Spoiled

Over the last week or so, I've begun to notice a pattern... Not necessarily a bad pattern, but definitely an expensive one. I can't say I'm really that upset about it other than the fact that it's draining the good 'ole bank account.

Obviously when you're on vacation, you tend to spend more money. I don't think I have to explain that one to anyone. We did quite a bit of shopping while we were on vacation and I am fully aware that my husband likes to spoil me. I don't think I can count on my hands how many times I've said, "Oh, I'd love to have this...but it's expensive..." and he's replied with, "Well, if you want it let's get it." I am soooo not complaining. ;-) But clearly I am spoiled. We bought so much stuff while we were in NC that we had to mail ourselves a box! And our one suitcase was still around 70 lbs. {All I can say about that is 2 people, 1 suitcase. And thank God Delta gives service members a break on luggage!} 

Included in the list of things we bought are tumblers. I don't know why, but all of a sudden I am absolutely loving tumblers! Ok, maybe I do know why - I'm an absolute klutz. Case in point: I broke 3 of our glasses within the first 3 months Joe was deployed last year. From then on I restricted myself to using only our plastic glasses. Oddly enough, my mom made me do the same thing after moving into the new house my senior year in high school. I was responsible for the breaking of around six glasses. Sarah = Klutz. Anyway, I think this is my favorite one so far.

I know it's supposed to be a play on words....but I'll give you one guess what I'm drinking out of it. ;-) Sweet tea. It's really all I drink when I'm at home. As soon as I saw that one, I had to get it. We also got an OU tumbler and a UNC one for Joe. =)

A couple weeks ago, Joe's MacBook just sort of stopped working. We're pretty sure it's the hard drive, but it wouldn't get past the startup screen. We were both sad... Joe more than I, of course. I thought it was interesting that his computer made it through an entire year in Iraq and then it "dies" when he gets home. =P Of all the environments... Anyway, he was complaining... And then he put his username, info and bazillion GB of music on my computer. I wasn't really gracious about letting him use my precious laptop either. What can I say? I'm attached to my Mac. So then we tossed around the idea of getting his fixed - which really wouldn't cost that much - or getting an iMac. We've both wanted one for a while, but didn't have a real need. He uses his iPad {that he got as soon as he got back} more than a computer anyway, so he only really needs a "hub" to sync his iPad and phone with. I, obviously, have a computer but I still thought it would be nice to have a bigger computer..... Long story short, we came home with this yesterday. 

Joe and his new toy.

Well, I guess it's his. I'm using it too, but it's his computer and I just get to play with it I suppose. =P

Even the box looks nice. ;-)

Sitting nice and pretty on our desk. =)

With Macs you can name your hard drive and computer. The iMac is "Mac Daddy." 'Cause he's big and awesome. The "daddy" computer. Haha!

We loaded all our information on it last night and today and also got to download the new OS {Lion} for free. Lion didn't come on this model because we bought it from the NEX and they didn't have the upgrade yet. Luckily Apple offers the download for free for people who have recently bought a new Mac. I've been playing with it today trying to get the feel of it and to see if I want to put it on my laptop. So far I'm loving it. I think my favorite feature might be full screen apps/programs. Check out Mail in full screen:

Eeep! I love it!

I'm also loving Launchpad. It gives you the ability to see all your apps {programs} on your desktop...just like you'd view them on your iPad or iPhone. Awesome! {said in a sing-song voice}

Mission control is pretty sweet too. You can have a bunch of apps open in different desktops and view them all by clicking on Mission Control. Not a big difference from Expose and Spaces, but still pretty cool. I am a huge fan of Spaces. =)

Like I said, I'm loving the new OS. So if you have a Mac and are wondering if it's worth the $30 to upgrade - it is. And don't read the reviews on the App Store. I read a bunch of bad ones and I don't have anything bad to say about it after using it. So there. =P Haters just wanna hate, right!?

