Dad's 3 Week Visit

Since Dad is in his first year of retirement he planned to come and visit me in Hawaii while Kyle was in California for training.  The only problem was we thought we'd have a house by then, but as you know we didn't.  So Dad switched his flight to September.  Well...he still wanted to come sooner than that and he found a great deal, so he flew out here on April 28th.  All the times we flew into Hawaii we were never greeted with a lei.  When I flew back in February, my friend greeted me with one and I thought it was AWESOME! So from here on out I am greeting those I pick up from the airport with a lei.

Here is Dad's manly lei I bought

There were a lot of things that Dad and I were able to do while he was here.  It was fun to be able to show him around a part of the island he had never really spent time at before.  It was also wonderful to have see our home and show him around the base...our home for the next 3 years.  Here is a recap of our time together:

A mentor/friend of Kyle's, Marcus Koss, has a little girl in first grade and she wanted to send us Flat Stanley.  So Dad was able to help me take Flat Stanley to different places on the island.  We are at Pyramid Rock Beach on base in this picture.

At the top of the Pillbox Hike in Lanikai! 

At the Pali Lookout! Always get great hair pictures there! Holding onto my skirt for dear life ;)  We had some long-time friends from Colton take a Hawaiian cruise, so we offered to pick them up when they ported and drive them around for the day to wherever they'd like.  We took them here and...

Ho'omaluhia Gardens.  Randy loved this place.  It was beautiful and only 10 minutes from base!

With Randy and Valerie at a Makapu'u Lookout.  Another windy spot :)

Dad helped me put up the rest of the curtain rods! We have metal studs! :/ Definitely not fun to drill into.  He also helped me move in the bookshelf, but I still need to get a picture of that for you! And pictures of the rest of the house will be coming soon :)

The Avengers premiered while Dad was visiting so we went and saw it opening day! :) Dad LOVED these posters! He asked the manager if he could buy them and he said that there were 3 total and they were at $100 a piece, BUT you had to buy all 3!

I left Dad on Cinco De Mayo to go out with my neighbor and already friend, Rachael (in the orange dress to the right of me).  It was a birthday/Cinco de Mayo/Homecoming dinner.  Her husband got home from Afghanistan on the 18th.  I God knew what he was doing by making me neighbors with her.  She reminds me SO much of my best friend from college, Amanda Rodriguez, who was also in my wedding.  They sound alike, look similar and just have the same personality! I love it :) Sometimes I'll catch myself wanting to call her Amanda!

At the beginning of Koko Head Crater hike...1600 steps. YIKES!

We made it! In about 32 minutes! Legs were shaky, but it was a GREAT workout!

The trail back down...

After the hike we treated ourselves to our favorite little shrimp shack in Waimanalo.

This is what Dad did a lot! He was contemplating on bringing his clubs or not, but then he decided to look on Craigslist here in Hawaii.  Well, he found a great set that we bought the day he landed and he was able to golf on base and at a few other courses which he enjoyed! This just so happened to be the 3rd most difficult course in the U.S.! He didn't find that out till he started ;)

Dad and I would watch my neighbor kids be VERY creative and use flattened cardboard boxes to slide down a steep hill.  They are so cute! A few times, the boys would have nerf guns or swords they would slide down side-by-side and then shoot or hit at one another! Sorta made me want to get out there and play :)

The first time I did the flowers! I LOVE IT! Got my toesies all pretty for Kyle when he came home. I'm sure he really appreciated it ;)

I bought beautiful orange tulips to fill the twine wrapped vase I made to get it all pretty for Kyle to come home and see! He loves it! :)

Well...we went to The Avengers AGAIN.  This time with Kyle since he got home (YAY!) and also in 3D!  Dad had asked about those big banners again...they were up to $150 a piece and you still had to buy all 3.  Didn't think Mom would go for that ;) But Dad asked about the movie poster and they said they couldn't find it, but the manager went back and looked again and found it! So he found us in the theater before the previews and gave Dad the poster :)

The Awesome Poster!

Dad took us out to dinner his last night here.  We went to Buzz's which is in Kailua and it is DELICIOUS! We parked at the beach park across the street and I made the guys take pictures on the beach. 

