Four Truths and a lie: Winner

So have you been wanting to know the lie?



Bet you haven't been able to sleep at night wondering if your guess was right or wrong.





I can't believe I was able to fool y'all.





Yeah right y'all know me too well....I will get you next time my pretty and your little dog Toto too!!!



So like I said I would put your names (decided numbers) in a hat and draw it. And the lucky winner is......





Lucky NUMBER 3 (kind of funny its my favorite number) and that is....(have to check my comments.....) it is Melissa P. Look in your mail for a little something Hawaiian.


Thanks for playing everyone!

Monday Mumblings: A little bit of EVERYTHING

T-Rex:

OH MY GOODNESS, this little boy could be the poster child for Energizer batteries, he keeps going and going and going. IN the last 24 hours, he has:

• put almost a whole roll of TP in the toilet
• threw clothes in the toilet
• climbed in the toilet ( you think the door would have been locked by now.)
• climbed into the shower with clothes on and completed soaked himself, with the help of a 3 year old sister who knows how to turn the water on.
• dumped crayons on the floor, not once, nor twice but 5 times...how does he keep getting them?
• climbed on the kitchen table and knocked water on the floor (left water glasses on the table, at least we use plastic.)
• spilt milk on the laptop
• dumped a bottle of water on the carpet
• dug food out of the trash (i promise i feed him)
• pulled a poopy diaper out of the trash can and opened it and spread it all over his feet and hands...probably tried tasting it....
• threw an orange off the balcony
• and he slept in until 8 this morning...i guess the last day pooped him out.

Blogs:
I recently sat down and helped a friend start a blog. She wrote several posts, and then got a little frustrated that she couldn't write every day and felt like no one was reading it and thus deleted it.

It is interesting to me, this whole bloggerhood thing because it truly is its own community. The blog world kind of reminds me of high school. It is filled with all kinds of clicks.

• There are the "cool" kids, who for some reason draw thousands of readers and comments, they aren't necessarily any better at writing than others, but some how their coolness has typed through to the blog world.
• Then there are your geeks, that blog about tech stuff or other non personal information.
• You have your introverts, that write about their deepest darkest secrets, and keep to themselves.
• Then there are the class clowns, you just read and laugh at all the things they are poking fun of in their lives.
• There are those on the yearbook commitee, who like to post pictures and capture their events.
• There are the jocks who post about their running and other exercise regimens.
• You have the cheerleaders, who seem to be able to do it all and keep on smiling. Their posts seem so perfect and happy.
• You got the goth groups, all dark and dreary, and wow is me.
• You have the International group, sharing their learning of different cultures and travels.

Anyway I am sure there are ton more types of bloggers, and some sort of mix. But my point is, what ever reason you write, or when you are able to write, it should be for you. It should not matter what others think, or if they comment (though it does make you feel good to get comments) but for your personal records.

I am just amazed at the world blogging has opened to me. I have been able to meet people I would have never met before. I have been able to learn things about people I don't think I would have ever learned on a personal level.

My words of wisdom here? Blog when you can. Blog what you want. And don't get caught up in comparing yourself to other bloggers. Do what you can, be you.

LIFE:

I think I fell off my life raft and am holding on to my life jacket floating in the ocean riding up and down with the waves, unsure of when my boat is going to come back and pick me up and take me to my destination. Heck I don't even know where that destination is and what my boat looks like.

We are here, for a few more months. And then what? We don't know. It is crazy. We are at a point where we could end up anywhere in the world. I have thought about taking out a world map and just throwing a dart and going there. There are few things keeping us from doing that, like MONEY and well thats about it.

We possibly could end up back in Austin, but Eric feels unsure about what is going to happen with his company and his job there. The kids want to stay here, and I actually wouldn't mind living here, it is so beautiful and well yeah it is just beautiful and everything is so close, but it is SO EXPENSIVE. With the fact that Eric shows up after we are all asleep and leaves usually before we wake up, he hasn't had much time to even look for other work opportunities.

So anyone have any suggestions? Know of any great places to raise a family? Cost of living low? Job market fairly stable?

I am all over the place here.....

Ok off to take care of the kids.....
.

What is Grosser than Gross?

