The Goods in Hawaii

New Blog

2006-09-18T04:34:00.000-10:00

Hello Dear Family and Friends. I am have finally created a new blog. Please click on this link and it will send you to the new site.

Thank you for your care and your prayers.

Love Ya'll!

http://mndnc.blogspot.com

House Hunting, Diamond Head and a little Karaoke

2006-07-20T10:45:00.000-10:00

Hey there! We are moving in a little over a week. It is unbelievable! I still am convincing myself of it. I think it is going to take an empty house here in Hawaii to get it through my thick head. I have been slowly getting the house ready for the movers. Thankfully, they pretty much do everything. We just have to stand by and make sure that things are labeled correctly and not broken or packed poorly. We have not had any bad experiences with the movers yet, so hopefully this will be another successful move.

So our lives since I last updated...Well, it has been forever.

We were blessed with leave to go house-hunting in NC. We flew to the east coast and drove to Ev and Meghan's home in NC around 4 am, woke up around 7 am to meet our real estate agent and started looking at houses. Ev and Meghan were out of town so they let us stay at their home. That saved us a lot of trouble finding lodging, and we saved more money for the house. Thank you again!

We covered 18 houses that first day. Our agent is fabulous. She is helpful and just comfortable to be around. She drove us around that first day so we were able to learn a lot about the area we were going to live in a matter of hours.

We had made several lists of what we wanted in a home so we came prepared. Daniel also brought the video camera and I brought a pen and paper to make notes on as the day went by. We were so thankful for the video work Daniel did because after 3 hours of sleep, 18 houses can really run together.

We reviewed the tape on Sunday and narrowed down the selections to 5 homes. Our agent wanted to show us a few more on Monday so we looked at about 5 more homes. That Monday morning we saw the house we wanted. There was no doubt about it. It had everything we wanted. It is a new construction being finished this month. We wanted an open floor plan so the family room was open to the kitchen. (It is nice to not be cut off from company when you are making their dinner. I am a chatty person.) Besides, the open floor plan feels like more space anyways. The kitchen is spacious, just thinking about it makes me more excited. The rooms are great and there is plenty of storage.

Well, after seeing this house all the others on our top ten were pushed down. No other house could compare that we had seen. We discussed it more together that afternoon over some amazing sweet tea and chicken at this local food joint. (Oh goodness, I am going to have to work hard to keep the pounds off down there.)

We decided we would make an offer and start figuring out things from there. We went back to the agent's office and worked up the offer. It is scary and exciting at the same time. We left the house feeling giddy and pretty anxious. About 1 1/2 hour later our agent called and told us that they denied the offer but made a counter-offer. We accepted it and decided to meet the builder the next day. That next morning was even more exciting as we were able to see the last few touches that were being added to the home; the tile, carpet, counter tops and lighting. The builder had brought samples of each. They were being put in after we left NC. The appliances were not yet chosen so we were able to go and pick them out for ourselves.

So there it is, the home we are in the process of buying. We are planning on closing in August once we get there and do a walk-thru. You will just have to come and visit for shots of the inside. Let me just tell you, it is beautiful. I cannot wait to get there and make it our home. I know, I know, we need to do something with that yard...Thankfully they will be sodding it and doing a little bed work around the front porch.

There will be more about the house once we get to North Carolina.

Our movers are coming on Tuesday and our internet is being cut off on Wednesday. I will not be able to update anything for over a month...haha it will be like normal. This time it will be because I can't get to a computer not because I am a lazy blogger.

We have a long list of things we wanted to do on the island before we move, and we have tackled a few of them since we got home from NC. One of them was to be super-touristy and climb Diamond Head crater. This is one of the number one tourist spots on the island. It is basically a photo-op on top of a large hill that was once the edge of a volcano some millions of years ago...ha millions. We got our hiking gear on on Saturday and climbed up to get a few good pictures.

Yeah for Maryland Gear Hats!! We had a guy stop us and say he went to UMD as well. Thats right...FEAR THE TURTLE! even in Hawaii.

This lighthouse and several expensive homes were on one side and this view of Honolulu and Waikiki was on the other. I think the Magnum PI house was supposed to be on that side of the island somewhere.

We enjoyed that morning. It was a great day for hiking because it was a little overcast so it didn't get too hot climbing the crater.

Later that night we celebrated my birthday with some friends at this great karaoke rental place. We rented a room for 4 hours, brought our own food and drinks, and sang the night away. I was a little worried about it in the beginning because everyone was saying they wouldn't sing much, but once we got there and everyone realized how much fun it was it was hard to get a song in.

The controls were in our room so we didn't have to leave to request songs or to turn up the volume. It was a great evening. Here is Daniel making a funny face, probably in response to my crazy singing. I was singing Queen's "I Want to Break Free" I was getting into it as you can see...

Here we are singing "Summer Lovin'" from Grease. ( We didn't request this one :))

Here is Amaya and I singing our hearts out on who knows what song... There were so many that night.

Here is the crew from that night. Daniel had bought balloons and a little hand pump. He made Rhiannon some kind of dog. She seemed content with sucking on it. We didn't realize that Pink had been invited to the party...ha!

Well, it has been a great past week. Daniel and I hit the beach one day after he got back from work. It is always nice to relax as the sun goes down. We are trying to soak it all in before we leave.

We are mostly busy with house and moving plans. Almost every moment we are together we talk about the house or the flight and drive over to NC. This next month is going to be some adventure.

Love Ya'll!

Back from the Cruise

2006-06-22T09:38:00.000-10:00

Hello Dear Family and Friends!

We have so many pictures and stories to share from our vacation, but I am only going to give a summary here. I do not want to keep you reading all day long. Don't get me wrong this will still be a long post... :)

Before I go into the cruise summary though I want to post a quick picture from Amaya's birthday evening. We all went to a restaurant in Honolulu for dinner and at 10:30 it turned into a dance club. We stayed for some dancing after a yummy dinner. Here is a shot of the ladies. It was a black dress affair obviously. :) It was a great evening especially with all the husbands home.

Cruise Time!!

We arrived at the ship in Honolulu on June 10th in the afternoon. Here is Daniel investigating something... The room was an excellent upgrade from our original reservation. We had reserved an inside stateroom, but two weeks before the cruise the travel agency called us and asked if we wanted a room with a balcony for a very small price. We agreed and we are very thankful we did. There was much more space and the private balcony was great!

The first island we hit was Hawaii, or the Big Island. We rented a car and drove straight to Volcano National Park. Here is Daniel in a lava field. There was lava rock for miles and miles. We hiked 4 miles through Kilauea Iki Crater where there was still steam coming from the ground. It was a great day to hike because there was a light drizzle and breeze. It was perfect. We then drove to where the lava was pouring into the ocean. The active lava is underground currently so we did not see any during the day. We did see the steam from the lava pouring in the water at about 2500 degrees farenheit.

My favorite picture of the day was from the most recent activity of the volcanoes. There was a road that was covered by lava and the only thing left was this sign. Thats right NO Parking! Don't even think about parking here! I know you were...

Later that evening the ship sailed by the point where the lava was pouring into the water. It was incredible. You could see the red glow and lava just pouring into the water creating new land and expanding the island. It was amazing.

Our next day was on Maui. We rented a car again and this time splurged on upgrade. We ended up with a 50th Anniversary edition of the Ford Thunderbird. We had so much fun driving that around on the island those two days. We took this incredibly curvy drive to the other side of the island, and we stopped and took some pictures along the way.

We visited a black sand beach on the other side as well as had a nice lunch before we headed back to the boat. As we were driving back we stopped at another beach for some great sunset shots. Here is one of us posing with the lovely Thunderbird.

The next day on Maui we took a boat ride to two different snorkeling sites. I did not get any good pictures with the digital camera that day because I was worried about it getting wet. We were able to see dolphins and huge sea turtles. The boat ride was a little too bumpy on the return trip and both of us got off feeling quite sick. We went back to the ship and rested up before our next big day.

Our two days on Kauai were our absolute favorite. Our first day we drove to the north side of the small island where the Na Pali coastline juts out into the Pacific. The Na Pali coast is too rugged for roads so no roads have ever been built on it. You can only see it by air, boat, or by foot. We opted for all three! Our first day we did a 2 mile hike (and it was a hike) to this beautiful beach, Hanakapi'ai Beach. We stayed only long enough to eat some yummy sandwiches we grabbed on the way and then we got to hiking again. Our ultimate goal was Hanakapi'ai Falls, a 100 foot falls another 2 miles into the jungle. It was a rough hike. There were times where I was holding on with my hands as well as gripping with my boots. It was a challenge for me, but I loved every minute of it, and the goal was well worth it! The falls were amazing. Here we are right before we jumped into the water beneath. It was freezing cold! we couldn't help but yelp when we got in! :)

The hike was our favorite part of the entire cruise. It was such an amazing taste of the beautiful world our Lord has created! It was so untouched by man and civilization it was incredible. We were blessed the entire day!

The second day on Kauai we took a helicopter ride over the island. Seeing the island from the air is amazing! I did not get many good pictures, but Daniel videotaped the entire flight. There was a heavy rain the night before our flight so all of the waterfalls were very visible from the helicopter. There were too many to count. There had to be hundreds. We plan on fixing up the video with some appropriate Hawaiian tunes to make it even more enjoyable to view again. Here is a view of the Na Pali coastline that we hiked a small portion of:
Sorry about the glare. The video is better.

Later that night as the cruise ship was leaving the island we sailed slowly by the Na Pali coast. We were able to view some of it by foot on the first day and then by air and sea the next day. I think we were quite spoiled. It is a truly breath-taking coastline. We just loved Kauai!

All in all, the cruise was the perfect way to get a glimpse of each island before we move. It fulfilled its purpose perfectly. It was the first cruise for both of us. We really enjoyed the ship staff and facilities as well. The food was great and the entertainment was a lot of fun. We would come back tired most of the time so we weren't as active on the ship as some people chose to get. There was very little sailing time and quite a bit of shore time so we don't regret not getting more active on board. We wanted to see the islands.

Thanks for your interest in our vacation. It was a great time for Daniel and I to date for a week straight. We just loved it.

This next week we leave for North Carolina on our house-hunting trip. We will be there for a little over a week and we plan on seeing several houses. We want to make a decision before we head back to Hawaii so we can start the closing process. Buying a house is a big deal and we want to make sure we do it right. We are reading information, talking with our realtor, mortgage advisor and credit union frequently. It has kept us busy in the last few days.

I hope to blog again before we leave for NC, but if I don't please forgive me...

LoveYa'll!

Only Picture...

2006-06-02T13:10:00.000-10:00

I got an email from another 1/3 wife yesterday. She sent the picture she took of us the day Daniel got back. We sure do look happy...

Husbands Home!

2006-06-01T10:08:00.000-10:00

I didn't post this picture yesterday because the last two posts were getting quite long.

This was taken at Jo and Jeremy's house. Their son graduated from middle school and they had a little get-together with friends on base. It was the first time all our husbands were home and together, very exciting!

From left: Jo and Jeremy, Marc and Amaya, and me and Daniel

You can tell we are all very happy to be together with our hubbies again.

Have a great Thursday! I am babysitting this cutie today... His parent's work schedules clashes on a few days every so often, so they need some extra help. He is a wonderful baby, rarely cries, inquisitive, and pretty cute. I just like babies. We are off to take a nice long walk as soon as he wakes up.

Take Care

Daniel's First Week Back

2006-05-31T14:59:00.000-10:00

I decided to make another post today to fill you all in on Daniel and his homecoming. You can scroll down further for the details on Sarah and Zeb's visit.

Saturday morning May 20th, around 6am Daniel's flight was scheduled to land. They got there a bit late, but I was there on time thankfully. I didn't want to miss it so I came early. So I woke up early enough to get dolled up to meet him. Here is their plane after landing. It was exciting and so emotional. There was a Marine band playing and there were flags up and banners hanging in the hanger. All the wives were waiting for them to pull the plane around and open the door. They finally did and I was so surprised to see the 10th person (or so) was my Daniel. I was not expecting him to come off so early. I ran and met him through my tears.

Unfortunately, we do not have any pictures of us together right when he got off the plane, but there was a professional photographer taking several pictures of us kissing. He gave us his name but we haven't found any pictures online or in any newspaper of us smooching yet. If you do find them, please let us know. Thanks.

My camera battery decided to run out right as he was coming off the plane, so he is not in that picture but he is right behind the last guy coming off.

It took about 2 1/2 hours for him to return his weapon at the armory and retrieve his bags. The plane had to be unloaded and all the bags went to a parking lot on base. It was a long wait while they sorted through seabags and packs all looking the same. I was just so thankful to have him home safely.

I had made a sheet sign with Jo a few weeks before their return and I hung it up over our carport. It stayed up for several days. I was quite proud of him and so thankful for his safe return.

He had slept quite a bit on the plane so he was not super drowsy Daniel. We spent the 96, the 4 day weekend, relaxing and getting Daniel back on Hawaii time. He slept several hours each day. :) He returned to work on Wednesday and their leave block starts on June 6th.

Daniel, on his way out of country, had a great time haggling at an Afghan market. He came back with some beautiful jewelry for his wife and some very cool finds. The blue looking centipede belt is actually a silver belt with lapis insets on it. It fits perfectly and I can't wait to find the outfit to go with it. The two necklaces are some of the coolest finds; both have eccentric designs and the one of the right has chunks of turquoise, quartz and amber on the chain. I was most impressed with Daniel's jewelry taste. My favorite gift he brought me is the adorable lapis hippo in the bottom left. Hippos are my favorite animal, and it has the cutest shape.

He also got a leather chess board, he is a sucker for the smell of leather, and chess pieces carved out of some kind of wood or resin. I didn't get a picture of it yet, but I will post one once it is pulled out and played on.

A favorite souvenir he came home with is his man-jammies. Daniel worked frequently with a local Afghan man. The Marines worked with him to hire local nationals to deliver logistics using pick-up trucks, donkeys, and jingle trucks. I will post a few pictures when Daniel gets them to me. The man apparently had a great respect for Daniel because he took Daniel to a local tailor and had him make an Afghan suit for him. It is custom fit for Daniel. (I was about to post this as the outfit Daniel had on when I picked him up at the hanger, but I decided against it. He was wearing his camis. :) )

So there you have it. Daniel's first week back has been busy with moving plans and his return to work. Memorial Day Weekend we spent with friends at two different cookouts, one in Waikiki and one in Kailua. Everyone keeps saying I am smiling a lot more. I guess that is true...

We are headed out for our island cruise on the 10th so we are excited about that. I think we may hike Maunawili Falls on one of his days off before the cruise. I want to make sure he sees it.

I will try to post more pictures when I get them. Thanks for your love and support through the deployment and the homecoming time. We both appreciate it immensely.

Love Ya'll

Shame on me...

2006-05-31T13:26:00.000-10:00

I do know that I have neglected this blog for a long time now, but I have very justifiable reasons. One being Daniel's return and two being I was pretty sick last week and didn't feel like organizing my thoughts enough to write a blog. Please forgive the delay in Sarah and Zeb's photos and Daniel's first week home.

I will finish up posting some pictures from Sarah and Zeb's visit. We had an amazing 10 days. We jumped right into seeing the island and all it had to offer. After going to the Arizona Memorial and the Swap Meet on Wednesday, we enjoyed the evening at the Mongolian grill at the O Club on base. Here is a quick pic of S&Z while we waited to go into the memorial.

Thursday we went to Sunset Beach and spent a few hours relaxing on the beach. There were only a few surfers there. It was really odd seeing one of the world's most famous beaches so empty. It was perfect. That afternoon we went to the Dole Plantation and had fun taking some pictures while we waited for the Pineapple Express train to take us around for a tour. Zeb just loved these rainbow eucalyptus trees and Sarah looked too cute as a pineapple to not post this picture.

Friday we took a hike around the local botanical gardens mainly because Zeb loves taking pictures of plant life and birds. We saw plenty of both that day and Zeb's photos turned out beautiful. That evening we went to a famous restaurant down in Waikiki, Duke's, and I showed S&Z the super tourist spots in the downtown area. We enjoyed the evening, but walked away happy we were staying on the other side of the island. It is too crowded, too pricey and just too touristy in Waikiki (yes touristy is my made-up word); besides our side of the island is so much more beautiful with the amazing Ko'olau mountains.

Saturday I took S&Z to Hanauma Bay to experience snorkeling. It was a first for both and they loved it! I was so happy they enjoyed it. It is one of my favorite things on the island to do so having them enjoy it made it even better. The beach there is so nice to relax on as well. We went early so it wasn't as crowded, but when we left it was packed. There were so many Japanese tourists right around our seats that I didn't hear any English from anyone around me. I just love watching the adorable children so I rested as S&Z went back out a 2nd time. This is my picture from after I got out the first time. The palms were just calling for me to take their picture against the blue sky...

Saturday evening I had several friends over for a pasta night so everyone could meet and get to know S&Z. It was a great night. The game didn't work out so well but everyone seemed to have a good time just chatting.

Sunday was church and relaxing on the base beach. Zeb tried boogie boarding but the waves were pretty big that day. I think he preferred the relaxing on the beach more than the "getting attacked by the large and frequent waves" part of the beach that day. He definitely went at it though. I am glad he at least got to try it. He did catch one wave all the way back into shore. He rode it about 20 seconds or so. I was impressed. I am too weak and too scared to go at the big waves.

Monday we visited the ranch where so many famous movies were filmed, Jurassic Park, Godzilla, Tears from the Sun, George of the Jungle...I could go on. The Kualoa Ranch is located just north of Kaneohe so the mountains are a familiar backdrop around here. We took two tour rides. One of the tours was to the specific film spots. Here is the valley where a few major scenes in Jurassic Park were filmed. They even had the same piece of wood the children in the movie duck under to not be stampeded by dinosaurs . The second tour, my favorite, took us into the heart of the mountains. It was a very rough road and we had to hold on tight in the truck the guide was banging us around in. We went to the top of a small mountain and had an amazing view of the water and mountains all around us. It was a perfect day outside as well. The weather couldn't have been better.

Tuesday was one of my favorite days of the entire visit. We hiked to the Maunawili waterfall. It was about a 2 mile hike there and once we got there it was breathtaking. Amaya told us to bring our swimsuits and dirty tennis shoes. I am glad we followed both directions. It was muddy and it was perfect to swim in and jump from. It was like a movie set with the fern tree leaves hanging over providing shade. The waterfall water was cold but a prefect way to cool down after the hike. When we jumped from the waterfall we never touched bottom. It was deep and clear and cool. We couldn't have asked for anything better in a waterfall hike. It was a great intermission to the hike. We made our way back down as content as could be.

Tuesday night we went to the Paradise Cove Luau for some traditional Hawaiian luau food, music and dance. The sunset seemed to be a great backdrop for photos so we made sure to get one of all three of us as well as a sister shot.

Sarah and Zeb's visit was filled with lots of activity, but it was just so good to have them both here. I haven't spent a good amount of time with Zeb in a several years so I look forward to keeping in better touch with him and maybe taking a few extra road trips to Alabama once we move to North Carolina. I am excited about living so close to family again. I do miss roadtripping to see family in the south.

It was a great visit. They both made it just in time before we moved. Thanks for coming out to visit me. You guys were a great ending to Daniel's deployment. Love You both!

Daniel is Home!

2006-05-20T16:06:00.000-10:00

I do not want to write long blog entry but I did want you all to know Daniel is home safe. He is sleeping on our couch as I type. They had four 7 hour flights on their way home so I know he is exhausted.
I plan on writing more about Sarah and Zeb's visit as well as posting a few pictures of the homecoming ceremony this morning at a later time.

Praise the Lord for his safe return!

Family is Here!

2006-05-11T07:29:00.000-10:00

Sarah and Zeb arrived safely at 12:50 on Tuesday afternoon. I was so excited to see them.
We have already experienced Pearl Harbor and the Swap Meet. They woke up early on Wednesday morning due to the hour differeneces so I decided to take advantage of it and let them see some early morning things on the island.
Today we are taking it easy and going to see North Shore to hit some beaches.

I will keep ya'll updated.

Daniel is safe and is in transition time right now. He isn't feeling his best so please keep him in your prayers that whatever bug he has will leave him quickly. Before either of us knows it he will be back in Hawaii. I can't wait!

Love Ya'll

It is MAY!!!!

2006-05-01T21:11:00.000-10:00

Well, it is finally the month; so many exciting things in store for this month. The first major event is Daniel's homecoming, of course. I do not know the day or time yet due to constant changes in schedule and operation security measures, but it will be this month towards the latter half. I am so excited about his return! I will be sure to let you all know when he is safely back in the United States.