Beautiful Kailua Beach

Needless to say, Dad's trip here was so much fun! He had never seen Game of Thrones and since Kyle and I have season 1 on Blu Ray we started and finished I think the first week he got here! :) Then, I got a call about FINALLY becoming a working woman again! I got a job at the Youth Activities Center on base.  I will be working with 7 to 14 year olds (I'll fill you in more in another post). I started my training the last week Dad was here, but I'm glad he does a good job at fending for himself :) He just took advantage of golfing and hanging out with Austin Shelton (a friend of Tyler's who went to Colton and his Mom was my 6th grade teacher).  He and his three friends who we also know live here, so Dad ended up going out on a sailboat during one of my training days.  I was jealous! 

Looking forward to MORE family coming to visit! :) And I will try to make it a goal to post once a week.  Family: Keep me accountable! :) Love you guys! And thanks for coming to visit, Dad! I had so much fun showing you around where I live...gosh I still can't believe I live here!!!

3 Weeks with My Marine and CRAZINESS!

I've been absent for a couple weeks, but I have a few amazing reasons why, 1. My handsome, stud of a Marine, husband came home! and 2. We FINALLY moved into our house. Here's to catch you up a bit on how we spent the 3 weeks we had together before Kyle left again this past Wednesday.  Unfortunately, what I've been hearing from many wives is that Hawaii is a fabulous place to be stationed, but your husband is never home...I'm beginning to realize that.  Anywho, not to make this a depressing post, I will share with you all how we spent our fast 3 weeks together.

Kyle graduated from AAV school on his birthday, March 29. I wish I had pictures, but they on his computer and he took it with him to the big island. But for those of you with Facebook he has an album from his time at school so you can look at them on there. :)  To prepare for Kyle's homecoming I wanted to make him a little treat.  For those of you who know Kyle, you know that he loves Funfetti cake and Funfetti cookies.  I was browsing Pinterest and found a Funfetti Cake Batter Buddies.  They. Are. Delicious. I made half the recipe from the link above and for the life of me could not find almond bark so I used white morsels instead.

Final result, computer pulled up to recipe, and ingredients :)

Like I mentioned in a previous post, Kyle and I wanted to get away when he got home, but he was denied leave, since they had to prep for PTA (can't remember what it stands for).  So we decided to do a little stay-cation in Waikiki instead.  We stayed at the military hotel called the Hale Koa.  It was beautiful! And very close to where my parents time share is, so I am very familiar with the area already :)  We had a wonderful time together.  Even though it was only 3 months, well 6 weeks, it's still an odd feeling being with your spouse again...I couldn't imagine a 7 month deployment! 

Instagram photo! Love this app.  Wearing my new suit enjoying a shave ice! Cherry and Pina Colada. Kyle doesn't enjoy shave ice so I was enjoying this all to myself and about 3/4 of the way through I spilt it on myself! :) Luckily, there was an ocean 100 yards away. 

Frozen yogurt is my new fav! We an ourselves for ourselves for our anniversary. De-Lish!

My friend and old rommate, Jenny, ran the Diva Half Marathon on Sunday morning (the day we left the hotel).  This is an awesome race! PINK everything! Also, the last mile you get a tiara and feather boa! I told Jenny I'd run it with her next year.  Help keep me accountable, folks! We walked to the finish to see her run the last 2 miles and cross the finish line.  Larissa (far right) and her husband, Bill, were also there to support Jenny! These ladies have been such a blessing for me.  

Coming home from the hotel we went to the BOQ (Bachelor Officer Quarters) to stay for 5 nights until we moved into our house.  Here is our view! Ocean and everything! This is the sunrise on the morning of our 2 year anniversary.

We brought Subway subs, Cheetos, and macaroni salad to eat at Lanikai beach for our anniversary dinner. It was beautiful with the moon rising between the Mokes.

So thankful to have had him home for our anniversary! 

MOVING DAY! Can you believe all of our stuff fit in 4 of those crates?! I wouldn't want to imagine how many crates it'd take for my mom and dad ;)

Inside our HUGE kitchen! And Kyle bought me the Starbucks in the left corner of the pic since he had to be at work that morning :) So sweet! 

Eating pizza our first night in and watching The Terminal

Commissary. Stocking up on food :)

The Saturday after we moved in, Kyle had duty :( He is the officer on duty, so if something bad happens then he is the one who is called (i.e. Lance Corporal So-and-So gets a DUI or put in jail for a bar fight). Kyle is responsible to let the next people in line know. I brought him Taco Bell for dinner and visited awhile.  He works from Saturday 7am to Sunday 7am.

