Scrapbooking

My Hawaii Scrapbook - Getting ready to begin!!!

Nearly two years ago we went on a vacation/conference trip to Hawaii. Although we were busy with the conference for most of the week that we were there, we were able to get out and do some of the tourist stuff. My husband and I visited Pearl Harbor. It was a very moving experience for both of us. Although we are part of the military, thanks to my husband's dedicated years of service, anyone who has the chance to visit the memorial would be moved. We were so thankful we had the chance to experience the moment!

I only had a short amount of time with my husband before he had to head back to his new base and I would head for home. But I was in Hawaii and I was going to experience it to the fullest!!! I booked two different adventure trips prior to arriving on the island of Oahu.

The first trip I booked was to Seal Life Park. During my time at the park, I swam with the dolphins. I have always loved marine animals and mammals. At one time in my youth, I was interested in becoming a marine biologist. I'm not that much of a science geek, so it never worked out... But this was not a missed opportunity, so I swam!

The other adventure that I had was a Grand Island Circle Tour - a 120 mile trip around Oahu. I was able to see the Dole Plantation (pineapple, anyone?), the North Shore and so much more. I got some beautiful photos. Here's the website of the tour company: http://hawaiitours.com/grand-circle-island-tour.orbh-05.tour. You can see where I visited, watch a video and find out more information. If you plan on visiting Hawaii and have the time, I highly recommend this tour! I had so much fun and am glad I took a day to experience Hawaii.

All of my adventures and the time that we spent there have just been wasting away in my memory and the banks of my computer picture files. Now I have finally gone about starting a scrapbook of the adventures. Or, will soon. I have had the numerous pictures I took printed. Although I took nearly 300 pictures, I did not have them all printed. Well, I did print too many I know but I have numerous avenues to explore with my scrapbook. I have purchased a scrapbook photo album. I have also found some great paper and embellishments to make the scrapbook dance and dazzle.

I cannot wait to get started. And I cannot wait to share the results with you when I have completed my upcoming project!!!

The Reader in Me

I'm a fan of books. Any kind of books. But especially books that involve: romance, anything paranormal, mysteries, military...okay pretty much any type of fictional subject and I'm there. So there! I read a nearly 500 page book in just two days. Remember, this reading is outside of my regular coursework! This is pleasure reading, I'm talking about here! The book I read recently was Suzanne Brockmann's Breaking the Rules. I love her series and just can't get enough. It's not necessary to start at the beginning of her Troubleshooters series, but it certainly helps if you do. Today, I'm going to start reading Sherrilyn Kenyon's Chronicles of Nick: Invincible. I love Sherrilyn, too. She also writes under the pseudonym Kinsley MacGregor. This week, I'm going to be buying the new book out by Nora Roberts, called Chasing Fire. Anything Nora Roberts or J.D. Robb - I love them all. This one will definitely head to the TOP of the Too Be Read pile!!! Some of my other favorite authors include: Debbie Macomber (I have three of her books in the To Be Read pile patiently awaiting me) Christine Feehan (she's got a new book coming out next week) Catherine Mann (a military wife who writes some great military romances) Merline Lovelace (former military member who writes some great military romances, historicals and more) Fern Michaels (gotta get her new one too) Sherryl Woods Susan Wiggs Okay, I've got way more favorites than just those but I gotta stop somewhere, right? Well... the To Be Read pile never reduces itself to nothing. I'm always picking up more and more books than I have time to read them in, but I manage to get through them eventually. I cram the reading into times of waiting, before I go to bed or on the weekends before my husband wakes up. And even times when he's watching TV, or as often is the case, roaming through the cable channels faster than I can blink, I just read. I have over 1000 books. I got a Kindle for Christmas but I still by the real thing when it comes to my favorites. I have to keep up the collection, you know!?!?!?! And I like to share my favorites with my friend and sister. But I get books for the Kindle, too. That's much easier to take on trips and put in my purse for a quick ride on the Metro or on a road trip if I'm not the one driving. I'll never stop reading. I love it too much. I'll have the Sherrilyn Kenyon book that I am starting later read by the end of Wednesday, most likely. And then I'll start the next one in the Too Be Read pile. If you know of great books, let me know. I love to pick up new ones and have found some authors that I have seriously enjoyed but might never have picked up had I not been introduced to them without friends! And my sister! I hope you enjoy reading as much as I do. Whether you do or don't, pick up a book sometime and think of me while you are reading!