In other news, we're on a wait list for a new couch!!!!! See? I told you I was spoiled! We went practically all over the island Monday in search of a new couch. My standards are pretty high and I know exactly what I want. Which is a good thing when there are plenty to choose from and not such a good thing when supplies are limited. This is what we're on the wait list for. I'm not completely in love with it, but it does match exactly what I want. {Minus the non-matching ottoman, which we will not be purchasing.} 

What do you think? Like? Dislike? My only issue is that it's not the exact color I wanted. That said, I think it will hide small amounts of dirt and dog hair nicely so maybe it's not a bad thing after all...

I know I'm getting incredibly spoiled lately. Not just with my husband buying things for me, but with him being home too. I am loving being able to spend so much time with him. I love shopping with him, but I'm not entirely sure he enjoys it that much. ;-) At least he doesn't really fuss about it, though. I'm a lucky girl, and I'm thankful that at least something good is coming out of the deployment. Because we all know that we wouldn't be able to afford these things without that extra deployment money. 

I'm okay with being spoiled after a year of doing without my hubby and the extras. =)

Gettin' Ready...

On the long list of things to do before my hubby gets home is redoing the living room. About 1.5 weeks ago, I made the first {of probably many} purchase of Americana decor! =) After waiting very impatiently for it to ship, I checked the tracking number like a stalker. Haha. When I checked it on Saturday, it said "Delivered"! I all but ran down to the mailbox and came back with my lovely box of goodies. Here's what I got:

Eep!! Cute, right?! I am in love!! Of course I immediately unwrapped them and put them in their proper places!! You wouldn't expect any less of me, would you? ;-)

So, all weekend I sat on my couch and stared at the really bad mixture of beach and Americana decorations. It didn't look so hot!! On my list of things to do today was to remedy that situation. I also needed to purchase a dress for my BIL's wedding in a couple weeks. Oh, and I badly needed an eyebrow wax. =P

After I finally got off my toosh and got motivated, I headed out to do all of that. First I got the eyebrow wax out of the way. It was..well, successful. I won't say painless. =P The technician {is that what they're called?} kept asking me if I was okay!! I know that I flinch when the paper gets ripped off, and my eyes water... So maybe she thought she was killing me? Lol! I have no idea, but I really kept thinking "Geez, lady I'm fine just do your job!" But before she even started she asked me if I wanted to get my upper lip waxed too. The whole stinkin' time I kept wondering if I actually needed it, because why else would she suggest it? Later, Annie said that they ask her that every time too.. You know, because they want more money. I swear I can be so naive sometimes!

After I got waxed, I headed over to Ross. I went through three racks of dresses and tried on about 9 different ones. I really wish I was kidding! I love Ross, but they don't always have the best clothing selection... After round 2 in the dressing room, I finally decided on this one {with help from the bestie via text/picture messages =)}:

I love it. =)

Please excuse the bad dressing room photo. =P

My favorite part.

{Other than the fact that it's a size 8. ;-)}

After finding my dress and running into my friend Courtney a half dozen times, I wandered over to the picture frames. You never know what you're going to find at Ross so I figured it couldn't hurt. I really wanted to get another large, matted frame to hang up in the entryway so I could move things around in the living room. I totally lucked out! I found a really great 11x14 frame (matted to 8x10) for $10! =D Woo! And then I came home and did all this {in no order whatsoever}:

{Ok, I did this one on Saturday. =P}

Entryway.

I love this photo so much better in this frame!

I created that "Home is where the Army sends us" print on my computer. It wasn't supposed to turn out brown and I tried to fix it earlier, but it wasn't cooperating. Brown it is until then. =P Oh, and that frame also fell down earlier. Jasper and I about jumped out of our skin! Although I think I was more worried about my precious Mac than anything. Luckily, God intervened and the Mac came out unscathed. Oh, and the frame wasn't injured either. ;-) 

I still have two trouble spots in the house...

The entertainment center...

and the ledge by the door. *sigh*

I think it requires another Etsy purchase...or two. ;-) Luckily, all the stuff that I love on Etsy is reasonably priced. I can't decide if I want to make another order now or wait until I get back from AR in a couple weeks. Decisions, decisions.

