thanks for stopping by!

Love Love and Blog you Later,

Joscie, rhymes with Bossy :)

Unfortunately he came through a different gate than the one we where we were waiting… so he ended up standing curbside wondering if we had forgotten about him.

There was no cell signal in the little area where we were waiting.  Finally we walked out and found him. smiles all around.

Since Troy has been home, we’ve been hanging out and I’ve been a sewing fool! I finished up our costumes today, I am so pleased with the results. I’ll be back to share more scrap and I’ll be getting back on the blog wagon.

Thanks so much for all your prayers while he was gone.
I appreciate you all!
Love Love and Blog you Later,
Joscie, rhymes with bossy

We received Jalen’s Halloween costume in the mail this week. He’s going to be Green Lantern and the costume is super cute. It’s a little big, but I’m sure we can make it work. He says he’s not trick or treating, he wants to give out candy at the house. We also got Troy’s Top Hat in the mail, it’s cute too. I’ve been sewing a little at a time. I got all our pattern pieces cut out and started by sewing my dress first. I have been really precise with the patter cutting, pinning and sewing for this dress and I’m really excited to see how it fits. I was worried the top might not fit quite right and had to seam rip a few times but I think it’s on the right track now.

I bought a few black plastic pumpkins and black rats at Target last month and I am using them for Halloween decor. I took the rats and used a small sharp scissors to cut out the little red bubbles they had for eyes and stuck on some clear gradient adhesive gems. I also glittered my pumpkins with glue and black glitter. I had a little craftmergency when I used up a whole tube of doodlebug glitter on one pumpkin. Thankfully I avoided a craftastrophe by picking up a big jar of black glitter from Martha Stewart. ;)
I also created some cute hybrid decor, you can see here on the Design House Digital Blog tomorrow.

Last Sunday we took a trip down to Pearl Ridge after church for lunch at CPK and then around the mall to check out their “Can Struction” event. We rode on the sky tram, visited the photo booth.

This weekend we are picking up the disc of photos from our shoot with the ever fabulous Marina Miller, I’m so stoked! I am going to get some cardmaking done on this world cardmaking day and then back to sewing. We are looking at just over a week until Troy’s expected return home and we are super stoked about that.
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Love Love and Blog you Later,
Joscie, rhymes with bossy.

But anyway, as the post title would infer, today was another big day for our family, deployment day.  This is Troy’s 7th? deployment, my 6th, Jalen’s 5th, Jordan’s 4rd. can you even imagine?

We dropped Troy off at the ship this morning, came back home for some breakfast and to settle some nerves and then we headed out to Hickam AFB (Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam) and waited out by the channel where the ship would come by. We brought a blanket, a snack, some bottles of water and umbrellas and waited.



I scoped out a good spot.

then right before the ship started to come along, these neighbors came and gathered right in the view of my wide angle lens (hello 10-22mm).

I snapped what I could while helping point out where Troy was on the ship and we waved.  I must say it went better than I thought it might. I’m glad the boys didn’t lose their minds.



We are looking ahead. thankful that he does not have to complete this whole deployment and will be home pretty soon to report to school and a new job. one with a desk. on shore.

We welcome prayers for comfort and peace and the safety of Troy and his shipmates. Thank you again for being the best ever.

Love Love and Blog you Later,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy. :)

I got another call from the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry for further information and for further testing.  I gave maybe 8 vials of blood while the boys averted their eyes.  I am now waiting for a call back to see if the Doctor thinks I am the best match for the patient.  The patient, by the way, is a 63 year old woman whose marrow is just not functioning for her.  The outlook is a 60% chance of recovery for her.  I am excited, nervous and willing to go through this proceedure to hopefully help her out.

