Twins Room Final

The twins room has been pretty much finished.  I do still have some pictures to hang up, but for the time being i'm finishing up/ putting those kinds of projects away and cleaning up our  downstairs (my current project workshop) in preparation for #3 coming.  

So here's a tour of the 1 almost finished room in the house.  

Aloha

view from the door

Holden's Bed

Nora's Bed

the valence we made

looking back at the door 

 North Shore pics... the other picture collages will be similar to this, i just have to take time to mount them and get them hung up. 

 i printed out the pics we took in HI from Mpix... modge podged them to thin cardboard (like cereal boxes) to make them into a postcard-like thickness and then we hung them with office clips--thank you pinterest.  much cheaper and more simple than lots and lots of frames. 

 Dresser/ Mikes Surfboard

 Bow Organizer i made for Nora..i have a headband one in the works to hang beside it. 

 Modge Podge pictures on Canvas--these turned out really great i think and the process was easy and fun

 i used scrapbook paper on the edges and then smudged paint around the edges to blend the picture into the paper and make it look "wrapped" here is the tutorial if you are interested 

 play area--thanks to ikea and craigslist

 we made this bench to put over the storage blocks--easy peasy...another tutorial here

craigslist train table that we spray painted white to match

 my "wine down" painting and another modge podge canvas

 a fun sign Daddy brought bome from HI--meaning 'welcome' or 'come inside'

June Happenings

Here's a few random June pics to add...

sneak peak of our screened in porch at night....love the lights!

 Holden in his big boy undies

 Nora asked to play "baby"....how could a mommy say "no" to that?

 nite nite book with Daddy

 my new wreath...partly made by me...

Mike played "Timothy" at VBS

 talking to "Paul" in prison

 Bruce and Mike aka Paul and Timothy

 we love lunch at Elizabeth's Pizza

and we also love lunch at Chickfila with friends! (Luke, Holden, Jack) 

reading together with their backpacks...so sweet! 

We have a house!

We've been house hunting via the internet for a few months now and happened on the perfect house for us this past week!  

its 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage, huge kitchen, screened-in portch, large fenced-in back yard and it's 2.5 times larger than what we live in now!  it's also in a culdesac and about 5 minutes from chick-fil-a and walmart.  oh be still my heart.   

we are getting excited!

Just a Little Update...

Well we're here in HI trying to get back in the swing of things.  The babies did extremely well.  Not one bit of jet lag to be seen.  They went straight into their sleeping routines as usual.  I am so thankful for our good sleeping children.  We are truly blessed on that account.  BUT, they have been pretty emotional since being back.  That seems to be our downfall when traveling and really who can blame them?  So much change and new things and the absence of any kind of schedule.  That's hard on a kid.  Shoot.  That's hard on us. So anyway, hopefully some of these many tears will subside in the next week.

In other news, Mike has deferred his advance schooling until next year.  He was supposed to leave this past Saturday to go to Ft. Lee, Virginia for 7 weeks.  With our move coming up really close and us working hard to sell our house it really just didn't feel like it was the right time for the school.  I'm very thankful we were able to postpone--i imagine right about now if he had left, the kids would be in serious distress as would I.  :)

Upon getting back to the island, Mike was diagnosed with a major sinus infection and 2 ear infections which took him out of work the rest of last week.  That was also when he was scheduled to be pinned for his promotion to CW3 at the Arizona Memorial.  Since we had to cancel so late there wasn't time to reschedule at the memorial (bummer) so instead he will be pinned this Thursday on base (which is the normal way to do things anyway).  We are very excited for this promotion!  Mike has worked hard to get here.

We also have some very good news....An offer was made on our house yesterday!  It's just the beginning of a long process, but we are still very happy to be getting on with this process.  The potential buyers seem to be very motivated and want our house. We realize a lot can happen between a first offer and the close of a house.  We ask for prayers that all the logistics work out and we can get this house sold before we move.

