Best game ever

Last night was the most exciting game! We had decent seats and a pumped up crowd! We were in the perfect place to see the hail mary pass to win the game...right near that side! Then we walked the mile back to brians dads house. What a night!

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Back from the UP

I can't remember what I've posted, but we had a great trip

up north. The scenery was as good or better than Hawaii.

Amazing crystal clear water with "reef" of sandstone visible. We got to see two sides of Lake Superior. One day was very windy and the

lake looked like the ocean during a storm. Then two days later, it was clear as a Hawaiian reef. But the water was COLD! I tried to stand in the water to my knees,

but my legs went numb. We also liked the bear ranch. I have some

special pictures from there which you will see later.

Its hard for me to type because while packing up to go home I was stuffing our trash bag in the bear proof garbage can and cut myself on a tin can lid. It went under my finger nail. So, basically I did some sort of chinese bamboo shoot torture to myself. But in reality, it didn't hurt as bad as cutting my thumb or knuckle in the past...

Today, I planted 30 bulbs with one hand! Also, discovered that voles are tearing up our plants and yard. One jumped out at me while planting bulbs. I threw my bulb digger at it and ran inside to get Brian. Miraculously, the vole was stuck under the digger. Then Brian had to kill it. It was sad, but then at least we know what we are trying to kill. They dig under our front step and Brian has already had to pay once to have more cement added after it dropped down from all the nesting under there.

Now working on painting the basement. Was at Lowe's 4 times today picking our various paint colors and getting more primer and such...

Brrrr!

Well, we made it to the Tahquamanon rivermouth campground. We tried our hand at fishing, but we were skunked. We ended up buying some good firewood from someone who sells seasoned hardwood by the face cord. We got as much as we could fit for $10. Last night was cold, but very quiet and peaceful. We ended up buying gloves. Brian set up our beach pop up tent over our sleeping tent to keep the rain and rain noise down. Tonight brian is going to put the walls on it so we have a double layer of insulation. But our sleeping bags were good. I had mine zipped up all the way with my pillow inside so I couldn't see out. There were coyotes calling frequently. Also, owls. Today a crazy chipmunk tried to attack our food with us right there. He charged right at me and brian and I had to take turns chasing it with a stick. Today, we are going to the shipwreck museum and the falls. Tomorrow we are going to the Bear Ranch where you get to see baby bears..

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The UP

We are heading to the UP today! We are planning on 5 days or so, depending on weather. We hope we have enough warm clothes for us Hawaiians. Hang on we are about to go over the bridge...

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Hardware Stores and Hiking

I wrote this last Thursday....

Well, as everyone knows we are back. The house was a disaster and getting a bit better each day. We have had to do extensive cleaning, and we are doing a lot of repairs. Knobs are broken off in every room, and the walls are beat up. The yard was a disasater. We are finishing up with the yard. We had the crab grass and dandelions treated and the lawn fertilized. We reclaimed part of the yard that the renters decided not to mow for 3 yrs and trimmed the bushes. We actually redid all of the landscaping. We redid the dropcloth, put in new bricks and mulch and got some new plants. We picked up all the trash left in the yard including my favorite, a used oil pan for changing oil in cars.

Now, Brian is doing drywall and we are getting our dryer vents cleaned. We went hiking yesterday in Saugatuck Dunes National Park. How did we run up and down those dunes so many times as kids?! Then we hit up Su Casa, a local Mexican restaurant Brian loves. We also went to a peach farm and picked some of the last peaches of the season.

I am narrowing in on my Hyundai Tucson. I am trying to start a bidding war between two dealerships. One is in Lansing, one is in Milwaukee but delivers. The Lansing one is red, is a demo so it has 5000 miles on it. It is at $26000 now. The Wisconsin ones are Grey or Silver and are just under $26000. So I'm working on it. Other ones in the area are around 30K, but have a sunroof which I'm not interested in. Do I really need more chances to sunburn and more wind messing up my hair? No. I'm hoping to nail this car thing down today.

Portland!

We have officially left Hawaii and arrived in Portland yesterday. I was singing Neil Diamond's "Coming to America" in my head all day. I know Hawaii is america, but I've been feeling like I live in a foreign country recently. We are now staying with Brian's brother, Scott and his wife, Season. Today, we are going to the coast to the beach that they filmed the end scene of The Goonies.

