Washi tape is the new (and cuter) thumb tack

I saw on pinterest the use of washi tape to hang photos on a dorm wall, and then the next day I was at a magical store with a wide variety. I’ve never seen any since, so it must have been fate.

Washi tape is Japanese decorative tape, it is really just pretty masking tape. I brought all of these wedding pictures here to Hawaii, but I’ve not lived in a place where you can put holes in the wall so I figured I would give the washi tape thing a try. Turned out pretty cute if you ask me!  Even cuter than I had imagined, almost too cutesy… but a major improvement to a bare wall.

Because that turned out so good, I thought I would try to use it to make a big calendar on our bedroom wall. I usually make a big calendar with butcher paper, yard sticks and sharpie pens. I thought it might be cuter and easier to hang it on the wall and make the lines with Washi tape. I was wrong AND right. It was way more time consuming, but much, much cuter. It makes me happy to wake up to cute things and a clean house... so at least I can check one off my list!

Surviving Chinaman's Hat

We finally got to climb Chinaman’s hat yesterday!! It has been on our to do list for MONTHS. I did a little Google search in the AM and learned that the water you swim though to get there is hammerhead shark territory, and that the current sometimes gets strong and carries people out to sea. It almost detoured us… almost.

It was great weather and we were excited and nervous.

We took some borrowed boogey boards and the fins that we use to go snorkeling. Jon also had the foresight to bring a dry bag that we filled with water, cameras and our shoes.

The trip out to the island took about 20 min… I kicked as fast as I could because I could not shake the feeling that there were sharks under me (freaky! and most likely all in my head). We got there and found a small trail up, it was some expected hiking and an unexpected amount of rock climbing. I’m not super good at rock climbing; I tend to freak out and have a hard time knowing where my center of balance is. Good thing Jon was a patient teacher :-).

We made it to the top and had the most beautiful view! Looking back at Oahu you can see the Ko’olau mountain range. I hear it is the view from Lost- I’ve never seen the show, but maybe we should start now that we live here!

Coming down was a bit trickier than going up.. but we survived and were happy to get into the water (Because we were pretty hot). We swam like heck to get back to the beach. It was a fantastic whole body work out!

This is not us.. but probably what we looked like swimming back.

On our way home we rewarded ourselves with a trip to a local favorite Papa Ole’s for some shortribs and garlic chicken. A perfect end to a great Saturday hike.

Thanks for reading!

Birthdays and Babies

Tons has happened the last few months. In April Jon finished his first semester of college with a 4.0 GPA!  I'm so proud of him. Not only does that mean he is a ROCK STAR, it also means that he is on scholorship and does not need to pay for tuition next semester. Sweet. 

He also threw an amazing birthday celebration together for me. 

It started off with some M shaped pancakes.

Then progressed to some lounging on the beach and shave ice.

And it was topped off with a little birthday gathering with our couple friends and an M shaped cake!

It was chocolate cake with cream cheese raspberry frosting and my favorite type of gummy bears on top. He hit this one out of the park!

It was the perfect day. Oh, I also got a used bike…. Her name is Bertha. More about her to come in future blog posts. 

The days following the birthday celebration were frantic because we were able to sublease from our friends and move into to a bigger place! I don't think we slept for a few days as we were working/schooling durring the day and packing and cleaning during the night.

BUT it was all worth it because we finished just in time for the visitors we had been counting down to see- THE BABIES! Katie and Steve were a nice bonus :-)

 Our time together was filled with beach days, game nights, screaming babies, a cool small hike, the Polynesian Cultural Center, Dole Plantation, Snorkeling, night spear fishing (boys trip), Jeep driving(Katie and Steve’s alone time), sunset watching, North Shore eating , being filmed for a Japanese TV show, and culminated in a dramatic domestic cockroach hunt. 

I cried the whole hour home after dropping them off at the airport. 

Here are just a few pictures of their visit:

Jon found right away that they loved playing with his tie, so he got out all the ties he owns and would dangle them into their faces, and they would go CRAZY with delight.  The girls LOVE their uncle Jon.

