Boredom Hit, Needed a Jolt

I was so bored this morning. Eve didn't want to go to the beach (the horror of having a kid that doesn't love the beach is unimaginable). I didn't want to go shopping (b/c I don't have any money to spend). The surf competition was going to be nuts, so didn't want to try to go there today...saving that for tomorrow morning while church is in. So I posted my boredom on Facebook and suggestions came in from my friend, Jason. Snorkeling was out b/c Eve isn't a fan (again, the horror). Hiking was in though! I agreed to watch "Santa Buddies" (big fat SNOOZE of a movie) if she agreed to go. We painted toenails during the movie, ate lunch, and headed out. I drove up to Ka'ena Point, which is at the tip of the island. I parked in the lot b/c I was afraid to take the low S40 onto the road where Jeeps and trucks drive in and we hoofed it in for about 45 minutes. We walked along the road/trail/beach and then back. We didn't go nearly as far in as I wanted b/c it was getting close to sunset and I didn't want to get stuck out there with NO lights...scary... and we didn't go far enough in to see the cool wildlife, but it sparked our interest for a return trip (preferably with a rented Jeep). Driving home we were going to stop for sunset but it was fairly cloudy and drizzling rain along the North Shore, until we hit this!
Click on it to make it big (I'm sure you know this, right?) and you can see the rainbows coming out of the ocean...gorgeous!

Black Friday

No, I DIDN'T go shopping this morning. A few years ago I ventured out at 4am to Best Buy or Circuit City in Durham and when I got to the parking lot it was NUTS and the line to get in ran around behind another store. I just don't enjoy that. I'll pay extra and avoid the crowds and sleep in. I've actually found that online retailers offer some great prices on this day of holy shopping too.
Today CRH rolled home as Eve and I were getting up about 7:45am. Bless his heart! He said they were really busy last night (open yesterday from 9am-6pm, then opened back at 10pm for midnight madness). Who needs BR bad enough to go in the middle of the night?? Really?? That one baffles me, but I'm thankful people do it b/c it feeds us!
Eve and I put up our few decorations. We are putting up a tree, but probably not until the weekend before Christmas b/c they dry out really fast. We found out last week that CRH's cousin Ben will be on the island from mid Dec to mid Jan, so we are hoping he celebrates Christmas with us. It would be awesome to have some family around and we really like him, as opposed to some other family members. ;)
After the very quick task (oh I remember how it used to take a full day!) of decorating was over, Eve and I hit the beach. I really wanted to go watch part of the Triple Crown competition today at Sunset, but it was MOBBED (probably worse than the mall!). So, we went to Pipeline instead and ate our turkey sandwiches on the beach in the sun. Ahhhhh...

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had a lovely one here in sunny, warm Hawaii today! It's so weird celebrating Thanksgiving in 80 degree weather though...this is the 2nd year in a row. I wonder when it becomes "normal"? Eve and I got up this morning and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, as is TRADITION in our house. I LOVE that parade...LOVE IT! I went in 1996 or 1997 and it was fantastic! I'd love to take her one day when she's older. Anyway, I made Nutella Pumpkin Pies this morning and we talked to the family and texted with friends.

After the parade, Eve and I went to Foodland and picked up our turkey dinner. I'll say that it was a pretty fine dinner. The turkey was already cooked, all we had to do was warm it up (which I successfully did!). The sides were tasty. We opened a can of cranberry sauce (can indentions and all) and we were good to go. CRH has to work from 7pm until 7am tomorrow, so Eve and I went to visit our friends, Khristy and Tracy, for a little while. Then we came home and ate our yummy dinner with CRH before he went to work.
Eve and I finished the night with A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. It was a great day and we have so much to be thankful for this year. We have a great little family here. CRH and I have been together for 10 years, married for 9 of those. We have a cute kid. In this horrible economy, we both have jobs. Our family is in good health. Our friends are fantastic. We live in Hawaii...what more is there? Hope you all had a great one!

