Good Morning, Lovely!

Most days, I wish I didn't work from home. I wish I could put on a nice outfit, get into my car, and drive to an office or store or something and interact with people face-to-face. We are planning on getting a second car soon so I can. However, on days like this, I am very thankful to be sitting at home in sweats.

Every Monday, there is a conference call. The company I work for is based on the East coast, and I am in Hawaii. So, quite a time difference! Usually, the calls are at 7 my time, so last night I set my alarm for 6:45 like a good girl and promised myself I would wake up on time to dial in, set myself to mute, and make some coffee. Welllllll, remember how I just said we are planning on another car? The idiots at the bank we applied for a loan at called my cell at 6:30 this morning. Really?!?! It says right there on the application that we live in Hawaii!!! UGH. I hate waking up, just to find you don't need to be up yet and also don't have enough time to fall back asleep. Needless to say, I stared at the phone for a second and then pressed ignore after silently cursing them.

Laid in bed for another 15 minutes just waiting for my alarm to go off, got up, told Roxie to get up, got growled at, told her not to be so rude and coaxed her out of bed and down the stairs. THAT should have been my first clue. Even the dog didn't want to get up. I call in, enter the super top secret conference call code, annnnnnd the computer lady tells me it's the wrong code. Uh, what? I enter it again. "There is no conference scheduled for this time." But I have an email! And a super top secret conference call code! And I missed the last two calls cause I was freakin exhausted and didn't get the emails that there was a conference until after I woke up, which was after the conference was over! I can't miss this one! I'M AWAAAAAKE!!! I read my email again. Call is at 1 PM Eastern time, so 10 AM Pacific time, sooooo 7 AM Hawaii time, right? Hah. WRONG. I check the time zone clock thingies on my computer...8 AM Hawaii time. hmmm...so, I don't have to be up yet, but I also don't have enough time to go back to sleep...interesting.



And that's how this post was born.



Anyway, I guess it's a good thing I didn't actually show up to work an hour early just to sit outside. And that I fixed our espresso machine yesterday. Hello, latte! hmmm...caramel or vanilla? Also, my mom told me I should "write about all the beautiful places in Hawaii" that we have been to. Stay turned for Beaches of Hawaii: The Real OC. Or maybe Lauren's Beaches: A Little Less Interesting and Much Less Sexy Than Bridget's Beaches. Or something like that. I'm still hammering out the details.

A for AWESOMMME

Husband had a day off today! YES!!! I was so excited for today. We woke up and snuggled for a bit before getting up, and then I assembled a super cute outfit from clothes I have always had but never worn together. If you are a girl, you know what I mean. I then ran downstairs (he was watching tv on the couch), and said, "Don't I look cute?! Take me out somewhere today!!!" We were going to go to Cheesecake Factory, and it was going to be amazing and delicious. BUT, we didn't. Instead, we ended up driving all over the freakin island to get some stupid pin for his uniform for some stupid thing he has to go to early tomorrow because some stupid general is here. You think I'm calling everything "stupid" because I'm irritated and exagerating, but you're wrong. These things really actually are very stupid.

1- The pin goes on a shirt that no one ever sees, other than whoever will be at this specific event/formation tomorrow for a few hours.

2- The event tomorrow is stupid because no one is being promoted, deploying, or coming home. Nothing is happening!

3- The general really literally is stupid. Last time husband met him, he said MP's shouldn't be airborne. I may be speaking in code to some of you, but just take my word. The guy is an idiot. Hubby has to choose between wearing his airborne wings (showing that he is part of a major military police tradition) or combat action badge (showing he has seen combat) because of how their uniforms are set up, and he is going to wear his airborne wings. JUST to make a point.  =)   He would wear his red beret too, if he was allowed to.

After locating said pin, we just decided to come home and watch a movie. I made cookies. Chocolate chip. I hadn't made cookies in so long, and they turned out so yummy! I used the butter I made, too! We watched Chaos Theory and fell asleep because the end is so boring. And now I am awake and bored because it's still early.