Another wonderful event this month is my little sister and my cousin's visit on the 9th. I am so excited about their visit. They are both really looking forward to the time on the island and I just love being a hostess. Sarah just finished classes and she is in the midst of her finals week so she is hankering for the time away from school. Zeb needs a break from work. He is one of the hardest working people I know. There will definitely be a post about their visit.

Meli has been missing on the blog so I have to post her picture to make sure you all know who the most important figure of our household is... :)
She is sleeping with me for most of the night, when she is not bouncing off the walls and chasing imaginary bugs and lights. Here she is as she is stretching taking up most of the bed. I do not know if she will be able to share the bed when Daniel returns. We will have to lay down the rules once he returns...She may not be so happy. She will adjust though, she is a USMC cat. It is all about being flexible, Meli.

Speaking of being flexible, our moving plans are going smoothly. I made several copies of our orders today and took them to everyone and their mother. Yes, one particular place needed 30 copies. Apparently hearing that we have orders is not enough for the moving truck guys and all their kids and pets... :)

I have a brief I have to go to tomorrow morning. I am hoping it won't be 4 hours long like the last brief I had to go to. They can be quite overwhelming in that amount of time. It makes you want to never ever move. I left that morning with a 100 page manual and several handouts on specific topics. Thankfully, I have got a timeline set up with the exact steps I need to take to get things organized and scheduled. Things are moving along with out many hitches and I am happy to be learning all this now. I know it would have been nice to have Daniel to help plan everything, but I am learning a lot. I like to think it will make me a better KV as well. This way I can answer any questions a wife has on shipment of pets, household goods and vehicles and many more things.

My days are filled with lots of planning; planning for the family visit, Daniel's return, the time in June and July before we leave the island, and our eventual move. We are taking a cruise of the islands in June to celebrate: our 1st anniversary/Daniel's return/we're-leaving-the-islands-better-do-it-now. We are both excited about seeing the volcanoes as well as the magnificent views on the other islands. We are going to have 2 days on the "big island", 2 days on Maui, and 1 day on Kauai. It will be the first cruise for both of us. It should be great! That was another thing I had to plan alone. Daniel was out in the field and away from communication with family for 3 weeks when I went to the travel agency to schedule it. I knew the general things we wanted, but made the rest of the decisions without him. Thankfully, he would have agreed with everything I picked. I guess that is why we are married... :)

This month for Project Spectrum is the delightful color of green. There is so much green on this beautiful island I don't even know where to start. Here are a couple of plush photos I took at my last visit to the botanical gardens. I will have to think of something green to make this month.

Well have a great first week of May!

Easter Weekend and Ho'omaluhia

2006-04-18T20:32:00.000-10:00

Hope you all had a blessed Easter weekend with loved ones.

This past week has been an eventful one. I just posted last Wednesday, but it feels like ages ago now. Thursday was my dear Momma's birthday. I think it was a special one because my little sister made a surprise trip up from North Carolina for the long weekend. They seemed to have enjoyed the weekend time together.

Thursday I went snorkeling with Jo and her boys. I just love the drive to the southeast side of the island. The rocky coastline just begs for you to stop and take several photos. The waves were pretty big that day so it made for a nice photo shoot.

Friday I spent the afternoon with Amanda and her little girl Rhiannon. Even Rhiannon is in the Project Spectrum mood. She was sportin' the cutest orange and yellow outfit. We had a yummy lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. Here she is perching on our chair. Too cute!

Sunday morning our church celebrated Easter with 3 other Kailua churches by holding a sunrise service on the beach. It was a beautiful morning, windy, but beautiful. The most glorious part of the service was when several people were baptized in the ocean. It was an amazing representation of what Christ did for us and how we are able to die to our old selves and rise to walk in the newness of life! Christ's death and resurrection have given us life! It was a special morning. I was blessed to celebrate the Resurrection morning with Amaya and Marc. We took a quick picture before we headed to the church building for a yummy breakfast.

That afternoon and evening was spent with my closest friends on the island. Jo and I spent the afternoon on the beach with her boys. We then joined Amaya, Marc and my neighbor, Lacy, for dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant in Kailua. (That is Famous Amos in the the center with his wife on the end. Yes, Famous Amos, as in, the cookie guy. He came into the restuarant so of course we had to get a picture. We are all addicted to our cameras.)

Lacy and I have been spending more time together lately and she has been a joy to get to know. Her husband is currently on the mainland for training so it has been nice to get to spend the extra time with her. She clicked with our group right away...a goofy group of friends.

Later that night we crashed at Jo's for dessest. Yes, it was a day of eating, like a true holiday. Jo had made two cheesecakes and pinkies. (Two cheesecakes, I don't know why two...) Amaya had made these mini carrotcake cupcakes with creamcheese frosting. They were so cute bitesized, but dangerous because you could eat three before you realized it...
Overall the day was special even without family to celebrate with. Of course I was wishing I could have family nearby, but God has blessed me with dear friends that can fill the family void for now.

Today I went to Ho'omaluhia Botanical Gardens in Kaneohe with Jen. I visited this same garden with Lauren and Kris when they visited in October. I just recently bought a book about Hawaii flora and several plants have their main blooming time in the spring, even with the constant warm weather. I wanted to experience that while I was here, so off we went to Kaneohe.

It rained last night, so we had to get over the inital muddiness of the low lands around the freshwater lake. After we cleaned ourselves up from the muck that swallowed up our shoes, and took to higher ground, the day went more smoothly. When I say garden, it is deceiving. This place is massive; 400 acres to be exact. It is tucked away in the most majestic land right next to the Ko'olau mountain range that graces this side of the island. One would never know it was there because it is surrounded by neighborhoods. It takes seeking out to find this diamond of the Windward side.

I took several pictures of the plants, but the ones that are showcased in this entry are all orange and yellow for Project Spectrum. Here is the Coral Tree:
We pulled up into the parking lot and this was right in front of our car. I had never seen this tree before so it was an immediate treat.

This delicate blossom is not in my little flower book, but I still had to take a picture of the vibrant yellow face.

These little flowers were so charming! Again my little book was not adequate enough to find out what kind of plant this is. I am planning on doing a little bit of research once I finish this entry.

This plant is too distinct to not decipher. This is the helconia and it is related to the banana plant. This is the rainbow helconia. The bird of paradise, one of my favorite plants, is in the helconia family as well. Unfortunatly we were not able to find any bird of paradise today, but I will have to post one when I do get a picture.

Another picture of a flower that is yet to be identified. I had to post it though, it was too sweet, even with bugs on it.

I leave you all with the most popular Hawaiian flower, the hibiscus. I like this variety with the petals that fold behind the face.

Much Love!

Surprise News and a Little Project Spectrum Fun

2006-04-12T20:53:00.000-10:00

Well, I will start off with the surprise news even though it is not entirely a surprise anymore. We are moving in August. That's right, we are moving away from the dear Hawaii shores to the beautiful North Carolina shores. Daniel and I were planning on staying here until at least June of 2007 but we could not pass up the opportunity for Daniel to work at Cherry Point, North Carolina when we could be so close to family and friends. I am not going to go into all the details on the blog, but know that we are excited and looking forward to being on the East Coast again. Daniel hasn't been in the continental United States for quite sometime now. He has been on islands for the past three years. He is looking forward to the change of venue as well as the challenges of a new work place.

I will share more news when I get it. We are waiting for our official orders so that I can start the Permanent Change of Station (PCS) requirements before he gets back from Afghanistan. For now, there is not much more I can say other than this happened all very quickly and it is still a new thing for us as well.

Daniel is currently unreachable. He is away from computers and phones so he has not contacted me for the past few days and he said before he left it would probably be a few weeks. The major operation on the news is what he is a part of so that is what has caused the communication break. He seemed excited and very motivated before they left so I am happy for him, yet I am trying to deal with my own emotions about his deployment. I am ready for him to be home to me. It will come before I know it...I am praying that.

I have been staying relatively busy since I got home from Maryland. This week I have been fighting a stomach bug. This evening is the first time I have felt like eating real food. It was so good to me after the past three days. Anyways, enough about sickness. I have been reading and knitting this week.

This past weekend I was blessed to celebrate my dear friend Amaya's graduation with her family. Her husband returned from Iraq early and was able to make her graduation from massage therapy school on Saturday. He flew in Friday afternoon. It was an exciting week as Jo and I were helping her prepare for his arrival as well as her parents' visit. They flew in on Thursday for the graduation and they were able to greet Marc as well.

On Sunday we all took out a pontoon boat on the Kaneohe bay for the afternoon. It was a dreary day but still nice to be on the water. I only did a little snorkeling. There is not as much to look at around the sandbar where we anchored. Here is a pic of Jo, Amaya and me...

It was an emotional week for all of us. Jo and I were so excited for her, yet wishing it was our time for our husbands' return. We both are very ready for their return. Jo has been going through some stress at work too so she is ready for her husband to return. I cannot imagine having children that have to cope with the deployment as well, especially a teenager and 9-year-old. It has to be a tough time dealing with the separation from their father. I know that if God has that in His plan for Daniel and I, to have kids while Daniel is deployed, He will give us the needed strength. Looking at it from an outside view of a young wife with no kids, I know it has to be difficult. We will have to deal with it when the time comes.

On a lighter note, I have been taking a great amount of joy in Project Spectrum. Basically it is a project my older sister started online. She has encouraged people to create handicrafts as well as celebrate color. She has given each month a color or pair of colors to really explore. She has about 900 participants. It is really a wonderful idea and it has delivered such a refreshing wave of artful creativity online in peoples blogs as well as on flicker where there is a photo slideshow to watch of all the amazing photos people have taken.

The other day I visited the Swap Meet, a local flea market in Honolulu, to pick up sarongs for Amaya. I had such a good time taking random snapshots of yellow and orange, this month's colors. I have to share them. I pulled into my parking space in the Aloha Stadium, where the Swap Meet is held, and lo and behold all around the stadium these beautiful trees were in full bloom. These are called simply Golden Trees (trust me I looked it up). It is native to Mexico and Central America but it has flourished in Hawaii. There was one tree that was even more full of these beautiful blossoms, but I could not get to it because it was roped off. Believe me I wanted to snoop over for a picture, but I was on a mission that morning to explore the actual Swap Meet.

Here the humahuma is celebrating Project Spectrum on a dirt shirt. Yes it is our state fish and yes I can say it three times fast correctly. :)

I also snapped some pictures of some bright yellow sarongs with dolphins and honu, or turtles on it.

I love me some sarongs!

I also took some great rainbow pics of the fake leis that were being sold at little kiosks. it made for a nice PS pic, Hawaii style!

I had to get my favorite snack that is orange: dried mango strips. They are super yummy.

Well that is all for me tonight. I am going snorkeling tomorrow with Jo, her sons and her nephew. He is here visiting from Illinois. Jo is not as big a fan of snorkeling as I am so she wants my enthusiasm for the pastime to encourage her to get out there. We are going to my favorite Hanauma Bay to see some amazing fishies. So it is an early morning for us. It should be great.

I'll write more on the move later. As soon as I have news of Daniel I will let ya'll know.

Well Hello There...

2006-04-04T13:40:00.000-10:00

Hello family and friends. I have finally gotten my act together to write a blog entry. Sorry for the ridiculous month and some days break.

During the entire month of March I was in Maryland visiting family and friends on the East coast. I had a great visit and I stayed just long enough to get used to things but not too long to become annoying. During the visit, both Lauren and Sarah had their spring breaks from classes, so I was able to spend quality time with both lovely sisters. I was also able to road trip with my parents to visit Sarah's university in North Carolina. It was great to finally see where she spends most of her life now. Life is simpler in the south and Sarah has adapted beautifully and found quite a niche down there.

March 17th was Sarah's birthday, that's right, the little leprechaun. She was not in Maryland during that time but here she is blowing out her candles the week before in Maryland during her Spring Break. She is sporting her new shrug Lauren knit for her. It was too cute!

I was able to spend some great time with my old church as well, the Life. So many things have changed, but the people are still as wonderful as ever and so nice to get away and chat with. Thank you Lifers for taking the time to reconnect!

I spent some wonderfully chilly days in DC seeing the sights. One day my Mom and I went to the National Art Gallery before we met up with Dad in Arlington for dinner. The main entrance has a grand fountain with Hermes standing on tiptoe on the top tier. When we visited, as you can see, it was surrounded by azaleas of every color. They were so beautiful. I had a hard time getting enough light, but this picture will have to do. We had a great time gazing at several great pieces of art. I do not have a picture of Mom and I, but I have the picture Mom took of Dad and I in Daddy's new office in Arlington. It was another great day with family.

Another DC Day, Sean and I spent time roaming around the Dada exhibit at the National Art Gallery. We met up with Lauren and her friend Becca for a few hours. Afterward Lauren and Becca had to leave for class so we took several goofy pictures.
Here is the set; and here we are in the mirror art. Hey, we were making our own art...just like the Dadaists. ;)

I was super stoked because I was able to spend so much time with my girl, Katy. Katy has been very busy with her last semester of student teaching. Basically, she teaches everything and the original teacher sits at her desk and picks out vacation spots or paint colors. The teacher is about to retire, she deserves the break. It really is a big responsibility for Katy. Anyways, she took a lot of time out of her busy life to spend time with me. Thank you Katy for the time sacrifices you made. We lived it up in the time together. We even visited Fort McHenry... HA! Now that's livin it up!

Most of the time home was spent crafting it up though. I learned how to correctly use the sewing machine. I also stocked up on some great yarn that I had to mail back because I bought so much! Knitting and sewing took up a large portion of time. It was great. I finished sewing a knee-length skirt. I also finished knitting a sash, a scarf, and I am almost done with baby blanket #1. I just have the last few rows to wrap it up. Here are the ladies knitting and chatting, the best pastimes combined.

All in all, it was a fabulous visit with family and friends. I am so thankful for the memories and next time hopefully Daniel will be there as well.

Speaking of that man...He is still staying as busy as ever. He is feeling comfortable in his work environment and he really feels productive and in control. He is getting great feedback on his work from his peers as well as superior officers. When I talk with him, he sounds healthy. The Marines do a good job of taking care of their own and Daniel says they have a great cook. I hope he misses my cooking too though. He has time every once and a while to get to the gym, so that has been helping his morale as well.

The Command has been saying the return dates are scheduled now for the end of May. There are circumstances that can push the flight dates back into June, but we are all hoping that they get here as soon as possible. I am still anticipating June so I don't have a large let down in case they do return later.

Life for me has returned to normal here in Kailua town. I did yard work this morning. The amazing amount of rain the islands have had this past month have made the weeds killer. It was drizzling as I was pulling weeds and pruning bushes. There are patches of sunlight this week so far, so it is better than last week when I returned and it rained non-stop the entire week. It has flooded so many canals and homes. We are ready for sunny clear days to dry the muddy soil. I need to mow and I don't want to be slipping through the rain and mud while doing it!

Enough complaining.
I leave you with my Project Spectrum hibiscus. I did a horrible thing today trimming the hibiscus. They were covering all our windows so I had to trim them back. I had to cut off so many blooms; it was depressing. I had to keep thinking, this is good for the plant...

Orange and Yellow month of April. I also have several red, pink and white hibiscus blooms, but they are "sooo last month"... :)

Love Ya'll. Thanks for your patience in reading this.

Change is Good

2006-02-20T11:40:00.000-10:00

Hey Ya'll. I was getting bored with the site and I wanted to change something . It still has all the same features, just in different places. I am hoping to attach a link where you can view all our photos . I still have time to get that in order.

I am planning on trying to fly to Maryland this next week. I am going to fly with military flights so I have to be flexible if at the last minute they can't take me. Now, is the perfect time for me to try out military flights without children, a job and even without Daniel since he won't have to worry about specific leave time. I have to be ready for pretty much anything on the flight over, but who can argue with a free flight? Not me!

Not much to report here, other than the usual. I have been keeping up with AWANA, MOPS, and Sunday school, and of course spending time with the ladies. I had the joy of filling in for a singer this last week for the praise band at our church. One of the singers couldn't make it so they asked me to sub for a week. I really enjoyed working with the band, meeting new people, but especially helping bring people to a state of worship. I have missed singing in that avenue and have felt convicted lately on not using my voice in that way. I have to see what God has in store for me in that department.
Daniel, has been very busy lately, but is continuing to learn the best ways to delegate responsibilities. He is reading several books right now that will help him when it comes time to be promoted and move ahead in the military. We still do not know what God has in store for us in that respect either. We are still figuring out the here and now. I think it is working well focusing on the now, but being aware of the future.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. We are both learning about the trials and joys of deployment. Of course there are more trials, but we find joy in each conversation.

I leave you all with the beautiful rose in our front yard. I am partial to purple...

Much Love!

Progressive Dinner, Bowling and a Night at the Opera

2006-02-15T21:17:00.000-10:00

Hello dear family and friends!

Daniel is staying busy as usual, but I am thankful to report he does have an adequate amount of downtime. I am glad to hear when he does, because a person could go crazy with that level of intensity all the time. He has been reading, watching movies with peers and just conversationally chatting with his roomie, as well as other guys. I am sure getting to know them personally has been a nice change from just knowing them at work. There are still no pictures to post because he doesn't have easy access to a digital camera. Last time we spoke he said he was going to try to take some and send them over. I will post whatever I get.

Saturday was a nice beach day. It didn't start off looking like it but Amaya and I decided to risk it and went out. Well, we underestimated the sun and we got sunburnt. The sun came out about 45 minutes into our outting. We had sunscreen on, but apparently not enough. It probably didn't help that we both fell asleep. We did find some great shells and enjoyed the great beach day.

That night we went to the Progressive Dinner and enjoyed ourselves silly. We started out at a couple's home in Kailua for salad and bread. It had an absolutly beautiful lookout over the town and there was a great view of the ocean. The company was wonderful. We moved on to another couple's home for the main course. The couple lived on base and I have one of their daughters in AWANA so it was good to get to know the parents. It turns out they are both from eastern Tennessee, right near my parents hometowns, and we hit it off instantly. Basically, dinner was the highlight of the evening in my mind. We had so much fun laughing and getting to know each other. We moved onto the last house together, Amaya, Brian and Cindy (the southern couple) and I. The last house we went to was phenomenal! We walked in the front door and the home looked like a museum. The house was much larger than it appeared in the front because it was built on a hill. Once you entered in, it was a maze of rooms, full of several works of art and just general loveliness. They even had an entire room for their birds. It had clear wire sealing it off from the rest of the home. In the bottom of the room was an indoor pond with Japanese kois and little turtles.

Tiramisu for dessert ended the evening on a great note and Amaya and I got a picture in front of the pool in the backyard. Unfortunately, it was dark and you can't see all the beautiful landscaping. The pool was like the cherry on top. The amazing plants and levels in the backyard were so peaceful. Basically it was a fantastic home. :)

Sunday morning brought another great Sunday School class with only a few kids because of the ProBowl in Honolulu. Sunday afternoon Jo, her sons, Amaya, and another 1/3 wife with kids and I all went bowling at the base bowling alley. I haven't gone bowling in quite sometime and it took a while for me to warm up to it again. We all had a good time.

Valentine's Day was very special because my husband sent flowers to the women in his life. He generously sent his mother, my mom, and me all flowers. I could brag on him forever! Thank you Daniel they are so beautiful! Of course you are my #1 Valentine, then the little boy in my AWANA group who keeps stealing kisses on my cheek. :) Haha...Too cute!

Tuesday evening I went to the opera with a music leader at Faith. She had been looking for someone to go see the opera with her and luckily we met up at the progressive dinner. The opera was Rigeletto by Guiseppe Verdi. It is a tragic opera. It was really good to go to the opera. It had been a long time since I had been to a live opera. It seemed like I was getting a steady diet while at school and this past year on the island I have been deprived. The opera season here is so short. Each opera runs one weekend and they only do three operas; so the season starts the beginning of February and ends the beginning of March. It is really sad because you miss out if you have a busy weekend. I guess they have a smaller audience here on the island and can't run operas for as long as I am used to on the East Coast. Thankfully, I caught this one and enjoyed it thoroughly. The highlight was the tenor in the role of the Duke. He had a warmth and brightness that was very pleasant to listen to. Anyways, I won't analyze the opera on here...to boring for most people.

I hope you all are doing well. I love hearing from all of you. Please keep praying for both Daniel and his older brother, Everett both deployed in the war on terrorism.

Many blessings to you!

