Bucket List Item #79 - Go to Pearl Harbor - CHECK

 Pearl Harbor was one of those really cool things to see and do but also extremely sad to walk around and think about what happened there. But that being said I'm pretty proud to say that I'm part of a military family.

 We had to split the doing Pearl Harbor into two different days because we arrived to late to get free tickets to go to the USS Arizona. Pearl Harbor is run by the Parks and Rec Department of Hawaii but the Navy is the one that takes visitors to the USS Arizona and they only do so many trips a day and if you don't get there early enough you won't get tickets. We got there about 8 a.m. the second day and our assigned time to see the Arizona still wasn't until 12:15 p.m. So a word of advice, go early or the tour groups will grab all the ticket and you won't be able to get to the Arizona.

 So the first day we went and did the Mighty Moe or the USS Missouri. It was a pretty awesome battleship. It is so much bigger than you actually image, well at least to me. Most of these pictures are from my phone as I just wanted to get them posted but Tim took some pretty awesome ones with the big camera.

Here is the Arizona from the dock of the Missouri. It was a beautiful day when we went. The sun was out but it wasn't blazing down on us so it wasn't to hot.

Before we went out the the Arizona they make you watch a short film on why Japan bombed us and what happened on December 7th. It was very sad to watch all the footage.

 We were also asked to be as quiet as we could when we were on the Arizona in respect for the fallen men that are still entombed there. When you get out to "the bridge" and look down and still see the sunken ship you just want to cry to think of all those poor men that are down there.

 Another thing that I learned was that if you were a survivor of the Arizona that you have the option to be buried down there with the other fallen sailors. They will have a special ceremony after the memorial is closed and divers will take the urn of the deceased down to the hull of the Arizona and place him inside. I thought it was a nice idea and option.

The Arizona also has a shrine room. The park ranger was telling us that it has all of the names of the fallen Navy sailors and the Marines that were on the ship at the time Pearl Harbor was attacked. Again this was both cool and sad at the same time. RIP and Happy late Memorial Day to all the fallen.

I've been a bad blogger...sorry

Once again I have been a bad blogger, going another 2 months (almost) before I posted a real post. I mean I wanted to but just never got around to it. I have busy doing many things which of course I'm behind on those too. I'm currently trying to catch up on all that stuff, mainly my Project Life from last year and getting this year's started. But before we get there, a few pic and an update.

Below is a pic of what Tim did to Max one night after he was pretty much done eating. See the things that happen when I'm not around, I love it! It makes for such great stories later. Which is my word this year, Story. I'm all about trying to tell our stories and the ones that have been placed on the back burner. I know these are not easy tasks but I feel that I need to tell them so that I can remember and so that Max can read about them later on.

My best friend Lisa got married in New Hampshire on January 16th, 2011. I was the maid of honor and this was only the 2nd time that three of us (me, Lisa, and Cheryl = my old roommate/best friend from college) have gotten together since my wedding. It was a great day and damn cold with lots of snow. Tim kept saying who comes to New Hampshire in January without ski equipment (*smile*). We all had a good time and agreed that we need together once a year for a long weekend to catch up. This will probably be easier now that we are home in the states.

Pic from the rehearsal dinner. I had to bust out the Chowan sweatshirt. It didn't say Chowan College but it will work. Tim got this for me as Christmas present along with a Chowan University onsie for Max. We match, I know it's gay but again, I love it!

Max got to see his first snow fall in NH as well. My mom's bf, Manny, bought him this awesome snowsuit equipped with booties and mittens (not the idiot kind that are attached to a string *smile*). We would stand him up in the snow and he would just fall to all fours. It was funny. He kept waving his hand back and forth. I really wanted to make a snowman but every where we went (NH, NY, RI) the snow was just powder. Of course the day we come back to OK my Mamma calls me and says the snow is perfect now for making a snowman. Go figure. Next time I suppose.

After the wedding we went to see Tim's family in Albany, NY. Outside of Tim's parents no one had met Max before this picture was taken. A "open house" was held so we didn't have to drive to see everyone. This is most of the family. We are still missing a few people here and there but all in all a picture to document that everyone was here had to be taken. It actually came out pretty well, I think. We got most of the kids to look at the camera at the same time. I think the blinking light on the camera helped.

