Here I sit, a little under the weather...not a LOT under the weather...just a teensy bit (99 is NOT a fever, people). Just enough to make me prescribe myself some r&r, lots of h20, and avoidance of the outside world for the evening...:) I've been in my cozy bed since about 6:30....*happy sigh* I fought to stay awake through Glee and suddenly got some wacked burst of energy just now... Who knows. Maybe there was something in that chicken and rice soup I ate...haha...Anyway, now that I have energy, I might as well stay up to watch those leggy hot beasts with 50 pound angel wings strapped to their glittered bodies... Yeah, the VS fashion show...
How the hell do they carry those suckers on their BACKS?!
I watch it every year actually... It creates kinda a love/hate relationship with the television. I tell myself the thing that separates us is that most of them have accents. I mean...I could fake an accent, but it just wouldn't be real like theirs. Yeah, that's the only difference. *affirmative nod and stifled giggle* I'm obviously kidding as I sit here in my most comfy (and quite possibly unwashed) sweatpants and college sorority t-shirt with sinus drainage in my throat (Who's the sexy one NOW, VS angels?! That's what I THOUGHT.) ;)
I blame the abrupt change in weather here for my random immune system today... It got COLD. Arg. I think I'm a lot more festive when it's say....60 degrees... I mean... that's a good compromise in my mind... not warm, not cold... Right? Mother Nature, are you listening? *angelic smile*
This post is random. I blame my sinus meds. ;) I have Thanksgiving photos but I'm grounding myself from posting them until I finish posting Maui Day 6...
Anyway, that's that... Wherever you are, I hope you're warm and sinus issue free!
And while I'm being random... if there are any other "upper east siders" out there, wasn't last night's Gossip G!rl SO.FREAKING.GOOD? It's about time. I feel like they've been teasing us this whole freaking season! Best line ever: "So what do you say we find the bitch and get us some frontier justice." Amen, Blair. A.men.
Lata, lovelies! The fashion show just started...and I think I already want to get a spray tan and try p90x. haha... :)
That was the time our alarm went off to get up, get ready, and beat the traffic on the Road to Hana! (Amazing how I can get up that early in paradise to go see cool stuff, but not here at home when I need to go the gym). We didn't want to be stuck in a row of cars stopping every 3 feet or so. Our book said most peeps get going by 8:30ish, soooo we opted to get going by 6:30 or 7 am. :) We're over-achievers like that.
We'd overheard a few people saying things like "why would I want to spend an entire day of my vacation on a freaking road?" etc... (we eavesdroped at the hotel pool. whatever). We both scoffed like "Hmph... they don't know what they're missing.. we're SO doing the road to Hana." I think deep down, we were both thinking "sheesh, I hope this really is worth it..." Lemme tell you... it SO was. The Road to Hana day was my favorite day of the entire trip! We kept pushing it back a day and then another...and then another...so we didn't get to do it til day 6, but definitely worth the wait... :) And now I shall get to the point...
If there's one thing I need in the morning, it's some sort of sustenance. (In other words, if I don't eat, I turn into a moody b*tch. Just being honest). Lucky for us, a little fruit stand was just opening for the day as we hit the very first part of the road! My friend, Angela, had just tweeted at me that morning about some amazing smoothies they had on the Road to Hana, so I was pretty much ready to buy a smoothie at the first place I saw one b/c my stomach had heard the word "smoothie" and my mouth was watering... She wasn't kidding about them being amazing... The guy made the entire smoothie fresh right there---fresh banana, fresh mango, and fresh sugar cane! My gawd, I could go for one of those smoothies right now... yum...
Oh and yeah, we also go banana bread... Smoothies and banana bread= breakfast of champs! :) Look at me keepin it classy with my cheesy smile b/c I was half awake... In reality, Eric and I bit into these loaves like they were burritos, leaving crumbs and a hot mess in our wake. :) (more pictures of that later)
The GPS depicts the straight line that is the Road to Hana (sarcasm noted). :) We'd heard lots of people saying it made 'em carsick. We both wondered what was wrong with those people and even chuckled as we drove, feeling rather superior with our tummies of steel b/c we didn't get a lick of car sickness! (Please await the post where I take this "superiority"statement back b/c I almost puked on one of the roads in Maui... but we won't go there right now).
