Feliz Cumpleaños a Mi - Ode to the Duty Day gods

Today is my 29th birthday, literally.  This is not a mock "29" but the real deal! The day started off with the phones blowing up at 5:30 am Hawai'i time.  Thanks Jackson and Aunt H for that! Hehehe, that had to have been one of the cutest, sincerest retentions of the birthday song I have heard in a long time.  My 23 old brother singing his little heart out! Watch out for him at the next American Idol try - outs.  I am so happy that all of my brothers and sisters called me and wished me a happy bday, it means a lot to me.  Even my little Seashell called, she said she had it written in her planner.  LOL, the 1o year old has a planner.  Lulu and Marco called, Lulu called again to rub it in that she was buying me a cake in Texas and was going to eat it for me and Panchoman gave me a couple of calls before my quest to take myself out for my bday.  I even got a call from my mother in law, first time, I have never had one of those before.  hahaha Thanks everybody! I got emails from friends and my cousin Joe. Shout out to Jerri!!  It feels good to be loved! I must sincerely thank the good ol' US Navy for this present, my husband has duty TODAY!  What does that mean to you civilians??  Ugh, in short it means that my husband had to spend his wife's birthday on the freaking ship and had to stand watch.  Thank goodness he had a decent watch and was able to call me before he went to bed, but nothing like a memorable birthday courtesy of the Navy.  My bro had a good point, at least this year Love is in the same town, state, continent, etc!! Good point!! We will make up for it this weekend!!  So, what did Jai do today???  Glad, you asked.  I went job hunting.  It's that time of year again.  School is back in session and surprisingly enough I am not having school withdrawals.  LOL! But I do think that the time has come for me to get a job.  We are blessed to have steady income but I am starting to crawl the walls here at home.  I applied for an elementary teaching position and let's keep our fingers crossed.  If not, then I anticipate on starting graduate studies soon.  Soon after dropping off my application at the prospective school, I had a very late birthday brunch, nothing like Mc Donald's for your birthday.  For those of you who know me, I am cheap!! I had a FREE Southern chicken sandwich with purchase of a large drink, so that was my lunch.  (thank you JennJ for the coupon) I then took myself out shopping for my birthday and treated myself to a dinner of sushi! ONE OF MY FAVORITES! I must admit, that is one perk of living in paradise, the abundance of sushi restaurants.  I was touched by a fellow military wife's invitation to make me a bday dinner or take me out for my bday.  It is nice to have such friends, especially in a new place.  Thank you Erin and Erin's husband.  Your kindness really touched my heart today! I went out to the mall and bought myself a few new things and I really, really enjoyed my sushi dinner.  The downfall was that I arrived at Genki sushi around 8:35 and they close at 9, so I asked for some to-go containers so that I could eat my dinner at home.  I felt so bad being there with all of the other customers leaving and I was just getting my food.  Thankfully, the waitstaff was polite.  So, that was my glamorous dinner, I brought it home and ate at my own kitchen table.  I decided on not baking my own cake, as this weekend is an extended weekend, so let's see if I can persuade love to put on his baking mitts.   I will let you know if he can bake or not.  I would like a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting and fresh strawberries, please!Today's Question is brought to you by: "Duty day: assured to question or ruin your plans at any and every given time" BOO DUTY DAY! It is a mutal hate..Jai hates duty day, duty day hates Jai.  I will get you my pretty!!!! 

Question: What color of shirt was the mole wearing on today's birthday episode?  (hehehe, if you watched the show "The Mole" you are laughing, if not you think I am an idiot!)

Answer: If the birthday girl is the mole then you know purple is somewhere in the wardrobe!  

Proud Sister Moments! 2 for 1

This has been a glamorous day! Thankfully, after a long, restless night I have nothing but GREAT, FANTASTIC news from BOTH sisters back in Texas! The first is: I am very happy to report that Lulu is back at school at UNT, (GO MEAN GREEN!) ready to hit the books in Criminal Justice. I am so proud of that girl, she is focused on that darn major.  WOW! I wish I would have been as focused as she is in college.  I think my major at one point was changing majors.  She is entering her JUNIOR year and wow this time next year, hopefully I will be embarrassing her pants off at "The Annual Mother's Tea" at the Alpha Phi House...hehehehehe just wait.  I have a year to prepare!! She is growing up quick!!