Waiting for food a the Kahuku Grill.

I had food poisoning and had to leave the PCC early.. but they came home with a good report!

Maybe I should make this my profile picture. Too stinking cute.

At Pearl Harbor. Katie dressed them in these cute little sailor outfits. Very fitting.

The rest of these are from a photo shoot I took of them with my fancy new camera. Hopefully I'll get good enough to be able to start charging people. LOL!

With a back drop like this, and such cute people, of course they turned out adorable! No skill necessary:-)

Hacked

About a month ago I was kicked out of my own facebook.  I know it had something to do with signing up for a shady website to play Settlers of Catan against Jon while sitting in bed on our laptops.

 Turns out it was not smart to use the same password that I do for EVERYTHING. The next day I was locked out of my e-mail, facebook and pinterest. GASP.

It was shockingly hard to get a hold of FB, in fact, I don't think I ever did. After several days of filling out forms that went to NO ONE, I somehow magically got back in. I guess the FB Gods took pity on me.  

One would think I would have blogged more since I was not spending hours of time stalking my friends or pinning things on pinterest… but after attempting for 30 min each day trying to get back into all of my accounts, I was so fed up with trying and sick about my cyber identity being stolen that I unplugged. 

So there you go. There is my excuse for not blogging, or keeping up with you on FB and for falling off the earth right before my birthday.

I was hoping to have a magical life altering experience where I would discover that FB and E-mail and Pinterest are all evil time-suckers and living in the present with real people and real hobbies would be immeasurably more fulfilling..... But I didn’t. I missed you. I missed all of my friends and family. I missed knowing that if something important happened I would probably see it. I missed posting pictures of my baby nieces while they were here in Hawaii and bragging about them. A part of what I enjoy every day was disappeared unexpectantly and it sucked.

 I am thrilled that I’m back!  More pics and a birthday blog to come!!

Carly and Jon at Pearl Harbor. Cutest little sailor!! (besides her sister who was dressed the same)

Sexy little beach babes in their swimsuits

The Best and Worst Things to Bring to Hawaii

Things I am happy I brought to Hawaii:

A short sleeved Hoodie. 

It seems like such an odd combo, and I’m not really sure how it made the “cut” to come out here as I gave away 85% of my clothes.  It has been one of my most prized possessions in a place that is 80+ degrees and rains occasionally throughout the day in the winter. Boom, I stay cool and have a hood just in case.

A super good knife.

The apartments here come furnished with a whole bunch of useful but crappy stuff.  I only brought a couple of kitchen items and this is by far the most used and loved. It was a wedding gift from Jon’s aunt Julie. It is a JR Henckels knife that retails for $100 I think (She said she got a good deal though :-). It is actually our only knife besides butter knives, so it gets used multiple times a day, we even  pass this big knife back and forth when Jon grills up steak for dinner. 

Board Games.

 

What are we doing when we are not on the beach or at work/school?  PLAYING BOARD GAMES! It is a great “poor-mans” date. My parents got us 2 Dominion expansion sets and Settlers of Catan for Christmas, and they have been our main source of entertainment and Sunday night activity. Kelli and Derek are our game friends... on a good week we’ll get together 2+ times to play games.  

If you have followed our blog you know how we were introduced to Dominion in New Orleans by my bestie Annie and her hubby Brandon. You will also know how we have succeeded in getting as many other couples hooked as we can in an effort to have as many playing buddies possible. NOW we just need to get them to come to Hawaii and play with us LOL!

Useless Things I Brought to Hawaii:

 

A Flat Iron:

I have not busted this thing out ONCE. With the humidity, wind and occasional rain shower, it really does not make any sense to flat iron your hair ever. Plus it is so laid back here, nobody really does their hair. Buns, pony tails and braids are about as “done up” as you get on the North Shore. Every couple of weeks I’ll go CRAZY and curl my wavy hair with a curling iron whilst the flat iron stares at us unused on the bottom shelf. I feel kinda bad for him.