On the bright side.....
I am taking this international films class because it fulfills some credit I needed, and I thought it would be interesting to see a variety of films with different cinematic styles from different cultures. WELLLLLL, this semester is based completely on the French New Wave. The films are French, in French, with subtitles. ALL of them are French. Twice a week, there is a certain film we are supposed to watch, certain chapters in the textbook we are supposed to read, and then discuss everything with our classmates on the discussion board (it's an online class). We've already done two films, and I JUST got the textbook in the mail today. (The bright side is coming. Just bear with me.) So, I've pretty much been guessing and trying to apply my English knowledge of analyzing literature to analyzing films. Give me a book and I'll analyze every word of it, but give me a french new wave film, and I feel completely lost. Definitely NOT my thing, or so I thought...until our professor sent out an email today. All it said was that grades for the first two discussions were posted along with individual feedback from him, and that he made a new post on the class blog. I just looked at my grade, and definitely got an A, with a message saying that my posts were his favorites. And we are supposed to have 3 postings per discussion, and I definitely only had 2 on the second one. Woops. He said he made an exception this time because what I wrote was so good. Also, what he put on the class blog was a message to everyone telling them to see my first discussion post, along with one other student's, to get an idea of what he is looking for in the discussions. ummmm... HOLY. CRAP. Definitely an awesome surprise after venting to a few people how I feel so lost with this class! I usually don't brag, but I felt it was well deserved in this case. Everyone cross your fingers that I continue to kick butt in this fashion! Thaaanks.

You Won't Believe It IS Butter!

I know I just had a post yesterday, but I have done something pretty awesome since then.

I made butter.

If you are having the same reaction to this news that my hubby had, you are probably thinking, "She made butter? Now that's just crazy! How do you make butter? It's just butter!" Well, I will tell you. You put some cream in your fancy kitchen aid and you whip it. You whip it good.

This is my fancy kitchen aid (thanks Kelly!) in action.

This is the smooth, creamy, delicious butter I made.

This is the smooth, creamy, delicious butter I made on the yummy toast I had for breakfast.

And this is about how fast I ate it in real life.

 Seriously, so delicious! You know when you go to a nice restaurant and they have the really fluffy butter that they serve in little balls, like they have an army of smurfs in the fridge who scoop them with tiny little ice cream scoops? Well it tastes just like that! I'm going to use some for baking cookies and see how that goes, so I didn't add anything this time. Next time, I'm going to just make a little at a time and try adding sea salt or herbs or something. Oooooo maybe I'll make some cinnamon butter!

I also recently got some pretty awesome news. For my cousin's wedding in March, I get to be on Teagan patrol! Teagan is my other cousin's adorable little girl, the neice of the bride, and the flower girl. So, I get to make sure she makes it down the isle in her sweet little white and lavendar polka dot dress. I'm so excited because she is pretty much the cutest little munchkin you will ever see, and I just love her to death! I can't wait to hang out with her!

This is Teagan. So you can see how adorable she is.

I can't wait to go home and see everyone! Hubby can't come because he has SRT school, but I'm still excited. I also get to finally meet my other little cousin that is already 5 months old and I haven't even seen yet! Ugh. Effing Hawaii. It's ok, in a few years we will be back home and I can just hop in the car to go see everyone whenever I want! 3...more...years......

Oh How Time Flies!

It seems like January just started, and it is already the 24th! Goodness! Where have all the days gone?!

Since school started again, I spend literally 5 or 6 hours a day reading and taking notes. When I finally look up at the clock, I can't believe how late it is! Of course, I'm me, so I'm super far ahead in getting my work done. At least that means all the time I'm spending on it is paying off. And the fact that time is flying by must mean I'm finding it interesting...YAY!

All this studying and working has left no walk time for poor Roxie dog. As you can imagine, she is pissed. She went potty in our bedroom the other night. BITCH. Literally. Hah. Anyway, Roxie made a new friend! Actually, I think they became friends quite a while ago when they sniffed eachother through the fence seperating our back yards, but they got to finally play! It was glorious. Jackie is a husky mix, and about twice the size of Roxie, and they were runnnnning and tackling and wrestling and they were both loving it! It was good to see my little woofer have someone other than the cat to play with, causssssse that was just getting pathetic. I also discovered that my 2 year old dog still has allllllll her puppy energy. Even after Jackie wearing her out, it was only minutes after we got home that she was jumping around, ready to go again! Ugh.