Spring is a Comin'

I'm thankful that spring is nearly here. I cannot wait to do all kinds of things that have been put on hold due to winter weather.

Last summer when we moved to the D.C. area, I would take a daily walk of about 4 miles around the neighborhood and the pond that is near our house. I am going to start that again when the temps get into the mid-50's in the morning. I definitely enjoy walking when I don't have to bundle up in all kinds of clothes in order to just stay comfortable. Walking in 70 temps is ideal for me. I can wear shorts, a t-shirt or tank and be completely at ease.

I look forward to exploring more of the Capital and National Mall areas. I did some of this last year when we got here, but I am really looking forward to doing more. I want to visit some of the memorials that I saw when I visited the area in 2007. I want to rent a bike and ride around the area. I want to do all kinds of things and I am going to do them as spring arrives and throughout the summer months.

Other things that I look forward to now that the weather is getting better: sitting on the patio in the mornings, reading outside on the deck and enjoying some grilled food that my husband cooks with the chargoal grill.

I look forward to visitors, as well. Hopefully my mom, sisters, nephews, and some friends will come visit us soon! Mid-April, mid to end of May, June through August would be perfect for visitors. I want to share this area with them. Hopefully, I can take them to some of my favorite places and explore some new areas with them as well.

This Friday, I'm headed to Old Town Alexandria. I'm going to be visiting http://torpedofactory.org/ and http://www.restauranteve.com/ with some other military wives. It looks like a great day and the weather is going to cooperate, too! It's supposed to be mid-50's in the morning and warming up into the mid-70's. These will be the first pictures I hope to post.

There are all kinds of things that I look foward to and these are just a few of them. As the spring and summer months advance, I hope to post pictures here and on my Facebook page to share with you all. I'll be back soon with some more posts!

Holiday movies

I love watching The Hallmark Channel during the holidays. They have a lot of great, family friendly movies on during this time of the year. Some are sad, some are romantic, some are dramas. I just love watching them all.

One of my very favorites is called The Christmas Card. In fact, I liked it so much I recorded it on my DVR three years in a row. It was on twice yesterday. I recorded it again this year! Last year, I bought the movie on DVD, so if anything ever happens to the DVR, then I'll have it on DVD and I can watch it anytime I want.

The movie is very sweet, and totally romantic. If you like these kinds of movies, you'll love this one. Cody Cullen, the hero character of the movie, is adorable! He's alone one Christmas until the heroine's family steps in and asks him to stay for the holidays. He's already in love with her because of a Christmas card she sent a soldier serving overseas. Cody is the one who got her letter and he reads it just about as many times as I've watched this movie!

If you see this movie on TV, take the time to watch it. And if you don't see it, I might lend you my copy of the DVD.

Happy holidays!

Eat this...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I came home to visit friends and family from our new home in our nation's capital. Visiting friends and family usually consists of lots of laughs, a few tears, and of course, eating out!

Let's see. I've been here for a week now. The first night, I ate at a buffet place with my mom, sister and nephew. Monday, I at out for lunch with one of my friends from my old job and we ate at a Mexican restaurant. That night, I ate out with my two movie buddies and besties from my old job prior to going to see a funny movie. Oh, and we had Mexican food that night. I must mention that I love Mexican food. In our new hometown, my husband and I have been on the search for good Mexican food. We've tried three or four different places, and not one of them is perfect. The perfect place has tortilla chips, salsa and queso (free) as well as offering your corn and flour tortillas along with a fantastic, cheese filled meal followed by a sopapilla (free). You see what I mean...it's the perfect storm of Mexican food. There are too many combinations that could fail in finding the perfect restaurant and it takes a lot of searching.

