The rain is back!

Ordinarily I wouldnt be too excited about this but the back yard is "balding" and todays rain soaked the ground pretty good! I hope the grass starts growing back!
This morning Kevin and I slept in (I am really enjoying this convalescent leave), then I headed down to Zumba. My hip was really feeling great, thanks to no exercise all weekend! I'm ready to complete all of my workouts for the week :)
After zumba, we caught up on a bunch of laundry and then headed to Lowes to pick up a couple of things. While there, we decided that we were starving, so we went to Chilis for an early dinner! It was delicious and I think I gained 3 lbs. Tonight has been and will be uneventful. I am starting to get tired, mostly because my insomnia reared its ugly head last night and I wasnt able to fall asleep until after 330am. This is the #1 reason I didnt go to spin class this morning--I didnt want to go running off of only 3 and a half hours of sleep. So I'm posting a little early tonight and I will be heading upstairs to bed VERY soon!
Since we got such a late start on today, I will be going into ACS tomorrow to get my resume done. I also am planning to go to kickboxing class in the morning! If Im feeling up to it, I may or may not go to step class tomorrow night :) Goodnight everybody!


 

State Fair

*We hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day! Remember the reason we observe this holiday--remember those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice, so that we may live in freedom. Also think about those who are still serving--whether it be overseas or here at the homefront. Never take freedom for granted because it isnt free*


Today, Kevin and I went to the state fair at Aloha Stadium. We didnt do much there, just rode the ferris wheel, took some pictures and walked around a bit. I really love fairs and carnivals because of the vintage appeal that it has. I took alot of pictures of signage during our time at the fair :)

The mister on the ferris wheel

Weeeeeee!!!! LOL

Neat ride that went upside down

I loved the cool signs :)
After the fair, we went down to Waikiki and had an early dinner at Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville. I even had a Mai Tai :) The picture below is of the overhead lamp at the bar. Isnt it awesome??

Once we were done at Jimmy Buffets, we planned on heading down to Ala Moana Beach Park to check out the lantern floating ceremony they had tonight. Kevin's stomach was really hurting so we decided to head home instead. When we were walking back to the car in the parking garage, we saw this!

Mmmmmmm....Ferrari...

Sexy, huh? As we were walking down the street a few minutes earlier, we also saw a yellow Ferrari (convertible!). Yay for living near super rich people LOL
Anyway, so that was our day!
Tomorrow I am going to spin class as well as Zumba, plus I will be going to the ACS office to get assistance on putting my resume together. I will be applying for a job at Time Warner Cable this week. With my 10 years of call center experience, I'm confident I will get the job! Bonus: Employees get free cable and internet. Saving 120 bucks a month is pretty sweet! Plus with the starting salary I will have my new camera in no time! Wish me luck yall :D

Lazy Sunday

Today was a great day! We slept in this morning, and lounged around most of the day. Kevin went outside for a bit to organize the tools in the garage and wash Betty Jeep. When he came back in, he informed me that he washed S.S.Sebring too...what a sweetheart!!! I love that man :)
the only time we got out of the house today was when we went to get smoothies! Other than that we have been just sitting around!
Tomorrow we may go to the state fair, followed by the lantern ceremony for our nations fallen soldiers. It should be a really neat event to attend, and I promise to have pictures if we make it out there!

Homemade Cupcakes

This morning I rolled out of bed at 9, only that early because I had to run to the store to get a few extra ingredients for the homemade cupcakes I wanted to make today. Most of the day was spent cooking for our BBQ and baking! For the first time EVER, I made cupcakes and frosting from scratch! I thought they werent going to turn out very well, but I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out PHENOMINAL!!! I made Chocolate chip cookie cupcakes with brown sugar/vanilla frosting. I topped them off with some mini chocolate chips and a mini chocolate chip cookie :) Everything but the chocolate chips and the mini cookie was made from scratch, and I must say I am really proud of myself! I got lots of compliments on them, which made my day! I cant take all of the credit though--my amazing KitchenAid mixer was the real workhorse of this project and mixed up all of my ingredients with no problem :)
So without further ado........

Not bad for my first time making them totally from scratch, huh?? Have I mentioned that I really love my mixer?? Because I do. I really really do.
The BBQ went really well, we had some good times with some good friends and good food! I'm hoping we have another get together really soon :)
Tomorrow, we are planning on sleeping in and doing a whole lot of nothing all day long! I dont want to clean, do laundry, or even come out of my pj's to be honest! I may make some cookies though.....
Goodnight everybody!!