In other "getting ready" news, Annie and I have decided {via Twitter, of course} that we're going to have homecoming decorating parties when it gets closer!! I'm really, super excited about this. I don't know what kind of decorations to even think of getting. I've already got my [NOT FREE] homecoming banner, but I think I want to do a little more than that. Any ideas?

The closer it gets, the more excited I get... But at the same time it still feels so far away. I still have a trip home and our anniversary to get through before all that. And with his internet being as uncooperative as ever, it's hard to feel excited. I guess I should be excited that I won't have to deal with it much longer, but it's still hard. Hopefully the problem will be resolved soon and we can talk more than once a week. 

I just have to keep reminding myself that I can do this and that it will be over soon!! And until then, I can hang out with my deployment sister, Annie. =) And maybe Annie, Miranda and I will have another sewing party {or two or three} too! 

Hope your week is off to a great start!

Panic or Retail Therapy?

Definitely retail therapy. =) Well, that's what I did yesterday anyway. Of course I had been planning to go anyway, but... Shopping was definitely better than what I would have been doing otherwise: sitting in front of my TV with my laptop, glued to the news and re-tweeting every shutdown tweet there was. =P

Before the shopping happened, I had to go to the DMV though. Sad day. Unfortunately I hadn't realized that, um, our tags expired in March. Yeah, like last month. Shoot, they even sent me the registration. I think what was throwing me off, though, is the fact that our safety inspection (yeah, HI still does that) isn't due until June. You see, last year before we moved I renewed our NC...in March. So when we got here and finally switched our tags, the lady just charged us $5 for a new March sticker instead of making us pay for June registration. Which was awesome. At the time. All this time I've been thinking that Joe could take care of it when he got back. So I finally looked at our tags several days ago and whaddaya know!? Expired. Luckily I never got pulled over. =P


Wednesday I had the pleasure of traipsing all over one of the quads in order to get the lovely non-resident form. This handy little form - which has to be signed by an E6 or above - allows us to pay $20.50 for our tags instead of $257. Extortion much? So you can see why I gladly walked all over the place, probably looking very strange in the sea of digi camo. And when I finally got to where I was going, I'm pretty sure I had "LOST" written on my forehead. I was approached by a very gracious E6 who helped me find my way and get the form. Oh, best part? His last name was Sherwood. (If you watch Army Wives, you'll get that reference.)


Anyways, I ended up spending a very trying 45 minutes at the DMV. A female soldier thought it was a great idea to bring her 2 year old to the DMV. Then, said soldier talks to her mom on the phone...lets her daughter talk to her...and then takes the phone away. Do you know what happens when you take things from 2 year olds? Meltdown, USA. For the next 20ish minutes, that child did nothing but scream, cry and whine. I wish I was kidding. I get that kids have bad days, but that child was just being obnoxious. Fortunately, she didn't hang around long and I was able to get in and out of there quickly.


Then I met up with Mrs. C to do some shopping! We hit up Old Navy first. Oh. My. Word. That place was a gold mine! I usually love Old Navy anyway, but especially yesterday. They were having like mega clearance. Their clearance items were half off the red sticker. Praise the Lord! Mrs. C and I went into the fitting rooms twice. Each time our arms were full of clothes to try on. Good times. =) As always, we had to ditch a few things before we headed to the checkout line. I ended up with 4 shirts (wayyy over half off) and 2 pairs of shorts. Go me!

Love!

This one might be my favorite. =)

Clearly I have a thing for rosettes.

These shorts are just the perfect length!

I'm of the longer shorts persuasion.

Then we walked over to Charlotte Russe where I ended up trying on about 4 dresses. =P As if I hadn't already spent enough money! Bad things happen when I get the urge to shop. Well, bad things happen to our bank account. ;-) And, better news, I'm pretty sure I found the dress I'm going to wear to homecoming! Yeah, it's a little far in advance but I just couldn't help it. It's cute...not too dressy, not too casual, which I think really works for Hawaii. I wish I could show you a picture! I am not allowed since Joe wants to be surprised and there's always a chance he'll read my blog and see it. I can, however, give you a little bit of a teaser. 

