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Birthday Fun

I had a wonderful birthday!

The celebrating started on Monday, when my mom and dad stopped in Bowling Green on their way back to Louisville from Atlanta.  They showed up at my door with a balloon and cupcakes.  It was so sweet…literally! The cupcakes were delicious.  We met Chad at Mariah’s for lunch and then came back to the house where they gave me some nice gifts.  It was a good visit, even though it was short.  I will see them again this weekend when I go to Louisville.

Tuesday (my actual birthday), Chad woke me up by bringing me breakfast in bed.  The menu was the same as last year, but this year he brought me two dozen pink and red roses.  They were beautiful, and it is the best way to be woken up.  During Chad’s lunch break, I met him at AT&T to get my birthday present, an iPhone.  Now I can have something to play with when Chad’s on his.

That evening, I had a couple girls over for a bible study.  My friend, Jaclyn, surprised me with a cookie cake.  She didn’t even know that I like them.  I thought that was very sweet.  We enjoyed our study and talking over cookie.

After the girls left, Chad pulled out a Blizzard ice cream cake that he had ordered for me.  It was Tagalong flavor.  Can you tell that I like sweets?  Even Quiznos sent me a coupon for a free cookie.  We decided to wait until after dinner to dig in.  Then, he surprised me with another gift, a makeup mirror.  I thought it was precious because he was able to remember that I have wanted one from a long time ago.  It was months ago that I told him how, if I don’t do my makeup in the closet, I have to move my full length mirror to another room or use a tiny little compact mirror.  He actually wrote it down, so he could remember to get it for me.  How sweet!

Next, Chad and I went to Red Lobster for dinner.  Chad doesn’t usually want to go there, so I took advantage of getting to choose.  He loved it, though.  He really likes the lobster pizza.  We came home and enjoyed the blizzard cake.  It was sooooooo good.  I really liked it.  The rest of the evening was spent just relaxing with my hubby.  It was a wonderful birthday!  Thanks, everybody!

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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.

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Annie Are You OK?

Jackson had a ton of problems in his life, but he made some very good music. Smooth Criminal blows my mind everytime I see a video for it. I think they next time I am at the bank or the grocery store I might just do that lean at a 45 degree angle move just for the hey of it.

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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…

Chad Affleck

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Attack of the Lorikeets

Here is the video from the Nashville Zoo of Jennie being brutely attacked by a lorikeet. Watch at your own risk.

Ignore the dorky voice in the background asking questions.

Also photos of our weekend have been uploaded.

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One Year Anniversary

Sunday was our one year anniversary!  We finished up celebrating in Nashville by going to church and dropping by to give Peggy a birthday card (Happy birthday, Peggy!)  That evening, back at home, I decorated the table and kitchen counter with elegant decor and pictures of us.  Chad grilled us some yummy turkey burgers and corn on the cob, and we dined by candle light. If you were at our wedding, you might have tried the punch made with pineapple juice, ginger ale, and peach sherbet.  We did not.  In fact, I completely forgot about the punch fountain until I saw it in pictures.  This was devastating to Chad Webb.  I think he was sold on the caterer as soon as she described it.  It might have been the thing he looked forward to the most that day.  Well, because he did not get his so desired punch on our wedding day, I recreated it for us to have on our anniversary.  I don’t know how it was really supposed to be made, but I guessed and it was good.  Chad was happy.

After dinner, we opened our gifts.  The traditional first anniversary gift is paper.  I had decided to get Chad some gift certificates to the movie theater because he really likes movies and I just don’t care all that much to go to them.  Little did I know they had joined the modern world and now have gift cards.  So, it wasn’t paper, but I still gave it to him and let him know I would go see whatever he wants.  The real gift I was excited to give him was still part of the paper theme.  I purchased a picture frame and got a large matte cut for it.  I had a black and white picture of our wedding rings printed and put it in the frame, and I had someone (with better handwriting then me) write our vows on the matte.  I had been wanting to have something with our vows on it for a while, and this was the idea I came up with.  I think it will be nice to have them displayed so we can seee them and remember them.  We didn’t actually write them ourselves, but we did pick them, so they are special to us.  I also believe that we should honor our vows, and the best way to do that is to know what they are.  It will be nice to have a reminder around.  Chad really liked his gifts.

Then, it was my turn.  I opened my paper gift, which was Scrabble Slam, a new card game.  I had seen the commercials and it looked like a good time.  We played that night, and it was pretty fun.  He also got me the game Partini.  The cards in it are paper, but he really just got it because, on the way to picking up Scrabble Slam, he noticed it was on sale.  Along with the traditional, Chad also gave me the modern first anniversary gift, which is clocks.  He found a cute math clock, which I’m sure will annoy the heck out of my students at school and bring me minutes of delight.

The frame I gave Chad came in handy because after exchanging gifts, we exchanged (or renewed, I guess) our vows again.  Then, after dancing to our wedding song in our living room, we ate the top layer of our wedding cake.  Actually, it was a replica of the top layer of our wedding cake.  We didn’t save ours.  I thought there wouldn’t be enough for the guests if we did, and I was totally wrong.  Anyway, I wanted to still celebrate this tradition, so I had Walmart recreate it for us with the same design and everything as before.  It looked just like it, but it was fresher and a little bigger.  I can’t say I regret not saving the original.

I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed my wedding day, but that was only the begining of the best year of my life (so far).  I have been truly blessed to have a wonderful husband who loves me and is amazing to me everyday.  Thank you so much, Chad, and happy one year anniversary!  I hope I can spend the rest of our many years together making you as happy as you have already made me.  I love you!

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Anniversary Weekend

This past Sunday was our one year anniversary, so we decided to celebrate all weekend with a trip to Nashville.  We went down on Friday and stayed at the Marriott right across from the Parthenon.  Our room had a really nice view of the Parthenon and Centennial Park.

On Saturday, we got up and headed to the Nashville Zoo.  I had never been, and Chad hadn’t been in a few years.  It was a pretty warm day, but it wasn’t too hot to walk around and check out all the animals.

My favorite part was the Lorikeet exhibit.  Lorikeets are a kind of parrot.  They were in a free-flying exhibit, so you are warned that they might land on you.  I bought a cup of nectar for $1 to feed them, and was able to get a lorikeet to come and drink from my cup right away.  Later, I stuck out my arm and waited.  After about a minute or so, a lorikeet landed on my hand and drank the nectar from the cup.  It was pretty neat.

After the zoo, we went to the Parthenon because I had never been there before.  It is a replica of the original Parthenon in Athens.  We took a quick little self-guided tour before heading back to the hotel.  It looked like they were going to have a wedding or some event there that evening because they were already setting up.

That evening, we had a reservation at the Melting Pot.  Once again, I had never been there.  It was a neat experience as we cooked our own food in a fondue pot.  We had a four course meal of cheese fondue, a salad, an arrangement of meats, and chocolate fondue.  I have to admit that my favorite part was the dessert.  We got milk chocolate to dip strawberries, rice krispy treats, brownies, cheesecake, bananas, pound cake, and marshmallows.  Yum!  It was fantastic!  I wasn’t overly impressed with the rest of the dinner, but the dessert was fantastic.  I definitely want to go back.

The  next day was our actual anniversary day.  More to come on that later…

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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?