Dec 7th, 1941

I have more pictures that I wanted to put up, and maybe my computer will cooperate later.

My friend Jessica is at the memorial today. Today is also the day that they will be dedicating the USS Oklahoma memorial. I have pictures of that somewhere too.

Peace and Quiet

When I was little my brother and sisters and I used to ask our parents what they wanted for Christmas/Birthdays/Holidays, etc. We always got the same answer--Peace and Quiet. I doubt we ever complied and we probably made them or bought them some "treasure"--I am almost certain that my mom has every treasure that we made, but that's a whole other post!

Now after having three kids that are programmed for "Loud Only", I understand where they were coming from. When I am alone in the car I don't listen to any music. I never watch tv during the day or usually until late evening (thank goodness for DVR). My husband noticed the other day that he had started turning off the radio as well. I guess we are getting old.

Since Abs came home yesterday, it is quiet. Her throat is too sore to argue with anyone. Her usual singing and talking voice is on mute. She has resorted to sign language and writing things down.....who knew she could come up with so many ways to communicate "ice cream" to us. I went to wake her up this morning and she moaned a little and went back to sleep.

Even with two kids home today, it might be a quiet day after all.

Abs

Abs was awake this morning when I went to get her up and she hopped up out of bed ready to get her tonsils and adenoids taken out. She was dressed in record time and raring to go.

She was happy at the hospital.

She loved the wagon ride to the operating room. They even gave her something to drink to put her to sleep before they gave her an iv. She went from fast forward....to slow motion....to out. The surgery went off without a hitch and she woke up.....she was upset because she saw two of everyone.

Ice cream makes it all better.

She is now watching cartoons--which she never gets to do--and is doing okay. She was kind of whiny about taking the tylenol with codeine, but she managed and is doing well.

Junior went to the doctor and he has a perforated eardrum. Poor kiddo is on ear drops and antibiotics. Hopefully he will start feeling better.

Too busy

My husband thinks I am too busy. Just because I got everyone dressed and ready after getting no sleep last night (I think Junior has an ear infection and the earliest appointment I could get is tomorrow). got the girls to school and Junior to daycare. Then I drove 40 minutes to work, worked, drove home. Ate lunch. Picked up Abs to take her to her PT evaluation--twice a week starting next week, and they think they can catch her up in a couple of months, so that's good. Dropped Abs back off at school where we waited till her class came back in and she showed me her desk, her journal, etc. Noticed she now owes 15 tickets to other people/teacher and she told me she hasn't even earned any--I can see the teacher's ticket plan will not work on my daughter. Went and got Junior, fed him, went and picked up the girls, came home and did homework, ate dinner and I am ready for bed. The girls are making a mouse house and Junior is playing with DH. Still have a ton more to do, but at least the weekend is almost here.

Tomorrow is Ab's big exciting day--it will probably be the only day other than Christmas, her birthday and the last day of school that I will be able to get her up with no problems. We have ice cream and fruit and yogurt and milk for smoothies as someone suggested. Em wants her tonsils out now.

I have no dress for the ball, but I still have 8 days, so I shouldn't stress, right?

Wordless Wednesday

Taken during our visit to the USS Arizona Memorial. We both got choked up reading these words. (You will probably have to click on the picture to get it to enlarge and be able to read it)

Christmas Shopping & Tonsils

I'm done. How about you?

Keep under budget?

I shop all year to find the best deals and this year I came in wayyyyyyyyyy under budget.

I'm still in shock that I did so well! I know that the girls and Junior will love everything that I got and I will be pleased watching them open the gifts and knowing that I scored such good deals. I should be a professional shopper!

Abs is getting her tonsils and adenoids out on Thursday. The girl is so excited about this, she can hardly contain herself. I tried to tell her she would have an IV and her throat would be really sore, but it hasn't dampened her spirits at all. She wants it done, and she wants it done now! Must be the promise of ice cream afterwards.

Mayborn Museum Pics

Weekend

They always seem to fly by.

We went to my brother's party on Friday and had a great time! The band was great and the kids were well behaved (well minus Abs hanging on everyone). Beer was good too!

