Deployments Mean..

going to see movies by yourself. :(

Cost Plus World Market.

pretty much one of the coolest stores in existence to just wander around in.

That, and Pier 1 imports.

I could pretty much live at either of these stores.

Anywhoo.. Whenever I go out without Madison, all I can ever think about it Madison, and I saw these little guys at Cost Plus and all I could think was

They're on time out.

It's a blue Christmas without you..

For the most part I try to keep my blogs upbeat and less on the depressing side, but unfortunately for today, I am feeling rather blue.

I have been missing my husband a lot through the holidays. I've reached a real slump in the deployment and it's only been a little over 2 months in. The first two months I was very optimistic, and tried to stay up beat. I told myself that we've been apart for 12 months before, and we can do it again. I reminded myself about how Matt's tour in Korea went by fast. But all of a sudden everything seems to be going wrong and time has been dragging by ever.. so... slowly..

As for Matt he's doing well health and safety wise. However, he's very homesick and not at all enjoying his time in afghanistan (to be expected of course). I wish he was home so badly. I just can't seem to get into the Christmas spirit with him gone.

To cheer him up for the holidays I sent a care package with pine scented air fresheners, a mini christmas pre-lit christmas tree, a santa hat, some holiday window vinyls, and a string of outdoor lights to go on the outside of his conex (yes, they live in a conex storage containers over there). He really enjoyed his christmas care package which made me really happy. We skyped shortly after he received his package and he showed me his christmas tree all lit up and decorated with the mini star and ornaments.

I really cannot wait until next Christmas when we get to make up for this not-so-awesome one. I cannot wait for us to all be together again.

Absence makes the heart send flowers. I mean grow fonder.

Yesterday morning I got a pleasant surprise. I heard Madison calling for me down the hall and yelling "heavy mama, heavy!" I thought she had gotten a hold of my laundry basket and was dragging it down the hallway like a sleigh again, but It was actually a package for me!

My husband had ordered me a holiday arrangement of flowers! So sweet! I know some ladies prefer not to get flowers from their significant others but not I. I love Love Love it! They make my room smell nice and are one of my favorite things. I love to paint flowers, and wear jewelry with flowers and I heart floral prints.

They came right at the perfect time to cheer me up for the holidays. I've been bummed lately without my husband and I miss him dearly. I can't wait until next year when we can be together for Christmas again.

back again.

I took a long blogger vacation so let's have a gigantic recap.

Matt got deployment orders

Had to quit my job because we moved.

put all our stuff in hawaii storage Moved back to California temporarily to stay with my Dad Madison started sleeping in a toddler bed

Celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary

Madison had her Elmo themed 2nd birthday party

Had a weeklong vacation in So Cal, we went to Disneyland and Legoland

Had to say goodbye to my husband for 12 months :(

Celebrated our first thanksgiving with my new sister in law.

Convinced my dad to buy a christmas tree for the first time in 15 years.

Do you remember this book? About Prudence and her potty? I totally saw this book and grabbed it for Madison, I used to have the same book as a kid.

I have been potty training Madison this weekend. She's 20 months old and can control when she goes, but it's only a matter of her wanting to do it on the potty. I literally have gotten her the whole sha-bang, according to this book a friend referred to me. Videos, books, potty teddy bear, I got it all. There's a baggy of M&M's sitting in the bathroom and every time Madison goes potty we have a big celebration in the house (even if it's just me and her) and we both partake in some M&M's after every success. Today is day 3 and she's officially gone about 80% of the day dry and done most of her deed on the potty. Tomorrow we have a birthday party to go to so that might affect tomorrow's results. I purchased a travel potty cover for regular toilets, so wish us luck. I honestly can't wait until I don't have to change anymore diapers.

Wedding Cake

So Kayla's wedding was fabulous, and the cake came out pretty good. I tried marshmallow fondant for the first time, and it took me a few hours to get the hang of how different it was from butter cream. With butter cream fondant I usually roll it out into parchment paper, then lift the parchment paper and lay it across the cake.. it comes out perfect about 85% of the time.. Marshmallow was way different.. if I tried the parchment paper it would just stick and tear, so out the window went that idea. Here's the recipe.

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 (16 ounce) package miniature marshmallows
• 4 tablespoons water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 pounds confectioners' sugar, divided

Directions

1. Place the butter in a shallow bowl, and set aside
2. Place the marshmallows in a large microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on High for 30 seconds to 1 minute to start melting the marshmallows. Carefully stir the water and vanilla extract into the hot marshmallows, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Slowly beat in the confectioners' sugar, a cup at a time, until you have a sticky dough. Reserve 1 cup of powdered sugar for kneading. The dough will be very stiff.
3. Rub your hands thoroughly with butter, and begin kneading the sticky dough. As you knead, the dough will become workable and pliable. Turn the dough out onto a working surface dusted with confectioners' sugar and continue kneading until the fondant is smooth and no longer sticky to the touch, 5 to 10 minutes.
4. Form the fondant into a ball, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. To use, allow the fondant to come to room temperature, and roll it out onto a flat surface dusted with confectioners' sugar

you can use Crisco instead of butter, which is what I did. I made a vanilla cream cheese frosting for the center of the cake, but used regular box red velvet for the actual cake. I crumb coated the cake with butter cream frosting only because it dries really well (unlike vanilla cream cheese) so if I have to re-lay the fondant on the cake I don't have a mess of frosting all over it.

