More Hawaii..

Well, I made it back to Utah safe and sound.  While I know this is home, I'm already missing my Hawaii home.  And Chase.  :(  The last few weeks have been full of excitement.  Everyone was given block leave for 2 weeks before deployment, so the base felt pretty empty.  We spent every single day over at our good friends' house, the Mancuso's.  We played lots of cards and board games and hung out and had fun with each other.  I developed a new addiction to Call of Duty: Black Ops (a very popular video game for those who don't know).  We went to the beach a couple more times and went to the pool on base a LOT.  Last Friday (the 18th), we decided to celebrate my birthday 2 weeks early since I wouldn't be there for it.  Our friends' let us have it over there (since we were always there anyways) and another couple we're good friends with came over too. Kelly was so sweet, she had lots of goodies all set out and she'd gotten a pineapple (my favorite), and she even baked me an awesome birthday cake.  I got my choice for dinner, so of course we ordered pizza!  It was a ton of fun and very special to me!  


In one of my last posts I described about our house and how it was full of pretty big spiders.  Every few days there'd be another one here or there, and quite a few times Chase wouldn't even tell me what it was, I'd just hear him say "Got it!".  But nothing could have prepared me.  One day I was doing dishes, I'd dried the last plate and turned around and put it in the cupboard when I saw it.  A spider so big I saw it's eyes staring back at me.  It had just barely crawled out from under the laundry room door, which is right in our kitchen (how it fit, I'm not sure).  Im pretty sure I screamed, but I can't positively remember.  In 2 seconds time I wavered my options to either run and jump over it and hope it doesn't chase me down, or to roll over the counter underneath the cupboards.  I chose the counter and barrel rolled over it faster than anything I've ever done in my life.  I called Chase and asked him to please come home and get it.  But seeing as how I'd tended to exaggerate the size of spiders to him in the past, he wasn't exactly in a hurry. When he got there about 15 minutes later it had gone back in the laundry room.  He opened the door, looked around and then I heard "holy!" followed by "oh my gosh, I didn't believe you it was THAT big".  He took pictures of it to show everyone, then somehow managed to bend and shove it in a cup and then killed it outside for me.  It was honestly the size of Chase's hand.  And if you want proof, I have a picture of it I will show you.  


Leaving Chase was hard, and I miss him already!  But this year while he is gone I plan on doing lots.  I have many goals set that I will accomplish.  Lots of improving and bettering myself.  I want to learn how to cook!  Because right now, my gourmet chef skills can boil noodles and heat up sauce in a pan.  I'm also looking for a hobby that I can enjoy and become good at.  I'm not athletic in the slightest little bit and I can only scrapbook once in a while or I get sick of it.  *So, any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!!* Overall though, I plan on making this MY year, and making it a good one.  

Too Much Fun...

I was told I'd seen the ocean before, but I was too little to remember it.  Well that doesn't count.  Going to the beach and seeing the ocean for the first time was amazing.  It was a whole different and new feeling.  Being from Utah, my whole life I've looked out and seen mountains every direction.  I guess that sort of gave me a feeling of knowing where I am.  And that feeling made me feel safe.  So when I looked out at the ocean, and all I could see was water, it was...different. 

I have had so much fun these past 3 weeks since i've been here.  I've become pretty good friends with a few of the other wives.  We've gone out together a few times without our husbands to the beach and shopping and had a ton of fun!  The weekend before last, Chase took me downtown to Waikiki, which is the big tourist city on the island.  There are hundreds of little shops in strip malls up and the down all the roads so we walked around for a few hours and went in a bunch of them for fun.  Then we walked to the beach there and swam in the ocean and laid out for another few hours.  After that we went and Chase got another tattoo.  The two 8-point stars that he'd been wanting.  It was a great day!!  A few days ago we drove up Kolekole to go hike to see an ancient sacrificial rock Chase had told me about.  We got to it and decided to keep going.  It ended up being absolutely beautiful!  We got to a spot that overlooked a whole valley and then a little further up we got to see another valley.  It was so amazing!  It was a whole different scene of Hawaii than what people tend to think of.  Im glad I got to see it.   

While Chase is gone at work is the most boring time for me.  We don't have a tv and we only have internet once in a great while.  Thankfully we have our computer though (thanks again to those who gave it to us) so luckily I can watch movies on it.  On weeknights we like to stay in and just hang out with each other.  We watch a lot of movies and we bought Scrabble so we play that a lot.  We're still just enjoying being together and we're making the very most of the time we have left as deployment draws nearer.