Rest in Peace Bill.

After a long struggle with lung cancer, among other complications, my Grandmother’s husband Bill passed away this evening.

For those that pray, please keep my Grandma in your thoughts.

This picture is from May 2007, just a few months before he was diagnosed. They were watching my dogs while I was with my family in Grand Cayman for a week.

Last Night in Waikiki!

Ahhh – how sad. I hate when vacations come to an end!

We spent the afternoon yesterday at the Pool baking in the sun as promised! We ended up having to wait a bit for the sun to move from behind a building, but once it did, we baked for a good hour and a half!

Last night we BBQ’ed hamburgers on the grills by the pool, and when night shopping! We didn’t know until the day before yesterday that all the shops stay open until Eleven PM. So, we went out after dinner, saw all the street acts, and went shopping! On our way home we stopped by Haggan Daaz for some sweet sweet ice cream.

This morning we got up early again and headed over to Pearl Harbor to visit the Arizona Memorial. That day in December 1941 didn’t directly effect my life (nor anyone’s in my immediate family that I know of) so it wasn’t quite as emotional for me as it was for the girls I was with (Terri’s Mom was here as a child that day with her parents, and Melissa’s grandfather had 2 friends die that day), but it was a very humbling experience to say the least.

They have you watch a 25 minute movie before you get on the shuttle boat over to the Memorial. Basically all of it is original footage from that time. A lot of it was actually footage from the Japanese of that day. It was so interesting, and shocking, like I said before, cause there just are not that many words to describe it, humbling.

Here are a couple of pictures.

Approximately 2 quarts of oil/fuel leak from the Arizona daily. It comes up to the surface in black balls that they call black tears. It’s really pretty actually, but it does smell like gasoline.

We went down tonight to see the last sunset while we were here. Got a lot of surf watching in too! It’s one of the 100+ shots that I took while we were down there.

The rest of the night has been spent packing (UGH) and relaxing. I’ll talk to you again when I’m State-side! Aloha!

Pretty Boys!

I missed a day of blogging!!!

But the fun really got started yesterday! For the most part, we mostly just hung out yesterday. We had to leave our hotel at 3:30 to walk over to a neighboring hotel 2 blocks a way to catch the bus out to Paradise Cove.

Captain Brad was our driver and Pomai (Po-May) was our Chaperone if you will. He was great fun on the way out there. Gave us all the information we needed to know about as well.

When we got there we were greeted with an Orchid Lei and a Mai Tae. YUMMY! We of course took the “leaded” version, and from there it was all down hill! They did several demonstrations of Hula, Skirt Tying, Pulling in the fish etc. Then we had the Royal Court and Pig Ceremony!

Here’s a picture of our lovely dinner (being carried by some very pretty boys!!):

After that we sat down to dinner and a show. The food was wonderful of course – anything that’s cooked in the ground all day long has to be though right?!??!

We had a wonderful fire show too … here’s just one picture to give you an idea of what we got to saw:

And just one more picture of pretty boys (and a couple of girls as well)!

This morning we got up early (and maybe a wee bit hung over) to go to Hanauma Bay to snorkel. The wind was actually a little too much for good snorkeling but it was fun to go there and hang out, and get a bit of snork’ing in. Here’s a picture of the Bay from the top!!

For the rest of the day, we’re going to head up to the pool and bake for awhile (it’s still only 1:30pm here people!!!!!!!) and then walk down to downtown tonight and do some night shopping!

Have a great one … I know I am!

Pearls, Pearls and more Pearls.

That about sums up the day!

We walked down from our Condo today and shopped through the International Market Place and shopped. My main goal in shopping while I was there was to pick oysters and get pearls!

I’ve done this several times in the past, and I love The Pearl Factory.

I did spend a little bit more than I had intended to, but the funny thing is (at least to me) is that my girlfriends both spent MORE than me!!! HEHEHE I was quite lucky on Pearls as well! I got a Blue one, which is quite rare, and it was a great size as well. Then I got 3 other ones that were all about the same size (quite large again) and had a “green” tint to them!!! I was quite pleased with what I got!

Here’s my loot:

Excuse the tape still on them – they have to set for 24 hours! It’s all set in white gold, which I much prefer. It’ll be ready to wear just in time for the Luau we are going to tomorrow night at Paradise Cove.