This was the beautiful sunset I came home to after dropping Kyle off. View from our kitchen/backyard!

Kyle enjoyed planting in our front yard.  Making it pretty!

Here is our final product :)

We also made a few purchases of Craisglist. A big dresser for our bedroom ( I need to paint it), a smaller dresser for our room (need to paint as well) and then here was our day of Craigslist that didn't quite turn out as we'd hoped...Here is my Facebook post.  I don't really feel like writing about it again ;)

Worst. Day. Ever. Drove to Honolulu to buy a push mower and the lady sold it at her garage sale this morning before we got there. Bought a chest freezer at another garage sale and after driving a ways someone yells at us that the cord is dragging (still not sure if it works). Went to Lowe's specifically to get paint and forgot to pick it up after getting the other things on our list. Drive to pick up a super cute bench (craigslist) for our front porch and after driving 30 miles it decides to fly out of the truck when we are 1/2 a mile from base! Right then I started bawling my eyes out (and haven't really stopped since lol...about 45min ago). Then adding insult to injury, while Kyle went to pick it up off the road I turned his flashers on and then they wouldn't turn turn off. Plus, it scratched the truck and cracked a tail light AND when we unloaded the freezer it tore a hole in my cute shirt. What is happening to us lol?! We are not leaving the house the rest of the day in fear something might happen ;) I am really trying to laugh about it, but tears are still coming out :)

Kyle got his PS3 back and decided to play for about 7 hours one night with Greg Teune and two friends from college, Aaron and Andy.  While he did that, I organized our DVDs and BluRays alphabetically...all 300 of them! 

I also stained the top of our dresser in Dark Walnut by Minwax.  We bought this unfinished wood dresser in Virginia and are finally able to work on it now!

Kyle spray painting the dresser drawers. I've been keeping up with a lot of DIY blogs and a lot of them spray paint furniture.  We didn't have to sand it much before we spray painted with Rustoleum Heirloom White.  It's beautiful!

Here is the picture from Craigslist. I never took one in its original state.

Here is our finished product.  I distressed it a bit too, but it's hard to tell in the pictures. I'll take more once we get it in the house.  

Cute knobs from Hobby Lobby...boy do I miss that place!

We also painted our living room area! I love it! It makes it feel so much more homey :)

Not my favorite job, but glad we finished in one night :)

There you have it.  It was a quick 3 weeks with Kyle, where we tried to balance getting settled into our new, HUGE house and spending time together just watching movies and Game of Thrones (Kyle's new favorite HBO series).  We have the first season, but the second season just started.  We didn't want our time to be so busy with the house, so we tried to relax and do fun things too.  So now that Kyle is gone, well I guess there isn't any excuse to get the house organized ;) Especially since my dad is coming in 6 days! I need to prepare it for him...and I'll need his help with things too ;)

The Hunger Games

Back in the Spring of 2009 I was student teaching in an 8th grade classroom and had a pivotal moment.  There were a few students who were a part of a reading group to help improve their reading comprehension.  After a few chapters, two of the girls came running up to me and told me, "Oh my gosh! Miss Adams (I was still Miss Adams then), we are reading this awesome book! It's called The Hunger Games."  After that moment, I went out and bought The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and my life was changed. :)

Ever since I finished the book AND reading the last two of the trilogy (which I also, highly recommend!), I kept Googling "The Hunger Games movie" and the only results I found were speculations of a movie or the "talk" of a movie, but there was no director, writer or cast.  That is until a year ago! :)

And FINALLY after a long-awaited 3 years, I was able to watch The Hunger Games movie...and it DID NOT let me down! :)  It was by far, one of the best books-to-movie I have ever seen! I've heard some people say it did not depict the book, but I thought it stayed as true as possible to the book and it was just what I expected.

I went to the movie with my roomie Jenny and our friends Bill and Larissa.  Jenny finished the book at 2am this morning and Bill is already on the second book.  Those of us who read it thought it was great, and Larissa thought it was great as well! :)

Jenny and I are ready with popcorn in hand!

Here is a preview of the movie for those of you haven't heard of it or are like me and you just want to watch it again. :)