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Kalaupapa and the Exodus

This is our last full day in Hawaii! And we are ready to blast out of here! We had an amazing time in Molokai at kalaupapa. It was especially amazing because it may change a lot in the next 5-10 yrs. When the last of the patients die, they do not know what will happen to the place. Right now 17 patients live there and about 80 other people there as medical or park service staff or relatives. There are no roads in and they get a barge of non perishables, fuel and furniture and such one time a year. Perishables are flown in weekly. It was like going back in time. We saw Father Damiens grave. I think it topped mauna kea as my favorite island experience. We are so glad we went.

Now to the bad part...after Molokai we came back only to be completely scammed by our property management company. We woke up at 6am to start cleaning our unit. Our walk thru was at 930 am. We were told that the walk thru was to check for damage. We've been painting and cleaning and had our mainfloor carpet cleaned...basically we've been working on this a lot. And our unit is clean, I still needed to dust baseboards and blinds and oven. But we cleaned the cabinets, I scrubbed the bathroom tub, shower and floor on my hands and knees for 2 hours. The guy came and basically told us our apt was dirty and that our stuff was everywhere so he couldn't even do the walk thru. There were two boxes and two suitcases and some kitchen stuff we are donating out. He was a total jerk to us and told us we were going to has to have it professionally cleaned to get our deposit back. Of course the only person he trusts to do such a job quotes us $550. If we clean it ourselves we will still end up with them coming because we have no ladder to reach the air conditioning vents and fans to clean. Also we cannot remove the long term hard water stains with anything other than industrial cleaners which we cannot get. Basically we are paying for the guarantee. The cleaning lady guarantees we get our deposit back. Of course we will never even see if anyone cleans it. They probably just split the money and laugh at us. But we cannot handle it anymore! We are just ready to get out! I am so tired of the "this is how we do things here"! I want to be with Midwesterners! So basically, we spent hours cleaning, we still have to pay to clean our unit, then we get to michigan and clean some more!

Look out mainland, here we come!

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Last week of Work

This is going to be our last week of work! We are so excited! We have our trip to Portland almost all set. Just a rental car to procure. I also spent some hours on the phone booking us a one day trip to Molokai. This is the big check on my bucket list. We will fly into Molokai at 6am, drive to the huge cliff that separates the rest of the island from Kalaupapa (former leper colony) and hike down a 3 mile 1700ft elevation change trail with 26 switchbacks. We meet on the bottom at 10am. Then we go on a tour of the former colony and visit Father Damien's grave. We then begin our hike back up at 2pm. Our flight back to Oahu is at 7pm. This will be on July 25th.

Our last day of work is this friday. Then on Sat, Amber and I will kayak out to these little islands off of Lanikai beach on the other side of the island. The guys are going to create a beach compound for our return.

Grampy, we received your letter yesterday. Our schedule is: leave Oahu on July 28th, Visit Brian's brother and visit Portland leaving for Michigan on Aug 3rd. Arrive in Michigan on Aug 3rd at midnight. The first day the container could arrive would be the 4th. We are hoping for the 5th. The company contacts us around Aug 1st to let us know the arrival date. We will have a moving company unloading the container and bringing the furniture and boxes into the house. Brian and I will also be unloading our storage unit which contains a dresser, bed, mattress, the pink chairs, and other various items. The storage unit items we loaded ourselves so we should be able to unload ourselves. We will love the help opening the boxes and putting things away, also patching dings in furniture or whatever else. We have no idea what condition the house is in. We will be in touch to let you know the date the container comes.

We can't believe this is coming to an end. Its been a great adventure. I will miss a lot of things. I am very spoiled, we walk to the convenience store for snacks or meals if we aren't up to cooking and walk to the beach, hot tub or pool when we want. I haven't had that feeling where you don't want to get out of the shower because its so cold out in 3 years. But I can't wait to see everyone! I'm looking forward to the seasons, and Michigan apples and movie theatres that don't smell like feet!

