First Pinterest Project

I finally found the time and motivation to actually make something that I found on Pinterest!  This was one of the first things I pinned and I knew it was something I could actually do and that I would love to have in my house.  

This was my inspiration.

I changed a few things from the tutorial just to make things easier for me.  Here's what I used:

- Canvas

- Scrapbook paper large enough to cover the canvas you choose

- Mod Podge

-Paintbrush

- Scissors

It's actually really easy to make.  All you do is cut the scrapbook paper to fit your canvas.  Cover the entire canvas with a thin layer of mod podge and carefully put the scrapbook paper on.  Then, put another thin layer of mod podge over the scrapbook paper to seal it and give it a glossy look.  Let it dry, hang it on the wall, and your done! 

Here's my final product.  I plan on adding a few more blocks eventually, but I love the way it turned out!

Helmets Save Lives

Since he's moved to Colorado, Cory has become a snowboard fanatic.  This isn't surprising being that he loves surfing and bodyboarding and doing things that give him a thrill.  Another thing that isn't surprising is how fast he picked it up.  Cory's one of those really annoying people who are good at almost everything they try.  He's only been snowboarding about 10 times and he does all kinds of flips and jumps and tricks.  So since he's crazy and does those things, we went out and bought him a helmet a few weeks ago.  And thank goodness we did because helmets seriously save lives.  How you ask?  Let me tell you...

Cory went snowboarding with some friends on Thursday since they were on spring break.  It was just a normal day and he was doing what he usually does when he goes boarding.  A few hours into it, Cory and his friend were at the park place with all the tables and ramps and rails practicing their jumps and stuff.  Cory went up a ramp he always goes on, but this time something went wrong mid-air and the next thing he knew he slammed on the ground head first and found himself gasping for air.  He doesn't remember much after that but this picture helps explain some of what happened.

I had no idea how bad it was until I saw this picture.  The EMT's or whatever they are had to come get him and take him down the mountain in this thing!  Crazy, huh?!?  They checked him out and asked him a few questions that he didn't know they answers to.  Hahaha.  He didn't know who the president of the US was and he told the guy that he was from Denver.  His friend also had to help him remember his age.  Oh boy.  They told him he would be okay with rest so they advised him to be done for the day and just relax.  But being the person he is, my husband headed straight back up the mountain and did a few more runs.  I know, he's crazy.  He has a few tender spots and a pretty big pressure cut on his temple, but other than that, he's doing pretty good.  

I'm so grateful that my husband is fine and has no major injuries.  I'm grateful for the power of prayer.  For some reason, I prayed twice for my husband's safety this day and I know that Heavenly Father kept him safe.  I'm grateful for our friend who took care of my husband and stayed by his side the whole time.  And lastly, I'm grateful for helmets because they really do save lives.  

Working Woman

That's right...this woman is working!  Full-time!  It's not my ideal elementary teacher job, but it is a teaching job.  Instead of elementary kids, I work with little ones...really little ones!  I work at KinderCare which is sort of like a pre-school/day care center.  They take babies from six weeks old until kindergarten age students.  There's about 9 different classrooms and the kids are separated by age.  My first day was last Friday so this past week was my first full week.  It's very different than what I'm used to, but I'm liking it so far.  I've been working mostly in the pre-school classroom and I've had a couple days with the little babies.  My days are full of crying, biting, tatle-tailing, hugging, glurch, dinosaurs, glitter, glue, cleaning up messes, paint, diaper changing, runny noses, hungry kids, and so much more.  Let me tell you, I am definitely beat at the end of the day!   I was kind of nervous when I first started because I have no training in being a pre-school teacher or anything but it's not too bad.  My co-workers have been really helpful and I'm so glad I have a huge family with a lot kids because I would be freaking out if I hadn't been exposed to runny noses, poopy diapers, and biting children all my life!  Like I said, this is very different from what I'm used to and what I want to do, but for now this is paying the bills so this is where I need to be.  So for now, I'm going to put all I've got into this job and learning how to be the best pre-school teacher/care taker I can be :)

Nuggets vs. Clippers

Remember those tickets Cory got me for Christmas???  Well, game time finally came and we got to go to our first NBA game together!  The game was at the Pepsi Center and our seats were way up high in the upper-level section.  We still had a really good view of the game.  It was pretty exciting being at a NBA game and being surrounded by all the crazy Nuggets fans.  I didn't realize how junk it is being the away team.  Nobody cheers for them and they get boo-ed left and right.  And poor Blake Griffin...he has some big time haters.  Lol.

