Much More

June's Fabric

2012-01-04T19:41:00.000-05:00

This is my favorite place in Kalihi. Ok, so Kalihi isn't on my top ten places to visit, but June's Fabrics is! Cotton Poly blends start at 3.50 a yard. 100% cotton is 5.50 a yard. I stocked up on fabric for muumuus, skirts, a shirt for Jesse, and lots of fun projects to be decided.

I was a pretty upset when I thought that they might have closed since they are no longer at their school street location. (Yikes! When I asked, they said they moved 5 years ago!) I found them next to Kaiulani Elementary school on Austin Lane. Jesse might freak, but I kind of want to go back and get even more!! Or, we can just come back to Hawaii more often. Hmm. I like that one better.

If you are planning to go:

June's Fabric

938 Austin Lane

Honolulu, HI 96817

808-845-5400

Open 9-6 Mon-Sat

Happy Birthday Jesse!

2012-01-02T15:28:00.000-05:00

So glad you were born. So glad you married me. So glad we have two great kids. Hope your birthday was Awesome!

Heavenly Seven

2012-01-02T15:01:00.000-05:00

Our baby girl just turned seven. Can you believe it? I can't imagine our lives without her. Who would we play boardgames with? Who would make us get shave ice? Who would play with Miriam?

We love her sassy spirit. We love her salty looks. We love that she lets us know that our idea of fun is not everyones. We love that she keeps us social with her playmate demands and insider knowledge of everyone on the block.

We love you G-wyn. Love your smile. Love your hugs. Love your mafioso kisses (one on each cheek while grabbing your face.) Thanks for letting us be your family.

We are in Hawaii

2011-12-17T19:21:00.000-05:00

And I'm finally updating my blog! It has been a crazy couple of months. Once we finally got settled in Wisconsin, we came on an extended vacation to Hawaii. We're loving our time here with friends and family. The kids love Pounders. Miriam has made two trips to Wailele already. We had so much fun with Kaity and family. And we stopped by to see the turtles at Lani's.

I had an exciting week applying to grad school. I've been thinking about it for a couple of years but this trip cemented the deal. I'm going to library school (if they accept me!). I'm hoping to study academic librarianship and music librarianship. Did you know they even existed? I'm planning on studying full time. It should make life totally crazy, but in a good way. I'm pretty lucky to have such an awesome supportive husband.

It's good to be back in blogland! More updates to come...

Guess What We're Doing This Weekend

2011-10-14T10:41:00.000-04:00

The First Week of School

2011-09-08T22:40:00.000-04:00

Recycled some folders from previous years. A little washi goes a long way.

School started on Tuesday! Oh, the thrills of a new school year! First grade is dreamy perfect, complete with teepee, hermit crab, and teeny tiny desks for each little pupil. Fourth grade appears to be just right. An in class library, dreamy!

The beauty of a neighborhood school is at 8:05 am. Little legs pumping bicycles, scooters whizzing by, groups of three and four walking by. Four crossing guards situated around the school helping the little ones get there safely. I love it.

Here's to months more of educational bliss.

The Kids' Room

2011-08-24T22:45:00.000-04:00

Finally took some pictures of the girls' room. Jesse has been so handy downstairs in the basement. He creates these amazing pieces out of very ordinary pieces of wood and not wood. I've been redeemed for hauling around my loads of fabric. The curtains are from 2 meters imported from Japan. Three years ago. The carpet is an Ikea as is find of years past.

The best part about this room is how functional and roomy it is. The kids actually play in it! Yay!

The Kitchen

2011-08-04T10:05:00.002-04:00

I love our kitchen. The first few days after we moved in, Jesse and I found ourselves sitting on the kitchen floor at night. It was the most put together room in the house, and we just loved how it felt. I will love it even more on Friday when Andy our trusty plumber comes to install our dishwasher.