Long Week and Bird Watching

2006-02-10T19:58:00.000-10:00

As the title suggests, it has been a long week. I have been very busy with KV activities this week. Saturday we had a picnic and the beginning of the week we had several messages to pass on to wives. I have been on the phone alot lately. We had our regular meeting on Thursday and thankfully it went better than the last. I didn't leave as a ball of tense nerves like last meeting. The leader kept the chatty women quiet for the meeting part and dealt with everyone's concerns by the end. I was very thankful for that.

Daniel was able to email a couple of times early in the week to let me know how he is doing. He is healthy, busy, and ready to return home. I cannot share many details over the blog, as well as he was not able to share many details of his job over the email. There is a clear line of operation security measures that we have to abide by in order to keep everyone safe.

This week I also had the pleasure of being able to spend a day with Amanda and precious baby Rhiannon. They are back from their long visit with family in Texas. I had missed chatting with Amanda. We spent Thursday together for lunch and then doing some baby shopping for their new baby due this spring. I enjoy shopping for baby stuff. It gives me ideas for gifts for all the wonderful expecting mothers I call my friends. Such an exciting spring!

On Tuesday I did some shopping at Kmart and I finally bought a bird feeder, food, and native bird book. I kept telling myself I wanted to watch the birds here more often, so I finally broke down and did it. I have loved watching and listening to them munch away at the food as well as chirp at each other. I have cardinals, sparrows, finches, doves and pigeons crowding my backyard to get a good seat for the feeder. Please forgive my beginning photography. I am getting used to the zoom and outdoor settings.

This is the Red-crested cardinal and they are numerous on the island. I have about 5 that frequent my feeder daily.

This is the Northern Cardinal (male) that seems to hang around alot with one particular female.

Those adorable birds in the foreground are Java Sparrows. They have become one of my favorites because of their little masked faces. They have bright pink bills and they always chatter at each other when they are pecking at the feeder and ground. I love how they interact with each other.

Here are the doves that are so numerous. The larger doves are the Spotted Doves (on chain link fence and a bad shot...sorry) and the smaller are the Zebra Doves. The zebra doves are very vocal and so small compared to the spotted doves. They coo the entire time they are feeding.

And here is the beautiful Feral Pigeon that showed up today and scattered the small birds when ever it dove at the feeder:

I have enjoyed watching them while I read about them and the other island birds. There are so many exotic birds on this island. I hope to see many more than just the birds in my backyard and the few I see when driving. I should get out and hike more often.

Tomorrow I am going to a progressive dinner. Our church is sponsoring it as a Valentine's Day activity. Amaya and I are going together. I guarantee there will be pictures. We meet at one house for salad/bread then move to another house for the main entree, and yet another for the dessert. Each house we go to will be with a different group so we get to meet and chat with several people through the night. I am looking forward to it!

Have a great weekend!

Daniel Update, Birthdays, Dinners, and Project Spectrum

2006-01-31T21:36:00.000-10:00

Family and Friends, here is the latest on Daniel. He stays very busy. He is healthy and in good spirits. He has been able to email with a little more frequency, so that makes me very happy. He can access the blog, so he may be able to post some pictures up on it soon. You all will know as soon as I do if he does. He has not gotten any snail mail yet because the weather has not allowed for any helicopters to come in. There is no certain amount of days for the mail to get to him. He will hopefully get the first delivery to him this Saturday. If he can't post any pictures, but sends them to me instead, you can guarantee I will post them.

Well, after my parents left on Thursday the activity level did not slow right away. I had Amaya, Jo and her sons over for dinner and a movie on Friday. We didn't end up watching a full movie because the ladies were getting colds and the boys were getting restless with Daniel's and I's house. :) No game systems and no TV channels...pretty boring, except for Meli. They all left pretty early and I spent the rest of the evening knitting.

Saturday we went out for another friend's birthday party. We went to this yummy restaurant in Honolulu, Buco di Beppo. Daniel and I went there before Christmas with 3 other couples. Well, this time there was a party of 13 and lots of good food. I was designated food orderer and check sorter. I don't know what made me the "lucky" person...Amaya and I worked out the check together and here we are tucking away some of the money.

After dinner we hit a club, yes I said a club. The birthday girl wanted to dance the night away. Amaya and I were a bit uneasy about going, but we were going to give a try for the B-day girl. We got there and the husbands that were there were very helpful and protective. They did not dance at all so it was just us ladies on the dance floor. It is more fun that way anyways...
Yeah we were trying to ignore the love-birds in the background too... Sorry, I couldn't cut them out of the picture easily with out cutting out Amaya. The order: Amaya, Heather (birthday lady), Jo and me.
The club DJ played good music, ranging from classic Michael Jackson to Moby to Usher and Fity Cent. Ha! It was fun.

Sunday was Sunday School in the morning, church service then home to sleep all afternoon. It had been a late night.

Sunday evening, I went over to Amaya's to make cookies for the husbands. She has the "Neiman Marcus" cookie recipe. Supposedly the recipe was taken and released to the public a few years ago, anyways, they turned out pretty gosh darn good. I took pictures because the M&Ms we used reminded me of Project Spectrum. If you don't know what it is check out my sister's blog: http://www.lollygirl.com/blog Bascially, she was inspired by all things hand-made and all things with color. She has created this project for the sake of enjoying both of these things. She has set aside months with specific colors and is encouraging people to create items, whatever they may be, in that color scheme. March is red and pink. I decided to strike both out with the cookies. Of course I got on board with the project and I have other things planned for the actual month of March as well as now. I can't wait until March! The cookies turned out yummy with chunks of M&Ms and macadamia nuts. We mailed them off on Monday along with other goodies to our hubbies. Hopefully they make it by Valentine's Day.

Monday came and went with house cleaning, gardening, and reading on another Clive Cussler novel.

Today I mowed and hung out with Jen for a while this afternoon, finally playing a game of Sudoku. I vowed to not start playing because my mother is addicted to the game. I can see why. It is a lot of fun. I am already a crossword addict. I don't need another monkey on my back. We did a crossword together then moved onto the Sudoku game. Good stuff.

Tonight I had Michele and Reagan over for dinner. They are both wives whose husbands are with Daniel. Both work and stay very busy so I needed to have them over. I decided it was time for me to make my own fresh bread so I found a yummy recipe for fococcia bread and planned an italian meal around it. The bread turned out well. I was proud so I took a picture. (I am addicted to our digital camera.) I made Chicken Tetrazzini and Reagan brought a tasty salad and Michele brought these wonderful turtle brownies. Dinner was great. The main dish was named after a great opera singer, so of course I had the opera playing strong tonight. I would have had it on anyways. Although, I have been listening to Chris Tomlin's Arriving twice everyday. Thanks Daddy!

I have been knitting on a sash/belt. I am just practicing my stitches. I bought some ribbon yarn at Ben Franklin's before Christmas on clearance. I have enjoyed working with it even though it is more difficult to get used to compared to wool or another kind of blend. I have another project already planned and I am in search of more patterns for gifts. I am enjoying knitting even though I am not as passionate about it as my sister. I do find it calming and very satisfying now that I am getting past the beginning stages. I am still a very new knitter, but I am past the basic learning of stitches, thankfully. Here is my sash. I look forward to wearing it out and about after I am finished.

Well, I am going to close this post. I am heading to bed. Reading in bed is my new evening practice. It is a peaceful way to drift off to slumberland. Funny to think Daniel is probably going to lunch around now...Hopefully, he is taking a break for lunch.

Night night!

Mom & Dad Visit and Wonderful Friends

2006-01-27T14:40:00.000-10:00

I have stayed very busy since my last post, and rightfully so. My parents left yesterday afternoon and made it back safely this morning. We had a delightful visit with several new spots on the island for me to see as well as share with them.

They got in on Tuesday the 17th and Wednesday we took it easy so they could rest up from the long flight. We hung around base and I took them to Kailua to show them a few of my favorite places. I had AWANA in the afternoon, while my Mom got a massage and Dad rested.

Thursday we went to Pearl Harbor to visit the Arizona Memorial and the Navy Exchange. There is always a good deal of Hawaiian shopping to be done.

Friday we took a sailboat ride out off the Honolulu harbor and we were able to see Waikiki and Honolulu from the water side. It was interesting seeing the surfers from behind. We have some wonderful pictures of a beautiful double rainbow that morning as well as some great photos of Diamond Head. Unfortunately the water was rough that morning and we got a little seasick. I started with the worst of it, but by mid-trip everyone was feeling it. Thankfully it was only 4 hours. We did enjoy the beautiful scenery though. Friday night we went to the Mongolian Grill at the Officer's Club on base. We were hungry from the long day and our stomachs finally reached equilibrium from the rough waters. We got a wonderful picture in the lobby.

Saturday started with more shopping, but this time at the local flea market, the Swap Meet. It is always a fun place to stop by and take visitors because you can find great gifts to take home to friends and family.

In the afternoon we decided to go to Chinatown because they were celebrating the Chinese New Year. There was a big festival with lots of great photo-opportunities. The colors were wonderful, the food was good and the festivities were great. They had several dancing lion groups and we enjoyed watching the parade with bands, dancing lions, percussive groups, and even a special appearance of Dogg, the Bounty Hunter because it is now the Year of the Dog in the Chinese Calendar. I have never seen the TV show or even really heard about him before this past week, but let me tell you something, his wife and him are a force to be reckoned with. You can tell they do their job when you see them in person. Anyways, we had a wonderful afteroon appreciating Chinese culture.

Sunday we went to church and came home for a lunch. After lunch we started driving to the North Shore. We were hoping to see some big waves. We did indeed find some, due to the storm system we had moving over the island and of course, the time of year. There were plenty of surfers taking the risk of getting tossed and turned in the giant waves. It was such a nice sunny day we just laid on the beach for a while and decided to not hurry on to see other things that day. The sand was made of large granules so it didn't stick to your skin as badly as some other sands. I think it would have been Daniel's favorite sand, ever! (He is particular about getting all the sand off of himself before leaving, extremely particular... :->)

Monday was a little rainy and overcast so we did a little sightseeing in Pearl City and Honolulu with a good amount of shopping.

Tuesday we went to the Polynesian Culture Center. I had only been for a few hours with Lauren and Kris so I was happy to be going again. We stayed for the luau at the center that night and we were wowed by the good food, great entertainment and extreme downpour of rain we had for about 20 minutes. While we huddled under a tent with several other visitors, my Dad was a lifesaver when he left without saying anything and came back with three bright yellow ponchoes. It made our day much nicer being dry and warm. My Dad always was a thinker...
We saw plenty of dancing, heard plenty of native songs, and enjoyed really good kalua pig and other special Hawaiian foods. It was a great visit and I even got a picture with Te'o, the incredible fire knife dancer. He has the ash marks on him still in the picture. He had just finished his performance in the evening show when he came out to pose for pics. He is very funny and talented. Okay yeah, I did get rained on a bit while running for cover. I am not looking my best.

Wednesday we drove to Hanauma Bay to see how good the weather was for snorkeling. We were doubtful as we drove over and it was sprinkling rain. Here is a picture near the blowhole on Kalanianiole Highway. It was looking pretty rough. I didn't want Mom and Dad's first snorkeling experience to be a cold and miserable one. Once we got there though the clouds had cleared somewhat and we thought we'd give it a try. We were thankful we did. I love snorkeling and my parents seemed to enjoy it just as much. My Mom was a water-bug and Dad was enjoying taking pictures of the fish. We saw quite a few different species; still no turtles or octopi though. I guess I will just have to keep looking.

Overall we had a wonderful visit with plenty of downtime for just talking and catching up in person. Momma and I even knit a little together. Dad enjoyed reading a Cussler novel he'd not read and we just enjoyed each other's comapny.

My title has the "wonderful friends" bit in there because as I was driving home from the airport I had three lovely invitations from my friends to do things in the next week. They knew I needed to stay just as busy now that I don't have guests. I am so thankful for my friendships here on the island and I am blessed beyond belief with a wonderful family. Thank you for being such a blessing to me, dearest family and friends.

Much Love!

Its Gonna be a Good Day

2006-01-17T07:54:00.000-10:00

So I wake up this morning at 5am becasue I can not sleep any longer. I had too many things to do today to prepare for my parents visit. I also had some errands to run before I get cleaned up, and a yard to mow.

There was a bad storm last night. (We needed the rain.) I was picking up debris and twigs and other things out of our yard to mow and I wasn't even paying attention to the skies. I was in the backyard first then walked down to the street to clean more garbage up and I finally looked up. What did I see? I saw the brightest, most beautiful rainbow I have seen on this island yet. Pictures do not do it justice. It was a complete arc with a second rainbow forming. I kept trying to get the whole thing but I couldn't back up enough from where I was standing in my carport. I stared at it as the sun was rising behind me. It made for a glorious few minutes.

Basically it was beautiful sight. Don't you just love God's Promises?!

Have a wonderful day!

Parent's Visit and Mass House Cleaning

2006-01-16T19:53:00.000-10:00

Let me just tell you, I am excited about tomorrow! I pick up my parents tomorrow at 3:33pm for a 9 day visit. It is going to be a good time. I am looking forward to showing them around the island that I love, and spending some quality family time.

I have neglected the blog for some time now. I have been busy with KVs, helping my friend move into her house, and church activities. I started knitting classes and I am knitting away on my practice patterns. I am trying to learn as many stitches with the teacher that way I can do more things alone. I haven't started a specifc project yet, but I guarantee when my Mom gets here she will help me pick one. She has started knitting like crazy too. Lauren's hobby has spread through all the ladies in the family now and we are all knitting in our free time. Sarah is on her 3rd scarf, I think...so funny. Here is the pattern that took me forever to figure out. It doesn't look like much, but there are several tricky parts, and this is only 20 rows.

I hit the beach yesterday after church and I got a little sun, well, I am red in the face. It was a perfect beach day. We haven't had a beach day for a couple weeks now. It has been overcast and when it is sunny it is really windy. Yesterday was a nice day to sit out and chat with Jo while I knitted.

Daniel called on Friday and he has been working long days. Despite the 16 hour day when he called me, his spirits were up and he was happy to be there. He has been working with contractors and non-military people. It seems like that would add a nice variety to his day...

I have not sent him anything yet, due to the 3 days without mail service here on base, but I am planning on sending out a package tomorrow. I will let you all know how quickly it works. I am not planning on him getting the package until February though.

I just put my dinner in the oven so it should alomost be done. Tonight was major cleaning night. It the process I found a 4 inch centipede in the corner of one of our closets. I do not know how that thing get in our house without me knowing it, but I screamed my head off. I sprayed it with Raid about 8 times and watched it wriggle and die as I held Meli and was so thankful she didn't find it and play with it. Goodness me, those things are wretched looking. My throat hurt after the initial scream in seeing it. I am still getting chills down my spine thinking about it. Everyone I have talked to on base seems to just accept them as a natural part of living here. I haven't gotten to that point yet. I can't stand them and I try to do everything in my power to stop them from coming in. Apparently, they find a way despite my efforts. Egh! I can't talk about it anymore.
I hope everyone had a nice three day weekend!

Full Week

2006-01-07T20:05:00.000-10:00

Hello Family and Friends. Another week has gone by and it means one week closer to my parents visit. I am so excited about their visit it is ridiculous! It is going to be so nice to have them here, besides I love house guests. Only 10 days left! :)

Daniel is doing well. Every once in a while he is able to give a quick call. Usually the call is a short one because the phone he uses cuts us off. Once the rest of his group gets there he will hopefully have a steadier means of contacting people. He is still waiting for his official address so I promise to get that to ya'll as soon as I hear from him.

All I know is that he is keeping busy. He is able to attend a service on Sunday mornings and he seems to be enjoying his work. He was moving into a more permanent place to sleep today and there is a chance he will be able to hook a computer up in the room. It may mean he has more access to the internet and more emails, but then again he may not get internet access. He is still waiting to find out about that. Right now the best address to contact him by is his yahoo account. If you do not know this please contact me for it. I am not going to post it here on the blog.

I have been staying busy with cleaning the house, reading good books, visiting with friends and going to the gym. It has been incredibly cool for Hawaii lately and my windows have been open since Tuesday. I love the breeze and Meli loves sitting in the windowsill to watch the birds. I have not gone to the beach this week at all because of the breeze and rain we have had this week. We needed the rain. Hopefully is gets a little warmer for my parents visit so we can have a little beach time.

Amaya got her wedding pictures in and I helped her organize them Thursday night. We were able to catch up some while I was able to see her lovely photos. Marc and Amaya were married on the beach on the western side on the island. They have some amazing sunset pictures that are just priceless.

Friday night we celebrated Jo's youngest son's birthday. We went to the Officer's Club for Mongolian grill. Basically it is every meat, topping, and sauce you can imagine to choose from and they cook it up for you. It is very, very yummy and never the same thing twice. They also have all-you-can-eat ice cream so Jo brought a cake and we celebrated at our table. Here is Jo and the birthday boy. He has got the cutest strawberry blond hair, although it looks really red in the picture. Hopefully he won't read this. He will be as embarassed as a 9 year old can be.

After we left the O Club, I called up another friend to come watch a movie. Reagan met me at the movie rental store and we rented The Brothers Grimm. It is the biggest waste of time. Do not rent it! It has a scattered and stupid plot, characters that are not developed well enough, and forced dialogue. It was funny just trying to figure out why good actors would choose to be in it. Reagan and I chatted after the terrible movie and resolved to spend more time together. Her husband left on the 26th as well. We are planning some potluck meals and occasional movie nights, with better movies.

Jo, Amaya and I hit the gym this morning and split ways. We were planning on going to the beach but the wind was really strong. No one wanted to go to the beach to have sand thrown on us.
I came home cleaned up, rearranged the kitchen cabinets some, and then went shopping. Body Shop was having super-duper clearances. My sister had gotten Daniel and I a home fragrance kit from there and we love it. We used all the oil by Christmas. I had to go restock on scents. I got this Lemon Fizzy flavor. It smells like lemonade. It is perfect for the kitchen after an especially garlicy meal. I stocked up on a couple other fragrances as well. It was a good shopping day. :)

As I was driving home Amaya called me and invited me over for dinner. The best part about dinners at Amaya's is she is okay about making dinner together. I went about an hour early and we made these amazing enchiladas. The recipe was phenomenal! I brought a yummy salad and we made a fresh pot of iced tea. You can't have a good meal without it! (She went and bought a tea maker after she had tried my tea. She got addicted.) We spent a good time catching up from the holiday break and planning for our future guests. She has two friends coming in Tuesday so she was sharing her plans for them. We are planning to do some things with my parents here and her guests. We are both excited hostesses!

I am going to go to bed early tonight. I have to lead Sunday School tomorrow. I am excited. I get to use a felt board for the lessons. The story is on Jesus calling his disciples. It should be a good morning.

Have a wonderful week!

First Week Down...

2006-01-02T11:18:00.000-10:00

Sorry for not writing in a while. The week dragged by as I thought it would. The last week of December always drags no matter what you are doing. Most people are off work or out of school and actvities are canceled until the beginning of the year. It makes the week go by slowly when even when I want to get busy with church activities and all my close friends are still on the mainland visiting family.

Daniel has made it to his assigned camp for his deployment. He has only been able to drop a couple fast emails saying he will write more. I was just happy to hear he is okay. Their flight was delayed in Germany for three days due to the airport they were flying into being snowed-in. The Marines spent alot of time playing cards...

He mentioned that he is staying incredibly busy learning all kinds of new things. He is taking over from another logistics officer, so he has a lot to find out about the people to contact and the way things have worked before he got there. He is excited about all the opportunities this position has for him. It makes it easier for me knowing that he is happy with his job.

I will write more news when I hear from him. He is still trying to figure out the best address for him to recieve snail mail as well as email. I will let you all know by email.

I am picking up Amaya at the airport on Wednesday as well as a few other friends throughout the week. Church activities are starting up and I am going to start teaching Sunday School so I have a lesson to plan for the 1st and 2nd graders. I am excited about teaching that age group. It will be most of the same kids I have from AWANA so there will already be some relationships developed.

This last week I spent a lot of time with Jo, another wife whose husband left on Monday. We hit the beach, hung at each others houses and went to the Officer's Club for New Year's Eve. They had a southern rock band playing all kinds of Lynyrd Skynryd and CCR songs. It was a lot of fun. We danced together and enjoyed ourselves.

Unfortunately my phone was acting up and I missed a call from Daniel that night. He left a voicemail and I was a sad wife. Hopefully he will be able to call this week.

I just got back from the gym with Jo and I need to get some lunch in me.

Happy New Year Dear Ones!

Christmas Day

2005-12-26T20:29:00.000-10:00

We had a blessed Christmas Day. I hope you all did as well.

We woke up and drove to the beach to watch the sunrise. We got some amazing pictures. We stayed for about an hour just watching the sky and playing a little in the water then came home for breakfast.