We got home Saturday night and today we took the kids to the Mayborn Museum in Waco. They had a Bones exhibit that the kids really loved. They got to put together skeletons of animals, put bones in a human puzzle, look at bone under a microscope and tons more. Even Junior had a great time running around looking and touching everything. After the Bones exhibit and checking out the dinosaur and woolly mammoth sections, we headed over to the two floors of hands on activities. Most of the stuff even Junior could do, so he was all over the place. They put on a weather show, played the giant piano with their feet, played house/store/rescue hero, visited the pioneer section, played with bubbles, watched animals, walked through a giant heart, worked with mirrors/magnets/levers, and tons more. Junior slept on the way out there, on the way back and is fast asleep now. The girls never get tired and managed to talk the entire day as usual. What would I do with total silence anyway?

We met my MIL for dinner and then got home to watch Amazing Race. Seems like they haven't let anyone stay yet that has come in last. Wonder if this means there will be more people in the final episode? Hope they do that when I am on there!

Wednesday already???

Somehow taking 12 days off from parenting has put me behind 6 months.

I'm trying to catch up on everything and with everyone. I'm making lists of lists in order to get everything done, and hopefully I'll be caught up in the next few weeks.

Abs had a great day at school, woohoo! Talked to Em's math teacher and she is doing really well in there. She must be an amazing teacher as Em is loving math for the first time!

I got accepted into graduate school.....again. My sister has two masters degrees, and I couldn't let her be the only one! I'm excited about it although I have a long way to go.

Headed to Houston this weekend for my brother's 40th birthday party. The invitation said there would be a band, bbq, beer and a birthday boy. Sounds good to me!

Day 2--School

Junior and I went to pick up the girls from school this afternoon and we took chocolate covered macadamia nuts for their teachers (well Ab's old teacher). I spoke to Mrs. K and she said that progress reports came out today and that since Abs had not been in Ms. P's class for very long she filled it out. Sounds good.

Then I see my Abs but Mrs. P was dismissing all the other students first. Never a good sign. I walk over and she proceeds to tell me that Abs didn't get written up today but she kicked a student and pushed another. Abs had to apologize, write an apology note, and give each student 5 of her tickets. I listened and then the teacher was gone.

I got home and the phone rang and it was Ab's teacher. She apologized for starting out just saying negative things about my daughter without even introducing herself or telling me how well she was doing in there other than today's incident. Whew. I'm glad she called and I was able to ask about homework (they don't have it), spelling words and all that other good stuff.

Abs is going to give me a run for my money. She spent the afternoon in her room staying out of trouble. I wonder what tomorrow will bring. On the bright side her progress report was outstanding!

I just got home from the gym. It felt good to be back there but I am sure I will be sore tomorrow.

School

After Abs incident with biting at school and getting into the TAG program the same day, I was curious how she would do at school today in her new classroom. I met Abs after school and asked about her day. She told me "it's the same thing we do every day, all we do is arts and crafts all day and I love it!".

Great. Hopefully she is learning something! It reminds me of when I was in high school and in the gifted program there for English. We decided that we wanted to rewrite Julius Cesar to make it more modern during the spring semester. A group of writers spent all semester writing it, while the rest of us planned everything else aka did nothing but socialize. I was cast as one of the attendants in the play and didn't even have a speaking part. The time came for us to present our play to other classes and it was the same day that my sister graduated from college. I went to her graduation and missed the play. I did make A's all semester though.

Let's hope that the quality of the program has improved!

Cell Phones

Last night when I went to HEB with Em and Junior, I forgot my list. I thought about calling DH to see if we needed spaghetti sauce, but my phone was dead. On the way home I mentioned to Em that my cell phone was dead. She looked panicked.

Em: What if someone tries to call us?
Me: They'll have to call me at home.
Em: What if it is an emergency?
Me: It'll have to wait.
Em: Don't you have another charger?
Me: No, they only included one wall charger and no phone charger.
Em: But you can go buy a car charger.
Me: I could, but that would cost money and I don't really need it.
Em: (Panicked) But it would be better than missing a call or a text.
Me: We'll be okay, I'll grab the charger Wed.
Em: But what about till then?
Me: You know Em, they haven't always had cell phones.
Em: You're kidding right?

I explained to her how big cell phones used to be--the bag ones--and how as technology changes electronic devices get smaller. She was amazed.

