Category Archives: Life in hawaii

Striking out at the craft fair

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Well Omar and I had a lovely lazy Saturday morning, I woke up just in time to do some chatting online with my hubby before he went to bed. I got to drink a couple of cups of coffee while watching tv, couldn’t think of a better way to start the weekend. Finally roused myself enough to get me and the boy ready to scoop up Mckenna from her sleepover. As I am heading out the door she calls asking to stay until 1:45! I know the mom had said that they had somewhere to be at 2, but I didn’t take that for pick your kid up right before then. Nope, my dear, you are getting picked up at 11am, give that poor woman a break (really? three girls sleeping over, is she crazy?)

Pick her up and head over to Hickam to see their big fall craft festival. I LOVE them! We got some good food, well I did anyways, the kids wanted snow cones and ice cream. I don’t know if letting them have it qualifies me as a good mom or a bad one. I, however, got a glorious plate of food from Sam Choy’s, three kaluha pork sliders, islands chips and plantation iced tea for $7. And it was SO pretty! I am a sucker for a well plated dish. I’ve been meaning to get over to their new location on Hickam, their menu looks great.

We finally started wandering around the booths, and I have to say I was a bit disappointed! It seems like everyone has jumped onto the same craft bandwagons. There were SO MANY hairbow booths, like really, how many bows do you think people need? And I love hair stuff, it’s the fact that they were all selling pretty much the same style! Also, the tutus! They were everywhere. It kinda sucked because there were absolutely no options for things you could by for a boy. Eight million girly accessories and not a thing in sight for a boy. I was also a little disappointed because I was on the hunt for some Christmas gifts for the family but there wasn’t much that was Hawaiian. Glitter covered seashells weren’t exactly what I had in mind. Oh, I did see some really cute crocheted pineapple ornaments that I totally forgot to go back for.

So in the end I got nothing. Mckenna bought this sock animal that is so totally her. She just adored it, and I think I am going to encourage her to try making her own. I’ll have to take a picture because this thing is wild, neon, button eyes and a tutu. No normal sock monkeys for my girl.

So now I am still starting from scratch for all of the Christmas gifts I need to send out. I think I’ll try the big flea market at Aloha Stadium, I’ve heard they have a great selection of gifty stuff.

Living in Hawaii {4 Month Update}

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We have officially hit four months of living in Hawaii.

And I am in love with this state.

Hawaii can be a difficult place to live. It is so very different than living on the mainland. It can be hard to not have every store and restaurant you are used to having around the corner. (No Olive Garden, Michael’s or Chik-fil-a!) Living here means that you are living far from family, at least a 5 hour plane ride away. It can be expensive, housing is expensive, food is expensive, we are on an island so you will pay more for everything. We are lucky to be able to shop at the commissary and exchange which offer a huge savings over shopping on the local economy.

But with all that it is still magical to live here. I will be driving and then all of a sudden see a gorgeous rainbow, a vibrant green volcanic range, or a stunning sunset over the beach.

We did come here with a bit of an advantage. After living in Spain for four years we learned to live without many of the American conveniences that people complain about not having here. Plus we’ve been living far from family. So when we moved from Rota to Pearl Harbor it was awesome for us! We had Target and Starbucks and T-mobile…

It is like most places for me, it depends on what you make of it. If you spend your time here complaining about how much you hate it, you’ll end up hating it.

We’ve had a great time getting out and exploring the island, learning about the culture and customs and eating!

Don’t get me wrong it’s far from perfect here, the DMV is a nightmare, the traffic is the worst, and the bugs are out of control. There are shady parts of the island, it sucks being 6 hours behind all my friends and family on the east coast (especially when your husband deploys!)

I have found some fun friends by stepping outside my comfort zone and playing football, volunteering with the PTA and getting together a FRG for the Paul Hamilton.

The only thing that would make it better would be if my husband were still here to explore the island with me!

Crossing another natural disaster off my bucket list…

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After a super busy Saturday looking forward to a relaxing evening at home. Nope, minutes after walking in the door a post about a tsunami warning for Hawaii pops up on my Facebook news feed. Thank goodness for social media because I hardly ever watch tv and I couldn’t hear the sirens in my house.

