Sirens, groceries, and tsunami, OH MY!

It is Saturday, which means it should be a day of sleeping in.  All was going well until about 6 am when a friend called to tell me that there was a tsunami warning for the state of Hawaii.  Not a watch, but a WARNING.  I rolled over, poked Brandon, and turned the radio on.  Sure enough, there was an earthquake in Chili and it was causing a tsunami throughout the pacific.  Okay, I tell myself, stop panicking.  I knew that we had somewhere to go if we got evacuated and I hoped that we had enough food to get us through, if we needed it.  That being said, I still kicked into administrative mode, and for those of you who know me, know that this can often leave trails of paper and other debris in my wake.  I called all the parental units and let everyone know what the plan was.  What was the plan?!?!?  It changed a lot in the span of an hour and a half.

That all being said, we did hit the grocery store and get stocked up on a couple cases of water and plenty of mac and cheese for Jared.  We made sure we had enough propane for the grill.  Our grill has a burner on the side that will allow us to use a pan to heat stuff, as well.

So, here we sit.  The tsunami is expected to hit in about an hour and we have to just wait.  It sucks.  The sirens are going off, but we are told to stay put, as we are in a "safe zone".

Just pray.

UPDATE:  The tsunami was very uneventful.  It caused some fun water conditions, and I use that word fun very loosely.  I wouldn't have wanted to be in the water.  In fact, one guy was in the water and the newscaster called them a "schmuck" followed by "idiot".  Anyway, that is all.  We are all dry and safe.  Thanks for the prayers and the thoughts.

Stickiness

Having a two year old basically implies that we have a cabinet full of snacks.  There is never a day that goes by that Jared does not want a snack of some kind.  One of the snacks that we carry at MacDonald's grocery cabinet is ABC fruit snacks.  He likes them because he "isn't learning" anything when he pulls out the letter B and quickly shouts "Beeeee'.  I like them because he IS learning something, and they claim to be made from 100% real fruit.  (I don't know that I believe the fruit part, but one small bag from time to time isn't going to hurt him, too much).  He is usually really good about eating his snack and then disposing of the wrapper.  Welllllll.....

Not today, or maybe it was yesterday.  To be honest, I am not sure where or how long ago they were there, but somehow a B and an F were smooshed to the seat of my pants and then smooshed into the seat of the van.  Oh yes, it was a big sticky mess.  And, as luck would have it, I found it AFTER I left Macy's. 

Oh the joys of having a two year old.

From the potty chronicles

This morning Jared insisted on drinking his morning juice (which is really 3/4 water and a splash of juice), out a large 24 oz. bottle.  As I am not one of the mother's who says no to something to drink (unless it is 2 hours before bedtime), I gave it to him.  Once it was finished, he promptly found his training toilet in the bathroom, pulled it into the living room (it's clean, I swear, as he hasn't really used it much in the last years since we have had it), took off his own diaper, and sat down.

 

Much of the morning was spent like this:

Since the morning started, he has successfully used the potty three times, which always culminates with him taking it into the big toilet, pouring the pee in, and then flushing it, to his delight.  

After the third time, he searched his clothes cabinet for his "Big Boy Underwear" (which are at least one size too small), and brought me a pair.  I figured it was time to see if he could do it without just running around my house naked.

 

He was very proud that he got to wear his underwear!

After several changes of underwear (he would start to go, stop, run to the toilet, and finish), he wanted to try and wear his jeans.  I am not sure why I argue with my two year old, but I tried to convince him that it was a little early to try wearing clothes on top of the big boy underwear.  He then went ahead and found his own jeans, and attempted to put them on.

 

He was able to wear them for about 10 minutes before we had a HUGE mess.  He couldn't get his pants off before he had to finish relieving himself.  He was not so amused.  

We have now decided that running around naked is the best bet for the time being.  

I guess it is time for me to find the money in the budget to clothe my son's bottom.

Here is a sweet picture.  It has nothing to with his potty adventure today, but I like it all the same.

My sweet boy:

He Survived

It dawned on me yesterday that Jared has officially reached and surpassed the two and a half year mark in his life.  And, well, he's alive to live another day.  It astounds me how fast time goes by.  It seems like not too long ago that I took his small 5 pound body and cuddled with him for hours at a time.  He would rely on me for his every need (except some of the diapers that his Daddy would help with).  Now, I am lucky if I get a couple minutes of cuddle time when he is really tired, and he really doesn't NEED me much anymore.  The joys of raising children, I guess.

