Attack of the ants (and a spider), YIKES!!!

Being that Nick was on leave this past week, we decided that a camping trip was a must. Why we decided to do this in the middle of the hot, humid Okinawa summer is beyond me. We both came to question this later. So on Wednesday, after he reenlisted five more years of our life to the military, we packed our little bitty car to the max and away we went.

Life was good as we traveled for almost two hours to the campsite. We got there and got set up pretty quickly. We only intended to stay one night, but it was still exciting!

The campsite is right on the beach so we decided to go take a swim to cool down. Kara was so excited that she took off toward the water. She usually is kind of skid dish about water, but we've been taking her to the pool a few times a week to get her used to it. She was so excited and you can see that excitement in the pictures.

After we swam, I went to look for shells, while Kara tried to drink some of her daddy's Monster energy drink. That's all we need is a hyped up Kara, she has enough energy on a normal day! I tried to get Kara into looking for shells with me, but she wasn't having it. I was sure missing Maddy at this point, she was always down with shell hunting with me. I found some pretty cool ones to add to my collection. Maddy would be proud!

Dinner time was near so I began grilling the potatoes and corn, we also had steak, YUM! I was surprised how good the potatoes were on the grill. I had never tried cooking them that way before. While eating dinner we noticed some ants on the table, so we had to kind of rush our eating (hence the lack of pic of our food), but it was still very tastee.

Kara and I went and checked out the little park that was near our campsite. She was so funny on the slide, she just likes to sit on it. She also is getting pretty good at climbing the stairs and bridges. She will go a little bit and look back like, "Come on, Mom!"

After dinner, we blew bubbles and then went to watch the sunset. It was so pretty and relaxing to watch. We also enjoyed looking through all the coral for shells! Luckily we had a nice ending to the day because the night had some surprises in store for us....

After the sunset, we got Kara ready for bed. She fought me until her daddy came into the tent and calmed her down. She was out like a light for him in minutes. It always happens that way. So Nick and I made a little fire and roasted some marshmallows. I would have taken pictures, but my camera's battery was dead at that point. It was the first time I ever used this camera, so I had no idea on the battery life. My new camera is really cool being that it is waterproof!!! But on with the story. Not too long after we ate our marshmallows, Kara woke up. It was very hot outside and she was sweating so bad. It was around 9:30 so Nick and I laid down with her. She was so hot and upset that Nick took her to the car to cool down. I stayed in the tent while they were in the car. I looked over and saw a HUGE spider on the side of the tent. We're talking about the size of my fist people. No joke! I wasn't sure if it was inside the tent or not. As Nick was coming back into the tent, I could barely talk to tell him to turn the lamp on. I was so freaked out. Turns out it was inside our tent. My husband was a trooper and killed that massive thing. I wish I could have taken a pic of it to show you, but I was way too horrified to think of anything other than creepy crawling things. When we finally got over the shock of that we tried sleeping again. Kara was still resisting, with the help of the men that decided to play basketball right outside our tent at 10pm. At this point none of us were happy campers. We were hot, we were tired, we wanted peace and quiet. So Nick took Kara to the car once again to cool and calm her down. This time I decided I was so hot I would make myself a little ice pack to sleep with. I then saw that ants had invaded our ice chest. They were EVERYWHERE! It irritated me, but I tried not to focus on it too much. I. NEEDED. SLEEP. Finally at around 10:30-11:00 I think we all dosed off. It was a rough night with the heat and my not wanting to walk to the bathroom that was forever away. We awoke at around 6:30 am to find that our tent had also been invaded by ants. Luckily they weren't on us or our bed, but the rest of our tent was covered. YUCK!!!! We were fed up with the craziness so we cleaned everything out and packed our little car up. We were home by 9:15am and took a nice nap that day. I think we have learned our lesson about camping. DON"T do it during the hot summer or on a rainy day. Ha ha!

Back in action

After a LONG month, I finally got my camera back. I can't tell you how happy I was to get it. As soon as I got it up and running again, I snapped about 100 pictures. Kara now believes that I am the paparazzi. She actually was running from me with her hands over her face this morning. I thought it was funny, but I guess that should be telling me something. But I truly can't help myself. I feel like I missed out on so many pictures during the month my camera was gone. I can't tell you how many times I would think "Man, I wish I had my camera right now!!"

I am SUPER excited about taking pictures this weekend. I have never been able to take decent pictures of the fireworks. However with my new camera, I just know I am going to get some great ones! It snaps pics in like 2 seconds. I am hoping to get some good family pics also. I LOVE the 4th of July. It's one of my favorite holidays. We haven't finalized any plans yet, but I am hoping to make this one extra special. It will be the last one we spend in Okinawa. I am thinking some good food and time with friends will be great. I am also thinking of making a red, white, and blue cake again this year. I will have to post pics if I decide to do so. I hope that everyone has a very happy and safe 4th.

And now for a few pics from the last few days of my crazy picture taking....

Tinkerbell giving Kara kisses. She loves her dog, dogs!
Sitting on her new couch with her Curious Georges. I know it's ugly but she loves it. I am hoping my mom will make a new cover for it soon.