Along with this offer, means a possible shift in our timeline for moving home--at least for the kids and I.   If all goes as planned, we could close anytime between mid-March and beginning of May.   The kids and I won't stay long after that happens, since living in temporary housing/hotels is hard on the kids.  I can't believe our time is coming to a close so quickly!  I have so many mixed emotions!  and I have so many Hawaii things to get before we go!  You'd think after 6 years i would have collected everything i would want.  But instead i kept putting it off thinking there would be a next time.   No next time now...i gotta get on it!

That's it for now.  Later.

Kitchen Nightmares

First of all, meet my new refrigerator. After a super exasperating past month...i say good riddance old refrigerator, i didn't really like you and your side by side doors anyway and HELLO new refrigerator of which does NOT try to catch on fire on a Wednesday while i am on my way to a play date, and which does not ruin all of my food as soon as i go shopping and of which DOES fit a frozen pizza box. Welcome to my life. In other news, i have had a constant nuisance in my house since moving here 4 years ago...a dishwasher that continually drained through the air gap and into the sink instead of through the garbage disposal like it was designed to do. SO...Mike and I inquired early on about why it does this and we were told by a not so trusty Lowes Hardware Professional, that our problem was "normal". Hmm...interesting, and apparently a load of crap.

Anyway, my good friend Marybeth noticed the problem this past week and suggested trying to unclog the drains because that is how she fixed her problem. Okay, well--although i do boast in my amazing plumber skills, I do not, I repeat DO NOT mess with kitchen sink drains...GROSS! Thankfully friend Jennifer does mess with kitchen drains, or at least is up for the challenge, so here she is unclogging the drain.

Although Jenn's efforts were indeed valiant, they did NOT fix the problem. But we were still determined to fix the problem and after much research i found out that ALL ALONG...YES ALL 4 YEARS, i have been dealing with a problem created by the installer forgetting to remove a measly DRAIN PLUG! Well, no crying over spilled milk right? or should i say 4 years of spilled dirty dishwasher water all over my counters and floors and cabinets. It's over. Time to move on and rejoice in the fact that i will have 2 years of correctly functioning drainage systems.

Ahh...it sure is nice to have peace in the home. At least for now.

I'm a superb plumber, and you definitely can't afford me

so my house is man-less...as you know. and i hate to be the kind of woman who thinks they need a man to do certain things. and the honest truth is, i don't need a man, but i sure do want one, especially when it has to do with gross household things. but alas, the husband is gone and you know what they say... "absence makes a head grow larger" well, maybe they don't say that...but i am an excellent plumber now...just see below!

i cloth diaper, but i'm sure you know that too. cloth diapering is pretty easy-peesy until you start feeding your little munchkins real food---which i debated just never doing to avoid the whole yucky transition poop stage...but i'll save that for another blog another day...back to me being an awesome plumber... there is a tool that is the saving grace of any cloth diapering mom, it's called a Diaper Sprayer, creative i know. Thing is, this diaper sprayer must somehow attach itself to the toilet...that is where i come in. Super Plumber Mom.... with my sidekick Auntie Direction Reader of course.

First i go to Home Depot, swoop over to the plumbing aisle and proceed to explain to my fellow plumber afficianado about the "bendy tube thingy that goes between the toliet and wall". Of course he knows exactly what i need, that's why i am exiting the store with 2 different parts just so i don't have to waste my precious billable time going back to this hardware meca.

and here i am with the old part... Evidence No. 1: Non Bendy Tube Thingy
and then with the new part...Evidence No 2: Bendy Tube Thingy

Here i am showing you how Bendy Tube Thingy attaches to the wall. Please disregard the towel on the floor. Of course i knew to turn the water off before starting...any qualified plumber would know to do that!

and this is the tape that we plumbers use that is interestingly enough, not sticky, which doesn't quite deserve to be called tape if you ask me. my friendly neighborhood hardware employee graciously handed my this jewel to purchase as well promising me that it would be needed.

