Google navigation got us there and the man at the gate said, “drive up this dirt road and park in the back…”  There was free admission and free parking and free dirt, dirt and more dirt.  What is it about boys and dragging their feet through the dirt?  I’ll never understand.  We paid $6 a person to enjoy the corn maze and mini golf, because really, what says pumpkin patch and halloween like mini golf, right?!  The boys loved it.

Jordan scared the you know what out of me on this shot:

that ball came flying right to me. okay so it was about 6″ to the left, but still. I was imagining all those america’s funniest home videos moments when the camera catches the ball and then static and lines.

Honestly, we bought our pumpkins at Sam’s Club about a week ago because they were looking pretty good and we didn’t want to get to the pumpkin patch and be left with small or moldy pumpkins.  So we didn’t even buy any pumpkins here.   The Corn Maze was a big hit, even though Jordan doesn’t look happy, they all enjoyed it.  I have to say I was telling the boys to stay close because seriously, one of my biggest fears is losing a kid and what place more likely to lose a kid than in  a corn maze?!

you can see the ocean on the horizon… :)

the $6 we paid also included the hay ride that neither boy wanted to do… so we just headed out. it looked like fun though.

I don’t want to get the guy in trouble, but he’s totally checking out his twitter feed while driving all those people. or was it facebook? anyway.

We brought our wagon and since we didn’t even buy any pumpkins, Jordan got a free ride back to the car. it was better than following his dirt cloud.

Thanks for stopping by! I’ve got to get my scrap on!
Love Love and Blog you Later,
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

Here is a picture I snapped of Jordan along the way:

and of my three boys :) (you can see makapu’u lighthouse in the background)

When we got to the lookout spot there was a class up there…. One of the girls in our group knew one of the teachers and I knew one of the students from church and the other teacher is a friend of a friend of ours so i thought it was funny :) also it was very convenient because they snapped this shot of all of us.  Jordan did not want to be in this picture.  I will remember to wear a hat the next time!  My friends Leigh, Marna, Kau’i, Troy, Jalen and Marna’s little cutie!

looking down from the lookout, isn’t it beautiful?! I love that aqua color in the tidepools and the shallow areas.

Thanks for stopping by!

Love love and Blog you later!

Joscie, rhymes with bossy :)

treasure island day

journaling: After reading the book Treasure Island, Jalen’s 4th grade class painted a treasure island set.  This included a cave, a pirate ship, and an island.  The kids got to dress up in pirate gear and watch the movie treasure island and party.  may 2010.

• Cute Pirate Kids Stickers by Holly Brooke Jones
• Reading Adventures by Kerry Stewart

Raising Readers

journaling: We live just  a few blocks from our neighborhood library and have finally started using it this summer.  We’ve signed up for the summer reading program and are logging our books read this summer.  We try to make it out there once a week.

• Reading Adventures by Kerry Stewart
• Letter Template Value Pack III by Erica Hernandez
• Basic Stitches No1 by MaryAnn Wise

This week I’m being interviewed over at the two peas digital designer blog, go see! I’ve also created a free template for a challenge, you can download the template here.  There is a prize, so I hope you’ll participate! :)

I used this template to create this layout:

kīlauea

• Woodsy by Jen Martakis
• Denim Summer (buttons) by Jen Martakis
• Chocolate Bunny Elements (stitches) by Miss Mint
  

halema’uma’u

• Back To School by Jen Martakis
• Chocolate Bunny Elements (stitches) by Miss Mint

I also picked up a few more kits today to work with, so I’ll have lots of scrap to share! :) Thanks for stopping by!

Love Love and Blog you Later,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy!

Today’s picture of the day: Happy Birthday Jordan!

My picture of the Day for yesterday is my (step)brother Kam and my sister in law Melissa.

Today was a day for tying up loose ends.  Getting safety inspections for truck and motorcycle, mowing our little patch of lawn in the back… I think we are about as ready as we can be.

In scrappy news, Tattered Angels is releasing a few new products that I am super super excited about!  Liz posted the first sneak peek on the Tattered Angels educator blog today.  She listed all the new educators and there is a great giveaway, so check it out!  My first tattered angels project went live on the blog today too! Here’s a peek:

Thanks for stopping by!  Love Love and blog you later,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy!

While we were down in China town, we took a walk around the block for our very favorite Chinese treat, manapua (aka char siu bao).  My very favorite place to go is Char Hung Sut.  It’s the kind of place where you walk in and order from one person, another person runs and fills your order and the girl at the register scribbles the math on a stack of scratch paper. it’s just so good.

I know you’re going to find this hard to believe, but I procrastinated a little bit on making the welcome home banner.  I toyed with the idea of ordering a sign, Noel even sent me a link, but of course I waited too long.  I also entertained the idea of cutting vinyl and making a banner, if I could just stop off at a sign making shop and get a banner to apply my vinyl to… but in the end I decided to cut and sew a banner, on Sunday.

