Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

2011-02-16T21:37:00.001-08:00

I am not ashamed to admit I stink at blogging. And so with that said, dear blogspot, you did me well for awhile in sharing with family across the ocean. But now I bid thee farewell. I have a spot in my heart for twitter. And today, I met Tumblr. Short, sweet and direct from my berry. I hope the romance lasts. Because my blogging attention sure doesn't.
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The terrible 2's..

2010-03-25T01:27:00.001-07:00

And the terrible 3's (apparently) have plagued my home. Taken over my sweet little girl and replaced her with a monster. A vile, demanding, screaming, crying, kicking, flailing monster.

She turns 3 in just a few weeks and for the longest time I was so stoked for it because it meant, to me, "Yess!! The terrible 2's will be over soon!" I thought that since she was older and knew how to ask for help or things she needed and knew how to voice her opinion very well that life would magically simmer down. Boy, was I wrong. After recovering from the 4th meltdown of the day, the thought of enduring another year of it hit me like a ton of bricks.

It was then I decided to become a wine drinker. A nice glass of liquid relaxation shall be mine after the day is done and the monster is bed. But the problem here, is that I am NOT a wine drinker. I have yet to taste a glass that made me say,"Mmm. That was delicious." (Or whatever people say after drinking good wine?!) I happened to see Cougartown tonight and at the end the last full glass that Courtney Cox's character had looked sooo amazingly beautiful. So my mission tomorrow is to start my own personal wine tasting. Let the "wine" rumpus begin!
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To tweet or not to tweet?

2010-03-20T02:05:00.001-07:00

That used to be the question. Twitter. It might be the next best thing to me besides facebook (and I am super addicted to FB). A year ago I joined twitter just because it looked cool and I am JUST now figuring it out. I follow the news to keep up, my favorite comedians for that laugh I need to get through the day, and I have recently discovered my favorite bloggers tweet too! I think I'll call the man who invented it my own personal "tweetheart".
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And so we meet again..

2010-03-18T00:51:00.001-07:00

Its been almost a year since I have stopped to blog! A whole year. A lot has happened since then and I'll be ready to sit and let my thoughts out tomorrow. Its been a looong day, momma's tired! It sure is good to be back though..
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Just to fill you in..

2009-05-02T00:28:00.001-07:00

So I realize I have been M.I.A. for quite some time. Alot has been going on in the life and times of our family. We had visits from Nana and some friends, our best friends moved away, (our hearts are still not healed) and Daddy finally made his way back home! And now that he is back, there is even more going, what with he and his baby girl trying to play catch up! I'll just leave you for now with probably my most favorite photo ever of my two loves. I've gotta get back to playing my own catch up on housework since we've been running around non-stop!

The best job in the world

2009-02-03T01:26:00.001-08:00

So what seems like many moons ago, I used to play "mommy" to about 10 little people. Five days a week, eight hours a day. It was fun but boy was it tough. And stressful. Knowing that other people trusted their children to me made me feel proud. To hear the parents say, "He/she just loves you sooo much, Ms. Jasmine!" was awesome. Those kids also trusted in the fact that I was there for them: not just to take care of them, but to protect them, teach them, comfort them, laugh with them, and just be their friend. People would say "Oh you play with babies all day." but it was so much more than that. To be the person to share that moment that a child learns something new, or accomplished something meant a lot.

And it means even more to be that person to my own daughter. I just had a moment where I was thinking about all the people who make a difference in the life of a child. All the mommies, who love with all their hearts, and the daddies too, who sometimes have to do it from afar. And also the childcare providers who take children under their wing and take the time to love them and help them grow. It takes a lot to raise a child. No sick or vacation days, and you're always on call 24:7. But its the most rewarding job there is.
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For just a moment..

2008-12-30T03:18:00.001-08:00

This post isn't to tell you about how christmas went (that's coming!) its just my thoughts right now. I was just taking a minute to count my blessings. So many of us have sooo much to be thankful for yet seem unappreciative of it. Everyday I wake up to this beautiful little girl who reminds me of how truly blessed I am everytime she says "I love you, mommy!". And every morning my husband kisses me on his way off to work, I thank my lucky stars for all God has given me.
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Hooray for Holidays!!

