Basketball Tournament

We went to a college basketball tournament last night. We watched two games (5th place and the championship game) for the price of one game. Heck of a deal!

Playing for 5th place was Hawaii vs. Pepperdine of Malibu, CA. Hawaii won the game, which was nice after the football team got their behinds handed to them at the Hawaii Bowl game.


Action shots! We were at the top row...which was okay because I don't think there is a bad seat in the whole place.


Here they are recieving their trophy.

The championship game was Buffulo Bulls (from NY) vs. Colorado State. It was a good game. We went closer to the bottom since everyone left after the Hawaii game was over. I got better action shots.

We left at this point in the game. We were tired after 2 games. We think we knew who was going to win.

Outside the arena...rainbows, rainbows everywhere!

And of course, we had to get a picture together!

I got the job at the child development center. I won't start till the 12th of January. I have to go through training of some sort before I start. I'm glad to have the job. It makes for perfect timing as well because we are hoping to go to the Big Island at the beginning of January. Oliver will go with us because I can't sleep without him.

Last night we went to a college basketball tourney. We watched the game for 5th place and then the championship game. I post pictures when Andy gets home-he took the camera with him and I only have a few of the pictures. I rather post all than some.

My Oliver in his overalls. And as you can see, he has both eyes.

I forgot to put this picture up before I left Kansas.

Photos

Below are a bunch of photos for you to check out. Christmas was pretty low key around here. The weather kind of takes the fun out of Christmas. I did get a new ipod classic from Andy for Christmas so that was super cool. I was very excited about it and LOVE IT.

We have our name on the "housing list". So funny...we are number 249th on the list to get base housing. They said 2-4 months, but a lot of people have told us it won't take that long. I just hope I get a job before that happens.

I did apply for a job at the local child and development center, soooo...this week I find out. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Enjoy the pics...

We have rainbows almost daily here.



Oliver in his Lakers outfit. He isn't missing an eye, he just has messy hair.

We're at the Hawaii Bowl. It was Hawaii vs Norte Dame. Hawaii lost 49-21.

Hawaiian sunset

A picture I took....I thought it looked nice.

That's me

That's Andy...smiling really big.

Almost!

This morning Andy went to play basketball at the gym, so I decided to go work out too. I weighed myself this morning also, I've lost 4 pounds since I've been here. It must be water weight because believe me, I don't look 4 pounds lighter. Anyway, while I was waiting on Andy to finish his game I noticed these men in rather nice clothes for the gym. Then the MP's were going around the gym with a dog searching for something. What do you know? President-Elect Obama was on his way to the gym! I didn't get to see him because Andy got done with his game and had to get ready for work. Darn it! It wouldn't surprise me if I barely missed him by like, 2 minutes. Oh well, he'll be here for another nine days. I hope I see a glimpse of him.

Sorry everyone! I can't get my body or brain adjusted to the time difference. I feel sleepy by 5:30 here and I don't want to do anything. But as of yesterday, I have been back in Hawaii for a week. Time seems to be going very slow or fast? I'm not sure because it seems like I've been here longer than a week. Here are a few updates:

Today I had a job interview at a child development center. I think the interview went well, but I wonder if I'm under or overqualified for a job working with such little kiddos.

Yesterday, we sat on the deck under the nice warm sun and played scrabble. I lost. That's all I have to say about that. But I feel half bad being in such beautiful weather while our families are experiencing freezing temperatures right now.

It seems as if Andy is having a lot of good luck at the moment. On Friday night we met up with some friends and went bowling. Andy got 7 strikes in the first game! His score ended up being a 188. The next 2 games after that, he barely got over hundred...but I am proud of him for getting 7 strikes. The only thing Andy isn't doing very well with right now is his Call of Duty game. It's an ugly sight sometimes.

It's hard to see, but on the first name on the right is Andy. That's a picture after getting his 4th strike in a row.

