You know Chad got me an iPad for our anniversary. Well, Jessie got Brendan one for his birthday. One of the apps that comes with it is Photo Booth. It takes pictures and you can choose different settings like stretch, squeeze, and twirl. It can be a lot of fun to play with because the pictures can look so funny. Anyway, while in Louisville this weekend, Brendan and I were showing all the hilarious pictures we had taken with Photo Booth to our family. While flipping through, I noticed one picture that Brendan and Jessie had taken that looked almost exactly like one Chad and I had taken. I wonder, does every couple do this pose when playing around with Photo Booth or is this something we can chalk up to being twins?
Spring Break 2011
This week was my spring break, and although I didn’t do much, I got to have a little fun in Louisville over the weekend. Friday, after school, Chad and I (followed by the Bakers) headed for Louisville to watch the Southeast Christian Easter pageant. My mom has been attending Southeast for a while now, and she joined the pageant’s choir. Because she wears glasses (and they didn’t have those back then), my mom sang with a large group in the chapel and they helped support those who were actually on stage. So, although you couldn’t see her, you could hear her. I’m so proud of her! This was I think my 3rd time seeing the pageant, but it was the 1st time for Chad and the Bakers. They loved it. And even though I’d seen it, I was still inspired by the awesome music and the story of the sacrifice Christ made for me. I’d tell you to go see it some time, but this was actually the last year for the pageant and we went on the last night.
On Sunday, Jill, my mom, and I drove to Edinburg, Indiana to do some outlet shopping. Although it was a little windy, it was a beautiful day. We were there for hours and got a lot of good deals. We also ate at the Snappy Tomato for lunch, which was super good.
I ate breakfast with my dad on Monday at a newer place called Wild Eggs. It was really good. I had scrambled eggs and Jill had recommended an everything muffin. It was yummy. I thought it tasted kind of like a hush puppy. That would have been enough to satisfy me, but I couldn’t help getting one of “The King Would Eat These” pancakes. It was a pancake with banana and topped with peanut butter syrup. I didn’t get the chocolate chips, but it was so good! Next time, I will have to try the CoCo’s Chocolate Concoction. Check out this description: chocolate waffle, chocolate ice cream, chocolate chips, mini-marshmallows, house-made marshmallow cream, toasted almonds, and powdered sugar. It sounds more like a dessert, but if I go for breakfast again, I’m definitely trying it.
The rest of the week, I’ve been home, cleaning, being lazy, and working on my Take One paper. Chad hasn’t been especially busy with work, so we’ve been able to hang out a lot. It’s been relaxing and nice. When I go back to school next week, it will be the beginning of a mad dash to get all content covered, so I’m happy to spend some time not doing a whole lot.
Wild Things
I haven’t bought any toys in a long long time (3+ years), however, when I did I got made fun of a bit. Mainly from my friends who thought it was stupid to buy these things and leave them unopened. I have about 100 unopened toys that I got in the past 10 years. Most of them are MOTU, but there are others as well.
But my revenge is now ridiculously sweet. The new Where the Wild Things Are movie is coming out this month and the price of the McFarlane line of figures that were put out sometime when I was in college has shot up to somewhere between $350 and $450 for the set MIB (mint in box…nerds) on Ebay.
Here are some crappy cell phone pics of my set.
6 boxes to a set, 7 figures total. $10 bucks for each box. That means I turned that $60 investment into $400 or 566% ROI. My 2 year ROI on my 401k is -26%. I should have been dumping money into toys for years.
My Chad
I had a training for school today. Here are a few pictures I came across while looking for images. I had completely forgotten about them. This is is my gorgeous husband.
Top Ten Reasons I Think my Husband is the Cutest
#10 He times how long we cook our meat at The Melting Pot to ensure it has been exactly 2 minutes.
#9 He tucks me in with a kiss EVERY night and answers when I call for my “tucker.”
#8 To appease me, he wears his snowman pajama pants at Christmas time.
#7 He takes his Harry Potter book with him everywhere “just in case” there is a chance he can read it.
#6 When he knows how my sentence is going to end, he mouths along with my words without realizing it.
#5 He throws a little hissy fit when he has to go back to work after lunch.
