Sheer Awesomeness

I'm proud to report that this weekend has been nothing short of amazing. =)

Yesterday, I met up with Miranda for lunch and a pedicure. Not at the same time, though. ;-) That would just be weird. Lunch at Chili's was pretty good, as usual. I can rarely complain about Chili's though. You would think that after working there for about 2 years, I'd be tired of it by now, but nope! The exact opposite really. I'm biased. Applebee's, Ruby Tuesday's, TGIFriday's, etc. got nothin' on Chili's. *sigh* I once loathed the place and now I'm giving them free PR. What has the world come to? Ok, I'm way off topic.

So, after lunch we went across the shopping center for a much-needed pedicure. And, as always, I wound up getting the one guy in the whole place. Why is it always me? Am I the only one who feels really awkward with a man other than my husband scrubbing my feet and then painting my toes? Please tell me I'm not! It was a good pedicure, but I just can't ever get over the awkward feeling when I get a guy.

After the pedicure, Miranda invited me to hang out with her and the "monkey" (her 15 month old little boy) while her hubby went to work. First of all, her little monkey man is so cute!!! I could just eat him up! And, if I'm being honest, I think he has a bit of a crush. ;-) He totally showed off for me. Haha! Anyway. I wasn't planning on staying there too long. Just a couple hours, you know. Get out of the house for a while, hang out with people, that sort of thing. And what time did I pull in my garage? 12:45 a.m. I couldn't tell you the last time I stayed out that late! Really, I couldn't! Her hubby got home around 8ish and we talked, and talked, and talked. =) The three of us were all in band at one point: them in high school and college and me, just high school. So, we shared in our band nerdness that makes all of us a family instantly. If you were ever in band, I'm sure you understand. We shared other stories, of course, and it was just so great. =)

It's nice to meet other people who are so much like you. Joe and I aren't partiers - we rarely have more than  1-3 drinks with dinner - and because of that, we don't really get invited to hang out with many people around here. We're more of what you would call "homebodies." We read, we watch movies, talk, laugh, play stupid games, go out to dinner every once in a while and that's all we really need. We're "good, clean fun" kind of people. =) It's nice to find other people like that. I just wish Joe were here to meet them!! I know he'd love them too.

Today was another awesome day. Our church service was nothing short of powerful. The message was on our "benefits" as believers. You know, when you get a "real job" you get benefits: medical, dental, vision, 401k, etc. Well, when you have a relationship with Christ, you get benefits too! The guest speaker was - well, is - a very dynamic, funny guy. I love those types of pastors. =) Anyway, he just brought the message to life for me. Oh, it was powerful. Here's the short version of the message, taken from my notes.

Malachi 4:1-6

- God has a plan for my life. You can drift off course if you live this life (referring to the Christian life) long enough, but God doesn't want you to!

The Believer's Benefits:

1. You will have healing in all aspects of your life.
- Isaiah 53:3-5 says that He was broken so the we could be healed. God can heal your wounds.         Even those that happened so long ago. He can see and heal them all!

2. Freedom from bondage, internally and externally.
- He wants us to break free from the things that keep us running around in circles: alcohol, drugs, pornography, food, etc. He doesn't want us "just trying to get through the day."
- He won't take away the memories, but he will take away the negative energy that's inside of us and replace it with joy.

3. Joy irrespective of external circumstances.
- Joy and happiness are NOT synonyms!!
- Things can make you happy, but only God can give you joy.
- Nehemiah 8:10 {paraphrased} says that, the joy of the Lord is your strength. Not my joy. Not your joy. His joy, that He gives to us! So that even when things are terrible {i.e. divorce, cancer, loss of a family member or friend}, we have joy.
- I Thessalonians 5:16 {paraphrased} "Always be joyful."
- The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy everything that is good and from God. We need to appropriate our benefits and stay on course so that the devil can't hurt us.

4. Restoration for core relationships.
- Jesus didn't come to establish religion, He came to establish and rebuild relationships.
- Satan is constantly trying to destroy our Godly relationships: friendships with Christians, small groups, churches, and marriages. God wants to restore and rebuild them so that they glorify Him!
- God wants nothing less than His best for us.

Again, these are my notes from the sermon today. Once the podcast is up, I'll share the link so that if you're interested you can listen. The worship that took place after this sermon was unbelievable - life changing. I could feel God moving and working in my heart and in the hearts of others around me. So. Unbelievably. Amazing.

Don't you just love it when that happens?!

After church, I enjoyed a lunch with Mrs. C, her hubby and friends of theirs who also go to church with us now. =) Nothing like good food and good fellowship after an awesome church service!!

All in all, I've had a pretty good weekend. It's even better because I was feeling pretty down and out on Friday night. Why, I'm not sure (probably just the PMS blues) but I'm so glad that led to this awesome weekend! And now, preseason football is on!!!! I am one happy, no, joyful girl!!! =D

Hope your weekend was as awesome [or awesomer ;-)] as mine!!!

