I am such a proud Momma right now!

Kai is only 6 weeks old but we are trying our best to train her now so she doesn't develop bad habits. Everything I have been reading says that you shouldn't punish them because they don't understand it. Instead whenever they do something good you are suppose to encourage and praise them. So if they are chewing on something they are supposed to, give them a toy to chew on and when they chew on it praise them. That is somewhat hard to do when they are chewing on you and they don't want the toy but then again she is a puppy and it will take time.

One of the things my friend Meredith taught me, which she also does with her puppy, is to put a bell at the door that leads outside. Whenever you take them out to go potty you make them touch their nose to the bell. It is suppose to teach them to ring the bell when they have to go. That way you hear it and are able to let them out; preventing accidents inside. Well on Kai's very first full day at home she already did it all on her own! I couldn't believe it! She had just finished eating and walked right over to the door and hit it with her paw! I was shocked and SO excited!

Over all she is a very good puppy! She mostly sleeps right now, minus nighttime when we want her to sleep. She is getting better though. We are taking her to the vet today to get her second shot and get started on all the new puppy vaccinations.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Much more to come on puppy Kai!

And Pup Makes Three

Christmas came a little early this year for us. On December 22 Gil went out "shopping" and came home with a puppy! We have been talking about getting a puppy for a VERY long time but had decided to wait. Sure enough Gil had been planning for weeks to get me a puppy. Every time he left to go shopping I thought he just might come home with a puppy but then always convinced myself that there was no way we would get one for Christmas. Sure enough Gil walks through the door two days before Christmas with a puppy.

Gil left early in the morning on the 22nd and came back a few hours later. After lunch though he said he had to go out again. I didn't give it a second thought. This time he said he had to go down to Honolulu. He left once again and when he got home he said I could look (which of course is always the first thing I do, but that day I was determined not to be me and totally ignore him.) He walked through the kitchen and into the living room and placed something under the tree. I was so so so determined not to look. I asked him how his shopping was and he went and sat down on the love seat. I continued to watch tv ignoring the fact that he had put a gift under the tree. Gil kept staring at me and then the tree, just smiling. I heard something move but thought it was a ornament on our tree. (Our tree is really dead now so ornaments are starting to fall off.) A few seconds later I heard something move again; by the way Gil is still smiling at me and the tree! I finally look over and a little head pops out of the top of a gift bag! I of course started crying! I was SO happy!

We decided to name her Kai, as in Kailua, where we live. Growing up my family and I always named our dogs after where we lived. Kai also means, sea, in Hawaiian. She was born on November 13th on the Big Island, Hawaii. She is part black lab and part German short-haired pointer. She is just the cutest thing! She is so incredibly tiny! The two other dogs I have had growing up never seemed to be this tiny. Or maybe they were and but it is just hard to believe they were that tiny with how big they got.

Feeling the Christmas Spirit

Gil and I have had our Christmas tree up and decorated since the weekend after Thanksgiving. Sadly that is all the Christmas decorating that had been done. That is until yesterday. I hadn't done anymore because we had so few decorations it looked sloppy rather than looking like I had actually decorated. Lucky me, my amazing mom swooped in and mailed me a bunch of decorations that she got on sale at Target and Michael's. Between what she sent me and what I already had I got to the task of cleaning and decorating the living room. Thanks to mom here is my decorated living room!

The House

Here are finally pictures of our almost completed house. Before and Afters! Hope you enjoy.Kitchen Before and After.

Dining Room Before and After.

Living Room Before and After...and After AGAIN!

We just got the carpet this past week. We love it!

Guest Bathroom. Still thinking about painting it...

These next to photos are for you Grandma B! I thought you would be proud! I absolutely love my linen closet! It is so organized!

I just organized the pantry yesterday and almost love it as much as the linen closet!

The Office. As you can see we don't have much to put in it. It is more of Gil's dumping ground for all his gear; plus our books that don't have a bookcase yet. This room is still a work in progress and I plan on painting it, hopefully soon.

Guest Bedroom. Also a work in progress. Looks better than the office though. I am going to paint this room as well.

Master Bathroom. Also debating whether to paint.

Master Bedroom Before and After.

Day After Thanksgiving!

I have never been so gung-ho about Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. I always thought it was crazy. I feel like you should enjoy and appreciate the Thanksgiving holiday and not fly right past it in anticipation of Christmas.

