I am so sorry for my insensitivity. What am I thinking? I know I should be grateful that I have hair, regardless of it's condition.
My deepest apologies to my BC sisters who are sporting beautiful bald heads or waiting for it's wildness/curliness/grayness to grow out and calm down.
Hair is supposed to be our crowning glory, right? *sigh*
I didn't post any pictures of me on our trip for two reasons. One, I'm the picture takerer, so I had to make my husband take some pictures of me to prove that I was on the trip, and only got into 3 shots. Those 3 shots are reason #2: who WAS that white haired lady hugging onto my children?
The last time I went to get my haircut I said to my hairdresser "we need to talk about color" and she said "I love your color - it's a nice platinum". Great. We didn't talk any more. I later got two compliments on how my hair "shines". So I'm thinking my hair isn't too bad. In fact, when I look in the mirror, it doesn't look terribly white. But then again, I have the "magic mirror" in my bathroom. I always look decent in that mirror. (even though it doesn't translate when I take pictures in there - I think my eyes are going)
I got my hair cut yesterday. Once again, she overcut. It's a bit short. When your hair is naturally curly, short can be treaturous territory. Think Ronald McDonald. Coupled with wild/dull gray hair. Ugh.
So this time I pressed the hair coloring point. And she acknowledged that my hair was indeed grayer than before. She said something about doing a semi permanent color. I had the boys there and told her I wanted Ryan's color. Yeah, this is different than my usual highlights/lowlights, but I think those days of foiling are over. Just drench the whole head and hope for the best. I once had my hair done in an all-over color. It was a bit shocking. It was dark. I looked a bit like snow white or lara flynn boyle (except not nearly as pretty or thin). The dark hair made my fair skin look even whiter and my eyes were even greener. It's gotta be better than white. At 42. White is fine if I'm 82.
My appointment is the day before my Singapore trip. LOL! That's her first available time in the morning. Nothing like a little risk-taking. I hope it doesn't rub off...
It was a fun trip, but I've decided the things that I like to do on my vacations are: hiking/trails, restaurants, quaint local stores/businesses/museums and whatnot, waterfalls. I'm not so much into the water sports. We bought all these snorkel things, but didn't snorkel! Oh well. We can do that here. We did see sea life - from the safety of the shore. We did water stuff, in the pool. The kids do not like the driving - at all. But the island is huge, so you have to drive to see stuff.
The kids loved the hotel. It had a huge slide, ping pong and pool tables and a foosball table.
Gary, well he was sick. And he was the designated driver. He was just glad that he didn't have to make the decisions.
This was our first trip to the Kona side of the island. Our 4th trip to the island. Yep, the volcano is THE big hairy deal for me. We still visited the volcano - despite the 98 mile drive (one way) and having half the crater rim drive closed (due to high sulfur emissions). This is the deal on the volcano: there has been new activity in the past few months causing lots of haze. The lava flow has moved so there is a new viewing area that we visited. The best times to view are after dark, to see the glow. But we stayed too far away for a late viewing. We also saw one of the visitor centers movies. It was on the 1959-60 eruptions. Frankly, it scared me and the kids. But I still like the volcano. Next time, we are going to do some of the trails across the caldera.
On the Kona side, we did a trip up to Waikaloa Village - the Hilton. It's huge. Touted the Disney of Hawaii. They have dolphins, trams, boats, etc. If you want to be entertained by the hotel solely - stay here. We stayed at the Sheraton Keauhou. It's got a fun slide - great for the kids - but not so pricey that you feel guilty for leaving the hotel. You don't get the Hawaii experience if you intend to spend your time at the hotel or on the beach. (yes, I sound snobby)
We visited petroglyphs, black sand beaches, the southernmost point of the USA, turtles, etc. etc. We did enough. So we veg out today. :-) I hope you enjoy the pictures.
Arg! I'll get to the waiting in a minute.
The doc looked at me after I confessed my surfing hijinks. He said I didn't hurt myself. I probably tore the capsule, but that would heal and things would tighten up and be fine. He said there was no activity off limits. I couldn't hurt myself. If I did then come in and they would fix it. BTW, if he had time, we would have jabbered on about surfing! It seems we have matching scars on our feet from coral. Which, ironically, he said his is still red. Imagine that, a plastic surgeon can't make his own scar disappear!
We talked about the timing of the final surgery - the headlight, I'll call it. I have to wait 2 or 3 more months until my scar starts to fade. Humfph. I want it done a lot sooner than that!! I'm tired of this business dragging on and on. Patience, patience.
I'm very excited about the upcoming trip. I bought water shoes for the boys and a snorkel for me. Gary has a big head, so he needs to get his own. I also bought some little goodies to fix up easter bags for the boys. I'm hoping to find a sunrise service somewhere in Kona. If we can't, then we'll just do it ourselves. Head out to the beach, watch the sun rise and sing some songs.
So I went to a yard sale last weekend and scored my favorite movie on video. The Great Outdoors with John Candy and Dan Ackyroyd (sp?). I've seen it a million times, but only on t.v.
Welllllll, let me tell you my surprise. The whole family and I parked ourselves in front of the t.v. to settle in for a good laugh. I was quickly horrified at the amount of swearing in this movie! My goodness the censor people must have been super busy sanitizing this movie for t.v. And it's rated PG!! Horrible, horrible.
Then, Tuesday, I usually take the boys to AWANA and me and Gary will watch the Biggest Loser while they are gone. But we had a dentist appointment that afternoon and didn't get dinner fixed or homework done in time. So the boys watched the show with us. They attempt to beep and blur mouths - but give me a break. These people act like cussing is normal and justified. That they are soo stressed they couldn't possibly find another set of words to express themselves. Preferably words of the English variety. TV these days beeps only a select few curse words. They must think that the rest of them are part of normal English venacular. I can tell them it's not so. Anyway, Ryan was sitting beside me and I noticed him covering his eyes. Then he said that he could guess the words they were trying to beep out. Great. Just great.