We had a hail and farewell (actually just a farewell) for Troy’s CO on the ship.  It was at the Hickam Officer’s Club on a  Mongolian Barbecue night.  If you’re not familiar, Mongolian Barbecue is like a buffet, where you fill up a large salad bowl of raw ingredients, veggies of all sorts and then toppings like brown sugar, chili flakes, garlic, ginger, olive oil, oyster sauce, and meats too like thinly sliced beef, chicken, turkey and or shrimp.  You pay by the weight of your bowl and then you take it to the big grill area.  The cooks cook up your food  and call your number when it’s ready.  This is not a good situation for anyone with a food allergy like peanuts or nuts because your neighbor’s sauces or ingredients might mingle with yours ( I had to pick out a chili flake covered broccoli that found its’ way to Jordan’s bowl).  After the main dish is cooked, you can add as much rice, noodles, bread, butter and fortune cookies to your tray.  Classic event of the night? my fortune:

I was on the look out for a new dress to wear to a “Dining Out” for Troy’s work.  I ordered a dress online from a website called eshakti.com.  It is a great site.  You can order customized dresses for not very much more than the regular affordable price.  Since I tend to have a difficult time finding clothing that fits well, I opted for the custom fit.  I plugged in my measurements, selected a longer length for the skirt… and while I was at it, I ordered another dress and top.  These items arrived in a little teeny tiny box, each item folded and wrapped in cello envelopes. From India. I had to press the dress because the darts were a little wonky, but after all, I really love it.  I chose this dress because I already had necklaces, earrings, shoes and a bag to go with it…

it was a fun time, although a bit too much standing in heels for my taste.  The boys stayed with my mom for the evening.

While our car was in the shop I wished we all had bikes we could ride to run errands on.  Jalen never really had a chance to learn how to ride his bike without training wheels and he is now mostly too big to ride his 20″ bike.  Jordan’s little bike is too small for him and he doesn’t know how to ride without training wheels either. and it’s so small he’d fall behind if we rode anywhere over a distance. SO. I have been window shopping online for bikes and bike solutions for our family.  I have been wanting a trail a bike and this past weekend we located one on island.  Troy and the boys went down and picked it up.  It’s a cute little bike that connects to the back of my bike.

We did a test ride the other day. Jordan was a little nervous because we were riding pretty fast for his taste.  We rode again today, several times around the block.  We both enjoyed it.  Let me say, I can tell when he’s pedaling and when he’s not and when he’s acting crazy and moving around too much in the back.  Troy snapped this picture of us and we rode by.  And if it looks like I’m dying, it’s because I feel like it, ha ha.

We went to the movies this weekend too.  We checked out the listings and saw that Born to Be Wild was playing.  In IMAX 3D no less.  We headed on down to the theater, plunked down $36, picked up some popcorn and donned our glasses inside.

Jordan brought his elephant to the movie too. We really enjoyed it. and then 45 minutes later, it was over.  Can I say, I was disappointed. and I felt a little taken advantage of.  Really? 45 minutes?! anyway. atleast we all enjoyed the movie.

SO, that’s what’s been going on around here.  I hope you’re doing well out there in the world.  I’ll be back sooner rather than later with some scrappy projects and news :)

Love Love and Blog you Later,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy

Troy had the day off and we went down to the Honolulu Zoo.

self portrait.  Thanks to central air I sleep in my christmas flannel pj pants year round.

Pastor Jim during Children’s Time talking about eating MnMs.  Jordan is sitting directly behind Pastor Jim, patting his shoulder and talking about playing his DS.

Jordan playing with his TAG reader with headphones.

Running errands with the boys.

I love seeing these signs up on the fence welcoming home service members and reuniting families.

We had dinner on the ship on Troy’s duty day.  The boys scored coins from the CO too.

Happy Birthday Troy! :)

I made biscuits for breakfast this morning, some circle and some elephant for our little elephant lover.

Thanks for stopping by!

Love Love and blog you later!

Joscie, rhymes with bossy

• We hiked with friends Marnalicious and ‘Iokea, FabuLisa and Aunty Maile.
• We saw a Hawaiian Monk Seal sunning near Sandy Beach.
• We saw a free sneak preview of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii Theater.

