ASK AND YE SHALL RECIEVE!!!

I have been wanting to go yardsaling since I returned from Utah, but because of Mark's busy schedule and our ever changing lives, I have only been able to go once. This is primarily because we live 1 hour from and decent yardsaling areas. I have been saying to Mark for the last few weeks that I would really like to save money this year and try to find most of the boys Christmas gifts at yardsales, and I really wanted to find a 3 in 1 playpen. Mark didn't really want to invest the time to drive an hour to yardsale and then not find anything that we needed, so I have held off and just kept it in the back of my mind.
Yesterday I just kept feeling like I would find what I needed if I went yardsaling this week, so I tried to find someone to go with me, but all my friends were busy, so this morning I begged Mark to go with me and he said ok. We went to 5 or 6 crummy yard sales, and we were about to give up. But I followed the sign to one more sale and guess what?!? They had exactly what we were looking for!!! I was so excited. All the toys in the top picture were brandnew, the still were in their plastic and in boxes! Then we found this great neutral color playpen! Besides these two items, I also picked up a few pairs of cute baby shoes, baby bibs, baby toys and tupperware (a must have in humid Hawaii). I have to say today was one of my best yardsaling days in a long time. I tell you what, the Lord answers prayers no matter how silly they are!!!

One Last Project!!!

I spent the last few days organizing my home and remodeling some of the furniture. This first picture is a picture of our bedroom upstairs. Our upstairs is a loft, but one side is completely open and the other side has a door and is more private: our bedroom. I recently bought the large Armoir that you see on the left of the picture and the padded white chest at the foot of my bed. I found a great posting on Craigslist (this is one of my favorite websites). A military family moved here from Maryland and found that their new apartment would only fit 1/2 of their furniture, so he put an add on Craigslist and I found it!!! I purchased 5 great pieces of IKEA furniture for only $180.00. The Armoir and the white chest were 2 of the 5 pieces, in the next picture you can see two more of the pieces that I bought: a tall book shelf and a hutch book shelf.
This second picture shows the open area of our loft. We have turned it into our office/scrapbooking area. Now with the new bookshelves, we have a great way to organize all of our stuff!!!



And Finally, this third picture shows the remodeling that I did. If you remember my old post, the white furniture that you see in this picture used to be black with a shabby chic finish. I decided that since we were so close to the beach and the carpet was so dark, I would paint them white and change my accent colors to blues and greens. I did throw in the red pillow because I love red!

Getting Ready for the Baby!!!

Only 3 weeks to go!!! Mark took these pictures of me after we got back from a morning walk. I have just a few weeks left so I decided to remodel some of my furniture and organize my home.

Another Cast!!!

Wihin a few days after getting his cast, Henry started playing around with it. I took Henry in for a check up after having broke his arm and my doctor immediately noticed that his cast was too loose. The doctor immediately sent us to the Orthopedic Surgeon to reset his cast. Henry's cast was too loose and his bones were not setting right, so Ortho Doc let henry pick out a color and then they set a new cast. Here is a look at Henry's new cast...it has already been autographed by all his little friends.

The reason you should come visit...

Over the last year and a couple months that we have lived here I have heard the phrase, "oh, we will come visit when we save up enough money..." blah blah blah. I have even noticed the cheap ticket sales to hawaii for 299 round trip from various locations in the US, including Utah. Well, the door is always open and today I thought I would add another reason for you to consider coming to visit us.
On Sunday night, my back went out (pregnancy nerve problems) and George got sick. Because I couldn't even walk, Mark had to get up 4 times from 3:30 am to 5:30 am to clean up mass amounts of vomit. It wasn't until the 3rd puking that I thought I would tell Mark it might be a wise idea to give George a bowl so Mark doesn't have to keep changing his bedding, washing the wall, the floor and the rails of the bunk bed. Needless to say, Mark was exhausted, and I was not any help, so he decided to call in to work. We decided to all sleep in Monday morning; however, we woke up to the sound of our doorbell ringing a few times.
It was our neighbor Kekoa, George's primary teacher. He came to let George know that there were Manta Ray swimming out in the bay behind our home (literally our back yard). So we all hopped out of bed and ran out to the beach. It was the most beautiful sight, the sun coming up, lighting the aqua marine water to show a mother Manta Ray and her Baby playing around in the waves. They were only at most 10 feet from the shore!!! Wish you could have seen it with us...luv erin

Bumps and Bruises...and BrOKeN bOnES!!!