Busy Friday

This morning I got up and headed to step class, thinking it would be just like any other Friday class. Boy was I wrong! You see, in a step aerobics class you typically use one step, like this--

Arent they having a great time??

Well today, when I got to step class, I discovered we were using.....

THREE. Yes, 3 benches. Per person. Yeah......

You know what? It was actually really easy to pick up (I have also done step using 2 benches, with the same instructor as today lol), and I got a really great workout despite my hip just not wanting to co-operate....again -__- (annoyed face). I actually tripped on my step more than once because my leg didnt want to lift when I told it to. I never trip anymore, so it was really disheartening. Damn hip.
I really enjoyed the class though, and I hope she does another multi-step class soon!!
Anyway, after step, I picked up Kevin at home and we made our way down to the commissary to grocery shop/check out the tent sale! The tent was so packed, I just skimmed over what they had, decided I didnt want anything from there, and went into the store instead. We hadnt been grocery shopping in awhile, so we spent a little more money than we wanted to--oops! We came home and both fell asleep on the couch lol... I only slept about 45 mins, but Kevin slept a couple of hours! Poor guy is still weak from his surgery, and todays shopping trip really wore him out!
Despite my hip this morning, I thought it was feeling better this afternoon, so I went to Zumba class. I even got there early so I could do some extra stretching, hoping my hip would loosen up some. The first part of class wasnt too bad, but my hip started getting stiff and sore again, so I had to take it down a few notches with my dancing :( The good news is that the gym is closed on Monday, so I will have a full 3 days of rest before I head back into my workouts. The pain is nothing I cant handle, its mostly just annoying and messes with my ability to have normal (well normal for me) movement and rotation. No dancing for me this weekend!
Kevin and I had some delicious California Pizza Kitchen store bought pizza for dinner (he cooked!) and I have spent the better part of the evening looking for a job (still.). I still need a job because well, I need to get back to work, but I have a little more motivation now to get a great job, because I saw these online and have now been obsessed with wanting to get one--

This is the Canon EOS Rebel T3i--it comes with an 18-55mm lens as well!

This is the Nikon D90--it also comes with a lens: an 18-105mm Nikkor zoom lens, to be exact! Rowrrrrr...

I'm having the hardest time deciding which one would be better! I really love the sample shots from both cameras, and for under a thousand bucks each, you cant really get better than a Canon or a Nikon. If any of you guys have either one of these sweet cameras, could you kindly share your experiences and advice?? I'm not looking to get into pro photography, but I really love taking beautiful pictures here on the island, and I can do alot more feature-wise with one of these bad boys than I can with my point and shoot Olympus. I still love our camera we have, and I will continue using it for underwater pictures, hiking, etc (its really tough and rugged). Anyway, these puppies are around $800-900 bucks apiece, so I see full time working with overtime in my future lol. Plus, we really need to start saving for our trip back home in December anyway (and with any luck, I will have one of these awesome cameras to get some sweet family photos with by then!).
Speaking of our trip: Because Kevin and I did not get pregnant in April, I can now join him on vacation @ Christmas time! We will be spending a week at his parents house, then a week at my parents. Christmas Day will be spent at Kevins moms house this year again (we were going to spend Christmas Day with my mom this year, but we found out Kevin is deploying and will not be home next Christmas, so his mom gets the holiday this year and my mom gets it next year). My mom was totally understanding about it-- Thanks, Mom!!! :)
I will let you guys know the exact dates when we have them! I am going to try and visit everyone I can when we are home :)
Okay, now I'm rambling so I will close this up-- tomorrow, I am doing some baking and cleaning in the morning, then we are having a BBQ with some folks from Kevins work! Long day tomorrow means I should head to bed and get my beauty just enough to function sleep!



 

Tropic Thunder Thursday

Warning: Our lives have been boring this week and nothing changed today.