Our guidebook had a couple of places that said things like "so and so owns the land on the far side, but not the near side so you can enter from there... If you choose to secure permission for entering the grounds, there is rarely anyone monitoring it soooo..." haha.. In other words, "don't be a pansy..." ha! Our guidebook=awesome. (Note me and the random fence. I mean.. it had an opening...*shrugs*) :)
Stop one: Haipua'ena Falls... There hadn't been much rainfall, but this little guy was still quite tranquil and pretty... :)
Stop two: Backtracked b/c we accidentally missed Upper Puohokamoa Falls (where the fence was from in the collage above).... Pretty pretty! I love waterfalls... a lot... You can tell by the cheesy smile on my face...ha!
Don't mind me; just hoppin' a guardrail at 8am....
But, the guardrail hopping was worth it to get this photo of Honomanu Bay just as the sun is starting to shine and welcome the new day! :) We decided we wanted to see it up close, so we referred to the trusty guidebook... (We picked and chose what we wanted to hike to, etc at first b/c we didn't want to spend too much time at stuff early on and miss some of the stuff towards the end of the road... The guidebook warned us of people doing that.. Our guidebook was definitely for the cool kids. ;) )
Our fantastic guidebook led us astray a little by saying the road to the bay Eric's standing in front of requires 4WD clearance. For fear of a flat tire early on, we opted to hike it...and hike it....and hike it... And um, we arrived and saw a Prius down there. The good old Charger rental car coulda made it. Oh well... We forgave the guidebook... :)
Well worth the hike. From the book: "The beach is gravely and the swimming poor, but in the early morning, the sun creates a magnificent golden green on the valley walls, reminding you why you came to Hawai'i.." So true.... (and yes, I am writing this post with my guidebook beside me. I can't spell half these places on my own-sheesh! Don't judge me.)
From there, we passed some falls, but decided we were going to go for the one I'd earmarked as one I REALLY wanted to see, Three Bears Falls. See all the people standing there on top of the bridge ogling the gorgeous falls? Yeah, they didn't have the same guidebook that told them "At the far side of the bridge is a fairly easy, short path..."
So, following Eric's lead (b/c he's admittedly WAY less clumsy than me), we climbed down to the falls... Well worth it, don't you think? :)
Probably the prettiest waterfall I've ever seen in real life...
We played at Three Bears Falls for awhile, snapping pics, gazing at the water, etc...
From there, we passed quite a few little waterfalls, but we could tell they weren't really flowing due to lack of rainfall so we didn't stop. Plus, it has just started to rain a little, thus making a hike a little more treacherous on lava rocks... We were ready to see one of the spots we'd been waiting for... black sand beach... and the sun came out again right before we got there! :)
Housed in Wai'anapanapa Park, black sand beach is freaking gorgeous.... Did you know that black sand beaches are often formed in mere days or weeks?! They're formed when lava flowed into the sea, shattering on contact with the ocean. Fragments formed the sand! That said, black beaches usually have a short life span (few hundred years) b/c once lava stops flowing, there's no more black sand being made...
Look at me trying to be a cool kid with my hat until....
...I almost got very wet... haha! It's not that I didn't want to get wet, but um... I didn't have any more shoes! Comedy...
We stayed at black sand beach a long time... and it was definitely well worth the extra playtime alloted :)
"I wanna climb up there too! (after Eric in the above photo)" This is how a lot of photos went when there was climbing involved... I had to try to look like a bad@ss that was just as good a climber as Eric... No, no injuries were incurred this time..." (the rocks are all a LOT more slippery than they look...and sharp).
My footsteps... :)
Still pretending to be Lewis and Clark, we opted to explore the lava tube cave just off the beach! I pretended to tie my shoe or something so Eric would go first... ya know.. just in case.. ;) ha!
I make caves fashionable.