Hehe. =) I had a great time shopping and catching up with Mrs. C yesterday. It was nice to get out and about. After I learned that the commissary was going to be open even if the government did shut down, I decided not to get groceries. I did need gas, though. You would have thought doomsday was coming! I didn't have to wait in line too long, but the line after me was gigantic!! 

I'm glad that they finally came to an agreement. It's really disgusting that the Democrats would hold military pay hostage just because they wanted funding for Planned Parenthood. Absolutely disgusting. I always knew that the liberals weren't big military supporters, but after that I think we all know who supports the military and who doesn't. Anyway.

I hope y'all are having a great weekend!

Lots 'O Things

Yeah, I've kinda been MIA for a few days. I kinda figure that's ok. I mean, I gotta have a break sometime! That and I know that once the hubby gets back (which is still a while away) I won't be blogging on the weekends. I thought it might be a good idea to get back into that habit now that way I'm not sent into blogging withdrawals while dealing with reintegration. Though, maybe blogging would help with that... =P The weekends are always "Joe and Sarah time" and I think it should stay that way. So, there's your reasoning for that!


Moving right along, I had a really good weekend. Since everyone knows the weekend starts on Friday (*wink, wink*), we'll start there.


Friday, I met up with my friend Mrs. C! It'd been quite a while since the last time we'd hung out and it was definitely time for us to get caught up! So, after her doctor's appointment we met up to do some shopping at  the outlet mall! Mainly Charlotte Russe...like I really needed to do more shopping there. =P We both found some super cute things, but only I ended up buying anything. Even then I only ended up with 2 things. =P I did find a really nice skirt and a dress that I may go back and get... I'm trying to find something to wear to my BIL's wedding in May and I can't decide. I may end up with the dress because...well, I just looked good in it! Haha =) So, my 2 wonderful purchases. Actually, I only paid for one. Hehehe.

This bag!! Isn't it great?! This is the one that I ended up getting for free. I spent a good amount of money the last time I was there, and that day they were giving out a $5 coupon for every dollar amount spent. I ended up with 3. So this time, I took the coupons with me. AND this bag was on sale for $15... Hello, free bag!! =)

The inside - it's HUGE!

My laptop fits in it perfectly.

Can you say "carry-on bag?"

{'Cause that's what it's about these days.}

{Please ignore my post-shopping face and hair. Yuck.}

And then I got this really great necklace. I've been trying to broaden my jewelry horizons lately. My earrings and necklaces have been so "blah." Definitely need some new stuff. And I *love* this one.

Great, right? =) And I have some pearl earrings (fake, of course) to match! Win! =)

After Charlotte Russe, we stopped in the BCBG store where I drooled over several gorgeous potential ball gowns. Most of them (on the sale racks) were reasonably priced, but few of them were in my size. Hey BCBG, not everyone is a size 2! *sigh* After I was slightly disappointed there, we wandered over to Banana Republic. Bank account, beware! I tried on several things (Mrs. C tried on more ;-)) but I didn't find anything that I couldn't live without. While I was waiting on her to get back from the fitting rooms, I wandered over to the men's section and drooled over slacks, suits, button-downs and ties. 

You see, my hubby used to be the suit-wearin' kind of guy. Mostly because he was in Chorale and Vocal Jazz and performed often, but he dressed up for church and other things too. Also, he looks handsome when he's all dressed up. =) Then, of course, while we were student teachers we were required to dress professionally so he wore slacks, a nice shirt and a tie on most days. After we got married and he found a decent job, the attire was the same. It wasn't until the Army that he didn't wear a suit or "professional clothing" every day. He does wear the occasional button-down, but it's usually with jeans these days. I miss that. I digress. Where was I? Oh yes, men's section at Banana Republic. =) As I was browsing, I found this shirt on the sale rack for $7. 

I absolutely love it! I think it's going to look great on him too! =) The best part is that I got it for seven. dollars. when it was originally $50. Yeah. Don't tell me they don't price things way too high.

