Counting down

Well we now have less than a year left in Hawaii.
Just like when we were geting ready to leave Spain I am getting super sad and nostalgic before we even leave. It does feel like less time than that because Omar is deploying in late winter so we have to get all of out Hawaii to-do stuff done before he leaves.

I don’t want to go! I love, love, love it here. The weather, the people,  the food, the ocean, the mountains. 

So soon it will be decision time… where to go next. Of course it’s not like it is our decision entirely, the Navy will offer us a list of options and we will choose a few of those. We will either get one of them or have to try again next month.
Now staying on this ship IS an option but honestly not a real one. This command has been ROUGH. In the 3 years we will have been on this ship, Omar will have been underway or deployed for over half of it. We are ready to get away from this intense pace.
Omar would really like to get back to Virginia, he is ready to be back near family buy a house and settle down.
I am not ready to go back! I love and miss our family but I love living all over the world and can’t imagine living back on the mainland. 
Its just hard because Mckenna is going to be going into high school soon and I don’t want her to have to move in the middle of a school year then.
But as always I stress and make plans and the Navy will probably throw us another curveball!

What is your dream duty station?

Girly Nautical Baby Shower

One of my good friends is expecting a baby girl this summer and I could not WAIT to throw her a shower. I though that since her husband is a sailor (and she is a former sailor herself) that we could do a cute nautical theme. But forget just boring old navy blue, lets girly it up and add some PINK!

I wanted to make a cute banner and I was having such a hard time finding what I wanted on island (our craft stores are a joke) Finally, FINALLY I found the cutest chipboard pennant that I was able to customize. It was already white so I just added navy blue strips of cardstock in an alternating pattern. Then I added some hot pink letters. I strung it on some pink twine and was SO happy with the way it turned out!

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On the front door I made a quick welcome sign. I actually failed a bit because I accented with red instead of pink. Whoopsie. The whole party theme just fell apart right there. For this I just used posterboard and traced a life preserver shape. Then once cut out laid it on the red posterboard and traced it. Then cut out three sections and laid them on top. Easy peasy $1 door decoration.
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Food table! Can I be super-pretentious and say ‘table scape’? I actually had a ton of fun with this one. First off, my table is a massive square and NO tablecloths ever fit it. Well my mind must have been working on overdrive because guess what fits it perfectly? A shower curtain! I found this one at Target, $12 I think? Over the top of that went some craft store fish netting and then some broken sea shell vase filler (again from Target, so much cuter, less messy and more on theme than confetti!) The ceramic urchin was stolen from my master bathroom decor.
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I did also find some cute anchor wood cut outs I used to decorate here and there (painted reluctantly by my daughter):
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(Tulle from Walmart + wood anchors $1/chair decor!)

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The dessert table was the one thing I wanted to turn out perfect. And I am actually happy with it. Just bummed I didn’t have time to do a backdrop but you know what, most people don’t. My plates will have to suffice! I found the BEST fabric store on island (danger!) and found this cute chevron fabric. (Starfish print stolen from the guest bathroom)
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Macarons from Life Is Sweet. Yum! (and I could have gotten them all pink to coordinate but what fun is that?)

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Easy peasy berry tarts. Like no, REALLY easy! Pie crust (homemade for me because I am a pie crust snob, you could use store bought no prob) cut into circle (use the rim of a glass if you don’t have a circle cookie cutter) gently shove into mini cupcake pan (you can also make a ball and then just squish it into place. Whatever you feel like doing. Bake until done at 350. I think it was 9-10 min for me. Cool. Make vanilla pudding (oh yes, so cheatery and also delicious). Right before you want to serve fill with pudding and top with a perfect berry. No joke I couldn’t stop eating these little bites of yumminess.

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The cake I did NOT do. I know my limits on cake making and my idea of what I wanted greatly surpassed them! She did such a great job! (Kimmie*cakes located in Ewa, she is on FB) and the cake didn’t just look good it was delish. Red velvet with cheesecake mousse filling. Oh yes.

