Father's Day Weekend

Daddy's little man!

After our day our exploring, we played LIFE with the kids. Ally beat us, she had a Ph.D before we could even drive a car!

I thought it was appropriate for Daniel to take a picture with some OLD navigating tools. This is a 4-hour watch log for what direction the ship was going. Behind him is the Lynnhaven House. Great history:)



I'll post more pictures later. For some reason Blogger is not cooperating.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to my wonderful husband. I love you more than you will ever know!

Dishman!

See what's in Daniel's hands? Oh, yes! He's doing the dishes! For some reason it makes me love him more! HAHA. We haven't figured out WHY ... but hey, we shouldn't mess up a great thing! :)

And our little Charlie, I just had to share this picture of him! OH, he's so cute!

Our Snow In Chesapeake!

Here in Chesapeake, VA, We got SNOW! We were all so excited to finally have real snow. Here are some random pictures of our snow and us leaving the house after being snowed in for a 2 days! The snow could not keep us in for another day. We had planned a trip to Williamsburg over the weekend because I've had the travel bug for a month! But this was an experience enough!

Mason was the first brave soul to venture out into the snow.


We've only seen snow like this once when we lived in Bremerton, WA.

Ally missed the fun. She slept over at her friend's house and got stuck there for two days. I don't think she complained though.

Home Projects and Our First Visitor!

Since we moved into the house, I have wanted to put up a pot rack that I bought before we even closed on the house. So a few weeks ago we took down the light fixture over the island in the kitchen and started to hang the rack. Then we realized that there wasn't a truss behind the ceiling to mount the rack to. It was there, but it wasn't centered over the island. The rack is not that heavy but once I put all of my pots and pans up, it would be. So I called my Dad and asked him what to do. He's really good at home projects and building things... So he said he would build a board for us to put up over the island to add support for the rack and that would also make it centered. He came to visit us on Tuesday night and brought the board and his tools and went to work!

I'd like to say I helped a lot, but really, I didn't help much at all!

Dad painted the board first. He said for the type of wood it was the paint would bring out all the rough pieces of the wood, then you could sand it.

After painting it once and then sanding it, we painted it again. He said to use a roller so you couldn't see brush strokes in the paint. I was totally thinking of doing it with a brush.

After the final coat, we let it dry for about 3 hours.


Daniel and Dad put the board up and started to get the wiring for the electric done. There were some issues with that, but they figured it out and I went to bed! HeeHee. I had a long day that day! I mowed our new SOD and It looks great! Our yard is HUGE and we need a riding lawn mower!

This is the rack. We put it on a table next to the island so we didn't have to hold it while the electrical stuff was being done.

I was getting so impatient! I just wanted it to be UP! I had no idea it would be such a big project-





We still haven't found the right light bulbs for the rack. These hang out of the fixture. But I really love it! We have two holes that are left over from the previous light fixture. We're going to put hooks in those and then attach the left over chain from the rack and that will hang down for us to put more small hooks on and it will be used for ladles and spoons. It's a good way to cover up the holes and it will also be functional!

Dad left this morning and got on the road back to Florida. It was fun having our first visitor! We played lots of music together!

Today, my plan is to dig up one of the pine trees in the back yard and plant a fruit tree there. I got a pear tree that I can't wait to plant!

Adoption

We've been given the opportunity to adopt a little boy! Daniel, myself, and the kids are very excited, but somewhat guarded in the event that it doesn't happen. I was contacted through a friend and asked to adopt a young woman's little boy. She doesn't have the means to take care of him and has unselfishly given us the chance to provide for him. We are waiting for some important things to happen before we proceed, but the initial step was to decide if we wanted to take on the responsibility of another child. For us, the choice was fairly easy. We've had an ongoing discussion about this happening for a few years. Throughout this time, the kids have come up with great ideas and solutions and are okay with sharing their parents with another sibling whether it be us having our own or adopting. So this seems like a pretty natural progression.



I have started to realize, unfortunately, that people we know have reacted in odd ways to this news. I think through this event, we will once again find out who our friends really are. I've had some pretty strange encounters and heard about some pretty charged discussions -even referring to the race of my family. It's very sad, really. The primary concern is for a child and that's what people should focus on. People wouldn't say anything if I was pregnant and that's what I don't understand. I guess I was -again- a little naive going into this. I thought the whole race issue had run it's course! I thought that the goodness in people would show and not the ugly... all the more reason in my mind to teach another child what is good and bad, right and wrong, and what really matters in the world. I think I might just have a little more figured out about life in general.



I'm not discouraged :), just disappointed in people. On the flip side- I'm so thankful for the good people in my life that support me and my "change the world" attitude!

Road Trips, Grandparents, Camping, and 4-wheeling! Part I

So here I am again, after thinking I would totally get to blog every night and I would be keeping up with my blog all through this move... no such luck! So I'll be playing catch up!


