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" :).

I don't know why..

Around the holidays I eat horribly! Usually I don't crave goodies like cookies and fatty foods, but when winter time comes around I can't keep my hands off it! It's so bad. Looks like I need to do couch to 5k again to make it through the New Years. Sometimes I miss being pregnant and getting to indulge more often without feeling guilty about it!

Here is my current enemy.

darn you Starbucks for your delicious peppermint white mocha latte!!!! It doesn't matter that I get you in non-fat and light whip, because I'm practically buying you every time I leave the house! I'm too weak to deny myself your pepperminty-sweet-yumminess...

Gobble Gobble

Thanksgiving is coming around the corner and we're hosting dinner at our house for the first time. I've cooked a turkey before but never hosted at my own house (my friends have alway had me lug it over to their place). This year Matt's required to invite all the single soldiers over to our home for the holidays, so no soldier has to spend the holidays in the barracks. A few of my friends and their families are coming too, so hopefully there will be a good turn out. I'm really hoping only to have to make a turkey because my refrigerator is small and I only have one oven, so fingers crossed that no one has to flake :)

this is exactly how I cook a turkey. I seriously love Alton Brown and his show "Good Eats", he's like the Bill Nye the Science guy of food.

Halloween

Halloween.. Halloween... I have never really appreciated you much.

My husband is a Halloween fanatic. He totally goes hog wild for Halloween. I'll never understand what is really that great about this holiday, but I decided to put a full effort into trying to embrace it this year.

We went to the pumpkin patch the weekend before Halloween. Madison loved every second of it. It was a such a beautiful day. Madison really got a kick out of the small petting zoo they had at Aloun Farms. Her favorite part was the bunnies and the chicken. I was so surprised that the chickens let me pet them. I grew up in Elverta and I always thought chickens were, well... chicken, and usually scared of people, but not these chickens.

When we went into the actual patch of pumpkins, though dry, there was actually a great selection to choose from. Madison squirmed out of our arms and ran for the pumpkins, then decided she wanted to sit on as many of them as possible. Don't ask me why, but I think she thought they made great seats. After I picked my pumpkin I mostly had fun picture taking and chasing Madison through the pumpkin patch, while Matt was on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin. During Madison's mission to sit on every pumpkin, she missed a pumpkin and sat in a patch of thistles and Matt had to pick them out of her butt, it was the funniest thing ever. At that point I gave up on trying to keep her clean and let her get as dirty as she wanted. There was a lot of Hawaiian red dirt at that farm and it was windy, so it was all over everyone. They even had a "slippah" washing station near the stands where you pay for the pumpkins for all us flip flop wearing people who came that day.

We had also planned to go to the haunted plantation which is a big attraction to Oahu during Halloween, along with the haunted lagoons. Sadly, that didn't happen because I came down with a horrible case of bronchitis. Even though I felt awful I decided to just tough it out because I was determined to enjoy this Holiday for Matt and Madison's sake.

We carved pumpkins. Matt was so excited to carve his pumpkin that he actually cheated and got a head start on his pumpkin while I was sleeping in/recovering from my bronchitis the morning before Halloween. His punishment was to help Madison with her pumpkin while I caught up carving mine. Madison was not digging the pumpkin carving experience. She was completely grossed out by the pumpkin guts and cried when we tried to encourage her to put her hand inside. I think she preferred to watch Matt do most of the work. I have a feeling she likes pumpkins better as seats than as jack-o-lanterns.

Finally the day we all anticipated came. Halloween. I woke up feeling like death, Bronchitis still hitting me hard but I didn't care. Matt was excited and it had Madison wired. We had to run a few errands before the trick-or-treaters came so Matt threw Madison's sheep costume on and we went to the store. When we got back we only had about an hour to get ready for the kids to start ringing our doorbell. I threw on my costume (my first one in years) while giddy Matt put on his terrifying costume and added a few finishing touches on the house. Madison was absolutely horrified by Matt's costume, which had me all flustered. She would not let go of my legs when she first saw him. I could hardly walk anywhere. She was pretty much hysterical, and I was irritated, but I let Matt have his fun regardless of my screaming sheep. I decided to take her trick or treating to get her mind off of Matt's hideous zombie costume, which was not a good idea because it seemed like everyone's dad in the neighborhood had an over the top scary costume on. I think it was a little too overwhelming for Madison because she wouldn't even walk for me. She was too nervous, so I had to get her pink buggy out. I'll admit, a fluffy sheep in a pink car buggy was the most adorable thing I've seen all year, but I was ready to be done with Halloween.

We went down our block collecting candy and letting all the mommies "aww" over Madison's getup. After that we decided to go home and watch some Halloween cartoon specials on Nick Jr, while daddy had fun scaring the crap out of the neighborhood children (and a few of their parents). I'm a good mom, so I made sure to taste test all of Madison's candy before giving her any. It's a risky job, but I decided to make the sacrifice. The rest of the night went smoothly, our pumpkins were only knocked over a few times by kids running away frantically from my zombie husband. Next year I'll know what to expect and make better preparations for Madison.. but for now it's on to much better Holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas :)

Aloha.