We opened gifts after breakfast. Thank you family for the wonderful things you sent. Here is Daniel with his latest edition to his Seinfeld collection:

Here I am sporting my snorkeling gear for the camera:

We took a quick picture in front of the tree for family. We didn't dress up or anything so it just our regular morning attire. :)

Daniel spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon packing up for deployment. It was a tough afternoon for me.

We ended the day with a great game of Monopoly, Marine edition, that I found at the Marine Exchange. I was pretty excited about playing. I hadn't played the game in a long time, and Daniel played it frequently when he was growing up. We loved the twist of the Marine edition. Instead of houses and hotels it was battalions and regiments. The entire board had Marine associated cards, property and even special game pieces. I won in the end because of my voracious buying of everything I landed on. Daniel was too kind of a player, except when he called me Potter, like the bad guy in It's a Wonderful Life.

Today was a difficult day. I took him to the departure point on base and I left. I couldn't stay around because I was too emotional. He has a long day of flying to make it there. They also had several layovers, so these hours are probably dragging by for him.

Please continue to pray for him.

Tomorrow I am having lunch with Jo, a fellow wife whose husband left today. We are meeting up for lunch then getting massages. Our friend, Amaya, scheduled and paid for massages for us as Christmas gifts because she knew it would be a good way to relax after our hubbies left. I am thankful for wonderful friends!

Love You All!

Mele Kalikimaka!

2005-12-24T21:35:00.000-10:00

Merry Christmas from Hawaii!

We spent Christmas Eve morning at the beach. I was wanting to gather some more sea glass, but I forgot that it was high tide in the morning and the waves were huge. There was very little area to walk on, but we still enjoyed our walk on the sand.

Last night we went to Honolulu for dinner with three other couples and then went kareokeing at the Hale Koa, a hotel in Waikiki. All the couples are from the same unit as Daniel, so it was good getting to know the wives. I hope to stay active with them during the next few months. I took a quick picture in the restaurant before we left, but I unfortunately cut off Daniel's head. I was in the aisle and trying to hurry up. You all know how he looks. : )

We took the day easy today. We walked on the beach and then came back and watched It's a Wonderful Life. It has been years since I have seen this entire film and I didn't remember much of it. It was good watching it again. We don't have TV stations so we had to borrow the DVD from a friend. She was gracious enough to help in the reeducation process for Maryn. :)

We just got back from the Christmas Eve service at church. We invited some friends of ours to the service and were very happy when they actually showed up. The church was packed. They even had chairs lined up outside the main sanctuary. It was a blessing.

Here are a couple other pics from the beach this morning:

Well, I am going to go fix us some egg nog and cut Daniel a big slice of chocolate cake I made. I don't want many leftovers after he leaves.

Please keep him in your prayers. The winter is going to be very cold and it will make his job as a logistics guy even harder with all the snow. Pray for their safety in traveling over there as well as their safety in just being there. Keep his older brother in your prayers as well. He is in Iraq now. So both guys are off fighting for freedom, something to be so proud of! Thank you for all your support.

We Love You All! Merry Christmas!

Meli, the real owner of the house.

2005-12-22T11:58:00.000-10:00

Well, Daniel is at work this morning even though he is supposed to have today off. There is so much to do before they leave. He is making sure the transition to Afghanistan goes smoothly. It is a big job. Hopefully he will be able to have the afternoon off.

I have been baking this morning. The entire house smells like pumpkin bread. Mmmm. I have Puccini, not Puccelli, blaring in the kitchen. It makes for a nice morning.

Yesterday, I mowed the entire lawn. I am getting better at it and now I have a good eye for which mower to pick out at the self-help. I am thankful for the workers there. It is such a good service. The friendly men always help load and unload the mower in the car trunk so I don't have to lift it as much. It is helpful because Daniel always worries about me lifting it too. Mowing only takes me about an hour now with water breaks... :)

I came into the study planning on writing on the blog and I found this in the chair. Apparently she was planning on using the computer next. I moved her to the messy desktop and she seems quite content to roll around up there. It was surprising because she has become quite a window-seat dweller. She loves to jump up and look at the birds outside. She is not a very big cat and it looks like she is going to remain petite. She is only 6 months now. She still has to grow, but her paws and ears are still small and a lot of times a cat grows into those features.

I am so thankful to have her around as a cuddlebug.

That is all I have for now. I just wanted to write a little blog since my family was complaining about my blog writing frequency and its correlation to the entry length. There you have it, a short entry.

Love you all and Merry Christmas!

Great Visit

2005-12-20T09:36:00.000-10:00

Daniel is off at work today so I can write without missing spending time with him. I have not updated for that reason. Daniel had Friday and Monday off so I was busy doing things with him and I didn't want to take the hour and a half to blog. I do apologize. ;)

The tour of the island on Friday was wonderful and I have a few pictures to post. They are not in the order of how we saw them, sorry.
Iolani Palace downtown Honolulu.
Here we are at the Pali lookout. It started as a gloomy day but cleared up by the late morning.

Here is Daniel and Charles looking at the tile mosaics at the Punchbowl Memorial to the World War II battles of the Pacific.

The picture on the right has the Goods in front of the Kamehameha statue on King Street, downtown Honolulu.
The waves on the North Shore were massive. This picture can barely show you the size and power of these waves. The little black dots in the picture are surfers, brave surfers. We estimated the waves to be about 15 feet high and that isn't even close to the height they can get in the winter months.

The Saturday night of the last entry we ended up going to a luau. It was Daniel and I's first time to this specific one so it was new for us too. The sunset was perfect and we got lots of pictures in.

The show was great and I am glad we were able to enjoy it with them. They even threw in a few Hawaiian Christmas songs at the end instead of doing just a regular show. The picture is blurry but worth putting in.

Sunday we attended Faith and found that Charles had a connection with the pastor's father. They were able to chat briefly before the service. It was an unexpected surprise.

Sunday afternoon we had a nice lunch and decided to catch The Chronicles of Narnia. I was busting at the bit to see it and I was glad everyone else wanted to also. Vacations are a nice time to just relax a watch a great movie too. We all enjoyed it and it inspired Marsha to start reading the novel. I need to pull it out again and re-read it also.

Marsha and I finally got the gingerbread men made. They turned out really cute and we had fun decorating them together. We made enough to last the rest of the week and to share with people.

Tuesday Daniel and Charles went diving again off the west coast. They took several underwater pictures which turned out great but I have to find a scanner so I can post them later. They saw an octopus and turtles and even have several shots of whales as they took the boat ride out to the diving location. I will try to post those soon.

Marsha and I went downtown to the Mission House Museum. (Sorry I didn't take you there Lolly) It was an excellent museum that showed the stages of the early missionaries on the island. They came from Connecticut in the 1600s and were very popular with the islanders. When they came there was no written Hawaiian language. After 46 years of missionary work, 3 out of 4 Hawaiians had learned to read and write in their own language. Their work was definitely an act of God. The museum was comprised of three houses they used for living quarters, school rooms and places of worship. It was decorated with period furniture and had some original pieces still in it. Very neat visit! One of the exhibitions was a display of Hawaiian quilts. That was one reason why I wanted to come. I love the quilt patterns here on the island. That exhibit was great to walk through as well. Unfortunately photography was not allowed so we did not get any great pictures inside. I do have a few pictures outside on the disposable camera to scan from that visit as well.

Tuesday night we had the Morales' over for some steaks and shrimp Charles had picked up at Sams when Daniel and had to go buy front tires for the Grand Prix. Charles ran across a good buy and decided to bring it home. It was great! It gave Daniel another reason to start the grill up. We bought the little grill the day after Thanksgiving and we have grilled everything on it and even roasted some marshmallows as the fire died. (Thanks Ashley for the idea!) Here are the guys grilling the yummy shrimp.

Wednesday we stopped by the Swap Meet for some shopping for souvenirs. It is a great place to buy anything cheaper than most stores. We stayed for a couple hours, got some lunch and I had to leave the group. I had the last AWANA meeting to run off to so I left after lunch. I was reluctant to go but I needed to be at AWANA to lead music.

Daniel and his parents decided to explore the Navy Harbor and check out Barber's Point where Charles' brother was stationed when he was in the military. They spent the afternoon exploring and hanging out on a beach on the southwest side.

Wednesday night we had our Christmas meal and time together. I threw a ham in the oven before AWANA and came back to fix potatoes, corn, green beans and cranberry sauce with Marsha for dinner. We sat around and chatted about Christmas memories and what we learn each year about the birth of Christ. We moved into the family room and opened gifts. The evening was a good time of learning the Good's traditions at Christmas.

Thursday we woke up early and went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. I love SNORKELING! Of course I was excited to get out there. It was a perfect day and the sun was shining brightly. Marsha and I went out for about 45 minutes with the guys and then decided to rest on the beach. The men went out again, this time outside of the reef area to see what was outside. There are so many incredible creatures to see underwater and it never ceases to amaze me when we go snorkeling. We have several underwater pictures of that visit as well and yet again I have not scanned them in yet to share with you.

We spent the afternoon recouping from a full week of activity and the Goods started packing up to leave that night. It was an excellent visit and we loved having them here. I look forward to the next visit!

Our weekend flew by with errands, Christmas card writing, mailing off packages, and the general things to do before a deployment.

Sunday we went to a Christmas party thrown by my friend Lydia from South Pacific. It was good to see her again and meet her friends.

Yesterday Daniel changed the oil in both cars and changed the half shafts on the front of the Acura. I was running errands for him and the car stuff, but I got in some much needed house cleaning.

We are taking the week easy before he leaves. I am still planning what we are going to be doing Christmas day. I want to make it a special first Christmas, so we'll see what ideas I have up my sleeves.

Have a great week before Christmas family and friends!

Mom and Dad Good are Here!

2005-12-10T07:48:00.000-10:00

It is a beautiful Saturday morning here in Kailua and it is incredible the activities we have already done with the Goods.

On Thursday we picked them up from the airport in the afternoon and headed home for dinner. Unfortunately I had a KV meeting that I had to be at so it was not the quiet night I wanted it to be. The meeting was a pre-deployment brief for all the spouses of the deployed. It was a very informational meeting but it ran much later than I wanted it. I ended up getting home at 9:30 and the Goods were exhausted from the long day and the time changes.

Friday we went on an Around-the-Island tour that was offered by the Marine Corps Family Services. It was a great chance to see so much of the island and I learned quite a few new things about Oahu. Unfortunately our camera lens jammed so we did not get to take many pictures, but hopefully we can get it fixed soon. The tour was great and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Today the guys are diving on the west coat of the island. They left about an hour ago for the boat ride out to a ship wreck off Waianae. I am not sure about all the details of the dive but it looks to be a good day for them to go out. We are hoping everything turns out great. I will keep you all posted.

Marsha and I are doing some shopping and general familiarization with this side of the island today. We are planning a Christmas dinner on Wednesday night so we are food shopping for that as well as gingerbread men, on request of our husbands.

I will try to post again during their visit so the blog write-up after they leave is not incredibly long. I will try to get some pictures by then.

Everyone have a great weekend!

Army-Navy Game, Parade and KV Party

2005-12-04T20:56:00.000-10:00

Well, this was a full weekend so I am glad to be writing again so soon after the last post. I just need to get into the habit of posting regularly.

Friday we had a 1/3 Holiday Party at Bellows Air Force Base. Bellows is used now only for training and recreation and it is located right on the beach. Daniel had a half day at work and the party started at 2:30 so we had a relaxing afternoon. We made our way over to Bellows and enjoyed chit-chatting with other couples from 1/3 and watching the balloon sculptor make incredible things for the kids. They hired two sculptors and they were creating everything from rainbows to monkeys and fairy wings. It was fun just watching them. The odd part of the afternoon was watching the skinny Santa (probably a Marine) have children come tell him what they wanted for Christmas. The image of children in their swimsuits with Santa was odd for me since I am so used to cold weather around Christmas. We spent the evening relaxing at home with pizza and movie.

Saturday morning we met up with several Naval Academy grads at the Officer's Club on base to watch the Army-Navy game. Kick-off was at 9:30 am so people were eating breakfast and watching the game. We met up with a couple of our friends, Fred and Jen. Here is Daniel and Fred watching the game and Jen and I close behind. We cheered the entire game and Navy was victorious with a 42 to 24 win. We were glad we were able to catch the game. I was very happy to not be freezing to death watching the game in Philadelphia. It was a beautiful sunny day here in Kailua.

Saturday afternoon we met up with Phil, Amanda and Rhiannon for the Honolulu City Lights Parade. It is the annual parade downtown Honolulu with several organizations, bands, companies and clubs participating. My favorites were the Celtic Pipers and the high school marching bands. There was only one band with regular high school band uniforms. Most of them wore aloha shirts with shorts. It was very Hawaiian.

The parade went on for about and hour and half. Rhiannon was pretty happy the entire time even though Phil was getting tired. We had a great evening watching the parade with them. Towards the end of the parade we met up with two couples from Faith Baptist, the church we have been attending.

After the parade we went by the Honolulu Hale, or the City Hall. Hale means house in Hawaiian. There was a giant Santa in front as well as a Mrs. Clause, of course they were Hawaiian style. Santa was barefoot with his shirt open and his hand in the air with the "hang loose" sign.

We had a great time downtown with Phil, Amanda and baby girl.

Sunday morning we went to the late service at church and heard a fantastic sermon on the mystery of Christmas and Christ in general. The music minister at the church now is leaving to help with a church plant so Faith is in search of a new worship leader. Today they had a candidate visit and lead worship. Daniel and I were both impressed with his leadership and style. We just have to pray about the decision of the church.

After church we ran a few errands and came home for lunch. Amaya dropped by after lunch and Daniel had to show off his new winter/rain gear the Marines have given him to use in Afghanistan. The excellent part of this is Daniel gets to keep all of the gear. Looking through all of the items, it has to be about a couple thousand dollars of intensive cold gear. Here he is looking rather intimidating in his camouflage snow jacket and pants over his feather down pants and jacket. He quickly took it all because he was burning up. He has two sets of giant gloves and one set of mittens. They are like snowboard gloves. Amaya has most of the same kind of gear because she is an avid outdoor girl. She was raised in Idaho. She loves to snowboard, hike and snowshoe hiking so she has quite a knowledge of all the gear Daniel has. She was impressed that the Marines are finally taking these steps to reach comfort and warmth for the Marines in cold weather.

Well, it started thundering and lightening outside so Daniel had to test some of his Gortex gear. It was actually the worst storm I have seen here on the island. The thunder sounded like cannons. It was really incredible. There was water everywhere. Here is Daniel in the downpour:
Here I am tightening the hood on his jacket. It was letting in too much water. It was neat to see the water bead up and just roll off, like rainex on car windows. Our backyard is thoroughly flooded. At least it is nice and green now and not dead and brown.

After Daniel got in from the rain we a had a couple of friends call us from the base Marina. Their car had flooded and they couldn't get home. Fortunately, they got a hold of us because we were getting ready to head out the door for the KV Christmas party. Daniel ran to pick them up and take them home. They are friends from the musical and they live on the other side of the island. It took Daniel awhile before he was able to make it to the party. The party was quite a bit of fun.

We did a white elephant gift exchange. I had bought a two-cup teapot and wrapped it with a box of gingerbread cookie tea. That gift was a hit and was stolen twice, once from the woman who opened it and once from the first thief. I opened a picture frame with pineapple on it, but ended up leaving with 2 Hawaiian tree ornaments. I was glad when Daniel showed up because there were not many husbands there. He was very helpful and funny when he was coaching me about which gifts to steal. Here are the KV ladies of 1/3 with the chaplain.

We are home now and Daniel is still playing with all his gear. I can hear him walk around the house because the rain gear is making "swishing" sounds as he walks.

We are looking forward to Daniel's parents visit this Thursday. It is going to be a great time with them.

Daniel is on the pistol range for Monday-Wednesday so he will be very busy this week. It is my last week of Bible studies so we are choosing our studies for January. I look forward to more growth with the wonderful ladies I have come to know.

Have a wonderful week!

Thanksgiving and Visitor from Maryland

2005-12-01T15:42:00.000-10:00

Here I am after another long hiatus. The week Daniel had off of work was a great week of catching up with some Christmas shopping, planning and general preparing for the month of December. We ended up bring Christmas to our house sooner than December. Daniel bought me some official snorkel gear. I say official because the flippers, and boots can be used for diving as well; it is not the flimsy stuff for quick snorkeling dips. We also found a DVD player with speakers at the Navy Exchange for an excellent price. (We were looking because the one I had brought to HI gave up on us on Friday night.) We ended up rearranging the living area so the speakers could be put around the room. Daniel had fun setting that up and we love the furniture setting. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday went by all too quickly, but Thursday rolled up nice and slow.

Thanksgiving Day we had two couples, Phil & Amanda, and Jerry & Michele, and James, a single Marine, over for dinner around 2 pm. I tackled the turkey, dressing and veggies and the other guests brought over some excellent sides. I was happy with the turkey results. Daniel and I made a good team. I cooked, he carved. Apparently Rhiannon was content with the day because she took a nice long nap in the papasan chair. She is so cute!

Friday morning we tackled the crazy crowds for an mp3 player, washer and dryer and a Christmas tree. Daniel had an mp3 player stolen from him on the way over to Iraq so he had been wanting to get another one. We figured the prices were hard to beat on the day after Thanksgiving so we trekked to Circuit City in Pearl City. Sears was having some suh-weet sales on their appliances , and we had to turn in the loaner W&D from base so it was time to get our own. We ended up driving home with a new mp3 player, a delivery plan for the W&D and a great Christmas tree.

We got home and after a nap because of the 4:30 am morning we decorated the tree and Daniel played with the new mp3 player. As you can see in the pic, my fins are under the tree. The mp3 box is too. :)

Saturday, we picked up my dear friend Ashley from the airport. I met her at Univ. of MD at The Life, our church. We spent the evening catching up and chatting Daniels ears off. Sunday, we went to the early service at church then made our way to the Dole Plantation and the north shore for some big waves. Ashley had spent about 4 days on Oahu when she was docked here during a Summer Semester on a ship with several other students (didn't intend to have that alliteration). They stopped at countries all over the Pacific: Japan, New Zealand, Australia and Fiji. I am sure I missed some places. Basically, when she was here she stayed on the Waikiki side so we wanted to show her more of the island. We hit the plantation and filled ourselves with pineapple and mango ice cream. It had big pineapple chunks on the bottom. Yum Yum!

The waves on the north shore were gigantic. Unfortunately, we didn't get any good pictures while we were out and about, but I am sure I will be able to post some later because we are planning another trip up there before Daniel leaves. The drive on the north side is just so beautiful with amazing mountains on your right and the deep blue ocean on your left. It is truly awe-inspiring.

Monday, we planned to go snorkeling but due to very little parking in the place we wanted to go we ended up just catching some sun on a beach on the south east corner of the island. We came home, got cleaned up, did a little souvenir shopping for Ash, made dinner at home and had a quiet evening.

Tuesday, Ashley only wanted one thing, to see the sunset unobstructed. So after babysitting for Rhiannon in the morning while Amanda went to an appointment, we made our way to the west side of the island. I had never spent a large amount of time on that side of Oahu, but it was so worth it. The sunset we saw was amazing. It brought Ashley and I to worship the Lord. Pictures can not give it justice, but here is a taste of the beauty God displays every minute.

We left the beach to meet Daniel for dinner in Waikiki. After dinner, we took Ash to the airport for a late flight. She made it back safely on Wednesday afternoon, Maryland time.

I just met up with another friend from Maryland today. Joe, a guy I also knew from The Life at UMD, is doing ministry out here on Oahu at the University of Hawaii campus. We have been playing phone tag the past few months, but we finally met today for a quick lunch. He showed me around the campus and I met the people he works with at the Baptist Student Dorm. He is really enjoying being out here and working with the students.

Daniel is on his way home and I have to get dinner started. I am starving and I am sure he will be too.

Take Care!

Duty, Babysitting and KVs

2005-11-18T11:10:00.000-10:00

Hello dear family! I hope everyone is doing well before this upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. I am looking forward to this Thursday. We are planning on having two couples over for dinner and games. I am especially thankful for this upcoming week because Daniel has the entire week off of work. It is part of his time off before the deployment. We are planning some quality time with friends as well as some time to finally Christmas shop together. I am quite excited.

This past week has flown by. Tuesday Daniel had work and then had duty that evening until the next morning. I wrote on the blog that Tuesday evening. Daniel got about 4 hours of sleep that night. He was fine Wednesday during the day until evening and the tiredness hit him hard.