WRONG. Thankfully my sidekick Auntie Direction Reader stepped in to announce that the un-sticky tape is a definitely DO NOT USE for this diaper sprayer. See my skilled unwrapping below.

and with a few million steps in between, here is the wonderfully beautiful, perfectly assembled, expertly constructed --Diaper Sprayer doohickey

what great force this sprayer is able function at!

and here we are... Plumber Extraordinaries...to be seen in all man-less homes across the world, in the not-so-near future.

and for all you skeptics who want to know if it is still working, of course! Except of course for that day that my refrigerator stopped working and my washing machine went ka-plooey. That was the day that the Diaper Sprayer and all its glory decided to have a rampant leak all over my floors. BUT this is where i must proclaim .."it's NOT my fault!"

as plumbering is traditionally a manly profession, some of the tightening required of the nuts and bolts are just not suitable for a woman's hands (even though i have often stressed that my own hands were a bit manly). It's okay, i gathered all the tools that i could find that looked appropriate for the job and squeezed and twisted and tightened until it could be done no more. I DARE YOU TO LEAK AGAIN!

okay. just kidding. please don't leak again. if you do i may cry.

out with the old, in with the new

So it seems that things always happen at once and the past couple of months have been all about breaking and replacing for us.

1st the washing machine broke--in all honesty in has been on a slow decline for over a year...i just kept pushing it hoping it would make it until Mike came home. However it didn't quite make it as it died right after Christmas, but i just used my friends' washers until the boys could come home and help out.

So meet our new washing machine, given to us by our seriously generous friends Jake and Hillary because they had an extra!

Next our microwave finally gave out. This too was on a slow decline--all because of a faulty key pad that cost more to fix than to just get a new microwave. I really wanted a red microwave, but the only one we could find was at our new Target stores and they sold out immediately. After a 2 week wait Mike and i got tired of using the stove for everything and went ahead and bought a white one...probably a better decision anyway.

meet the new microwave...



Then our TV died. It was an old one i got off of Craigslist a couple of years ago when our other one died. Of course it was a TV/DVD player combo, so we actually had to buy both. Secretly I know Mike is excited cause he got his flat screen and blue ray disc player...not that we have blue rays, but whatever.

goodbye old TV....


hello new TV/ DVD player....


hopefully that will be it for awhile!

Flat Tires and Blessings

So I had a bit of crazy happen to me earlier this week--and i feel like i've told this story more times than i want, but i wanna try once more for the good ol' blog.. and i apologize now for my inability to tell a story in a concise manner--its all in the details, ya know?

I woke up Sunday, just a tad later than i would have liked, but other than affecting the way i would wear my hair for the day, it shouldn't have been that big of a deal. Then i get out to my car and then my neighbor (stalking the opening of my garage door, i guess) runs out to my garage as i am getting in my car and asks if i can give her and her family a ride to their church because they have lost their keys. Besides the fact there are 5 of them, i am running late to meet Hillary so we can prepare music for Children's Church. So I nicely have to decline, wish them well as they look for their keys, and then finally get into my car. I get as far as out of my garage when I realize I have a flat tire.

Thankfully Hillary wasn't too far away and could turn around and come pick me up. We didn't get to church early enough to prepare, but we ran some old songs, the lesson went awesome, and honestly Children's Church ran smoother that Sunday than it has in weeks. Church only got better from there, with a wonderful sermon and meeting a new military couple that just moved here to stay for 3 years. I tried not to scare them away on their first visit, but i have high hopes for them to be my new best friends as everyone seems to be leaving us at the end of the summer. So for now, i just introduced myself, talked a little, and have been praying a lot that they will be back next Sunday.

***I would like to interject here a mid-story moral. The enemy is always there trying to pull us down and keep us from the good things that God has to offer us--and thankfully, a rough start to my morning and a seriously FLAT tire did not keep me from being where I should be and receiving all the blessings that God had for me.

Now, on with my story--My friend Renee hung out with me all day Sunday to help me with my flat tire issues. After trying to use a compressor to put enough air in it to get the car to Goodyear with no luck, i called on our friends Herman and Lisa, one of the few men not deployed right now, to see if Herman could come over and help me. Herman helped me figure out my next step to taking my full-size but also flat spare to Firestone on base and get a new tire. Then he would come back after church that night to change them for me.

So, all went well at Firestone and i came back home with high hopes for having the flat tire blues fixed before bedtime arrived. If only did I know....