LOST

We are finally watching it...curiosity got the better of us and people that we know keep raving about how awesome it is, so we are Netflixing (is that a word???) it. We are currently on disc 4 of Season 1 and we are HOOKED. I've watched them film it here for the entire time we've lived here...so my favorite game to play is "Where on the island was that filmed?". So far I've spotted several locations that I know...the temple that we visited a few months ago, Ka'a'awa Valley at Kualoa Ranch, and on the island that they crash onto you can see Kaena Point. I know where those beach scenes are filmed, but it's guarded for now...maybe after they finish shooting this season I can get in!

Polar Express PJ Party

Every so often I try to find things to do that Eve will enjoy that doesn't involve going to the beach (oh wait, that's what I enjoy!). This week I read online that Borders was doing a Polar Express PJ party today. We LOVE that book and the movie...pure awesomeness. I took her this morning and then we hung out at the mall for a while. We bought her Christmas outfit and her Christmas PJs, had a little lunch, and then saw snow! Windward Mall has a tree that blows snow every hour on the hour for 15 minutes. Eve LOVED it. It was so cool...so many kids running and playing in the "snow", which is really some type of bubble like substance. After the snow, we went over to Macy's to write a letter to Santa. I love writing letters to Santa, although I saw some blurb online this week about one program being stopped b/c a child molester was working for them or something...idk, I just sort of glanced over it. Anyway, we wrote our letters (yes, I did too and the reason is coming) and mailed them off. Macy's is the BEST department store because they will donate $1 to the Make a Wish Foundation for every letter they receive up to $1,000,000. If you are inclined to have your kids write letters to the big guy at the North Pole, this is THE place to do it!

So, while we are writing the letters to Santa, I see one of my other favorite Christmas tales, "Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus" sitting on the table. The Macy's Christmas theme is "Believe". I used to cry every time I would read it...yes, seriously. I think it is the best response to that question that has ever been expressed. It's obviously as relevant today as it was in 1897 when it was published. I was able to read it through today in the middle of Macy's without tearing up, but it's taken years to get there...years.

Furlough Friday Field Trip

Well now Gov. Lingle is backpedalling so fast her legs may fall off and trying to end the Furlough Fridays, which would be awesome. Her solution is to use the state's rainy day fund...hmmmm, thought they might have looked at that option BEFORE furlough but whatever...I'm a little less bitter at the moment.
Yesterday, Eve and I both had dental appointments...fun, fun. I didn't have any cavities...yay me. Eve did though. She had one from last time that they were watching and now they want to fill it. I really wish they had done that before when CRH took her b/c now her appt is on Dec. 8th. CRH has a visit that day, so I'll have to suck it up and do it. Yikes!!
After the morning of fun at the dentist, we had a yummy lunch in Haleiwa at the Grass Skirt Grill...would definitely recommend it (as evidenced by my taking the time to blog about it here). Then, we headed to the Dole Plantation for an educational field trip. CRH was off and he had missed our last visit there right after we moved. We did the pineapple express train through the fields, completed the World's Largest Maze and found ALL 8 hidden stations, and had Dole Whips (delicious pineapple ice cream in a waffle cone). I asked Eve at the end if she'd learned anything to which she proudly responded "No". Eve likes doing stuff with us, but she's pretty pissed that we have deemed Furlough Fridays as educational days as opposed to vacation days...guess we shouldn't have made the distinction out loud.

Why Does My Kitchen Hate Me? Kitchen 1, Amy 0

I can bake...I cannot cook. I need to stop trying b/c it's only hurting my feelings and causing me to be psychotic. Tonight, CRH was closing for the second night in a row. In the Saturday blog, I mentioned how I was trying to cook more as opposed to feeding Eve and I frozen dinners and Subway on the nights that he works late. I also mentioned that it wasn't going well. I'm 33 years old, one would think I can make simple dishes at the very least. One would be wrong.
Tonight I attempted a sweet corn casserole. It appears that I'm not smart enough to operate our food processor. I called CRH in tears (literally) after I'd tried numerous times to figure it out and to substitute the blender...which was NOT an acceptable option if you are wondering. So he was unable to walk me through it on the phone, which I attributed to my complete and total lack of sense in that room of the house and essentially hung up on him still in tears. Now because I rarely cry (like NEVER), he freaked and called my poor brother, who was also unable to walk me through the food processor issue. After this call, I locked myself in the bathroom and shed a few more tears over my complete inability to prepare one simple freaking dish for my daughter and I to eat, then I put on my big girl panties, drove to Tamura's, got a frozen pizza and a bottle of the new house wine, and called it a night.
I've decided that frozen dinners and Mommy's mental health remaining in tact are MUCH more important than trying to learn to cook. I moved out at 18 and didn't have CRH move in with me until I was 23 and I obviously didn't starve to death and die. Next week, I'll make yummy pies for Thanksgiving b/c I CAN bake, but this was my final attempt at doing anything greater than boiling noodles.
Now, I'm fairly self aware, so this may have been like the lima beans in the Brunswick stew incident, but I think it was mostly about my total inability to cook, bless my heart.

