Plants and Gekcos

While I was getting ready one day, Jay went out and took a few photos of the plants and gekcos on the property.

We are back!

We have been back to Oahu from our Kauai trip for two days now. We left Oahu on the 17th and came back a week later. Kauai is amazing! It’s the Hawaii I have always pictured it would be! I love the country feel of living on an island. There is no major highways on Kauai. Only 20% of Kauai is accessible by road. I think that is quite amazing. Kauai is a place I would definitely want to raise my family.

After our 15 minute flight, we picked up our rental and drove around Kapa’a. (Since check-in time wasn’t until 1500.) We ate a late breakfast at Island Palms restaurant and walked around the Coconut Market Place. In the parking lot of the Coconut Market Place, on Tuesdays and Thursdays is a small Farmer’s Market. We grabbed two mangoes and two pineapples. Then we made our way to our little cottage, home for the week.

Dinning room and part of the living room

The balcony of the cottage. The time we spent at the cottage, my husband spent it on the balcony.

View from the carport.

Front entrance

Part of the livingroom.

The master bedroom. With king size bed!

View from the bedroom loft.

The pineapples we purchased from the Farmer’s Market.

A trail to the gardens of the property.

A pond on the property.

Another pond.

The balcony view from the ground

That night we ate dinner at The Eastside. For drinks, the waiter suggested the tangerine martini, so Jay ordered it. For Pupus, we ordered the organic local field green salad. The best salad I have ever had! For our entrees, I ordered the mac nut crusted mahi mahi (probably the only fish I will ever eat.) and Jay ordered the grilled rib eye steak. For dessert, Jay ordered the warm apple volcano and I ordered the flourless chocolate decadence cake. Dinner was delish!

Overview of the next blog posts (More pictures will be posted.):
Ho’opi’i falls, Donkey Beach, & Secret Cove
Holo-Holo Na Pali/Ni’ihau cruise (Lehua)
North Shore Beaches (Haena, Tunnels, Hanalei)
Hanakapiai Trail (Beach and Waterfall) & Snorkeling at Ke’e Beach
Outfitter’s Zipline (Video!), Spouting Horn, Waimea Caynon, Kalalau Lookout, & Kikiaola Harbor
Rudrashka Grove, Opaekaa Falls, Kapa’a Beach Park

Here is the website for the cottage we rented. Honua Lani Jai Roberts was a great hostess. Jai has two rentals, we rented the stand alone cottage that came with 2 bedrooms (one in the upstair loft) 1 bath and a full kitchen. Although, we hardly used the kitchen, it was nice to know that we could of cooked there if we wanted. It also came with a gas grill and a washing machine. Check her website out for more information.

Juice to your health!

I have posted before about our love for documentaries. We recently started watching food documents. We are gradually starting the process to organic. The commissary at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam doesn’t have a large variety of vegetables and fruits. And it cost twice as much to buy organic, locally grown products. It is true that healthy food cost so much more than junk food. That’s why people are eating more junk food than healthy food.

We’ve had these two documents, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead and Forks Over Knives queued in our Instant Queue on Netflix even before Jay deployed. We watched them a few weeks ago. And I might say, it has changed my views on food. We did research on what is the best juicer to purchase, something that is going to last us for more than 10 years.

We ended up buying the Omega J8006 juicer off of Amazon. I have been juicing non stop since I got it. It was so easy to assemble and so easy to clean up after each use. I juice a glass before my meals that why I am a little more full before I eat my meals. I must say I love the results. I have more energy. I am not breaking out anymore. And Jay and I can see that my moods have changed. I like how I am feeling. I’m not juicing to lose weight. I’m juicing to help my health. And I must say, I love the results so far.

Forks Over Knives really opened my eyes to meat. Anybody who knows me, knows that I love to eat meat. Jay is an amazing cook. (He really knows how to work the grill, LOL.) And he loves to cook meat. When Jay and I agree to grill something, we make an excessive amount. I know we are bad. I went a week without eating meat. I couldn’t believe it myself. After seeing the documentary I just didn’t have an appetite to eat meat. I passed it up without any hesitation. He even mentioned to me that if I was to change my diet and leave out meat, I will be missing out on the yummy Pho! But it didn’t stop me from making the decision to give up meat.

I recently found out about the Paleo diet via Making Life Simple on youtube. And I researched it. Since Jay was giving me such a hard time on giving up meat. I ended up changed my mind about the Whole Foods Plant Diet. I’m now a Paleo. What is the Paleo Diet? The Paleotlithic (Paleo) Diet consist of eating food from the Stone Age Era. Meaning no processed foods. Read more at Wikipedia.Org

The whole decision on changing the way that I eat is so I can live longer and be healthier. For my family, for my husband, and for our future children. I guess it’s hard for other people to understand a drastic change in someone else’s life. But what can you do. I mean, even my husband doesn’t understand it.

