A close up of Kristen's scarf. This year I also completed two more scarves, four hats, and a poncho. I started a tank top and another scarf, but they'll be completed in 2006. 

This was one of knitting projects for 2005. It was a scarf for Kristen for Japan, but of course I didn't finish it until she was ready to come home. 

2005

As 2005 comes to a close, I can't help but reflect on the year. Heh, I wonder how many other people are writing blogs today about there year end reflections or new year's resolutions...Anyway, it was a fun year with lots of good times and memorable events. Let's see, I made some new friends, bought our first house, became a licensed speech pathologist with letters after her name, got married, went to Vegas twice, went and presented at the ASHA convention and had fun in San Diego. I also learned that I have some really terrific people in my life. Well, I guess I already knew that, but I think that fact really solidified this year. Unfortunately, I also lost some people along the way, but it's okay. I don't have to be friends with everyone and life's too short to spend it with people who are not worthy of your time. Anyway, all in all, it was a terrific year. I was going to post a picture or two of each fun event over the year, but I just realized that I've posted so irregularly that a picture of my wedding and pictures of my Vegas honeymoon's not all that hard to find on my blog. So I guess I'll just post some pictures from 2005 and I'm sure I'll forget to put some good ones in (i.e. Where did my Halloween pictures go? Are they in my laptop or are they just in Lance's pictures on our desktop?).

Summer time fun

Here's some of the summer fun pictures I was supposed to post earlier. I think I needed to look at some fun pictures to give me hope that I will some day have fun again. Ah, it's not that bad but Fall Break is so far away...


Me and Keane...looks like Keane's doing that "big face" thing from high school...or something.

Jaime and Joy...I don't know what they're doing. Dancing? 

Me and Jaime 

Jaime and Joy 

"Keane's" pretty pink purse. Ahh, I'll be nice. It wasn't Keane's. 

Here's a wedding picture that I was gonna post earlier but only got around to doing now. 

Broken Fire Hydrant

Saturday night was interesting and kinda funny. Like it was kinda funny because it happened to me, but it would've been really funny if it had happened to somebody else. Anyway, Saturday night we had Lance's grandma's (does that make her my grandmother-in-law?), 49th day memorial. Afterwards, we went out to the Gyotaku in town and the food was so yummy! I liked that one better than the Pearl City one, but maybe I just had something yucky at the Pearl City one. Anyway, after dinner, Lance and I were gonna drop his mom off at her house and then go meet Jaime and Joy. So we go to his mom's house and go inside. Lance lets his mom's dog out of her bedroom and the dog comes running out and whimpering because she's all happy to see us. So I sit down on the couch and the dog hops into my lap. I pet the dog and all of a sudden feel a disturbing warm wetness on my right thigh. So I think, okay, great I have a little spot of dog pee on my leg and look down at my leg. There was no little spot of dog pee, but a large puddle of dog pee on my leg. And of course I'm wearing pants, so of course I'm stuck with wetness on my leg. So Lance and I go home so I can soak my pants and then go wash them. But that meant that we couldn't really go meet Jaime and Joy because by the time we would get from Pearl City to Mililani to Kalihi then it'd be midnight already. So I call them on the way home and tell them what happened and do you know how they reacted? Okay, so do you think that a) My friends commiserated with me and offered kind words of sympathy? Of do you think that b) They bust out laughing and called me a "broken fire hydrant." Sweethearts, really.

Waah!!!

Waah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Today was the first day of school!!!!!!!!!!!! What happened to my summer? I'm very sad right now. I'm not ready to go back. Really not ready. I don't think I've dreaded the first day of school so much before in my life, even that first day of the second year of grad school. It's different when you're a student, I guess. On a happier note, the first day back wasn't so bad. The meeting at Ike was entertaining and the meeting (different kine) at Kipapa was okay. Lance's first day isn't till next week, so he brought me and Jules lunch and ate with my department.

I was going to post some summer fun pictures, but I can't find my camera stuff. I don't know where Lance put them because they're not in their previous spot (we're rearranging the office). And he's not home so I can't ask him. So then I decided to post some wedding pictures because it turns out that we get to keep our proofs and we'll also get the negatives later. I scanned them onto the desktop computer, but I'm having a difficult time accessing them from my laptop. Lance will probably figure it out, but once again, he's not home. Oh well, no pictures for now.