Okay, back to my vacation and trip home. So, on Tuesday I went to lunch with my twin sister and a friend of ours from high school. Since I was overdosing on Mexican food, I got a turkey sandwich (and some onion rings...and I shared some of my sister's fries). For supper, my mom made spaghetti while my sister made some cheese bread. We chased that with green beans.

Now, on to Wednesday. I went to my favorite place in the whole wide world (since I love Mexican food and the restaurants I love are too numerous to name, I consider that my favorite food while my favorite restaurant is not Mexican food). Anyway!!! My favorite restaurant is Olive Garden. I go there for my birthday lunch with the work crowd. My husband and I go there to celebrate anniversaries, etc. And my friend loves it just as much as I do. Or she says so anyway... So, we went there followed by a trip to the casino. That was fun and I came home with some money. That's a story for another time. For dinner that night, I took my mom and nephew to eat Chinese (my second favorite food). It was yummy!

Thursday: I went to eat lunch with another good friend of mine from my previous place of employment. We didn't go to a Mexican restaurant, but I did have Mexican food while I was there. That meal was followed by a meal for dinner of Mexican food. Can you tell I really love Mexican food? I didn't eat the same thing at every Mexican restaurant; I got something different each time. And out of all of these trips to eat Mexican food, there was only one repeat restaurant!!! That's positive...right?

Now, it's Friday. I had lunch with all my pals from my former job. They were kind enough to include me in their Thanksgiving luncheon. I've been hanging around all week. I think we all miss each other! But it was a lovely lunch. I'm glad I got to spend a little more time with them. For supper, I purchased some BBQ fixin's for my family and brought it to my mom and sister's house. We all chowed down and it was wonderful.

So, Friday was the first day WITHOUT Mexican food since Tuesday. I may have to remedy that tomorrow. We'll see.

Tomorrow (Saturday), is my last full day of home and vacation before I head back to D.C. In any case, I've had a wonderful trip home to visit my friends and family. It's going to be some time before I get back here again. I can't wait to go back home and see my husband and our three baby kitties (well, they aren't kittens but they are my babies). I miss all of them.

And before we know it, it will be Thanksgiving and time to start eating again! I did the smart thing and brought an exercise video with me. And I've actually used it on numerous occasions while I've been here this week. Without that, I fear I would have gained an untold amount of weight during this vacation. But, it'll be nice to get back to my regular exercise routine. I'll save that for another post.

Home

I'm at home this week. Home as in Oklahoma, home. I left my husband at our home and came home to visit family and friends.

I got here on Saturday evenings. My sister, mom and two nephews picked me up from the airport. After they brought me back to my sister and mom's house, we went to try to find somewhere to eat. The restaurant I so wanted to visit was packed, so we visited my next favorite restaurant. Then, we came back to their house. Since I was tired from the long day and the time difference, I decided it was time to relax. So, I read for a bit and went to bed. Everyone else went to bed too. Well, except for my mom. She stays up late all the time. I think she went to bed about the time I got up on Sunday morning.

Speaking of Sunday morning, I got up at about 6:00 a.m. Which was really a sleep in session for me. Since here is an hour later than it is at home, that means it was really 7:00 a.m. for me. And that means it was really about an hour and a half since I normally get up. So, sleeping in was nice. Then I decided that I would work on some homework. I finished wrote a four page essay. Then I exercised for an hour with an exercise video that I brought from home. Then I took a shower. By that time, it was 9:00 a.m. and I was still the only one awake. By 9:30 a.m., my nephew woke up, then my sister and mom shortly after.

Later that day, we went to my other sister's house. One of her sons was playing in a championship football game. His team was undefeated for the season, playing another undefeated team. It was a valiant effort, but unfortunately they didn't win. My nephews is a great kicker and defensive lineman, though! I played the whole entire game. Good game. After the game was over, it was time to head to a local pizza place. The whole team and all the families had pizza to celebrate the season. Later, we all went back to my sister's house. Then my mom and I came back to her house. I stayed up a little bit late to read some homework. Darn Ecology!

