40 years later

October is in full swing with the crisp mornings and just perfect afternoons here, and they’ve been so lovely to enjoy. I find myself getting outside on the back patio more and more soaking in the softer sun as I listen to all the little birdies chirp.

The weekend was much of that. The sun, the birds, the constant hunger… I mean… I’ll save that topic for another day.

Today marks a pretty big day over here in this family. It’s a day of celebration. 40 years ago, my parents said “I do”.

40 years ago!

Craziness.

In that time they moved countless times, been through a number of ups and downs, had 4 beautiful children {if I may be so bold to say…not to mention the 4th kid, she really is something extra special..} and 11 grand children.

plus… this little bean

Blessed.

4 year anniversary

I discovered a box of photos and have had fun looking back over their years (if you can’t tell). I’m so thankful they’re my parents. They’re gracious and loving, supportive and encouraging. And I get to call them mine.

Happy 40th Anniversary Mom and Dad. I love you both!

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I had an anniversary

Where have I been!? I completely missed my one year anniversary for my blog!! It was supposed to be huge and epic and monumental to the point of everyone being amazed and in awe and yet now…nuttin’.

15 days later, I stand on the dock looking out at the empty water where the boat sailed away without me. {nice analogy, no?} Instead of being all, ‘my blog made it a year, hooray. who would have thought all you lovely ‘buddies’ would want to read what I say’ {which seriously, I say frequently}, I instead talked about being given the go to Hawaii after my dad was in the hospital.

::Ce la vie::

It has been great blogging, though. I never knew just how much I’d love it and getting to know so many new and wonderful friends has been a great bonus. I’ve really enjoyed helping new bloggers with tips and tricks and am always happy to show them how to attach their email to their comments so us bloggers can reply to them.

{if you’re not sure what I’m talking about, email me so I can help you}
..and if you have any questions about anything blogging, comment or email and I'd be really happy to help in any way I can. I’m a giver…and sometimes a taker, but mainly a giver.

Since its technically not my blog Anny, I’m going to round out the Maui trip.

The last few days were complete relaxation. (except for the whole Road to Hana thing… we weren’t feeling that at all and turned around 1/2 way into it).


Though we did get fresh Krispy Kreme and see the rain pouring coming back! Which made up for it.


For the first time ever, we took a kayak out to see the whales. Now if you’re anyone who’s anyone, you’ve heard to take a 2 man kayak is relationship suicide. I never could understand that. I’ve heard stories of couples fighting the whole time, getting upset and frustrated with each other the entire time they paddled.

So when it came time for us to hop in, I was really curious how we’d fare. Wouldn’t you know there wasn’t a peep of frustration from either. We paddled in sync and when we weren’t, one would pause to get back in the rhythm. We were happy go lucky the entire time. Even talking about it and glad we weren’t among the couples who fight over paddling.

It was glorious out on the water. 3 whales were near by and we’d hear them blow air and pop up. After an hour of being out in the quiet and peaceful water, we saw one of the whales coming straight toward us. We sat straight up, eager to see how close he’d come. Popping his body up, going back under, then closer; popping up and going back under. We were getting so excited. Not 40 yards away, he pops up again, we sit in awed silence. Then from behind, a speed boat full of rowdy people comes flying in to see the whale…and he never popped up again.

We were so disappointed. As I sit back while G-man paddles us back in, we see his head come up about 200 yards away.

Our final days there, we lounged at the adult pool, sipped our cocktails and shopped our little hearts out.


Got pedicures together (his without nail polish of course) and ate some of the most delicious food we’d ever had. Each morning enjoying the special from their amazing chef and feeling special from the staff.
Waffles with baked pineapple and rum whipped cream…heaven in your mouth!

that’s me and G-man….I’ve got skills.
ok, that’s not me…


{I’m teaching G-man how to get the focus on the correct subject. …still teaching}


Reality struck us hard when we entered the airport where the woman behind the counter was unnecessarily rude and condescending to me about my carry on luggage. I told her I hoped she has a better day, and walked away determined to not have her ruin our good moods.

No more Four Seasons treatment, we were back in the real world again.
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Have you ever taken a kayak with your other half?! How’d you guys do?

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A day late and a dollar short

Gosh, if I knew where my head has been these past few days, I’m thinking things would be a lot smoother for me.

I discovered last night upon opening my garage door, that the loud scraping noise I heard when closing it Monday night {after getting home from the day of traveling} wasn’t the hinges needing WD-40 like I thought…but in fact my hatch door, that was wide open, scraping against it. Now I have this 5 inch scratch on my car.

I could cry. I’ve never done that before and don’t understand what’s going on with me.

And then I realized yesterday was the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor and shoot I’ve been there a couple times, and my love’s in the Navy, so why wouldn’t I talk about it?!

A day late but hey, better late than never..besides, its not like it ended in one day.


Please disregard the bad short hair. This was taken December of last year.


Oil still leaks to the surface 70 years later. That amazes me.








This submarine {I believe} had the most kills among all the submarines during the entire war.








This tower was {beyond being used that day} used in the movie Pearl Harbor


USS Missouri


This dent was from a Japanese plane slamming right into it.

Lindsey with Aisle to Aloha said this year is the last year the survivors would be speaking on the anniversaries and if this is true that really makes me sad. I had the opportunity last year to go and hear one of the last Arizona survivors speak. A man who, I was told, never speaks or shares his story but went while I was there and I didn’t go.