Max also had his first birthday on January 1st. We made him an Elmo cake. We didn't do a party or anything as we only moved here about 6 months ago and don't have very many friends, that and it is New Year's Day. So we stayed home and just a quiet little thing just the 3 of us. My Mom (Nana to Max) gave him a bunch of clothes and more toys so we didn't feel that he needed any more so we didn't get him anything. He also got money from distant relative and friends. Thanks to all for the gifts. I think I remembered thank you cards. I'll feel really bad if I didn't. *blush*

Sorry this is going in no particular order, the pictures were being a pain so this is how they came up and I'm going with it. Also while on our trip to Lisa wedding NH, then after our visit to Tim's parents in NY, we headed to Rhode Island to see the rest of my family, those that were there anyways. We stayed the weekend, my father flew up to see the 3 of us. We went duck bowling. Basically you are bowling with smaller sized balls, like cannon balls. Mamma always seems to win when we play. Tim tries to hook it like a big ball and it doesn't work well. I think he was last in both games that we played. Here is the group picture of those that came to dinner the day before we left. It was nice to see everyone but is was also nice to be going home too. I missed my bed, my house, my dogs and my routine. But if you never leave your house you'll never know what you really love about it.

Other updates is that my sister has now set a date for her wedding. She had to wait until Josh, her fiance, got into his new unit to see if he was even going to be around for it. They are getting married on June 18th, 2011 in Fayetteville, NC. They are still deciding if they are going to do a church wedding or just get married where the reception is going to take place. Bri has already told me that they are not doing a Catholic mass, so if they do do a church wedding it will be the 20-30 minute deal. She is doing red and white for her colors. She already has her dress and I just ordered her Save the Date cards which I will be addressing and mailing out for her. Bri isn't much into planning her wedding. It stresses her out so she is letting everyone else, for the most part, plan/be involved in doing the wedding.

I know there are other things but well I will be here all day writing if I tell you everything. I'm going to go and try to finish Project Life 2010 and catch up on Project life 2011. I have decided to do this years by week. Let's see how this turns out. Will post pictures when I get farther along and will take pictures of last years so you can see the finished version. Until then...

Good-bye Old Friend

Well our time here is coming to a close rather quickly. I don't like it but I'm ready to leave and start the next chapter of this life journey. Before I go I have a few good-byes to say. The first one is to my car. Yes, that's right, you can't forget your car. The old girl has been good to us, so good that I would buy a Honda anytime day or night. They are good quality cars that you can beat the shit out of and they still work.

Our 1993 Honda Accord was bought from a guy that Tim worked with when we were at Lakenheath for $2000. We have more than gotten our money's worth out of her. She has been to so many place to include but not limited to Liverpool, Nottingham (Robin Hood country), London, London Gatwick airport, London Heathrow airport, London Standstead airport, Bristol, Bristol airport, Birmingham (several times), Norwich, Cambridge, Oxford, Wales (the country..several times), and well a few more places but I can't remember them all right now. We bought the car with 98K miles on it and it will be close to 180K when we give it away. Yes give it away. See, the old girl is on her last leg. She just needs to make it another 10 days before we have to go.

She has a few problems that aren't really worth fixing so we aren't sure what is going to happen to her. Currently she has an oil leak, the back quarter panel is being held down by duct tape, the passenger side window is off the track thus you can't put it down, the back passenger side window will go down but not up thus you can't put it down either, it needs 4 new tires, the driver's side mirror is being held in place by a 2p coin, there is a dent in the front quarter panel that every time you open the door the light pops out, the front speakers are blown, the breaks are squeaking, and the CV joints are leaking and loose, to name a few things. So needless to say there is to much wrong with it to save it. Poor girl....

But as with all things in life it must come to an end. Thanks for all the good times we've had over the 5 years that we had you. You were good to us and you will truly be missed. My first of many good-byes that I have say before I leave this country. It's almost time to cry.

Hello.....anyone still out there??

Okay so I had a month or more of house guests and other social obligations and as you can see my blog was the one that took the brunt of the neglect, my email has as well. So what's been going on. I'll try to recap...

