Aloha!

Aloha all!

Sorry I havn't posted since Father's Day. What a slacker I have been this week. Let's see...I don't remember what I did Monday but Tuesday I went to the beach with Beth and Lindsey. We just went to the Hickham Air Force beach right by the house. It's my favorite anyway.

I worked for a few hours on Wednesday morning at Mina Pharmacy giving shingles immunizations to seniors and I also worked there on Friday morning. After work, I went over to Beth Runkel's house. She is a hairdresser and she has the equipment at her house, so she highlighted my hair and trimmed the bottom straight across. I think she did a really good job, and it looks better than when I usually get it done at pricey places. She definitely has a customer!

On Saturday, Charles had duty and Kristen and I went on a hunt to find her new bedding for her guest room. She found the cutest stuff and I am so jealous! She got a shabby-chic bed spread and the good feeling cotton sheets. They feel like the old timey ones I love so much. I didn't even know you could buy them any longer, but you can- at Target of all places! I love the way that material feels when it is cool. It feels good on the skin...you all know what I'm talking about.

We got home around 5pm and I was supposed to attend a BBQ at a neighbor's house, but I just didn't feel like going without Charles. So I just stayed home and laid on the sofa like a lazy bum. I watched the movie "Marley and Me" about the family with the bad labrador. It was such a cute movie, but I definitely didn't have dry eyes by the end. I cried my face off! It was so sad. Sad but good. It made me realize what a "good" dog Bourb is! Now that's bad!

Today is Sunday, and once again I have been a useless human being. I picked Charles up from duty this morning around 8 and we have rested all day. We watched the movie "Taken". It was also a really good movie. I liked it a lot. I recommend watching it if you havn't yet.

Tomorrow I have to go to a CPR re-certification class at 9am across the mountains in Kaneohe. I hate driving over there. Its pretty, but I hate the drive over. I don't mind riding if someone else is driving, but it is very mountainous. I have to pay $40 to re-certify. My current one expires on June 30th and they can't schedule me for any shifts if I don't have a new one. Makes sense, I just hate it even though I do need a refresher. I am scheduled to work at the hospital on July 1, 2, 5, 6, 10, and 15th. All of those are twelve hour shifts, but they are spread out pretty good, so it shouldn't be too bad.

The Navy is having a Fourth of July Block Party on base right by our house next Saturday, so we will most likely walk over to that. They are having fireworks and other fun stuff.

Mom and Dad are flying in August 2-12th and I can't wait. It is going to be so much fun. Plus, I miss them both and I can't wait to see them! Aunt Deb and Uncle Bryan thought about coming too, but I havn't heard back from them, so I don't know if they will or not. Either way, I'm super excited. Charles will most likely be gone the entire month of August, so they won't be able to tour the submarine. That part kind of sucks. Hopefully they will get to before he gets out of the Navy.

Lately there have been some "happenings" in our neighborhood. Last week there was a peeping tom/ possible intruder a few houses down from us. He was caught and brought in by the police. Then again last night, there were three Honolulu Police and two Security SUVs circling the hood. I don't know what happened, but something did because there are never police here. I have been making sure to lock the doors AND set the alarm. I'm freaked now. Especially on nights that Charles has duty. I am glad I have Bourbon though...He barks at any abnormal noise and that makes me feel a bit safer. I know I wouldn't want him coming after me if he was mad. Him's a big boy now.

I'm having trouble uploading pics from my camera to the computer lately, so that is why there havn't been as many. I am trying though! Hopefully I can get some up this week.

Well, that pretty much gets everyone up to date on our life. We love you all and miss you so much. XOXOXO

Father's Day...

Charles had duty today...I brought him to work around 7:30 a.m. , and I will see him tomorrow night after work. After making the rounds of father's day calls, I settled into my pee-jays and laid around the house. ALL DAY. I feel like such a deadbeat. I hate days like this where you want to get motivated, but it just doesn't ever seem to happen. I rented an on-demand movie called "Rachel Getting Married" with Anne Hathaway and it was quite possibly the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. Let me save you some valuable time by telling you to never watch this movie. I fast forwarded through a lot of it and then felt like a fool for paying my $4.99 rental fee.

On a brighter note, Charles and I did go to the movies last night together and we saw "The Hangover". It was too funny. Crude in parts, but all in good fun and I laughed a lot. We felt like we got our money's worth on that one. The price for a nighttime movie here is $10 per person and $8.25 for military. So we got the discount. I love a good discount! The next movie I want to see is "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock. It looks really cute! I'm sure I'll have to wait until it comes out on DVD because I probably won't ever be able to drag Charles to the chick flick!