I remember the old cable boxes that we had to get up and turn our tv on UHF or VHF or something like that and then we could press buttons on this box that was on top of our tv. Of course if you didn't have cable back then, you could still get the basic stations. We didn't get a microwave until I was in 8th grade. We also didn't get a VCR until I was in high school. With my Christmas money one year I bought a portable CD player. My dad told me that it was a waste of money and would never take off since after 8 tracks people were unhappy about upgrading to tapes, and they sure weren't going to upgrade to cd's.

I wonder the future holds.

Made it

The inlaws showed up at noon today with a car full of Thanksgiving. We set the table and served it up. After the food was on the table, it took the girls all of 10 minutes to eat lunch. (And Abs didn't even want anything that they brought) The food was good, and as soon as we were finished they loaded it all up and left. Kind of strange really. Oh well, I can't figure them out.

My MIL cooked a HUGE turkey and since my FIL is leaving tomorrow, they took the entire thing home and are....you guessed it....feeding it to the dogs.

Em and Junior and I went to HEB tonight to stock up on non-turkey related food. After 4 days of eating the stuff I am ready for a break.

Walk to Iraq and Back & Thanksgiving

I was looking at the local website for 4th ID and I saw that they were having a program where you can walk to Iraq and back in support of your Soldier. Add me to the list that will be doing it!

Check it out here.

Anyone else game?

Thanksgiving was good. Have to do it again on Sunday with the outlaws. Blech. Only so much turkey I can eat! At least they are coming over here for the festivities and cooking since they know I won't eat in small house with 6 big dogs that have run of the house. I wouldn't be able to eat!

They also don't make comments about my weight as someone in my family did today. I just don't get it....

Home

There's no place like home.

After traveling all night, we were more than happy to come home and see the children and get showers and a good meal. Thanks for the soup mom!

The kids were happy to see us....Abs was of course in her room having a time out. I have to work today and DH is taking all the kids to the zoo and for a picnic.

Junior got into bed with us this morning and it was so nice having him curl up next to me and throw his little arms around me. I sure missed him and he of course grew half an inch in the last 11 days! I couldn't wait till the girls got up this morning either.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I have plenty for which to be thankful about.

Last Day in Paradise

We leave Hawaii tonight, but right now we are hanging out in the USO here at the airport. It has been raining all day, but we managed to go through the pineapple maze at the Dole Plantation, have lunch at Schoefield barracks (where my husband SHOULD be stationed instead of Fort Hood!) and have a hamburger at our favorite place over here. The USO is nice, free internet, and snacks for everyone. DH is kicked back and watching football and having a cup of coffee.

I bet they have clean bathrooms too! Woohoo!

Whew

What a whirlwind of a trip! We could barely walk into the hotel this afternoon because we were so sore. Dh twisted his ankle, but the hike was beautiful! We went early enough to avoid any crowd of people coming along with us. We got some great pictures...over 600. Every once in a while we threw one of us in front of the camera for the fun of it.

It started out an easy hike, then we had to throw in a little rock climbing where the road was destroyed due to a mudslide. We managed though and found one hidden cache. We saw a cave but were too chicken to explore it. We entered into the albatross sanctuary and saw tons of them all over the place. They also had seabirds nesting. The biggest surprise was when we went down by the point (the Western most point on Oahu) and found two seals sunning themselves.

The water was calm on one side of the point and white caps on the other. We found a blowhole and stopped by on the way to the hike to visit a Hawaiian Heiau. The Heiau was originally built for planting but they eventually turned it into a temple for the war god, and it is thought that King Kamehameha made human sacrifices there. You could just walk around the outside of it, and they had a strange tiki looking thing on the sacrifice table--kind of reminded me of the idol that the Brady's found on their Hawaiian vacation which brought bad luck! Please tell me that someone else remembers that episode besides my little sister!

Anyway, we had dinner tonight at Senor Frog and watched the young Japanese guys sitting next to us drink about three mixed drinks, a few beers and take shots from the shot lady when they were handing out free ones. They of course took their "hang loose" photos--I think every Japanese tourist is told to make the "hang loose" sign in every single picture that they take here!

We fly out tomorrow night but have more than enough time tomorrow to hit a few more things before we leave. I don't plan on any hiking though, so we can make it through the airport when we have our connecting flight.

Aloha....

I can't wait to see the girls and Junior!!! (you too mom!)

GPS Coordinates

What do two people whose bodies are tired and sore do today???