Oh yeah, Andy and I went to the movies last night and what in the parking lot? Chickens!

Pictures in case you need proof.

One last note...two different families have invited us over to eat with them on Christmas. It's so nice that people are opening up their homes to us. We have yet to really figure out what we're doing. I think it would be kind of neat to make a dinner here for us. But being with friends is always a really wonderful thing when family is so far away.

I hope everyone is keeping warm! Drink some hot chocolate for me (I still drink it here even though we have warm weather).

Oliver

Oliver went shopping today! Okay, I went shopping for Oliver...how crazy would I look carrying around a stuffed dog in the mall? I'll show you his new outfit later (it's very appropriate for Hawaii). But in the spirit of the holiday season, this is Oliver's current outfit. I should have gotten the Santa hat too, but Andy convinced me otherwise. Gosh darn him! LOL...Oliver is super cute just the same.

Greeting from Hawaii

Yes, I am in Hawaii. I arrived a few hours shy of 24 hours AFTER I was supposed to have gotten here. I was delayed in Texas for mechanical issues. We left 45 minutes after we were supposed to. So I then ran to my connecting flight to Hawaii from Seattle. The airplane attendants were nice enough to move me to the front and the pilots even got on and said for everyone to stay seated and let all of off so we could try and make our flight. Well 5 of us missed the flight and stayed the night in Seattle courtesy of Alaska Airlines AFTER running back and forth all over the airport from one end to the other and getting on shuttles to different terminals. The next day we were scheduled for a 9:05 AM flight and what do you know? Delayed for 3 and half hours! They then decided to put us on another flight. I finally arrived at 5:45 PM in Hawaii. I was so thankful to finally be here after that adventure.

The last two days have primarily consisted of me getting unpacked, going grocery shopping, and running errands. Andy took the week off to hang out with me. I am also enjoying watching Andy play the new Call of Duty game (he's not very good yet so I mainly watch him die a lot).

The rain as subsided for now. Hawaii has millions of dollars in damages from flooding. I did happen to make it out of Kansas in the nick of time. It is cold and snowy there (nice to see, but I hate to drive in snow and be in the cold). It was 82 degrees today and I wore flip flops. Andy's family is also experiencing snow. I think I'm happy being here and away from that!

Everyone have a great Wednesday!

Time

Time?

Time to leave
Need more time
Running out of time

I feel like my life is being run by time these days. I'm stressing out about how much I need to get done before I leave back to Hawaii. I'm at least mostly packed.

I'm also a little disappointed because I applied for a job and it sounded like I had a really good chance to get it. The person that worked there said that nobody had come close to filling the position. But I called today and the director had put paperwork in for someone else. BUT the lady also said that personal had forwarded my application on for another position. That's a good thing but I was still disappointed.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Memed

I've mentioned her before and now she's gone and memed me. Michaele said I gotta do this before I get home to Andy. Now is a good time, so here we go.

There are rules of course:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog. Done
2. Share 7 facts about yourself, some random, some weird. Done
3. Tag 7 people (if possible) at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. I don't have 7 blog friends, so I'll tag just one.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs. Done

1. I have a birthmark on my right thigh that I used to absolutely hate. I wouldn't even want to wear shorts because I didn't want anyone to see it. I don't mind it anymore.

2. My favorite hair products are FRIZZ-EASE by John Frieda. It keeps the frizzies away.

3. I often don't brush my hair because I tend to just pull it back in a bun.

4. I love going to the movies. I'm happy that Andy does too. I've never had someone to go with like I do now.

5. Ice Cream is my favorite dessert.

6. I'm a lotion freak. I put it on all the time and am always on the lookout for lotion that keeps me moisturized. My current faves are Lay It On Thick by Bath and Body and Gold Bond Ultimate in Aloe.

7. I'm currently in the process of watching Harry Potter Weekend on TV because even though I have the DVD's, whenever it's on TV, I gotta watch.