Camping in the Living room

Great news! Our stuff is gone! We've been packing like maniacs after work for the last few weeks. Everyday from 6 to 10 after work. It has been exhausting. But yesterday the movers came and before we knew it the furniture was wrapped and packed. They fit all the boxes in and it barely fit. They had to rearrange a few things at the end, but it all made it. This morning someone came at 7am and took the container away. It was really a great idea to have someone else pack it, we couldn't have done it. It was the best $400 we've spent. Now we are sleeping on an aerobed with a flat sheet on the bottom and a blanket with a hole in it .

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Kaneohe Sand bar

On Sunday, we went to the kaneohe sandbar. We met up with a group of friends and drove to the marine base, loaded up on our rented pontoon boats and drove out to this area 2 miles from shore where the tide goes down and its ankle deep. Everyone brings out their boats and spends the day there. Brian and I brought our floaties and our repaired Velcro ball and mitt. We even set up our umbrella in the water. It was really fun. I got burned though..not bad considering I spent 6 hours in the water splashing about.....this was last Sunday...I just realized I wrote this but never posted it.

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Boxes

The boxes are piling up. Last time we packed, we had to fit everything in a 6 x 7 container so we had to maximize our boxes. This time we have plenty of space so packing is easier. But the house is getting really dusty as we clean and pack everything. We are both pretty itchy, and Brian has vacuumed nearly everyday.

Grampy and Ahmie, We received your letter yesterday. Thank you for my paperwork. I'm going to be shining up my car soon so she is especially good looking. I also have a matching sun blocker for the dashboard with Hawaiian flowers on it.

As we've packed, we realize we don't even use 75% of the things we own....maybe more. I'm looking forward to our container leaving and sitting around with nothing to do but work and relax. We will have two beach chairs and two plastic outdoor chairs and two plastic end tables, and the TV. We were planning on packing up the TV for Michigan, but we lucked out. The remote doesn't work. That means that we can keep the TV until closer to our leaving and then return it. Costco has a great return policy and we have the receipt, box and everything. Without the remote working, we have to go up to use the side buttons all the time.

We are having some friends over to the pool to grill out today. Should be fun.

Kawela bay

We went to what is our favorite beach (at the moment) yesterday, Kawela bay. Its sort of a secret beach. You park across from a fruit stand and walk through the woods to a beautiful bay that has homes only on the far end. It takes us an hour to drive there (north shore). We always stop at the grocery store there because they have a great deli. They have our favorite poke on the island...its raw tuna with spicy sauce, cucumbers, sprouts, avocado, seaweed and who knows what else...
We also got some fresh coconut from the fruit stand. It was a nice day...I burned my legs a bit though. I turned on my side to take a beach nap and didn't think id burn in the shade for an hour...hahaha. I still haven't learned! We have gotten a lot of packing done. Last night I started packing clothes I don't wear often...business suits, coats, jeans, certain dresses. I also closed up a third box of shoes. Probably one more box of shoes to go. It really is obscene, the amount of shoes I have...

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We are the champions!

We are packing champions. I was really busy at work...Thursday I even stayed late an hour to fix this unexpected problem (which I receive no payment for). Then I get home and pack boxes for 2 hours. I was so tired this week I was like a zombie... but it was worth it. Now we have everything but the essentials packed. Just kitchen things we use a lot and clothes and some shoes. I've packed two boxes of shoes already..hahahaha! Brian decided he's going to have to build something to hold all my shoes when we get back to Michigan. We've been thru over 960 square feet of bubble wrap so far....

Let the packing begin...

The packing has begun. We started making boxes, and packing some decorative items from our guest room and bath and our diplomas and such. We have a box of 244 square feet of bubble wrap and after a few hours packing, we are through over half of it. Good thing its only $13 per box. We will just pack here and there to get most things we don't use often done. Our container will arrive in about a month.

Its overwhelming to think about everything we have to get done in the next couple months, so its good that we started early.

Special Request

This is a message to Grampy and the Mommer....