Anyway, as I mentioned, we're rearranging/organizing the office so I can finally move more of my stuff in. Why I started so late in the summer, I don't know, because now I have to work on it while back at school. Anyway, so although Lance and I have been married for three months now and everything, mixing our school supplies really is the sign that our lives have truly been melded together. Okay, okay, so we're definitely married, we've been sharing everything, and doing our laundry together and everything, but the mixing of the school supplies is really the sign that our lives have been fused into one. See, because those who know me know that school supplies are very important to me. In fact, my smart ass friends in high school used to refer to me as "Office Max." Anyway, school supply shopping was always such a treat and I'm very protective of my school supplies. So me not only sharing my supplies, but actually mixing my supplies and understanding that they now also belong to Lance was...well, it was, like, wow. We're married. Ha, interesting that the combining of school supplies means so much.

Kristen and the Mongoose

So I had a busy Saturday. Lance and I went to the Hawaii Nature Center's volunteer picnic, then he took me to two yarn stores and then to the public library's humangous book and other stuff sale. I'll write about the volunteer picnic a little later, since that's the main reason I'm writing this. Anyway, I liked the first yarn store that we went to in Kaneohe. The prices were decent and the person working there was fairly friendly. I didn't care too much for the one in Kailua, which is funny b/c that's the one that I had been looking forward to going. The library sale was fun as usual. I was quite proud of myself for excercising enormous restraint. I didn't buy as much as I usually do. Lance was happy b/c he found a bunch of CDs. Oh! I found the Shampoo CD, which I didn't know existed. I heard one of their songs (which is on this CD, yea!) in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Movie that came out when I was in high school. Kristen really hated the song and I totally loved it so I bought the single at the time. I can't wait for her to come home so she can listen to the whole CD with me. I think she missed me enough that she'd listen to it with minimal complaint.

Okay, so that volunteer picnic was cool. It was at Hoomaluhia Botanical Gardens in Kaneohe (hence the reason Lance took me to the yarn stores out there). It's really nice out there and I didn't know that you can camp over there. I think that would be cool to camp there. It's clean and beautiful and the bathrooms are really clean. Granted, there's no beach, but it's a good place to camp if you just wanna cruise. Anyway, while I was sitting on one of the benches, I saw a mongoose run by. And seeing the mongoose reminded me of Kristen. And the real reason that I'm posting is to share this fun story about Kristen. Anyway, so Kristen and I used to live together while we were in college in one of the UH apartments. And one afternoon, I came back from class to find Kristen in our bedroom. She was in her "sleeping" position on my chair and she looked a little sad. So before I can ask her what's up, she starts telling me about this baby mongoose that she saw when she came back from her first class. The mongoose was outside, hanging around some cats. And as we all know, cats aren'ts exactly nice to mongooses (mongeese?). So Kristen, being Kristen, gets worried that the cats are going to attack and eat the baby mongoose. She decides that the best thing to do is to pick up the mongoose and take it back to our apartment where she can take care of it like a pet. And I'm like, what? You decided to make a pet out of a mongoose? A germ carrying mongoose? And I start laughing (because really, WHO picks up a mongoose?) and looking around for our new pet mongoose. As I begin looking for our new pet, Kristen continues talking and then I find out why she's so sad. After hanging out with the mongoose for a little while in our room, Kristen had to go to her next class. She couldn't skip her class, but she didn't want to leave the mongoose in our room alone because she was afraid that someone would come back and freak out about the mongoose in our apartment. And I would've totally freaked out because I wouldn't have known where the mongoose had come from. Anyway, so Kristen takes the mongoose with her and puts her new friend in an area where there are older mongooses to take care of it and where it doesn't look like there are many cats. But there are cats everywhere at UH, so then she starts worrying that the cats would find the baby mongoose and attack it. So when I came back to the apartment, Kristen was sad because she was thinking and worrying about her poor mongoose friend who had possibly been attacked by cats. And I'm trying to comfort her, saying that I know the mongoose was okay and there are lots of mongooses in the area that manage to survive the cats, but I have a hard time not laughing while I do it. I mean, our apartment had a mongoose in it for a few hours, who wouldn't laugh? Seriously, only Kristen would bring a mongoose home. I think this is a story to save for Kristen's future kids for when she scolds them for bringing home a pet.

