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.

My Dream Home

My dream home is a wide open floor plan,  floor to ceiling windows, the flood of natural light, and a beautifully preserved character of the space where memories are made.  When we lived in Colorado Springs, we lived in an old farm house with a beautiful massive open staircase, fire place in the entry way, bay windows on 1st and 2nd floors with a turret, a walk in pantry, and a church window that the Christmas tree fit perfectly in front of.  It was on an acre of land and a creek that ran through the back of the property.  The house sat about 200 feet off the road, and the driveway wound around trees to get to the house. This house was pretty close to what I want in a dream house.  I found these pictures when surfing the net, and I am in love. It is an old church that has been converted to a house  This is exactly what I want and dream of.

 

 

 

  

 

 

Now that I have the love for cooking, I constantly think about what I want in a kitchen.  I want a HUGE island that stretches all the way across the room, and it opens to the entire family room where all of our friends and family gather when we get together.  I want to be able to lay out Thanksgiving dinner across the entire island and still have room left over.  I recently came across pictures of Ina Garten's kitchen, and I fell in love!  It is everything that I want in a kitchen. Now, just transplant Ina's kitchen it to the church converted to a house kitchen, and it is perfect!  Here is Ina's...

 

  

What does your dream home look like?

Moving

Currently, we live in a 1300 sq ft. A-frame tree house.  No, the house in not in a tree, but it sure feels like it because it is on stilts.  When the waves are huge, we can actually feel the house shake and the waves rumbling throughout the floor.  We are about 2 blocks from the water and beach.

We are sad to be moving off of the North Shore, but we are excited about moving on to the military instillation soon.  We are moving in to a historical home on Schofield Barracks that is 2600 sq ft, 5 bedrooms, 1 3/4 baths, lanai, living room, dining room, eat in kitchen with bar, walk in pantry, laundry room, fenced in patio, and all completely renovated!!  They actually filmed part of the movie, Pearl Harbor, in our neighborhood. 

We left a lot of our furniture back on the mainland because we thought we would be staying in this house the entire time we were here.  Our landlord ended up being a jerk and wanting to raise the rent substantially, kitchen way too small, and kids bedrooms too small for them to play in. So, now you know why we are moving!

We needed to find something to put in to the huge lanai that used to be open and only screened in.  It is now completely finished, so it needs furniture!  I started checking Craigslist for some Hawaiian rattan furniture, and I SCORED!! I found this for ........$50!! Furniture is way expensive here, and I haven't found anything close to this price.

I am going to recover them in black and white flowered print or teal.  I have even toyed with painting the rattan black to match the rest of our furniture. Most of our stuff is black and white with teal, red, or lime green.  Can you tell that I am in to these colors?  I love the colors of a peacock!  I will try to get some pictures of the new house soon!