My Amazing Journey of 2009

Remember the absolutely wonderful adventure my fabulous sister Tori created for me last year, complete with clues & prizes? If you need a refresher, or missed those posts in my um, rather inconsistent posting over the past year (sorry!) check them out here, here, here, and here. I completely left you hanging seven months ago (yee-ikes I know!) as to what happened with my next clue. Well, the clue if you remember said that my next one was at Lanakai Beach. However, Tori actually left it with her friend Eve for safekeeping, along with my very first prize! So late in May, after Eve's husband returned from deployment, I headed over to the windward side of the island to track down my next clue. Here it is!

Remember how mad you were
that they didn't have your size?
Well trust me, they have it
Trim the butt, abs & thighs.

I admire you
and all that you do
so I'm trying to help you
be the best you of you.

One message left now
one final surprise.
Back up Koko Crater
Give it another try.

The "they" she's referring to is a um, ah certain boutique that has a secret. We'll just leave it at that :) So enclosed in the envelope was a hefty gift certificate to said boutique. Yahoo! Which meant even more to me because at that time, my sis was in college with not a whole lot of moo-lah to spend on big ol' me. Anyways, back to the clue. At first, I was like are you kidding me?! Koko Crater?! Again?! She hates me. :) But then I felt challenged. Heck yeah I can do this again. After all, Tori only climbed it once. ;) How'd she leave two clues up there? That smarty-pants took two up with her and hid them both at the same time. Grrrrrrrrr ;) But have I climbed it again in all these past few months? I'm really, really ashamed to say no :(

A lot has happened in those seven months. We went home to visit. Twice. We flew our fur-baby out here. I was consistent going to the gym. I was inconsistent going to the gym. Homesick out the ying-yang. In between all of that I was helping raise the world's cutest lil' man and supporting my wonderful hubby in his crazy job. And before I knew it, it was Christmas. And we weren't going home. I'm not going to lie, the last two months full of holidays has been hard away from home; and I'm extremely grateful we had each other. But I'm tired of making excuses for myself. There really are none. Am I proud of the accomplishments I made last year? Heck yeah I am! I would have NEVER probably taken the initiative to better myself at all if it hadn't been for Tori's "quest." And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that sis! That was my once in a lifetime opportunity & eye opener that I needed. I love you, and I'm sorry I let you down. But here's what I have learned about myself:

I CAN climb mountains. Three times, in fact.
I CAN go down a pants size, and go right back up. (Boo!)
I CAN give up my beloved Mt. Dew. (RIP.)
I CAN get up in the morning and head to the gym.
I CAN run. No, seriously. I didn't think I'd ever like it, let alone do it.
I CAN train for a 5K. The program's called Couch to 5K, pretty appropriate.

So all in all, 2009 wasn't too bad. We moved across a continent AND an ocean, we traveled ALOT, and learned to become our own little family. I hope this doesn't sound corny, but I feel like last year was a necessary stepping stone in my journey to a better me. So here's to 2010, where one of my resolutions is to continue in my weight loss journey, especially before Linz's big day in July, woohoo! :) I am so thankful for friends & family who love me for me, and wouldn't change a thing about me. Love ya! Stay tuned for my very first week of photos for Project 365, I've got some pretty hilarious ones! ;)

OH P.S. ~ I'm hoping to start off the year right by heading back up the dreaded Koko Crate ASAP! Keep your fingers crossed that my final clue is still there! :)

Mele Kalikimaka!

Alooooha! After a very busy month of wrapping presents, mailing said presents, and drying buckets-o-tears, our first Christmas away from home has come & gone. I don't want to wish our lives away, but I can honestly say I'm glad it's over. Luckily we have some fabulous friends who took us into their family for the holidays. On the beach no less. Yeah, ya heard me. Don't be hatin'. Hehe. Kinda like I was when everybody was posting on Facebook about how they were goin' to GG's for Christmas Eve dinner. Homemade potato salad, Mom's chili cheese dip & GG's homemade FUDGE, oh my! Yeah, I was jealous. But I still love you all. :) Here's some pics of lil' man & our casa getting ready for the holidays in our 80ish degree weather. I did have fun decorating our new house for the holidays, last year's holidays were hard to get into since we were getting ready to move. Most of my cheap-o holiday decorating inspiration came from Young House Love and Bower Power's amazing DIY websites. If you haven't checked them out & you're into decorating like I am, you got to head over their way asap! :)



Also, there's some pics of our beautiful island, as requested by one of my fav uncles, Uncle Steve. It was his suggestion to rub it in to all of my snow/sleet/ice-bound, er I mean lucky family & friends who "get" to live back home in good ol' Illinois. So here's to you Uncle Steve :)



This new year brings many changes & new beginnings to our little family ~ just one of my numerous resolutions is to keep this blog updated more, I'm always amazed & excited at who takes the time out of their busy day to check in on us! More posts coming later this week about my other resolutions, and a long-awaited update on my very own "Amazing Race" around Oahu, courtesy of my lil' sis :) Just to refresh your memory, check out my other updates from my "clues" that took me all around the island, right here, here, here, and here. Love you all & wishing you a very Happy New Year!