Here is a little bit of what I have learned recently:

*  If any milk, juice, bath water, is consumed anytime after 2 hours before bed, I have a huge wet mess to clean up in the morning.
*  Potty training has to be on his time schedule, no matter how much I want him to use the big boy potty, it is not something I can physically force him to do.
*  Just about anything can be squished, crushed, or otherwise impounded into carpet.
*  If I don't get him water, milk, or juice exactly when he is ready for it, he will simply go into the kitchen, open the refrigerator, grab whatever liquid he wishes to partake of, and sit down on the tile and begin to consume said liquid out of it's original container.
*  He allows me to dress him in the morning, as it is part of our routine, however, if I have the audacity to pick something that was not what he wanted to wear, the contents of his clothes cabinet will end up all over the floor until he find the shirt/shorts that he wishes to wear that day.
*  He has learned to use the TV remote with some accuracy.  However, he still hasn't figured out how to use the buttons for his DVR shows.  Which leads to Glenn Beck coming on right in the middle of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse because he pushed the wrong button.
*  Just because he is all manners of horrible at my house, trying to push every boundary, does not mean he is the same way when he is visiting someone else.  I get more "he is so good!" comments from people, that I have to look over my shoulder to make sure they aren't talking about some other little boy.
*  He bounces, A LOT.  Sometimes on his knees, sometimes on his elbows, sometimes on his head.  He has yet to need to be rushed to the ER for any broken bones, thank God!
*  We sit down to eat dinner as a family every night, and sometimes, we may forget to say grace first, this can cause my two year old to be unhappy until grace has been said.  He needs his moment to shout "AAAAMEN!"  Then we can eat in peace.
*  Pennies in the CD drive of our Mac Desktop can cause problems.
*  As long as he doesn't know he is learning, he will learn all of his letters, numbers, shapes, and colors.  As soon as he figures out that he learning something, then he quickly looks disgusted and finds something else to do.
*  Puzzles + 2 year old = puzzle pieces EVERYWHERE
*  I think it is important to make sure that Jared knows how to be respectful to people at all times.  He has started to not say "good-bye" to people he likes because he thinks that if he doesn't, they won't leave.  It has been a struggle, but after a couple times of naughty rug tantrums, he says good bye to everything, even the trash cans in our neighborhood.
*  It is important to make sure the lid gets flipped back over on ALL trashcans.  Jared believes this is his personal job on every trash day.
*  I can still get kisses from him if I promise him something in return.  I'm okay with that.  I need his kisses.
*  When I say "I love you" to him, his response is almost always "okay", I have figured out that this must mean "I love you too, Mommy".
*  He can look around a room and figure out which pushover person in the room will give him the most attention.  He then won't leave them alone for the rest of the day/night.
*  He picks up all the words we say now.  I have to be SO careful what comes out of my mouth. 

I am sure there is more, but these are the ones I can think of at the moment.  Stay tuned for the next installment of "Jared has survived another 6 months"

The Love of 20 Years

There are few material possessions in life that I really treasure.  For the most part, most of the "things" that I have can be replaced and I don't much care if something happens to them.  I am FAR more worried about my family and the things that cannot be replaced.  At this point in my life, I can think of about 4 or 5 things that I would be absolutely devastated if something happened to them.  Let me tell you a story:

Once upon a time there was a little girl, we'll call her Melissa, she lived in Glendale, AZ.  She was convinced that her life was perfect.  She had a couple of best friends and she couldn't have been happier.  One of her friends, we'll call her Sarah, would often invite Melissa over to play and hang out.  Melissa loved going over to Sarah's house.  She loved Sarah's parents, Kim and Dan, and always felt like they were another family to her.  Then one day, Melissa's real parents told her that they had to move away.  Melissa was sad.  Kim made Melissa a little stuffed bunny to take with her to the "new" place.  Melissa loved that bunny, and named her Jenny.  Melissa slept with Jenny for a long time.  Jenny would find her way to any of the places that Melissa spent any significant amount of time.  When Melissa got older, Jenny would sleep on the headboard of the bed that Melissa slept on.  For close to 14 years Jenny was never far from where Melissa was.  Then one day Melissa's new boyfriend, we'll call him Brandon, lost his best friend to a very tragic car accident.  Melissa didn't know what to do.  She decided that Brandon needed a friend to help him through the last 30 days of his deployment.  As much as Melissa loved Jenny, she gave her to Brandon for comfort while he was underway.  That was the first time that Jenny ever left Melissa.  Jenny stayed with Brandon until he married Melissa, and then she found her coveted place on their dresser.  She has been there ever since.