This year though was another story. I don't know if it is because it is our first Christmas as our own family and I am trying to make it as much like home as possible or because it just doesn't get cold and I am trying to make it feel more like Christmas. Most likely it is a combination of both.

So the day after Thanksgiving, Gil and I got into a little Ford Focus and drove through base to where they were selling Christmas trees.  I was pleasantly surprised when I saw how good their selection was.  I assumed it would be like Belgium and we would be searching for the best Charlie Brown tree.  They had three different types of trees and all price ranges.  I was very impressed.  

The tree ended up on top of the car....and we were going to tie it down when....

...we weren't sure how to tie it down so....if you can't tell...

...the tree ended up inside our car!  Yes that's right...inside.  Here is proof!  Our tree getting comfy in my passenger seat!

Here is our tree with just the lights...

...the tree after being decorated; Gil putting our star on top.

...us with our first Christmas tree!  Yeah!

Hope you all enjoyed the day after Thanksgiving as much as we did!

Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful turkey day! Gil and I had a great time preparing Thanksgiving for the first time on our own. Of course it wouldn't be a great first Thanksgiving if we didn't have a great story to go along with it. No need to worry; you won't be disappointed!

We decided to come together with our new friends (Meredith and Pat) down the road this year. Since it was our first Thanksgiving together as well as theirs we still really wanted to cook all of our own dishes. So we decided to have two Thanksgivings in one. Gil and I did all of our own dishes plus the turkey and they did all of there own dishes and brought the drinks. I prepared almost everything the day before so all I had to do was heat it up on the big day. We woke up early to start on the turkey and got it in the oven at a decent time. We began basting it every 30 minutes and it was looking REALLY good when...THE POWER WENT OUT! Yes I am not kidding you; the whole entire base was out of power.

One of our other friends texted us about 20

minutes before saying their power went out and we offered them our stove since most of our stuff was done. What we didn't know then was soon we would also be losing power. We quickly came up with plan B...THE GRILL! We migrated the turkey to the grill and kept basting it. Right about when we got it settled on the grill our power came back on (it was out for about 30 minutes.) In the end it turned all great; the turkey was beautiful. We were really proud of ourselves!

We took all of our dishes over to our friends and had a very large feast! We have so much food left over it is insane! Lucky us though that means great leftovers...gravy bread, turkey sandwiches; I can't wait!

Meredith and I took a walk after dinner while the guys watch...you guessed it, football! Big surprise, right! All of the houses on the beach were packed with friends and family. Here are some pictures from our walk.

We had a great day and it was nice to share it with new friends. I hope you all had a great day with friends and family as well. Here are a few more pictures from our Thanksgiving.The pretty table Meredith set.

Dinner one (Meredith & Pats)

Dinner two (Mine and Gil's)

The Boys watching football

The girls relaxing.

Desroches Family

McFarland Family

Miss you all!

First Surfing Injuries

The first of what I assume to be many!!!

So for those who don't know yet, Gil and I bought surfboards a week ago.  We really loved  it when our friend took us out and knew we would buy boards at some point so we decided to commit and get our boards sooner rather than later.  Some what of an early Christmas present for us.  We went to a new and used board store called Kimo's in the town we live in.  We walked in not knowing too much but the owner of the store (Kimo) was really good.  He spent an hour and a half with us asking us questions and explaining the purpose of each board and what would be best for us.  We narrowed it down to two boards.  The best part is that Gil and I are able to use both of them.  If I want a little easier time I can use Gil's board and if he wants to make it a little more difficult he can hop onto my board.  It was really two boards for the price of one.  Kimo even gave us exercise to work on and told us what beaches for us to start out on. 

Ever since we got our boards we have been trying to go out whenever possible.  Gil hasn't had much time off lately so we decided to take advantage of his extended weekend.  They got out of work early so that they could go to 'Family Day,' which was required.  Apparently we had the time wrong though because when we got there, no food was being served and there were very few people.  Shortly after our friends arrived and after we ate we headed out and went to the beach. 

Our friends met up with us at the beach and we spent the afternoon surfing and boogie boarding; or should I say balancing and boogie boarding.  Gil and I aren't exactly capable of actually catching a wave yet...not that we didn't try, hence the (or my) injuries.  It was pretty amusing to watch us because every time we tried to catch a wave we would fly off one way and the board would fly off the other way.  Very funny from an outside perspective.  I think the waves were just out to get me.  Soon enough I am going to look tan due to bruises rather than a sun tan!   It was a good time though and afterward we went out and got sushi.  