Our sink is huge. Jesse really wanted a farm sink and they are super expensive. Unless you get this one from Ikea. Then it's just super huge. I wanted the smaller one tub version, but this one does make a statement. I sewed curtains for the two windows and our doorless cupboard from this cute fabric. Gwyn insisted that I get the floral as well as the circle pattern. I think she was right. I like the different designs but same colors. You don't even really notice that they are different (especially if you're Jesse!).

This is our delightful new slide in range. It's fun having gas again, and the convection oven really does cook things evenly. It's a little weird having to cook things at the low end of what the recipe calls for. In this picture you can see the curtain cupboard. We didn't have enough space to do a lazy susan, but we wanted to get the most out of what space we had. So we left the cupboard open, and it goes all the way back to the wall. I'm not sure if it was the best way to do it, but oh well!

Jesse made this open shelving for what we use everyday. We found the wrought iron shelf brackets at an antique mall, though they are definitely not antiques. We wanted to keep the kitchen looking open, so that's why we opted for these shelves instead of a traditional cabinet.

This picture is a little wonky, but it's what we ended up with by the fridge. At the last minute, we realized we didn't have a junk drawer or a place for the microwave. With this arrangement, we have a little bit more counter space, and a cool cupboard up top. I use the counter all the time for making things right out of the fridge like sandwiches.

So this is our way too fancy for us kitchen. It's awesome, but I feel like I'm in a time share, y'know.

The Dining Room

2011-08-03T20:03:00.000-04:00

Finally! Here's the hardest part about taking pictures of our house. It's only clean at night when the light is bad. In weighing the options, flash seemed better than never posting again. So....Here they are.

The previous owners let us have this dining room table. It's beautiful, and with benches we'll be able to squeeze in 8.

We got the credenza off of Craigslist for $30. Finally, I have a place for the obi I've been carting around for years. The credenza was an essential addition, as our kitchen space is so limited. Inside are all my crazy Japanese ceramics, table linens, extra plates, etc.

The color of the room has much to be desired. It's also a flat paint, so it just sucks up light, making it the darkest room in the house. I guess that might be nice if you were into intimate dinners, but that's just not us. Unfortunately, after painting my mom's house, I know how much prep would go into painting the room and I just can't get myself motivated to make the change yet. (See all those moldings, plus the window, and three doorways. Eeeek! Can you imagine how much tape that will take?) Also, I'm not sure where to go with the color since the kitchen is so vivid. Even more, we are contemplating opening up the kitchen into the dining room even more, so that would have a huge influence on the color.

What do you think is a good wall color for a dining room?

The Garden

2011-07-29T10:15:00.000-04:00

I hear that one of the previous occupants of the house didn't have any children. She spent her time on the garden. On our first spring visit, there were numerous columbines. When we came in June, the irises were spilling over everywhere. Before that, we hear that crocuses and tulips pop up along the path. Now it's lilies. I think there are about ten different varieties in the front and back yard.

We will need to make some changes to give the kids some more room. But for now, we're enjoying the beauty.

A New Home

2011-07-27T23:00:00.000-04:00

We're here, we're here! At home in Wisconsin! I'll take some pictures tomorrow in the sunlight and show you our new house.

But for now, here's the quick and dirty version.

We moved in last Monday after signing away our children's inheritance. Good news is that our payment is affordable. Yay for low interest rates!

Especially since the a/c broke on Wednesday, the hottest day of the year. If you live in Verano, give those maintenance workers a wistful smile from me. I miss them. So much. I like our guys here a ton. But I'm not too fond of the check I have to write whenever they come over.

We love the house. It's really perfect for our little family (and whoever wants to come to WI for a visit). Not loving the mice in the basement, but hoping that if there are any more they'll either move on or meet their end trying to get that last lick of peanut butter off the trap.

Everything else is of course perfect! Well, not really. But we're working on it. We should be old pros at moving. Instead we're bumbling around forgetting important things like feeding our kids (thank you new neighbors who took care of that not once, but twice.) Enrolling the kids in school, registering our car, putting up pictures. All in good time. For now, we sit in the sunroom (because it's the only room with enough furniture to seat us all) licking our popsicles (since the a/c only got fixed yesterday), staring at a blank wall (no pictures up) or reading a book (we did get library cards!). Perfect!