Jenny.... she is VERY special to me.  She is currently 20 years old, give or take a couple of months.  She has a purple dress that has a lace apron.  She is beautiful.  She is yellowing, but she is beautiful.

The other day Jared saw Jenny and pounced on her.  He has never noticed her before, or has at the very least has chosen to ignore her.  This night, he didn't want to let her go.  I love Jared, but I don't yet trust him with Jenny.  She is just a little to precious to me.  He asked for her, but for now, he may hold her gently, but he may not sleep with her.  Call me a mean Mom, I'm okay with that.

 

 

Dear Mama

This past week has been a bit tumultuous.  My mom was having some problems with her health, more specifically, her breathing.  She ended up at the hospital.  Never in the last 5 years have I felt SO FAR away from the mainland.  It was very sobering to realize that I was AT LEAST 8 hours away from being able to be there with her.  I did allow me time to really think about my Mom and how much I love her.  I hope I tell her enough that I love her, but I am not always sure.  Here is an attempt at a letter to her.

Dear Mama,

For all of my life you have been an inspiration to me.  I can't ever remember a time in my life that I didn't strive to make you proud of me.  Your opinion counted for more than I can ever tell you, even if I didn't always listen to you the first time.  You are what I want to be when I "grow up".

I am not proud of all of the decisions in my life, but you always made sure that I knew that you loved me "no matter what", and that made it easier to make mistakes.  You would guide me back where I should have been in the beginning.  I am sure that this starts all the way back to when I was little.  I always knew where I was safe.... in your presence.  Your smile, your reassuring words, you hugs, they made me know that nothing would go wrong if I just stayed bundled up in your love. 

There were moments that you were not my best friend, but that was often the times that I was so far away from being safe in your love.  Even during those times I knew that you loved me.  I may not have told you then, but it still breaks my heart that I ever strayed from the love that you offered.  I am sorry that I ever hurt you.  It is in the past now, and for that I am so thankful, because you helped me put all of my pieces back together again.

Now that I am a mom, I try really hard to remember all of the things that I loved so much about you when I was growing up.  I want to be the best mom I can be for Jared, and I know that that will start with looking at the way that you raised me.  It isn't always easy being a mom, and that makes me appreciate you being that mom that you were, even more. 

Thank you Mama for being the person in my life that I know that I can always run to.  Thank you for loving me unconditionally.  Thank you for being my best friend.  Thank you for listening to me when I I am sad/mad/happy/excited and all of the other emotions I go through.  Thank you for picking up my pieces more times than one.  Thank you.

I love you Mama,
Melissa

There is a hope....

.... chest.

I can remember being a little girl and being mesmerized by my mom's hope chest.  In my memories, it was a black chest with an upholstered top.  I remember the top was an unappealing pattern, and we were often forbidden from sitting on it.  I always stood in amazement when my mom would open that chest.  I was convinced that she kept hidden treasures in there, and she did.  She would often pull out special jewelry, blankets, or baby clothes.  I loved dreaming about the contents of that hope chest. 

When I finally got married and moved out I knew that one of the things that I wanted most of all was a hope chest of my very own.  I had the perfect image in my head.  I would look longingly at other people's hope chests and wish for my own.  In Hawaii, it just isn't practical to buy one, and besides, most of them were not what I wanted anyway.  My mom offered me hers, and while the idea was certainly there, it wasn't going to work to try and ship it out here.  Thus the joys of living in Hawaii, where everything is more expensive, lesser quality, and so much further away.  I was pretty certain that I would not be the proud owner of a hope chest any time while I lived in Hawaii.

Slight tangent here, but it will all come together in the end, promise....

I moved to Hawaii in 2005 right after Brandon and I got married.  I HATED it here.  I was miserable, and all I wanted was to get off the island, and fast.  I was counting down the days that Brandon had left until we could get out of the Navy, or at the very least the island that was keeping me so far away from my family and friends.  Of course, my HATE didn't last forever.  For awhile, but not forever.  I started to make friends, we started going to church, we started going to a weekly Bible study.  I actually started to like it here, at least a little bit.  I eventually got pregnant with Jared, and we made the decision to re-enlist in the Navy for 3 more years and stay in Hawaii (GASP) for shore duty.  Of course, the longer we stayed, the more we got to know that people that we were around. 

