The most amazing date with an incredible man :)

There is no way I can go without talking about our date. I have actually wanted to write about Ben in general. I love him...I really, really love him. We have been together for almost 12 years and married for almost 9! Remind you, I'm only 27. I barely remember a life without him. So many people said we would never make it. But here is why we do...why I love him so much.

EVERYTHING we do is as a team. We both raise our boys, we both clean the house and WE make decisions about what we do and want to try to do together. Ben has changed just as many diapers as I have, he does laundry, the dishes, I don't dust...he does. But this is just the start.

Ben continues to amaze me. I am a very emotionally needy person. I hate this about myself but it's true. I am insecure and get jealous very easily. While I feel like there are tons of reasons for this, it is still difficult to live with. He shows me how much he loves me. When I want to talk he does. Not saying we don't fight but we are open with eachother. We have both learned that the grass isn't greener on the other side. We are very compatible and really have a chance to be the happily ever after. Ben used to think that fairy tales were completely retarded. I think I have taught him that they can be real...you just have to know when to recognize them and fight with all you have to keep them.

With that said...on to our date. We have not left our boys since the Probowl. A night out was WAY past due. Ben first took me to the west coast. We went out on the rocks to sit and watch the sunset. It was so beautiful.

What made this even more amazing is that we got to watch a sea turtle swim around below us! The whole time we were there watching the sunset, a turtle kept popping up and swimming around. It was so fun to watch. Anytime one of us would get distracted, the other would spot him. I can't even begin to explain what those moments meant to me. The little booger was impossible to photograph though. We only had one of the small cameras of which has a LONG delay. So everytime we would try to take a picture he would dive back down. :(

This is the best picture we could get.

After the sunset we went to dinner at Roy's. It is located within the Ko'Olina Resort area. Very good! It is pricey but the food is awesome. I had the macadamia nut crusted swordfish. Mmmm. I'm not even a big seafood person. We had a wonderful dinner and then went and had a few drinks after. I love that after this long we can still sit for hours talking. It is so easy for me to imagine our future. One thing that has helped us along the way is that our dreams continue to be the same. So many young couple grow apart...but we grew together. We really want the same things out of life. I know that when we are 70 and 72, after a day of photography or painting for me and a day of fishing or golfing for him, we will sit on our front porch hand in hand.

For now we are making the most out of the time we have. Our family is precious and we are fully aware of that. Right now I have everything I ever dreamed of. My prince, 3 perfect boys and a life of opportunity. And it has just begun ;)

The nerve!

So I am beyond irritated! Quit frankly I am pissed! While Ben was at work last night some A**hole side swiped his trailblazer. What angers me so much is that they just left. No number left on the windsheild or anything! How do people do this?

Just a few weeks ago, while Ben's mom and Kenzie were here, we went to the North Shore. As I was parked outside a store, waiting on Linda, the car next to me backed up and hit the driver's side of my back bumper. She then pulled forward to readjust, put the car back into reverse. I then stepped out of my car. She saw me and then put the car into park. She was going to leave! She then tried to talk me out of calling the police for an accident report. The nerve of some people!

What happened to taking responsibilty for your actions? For treating others as you would like to be treated? How do you just leave someone to pay for your careless mistake? This is just one of the many examples of proof for how selfish people in this country are today.

If this was a vehicle that we were planning to keep for a long time, we wouldn't worry so much. But, this is a temporary vehicle. We are going to sell it before we leave the island. How are you going to sell a car with the entire driver's side scratched and the side mirror broken? So now we get to make ANOTHER claim to our insurance and pay the deductible...for something we DIDN'T do!

Ok...there is my rant. I'm finished now. On to better things.