Guess what else! I'm starting a gardennnnnn! Soon. Our awesome neighbors, who also happen to be Jackie's parents, are giving us their planter box! I can't wait to grow all our own delicious veggies! mmmmmm...all I can think about is making stew with fresh carrots and...whatever else you put in a stew. YUMMY.

At least we have good neighbors on one side of us. The ones on the other side are complete bags of douche. BLEH.

One more amazing thing about the past week: Husband got more than one day off! YIPPEEE!!! One day, we went to Target to treat ourselves to new pillows (we had always just gotten the crappy ones, but got nice ones this time. He got a memory foam pillow!) and ended up in the food section for about 20 minutes because we were hungry. I was getting some odd stares...walking from isle to isle, hugging my fluffy new pillow like a 5 year old and drooling over everything I saw. We left with a box of chicken fingers to go with the previously purchased mango habenero sauce from B Dubs, and a box of taquitos. Not the healthiest choices, but that's what happens when you're starving. We then went home, made half of each box, and had a movie night. Now that I think of it, we haven't gotten fast food in the past couple weeks, so I guess that kind of replaced a fast food trip. Note to self: just go to Target from now on instead.

Another day, we went to the gym with all intentions of working out. I was going to be on the elliptical while he lifted weights. 30 minute workout. NOPE. We got there and decided to play rackett ball instead, and left over an hour later when the guy finally told us they were closing. I was sooooo horrible and it was soooo much fun! I kept laughing at myself, and it's really hard to concentrate on hitting a little blue ball that is whizzing around, and bouncing off every single wall as a result of your husband hitting it as hard as he can, while laughing. He kept asking, "shouldn't you know how to hit a ball? I thought you were trained for that!" Just to be clear, hitting a ball coming at you from one direction with a bat is a little different than hitting a tiny-ass ball attacking you from all directions with a rackett. Also, if you don't like where the the tiny-ass ball is and don't swing at it, it just hits you. I'm covered in small, round bruises now. I think husband was aiming for me. Actually, I'm pretty sure he was aiming for me. It really was a blast though, and a good workout! I'm still sore today.

Ever since I typed "taquitos", I have been thinking about eating the rest for dinner.....um, BYE.

So it's Been Awhile...

It has been a week...or two...since my last post, so I thought maybe I was due. First of all, I am still alive. And busy. VERY busy. I like it. What have I been so busy with, you ask? Well, I will tell you. I started school (YIPPEEEE!!!), started work (yippee.), and am trying to get a card business off the ground (.....yay.).

School is sadly the easiest of the three, so far. I am basically smushing 3 semester-long courses into 7 weeks. And when I'm done with those 3, I will have another 2 to smush into another 7 weeks. I am a Psych major, so I will be doing a lot of boring reading and researching for the rest of the semester, until I can take something fun, like a neuroscience or physiological psychology. And since I decided to do Psychology now instead of Bio, like I was going to do, I of course don't have the prerequisites I need for most of my classes. So, I will most likely have to take summer school.

I got a job! I got a job! It's actually probably the easiest job I have ever had, but still more work than school. If you have ever heard of CoachDeck, I have the Hawaii territory. If you haven't heard of CoachDeck, look it up. When I initially heard about what it is, two things came to mind: I wished someone had invented these things while I was still playing softball, so I could give one to all the coaches we dealt with that were less knowledgeable and experienced than us (I mainly mean high school coaches....no, you know what? I specifically mean high school coaches.), and I also was slightly jealous that someone else thought of this, and not me. Because it's such a good idea. Like I said, look it up. right here. Basically, I look for youth recreational soccer leagues online and contact them to see if they would like a free sample to show to the rest of their league, in hopes that they will buy five million, and I will be able to buy Hawaii and connect it with the rest of the country. Or perhaps buy an entire airline, and fly home whenever I want for freeeeeee. One thing I have learned in the past couple days is that it is MUCH more difficult to trap someone and sell to them until they cave and buy everything you say over the phone than it is in person. I could sell water to a fish if the fish and I were face-to-face, but I have had two people turn down free sample decks. They're FREE. No strings attached. No obligation to buy. You get to keep this and use it to pretend you're a good coach. FREEEEEEE!!!!! Hello?!?!?! Oh well, I guess they'll regret it when one of the people who didn't turn me down shows it to the board at the next meeting and becomes everyone's hero. And then the free sample rejector ends up using it anyway. HAH. I win.