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-19T23:39:00.000-04:00

The girls at Badlands, SD

When I was around Miriam's age, my dad would take us on road trips with him around the west. Badlands, South Dakota. Wall Drug and Mount Rushmore. On other trips we drove to Tulsa or Rosebud.

Last week, I felt as if history was repeating itself. We didn't stop at any reservations, but we did stop at Wall Drug, Mount Rushmore and Badlands. I don't remember much about those trips with my dad. We may have been complaining all the way. But as I showed these places to my kids, all I could remember was that my dad brought us along with him and made business trips into adventures. So thanks Dad. Happy Father's Day.

G's Grandparents

2011-05-31T16:54:00.000-04:00

Ok, I lied. One more post. These are Gwyn's Grandparents. There's a bit of Mimi and Austin to them. Gwyn says it's Merv and Kay. Okeydokey. Well, here's to visiting the grandparents this summer so next year their portrait will be a little more accurate.

For the Birds

2011-04-29T19:13:00.000-04:00

Our neighbor's birdhouse is the most happening birdhouse I've ever seen. One day I had to scare a crow away. He was trying to get some eggs, I believe. I hope I was successful.

House Update

2011-04-29T16:21:00.000-04:00

Looking good, no? Don't you wish you had a blue tarp on your roof? It's so chic. And it's all the rage my home fashion forward thinking friends. We are considering a mattress in the front yard. But we're not sure if it's the look we're going for. What do you think?

1-0!

2011-04-21T21:29:00.000-04:00

Can you believe it? That was us ten years ago! It's so exciting to be in double digits. We went out to lunch and talked about houses. We talked about some of our adventures. The Nissan Sunny we drove in Taiwan. Backpacking in Japan. The adventures we have planned for this summer. Jellystone, kayaking, and backpacking.

I'm a lucky gal. He's a lucky guy. But it's not luck that's kept us together. Two great kids, a lot of work and compromise, and a whole bunch of family FUN has made these ten years so fabulous. So here's to the next ten years, and the ten after that, and the ten after that, and the...

Pictures

2011-04-20T15:56:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures of the outside and inside of the house. Blegh. What a pain. But it should get us on the news this evening. I'll post it when it shows up. Whee!

Crazy Storm

2011-04-20T00:11:00.000-04:00

I know the picture is bad. That is a tree down in front of our house. The hole in our roof is worse. A branch came down on our roof missing the kids and our car. Everyone is ok. We even have power. But we also have some wicked leaks and insulation all over the kids clothes. It's hard to sleep with the lightning and chainsaws and now the crazy drips. We might be moving earlier than expected!

This Week in April

2011-04-16T11:56:00.000-04:00

The week after Spring Break can only be topped by the week after Christmas break or the week after Summer break. Monday had Gwyn skipping home from school. A whole day of planned learning made her the happiest girl on the block. I'm not going to dwell too long on how that reflects on me and my parenting.

On Thursday I drove to Indy to turn in paperwork for the Cub Scout pack. Of which I have no affiliation. And no desire to. But I love my husband. And H&M is close to the scouting headquarters. And Trader Joes. 'Nuf said.

This week, we're really going to start making decisions. Find a real estate agent, book a moving van, plan house hunting trip(s). We're done with debating and ready to be done with all the talk. Time for some action.

Spring Break

2011-04-07T22:18:00.000-04:00

It's Spring Break!!!

The kids are home this week. On Monday, I tried to do my usual Monday things. Clean the kitchen, vacuum, laundry. But those kids just got in the way! They wanted to play! So on Monday night, I realized that I had better make a plan for the week. One with limited work and maximum FUN. So we have had playdates galore, hiking with friends, and are planning a trip to the caves on Saturday. Jesse took them to work today, which freed me up to finish the taxes! Yay!