Remember when you offered to help us with the move? I hope you were serious. We have been working out the timeline for the shipping container. Because it transports via train and ship, delays can occur. The shipping time may be anywhere from 3 1/2 weeks to 5 weeks. We want to pack it on a day we are off work. And we would like it to arrive as close to our arrival in Michigan as possible. We will leave Hawaii on July 28th. We will go to Portland and then arrive in Lansing on Aug 3rd very late. The company charges a lot to leave the container overnight if we are not there to unload it....$700 if we keep it overnight. We have 2 hours to unload it, then $75 for every hour after. We have a company that will unload it. They have lots of experience in unloading these containers which are 4 ft off the ground. You need a lift to get things off of it.

The company will give us three days notice as to when it will arrive. There is a chance it will arrive one day before we are in Michigan. More than likely, it will arrive after that. Now, we are at the help part.....

If it arrives early, we would like to take Grampy and mom up on the offer to watch the container be unloaded into our garage. We would just need someone there. All the boxes and furniture would fit in the garage without a problem. Although we want to have the movers get the kitchen table in the house because they may have to take it up the back stairs of the deck and into the house. If the container arrives after we are present, then we would love your help and company. We were hoping Grampy could bring his stuff to repair dings in wooden furniture. We had some dings on some things on the way here and we anticipate more. We also will be patching picture holes and hanging our own things again. Anyone who can tell brian that two items are level will be helpful. For those of you who don't know...I have the amazing lack of ability to tell if something is level. Its a miracle I can do dentistry. It is so bad its laughable.

When we get to Michigan, we imagine there will be lots of work for us. Cleaning the carpet in the two upstairs bedroom, cleaning bathrooms, tubs, evaluating the damage from the flood of 2008 in the basement, yard maintenance.....we have no idea what to expect. We asked the renters to send us pictures of the place, but they never did. Grandma...if you share Grampy with us for a couple days, we will find you some Michigan peaches and a pie from Robinettes!

We started packing some boxes today...my dance clothes, sewing supplies, some pictures from upstairs. We will pack everything but what will fit in the suitcases we brought to NC. So our last two weeks in Hawaii will be us sitting on beach chairs, sleeping on the air bed that came with our apartment....

Work this week was busy...Brian came down with a terrible cold, but today the congestion is loosening up. I am so far, cold free. This will have been the fourth time he's gotten some virus that I have not. I'm kind of a superhuman in Hawaii. I've only been sick a couple times in 3 yrs. I made a big pot of French onion soup last night and Brian really liked that. I think it helped him to feel better.

Love,
Sarah and Brian

We're Back!

We are back from our fabulous vacation. We had a great time with the family and followed it up with a tour of NC. Basically it involved us eating as many hush puppies, and fried pickles as possible. I went through double of my heart burn medication and gained 5 lbs! It was a great time!

First, in Wilmington, we had Kristin and Pete to take us around. Pete brews his own beer and, until recently, worked for Mother Earth Brewers (local microbrew in their area of NC). So he took us to his favorite beer shop and a couple cool places that served some of the specialty beers. We enjoyed live music at a couple places as well. Unfortunately, one of the places had this amazing outdoor area with this beautiful large tree that we sat under and my ankles were savegly attacked by mosquitos. This proved quite annoying for several days. Also, we visited the cotton exchange which was next door to our condo. By the way, our condo was great! Beautiful view of the river and the battleship, very comfortable temporpedic mattress and high powered air conditioning! We went to an art festival which was fun. Kristin later led us to these great boutiques which had all of these amazing dresses, shoes, purses, hats, etc. It was the kind of place that I would consider heaven. I picked up a pair of grey/silver wedges. We visited the beach just for a look as well. We went out to eat at this Thai restaurant that was about the coolest restaurant I've seen. So many decorations and outdoor gardens with koi ponds and such. Our last morning we went out for an all you can eat brunch where I hit up the biscuits and gravy, eggs bendidict, lox, crepes...you name it!

