mele kalikimaka 2012!

 We had a good Christmas in the islands, but we missed our families like crazy!  We were wishing we they were all here with us.  We woke up bright and early (not much of the sleeping-in, type, Troy), ate a yummy breakfast

(This picture was actually taken a few days ago, but it just fit so well.  Such a cute little helper!)

Opened presents, (thank you!!  All you generous people, we love you!)

Got to hang out with auntie Felicia!  

And hang out at the beach

Last night we drove up to Mauna Kea to watch the sun set and see some stars -it was cold!  And I loved it :)

We probably won't be driving our car up to that altitude again (almost 14000 ft above sea level!) or taking our baby without an oxygen tank...so it was a memory!  We definitely want to go back to the visitors center (at 9000ft), they had telescopes set up you can look through, but it was a pretty cloudy night and we couldn't see anything but the moon, which was cool anyways.

Merry Christmas!  Oh yeah, and we saw sharks, too-

We went to a Heau where they use to do human sacrifices and feed them to the sharks, whom they believed were their reincarnated ancestors.  200 years later, sharks still regularly hang out in this bay.  This guy was about 20 yards off shore!  There were four of them swimming around.  Don't worry, we did not swim here (no one does, it was considered sacred ground and is part of the national park now).  

And I have to out these videos up, for your entertainment, of course.  (Mostly I want to show off this cute kid.  He is so stinkin cute!). Troy has officially starting walking!  He took his first real steps a couple weeks ago, on my moms birthday, and today he started taking more and more.  It's a Christmas miracle!

10 months

Troy at (almost) 10 months:

Loves water, in any setting (ocean, bathtub, puddle, etc.), and drinking it, too

Loves things that make noise when he shakes them

Loves being outside

Sleeps through the night...sometimes 

Wakes up before the crack of dawn every day, usually around 5am

Laughs when we laugh

Cruises on furniture and walks with one hand held, won't walk on his own even though I'm convinced he probably could

Is probably right-handed- if I'm holding his left hand while he is walking he will stop, switch my hand to his right hand, then keep going

Sometimes gives me the stink-eye from his carseat when he and Dusty pick me up from work, like he's saying, "you've been gone all day and now you don't even take me out of this stinkin carseat??"  It breaks my heart a little but is just so cute

Loves the refrigerator and will make a mad dash for it if he sees us open the door

Is not a fan of getting his diaper changed...and makes us crazy when he flips around and crawl-runs away with poop on his bottom!

Is very talkative, loves making any kind of noise with his lips, and sometimes he talks in his sleep (it's so soft I always think there's another baby around outside or something, but it's him.  So sweet!)

Oh I love this little guy.  I know he is not quite 10 months yet, but I had to post this now because I'm thinking about it now- if I don't, the days will just turn into weeks and then into months and I'll have no idea what happened to the time.  Well, that will probably happen anyway...

Our Digs

Here is the promised video.  MY Ipad only let me pick 54 seconds of it to send, so hopefully I chose a good 54 seconds...

And I took some more pictures of our apartment!  Troy is napping, and I had last night off.  Oh it is SO nice to be awake..!  :)  To start, here is our bedroom - I like the tall ceilings,

(that's Dusty harvesting our herbs in the corner)

and loft! and a wardrobe off our bedroom,

Bathroom, (not that special, but I really like the alphabet shower curtain holders we found at Goodwill)

Kitchen,

Troy's room,

And here is Troy napping :)  Although, he since has woken up and is now reading "the Grouchy Ladybug".  He's so smart.  Oh wait, now he's climbing all over me..using my hair as leverage...

                                      

Living room:

different view...

And that is our apartment!  Hope you enjoyed your virtual tour :)

living the life

We moved again, people!  This time, just across town :).  We moved to an apartment right in Hilo, which feels a

bout 20 times better than where wee were living before.  Not that it was bad, it was just far away from everything.  And down and awful dirt road that made Troy scream every time we drove down it, which was kind of making me never want to leave home.  Not good.  Here, we are 5 minutes to the beach, 5 minutes to surfing, 5 minutes to church, and 5 minutes to work.  Location location location!  We still have only one bedroom, but Troy has been sleeping in the living room/kitchen, which works out pretty well.  He doesn't wake up a million times per night and I don't snack at night as much for fear of waking him up, it's a win-win situation!  I only have a couple pictures...I would take more right now but 1, it's dark anyway and 2, Troy-man is sleeping.  So here they are: 

I love our little nook!  It's built in, so we didn't have to buy a table.  You can't really see it, but Troy's pack n' play is just to the right.

And this is driving me crazy...this bench (also built in) didn't come with any cushions or anything on it, so we got this futon mattress at a yard sale and just kind of threw it on to have a place to sit.  It's so ugly!!  As soon as I get a sewing machine, there is a huge fabric warehouse in Hilo (it's like heaven), and I'll be making a visit.  I have more expensive ideas for it, but...well they are more expensive.  So I'm thinking I'm going to convert that futon mattress into cushions that will cover the entire bench, then make some big pillows that we can lean against, like the kind of big pillows on the backs of some couches...it'll be better.  But then again, we still don't actually know how long w e are going to be living here, in hawaii, so is it worth all that work if we just leave in January??  I don't know.  I guess it all depends on whether or not I can find a sewing machine on Craigslist, really!  