We were thinking of going to Chicago and then to Appleton to look at houses, but with Jesse just back from his trip to Hawaii and me feeling a little overburdened solo parenting last week, it just sounded like a silly idea. And since we really don't need to close on a house until July, there is no rush just yet. We'll go up sometime next month and hopefully the home of our dreams will be available. Or at least one we like enough to sink our savings into! (and that tax return)

Love My Glasses

2011-03-31T09:23:00.000-04:00

These are my new Warby Parker glasses. I love how black glasses they look. I also love that Warby Parker donates a pair of glasses for every pair purchased.

I got the Coltons in Revolver Black Crystal

Every time I take my glasses off I worry about the little girl with no money for glasses. She has such bad eyesight that if she could go to school, she wouldn't be able to see anything.

So thanks Warby Parker for giving sight to someone in need. It's one thing to be blind. It's another to just need corrective lenses.

Today is Wednesday and I Love Wednesday

2011-03-30T17:19:00.000-04:00

We sent J packing Monday! To Hawaii! And work is paying for it? Lucky dog!
We'll grudgingly hold down the fort for the next week while we freeze. And work on getting us moved up north.

Today I got the best piece of junk mail ever. It says "read before discarding". I love it! How can you not?
And speaking of junk mail. Why does Honda send me envelopes that look like junk mail. I put aside an envelope for a month before I deigned to open it. Luckily I didn't trash it because it notified me of a recall on my car. Nothing big, but yikes! Can you get some more formal envelopes that say "read before discarding" or "this is real mail. not junk."

I guess I'll know next time.

In other news, Gwyn hides in the closet and watches Barney. Granted, that's where the comfy pile is. But Barney? Yuck. She knows that I forget that I gave her my ipod and that there's a better chance for her to get more viewing time in if she's out of sight. Yikes.

I'm super stoked because I made all the hard phone calls today for moving. The ones that involve people and buying a house. Those are the kind of calls I can put off for forever. So pat on the back for me for behaving like a grown up, calling strangers, and letting them know how little I know about buying a house and how much help I'll need to do it. Yay me!

ps. I made carnitas today in the crackpot. Yum. Want some?

Permission Granted

2011-03-26T22:03:00.000-04:00

A little note from Gwyn this evening:

"I know it is time for bed. I do not want to go to bed. Just now. Can I watch some more instead of stories. Signed Gwyn. To Parent."

My kids are awesome. I am really enjoying them right now. They are very self sufficient which is great. And the hormones haven't kicked in yet, which is awesome, too. Momhood is sweet.

Silver to Gold

2011-03-25T11:06:00.000-04:00

photo from here.

Sometimes second place comes in first after all. Jesse just signed the contract and we're off to Appleton, Wisconsin this summer. And we will stay there! It's a tenure track position at Lawrence University. So Yay for Jesse and all the hard work he's done these past 9 years! It sometimes felt impossible, but here we are. In the midwest. In cheese country. Go Packers!

No News is...

2011-03-15T22:09:00.000-04:00

just that. No news.

Having Jesse gone for last week was a little traumatic. Then this week with the earthquake in Japan, I got over myself pretty quick. Thank you Facebook for keeping me in touch with all of my Tokyo friends. They're all ok. But under a lot of stress with all the aftershocks. Most are taking off to parts unshaken. My heart goes out to all those who are suffering.

We still don't know what will happen next year for us. Lots of nibbles, no bites. And after having yet another cryfest about poor me, I think I'm done. I think I'm really lucky to have two great kids. They're not healthy, but a cough and sore throat seem minor. I have a great husband who agrees with me that doing something grand for our anniversary this year seems more like a headache than a celebration. We've planned a lunch date. Somewhere nice (come on Groupon, help me out with this one). I cleaned up my pantry today and I have plenty of food and toilet paper (1971 Honolulu dock strike, not that I was there but my dad was). And the house is clean because someone came to look at it so I finally took a load to the recycling center, put empty jars down cellar, and cleaned my room. I have a lot of big and small things to be grateful for. So that's the news. We are well. We are safe. We are happy. We are lucky. How are you?