#4 He gave me this t-square to help with Uppercase Living.
#3 He says, “Look, my socks match my outfit.”
#2 He actually believed that it was me under the covers and told the pillows, “wakey, wakey.”
#1 Just look at that face.
I love you, cutie!
Kine and Kaka in Hawaii
While in Hawaii, we discovered that our names in Hawaiian are Kaka (Chad) and Kine (Jennie). Here are all the details about our trip!
On Friday, June 12th, Kaka and I, along with Kaka’s sister and brother-in-law, Ashley and Brock, left for vacation in Hawaii. (I don’t know anyone else’s Hawaiian names). We flew to Dallas, and after missing our connecting flight, got on standby for the next flight, which we eventually made it on. It was kind of fun running through the airport trying to make our original flight. We finally took the 7 and a half hour flight to Oahu.
We got there and headed for our hotel in Waikiki, where we met up with Kaka’s dad, Jerry, his step mom, Peggy, and her children, Laura and Brad. Jerry and Peggy had already been there a week, and Laura and Brad had only been there for a day. We didn’t do much that first day because we were pretty tired. Hawaii is 5 hours behind our time, so we ended up going to bed at 7:30 that night.
The next day, we headed to our ship, The Pride of America, for our cruise to the Hawaiian islands. On the way to the cruise, our driver let us stop by Da Kine Bail Bonds where Dog the Bounty Hunter works.
Here we are in our cute little cabin.
We spent 1-2 days on each of the islands we went to. It was a lot of fun! I’ll give you a recap of the things we did each day.
Sunday-Maui:
First, we went to the Iao Valley and saw the Iao Needle.
We went to a beach that I can’t remember the name of. It was very pretty, but hot. We didn’t want to get too gross because we were going to a luau that night and wouldn’t have time to go back to the ship.
That night, we went to a luau in Old Lahaina. It was beautiful there, right on the beach. We received leis as we arrived, and we had all the food and drinks we wanted.
We got to see them take the pig out of the ground, and they later served it in the buffet. I had low expectations for the food because I just didn’t know what to expect. I knew they would have pork and spam (yuck!), but I didn’t know if I would like anything else. To my surprise, I really liked a lot of the food. I was glad because it really made the luau one of my favorite things. They also had a show with dancers as they shared the history of Hawaii.
Monday-still in Maui:
Jerry drove us up to a lookout of the Haleakala crater. We went 10,000 feet in elevation on winding roads. It was not a very fun drive, but I think Brad had it worst. He road on a cooler in between 2 seats in the van. These pictures are on the way up to the crater.
When we got to the top, it was pretty cold and windy, so Laura and I covered up with our beach towels. There was a wedding going on while we were there. It was very pretty, but it looked like the bride was going to lose her veil at any moment.
After the crater, we had a picnic at a beach. Jerry, Brock, and Kaka went to walk around a little town while the rest of us tried to lay out. It was very windy and we kept getting pelted with sand. We had to move 3 times before we found a tolerable spot. Peggy’s hat flew off and went pretty far down the beach before Ashley caught up with it. Once we got settled, it was nice and very pretty. If you look close in this first picture, you can see the sand blowing.
Tuesday-Hilo (on the Big Island):
The first place we visited was Punalu’u Beach, a black sand beach-very cool! It was really neat to see all this sand created from volcano lava and some of the rocks that looked like flowing lava. It’s something you don’t see many places in this world. This was also the first place we saw a sea turtle. It looked very ill and almost dead except for when it blinked.
Next, we went to Volcano National Park and saw Kīlauea Volcano from afar. You could see the gases coming up from this active volcano. Naturally, we couldn’t get that close for safety reasons. We also went in a lava tube, through which lava used to flow. It looked a lot like a cave.
Next, we saw Rainbow Falls-pretty.
Wednesday-Kona (on the Big Island):
All Kaka and I did this day was go to Turtle Bay where we went snorkeling. It was very cool… and free. One of the crew told us about this place that you could see lots, and we only had to pay for our snorkel equipment. Turtles would swim right up to the shore. There were lots of pretty fish, even prettier than in Jamaica.
Thursday-Kauai:
Went to Waimea Canyon. It’s not what you would picture when you think of Hawaii. There is a waterfall in the distance that you can see.