Anyways, here I am outside the Pepsi Center.  Like 30 minutes after this, the place was packed and there were crazy lines.  I'm glad we went early.

They have these really cool headless things you can take pictures with.  Mines is kinna lame but Cory's looks pretty real. 

This is before the place filled up.  A few of the players were warming up on the court.

And this is just before the game started when they were announcing all the players.  It was just like you see on tv and in the movies.

It was a really exciting and super close game.  The score was 109 - 105.  It got crazy towards the end of the game and everyone was on their feet the whole last half of the fourth quarter.  It was pretty intense and I got into it.  Haha.  It was sad watching how bummed everyone was at the end of the game.  But on the bright side...Tim Tebow was watching the game too!  He had a courtside seat of course.  I think he was probably the most famous person there so I thought that was pretty neat.  I was gonna introduce myself but Cory said I would probably get arrested, so I decided not to. This game was a super fun experience and I hope we have lots more like it while were here in CO!

White Coat

On Saturday, Cory had his White Coat Ceremony!  It's a pretty big deal for pharmacy students.  It's when they receive their white coats which symbolizes their transition from pharmacy students to student pharmacists.  Now that Cory has his white coat, he'll be able to go out into the real world and apply the things he learns in class to actual patients in real pharmacies.  Twice a week now, he'll be working in a pharmacy, counseling patients, and dealing with real pharmaceutical duties!  Like I said...pretty big deal, huh?!? 

Here's Cory getting his white coat. 

The proud wife.

Cory and some of his friends.

Cory and his Hawai'i classmates. 

It was a really nice ceremony and I'm glad I got to be there to share it with him.  Cory's excited to go out and see what it's really like to be a pharmacist.  And now he only has 3 1/2 more years till he gets that real white coat ;)

12 for 12

I know this is kind of late into the "New Year", but hey...better late than never, right!  Anyways, at the start of every year, my mom would have us all sit down and right resolutions and goals for ourselves.  Even though I forgot about most of the goals I set by February, I'm really glad she made us do it because it's something that stuck with me and made me understand the importance of setting goals.  So this year is no different.  Since it's 2012, I decided to set 12 goals for myself.  Here they are:

1.  Find a job as an elementary teacher.

Now that I'm graduated with a degree, I really want to have my own classroom and start teaching.  It hasn't been easy with the move to Colorado and the transferring of teaching licenses that I need to do, but I will be a full time teacher here by the end of the year!  And...we really need the money.  Haha.

2.  Attend the temple at least twice a month.


Attending the temple with my husband is something I really enjoy.  It brings blessings to both those we are doing work for and ourselves.  It allows me to keep the right state of mind and I'm reminded of what I need to be doing to go where I need to go.  Attending the temple isn't as easy here as it was when we lived in La'ie, so we're really gonna need to make it a priority to get there as much as possible.

3.  Have personal and family prayer daily.


My personal prayer has been going well, but we need to work on our family prayer.  I also need to make more of an effort to get on my knees and pray rather than say it while I'm laying in bed drifting to la-la land.

4.  Study my scriptures.


I emphasize study because I need to do more than just read.  I need to start taking what I read, turning it into understanding, and apply it to my life.  Not as easy as it sounds.  So I decided to start with the Book of Mormon (again, lol) since it's easier to understand.

5.  Be a better blogger.


I'll admit...I'm a pretty lame blogger.  But this year, I will be better.  Especially since I'm living so far away from home.  I want to document our new lives here for me to remember and for my family to read so they know what we're up to.  I started by changing the look of my blog :)

6.  Be more patient and kind, especially with my husband.  Stop with the "you's", more of the "I's"


This is a tough one.  Both my husband and I have really strong personalities.  And we both hate being wrong.  So you can imagine what happens when we disagree or have an argument.  I blame him, he blames me and we keep going around in circles.  Rather than telling him what he needs to change or what he's doing wrong, I'm gonna try to step back and look at myself.  Like I said...this one's tough ;)

7.  Get crafty.


I'm addicted to Pinterest.  I love browsing through all the neat crafts and DIY projects.  There's so many cheap, easy ideas that would add so much to my home!  I already know what my first project will be and I'm just waiting till I get a job to buy the materials I need.  I'm really excited to get crafty and pick up some DIY skills.