It's just getting dark here now, and baby Bourbon is curled up beside me in the living room chair. It always amazes me how such a big lug like him can manage to curl up comfortably in some of the smallest spaces. Felix had a mini-bath today and that thoroughly pissed him off to the point of him not speaking/looking at me. I have battle wounds down my legs from trying to hold him down. I hate cat scratches the worst- it always seems like they hurt the most. If he could only manage to clean his own behind...he could bypass most of the hassle. He's so fat, poor thing. When new people meet him for the first time they always say, "Dang that cat is fat!" or "Look at the size of that thing!". It has to hurt his feelings, I'm sure.

Well, enough for now. Law and Order: CI is on. I must part and get back to lounging. I did manage to get some laundry loads done, though. At least I'm not a total bum. Goodnight all.

Aloha and Mahalo and all that good stuff.

Pet Pics

Here are some shots Auntie Kristen got with her new expensive camera!

Auntie Kristen spoils Oliver and gives him milk...He knows just how to work her! Look at my boys, they are so happy! Sorry, but I can't get these to download any larger. So if you double click, they will probably still be small.

A new friend for Bourbon...

Aloha from Oahu!

Today Kim Bentley came over to the house to meet Bourb. She is another wife on the boat that happens to live in the neighborhood. She agreed to look after Bourb on the days that I work. She and Bourb hit it off well, and she is also an animal lover. I feel so relieved to have found her. She even said Bourb could ride in her car some. I know he will be so excited about this.

Right now, I'm sitting in the bedroom blogging on my laptop while Mr. Bourbon is sacked out. I wish you could see him. He is dead to the world. He is laying all stretched out on Charles' side of the bed! I even called his name: No response...Oh, wait...a slight response! He looked up with his lip all hanging out. Quickly back to rest when he realized I didn't want anything. He is such a character!

So I finished painting my table and chairs and Charles and I had our first dinner on our kitchen table tonight. I made Pasta with Steak and Arugula from my Giada deLaurentis Italian cookbook. OMG! It was so delish. Charles wasn't as excited about it as I was though. I ended up making him the old trusty mac n cheese later on. Atleast he tried it though. I was so impressed with myself. I have plenty of leftovers now all to myself, so I'm taking some for work tomorrow! Yum!

The neighbor kids came over again tonight to play with Bourb. It is usually just the ones next door each night, but tonight I think they brought the whole hood. There were six of them and Bourbon was beside himself with excitement! He loves when they come over, and I have gotten to where I don't mind it as much since they wear him out some. Other than that, they are a bit of a handful.

Charles is watching the Arkansas and Virginia game on tv right now, and I'm hoping we are off to bed soon. I have a big day ahead of me. Ta Ta for now.

Trip to the tip of the island...

Update!

So it has been a long week! I started work last Thursday and it went really good. There is a lot for me to learn still, but I think it will all be okay. I worked Friday also and then had the weekend off to spend with Charles. We were invited to a crab boil on Saturday night by some people from his boat. It was really good, just not like back home. Nothing like back home!

Sunday afternoon we drove out to the Northwest Point of Oahu where the road ends (literally)! The boys wanted to snorkel and see what it was like out there. It was pretty, but the water was just too cold and choppy for me. Like I said before, the sorroundings have to be almost perfect for me to get in the water. So I laid on the beach again...which I don't mind. It was really hot that day though. I have decided that I want to invest in a beach chair with the little shade thing attached so I won't be soooo hot. I think that would be a smart investment since we go to the beach so much and we live in Hawaii.

On Monday, Charles had to go back to work duty. I set out for some errands and I wanted to search for a kitchen table. We don't have one, so we always are eating on the sofa and Bourbon is at that same level. I need a table. The one I really want is at Pier 1 and is too expensive, so I was trying to find something cheaper. I had an urge to stop at the local thrift store...my gut was just telling me that I needed to. And boy, am I glad I did! I found an old kitchen table for just $15 dollars! I bought it...I figured "who could go wrong?" I am going to need to paint it, but I think I can handle that just fine. I have to figure out how to get it home though. Salvation Army doesn't deliver. I think it may fit in Kristen's jeep, but not sure yet. We shall see... I recovered and repainted the chairs that I found and I will post some pics later. Then I took a much hated trip to the commissary where I saved another $23 dollars in coupons! I can't imagine going shopping without coupons. Its like giving away free money. I will never shop without them. My bill was about $150 for groceries, and with the coupons it went down to about $126. Wow! What a savings! And that pretty much completes my Monday.

Now it is Tuesday morning and I am blogging. Blog, Blog, Blog. I'm still in bed, just blogging...Supposed to be checking out the new scrapbook store in Kahala today with bestie. I am kind of excited...I always like to find new ones!