What?? you ask--

Your one year old picks up a mud covered rock, and starts to chew on it.

Whats grosser than that?

You pull the "rock" out and discover it is a slug.

What is grosser than that?

Not only are your hands slimy so are his and his mouth.

What's grosser than that?

After you rinse off in the pool (closest water at the time of incident), you then shower off, and come home and use soap and water, and your hands still feel slimy.

What's grosser than that???

What his mouth must feel like!

Slugs aren't poisonous are they?

Ramen Noodles, Ramen Noodles

Some woman are dripping with Diamonds, some woman are dripping with pearls....I am dripping with KIDS and ramen noodles!

Yes it is only a little before 9 am and my house is dripping with noodles.

How??

Why??

Well for one, I haven't been to the grocery store in about two weeks, and pretty much all we have left are ramen noodles, which the kids wanted to eat for breakfast.

For some reason we were running on slow this morning, maybe it had to do something with the bed hopping and floor sleeping spots fights in the middle of the night. We were a little behind today. So instead of putting their bowls in the sink before running out the door, the bowls stayed on the table.

T-Rex who is beginning to earn his name--as he is right now on top of the file boxes screaming..just a second....got him down...no wait back up.....---likes to explore his environment. While I was helping Two go potty--yes she potty trained this week--he grabbed a bowl of noodles off the table, walked to the front entry and took some crayons and mixed them together and then dumped them all over the floor. Well at least that is what it looked like.

Just another second he is on top of the copy machine pulling down the blinds.....

Then faster than I could catch him, he climbed on the kitchen table, dumped another bowl of noodles and juice, guess the kids weren't totally hungry. Once it was sufficiently on the table, I grabbed some paper towels to wipe it. Though he was faster than I and began to swoosh it off the table, splat in the water with his hands, then get down on his belly and slide through it across the top. I caught him before he could slide off to the floor. At least I am not totally slow on my feet.

So instead of finishing cleaning up the mess....I decided to write about it. But in the mean time, he has pulled all the paper out of the copier, climbed on the copier a couple of times, colored the top of the copier, climbed on top of the file boxes...and now he is on the entry floor cleaning up the noodles...well lets just say another little snack....

Ok better get the noodles up before the bugs decided to come and help clean.

T-rex just pulled out the camera, maybe he thinks his morning art work is worth picture taking. Nah...Time to clean up.

Did I mention too they are roofing today and we are on the top floor....and Eric has been missing for about a month now, his clothes have shown up in the hamper but no real sight of him...I am tired...and need to go to the store...T-Rex doesn't like shopping. I think it has to do with the straps and a cart that he is suppose to stay in.

Scenic Hawaii

I am just playing around with Picasa, a free photo thing. I really like it. You can do a bunch of cool things with your pictures. Though I didn't do anything to these photos other than put them in a movie. Eric's work is having a big Hawaiian dinner and he thought it would be fun to do a slide show of Hawaii. I took a bunch of scenic pictures with his camera and well searched through our family's archives this morning, thus this video was born. I probably should have flipped some pictures, and some of the pictures come from my cell phone. Anyway, here you go.


SIDE NOTE: if you didn't notice there is no video...for some reason it didn't upload. So for your viewing pleasure....a photo collage, one of my favorite little tools with Picasa.

Wordless Wednesday: Morning Walk with Kids

I took the kids for an early morning walk, to try and see the amazing fish I saw on Monday, unfortunately the tide wasn't as low and the water was all murky. Who knows if I will ever be able to see that again. The kids had a blast walking before school. We watched the sun rise over Koko Head Crater.

We were even followed by four ducks. I thought for a brief moment of changing my blog title to 4 kids and 4 ducks but changed my mind.

Monday Mumblings: My Morning Walk

This morning as I was walking with my kids I saw :

and

and



and


and



and some more really cool fish. It isn't every day that you can go walking and feel like you are snorkeling. The tide was really low this morning, and almost back up when I returned to show my friend the amazing fish I had seen.

I stopped ever few feet or so and had Two look and be amazed with me, she wasn't, not totally. But down at the bottom of the inlet- we live on a peninsula, and have a walking path around the neighborhood- there were a ton of fish just swimming around, I guess having their breakfast. There were so many. It truly was amazing. I walk this way almost every morning and have never seen so many fish. I didn't realize we had a little reef under us.

