2008

Happy New Year! I figured this very small sea shell looked more like a firework than any other picture I have taken, so there you go. We are still in Hawai'i, and we'll get home (wherever that is) Thursday at 11 am.

Last night was celebrated with delicious pizza, fireworks, and I woke Mark up to watch the Times Square ball drop with me.

I have taken far too many pictures, and I want to share them all, but I will limit myself. But as for right now, there is a line of people waiting behind me and the other 2 computer users. So farewell, and here's one last one for today:

This is us at the Dole Pineapple Plantation in the middle of O'ahu. Mark has been showing me all these places on the island. I have the more fun ones on my camera still. Goodness it's harder to not have your own computer! Here's us on the Pineapple Princess Train.

Mele Kalikimaka

This would have been a Reeder's Digest, but we didn't do too much. When on vacation with the Judds, we just loaf around and watch the palm trees sway.

Tonight my family (minus my sister who was a little too tired) walked to the hotel three lagoons down to see the huge Christmas tree and hammerhead sharks. The sharks scared me, go figure, so they didn't warrant a picture from me. But here's the picture with the tree; you can see the Hawaiian statues on the top, left.

I hope everyone had a wonderfully, merry Christmas! Mele Kalikimaka!!

Christmas Eve

It's great doing a Hawaiian Christmas again with my family; it's difficult to think of the Christmas season when it's so warm, but oooh, I can't complain. Christmas Eve was spent with my parents, sister, and Mark on the beach by a lagoon. It was nothing short of Heaven.

Happy Christmas Eve!

moved

Moved out, at least.

Another move is done...well almost. On Thursday we moved all our things out of our apartment into a friend's/neighbor's house so we could go on vacation, in peace, and not worry about everything being in our car.

Then Thursday night we cleaned. Oh, did we clean clean clean! Nothing feels better than a good scrub down. Except throwing away all the cleaning supplies. Good riddance. That feels even better.

Thank you to all of you who have sent Mark and me things; to our old address or to my parents address. It is so fun to have an excuse to send and receive. I must apologize for our lack of Christmas Spirit. It's not like I've been having a baby or anything; congratulations, Jamie and Rod! Perhaps I'll find another sort of excuse to send things out soon.

Christmas films

So many good ones! So many jolly ones! So many that make you want to give something better than your best to those around you. For me, Little Women does the job at putting me in the sort of mood to be most charitable and most appreciative for what we've all been blessed with.

Name some of your favorites. I Triple Dog Dare you!

looming winter

Across the street, next to the now-plowed cotton fields, sits this old forsaken shack. Constructed of rubble and loose wood, I think it's shelter for two horses and a little donkey.

paint swatches

Already, the search has begun for choosing colors for the home we will settle into in Alaska. In our previous home in Texas we had three rooms painted, one wall in another room swathed in dark fabric (a quick fix instead of paint), and repainted our bedroom to a lighter blue. Chelsea, I never got back to you, but that color was Cumberland Fog from Behr.

I've chalked this pasttime of mine up to a hobby. Back in Texas the search began for light spring-like colors for a "winter room" to keep us awake during the dark and dreary days, but I didn't give a much thought about a "summer room" to unwind in when the sun stays up past it's usual bed time. I think I have about... oh I'll just count them.. I have: 29 from tonight + 27 from before = yes, 56 paint swatches. Watch out mom and dad, I'm bringing them to Christmas for us all to stare and awe at. O! I'm just so happy!

happy things

After a cold afternoon of tying quilts and putting screen doors on patios, Mark and I headed over for some delicious Happy Donuts. Compare these to the best, most mouthwatering donuts you can imagine: Winchell's or Dunkin' Donuts. Whichever you like more. That's right. That's how yummy these taste.

frozen rain drops

This 'storm' I mentioned below is beginning to brew. We had made plans to drive to Northern Oklahoma to visit a few friends of ours, but the base wasn't allowing passes because of 'frozen rain' that just ices over all the roads when it lands; almost instantly.

This morning the passenger side of our car was all glossed over with these crystal beads of ice. It was freezing, but very pretty.

Christmas in the city

There is a park downtown that has been decorated with Christmas lights and set-ups throughout. There was even a Santa Clause with a real beautiful white beard. I had seen his poster hanging in a boutique when doing Christmas shopping earlier this week; he must be famous. I thought I saw a man in a car a few weeks ago and thought, "wow! He'd be a great Santa." Perhaps it was him, giving his reindeer a break.

Because of the predicted ice storm this weekend we expected it to be cold. We were right!

It was cooooold. We wore long johns under our jeans, I had two sweatshirts on underneath this 3 layered coat! Then my mom's bear gloves, then the incredibly fun beanie with a pom-pom atop. Mark just looked chic in his magazine-appropriate turtle neck and dark accessories.

on this day

At about 5:30 tonight I drove onto the air base here to pick Mark up after his simulator finished and as I drove around the 'round-about I saw 4 men in uniform pulling the flags up to full staff.

I didn't realize today was a 'half-mass' sort of day. Only when I was driving back past them with Mark in the car did I remember that today marks the 66th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

It was a beautiful reminder to see all those flags at half staff.

unoriginal thought

Wednesday laundry. I don't have a set day for laundry, I just do it when it needs doing. Suppose I like spontaneity in more things than just behavior.

Having a dry week for blogging entries, and a day full to the brim with washing, I thought an ode to laundry would be appropriate. Just to see what was out there, I googled "Ode to Laundry." My, what an unoriginal thought I had.