On being pregnant.....I hate it! I'm only 4 1/2 months and I think I look like I'm about 8 months pregnant. I'm sure not everyone feels that way but that is the way I feel. Nothing fits, again, I'm hot all the time, and I currently have a cold that I can't just seem to kick the cough part, which is the worst part. I miss my drugs. My face continues to break out as do other parts of my body (sorry for the TMI) and recently Tim has told me that I have started to snore....BADLY! He said that I'm snoring so bad that I have to go and get the breath right strips so that it would reduce it. He also said that when he rolled me over that the snoring got worse. Also my boobs have gotten bigger, which if you have big boobs to begin with this is already a bad thing. So now they are pulling on my neck. I get lots of pain right between my shoulder blades. So I can only sit and/or stand for so long before my shoulders and my feet start to hurt. What is even sadder is that I'm only 4 1/2 months pregnant. I'm just barely half way there. This sucks....bring on Christmas.

On my many house guests.....We had friends that came down from Lakenheath for the 4th of July weekend. It was really nice to have them here, they will be moving here later this week....I'm so excited for that I can't wait. I'm hoping that they like the house that is just in the next village, only 5 minutes drive from here. Very exciting as well. My parents were here for about 2 weeks as well. Mom, Dad, and I went to Ireland for a few days, it was really nice. We went to Galway on the west cost of Ireland. It was really relaxing kind of break. We mostly shopped and walked along the beach. The weather was good as well. We came home and that then we had RIAT or Royal International Air Tattoo. It is the largest military air show in the world held at our tiny little base. Tim took lots of pictures and the weather even held out for us. My father cooked for everyone so the burgers weren't over done and the chicken wasn't under done. It was fun. Mom and I went out and did some baby shopping. Mostly got clothes for me because I don't have anything. The clothes are nice, to me most of them look like tents on me but again, I'm not liking being pregnant so whatever at this point. At least now I have different options to wear besides Tim's old black t-shirts. We more or less hung out the rest of the time they were here. Dad left earlier than Mom so it was sad to see him go. While Mom relaxing she registered me for baby stuff online. I'm registered at Babies-R-Us. I don't think I'm going to have a baby shower at least not one in person. No one is here for me. I don't have many friends here and the friends that I do have already have stuff picked out for me. I'll probably do a virtual shower or something. I'm not going to open much of anything once I get it anyways as we don't think we are going to be here for very much longer and if we are we won't be here long after the baby is born. Timing is everything isn't it and well ours isn't great. But I'm not upset anymore, just a little stressed, the unknown always does that to me. Back to my house guests. Mom left on Saturday, it was nice to have her here. I didn't have to do anything. If I wanted it she made it for me. All my laundry is washed and folded, now I just need to put it all away (still working on that Mom, haha). That's about it for that.

On reading....I finished the whole Twilight Saga and I totally loved it!! I'm not as excited for the movie(s) but we'll have to see. I have the first one and I was waiting until I finished all the books before I watched it. It is a blue-ray and well currently my PS3 is on it's way back from being fixed so when it gets here I'll finally watch it along with several others that we borrowed from someone that Tim works with. Not sure what I'm going to read next. I mean I read all 4 books in about 3 weeks. I'm sure I'll find something in my collection to pick up.

On all things crafty.....I have been seriously slacking in all things creative. I have been either to tired or to busy. Yesterday I finally sat down and did some stuff. I would like to have all of my unfinished project finished by the end of August and if you know me that's a pretty tall order. But I think I can do it if I just do a little at a time. I mean it isn't like there is anything on TV these days. Sometimes I wonder why we even have cable.

Well that is all for now. I'll update again here shortly with pictures from my parents' visit and air show pictures, etc. My next doctor's appointment is on 15 August and that is when we find out what we're having so I'll be sure to let you all know in a very timely manner. Until then....

Irritated with Hard Rock

Tim and I are advent Hard Rock fans. When ever we travel on of the first things we do is figure out if there is a Hard Rock there. We are also Hard Rockers. A few years back when when were in NYC we got the All Access Card. A VERY cool thing, if you are a Hard Rock fan, I suggest you get this.