Wednesday, I had my Protestant Women of the Chapel, PWOC, Bible Study and spent the afternoon cleaning the house. It is incredible how dusty the furniture and floor can get in four days! Wednesday evening we had the joy of babysitting for Phil and Amanda. They went to their Marine Corps Ball and needed some one to take care of their baby-girl Rhiannon. Well, we were delighted to help. We have babysat for Rhiannon once before but she is not away from her mother very often so sometimes it can be a challenge keeping her from bawling.

The evening with Rhiannon started well. I kept her entertained with some music and dancing until Daniel got home and I started making dinner. She seemed to like seeing Daniel come home in his camouflage utilities. It was familiar to her with her Daddy in the Marines too. She was great all through dinner and posed for us several times during dinner as I fed her.

So yes, she is quite a doll. Now you see why we don't mind taking care of her. Well, while I finished up the dishes in the kitchen, Daniel took her into the family room and played with her for a bit and the best picture of the night has both babes in it. ;)

Daniel looks tired in this picture and he has every right to be with no nap after 4 hours of sleep the night before. We took a walk around the neighborhood with the stroller and then we gave Rhiannon a bath and that was about the time that she realized her parents were not there and she decided to cry for the rest of the evening. I guess the bath was another reminder of her not being familiar with her surroundings. She was not happy during it or after. I rocked her for about another hour before I got her to finally fall asleep and as soon as she did, I was out too. Daniel had hit the sack soon after bath time.

All in all, it was a great evening with a precious child. It was a good reminder too of why we are waiting for children. We are not done being newly-weds yet. I was not able to spend the evening talking with him, we had to take care of baby girl. She is such a cutie though.

Thursday flew by with Daniel busy at work and he actually ended up staying later than he thought so we didn't have dinner together. I had a KV meeting at 7 so we didn't see each other until around 8:45.

The KV meeting went well, but some of the wives were pretty rowdy when sharing their opinions so it got a little saucy in there at times. It was not a problem, just a little too much talking at one time for my liking. I basically became the secretary for the meetings because I was the fastest note-taker with all the ideas flying around. We were trying to think of activities to keep the wives and families connected during the deployment. We are planning several social functions for January through June. It should be a good time of meeting and spending time with ladies of 1/3.

After the meeting I came home and tried to get Daniel to go to sleep. We had to wake up at 2:30 this morning because he had another hike this morning. This one was supposed to be 16 miles. YUCK! He just called and is staying at the office to finish up some work before his week off. Today is a day off for the whole battalion, but since he won't be there next week either he needs to get a few things wrapped up. I am sure he is smelling up the office as well as the other men who didn't come home to shower! HA He is always so sweaty after the hikes...

Well, tonight we are planning on going to the kareoke place downtown with some friends from work. It should be fun.

Have a wonderful weekend!

MC Ball and San Diego

2005-11-15T20:56:00.000-10:00

Unfortunately I was not able to update sooner but we have had a lot going on since I last wrote.

Before I get into the busy second half of the week, I took a quick picture of Daniel mowing the lawn on Tuesday. Mowing the lawn is not usually picture-worthy, unless you live in Hawaii and the egrets chase you around while mowing to get the freshly uncovered bugs. At one point Daniel was having to shove 11 egrets out of the way to mow. They are not intimidated by the mower at all. It is really funny to watch.

Wednesday was a regular day for me with Bible Study and AWANA. It was Daniel's last full day of work that week so we were both getting ancy for the weekend.

Thursday, Daniel had work in the morning, came home, had lunch and then slept on the couch until we had to get ready for the Marine Corps Birthday Ball. He had a good sleeping buddy. She loves to sleep just like Daniel. When I took this picture, thankfully I only woke up one of them. Daniel slept for another hour. He was a tired man.

Thursday evening we headed to the Ilikai Hotel in Honolulu. The 1/3 Ball started around 6:30 so we got ourselves dolled up and headed downtown. We ended up running into a bit of traffic, which Honolulu is known for and made it there right on time. We were not the only ones to run into traffic so the whole evening was shifted until a later time. I am so thankful we live on the other side of the island with minimal traffic.

This is a picture of Daniel and I at our table. The flash is a little too bright and I couldn't figure out the photoshop way to darken the photo so it is going to be posted with the bright flash. Dinner was yummy and we sat next to Jerry and Michele. Jerry works with Daniel and Michele and I are KVs together. We had a good time at dinner and the ceremony following dinner. They cut the giant cake and there was an excellent guest speaker. The speaker has an outstanding life-story as Marine Colonel and he kept his speech short and sweet so it made everyone happy. Unfortunately the Dj was terrible so we did not end up dancing at all that evening. He played mostly heavy metal and rock songs that were near impossible to dance to. It was like we were getting ready for a pep rally or some big game. It didn't ruin the evening though.

We had lots of opportunities to meet up with people and take pictures. Here is one of Daniel with the Marines he works with. Jerry is on the far left and Daniel on the right, of course. (I am not going to name the others because I have not asked them personally if they want to be online. I don't want anyone to be upset about being on the web without their permission.)

Here is a picture of my fellow KVs in 1/3. It took Michele and I quite some time rounding up the ladies for this picture. I am on the top row and Michele is to the right in the picture, in the navy dress. We have a large group of KV for a Battalion. We are lucky to have so many ladies interested in the volunteer position. It makes it easier for all of us that we have so many people. Everyone looked lovely.

The funniest thing of the night was the fact that I only saw one person with my dress on and she happened to be sitting at the exact same table as Daniel and I. We both laughed about it. I figured I would see someone with it on because I bought the dress at Macy's, but I did not think she would be at the same table! It was funny!

Here is another picture of us before I move on from Thursday evening.

Friday, our friends Fred and Jen took us to the airport in the morning. We flew for 5 hours and landed in San Diego on Friday evening with plenty of time to hang out before the wedding on Sunday. We rented an economy size car but ended upgrading to a Saturn Vue(woohoo) because there was a great discount with the airline we had flown on. It turned out being a great decision. We hauled people around all weekend. We spent most of the first evening getting our bearings driving around San Diego. It really is a neat city. I enjoyed just looking at it through the car window, but the next few days made me love it even more.

Saturday we ended up driving around more to familiarize ourselves so we wouldn't get lost when we were in a hurry. The harbor was so beautiful. i ended up taking so many pictures. Here is one that turned out great.
We drove to pick up a friend of Daniel's from Okinawa, Bonnie from the airport, and the bride, also a friend from Okinawa, was there to pick up Bonnie as well. We ended up driving to Mandy's (the bride) parent's condo they had rented and met friends and family on the bride's side. It was nice to meet people before the wedding day on Sunday. We left around lunch time and hit a restaurant Daniel had been telling me about, Santana's. They had excellent burritos.

That afternoon we drove down on the harbor and walked around a little then decided to hit my favorite store that Oahu does not have...TARGET! I can't tell you how happy I was to go shopping. We had one last gift-card to Target remaining from our wedding gifts and it had to be used. I was so excited I had Daniel take a picture of me after we went shopping.

We drove over to Coronado Island, took several more pictures and ended up spending the afternoon and evening walking around the Navy base and the historic section of the island. We had a wonderful time window shopping and walking around even though it was chilly. Cold for me is now anywhere in the 50s. I have gotten used to warm island weather and it was crazy having goose-bumps after five months of perfect weather. I didn't pack warm enough for the evenings so I was clinging to Daniel to stay warm when we walked.

Sunday morning we woke up at 4:30 to drive north 2.5 hours to go to Grace Community Church, the church Daniel's family attended when they lived in California. We got there a little early and we ended up driving by Daniel's old house and seeing his elementary school. I enjoyed Daniel's stories of growing up there for three years before returning to Missouri. We were able to see two couples Daniel and his family knew and it was great meeting them both.

After church we drove back down south to go to the main reason we were in California, Dan and Mandy's wedding. The wedding was held at this Conference Center right on the harbor. It was a lovely setting with perfect weather to compliment the day. Of course the bride and groom were so beautiful and handsome. Here they are after the pronouncement. Daniel got to know both of them very well in Okinawa. They were both so glad we were able to make it out to the wedding. It was such a joy meeting them both. I loved getting to see the people that Daniel grew so close to in the year he lived in Japan.

At the reception, we sat with Kevin and Becca, another couple Daniel got to know in Okinawa. Here is a picture of the Okinawa group, minus the groom. He was busy at that moment. From the left, Daniel, Bonnie, Mandy, Becca and Kevin. We had a such a good time. It felt like I had know these people as long as Daniel had and it was like instant friendship.

During the wedding reception, we ran to the airport, picked up another friend, John, from Oki and brought him back to the wedding just in time to say goodbye to the newly-weds. His flight had been delayed several times and he wasn't able to make any of the wedding. He had gotten very close with Daniel in Oki and it was so much fun to hear stories of their year there.

Here we are, finally getting some dancing in after a long time without dancing together...

We shuttled Bonnie, John, Kevin and Becca around after the wedding and ended up hanging out at Denny's until midnight. It was so much fun just sharing stories and sharing some life with everyone. I was delighted to spend the time with them.

Monday morning we flew out early and we were zombies the entire trip back. After the past three nights of minimal sleep and then flying on a plane for several hours, we were about to crash. Jen picked us up at the airport and we came home and slept.

Daniel returned to work today and he is on duty this evening. That is why I am typing up this incredibly long blog right now instead of during the day when he is gone. Amaya is going to come over in just a few minutes to hang out for a bit. She has had a long day and she just wants to hang out for a while.

I better close this for the evening. Thanks for reading this long update. Love to Everyone!

End of South Pacific

2005-11-07T13:36:00.000-10:00

Well, here I am only after a few days. I just wanted to wrap up the South Pacific entries. We ended the show with a tearful afternoon. I was not planning on crying but the events led to it.

The show went well. People were hamming it up of course because it was the last time. All in all it was a lot of fun, but every show was a good amount of fun. After we did the normal cast call though the assistant director got a microphone and recognized all the "behind-the-scenes" people. They gave everyone leis and they gave me a bouquet of roses. That's when the tears started. When he called the director up, Mr. Bright proceeded to thank everyone then turned around and started talking about me in front of the whole audience! He then brought Daniel up to the stage and started talking about him. Of course I was crying more. They gave Daniel a lei as well and talked about him being the "real" military and how we all needed to keep him and his fellow military men in our prayers. Daniel had been helping sell t-shirts in the lobby so he had to be pulled in from the lobby. He was just as surprised as I was.

By the time the curtain actually came down everyone was on stage with lots of flowers. I have never been a part of a theatre that appreciated all the work it took to put the show on as this theatre did. The orchestra and even the spotlighters were brought out and thanked. It was so encouraging and really great to be a part of.

I am thankful it is over(it was along run), but it was the best thing I could have done to meet wonderful people and sing at the same time. I met so many local actors, musicians, and just super talented people. I look forward to doing another show and hopefully with some of the same people.

These are just a few pics from backstage. You can see Daniel in the center picture. He is in the very back in the green polo. Thats my man!

After the show there was a lot of cleaning up to do. We cleaned backstage, started taking apart sets, put costumes away and organized the food everyone brought for the potluck. (We brought Pinkies. They are a hit with the entire cast and I brought them a few weeks into the performances and everyone wanted them again.) The last cast party was bittersweet. I know I won't see some of the people I spent so much time for a while, but I going to make an effort to see most of them. We already have some things planned for later in November.

I just had to show this metal vintage poster I found for Daniel. It is so fitting because the mountain in the background is Diamond Head, here on Oahu. It looks like the lady is on Waikiki beach. I just loved it and it looks good in our computer room with his Marine stuff.

Well, I am going to head out and run a few errands. We are running low on milk and that just can't happen in this household. We drink too much milk! ;)

Love Ya'll!

Entirely Too Long

2005-11-05T13:28:00.000-10:00

I have been neglecting the blog for quite some time. I apologize for not updating more frequently especially with so many things happening. It has been two weeks since I last updated.

Daniel is home safe. He got back from California on Tuesday the 25th around 10:30. The next few days were busy for him because he was in one of the first groups sent back here. He was driving back and forth from the airport making sure all the other men got back and organized. I did not see much of him in those first few days home. Fortunately, on Wednesday evening Lauren, Kris, Daniel and I were able to go out to eat at a local restaurant. I was very happy to finally have him home and to spend time the four of us not just L&K and I.

We didn't get a picture of all four of us in front of the restau but here is one of L and I posing being silly.

For all the details of L&K's visit, check out Lauren's blog. She did a very thorough job of documenting what we did and it would take entirely too long for me to do the same on here.
http://www.lollygirl.com/blog We had a great time!

They left on Friday the 28th and I wasn't able to see them off at the airport. I was already full swing into my fourth weekend of the show. Daniel was able to take them to the airport and surprise me by showing up backstage to watch the rest of the show. Everyone was happy to see him and meet him if they weren't able to before he left. The director, Mr. B, has been so kind to us. He is very supportive of Daniel in everything he does as a Marine and he just loves talking with him. He told us that Daniel would never have to pay for a ticket. Daniel was getting special treatment, which he deserved, but we didn't want to look like we felt we deserved it at all. Daniel paid for a ticket one night, Saturday, but he still wanted to come to every other performance. I have been keeping an ear open and no one seems to think he shouldn't be getting in for free. No one else has a family member that has come every night so I guess they see that it would really add up if he had to pay every night.

After the matinee on Sunday, the director's wife threw a cast party. It was a great afternoon to just relax after the long weekend and for people to get to know Daniel. After eating and chatting people joined around the piano and just started singing whatever they knew. It was a really relaxed and fun environment. I am so happy to have gotten to know these folks. Good People!

Thankfully, Monday and Tuesday Daniel had off of work. They were excellent days for Daniel to catch up on his sleep. (One night the week before, he came home at 4am.) We did yard work on Monday and then had a fun Halloween evening with guests. Josh, Everett's old USNA roommate was in town for a couple weeks so we had him over for dinner as well as Amanda, a friend of mine. Amanda's husband is out of town for some training so we had her and her daughter come over to have dinner and pass out candy. Rhiannon is the little girl. She is ten months old and so much fun. Amanda has her in a pumpkin suit. Daniel took this picture and unfortunately it didn't show the entire outfit. It was too cute!

Amanda left around 8:30 or so and Josh stayed later. It was really good to spend some time with him. We sat around and chatted, looked at some pictures from the Academy days and basically had a great evening.

Tuesday we went to a promotion ceremony/party. It was a very quick process. The ceremony was on his back porch and while the promotion was read the Marines stood at attention. It only lasted about 5 minutes and the rest of the afternoon was spent telling stories, joking, and just relaxing. It was a good opportunity for me to meet some of the men Daniel works with learn more about Marine life.

Wednesday morning Daniel returned to work. He was busy with a court marshall that he was assigned to. I went to a new Bible Study. My friend Jen mentioned this study and I thought it was a great idea, not only was it an excellent study but I also have the opportunity to meet more Christ-following military wives. The study meets at the base chapel, about 2 minutes from our house, and it is another Beth Moore study. I have been learning so much from my Monday night Beth Moore study, I couldn't say no to another one. As soon as I went in the ladies introduced themselves and made me feel comfortable. I do not usually have a hard time talking with new people but it is nice to feel the warmth from them first. I look forward to several more weeks with these ladies.

Wednesday afternoon I returned to my AWANA duties. I had missed the kids from the week before. I didn't make the week before due to L&K's visit. When I got back I had to catch up on all the kids had done. I am assigned three boys. They are all as different as kids can be. One of the boys is an ace at memorization. He usually does 3 to 5 sections a week, which means memorizing that many verses or more and doing activities as well. He is very disciplined with his books. Part of that probably comes from his family, he is the son of a Marine Captain. One of my other boys is a Hawaiian boy who usually does a section a week. He is quiet, patient and very sweet. I just learned this week that he is still learning to read English. He is 7 but was raised reading Hawaiian. One section a week is great for a new English reader. The last of my assigned boys is so funny. His favorite thing to say is "...excuse me..." and he continues to interrupt me while I am talking to him. He usually forgets which section he has to work on and he flips ahead in his book and works on what looks fun. I write little notes each week to his parents to encourage him to stay on track. He is a kind boy, dedicated but just distracted. He has it in him to do well, he just gets worked up. I enjoy working with each of them. I usually have other kids as well though whenever another leader is not able to make it. I have gotten to know quite a few kids. I am also the new song-leader. Apparently when the old leader found out I sang, she volunteered me for the job. I don't' mind at all. I just had to review all the old songs. I just love working with AWANA.

This is our last weekend of the show and I am happy about it. It has been a great run, but a month is a long time and I am ready for a change. We have some friend's coming to the show tonight so it will be fun to meet up with them afterward. Here is a picture of us for the curtain call. It shows some of the awesome scenery and sets for the show, but it mostly shows the giant cast. (I am wearing the white nurse uniform on the front row.)

Daniel is working on the Acrua today at the DIY auto-shop. He is taking longer than I thought he would and I wish he could come home already. :-(

We go to San Diego next weekend after the Marine Corp Birthday Ball on Thursday night. Daniel has two friends from Japan getting married and we are excited to go out there for the wedding. Daniel has Thursday off work so it will be another short work week for him. I am getting excited about the ball. I finally found a dress I like for a good price. Daniel likes it and that is all that really mattered anyways.

I am going to end this incredibly long entry and I hope it will not be another 2 weeks before I write again. Blessings!

Already a wonderful visit!

2005-10-22T09:31:00.000-10:00

Here we are on the second full day and it has already been a wonderful visit. Lauren and Kris arrived on Thursday afternoon and even after their long flight they had a lot of energy. It was short lived though. They both were dragging after dinner. They had woken up at 4 am to leave their house to make it to the airport on time. It had been a long day for them. They are slowly acclimating to the time change. We took Thursday night easy. We just walked to the beach and watched the giant waves rolling in the dark. We hit the sack shortly after the walk.

Friday morning started with Alex, a childhood friend of Kris', coming over and spending the day with us. Alex is on his way to Guam. He is a Navy pilot and we were all excited to see him. He went to high school with Lauren and I so we knew him as well. We ended up going to the local botanical gardens and walking around for a couple hours. It was really beautiful and a great morning to be out and about. After lunch, Kris and Alex went surfing while Lauren and I did grocery shopping for the week. Kris seemed to enjoy surfing, but he doesn't think he'll go again. The waves are getting a little too rough this time of year for beginners. I am not even thinking about tackling them. I like to watch though.

We came back home relaxed for a while and I had to get ready to go to the Friday performance of South Pacific. Unfortunately I did not get to go to Waikiki with them. Alex took them to a restaurant downtown and showed them around a little. I was very thankful he was able to take them around since I wasn't going to be able to spend the evening with them. They had a great time at Duke's, a casual beach-side hang-out.

Alex stayed the night and just left this morning. L&K and I are planning on some exploring today. I want them to see more of the island so I have to get off this computer and go. Just wanted to make a quick entry. I will post pictures next time.

Hope you are all well!

Big Week

2005-10-17T22:09:00.000-10:00

It is finally the big week. I have been looking forward to this week for quite some time. Lauren and Kris are coming and with their visit, Daniel returns. I can't believe it is so close now. I am so excited to show them the island and just to see family.

I have been missing family a lot lately especially with everyone starting to talk about the holidays. It will be my first Christmas away from my parent's and my sisters. I am excited yet sad at the same time. Daniel and I get to start our own family traditions and share the time together yet, it will be bittersweet with him leaving so quickly after Christmas for another deployment. Thankfully, I have my parent's visit in late January to keep my spirits up. I miss them a lot. Unfortunately, my sister Sarah doesn't have a visit scheduled yet and I am missing out on seeing her go through her first year of college. It is such a big time for her and I am so proud of all she is doing. I love you all!

Okay, enough of the missing people stuff. I am starting to get teary. Thankfully, I have good friends here on the island already that can relate to my feelings. Amaya and I have decided to make a point to be there for each other during the rough times. I really appreciate her friendship. Another friend Jen and I can spend a good amount of time together since neither of us works, and we have several things in common. I met Jen during my Key Volunteer training and we have been getting to know each other since. She is already the type of friend to just call up and have come over for a few hours just to chat or doing something crafty with.

We both like cross-stitching and tomorrow we are going to go shopping for Christmas crafts. I am looking forward to it. I realized that Daniel and I have nothing festive for the holidays and I need to get cracking to make it a special time for us. Besides I love making Christmas ornaments and thinking of decorations. I have since I was young. One of my favorite things to do around Christmas was to look through the yearly Spirit of Christmas craft books my mom would get for the holidays and pick cross-stich patterns out that I wanted to finish for Christmas. Sometimes they would get done, sometimes not, but at least I got into the crafty spirit. :) I am excited about tomorrow.