Saying Goodbye...

totally sucks.

I dropped my bestie off at the airport about an hour ago. *sad faces*

Is it weird that dropping her off was almost as bad as dropping my hubby off? Granted, I didn't cry as much dropping Melissa off, but...I was still upset. I was good, though, and didn't cry until I was in the car on the way home. {Probably not the safest thing in the world to do, but it couldn't be helped.} We had such a good time, and I'm so glad that she was able to come visit. My birthday would have been a total suckfest without her. =)

We took in "the sights," did some pretty good shopping, ate some expensive good food, made cupcakes [and attempted to decorate them], did some crafty things but only got one project accomplished, and hit the beach a few times. All in all, I think we had a pretty good, full week. I just hope she had fun, 'cause I know I did! It was nice to have another person in the house. And now, I'm alone again. *sad faces* It sucks... I know I'll be ok, but I just feel *bleh* right now, ya know? I am in serious need of a routine...

Anyway, I'm going to share some pictures of our entirely too short week together.

Melissa & I at Waimea Bay after getting slapped by a wave we weren't expecting... =)

Our pretty much identical pedicures [after a visit to the beach].

Us at Dole before riding the Pineapple Express (not as cool as it sounds, lol!). And for some strange reason, my eyes look green! I swear they're blue... It does happen on occasion though.

Melissa sitting under broken umbrella #2 at Sunset Beach.

(Not the one in NC. Apparently, there's one in HI too.)

I stole her hat so I could read without squinting while she sat under the broken umbrella. The umbrella idea was a complete fail. It probably would have helped if I wasn't such a tightwad and had shelled out more money for a decent one. Oh well.

Melissa and I at the luau last night. =)

The luau is right on the beach - perfect for a good photo-op!!

I miss her already! And don't you just love her momma-turtle-and-baby-turtle necklace?! I love the little shops at North Shore...they're perfect for finding unique things like that. =)

I'm sure I'll be back later with a more detailed version of her visit. I've missed blogging!! My inbox has been so lonely without all of your sweet comments!

Oh! I almost forgot! My sweet Papa is going home from the hospital tomorrow!! =D His surgery was on Friday (it just had to be on my birthday...) and it went really well. They're sending him home with boatloads of medicine, and they have told Mom and Nana that the surgery definitely remedied the aneurysm and should shrink the tumor. No blood supply should make the tumor shrink [and hopefully die]. Thank you so much for your prayers and comments. God is awesome!!!


Don't forget to enter my giveaway! It ends Sunday at 2400 EST! I know at least some of you want something from Hawaii!! ;-)

Sunday Funday with Friends

Thanks to our new friends Mrs. C and her hubby, we got out again this weekend!!! Wooohoo!!

First, we went here:

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I know, like I didn't get enough of the place when I worked there! I think I'm totally biased now, though. I go places and I think "Hmm, at Chili's they have this...this would have been way better at Chili's...or Chili's makes the same thing and it's way better." Told you, I'm biased. It's kinda sad. And weird, considering how much I hated working there for the last few months. I do have to say though, that I cannot get enough of Chili's fries...along with some Ranch. =) I know, it's sad. That was my favorite snack when I worked there too. Sometimes, you just can't get too much of a good thing!

After Chili's, we had some time to kill before seeing this awesome movie:

{source}

So, we had about 30 minutes to kill before the movie. Unfortunately for us girls, the boys found an arcade. *sigh* This is what went down.

 Yes, this is my hubby about to 'play' some DDR.

Yup, that's my man! =)

The other boys playing their "shoot 'em up" game.  I love how Joe (Mrs. C's hubby on the right) is all crouched as if he was on a range or something. Ah, military boys. =)

After the boys got to play, we went to our movie..which was great! If you liked the first one, you'll definitely like the second one. It wasn't all action all the time, but it was still pretty darn good. And I mean, come on, it's Robert Downey, Jr. I *heart* him and his crazy sense of humor. Anyway...

We had dinner and then we decided to come to the hotel and hang out so Mrs. C and her hubby wouldn't have to drive all over creation. =) The boys decided they wanted to watch a Freddy Crougar movie and, uh, we didn't. This can be problematic in a hotel room with ONE TV. This is what happened. 

The boys got the bed and TV. Notice that Joe (not mine, the other one) is under the covers with my Joe's Army jacket on. Apparently, he was cold. Lol!

So, we moved the chairs and the laptop out to the little alcove near our room. Why? Scary movie on the big tv + girls who don't want to be scared + no earphones = move outside. *sigh*

We had a good time anyway. =) It was really fun...despite the chilly, misty evening.

All in all, we had a great day with friends!!!

Hope you've had a great Monday!