The mouth opened up to the ocean... so cool!
Thanks for the good times, black sand beach... Jackie and Eric are hungry and ready to hit the town of Hana for some food before more adventures on the back side of the road... :)
See you in Hana, friends....
In case you want a dose of the ocean waves for your Monday, here's a little clip from our trip to black sand beach: :) I wanna go back.... *sigh*
Yesterday's post was a bit heavy so thought I'd lighten up today (the office is DEAD and I am a little bored) and post something that makes me happy...TABLE DECOR! Do I ever decorate my table? No. Do I even have a dining table big enough to decorate and also include food on it? No. haha.. But, that doesn't mean I dont WANT to...er...or at least like looking at photos of other people who decorate! :) My favs always feature some sort of candlelitness. (Yes, I just made up a word, whatever).
Goal: to someday have a fun dinner party and have awesome table decor. You're all invited. *affirmative nod*
Maybe I won't have THIS many guests at my table (*nervous face*), but still....haha.. Had to feature b/c it's so pretty, :)
via weheartit dot com
Loving purples this year. I actually have shades of deep purple nailpolish on my stocking stuffer list I'm giving to my mom for xmas. She's definitely going to read it, stop, look up, and say "Purple? On your nails?" I know my mother so well. Anyway, this is pretty...
And you gotta love some fall colors... b/c all too soon, they're just brown. And well, brown isn't as exciting as these vibrant leaves and jazz (although on closer look, I think that pumpin is fake. Whatever. Ignore that and pretend this is all real.)
Um, speaking of table decor... even BLOGGING about this makes me realize I'm getting a little older. ha! I mean really...my Christmas list consists of pyrex bowls and a veggie chopper (and some other stuff, but still!). Last year, I wanted a vacuum. If you would have asked me in college whether a vacuum would ever make my wish list, I would have laughed at you. (Note: I'm glad I'm growing up; I just amuse myself.)
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone in blogland! I am thankful for YOU! :)
Today, Eric and I volunteered with our company and some other companies at our local John 3:16, assembling and handing out over 1100 bags of food and turkeys. Today's total exceeded 1800 when you count the morning shift... Staff and volunteers did the same thing all day yesterday and will do it again and again into the night tonight and all day tomorrow... It's just astounding....
some of the bags premade for the night crew since they dont have any extra volunteers for the night and are working on a very small staff...
Part of the assembly line Eric and I both worked... I stood to the right of the woman bending over and filled bags with one can of dessert or fruit and two cans of green beans before passing on to her to fill with corn...
We moved FAST, friends... The food is stacked high on the table and you feel as though you'll never run out...and then you're scrambling before you know it, trying to grab another box of cans and keep the line going... I put the equivalent of 2200 cans of green beans in bags in just under 3 hours....
There are so many people in need.... And like Tracy said on her blog, the face of need is much different these days with the tough economy.... (Tracy volunteered in her community yesterday doing the same thing!) The face of need includes people like you and me, who might not have a good support system and lost their jobs or are just down on their luck...
I am thankful to live in a generous community that helped these families eat a good meal together on Thanksgiving through their donations. Trucks were pulling up and dropping stuff off AS we were making the bags! I mean seriously... We'd run out of corn and be stuck substituting something else we had a surplus of...which was often less than optimal...then 20 minutes later, we'd get boxes of corn in and people would cheer! :) A semi truck dropped off a load of turkeys while we were bagging food! It was just very moving... As fast as we could bag, Eric and some of the other folks were carrying bags out to the line to be given to people. There was probably a 5 minute window or less between making a bag and it leaving in someone's hands.. Amazing.
They still need a lot. We ran out of cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes for a long time... Green beans were running low when I left... I hope even more area citizens come forward with donations tomorrow for those families who will be in that line...
A few people brought their kids to help sort and bag food... What a great experience for those kids to have in my opinion. When I was younger, there were years we definitely didn't have a lot...I never FELT that way as a kid b/c my parents made sure of that...but looking back, I get it now. And it is a perspective I'll keep with me my whole life and I'm thankful for that. I think it's important to understand that people can be down on their luck and that a bag of food isn't a hand out, it's a hand up....and often a ray of hope...