Herman came over and had a terrible time getting off the lug nuts. Apparently, the last time i bought tires, about a year ago at Firestone on base, they tightened the lug nuts on way too tight. So tight in fact, that they stripped the lug nut key and left me with no way to get the tires off my car. That night Herman tried for a long time to get them off until his 9 month old daughter wouldn't stop screaming because she was so tired--and it was pretty late at this point. I finally told Herman not to worry about it and just to go home and take care of his daughter, and that i would find a ride to school in the morning and we could figure it out later.

Thankfully my good friend Marybeth was available to get me to school the next morning, even though it was a bit of an upset in her family's morning routine. That afternoon, after a long day on a field trip with SPED preschoolers to the farm, I called Lexus to see what i should do and they said i would have to be towed to their dealership, all the way into Honolulu so they could get the lug nuts off. Towing is so expensive here and by then I was super discouraged.

When I got home from school, the first thing i notice is the litter box sitting in the garage right in front of my door. It is then that my memory comes flooding back from the night before prior to baby Naomi's pitiful crying and my lug nut catastrophe--i was in the middle of changing out the litter box, which i totally abandoned when everything else started to fall apart. Then by the time we called it quits--i went straight to bed from having an exhausting day.

So...fearfully, i step into the house, which may i add was very clean from the weekend. Usually if there is a problem with the litter box, the cats find whatever they can dig in and go shi-shi there. With everything clean, i realize what had most likely happened and ran upstairs to the bedroom where as i suspected, i find cat shi-shi all over the middle of the bed. * and let me just throw in the kicker, just in case this all isn't enough for you--my washing machine is out of operation and has been for a month. So summary thus far is, I have one broken car, no good plan to fix it, cat shi-shi all over my bedding, a broken washing machine and no way to get anywhere to wash it.

So, i did what any tired, frustrated and defeated girl would do...sit in the middle of the floor and cry...a lot. I had tried so hard to be strong and not let this little flat tire defeat me, but it did.

It was during this cry that my life started to come back together again. Kim, who is currently on a extended vacation from work, dropped what she was doing and came right over to help pull me back together. Lisa called to tell me Herman wanted to try something else to get the lug nuts off and not to call a tow truck yet--and then very nicely scolded me for not telling them earlier i had a broken washing machine so Herman could take a look at it. Then she offered to wash all my bedding--whew, what would i do without them? Okay...so things are looking up--i can at least function..

From there, Mike calls that night, listens to the whole story--is completely supportive and consoling--he even offers to call Geico to see if there is anything they can do...and lo and behold an hour later Geico sends Big Daddy towing with a man, no kidding, that is like 7ft. tall and really big to my garage to solve my problems. Although at first i was very intimidated and slightly nervous about this big man in my garage--he was very kind and helpful and in no way tried to cheat me. Of all the people I have had to deal with here since Mike's deployment, as far as fixing my cars and appliances, this giant was by far my own personal blessing from the Lord. Ya know it can be very unnerving for us as women living somewhere by yourself and having to deal with problems we may not know much about. A lot of times the service technicians and mechanics try to pull things over on us--and we are usually smart enough to know something isn't right, but then we don't know how to fix it or have the right terminology to call them out on it. So back to my friendly giant...He told me of some places to call to do some price shopping on getting my lug nuts off and he would come back the next day to tow me when i knew what i wanted to do.

Herman, my stand in husband/father (whatever) offered to make the calls for me and help me decide what to do. In the end, we find out it is just as cheap to take the car the dealership as anywhere else. So, Big Daddy Giant Tow Man comes back the next day and tows my car to the dealership. Then both Big Daddy and Lexus call to let me know the car got there safely and then to top it all off...Lexus doesn't even charge me for any of the labor! They got my lug nuts out, changed my tire, installed my new lug nuts and then just handed me teh keys adn told me to have a nice day! Even through all the set backs and worry, the Lord was looking out for me, as he always does.