2008-12-10T00:44:00.000-08:00

So, this time last year, Mommy and baby were alone (sorta but not really..we were without a Daddy!) on this island during my favorite time of year. It was Jocelynn's first everything: thanksgiving, christmas, new years. But this year, Daddy is home! And we couldn't be happier!!

We'll start with thanksgiving..Last year, Jossie was a tiny lil thing still eating baby food!! This year...

She fed her own self!!! They grow up sooo fast..And what is christmas without a visit to santa..Last year, she had no clue what was going on, she just politely sat on his lap. No complaints or smile. This year was a whole nother story! See for yourself...
Oh well! Like Jenn said, "It's okay. She'll still get presents!"

Sugar and spice and everything nice

2008-11-05T16:05:00.000-08:00

When I was pregnant, I always said "I don't care what I have as long as he or she is healthy!"
But I secretly craved a little girl so I could dress her up and put pigtails in her hair. So we share makeup and clothes and talk about shoes, purses, boys all that stuff.
I ended up with a semi-tomboy! She loves cars, dinosaurs, motorcycles and all that jazz. I say semi because she still has her girlie moments..and what fun they are!
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Halloween apples!

2008-10-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

So, let me start by saying that although hubby had duty on saturday (which means he stays on the ship for 24hours) Jocelynn and I had a beautiful weekend. Despite the rain. We stayed on town side where it ususally wouldn't rain. But it did. We started on Friday by having some generic family time. Daddy mowed the lawn and Mommy and toddler (she is no longer baby) cleaned, swept, mopped, the usual. We ate dinner at Taco Del Mar which is my new Taco Bell. I LOVE Taco Del Mar and then just relaxed and hung out together. Saturday Daddy went to work and Mommy and toddler went grocery shopping and stuff. That evening, Jenn and Jorden took Jossie and I to watch the airplanes taking off and landing. Everybody knows how toddlers love airplanes! That was pretty exciting! I may have been more into it than the kiddos! Sunday Daddy came home and we joined our extended family, the Schrumps for lunch at genki (sushi revolves around the place! I know!!) and a trip to pick some Halloween pumpkins!

There was a petting zoo, hay rides, and a mini carnival! Jossie was a little unsure of the hayride and kept shaking her head saying "No..Nooo.." But she made it through! The petting of the "nanimals" was fun. (Mommy didn't go in! The goats were a little on the smelly side.) and then came the pumpkins!

Or the apples..as Jocelynn called them.

"Apples!! Ooooh apples! Want this one? This one?" She said. We found our mommy,daddy, and toddler pumpkins and will have a carving adventure tomorrow! Stay tuned, as I am working on a slide show of our Great Pumpkin (er,apple) Adventure!

Quick re-cap..

2008-10-20T01:14:00.000-07:00

It's been quite awhile since I wrote anything ~~interesting~~ at all! Our family has been going non-stop for the last month..Daddy's been out to sea more than he's been home and baby and I have been enjoying the end of the "summer" (can I say that? Living in hawaii is like endless summer!) We've had numerous beach days, tons of pool time, playdates at parks, and of course the end of season sales. (Muahahaha!) So, we've been pretty busy.

(Jocelynn and her cousins Elliot and Kaena )

And now that "summer" is over, I mean even though we're still in our flops and shorts, it is October and the holiday season is beginning.

You can't even imagine how excited I am! Last year, we didn't have a Daddy around for Jossie's first christmas. It wasn't so bad because she was only like 8 months old and had no idea what was going on anyway! She just wanted to eat the bows on the presents! This year, she's grown. I just recently found out that Daddy will not only be in port, but he will be on leave as well!! *Doing my happy dance* Which is awesome because she kinda fell in love with that guy! So much that we had to build a "DaddyBear" for her. She always wants to know where Daddy is, and answers herself with "Daddy.Work.Boat." Went trooped into Build-A-Bear and Jossie picked out her fuzzy companion.

She liked him sooo much she refused to let him go! So, we went and stuffed him, gave him his little stuffed-with-love heart and proceeded to dress our "DaddyBear" so that even when Daddy was away, she would still have something to remind her of him. Here's the end result.

Spiders and pedes and geckos..oh my!