After that, It was on to Asheville. It took nearly 6 hours to get there and our radio in the car was less that ideal...our antennea was gone so we only got one or two radio stations. But we made it. Asheville can be described perfectly by a tshirt I saw in a store there...."Asheville. Fun Place. Weird people." We figured out pretty quickly that it wasn't a place for two dentists to start their practice. Average age in 20s and serious hippie theme. It was like once you arrive in Asheville, you don't shower for a week, only wear the clothes you found on the floor and spend your time walking your dog around or playing spoons on the street corner for cash. Plus, they hate tourists, which is funny considering all the 20 somethings are coming from somewhere. But they have some awesome restaurants and a great music scene. We would wake up and have our free breakfast at our hotel downtown which included the best breakfast ever invented...crab cake eggs bendidict. It was two crab cakes and over easy eggs each on an english muffin half with a nice sauce. Then we would go driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway and stop for hiking. One day we hiked for 4 miles or so and saw all these waterfalls. Then we found a random BBQ restaurant, Hawg Wild, which was great. At that time, Brian and I discovered a real problem in our relationship. He's Western North Carolina BBQ and I'm Eastern North Carolina BBQ. Luckily we both love hushpuppies or it could have been over. Our last night, we had Indian food, which we love, then went to an old fashioned cocktail lounge and finished up at this brewery that was advertising ragtime music. It was like being in an old time western saloon. There was a guy playing a huge stringed bass. The other was playing the piano. It was a sight to be seen. The piano player wore a fedora and big sunglasses, the bass player had long hair in a pony tail. I have some video on my phone, but I don't know how good it is.

Then off to Charlotte. First of all, there was a heat index over 100 everyday we were there and the heat index stayed above 90 until about 730 at night. This greatly affected our plans. It was too hot for a minor league baseball game and a lot of walking around the city. But we drove around. Brian wanted to scope out Lake Norman and Lake Wylie. Figured out which areas had high traffic, ruled out areas which sketchy neighborhoods and estimated drive times. Our hotel was right downtown and was nice until fri/sat night when all these partiers showed up and would keep us up until after 3am. Yes, we called the front desk and moved rooms, only to be across from a different group of partiers. We just gave up because we were tired of moving rooms. But we enjoyed our time in town. We took the light rail train to the south end of town..trendy area. We also toured a very swanky apartment area that would be about as expensive as here, but was fun to tour. They had a rooftop pool, exercise center, free coffee, a movie screening room, pool tables, tv lounge...you name it. We went to Art after Dark one night. They have that here....where you can go into the art museum after hours and tour exhibits. They had extra exhibitions and a fashion show. It was fun. We also went to an English pub and got my favorite....ploughmans platter. They had live music too. Irish fiddle and guitar player that also played the harmonica. The last day we went to the Levine museum which was a history museum of Charlotte. That was cool. We learned all about cotton and textiles, and the old and new south. During our time in Charlotte, Brian and I somehow got hooked on fried pickles and it is a new obscession of mine. Of course, now that vacation is over I can't go around eating fried pickles at every meal, but I sure will resume at my next vacation!

Our last night, I didn't fall asleep until after midnight and then got woken up by the bachelor party at 330am. Our wake up call was 430 and flight at 730am. We flew to San Fran. It is the worst airport layout of all time. We were running like crazy all over the airport to get to our terminal. We even had to leave security and go back in to get to our terminal. Disaster! We got to our flight just as they were calling zone 4 (us). Our next flight was nice, 5 hours with the extra legroom. But we were exhausted. Our luggage was literally the last two pieces off the baggage line. We got home, had no food...so we went to Costco. But it was crazy there because it is the day that everyone gets their food stamps. So we battled with the crowds and got home. Brian was ready to sit down, relax and watch his recorded play offs. Only...our TV was broken. The TV has been problematic but working for the past 4 months. Of course it dies now. So, back to Costco. Picked up a 37" LCD tv and back home to set it up. We were having a hard time setting it up because we were so tired. But we got it set up and Brian got to watch the game.

Basically, we had a great vacation. We are now resting up and ready to pack it up out here. Today Brian assembled over 60 picture frame corners and we started calling around to get info about movers in GR. I will post pictures later this week...too tired right now!

