Long and Boring

Well since I haven't blogged for so long I though I should just do one long blog to catch everyone up on our last 3 months. First of all we are down to 6 more weeks until Ben comes home. I am so glad that there is a light at the end of the tunnel now. He is doing well and staying busy and we get to talk for 15 minutes per day and then usually email back and forth once a day or so. It always sucks because the 15 minutes seem more like two. Especially when you have to waste time talking about what bills came in, car troubles, where he put a certain piece of paper, and of course the kids chanting I want to talk to! I guess it is better then nothing and I should not complain. I can't tell you how much I miss the nights when we would get the kids in bed, light a fire outside, open a bottle (sometimes 2) of wine and just chat for hours.
Let see what else....Since Londyn was born (4 months ago) we have had a constant stream of company. First Ben's mom came for 10 days when Londyn was just a few days old. She was such a great help with the kids and it was a pleasure to have her around. She is one of those grandma's that just comes and puts all her time and attention into the kids. I think they played every card and bored game known to mankind, and then did it again. After that Ben left and 4 days later my brother Aaron (youngest brother 24) came for three weeks.

He had never been to Hawaii so we had a great time showing him all the sights. He also helped my tear out the grass seed that Ben planted before he left (which was not growing) and we planted plugs. Don't even ask! Plugs are totally weird and the most popular way to plant grass in Hawaii. You take a slab of grass and cut it into little squares and plant them about 6 inches apart. Then eventually in about 5 months the grass all grows into each other and you have a solid yard of grass. Like I said weird!

So After two days and several beers we got the lawn done and it is really starting to look great!
unfortunately all good times had to come to an end and it was time to take Aaron back to the airport. The kids really had a hard time saying goodbye to him and it hit them pretty hard. In fact to this day when Corben gets in trouble he says he wants Uncle Aaron. Too funny!

So I think I had 9 days by myself and then my best friend from Canada and her husband came to visit. They also had never been to Hawaii and we had a great time with them. Well all except the whole superbowl incident. I still miss her terribly! Nobody can make me laugh like she does.


Lisa and Dave had not even left yet when my dad and his wife came. It actually worked out great that they overlapped because then we had grandparents to baby sit while we got to go to a luau together. We had a great time and I am sure the Mai Tiys had nothing to do with it!
However after the luau I had to say goodbye to my best friend and they caught a plane back to the ice cold tundra we all call Canada.

This being my dad's second visit to see us we decided to visit one of the neighboring islands and spent 4 days in Kauai. The weather could have been a little better but no complaints. We had a cabin right on the water and it was beautiful. At night we went crabbing with the kids and they had a blast. Crabbing is when you take flashlights and a bucket and catch sandcrabs when they pop out of their holes. The kids love the thrill of the hunt, and watching them all scatter when we let them go at the end. Corben had so much fun he fell asleep on the walk back and my dad had to carry him all the way home. In Kauai they have what they call the "Grand Canyon" of Hawaii and that was quite the site, and quite the steep drive as well. I didn't know I was scared of heights until I found myself at the top of a mountain looking down.

While me dad was visiting he had also planned on building us a deck in our back yard. However since we live in a condo-like community we have to get everything approved by the design committee, and needless to say they did not do their end of the paperwork in time. After me complaining to the president of the company I finally got word about our application and we had to get some sort of permit from the State making sure we met hurricane regulations and blah blah blah! So that being said there was no way we could get all that done before my dad left. So we decided to forgo the deck and my dad gave us a very generous housewarming gift of cash to go towards having a patio built by contractors. More on that in the following paragraphs. So thank you dad and Donna for a great time while you were here and all the help that you gave me. It is great having family that you can count on.

So after their two week stay I had 4 more days to myself and then our live in nanny arrived. She was a friend of the family from Texas. She is a 20 year old nursing student, and she is going to be with us for 2 months. She has been great with the kids, and I have gotten some much needed breaks. However I feel a little guilty about our arrangement.

You may have heard about us on the news but it has rained here for 5 weeks striate. I am not talking about a daily sun shower. I am talking about dark clouds covering the entire island, pour down rain in heavy sheets, with house shaking thunder and lightning all day long and all night long. Apparently it has not rained like this since 1904 or something like that. It is absolutely bizzar and quite frankly is starting to be down right annoying. I drove into a parking lot at the airport the other day and the parking attendant said "welcome to Seattle, this is not paradise!"
The roads are being washed out, the beaches are contaminated because of sewer and still water canals over flowing, and there is no sight of change. Since the day Haley (the nanny) got her (one month ago) I have been saying surly this is going to stop soon. No really it never rains like this in Hawaii. She has stopped believing me and I have stopped saying it. It is like Noah's Ark hits Hawaii. Except it has been more then 40 days and 40 nights. So like I said, I feel like I have cheated the nanny. I said you give me some help with the kids and I will fly you out to Hawaii and give you beaches and sun. So far I have given her 4 kids, a house to wear she is trapped in from the rain, and the walls are growing closer in every day. I told her if she does not get at least one solid week of sunny weather that we will fly her out again next year so she can actually see the real Hawaii.

So with all the rain the kids and I have had some major cabin fever. I know you Canadians reading have trouble feeling sorry for me bound in with your 7 foot snow drifts, but come on this is Hawaii and we cannot even enjoy it. There is nothing to do it Hawaii on a rainy day but shop. So lets just say that Ben better be on his knees praying for this rain to stop or he is going to have to get a second or third job in Kuwait. The other day week 5 of rain, we were so bored we decided to go to a movie and the bowling. The bad news is that little excursion cost the little pocket book over one hundred dollars. Ridiculous! That is like 5 outfits from the GAP! The movie was good though. Eight below. It was a 2 hour movie so at least I sort of feel we got our money's worth. Although I could have bought the movie three times over for the same price.
So rain rain rain and more rain and that brings me to today.