Second:  It's about 11:30 AM Hawai'i time...my cell phone rings.  I reach for my phone thinking it's about lunch time for Gabe and no!! to my surprise it's SEASHELL! YAY!! (I usually get a lunch time phone call from my Love) I love how our conversations start off with "Jai??", like someone else would answer my phone.  Aww, I miss her!!!!!  She was calling to say HELLO, and that she finished her homework and she wanted to see how my day went.  What a booger!! It was so refreshing to hear her voice and she knows how much I love her.  We ended our conversation with our "sugars" to each other, she remembers! (sugars defined:  kisses on the phone..our mom called kisses "sugars", so Seashell and I end every conversation with sugars to each other; big, obnoxious smooches sounds on the phone and if she forgets I just say "sugars", embarrassing or NOT!!)And a big one at the end...I like that! I think I am going to cry.  My husband, my sisters, my brothers, and my family are my life.  I wouldn't be the woman I am today, without them!

 

I love them both so much and not a day goes by that I don't think about my girls.  Jai loves and misses you. Muah <3<3

Cute, Not so cute....I think you know which is which...

Bad, Bad, Bike!

That's my bike!! I say this in my best Forrest Gump voice.  Yes, I know that my bike looks like it is in a tree but it is only tied to a tree.  If you look closely, you see my honey releasing my bike from its misery.  You will soon why my bike was in time-out.  LOL ! So, what started as a planned "together" day of GREAT LIFE HAWAII adventure Sunday, we decided to hit the bike trails of Hawaii and see what the island had to offer.  After getting the backpack loaded up with as what Gabe, would call "Eagle Nutrients" or "Vit-a-mins" by his beloved Bear Grylls... we took off to the OAC, Outdoor Adventure Center at the base for a trusty compilation of trail maps and hit the road.  First of all: A reminder for you bikers out there, don't leave your keys to your bike lock at home! Yours truly did that one! So, we had to go back home.  I love how the "Mr." left his too, but of course I didn't say anything.  LOL. So.... we make it over to the other side of the island to Kuliouou Trail.  After searching for the entrance to the trail(for nearly an hour), we realized we hadn't turn correctly according to the map, we used up nearly an hour's worth of energy looking for this trail.  Long story short, we load the bikes back up onto the truck, YAY for me,  I put my own bike in the back of the truck...I personally didn't think I could lift the darn thing over my head.  For those of you that know me, you know that my little 10 year old sister's arms are longer than mine! We backtracked and found the trail.  We had to park the "monster", (photo coming of what I call the monster, coming soon) unloaded, and suited up again, only to find out that in our first hour of riding around, yours truly ran over a thorn and now has a flat tire.  NO FEAR, my love is always prepared! He takes his air pump that he has latched on his bike, btw Love has been riding his bike to work daily.  As Seashell (my sister)said: "you guys are going GREEN".  Why yes, thank you...we are.  Who wouldn't at $4.29/gallon for gas?  Remember, we drive a monster pickup! We will discuss our going green efforts in a later post.  So, he we go!

Upon, arriving at the trail.  We take a look around at the path and discuss our options, we decide to go along the ridge path, which according to the map is the easier of the two options.  Ugh, we are pushing our bikes at this point down the path because it is so bumpy and full of tree stumps and roots that there is no way we can take our bikes UP this path.  Needless to say, we come across fellow adventurers, who are bike-LESS! So, we make an executive decision to dump the bike idea as we knew according to our OAC map, this is also a hiking trail.  So, we ditched the bikes, locked them up to a couple of trees and off we go! Let's hike! 