Burned again

Hawaiian sun scored against me again...I know, big surprise. Brian and I went to Kawelo Bay on the North Shore on Sun (our Sat since we have off Sun/mon). It was a great trip, we picked up our favorite poke that they only sell at the Foodland near there. We stopped at the fruitstand across the street and bought fresh cut coconut and pineapple. We also got some fresh banana limpia. This is heaven on earth. Its an apple banana, which is the local banana here that is smaller and sweeter and is soft when cooked. Then the banana is wrapped in dough and deep fried. The Bay is unknown by most and as usual only had about 4 other couples there. Tony and Amber met us with more food, and cold beer. We lounged around and then Amber and I floated on our floaties in the bay (no waves there). It was a great day, but I got the tourist splotch burn. That's when you miss a few random spots and you end up with the terrible, almost purple burn in weird places, like a weird spot by your knee, and by your arm pit.

Today, we ran errands. We went into town for a trip to Nordstom's Rack. We rarely shop, since there are few occasions to dress up for around here. Then we hit Costco, like every Monday. But after our gorge yesterday and watching a few pounds creep up since before Christmas, we are starting our diet again. Its always easier to be miserable together. So we won't be doing any carbo loading for a few weeks....speaking of which...funny story.....Sat night, I was in a frenzy for some Kraft Mac and Cheese. So Brian drove me to the store (I know we should walk, but we didn't that time). He stayed in the car while I ran inside. When I got back in the car, he was laughing. I asked him what was so funny. He said, "I was checking out this really hot chick in the store. Then I realized it was you."

Tsunami 2011

By now, everyone knows we are fine and that we have no damage. We were watching CSI and it was interrupted with news of the earthquake in Japan. This was maybe 9pm our time. We knew that there would be a chance that there would be a tsunami warning issued. We watched the live footage of the devastation in Japan and we were shocked. Soon the watch was issued and an hour later a full tsunami warning was issued. We are not in the official mandatory evacuation zone, but this information is based on 100 yr flood data and the earthquake in Japan was the worst in history and the tsunami there was very serious. It was set to arrive in 4 hours by the time the sirens went off. We have friends that live way up high above Pearl Harbor in the mountain area. We packed up just a few things. Two outfits each, my laptop, camera, Braydan's Flat Stanley, gramsbear and my jewelry. (Braydan is my friend Lisa's son and he sent me a flat Stanley to experience Hawaii for his school project.)

We were up nearly all night watching the news. We slept from maybe 2:30-3:15am and then from 4:30-5:30 am. By then we had received calls that work was canceled. We got on the road around 6am before the all clear was given because we were exhausted and by then we knew we were okay in our location. As we approached Ko Olina there were cars all along the side of the road. We were just able to enter Ko Olina, because 5 ft after the exit the police had the road closed still. So we wouldn't have been able to get to work anyway because that road hugs the ocean and was closed for most of the morning.

We were able to get a couple hours of sleep, but Brian was feeling really bad from neck and back pain that he has had since the end of Jan. It had been getting worse since Tuesday. We ended up going to the Dr. That was when we learned the best time to get in to see the Dr. is when there is a tsunami day. There were cancellations and no lines or waiting. He was in to see the Dr., had xrays, and we picked up his prescription and were home in 3 hours (this is unheard of here, we have spent longer getting an oil change). He was able to sleep with his medication and is now starting to feel better. I took another 3 hour nap this afternoon and spent the rest of tsunami Friday cleaning toilets-very exciting!

Tomorrow, our tsunami hosts are supposed to come over to our place for dinner and are spending the night.

Another weekend of rain...

Raining AGAIN this weekend. I realize I will get no sympathy from anyone, but we are disappointed that its been sunny all week (and Saturdays when we work) and then it has rained every Sun/Mon since the New Year. Its sad to pay this much in rent and be so close to the beach and then not be able to sit on the beach in so long.

I had my first PT appointment today. It went great. Maria evaluated me and we worked on some exercises. I have a print out of my exercises that I will be doing twice a day. I also have a ice pack and I'm supposed to ice my neck and right shoulder three times a day. Apparently, it is unusual, but I have swelling in my neck and shoulder still. Also, she determined that my posture is contributing to my pain. My years of ballet have worn off and I'm starting to adopt a dentist posture where I slump my shoulders over a bit. I will have therapy twice a week...Mondays and Thursdays. I will leave work at 3:30 on Thurs, but I look forward to how much this is going to help me now and also throughout my career. She is teaching me exercises to counteract the motions I use at work.

My pineapple is growing well, I'll get some pictures this week. Joined the rest of the country and started reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".

