cannot wait!

Matt's Mom, Dad, Sister, and our Nephew get to the island this Sunday

I'm super excited
I love having people come stay with us.

We always do lots of fun things.
I know we're going to go out every single day. I'm praying the weather is great.

After they leave, a few weeks later my cousin LESLIE gets to the island. She's moving here with her husband who's in the coastguard. YAY!

I've only been able to hang out with her a couple times our entire lives. Once in Disneyland when I was 2 or 3, another time when I think I was 7 or 8 and she visited for Christmas, and lastly when I was about 15 when she visited one summer. But since then we have kept in touch and can't wait to live near each other!

In preparation for all this fun I will be having this month, I've been shopping like crazy. Since I've lost all the baby weight I have come to realize.. I don't have a lot of clothes. Most of my jeans were still from high school (hey, they were good jeans). The whole time I was pregnant I only bought maternity clothes, and when I went home to California I bought some winter clothes for the cold weather, but other than that.. man that's OVER A YEAR of not shopping for myself (almost 2), and DANG has style changed a bit. I finally converted to skinny jeans via the GAP (took me forever, right?). I got some cool sandals, and lots of tops. Now my seemingly empty closet is starting to look full again. Thank you GAP, Charlotte Russe, Forever 21, and American Eagle. :)

After cutting my hair from being super dooper long, it's way more manageable now, so I'm beginning to get into the habit of styling it more often.

before

after

I feel like a brand new person

Random

Leslie: You vote what you belive

Me: Yah, but what I believe is right for me, or right for the country?

That's the hard part.

Leslie: For you.
we are the country.

giving it a try

I want to try to start selling my art work. Just to see if I can do it or not. I'm going to start painting like crazy and work on a theme for a collection and see where I can go from there. Any ideas of something that would sell?

cafeteria!! hahaha

I'm really grateful that I have a roof over my head, a fantastic family, and that I have plenty of nice things in my home. I am truly blessed. That being said.

I hate this ugly house

It's like 20 years old, and has these weird linoleum floors.

Thanks Army ;)

When you're an army family you get the option of living off post wherever you want and they pay you what's called "BAH".. it's supposed to stand for Basic Housing Allowance. Basically they give a pretty generous amount of money for a home depending on duty station, and rank. It should covered all your electricity, water etc. OR you have the option to live on post. Where they give you a home depending on the size of your family and rank and you virtually have NO BILLS, but they 100% of your BAH.

In Hawaii It's super expensive, the traffic is horrible, and there's not a lot of really nice areas to live that are near post. So we didn't really have much of a choice but to live on post.

When we moved here It was just Matt and I. The army generally gives the nicer homes (hardwood floors, marble counter tops 2 and 1/2 bathroom 3/4/5 bedroom) homes to people who have larger families and children. Which TOTALLY makes sense don't get me wrong. But sucks for me because we got a townhouse with weird cafeteria linoleum floors that is in desperate need of remodeling.

It drives me nuts. I'm constantly trying to find things to make thing place look less crappy, and make it feel a lot less like a cafeteria.

Today I decided to redo my downstairs bathroom. It used to be brown and blue, but I re-did my bedroom brown and blue.... so now my bathroom is creme and green....

Sigh.. I dream of the day we get to own a home and I never have to see these linoleum floors ever again.

My baby..

Tonight was the first night ever dropping Madison off with a friend, while Matt and I went out.

We didn't do anything special, we just went to this class our church was doing. It was about two hours long

I was super nervous about leaving Madison because I've never done it before. I was scared she'd give her sitter a hard time, or miss me... or get super hungry (I'm still nursing her) But I had to keep telling myself that she was in good hands and that we wouldn't be out too long.

Basically the first class people just introduced themselves, it took a very long time. One of the guys there took about 30 minutes just telling some random story, and I was trying to concentrate but all I could think about was Madison. The class was running later than expected, I looked at Matt and mouthed "lets just go." and he shook his head at me because he knew it would be rude to just get up while this guy was telling his personal story. I didn't care. I was starting to get angry, I was bouncing my leg and shaking my foot and getting more and more impatient... Finally he finished his story. We said our ending prayer and I shot up out of my seat and grabbed my phone to see if I had any messages. I did have one. It was a picture message

This made me grin. She was doing just fine, and playing with Megan's daughter Hailey. See, there was nothing to freak out over, I knew deep down she'd be fine.. being a new first time mom can make you worry over nothing. I'm suprised I didn't cry or do anything to embarass Matt to be honest. I am thankful I was able to get someone really awesome to watch her for us.

I love shoes

so i found these shoes at the mall for like 13 bucks. I love them they look super cute on my feet. :) I wore them to church last sunday.