My husband is entering GPS coordinates outside on the lanai where he can pick up the satellites. We need to make lunch and then we are heading out on a hike that is estimated to take us three hours to complete. I think I read that correctly and it isn't three hours each way. They have two caches along the way so we get to do some geocaching along the route. My husband will be in heaven! He's probably wondering why we didn't get internet access earlier so that we could geocache all over the island!

We have water, sunscreen, cameras, GPS, cell phone and food so life will be good....if our bodies cooperate.

Stories

Being here in Hawaii and at the Hale Koa has allowed us to meet all kinds of people. The most amazing people to me are the Veteran's that we have had the privilege of meeting. While my husband has been to Iraq twice, and others are quick to thank him for his service, my husband has been quick to thank others for their service as well. Without them we would not enjoy the freedoms that we have today, and my husband is securing that same freedom for our future as well. While visiting the USS Missouri today the tour guide was telling us about a guy who he took on the tour yesterday that was on the USS Missouri back when it was first commissioned by Truman's daughter. He described him as a "kid in a candy store" being able to talk about his experiences and what different gauges, etc., were used for. I wish we had been on that tour because I would have never tired, hearing of his experiences. I only hope that someone documents the stories that these Veterans have to share, because one day their memoirs will be all that we have.

More Pics

Wreaths at the Punchbowl Ceremony

Turtle at Turtle Beach. They come up to sun themselves and there were four there while we were there.

My handsome husband.

More pics

Sunset at Turtle Beach

Surfers at Turtle Beach

Sunset...again....I think we took a thousand pics.

Punchbowl Veterans Cemetery--We went there on Veteran's Day for a ceremony. Very moving.

Valley of the Temples. This was built without any nails.

Ringing the bell before we went in.

sunrise before we went snorkeling again.

I'm starting to think that he doesn't take a bad picture...this was at the Polynesian cultural Center at the luau.

More Pictures

Me before I lost my sunglasses.

We were on top of a ridge that we hiked up. Maybe the ropes installed to pull yourself up should have been a sign. It was one of my favorite hikes!

Coming down from the ridge we hiked up....just kidding!

This was the first place we went kayaking. I didn't want to get sand in my shoes. Better yet.....DH didn't want to get his feet wet and was wearing sandals with socks. We were much better the second location, but he did keep the socks on all day. Yuck!

A view of the water that we were skimming over. We saw two turtles!

My hot husband! We bought the thingies for the sunglasses after my 10 day old pair was lost in the water the day before.

A view from our private island. We found a deserted island and had lunch and relaxed till some other people showed up. Damn tourists!

Koko Crater Hike

From the bottom

Going up

View from the top

Hike to Waterfall

Tired

We are old. I don't think that there is one part of our bodies that doesn't hurt anymore, although mine was feeling much better last night after a HUGE mai tai!

Kayaking was great but our bodies are paying for it.

Yesterday we hiked up koko crater which is 1,106 steps from the bottom to the top. It was rough and our legs are killing us. Then we went on to hike to a waterfall, but we thought we were on the wrong path because we had gone several miles and hadn't found it. We looked at the book when we got back and apparently we were about 1/4 mile from it.

Oh well. Determined to see a waterfall, we walked to one today and it was beautiful, but not the nice little jaunt through the Hawaiian rainforest that author indicated that it would be. It was muddy, but a nice hike and after lunch at the NEX we came back and sat at the pool and even soaked our weary bodies in the hot tub. We watched the fireworks tonight from the Hilton and had dinner on our Lanai. This is the life.

Unfortunately reality will set back in a few days from now when we get home and have to get Abs squared away at school. I talked to her today and asked her how biting this little girl worked for her and she told me "kind of good". I wonder if she will ever learn!!!! Abs has definitely given my mom a run for her money. Sorry Mom!!! I miss them all terribly and can't wait to get home to them. I keep them in mind in everything we do and try to take pictures that they will like or enjoy...from the huge leaves to the turtles resting on shore. I'd love to take them all to Hawaii one day....definitely when they can swim!

Tomorrow we are hitting the big swap meet and going to see the USS Missouri and Bowfin. We have seen so much since we got here. Sunday might be snorkeling at Shark's Cover and stopping by the big surfing competition. Monday we will hit the Dole Plantation to do the maze, stop by Schoefield barracks and try not to sweat before we begin the long trip home!

Aloha!

