing hysterically saying "I wonder if they'll ever let me back in here! Indecent exposure! I hope I don't kill anyone!" And then she hummed awkwardly the whole way out, like "da da da da da" like people do when they are pretending to be sneaky.

Oh, JGR. She keeps life interesting.

Rainy Days= Picture Overload

2011-06-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday was kind of a rainy day. Oahu's been having these crazy storms.

See this

Can you see our little island? No? Oh yeah, we are UNDER that big yellow thunder and lighting warning blob. Yeah.So we adventured the island instead of our usual going to the beach.

We took the Go Pro along to document the adventure.

We went to the Down to Earth, because deep down, I'm a really big hippie.

Aaron bought an 'all natural energy drink' and you can see from the picture above how much he liked it.

There were some cute ducks under our wheel as we were coming out. For some reason I felt like I've never seen a duck in Hawaii? So I made Aaron take some pictures.

Don't worry, we didn't run them over.

Then we went to a surf shop so Aaron could look at a new surf board.

He broke his IN HALF the other day. Awesome.

Off to the Salvation Army. Boy, that place was overpriced for a thrift shop!

Next we drove to my favorite part of the island, the South Shore.

It's soooooo beautiful!

We played tourist and stopped at a 'scenic view' and watched the blow hole, it was going SO crazy and SO high. It was fun to watch!

We visited China Town to watch all the crazy people.

And last, but not least, we walked all around Ala Moana.

And I bought my beloved scrub from Bath and Body Works--I'm SO happy we have one of those now.

and then we drove home.

You can see in the second to last picture, the huge storm forming as we were driving home.

It was crazy!

Rain, thunder and lighting like I've never seen!

Within minutes the roads were flooded and massive rivers were running down the mountains across them. (and it takes us an hour to drive home from where we were).

We made it home fine, but it was crazy!

And the thunder and lightning is STILL going!

This was our backyard last night!

Lighting striking over the ocean:

Lighting striking behind the storm. It should have been pitch black, this was at about 11:30pm:

The Fourth Year (May 4, 2007)

2011-06-02T22:41:00.000-07:00

"Dear did you know you're all I ask for?

So hold on to me, hold on with me here"

Happy 4th year my Aaron!

originally written May 4, 2011

Revoked

2011-06-01T18:07:00.000-07:00

So I know this is going to drive everyone a little insane, but I take back what I said about my blog going private.

I know, I know. That's one of my largest pet peeves, when people say they are going to go private, but then don't--and it's like a ploy just so they can see how many people actually read their blog/who reads their blog.

This was not a ploy. I had every intention of doing so. I really, really did.

But then our computer broke--and a friends/family started flooding my inbox/phone asking if they had been invited to read my new blog--and why they couldn't see it.

Nope, I do not have a new blog. I just haven't blogged in nearly a month.

Anyway, our computer is now fixed--and I can blog.

And I will blog. And it won't be private.

I was feeling defensive about my privacy, and I've just come to the conclusion that I am in charge of my privacy by how much I choose to reveal. And that is FULLY my control.

So there!

Plus, I've been watching too much Law & Order and started having dreams about people knowing everything about me but not KNOWING me.

But then I realized, Erin--you're only that interesting to your parents.

So here I sit, blogging again.

And I promise I'll do better about blogging MORE!

I have so much to tell!

Private.

2011-05-09T20:32:00.000-07:00

After much deliberation, my blog is going private.

Leave me an email if you want to read.

What this means for people who don't have a blog account:

Just sign up and make a profile--it's super easy.

And then leave me the email you signed up with.

MAHALO!

Will make the switch by this time next week.

Aaron's Graduation

2011-04-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Aaron graduated!!

Words cannot express the proudness I feel for this man!

I AM SO PROUD!!!

The night before graudation Aaron and I both had crazy dreams and graduation. In my dream, I was so late I had to put my makeup on at graduation; as I was doing this, a lady asked me to show her how I put my makeup on. So I did. Then she gave me rat food.

Aaron kept dreaming that his name wasn't on the program.

And the first thing he said to me the next morning was "Please by my a lot of leis so I'm not the only loser without any." See picture below, do you think we got enough?

Don't worry, I was there on time, and Aaron's name was on the program.

It was SUCH a WONDERFUL occasion.

CONGRATS AARON!

My Last Day Of Work

2011-04-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

{ the three musketeers. We've worked together for almost 2 years!}

I will write more about leaving the Hales later, but all I can say now, is that I was completely taken by surprise at the amount of saddnes I feel to move on from this place--more so, the people. I know I will still see plenty of them, but I'm sad that it won't be every day--and in the same way it's been for the last two years.

This place has been a roller coaster ride.

I have so many stories to tell.

And I will tell them, just not today.

Bye,bye Hale Three and Hale Five!

Carrie's Bridal Shower

2011-04-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

****Attempting to catch up, and look I'm still alive!!****

Charlotte and I threw a "Picnic Pantie Party" for Carrie's (our soon to be sister-in law) Bridal Shower (marrying Ben--Aaron's brother.)

Our plans got a little spoiled because of the gale force winds and the rain hailing down on us--so we moved inside. Of course, the ONE DAY I have something actually PLANNED outside, Hawaii ruins it! I also failed to take ANY pictures till the event was over, but we got a few good ones.

Other than that, every went wonderfully and there was good food, good company, and a successful well wishing into bridedom.

I love you Carrie! And can't wait till you are officially part of the family. You are perfect for Ben and we are so grateful you both found each other!

Next step, WEDDING!!

And then Aaron crashed the party. What a creeper!