Where did the time go?

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted!  I am really slacking off on this blog thing, and I will try to be better.  A lot has gone on in the last few weeks, so I will try to catch everyone up.

We had a terrific vacation in Texas, and we were sad to go.  We THOUGHT we were moving there in November for a year while Chief is in Iraq, but the Army had different plans for us.  The kids and I will be staying in Hawaii while Chief is gone, and we are OK with that.  The kids will have stability for school, stay in their current home, and keep their current friends.  We will make it back to Texas for Christmas though!  This does make the year a little harder on us, but we have fantastic friends here that will make it easier on us.  I hope everyone will come and visit us to make the time go by quicker though! We should be here until June 2012, and then we will hopefully be moving to Wiesbaden, Germany for 3 years.  I am excited to be able to live in 1 house for the next 2 years, and then I am very excited to move to Germany!  What a great adventure for us and the kids!  The places we will see and the culture we will experience will be a once in a lifetime opportunity.  I dream of the day that I can tell Jeremy that I want to go to Paris for lunch, and off we go!

We had a terrific 4th of July that we spent with friends and had a huge BBQ at our house.  Schofield had a celebration right here on post, and it was fantastic!  We sat around and listen to the band, Smash Mouth (think of the theme song from Shrek, and that is what they sing),  chatted with lots of friends, danced, and watched the fireworks display. It was really really good!

We have been spending quite a bit of time at the beach since we got home, and we are loving it!  We went to Shark's Cove last week, and me and some friends snorkeled all the way from Shark's Cove to 3 Tables Beach and back.  It took us about 1.5 hours, and it was a beautiful trip!  Monkey Doodle has really taken off with snorkeling as well, and he goes out really far with us while not even holding on to us.  I hold his hand about 50% of the time, even though he doesn't need me to.  That is the helicopter parent in me, I guess.

Miss Priss had an accident on the trampoline a few days ago.  She hit her mouth on Monkey Doodle's head, and she has a fat lip, some bruised and cut gums, and 2 loose teeth!  Chief took her Urgent Care, and they said she should be fine and not lose the teeth. It has been a few days now, and they are definitely tightening up, PRAISE GOD!  I would have hated to see her lose one of her 2 front teeth along with the one next to it.

We also added a 12 week old kitten to our family!  Isabella Claire is a Blue Point/Snowshoe Siamese, and is absolutely beautiful!  She is exactly the kind of kitty we wanted, and is a great addition to the family.  She took to us right away and already sleeps with Chief and I.  Her and Lucy are already the best of friends, and Lucy treats her as her baby.

Chief's niece is here visiting along with her girlfriend, and we are having a great time!  We will get to enjoy them until July 22nd!  Then, BOTH kids start back to school on August 2nd!  I cannot believe the summer is more than half over!  I already bought a lot of the kids' school supplies, and it was bittersweet.  I cannot believe we will have both kids in school!  What in the world will I do with my free time?  Gym, running, beach, yoga, cooking??  The possibilities are endless, at least until 2:00 PM everyday!

I will work on getting up another post on our Texas trip along with pictures soon.  I also need to post pictures of our house all finished and decorated!  That post is a few months late, but my friend at www.chelseamckinleyphotography.com took some pictures for me on 4th of July, so I hope to post them soon.

Surf's Up!!!

I couldn't stand it any longer after seeing how flat the surf was on Wednesday, so after volunteering at Monkey Doodle's school Wednesday morning, Miss Priss and I went to soak up some vitamin D at 3 tables.  I knew the surf was about to get monstrous over the next few days, so I knew this would be the only chance for her to play in the water.  After applying gobs of 50 SPF, we got almost 2 hours of relaxing on the beach.  It was the first time I had worn a bikini out in public, and I didn't care how swollen I was!!!  You can tell by the picture(taken with my phone, so poor quality) that we are pretty pasty white compared to what we usually are.  It has been months since we had beach time since was unable to go because of surgery.

I am 8 weeks post op and still battling my swelling,  I am up 8 lbs from swelling, and I am so fed up with it!!  I start out about 5 lbs up in the morning, but I swell to the 8 lb mark by the evening.  It is getting so old, and I was hoping it would be a little better by now.  These pictures were taken this morning after not sleeping with my garment on.

I feel like a marshmallow!

 

 

I laid around all day yesterday until yesterday evening when we decided to walk over to the Eddie Aikau surf competition opening ceremonies.  We were surrounded by so many pro surfers and local celebrities, and we had no clue who they were.

It was such a neat experience, and you can read all about the competition here.  

http://live.quiksilver.com/2009/eddie/history.php?btn_history=_over

 

It is a big wave competition, and they have not been able to have it in 5 years because the surf hasn't been high enough.  We are so excited to see the huge waves and surf, and it will happen either on the 7th, 8th, or 9th!!

Surf's Up!

Friday night, we went to Pipeline/Sunset beach to watch the surfers and body boarders shred some waves.  The North Shore was under a high surf warning, and we were getting 20 foot waves! This is unusual for September, and we usually don't get them until November during peak surfing season.  We live about 2 blocks from the beach, and the waves were so big Friday morning that they were shaking our house.  I was in the bath, and I kept feeling this thud and shake feeling.  I yelled down to Ava asking her to stop jumping off the couch or off her bed like she does once in a while.  She yelled to me that she was watching TV, and she wasn't doing it.  I got out of the shower to check on her, and then I realized the thud was happening at the same time as I heard the waves crashing!!  It was pretty amazing!  It just hit me right then how awesome God's power is and how I am so blessed to be able to experience this amazing world He made for us!

Here is the link to the photos we took.  It was close to sunset, so that aren't that terrific.  At least you can see how big they were.  Believe me when I say that they were MUCH larger in person.