One thing I hate

It’s the first few minutes of realizing you’re alone. It’s the first few hours of knowing you’re on a different routine now. It’s the first few days of not wanting to wake up because you’re so exhausted from crying. I am in the first few minutes. Yes, Jay is gone again. But he’s not deploying. And he’s not even going to be gone longer than a month. (Only a week for training.) But for someone who is so dependent on another person, it’s hard to make ends meet when all you could do is cry, and all you could see is your eyes clouding up, and all you could feel is your heart breaking over and over again.

I’ll be fine. Tonight is just going to be a very lonely night.

Back to School

It has been a long time coming. I’ve been wanting to go back to school, but haven’t made up my mind on which school and major. I’ve put it off for a long time now. All the military spouses I know who’s gone through school, has been telling me about the mycaa program offered to military spouses of active duty members. Your spouse has to be E1-E5, O1-02, or W1-W2 in order to receive the tuition. My husband is studying to take his test for E6 in the next few weeks. Which means, if I don’t use the free tuition now, I will no longer receive free money to go to school. It scared me a little. So, I looked into it. And I am going back to school.

It’s not really school. It’s an online class to get my certification in Medical Administrative Assistant. The course is 3-6 months long. (Depending on how fast you work through the program.) I still have enough money left over from my tuition to get another certification from the school that I’m going to be attending. I’m excited to finally be doing something with my life. I eventually want to go back to school and get a degree in whatever I decide on doing. But for now, it’s good to have something to fall back on, for the time being.

I came to the conclusion the other day, while talking to Jay, that I was afraid of growing up. Of being an adult. I’ve always depended on him for everything. I’m afraid of responsibility. But I can’t be a child forever. I need to learn to be independent. (I find it funny that I watched my mother become independent all these years without having a man to take care of her, and I can’t even do that.) You live and you learn. It’s never too late to go back to school.

Waimano Pools – Update

We took a hike to Waimano Pools yesterday. This is our second time on the hike to the pools/falls. Of course, we didn’t go during a huge thunder storm this time.

The first time we hiked to Waimano Pools. Big differences from this second time around.

Busy as a Bee!

This next year and a half is going to go by so quickly. Yes, Jay and I only have a year and a half left until our PCS. We are debating on whether or not we want to extend or leave. We just don’t have the time to do everything if we decide to leave. We haven’t gotten around to exploring the other island. We didn’t have this problem while living in Germany because we didn’t get much visitors. All the leave we acquired, was spent traveling Europe. All the leave acquired here, is spent on friends and family wanting to visit Oahu. I’m not complaining about family and friends coming out. I’m complaining about not being able to do what we want to because we have absolutely no leave left to do anything.

Our trip to Kauai is paid for. Our little cottage we’re renting is absolutely beautiful. I cannot wait to get away from the hustle and bustle of big city life and just relax and listen to the birds. We’ll be doing a few hikes, explore the island, and sun tan on some of the most beautiful beaches on Hawaii. We are planning a Na Pali Coast snorkel tour that takes us to Lehua, a small crescent-shape island off the coast of Niʻihau. (Where Whale Sharks have been spotted.) It’s going to be fun. We were planning on getting our vows renewed, but the cost of vow renewal and photos are so costly in Kauai, we might just wait to do it when we get back to Oahu.

A week after Jay and I come back from Kauai, my mom, baby sister, and her friend will be here. There will be a lot of shopping going on, a lot of sun tanning, beaches, and food. I cannot wait to have them here. My mom is only staying a week, my sister’s friend is staying ten days, and my sister is staying the whole month with me. I can’t believe she’s graduating from high school and going off to college. I wish all my sisters were able to come with. But sadly, that’s not in the plans for this year.

This is recent, and we haven’t decided on it, there has been talk of a little weekend trip to Maui this July. This July will be seven years since we’ve been with each other. And I just thought it would be nice to go away for the weekend.

Oh, what do I say about August! Jay’s three best childhood friends will be arriving. This house is going to be crazy!!! It has been six years since they were able to do this. Jay is extremely excited about this. They’re probably more excited about coming to Hawaii than anything. I, of course, will be their DD. But I know I will have fun.

We have a few months of no vacations, but I know it will change. I want to go home this December. (Not because it’s the end of the world.) Since Jay and I have been married, we’ve spent one Christmas home. And that Christmas was in 2006. We’ve gone home plenty of times, but we haven’t been home during Christmas. But things always happen and plans always change.