We also have an herb garden in our bedroom window, and a loft with a mattress in it!  Come visit us! 

Anyways, that is so much rambling!  In other news, I got that job that I interviewed for :).  It's at a state veterans nursing home.   It's good and bad - definitely good that we have some income, but I miss being with Troy!  I'm on nights right now, so my shift is 10pm to 6:30am.  I thought would be the best schedule with Troy, but it turns out I have to sleep sometime, too...and so my sleeping usually happens from about 8am to 1 or 2ish, then I'm super tired the rest of the day because I'm not really one of those people who require less sleep than the average person, so I go back to sleep as soon as Troy does, at 7:30, and sleep for about 1.5hrs.  It's driving me crazy.  But hopefully.....they can get me on the day shift soon, that way at least when I'm home I won't feel dead!  Dusty is still job hunting, but now applying to some teaching certificate programs to teach high school.  We both feel really good about this, and I think good things are to come :).  

Here's a treat- sorry you'll have to ignore my annoying laugh!  It's so loud because I'm holding the camera (obviously), I don't think it's always that loud.  Lately, Troy thinks that everything Dusty does is hilarious, and he repeats it back to him.  It's so funny!  And except i can't figure out how to post a video from this app right now and I keep nodding off...I will post it tomorrow, I promise!  

Title 1

Aloha Hawaii

So....we're here! Aloha Hilo, land of lava rock, black sand beaches, green jungle, blue blue ocean, and more lava rock. So far we are...we like it here, I'll just say that for now. The first couple of days have been hard, reality set in about the time we stepped off the airplane and we were driving to Hilo thinking "what in the world did we just do..." we have no job, not even a real plan, and we flew across the ocean a million miles from our families to do...what? So I guess we are figuring that out! Oy. Look at these beautiful pictures, they'll make you feel better for us.

We love the black sand beach, can you tell?

Every day gets a little better. I had a job interview on Friday that I think went well, they said they'd call tomorrow, and Dusty has an interview on Tuesday with the USDA. Or, something like an interview. The guy wants to get to know Dusty, he said not to dress up, because "it's Hilo". So what does that make it? I guess he'll find out!

Anyways, we might be back on the mainland sooner than we thought...

Look at these houses:

Right there on the lava rock! And this isn't even OLD lava rock, there is lava within walking distance of these houses that flowed there 20 months ago, we walked on it! So what are these people thinking, is what I want to know. And who owns land that is that newly formed?? Does the state own it? Did these people just claim it? I mean, seriously, you can SEE hot lava up on the hillside from these houses at night. Apparently these home-owners don't care if they lose their homes to burning lava, is about the only conclusion I can come to. I guess they'd have plenty of time to evacuate, the lava does move at a snails pace. And look at the vegetation already growing- thats how much it rains here! 270 days a year it rains. Maybe they will have lush rainforest yards in 40 years. Maybe.

At any rate, I don't think Dusty and I are THAT desperate to own a piece of paradise...

I do have to say that I've never been in a place before where I feel like I am actually watching the earth form, it's pretty cool. To think that this is what Oahu and the other islands used to look like millions of years ago feels like stepping into a time machine. Here is me reflecting on the vastness of time,

Or maybe thinking about how tiny and far away I am from...everyone. Or maybe trying to remember how to walk, because i don't think i'm doing such a great job in this picture...

Well, until next time, aloha!

Dropped off

The blogging bandwagon this summer...and now I'm using a blogging app from my iPad so we'll see how this works!  We've been everywhere this summer - Idaho, ct, niagara falls, new York, rhode island beaches, back to Idaho, and now we are off to Hilo on Tuesday!  Wow.  Makes me tired just thinking about it, actually.  Oh yeah, and we drive from Florida to Idaho. Psh.

We've had such a great time with our families this summer and wish we could stay with ALL of them forever and ever (and isn't that what's so great about the gospel??!), but we are ready for our next adventure (on this earth)!  We don't actually have a job in Hawaii, but we are hopeful :).  

Here are few pictures of us recently...oh wait I only have pictures of Troy...here are some pictures of Troy recently!!  He just turned 7 months and is crawling around like crazy, although his favorite game is still "somebody-hold-my-hands-I-want to-walk!".   He's started pulling himself up by himself and is still really surprised when he does it, like he's amazed he got there and doesn't know what to do next.  It's adorable.  

Ok so I couldn't choose just a few...can you blame me??  I really should blog more often...

This guy's pretty great, too.  

I'm such a lucky girl to have these two boys in my life- they make me so happy!  

Oh I love these pictures so much.  It amazes me how I spend ALL day with Troy and then it's so easy to look at pictures and videos I took of him that day after he goes to bed - I really should be having ME-time then!  He is just too much.  Unless, of course, I'm reading Harry Potter and must finish before he wakes up so I can read in-interrupted, that's important too.  (I finished book 7 the other night- yahoooo! SO GOOD.  I can't wait to read them to Troy!)

Ok, I'm pathetic - my life really does revolve around him..