I got my rings back in the mail today! It is so weird. A diamond feel out of my wedding band so I sent them back with my mother-in-law to take them to Gordon's for me. So I have not worn them in almost a month. I have found myself staring at them just like I did after getting them the first time. I remember how much hope I had then. When we got married we couldn't afford the engagement ring. So we bought the band to go with the engagement ring that I knew I wanted to complete my set. In no way did I want another ring to wear until I could upgrade. I wanted to wear only one set of rings for the rest of my life. So after we got our bonuses from the army, Ben bought my engagement ring. About 13 months after we were married. Because he never really proposed, he did then. In our living room with candles lit, music playing. It was so sweet. We had just found out that I was pregnant with Blake a couple weeks earlier. this was our family's begining. :)

I have been praising Hunter a lot lately. I just can't stop. He is still being the hard headed, rule breaking, full of life boy. I even caught him trying to spray ant killer on Blake today. Ugh! But...his little brain has just amazed me lately. It is like all of the sudden a light bulb went off. He was really struggling to make some of the connections is needed to read. If I sounded out a word he could hear the word. But he couldn't sound it out himself and here it. In the last week he has figured out blending. He is so excited to read new words. He also has figured out what rhyming is. He constantly asks me, "Mommy, does rat and cat rhyme?" or "Does noodle and oodle rhyme?" I am so excited. He gets it!!!! Now he is just soaring. I don't want it to stop!!! He has also had a huge nonacademic accomplishment. The training wheels are gone!!!! Ben has been fighting him on this for months. He refused to ride without them. So Ben bend them back as far as possible, so they weren't really doing anything anyway. Ben finally talked him into letting him take ONE training wheel off. Hunter tried that once and then asked for the other to be taken off as well. He took off the first time!!! He has been riding nonstop ever since! My Hunter man is growing up!!! :)

Update on Parker: The blisters and spots are looking a lot better today. His running nose on the other hand is insane! Like his big brother, his mind is just exploding too! He has discovered books. :) Constantly, over and over he brings you books. He listens, looks at the pictures and then watches your mouth as you sound out words or make animal sounds. He is very fond of the cow and the cow amazing "MOOOOO"! ;) I love it. He is making so many more sounds. He can also point out your nose when asked. He is saying momma...just not when asked. Little stinker! He has develop an odd fascination for shoes. When hanging around the house, he is almost always wearing a, yes A, shoe. He even comes up to you saying "shoe, shoe, shoe" and holding one of his sandals. So cute!

Everyday my children amaze me. Everyday I feel lucky to have the life that I always dreamed of. Even with the a**holes of the world. :)

Poor Parker!

My sweet little boy has had such a rough week. Last Tuesday it all started. He woke up several time throughout the night just crying. I couldn't do anything to get him to stop. Wednesday he cried almost nonstop all day. He had a low grade temp and just acted really uncomfortable. Pretty much the only thing that would get him calm was a Popsicle! I knew it was his teeth. He was trying to cut 3 molars and his bottom 2nd tooth on the right. So 4 teeth all at once!!!

It didn't stop there. Thursday morning he woke up and had small, un-raised red spots on the palms of his hands. Later I started noticing them on the bottom of his feet. The fever was completely gone by this point. He acted more like himself. But what are these spots. We kept a really close eye on him all day. I REFUSE to be one of those moms who takes there kid to the doctor for every little thing. So we agreed that if it started to spread, the fever came back, or he acted differently that we would call the doctor. He was fine all day.

Friday morning we woke up with huge blisters on his fingers. I thought he was having a reaction to ant bites because he played in the yard the night before. But then I saw that the spots had spread up his legs. So I called the doctor. Poor guy was diagnosed with Hand, Foot, Mouth disease. :/ We suspected it but I never knew it could blister like that! The doctor said that he was most prone to getting it most likely because of the teething stressing him out and affecting his immune systems. Blake and Hunter still play with him like crazy and neither have gotten it.