As I walked home to grab my camera (too bad the tide was back up and I couldn't find my memory card either to take pictures) I realized how fortunate I am to be able to go walking and enjoy my beautiful surroundings. Sure beats looking at the walls on a treadmill, or watching cars go by--that might be something cool if I was into cars but I am not.


Anyway not that I am trying to make you jealous of my living situation...ok maybe a little :) but I just feel so lucky to be where I am right now.


I am happy and glad to be alive and healthy!

side note: got strep again-was hospitalized for 8 days last year for septic strep-, but saw a doctor fast enough only waited two weeks and not twelve- for it to not totally go septic, still waiting on some blood tests, but am amazed at what a little antibiotics can do to make me feel good again, and some fresh air and fish!

I spy Eric

My honey is all over the news...can you find him? Give you a hint he is in the background wearing a red shirt...

CLICK THIS VIDEO LINK HERE, YES THIS HIGHLIGHTED COLOR TEXT

Four Truths and a Lie

I was blog surfing, well actually going back and reading some old posts and their comments and hopping to old commenter's blogs, not that they are old people, but comments from old posts...never mind. Anyway, I hopped over to Di's blog. I had some good laughs, and decided to copy one of her posts, well not totally but yeah stealing her idea.

So lets see how well you know me. Here are five facts about me, four are real and one is totally made up. Can you guess? The correct answer"ers" will be entered into a drawing and receive a really cool awesome gift from me. You ready?

• In high school while "spending the night" at my friend's house, with a couple of other girls, we decided we wanted to make jello at 2 in the morning. After going to Safeway to pick up some Jello, we headed to the El Camino and did a little cruising. Some guy asked me if I wanted to ride on his motorcycle, and I stupidly did. When he dropped me off at the end of the road, I burnt my leg (was in boxers and a sweatshirt because we were going to go to bed) really bad. When my mom saw it later, she asked how it happened and I told her it was on our Wolf Oven door, do you think she believed me? (sorry Mom for lying to you but maybe I am lying now).
• Ok again on another sleepover at this friend's house, we "snuck" out and went to TP a friend's house. Before we got there we stopped off at Safeway and all got an apple. We each ate the apple and put them in a brown bag on his doorstep. While we---actually I think just me and one other gal, the rest were hiding--were tp-ing his house, he came home with his friends. We ran and they drove after us, chasing us all through town, until we "got away." They called the cops on us as well. We were gone before they arrived.
• While on my mission--I served for 18 months in Northern Brazil- we had a general meeting with all the other missionaries in the area with one of our general authorities (Elder Maxwell.) He and his wife spoke to the missionaries. The paid translator couldn't make it and so they asked me to translate. I translated all the speeches to the Maxwells and when Sister Maxwell spoke to the group I translated her talk to the audience. I didn't think I would be able to speak so fluently in another language but I did ok.
• While on my mission on one of my preparation days we were down town getting our monthly allowance and some lunch. There were some hippy tattoo artists on the side of the road. I saw them there every other week, when we were down there. After watching them give tattoos to some other folks, my companion and I got matching parrot tattoos on our lower backs. (sorry Dad for lying to you when you asked me if I had one, again maybe not :))
• In college--kind of vague isn't it--ok my freshman year, my friends and I "broke" well more like hopped over the fence at McDonalds and played on the playscape. We would hide in the ball pit and throw the balls at the net wall, and sometimes they would go over the fence, hitting passing cars. That play area is now just a cement slab with some picnic tables.

So there you have it my four truths and one lie. It seems to be glaringly obvious to me which is not the truth, but then again its about me and my lie....So which is it? What do you think?

A Day of Reflection

It is hard to believe it has been seven years since that tragic attack on our soil. I remember my mom calling me, crying and I thought something had happened to my Grandmother who was suppose to be traveling that day. I quickly sighed a little relief and turned on the TV, realizing that many were receiving a call. Then the second plane hit and the second tower began to burn. I remember the feeling of mourning everywhere for days, sitting glued in front of the tv for three days straight. Life stood still. Then the flags flew, the nation bonded and people seemed to think of others.