I'm going to meme...Ashleigh

My jaw dropped

First: Andy is back in Hawaii! I'm very excited about it. He got home about 4:30 am my time.

Now on to the craziness. Today the whole school went to Topeka to watch the ballet, The Nutcracker. It was very good. But on the way out back onto the bus, we saw a church holding signs. The signs said "God hates Obama" and "Fag Santa". I just couldn't believe it. How could a church be so hateful? How can people think that those were appropriate signs to be holding up? All kinds of schools from the surrounding area were there to see the ballet. Kids shouldn't be subjected to that hateful thinking.

On his way

Last night (1: 55 and 2:06 am) I got an email from Andy. He's in Greece right now. I don't know when he'll be back in the U.S. or in Hawaii, but very soon I'm sure. I had been thinking he was leaving his secret place since I got an email that said he'd call me soon and winked at me. It was so exciting to hear from him and to know he'll soon be home. Here's a picture of Greece from his hotel room.

Short-timers?

My time is becoming short and soon I'll be heading back to Hawaii. And just as my year came to an end last year, I keep getting asked the same question. "Do you have short-timers? I would". I say the same thing as last year, I have a lot of stuff to get done and don't have time to get short-timers. I just think it's funny. Am I excited? Am I ever!

Andy's pinky finger is still very swollen and bruised. Do you think he went to see the doctor? Of course not. I asked him to send me a picture of it so I can show all of you and I can see it too. But his time is short and he can't seem to find time to do that (even though he just sits around all the time).

By the way, did you see Jupiter and Venus next to the moon. I took some pictures but it didn't look very good. I'm going to go out in a bit to see if I can get a better one. Andy said he got some good pictures but again, he doesn't have time to send it to me =).

I hope everyone had a good Monday back to work.

Recovering

I am recovering from all the eating I have done yesterday and today. How could I pass all that yummy food that I prepared (minus the turkey and gravy)!

Today we got up early and did some shopping. It wasn't my idea, I would rather sleep in. But since I don't get much sleep these days, I figured...why not? I didn't find any good deals, but my parents did. I wasn't shopping for anything except for a microSD card for Andy's new camera. And I did get one for his camera and a larger one for my cell phone.

I got him a camera for Christmas that he had been looking at for some time now. It's a camera where he will be able to take it in the water with him when he snorkels. (Did I tell you guys this already?) It would have been better for me to wrap it up and let him be surprised, but the reality is...if he wants something, he gets it. It's better he knows than he buy it himself and I buy it too.

Andy called this morning. He played football (and did a good job...jock!) but hurt his pinky finger. He said it is very swollen right now. I told him to get it looked at and I hope he does.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving Day and it is very hard being away from Andy on such a family oriented holiday. He has already had his turkey dinner and is playing his new PSP. He's playing Madden and keeps losing to one of his friends. He is taking up space right now at his work area because his replacement is there and taken over everything.

We are supposed to show how thankful we are today. I, on the other hand tell myself daily how blessed I am for having found such a wonderful husband, having a great family and such special friends.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Wow, I am tired today. I could hardly crawl out of bed today. Andy called several times this weekend. He isn't on the computer very often anymore, so he calls. This weekend was busy with shopping but not sleeping. I still find it hard to sleep but hopefully I won't have that problem with that tonight.

School tomorrow will be fun. We are having a beach volleyball game against the 4th and 5th grade teachers. At my old school we would play kickball against the 5th graders and the faculty always won. Hopefully we'll that kind of outcome tomorrow as well. I didn't even know about this until today. It hasn't been hyped up very much.

I am excited to be having 5 days off. We'll see how much blogging I get done in those days. I plan on starting and finishing Twilight. And start figuring out what I will be taking with me to Hawaii. So if I'm not here much-its just because I'm busy. I hope all of you have a great long weekend and enjoy your family.

Well, once again I've been called out for being behind on the blog. It has been a fast several days and I find myself worn out at the end of the day.