I am thankful to have great family and friends (most of which I consider part of my family :) )....I'm thankful to not have to worry about where my next meal is coming from and to have a great support system in my life... I'm thankful for those things and so much more this holiday.... :)
Hi blogfriends! How was the weekend? Mine was BUSY, but really good!
Last week, I (once again) committed myself to something every single night....and it seemed like work was BUSIER than usual. (I've read that on a few blogs, so I think our offices must all be conspiring together or something). But for real.. it was BUSY, right? Anyhoo, when scheduling chaos happens, I fall off the blogging radar... haha.. Then, I binge on blogging on Sunday as much as possible.. :)
Saturday**
Saturday morning, went to Affair of the Heart (craft fair in town for a weekend) with Ashley! In retrospect, I'm highly disappointed that we didn't take ANY photos. There were plenty of good, cool, funny, random, etc photo ops there... haha.. *sigh* Oh well. Anyway, we had fun. Some of the things people come up with to create and sell surprises me....in both good and really bad *cringe* ways. As the event got more crowded, it was like the Black Friday of craft fairs.. I mean..people would stop right in front of you or block something you were looking at. People brought their own BASKETS (which was admittedly a good idea if you were buying a lot). Anyway, good times for sure. Gracie dog got some bows that she's going to hate love!
Saturday afternoon, I headed to the TU game with Eric and his dad. :) Admittedly, my feet were hurting after 3 hours at the craft fair (read: I'm a wuss) and I kinda hit a wall around halftime of the football game, but still fun...and TU WON! Hooray!
That night, Eric and I grabbed food at a local Irish pub and then headed home to watch..wait for it...wait for it... H@rry Potter! As in the very first movie! I'd never seen it! I got on the wizardry train a little late- I didn't read much for pleasure in college/law school...and by the time I was out of school, everyone was already seriously invested in the movies/books. Anyway, I just never got around to it. Gotta admit though... I'm getting into it now. I want to catch up on ALL the movies! I would love to say I'd catch up on all the books, but I really want to catch up while the current movie is in the theater if possible...
Sunday**
Sunday, these fabulous girls and I got up bright and early to cheer on our friend, Jenny, as she ran her FIRST marathon!
Check her out! This was mile 6! The guy in purple seems highly entertained by our yelling and jumping around for Jenny.. haha..
It was SUCH an awesome experience! People chuckled at our signs and seemed to genuinely appreciate the crowd there to cheer them on! The mood and energy is just amazing. A few runners even stopped and took pics of our signs... haha.. I highly recommend going to a marathon or half and cheering on the runners just once, even if you don't know anyone racing... Just a totally cool experience.
Here she comes (pink socks) with her sister in law at mile marker 19! (aka the mile marker where the runners seemed to be like "what the eff was I thinking doing this?" haha...) The wind was BLASTING them in the face on this whole leg of the run. We had trouble just holding our signs, let alone what Jenny was likely dealing with running into that wind. She rocks.
And here she is crossing the finish line after an amazing 26.2 miles!! I am so proud of her! Seeing her approach that finish line and cross over it made me totally teary eyed. I feel really lucky to have been able to celebrate such an awesome accomplishment with her. Way to go, Jenny!
A lot of the runners had kiddos that joined them for the last half mile, etc.. They'd hold their parents hand as they crossed the finish line and it was just so stinking sweet...
Then, I headed to the grocery store (so exciting, right), came home, cleaned the casa from top to bottom, and made Gracie dog some food. Yes, you read that right, I think I'm going to start making her food now. Ashley makes her own pup food and it's really easy (brown rice, egg, ground turkey, veggies). I added some pumpkin for fiber (b/c thanks to my TMI, you all know about her potty problems). She seemed to love it! I just got so tired of having to add pumpkin and other stuff to her dog food just to give her the minimum nutrients she needed, all while feeding her some combo of chicken meal or lamb meal- BLECH! A lot of forums reported good results with homemade food. With Gracie's recent digestion issues, thought it was worth a shot. If I can make her food cheaper and healthier than the bag food, it's way worth it for sure. I'll likely have to add a little dry dog food for her teeth, but otherwise... hoping this is a long term fix!
