Last minute choices

If you can believe it, I still have not decided what to do with my hair for the wedding. I will NOT be rocking an up-do. I'm not a fool - it's a beach wedding, and there's likely to be some wind.

But I do have two accessories that I'm debating between. They are both made to be worn on one side of the head, just above the ear. One day I'll be convinced that I'm going with one, and the next day I'm dead set on the other. I suppose it will all depend on which way I'm leaning on that particular Sunday.

Here's my two choices: 

The flower - which matches the material of my dress

and the sparkly one - which matches Corie Style. hahaa  (this is actually a vintage button that I re-purposed into a hair clip)

Anyone have any opinions one way or the other?

An AWESOME thought....

Can you believe it????

One week from today, I'll be getting married.

Whoop Whoop!!

Pete flies into Maui on Tuesday evening. We'll spend a couple days here before we hop over to Kauai for the wedding and our long awaited honeymoon. I'm getting so excited!

Last night I set up a rebtel number* for Pete's parents. That way we can call them right after the wedding to share our happiness. My new Mum called me on the number just to see if it worked, and we had a quick chat. It's amazing to me how I can talk to Pete all day long and never even notice (anymore) that he has an accent.  But Mum was saying things like "smashing" and "lovely" and I had to listen really hard in order to understand everything. I realized all over again how different this whole experience is going to be for me.

And it all starts in a week!

*rebtel is a website that lets you call abroad for FREE! (and I love free!)

A fun find....

My friend Danielle always complains that I manage to find the cutest purses everytime I visit the thrift store. I agree. I do find some cute bags! On my latest trip to the shop I had a $30 store credit to use up, because of some clothes I brought in earlier, (they give store credit for donated clothes).  I happened across this little gem.....

As it happens, green is my favorite color! Lime green in particular. I'm not huge into the Coach brand, but I'm certainly not going to snub my nose at getting a lime green Coach bag for FREE!!!!

Yay me!

On the list of things I'll miss.....

the sunsets over the island of Lana'i rank somewhere near the top.

Tortured tattas

Today I had my first ever mammogram.

Setting aside how old that makes me feel all of a sudden, (I don't want to talk about it)....can I just say: Owwwww!!!

I know I should keep my mouth shut, pretend it was a piece of cake, and encourage every one of my girlfriends to take care of themselves. But holy crap, you guys. That really was ubber uncomfortable. And now my boobs ache. I just want to crawl into my bed and not be touched again for a good long week.

Now I'm just crossing my fingers that I don't get a phone call within the next two days. They told me no news is good news.

If anyone needs me, I'll be that curled up blob on the couch......

Ten big smiles

Lookie here!!!! Smocha over at one of my favorite blogs Cats on the British Counter passed this on to me. She even said my blog makes her happy. Awwwwwww. How cool is that? Smocha always makes me laugh...even when she's having a moan about her lack of clothes dryer or losing entire roasts out of grocery bags...she's always making me smile. Plus, she loves thrift store shopping almost as much as me! Adore her!

So now, in exchange I need to list 10 things that make me happy. This shouldn't be hard.....all I do is smile lately. :)

1) Of course this is number one:  I'm getting married!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  In  mere 13 days! Woop Woop!

2) Shopping makes me very, very happy. I find it ridiculously easy to hand over any money I have in my purse if it means you'll give me a bag with something pretty in it. I'm unhealthy.

3) My friends. Ok, so it's true, none of them actually live close to me anymore. But I value them all the same. Maybe more so, because they work to keep a friendship going even across the distance. My friend Blake in particular has been my virtual Maid of Honor during this whole pre-wedding process. Looking at dozens of dresses with me online, giving opinions on different hairstyles, shoes, flowers, invitations.....she's been a dream friend and I love her to bits.

4) My new natural mineral makeup.  I. Simply. Love. It.   I never want to go back to pressed powder every again.

5) Webcam dates with my honey. I live for them. Hearing my honey's voice, seeing his smile, sharing a laugh, getting a virtual hug. What heaven.

6) My sister emailed me a long, heartfelt email today, and it made me feel close to her for the first time in probably ten years. I couldn't be happier about that. I hope this is the start of a fresh relationship with her. I want to have a little sister again!

7) Living in Hawaii, and being able to see things like this literally everywhere makes me happy:

8) My trash TV.   Hahahaaa.  I do love my shows. America's Next Top Model, Project Runway, Sheer Genius....I look forward to them each week. :)   I really am a horrible couch potato.

9) I'm getting a new Mom! And that makes me feel so blessed and contented. She is kind and sweet and accepting. And I feel enormously lucky to be marrying into such a welcoming family.