Honeymoon in Vegas!

After two months of marriage, Lance and I went on our honeymoon! Woo hoo, Vegas! We had a lot of fun and can't wait to go back. We did the traditional Vegas stuff like gamble and shop, but we also went miniature golfing (I lost again, by the way), geocaching, AND...wait for it, this is really exciting...yarn shopping!!! My first yarn store!!! It was magical. So many gorgeous yarns and hundreds and hundreds of needles and notions...amazing! I bought yarn for two more projects and needles that I've been searching for. Ahh... We also had a lot of fun driving around Vegas and exploring non-touristy areas. The homes there are huge and it's sickening to think that we could afford a huge single family home for the same amount that we spent on our townhome. The price to pay to live in paradise. Although Vegas was fun and I liked that there were so many things to do and see and shop, Vegas in general is pretty ugly. I would miss the beauty of Hawaii. See, I don't always take living in Hawaii for granted...

Oh! I almost forgot! We (well, Lance) won enough for two ipods! So now I have a new ipod!


Checking out the inside of the Bellagio.

Lance wanted to go in here. No cover! Heh, heh, well, no cover to get in and the girls were wearing no cover. Ha, ha. Anyway, he changed his mind when I agreed to go in. Shucks. 

Our hotel...okay, not really, but wouldn't that be cool? 

Summer vacation!!!

School's over! Sweet! I went in to work today to do some stuff and I had a meeting last week Wednesday, but...school's pau until July! Woo hoo! I can't believe my first year is over already. Ooh, ooh, ooh, I can turn in my CFY papers! CFY's done, done, done! Yea! Anyhow, I'm gonna miss my kids, especially my Ike preschoolers. They're so great. Anyway, here's some pictures of their butterflies from caterpillar week (it was in May, but I just found the pictures). One of the preschool teachers somehow convinced me that I wanted to chrysalis sit over the long Memorial Day weekend and most of them popped out. The last one came out the morning that I took them back to school.



Getting ready to fly away...

One of the preschool's caterpillar turned butterfly 

Almost pau!!!

3 1/2 more days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got choke work to do and only 3 1/2 days (actually less b/c most of it needs to get out sooner) left but..................3 1/2 more days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been 3 weeks! Life is even better than before! 

The Wedding

So I've come to the realization that getting married is an only child's dream. See, when you get engaged then you're showered with attention. And then as the wedding gets closer, you get even more attention as you're busy planning the big event and people throw parties in your honor. And then on the wedding day, you pretty much get all of the attention. Okay, well, you gotta share some of this attention with your mate, but as the bride, you pretty much get the majority of the attention. Plus, you have a handy excuse for acting crazy. Granted, it's less of an excuse as it is a reason, but still. And even when the wedding's over, you still get attention as everyone wants to know how married life is!

So I'm not gonna write about how lucky I am to have found my soulmate at such a young age nor am I gonna write about how fantastic life is as a married woman. No, I'm gonna write about the wonderful friends and family that I have been blessed with. As much as this wedding has been about me and Lance, it really made me realize how lucky I am to have such wonderful, loving people in my life. I had such a beautiful wedding and although Lance and I worked hard on it, it would not have turned out as nice as it did if we didn't have so many people helping and supporting us throughout the way. My friends and family, who have their own busy lives to lead, put me first. My mom lived and breathed my wedding for months. My aunty, who had just finished working on her daughter's wedding, immediately jumped into working on mine. She put just as much of her time and energy into planning my wedding than she had for her own daughter's. I had a fantastic wedding party who helped me prepare for the wedding for months and who put their lives on hold for the week before the wedding. Everyone put so much time into making my day perfect. And it was perfect. Absolutely perfect.

My first two knitting projects 

Knitting

I finished my first two knitting projects during Winter Break. I also started a third and I was making pretty good progress on it when the wedding planning started getting crazy. Oh well. Knit when I can, knit when I can. I'm hoping for more knitting time once we get married.