This morning I got up and headed to Zumba class. Before I went, I had some breakfast and Facebooked for awhile (like I usually do). I dont know why, but one of my friends' status update about how she is basically tired of being pregnant really got under my skin. This young lady has been complaining daily about being pregnant since she got those 2 little blue lines. For her to basically say she is tired of being pregnant AT WEEK 11 really makes me upset. My opinion on that: Be lucky you can even get pregnant (and comparing your 6 months of not-officially-trying-but-not-doing-anything-to-prevent-pregnancy to mine and Kevins 2 years of actively trying with fertility treatments just isnt cool.) and STFU. For real. I hated to do it, but I blocked her from my newsfeed.
Anyway, I danced off my frustrations at Zumba class, and at the end of class I was suprised by Kevin, who wanted to take me out to lunch! What a sweetie! We only went to the food court, where he got chinese food and I got a smoothie, but nevertheless It was a good time :)
This afternoon we decided that we needed new bar stools for the island in our kitchen. We wanted the black ones, but we could only find brown, so we grabbed those and are planning to paint them! By the time we were done shopping, I really didnt feel like cooking, so we treated ourselves to Maui Mikes, a rotisserie chicken place near our house. Its super delicious :)
Tomorrow I will be heading to step class in the morning, then rushing home to shower and change before Kevin and I hit up the case lot sale at the commissary! I'm hoping they have some good deals :) I will also be going to zumba class tomorrow afternoon! Oh, and I really need to get baking--we have some of Kevins co-workers coming over on Saturday and they NEED some cookies...and maybe some homemade cupcakes..... hehe

Goodnight everybody!!!

Happy "hump" Day!

We didnt do much today. I was going to go to kickboxing this morning, but my hip was not cooperating, so I slept in instead! We lounged around for most of the morning, then decided to get smoothies and pick up Kevins prescriptions. Once home, I watered the lawn...again. I'm sorry I have to say this, but I REALLY hope it rains soon--my grass is dying!!! I also moved the bird feeder from the backyard to the front yard. I want to keep the birds away from our growing tomatoes and peppers!
My hip started feeling better, so I decided to go to step class this evening. Well, I didnt make it. Kevin wanted to go to Lowes and the bookstore (which we found out closed on Sunday!). I wanted to go to Lowes also to look at some grass seed,weed killers safe for the lawn, and some potential flowers. We also stopped at Starbucks to grab a coffee (for him) and a chocolate covered strawberry frappuccino (for me). We killed an hour and a half in Lowes--it would have been more but Kevin started getting a little tired. Now we are just relaxing in front of the TV :)
Oh, while we were getting smoothies today, we wandered into the PX and I showed Kevin the camera I really really want-- a Nikon D3100! He said he liked it and he may get it for me for Christmas unless I got a job and could get it sooner! Ive decided to apply for a job close to home that I was originally "saving" for when Kevin deployed. I'm excited to pay some bills off sooner and getting some extra cash for our trip home this December! I will keep you guys posted!

Terrific Tuesday

This morning Kevin had his first post op follow up appointment at Tripler. It went pretty well! The doctor said Kevin is healing wonderfully, but it is a slow healing process for this type of surgery. With that, he extended Kevins at-home healing time until July 5th. This means Kevin doesnt have to go back to work until July 6th! I'm happy he was approved for so much healing time :)
After the doc visit, we headed home so Kevin could nap, and I watered the backyard. It hasnt really rained here in over a week, and the grass is dying quickly! I dont mind the not raining part, but I still want our yard to look nice :( I also made it to the 1145 zumba class today as well! It was awesome, as usual, and I'm really happy that I am getting back into my routine!
This afternoon was spent cleaning the dreaded bathroom and being lazy. I did find some grass seed at Lowes.com that is compatible with our climate and dirt here!!! I am excited to pick up a couple of bags and make our yard pretty! I also found some weed killer that will not harm the lawn :)
Tomorrow I am seriously considering going to kickboxing class in the morning, then hopefully doing some gardening. Although I do have Kevin all to myself for awhile, so we may go to the beach (now that getting in the water has been officially cleared by the surgeon!). Kevin isnt strong enough to swim just yet, but he wants to get in the water for a little while. He has been wanting to go to the beach since like week 2 in the hospital lol
Anyway, off to get my beauty sleep! Hasta Manana :D



 

I'm back, baby!!!