Jalen commented that our coconut tree did not have any coconuts and did we have to wait 3 days? (that’s a facebook my farm joke, btw)

We expected the ship to be pulling in around 830am-ish so we arrived around 8.  We had to park a good distance and I wanted to be sure we had enough time.  I let Jordan ride the umbrella stroller so i could load our goods on the handles.  There was a cool tent and seats set up for us to lounge while we waited for the ship.

I loved the reflection in Jalen’s glasses, you can see me right in the middle.

We watched as the ship pulled up.  Troy was not manning the rails, he said he had something to do inside the ship, I didn’t even ask what it was.  When the ships pull in from a deployment to Pearl Harbor, they tie a lei to the front of the ship.  It’s made out of plastic (i think it’s trashbags).

the boys held their umbrella signs, even though dad wasn’t on the outside of the ship…

Then we waited and waited, and Troy showed up, checked out on leave in his Tshirt and shorts with all his goodies.  Jordan got to give the first lei:

Jalen the second (and me last)

The boys went back to school on Tuesday and Troy fell in with our daily routine.  I got my new id card that I have been waiting for. I was so excited to see that the camera was mounted up high on the counter, at a flatteringly higher angle than the chair.  It’s the little things that help a girl out, ya know?!  Of course i can’t show you the id card, but it does look like me, so I’m happy.  Today’s errands included a trip to the pumpkin patch…

ha ha, just kidding. you know on the Wednesday before Halloween, the pumpkin patch is closed. and evidently the Navy Commissary is also sold out of pumpkins.  So we took a trip to Sam’s Club and picked out 4 non rotten pumpkins. ha ha.

and  have I told you, I love this man?

pumping my gas. **swoon** what a man.  and do you know what I did on Monday night? I was able to run out and pick up steaks for dinner, by.my.self! and I was able to come home and cook dinner while he bathed the little. **sigh** it is so good to be a family of four again.  We are enjoying and being thankful for all our many blessings.  I want to thank all of you who prayed for us and him while he was gone, I really really appreciate it!  Tomorrow’s excitement? I’m getting a long over due eye exam. and I’m not only buying new glasses, but I’m also getting sunglasses. prescription sunglasses. eeeeeeee! You lucky ladies who wear contacts or have been blessed with good eyesight have no idea.  For people like me, sunglasses require so much effort. I am such a lucky girl.  I’ll check in with my new eyewear when they come in, I can’t wait! SUNGLASSES! yay!

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

Joscie, rhymes with bossy!

Oh.my.goodness. What a crazy week we had last week!  I had been so busy with the boys and procrastinated going to the grocery store for such a long time, I actually had to cancel a trip to the water park with some friends.  There were things that needed to get done, and restocking the house was one of them.  Now, normally I am go alone during school/work hours, so that I am able to leisurely stroll the aisles, think about items to try out and enjoy the silence.  Don’t get me wrong, other ladies have their children who fuss and cry and beg for items, but not me. NO… my boys are usually in school. I usually give the other mothers an understanding smile and hope it gets better for them while I say thank you for our teachers.  BUT now, thanks to that infuriating thing called summer break, I have to drag my boys to the grocery store, but only as infrequently as possible.  My boys are not horrible children. I love them, I do. But how much fun is it for them to have to try and be still while Mom contemplates this flavor of coffee over that? No fun at all, that’s for sure.  Add to that a pay day weekend and a long holiday weekend and what do you get? more crowd and fussing than I cared for.  I tried to get as many items as I could to put off the next trip as long as I could.  Our shopping cart was fuuuull. bread.milk.soda.creamer.nutella.strawberryjam.orangemarbleade. you know, essentials! we finally got out and brought all the items home.  I backed into the garage and noticed a puddle of water on the floor next to the freezer.

thinking to my self: OH NO! I bet Troy forgot to close the door all the way when they had ice cream the other night, tsk tsk. time to flip open the book of blame

I notice the items are still cold, but some are starting to defrost, and yet I put the frozen biscuits, french fries, chicken nuggets, chicken patties, steaks….all on a shelf in this huge freezer.  I put away all the other groceries and when I head upstairs, I notice a dripping sound coming from the air conditioner unit. dang.  i open it up, clean up the water as best as I can and put a bucket under the drip. I call the maintenance people to come fix it.

them: Sorry Ma’am, the first appointment is not until Monday. Is the unit still running?

**UHHH, it’s like 90degrees out, of course it’s running!

me: yes.

them: Well ma’am as long as the unit is running it’s going to leak and you don’t want to cause any damage to the unit… you might want to switch off the cooler and just run the fan

**check, like that’s going to happen

me: okay, then I’ll see the repairman monday at 11am.