This goes to show when you want to do something, you better just go ahead and do it. You never know when it’ll be your last opportunity.

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Happy 100 to me

So this marks my 100th post. Insane in the membrane…Insane in the brain!!

Ok, tell me you all just sang that along with me, so I don’t feel like a complete dork.

What will I do today to commemorate my 100th post, you ask? Well, I think I’ll do what most do (I’m such a follower) and talk about myself, of course! haha, I kid. I kid..sorta

Since my very first post back in February, I went from my 1 friend following me to 34 wonderful people willing to read about lil’ ol’ me. Ya’ll make me smile with each and every comment you leave me. Cross my heart it’s true!

Since I feel I’m full of wisdom (no, not full of hot air…WISDOM) I felt I should share some with you so you too can feel what I feel daily.

- When you spend decent money on patio furniture, take a little bit better care of the cushions, so you can actually utilize the furniture.


Tears me up every time I see my sad chairs sitting outside all lonesome, wondering why I have been so negligent.

…did you think it would be blogging wisdom? Alright alright, I guess I can do that too.

- If you have a blogger account, check to see if your email address is enabled. This let’s me and everyone else respond to your comment you’ve thoughtfully taken the time to leave. Here’s how you do it: go into your dashboard and click “edit profile” beside your picture.  Then check the box next to “show my email address” (if it isn’t checked) and BAM! now we can respond to your comment or question you left.

It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Promise.

-  Break up your paragraphs. If you see my first, second and third posts that I ever wrote, you’d see how big my paragraphs were. Loooong and kinda hard to read. (albeit good stuff )
But if you shorten your paragraphs down, we the reader have a much better experience with your blog. And it really helps the eyes too.

Then there’s the obvious:
- No music
- Get the pop up comment box
- Remove the funky word we have to write. (now, I just did this to test it out. It doesn’t bother me all that much to type it in, but apparently it bothers A LOT of other bloggers and some won’t even leave comments because of it. They claim you’ll get a lot more comments when you remove it. Eh, I guess we’ll see.)
- Simplify things

And then for me, personally, I like when the print isn’t itty bitty or in such a pale color, my eyes strain to read the print. OR the background is all black. For some reason, all black backgrounds REALLY hurt my eyes. I’ll generally leave the blog immediately if I see that. As good as it may be, it’s not worth the pain.

I better stop there. If I continue then ya’ll will have as much wisdom as me and then, what fun would that be for me? Am I right?

Thanks everyone for a great 5 months of blogging!! I’ve loved getting to know you all!

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Happy Anniversary…feet!

OK, I’m a few feet …ha (I wrote feet…I meant days. Completely on accident).

Friday, April 29th marked my 1 year anniversary from my surgery. I had every intention of celebrating on the actual day, but we all know I had other things that kept me from it.

And seriously?! How cool is it that I can now celebrate my anniversaries to come with Will and Kate?? It was meant to be, no?

My gruesome little feet story…hope you aren’t squeamish:

My sister took time out of her crazy schedule w/husband and 2 kids and stayed with me for a few days to care for me after the surgery. She was a trooper having to help me bathe since both feet couldn’t get wet. It was a fun time for both of us. ha. ha. A bonding experience, if you will. Ok…not really.

Once she left, the wonderful ladies from my bible study stepped up and provided me with meals for 2 weeks after. Which I’m eternally grateful for.

Though my Dr. claimed I would have no problem walking that afternoon but only from bathroom to couch for 3 days after, and then normal after that, I had to heavily rely on crutches for up to 4 weeks. (which by the way, he said I wouldn’t need and never issued me a set. I had to borrow them from a friend)

I think that should have been my first clue that something was wrong. Not to mention I wasn’t allowed to drive for 6 weeks after.

Let me rewind real quick. Did you know I had 2 prior surgeries? First time I ever felt pain I was on vacation with my good friend in San Diego, running down the hotel hallway to our room in flip flops and had the worst pain ever shoot in my foot…9 years ago.

Fast forward 3 years, I get my 1st surgery.

Pretty right??

Recovery was slow and within months my Dr.s confirmed I had a stump neuroma (which by the way, some research says 2% of patients get them and others say 20%. Either way…I’m in the ridiculously low percentile and surgery was once again the only option.

All their injections proved futile and #2 came about just 4 months after the 1st one.

5 inch scar.

Fast forward through the next 6 painful years. Double surgery is necessary, both feet, same time, knocking out 3 neuromas…or so we hoped.

I made sure to get my pedi done before. I like pretty, what can I say.

I haven’t working in 370 days. Can we say, crazy? This past surgery has rendered me useless in my field. I still can’t do much with them and I wonder if I’ll ever be able to do the things I love and miss. I have to justify driving .3 miles (I clocked it) to the high school track because walking there is too painful. (the track is made out of recycled old tires so I can walk/run almost pain free)

One day when I walked to the track, I made it around twice before being in so much pain I had to sit down right where I was. A sweet old man asked if I was ok, but I had to sit there w/my shoe off for over 10 minutes before the pain subsided enough to even begin walking again.

My appt. to see the Dr. in L.A. is in 3 weeks, we’ll see if he has something new to offer.

So, Happy 1 year Anniversary feet. Here’s to many more years together, in good times and in bad.

….do you mind if there’s more good though, please??


Proverbs 4:26
Watch the path of your feet And all your ways will be established.

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