School is going very well. Everyone that I'm involved with seems to be happy with the changes and we are now in a groove. It doesn't get much better than that. I might actually be pretty good at this job...of course I have all the perks and none of the downsides like paperwork. I'm not stressed at all and I get to see and talk to so many people.

I am even doing the after school program for one hour everyday. And I really do enjoy it.

Andy will be back to Hawaii soon. His replacement has arrived and Andy will be showing him what to do. He says that everyone there is ready to leave and are all moody (including him). I must be ready to because I had a dream last night about packing up my stuff.

Other than that, I think that life has been pretty much the same. I find that I have been catching up with a lot of old friends lately and it makes me very happy.

Here is my friend Jennifer and me having drinks and dinner earlier this week.

Some of this and that

I have completed my 2nd day in my new position and I have no clue what I'm doing. I'm doing my best with what I know and hope it works out. There is so much that I don't understand about this position. I look at things from a regular ed teacher and question things a lot. I'm probably driving the principal nuts-but she says I'm not. I do find that my days fly by very fast and I'm not as stressed. That's a nice feeling.

The teacher I subbed for in first grade was very pleased to see the progress the kids have made and bragged about me and them. Imagine that! I did something good.

While it was nice to hear "you did a good job" from another teacher, nothing compares from hearing that from a former student. You always hope that you are making a difference or an impact. On Sunday I received a message from one of my former students. She is at a new school this year and told me that she is doing wonderful. She thinks it was because she was in my class. I actually teared up when I read it. It makes all the hard work and stress worth it.

One last thing. I read something in the book I'm reading (Twilight) and it stuck out to me. I wonder what all of you think of it.

"When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end."

Chuck E. Cheese

Sunday the family went to Chuck E. Cheese. We had such a great time. David had went there once before with his dad's family and he hated it. He was scared...but not this time!

Weekend w/Jo

It has been such a fast weekend and very busy. Jo and her boyfriend came in to town on Friday and I feel like we haven't stopped since she's been here. We went to dinner on Friday night and laughed, talked, and caught up.

On Saturday we went to a bar in Manhattan to watch the KSU vs NE football game. Yes, we lost but its okay. The season has been awful anyway. We had yummy food, drinks and enjoyed chatting it up.

But before we went to the bar, we went to the mall. A few people have talked to me about the book Twilight. It is coming out as a movie this Friday. I hadn't heard of the book before but I thought that I should get it. Jo's boyfriend, Gene, wanted to read it too. So we had to make a trip to the bookstore.

Here are some pictures from the bar.

Me, Marcie, and Jo


Jo and Gene

Gene being a nerd and reading at a bar-guess the game was boring him!

Pictures from when we went to the zoo for their halloween thing. Sorry it took so long! I can't even recall if I ever said we went to this. The pictures were on my sister's camera and I finally got them from her.

Finally Done

Today I was finally done in 1st grade. I made it through 8 weeks with them and I'm excited to be out of there. But when I was leaving the classroom today, I felt weird. It just felt odd to leave and know I wasn't in that room anymore.

I will now be SPED teacher. I'll work with kiddos who have a learning disability of some sort and already that has caused me to have headaches. Before I go back to school on Monday, I have to come up with a new schedule of when I'll be pulling the kids and how I will be able to service all their needs.

It doesn't matter where I go or what I do...just like in everyone elses daily jobs and careers there are always things that make our heads hurt.

Andy is almost done from where ever he is and I'm excited for that. I can't wait to be able to call him when I want instead of writing a bunch of emails throughout the day just so I don't forget to tell him something. And not have to wait for him to call me.

Oh yeah...here is a picture of my new bag. Its so big, way bigger than I thought. My nephew fits inside of it! Also, it is ecosensitive made from recycled water bottles.