Back in the gym, that is. Today I started my day off with step class, then went with Kevin to get him a much needed haircut. We also stopped by his office to chat with his Plt Sgt and some co-workers, who all noticed how much weight poor Kevin lost (22 lbs). I assured them that I would fatten him back up asap :P
When we got home, Kevin was pretty wore out (he is still really weak), so he took a nap while I did some yard work! I just have to say I. HATE. WEEDS. I'm still pretty new at gardening and what not, so does anyone know what kind of weed killer I can use that wont kill my plants out front?? I just dont want to pull those darn things anymore! I also pruned the shrubs (?-I have no idea what they are) that were growing in 15 different directions and taking up some serious space on our front lanai. I will be going to Lowe's tomorrow sometime to get something to put around the plant to prevent it from growing in all of those directions, as well as some mulch for the plant beds. I also want to find out what kind of grass seed is used for our front and back yards, so I can fill the dirt patches with some pretty grass! The yard looks like someone who is going bald but not quite there yet. This evening I went to zumba for the first time in 3 weeks! I am sooooooooooo glad to be back in the gym! Its my way of relieving stress, and I really love that I'm feeling more in shape :)
Tomorrow Im skipping spin class because Kevin has a follow up appointment @ Tripler in the morning. I will be attending Zumba at lunchtime though! I want to work on the yard some more as well once we get back from Lowes. I also want to bake something--anything! I really havent had the chance to use my new mixer yet (other than mashing potatoes lol). I may make some cookies :)
Off to bed with the mister! Good night yall!

Sunday lazy day

I woke up at 11:30 today. Apparently I was insanely tired or something! The early part of my day consisted of job hunting and window shopping online. The afternoon consisted of going to the grocery store (where I forgot stuff, naturally), grabbing a smoothie with Kevin, and getting a new hard case for my phone. The soft case just wasnt doing it anymore. I also cleaned out the refridgerator, which has been needing a cleaning for awhile now. Yep, that was our day. The whole thing. Now we are about to head upstairs and watch our Sunday evening shows!
Tomorrow, I will be going to step class, cleaning out my car, and doing some more housecleaning. I also plan on going to zumba tomorrow night!! I have a feeling its going to be really mellow around here for a few weeks while Kevin continues his recovery from surgery. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

 

Boot Camp and a girl date!

This morning I officially got back into the gym! The Saturday class this week was Boot Camp, and it kicked.my.butt.! My hip was SOOOO sore at the end of class, mostly because there was jogging and jump rope involved :-S I walked the last 2 rotations instead of jogging and that seemed to help. I know I will be feeling it tomorrow though, along with my arms, legs, and core!
After the gym, I went to lunch and a movie with my fabulous friend Annie! We saw "Bridesmaids", and laughed our butts off the entire movie! After the movie we hung out at her house just chatting away all afternoon while playing with Jasper, our friend Sarahs cute little Boston Terrier mix! He is soooo sweet, lovey and such a good dog! I had a great time, and it was nice to have a girls day out and get away from home for a bit! Not that I dont love hanging out with Kevin, but I needed a break after the 3 week hospital stay where all I talked to were doctors most of the time while Kevin slept. Kevin seemed really content relaxing at home reading and watching movies on the couch :) I got in pretty late, but Kevin stayed up playing his video game waiting for me! We are planning on sleeping in tomorrow, since Kevin is still a little weak to stay away from home long. I think tomorrow will be a really chill day, maybe some housecleaning, car cleaning, and alot of laying around! Good night folks!

A day in Waikiki

This morning we all got up and headed to Waikiki for the day (not before a Starbucks run, of course--and I have a new fave frappucino drink btw!) because it was the ladies' last day here and Kevin is finally out of the prison hospital. It couldnt have been a more beautiful day, and we had a great time! We hung at the beach for a bit, then took the trolley to do some shopping, and had a fabulous lunch at Jimmy Buffets! But all good great things must come to an end, and at around 4pm, we dropped the ladies off at the airport with hopes that they will come out and visit again real soon! They were so much fun to have here and I really wish they could have stayed longer! Thanks for a fabulous week ladies!!! So without further ado, here are some pictures from our day!

WARNING: Tons of pictures ahead!

Fat Koi fish!

Pretty Flower

The ladies doing the "shaka" wave

Waikiki was so pretty this morning!

MIL dipping her feet in beautiful Hawaii waters

Kevin and his mom

Aunt Barb @ Waikiki

Yacht in front of the Hilton

I heart palm trees

Goofing around :)

Waikiki

Pretty hibiscus flower :)

Papaya tree!

I have no idea what this flower is, but its pretty cool

Perfect Hawaiian day

Old tree

Rows of colorful origami in the DFS Shopping center

Close up of the origami... I really love the bright colors!

At Jimmy Buffets, deciding what to eat!

What I had... I felt like such a pig!

Bench outside of the resteraunt...

...so was this chair. I loved them!

My lover and me, riding the trolley!

 It was a long day, but Kevin did really well and we all had a blast! I cant wait to have more visitors!
Tomorrow, against my better judgement, I am going to boot camp class in the morning. Kevin wants to hang out at home all weekend and rest, so I may go to the movies with a friend tomorrow!
Good night :)