Gracie's food! Looks yummy, right?! Do any of you make your doggie's food?
Oh and my roomie was kinda being a tinge of a Scrooge last week, not really "in the holiday spirit" this year. I thought her comments were a big fat debbie downer, sooooo what makes you in the holiday spirit like DECORATING?! I don't go all out b/c well.. that's stupid expensive and I don't own my home. Blah. (Also, I'm extremely clumsy so ladder + lights on the house seemed like a bad call). But, I got a festive wreath for over the fireplace, made some centerpieces with scented pinecones & cranberries (below), got some festive hand towels and dug out my little Christmas tree. I think I'm going to put lights in our bushes, but I'll let the roomie get used to the other festiveness first.. haha.. It's all about moderation. ;)
I feel like I have so many blessings in my life to be thankful for and, although I am usually WAY over the holidays come late December, I'm in the holiday spirit now! :)
Hope your weekend was good and you're gearing up for a happy Thanksgiving, friends! :)
I am DETERMINED to knock out some more of our fabtastic Maui trip! :) The day after Day 5, we did the Road to Hana, soooo maybe I'll make some collages tonight to spare you from the ridiculous amount of pictures. Anyway, that's Day 6 so I'll worry about that later... For now, this is Day 5!
We got there a little early... as in before everyone else.. haha..
A weird woman insisted she had the best "angle." I have the "what-are-you-doing, you-weirdo?!" smile going on.
The start of Front Street!
Sooooooooooo pretty... *said with a wistful sigh*
Banyan Tree Park! The park is made up of ONE MASSIVE tree! So cool! An art fair was going on the day we went...
Eric likes the Banyan Tree
Jackie likes the Banyan Tree. (After this, I saw a sign that said "Do not climb on tree." Oops)
The back door in one of the stores...The worker prolly sea kayaks on his breaks... which is bananas ...and AWESOME!
In defense of sailing lessons.... *nervous* (see the sunken boat?!)
At lunch! Check out the woman behind me raising her arms to block herself. They kept getting sprayed by ocean waves and we found their attempts to block the spray highly entertaining during our whole meal. Yeah, we're mean like that...which is why we get along so well. haha.. ;)
Yet another one that just woulda been a lil better with a flash. Eh, whatever. It's still pretty cute!
We both got some little stuff, but really didn't go overboard shopping. We really had a good time going in and out of stores and galleries, checking out the scenery, etc. But, I have to tell you... they had a fabulous store called LUSH that I SO wish Tulsa had.... Eric got me something from there when he went to Whistler last year and it's just such a cool brand of good smelling bath and body stuff! And everything is handmade and environmentally friendly, organic, and they don't test on animals. :) You can shop online, too.
image from lush dot com
That night, we headed to S@nsei for sushi! (I mean....you really should have sushi in Maui if you like sushi.. Duh). Oddly enough, it had been recommended by a Brooks Bros employee from Hawaii on our Colorado trip back in July...haha.. Random, but an excellent recommendation! (And no, I dont remember how we got to talking about our Maui trip to the dude at Brooks Bros... haha)...
We didn't take any pics at dinner, but here's one after we got back! Starting to have a nice little tan goin' on... (Just looked at my arms and realized my tan is now 100% gone. Blah.)
In our hotel lobby :)
I have no idea...
I woke up around 2am to the sound of Eric going out on our balcony... I sleepily asked him what he was doing and he said he was taking a pic of the moon. In my semi-dream state, I thought that was cool (and odd), but not cool enough for me to get up to see the picture... haha.. Anyway, when I looked the next day, I was really glad he took it...
Gorgeous...
So, friends, that was Day 5! We took it kinda easy since we had a 5:30 am wakeup call to get ready and start the Road to Hana by 6:30 am ahead of traffic...and Eric was still recovering from his migraine...