Also, I have been starting my research for my big purchase that will happen on our return to Michigan....new car! I am open to suggestions. These are my criteria...I would like a small SUV or Crossover. I will have this car for awhile and think it should be big enough for car seats and kid stuff. I have been traumatized by my accident and want something bigger. I want great safety ratings and all wheel or 4 wheel drive. I want to keep gas mileage similar to my Alero which is 18 city/27 highway. I was joking with Brian that I wanted a hitch on my back of my next vehicle so someone who hits me will not get through the bumper (Brian had someone rear end him 5 yrs ago and his hitch was on and his car had a small scratch and her front end was smushed). Now that I realize how dangerous driving is and how easy it is to get injured and how much it impacts my daily life since I have a physical job. I look forward to your suggestions.

Chinese New year was this week and my assistant and I followed the chinese tradition of having 8 different dishes that day for lunch. They don't have to be big portions. We had plates with all these small dabs of things....salad, apple slices, rice, chicken, pork, salad #2, meatballs....nothing went together, but we had a fun time. DeDe was my first assistant at Waianae and is a sort of Hawaiian mom to me. We share our lunches everyday and exchange recipes and such. I made her a pillow for her birthday last year...she is the best. She is a good cook and that's how it came to be that I had to lose 10 lbs last fall.

Brian is making Thai red curry for dinner....off to help....although I think I timed it right so he doesn't need help anymore...

Catching up...

I'm catching up here. I've posted a couple pictures of my car since my accident. In case you wondered how much damage it takes to total a 10 year old Alero. Make sure you have your glasses on to see the damage. The back bumper (three components) are damaged and my trunk is smushed in.

Now I have some pictures of my pride and joy.....My pineapple plant. It started shooting up the flower 3-4 weeks ago. When we first moved here, we ate a pineapple. We cut off the top and I planted it in an empty plastic salsa tub. It appeared to not be doing anything so it ended up in the garage for maybe 3-4 months with no water or sun. Then I realized it was still alive...so I planted it on our upstairs lanai in a real container. Then I watered it about once every 2 months for over a year. Then I upgraded it to the downstairs lanai. I started caring for it and watering it. Still no flower. Next I started making comments to it, like...."you are such a disappointment to Brian and I", "you're not getting any younger you know", " after everything I've done for you, your not even going to make me a pineapple?!"....Then, before I knew it, we had the flower. I will take weekly pictures.

Still Kindicted....even can read it in the rain at the beach thru a ziplock bag. I'm reading the "House of Night" series which is like a cross between twilight and harry potter. But since its on my kindle, maybe people think I'm reading something intellectual.

Kindicted

I realized today I have a problem....I'm Kindicted! Brian has been complaining about how all I do is spend time on my Kindle. I sit there and read all night and ignore him. This week, I even stopped doing dishes. Today, I realized I have to cut back. I've read 8 or 9 books since xmas. Brian pointed out that I was reading two books a week. Sometimes I think I read that much because I haven't been sewing since my car accident.

Good news is that I start my physical therapy on Feb 7th. I'm very excited to hopefully be feeling better soon. I'm hoping to learn exercises to help me throughout my life as a dentist. My Dr. isolated my right arm pain to my neck. Apparently, it is radiating from my neck to my shoulder and down my arm to my fingers. I take a lot of Ibuprofen, but it doesn't always work.

I'm also enjoying my new teapot from Ahmie, because I can enjoy my pounds and pounds of chinese tea!

I have to go into work on my day off...Monday this weekend. Total bummer. Its a long story, but it involves me getting a decent paycheck and 4 crowns that didn't arrive in time. My paycheck is based on monthly production..

I am going to try to only "play kindle" for an hour a day (outside of work of course)....

I'm BACK!!!

I'm sure everyone has given up on my blog...but I'm back. I just received my new laptop today fully loaded courtesy of my bro....Its awesome. I've been out of the loop since the beginning of Oct when my previous laptop died. My amazing brother saved all of my data, pictures, music...

Now Brian and I are back in business! Its already improved our lives in the past 45 min. He's watching American Pickers and I'm busy with this!

I will upload pictures and be back at it this week!

Love u all!