Nightmare

I had a nightmare last night that I finally blogged about my trip to Hawaii and it was full of typos!  Ha ha!  It was terrible!

Anyway, Doug and I are back home and trying to get back into the flow of things.  We really enjoyed our trip.  I'm uploading the pictures to Facebook as I type this.  I'll go ahead and post one of my favorite pictures of us together during the trip for today's post just so this post can have a picture.  I love this picture, not because it is particularly flattering, but that I just remember being so happy when we took it.

If I get the chance this week, I'll try to blog a little more about our trip.

Maunawili Falls

Doug decided to go into work today for a little tour of the Hawaii branch of the division he works for.  I'm enjoying a quiet relaxing morning that will hopefully rid me of the constant headache that I've had since yesterday.  We really are enjoying Hawaii.

Here are pictures of our Maunawili Falls hike yesterday.

Weather Forecast

This picture basically sums up the Honolulu forecast for the whole 9 days that we'll be there.  Hawaii and it's crazy weather!

We're all packed and ready to go.  We have a layover in Atlanta and then we'll be heading straight to Honolulu on a 10 hour flight!  Don't worry, my whole carry-on bag is dedicated to snack food and Doug's is a dedicated laptop bag with several seasons of Criminal Minds for us to catch up on.

See you in 9 days!

Less than 48 Hours

I can't believe that we're leaving for Hawaii in less than 48 hours!  I worked in my classroom until around 7pm Friday night so that I could be sure that everything would be prepped for my kiddos when they return.  Doug and I decided against the Smithsonian Kite Festival today because its too cold outside.  It's not freezing or anything, I was just hoping for the same 70 degree weather we had last weekend.  Kind of a bummer, but maybe next year it will be a little warmer. 

We're over at my parents house today for Johnny's birthday (which was actually yesterday).  We're going with the family to see some animated movie about training a dragon or something.  It sounds interesting, but I have no clue what to expect since I haven't seen a preview for it.

Oh yeah, and we picked up the car this last Thursday.  I think it's pretty neat, but I don't get nearly as excited as Doug does.  We were driving around with the top down on Thursday and people kept on talking to us about the car while we were in traffic.  There was even a 350Z that was driving by us revving it's engine like it wanted to race or something.  The bright yellow color attracts a lot of attention... hopefully not from police officers though.  Doug is absolutely thrilled and has been detailing it basically non-stop.

I've been finishing up some additional school work that I need to prep before I leave for Hawaii and then I will be free to relax for a whole 9 days!  Now back to work... and then to a movie

Thankful for...

...my husband.

This is NOT going to be one of those posts about how amazing or sweet or romantic my husband is.  When I read those posts from other bloggers I wonder, REALLY?  I love my husband, but come on!  He's not perfect.

I'm missing him right now during his week of nights.  I've seen him awake maybe 15 minutes a day since Sunday.  So... I'm just going to write about Doug, how's he's unique, and most importantly... how he makes me want to be a better person.

In completely random order from whatever comes to my mind while I'm typing this:

1) Contrary to blogger husbands out there, he's not really a romantic.  He's very practical like me.  When he got me flowers this Valentine's Day, I secretly hoped that he had a coupon to pay for them.  I'd rather him spend our money on more permanent things (or permanent memories, like a trip to Hawaii!).  That's just how we are.

2) He is always ON TIME and sticks to a schedule.  This is VERY contrary to the home I was raised in.  When he's here, we go to sleep every night at 9pm and wake up at 5am.  I always get 8 full hours of sleep.  Since I've been married to him, I've been happy and healthier.  I credit a lot of this to the fact that I'm now on a regular sleep schedule.  Except that right now, he's working... so I'm up blogging about him way too late.

3) He's consistent.... and stubborn, but it's good.  When he's says he going to do something, he ALWAYS does it.  I'm more consistent because I'm with him.

4) He's thinks differently. When I can stop talking for more than 5 minutes and Doug actually decides to talk (both are rare occasions), he says really thought provoking things.  The stuff he talks about opens my mind to new ideas and perspectives.  He makes me want to become a better listener and better person.

5) He's a hard worker.  The other night I was talking about how, "We DESERVED this vacation."  He turned to me immediately and very seriously and said, "We EARNED this vacation... People don't DESERVE anything."  I know that sounds kind of harsh and it got rid of my entitlement mentality real quick!  ...but the more I've thought about it, the more I've started to agree with it.  He doesn't expect anything to be handed to him.  He always expects that he will need to work for it.

6) He's very realistic, but has high expectations for himself.  He makes big goals and expects himself to achieve them.  He never settles for just okay and it works out well for him.  I'm a dreamer and I've always been a dreamer.  Big, unrealistic goals are my thing.  Creating high expectations for myself has helped me to actually achieve some of my big goals.

um...  10) He makes me be more independent.  ...and honestly sometimes I hate it.  When Doug's grandpa passed away, his grandma was completely lost.  She didn't even know how to pump her own gas.  He has made sure that I know how to run all of the finances.  I take care of things that usually my dad only did growing up.  Sometimes I wish he would just take care of it, but after I've taken care of whatever it is, I feel good about myself.