10) The excitement I have over the concept of starting a brand new life in a brand new country. It's thrilling and romantic and stressful and scary and promising all at the same time. I can't wait for it all to start! Go life! hahaha.

And that's my ten things. I don't know enough bloggers in order to pass this on yet. But do go and visit my friend Smocha and say hi to her!  :)

 

My dirty little secret

It is rather embarassing how much I miss the internet when I can't access it.  I'm ridiculously dependent on it. For example:

What can I do with this half box of elbow macaroni I have on my shelf?
Answer from google recipes: Make goulash (it was fabulous!).

Why does my car engine make a boiling sound after I've driven to the other side?
Answer from google?  Because I have air bubbles in my coolant system. (ummmm, I'm not fixing that)

Who is this Snookie person that everyone keeps talking about?
Answer from google? Some chick who fist pumps and is famous for doing absolutely nothing (ok, this one was a waste of perfectly good internet search time)

At any rate, over the last couple days, I've been away from home. I was house/dog sitting for a friend while she took a mini-break to Kauai. And damned if my laptop couldn't access the internet from her house. I was lost.  So instead I was forced to read a book. (I chose Sophie Kinsella's Undomestic Goddess, which was actually quite enjoyable despite being utterly predictable) And I watched a few movies.....one called "in a day" (which was crap) and one called "the private lives of Pippa Lee" (which was so-so). 

But because I'm so addicted, I did keep a running list of all of the items which necessitated googling when I finally arrived home. Here's some of the stuff I missed out on knowing the instant it popped into my head:

1)  Can I grow a cherry-blossom tree in an English garden?
2)  How do you get playdough out of carpet?
3)  What day in April did Easter fall on in the year 1985?
4)  Does anyone on Ebay have a wireless mouse for sale now that mine took a crap?
5) What does the new Zooey Deschanel CD sound like?
6)  Did anyone else who watches BBCA enjoy the second series of Survivors?
7)  Where is Upper Makamaka'ole Falls?
8)  When does the American version of The X Factor start?
9)  Can a dog give you a sore throat virus just by breathing on you?
10) Which length bob would look best with my face shape?

Shockingly, I made it all three days without knowing those things. Amazaballs, I know.

Brilliant as a boulder

Ok, so I feel stupid.

How in the world did I get to the age of 35 and not know this until today? 

On the way back to the airport today, we needed to stop and fill up the rental car with fuel. Nice-guy-except-when-drunk happened to have the thankless task of driving the four of us around this time. When he pulled up to the gas station, he asked the dashboard, "Let's see, which side is the gas tank on.....oh, the right".

"How did you know that without getting out and looking?" I asked, completely shocked.

(insert sound of crickets)

With a sigh, and a tone that clearly spelled out exactly what he thought of silly women drivers, nice-guy-except-when-drunk said "Because of the arrow next to the little gastank light." (huge pause) "Of course."

Ok, so I travel more than most people. And I rent a lot of cars. Hell, I've owned a lot of cars. And you better believe that one of the first things I did when I got back to Maui and climbed into my own car was to check my dashboard. 

How did I never notice that fricken arrow before?  Yeah.....feeling rather dim witted right now....

One final hop

Or at least I hope so.

Tomorrow I fly to Oahu, for what I'm hoping is my last business trip before the move. It really is so draining.....driving to the other side of the island, walking through the airport, the flight hop over to Oahu, driving around downtown Waikiki, sitting through meetings, touring my stores, talking to the people from Corporate and trying to convince them that I still care about what I'm doing (which, unfortunately, I don't anymore), drive back to the airport, flight hop back to Maui, find my car in the lot, and the final drive once again to the other side of the island.

Egads....

I remember when I used to think all this flying around was fun. Obviously it's time to leave. I'm so over it.

That's what I get for being curious....

I have always HATED the look of Ugg boots. They are quite simply the most butt-ugly boots on the planet. They are completely flat soled, which is uber unflatering for any woman. And even the most feminine girly-girls look like a complete clodhopper when they are stomping around in huge brown Uggs. I think they are even uglier than the moon boots I wore in fourth grade. And believe me, I was not Little Miss Style back then. Ok, not now either.


However, I have a small confession.
 
During my last trip to Oahu I stayed at the Ala Moana hotel (which is practically attached to the Ala Moana shopping center). I was tooling around in the mall...(after I had already finished a long day of work, of course) and I walked past a display of Ugg boots in a high end department store. Dozens of styles and colors, women trying them on everywhere I looked. I thought to myself...why not slip one on? Why not just see what all the hype is about? Or even better yet, try a pair on, take a picture and send it out to friends as a laugh.....
 