After that, we went to lunch at Chili's. Yum! I worked there for 2 years and I still really don't mind eating there... I could probably still eat there a couple times a week. That's probably weird, isn't it? Anyway, I had a great time catching up with Mrs. C. Even though we live on the same island, we don't see each other that much. Funny how that happens, isn't it? Funny and sad. 'Cause I really like hanging out with her! 

Saturday, I did a few loads of laundry and bummed out most of the day. I went to dinner at Michelle's house where we had some yummy fajitas and randomly great conversations. It was a pretty low-key day, which I completely loved after having shopped most of the day Friday. 

Sunday was also a great day. =) We had a guest speaker at church, who was just amazing. The man has a PhD and yet it felt like he was really...down to earth. He explained things so. well. His message really got me thinking about how I view things... Things that God wants me to do - no - needs me to do and the attitude that I have toward that because of how I view myself. That probably didn't make any sense to anyone who wasn't there on Sunday. I'm actually planning on doing another post about that entirely, so I don't want to give it all away just yet. =) After church, I went to lunch with Mrs. C, her hubby and her neighbor/mutual friend. We went to this little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place that I've probably driven by half a dozen times and hadn't seen before. It was really good, and cheap which is always a bonus here in the land of overpriced everything. Seriously, someone was telling me that she looked at a shock collar for her dog online...and it was about $80 and had free shipping. She got to Petco and they had it priced at $170!!! Someone please tell me how that makes sense!!!!! Same store, 2 different prices and, no, they wouldn't price match with their own prices. Aloha. {Please take note of the sarcasm that is dripping from that last word.}

Lastly, I want to talk to you about a miracle drug. Well, I guess it's not really a drug. It's for your face. Specifically, it's for the face overtaken by acne. That was formerly my face. But not today! Today, my face is 100% zit free!! There are still some red spots on my face left from the zits that were previously there, but there are ZERO zits on my face!!

{No comments about the no-makeup face, k? Thanks.}

It's seriously awesome! If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that I 86'ed the pill right before Joe deployed. Since then, the hormones went wacky and my pre-pill, teenager face returned [along with the unbearable cramps and barely predictable AF]. The teenager "bacne" also returned, but let's not talk about that right now. After I realized that it had been the pill that was controlling my acne, I decided I needed to do something about it. I started researching everything, trying to figure out what would work for me.

My first thought was ProActive, because who hasn't seen those commercials? I took a look around their website and started reading. ProActive uses a harsh chemical called benzoyl peroxide to kill the bacteria on your face, thus killing the zits. Seems like a good idea, right? Right. Well...the peroxide thing really threw me off and I started reading reviews that said, "buy white towels because it will bleach out any color on the towels you dry your face with." *insert screeching tires sound here* Um, what?! I'm sorry, but I don't want to use anything that bleaches towels/clothes on my face.

Then someone suggested Murad. Then someone else suggested it. I Googled; I read up on it and then I sat on the idea for a while. I even read up on the benzoyl peroxide vs. salicylic acid debate. (Murad uses salicylic acid.) After reading several articles, I decided that the latter would be the best choice for me. It's much less harsh and still kills the bacteria on your face that causes acne. Plus, it works like an exfoliant without requiring those bead things most put in their formulas. After sitting on the idea a while longer, I took the plunge and bought the trial kit.

I was excited, nervous and wary of Murad. Even after reading all I'd read, I wasn't sure it would work. I even went through about a week or two where I wasn't sure it was working. Then, one day, I looked in the mirror and thought, "Dang! My skin looks great!" Even with the few bumps I had, it looked pretty good. Then today, no zits. =) And I also got my first 60 day supply in the mail. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about it. I know this all sounds very vain, but I'm happy to have a zit-free face!!

And no, no one paid me to say this. I'm just really loving the results I got, even though my acne wasn't/isn't near as bad as others have it. I think I'm going to have to break down and buy the "bacne" line, though. I'm sick of my shoulders and back being covered in bumps. It's really...icky...and gives me the sad face.