Bridal Shower Cake

This was my latest cake I made. I was going to make it 3 tiers and taller, but it didn't work out due to lack of supplies at the grocery store and I didn't have enough time. It was a good practice cake for the wedding cake I'm making for Friday the 13th, my co-worker's wedding. The size worked out well for the party because we still had a few slices left over. The Bride is requesting marshmallow fondant, which I have never done. I've only made butter cream fondant, so I'm excited.

Along with the small wedding cake I'm making for the wedding, there will also be a cupcake tower. this it what it looks like

Yoga

I've been getting pretty bored at the gym the last few months. It's not as great as back home. The 24 hour fitness is smaller, but they have daycare and that's why I choose to go there. Recently I discovered something amazing.. Yoga. Before I started going on a regular basis I thought Yoga was pretty lame. I really didn't understand how it was a workout at all.. it just looks like a bunch of stretching and meditating. I'd rather do something that made me drip sweat and feel dehydrated after 45 minutes. Well, I was wrong. It is a work out, and it is a good work out. The first two times I tried it, I ended up sore for a week! My whole upper back muscles, thighs and abs were so sore! After only a month and a half of going on a regular basis I've noticed I'm already way more flexible, and my posture is a lot better. Surprisingly, I sleep better at night time, and my all over health has improved, even my digestion.

So this is my my routine, I work out for 45-minutes to an hour then I do a 1 hour yoga class twice a week. Then I still go for a run as often as I can (if it's not raining, or I don't already have a workout planned for the day) . I've been doing this routine for the last 2 months and I really am enjoying it.

My tips about yoga

1. Buy your own freakin' mat. I bought a bright pink one. The ones the gym usually has sucks. They're thick and foam, they slip and are hard to balance on

2. If your working out before yoga, bring a pair of flip flops. Because it's gross putting back on your sweaty socks and Nikes after yoga..

3. wear form fitting clothing, and no hoochie-mama shorts. With all the weird upside down things they have you doing, you don't want to topple over because you're trying to adjust your shirt so you don't flash anyone. Don't be giving anyone a free show now.

4. if you think you're far enough away from the person next to you. Give it another inch anyways. Recently I totally slapped someone in the face with my stinky un-manicured foot, and it did not go down well.

I'm still learning more about yoga, I don't know how to pronounce most of the things we do, and I can't do everything just yet.. but I'm getting there.

I'm baaaaccckk

Sorry for my leave of absence but in the last few months with all the holidays, vacationing, and the army doing it's same ol' thing I haven't had a lot of time to write. My bad, bloggy, my bad. But I'm back now! So don't be so sad. I promise I'll fix your layout too, since the old one seemed to have disappeared.

What have I been up to? Well, a lot.. picked up a few more hours at work to glide comfortably through the holidays and to make up for a 1 month trip I took to California with my daughter. I was able to visit with all my friends and family, meanwhile the Army kidnapped my husband and took him to the desert to get dirty. I had a very chill visit back in Cali, but after it was over I was delighted to be back on my WARM tropical island and back into flip flops.

and just a few days ago I TURNED 24!! wooo hooo!!! I hated being 23. All that went through my mind on my 23rd birthday was this part of that blink 182 song that goes "no body likes you when you're twenty-three!!". It was very depressing. Oh, and did you know that 23 is my bad luck number? (no offense MJ).. the #23 is also the number of the grossest sandwich at Togo's SALAMI! yuck.

But now I'm 24! which is my favorite number! so this year feels very promising.. and by the way 24 is the number of my favorite sandwich at Togo's.. the turkey avocado. :)

For my birthday I was going to get an iPad but with this island being small and everything needing to be shipped here, they were all out of the one I wanted. So instead I went on a much needed shopping spree down town and had lunch at PF Chengs in Waikiki with my husband and daughter. This was a very big deal because my husband absolutely loathes nothing more than shopping. He'd rather be poked in the eye than go shopping, but because it was my birthday and he loves me, he endured this very painful experience for me. I'd have to say that other than spending the day with the two most important people in my life, the total highlight of my day was when my husband took me to Godiva and bought me this...

Godiva hand dipped chocolate covered strawberries made fresh daily. *drool* my absolute favorite treat. A treat so sacred (not to mention kind of pricey) that I only indulged in on occasion. I didn't even know we had a Godiva on island, so this was my first one in almost 3 years! I usually only get one and I have to carefully choose between white chocolate, dark chocolate and milk chocolate.. but not this time. I got ALL 3! White chocolate is my new favorite, I ate them slowly savoring every morsel. I felt bad for my husband eyeballing my treat so I actually decided to give him my milk chocolate strawberry. Thank goodness my baby was asleep in her stroller because I was so not willing to share with her with the risk of her not liking it and flinging it into some stranger's coffee cup. When I reached the bottom of my little paper cone I realized SUPRISE! there's a baby white chocolate one left! and I thought "wow, it really must be my birthday" :).