Went to Poipu Beach to see Spouting Horn, a lava tube that shoots water into the air whenever a wave comes in. This area of Hawaii was beautiful! I thought this was the most gorgeous area we saw. Spouting Horn was pretty cool too, and we saw more sea turtles swimming near the rocks.
Next, we went to the Kauai Coffee Company. I don’t like coffee, but it was so beautiful there and smelled great. They gave away free samples of the different types of coffee to try.
Friday-still in Kauai:
This was our last full day on the cruise. We were still in Kauai, but we didn’t have a car, so we didn’t get off the ship. There weren’t anymore places that we really wanted to see, so we went to the pool, drank some fruity drinks served in pineapples, ate lunch, played BINGO, went to an art auction (hoping to win a raffle), and played water volleyball. The water volleyball was so much fun! Kaka, Brock, Ashley, Brad, and I all played with others against the crew. We were awesome and won. It was a blast.
That evening, the shipped sailed past the beautiful Napali coastline. It was very pretty at sunset, and there had been a rainbow earlier. It was nice to look at, but also fun because it was very windy on the deck of the ship. I had a hard time keeping my dress down and my hair out of my face.
Saturday-Back to Honolulu:
Disembarked the ship and went back to our hotel in Waikiki. We walked around and checked out the shops and the International Market Place.
Later that night, we took our family picture on the beach and said goodbye to Laura and Brad, who headed home.
Sunday-Waikiki:
We took a bus to Pearl Harbor to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. It was very beautiful there, and it was interesting that the memorial was built right over the ship. Most of the men are still there where they died, and the ship still leaks oil to this day.
When we got back, we had lunch at Duke’s and tried the famous hula pie. It was good, but I’m not a huge fan of Macadamia nuts (which are very high in calories).
Later that afternoon, we went to Waikiki beach, which was only two blocks away, to lay out and swim. You could see Diamond Head from the beach. The ocean was great. You could go out very far and still touch the bottom. The water was super clear and the waves were kind of big. We wished we knew how to surf or at least had a boogie board.
Monday- Waikiki:
Our last day 🙁
We did our last minute shopping and headed to the airport to go home.
After the long flight, we were so glad to be back. It took quite a while to get back on the Bowling Green schedule. Hawaii is 5 hours earlier than us. So, when we got back, we couldn’t fall asleep until 2, 3, or 4 in the morning. I think we are finally getting back on track.
We had such a great time, but it’s good to be home. I really hope to go back again. It sounds like my parents are up for a trip, so maybe there will be another visit in the future.
We’re back!
We made it home from Hawaii safely. We had a wonderful time and hope to share our pictures and experiences with you soon! While in Honolulu, Chad was told, once again, that he looks like Ben Affleck. How many times do you have to be told you look like someone before you quit your job and become an official celebrity impersonator?
More about the trip to come…
Fan of Glee
So, it’s official… Glee is my new favorite show! The premiere was tonight, and although I had seen most of the scenes in the previews, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s pretty funny, and I just love a show that I can sing along with.
Just wanted to also mention that I am also a fan of Kris Allen (American Idol finalist). I don’t think either he or Adam did a super stand-out performance, but I’ve been growing more and more fond of Kris throughout the season. He is very talented, and I don’t think I would enjoy any album that Adam put out. So, as I was waiting for Glee to begin I repeatedly texted my vote for Kris Allen. I looked later and counted 14 votes in all. I hope it helps!
Speaking of being a fan… I enjoyed tonight’s TV viewing under the gentle breeze of our lovely new ceiling fan. My wonderful hubby put it up for us. It was a lot of work for him, seeing as he is not an electrician, and I’m not a lot of help. We’ve never really loved the fan that was in the living room when we moved in, and after living here for a year, we finally decided to replace it. We updated it with a darker and perhaps more modern fan. I like it a lot. I think it looks fantastic, so thank you very much, handy hubby! We were going to move the old fan into the office, but that probably won’t happen now. Does anybody need a fan?
Where the Wild Things Are
This makes me happy beyond words. I loved this book back in the day. Also it is a Spike Jonze movie and he is chock-full of awesome.