Only the thing was, the instant that I slid my foot in......I got it. I understand exactly what everyone is talking about. Utter, furry fabulousness. And comfort? Oh my gawd. I never wanted to take my foot out of there.
 
I thought the price was ridiculously high, so I didn't buy any. Well, that and I knew Pete would laugh me out of the house if he found out I had changed my mind. But now that I'm back home, I find myself stalking ebay listings hoping to find a good deal. Maybe it's just a part of getting older where suddenly I care more about comfort than about how I look. Or maybe it's because the world seems to find unflattering boots unreasonably fashionable, so maybe it's time I get over my oppositions as well.
 
At any rate, I figure if I find a pair, I'm going to just get them and then work out my "ummmmm, I never said I hated them, exactly" speach. You know, for when Pete gives me the look.

Shades of white

I'm bleaching my teeth for the wedding.  Lord knows with the amount of coffee I drink my teeth are nowhere near photo ready. Thank god I don't smoke. Or drink tea (yet).

I'm using the Whitening Strips again. I've used them before many times. But this time I went with a slightly different gimmick feature. Still the same brand, mind you. But this go-round I'm sporting the "Advanced Seal" strips for thirty minutes every day. I'll freely admit, my purchase was based on the fact that these were on sale at Costco last month. No actual thought went into the selection.

According to the package, these are meant to be different than the original strips in that they aren't supposed to slide around on your teeth all willy nilly. The original strips practically play dodge ball in your mouth. And you end up swallowing about 2.4 pints of bleachy goo during each whitening session. Ok, so it doesn't say that part on the box. But it should.

Today was day one of using them. From the moment I rip open the packet, I immediately promise myself that I will never use another strip for as long as I draw breath. I mean, what is this: No messy gel? A strip that's long enough to cover all applicable teeth? No bleach dripping down the back of my throat? Absolute madness!

And the best part - they stay put. They really do. The "Advanced Seal" wasn't just a gimmick after all. Go figure. Could this be truth in advertising? I'll wait my 18 remaining days and report back if the goo-less strips actually perform as well as their slippery predecessors. But right out of the starting gate I'm really impressed with how well the product stood up to at least it's claim to seal well. 

Next thing you know, they'll come out with a pair of jeans that fit both my waist AND my height.

Haha.
I kid. I kid.

Thursday randomness....

My night was spent taking care of the most adorable little two year old girl. With perfect little blond ringlets framing her face. You should hear her say "rubber ducky". Too precious. And she gives the best hugs ever.

I stopped at Taco Bell on the way home. I know it's crap food. But I'm trying not to think about how much I'm going to miss swinging in for a yummy bean burrito anytime I want.

I'm working from home tomorrow. Which is a blessed thought. A lazy morning with three cups of coffee and the news on in the background while I'm working on spreadsheets....who can ask for more from a work day?

Feeling naked

(something's missing!)

When we first got engaged, I decided that I didn't want an engagement ring. Nothing about it really appeals to me. I don't like how the raised stone catches on every stitch of clothing/bedding/carpet that it comes within a 2 meter radius of.  I don't like how my beloved wouldn't be able to hold my hand without scratching his fingers. I don't like that everytime I'd knock my hand against something I would be afraid the stone might fall out.

Like I said....nothing about it appeals to me.

Well....I'm not opposed to the shiney bit.
But I don't need it.

So I picked out an absolutely stunning silver band which I fell in love with the first time I laid eyes on. I had taken it into the jewelers to be sized two weeks ago. And let me tell you....it has been torture being without it. Which is enormously silly - because, since it's not an engagement ring, I haven't even been wearing it. It's just been sitting in its fancy little box.
But that fancy little box was in my very own top drawer in my very own dresser in my very own bedroom. And for some reason I felt really anxious for it to be back in there.

So you can imagine how fast I drove when I received the phone call today that it was ready for pickup. And....squeeeee!!! The ring fits perfectly! For one blissful hour I allowed myself to wear my soon-to-be wedding ring, imagining how wonderful it's going to be to look down and know that I'm Pete's wife. It was a fabulous sixty minutes.

But after my hour was up, the ring came off. And now it's all tucked up safe and sound in my top drawer once again. Hard to imagine, but if it's possible, now I'm even more excited for my wedding day to arrive.

So long....farewell....all pau

Tonight I drove my friend Danielle to the airport. She's moving back to the mainland, back to landlock and snow and sweater weather.

After we unloaded her fifteen bags from my car and dumped them all on the curb, she gave me a huge hug and promised to keep in touch.

She better! I will miss her.