Fancy High Heels:

 

I brought a ridiculous amount of shoes, but the heels will probably go unworn. NOBODY wears high heels here. You are being pretty fancy if you are wearing anything other than Flip Flops (They call them slippas here but that is a whole other blog post in the making).

 Actually, I take that back, you are fancy if you are WEARING any shoes. Lots of people don’t. 

So now you know what not to bring if you visit us…  and you know that after a day in the sun you better be ready to play games with us, and share one knife at the dinner table.

Beach Pics

People (by people I really mean my Mom) are wondering why I've never posted pictures of us in the beach.  SHOCKINGLY we have only been to the beach 3 times. Turns out life still manages to take over no matter where you live, and my daydreams of being on a long-term vacation were really only dreams afterall. We did manage to snap some beach jumping pictures last week.. AND we are planning on going camping and bumming at the beach this weekend. I think I can settle for every weekend being a little mini-vaycay :-)


My favorite is Jon flying on the far right... I also love the one of me in the middle because somehow I look like a size 0.  Love it when that happens!



Here we are turning into what we ate.

Crap. I'm turning into one of those freaky people who use oils to cure things.

Here is the deal, I came down with the flu on Monday. I was not surprised by it because Jon had had it for 2 weeks. I was more surprised that I had not gotten it sooner. I was super congested and my teeth on the right side of my mouth were hurting BAD. I did a quick Google search and found that it is possible when you are really congested for your sinuses to press against the roots of your teeth. So I figured that was the case, and suffered through. I started to feel better... but the tooth did not. I will get dental insurance next week, so I was waiting it out until I developed this huge cyst thing on the entire right side of the roof of my mouth. It was throbbing and painful to the point of tears, and the tooth was getting worse and I was up all night crying in pain.

I learned from a new Google search that I had an abscess and I was full of infection and that if I let it go for too long that it could get to my blood or my brain or something. I found a dentist open on Saturday and Jon drove me down there in hopes that they could fit me in. They did and the X-ray confirmed my diagnosis. He gave me a prescription for antibiotics and a painkiller and I have an appointment to go back next week to get a root canal and a crown. The pain killer did not even touch it, and I've not been able to sleep or concentrate or do anything except be upset that something this small could put me in so much pain.

I remembered that my friend (Kelli, pictured below) was into doTERRA oils and I reached out to her in a desperate attempt to get some relief... I was thinking there was an oil that could numb my mouth better than orajel or something. She came over and had me swish with coconut oil with a couple of doterra oils in it for 10 min. I spit it out and did not really feel any different. She also gave me some clove oil that DID numb much better than orajel. She left and I laid back down in bed feeling sorry for myself and about 5 min later I ran my tongue over the huge painful cyst and it was 75% reduced. MOST OF THE PAIN IS GONE.

I'm kinda pissed that it worked because I really don't want to be one of those creepy natural oil people.....

Aloha!

We arrived on Oahu about a month ago, with no place to live, no jobs, and our car was not coming for weeks. It has been an adventure figuring everything out…. But we are off to a good start!

We knew a couple out here who picked us up from the airport and LITERALLY held our hands the first week we were here. We stayed with them, and they showed us around, cooked for us and gave us their floor to sleep on. Here is their picture. They are amazing, there is no way the transition would have gone this smooth without them! Turns out they also like to play games, so of course we have sucked them into being our new Dominion buddies.

Big shout out to Kelli and Derek Kaye for taking care of us and being our friends!

Jon started going to orientation, and I started looking for someplace to live. We lucked out and found a GREAT studio apartment in the nice neighborhood on the same street as Laie Point.

That is us sitting out there. Just kidding, it might be though because we sit out there sometimes.

This is an aerial view of how the point jets into the water. See those houses in the bottom left hand corner? We live about 10 more houses down.