Pictures Don't Lie, Times are Tough

The new Hart house wine.

Culinary F#c%ups

Well, I'll take a 1 out of 3 today. I got a little too confident after that Triple Chocolate Amaretto Cake...the kitchen had to put me back in my rightful place today (which is on the couch with a glass of wine talking to the cook, if you are wondering). Yesterday as I was sitting on the beach reading my newest edition of Cooking Light, I found a recipe for a Frosted Pumpkin Cake. I heart pumpkin...pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes. I was sure I would heart pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting...sounds like yummy goodness to me! Well, I did mention that I tend to screw up the execution of things, right?
Eve and I gathered all the ingredients and mixed up our cake...we baked it and this glob of yuck came out of the oven...I mean yuck. I tasted it just to see if maybe it tasted better than it looked...nope, not at all. It tasted exactly like it looked!

Not to be thwarted b/c I'd already made a yummy cream cheese icing (now that part rocked!), I decided to go to Foodland and buy pumpkin bread. As we were looking for said pumpkin bread, we ran across gingerbread...something I also adore and decided to go that route. We came home and made the mix and slapped the icing on it and it was in fact pretty tasty.
Ok so I said 1 out of 3...wait, there's MORE in my afternoon/evening of kitchen fiascoes! I'm tired of frozen food or Subway every night CRH works. I checked out a cookbook at the library the other day called "The Simpler, The Better"...sounds like I could manage recipes from something like this...w-r-o-n-g. I attempted a very simple pasta dish tonight, rigatoni with creamy artichoke sauce. I heart artichokes too and CRH is not so fond. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to make a healthy dinner for Eve and I and have my beloved artichokes...except again I failed at the execution! It was gross...we ate it...but it was NOT tasty. It looks ok, but in this case looks were VERY deceiving!

I've never been big on admitting when I need people, but I NEED CRH to continue to cook for me...I mean NEED him...badly!

Daisy Butterfly Parade

Today the Girl Scout Council and the Butterfly Society of Hawaii hosted the cutest event...the 1st Annual Daisy Butterfly Parade. I signed the girls up and we headed to Foster Botanical Garden today to parade. It was very stormy last night, so I was afraid it wouldn't be a go, but we went!

There were about 50 Girl Scouts there. They read stories to them, paraded them through the garden, saw actual butterflies and caterpillars, the Mayor came and all the girls got their pictures taken with him, and then they had cookies and juice. The parade event ended with each troop getting into their own goodbye circle and doing a friendship squeeze and singing 'Make New Friends'...such a fun day!

I have to give a proud mama shout out to my kid today. She was an awesome Girl Scout. Two of the girls in her troop that went today didn't have butterfly wings...one I knew about, one I didn't...so I only had 1 extra set of wings with me. (I'm slightly embarrassed to say that we have enough wings that I could have winged the entire troop if needed!) When we got to the garden, the other girl was crying and Eve shared her wings with her throughout the day. I was sooo proud. After the parade, we went to Papa John's for pizza. This weekend was their grand opening and they were giving out balloons. One of the girls lost her balloon at the park when we were meeting parents and what does Eve Hart do? She gives the girl her balloon. Gold star kid...gold freaking star for you!

Always Wear Underwear...Clean or Otherwise

I picked Eve up today to find her in an odd ensemble. Today was supposed to be the tsunami drill at school and I had put her in a t-shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes because they walk for freaking ever up the hills of Ka'a'awa. I picked her up in a dress with the shorts on underneath. She informed me that her shorts had a puka (hole) in them in the rear and she hadn't worn underwear that day. Apparently the school sent her to the health room for pants (ewww) but they didn't have any in her size, so they made her put her dress (which was in her cubby) on over her shorts to cover the hole. She couldn't just wear the dress, because of the aforementioned no underwear!
Tonight we had the discussion about always wearing clean underwear. I told her in her case I don't care if it's clean or not, but please always wear underwear if you are leaving the house in something other than your bathing suit...always.