I know I talk about him a lot, but Papa Dan was one of the many people I actually started to get to know the longer we stayed.  One of the things I learned was that he was a master cabinet maker back when he lived in Canada.  He had made hope chests for both of his daughters back there.  I loved to listen to his stories, and often dreamed of him making me a hope chest.  It's a big favor, so the dream stayed just that, a dream.  Except, one day, my dream blurted out of my mouth and I found myself asking Papa if he would help Brandon make me a hope chest.  I was shocked that the words had been spoken, and waited with my breath in my throat for his answer.  He smiled, his wonderful smile, and said "sure". 

From there were spent some weeks just formulating what I wanted, how tall, what kind of wood, what color, what I wanted the top to look like, the bottom, everything.  I never knew so much went into the making of a hope chest.  Finally we went shopping for wood.  He picked out the "perfect" pieces that he thought would look best.  He brought over all of his wood working tools, and together, him and Brandon started the process of making my dream.  I watched eagerly everyday as things came together.  I was overly critical and sometimes unhappy with parts of it.  They told me to go away and wait until it was done.  But how could I???? 

They started in December, they ran into a couple of issues, but finally, on Friday, they finished it.  It is mine!  It is my dream.  It is exactly what I wanted and I could not love it more.

Two of my favorite men fulfilled a dream I had had for years.  I can't wait to start filling it with the treasures that I hope some day my children will love as much as I loved my Mom's.

 

My three favorite men, and my hope chest

 

The plaque on the inside

 

From the front

 

The drawer

 

From the side

 

Open from the side

 

The cedar on the inside

Isn't it beautiful!!??

Things to do...

My family has a little more/less than 6 months left here in Hawaii.  I told Brandon that he needed to sit down and decide what he HAD to see before we left.  There is so much here, yet we have hardly seen any of it.  There are some things that we have no desire, what so ever, to see.  But then, there are those things, the ones that when we leave, we want to be able to say that we saw or experienced.  We have been to 2 of the other islands.  We spent our honeymoon on Maui, and have since been to both sides of the Big Island.  Now it is time to tackle the things on this island that we have to see.  One of those things was the USS Missouri.  I had seen it some time ago, but Brandon never had.  The Mighty Mo, as it is often referred to, was in the dry docks for several months, and just got back to it's normal docking place.  Last weekend they opened it up to the military for free.  It is normally in the $15 range.  We took advantage of the deal, and headed out to see it.  Here are some pictures of our day. 

 

The morning was rainy, so Jared needed his umbrella

 

Need the full effect of the frog umbrella

  

Site of the surrender

 

USS Arizona in the background

 

The mighty guns

 

Another of the USS Arizona.  They call the USS Missouri and the USS Arizona the book ends of WWII.  The attack on the Pearl Harbor started it, and the surrender of Japan was on the USS Missouri.

One thing down, many more to go.

Memories

I started reading this book last night that started out by commenting that it is kind of sad that in our lives, we will probably remember only half of what we did, if we are lucky.  Most people remember FAR less than half.  Of course, when asked, most people will remember the losses, the gains, the wins, the events that were huge and made a large impact.  Does that mean the the simple things, the day to day things, get lost in the shuffle of the bigger things?  This got me thinking... what do I remember?  How many small, day to day things do I really remember?

Thinking back on my childhood, and I am talking my Phoenix childhood, so before I turned 8, I can remember some snap shots of things.  I remember that my next door neighbor was my best friend (she is still a friend of mine).  I also had another good friend who lived a little further away and she has to great danes.  They were my two favorite people.  I remember them well, and still keep in contact with them.  But, really, those are surface memories.  What do I remember doing WITH them? 

I made puzzle piece earrings.  Yep, you read that right.  I remember vividly, sitting down at Sarah's kitchen table, their blinds were open, and her mom Kim gave us white puzzle pieces.  We decorated those things for what felt like hours, but really, was most likely more like 15 minutes.  Her mom then helped us put the earring backs on them.  I don't remember if I ever wore mine, but I remember that I liked Sarah's much better than mine.  Sarah's mom was always the crafty one.  I have many memories of doing something crafty over there.  (Side note:  When I moved away from Phoenix, Sarah's mom made me a bunny with a purple dress on.  She got named Jenny.  She has been around the country with me, on a submarine, and now sits lovingly on top of my dresser.)

Memories are funny things.  I want to remember more than I do.  I want Jared to remember more than he will.  But, our memories are what shape us today and help make us who we will turn into tomorrow.  Now, what will the puzzle piece memory do for me today........

THREE times!

Our big news for the last couple of hours is that Jared spontaneously used the big boy potty three times when he needed to go to the bathroom!  This is exciting because potty training has been a long, long process for him.  I am hoping that this just might mean that we are at the end of our diaper days!  Yay Jared!