Sunday we headed back out.  One of Gil's college roommates (Brent) lives here and has been taking us out when he can.  We went by Diamond Head which is right outside of Honolulu.  The waves were pretty big and very strong.  Little'ol me couldn't even stay on my board.  Towards the end, Gil finally committed and caught a wave.  After being run-over by another woman and cutting my foot on the coral I headed back in and practiced my exercises then worked on my tan rather than my bruises.  

It is definitely going to take time to get up on our boards and be comfortable but so long as we are having fun that is all that matters.  I still don't have any pictures of us and our boards, every time we go out I forget to take pictures but I promise I will get some soon.  

Wall-e

If you haven't seen this movie yet, you need too!  Put it on the top of your Netflix list, rent it from Blockbuster; whatever you have to do, see this movie!  I have heard nothing but good things about it but I was curious how good a movie would be with no talking but it was funny and absolutely adorable.  I can't explain to you how adorable it is; so pick this up for your next movie night!

Speeding Ticket

On Sunday I got my first speeding ticket (not first in Hawaii, first ever!).  I guess it was only a matter of time before we got one with the speed limits so wacky.  I think it will just take time to get use to them.  It is hard when the speed limit is 35 but nobody is going 35.  We just ran out of luck; we became one of the few to get picked out by the cops...seeing that they could have pulled over any of the 30 cars that were going way over the speed limit.  

This happened 2 hours before we were finally going to register our car.  He mentioned that we needed to get it registered because if our car got towed we would have no way to get it back.  He was nice enough not to write us up for it and told us just to get it done.  Of course when I told him we were on our way to get the car registered right then, he didn't believe me.  I know people use that excuse all the time but it really was true!  

Oh well, learned our lesson the hard way, I guess.  

October

I was very excited about Halloween this year. I haven't done much in the past few years and I have never gotten to hand out candy. Being on base this year we had tons of little kids stopping by in adorable costumes. I even carved a pumpkin this year. I can't remember the last time I carved a pumpkin, let alone an artistic one. (As you can tell I am very proud of my pumpkin.) Gil kept telling me that pumpkins are suppose to be scary but we are in Hawaii and what is cooler than a sea turtle! I was lucky enough to find a pattern online and it ended up turning out great. We ran out of candy pretty quickly but we got to see some very cute costumes. I think the best was this little boy who was probably 2 years old. He was dressed up as a baby duck, he had the big round belly and everything. Very cute! Once we ran out of candy we walked over to our friends house and hung out for a while.

We also went to our first hail and farewell this month. It was an interesting experience; the combination of the old and new, the incoming and the outgoing. All of the new Marines and wives were introduced and the wives received leis. I was super excited about that. I was really bummed out when we didn't have anybody to receive us and give us a lei when we first landed, so I was very happy to receive the lei at the hail and farewell.

This month Gil inherited quit an interesting....piece of art....Echo company 2/3 has a mascot named Coa (sorry if I misspelled that.) The only way I know how to describe him that he is a large wooden tekke man or totum pole esk thing. Each year the old Marines nominate a new Marine to be in charge of caring for him for the next year, (we are pretty sure Gil got picked just because he went to Harvard.) Which means Gil has to take him to all 2/3 functions....hail and farewell, Marine Corps Balls...the whole nine yards. The hard part is supposedly other Marines will try to kidnap him so you really have to keep a watch out. Apparently Coa also has a log book for when he misbehaves. We had him for only three days when he stole Gils cover (hat.) I personally find it very entertaining. We had to lug him to Honolulu for the Marine Corps Ball then find a safe location for him where they may not find him. We were getting some pretty strange looks getting in and out of cabs with this thing; he is not small or light!

At the beginning of November we went to our first Marine Corps Ball as a married couple. It was held at the Hilton in Honolulu. They had an amazing cake...which by the way we didn't get any of it. We were pretty upset about that. What is a birthday party without any birthday cake. Either way we got to get all dressed up and we spend a nice night with our new friends.The house is coming along really well. I got the bedroom completely painted. The only thing I have left to do is hang some photos. We also recently bought the nightstand that matches our bedroom set. I love our bedroom now that it is complete. I also have the kitchen finished. There are a few things I want to hang up before it is completely finished. I am working on the dining room and living room while Gil is gone this week. After that I only have the two additional bedrooms left which I saved till last since they aren't used as much. Once the whole house is done there will be a lot more pictures.