Frustration and Raw Fish

No, the two topics in the title aren't actually related to each other.  I am frustrated because I've tried at least four different times to reply to comments on other posts and it won't work.  I'd call in my tech but he's asleep.  Oh well.  I'm not really ignoring people's comments though.

Second topic.  For the record, I actually ate raw fish tonight.  And I didn't throw up either.  Even Shawn was impressed.  Under normal circumstances it never would have happened.  But I failed to plan dinner tonight so we ended up in the hotel restaurant.  There was some confusion over the order, and the waiter was trying extra hard to make it up to us.  So he brought out a special dish that he'd make just for us.  It was lightly seared (meaning raw except on the outside) poke (tuna) with rice.  I politely declined but he was rather insistent and I didn't want to hurt the man's feelings.  So I calmly took a bite, and got most of the way through it with a straight face before my gag reflex kicked in, but I kept it down.  Purely psychological too.  It was much better than canned tuna any day, raw or not.  Not in the least bit "fishy" either.  I think I managed to redeem myself with the waiter.

All Roads Lead to the Ocean

I am posting on my blog, which means I have a computer   My laptop is not yet fixed, but I’m sure my husband will get around to it someday.  I’m typing from a free computer Shawn obtained at a yard sale (free because they weren’t sure all the parts were there or if it worked).  After buying a few cords and erasing all their stuff off of it, he has assured me that it works wonderfully, telling me how wonderful the ergonomic wireless keyboard and mouse are, and how top-of-the-line the computer was when it came out.  I’m just glad that though my husband doesn’t fix things around the house very often, he’s very handy with a few pieces of metal and some cords.  Second, sometimes yard sales pay off. 
And this is several blog posts combined into one.

ALL ROADS LEAD TO THE OCEAN

We are in Hawaii.  We’ve been here almost month now.  Most of the time, the boys and I have been in the hotel rooms.  The other day, Teddy told me how we were moving to Hawaii.  It’s been pretty hard to convince him that we’re already here.  Guess I should have made a bigger deal about it when we stepped off the plane, but I though they all understood.  I was trying to explain what an island is by telling them that we’re surrounded by water.  If you follow any of the roads on the island long enough, you’ll get to the ocean.  That made me slightly claustrophobic, but I guess any body of land is the same way...it’s just a lot smaller here.

How am I liking Hawaii?  I don’t know yet.  I haven’t seen much of it.  I love the hotel staff :), and the weather is great.  The ocean is warm enough that even I will swim in it.  The people are nice, and though the traffic is horrible, the people are nice enough to let you in where you need to be anyway.  I do not like the restaurant food at the hotel.  That’s okay.  I can usually manage to eat in the hotel room instead.

I’ve been warned about centipedes and scorpions.  Haven’t seen any yet, but I’m sure I will at some point.  Cockroaches are supposed to be plentiful, but I haven’t seen any of them yet either.  I probably need to get out more.  We have, however, seen, caught, fed, and played with lizards.  They are everywhere.  Little tiny geckos.  At least, I think they’re geckos.


HOW TO BUY A HOUSE

I’m still not sure.  But we’re working on it.  I’ve been on the phone a lot, faxed a lot of papers, signed a lot of papers, hunted for the correct papers, and stayed up nights redesigning “my” kitchen in my head.  Still scheduled to close on the 19th.

DAILY LIFE

Every morning the kids do their chores.  Which makes housekeeping happy.  Our housekeeper says we have very well-behaved little boys who don’t run around the room and scream like a lot of the other children.  I think she’s listening outside the door at the wrong times :).  And that they are so good to be so helpful.
We have a devotional most days.  It consists of a song, prayer, scripture or gospel/life topic, and a short discussion of our plan for the day.

We also try to go to the pool for an hour most days.  I know, nothing like the ocean, but it’s what we’ve got close at hand for the moment.  Funny, an hour a day and Teddy barely looks caucasian anymore, haha.  Okay, a little exaggerated.

I’m practicing more in the crockpot and reading up on education (homeschool mostly) and herbs.  I have grand plans but most of them have to wait a little while.  We’re planning a vertical garden (Thanks for the suggestion Miguel ) and several other projects for our new home.

my computer died a while ago and my phone WON'T let me post on my blog! (except in the space for a title). Will have to post after I get a new computer...

