Woot!! I have my grades!! HOORAY!!

For Learning Theories: 100% = A

For Intro to Research and Design: 94.75% = A

YEAH for me!!!

Twistedly enough, I was kind of disappointed about the second grade, should have had a higher percent. I had an opportunity to re-do an assignment, but by that time I was already sick and dealing with the oncoming holiday season, so I opted not to. Guess I can live with it.

I am finally starting to feel better, I just feel like I have a cold now. That’s a HUGE improvement.

Well I’m off to work on cleaning up and getting the dinner ready, have to take squirt to RE tonight so hubby can work on his car some more.

He keeps taking parts from the red one to put on the silver one, I told him when he got done he would be missing a ton of ‘pieces’ for the red one.. he said no.. he’d just have a brand new car when he got finished buying all the replacements for the red one! He’s right! He will!!!

Take care!

Mele Kalikimaka !

Free at last!

I’m finished! With all my class work for this semester! Whoppee.!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will celebrate by spending the day covered up on the couch and drinking a gallon of orange juice… cause you guessed it I am still sick.

I have been sick more since we have moved here, than I ever have. Its a major bummer really… cause,

I don’t DO sick!

Maybe it’s God trying to teach me to take better care of myself. I think maybe I’d better start listening a little closer.

My final project was a 5-7 page paper, with at least 3 references and an 10-20 slide presentation. I was so foggy all day, I hope I did well. Hubby proofed it, but he’s been swamped, what with work and his car being broke and stuff, poor guy is struggling to get through the days too.

We have our tree up, some outside light ups, and my Christmas village up, but that’s it so far. Maybe today I’ll have the energy to finish the rest.

At least all of our shopping is done…. yeah for us! Just need a few more secrets for the stockings, and finiteeee!!!!

My children have been watching the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory….Is it just me or is the new Willy Wonka creepy?? In a kind of homicidal, psychotic, eerie way??

Aaahh… the fresh smell of pine floats through the air and mingles with the sweet smell of rain and hibiscus…..

Only in Hawaii will you bring home your Christmas tree, tied on top of you surfboard! Well ok, maybe California and Australia too, but mostly Hawaii!! LOL

Got up today and watched a real touching movie called Lorenzo’s Oil. Very good. Even though I don’t usually care too much for Susan Sarandon, have to give her props.  Then Squirt and I went shopping while  Silver_fangz went and did community service with her confirmation class and Dad played chauffeur.  We met up with them about 3:00 and went to find a tree as the girls were most insistent about getting a live one this year.

Last year live ones were in short supply, this year… no stands — ha  ha ha ha. Only one store still had tree stands according to the tree lady. Course we had one (actually we have several, but we managed to locate 1), otherwise we would have had to drive to the other side of the island. Too funny! We got a gorgeous tree — 6-7 feet tall and soooo FAT!!! It’s a grand fir. Gorgeous… just gorgeous. The girls are checking lights and hubby went to pick up a pizza for us to devour while the decorating goes on.

I’ve been sick for the last couple of days, and I was really feeling it about 2:00 pm. I’m about ready for some NyQuil and bed. I guess I’ll have to put on the holiday cheer and help with the tree though. The girls are at the age where they do most of it themselves, but I still like to help.

I’m off to get some nourishment and help with the decorating — TIS the SEASON!!

Aarrrrgghhh… I’m sick. I hate being sick. I should have known right away yesterday morning. Two things should have tipped me off.

1. It was Wednesday.

2. I got up and immediately began cleaning.

That’s what I always do when I start getting sick, and usually while I’m sick. I think it’s my way of denying that I am truly ill.

When I was a kid, I moved all my furniture from my current room to my sister’s (she had moved out) while I had severe tonsillitis and a temp. of 104. I finally collapsed, with both rooms moved and cleaned, but I ran out of energy to make my bed, so collapsed on the bare mattress. My mom was sooo ticked at me for doing that while I was sick. But, it was so typical…

After getting married, my hubby always knew when I was sick cause he would come home and the house would be spotless. I don’t mean I just clean… I power clean. You know, scrub baseboard, wipe down walls, etc.

Yesterday I moved everything off the counters and cleaned the entire kitchen.

Before I could get to the floor, I finally clued in to what I was doing so I stopped before I could make myself any worse.

It’s a real struggle for me to take care of myself and rest while I am sick.

Yesterday was a true Wednesday. I won’t go into the gory details, but I’m thinking Silver_Fangz traditional bad luck has transferred to me. Bleh.

One thing I will share, is after planning my parents visit for ohhhh I don’t know 4 months now, We finally have specific dates. Hubby calls yesterday….

Him: “What dates are your parents coming”

Me: “Feb 15th to March 9th”

Him: “oh” “well, we have a problem”

Me: WHAT??!!!

Him: “I have an awards board I have to sit in on during that time”

Me: You mean to tell me that after all this planning, you are not going to be here for there visit!

Him: Well, only have to be gone a week……

Now just so everyone understands… he will be gone smack dab in the middle of their trip, for a solid week. This is going to cause all kinds of problems for several reasons, 1) we are planning a trip to Oahu to see Pearl Harbor and do some other things. 2) None of our cars seat more than 4, that means we were planning to take 2 cars everywhere. — Guess what? I can’t drive two cars at once! And even though Silver_Fangz would love the opportunity, she’s too young to drive. That puts my mom or dad behind the wheel instead of enjoying the scenery…… AARGGHH!

The really funny part? He’s going to New Mexico, where they are coming from!!!! What are the odds of that?

I’m sure there’s a reason, and I will continue to look for the bright side… but it is very frustrating!

Ok, time to rest and pound a gallon or so of orange juice.  And take some DayQuill. I need drugs!