My sweet butterfly girl!

Doing the sign for "Thank you". She is doing so good with her signing. She signs: milk, more, all done, dog, thank you, duck, and eat. We are working on please, juice, and bath now.

Sweet grin!

Pushing her George around in her new stroller! She loves that thing so much, not to mention George. If you notice he's in almost every picture. She always has him with her. He is her comfort, rather than having a blanket or pacie.

My little princess playing in her room

Isn't she precious? I love her in this tutu.

Daddy and Kara playing in her ball pit!

Kara as wonder woman!

Isn't she adorable? Her daddy thinks so!

My baby is growing so much!

My Top 10 Pages

Nick and Kara are so adorable together. She is her daddy's baby. They light up when they see each other!
I love this page for the wording alone, it's so true.....

Some of our family beach pics from November. I love these pics!

These pics were taken in December on my step dad's birthday. You can't tell Kara is adored by them at all can you? Understatement of the year!

When we went to Florida in December my BFF, her mom, and daughter joined my mom, Kara and me for a day of shopping. We had so much fun. I had to title this "Generations" because there was three for each of us. Click to enlarge and read the quote, too perfect!

Maddy is always putting together crazy outfits. Most of the time I would make her change clothes before leaving the house. This particular day I just thought she looked hilarious and she wasn't shy when I grabbed the camera to get some shots of her.

Maddy with her little sister and cousins. The title is supposed to be Super stars, but I didn't see the point in adding the word star with the background paper. This is the simplest page I think I've ever done.

I just love the title, "Fresh from God". Kara had just gotten out of the bath when I took these pics. She is truly a gift from God.

This is from this past Easter. Kara and Maddy had an egg hunt in my in-laws front yard. They had so much fun!

This is actually a two page layout, which I NEVER do, but I just had to do this one. It is one of my favorite ones, I am actually not done with it yet. I still want to add a few embellishments. I am still trying to decide which ones to use, but I had to add it to my post, cause it's just too sweet!

My new year resolution was to do a scrapbook page for everyday of this year. So far I am doing pretty good. For January and April I am short 12 pages total, otherwise I am all caught up on February, March, and May!!! I don't scrapbook everyday (although I want to, life gets in the way a times), but I try to catch myself up when I do sit down to do it. It's my most favorite hobby in the world and my biggest stress reliever. It just calms me like nothing else. I wanted to share some of my recent pages, my ten favorite ones I have done lately. I am open to critics. Hope you enjoy!!!!

To stay in or not, that is the question.....

We've been struggling with the thought of Nick staying in the military or getting out. It's coming down the wire now and we are still undecided. I've tried listing all the pros and cons down, we've had numerous talks about it and still no decision. It's especially hard to decide to get out of a stable life into an unstable one with the economy like it it. But we are both tired of him being gone, tired of him not being here for every holiday. I know that so many other families are without their spouses for longer periods of time, but they aren't me. So that's the leading reason why he wants out. He is thinking of becoming a cop so that he can still help others. I just worry that he won't be able to find a job, since very few places are hiring. Then there's the whole thing with me having to start back to work. The thought of leaving Kara all day breaks my heart. I have never been away from her for more than a few hours. How could I do it all day, all week? I know several mothers do it, but I know it has to be terribly hard. I know if we get out it's going to be a huge lifestyle change. But I would LOVE to have my husband home all the time!! That would just be weird, but so wonderful! So all I can do now is pray that God will lead us to the best possible life we can have right now. I know it will all work out.

The little things

I realized that lately all I post about is my darling little girl, but in all honesty she's my life. Day in and day out I am with her 24/7. My husband is gone for weeks at a time, leaving just the two of us on this little island to entertain ourselves. While I enjoy every second I am with her, I often miss my husband, my confidant, my lover. It's hard not having a grown up to talk to and share my day with. I have told him numerous times that I wish he would do sweet things to let me know he feels it too. He does his best to call me whenever he can, which is pretty exciting (I know some husbands only call their wives a few times while being gone). If he can he calls EVERY day, and sometimes twice a day. (I guess I shouldn't ask for more than a call, right? )This particular TDY he was feeling very sad about leaving. It's nearing both my and Kara's birthdays and he doesn't want to miss them. Plus he knows this trip was the start of several trips in the next few months. It is heartbreaking, it's lonely, and it doesn't get any easier after all these years. So anyway, he wanted me to know that he was feeling the pain, as I was and left me this on our bathroom mirror:

It says "I <3>

I am thankful for a husband that listens and takes time out of his day to let me know he loves me. It is a blessing that I have such a man in my life!

Nick- thank you for all you do! If we haven't talked by the time you read this then I want you to know I am thinking of you, miss you and love you very much. Oh and when you call I have some EXCITING news! Love you!

Some new scraps:click to enlarge!

My mom wanted to see some of the pages I have been working on and this is the easiest way to share them. I have been sticking to my one page a day rule pretty well. I am happy to say I have done 48 pages since I got home from the states. Pretty impressive huh? I am going to apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. I took them in a hurry and didn't take time to edit them, but you get the gist of it. Enjoy!

I apologize that this one isn't turned the right way. I am too tired to change it.