• We had our 3 year old washing machine replaced after it started leaking.
• we went for a walk/bike ride at the path
• we saw a submarine
• visited the mall and saw Chickens in the parking lot. You don’t see that every day (unless you shop at Windward Mall, in which case, you do.)
• We had some photo booth fun, the pictures were terrible and it was really hot in there.
• We saw the cuuutest little quail chicks at the pet store.
• I painted my nails to match my latest hybrid project.
• We celebrated with my mom, brother and other family members at Mom’s house for Thanksgiving.
• The boys bounced away at her house.  What, you don’t have a bouncy house at your Thanksgiving dinner? ha.
• My brother.  I warned him, make a stupid face it’ll end up on my blog.  and the bouncy house is his, he has a birthday party gig. bouncy houses, shave ice, cotton candy and more.

also in November:

• we visited the Swap meet with my visiting mother in law.
• we ate out and shopped. a lot.
• we ordered a new bed for us.
• we ordered new bedding.
• I washed new bedding in new washing machine, bedding got ruined.  the hand stitched quilting came out in a few places but more disturbingly the batting tore and rolled up. not happy.
• we filled two shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child
• we cut our own “fall leaves” and painted and played in them.
• we saw megamind.
• we saw tangled in 3d
• I made a lot of pies
• we ate a lot of pies
• we started reading aloud at bedtime for an hour or so as a family
• our first book was the lost hero
• we’ve since read through the lightning thief, the sea of monsters and are almost done with the titan’s curse.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading through the short attention span version of November.  up next, a recap of our December activities.

Love Love and Blog you again soon,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy

We returned to our seats to watch the show because although we were in a box seat (a bank of 12 seats) there were other people crashing our area and pushing up to the front rail (which really riled up the passive aggressive in me…)  We watched the demos by the coast guard…

and the Red Bull crazy parachute team!

and we watched the Marines put on a demo:

we were also pretty impressed with the Air Force’s F22 Raptor

and then finally, the act we had been waiting all day for. the Blue Angels!

We left after the Blue Angels show, got on one of the first shuttle buses heading back to our parking area and I KID YOU NOT… it took an hour and a half to get a few miles across the base to get to our van.  Then it took another half an hour to get a few miles off the base. BUT, it was all worth it.  It was a beautiful family day and I’m thankful to KHON2 and MCCS for our prize pack!

I have quite a few projects to share with you in the next few days and weeks… but for now, thanks for stopping by!  Love Love and Blog You later!

Joscie, rhymes with bossy

I got the disc of pictures from Tess Monday and I am so in love with these pictures! I can’t wait to get prints hanging on the wall and scrapped too. Thank you thank you thank you to both Tess and Operation Love.  These are a few of my favorite shots:

I really liked all the pictures but didn’t want to overload ya!  My very very favorites though are this one where we are all walking and the one of the four of us in front of the ship. :)  Thank you again Tess, you’re the best! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Love Love and Blog you Later,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy

first stop, pick up lei from Lita’s Lei shop.

I got a little Puakenikeni Lei for myself. I love these flowers, they are so sweet smelling!

and since we were down in Chinatown, we headed around the corner to Char Hung Sut for Manapua (Char Siu Bao). This is our favorite place- closed on Tuesdays.

Jordan enjoying his second manapua.

later down at the pier, trying not to get heat stroke… here I am in Jalen’s glasses. and you can see Tess in the brown behind me :)

sigh, our ten year old cutie!

Since we are a family of J’s (Joscie, Jalen, Jordan) the boys added a J to Daddy so Troy wouldn’t feel left out. Welcome home JDaddy!

I drew and colored this sign for Jordan :)

I love the closeness of their two faces.  The contentment on Jordan’s face. my heart is happy.

a shot of the ship. excuse me mr. white uniform, you’re in my shot, could you move over a bit? (clouds from eyecandyoverlays)

the ship and the lei :)

We are so thrilled to have Troy back home with us.  I mean really! Sometimes transition can be difficult, but with an intention to be considerate things go so well.  We were so lucky to have my friend Tess shoot our homecoming as a part of Operation Love and I can’t wait to get the disk of pictures so I can scrap them, share them here and order a print or two :)

Thanks for stopping by, Love Love and Blog you Later!

Joscie, rhymes with Bossy