Today, I went to my old job and got to visit some of my friends. It was really great to see everyone. I took a tour around the building. A friend and I went to lunch. Then later, I went to see a couple more friends. I was back home by 2:15 p.m., so my mom could use her van (I was borrowing it to do my visiting).

This evening, I went to dinner and a movie. I finally got to go to the restaurant I wanted to go to on my first night home. I love it! I haven't found a really good Mexican restaurant in our new hometown yet, so this was sooooo good! Then we went to see "Morning Glory" at the movies. It was a really funny movie. If you haven't seen it you should. Great music on the soundtrack, too. There are a couple of songs I want to purchase and download. I don't know the names of the songs or who sang them, but I need to look them up!

So, now I'm back at my mom and sister's house. I'm going to relax. Probably read another chapter of that darn Ecology textbook and then relax and go to bed. Tomorrow, I'm going to visit more friends back at my old job. I'm going to hang out there all day.

Later this week, I'm going to another movie. I'm going to hang out with another friend. I'm going to see my other sister again at some point... I'm going to do all kinds of stuff while I'm home. I miss it. And then on Sunday, I'll head back to my new home and get to see my baby kitties and husband again. I miss them already!

Public Transportation

Today, I needed to go to the doctor. The office was on the other side of town. Instead of trying to fight traffic with every other yahoo in the city, I decided to ride the subway and bus to get there. I had to walk from our place to the bus stop. I waited 10 minutes after the 10 minute walk to the bus stop. From there, I rode the bus to the subway station where I had to wait about 5 minutes for the next train.

I took the train into downtown where I got off at one of the stops. After exiting the subway station, I looked around for the appropriate bus stop. I noticed an employee of the transit system standing on the corner to answer questions for tourists and other people who had no idea where they were going (read: me) and asked her where the stop was for the bus that I was looking for. She looked around and about that time, I noticed that the bus stop right in front of us had the number on it that I was looking for. We both laughed that it was right under our noses and would have bitten us if were a snake.

I waited in the bus stops shelter. I waited and waited and waited. After 40 minutes, I realized there was no bus coming! It should have arrived at least after 30 minutes, I thought, if I had missed the previous bus by seconds. I called the number on the sign to see when the next bus was going to arrive. Now, remember... the sign does say the appropriate bus number that I was waiting for. However, the subway call system says that that stop number is an invalid stop. There was no bus coming...

I looked around for the transit employee I previous spoke to, and after I explained about the situation, she said she just didn't know. She got on her radio and called dispatch to find out for me. I was really very happy that someone was there to direct me, don't get me wrong! Finally, I was directed two blocks north. I started walking. As I got to the intersection, I noticed my bus pull up to the stop across the street. The light was red and I couldn't cross or else I'd get run over by cross street traffic. I waited for a break in traffic - I wasn't going to miss that bus!!! As I ran across the street, the doors to the bus closed but it hadn't pulled away from the sidewalk yet. I knocked on the door and it opened. I was set!

After a half hour bus ride, I made it to my destination. Just about 3 minutes late for my appointment, but I made it.

Then there was the ride home. The doctor's receptionist was trying to get me to fill out one last piece of paper and wanted me to wait until she got approval from someone else. I told her I was trying to catch the bus. She said "Oh, it'll just take a minute and the bus doesn't leave for another 10 or 15 minutes." Okay. I waited a few minutes and told her that I really needed to go. I left. As I was walking out the door of the office, I noticed the bus pulling away from the sidewalk. I had missed it by a few seconds!

I waited 30 minutes for the next bus. I caught that then got off at the corner where I could walk back to the subway station. From there, I ran to catch the train that was coming in 1 minute so I didn't have to wait there, too. I caught that one. I was getting ever closer to home! At my subway stop, I got off and walked out to the bus stop for a 10 minute wait for my home bus. It came and I rode that for about 10 minutes. Then a 10 minute walk home.....

What a trip to the doctor's office. I think next time, I'll brave the traffic on the interstate and the beltway. Thank you for public transportation, but it takes some time to navigate the maze!