Charles' boat has been delayed again. I will let everyone know when he will be going back out to sea. It may be a while. For now, he is happy being home. Except when he has to go to work! But I don't think anyone likes to go to work. They are having some issues with some folks on the boat, so I think that they are trying to get it all resolved. I love having him here with me, but the laundry pile does grow to gargantuan size and there is always a mess left wherever he goes. Ahh! The joys of living with the opposite sex. Mind boggling to me. Everything has a place...SO PUT IT THERE!

Stay tuned...I will try to post more soon.

Finally, This day has come!

FINALLY! I just spoke with the staffing agency and I will be starting work tomorrow morning. I will be working 12 hour day shifts from 6:45 am - 7:15 pm. Whew! I'm going to be exhausted, but it's totally worth it! I will be making $22 an hour to start with...I think you only make more if you work on holidays. But that is completely fine with me! Its a whole lot better than the $0 I have been bringing in lately! So I just wanted to shout out the good news. Probably won't be blogging for a while... Love and miss everyone! XOXOXO Lacie

Turtle Videos...

Turtle Beach...

Charles & I drove out to the North Shore yesterday to swim with the sea turtles! It was such a great day to do it too! There were probably about 20-30 out in the area. Charles snorkeled with them for a while and then I went in (since we only have one snorkel right now-HIS!) It was so much fun to get to see them swimming right under our feet. Every now and then, one would get curious and come a little too close for me...It was freaky...I didn't realize I would be scared of a sea turtle, but they were HUGE! Charles thought it was funny that I was scared and held on his back while he flippered me around! I'm so glad we got to do this together...and wait...We are so blessed to have this chance to live here with such great opportunities to do things like this whenever we choose. It's so amazing to see such beautiful animals up close and personal! I have videos...we will see if they will upload...

Bourbon Herndon...

Bourbon loves his new backyard!

Before and After...

Aloha All!

Hope everyone is getting some nice weather on this wonderful Saturday-we sure are! Charles has duty today, so he will be home tomorrow morning. He has already instructed me that he will be wanting to go snorkeling! That means a beach day for me! That's always exciting!

Today, Kristen and I went to the east side of the island ( Hawaii Kai and Kahala) and made it to six or seven yard sales. We also made it to the dive shop to pick up a flipper clip for one of Charles' fins. We hadn't planned on going to all those sales, but it was just a perfect day to be out and about enjoying the day.

Kristen bought a really neat wall shelf that she is going to paint and distress for her kitchen, or possibly to sell. I got a $5 solid wood chair and an $8 nightstand to paint and distress for the house or maybe to sell. I havn't decided yet. I have painted a lot of things to look "shabby chic" in the house. It seems to be all the rage over here to paint stuff and sell it! Which I'll have to admit, I am pretty darn good at! Plus, its always nice to make a little moo-lah!

I have gotten all my recycling together to take to the drop off with Kristen. Last time I made over $3 just for dropping off recycling! What easy savings! So now we have recycling bins at the house and we save it all...five cents each adds up pretty fast! Not to mention, I'm doing my "good deed" for mother earth.

I can't wait to get back and paint some of my new finds! I will have to take some before and after shots to share with everyone!

Ta ta for now!

It's JUNE already!

Aloha everyone!

Can you believe it is June already? Well I can't. Time is just flying by. Before you know it, we will be back home...I hope it doesn't fly by too fast though! he he! I hope everyone has been doing well.

Charles' boat was postponed this week from going underway, so they may not be leaving until early next week. The boat was selected by the Discovery channel to be on one of their documentaries to be aired on Labor Day...but with the schedule changes and delays, I'm not so sure if they will use our boat or choose another. This could be disappointing. Everyone wants their husband to be on tv!

Charles and I drove out to the west side of the island Tuesday so he could go snorkeling. He wanted to go to the beach known as Electric Beach. It is where the Hawaii Electric Company is and there is supposed to be good snorkeling around that area. He said it was decent snorkeling. I didn't go...I laid on the beach. I'm not much of a salt water girl...I have to be in the right mood to get out there! Besides, some of his friends came, so it was more like a "guy's snorkeling time"!

Bourbon is as busy as ever. He has been getting more small cysts all over his body lately. They come and go and pop and bleed and so on. I'm hoping he will grow out of them soon. I think he has about twenty all over his body at any given time. So everyone pray that they get better and go away soon. I can't imagine that they would be comfortable, but he doesn't act like he is in pain. The kitty boys are doing fine too! But they are mostly "un-busy" with all the napping and sunning they partake in.

So, the job has been postponed until next Tuesday. I feel like I am never going to get to work. The company lost my paperwork and I had to resubmit a lot of pages. Hopefully from now on, all will go smoothly dealing with the job. I would just say "forget it" and find another, but the pay is best with this company and I am hoping they will get themselves in gear.

We miss everyone and hope that you think about us and keep us in your prayers. Hopefully soon, everyone can come visit us on the island!