8.  Brush up on my photography skills.


Three Christmas' ago, I got a DSLR camera.  It was the only thing I really wanted because I loved photography and I wanted to pick it up as a serious hobby.  I had big dreams to start a portfolio and eventually get clients.  Yeah...epic fail.  For about a year, I read a lot of books and took a lot of pictures to practice.  Cory's naturally good at a lot of things (annoying, I know) so of course he took some pretty amazing pictures.  He taught me a lot and I got kind of good.  Haha.  No matter how good I was, I loved it.  And I still do.  So I want to pick it up again and learn more.  There's still hope for me to one day be a side-job photographer.  Lol.


9.  Create a budget and follow it.


I'm jobless.  My husband is jobless.  Enough said.


10.  Exercise more.  Much more.


Exercise is not my friend, but I so wish it was.  I envy those people who actually enjoy working out.  My life would be so much easier if I loved it.  And I might even have a bangin' body!  But I don't, so I need to make exercise my friend.  Swimming is the only type of work-out I truly enjoy so I need to go find some indoor pools around my house.  Then maybe I'll make some progress.


11.  Become a better cook/baker.


I love baking.  I like to cook, but I love to bake.  Mostly cause I have a huge sweet tooth and I get to eat the yummy things I bake :)  But also because I think it's so neat that you can make all kinds of different delicious things that make people (and their tummies) smile!  So this year I will bake more and build my recipe book as a chef.  Maybe I'll put up some pictures of the things I make.


12.  Coupon!


I want to be a krazy coupon lady.  If you want to be one too, you will learn everything you need to know here.  I'm a beginner and I'm really excited to get started.  It was kind of hard to coupon in Hawaii, but it seems like there's much more opportunity for couponing here in Colorado.  It seems like a lot of work but the savings seem so worth it!  Maybe I'll get to the point where the store ends up owing me money!

I'm going to try really, really hard to accomplish all of these goals this year.  It won't be easy, but if I do it, my life will be just what I want it to be.  I'll become a better person and develop new skills and possibly talents.  This new year will be full of change and new things, so I'm excited to get out there and put these goals into action!

A Hui Hou 2011!

The only thing I really wanted for Christmas this year was to be with my husband again and enjoy the holidays with my family. I must have been a very good girl this year, because I got that and much much more! This Christmas was a little different because Cory and I spent Christmas with his family this year. This was my first Christmas away from home. It wasn't easy, but I survived. It was kind of hard to swallow the fact that this will be the first of many split holidays. It turned out to be a very nice, mellow Christmas. Yes different, but it was still Christmas spent with family.

One thing I loved about being at Cory's for Christmas is that we got two Christmas'!!  When we got to Maui on the 28th, we opened all our presents there.  We both got some pretty good gifts.  Lots of clothes.  Especially cold weather clothes.  Cory got me some pretty good gifts.  He got me tickets to a Clippers vs. Nuggets NBA game, snowboarding goggles, and gloves.  I'm super excited about the NBA game.  

Cory's been wanting a palaka shirt for a really long time and I finally found him one thanks to my girl Kapu and the Hawaiian people of Kona who sell palaka like nobody's bizz.  He said he's gonna wear it on his first day back to school :)

Christmas came and went and New Year's came rolling around the corner.  The year flew by so quickly and so much happened within this past year.  I was really happy I got to spend New Year's with my family on MAUI where fireworks are legal :).  We stuffed our faces with Hawaiian food, blew tons of fireworks, and rung in the New Year together.  I wouldn't have had it any other way. 

2011 was an amazing year that ended on the perfect note.  Here's some big things that happened this past year:

1.  I lived with Cory for the first time.  We we're all on our own in our little TVA apartment.

2.  Cory and I went on our first real vacation together.  We went to Denver and Disneyland!

3.  I moved home to Maui to do my student teaching and Cory moved to Colorado to start pharmacy school.  It wasn't easy being separated, but it was well worth it.

4.  I graduated from college with a BA in Elementary Education and a minor in Hawaiian Studies.

5.  I was a wife for a whole year!!!

Lots of big things happened in 2011 and I'm excited to see if 2012 is gonna top it!