I'm glad he chose me.

New Toy

Doug's been looking at S2000's since... well forever ago. I think his dad took him to a car show when we was around 17.  He sat in a yellow S2000 and fell in love immediately.  In January of last year, Honda announced that it would be discontinuing the S2000 in 2009. He decided at that point to start an extra savings account to put money in every month for a "fun car" purchase.

He's been looking online through craigslist and autotrader to find the S2000 that was the right price, the right mileage, and hopefully the right color. The right color would be yellow.  Why yellow?  For those of you that know my husband, you may know that he is colorblind.  Basically everything he sees is in gray scale like an old black and white TV, except for the color yellow.

Doug found the listing for a yellow S2000 on craigslist Friday morning this last week.  We went to go check it out yesterday... and it was perfect! We put a deposit down on the car and he's picking it up this Friday.  He's really excited and basically at the point of shock and disbelief.  Here is a picture of the actual car.

For those of you that are wondering what I think about this purchase, I want you to know that I actually encouraged and pushed for it.  Doug has been working like crazy for our family.  He has been putting back significant amounts of his paycheck every month for my dreams the last 5 years that we have been married.  It has been his dream since he was a teenager and as far as I am considered, he has earned it with all his hard work.

I know that it only has two seats and I definitely have plans for a life that involved more people in our family than will fit into 2 seats.  We have 2 other reliable cars with enough seats, so I think we'll be okay for a while.  For right now I have a husband that is literally floating on top of the world.

My first plans for the car... driving to Washington DC this next weekend to go to the 44th Annual Smithsonian Kite Festival.  Then we're off to Hawaii on Monday for the next 9 days.  It almost seems too good to be true!

We're Going on Vacation to...

HAWAII!

Doug and I will have been married for 5 years this coming May and we have not gone on a single vacation since our honeymoon. The combination of being cheap thrifty and work-a-holics has left us vacationless for the last five years. I think I've taken like 3 days total, sick or personal, the 3 years that I've been working for Loudoun County. Doug's been putting in so much overtime lately that he's started to convert it into vacation.

Two of my kajillion 6 sisters live in Hawaii and I am so stoked to see them! We're going to be staying with my amazing sister, Bekah, and her family on Oahu. I'll get to see my little sister, Kate, and my two adorable nephews! Our would've-been-hotel-money can go to some fun things like snorkeling, scuba diving, and whatever else we decide on.

We're leaving the 29th of March (during my spring break) and won't be back until April 7th! I have a student teacher starting tomorrow in my classroom, so hopefully I won't need to write detailed lesson plans for the 3 extra days that I'll need to take off. I have a hard time leaving my class (as evidenced by the lack of taking off for the last 3 years) but I realized that I just needed to do it.

Dragon Club - Join TODAY!

A few weeks ago, my students decided that they were all going to create and join clubs. It started innocently enough with one small group of students asking me if they could create posters for a "Dragon Club" and hang them around the classroom. I told them it was okay as long as ANYONE in the classroom who wanted could join.

The next day, all of my other students decided that they wanted to create their own club as well. Before I knew it, posters for "Sports Club: Boy's Only" and "Girlz Rule" were being put up around the classroom. I had to put a stop to it ASAP because inevitably someone would be excluded and their feelings would get hurt.

My original "Dragon Club" founder had already asked her mom if she could bring in treats for the class to encourage everyone to join her club. I had given her the go ahead, so she had come to class with small Oreo cookie snack packs and orange flavored Capri Suns that day. She handed the snack out to everyone during indoor recess. They were all having fun and enjoying their snack courtesy of the "Dragon Club."

I was at my desk grading papers and enjoying a Capri Sun of my own when one of my students walked over to me with a very worried look on his face. He asked me in a very serious tone that was just above a whisper, "Could you try your Capri Sun and tell me if it has ALCOHOL in it?" I was quite puzzled, but inquired further to try to understand his thinking. He explained to me that it tasted like his hand sanitizer which contains 62% alcohol.

The first thought that popped into my head was, Uh, I don't even know what alcohol tastes like. Then I talked to him about the dangers of eating your hand sanitizer and let him know that I didn't think that the people that made kids' drinks would put alcohol in something that looked like it was for kids. He still seemed unsure, but returned to his desk and promptly threw away his unfinished "Orange Wake Up" Capri Sun. (I guess hand sanitizer doesn't taste that good.)

My brother-in-law posted this picture on Facebook the other night with the following caption, "Juice boxes... now in mommy flavor!"


Uhhh... I guess I need to retract my earlier statement!