We go about our business, doing laundry, eating lunch etc, and I go back out to the garage to check on the freezer. I hear a fan running and items are still cold, but not frosty yet. Later I would figure out the freezer is broken. It’s blowing hot air and I had to throw out most of the food I had just bought and all of the food I had in there. :( Then a message on facebook from a friend that my blog is giving a malware alert from Google. what the??? after a lot of calls/emails with Network Solutions they have cleared out a script that was installed in my blog. I updated my blog software and my theme version, and for now, things are going well.  I don’t understand the brain works of people who are so malicious with their computer skills?! If only they could use their powers for gooood!  I am now happily running WordPress v 2.8.1 and hopefully will be able to avoid any future security compromise!

On the Fourth, we headed out to Ford Island to catch the Pearl Harbor Fireworks again.  Unfortunately we got there a little too late and some people were already camped out in our spot! I grumbled and grumbled about the boat in my way. And in retrospect, I should have embraced the boat and used my wide to shoot at least some of the fireworks. (**next on my wish list, a better tripod!)

early on in the evening, i snapped some ttv shots of the boys eating McDonald’s.  I flipped these shots so the writing would be facing the right way…

Here is a shot of the boat that was blocking my shot! Last year we were further to the left of the tree, so i could see the water and the fireworks reflecting on the water.  But still a cool longer exposure shot. :)

The fireworks at Pearl Harbor started at 9 so I had lots of time to fuss with the camera and take pictures of the moon…

and finally a few shots of the fireworks, different view than last year:

Happy (belated) Birthday America!

I also wanted to share with you all that Troy is going to be going on a short(ish) 3 month deployment with his ship.  They’ll be leaving on Jordan’s Pre-School orientation day, which is no fun. but really in the grand scheme of things, leaving is no fun no matter what day.  He’ll be missing Jalen and my birthdays so I think we’ll be going out to a nice dinner to celebrate before he leaves.  He should be home before Halloween some time, so we’re excited and looking forward to Trick or Treat with Troy! I will be sharing tidbits from his deployment (whatever he says is okay to share) just because it’s part of our lives.  I’m not looking for sympathy, because it’s just a part of our life and there are tougher things that we could be going through. I do however appreciate prayers and positive thoughts of encouragement, safety and guidance for our leaders to make the best decisions they can make.  Thanks so much for coming by!

Love Love and Blog you later!

Joscie, rhymes with bossy and so glad to be back!

Today was another beautiful day in paradise!  It was my nephew Ivan’s 14th birthday, so we joined him for a day out at Ka’a'awa Beach.  I love this HUGE umbrella I bought at Sam’s club a few years ago, paired with a handy gadget from WalMart that helps it dig into the sand… Shade! :)

Jalen making a sand castle…

Jordan…

My Niece Belle

My Niece Casey

I saw this super cute group on flickr : http://www.flickr.com/groups/muffintinmeals/

and I was inspired to try this with my picky eaters.  in ice cube trays…Turkey, Pepperoni, string cheese, laughing cow cheese, carrots/grape tomato, grapes, strawberries, biscuits cut up, ranch, ketchup and chicken nuggets.  Both boys tried everything!  this was a huge success, and I think I am going to try this once a week or so. :)

my sunflower is trying to make it’s debut! :)

My mom called the other day and asked if we wanted her to bring lunch… Manapua and pork hash from Libby’s. Manapua (a.k.a. char siu bao) is a sweetish pork filling in a sweet bread steamed.  Pork Hash is a dumpling. not sure other than pork. yummy. not health food!

Lahaina Noon fire hydrant.  This day the sun travelled directly over the islands at 12:37pm.  It’s called Lahaina Noon because it starts in Lahaina.  Thanks to Angela Keen for the info, I was able to head out to get this shot :)

Our MOO cards!  I found them through Flickr.  The company is in England and I love love love these! they are roughly the same size as a sony memory stick.  If you want to order, you can get 15% off your first order by using the code: MF685M          http://www.moo.com/

I posted this picture earlier, but figured I’d do it again.  The little blue pouch is one i sewed to hold my moo cards! :)

My girlfriend adrienne :)  we stopped for coffee after our web class :)

Jordan and Dad sharing a berry smoothie from Costco!

My CSS book to help me with designing my wordpress blog! :)

Did you make it through all of that?!  There are a few more things I’d like to share.  I created a tutorial over at Miss Mint’s Blog for a little prayer book… come see!

Troy is going back to a ship in the next few months… Do you want to see the kinds of stuff he has worked on?  Tune into the Military Channel for a special on the USS Lake Erie. http://military.discovery.com/tv-schedules/special.html?paid=52.14319.125185.36048.0

And have you seen the NEW MM Paperie lines? cute cute stuff! :)

Again, thanks for being the most awesome blog readers in the galaxy!  PS,  I am wondering, how did you find my blog? :)

Aloha, Love-Love and Blog you later!