Day 2

Since we went to bed so early on Friday night, we were up at 4 am on Saturday. Since Hanauma Bay is open at 6 and it gets crowded, we headed over there before 6 am. We got to the park to find out that if you arrive before 7 that you can park for free and get in for free. Music to my frugal ears! We got down there and got our snorkel gear on and headed out into the water. DH was nervous about going snorkeling because he is not a strong swimmer. I had no fears and was ready to go. I put my face in the water and had what I can only describe as the start of a panic attack. I started breathing so fast and couldn't stop until I stood up and calmed myself down. Then I put my mask back on and couldn't breathe because I was trying to breathe through my nose, so I started to panic again. Meanwhile DH is already snorkeling away from me. I finally got myself calmed down and learned that if I immediately put my face in the water that I would breathe through my mouth with no problems. Everything is fine and I start to catch up with DH to find that he was over the reef. I freaked out and went back to the sand. Something about being over the rocks and not knowing what was underneath them scared me! I got myself squared away at this point and finally managed to snorkel without any problems. I am going along next to DH and an eel comes out from a rock and I take off out of there! I was ready to quit, but Dh was having the time of his life so I headed back out again. This time Dh found a green sea turtle having breakfast and so we got to be about two feet away from him/her and just watch for a long while. Then the sea turtle decided to swim right towards me so I took off again. We had back to the center of the bay and everything was going great again till I saw another eel. I was done. We had been there for over two hours though, so we were waterlogged and ready for breakfast.

We stopped off and checked out the Japanese Fishing Shrine and the Lana'i Lookout after snorkeling and got some great pictures but I wanted to come back with my camera. Next on the list was the view of Halona Beach and the blowhole. Apparently people have been killed by getting too close to the blowhole and getting knocked in, so we opted for a few quick photos and were on our way back to the hotel.

After we showered and got ready to go, we took off for Diamond Head. We stopped off at a farmer's market for a quick snack and then walked 1.5 miles to the entrance of Diamond Head. You could park in their parking lot, but cheap me wanted to save $8. What was I thinking??? The hike was nice, tons of people and very rocky. It was worth it though for the view from the top.

Of course we couldn't stop there and took off for the Lana'i lookout again so that we could get some better shots. Afterwards we headed to a hike up to the 647 foot summit near Makap'u. It wasn't a bad hike but we were running low on water after doing Diamond Head in the middle of the day. We checked out the Marine Base while we were up in the area, and they are so nice there! We got our tickets for the Polynesian Cultural Center while we were there and hit the px for a few things that we were missing. From there we went to the Pali Lookout--it really is cold there! We searched for a waterfall off the road but I think we went the wrong way, so we got back in our car and left. We were tired and our feet hurt!

We got back to the hotel and were hungry so we strapped on our chaco's and headed out again. (I think we had walked about 7 miles by this point if not more!) We ventured down to the shopping district and hunted for a restaurant that wasn't totally overrun with tourists and we could find a reasonably priced meal. Finally I was so tired and hungry that we stopped at Chili's and had an overly expensive hamburger! It will make the Chili's back home look inexpensive! We walked back to the hotel taking the time to watch all of the performers and interesting people that were all over the place. If I hadn't been so tired we would have people watched a little while longer!

Day 1

A pic of DH on our lanai at the Hale Koa. The view is great! We had an uneventful flight which was good because we both hate to fly. We got in about 3 Hawaii time and then spent 30 minutes trying to get the car we rented from the girl behind the desk. She was pretty clueless, so we eventually gave up once we found out there was an office for the same company outside, and we were on the streets in minutes.

we found the hotel with no problem and got unloaded and then set out to explore the area. we are right on the beach and it was so beautiful. We had dinner at the restaurant at the hotel and sat on the porch with a view of the water. We are right next to the Hilton (which is beautiful Jessica!). After dinner we went and walked around and then went to bed early as we were exhausted. We actually slept through the night!

Aloha

We are loving Hawaii.

It's only day 5 and we have seen and done so much.

I really miss the kids. A lot. I do call every day and I left so many instructions (my mom called me anal, what's up with that?) and I am not worried about them, but just like to know that they are doing okay. My mom did sound a bit frazzled one day so I told DH that we might have to return home early, but they were back to school today so that seemed to help. Read about my mom's adventures here. My kids are hilarious!

The Hale Koa is really nice and the staff are great.

There's so much to see and do here that we haven't had time to relax yet. We can do that on the plane ride home.