Whew…. what a hectic albeit productive week end. We spent the week end marathon shopping in Oahu. We done good! We are just about completely done with everybody! We have to wrap and mail, and still need to order one gift, pick up a few we didn’t find, and then sit back and just enjoy the holidays!

We also went commissary shopping and brought back about 80 lbs of meat and a bunch of dry goods like cereal. Just our grocery savings paid for our hotel, plane and rental car.

The only bad thing was our flight home was at 6:00 am yesterday. That meant we had to get up at 4:00 am to get there in time, and then Squirt and I had tons of schoolwork, Silver_fangz had school and hubby had work. We all finally collapsed into bed starting at 9:30 — I unfortunately had to stay up till 10:30 to finish my school work.

Yuck. I could have avoided that by doing my work before leaving, but that would show initiative and motivation — that was obviously outside of my scope last week.

The dog and the cat were glad we were back, and for one shining moment last Friday I thought we had finally achieved Victory over the fleas… Monday morning dashed all hopes of success in the war against biting bugs,  and so the fight will continue!

For now, I’m off to fight the Chaos that accompanies traveling and hectic days full with schoolwork — the piles of clothes, the bills to pay, the kitchen to clean….

Man, my life just keeps rocking and rolling along.

The excitement just is overwhelming.

AAARRGGHHH…………….. Wednesday hunted us down. It came a day late… it came yesterday on Thursday.

What went wrong??? Well let’s see…. Got up early to take Squirt to ortho appt. that went fine. Decided to kill some time before the movie.

Got rude comments in Sears about “children being out at this time of day”.

During the movie, oldest dd had a female type emergency, nothing I could do, I was 1/2 hour a way, she had to deal till she got home.

Spoke to hubby, only to find out his car is acting up, he’s going to try to “nurse” it home. Great!! we have 3 cars and can’t manage to keep more than 1 running at a time. Whaz up with that??

I get home and call my friend to see how her and new baby are doing. I can’t go see them, cause oldest dd is sick and now I and youngest dd are feeling poorly. Since baby is only 1 day old, don’t want to risk any exposure for her or mommy.

Take Squirt to horseback riding lesson. She’s going to ride a horse that’s already tacked up, so we wait for previous lesson to end. She goes to change horse into western saddle……..

I wait,

and wait……

finally I go to look for her cause she’s missed 20 minutes of her lesson… the horse she was going to ride is colicky and she can’t ride her, so she has to start from scratch with a new horse and is having to collect the right size and type of gear from all over…

Then oldest dd calls, wants to know where the retainer cleaner is. Why?? I ask.

The answer: “I threw up with my retainers in my mouth and they are all gross”…………. uh yeah, I GUESS SO!

Great, so horse is sick, car is sick, daughter is sick…. what else could happen??

You guessed it, the car gives up the ghost and has to be towed home! I show up and the hood is up on the Tow truck — hubby is trying to help the operator fix his truck!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME????

I definitely felt hunted by Wednesday yesterday. I now have complete empathy for deer.

This morning, had to get up and take hubby to work, as his ride failed to materialize……

Then took Squirt to get her portraits done, since she doesn’t get school pictures. They turned out fantastic!! I can’t wait to get the actual pictures! I am so excited!

My folks bought their plane tickets today! HOORAY! I can’t wait for them to come and visit. I know, it’s still 3 months away, but still — yeah for the home team!

Well I have a ton to do, prior to going away for the week end. I still have to clean up the house, take the dog to the kennel, pack, finish my homework, order Squirt’s saddle, and pick up hubby from work.

Nooooo Problem!

I love this time of year!

This morning we have an 8:15 appointment at the orthodontists. All I keep thinking is …. “Where the heck was my mind when it let my mouth make that appointment?” Yikes! That means we have to leave about 7:30. I’ll have to deal with morning rush hour traffic all the way down and through Kahalui. yuck.

Of course, Squirt is looking at this as an opportunity for a “field trip”. She wants to go to Krispy Kreme, (which is the last thing I need to do) and then hang out and go see a movie at noon. Hmmmm… what exactly is educational about this??? I haven’t figured that out yet, but I’m sure if I ask her she could find enough to justify it. Maybe I’ll make her write a report….. aha!!! Eureka!! That’s it, she actually does have a writing assignment for the Cyber school we’re associated with to review a movie. Maybe this can work after all.

Wish the Chronicles of Narnia had already opened.. can’t wait to see that!

This week end we are headed to Oahu to do some shopping in the Navy exchange and the commissary. The NeX is amazing there! Two floors! It’s like a mini mall all by itself! WHooo Hooo!

Tomorrow I am taking Squirt to get her pics done. Silver_Fangz actually ended up with two sets of school pictures because the studio messed up and lost the first package, had her take re-takes, then found the first package and sent them, but not before the re-takes had been ordered and printed, so they sent those to us free. Both look great, but the re-takes have her new hair cut, so it’s kind cool to see them both.

Since Squirt is getting hers done at Walmart, she is planning to dress in her riding gear…. I think those will be soooo cute. She looks so good in her riding stuff.

I priced saddles yesterday again….. jeesh… they are not cheap. What kills me is some of the western riding clothes are almost as expensive as the saddle. Like the chaps, that she will eventually need — they are like $200. <grimace>

I need a money tree… not an evergreen tree. But it’s not about the gifts, right??? Course you know you want your children to be happy. Squirt has been waiting soooo long for her own saddle. That will be her gift, and it will be a doozy! Silver_fangz will be getting some smaller stuff (ha ha, you thought I’d say on here???) and then part of her gift will be here trip to Europe this summer. Hey.. that’s a pretty cool gift!

Well, I’d better go get ready, have to leave soon. Some time in the next two days I need to get the bulk of my assignments done… otherwise I’ll be in big trouble on Monday when they are all due.

Field trip time!