Now, after having written a book and bored 90% of you to death, we're all caught up! I hope your week has gotten off to a great start! More interesting posts to come. Pinky swear! ;-)

Post-VDay High

I went in to good 'ole VDay with a pretty good attitude! My hubby called me just after midnight while I was still in bed reading. It was definitely a surprise and those always make me happy. I also had the promise of "a delivery" later in the day. Joe had encouraged me to go shopping for an outfit at Charlotte Rousse, but I declined because I wanted to be home to get "my delivery."

I started the day with a workout (that's definitely a new one for me!) and shortly after, my mom called. I think she was just calling to make sure I wasn't in a deep, dark, depressing hole. I was cool. I had lunch, I showered and that's when things started going downhill. See, I was hoping "the delivery" would come earlyish so I could still go shopping. Well...since I'm not going on and on about how I got flowers yesterday, you can guess what happened. I ended up being home all day doing dishes, laundry and attempting other things...and getting nothing. Joe got online that night and I told him (he was upset too..just in a different way). To top everything off, he couldn't talk but for about 3 minutes. 

Best VDay ever, right? {sarcasm}

Later that night, a friend of mine popped into town! This in itself is extremely random given the fact that I live in the middle of an ocean. She works for an airline and randomly takes trips across the world. Anyway. She posted on FB that she was here and I commented, of course. We talked back and forth about getting together and finally decided on lunch today. Yay! I was so excited! I really haven't seen her in years, so it would be nice to see her. After a quick email to the museum curator letting her know I wouldn't be in, I decided on the next day's plan: Lunch with friend and then shopping! Doesn't get much better than that, right?!

I got up and around earlier this morning than I usually do. My friend and her, um, guy were planning on going to Pearl Harbor and then we were going to do lunch. Most people go early because you can't get tickets if you don't. I assumed early. I got ready. I sat. I waited. Nothing. Noon rolls around and I'm absolutely starving. People with hypoglycemia really can't wait until 1, 2 or 3 p.m. to eat lunch. After confirming my thoughts with Melissa, I ate lunch and then headed to the outlet mall.

Friend never called (but she did text around 4p.m. inviting me to dinner. I politely declined because of my Skype date with Joe. =)). But it was ok. I did some serious shopping! And only in one store! Would you like to see the loot!? What am I thinking? Of course you want to see it! ;-)

I SO love all the bows!!

This is my favorite, I think.

I love this one too, but it's not grey.

My camera sucks.

I also got these cute sandals!

Can't go wrong with those!

I was getting very excited about all of my clothes, until I saw this:

FAIL.

I don't know what to do about this. Should I attempt to remove it myself? Should I take it to another store close by to see if they could remove it? Or should I wait until Sunday - when I'm back in the area - and take it to Charlotte Russe? 

After calling my mom and hitting up the commissary for some much-needed food, I came home. As usual, I put the groceries away, brought in my cute clothes and took Jasper to get the mail. And what did I find in my teeny tiny mailbox?! This!

The package, not the phone silly readers. =P

I got a thrill out of seeing Edmond, OK on my package.

Home! =D Well, OK is home. Not Edmond.

Lookie what I got!!!! 

Protection for my precious iPhone!

Tada!

This thing was a pain in the BUTT to get on!

But (haha) it looks cute and keeps my phone safe from all my klutziness.

The back. I *heart* being able to see the Apple.

I also got this...contraption.

I was terrified that it was part of the cover and not an extra part.

How hideous would that have been!?

I have to say this is the first time I've had such a great day after a really crappy VDay. I still haven't gotten "a delivery," but I think the hubby is more upset about that than I am. He's supposedly working something out to make it up to me. Belated VDay gifts through out the week? Yes, please! ;-)

I hope y'all enjoyed the VDay blog swap yesterday! Thanks again to Wife on the Roller Coaster for hosting! And if you missed my post, you can go here to check it out.

What a Day!

I am honestly exhausted! It's been a busy day full of meeting a bloggie friend and shopping!! 

Sadly, there were no pictures taken today. I'm not sure how TWO bloggers got through an entire day without taking a single picture, but we did it. =P I got up bright and early at 0700 this morning to meet up with Jessica from Bleu Dress & Dress Blues! She and her hubby are stationed in Japan, but he had to come here for training. How lucky is that?! She decided to join him since he was forced to come to such a location as this for training. ;-) Torture. Since she's here and her hubby has to work, she figured it'd be a good time to meet up, hang out and see the island!