Today was Camryn's end of season cheerleading party. It was supposed to be a pool party but you guessed it.....it was rained out. Instead they moved it inside and played musical chairs, and ate pizza. She got her little pink trophy, and was prouder then punch!

On another note I am so happy, no wait ecstatic to say that we FINALLY found a church that felt like home! It is only ten minutes away, and it met all my requirement. The Pastor is hilarious, the music is great, the kids love their Sunday school, and they have small groups that meet during the week. This has been our second week there and once again I am starting to look forward to Sundays! I can't even tell you how good it feels to be back in The Word on a weekly basis. My spiritual starvation drought is finally over, and like the rain over Hawaii the holy spirit is raining upon me once again.

Other random news:

Londyn got her ears pierced last week. She hardly even flinched and I think it was harder on me then it was one her. She looks so adorable. She also currently has her cute little toenails painted pink. On one of our numerous rain days the girls played beauty parlor!

I think Addison and Camryn are going to go back to public school next year. There is a military school near by the I did not know was an option when I decided to home school. I have loved homeschooling, but every day it becomes more and more of a fight to get Addison to pay attention. I feel like all instead of teach all I do all day long is negotiate with her. By the end of the day Addison and I are so sick of each other, and it has really put a strain on our relationship. She feels she is being punished by having to do homeschool while her younger siblings get to play. Also she is so incredibly social that even though she has extra curricular activities it does not seem to be enough. So I am in the process of getting her paperwork done for school next year.
Corben has made some major milestones lately! First of all he has finally given up his blanky. Thank goodness because with the numerous holes his blanky was about to give up on him!



Also another proud mommy moment, he is officially potty trained! He will be three in May so I figure that is pretty good for a boy. There was a few rough weeks, and quite a few pairs of soiled underwear, which I threw out, but I refused to give up asnd the glorifying day has come! Now I only have one more to go and we will be diaper free for good!

I have 15 more pounds to go before I am back into my old 4/6 clothes. I have 6 weeks to get hot before my husband gets home. Well maybe not hot but as close as a mother of four can get. I am just trying to accept the fact that I am just going to look good fully clothed, or naked from a distance in a really dark room. I am mourning the body of my youth but there is nothing I can do this side of the pearly gates to get that body back, so all I do is try my best, and stay in really dark rooms. So Monday is going to begin my hard core get my size 10 butt into my size 6 jeans in 6 weeks diet! Wish me luck on that one. I guess that means I have to eat as many last minute chocolate bards as I can tonight!

New favorite show......Sons and Daughters. If you have not seen this yet you are missing out. It is absolutely hysterical. It is from the makers of Saturday night live and the Office. It is partly scripted and is about this one disfunctional family that you find yourself relating to just a little too often! The pilot show was the best so far so if you could get ahold of that it is a great watch. Be prepared to laugh so hard your stomach will hurt!

New favorite drink....Mojitoes! I first tried these at my husbands restaurant right before he left. However at $7.50 a drink it is not a good fav drink to have. But since I have the in with the cute waiter I got their recipe and I can make my own. The good news is I can get the whole bottle for $12. The bad news is they go down way to good, and when you are not paying $7.50 a drink there is nothing holding you back. Well until you sit down and the room starts spinning. That is usually a good sign that another drink is not a good idea. That has only happened once but it has left a distinct imprint on my mind. Lets just say it may be awhile before I have another Mojito night.


Mojito

3-4 fresh leaves of mint
2 1/8 slices of a lime
1 tsp sugar or 1 tbsp simple syrup
1/2 cup ice
1 1/2 oz lemon rum
1/2 cup sprite
squeeze one lime wedge in glass, add mint leaves and grind together with the back of a spoon. Add rum, alternate ice and lime wedges to top of glass, top off with sprite!

Try it out! Caution....One may soon lead to five! You cannot taste the alcohol until it comes and kicks you in the butt!


Oh back to the patio situation. So basically you are suposed to submit a plan to the design comittee and then they have 45 days to review it and accept or deny your plans. Well it was 75 days and I still had heard nothing. So I started complaining (which I do quite well) and by the time I got written notice it had been 80 plus days. Well in that time we decided to scrap the deck and we were going to use the money from my dad to have a cement patio poured. So I had the guys come out and give me a quote. Since I already knew that a cement patio would get approved because everybody has them I was going to go ahead with the patio and put in my application later. Well while the cement guys were here he showed me some options in flagstone. Of course it was double the price but it is going to look awsome so we decided to go with it. So I drew up new plans to hand in and they told me it was going to take yet another month to get approved. Well if they would have done their job in the first place I would have got the first notice in 45 days and could have resubmitted and got approval by now. So like I said I was just going to go on with the project. So my contractors started to bring in loads of flagstone and cement mixers and were about to get started when I got a knock on my door. It was the site manager asking me what I was doing in my back yard with out a permit! Oh crap. So caught red handed I explained the situation. In our manual it says we have 3 months to get our yard totally landscaped, and I am trying to abide by these rules you set yet you are not letting me go forth. So I had to write aletter to the board which I also sent to the president of the company. Well apparently all my complaining worked because I finally got me approval and we are ready to continue. That is we are ready but still cannot do anything because IT WON"T STOP RAINING and my back yard is a mud bogg! So it has now been one month that the flagstone has been sitting in piled on my newly planted grass which is now dead from the weight and we cannot do a thing until the wetland we call paradise dries up! Note a little bit of bitterness here? I will post pics if and when we ever get it done!

Well I am trying to think if there is anything I have left out but nothing is coming to me at the moment. So there you have it....The last three months of my life in a nutshell. Told you it would be long and boring, but atleast I added pictures to keep you a little more interested. Blog ya later!