Recent Happenings

My little sister is 18! How did this happen?! We had a birthday party for Jana and Tyler at the beach yesterday. Yeah, it was cold. But some of the crazies (Jana and Tyler included) swam across the river. I just enjoyed the watermelon. So did Xander!

My in-law's came up for the weekend, which was pretty cool. Especially since I got to see my newest little nephew :). Uncle Lee took all the kids around on the four-wheeler all morning on Saturday. Olie's response? “Mom, he takes me on more rides than YOU! He's more fun!” Haha, definitely true.

I had a 10 year class reunion over Labor Day weekend too. Interesting to see people after 10 years. I enjoyed visiting for a little while and meeting spouses and seeing their cute kids :).

My youngest brother is going to be baptized this Saturday! So we're staying a little longer- and leaving for Hawaii on Monday.

We made an offer on a house. I think we're nuts. But it would be nice to have a house I think. We'll see how it works out.

There have been tons of other things going on as well, but I think I hit all the major highlights...

Summer

Maybe summer is just a busy time for most people.  I don't know why it should be more busy than the rest of the year, but it sure seems to fill up quick. 

We're all alive, and we're all relatively healthy.  The kids are fun and hilarious, and mostly staying out of trouble.  Demetri is in Terabithia today.  I love that they can build forts here and play outside all day.  They live in their own little world of imagination.  The past week has been spent "building" and playing in their fort. 

Shawn was here, and is now gone again.  It was nice having him around. He leaves for Hawaii tomorrow.  I leave for Hawaii...? whenever Shawn gets tired of me not being there?

I'm back to looking at houses and wondering if we're really going to try and buy one in Hawaii.  Not that I'd really mind I guess if it were possible, but I'd sure hate to get stuck there. 

New Ideas about Food

I believe I’ve recently mentioned that menu planning and food preparation while traveling gets both old and difficult fairly quickly.  If my children and my palate could handle peanut butter and jelly 3 times a day we’d be good, no problem.  But neither are cooperative with this arrangement for long.  I have tried a variety of things I’ve never tried before.  For instance, microwave dinners.  After three nights of them I was ready to go back to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches permanently.  The companies who stock the freezer section even know how to ruin spaghetti.  I didn’t know that was possible- I can even handle seriously overcooked noodles.  So plan B was…well there wasn’t one, or I wouldn’t have resorted to microwave food in the first place.  However, I became very diligent at looking up ideas on the internet.

I found a site called greensmoothiegirl.com.  It seems to be somewhat of a fad diet, but she calls it a lifestyle change and after my diet I was willing to try anything.  The idea of a 60-80% raw diet looked very appealing (as I didn’t have any cooking appliances anyway, after we switched hotels I didn’t even have a microwave), and I started to look up the concept of “whole” foods.  I’m interested!  So the plan at the moment, is to buy a Blendtec as soon as I can muster up the will to push the button that causes me to spend $400, as a birthday present to mwah, and incorporate as many smoothies and salads as I can comfortably handle into our family’s diet, while eliminating most of the junk…and you’d be surprised at what I consider junk.  I don’t expect amazing results while traveling, and we’ve been doing tons of salads anyway, but I hope to continually improve.

I guess I've always had some weird ideas about food, but friends and fam beware...it's getting weirder.  People ask me if I'm a vegetarian.  I guess I'm not officially, but I don't cook meat pretty much at all anymore, I just eat it when I go out.  It's been a gradual process.  I learned what kale is, and arugula, and lots of other types of vegetables that caused the checker at the grocery store lots of grief trying to find out what the items were and then price them.

Anyway, I'm finding it's actually quite fun to eat mostly whole foods, although considerably more expensive.

Becoming a Motel Connoisseur

I’m quickly learning how to pick motels.  I’m learning what “brands” I like and what amenities are higher on the priority list.  I’m learning to weigh costs/benefits such as a fridge and microwave, general neighborhood/environment, carpet or hardwood and other possible cleanliness issues that had never bothered me before (remember, there are cockroaches here!), proximity to base, pool availability, being on the first or second floor (because I have BOYS, who like to play on the railings), bed availability and hotel policies (charging for internet, charging per person, how many people can stay in a room, etc), and so many other little things that didn’t matter when I was only staying for a night and then moving on.  It’s quite interesting really.  I now have chains I like and chains I refuse to stay at.  Amazing the quirks frequent or prolonged traveling can instill.