Feeling old.....

Ok, not sure if it is that I am just getting older, or if some people are really just that clueless, but I ran into a girl this weekend who was of the ripe age of 20 getting ready to get married. Some of her friends threw her a bachelorette party - a night with the girls - and of course served Penis cakes (cakes shaped like Penis' for those picturing something else). They were telling her to cut the cake and pull a Lorena Bobbitt......to which she said, "A What?" She was the youngest of the crowd, so I guess I can't hold too much against her, but it still made me say, Oh Brother! So, I just googled Lorena Bobbitt to see what came up, and sure enough, I am getting old. That famous event took place 15 years ago! So, I can't really blame someone for not remembering something from age 5.

Staying put

I have already had my big trip for the summer to Hawaii, but still feels weird when everyone seems to be traveling except me. My parents leave for California for a week tomorrow morning, Brandon heads out for a bachelor party weekend camping in Asheville Friday morning and then for New Mexico to hang out with some fraternity brothers next weekend, and my brother is packing up and heading to San Diego for six months for work! But, as always I will find a way to keep myself busy. Will still be doing some scrapbooking (gotta finish my Hawaii trip!) and I bought Season 2 of "Sex and the City" - I flew through Season 1 already! And I am determined to make it to the pool some so I can try and hold onto some of my Hawaiian sun - I keep saying I will go, and haven't made it there more than twice so far this summer!

Small World!

Among other things, I have been helping work on a scrapbook for our Interim Pastor who is leaving us next weekend to go onto his next venture in Charlottesville, VA. It has been so much fun collecting pictures from various members of our church and getting to know faces and events that took place before we became members, as well as remembering the fun events we took part in. There are so many wonderful people at our church! Anyway, when I found out that our Interim was going to Charlottesville, I immediately thought about a friend of mine who lives there and works with Greek InterVarsity with UVA. I called and left her a message to say I had something random to tell her (figured she would wonder why I was calling when we haven't seen or talked to one another since last fall when we visited Charlottesville for a football game). She called me back yesterday and we had a great conversation chatting and catching up. We caught up on the usual AOII stuff (as she was a sorority sister from Elon) and what we both had been doing this summer. Then I got to my random fact - the Interim Pastor at our church was leaving and coming to Charlottesville. Well.....it turns out he is heading to her church! When I last saw her she had been struggling with finding the right church home but felt strong about one place and was thinking of joining. Turns out she did join this past May and that is where he is heading. I was able to ease her mind by telling her how great of a person he was, and that I knew he would do great things for their church. We both were just flabbergasted at the coincidence, and said how small of a world it can be sometimes! So, I definitely want to make a trip to Charlottesville this fall - see another UVA football game, hang out with my friend, and visit our pastor at his new church!

Kids!

I look forward to having a baby one day, and raising a child of my own, but I do not look forward to the teenage years. We have some teenagers in our neighborhood who keep causing trouble. The latest was a phone call we got this morning to say that there was a spray painting rampage last night on cars. Someone actually went around the neighborhood and spray painted peoples cars!!!! Brandon and I rushed outside, and luckily we were not one of the ones hit, but I just can't imagine the purpose or desire to do this to someone. Of course it is a kid - who else would not truly understand what they are doing and accomplishing nothing for it. There have been mailboxes damaged, houses and cars egged, signs stolen among other past events. Someone needs to get control of their kids!!!! And if they are not willing to take care of them and raise them properly, than stop having sex and having them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Put a condom on for goodness sake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry, not waking up in a good mood this Sunday morning.......need to get in the shower and cool off and go to church and pray for this kids.

We went and saw The Dark Knight last night with friends. Don't worry, if you haven't seen it, I am not going to spoil anything! This was the first action movie I had seen in the theatre in a long time, and it was really good. It was one of those movies that people clapped at the end when the credits started to roll. Kinda corny when that happens, but just shows a common consensus that we all enjoyed the movie. It was weird seeing Heath Ledger and knowing he is no longer alive, but he had an amazing performance! Seeing the movie made me want to brush up on my general Batman knowledge :) My parents went and saw Mamma Mia last night - and that is on my list to see as well! So many good movies, so little time.......and so expensive too! $9 for a movie ticket and then $9.50 on the junk I bought at concessions!! When your food out costs your entertainment, something is wrong.

More on Hawaii

Day 1 - Thursday - June 26th - Long flight!! 7am - Greensboro to Atlanta, 10:30am - Atlanta to Honolulu - flight was an hour late leaving, so 9 hr flight quickly became 10 hrs! Showed three movies so that helped pass the time, and sat beside a really nice lady who lives in Hawaii and gave me all kinds of tips on where to go and what to do. My brother, Andrew picked me up from the airport, and after getting back to the hotel just walked around and got oriented with the hotel and surrounding areas. Dinner that night was PF Changs and then time for Bed!