I love finding things like this that are super inexpensive.

Tulip Alla Prima

All prima is italian for "the first time" which in the art world means done in one sitting.

the paint is still wet so it looks a little glossy..

Done.

So this castle painting is my first and only painting of a building. My first attempt as well..
Honestly, I wouldnt say It came out the way I wanted to at all. I wonder if I would have had a much finer brush and went slower if it would have came out less sloppy... but for now, let's just say it's impressionistic. :)

So..

Sometimes being a military spouse makes it difficult to blog about your life... Because half the stuff you want to talk about you're not allowed to; Especially on the internet.

pretty lame.

but at the same time I understand why.

oh well. So much for this blog post.

Bubbles

Lately, every night before bed I give Madison a bath. I fill the tub up a few inches with warm water, squirt some lavender calming baby soap into the tub, toss some toys in, then put her in.

We have a really good time playing with the water.

Madison giggles and splashes and gnaws at her toys in the tub.

Just to mix things up a bit I decided to bust out some good ol' bubbles.

I think I got a little carried away. I forgot how much fun bubble blowing is.

but Madison LOVED it, so it's okay. :)

looking for understanding...

Madison seems to be extra temperamental lately. I don't know if it's because she misses her daddy, or if its because she can sense my stress, or both.

I'm having second thoughts on whether or not I want to stay in Hawaii while Matt's gone.

I've been having a taste of what its going to be like raising Madison on my own without a helping hand around the house... and It's been rough. Matt's been working super late hours with no lunch the last couple days because the unit is busy getting ready to deploy. I usually look forward to Matt coming home for lunch or after work so I can have a minute to change the laundry, take a shower... or sit and enjoy the quiet. But here in about a month in a half I wont have that.

On top of the regular stress I will have from being on my own... I'll be worried sick about Matt being in a dangerous foreign country. I'm scared that combination of stress will effect Madison, and that would be no good.

I wonder if it would be better for Matt, Madison, and I if we just went back to California.
1. Madison will have more family to be around instead of just me.
2. I will have the support of more family and friends during such a hard time
3. Matt will worry less about us if we're back home, and not on our own.

I love Hawaii... and I'll be sad to leave. I hate the thought of going back to Antelope... but I'm just trying to make the best decision for my family.

Hanauma Bay all the way (sort of)

Welcome to Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve

Where you can spend all day snorkeling with some of our friends such as...
humuhumunukunukuapua'a

and lau Wili Wili.
and of course our dear friend Honu...

Except for me.

I would rather be poked in the eye than snorkle with these water creatures!
I don't think they're cute.
The only fish I like to see up close and personal is this kind

The first time I went snorkeling (in the Bahama's on my honeymoon) a huge fish the size of a Saint Bernard with fangs, tried to get cuddly with me and I smacked it in the face with my flipper!

I tried to give it another shot the first time I ever went to Hanauma bay (6mo preggo) I had an anxiety attack, got stranded on a huge piece of coral (which i was terrified a huge eel would pop out of and bite me).. and cried my way back to shore with the help of my brother in law's girlfriend! People could hear me screaming through my snorkel under water every time a fish came even remotely close to me!

So this time I decided...
I think I'll hang out with the random Japanese tourist that don't speak a word of English and are scared of the water.

While my husband and friends enjoy the snorkeling.. :)

Just a couple more days 'til one of the BEST Holidays ever!

I Love Easter.

It's one of my 2 favorite holidays.

The other one being the 4th of July.

Call me crazy, but it totally beats Thanksgiving and Christmas.

1. Celebrates the Resurrection of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (woot woot!)

2. I love BBQ's
3. Easter service is always my fav
4. Love seeing little kids in their Easter Outfits
5. I don't have to buy 3209202 gifts for people on Easter.
6. It's not freezing cold outside.

Like I've stated before in my previous V-day blog post, I don't usually get anything for anyone on Valentines day, and people think I'm heartless for it... but little do they know...

I get my man an Easter Basket on Easter! Because Easter is WAY better holiday than Valentines day!

and of course I cant forget my precious Princess Madison. Though she can't enjoy chocolates and treats yet I made sure to get her a little something too; Bath toys, a dolly, and some books.

As I was putting together Matt and Madison's basket, and began reminiscing about past Easters when I was a kid. One of the best baskets I got was when I was about 8 or so, it was from my aunt. It was humongous and it came with a large hand painted Easter tea set. It was ceramic, and all the spoons were shaped like little flowers with the stem as the handle, and the plates were flowers too. The tea pot was festively decorated with brown bunny rabbits. It was beautiful. While all my friends had little plastic tea sets, I had the real deal! I threw so many tea parties that year...

I hope everyone has a fabulous Easter :)