Blogspots here, typepads there. Everywhere there was an ode to laundry, or an ode to my Japanese laundry line. I didn't read any, thought it would be a bit intrusive on what someone else thought was a fun, original thought.

O Laundry, Laundry, wherefore art thou Laundry!

Folded and stacked away neatly and warm.

Saturday's sunset

After the rain ended and the clouds began to break up, this is what was left behind. This is sans photoshop, just a crop to get out the 'worldy things'.

rain drops

This morning I opened my eyes to find a grey hue coming through the tight blinds. I looked outside and got a very pleasant suprise! Rainy days make me enjoy my day so much more thoroughly. Being 'stuck' inside with warm pajamas, oatmeal and a good book with rain tapping the windows is my version of a good day.

Because I was so cozy within my warm walls and new pajama pants, I decided to stay inside and look for a rain picture rather than go outside and risk my warmth.

I found this rain drops picture above from a site I've never heard of before. I was really impressed with the ones I browsed. I don't know what else could be on this site, so note that I don't endorse it 1oo%.

In other Jayci-news, I've begun a new book. I finished Eclipse yesterday, and instead of going into a post-good-book-funk, I reserved this book for this time. It's young and fresh and it's called Secret Society Girl. So far so good. Looks like another rainy day tomorrow!

babyshowers

Tonight will be my first triple babyshower that I'll be attending in an hour. I'm still a little sick, so I will bounce out after 20 minutes (a planned escape) to go get Pizza Hut with Mark.

Buying gifts for three different babies proved easy, just expensive. You can't get one girl something extravagant just because you're her visiting teacher, so to be fair, you get all three girls something just as fun.

Pajamas! Footsie pajamas to be more precise. With onesies to wear underneath. I always go a size bigger than newborns. This means getting the 3 month old size. I like to think that I'm helping them plan a few weeks ahead for when the baby outgrows all the cutsie teeny stuff.

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You see the gold shimmery bag in the back? That was the only bag I had, so I bought the cute 8" bags from the Base Exchange (BX) and stuffed white tissue paper at the top to hide the gift, of course. Usually, I try to give non-baby bags at baby showers so that they can reuse them for most any occasion. The camera light setting was on Sun, so that's why they look a little yellow. When I turned it off, the bags looked blue. I stuck to this one:

new banner

This is an older picture, but somehow it has a winter-ish charm to it. I'm still playing around with winter pictures.

Ah! stress of the holidays, even on a blog.

enchanted

No Lord's name in vain, no smoking, minimal cursing, marriage supportive, and fair. This movie I asked Mark to take me to was very sweet and very mesmerizing. It makes you appreciate Disney for what they do for families. They support the marriage system and never conveys the message of sacrificing all the good times for the bad ones; no one has to fall out of love. I had to laugh with this whimsical girl as she experienced the anger-emotion for the first time. Even in reality, we're still able to live happily ever afters.

happy things

It's nothing like last year's, but we needed a little Christmas spirit in our small apartment for the next three weeks.
We got a Christmas tree last night from the store for a grand total of 6 dollars. The crooked little berried tree sits inside a red Santa Boot. We strung a tiny strand of lights through the branches and hung silver ornaments around it.
How it sparkles!!

Thanksgiving Reeder's Digest

Now that we're home from a very enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday, it can be blogged about! I wouldn't doubt it if I've never had a busier holiday weekend before now. It was a record setter. My purse-calendar was nearly full for each day we were there. Just like my belly.

Mark and I slept in the car Thanksgiving Eve because we didn't like the idea of leaving a hotel early (after paying for only 5 hours of sleep) and then rushing to find a parking spot. It was much better this way. We flew into Utah at about 8:30 and were picked up from the airport by the Reeder's on their way out to Brigham City for Grandma Reeder's farm. There were 50 people there for dinner. Can you believe it? Neither can I. Grandma Reeder has a large room in the back of her house where there were about 6 tables set up. It was some party, and Mark's brother and sisters in law were the life of the party. I finally got to sit at 'the cool kid's table.'

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Below is a picture of all the Reeder's there for the holiday. We were missing Mo and Tory (Mark's brother and his wife). Behind us is the slough that freezes over every winter so they can go ice skating for miles and miles. It was just barely frozen around the edges. It looked cold!

After dinner we went skeet/clay pigeon shooting and then took all the pictures with all 50 people. Stacey's nephew Johnny (who's a Benson, not a Reeder) was the photographer. All the old ladies were saying, "Oh! Who's that? He's a looker." Poor Johnny (he's in the blue sweatshirt below), Mark is next to him in his leather jacket, who's next to Paps Reeder, and then that's Mike in the white. Now all I needed were the Judds. But Tessa, my sister, got to join me for some fun later on.
What a family I have; I'm thankful.

the Painted Veil

A couple of movies ago, I watched The Painted Veil. It is beautifully told, and set on a continent that Mark called home for a while. It is a cinematic experience that is now hard to come by these days, even if I still do love most movies I see. This is one for the books. Or blog.

The scene is set in China during the cholera epidemic. Her husband takes her into the midst of dying people as a punishment for her selfserving nature.

Throughout this movie, you witness the transormation of a girl into a lady. She is socially forced into a marriage by her parents who don't want to take care of her any longer. She thinks the man is kind, but her interest stops there. Their hearts soften and realize how lucky they really are to have one another. Her transformation is a hard one, but it makes the viewer appreciate love in all forms, and motivates to improve life in any situation. My synopsis does no justice; watch and enjoy.