Ready, set...GO!!!  We are hiking! We will fast forward my griping of being eaten by mosquitoes, hahaha, I can only hear Gabe's beloved Bear Grylls, say MO-skee-tos and I die laughing when I think about it.  Didn't Mr. Grylls warn us many of times about mo-skee-tos and the need of repellant?  Didn't teaching English in Mexico after a hurricane, teach me the importance of insect repellant??  I guess not!!!    So, the day transpires with many, many...Bear Grylls references and puns.  For those of you avid, Man VS Wild fanatics, you know what I am talking about. We took some photos along the way of the Kuliouou Valley and talk about retirement plans and how the valley, reminds us somewhat of Italy. I just love the fact that I am way too short for this together shot! Please excuse my body's vertical challenge.

 Love and I want to buy a house in foreign country one day, but at our Navy savings plan rate and savings for our children, we think we might be better off researching a not so glamorous country where our mighty US dollar may S-T-R-E-T-C-H a little farther! Our hike was a good one, walking up the path and enjoying the views of (for me my feet, because I concentrated on them so much, because I didn't want to bust down the path, I AM A KLUTZ!!)

the valley and the distinct difference in weather as our elevation rose.  We reached a surreal part of the climb where there was pine trees and what looked like douglas fur trees and the ground was completely covered in tree needles.  It just looked that we had climbed a completely different planet.  At one point Love wanted to roll down the slope for the fun of it, but I persuaded him not to, as we want to have kids one day and I want him to be here when I am old and vieja.  I stopped and mimicked the infamous sound of music scene, the hills are alive with the sound...I think you get the picture.  But it was a fun, wholesome day that

 ended with a bang. LITERALLY!!   So, after reaching the top and taking the following photo:

 we descended back down as it was quickly growing dark outside, we raced down the hill and took a few more photos.  Why does he make faces in the background of my photos?? Such a boy!!  (see below) 

We made it down safe and sound, we even stopped to take a silly photo.  

We made peace with our bikes and asked for their forgiveness for abandoning them and then it happened.  We ended our night with a bang.  Remember, I had a flat?! Well, love pumps the tire up with air AGAIN so that we can ride back to the truck when B-a-N-g!! The tire blew out, the tube exploded..sounding like a gun shot in the still of the night.  Good thing we were alone or who knows what could have happened...LOL...(this path is also the site of PUBLIC hunting grounds!!!! AGHHH!!!!!) All I can say is that my hubby really does LOVE me... he carried my defunct bicycle back down the trail, down the hill, and ALL the way to the truck.  WHAT A MAN!! I luv him!! He's ALL mine! :)

Question: Name two things that you should do before going on an bike riding trail?  Don't remember?  You need to read this post again, my friend!! :) 

MY LOVE

I wanted to introduce MY LOVE, MY HUSBAND..The World's GREATEST Sailor of the Worlds' Finest Navy! HE is so handsome, intelligent, patient, and understanding! 

Isn't he photogenic!?!!!!  I am so blessed to have him in my life.  He's mine, ALL MINE!! God has blessed us to live our lives together as one.  What an awesome inspirational man.  I have found the one whom my soul loves....Song of Solomon 3:4

Our Wedding Day - May 2008

The first day of many...

This is our first post to our blog.  We hope to bring news, excitement, and love to our family and friends back on the mainland. There are so many things for us to cover and tell you all about our many adventures in Hawaii. This is MY first duty station, my DH's (dear husband's - 3rd? 4th? well... not HIS first) We don't even know where to begin???!!!!  We hope to tempt you with stories of moldy bread, $9 gallons of milk, being called "a local, yeah", to Navy life in general, and my extensive coverage of my first PCS move (thanks Love, I know that this was your like um-teenth move, but Jai has never moved out of the state before and wasn't familiar with government forms, movers, or shipping cars..only travelling...I would always come back home to Texas)We invite you to join us and hold on tight as our Navy life is sure to entertain...to say the least. I will leave you with this question: What do you get when a sailor and a teacher marries?  

Answer: besides the best love story of two people who serve the public with God's love and blessings and one day God willing the most beautiful children??? just wait and see.... thanks for reading!