Tonight was my Women's Bible Study. I am just loving this Beth Moore study called, The Patriarchs. Women, if you ever have the opportunity to do one of her studies please do it. They are really great. I just love the way Jesus and His coming is so evident even in the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The covenant made with them was such a beautiful and amazing thing. I also find that her 5 days a week structure keeps me on the ball and looking forward to the weekly time with the ladies. I am very blessed by it.

Well, I am going to leave you with a picture of Meli. She is just as sweet as ever and doing a great job of keeping me company. She is doing her job so well that I have to close part of the house with her in it at night so I can get some sleep. She loves to nestle in my neck and sleep, of course for only 20 minutes at a time, if that. Then she shifts and wakes me up. I decided I didn't want to get in the habit of waking up with kitten every 20 minutes, no matter how cute she is, and I know Daniel wouldn't like that either. This is her second favorite place to sleep (after my neck) between the cushions of our soft love seat. She just stretches out like she owns the place. I love it!

Goodnight All!

Week with No Rehearsals

2005-10-15T10:31:00.000-10:00

One would think that because I didn't have rehearsal this week I would have updated on the blog sooner. Sorry for my laziness. I have quite a few things this week I am excited to share.

First of all, Daniel is doing well. Luckily, Thursday evening of his birthday they were having a little party for the officers and Staff NCOs. Apparently they were celebrating a certain part of training that ended. I was glad he was able to relax for some part of his day. He seemed to be thankful for not having to work that evening.
He is ready to be home as well. We are both counting down the days and looking forward to the two months we have together before he is off again. His cellphone coverage remains to be bad so we communicate mostly through email. He did say when he was able to check his voicemails that he was happy to hear all the loving birthday messages from family. So thank you for calling him on that day even though you didn't get to chat with him. It made the day special.

After the weekend of shows, I rested up and I decided that I had to tackle the yard. Our lawn had grown quite long since Daniel left and I want it to look nice for Lolly and Kris's visit as well as keep the street looking nice. So this meant that I had to mow for the first time in my life. Military bases are a wonderful thing. There is a place called self-help on base that you can go and borrow all kinds of household up-keep items. They have mowers, drills, paint pans, weed-wackers, well just about everything you could need to keep the base housing look good. The best part about it is borrowing means completely free!

So I made my way over on Tuesday to borrow a mower. I had asked several questions of my Dad, the one who never let me mow; he enjoyed it too much. I felt pretty confident about the mowing job. I started and got the hang of it quickly. We have a couple difficult slopes on our side yard so I had to tug and push quite a bit, resulting in sore arm muscles the next day, but the lawn was mowed!

I realized around noon that I needed to edge the sides as well because we had weeds that were starting to crawl over the sidewalk and driveway. They looked quite bad. So I returned the mower that day and decided to weed-wack the next day. I am a weakling when it comes to doing work in the hot sun. I get bad headaches so I thought it was best to tackle the rest of the yard work the next day. I was already getting a headache by that point.

Tuesday evening I had Amaya over for dinner. We decided that we do not cook good food when our husbands are gone. (I have been eating salads and sandwiches due to my laziness in the evenings.) We are going to trade off some nights in the week to fix food at each others house so we can try new recipes and we are at least preparing for two. Tuesday night we had breakfast for dinner and I was able to use our waffle iron for the first time. Blueberry waffles...mmm.

Wednesday I wrapped up the yard work with weed-wacking and pruning the crazy ti bush in the front yard that was trying to hide our front door. In the afternoon I had AWANA. I was glad to be back with the kids. I had missed the week before due to rehearsals. I love hearing their progress and encouraging them in their memorization. After AWANA I went home ate dinner(leftovers) and went to see Wallace and Gromit, the movie, with some friends from the musical. It was a cute film. It had to have taken countless hours; it is all claymation.

Thursday started with a nice visit with Justin, Diane and Hailey stopping by the house for a little over an hour. It was great to be able to chat with them and hear about their stay in Hawaii. We all enjoyed playing with Meli and we made sure to get a picture of us before they left.

Thursday evening I went over to Amaya's for dinner. We made Thai food. We have a great picture of us making it in her kitchen. We enjoyed ourselves and I learned a new recipe.

I had a Key Volunteer meeting after dinner with Amaya. I was glad to be able to go to it because originally I was supposed to have rehearsal that evening but our director canceled it due to the excellent opening weekend. The meeting was great because I was able to meet a new wife that Amaya knows. Her husband is in 1/3 with Daniel. If that made any sense, basically we are going to be KVs together and she is a fun person to spend time with.

Friday morning Amaya, Jo ( the woman I had met at KVs) and I went shopping in Honolulu for Marine Corps Birthday Ball gowns. I am still searching for the right dress. I tried on about 50 dresses. It was exhausting but very fun. We went to several sweet boutiques and everything was ridiculously expensive. I am used to shopping for formal wear and getting great discounts. My Momma and I always found deals in Maryland for dance wear and all my formal recitals. I just have to keep looking. Despite the fact that I am a bargain hunter and we exhausted our time that day looking for a dress for me, we had a wonderful time! It is always great spending time with Amaya and getting to know Jo better was so much fun. Of course it was a beautiful day and that made it even nicer shopping.

Last night I returned to the musical life. Apparently there were two reviews that came out last week. One of them was completely negative except for a few comments about the singing and one was very pleasing. Thankfully I didn't read the negative article until after the musical. I had several people come up to me afterward in the lobby telling me the article was wrong, so I had to go and read it. Indeed it was negative about every person. The reviewer bashed my acting, he bashed the dance choreography, the energy of the show, and several voice of the leads. He must have been having a crummy day. The performance he came to was our best and he just may have fallen asleep or something. We have a great show going! The other review, like I said, had only positive things to say. He said we all were blessed with above-average singing capablilities, the acting was believable and the entire show was entertaining. It was funny to read such completely opposite reviews. Now we just have to prove the negative guy wrong in every show!

Here is a quick picture from last night's show. I am wearing my favorite costume. We have so much fun backstage! This is Tina and Lydia. They are ridiculously helpful backstage. I have one break, a matter of three scenes, where I have to change costumes, dry my incredibly wet hair, try to make it look decent, and get back on stage in party attire. It is a rush. Usually they both have hair dryers on my head while I am dressing. It is crazy! They are both dolls.

Here I am on Saturday morning looking forward to finishing the weekend and welcoming my sister and Kris on Thursday. I can't believe it is almost time for their visit. That means it is almost time for Daniel to be back. I am so excited!

Thanks for reading this whole thing if you did...

Love Ya'll!

Opening Weekend

2005-10-09T19:38:00.000-10:00

Well, this weekend has been very eventful. I am thankful it is over. Now that we have started the musical and gotten some of the bugs out with the sound the run should go smoothly.

I was delighted to have Amaya and her friend come on Friday evening to the musical. I have a wonderful picture she took that night. Unfortunately she wasn't feeling so good that evening. They had spent most of the day in the sun, but the picture still came out wonderful.
I am still in my nurse costume that I wear as the end of the musical, and several dear people gave me leis, including Amaya. They smell so amazing. You never want to take them off.

As I alluded to, we had problems with the microphones the first two performances. It was never anything terrible just a few scratches and light pops. Today for the matinee it was perfect. The audience was receptive to everything, the humor and the tears. At one point in the musical when the audience just finds out a character dies, there were audible sighs and gasps. I love it when people really get into the show they are watching. I always do, so it is nice to put on a show good enough to get lost in.

My favorite thing about the weekend was my husband's way of saying "break a leg". When I got into the dressing room for the opening night, these were waiting for me. I was so happy I started crying in front of the girls in the dressing room. Of course it was a big girly time. There were plenty of AWWWWs and "that is soo sweet". So I called him up right then and had all the girls yell Mahalo on the phone. The card said "break a leg" to the entire cast. Daniel has a nice voicemail waiting for him. :) Thank you husband!

A highlight of today was seeing Diane B.(no last names here...) at the show. (For all my MD fam and friends, Diane is Daniels cousin.) She came with a friend that lives on the island, and she is only staying for a week. I was so happy and flattered that she decided to come to the show. It was a joy to chat with her for a while after the show. I feel so stupid for not getting a picture. I hope she calls me up this week to just say hello or meet up sometime. I would love it!

Well, I am going to read a little then go to bed. It has been a long day. I went to the early service at church today. I am so happy I did. The pastor was on fire today. Every word he spoke was so full of truth and love. I was very encouraged by the message and the entire worship time. I am truly blessed in this church...

Much Love!

Opening Night

2005-10-07T12:53:00.000-10:00

It has been over a week since I last wrote. A lot has happened since then.

Daniel has called several times. The place he is now has good cell phone coverage and he is basically delivering supplies for guys in training so he has a few breaks to give me a quick call. It is nice to be able to chat with him even briefly. It feels more normal. He is healthy, busy, and looking forward to coming home. I like to hear that he is all three of those things because it will make the time pass quickly. I know I am beyond ready for him to come home.

This last week has been filled with rehearsal every night. I usually leave the house at 4:45 to get to the theatre on time for notes, make-up, costume organization and all the other prep stuff. I like to be early so that things aren't rushed come time for the show to start. Any little thing can get me worked up and my butterflies rumbling in my tummy. Of course those happen anyways, but when they happen an hour before curtain is up I have a hard time calming down.

This week has been a beautiful week, We have only had passing storms and I was able to make it to the beach one morning. I walked all of 4 minutes up our street to this...

This is the beach on base. I hung out at the rocky part because I didn't do much swimming. Further up the beach is where most people swim. It was about 9:30 when I took this picture and I just felt like reading in the morning sun. It was an amazingly clear day and just windy enough to cover everything I had in sand. I was glad I walked to the beach because it would have taken me forever to get the sand off of me to get into the car. Daniel started off being very particular about the car getting sandy and now I am just as particular. It is annoying to have a sandy car...Even in Hawaii, but sometimes it can't be helped. It doesn't ruin the beach experience though.

So basically, all the people coming to visit in the next few months have amazing places to go even in walking distance of our home.

This is another beach I visited with my friend last week. It was voted best beach in the world in 2000. It is about 10 minutes from base and a beautiful drive at that. This beach is known for its sea turtles. We saw about 10 in the hour and a half I was there and we weren't even looking that hard. This is the perfect swimming beach. It is in the Kailua Bay so it is a little warmer, very few if any rocks, and of course, turtles.

Baby cat, Meli, is doing well. She is just as playful and sweet as any kitten could be. Very rarely do I have to get after her for jumping on things or trying to bite at the shaking curtains in the breeze. She seems to understand she shouldn't do it. I am glad she is picking up on the rules quickly... Here she is with her latest toy.

I went to the thrift store yesterday with the costume manager for the show and when we walked in I saw this toy. I have a small scratching pad for Meli but this looked like fun. I asked the clerk and she said $2. I was surprised and got it right away. The pet store sells similar toys and scratching post combos for $40. I brought it home and placed it on the floor and Meli played with it for an hour and a half straight. She didn't even come running when I refilled her food bowl. I am happy she likes it so much. It saved a bunch of money and she is getting her kitty exercise.

Oh I forgot...Her name is Meli. Meli means "honey" in Hawaiian. It is Meli pronounced like the word "belly". It seemed to fit her because she is a sweet cat, not too naughty, not too lazy. Perfect for a baby cat. I am glad I finally found a name I liked. I know she will still be called baby cat as well as Meli. She is too cute.

Like the title states, it is opening night tonight. Last night we had an audience of about 150 or so. It was the Community College's way of giving the students a break. They could come see it without charge since most of them weren't going to pay $26. The tickets are ridiculously expensive, but once you see the show you understand the money has gone into costumes, scenery and props.

This is a pic of where I get to park every night for rehearsal. I had to take this the other night as I was getting out of the car. No joke. I was standing right next to the Grand Prix when I took this!The pink and orange of the setting sun behind the Ko'olau mountains was breathtaking. I still can't believe I get to see these things everyday!

The show is great and I am partial, but the things people were saying about it last night were good. There were a lot of theatre students with very critical tastes. There was some negative feedback but mostly positive. It should be a great run.

My friend Amaya is coming tonight with a girlfriend, so it will be nice to think of someone in the crowd I know. I am still meeting so many new people all the time. It is funny; last night I met someone that looked so much like friend of mine in Maryland from my church. It was rather odd. I felt like I wanted to give him a hug , but I knew it wasn't him. Sometimes when I pass someone who looks familiar I have to remind myself that I live in Hawaii now. It is an unusual feeling.

Count down until my sister and brother-in-law's visit: 13 days (Can you believe it Lolly?!)

Everyone have a splendid weekend!

Tech Week

2005-09-29T22:34:00.000-10:00

Hello Family and Friends! I just got in from rehearsal and I wanted to write a quick post.

I heard from Daniel the other day as they were headed to 29 Palms. The second half of their training is taking place there. I haven't gotten a call from him to know if his cell works there yet. I am sure he has been kept very busy with the transitioning from one setting to another. Last time I chatted with him he had a head cold though. If you could be keeping him in your prayers that would be wonderful. I hope it has not developed into anything worse.

I am so excited about him coming home at the end of October.

In the meantime the show is chugging along. Tonight's rehearsal was strictly for props, scenery and timing. We just went straight through the scenes and taped the floor where the scenery goes( that was my job) and made sure everyone was assigned props to carry in and take off stage. It was tedious but I was glad we got it out of the way. It will make the next few rehearsals before the show run so much smoother.

Here we are sitting listening to instructions for the night. The cast looks really tired. It has been a long week of rehearsals. The man with his back to the camera in the black shirt and camouflage shorts is the director. His name is Ron Bright. He is a wonderful man, and he has such energy for the show. He got us up and moving and having fun in no time...

Starting Saturday I have to be doing something South Pacific related everyday until opening night on the 7th of October. Next week is going to be long. Sunday is a run-through of costumes and then we have rehearsal with the orchestra every night until Friday. Whew!

I am going to go to bed now. I stayed up until 3 am last night reading. I need to sleep some tonight.

I will leave you with a few pictures of petite chat/little cat. I am still thinking of a name. I am thinking something Hawaiian...

This is her stretching after we watched a movie together. She is such a cuddlebug. I am thankful she is so lovey. It is nice to have someone to love on when I come home.

Night!

Kitten!

2005-09-24T17:15:00.000-10:00

It was so hard to go to rehearsal today because I had to leave this baby. She is a precious 3 month old calico, mostly black and orange. And yes, she looks alot like Phoebe. I had not planned on falling in love with one that looked like my parents cat. It just worked out that way.

I had also not planned on getting a kitty, but the adult cats at the Humaine Society that day all seemed to have health problems or running away problems. I didn't want to have a cat die early or have a cat always bolting for open doors or ruining screens, so I opted for a kitten. Of course I had no trouble falling in love with all of them. After figuring out I defintly wanted a healthy girl kitty, I found this little one.

I have not named her yet. I wanted to get to know her a little before I named her. Part of me wants to wait until Daniel gets home but something may fit before then.

Here is another pic of her without the evil eyes.
She is not photogenic yet because she moves too much and every picture is blurry. I will get some sweet ones of her sleeping sometime.

Currently though she is laying on my lap while I type. She is kneading the air since I just moved her a little and her belly is facing up. She was kneading my leg. I just love cats!

Daniel just called me on my way home from practice. He was getting ready to go on duty for the night. If you are reading this...hello love!

Well, I am going to go fix some dinner. It was along day of rehearsal and I am ready to relax with baby cat. (That is going to be her name for now...yes I am stealing that too.)

Have a great weekend!

South Pacific

2005-09-21T22:10:00.000-10:00

Well, I just got in from rehearsal. Things are coming along well. The director is able to give notes now because he isn't having to run around and stop things all the time to correct them. I am getting a lot of notes. I still have a lot of work to do and I need to learn to take the criticism with grace. Tonight he said something about my vibrato, the way the voice shakes when you hold a note, and I got a little sensitive about it. There is one little bit of music that I felt I could do a little more on but he didn't like it. Basically, musicals are not the way I was trained so sometimes I get a little huffy about it. It is just me being stupid. I didn't say anything to him about it, but I drove home with hurt feelings. I need to not take it personally.

Here is a back stage picture I took while I was getting ready to go on stage. As you can see we are still working on sets, we are not in costumes and we have no orchestra...yet. We start with the orchestra on Saturday and the costume on Sunday. So things are happening rather quickly.

I am really enjoying getting to know the cast. It has been great meeting all the new people.

Daniel called again on Monday. We got to talk for a longer time. I was very thankful. He is busy doing the same thing he always does, making sure people get where they need to be and get what they need when they get there; the logistics guy... I know that is putting what he does in a nut shell, but if he tells me more he'd have to kill me....haha yeah right. I am glad his job is not secretive.

I am planning a trip to the Humane Society on Friday with my friend Amaya. We are in search of cats. We have both been talking about doing it for so long. I finally called her up and said lets go this Friday. We have it set up and we are ready. I may have a picture of an adorable cat to put up next time I blog. I hope so. I saw a cat today when I was driving in a neighborhood. I just love them! I get all silly around them and want to purr and chat with them. I like dogs too but my heart goes out to just about any and every cat. I am excited!

More exciting news! I became an AWANA Leader today. Yes indeed, AWANA, Approved Workmen are not Ashamed. One of the best programs in churches for children ever. If you have not heard of it, it is a scout-like program for children in kindergarten and grade school to memorize Bible verses, learn Bible stories and basically learn more about the Bible. Today I helped a little girl memorize the books of the Bible and a little boy memorize1 Peter 5:7. If you are thinking about having children, you already have them or know people with kids, find this program in a church. Looking back on my childhood, this is one of the best things I ever spent time on. It is better than all my music studies combined(even though I highly recommed that for kids too!) You learn so much about the Bible and the best part is, you remember it! The knowledge gained is priceless. Anyways, I will stop ranting about it.

So you can see why I am excited about being a leader. I was able to connect with the kids today. Some of them even looked for me at the end to introduce to their parents. I was delighted. Another beautiful thing about the program is that I still know all the songs we learned. I was singing along with the kids during the learning time. I loved it. Over the years they have not tried to update the songs just because they are old. They are poignant and easy for children to learn. Every Wednesday at 3:15 I will be at Faith Baptist with the kids. I look forward to it.

Well, I am going to go read some before I hit the sack. Thanks for reading this is you did. I kind of went off there for a little while...

Much Love!

Babies, Babies Everywhere...Not yet though

2005-09-18T21:57:00.000-10:00

Well, this week I found out that three couples Daniel and I know are pregnant! Very exciting news. It is funny it all came within this week. Just a sidenote to everyone, Daniel and I are not planning for one for quite a while. Everytime I start talking about babies and friends expecting, people start teasing and asking when we are going to try for one. Not for a while, I need to know Daniel as husband before father to our children.

Congratulations! I am not going to name who because it should be their joy to share the news. I am going to take one of the ladies to the doctor tomorrow morning for her appointment. Her husband is going to be on the range all week, much like Daniel was a few weeks ago. Being on the range is where they shoot all week to qualify for certain badges for the year as marksmen or sharpshooters. Anyways, he is not able to take her to the appointment. I am so glad to be able to help. I get to take care of her baby girl as she sees the doctor. He daughter is precious! I am looking forward to helping out...

Daniel called on Friday. He is doing well. He doesn't have a phone signal in California, wherever they are. We didn't get to talk long, unfortunately. That has been the hardest thing so far, not hearing how he is and sharing every bit of news I have with him. I leave him voicemails whenever I think of something I don't want to forget to tell him. He is going to have several by the time he has cell phone reception again. Ah well, at least we are somewhat communicating.

I just got back from the airport. Another couple, not expecting, just got back from their honeymoon. It was a little delayed since they got married over a year ago, but like so many military couples they were not able to have a honeymoon right after the wedding. They finally found the time and went to a neighboring island for a week. They had a wonderful time. I missed chatting with the wife though...I am glad they are back.

Rehearsals are chugging along. Everyone is "off-book" or not using their script anymore. It is much nicer not having to lug the script around anymore, but occasionally I go blank on my lines. Thankfully I have three weeks left to perfect them. I am doing better than I thought I would. I have always had a hard time with memorization. I think all the rehearsals have been good for me in many ways; keeping my mind off Daniel, helping with memorizing, and getting to know the cast really well.