Today was the first day that the spots looked like they were starting to heal. But now the poor guy has the worst running nose EVER!!! I am wondering if the teeth are starting to move again. Only one of the molars and the bottom front tooth decided to actually pop out last week. So we may still be fighting those other 2 molars. :(

One up side, as much as I hate canceling plans, we now have some down days to let him recover. Maybe tomorrow I will finally scrub my toilets! ;)

2 side notes:

1. My wonderful other mother had a successful knee surgery today. We are wishing her the most speedy recovery!

2. I hate when Ben works nights!!!

Rewind....

It was so good to be a tourist for a couple weeks. We were able to do so many things that I kept putting off. We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, USS Arizona Memorial, Swap Meet, Valley of the Temples, Turtle Bay, North Shore, Ko'Olina Lagoons, a couple different beaches, and went on a few hikes. I enjoyed everyday. There are a few that really stood out though.

The USS Arizona was a mixture of so many emotions. It is unreal to imagine this amazingly beautiful, peaceful place under attack. To think of the horror that was felt that day is heartbreaking. The think I found to be odd was that as I walked through the museums and memorial, I was angered seeing Japanese people there. It was a part of their history too but for some reason it made me angry. Is that horrible? They are now an ally of ours. They are now dealing with a tragedy of their own. But when you are there, looking at all those names of fallen soldiers, it really takes you back. I would give anything to bring my Grandpa back and be able to go there with him. I wish I could here his story...from him.

My all time favorite was our hike to Manoa Falls. The hike itself is beautiful. You hike through a bamboo forest. The trees are incredible. We even saw wild parrots. It is exactly what I pictured a hike in Hawaii being. The waterfall was so-so...but the hike was awesome.

I still can't believe that my baby is a year old. I don't want the rest of his life to go by as fast as this last year. I know that we are done having children...but I just don't feel like I'm old enough to be at that stage of my life. I look at the boys and it just amazes me how quickly the years have gone by. Blake is going to be 7 next month! How is that possible? I haven't updated about the older 2 in a while.

Blake continues to enjoy anything sport or outdoor related. He is so active. He is still my sweet, cuddly one. He adjusts so well to our military life. They have made so many friends on our street. He is doing really well with home school. His reading amazes me. I was never a strong reader, so I love that he has picked up on it so naturally. At first he seemed to struggle with math. Now he is doing really well, with the exception of addition facts. He has always impressed us with his memory. So why is it that it seems unable to memorize addition facts? So frustrating. He uses his fingers for EVERYTHING! He is really struggling with spelling. It drives me nuts because I know that if he would just slow down while he is writing that he could do better. It's a constant race for him though. Who is he racing? In the end, I think I am just too tough on him. I think my expectations are too high. We won't tell him that though. ;)

Hunter is just as silly as ever. I LOVE how he can make any situation he wants, a funny one. Everyday I see Ben in him. He is hard headed, full of life, impossible to deal with one second...and then makes you laugh the very next. Hunter can always make me smile. He started Kindergarten a couple weeks ago! He had finished all the pre-school curriculum and was so excited to start. So I figured there was no reason to wait. So far he is doing very well. If he tries hard throughout the day, he earns a sticker. When he has 10 stickers, we all go out for ice cream. We went today! :) So proud of him.

Blake and Hunter start flag football on the 23rd!!! I can't wait to be back in sports again. It has been so weird not running to games all the time. They are still going to Karate twice a week. We will see how the juggling of both goes. :)

Now that things are slowing down again, I am hoping to get back into a pretty steady schedule. The last couple days have been a little tough. Parker is cutting 4 teeth!!! 3 back teeth and 1 front one. He is a constant faucet and extremely whiny. I have to admit though...he is way more spoiled than he should be. Momma's baby :) What else can I say?

I should be better at posting the next month. Ben started nights tonight. I HATE nights. I avoid my bed because the thought of going there alone is depressing. I know it's not healthy to spend every waking second with someone...but I want as much time as possible. Even when he drives me crazy, I want him close. Anyway...I'll be talking to you soon. :)