Chalk one up for stellar parenting. *sigh*
I believe the people in the television industry don't have children of a tender young age. Because if they did, their hardened, world worn shell would become sensitive to the more delicate things of life. Yes, I'm being judgemental. And I should. I should also tell them and not just leave it on this silly journal.
It's a miracle.
2 (two)
Count 'em.
2 one two
I bought 2 bathing suits today. That are totally cute, modest, works with the foob and - get this - both on SALE!! Half off.
Vacation, here I come!
from trying to book a vacation. Oh, right. I AM going on vacation.
<cue William Shatner and the Priceline negotiator song>
Do you know how hard it is to book a flight/car/hotel for 3 nights for 4 people and within a budget? During the high season (albeit the end of high season). In Hawaii.
I think I found something. Thank goodness for our AAA membership. It may finally come in handy.
BTW, I never found out how to ask for my own rate. Misleading commercials.
However, I found the most outstanding price on an excellent Hilton hotel on the big island - but the flights were unknown. You didn't get flight times until AFTER you booked it. I guess the risk is part of the good deal. I didn't care what kind of room we got, anything would have been good there. Even a closet.
I just printed off my finds and will leave it for Gary to look at. But it looks like we will be staying at the Sheraton - mostly based on recommendation from my friend. It involves an awesome pool with a huge slide and manta rays (not in the pool).
I'm leaving it for him to look at because it's 11pm, late for me, and it's a tad bit over budget.
Ahem. Our trip will be next week. Thursday thru Sunday. Yes. Last minute. We wanted Maui, but forgettaboutit. All booked unless I was willing to sleep with bedbugs.
We just need to get away. I desperately needed it over Christmas break, but Gary didn't give the nod until the week before. And I thought THIS was a bad time to book last minute! It didn't happen. So we are overdue. It's been a long time since we've taken a vacation that wasn't to visit relatives. I can't remember how long - Christmas before last? And then never before that (with kids).
This is exactly how I made the bread. My machine has a whole grain setting and I set the baking control to medium - even though all the whole grain recipes in the cookbook that came with the bread machine said light. It came out perfect. I did not need to add extra water. The recipe came from a blog online, but I really don't want to name it for privacy reasons.
Oatmeal Whole Wheat Bread
Add the ingredients as they are printed into the bread machine pan.
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups water (add more if dough is too dry in 1 tbs increments)
3 TBS butter
1/3 cup honey
2 TSP salt
1 1/2 cups white bread flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/2 TSP active dry yeast
Place all the ingredients in the pan, using the least amount of liquid and adding more if needed, as seen below.
Select Medium Crust and press start.
Observe the dough as it kneads. After 5 to 1- minutes, if it appears dry or stiff, or if the machine sounds like it's straining to knead it, add more liquid 1 TBS at a time until dough forms a smooth, soft, pliable ball that is slightly tacky to the touch.
After the baking cycle ends, remove bread from pan, place on cooling rack, and allow to cool 1 hour before slicing.
Yep, you guessed it. I went surfing today. Woo-hoo! So much for that vow to not go surfing until I was stronger. Um, yeah, I shoulda waited, but I just can't say no to my friends.
It was good. There was no current, which was great, but the waves weren't as strong, not so great. I didn't get to stand up. I did get up on my knees each time. I had a smaller board, and it is so different from those great big long boards. The long boards are so much more stable. This board was prolly 10 ft. but narrow and felt more wobbly, even when I was laying on it. I'm so not an athlete. Anyway, I fell off my board quite a few times. I just got plain tired of paddling, so I just hung on to the board and tried to swim it out. Twice I did that and kicked coral (very shallow spot). Both times my left foot. I got bruised and cut up. Chumming the water! I was the first to go in and hang it up.
When I got home and stripped down to take a shower, my foob was noticably lower than my natural side. Uh-oh! I have an appointment in 2 weeks to see my plastic surgeon to discuss other things, so I'll have to confess my shenanigans to him. I hope this is not a permanent thing. But I can tell you one thing, I'm not going surfing again any time soon. Not until I hear from the PS that it's okay. I'm almost tempted to ask him for an MRI to see if I did any damage to the implant! If I still had the saline, I'd know right away!
This is what the boys did after school today:
We went to some tidal pools at a nearby beach. Jake is the lump in blue in the middle, looking like he's sad (I don't know why, he was having a blast) and Ryan is in green. The rest are their little buddies from school. Like peas in a pod.
I just wanted to share what we are doing in Paradise - while you are getting snowed in. :-) Yes, I'm very aware of how lucky we are and I'm enjoying every minute while we are here. Because it's very possible that in the near future we could be as snowbound as everyone else.
The bread recipe will come soon! I promise!
I like to cook. Well, it's more that I like to eat and with that comes trying out new recipes. I like the results of cooking, I wouldn't want to be a cook in a restaurant. So maybe I don't really like to cook, I like to eat. But that's not what this entry is about. I digress...
I've been experimenting lately. I went the Irish route - experimenting with reuben sandwiches and irish soda bread. I came to the conclusion that I'm not Irish, I should not try to pretend I am!
I also tried to make my own hummus. Horrible. Bitter. I used a recipe from the Oprah website. I'll buy from now on.
Those are the disasters. I've had luck with two new recipes. White chicken chili - YUM! And oatmeal whole wheat bread for the bread maker.
Sorry, I just realized the time. Time to pick up the boys at school. I'll try to come back with the recipes!!
