I know, I know!!

So it's been a while since I posted, that can only mean one of two things; I'm so fabulously busy doing things like landing on carriers and swimming with dolphins or I've been sick.

Sadly, it's the latter.  Fall is sinus infection season for me and as a bonus to the pressure and pain, it makes me TIRED!  Really tired.  Like drive the kids to school and then take a nap tired.  It's a real drag but after two trips to the Dr. I'm hopefully on the road to recovery.

That's my excuse - not very exciting to post about napping but I did manage to stay awake long enough to attend a coffee at the Diamond Head Lighthouse last week.  You've seen this before but I've worked on my photography skills since then so I figured a few shots of this amazing location wouldn't hurt!

As you can see it was another beautiful day.  The best part about it was I wasn't in charge this year!  I just ate the food and took my photos...and then came home for a nap!

In other news, while I'm being fantastically boring, my nephew is busy being a local football hero!  Jacob is quite a soccer player - playing abroad two summers in row kind of good.  Someone decided that if he could kick a soccer ball, he could kick a football so they drafted him for the JV football team.  One game later he was moved to Varsity and is winning games!  Doesn't everyone dream of being that guy?  Way to go Jacob - college is getting cheaper by the minute!! :)

How Sweet it is!!

You know me...a few days off of school and how better to spend the time than to invite all the neighborhood peeps over to make rock candy?  Step 1: a trip to the store for 3 bags of sugar and some speciality flavorings!  

 Step 2: add an insane amount of sugar to water. 

Step 2.1 (pick a color and flavor, change your mind, change it again, one more time and end up back with your first combo) 

Step 3: Boil

Step 4: Attach your stick (pipe cleaner, string) to a pencil

Step 5: Pour into glass, insert stick and wait!

Here's where science gets fussy.  This is what it's supposed to look like a mere 5-10 hours later.   That is IF you have the sugar/water ratio exactly right.  If you don't...well then you pour it back into the pan, add more sugar, boil again, pour back into cup only to realize you went too far and now have a solid block of sugar so you pour it back in the pan and add water and boil....you get the idea.

Once the ratio is perfected you achieve a quick sparkly success in just a few days time and end up with a yummy stick of flavored sugar.  (yuck) Hmmmm...

A better idea is to send your kids back to school, grab some gals and order yourself one of these sugary confections!  

My sincere apologies to those who have already visited and did not get treated to Frost City.  My bad.  In my defense I just learned about it but I will tell you it's worth the trip back.  The above was the lilikoi and below was peach. 

It's like a grown up version of shave ice...still icy but also creamy and not covered in syrup but with fresh fruit and little pearls of juicy stuff that pop in your mouth.  Oh trust me, you will be seeing more photos of this!

So many other flavors to try...what's a girl to do?

Three years ago this weekend we were moving into our house in Hawaii! Of course, in Navy years, that's a lifetime.  There are only two families who have lived in this neighborhood longer than us.  Imagine your whole neighborhood of over 70 homes turning over in 3 years!    

We are happy to be going on year 4 and settling in nicely to our corporate knowledge status.  The girls have already completed a month of school and everything has started up again...everything!   School, soccer, gymnastics, Japanese, Honor Society (which is a fancy way to say free labor for the school and lots of extra driving for mom), homework, uniform laundering, and most importantly...HULA!

With a whole year under her belt, Miss Thang has moved up to advanced hula.  Cool in and of itself, but what it really means is mom has to plop down another 75 bucks for a pair of Uli Uli's (sounds like uli uli :)

Think maracas covered in feathers.  Yes they make noise and yes, they lose feathers as you shake them so yes, they are making me crazy!  I am resisting the urge to dust my blinds with them and must admit, they would have made my list of favorite things as a 7 yr old!

Em is getting into the back to school routine, she is pretty motivated to do her homework so she can go play with her pals.  We have a fantastically large group of young girls nearby so there is always one house that is full of them all.

Last night she had a sleepover - full of giggles, fashion shows, popcorn, movies and maybe even a little sleep!

I don't think I ever introduced you to our newest addition.  World, meet Bubbles.  Bubbles used to live next door to us 3 years ago and Olivia used to care for him when they went on vacations.  When they moved, Bubbles found a new home up the street.  Well, you see where this is going...yes, the new family moved and what's a gal to do?

He is a grand fish who has lived way past his life expectancy (uh oh) but we are loving him!  Bubs is a very social guy and gets very excited when you come into the kitchen.  Fingers crossed that all our love keeps him going so that we can pass him off next year too ;)