Our First Separation of the Year

Well, it's 2013 and Kyle is already gone.  He went to Lava Viper on the Big Island.  He left at 3am/0300 on January 10th and he's already coming back on Saturday, one day sooner than we thought!   When he's gone, I try to stay busy, which isn't too difficult with subbing occasionally, working out, beach days, friends, Bible study, Project Life (I'll do a post on this soon!) and homework, but this is my LAST class! I will complete my Masters on March 3rd! Here's a glimpse into our month so far.

New Bible study.  Ladies, if you have never done a Beth Moore study, all I can say is WOW! She makes you really dig deep and there is 5 days of homework, but it is worth it!

Larissa and I working on Project Life.  We are trying to meet once a week to work on our albums.  If you haven't heard of Project Life click here and watch the video.  I will do a post soon of my completed 2012 album to hopefully inspire you like I did Larissa! :)

This is what I do 6 days a week.  I have been doing the Insanity workout and let me tell you, it does not get any easier! It kicks my butt every day, but I finally am up to regular pushups! 

I also spend a lot of time at the beach alone sunbathing or with Mandee, Marcella, and Maddox. Her husband left last week for awhile, so we've been spending a lot of time together. 

This is what Kyle is up to.  You can see the traces and then the helicopters (I believe cobras) in the back.  Kyle said they were doing medivac training with the helicopters and he was even given a little tour of part of the island in the helicopter.  Kinda nice since it's over $200 to do it in the civilian life.

In the evenings (on days it isn't raining), I like to walk down to North Beach which is only a 5 minute walk from our house.  I love to watch the waves there, as well as the sun set.  

Breathtaking!

Yesterday, I went into Waikiki with Stephanie and Evan and Mandee, Marcella, and Maddox.  We ate lunch by the beach in the park and then went to the Waikiki Aquarium.  We went to celebrate Marcella's birthday and Maddox's which is today. 

Beautiful fish.  And Marcella spotted Dori from Finding Nemo :)

Mandee and her kiddos!

The 4 year old birthday girl!

And one last picture so you don't think we have sunshine every single day :) This was my drive into Hawaii Kai to go to Costco.  It is definitely the start of the rainy season!

New Years Eve

We didn't have plans for New Years Eve and then Kyle got free tickets (originally $100) for a comedy magic show and auction at the Officers' Club on base.  We decided to go and when we showed up and looked around I leaned over to Kyle and said, "we are the youngest ones here".  The more Kyle looked around he recognized a lot of them and they were mainly all Majors, Colonels, and Generals.  I felt like we were at a RICH party...which we basically were. :)  

To start off they had a silent auction and we took a look around, but there wasn't anything that caught our eyes.  Kyle started talking two other lieutenants and I started chatting with their wives.  One of the lieutenants is actually a fellow Western Oregon University alum.  When the six of us were talking the magician (who had yet to do his show) came up to us.  He showed us two dice and did tricks with the numbers on the die.  CRAZY! Then he took out two foam bunnies (about the size of peeps...the candy).  He held a brown one and he asked me to put my hand out and he put a yellow one in my hand.  He closed his hand into a fist and told me to do the same.  Then he moved his hand flipped it over, opened his hand and NOTHING! As he opened his hand I could FEEL inside my hand get bigger...I could feel like something else was put in my hand!  He told me to open my hand.  I opened it and I had BOTH of the bunnies! I have never been a part of a trick before! And...I don't get it.  Kyle and I keep talking over and over and...WE. DON'T. GET. IT!  It's so frustrating! :) Then he took both the bunnies, put them in another wives hand and said, "they're making love" and told her to close her hand.  Then he tapped her hand and told her to open it and there were about ten small bunnies with the two bigger ones! 

Around 10:00pm he started his magic show for the whole group.  He was great! He did typical tricks like the interlinking rings, one string cut into three, and knowing what card an audience member has in their hand, BUT even though they are "typical" they are still mind blowing to me! 

Here he is doing a CRAZY trick! He has a big card in his hand that has the Queen of Clubs.  He asked an specific audience member to THINK of a card.  He told him to picture the card in his mind...what it looks like.  Then he started to act like he was pulling something behind from the drawn on Queen of Clubs.  Up started coming a card.  Inch by inch.  And it was a two of diamonds...the EXACT card the audience member was thinking of! 

Kyle and I decided that next time we go to Las Vegas we are definitely going to a magic show!  After the show, they had an auction with big ticket items.  And when I say big, I mean BIG! They had golfing for four and a three night stay at the Ritz Carlton on Maui, another elite golf course only the rich get to go on in Hawaii (Big Island), a $1000 stand up paddle board, and a $3000 painting! Needless to say, we did not bid on anything, but it was fun to watch those richy rich Generals bid on items.  The funny thing is we were the POOR ones there! :) No one was bidding for the $3000 painting and one of the guys running the auction said, "come on and bid! You all have money, I know you do! If you live up on the hill you'll be heading down to Bancroft if you don't start bidding!"  Up on the hill is where the high up Officers (colonels and generals) live.  Bancroft is the road we live on! When he said that Kyle and I look at each other and both said, "HEY!" Then a Captain at our table who lives on the street next to us yells, "What's wrong with Bancroft?!"  I am not saying we are rich by any means, but never have I been put in the "poor" category. :) It was pretty amusing though.  I just told Kyle, "hey, you stay in till you are a colonel and then we'll be SET!" :)

After the auction finished up, there was about half an hour till we rang in the New Year.  We met back up with the couples we were talking with earlier as well as the Captains and their wives who were at our table.  One of those Captains is going to go on deployment with Kyle.  This deployment is only 4 months and he leaves in the Spring on a Navy Ship to a few different Asian countries.  After a glass of champagne and cake for dessert, it was time to count down.  We were unsure how the evening was going to be, but it turned out to be a blast.  We hope you all had a wonderful New Years and we wish you all the best in 2013!