I went to Guys and Dolls, another musical, last night with some of the cast and the funniest thing happened...well it wasn't funny while it was happening. I was sitting next to a guy who was double-casted for the show we were watching. Basically it means the next weekend the show was playing, he was going to be performing one of the roles. ANYWAYS, the entire first act of the show he recited every line along with the guy on stage he was going to play. As if that wasn't enough, he started singing along with him. I was in awe of his behavior. He was loud. I had decided that by intermission I was going to kindly ask him to not speak the lines aloud and to please not sing because I had never seen this particular show. Thankfully he moved to another seat during intermission and I did not have to ask him to be quiet or deal with him the second act. I felt bad for whoever had to sit next to him for the remainder for the show. It was definitely an interesting evening. The ladies I went with said my faces were so memorable. Just when I thought the guy was done saying every word, he would keep going... We laughed about it in the car on the way home...

So the islands are supposed to be having three big storms coming in this next week. Hopefully none of them become hurricanes. Our home is in the tidal wave safety zone thankfully, but some of our friends' homes are not. They have teased that they are going to move in with us...

Speaking of the home, I took a few pics tonight.

Here is our family room. Daniel and I got the loveseat during a Labor Day sale at the Navy Exchange. We got the table at another sale at the Air Force Exchange. I tell you what, the benefits of military shopping are wonderful! I was so happy about the curtains. They are really nice and we found them at good ol' Walmart. I love that those stores have started carrying nice home stuff. We found the rug at Home Depot...and once everything got in the room it all worked. We are very happy with it all and everything is so nice and comfy...big plus for curling up and reading under a blanket.

Here is our breakfast room and kitchen. It is a little cluttered now, sorry. I write everything down to help me remember and all my notes from random places were collecting on the bar. I was also washing dishes. The house didn't have a washer installed but you can request one. We did, and in order to run it it must be rolled over to the sink and plugged in. It really isn't a big hassle. Standing for hours on the hard floor washing dishes can be a pain on the feet and back, which is the hassle. I am thankful for the size of the kitchen. I like to spend time in there...

Here is our guest room. We still need to hang some things on the walls to make it feel a little homier. I have some wall-hangings I got from Azerbaijan I just need to figure out how to hang them. This is where our family members will stay when they visit. I am so excited about the up-coming visits. My sister and brother-in-law will be here in a little less than 5 weeks. Woohoo!

Well, I am going to close out now. I need to get in the habit of writing on here again. Not having it while we were moving made me forget how much I like writing on here. It is such a good way to remember what our life on the island has been like so far as well as keep ya'll informed. It is like my public diary...ha!

Love to Everyone!

Back online

2005-09-15T09:21:00.000-10:00

Hello dear family and friends!

We are back online and I am happier than ever. I was missing the ability to read my news online, email, and of course, update the blog.

Daniel is gone now and I am trying to keep busy. This week has been a successful one. I have stayed busy with rehearsals, KV activities and spending time with other wives. I have already been blessed by knowing these ladies and I am just getting to know them. I hope the next few weeks I can stay just as busy to not meditate on Daniel being gone.

It is incredible that we spent so much time apart before we were married. I am in awe of how things change after marriage. Granted we have only been married for a little over 3 months now, but I miss him more than before when I didn't see him for a year. I do understand the reasons why it just still amazes me how a person can start to fully depend and be so focused on one person in such a short time. It is a good thing to learn about this early. I consider this month and a half of us being apart practice for when he gets deployed. I am using the time to find ways to keep myself busy during that time as well.

Enough about him being gone. I can't dwell on it...

We are in the house on base and I am loving it more and more everyday. My hibiscus started blooming yesterday. I was so happy. When the last family moved out the housing maintenance people on base cut the bushes back so far that I was worried it would take months to see another bloom. Hawaiian weather proved me wrong. They are a pretty sturdy plant out here.

I plan to post some pictures of the house but I am heading out the door to meet a friend for brunch. Her husband is gone as well right now so we are keeping each other company... It is a wonderful thing to have that community so quickly.

I will post a recent picture of Daniel surfing. Like many other athletic things he picked this up quickly. He caught this wave and rode it for along time. I am so proud...My surfer boy!

Thank you to everyone who called to check up on me. I appreciate your thoughts.

Much Love!

NO Internet

2005-09-08T09:53:00.000-10:00

Hello. I am currently in an internet post on base. I needed to check email and see the blog. I can't take long because they charge by the minute. I just wanted to say that we are settled in our new home and we are loving it. I will post pictures as soon as I can. We won't have internet until after the 14th of September.

Daniel is getting ready to leave soon. I am having mixed emotions... I am going to miss him terribly but I need to be strong. Its the job of a Marine wife.

We love you all so much. Take care...

Two nights left...

2005-08-31T08:05:00.000-10:00

Well, we have a house on base. Daniel and I went in Monday morning to the housing office and denied the first offer given to us on base. There were several reasons why we turned it down and it appears to have been the right thing to do. We were immediately offered another home with more space and a better location. It is a sweet three bedroom home with two baths, a large living area and plenty of storage for all of our things. The best thing about it is, it is ready to move into. Daniel meets with the maintenance man today to go over all the details of the home and we get the keys afterward. We can start moving our stuff in this afternoon. Daniel scheduled the movers to come to our apartment on Friday so we only have two more nights left in this apartment.

I can't believe this is all happening so quickly. I am thankful though because I would have to do it alone if we had to move in a few weeks. I am just in awe of how things move around here with the military.

We are currently trying to find someone to rent the apartment. Our landlady says she has never had a problem renting out the places here. The apartments are so nice and people are always in need of a place to live in this housing market. Daniel went to the Lodge on base last night, where the new families moving to HI stay temporarily, and told several people about the apartment. It was his proactive way of not having to pay the rest of September's rent. We hope to find someone to move in quickly. With military life it is very likely we will find someone who needs a home now.

I am headed out the door to Key Volunteer training. This is my second day of training. Key Volunteers, or KVs, is a program that spouses of military workers volunteer for to be the main communication between the command and the spouses of the military people. Basically, during deployment and other times I call people to let them know the real information about their husbands and families rather than always having to watch the biased news. I also have the opportunity to point women in direction of help with knowledge of all the Corps family programs. I am training to know as much as I can about base so I can be a source of info for other ladies. I know I wish I had met a KV when we first moved here to help with the transition process. I hope to be of help to new wives and families new to the island.

I am excited about this opportunity. It is right up my alley. I love meeting new people!

I will write more about our home transition and I will update when we are in. For now I leave you with the lousy pics I took of the home. I should have tried to get the car out of the pic but I was hot and hungry. I took this before lunch...

Here is Daniel getting ready to measure, or at least looking like he is...

Here is a shot of the backyard. I can't tell you how happy I am to have a yard. I didn't think I would miss it that much but I am looking forward to watering it and maybe even planting a small garden. My parents have such green thumbs I need to live up to that.

I hope to post more pictures later. Love ya'll and have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend!

Early Morning

2005-08-26T12:20:00.000-10:00

Daniel went on a 12 mile hump this morning with his battalion. We woke up at 2:30am after going to bed at 10:30...too late. He got his gear on and here he is heading out the door. While I was at rehearsal last night he organized everything so he didn't have to do it this morning. I made a big breakfast for him so he wouldn't get too hungry. It worked well. He only needed one energy bar. That was my small victory of the morning...

He got back to the apartment around 9am. He came in one sweaty heap. He immediately asked for the scale to see how much he was carrying on his back. The gear weighed about 70 pounds. I can't imagine hiking up hills and walking in sand for 12 miles with that weight. He did it though! He even felt good about it. He never fell back. I am quite proud. He is resting now before he has to go back to work.

We are contemplating moving on base. We found out today we have an offer for a home on base so we drove over and looked at it after Daniel got back this morning. (He wanted to go...I wanted him to rest.) It is a very sweet two-bedroom home with a beautiful yard and good sized rooms. We are still thinking about it. It is a big decision and if we make it soon enough, we can move in next week. It is a very quick process. The housing people want to get people in and out quickly.

There are many pros to living on base, yet our apartment now is very nice. We are getting adjusted to it still and it would be a big transition to move again. Please keep us in your prayers about this decision.

I am going to go wake up the sleeping hubby and send him off to work tired. I wish he could sleep longer, but he will get his rest tonight.

Love Ya'll!

My baby sister is at college...

2005-08-24T22:52:00.000-10:00

Sarah had her first day of college classes today. I can't believe she is at school. I know she is a very mature and capable lady and she will flourish in the college environment, but I just can't imagine her at college. She is studying at Campbell University in North Carolina. From what I hear it is a great school and she is already raving about how perfect it is for her. Mom and Dad seem to like it too. I look forward to the day when I can visit her at school and see how she is growing into a wonderful young adult. Life changes so much during college, sister. Take your time and enjoy it!

Here she is looking about 25 years old. Don't take advantage of how old you look, missy! :)

Things are going great here in Kaneohe. Daniel is keeping very busy with work. Almost every day is packed with meetings and all kinds of planning for upcoming excerises. He is leaving in September for an exercise in California and should be back for the last few days of Lauren and Kris' visit here to HI. I know that month and half will be rough, but it is only a short time before he leaves again. Hopefully that time will fly by.

The end of Katy's visit was wonderful. We finished the week with a luau and then Daniel took Katy surfing on Saturday before she flew out that night. Unfortunatly I was in rehearsal most od the day so I missed most of the fun. The waves were rough and I didn't even want to swim in them by the time I met up with KT and Daniel. They were giving it their all... I think they had fun too, and we wore Katy out on her last day here. She did get some sleep on the plane though.

That can be our promise to everyone if they visit. We will wear you out and you will sleep well on the plane ride home... :)

I just got back from rehearsal for South Pacific and I am only starting to realize the magnitude of work I have to put into it. I met with the choreographer today and the dancers for the musical. I felt like such a beginner dancer around them, which I am, but by the end of the practice I felt better. I was getting most of the steps. I was thankful for my last semester class of ballet because the instructor was using all the dance terms so quickly it was good that I was fairly familiar. Tonights rehearsal was mostly singing and stage blocking (movement) so it went smoothly. I just have to work on memorizing my lines now. I might need Daniel to help me. He will have it memorized by the end too. He has such a good memory.

I will write more later but I leave you with some fun pictures from the luau. They had crafts games before the actual food was served or the hula dancers started dancing. Here is Daniel after he threw a native Hawaiian hunting spear.

Here is Katy making a braided anklet with fresh plumeria. It looked really nice on but she wouldn't let me take any pictures of her alone so I do not have her modeling it for me.

Here is a great shot of the sunset. Katy snapped this as they were pulling the pig out of the ground. At luaus they roast a whole pig underground in a hole filled with heated rocks, and burning coconut and ti leaves. When they pulled the pig out it looked disgusting, but it tasted wonderful. I know we did not eat the same pig we watched being pulled out of the ground but it was cooked the same way. It was yummy!

Katy got a little burnt from her days in the sun. She looks so tan. I was in the sun just as much yet I am still white Maryn...ah well. At least no sunburn in this photo.

Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week! Aloha!

Eventful Week

2005-08-16T11:42:00.000-10:00

Katy's visit has been wonderful. We were both just commenting on how slowly the time has been passing and we are both thankful for it. The island weather has been wonderful and we just got back from Katy jumping out of an airplane at 14000 ft. Yes, she is a crazy one and now I want to go and do it too. I wanted to go but I knew I would be terribly nervous in the small plane on the way up there. I think I am going to hold out for a time when Daniel and I can both go.

It was an hour and a half by the time we drove up and were driving away from the skydiving center. It went by very quickly. I got some great pics of Katy. Here she is strapped up and here she is in the air...

Yep, she is a brave one indeed. I can't believe I want to go now. She says it is an amazing feeling and she only had a few motion sickness problems once we got in the car. She is doing great now and it is just an hour and 20 minutes after she landed.

We have been keeping ourselves busy. Yesterday we hung out in the morning and hit a beautiful beach in the afternoon. It is on the top 5 beaches of Oahu and it is 10 minutes away from Daniel and my apartment.

Tomorrow we hit an awesome flea market and Pearl Harbor. A friend from my high school called me up as we were driving back from the skydiving place and she is on the island visiting a friend who just had knee surgery. Eva, the wonderful last-minute saber-barer for Daniel and my wedding, just graduated from USNA and is taking leave to visit her friend and Oahu. I am so excited about seeing her and spending the day with the ladies. It will be a great day! Oh I will take pics. :-)

I made the musical. I got the role of Ensign Nellie Forbush. Unfortunatly the rehearsals start tonight and are all this week while Katy is visiting. I figure if we pack our days full of activity she will be tired by the end of the day and just want to chill anyways. I have my first rehearsal tonight at 6:30. I am excited. It will keep me nice and busy while Daniel is away on an exercise during September and October.

Speaking of, it looks like my man is going to be deployed again in the beginning of the year. He is happy. He will be with most of the guys he went to Iraq with. He is glad to be able to go when he decides to go as opposed to be augmented without really having much decision. I am happy he is happy and I want to make the most out of the next few months. It looks like we are going to with my sister and her husband coming out in October and then Mom and Dad Good coming out in December. Woohoo house guests!

Here are a couple pics of our adventures so far. We have been busy, like I said. We hit the Dole Plantation on Friday, snorkeling in a volcano crater on Saturday and Sunday visiting a sandbar on boat in the Kaneohe Bay.

Dole Plantation from the train tour!

Daniel and Marc pulling the boat in further to the sandbar. We were in the middle of the bay and the water is so much fun to snorkel in.

We went with 3 couples and the boat was full. It was a great day and the evening cooled off when we were on the boat so it was really nice.

Well enough about the water.

I am going to make some lunch and rest for a bit. It was an early morning. Thanks for reading!

KATY IS HERE!!

2005-08-13T07:23:00.000-10:00

We are going snorkeling today and yesterday we went to the Dole plantation and Sunset beach. I will post pictures and other info when we have a little more free time.

Katy got here safely and the week is going to be great.

I made the musical. I don't know what role it is but I will find out tomorrow at the first meeting. I will write more about that later.

Take Care!

Our house is becoming a home...

2005-08-10T10:55:00.000-10:00

Hello dear friends and family. I have not written in a while. I do apologize for not getting back about Daniel's week on the range.

His rifle qualifications did not go as well as he would have liked. He ended up getting marksmen. It was a terribly windy day and he had little sleep. I think I put too much sunscreen on his head too, he said it was dripping in his eyes. Of course he won't complain about all these factors but I know it made it a lot more difficult in the long-run. I am still proud of him. He shot well all week long and had a rough day on the qual day for rifle only...

Here are some pics of the apartment. It is still cluttery and I did not take pics of everything. We are still organizing the odds and ends and we need one more bookcase because with Daniel's and I load of books, two is not enogh. Here is our room from the hallway. Yes it looks cluttered...I said that already. We are so thankful for the ability to sit and chat in these little chairs. I like the way the couch separates the room so we can have the comp and tv on one side and the table and chairs on the other.

Here is the other angle from the window. It makes the room feel bigger I think to have the separation with the little walk way...anyways. We thought we would add some Hawaiian flavor with the pineapple and coconut tree pillows. Couldn't help ourselves. We are still in the process of finding where to hang some of our bigger things for the wall. We plan on having a place on the wall for some wedding pics once we get them back. I am still organizing the other photos.

Here is a quick pic of our guest bathroom. We are so thankful to have two bathrooms as well. It makes it even easier to have people stay with us. *Hint Hint* We like the sunny yellow in there especially with the sun coming in the window behind the tub...

These two pics are of our bedroom. We are still looking for some shams we like and the dresser tops are cluttered with my make-up and jewelry. I meant to clean it up for the pics but didn't... The big window lets in a lot of good reading light. It has been nice since I have read about 10 books since we got here.

The last picture is of the bed in the guest room. That right now is the only thing picture presentable. Basically the rest is books Daniel doesn't want to get rid of from college :) and lot of typical desk organization stuff. You will just have to come and visit for the full image.

We found this cool comforter at Macy's on sale. Yes, I love that store! It is pretty much the only department store on the island. Anyways it has details like a lot of Azeri and Iranian fabrics I saw in Azerbaijan. Now Katy is going to be sleeping in it tomorrow night...We will see what she thinks of it since she just got back from Azerbaijan. I am so stoked about her visit!

Everything around here has been going well. We are still waiting and figuring out what Daniel is going to be doing within the next year, whether he will be deployed again soon or what. Patience is a huge lesson for us both. Daniel already has it...I am working on it.

Last night I auditioned for a local community theatre's production of South Pacific. The audition went well. The only problem I had really was the dance steps...I kept trying to make them more complicated and in doing so I was tripping over my own feet. I think by the time I had to do it the for the director I had it down. I could laugh at myself the whole time though. It was a lot of fun. I haven't done a musical since high school. It was funny. Lots of memories come flooding back when you have to sing, read and dance for a group of strangers. It was nice though because Daniel wanted to come to the whole audition porcess. The good guy he is, I was able to sing to him and laugh at his goofy faces and gestures whenever I messed up. He kept doing this guy from the movie Napolean Dynamite. It made me laugh so hard on stage...

Anyways they asked me to stay after and sing a couple of lines from a song in the musical so it is looking hopeful I may get a part. It would be nice to do this show because the play starts when Daniel is gone for some training in California. That way I won't be dwelling so much on his absence. I will be staying busy. I will find out either late tonight or tomorrow morning if I got the part. Oh yeah, I was trying out for Nellie, the lead nurse.

Well, I am going to run some errands. My good friend from high school is getting married this Saturday and I need to get busy. It is really strange when people around you get married. Now I know what all my college buddies felt like when I was going through the planning and wedding. It is the time of your life you always dream about up until the day the marriage starts. Not only the wedding day but spending the rest of your life with someone you love. It is a good thing. Daniel and I are loving it!

Blessings!

I almost forgot...

2005-08-03T20:52:00.000-10:00

Daniel had quals for his pistol shooting today and again came out an expert, the best possibility. The range for expert is 345 to the best 400 points and Daniel was in at 360, a clear expert! He has qualifications for rifle tomorrow. I am hoping he gets enough sleep when he is not on duty to do his best tomorrow. I am already so proud...

G'night

Wednesday Evenin

2005-08-03T20:18:00.000-10:00

Household items are here and I am not posting pictures yet because it is taking me longer than I realized it would to get the house in picture condition. Thankfully, the day of the delivery we got all of the boxes out of the apartment. We are still working on the stacks of things right now. The largest pile seems to be of our photo albums and pictures without homes yet. We have several frames to make the homes but not enough space to put pictures on flat surfaces...ah well

We have all of our furniture in the places we want it to be and I am so grateful for the wonderful lamps, furniture and all other household goodies we acquired at the wedding and after. Thank you family and friends for your gracious gifts!

The first day of unpacking it took me hours to get the kitchen in order and I enjoyed every moment of it. I loved washing all the mixing bowls, strainers, pans, and gadgets. I am so thankful for those items as well. I later moved to the bedroom where I had stacks of clothing to hang in the closet and put away in our dressers. Things are coming together and our home apartment is becoming a home. We are both very happy about it...

Daniel is on duty tonight so I have been reading my latest novel for the past few hours to make the time go by quickly. I am not fond of the evenings without him. I do know it is all part of the job though. It is unfortunate that he is on duty tonight though because he is covering for a guy that gave no good reason for needing coverage and he did not promise to take one of Daniel's duty shifts... So this makes me a little frustrated...I need to handle these kinds of things better. I am still new to it though. It will take time.

Having the car has been nice though. I have enjoyed being able to get away from the apartment especially since they have been doing work on the pavement right outside our window for the past 3 weeks and the pounding and shaking was driving me a little bonkers. It makes the whole apartment shake and a trip to the exchange or commissary sounds like a wonderful way to escape the headache...

This may sound like a negative entry...sorry. I am not an unhappy person, just wishing Daniel was here tonight. I am obviously not ready for him to be away on deployment yet and I thank the Lord every day we are able to have this time together before he does have to leave.

I am getting ready for Katy's visit this next Thursday. I can't believe it is in a week! The one room we have ready is the guest room. We even bought a beautiful new quilt and sheets for the bed. Daniel and I hung up some pictures and important things(diploma from USNA, deployment plaques and other goodies) on the wall the other night making it feel even more homey. We are both excited about her visit.

Ah yes...We are both licensed to...boat! Last Saturday we dragged ourselves out of bed at the crack-of-dawn to the marina on base and much to our surprise we both got our multi-passenger boat license AND speed-boat license. We can basically take people water-skiing and out to the amazing sandbar in the Kaneohe Bay. It was a beautiful morning for the class and we had a native instructor for one of the classes that shared all kinds of neat facts about the island and the bay. It was great just hearing his stories.

Well I am hooked on this book and I am going to get back to it. I will post pics of the apartment later but for now I leave you with one of my favorite plants here... the beautiful bouganvilla.