Today we focused mainly on the malls. =) She needed to find a new dress to wear to a nice restaurant downtown and I was more than happy to meet here there. I don't think either one of us bought very much stuff, but I managed to find some pretty awesome deals. 

Charlotte Russe: (seriously in love with that store)

2 tank tops: $11.25

Earring set (6): $6

Forever 21 (Ala Moana):

2 shirts: $15.30

Pair of yoga pants: $7.50 (a freakin' steal!)

Super cute reusable bag: $1.50

I think I did pretty well today, don't you? We stopped at several other stores along the way too. Which is the reason I am so stinkin' tired. Sadly, from a day of walking my knee is seriously killing me. I think it also has something to do with the fact that there's a "cold" front moving through which is supposedly bringing rain. I am thisclose to saying that I'm a human barometer. I really don't want to admit it just yet, though. I think I should at least wait until I'm 30. ;-) 

All in all, it was a pretty good day. Jessica is hoping to relax on the beach tomorrow while I go stick my nose in history stuff at the museum. We're planning to meet up again on Thursday to do some North Shore-related things. I'm in favor of this because it's a whole lot closer to home. =) I didn't really realize it until recently, but I am very partial to North Shore. I was talking to a friend of mine here about not being able to go to the beach because of the high surf and she quickly reminded me that the West and South shores didn't have the high surf that North Shore does. =P I knew that... But I live at North Shore....basically. It's like a 15 minute drive away and I don't like to stray too far from home. I know it's sad, but it's true.

Although I had a great time with Jessica watching her re-learn how to drive in the US and turning on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal, the highlight of my day was Skyping (video!) with my hubby. =) Yes, you read that right!! Apparently, he has today off (it's currently 1100 there) so we were able to chat at a time when he's usually at work. When he messaged me, I believe my first words were, "Hey! What are you doing online?!" Haha! What can I say? I know his schedule. I very politely asked if I could "see his face today" since it had been a while and I missed it. =P I was sooo happy that his connection actually cooperated with us and we were able to talk for 1 hr and 6 minutes without any interruptions! Ok, I take that back. It did freeze a few times, but we did not lose the connection! =) That in itself is a miracle. Would you like my favorite quote from our little chat? Of course you would. 

Scene: Skyping with my hubby.

Topic: Weight Loss

Joe: I've come up with some great workouts to get rid of this gut.

Me: It's not a gut! 

Joe: Well... It's like a pre-gut... A warning gut.

Me: *dying laughing*

Joe: It's not the spare tire yet, but I've got the axel and wheel base.

Me: *continuing to die laughing* You're strange!!!

Joe: Well, yeah. That's true.

So, there you have it. My husband has a "pre-gut." This from the man who's lost 30 pounds since he's been deployed. He's also gained some serious muscles (read: mus-kles) in his arms... Mmmmm. ;-) He went on later to suggest that we both have "gut troubles." Although I will say that he did a very good job of trying not to offend me and tell me that I was fat. =P He's dug himself into so many holes that I guess he's figured out how to not even pick up the shovel! Yay, hubby! Hahaha!

Later while we were talking, I showed him a little something that I made!! You may remember that list of projects I posted about a week or so ago. This is one of them. 

A Nook cover for my hubby!

His looks way better than mine.

I guess practice really does make perfect.

Who knew?

Now we have his and hers Nook covers! I love it!