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I forgot to snap a picture of drinks before everyone hit them up, but I just had them on my bar. Plantation tea (the best drink eva! Iced tea with pineapple juice. In this case Mango Iced tea with pineapple juice. So. Good.)
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And make those gifts do double duty as decor! Thank you baby clothes designers for keeping on theme! Little girls have the best clothes. Another one of our friends had a couple of items custom-embroidered which was even cuter.
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Happy Baby Shower Alex! It was so much fun to throw!

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Oh don’t think even MORE nautical clothing didn’t show up in the actual gifts!

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Our great group of ladies! We had so much fun we moved the party outside, added our husbands and kids and hung out all night!

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Pin it!

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I Am Employed!

So yeah, another looonnnggg absence and I am so annoyed at myself. It felt so good to get back into the swing of blogging again. But I do have a bit of an excuse, I was seriously job hunting again. I have never in my life had such a difficult time finding a job! I have always, ALWAYS gotten the job I wanted before now.
And now that I am thinking about it (and just because I want to) I am going to reminisce about my past jobs…
Age 16: First job, Hastings. I LOVED this job. It is a big Pacific Northwest chain of book/music/video stores. I had so much fun working here. I remember when DVD’s first started trickling onto our shelves. Loved it!
17/18, Schlotzsky’s, went to work there because one of my best friends was working there. Another super fun job, loved it. I ended up getting promoted to baker which was awesome. Got there at like 6 am to bake all the bread and pizza crusts.
17/18, Also worked at ol’ Papa John’s for awhile. I will always, always tip delivery drivers well because of this job.
18, I worked as a cocktail waitress for about 5 minutes at a country club at a golf course. Never really liked it.
-Big move to Virginia-
First week in VA, walked into a Petco, filled out an app got interviewed and hired on the spot. Worked at Petco for three years, becoming assistant manager and meeting the man I was going to marry my first day of work.
After Mckenna was born I started working at a vet’s office part time while Omar went to boot camp. I really enjoyed it but then it was time to move again, this time down to Virginia Beach.
I didn’t want to work outside the home so I started nannying which was great. I got to make some money but still be home with Mckenna. Once again, every family I interviewed with wanted to hire me! I am an awesome interview!
When we moved to Spain Omar was a baby so I wasn’t rushing into work anytime soon and the job market is seriously limited. When he was almost 3 I was ready. I applied at the commissary (one of the few jobs on base) and got hired.
After a year I moved over to the CDC which was even better, I was full time M-F and I could pop in on Omar anytime. I loved working the CDC the coworkers and families were awesome.
Then the move to Hawaii.
Ugh.
What a disheartening time I had.
For the first year I wasn’t really looking too seriously. Omar was deployed and I wanted to be home for the kids.
But then I started looking for real and I didn’t hear back from anyone! I sent out resumes, even got called in for a few interviews and NOTHING!
I know I had a gap in employment and no one really likes to hire military spouses because we move all the damn time, but come on!
I finally updated my resume once again to make it a skills based resume to highlight all my insane skillz, and redid my cover letter and finally got some nibbles again!
I interviewed with a local company and got hired on the spot. FINALLY!
And no, this isn’t my dream career or anything close to it, it’s just admin/accounts receivable (crazy enough I was actually an accounting major before decided I would kill myself if I had to do it for the rest of my life and ended up finding my passion in environmental management. Joke’s on me.) It’s a big parts wholesaler, with a million delivery drivers, but the clerical staff is just me and 4 other ladies. All who are super nice (so far!)
I love the hours, I work four hours in the morning (after dropping the kids off at school) then come home, eat lunch, pick up the house, laze around watching tv for a bit, then time to pick up the kids again. So far it’s working out perfectly. And I am really enjoying being in the ranks of the employed again!

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