xo,
Jen

Noah-ablo Picasso

I was brave a few weeks ago and let lil' man paint ~ I threw one of Daddy's old t's on him, he had a ball, and I tried not to care about the mess ;) Picasso he is not, but his paintings are priceless to me! They are even frame-worthy, and I always try to date each one with a note of what he was doing, or what he says it is ;) Enjoy some silly faces by Noah!

xo,
Jen

Best Buds

Noah & Kiki are rarely, far apart ~ they've been best buddies since Bubby came home from the hospital, and our first "baby" loved her lil' brother on the spot :) Here they are hanging out in Noah's McQueen tent that he got from Aunt Tori & Scott last year for Christmas. Sorry for the blurry pictures, our camera was on the fritz & died on Bubby's birthday (of course it did! Grr.) So a new camera that can keep up with a certain now three year old is on our wish list this year from Santa :)


Nap time with blankie ~ can I just say that we totally have a Linus on our hands?! We call him a cross between Linus & Pigpen, since his curly locks totally "hover" around his head.


And here's a parting shot of my two men hammin' it up in the tent ~ sometimes I wonder who has more fun in that toy room, Daddy or Noah .... :)

Hiding out in ... Ft. Willey!

A few weeks ago, we started what has become somewhat of a tradition here at the Willey household ~ fort building! Oh yeah, baby we bust out the giant pillows on the back of the couch (I totally saw this coming when we bought them last year ;), all of our throw pillows, and a blanket or two. Oh, and popcorn. Who knew free fun was so much fun? :) Here's a few shots of our various adventures, via our own living room! :)

xo,
Jen

Family Beach Trip & Updates!

Aloha everyone! I feel so bad for our, er my lack of dedication to this blog ~ I've had friends of friends of family members saying "hey, tell Jen to get going on that blog!" I love hearing that because it means people are actually interested in hearing about what's going on in our tropical, albeit boring lives here in 'Wahee, as Noah would so cutely say it ;)

SO what has been going on? Hmmm where to start...I started this blog as a journal to remember this crazy life by, so I'm going to do just that, including the good, the bad & the ugly. Clint Eastwood,right? My dad would be so proud :) I miss watching westerns with my daddy. Sniffle. :( Anyhoo, well after we arrived home in October, things kind of went haywire with Bryan's work. He is assigned to the 39th Military Police detachment, which was originally a unit created to only work the road, and to give soldiers with numerous deployments a break. With several units coming back, and several dozen soldiers needing that well-deserved break, they are again rearranging his unit. Which means in a nutshell that until they figure things out, the schedule stinks. Period. It's hard to say much around here because there are families with daddies gone for a whole year, and yes that is horrible and doesn't even compare. But with Bryan doing three years of recruiting where we rarely saw him, and now almost an entire year of this in HI where we see him even less, needless to say we are at the end of our rope. Well, I am. Bryan's a good soldier and does what the Army requires of him, but I know he misses us like crazy. We thought any assignment would be better than recruiting, but we were wrong! They say that the schedule should get better in January, but I'm not holding my breath. :) I keep reminding myself that God does have a plan for our family, and he has never let us down or led us astray, so I find comfort in that. And food. And my mom. I think I bug her oh, five times a day with some sob story, or funny Noah-ism, or venting about some toddler indiscretion. Thank you Mom for listening :) Love ya!

Noah and I have been keeping busy with our fabulous friends here, doing fun things and enjoying what HI has to offer. I may not be "happy" here, since I'm so homesick, but it sure does help when you have great friends who accept you for you and all your weird homesickness! :) We've been doing movies, playdates, parks, etc. Noah also just turned 3, and I put those pictures up on Facebook. I promise to do a post here for those of you without FB. What did we do before the internet and such? :) I'll leave you with some pics of a very rare family day this summer on the beach ~ yes it's been a few months since then but I've gotta catch up sometime, right? :) Thank you all for being so patient as we, I mean I slacked on this blog, just know we love and miss you all!

xo,
Jen

Catching up is hard to do :)

Hey everyone! I'm sorry I've been a bad blogger ~ lots of craziness the last few weeks in the Willey household! Let's see, we jetted home in September for a few weeks to spend time with our family & friends, since we're not going to make it home for Christmas :( Darn plane tickets & Pacific Ocean! We had a fabulous time (thanks Mom & Dad, you're the best for putting up with us!) visiting family & friends ~ we ended up sending out a mass email last minute to meet up with everyone one night during our visit, and had a ball hanging out at Eureka Lake with everyone who came. Next time we'll plan it more in advance so everyone can hopefully come! :) Noah had a ball riding Papa's tractor as much as possible, swinging in his new swing, throwing sticks in the creek, and doing all his favorite farm things :)

We then headed to AZ for our dear friend Roza's wedding, where I was a bridesmaid & Noah was the ring bearer. Pictures of that to come, I promise! Noah did pretty well, except for restlessness during the wedding which thankfully everyone (hopefully!) thought was cute :) About halfway through, he was like "my pillow! I want my pillow! I the ring bear!" It's hard to control your laughter when you're in a beautiful wedding :) Anyways, we had a great time and the wedding was absolutely beautiful. I have lots of pics from this summer/fall to add, so I promise I'll be back on here in the next few days! Lots of love and hope to hear from everyone soon!

xo,
Jen