Let's see...what else? Oh yes. Cards. I have been making cards for awhile now. It all started when my freaking amazing mother-in-law, Kelly, got involved with Soldier's Angels. Soldier's Angels sends deployed troops cards. We decided that we were also going to send cards to our deployed troop, but we were going to MAKE ours!!! You see, we both like scrapbooking, and hanging out together, and our soldier, and laughing, and LOVVVVVE, and cupcakes, so we decided to combine all of these wonderful things into each card. Here are a few examples...

I know. It looks like Cupid came all over the table.

Cupcakes! Loooovvvvvve! SMOOCHES!!!

There were a lot more cards than this, but you get the idea. Oh, and we even signed them with our last name (which also just so happens to be my husband's last name), so his whole squad of manly Army men in Afghanistan would know who their Valentine cards were from.

Our cards were so touching, a couple of the guys emailed a response back to Kelly! I will spare everyone the agony of seeing the actual picture they sent her, but it I will say it involved very minimal clothing and the giant heart shaped lollipops we sent along with the cards.

Anyway, this was about a year ago, and the beginning of my love of making cards. Since then, I have been making them for mostly for friends' birthdays and sometimes for other occassions or holidays. I like making cards so much (and I think I'm pretty good at it), that I decided I am going to start selling them. Now obviously, the ones we made for the boys were meant to be completely over the top and ridiculously cheesy. So don't think all of my cards are like these. If you want to see some, go here. Annnnnddddd maybe even buy one. or two. or ten. After all, Valentine's Day IS just around the corner!

Merry Almost Christmas!

It is only five days from Christmas. FIIIIIVVVVVE. And it still feels like September to me, even after all the decorating and over-eating and sending out Christmas cards and shopping and wrapping and blindly rushing into the post office with the leaning tower of presents balanced in front of my face. Roxie even has on her candy cane striped collar, and occasionally sports her reindeer antlers when she's feeling especially fashionable. It's just a little hard to get into the holiday spirit when you live so far away from the people you usually spend holidays with. I know I shouldn't complain about living in Hawaii, because it's Hawaii, but it sucks that it's just soooooooooo isolated! It is the epitome of being alone in a crowded room. The island itself is like someone scooped up L.A. and dropped it into the middle of the ocean, and all the silicone and inflated egos made it stay afloat. It's super crowded to the point where driving becomes nightmare-ish. Now, obviously I'm not completely alone here, since my husband is also here (thank God!), and we have some friends, but we never really get to see them that much.

We did get to see them last night though, and dropped them off at the airport to go home to see their friends and family. We got to hang out for a little bit before they abandoned us here on this Christmasless island, and my friend (we will call her K), put it perfectly..."People don't understand when we complain about living here, because it's paradise. When you first get here, it IS paradise cause it's still like you're on vacation. But then you just start to live a normal life here, just like you would anywhere else, except without all your friends and family around".  I was like YESSSS! THANK YOU!!!

Until today, K hasn't gone home to see her family in a year. HOLY. MOLEY. We have only been here 5 teensy little months, and I get homesick sometimes. I spent Thanksgiving this year staring into my cousin's kitchen via Skype, while hubby crashed out on the couch after working an ungodly amount of hours. I miss everyone so so so much. It was the first Thanksgiving I have ever spent away from family. I think we ate pizza rolls. Or maybe we didn't eat. I don't even remember.