***Now for the end of story moral (or maybe i should say, moral"s"):
1. Sometimes the Lord brings us down just to pick us up again and teach us that we always need to rely on him for help and trust that he will always take care of us.
2. There are blessings in all of life, the good times and the bad--we just have to find them. Just in those 3 days, i was touched by all of the help my friends here on the island gave to me--from moral support, transportation, washing my laundry, and being the stand-in husband helping me deal with the car and mechanics...someone was there for me at every turn. The Lord really has blessed me here in Hawaii with a wonderful support system. Sometimes it takes little things like this to realize all that we really have.
3. CHECK AFTER YOU GET YOUR TIRES REPLACED --BEFORE YOU EVEN LEAVE THE PARKING LOT--TO MAKE SURE THEY DID NOT BREAK YOUR LUG NUT KEY--IT ONLY TAKES ONE TIME!

okay that's my story. and hopefully the last time i tell it. it really exhausts me just to think about it!

Success!

Do you ever have days where you have SO many things to do, yet there seem to be setbacks and problems at every step of the way? That seems to be the case for Mike and I more times than not--and although we try to remain patient through whatever comes up--sometimes at the the end of the day when you realize hardly anything got accomplished that you wanted it can be VERY frustrating.

Well today, i just want to share, that we did in fact have a extremely successful day and everything that i have needed to get done has been accomplished and then some! I mean, no traffic, no lines, the first stores we stopped at had exactly what we needed, no rude/unhelpful city employees, no outrageous fees, EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT!

Here is our checklist for today: RED = Accomplished
1. Vote (no waiting lines)
2. Get Out-of State registration cards on base
3. Haircut on base
4. Register friends car at City Hall (they are so picky about signatures, dates and POA's because we are out of state--i have literally been sent away more times than not)
5. Find unmarked car storage office and drop off registration and insurance papers
6. Get Jeep Horn Fixed (which Mike has spent countless hours on, and finally decided he didn't want to waste anymore of his R&R time on)
7. Get Wireless Inet Fixed (so i don't have to bounce off the neighbors anymore)
8. Find and Install new water filter faucet (everywhere we go, they only have the white ones, and we need stainless steel)
9. Find receipts and turn in old car batteries for $
10. Close/Open new banking accounts (they haven't let me do this since Mike has been gone even though i DO have a ton of different POA's)
11. Find Comp. monitor cord--so we can hook it up to the old laptop
12. Get all of the files off of old laptop
13. Mail off 2 gifts
14. Hang up new shower curtain rod (the curved kind! this is something extra Mike is doing for me just because he knew i wanted it!)
15. Get showered and beautiful so we can go out on a date!

You may think this blog is somewhat silly, but to a girl who has been having much trouble with some of these things, i am so relieved/glad that these things are done and that we got them all accomplished in one day with no trouble so we can spend more time with each other doing the fun things....like tonight at our dinner and Cirque de Solei Saltimbanco date!

Design Here, Design There...

The past few weeks I have been in a mood to create and change things--so last week I focused on my living room. There is a wall downstairs that has been bare ever since we moved in. I have had plans for the wall from the moment we bought the house, but as it was not a necessity I kept finding other things to do. Then it got to be halfway through our 3 years and i decided i didn't want to keep working on things in the case that we might move. Last week though i decided to do it anyway. SO...first things first i had to dig out the painting Mike and I bought on our honeymoon to Greece so i could get it framed. From there, everything just fell together--my shelves were inspired by Pottery Barn, I framed some pictures Mike and I took right before he deployed on the beach and found some pillows that I swear were "made" for this room.

The end result is beautiful if i may say so myself..and even just with some new shelves, pics and pillows--the blue makes it feel like a completely different room!

~My beautiful plate from Katie~

This past week and weekend, my focus was our Children's Church room. We are starting our summer curriculum about the Fruits of the Spirit, so the room is decorated like a summer in the country with red checkered table cloths, fruit stands, sunflowers and mason jars. The biggest feat was the fruit stand, which Hillary, Carrie K and I constructed ourselves with no help from any boys! And although, it was a learning experience and very comical, the fruit stand is sturdy and stands on its own and we are super proud of yourselves! I know you are all impressed--i may just have a future in construction! or not ;)