One last picture of Melissa and Terri spending their $$$ on the Pearl Factory. Wayne and Grant were the ones helping us, and they were quite fun to deal with!

Driving with no hands and cheap Groceries!

We found cheap groceries on the Island! Unfortunately, you have to have a military ID to get them!! Luckily, Terri’s husband is a Marine, so we went shopping today. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a commissary before – it was definitely an experience.

We also found a needlecraft store – Fiddlesticks – and were able to buy a few things there.

My favorite find of the day though was my new pair of thongs! I haven’t had a true pair of thongs in a long time, but these are so comfortable!

And finally – Melissa caught me driving without hands on the wheel! I don’t remember what was happening at this precise moment in time. I’m sure it was interesting and totally appropriate though!

Alright, well, I assume that most of my readers are well in bed by now, so I hope you have a great Tuesday!!! And I want to thank Mary (in Hawaii) for giving me some tips on some other scrapbook stores!!!

Waikiki Sunset

The condo we’re staying at is one block off Waikiki beach. Because of all the tall towers between here and there, you can’t see the sunset unless you go down there.

So, I made a point of looking up the sunset times and headed down in what I thought would be plenty of time. Well, little did I know, there was some low lying clouds on the horizon which made sunset about 15 minutes early tonight. But, I got a few pictures that turned out pretty good I think!

Here’s one specifically for Mom – she loves the cruise ships!

And here’s a few more of the sun setting behind the clouds!

And finally, even though the sun went down, the surfers kept surfing!

8 Things!

I’ve been tagged by my (not so) dear friend Amanda.

8 TV Shows I Watch:

The Office
Grey’s Anatomy
Private Practice
The Amazing Race
The Big Bang Theory
How I Met Your Mother
The Biggest Loser
Project Runway

8 Things that Happened Yesterday:

Got up early
Flew to Hawai’i
Checked into the Condo
Found Safeway and bought a few groceries
Scoped out the Scrapbook stores
Watched TV
Drove around the city trying to figure out where things were
Went to bed early

8 Favorite Places to Eat:

Red Robin
Bandito Burrito (Bellingham)
Port of Subs
Tijuana’s
Outback Steakhouse
Red Lobster
Arby’s
L&R Cafe (Quincy)

8 Things I am Looking Forward to:

Snorkeling
Touring Pearl Harbor
Relaxing at the beach
Relaxing at the pool
Going to a Luau
Spending the week with my friends
Seeing my dogs when I get home
My scrapbook Retreat in November

Now I’m supposed to Tag 8 people – but since I hate doing that – if you know me personally, consider yourself Tagged. No pressure though!

On vacation!

Well, I arrived in Waikiki yesterday around Noon-ish. I’ve just been killing time since then. I found the Condo I’m staying at, unpacked, found a grocery store (whoa, can you say expensive!!!) and made some dinner and chilled.

I was in bed early, and therefore, woke up at about 5:45am this morning. Ugh! LOL Oh well.

It rained off and on yesterday afternoon. This picture was taken just a few minutes ago off my lanai! Plans for today … track down the scrapbook store (it doesn’t op until 11) do a little shopping, and walk down to the beach! My friends come in later tonight.

I did finally make a card! It’s similar to one that I posted in the early days of my blog. One of our farmer’s was digging up their spuds this week and we had made plans to go gleen his field when he was done (there are tons of potatoes left on top of the dirt when they are done harvesting – and as long as the farmer doesn’t care, you can go pick them up). Well, he called to tell us he was digging and to send a truck out and he’d just fill up the truck for us! It was pretty cool – they just moved the combine boom right over the bed of the truck and dropped a load for us!!! So, we of course needed a Thank You card.

It was pretty easy and straight forward.

Hope everyone has a great week!!! I will!

Blog Update!

Hi everyone!

I’m working on Updating my Blog. I’ve actually decided to combine my 2 blogs. They both will reside at this location from now on.

I’m also going to a 3-column blog to help facilitate this change. Over the next day or two there will be a lot of changing/moving going on, so bear with me, and then I hope to get back to regularly posting!!!

Hope y’all are having a great weekend!

Insulated Lunch Bag for a Good Cause (+ a little Politics)

I was reading some Blogs today and came across this post on Kami’s blog.