So we found our beautiful house in Virginia! While I was in VA, I stayed at my friend, Amy's house. She happened to call me the day before we were to fly out from Hawaii and say that she was going out of town and that we could stay at her house while she was gone. It worked out perfectly because she was gone the entire 10 days we needed a place to stay. Daniel joined us for 5 days of house hunting and then went back to Hawaii for a deployment.

We left VA to visit my friend in Kingsbay, GA! This was a 9 hour trip. We stayed there for a few days and had pedicures and let the kids play together. The weather was stormy and I LOVED every minute of it. In Hawaii we didn't get thunderstorms, so it was really nice!

We left GA and drove on to Titusville, FL. This was only 3 hours of driving! Ally and Mason got to spend some quality time my Granny and Papa! Mason even said to me, "Mom, I didn't know Granny was so fun. But after you get to know her, she's a blast!" That made me feel so good because I've always wanted them to spend more time with them!

We went to church with Granny and Papa on Sunday morning. My grandfather doesn't pastor this church anymore since he has retired, but they are both still very active in the church. We are very proud of our Papa! He is an Elder, a Bishop, and just recently earned his Doctorate in Theology at the age of 83! These people do NOT stop!

Papa made us tea and served a great southern meal that Granny cooked! Southerners love their cornbread and sweet tea!



Granny is very much into her heritage and has traced our family back to the 1700's. She loves her pictures!

Granny and Ally looking at old picures... of me when I was little.

This is my brother, Galen, and me when we were little. I love this one!

Mason had a great time with Granny and all of her crafty projects. Granny paints beatiful pictures! So we all sat down and had a lesson! Our paintings were terrible! LOL

This is my Granny Green! Isn't she cute?!

This is Granny and Mason trying to learn a magic trick!

This is Mason holding my Dad's football plaque. Granny is telling Mason about how his Papa used to play football! She can still remember everything about his football years.

We stayed in Titusville for about 5 days and then made our way to Oklahoma. I was supposed to go to a family reunion in the middle here, but I was given the wrong dates! So we had to move on to Oklahoma!

Sorry my pictures are all messed up with the captions! I'm so sick of trying to make it the way I want! I guess I've forgotten how to blog! In the preview everything is right.... the next one willbe better!

Virginia Arrival- June 28, 2009

I think I'm still in shock! It doesn't really feel like I actually moved. I feel like we're just visiting. I think it may set in once we have a house to live in. To catch you up, this is Thursday while the movers were at the Kapolei house.
The packers left my piano for last! It was in my room...

Then they moved it downstairs. I played the piano all day while they were there. It's not everyday movers get live entertainment while they work ;). I got requests too! We had a lot of fun! This is what Angie and have always done while we were getting moved.. play music and sing! The most popular song for the day was Piano Man by Billy Joel. The movers-locals- had never heard of BILLY JOEL! WHAT?

When we were finished on Thursday, we booked a room at the Navy Lodge on Ford Island. I got there and got dressed QUICKLY so that I could meet the wives for dinner. We did a little farewell dinner at Hickam Air Force Base. They do Mongolian BBQ on Thursdays and it's so good! I got my pretty platter and said goodbye! It was so sad. I hated leaving, but I was also glad to move on and get back to the mainland!

So after we were finished at the house on Friday, we went to Stacy's house to have dinner! It was really good and we love hanging out with them! Then we had to drive to Kailua and pick up Ang's car that we were borrowing.

The next day, Ally had taken a turn for the worst... she was sick! So we took her to a Saturday appointment on base and got lots of meds!

Then we turned in the G35! No more cars! I actually had no keys left on my key chain!

Before I knew it, it was time to go to the airport! Daniel drove us in Ang's car to the airport and we were OFF TO VIRGINIA!

Once we arrived to Norfolk, Kevin, from Toyota met us there and set us up with a loaner car. We left the airport and drove to our room at Oceana Air Station. We unloaded, got lunch (at SONIC -that we LOVE). Once we all ate and showered we were really tired so we took at nap. I woke up a few hours later and decided to go get my new CAR!!!

This is the building that our room is in. Although it looks really old and icky, the rooms are really nice. I actually have a new definition of old and icky though... have you seen the pictures from the camping trip to the N. Shore? Yeah... this is 5 star compared to that!

My new Prius has got to be right up there with my iPhone! It is just awesome! I'm so going to name her, too. Yes, it's a girl! I think a good name is Kortana! That's super geeky (from Halo) but I think I like it! She even talks to me! haha.

By the way.. I'm blogging via my new netbook! I sold my big laptop, so Daniel bought this one for me while I was having dinner with the wives! I love it! It's so perfect for traveling! I think I'm officially spoiled now! Oh, wait... after the house! Then I will be Spoiled ROTTEN!

And one last thing.... I saw fireflies! I totally forgot about fire flies! I love them. I got eaten by mosquitos while trying to get a picture, but here it is! haha. That's one little firefly!