Happy 39th Birthday to CRH!

Wow, I'm married to someone almost 40! ;) Today was obviously CRH's birthday and we celebrated by going to our favorite part of the island (besides the part where we live). When we moved here in April 2008, I came into town very soon after CRH arrived. We rented a car and decided to drive around the island to see where we wanted to live. We had looked online at some houses and anything comparable in size to what we lived in was in Ewa Beach. Ewa is also like 15 minutes from where CRH works, we live an hour from where he works now. Ewa is also like the Durham of Oahu. I freaked when we drove over there...totally freaked. I had a massive panic attack on the morning of my 32nd birthday thinking 'why in the crap was I moving 5000 miles from home to live in this cesspool'. I was very quiet as we drove back through town and around the other side of the island. After we passed Hawaii Kai and hit this part of the coast, I was in love. CRH and I stopped and gawked and we delighted in the fact that there were pretty parts of the island and this was what we had envisioned. We quickly learned that housing in Hawaii Kai is stupidly expensive, so we looked more into what they call the country here. Anyway, I digress...not the point of today's tale.

There is a scenic point here and we hopped the wall today and hiked around the lava. Eve and I were a little scared and completely in wrong footwear, but it was CRH's birthday so we did it. We were not disappointed. You can't even see a third of the beauty of this place from the lookout...so gorgeous! We walked all around, sat in a sea cave, saw sea urchins, watched the waves pound the rocks, saw dead starfish, and admired the overall beauty of this place.

After coming home, Eve and CRH watched a Star Wars movie. We had a great dinner followed by cake! I typically buy birthday cakes because I think they should be special and while I have the best laid plans, I often fail in the execution stage. Well I'm here to tell you, I freaking nailed this one. I found a recipe for a Triple Chocolate Amaretto Cake, which Eve and I made yesterday. Today we iced it in a Chocolate Amaretto Ganache...omg, it was tasty!!
Happy 39th Birthday, honey! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Pictureka!

Our family and friends were so sweet to send us Halloween goodies in the mail this year! Our friend, Sarah, sent us wine...I love her. My grandparents sent Eve a cute bag and some Halloween books. My parents sent her some cash and a super cool game, which I'm going to tell you guys about. Pictureka! If you have kids, this is a FUN game. It could also be a really fun game without kids in a drinking game fashion too.
The idea is to find it first and find the most. Eve kicked my butt tonight, which is IRONIC since I'm the only one in the WHOLE freaking house who can ever find anything...but alas, she won fair and square. Love the game...very fun...go buy it...now.

Halloween Hart Style

Halloween ROCKS. The Hart Family got up and had orange chocolate chip muffins for breakfast, thanks to CRH. We webcammed with some family and friends so everyone got to see Eve in her costume. In the afternoon, I went to Sunset Beach to watch the Excel Pro surf competition. Again I'll say, I love to watch surfing...most awesome sport EVER. Eve and CRH went to the beach here. I'm not sure WHY they didn't want to go to Sunset, but they didn't...so I went alone. I love going to the beach, especially on Halloween b/c it was like 86 degrees and so warm!

Last night, Nancy and her family invited us over for Halloween. She fixed a yummy chili dinner and the kids trick or treated all up and down the street. Eve has never trick or treated without us, but she didn't even ASK us to go yesterday. She went with Connor and Jaylynn and came back with a huge bag FULL of candy. It was sooo heavy. CRH and I were laying bets on whether she'd be carrying her own bag. She did the 1st go round, but after they went to the other end of the street, Connor toted it for her. She's a great kid! Ultimately, she went wayyy farther with the girls than CRH and I would have ever gone AND she got wayyy more candy.

We drove home last night with the top down watching the almost full (and gorgeous!) moon. After we got home, we finished the night with a showing of "The Nightmare Before Christmas". This is Halloween! This is Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! All day it was in my head...love it.