I’ve been looking for a new lunchbag for a few days now. My friend Melissa found some cute ones at Target, but I searched 2 Target’s and couldn’t find them. This was the perfect solution!!! The price was good, plus $5 of the purchase price goes towards the Susan G Koman Cure Cancer Program. You can’t beat that coming up on Breast Cancer Month!

Now, all I’m going to say about this clip is, God Bless David Letterman! (And yes, this is the little bit of Politics for the evening!) The joking aside, he makes some extremely valid points about what’s going on with the McCain/Palin campaign.

TShirt Bag Idea

I know … it’s been awhile.

Where have I been you ask … it’s a little evil thing called Facebook! LOL

Anyway, I was perusing the Web tonight and found this idea for old Tshirts!!! I’m not a HUGE fan of Martha, but she does have some cute ideas every once in awhile!!

Thought I would share!

Rest in Peace Cynthia!

I’m so sad tonight.

One of the great things about this hobby of mine, is the friends that you meet through it.

I met Cynthia for the first time 4-5 years ago. I only see her one time a year – at my November Scrapbooking Retreat. But the friendships that you feel with people you only see one time a year, and keep up with the rest of year via their blogs, are as strong as any.

Cynthia was only 39, and she leaves behind a husband and 6 children. Please keep her family in your thoughts.

Sunset in Grand Cayman!

A month? Seriously?!?! WOW.

To be honest, I haven’t done any new crafting in that time. It’s disgraceful, I know. Part of my problem is my craft space is a PIG STY. I’m slowly working on gaining control in this room, but it’s clearly a huge undertaking.

I have an all-day crop I’m going to on Saturday with a bunch of my scrapping girls; Donna, Nicole, Darla, Amanda, Jill, Deb, Sandy, Sonia, and Mom! It’s going to be so much fun! We’re going to be spending the day at one of my favorite scrapbooking stores – Treasury of Memories! I had pictures printed last weekend for 2 mini-albums I’m going to be doing. I know what papers I’m going to use for one, and I just have to pack everything up and I’ll be good to go!!

This is a scrapbook page that I did at the June Retreat I went to. I had a ton of pictures from the sunset on the beach. I just kept clicking so it was in all stages. I didn’t really know of a good way to scrap this – and came up with this. This was a pre-printed CTMH base page, but I changed it up. The basic design is the same though.

Enjoy!

Supplies: CTMH Chocolate Base Page, Bazzill Cardstock, CTMH Grosgrain white ribbon, CTMH Circle Window Charms

Our Greatest Glory …

… is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.

I love that saying. I made this card a couple of weeks ago. These are the colors that I’m really feeling these days. They are pretty fall-ish I suppose, butso pretty together.

I hope you all had a great 4th of July. It was a fairly quiet weekend for me. I did happen to snap this picture the night of the 4th on our way out to see the fireworks! I think it really turned out very cool! (There’s no editing here, I don’t know how to do that … yet … I am the proud owner of this
book though, so hopefully soon I’ll figure it out!)

Happy Blogoversary To Me!

WOW! I almost missed it! 40 minutes to spare! It’s been a busy Holiday for me and finally just turned my computer on about 10 minutes ago. It’s still quite loud in my neighborhood, and since I’ve been up since 5am, I’m really hoping things will slow down soon!

Anyway, I started my Blog one year ago today!!! WOOHOO!!! And for all you Americans – I hope you had a great 4th of July!!!

So, since I last posted, I also had a Birthday last weekend. I turned 33! To celebrate, I did this:

For those that know me, they know this means I cut a good 10-12 inches off my hair! Talk about crazy. I’m happy with the a-line cut I have now though, it’s just taking a bit of getting used to. I’m still having major shampoo issues – as in I’m trying to use way too much!!! LOL

I also bought myself a new car about 3 weeks ago – a new 2008 Ford Escape! I LOVE IT!

So, there’s all the catch up on me!

Here are the last 3 cards from the Thank You card kit I made at my Retreat a couple of weekends ago!

Stay tuned in the next couple of days – I’ll be throwing out some Blog Candy to celebrate a few things – my new car, my Birthday, my Blogoversary AND I see I’ve gone over 15,000 hits!!! Have a great weekend everyone!