This past Saturday I was in London with my friend Chris. We both wanted to go to Hard Rock and the timing was perfect as we were both very hungry. I said well I have my All Access Card, lets see how it works. When we walked up we heard the hostess tell the people in front of us that the wait was for about an hour and a half. I shrugged and said, "Let's see how long we will wait?" We were seated immediately. HOW COOL!!

So we have our dinner and talk and Chris told me that Hard Rock give 15% off for military members. Sweet, then we can use my card, I can get the points and we still get our meal at a discount. We pay, we leave, we go to the store, buy our pins and other assorted items and head home.

Yesterday I figured I would put my points on my card. Points = FREE stuff. So I log-in and proceed. I messed up the first time, I figured out my mistake and then I got an error code. Basically it said that since I used the military discount for my meal that I can't claim the points on my card. WTF...how unfair is that? I still spent money in the restaurant and the store and I can't get credit for either. To make matters worse, Chris had gone to Amsterdam a few weeks before and saved her receipts but it was the same thing. So because the military discount was applied I missed out on putting like $120 worth of points on my card.

It's not fair....Damn Hard Rock....don't worry, we'll still go back, we like it that much.

A Mismash of stuff

This is probably going to more of a random post about a little bit about everything kinda thing. As usual I have like 800 things to do and no desire/drive to do any of them right now, too tired. Anyways, just thought I would show you pictures of my messy room that is desperate for a clean up.

My computer desk with a freshly reloaded computer thanks to Tim. Thanks! I think it run faster now.
My mess of crap. This layout has been sitting here for the past 6 weeks. The sad part is that it only needs like 2 small things and it is finished. No desire.

Another shot of messy work area. I think there is every kind of craft on these tables.

This past weekend, I went to London with one of my best friends for her birthday. I took her to see her first London show. We went and saw Wicked. What an amazing show!!! You don't have to be a fan of the Wizard of Oz to love this show. It was great, loved it, I will go and see it again when family arrives.

My Wicked program, I always get a program.

While in London you know I had to get something for Tim. I was looking for something that I knew he would like but yet was unique and didn't cost to much. Then I came across these. Yes, that's right, they do say Pasta Boobs on the front. Chris was going to get him a Boobie neck pillow but it was really dirty so she opted out. They even had Boobie Soap-on-a-Rope.
I went up on Friday night to see Chris and her family. She made "the chicken" which is like when people come here they get "my lasagna". It was nice to be taken care of, not that Tim doesn't take care of me but I didn't have to cook, didn't have to clean up, and got to sleep as long as I wanted without having to be woken up by the dogs or any other thing around here. I got the nicest Mother's Day card from her too, Thanks Chris for a very special weekend, I had a good time.

After spending the couple of day with Chris I went up to see our old neighbors, Shelley, Drew and their daughter Lily. There house looks great and has come along way from when they first moved into it. They are still working on trying to make it "perfect" and I think they are going to get what they want in the end. I can't wait to see it when they finally do the kitchen but in the meantime, all their hard work looks GREAT!!

That's about all I guess. This weekend I'm staying in, except for Friday night, have to make our bi-weekly pub trip. We are suppose to be meeting friends so it should be a good night. Other than that, I'm going NO WHERE!!! I'm so tired and need to catch up on everything!! Berry picking season is just around the corner so I need to find my jars and get them ready for jam. Saves me time come Christmas when I don't have to make any extra cookies and well with the baby coming around that time, I'm not sure how much I'm going to be doing anyways.

Okay, that's it, maybe a post of more substance later.

An Update...finally (very pic heavy)

Sorry for the long hiatus from posting but we have been super busy and at the same time super lazy. Too tired to really do anything after all that we have had going on. Shortly after my sister and father left my SIL and BIL came into town for a week. We had a great time with them. Tim was their tour guide and took them all over the country. I will try and go and steal some of Tim's pictures from when they were here as I didn't have any one my computer.

Once SIL and BIL left we were on our way to Scotland for camping a.k.a. Operation Fluffy Bunny. What a gorgeous country!!!! We left Friday morning around 8 a.m. for our 8 hour drive. It was worth it though, even if we were only there for 2 days. We had friends with us. They are pictured bel0w, AJ (who is awesome), Dutchie, and Dalyah. They only got to stay 2 nights because the Air Force is stupid and we'll just leave it at that.