Day 2 - Friday - June 27th - Breakfast Buffet for 2 for $60!!! We learned our lesson and grabbed granola bars from the convenience store the rest of the week :) Went driving around the island in the morning to check out some awesome views and figure out places to go. At 11:30 I treated myself to a pedicure at the spa at our hotel.....little did I know it was going to be $75! Oh well, can't top a pedi in Hawaii ;) Hung out by the pool after lunch, and then headed to the Navy base to pick up one of the guys from Andrew's team that was just getting off the last ship that came into port. I was real close to the big big ships, and it was really cool. Unfortunately, weren't allowed to take pics on base. Dinner that night with some of the guys Andrew worked with from Panana City, FL at Cheeseburger's in Paradise. Fun time! And then we ended the night with a treat from ColdStone :)

Day 3 - Saturday - June 28th - Hiking day! Hiked Moana Falls (waterfall that ended up only being a trickle, but still cool to see all the different vegetation), and then hiked Diamondhead. I thought I was going to Die!! We started up Diamondhead around 10:30am and by that time it was super hot already, but the views were worth the struggle to the top. That afternoon we treated ourselves to some relaxation time by the pool and beach, and then had dinner at LuLu's with Andrew's team from Charleston, SC. I had a huge plate of chicken Parmesan that was yummy! Gotta love the carbs after a day full of hiking!!

Day 4 - Sunday - June 29th - Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay - really cool! It took me a while to get used to the mask, and couldn't quite get the underwater camera working great, but enjoyed it! We saw a couple of sea turtles and tons of fish. Thank goodness no sharks!! :) Quick lunch at Wolfgang Puck and then Andrew was off to do some work, so I enjoyed an afternoon of shopping!! We stayed in Waikiki beach, and our hotel was on a strip full of restaurants, hotels and shops. Dinner that night at Tiki Bar (known for their Mai Tai's, so had my first official Hawaiian Mai Tai with dinner....along with a few other drinks!) and then more drinks at LuLu's later that evening. This was our latest night. Most nights we had been in bed by 9pm because we were tired from the days activities and because we weren't sure what else to do at night that didn't involve spending lots of money on drinks. I did good and kept up with the boys, but at 12:30am when everyone else was ready for bed, I was too drunk to sleep!! So, I hung out by the pool at our hotel and call my hubby to say good morning since it was 6:30am in NC :)

Day 5 - Monday - June 30th - A little burnt from snorkeling, and Andrew needed to do more work, so just hung around the hotel in the morning and watched TV and read my book while enjoying views from our balcony. I hit a view more shops that afternoon and developed our underwater camera pics. We decided we needed a good dinner full of veggies, fruit and meat, so went for the buffet at the hotel again. With dinner drinks, our bill still came out cheaper than our breakfast buffet from the first day! We figured since there weren't many breakfast options, they could go up in the price, but just didn't seem right. After dinner, we walked around the strip and took some cool sunset pictures and did what I like best, People Watching!! Later we met up with the Panama City gang and walked around the International Market and then ended up a club below street level and played a round of darts and enjoyed some "normal" music. We loved all the "island" music we had been hearing so far, but it was getting old. So, was nice to just enjoy a normal bar scene. We picked the right night to go, because it was "Broke Ass Mondays" as the theme with 75 cent drafts!

Day 6 - Tuesday - July 1st - Drove up to the North Shore area and took in some awesome scenic views along the way. It was amazing how the color of the water changed at different areas around the island. We had a Hawaiian lunch of Ham and Pineapple Pizza before heading back to the hotel. That night was the Luau at Paradise Cove which was really cool. We went with the Charleston crew (Andrew's team). Lots of good food and entertainment, and experiencing some Hawaiian and Polynesian traditions.

Day 7 - Wednesday - July 2nd - Our last day :( Took advantage of a few more hours by the pool to catch some more rays, and then checked out and headed to the airport for our 3:15pm flight. Again, three more movies to help pass the time. For some reason I couldn't sleep on the plane. Andrew flew back with me, and kept telling me to try and sleep, but turned out he had trouble as well. We landed in Atlanta around 6am on Thursday and then parted and went our separate ways to catch our connecting flights. I landed in Greensboro about 9:30am and was greeted by my sweet husband with flowers ;) Headed home, unpacked, and then crashed! I slept a lot over the weekend, but that was what was so great about coming home and having a long holiday weekend.

I had an awesome time, and can't wait to go back!!

I'm Back!

Still a little jet-lagged and enjoying the long weekend at home........I had a wonderful time!! And the best part was that there were no sibling wars :) he he he, just kidding. My bro and I grew up close, and I was really glad to have this bonding trip with him to reconnect. I feel very very lucky that he spoiled me with this vacation. Anyway......I will post more pics and details of our trip later, but thought I would at least give you a glimpse of the beauty I saw first ;) I miss it already, and can't wait to take Brandon back one day! Speaking of my sweet husband - he greeted me at the airport with flowers, and made me waffles this morning for breakfast!! Happy 4th of July everyone!!