I'm just happy that at least with Christmas, presents will cheer me up! That sounds bad, but whatever. I asked my husband last night when he was going to wrap my presents, and he said he might not even wrap them at all! GASP!  =0   I was horrified. I had to explain to him that I need something to open. The tree needs presents under it! I told him the tree looks sad, and he asked if I wanted him to wrap it...ugh. It's just not the same without the suspense of what's in the box, and all the shreds of red and green paper and bows flying through the air. Even if the present is a dirty sock, the presentation still counts for something. Think about it this way...Would you eat a cockroach? Of course not! Well...would you eat a cockroach that was dipped in chocolate and sitting on a gorgeous silver platter, all wrapped up in a pretty box with a pretty bow? Hopefully not, but at least it would be a little less disgusting.

To make myself feel more Christmasy, I am now changing the font color of this post to red and green, and adding numerous random pictures of Christmas/holiday related things I found on Google. I know this may be annoying, so...sorry...sort of.

Smelly catttttt, smelly caaaattttttttt...

I recently discovered that I am a dog person. Before now, I have never really identified myself as a "dog person"/"cat person", but just an "animal person". I just love them all! Every time I go to the zoo, I make a mental list of all the animals I plan on someday stealing. I am still looking for a purse big enough for elephant smuggling. For the longest time, I wanted to be a vet. This dream ended when I found out how much school was required. Also, I got a C in bio because I couldn't stay awake or understand a word my Hungarian professor was saying, and he told me I would never get into medical school unless I got an A, or maybe B, in his class...at least I think that's what he said. I couldn't understand. Anyway, the point is that I have always considered myself a lover of all furry, four-legged species of kingdom animalia. However...it turns out that I discriminate. I am species-ist, if you will.

I have never really owned a cat because my dad is allergic to them. Or their dander. Or whatever. I used to take care of a neighbor's cat when I was younger, and it seemed like no big deal. Feed her, clean her box, make sure she's inside at night. My parents have had dogs. When my husband and I got married, we got a puppy because he was deploying soon for 12 months and I wanted a pet that would keep me company. Not until recently have I owned a cat. A cat, might I add, that my husband will claim as HIS cat. A cat that he promised to take care of. A cat whose box I had been doing most of the cleaning of until the last couple of days...This cat that I at first THOUGHT was just soooooo cute is only making me realize how absolutely disgusting and un-cute cats are.

Now, don't get me wrong...I would never want anything bad to happen to this cat. His name is Spock. Spock is orange and soft and likes to cuddle and purs louder than any other kitty I have ever met. Spock gets along great with my dog. Spock is good for a laugh when woken up from a nap on the couch. 

BUT, Spock's poop smells. Yes, I know all poop smells...but there is no way to describe the severity of this certain type of smell. I have picked up after dogs with no problems. Dog poop just smells like...well...exactly that. The cat I used to take care of NEVER smelled anything like this, and she was an outdoor cat so you never knew what she was going to eat.

I always gag when I clean Spock's litter box, but the other day I more than gagged. Had to run to the bathroom. I'm not sure what his issue is. We have the multi-cat litter with Arm&Hammer in it, and I add even more baking soda to it and spray it with a special litter box spray that neutralizes odors. We feed him healthy, holistic food. Blue Buffalo for indoor cats. He drinks plenty of water. His litter boxed gets cleaned every day. He isn't obese or anything...plays with the dog during the day and also plays alllll night long. I know because we have wood floors downstairs and he runs like a retard. Still, when we open our bedroom door in the morning, I can smell his litter box, meaning the smell travels out the door of his litter box (yes, it even has a full top and a door. I thought it would help contain the smelliness), out the laundry room and up the stairs, makes a turn and goes up the second flight of stairs, down the hallway, and to our door. It is horrifying. It's like he plays in it like it's a sandbox or something, and all the odors get fluffed up into the air.

I don't know what to do. Does anyone else have this problem? ANY suggestions are welcome and VERY appreciated. Also, if anyone wants a soft, orange, cuddly, purring kitty...let me know.