This was our camp site. We were right on the loch. We camped on Loch Linnhe. We were a short walking distance from the water.

It rained a little the first night and a lot of our stuff got wet. This was the clothes line that was in the site. Most camp sites don't have stuff like this, I thought it was pretty cool.
This was mine and Tim's tent, along with the puppies. It is huge but it was just the right size for all of us plus gear. We stayed pretty dry in there after we figured out where our tent was leaking from. Gotta fix that before our next camping trip.

This is Awesome AJ and Dutchie's tent. They had the "Wall of Gayness" in the middle of their tent or really the "Wall of Non-gayness" However you want to look at it. After this weekend Tim has decided to retire this tent as it got all of their stuff soaked all weekend. That tent has many many miles on it.
This is a view of our entire camp site. We had the tarp up there for keeping our stuff dry when it rained when we weren't there. It worked pretty well. As long as the wind wasn't blowing to hard.
This was our Loch. This picture was taken from our campsite. Image, we got to wake up to that for 3 days. How cool huh?

We didn't really have a third tree close enough to tie the other rope off to from the tarp so this is what was mustered up. Tim gets pretty creative on these trips.
Tim sporting his "camping gear". Sexy isn't he.
On Saturday we went to Loch Ness to find Nessie. We put the dog here so that we could go and look out into the water. they weren't really that happy about it.
We stopped on the way home at a different location on our loch. It was a little hazy out but I still felt I should post the picture.

Dakoda swimming and Tim trying to get him out. Dakoda would just swim up and down the loch till he was shaking he was so cold, but still wanted to continue to swim. Crazy dog!
Dalyah sitting.
Mountain, yes that is snow on the top.
AJ walking Maggie, or really Maggie walking AJ.
A rainbow with the boat and mountain. Very pretty. There was someone living/working on that boat. The tide came in a couple of days later and made it very easy for him to leave if he wanted to.
AJ fishing, really just casting, none of them caught anything. They all seemed to have fun regardless.
Tim walking on the bank of the loch drinking his scotch that he bought in town that day. He found better stuff on Sunday.
Tim was more or less walking up and down the bank with the dog who was swimming again. That dog loves to swim.
Sunset on Loch Linnhe

One of my favorites

On Sunday Awesome AJ, Dutchie, and Dalyah had to go home, so Tim and I were on our own with the puppies. We first walked around town. We went and saw the ruins of this castle (will try and post pic, Tim's camera again) and just when I thought I was going to be done, I decided that we should go to the Ben Nevis Falls that the lady at our camp site told us about. It was worth it.

Tim is at the stage where he will do just about anything for a good picture. Here he decided to go crawling around in the rocks to get pictures of the rushing water. The pictures came out good which is all that really matters in his eyes.
Can you still see him in there? He's there. The best part was that there was a Japanese tourist group behind us that we pasted earlier and they were all taking pictures of him down in the rocks. They saw me and gave me a puzzled look and I just pointed to the direction of Tim and they all started to take out their cameras. Too funny. Gotta love those Japanese people.
This is right by the Falls.
Taken from the ground. I just thought it looked cool.

The Ben Nevis Falls.

The last night in Scotland was pretty fun. We were left with some beer that we didn't really want to carry home and there was no way that we were both going to drink it all in one night either. So we decided to offer it to our Scottish neighbors Ronny and Rosey. What a fun couple! We went up there just to bring beer and ended up staying the entire night. We were suppose to go to bed at 8:30 so we would get lots of sleep for our long drive home but bedtime turned into 1 a.m. It was worth it though. Ronny even let Tim try and play the bagpipes. What a sight! I wish I had a camera with me. Ronny ended up giving us a Scottish flag to hang up and a bottle of ale that is only found in Scotland. Those Scots are pretty nice people.

That is all for now. I have other news to report as well but that will come at a later date, I'm to tired as it is a long story as well. Maybe this weekend. If you ever get the chance to go and travel do it, you won't regret it one bit!!