We were driving by this house the other day and I just had to stop and take a quick picture. The plant was just overflowing with blossoms and it needed to have a picture of it taken. The neat thing about the blossoms is they are paper thin. They blow in the wind like tissue paper floating on the breeze.

Love ya'll!

Woohoo for Car and Household Goods!

2005-07-28T20:43:00.000-10:00

We finally got the car. We met with the owner on Tuesday evening and made the trade. I was quite happy. Daniel even let me drive it home. What a generous thing to do with a new car... I was thrilled to drive it. It handles very well and is a lot of fun to drive. I am so glad we finally got it. Here is Daniel after work yesterday with the new car. Doesn't he look good...I mean the car look good? :) Of course he does too.

That news is big enough for one week, yet the biggest news is:
OUR HOUSELHOLD GOODS SHIPMENT IS COMING TOMORROW MORNING!

I am so excited about our stuff getting here. I have started even dreaming of the things we have coming. I know I am being very material, but I have been looking forward to tomorrow for a long time now. I will have a complete kitchen as well as the rest of my clothing, my books, and my other personal items I couldn't fit in two suitcases. I am stoked!

A wonderful package came in the mail today. I was quite excited to open the box from my sister with gifts in it. She made Daniel and I an amazing afghan. She also made me a wonderful sarong, which I will not put a picture of me modeling it on the blog. Trust me it is great though. Now I just have to try to look good in it...

Here is the afghan on display and being used by its new owners. We love it Lolly! Thank you for all the work put into making it for us. It goes with everything in our house so far...the couch and bed! :)

It is a relaxing evening here. We finished dinner and Daniel is preparing for work tomorrow. He is on the range all next week for his annual rifle and pistol qualification. I know he is looking forward to it. He is an "expert" marksman for both rifle and pistol, which is the best. I think he enjoys the week of different activity especially the shooting guns part... :)

It means a week of waking up at 4am to get to a range 45 minutes away on time. Ah well. I am glad it is only a week. I enjoy the mornings where he has to be at work at 7am. We get to spend a little time together over breakfast before I don't see him the whole day.

Well everyone have a wonderful weekend. Daniel and I are planning on getting our boat licenses this weekend. We will see if we make it on time this weekend. I hope so...we will probably camp out at the marina until they open that morning to get a spot. We will also be having dinner at a couples house on Saturday. Yipee for friends in Hawaii!

Love Ya'll!

2005-07-28T08:45:00.000-10:00

Happy 33rd Anniversary Mom and Dad Good!
What a special week to celebrate our parents!

We hope you have a special day together.

Thank you for being such a beautiful couple!

We love you!

2005-07-26T11:10:00.000-10:00

Happy 30th Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Thank you for your beautiful marriage!

You all are wonderful!

Eventful Weekend

2005-07-25T19:12:00.000-10:00

Hello Family and friends!

This is a statue in downtown Waikiki. The man with the several leis is the "Duke". He is a native Hawaiian from the '50s that helped make surfing so popular. He is known to be one of the best surfers ever on the island as well as a prominent man in Hawaiian history due to all the famous people he met in his surfing career.

Daniel and I decided to walk in downtown Waikiki on Friday night so that I could get more acquainted with the downtown so I can take friends and family around when they visit. And I have Katy coming in 2 weeks...woohoo! I better know the island well enough to show her around.

We ended up parking near the main strip and walking up and down looking at all the shops and street performers. We had walked this strip once before but we were headed to a restaurants the first time and we were not walking slowly due to our hungry tummies. This time was leisurely and it was a beautiful night, of course.

Here is a quick pic of Daniel and I as we sat and listened to a band that was playing on a roof top of a restaurant. They were playing Beatles covers and they were good...
Daniel is wearing his Hawaiian shirt. I still can't get over how even natives wear them all the time. I had thought the entire time it was just a touristy thing to wear a Hawaiian shirt, but I was wrong. I am not so against buying the Hawaiian gear now. I thought it would make me look like such a tourist, and on our side of the island there are less tourists. I wanted to blend as much as I could, but I have Hawaiian print pants on in this pic... :) Ah well

Saturday we spent a good deal of our day in downtown Honolulu shopping for a mattress for our extra bedroom, yet another way to prepare for Katy's visit as well as Lolly and Kris when they come out. We did find some good furniture stores and ended up buying a mattress by the end of the day at the base furniture store. You can't beat their prices...lucky us. We enjoyed learning more of the Honolulu streets. It is so good to explore down there. We found a yummy bakery that we will have to check out again.

Saturday evening we had the joy of dining with a couple we met from Daniels work. Well, we met the wife at the Fourth of July party we went to and then met the hhusband afterward. We went to Hawaii Kai, a community east of Waikiki. It is on an amazing side of the island, right near a crater with amazing mountains surrounding it. Anyways, we went to this ritzy restau that they had a gift certificate to that they wanted to share. It was a phenomenal dinner and we really enjoyed their company. I found out that the wife and I have more in common than I realized and the husband is a lot of fun. By the end of the night we were all so comfortable with each other and we were laughing so much. Here is a pic of us outside the restaurant.

The wife and I were talking about how we can minister to wives coping with husbands on deployment. We have both been thinking there is such a need during that time. I really look forward to getting to know her better and exploring this ministry opportunity.

Well, Sunday we visited the base chapel. We enjoyed the visit but we plan on visiting the church we went to the week before that we were so encouraged by. Sunday was a relaxing day. We ended up watching a movie and making a budget, something on our to-do-list. It was nice to get that out of the way. We are slowly knocking the list down.

Today was an excellent day. I had the joy of a boat trip with the hostess of the Fourth of July party. She had her family visiting so we rented a pontoon boat and went out to the sandbar right near the base marina. It was a great day for boating, sunshine, light breeze and smooth water. I only got a little sun. I was applying sunscreen religiously.

Here is a picture of Kaneohe from the water. You can almost see where our apartment complex is from this picture. The clouds were low today. They usually cover the mountains, but they were really low today. Like I said it was a great day. Looking at this just makes you want to visit us now doesn't it...? Do I have to keep posting pictures like this to get you people to visit us? I hope not. ( I may still do it though.)

Here is a picture of a couple girls we were on the boat with. Their momma is not in the pic but she is a fellow Marine wife that was at the July 4th party. They girls are so much fun. The older one is as cute as a bug's ear and the little one is so smart and funny to chat with. Both have big blue eyes that are so cute...

Anyways, my man is out changing the oil on the Grand Prix. He is such a do-it-yourself type. He is renting a lift and going at it. Last time I remember him changing the oil was in the front driveway of my parent's house in MD. That was when he was at the Academy.

We should be getting the other car tomorrow night. The owner returned to the island yesterday afternoon but did not feel compelled to give us the title and care keys until tomorrow night. :( He obviously doesn't want to get rid of it that badly. Ah well. I need to be patient.

Tomorrow is a busy day. The furniture we have borrowed from base is being picked up tomorrow morning. We will be living without tables, lamps, and dressers for a few days. Our furniture is supposed to be coming this week sometime. It is odd that the company has not called to tell us when though...they said they would. Anyways, it will be a busy day tomorrow.

Thanks for reading all of this if you did. Thank you for your mail and loving comments. We love ya'll!!

2005-07-20T09:34:00.001-10:00

Another beauty

2005-07-20T09:34:00.000-10:00

Hibiscus near driveway

Wednesday Morning

2005-07-20T09:27:00.000-10:00

This morning was a perfect morning to take a few pictures of the beautiful hibiscus out in the driveway of our apartment complex so I will attach some of these at the end of the entry.

Daniel and I did not end up getting our boat license on Sunday morning. We arrived on time and found out there were 4 spots left and there were 7 people with us. We figured that the people with guests coming in the next few weeks should get their license first due to them wanting to take the guests out on the boats. This turned out to be such a blessing rather than a let down because Daniel and I were able to make it to church on time and the church we visited was wonderful.

We visited a Baptist church in Kailua, a neighboring town, that had such a nice variety of people in it. They were all so friendly. The preaching was wonderful, yet we found out that at the end of the service they were voting in a new senior pastor for full time service and the person we heard preach was just speaking as a guest. Thankfully, they all seemed to appreciate his style, so hopefully the new preacher has a same Bible-based style. We left feeling quite glad the boat was full and that we were able to worship in that particular church that day. We will probably visit again sometime soon...

Car news...We are going to be getting the car this next week when the owner is back in town. His wife wants him to sign the title and be the person to exchange the money with rather than herself. It is okay, Daniel and I can be patient. I am looking forward to the freedom of two cars though. It has been nice to be near home for these past few weeks, but there are some museums in Honolulu I want to visit that Daniel has no desire to go to and some beaches that are calling out my name... I am looking forward to heading to the grocery store when we need it and not when we can switch the car off... We are really blessed to be able to get two cars....

Voice news...I am going to contact the voice teacher later next week. I do not want to sign up for a listen-in to one of her lessons or have my own with her yet, because none of my music books are here. I will feel more comfortable when I can practice a little before I meet with her. I have been singing along with all of my opera CD's lately but that is not good enough...

I did sign up for opera chorus auditions with the Hawaii Opera Theatre in September. I am needing to get my repetoire back up to speed for that audition, so I am thankful to have that to work towards.

We are scheduled to have the furniture we are currently borrowing from base to be picked up next Tuesday. The movers that have our belongings say that is should be here next week sometime. Hopefully we don't have to live without a table, dressers, and lamps for too long. I am so excited about finally having our own furniture and all my clothing. I am tired of wearing the same thing...c'est la vie.

Well, thank you all for the nice, funny, and kind comments you have left on our blog. We have loved hearing them all.

Daniel on the rocks...teehee :)

2005-07-18T07:40:00.000-10:00

Finally figured out pictures...

2005-07-18T07:32:00.000-10:00

Yipee! I finally figured out how to post pictures. I just need to take some more. These pictures were taken a couple weekend ago when Daniel and I drove to the northern side of the island. The northern side is where most of the heavy surfing happens and unfortunately we didn't see any that day...ah well

I hope to post more pictures soon.

Love Ya'll!

2005-07-18T07:29:00.000-10:00

Awesome picture of the palm trees

2005-07-18T07:28:00.000-10:00

Another picture of the shore

2005-07-18T07:27:00.000-10:00

Me on the Northern Shore when Daniel and I were exploring the island.

Karaoke Fun

2005-07-16T15:45:00.000-10:00

Hello loved ones. I have been so happy to see that so many more people are reading this blog to keep up to date with Daniel and I here. Please email us as well to let us know how you are doing or leave comments on the blog to let us know what you think. danielgood@2002.usna.com or goodd002@hawaii.rr.com

Thank you so much for the wonderful cards and gifts everyone. I have been so blessed by ya'lls sweet words and thoughtful cards. Thank You and Mahalo, which means than you in Hawaiian.

Well it is relaxing Saturday afternoon and Daniel and I woke up early to go look at a car and test drive it. We called the owners about this Acura Legend that was in the car lot on base and set up this morning as the time. It ended up driving very nice and we called the husband, who is the owner, (we met with the wife this morning), to chat about the price. It is going to be nice to have a second car so that Daniel and I can both go where we need to go. I was surprised Daniel was looking at the cars so soon. I think he was understanding my need to get out and around a little more. I was asking if I could drop him off at work maybe a few too many times and he decided it was time. I am so thankful we could even think about this as an option...
Well, we are still waiting for a call back from the owner. He is currently out of town. I will keep you all posted on the news...

The title of this entry is based on the good times Daniel and I had last night. We had heard that there was karaoke in the Hale Koa hotel lounge down in Waikiki. Hale Koa is a hotel/resort for militray peoples or family of military peoples. It is very beautiful and we walked around for a bit before we went in. It was so neat because the entire first floor is open and outdoor. The lobby and front desk and all the little lounges and such are open to the fresh air. It had these amazing trees in the lobby all decorated with lights and palm trees up to the 8th story it seemed. It was very charming.

Once we found theWarrior Lounge, where the karaoke took place, we decided to stay. The environment was not too loud or "shady". We decided to take a look at the book of song selections and after over an hour of trying to decide and talk myself into singing I went up there with a Josh Groban song, You Raise me Up. There were so many to choose from and I was overwhelmed and nervous. It was my first time karaokeing so I decided to play it safe.

Daniel on the other hand was a pro. He went to karaoke with friends in Japan all the time. I just loved seeing him get up there and singing away. His first song was Travelin' Man and that gave everyone a kick because he was so obviously a military man. (The song is about a sailor who has a sweet lady in every port he visits.) It was odd that Daniel has been to half the ports it mentions in the song...hmmm...that's interesting.

We basically we had a really nice time and as the evening grew late, we made more friends. We had so many people come visit our table. Daniel and I decided we looked like friendly people to chat with. This one man came to our table after we sang and immediatly struck up a conversation about the song I sang. He wondered if I knew any other Josh Groban and wanted to sing one with me. I was flattered and too nervous to say yes. He was the cutest older Phillipino man, very funny and sweet. We told him we would come back for another visit. The best thing is he studies voice with a private teacher and he gave me her number and told me a little about her.

My family will be happy to know that I am going to start up voice lessons soon. That is another advantage of having two cars. The lessons would most likely be in Honolulu. This voice teacher he mentioned is on the voice staff of the Hawaii Opera Theatre. That made me very excited. I have been missing my lessons, and haven't formally "warmed-up" in quite some time...anyways.
The night was very "successful" as Daniel called it. He thinks our times out in Hawaii so far have been excellent in putting us in touch with the right people and making good connections. I must agree. We have been fortunate to meet some very wonderful people.

Some of those people are going to be spending tomorrow morning with us. A few couples from the Fourth of July Barbecue we were at are getting together tomorrow morning early to get our boating licenses. On base you can get the license and rent a boat for very cheap so why not take advantage while we are here?! We decided we were on-board..haha...with the plan and are going out bright and early tomorrow. I am very excited. I have always wanted to be able to drive a boat and tomorrow I get my chance to learn. Exciting Stuff!

Well, we are going to go out shopping. Daniel is in dire need of some new pants, and I like the idea of me actually being with him when he shops now. Not that he does a bad job... :) just that I have wanted to be with him for so long now it is fun to be out doing the ordinary as well. We are also in search of a twin mattress for the extra bedroom. I have a friend coming out to stay with us in August so we want to make her comfortable. We hope the actual furniture containing the bed she will sleep on will get here by then as well. I am so excited about her visit.

Momma get better soon and Sudu I am glad you are home for the time being..

Well love to everyone and thank you for putting up with these long blog entires...

Tuesday Morning

2005-07-12T10:27:00.000-10:00

It is a beautiful day and there is a man vacuuming the cement in front of the apartment. Hmmm...Good times. Well, when is it not a beautiful day here. I have been thankful for the rain we have been getting lately, and we have been getting downpours. Some of the grass on base was getting quite brown. Amazingly enough it was getting a little dry in paradise.
This morning was quite pleasant. Thank you everyone for making this a special day already. It is only 10:15am and I have already been spoiled to death the past two days with special mail and gifts. Love to all!
Sunday we visited another church on our list and we are still in prayer over where we need to be. It was quite an enterprise they had running there. We felt very welcome though. They had the first-timers raise their hands and they came and gave us leis. They are always beautiful to wear. It surprised me because the church is so large. It says it has about 1600 members. It has 6 services weekly to accommodate every person. It was nice though to see that they were not forgetting the visitors.
We ran into one of Daniel's friends during church and afterward invited him over for lunch. I always get so excited to have guests. I was attempting a new recipe that day too so he was brave. Thankfully it turned out pretty good and we enjoyed chatting for awhile after lunch and then some nice Sunday afternoon relaxing.
We finished watching Finding Nemo and started watching South Pacific. Currently I am trying to get Daniel to see all the movies I think of while we are here in Hawaii. Any movies relating to fish, islands, and volcanoes pertain. HA! The library has a limited amount, yet a very current selection. So far I have been pulling the movies from there. I may have to break down and go to Blockbuster or something. :)
We have enjoyed not having a TV though. (We watch the movie on Daniel's computer.) It has allowed us to focus on other aspects of life. I am currently reading through Sense and Sensibility and Daniel is catching up on some reading from his logistics training in NC. He likes to review everything he has learned to stay knowledgeable. Wise thing to do...
I am currently listening to this wonderful CD Daniel got for me today. He took a risk and got a CD that looked like one I would like. Good thing he knows me. It is a CD by Carla Bruni. It is all in French, as she is a French song-writer. It is her playing the guitar and singing. It is already a favorite one. I have listened to it once through already and it is working on its second cycle. Very relaxing and perfect background music for updating the blog.
Well, I hope everyone is well. And thank you again for making this day so special. I love you all!

2005-07-10T07:45:00.000-10:00

Well, it is Saturday evening and Daniel and I spent the night in with pizza and a movie. The end of the week it is always nice to wind down a little.
We made a trip to the beach earlier today. There are 3 beaches on base and we visited one today. The other day we checked one out but did not get in the water. Today we came prepared. Daniel had his snorkeling equipment and I was ready for a nice nap on the sand, with lots of sunscreen on, of course. The beach was very nice but very rocky. The waves were really big too, so it would sweep you up and if you were not careful run your feet across some unexpected rocks. My little toe on my left foot found some of those rocks today and it is recovering with a little swelling. Ahh well. Daniel only snorkeled a little while. We sat out in the sand for a bit but didn't stay long. The day was overcast so it was threatening to rain while we were there. We de-sanded, which with Daniel and his high extreme dislike of sand in the car, takes 15-20 minutes. I quickly got clean and laughed while Daniel had to get every single bit of sand off of himself.
We got back and ordered pizza. I had made a promise to myself to not do that this early after the honeymoon because Daniel and I were trying to lose the honeymoon pounds we gained, but we gave in tonight. My justification was the ridiculous jog we took uphill for most of the way the other night. It was a perfect night for a jog, but my legs ached afterward. I feel we earned the pizza, besides we had coupons left from Bayfest... :)
Last night we went to dinner and over to a couple's house for some Trivial Pursuit time. It was a lot of fun. They have a sweet little baby girl and they are a really fun couple. We ended up playing until around 12:30am and I ended up driving home. I was quite proud of myself for finding the way back. Daniel was dozing off so I did most of it myself. The couple lived on the other side of the island near Waikiki so it was a good distance. I am thankful to be getting comfortable with the island. I look at maps of the island every time we get in the car. Good to have the visual learning device...
Tomorrow we visit another church. The process is exciting yet challenging. Daniel and I know that once we find a place we feel we belong we will feel more at home here. I know I am personally floating now without the church body that I am accustomed to. I am missing the people in the Life that have been my foundation of church for the past few years. I do know that God will bless us with a family of believers to grow with though. He has promised that to his church. We will wait and continue visiting and praying. We are enjoying our time as a couple growing together in the Word. It is a great thing!
Bless Ya'll!

Independence Day Weekend In K-bay

2005-07-06T13:31:00.000-10:00

Well, Daniel is back to work after a long weekend and an amazing Fourth of July. I just got back from the library. I love it there, like a kid in a candy shop. I really know I am Lauren's sister when I visit.
On Independence Day we were invited to a barbecue at a young couple's house that Daniel just met. Daniel works with the husband and he invited us over last week. We went over and I met his wife, who turns out graduated from UMD in '03, her family is in MD, and she is the middle sister of three girls. We were very excited to find out our similarities, and we definitly formed a new friendship. I was welcomed by the military wives, since that is what the party conisisted of, military families. I even exchanged numbers with one wife. Daniel and I were blessed by the day and left feeling very welcome and appreciative.
After the barbecue we went to the last evening of Bayfest, a 4 day festival on base celebrating Independence Day. (On Sunday we saw Brad Paisley in concert. It was great!) We watched the main band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and then watched an outstanding fireworks display. It goes into my top 3 4th of July memories, and I love the holiday. It was nice to finally celebrate it with Daniel. The evening was perfect.
We slept in the next day because Daniel did not have to go into work. He hates sleeping in too late because he feels unproductive. But why have days off if you aren't going to sleep a little more than on regular work days!? I like sleeping in.
Later that day, we went to a change-of-command ceremony for Daniel's last CO. It reminded me again of what I married into. I am so proud of what Daniel is a part of and who he is. There were tear-jerker stories from the battle of Fallujah, where Daniel's battalion had fought most recently, as well as uplifting memories shared by officers. I enjoyed the ceremony and look forward to others in the future. I am thankful to be a part of this life with Daniel.
Well, I am still in awe of this place and I hope I never take the beauty for granted. It is such an amazing reminder of how God blesses us through His creation.
Many blessings to all and please keep in touch!

Greetings From Hawaii

2005-06-30T14:20:00.000-10:00

Just checking if this works. Pretty excited about this new way of keeping in touch with family and friends.