Did I tell you that I recieved the Mother of the Year award? hahahaha...well Today for sure I was placed in the running for it. About 3:00 this afternoon, Henry was running around the house wildly, playing chase with George, and George's friend David. Henry decided to take a flying leap off the landing from the entry way into the living room. Although the drop is only about 3 1/2 to 4 feet, Henry landed awkwardly and then rolled onto his arm.
I knew instantly that he was hurt because he let out a whimpering, moaning cry...(not one I have heard very often in his lifetime). But his injury combinded with his not having a nap today, turned him into a crying, sobbing, whining boy. I tried to find out where he hurt for about 30 minutes, but he refused to tell me, so I just sat him on the couch and let him watch a show...which he then told me he was bored and blamed me for his ultimate boredom. At this point I figured He had just bumped himself too hard and he was over it. Henry was back to his "No Nap" self. So I sent him off to his room to get a book or a toy.
20 minutes later I realized that he hadn't come back from his room and so I went to check on him. I found him laying on his bed fast asleep. Well my suspicion was confirmed, he was only tired and only mildly hurt from his fall.
After he took a 2 hour nap he came and found me in the living room. Although the tears were gone, I noticed that he wouldn't use his left arm. At this point I felt prompted...by my Mom...to take him to the ER.
Once we arrived at the ER, I explained to the doctor that he wouldn't use his arm at all and he was in pain. But to my surprise, when the doctor asked to move his hand around, wave, touch his nose, turn his arm from side to side, he did it all without hesitation. At this point I felt embarssed that I had probably overreacted by bringing him into the ER. But, as I contemplated just apologizing for the false alarm, and sweeping him out of the ER, the doctor lightly pinched the sides of his arm. When the doctor touched a small spot an inch below his wrist, Henry shook and burst into tears again. 30 minutes, and 4 x-rays later, the doctor confirmed that Henry broke his RADUIS clean in half! I couldn't believe it...but I guess from now on I need to listen to my boys a little more.

(Here is sad Henry, recounting where he jumped from and where he hurt his arm)

Labor Day BBQ

If you live in Hawaii, you probably came over to my house today to go to the beach. The weather was perfect, only a few clouds in the sky and the waves were starting to get big enough to ride. Since we moved in a week ago, I decided to invite friends and family over for a Labor day BBQ. Mark and I woke up early and organized the house and the back yard so there would be towels and a place for people to wipe their feet off. The great thing about this house is there is an outside shower so sand doesn't get tracked into the house. Quite a few people showed up and we had a great pot luck BBQ. We started around noon and there were people here until six! George and I just got a little tan, while Mark and Henry were a little pink by the end of the day". I spent most of the time floating around in the waves. While Mark took a break from the beach to play ball with George and Henry. Sorry I forgot to pull out the camera, but I hope your Labor day was great too!

My friend Sarah, a teacher at the high school I taught at, and her sister Rachel, decided to throw me a baby shower. I was so grateful to them, because I hadn't expected a baby shower with my third boy and I had already recieved some wonderful gifts from my great Pleasant Grove Wives Club. I have to say that I am just so thankful for these wonderful women that are such good friends. In fact, I am so lucky to have such amazing, special, talented and great-hearted friends here and in Utah!
I just wanted to say thanks to all my friends on this blog and share a typical "my life" story...

Saturday night, I got ready and put on make-up for the first time in a couple weeks. It seems like such a task to look good when you are enormously pregnant. My cousins Anela and Sarah went with me to the baby shower and when we arrived I was so over-joyed because my friend Sara had bought me a beautiful full orchid rolled lei for my baby shower! The lei just lifted my spirits and made me feel prettier than I had been feeling in quite some time. Well, after the shower started, and all the women were sitting around talking I moved in my seat just a little to talk to a girl sitting next to me (Nadia) when all of a sudden, my self esteem was dashed to pieces...the chair underneath me collapsed to the floor...it had broken in half with the weight of my pregnant body!!! Everyone in the shower stopped talking and just stared...I think everyone was stunned and noone knew exactly what to say. So I just started laughing and then everyone at the shower started laughing and we all had probably a 10 minute laugh of hysterics. So just as a word of encouragement to others, if you are feeling large and uncomfortable with your body, just think, it could be worse, you could be breaking chairs like me!

(Here are some great gals from Hawaii, the famous Carol F., Joni, Jackie, Me, Robin and Sophia)

(My cousin is the far left, Sarah who threw the shower is next to her, she is holding a baby girl, Mariko, in the middle, is the baby's mother and a teacher from the high school, and then Tara and Pualei are in my single mother's club)....(OH, I am not single, but since Mark is gone from Mon-Fri and I only see him on the weekends, I sometimes feel like a single mother)