Wednesday Randomness

First, Feliz Cinco de Mayo!!! I bet you don't know why Cinco de Mayo is really celebrated, so I'm going to encourage each of you to at least Google it and find out why. Yeah, it's fun to have an excuse to eat Mexican food and have a margarita but I think everyone should learn a little bit about history. =) {Thanks to Mrs. Muffins' post, I am now craving some Mexican food!} Also, Cinco de Mayo means that mother's day is literally around the corner, my mom's birthday is 6 days away, my MIL's birthday is 12 days away, my parents' anniversary is 23 days away, and my uncle's birthday is just 4 days after that. Whew! May is such a busy month!!! Not to mention I'm probably going to be moving into a new house this month. And, I need to mail gifts and cards and I have no stinkin' clue where the nearest post office is! Maybe I'll settle for UPS at the PX?

Now, I have a funny story for you. I have to preface the story with this, though: I am new to this Army wife thing and I have never, ever lived on post. 

Yesterday, Joe didn't get off early like he has been. So, we met up at the PX to grab some dinner. I left the hotel to walk to the PX at like 1645. As I was walking, I heard the daily retreat music being played. As I was walking by the main building of the post, I hear a really really loud BANG!!!! I swear to you, I jumped about 3 feet in the air and yelled HOLY $H!#!!! I totally laughed at myself because I'm sure I looked like a complete idiot to everyone who knew what was going on. I looked over to my left, and whaddya know, they're lowering the flag...which is next to this really big gun/cannon thing. [Joe told me what is was but I already forgot.] Then, everyone stops their cars and alllll the Soldiers get out and salute the flag. I know that as a civilian, I really don't have to stop, but I did anyway just because I didn't want to look out of place. Oooooh, good times. =)

Now, I would like to get your opinion on something.

I have been thinking about creating either a Facebook page or Twitter page for my blog. Just so that when I'm not blogging y'all can keep up with me. And so I don't have to send/receive to everyone on Facebook. I don't have any knowledge whatsoever about Twitter, so I don't know what to think about that. So, if I were to create one of these pages, would you 'like' or follow them? Do you think it's a good idea? If so, which one should I do? Or should I do both? Thanks in advance for your input!!


Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

I really want some pico de gallo!!!!

North Shore and a Bloggie Meet Up

Well, we had one heck of a weekend! It was great! Except for the fact that I got fried in the Hawaiian sun. Someone should have warned me. One hour (ish) in the sun and I looked something akin to a lobster. *sigh*

On Friday, we took a trip to North Shore via The Bus. No, I'm not kidding, that's the actual name of the bus system here. Very creative... First of all, the public transportation experience was - for lack of a better word - interesting. We had no clue where we were going or how to get there. Our only source of information was one of Joe's friends. He was mostly helpful, but I don't think he really understood the fact that neither of us has done the public transportation thing before. We ended up figuring out which buses to take thanks to the bus driver that comes on base. He was nice and very helpful. Then we had to switch buses. In the middle of the ghetto. I'm in a new place, trying out a new way to get places, and we have to switch buses in the freaking ghetto. Awesome. I should have taken a picture, but I was afraid of getting killed or something. Then, we didn't know where to get off because there's beach everywhere. Luckily, there was a very nice lady behind us who noticed we were completely lost. She told us the best places to go, thank God.

So, we finally made it to a North Shore beach near Hale`iwa. We saw like 10 sea turtles and it was a.maz.ing!!!!

I sent a picture similar to this one to our family with the message, "Hey, guess what?! We live here!!! Well, close enough..." That wasn't mean at all was it? Lol!

This guy was chillin' on the beach when we got there. It was soooo cool! I'd never seen one before, so I was thrilled. =) There were about 3 or 4 more in the water near him, and then several down from him. It was so awesome to see them swimming, coming up for a bit of air, and just relaxin' on the beach. =)

Friday night, I had my first bloggie meet up!!!! Mrs. C and I met through my blog a couple months ago. She found my blog and noticed we were moving to Hawaii; and guess what?! She and her Army hubby were already in Hawaii! They helped us with our huge paperwork issues and were very sweet. After a week holed up in this hotel, I texted her on Friday afternoon to see what they were up to. Because we have no car, they came and picked us up for dinner. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures on Friday but we ended up spending the whole weekend together so I had more opportunities. =)

We had lunch at Margaritaville in Honolulu. Yum!

{I hate that I look like a dork in this picture because it's the only one of us. Oh well.}

This is the Joes. (Both of them are named Joe)

Mrs. C kept telling her Joe to "smile nice," lol!!

Sometimes, it's a little hard to tell who outranks who...hahaha! =)

 These appetizer nachos were a.maz.ing! 

I wanna go back and get more!!

This was my margarita. I was seriously upset that it was so small. $7 for that? Grrrr.

All 4 of us! =) We had a fantabulous weekend!

And last but not least, I have to show you pictures that seriously prove my weight loss journey.

Me at my biggest in June 2009 on our beach trip for our anniversary.

A little less than a year later....the new [and seriously improved] me!!

I'm not exactly where I want to be, but I'm definitely happy with the results thus far!

Happy Monday! 

{I'm off to do laundry...yay.}