 Our place is furnished and has new hardwood floors and a red wall, a couch and an Asian inspired partition to separate the bed from where the couch is. Only downside is it’s connected to a big house where 9 college girls live. They (and their friends) are super loud, annoying, obnoxious and inconsiderate at ALL HOURS OF THE NIGHT. I’ll save my full for rant a future post. Here are some quick pics in case you are wondering:

Jon's study desk, and our bed.

Full kitchen. Notice there is no dishwasher. The oven only kinda works and the microwave is on top of the fridge. Compared to a lot of places to live around here, we are living like royalty!

There is no closet, but I just found this fabric closet on craigslist so no more suit cases!

I actually just finished unpacking our last box and suitcase yesterday. It feels like home now that everything has a place. It is only about 450 square ft, but I've found if you don't have much, you don't need a lot of space. This is a new concept for me.

Jon's had the flu for the last almost 2 weeks, and I just came down with it yesterday. Booooooo!  At least I should be over it by the time I start my new job next Tuesday!

That is right, I've been wrestling with 4 different opportunities and finally decided to take a job as a personal banker in the Foodland grocery store a couple blocks away. I figure if I don't like it, I can quit in a year and be a substitute teacher because the certification (that was surprisingly hard to get) lasts for 5 years. The bank has great benefits and opportunities for advancement. I am super excited to have an income again!

Jon is LOVING school and life here seems to be falling into place. We’ve already met some great friends and enjoy the sunshine and beach-line every day. Can you believe that we have not gone on a walk on the beach at sunset? I guess we’ll have to remedy that on Valentines day. :-)

First day of school picture

Jon started school last month!  I’m not surprised that he is a rock star student and usually stays at school after classes to get all of his homework done. So far he has A’s in all of his classes.

What a stud!

Oh, did I mention that he has 7:30 AM classes every day of the week?? This boy is dedicated.  Here he is on his first day of school. I woke up with him and packed his lunch and snapped this picture just like a good wife should :-) I am so proud of him!!!!!

What we do on Tuesday Nights

Remember how we moved to Hawaii and I never blogged about it? Sorry to disappoint.. but I had to get this out there while it is still relevant or before I accidentally read a spoiler! I got Jon watching The Bachelor with me a couple of seasons ago, and he is hooked. I know… we are pathetic.  After watching last night, and conversing about who would get kicked off next episode,  we both looked at each other and said, we NEED to make a bracket. So here it is in all of its trashy TV glory.

Christmas came and went...

Christmas eve day we played some family B-ball in the morning. The boys left without us girls to get some aggression out I guess. Lets be honest. We know they were having a lot more fun after we showed up! Thanks to Jon’s coaching I actually made a basket or two. Huzzah!

We set up for the Davidson Family Christmas part which was also held at the church. It was a big event full of fun and laughter. We were entertained by a mock wedding luncheon where we got to know Katrina better and cut a cake, a roast of my Uncle Doran by his sisters mostly, and Grandpa lead us all in a new rendition of the 12 days of Christmas Fast Food style. Jon hammed it up with his part as 5 onion rings. It ended with a live nativity (SarahLynn did great on the piano) and a gift exchange. Santa even made a cameo!

Upon arriving home we dove into the Zavoral sibling gift exchange. This was a fun-fest  full of Inlaw jackets, bearded men, snow globes, ravioli and marijuana tests (you never know,  we DO live in a VW bus).

 Christmas day we all got to see what Santa brought us. Per tradition we lined the hallway tallest to smallest. Jon and I got an expansion pack to Dominion and Settlers! Wahoo! 

We got dressed and headed over to Aunt Judy’s for her famous brunch. The eggs benedict and potatoes were awesome and we had fun hanging out with our cousins from that side of the family. Highlight was Tanner hamming it up for the crowd by holding his blanket under his chin with no hands. He would go around the room doing it for applause. Good times and laughs were had by all!

That evening we bummed around Grandma Davidsons house, played a couple rounds of Dominion, and cheered both Brook and Carley on as they each rolled over at 2 months!! Those girls are STRONG!