Thankfully we should be fine, in an area that is high enough that we have a nice buffer. It shouldn’t even be too bad because of the type of earthquake that caused it… So while other people are having tsunami parties I am sitting here tsunami cleaning. I don’t know why, it just seems like a good idea…

Kids are passed out so now it is just me, the news and trying to ignore dozens of frantic postings on Facebook (omg! What do I do?! We’re all going to die) waiting out this warning for another 20 minutes.

And really? The news having to warn you to stay away from the water? Seems like that is just natural selection at work.

End of the Season

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So today was our last regular season game. We lost. Again. Really though I had SO much fun learning to play flag football with a great bunch of lhadies. We still have the playoffs/championship but that doesn’t start for a few weeks. Which is great because I jammed the hell out of my right ring finger on the VERY first play of the game today and it is killing me! It’s all bruised and swollen. Fabulous. One of those things that you don’t realize how much you use a body part until it’s injured. I can’t straighten it or bend it without it hurting. Even though I got hurt missing a flag and my hand hitting the ground I am still proud that I went for it. My whole life I have always been the girl that will not sacrifice her body for the ball. Nope, not me. And now I am regularly throwing myself after people and getting injured and banged up. I am loving it! At the ripe old age of 31 I am on a team for the first time in my life. Yes really. No sports really at all for me period. I’ve told people my whole life that I am not an athlete, I am a nerd. And while I am by no means the fastest or strongest out there, I am pulling my own weight and knocking some big girls on their butts out there!

I love being on the other side, I’ve always been the cheerleader (not literally, I mean that I am on the sidelines) of friends games, my husband’s games, my kids’ multiple multiple sports. I love that I have a team that counts on me to play a part. We have fun on and off the field.  It’s an interesting dynamic and I am glad that I finally did it. I have tried recruiting some of the other women I’ve met on the island to come play with me and it’s been a pretty resounding ‘no thanks, I’m not athletic’. But it’s so much more than just being in shape. I think joining a team is a great thing for every woman to try, especially moms because they very rarely ever have time ‘just for them’.

Off to nurse my poor finger and hopefully get a call from my husband! Another port visit equals LOTS of phone calls (ran out of skype credit yesterday, whoops!) I am trying to get him to ‘guest blog’ his port visits but he’s not too thrilled with the idea. Maybe if I can ever get the pictures I’ll post them!

First leis!

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So my neighbor (and fellow ship wife) is from Hawaii and she and her mom were busily making leis for some function or another… Mckenna happened to be over there giving her a hand and got to come home with a couple of leis. We weren’t greeted with any at the airport (something that if we ever have anyone come visit us I will to do!) so this is the first time we got to wear a lei in Hawaii!

Omar’s interpretation:

 

Look mom! Flower hair!

My goodness I wish this kid could take a normal picture. Oh well they are still cute.

And of COURSE I had to torture my dog.

Right here he is thinking ‘wait until she releases me, I am going to eat this thing in 2 seconds.’ Which I didn’t let him do. I of course had to hang them up so they can dry. 

And so my collection starts. Just wait until Omar comes home, I am going to pile him up. The exchange even has leis with the mini bottles of booze. Love it!

 

 

Bellows Beach

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Oh my… how has it taken me three months to get to this beach? It. Is. Gorgeous!

Like the beach you picture in your mind when you think of hawaii? The perfect curl of white sand with lush green mountains in the back and gorgeous blue water?

 

 

Yeah. This is it. Beautiful, soft white sand… clear blue water… just lovely.

 

 

 

So we set up camp right at the edge of the woods (great campgrounds right next to the beach for all you campers!) and hit the waves.

 

 

We went with a friend of mine and her two kids and we all had a great time. The water was the perfect temperature and the waves were perfect for boogie boarding. Mckenna hadn’t done in years but picked it right up again.

 

 

I could sit here with this view forever.

 

Or this one!

 

Omar was a little miffed at me after we wiped out one time when I took him out on the boogie board. Nothing bad, I think it just surprised him. Time to rinse off and eat some more snacks!

 

 

Little Surfer Girls (boogie board girls?) They had a great time riding the waves and digging a giant hot tub in the sand.

 

Sandy, happy children. Really, who couldn’t be happy with this practically in our back yard?