What do you think? Cute, right? I thought so. ;-)

Hope you had a great Tuesday, and that your Wednesday is getting off to a good start. =)

Magnificent Monday

I never thought a Monday could be so good. =)

Thankfully, I was able to Skype with Joe this morning with ZERO interruptions!  That's a miracle in itself! We were able to catch up on things, chat and be a little silly before he went to sleep. He's 13 hours ahead of me and now he's working day shift, so that makes our conversations interesting. I think we spend half the time yawning, lol! He's tired because he worked all day and I'm tired because I just woke up. =P At least we can talk, though. He's not feeling well today. =( He mentioned last night that he might have a cold, and then he told me earlier that his chest was hurting when he woke up. I'm thinking bronchitis, but I hope that's not what it is. Plus, they had a run this morning (morning for him, night for me) so I'm sure that didn't help at all. He's headed to the doctor today and I hope they give him some good medicine! I told him I was sorry he felt bad and he said, "Better now than later." =) This excites me. Now he's worried about being sick on R&R! That means it's getting close! No details/dates for you, though. I'm not saying a word! :-X

After that, I pretty much laid around until this afternoon. I've been sort of busy the last couple of days, so it was nice to just chill for a while. Then, after Chantal got finished with her little conference-y thingy, we went shopping! I had some Christmas shopping to take care of for my niece and nephew. I am happy to say that I am now finished with their gifts! I've got one coming to me via the mail for my niece, but that's it. I also have to get her birthday present, but I'm thinking about ordering it online and having it sent to my SIL's house. I think it will be much less of a headache for me that way. We went to like 3 kids' clothing stores for me to get everything I wanted to get. (Don't worry, Anna. It was an outlet mall. I didn't spend a ton. ;-))  We also went to Charlotte Russe where I got the cutest dress to pick Joe up in!! I got it for a freakin' steal too! I'd post a picture, but Joe said he wants to be surprised and he reads my blog. Sorry! I will post one when he gets here for R&R. I also got a super cute shirt there too. I think the Charlotte Russe outlet is my new favorite store here. Plus, it's seriously close to my church... This could be dangerous, folks.  =)

The loot for my niece and nephew. Lucky kiddos. ;-)

After the outlet mall, we hit Petco and Costco. I got Jasper some treats and a new tennis ball. I accidentally threw his last ball in the gutter... I'm still not quite sure how it happened. We were in the field back behind our house playing fetch. Well, I was playing fetch. Jasper refused to bring the ball back to me. Grrr. So, I decided that if he wasn't going to cooperate, we were going back inside. He kept jumping up and trying to get the ball from me, so I threw the ball over our fence - clearly not aiming anywhere near the roof. *Clunk!* Ball in gutter full of rain water. Crap. Soooo I got him a $.99 one at Petco. He's being playing fetch inside with me all night. Score 1 for momma! =)

Think he likes the new ball much? ;-)

All worn out! Finally!

After all our shopping I came home, took Jasper to get the mail and cooked dinner while Skyping with Melissa. =) I am loving the time change! Hawaii doesn't participate, but the rest of my friends/family do. I think this is awesome! I'm now only 4 hours behind CT and 5 hours behind EST. Woot! The 6 hour time difference between me and the east coast was killing me! Only one downside though: football games will come on earlier. *sigh*

I also watched NBC's special on former President Bush tonight. Oh my gosh, it was awesome! I love that Bush was so open about things that happened during his 2 terms as CIC. I don't know what it is about his personality, but I love him. He doesn't seem to really care what people think about the things he did while he was in office, and he actually admits that he made mistakes! Shocker. ;-)

Honestly, I think he gets blamed for more things than he gets credit for. Did that make sense? I know that everyone wants to place blame on somebody, and it always falls to the president... Or the former president. News Flash: The President is a person too!! All people make mistakes. I can kind of understand people blaming him for the war(s). What I can't understand is why people blame him for the aftermath of Katrina... Maybe he didn't step up and act like he should have afterward. But here is my problem with that entire situation: The people of New Orleans were warned about the hurricane. They were told that it would be a category 5 (or whatever it was), and they were highly encouraged to evacuate. Only a small percentage of them actually did. Hmmmmmmm.

Anyway. I thought the segment was really well done and I applaud Bush for doing this. It was really great to get his side of all the things that happened during his 2 terms. I will probably be buying his book too. While he might not have been the best president ever, he is a darn good man; he kept this country safe after 9/11 and he fully supported the military.

Overall, I rate this Monday as awesome. =) Who knew a Monday could be so good?!