We only have 1 year left in Hawaii before Matt gets new orders for a different duty station. I never really understood why the military likes to move people around so much, you'd think they'd want to save some money and keep everyone in the same place for like.. 5 years at least, but no.

There's so many different options to choose from, to request, or reenlist for.. but we keep tossing back and forth what we should do. We even have the option to request to stay in Hawaii for 1 year longer.

It bothers me so much not knowing exactly what is going to happen next or if we're going to like it. There's so many things to think about like.. Will we be in a foreign country? Will Matt deploy right away? Will he like his new unit? Will this be good for his career? Will Madison like it? Will I be able to find a good job or school to go to? How far from home (California) will we be? Will people want to visit? Will they give us a nice house? I sit in bed awake at night thinking of a million different possibilities, and I know it's so bad to worry about things I cannot control. I keep telling myself that it's in God's hands and that no matter what we'll be okay... but I can't help but feel like I'm a little kid trying to stay up late enough to get a peek at what Santa Claus is going to leave under the tree, and if it's good or not.

Regardless, I will miss Oahu with all my heart. I absolutely love it out here though it feels small at times. I have never had much complaint besides that.

September

Oh September.. how you have been a busy and expensive month.

first my glasses break and my insurance doesn't cover new ones. The lenses alone cost $275, don't even get me started on the frames.

I desperately need all 4 of my wisdom teeth pulled. I can't even bare to type the price of this expensive bill...

and my daughter's 1st bday party plus our family portraits.

All I can say is.. THANK GOD I HAVE A JOB. Otherwise we'd probably be hurtin'.

because of all of these expenses we decided not to go out to a big fancy dinner for our 3rd wedding anniversary as planned. This was a real bummer because year 1 Matt was in Korea, and year 2 I was so pregnant I was about to pop and too emotional to function. We swore this year we'd do something really special but my darn eyes and teeth had to get in the way.

Even though we decided not to get anything for each other this year, I did get this suprise knocking at my door..


Super cute and thoughtful because I love love love Sanrio characters, and the pineapples are shaped like Hello Kitty. Madison ate half of my gift because .. well she eats most of my food before I get it to my mouth, but I only shared half the strawberries with her :)

Family portraits could have gone better. I thought the girl who helped us was really unprofessional. She did really well on the family portraits, but when it came time for Madison to get her pictures done (which was the main reason we were there) She never adjusted the lighting, and the backdrop actually collapsed on Madison at one point. Everything fell on top of her, and burried under all the fabric and metal bar the only thing not covered was Madison's little feet. It was like the house that fell ontop of the witch in the "Wizard of Oz". The photographer just stood there in shock with her hand covering her mouth, while Matt and I frantically pulled out daughter out from the clutter. After that Madison wasn't really cooperating with the photoshoot.. so we didn't get any really awesome shots like I expected. I wish the new babies r' us out here had Kiddie Kandids like back home.. I like them a lot and they're reasonably priced. They wouldn't have left me at a computer desk the day after my session to sit there and edit my own pictures until "I liked what I saw". I was irritated that I paid $200 bucks to edit my own pictures that only came out satisfactory to begin with. I guess you win some, you lose some.
This was the picture taken right before the backdrop fell on her... She was completely fine afterward, only startled.

here's a sample of one of the family portraits I liked a lot

Madison's birthday was everything I wanted it to be. The only complaint I had was that I stupidly decided to work the night before, so I didn't come home until 7:00am. The party started at 2:30, and I decided to prep some of the food before I decided to go to bed at 9:00am. Matt was supposed to wake me up at 12:00pm (before heading out to pick my cousin up from the airport and also buy balloons). Apparently he woke me up, and I sat up and told him I was going to get up.. but I must have been sleep talking because I do not remember that at all, and didn't wake up til the first guest got there. Thank goodness it was my friend Brittney and her family, and they were accidently 30 mins early. I quickly got ready after I answered the door.. but had no time to cook the lumpia before the rest of the guests got there. It was all good though, we had plenty of other food (good thing I decided to prep some before falling asleep).

Everyone showed up that was supposed to, all the kids played nice, and everyone had a wonderful time. Madison never really got fussy and she had lots of fun playing with all the kids. The Bday cake that I spent 3 to 4 hours preparing the night before came out perfect and tasted absolutely magnificent. I had no left overs.

I'm so excited for future birthdays to come. Party planning is SO much fun and watching my daughter having an abosolute blast was worth every second. The look on my daughter's face when we brought her downstairs to see all the balloons and decorations was priceless, you could tell she was amazed by all the colors and how different the house looked.