Joscie rhymes with bossy and sometimes coffee!

Thanks for all the kind words about the puzzle pieces, I got those out in the mail yesterday :)
I also received the sweetest RAK from Mary Lou (mll) on CK MB… some sweet Making Memories goodness, and can you believe, I didn’t have any of that?! I Love it!

I also received a Borders Git card from my friend Liz the other day and I finally got a chance to head down to Borders at Windward Mall this weekend. I love gift cards! The opportunity to pick out your own goodies, guilt free! I also am a member of their discount club so I had a 25% off coupon to use with my gift card, and I got the cutest book ever!
http://www.amazon.com/Softies-Simple-Instructions-Plush-Pals/dp/0811856526/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product

I ordered from Amazon.com this week a book recommended by the apron swap leader A is for Apron. http://www.amazon.com/Apron-25-Fresh-Flirty-Designs/dp/1600592015/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212001316&sr=1-1 OH my goodness, I could barely resist all that rickrack. rick rack, ribbons, buttons and pompom trim hold me in their hypnotic grips… :) I also got a little pocket book called apronisms to send to my apron swap lady! :)

I have two baby cards and gifts to get made/packed and mailed out (both boys :)) a hybrid project, 2 teacher gifts… hmmm the list is getting longer every second. I also have 2 ispys to catch up on and a olw layout I’d like to do….

Yesterday I got a sweet call from my hubby saying, did you know there is a carrier in port? I thought it would make a great ispy or picture of the day or whatever…. Isn’t he the sweetest to think about my daily photographic escapades? I just love that man! :)
hmmm, where can I park to get a picture?
just park on the bridge
uhhh, i think there are no parking signs,hmmm, i’ll go check it out.

so Jordan and i pack up in the van and head down to the USS Missouri memorial and park (and I think of Christie=Missouri)… we get out the stroller (absolutely necessary to keep everyone safe!) and the camera gear and head down to the pier to see if I can get some shots… here they are… This is the USS Missouri:

I love these. this is what the ships tie up to when they are in port. When Troy was assigned to ships we’d always go down to the pier and watch the ship pull in and the sailors tie up the ship. This to me means the ship is in port. Troy gets to come home. Just a little happiness. :)

this is the Arizona memorial and the USS Nimitz.
here is another shot of the Nimitz. It is HUUUGE. this shot is a little deceiving because it’s from one end and it’s hard to grasp the enormity of it. Look closely. do you see all that gear on the top? those are planes!!!
Here is a side view shot as I drove by on the bridge. NOTE the no parking sign. he he!
Now this is an amphib ship. also known as a gator freighter. the USS Tarawa was getting underway and headed home. They had a tiger cruise, where family and friends can fly out to Honolulu and ride the ship home. Pretty exciting but strange concept I think to allow civilians to ride a ship for possibly the first time. It’s hard to grasp the enormity of these ships… until you take a close look at the details!

Troy tells me, look at that square door right there… it’s 12 feet high!

and look at all those people just on the very end. it really is amazing something so huge can still float and go so fast!I also got a few shots of the USS Okahoma (and I think of my friend Susan and picher, ok) Memorial. It really strikes me that each of these pillars represent a person. a human being gone.
I have never had any veggies actually grow, so i am very excited about my cucumbers! Here is a shot from yesterday and today… :) and the pumpkin seed is sprouting too!

Thanks for visiting, I really appreciate your visits and comments. I will try to answer any questions in the following posts. :) Have you seen, I added an option to subscribe to my blog through email, If you’re interested. :) Have a great day, and I’ll blog you later!

Jalen’s class had their “graduation” ceremony today although they still have another week of school. The class sang and danced to a super cute song “Local to the max” (translation: really really local). Jalen was in the middle of the stage (no surprise there) and did really well.



remember those flowers I bought at Sams this week? They are blooming and looking sooo pretty! We took a quick trip to Walmart the other day and found this funny Bat Man Mask… Jordan didn’t love it, but obliged for the picture. it was almost as cute as the basket. That Kid loves to put things on his head.

I am so excited that our cucumber plant has flowers on it! :)
I had such a great mail day yesterday! I got a card from South Africa from KJ! and some cute die cuts! I love it! :)
and on the same day I got a RAK from Jessica… this cute stamp! (How much I love Hula Dancers, even though I am not a hula dancer) and these packages of cute plastic goodness also known as skittles.
and From my friend Happy Scrappy Sam:

some stamps, super cute cardstock stickers, Noteworthy die cuts, a magnetic notepad, brads and buttons… :) These ladies know me so well! :)
OKAY, so I don’t buy guns for my boys, but they pick up toys and pretend they are guns. This is a Mr. Potato Head fire extinguisher and Troy is teaching him the proper way to look around the corner and clear the room.

WOW, did you make it this far? Thanks! I hope you are all having a great weekend!