2008-09-24T16:11:00.000-07:00

Okay..so living in the country as we do, I've pretty much gotten used to the geckos that hang out on the walls, the teeny tiny ants that are sooo hard to get rid of, and even (for the most part) the behemoth cockroaches (who try to attack when you go after them!!) that come out of the woods. We won't even talk about centipedes now though! But I have yet to come to terms with the huge brown fuzzy spiders that wander in make themselves at home. In my home.

And they only want to come out to visit when the man of the house is not home!! One night Jr an TJ went out for a night dive and around 1130pm I tip toed my sleepy eyed self into the bathroom. As soon as I sat on the toilet, he peeked out from behind the picture above the sink! Eeek! I almost peed on myself!! So I tried to get the courage to smack him with a shoe..And of course, he got away..

I sat up that night waiting for the boys to come back so somebody could find and kill him!

Jr: "Oh..yea..your good. He left."

Me: "Are you sure?? Did you see him??"

Jr: "Yea..He's gone."

Me: "Positive???"

Jr: "Jasmine..."

So I lived semi-comfortably the next few days only slightly worried about seeing another one.

Until Jr had duty that week.

After I put baby to bed, I go to take my hot, relaxing shower. And there he was.. Needless to say I had to kill him on my own. By far the bravest thing I've ever done.

Since then I have seen only one more, and he was already on his last leg so it wasn't too hard to put him out of his misery. Until (yep, again) today.

I went to clean the filters on the fish tank and always carry on conversation with Jocelynn regardless of what I'm doing. I turn around to look at her as I'm talking to her and notice this big hairy brown scary arachnid perched in the back of the couch behind her! So if you know how creeped out I am by spiders, imagine how I screamed! She looked at me and gave me her big eyes (see picture below) and screamed back at me! She started laughing "Hahaha Mommy!"

Not funny. I have a habit of screaming while I smack the spider with a shoe! She also thought that was funny! So anyway, moral of story: I've got 2 spiders under my belt now (the half dead one doesn't count). I'm feelin pretty dang tough now. That is until the next one shows up.

Toilet Troubles

2008-09-16T16:37:00.000-07:00

No, not mine! So, I don't have any cute pictures right this second but I still had some thoughts on my brain. So I'll share. It's potty training time i our house, finally! And the little gremlin is ready. She says "shee-shee" for pee pee time, and even "poop" for well, poop! She has gone on the potty a couple times on her own and knows when she has to go. Since she spends quite a bit of time naked outside, she always squats outside to pee (like an animal! Did I ever mention she drinks out of the water hose too? Poor girl will grow up like Mowgli in the Jungle Book!!)

Here's where the issue starts. Jocelynn, who talks like a grown up and understands everything I tell her, has begun to squat NEXT to the potty to pee. She will help me take her diaper or panties (yea she has some and they're sooo cute!) off and can even wipe front to back, drop the toilet paper in the potty, flush, close the lid and wash her hands!

But she wants to squat beside the potty and pee on the floor.

The first time it happened, I chalked it up as an accident. Telling her "Uh oh! You missed! Close! Let's try again next time!"

But next time I realized..it was not an uh oh. So while my bathroom smells super good from the citrus pine sol, the poor potty is being ignored.

*Sigh* I guess it's better that it's number 1 and not a number 2,huh??

Another Day at the Beach..

2008-09-15T15:00:00.000-07:00

So yesterday our family decided to take yet another trip to Shark's Cove to spend the day. The weather, as usual, was beautiful. It was the same as it always is. But as we lay under our canopy eating pineapples, I started to wonder..What is Jocelynn going to think when we have to move somewhere else?! The sand, sun, and surf are all she knows!! She has no idea what a coat or snow is! What do I say to her when she grows up and wonders why nobody eats musubis or why we can't just go to Zippy's tonight because Mommy doesn't feel like cooking?? Jocelynn lives an amazing life where she swims anytime she wants, fingerpaints naked outside (yep, and it's pretty funny!) in the place that people only dream of just visiting! What a lucky little girl..and I feel pretty lucky being able to share it all with her.

After months of procrastination..

2008-09-13T15:03:00.000-07:00

At last....the blogging has begun! I thought that since our family moved waaaay onto the other side of the planet, a blog would be nice for everyone who doesn't get to witness firsthand Jocelynn's (and Jr's) crazy antics! So while I get used to this and learn some more, I leave you with the beautiful view from our front porch!