Odds and Ends

Yesterday was a "busy" day for me but I forgot to tell you the most important part! If you followed this blog during the summer, then you already know how I watched a lot of reality TV. Yesterday I did that! I watch a marathon on The Real Housewives of Atlanta. And I scheduled a reminder in my phone so I can watch it tonight. Awful, I know! But it was so lovely to sit in a warm bed watch TV all day.

Also I keep forgetting to tell you that Andy got his tennis shoes stolen. He has to walk a mile from "home" to work, so when it was raining his shoes got wet. He left them out to dry and they got stolen. Apparently his weren't the only ones to get snatched up. Its a good excuse for him to get a new pair of shoes.

This is my last week with 1st grade. Three days left and yes I'm counting down! We have gotten into a nice groove and now its time for me to move on to my next assignment. I hope the teacher appreciates all the work I've done and I also hope they (her and the class) will get get in sync easily. She wants to come and observe how our day goes before she comes back and I hope she can.

Have a warm night!

Back to work...

Today was such an ugly, cold, grey, and rainy day and I enjoyed it very much. I did get a lot done but from the comfort of my bed.

I looked up what I had to do in order to sub in Hawaii. It is very difficult compared to what people have to do here. I have to interview with schools to see if they want me to sub at their school and then take a 30 hour class. The upside is, I get paid what the certified teachers get paid because I'm certified. I also think that it would be the best way to earn money for a while since Andy and I plan on taking an extended vacation in March/April.

I also registered with a job website that help military spouses find jobs. I had to fill out quite a bit of stuff...but that's what you gotta do to get a job.

And lastly, I found a family doctor that I'm going to call this week to schedule an appointment with when I get to Hawaii. I have been so spoiled having my doctor. I worked for him for 6 years, so I have an in. When I need something, I call up and they get me right away and fix me up. Spoiled! And I feel like my current doctor is the best. He's an internal medicine doctor but he sees me for general things. I decided instead of having a doc for general things and a doc for girlie things is too many docs. So I decided to do just one doc that can do it all. Plus family doctors deliver your baby and I prefer to have one doctor for everything so he/she would know every thing going on.

I told you I was busy today.

Super cold weekend

This weekend is shaping up to be quite cold. Brrr is the only word that comes to mind to describe how cold it is. And even though it has been a cold day, I did manage to do a little running around. I had lunch with my friend LaToyia at an overpriced cafe'. But the atmosphere was nice and the hot chocolate was yummy. I also got in some grocery shopping for some semi-healthy snacks. Oh, that reminds me I bought oatmeal raisin cookies; I should have one before bed! And finally I went to my old school to do a bit of volunteering. They had their annual fall carnival. I know how much work it is to put it on from my previous years of working it, so I knew they could use the help. But they seemed to have things covered, so I dipped out early.

I did get a chance to chat with my friend Jana (she's gave me the CD that had Cool Bear Hunt). I have been blessed with some very special friends and Jana is one of them. I don't see or talk with her often. She is very busy with trying to finish her teaching degree and doing interning so time is limited. But she is not too busy to check on me and I'm thankful for that.

Other friend news...my dear friend Jo is coming to town next week. I'm very excited about that. I met her through a friend in college and we'd party together. We have remained friends throughout the years and I'm so excited to see her and finally meet her boyfriend. I'll post pics!

And tomorrow is a special day. We are taking my nephew to watch Madagascar 2 tomorrow. He has only went one other time to the movie theater and that was last weekend. I'm excited! He calls the movie "move it, move it" because of one of the songs that's in the first Madagascar. He loves music and dancing.

Stay warm !

Well, well, well

Well, well, well...I said I would get these kiddos the way I wanted them before I left them and what do you know, I think that might come true. I might be crazy for saying this but they have been so wonderful and I am feeling great about them. I find the days to be not so nuts and that we get a lot more accomplished. I might even miss them when it is time for me to leave them (did I just say that?!?!).

Andy sent me pictures of where he's at...but where that is, I still don't know. Enjoy!