It is hard to believe it was only seven years ago. I was talking with my BEE today and she had no idea about the Twin Towers. Why should she, she is only five? But then I thought, in only a few years has this event been moved from the front page, to a page in our History books.



Where am I going from here? I am not sure. Other than the fact that I really love this picture and what it stands for me. A reminder that we do live in a land of Freedom, but that life is precious. May we all remember to live, laugh and LOVE.

Wordless Wednesday: WRITE NICELY!

it is hard to read because it isn't in bright red but the comment is:

Write Nicely!

My comment is:

BACK AT YOU!

Come on his numbers are legible aren't they?

under the columns?

Better than mine and I am not SEVEN!!

Become a Follower

Tonight as I was staring at my blog and just looking around and wondering how to get more comments. I really love my commenters. I may be living in paradise but it sometimes gets lonely, and those comments you leave behind make me feel loved. I know I am finding love in all the wrong places, but they do. Getting a comment to me is like coming home and finding your answering machine blinking and hearing that familiar voice say "hey just thinking about you." Yeah comments are like that to me.

BUT...I digressed a little there sorry, anyway while I was looking around I noticed that I had 1 follower. I didn't even know that feature existed. Anyway it does, and I think it is kind of cool if you ask me. So do you want to become one of my followers?? You can, and it is simple and on my side bar there is a little thingy that you can click on and become one. Not sure what it does, but you too can be a follower of 4 kids no dog Blog...I know you want to. So go ahead, click it. Come on! Tempting huh?!

Hula Bee!

Eric took the two the girls down town to Waikiki with her Hula Class. They rented a bus so no one had to worry about parking. She enjoyed another night of performing.

Two got to sit down with the gold man (there are men-street performers who paint themselves either gold or silver even one is in all newspapers and when you pay them they do a little performance and pose for a picture.)

While the girls were dancing the night away with their dad, the boys and I took a walk to get some ice cream and G-Man worked on writing a story.

Care to Join Him For Breakfast....Lunch or Dinner?

The kids decided to pour themselves some cheerios for breakfast. In pouring they gave a bowl to T-Rex and then Two decided to pour herself some spilling the rest of the box of Cheerios all over the kitchen floor. Never mind the trail of cereal into the kids' room, where T-Rex came running with his bowl to show me his morning treat.

I am typically not a really mean mom, but today I am not allowing them to eat anything else until all the cereal is eaten up off the floor, or if they were smart enough, they'd only have to just sweep it up. But with cereal more than four dollars a box, I think they are pretty much stuck eating it!

Here is T-Rex left alone to fend for himself in the mess. The biggest pain is they stick to your feet, and they make the floor extra slippery, ask T-Rex.

I need a bandaid!

Today Two smashed her finger in the door, kind of a theme going on lately around here. After she stopped crying and was able to tell me what had happened, she asked or rather said "Me need a bandaid, mommy. It hurts me need a bandaid." Her finger wasn't bleeding, which for me is why you need a bandaid, but it was smooshed (I know it isn't a word but I like it) a little and red and obviously hurting. So we went to the kitchen and pulled out the first aid kit and bandaged up her little finger, it was actually her middle but not sure why I just added that. Anyway once it was done I asked her if it felt better. You know what she said? "No, it still hurts."

Usually the bandaid is a cure all for pain and sores and other bodily afflictions.

It caused me to pause and think about what "bandaids" I use for my emotional owies. Kind of funny that we keep the first aid kit in the kitchen because I think that is where I go first for my "bandaids" that are usually found in the refrigerator.

For example, not that I did this...ok I did....I bought some chocolate macadamia nuts for my "pay it forward" friends. I had enough that yesterday the kids and I shared a box, ok two...well the second Bee took some this morning for a friend, so we didn't eat both boxes, totally. Anyway after the kids were off to school the little ones and I went for a little walk. For some reason I came home really sad. We are talking tears running down the face sad. Not sure where it all came from. But you know what I did, I came in and went straight for the un opened box of chocolates and started eating them.

Then I asked myself, "do you feel better?" And you know what my answer was?? "No but they tasted good." And as I sat there feeling sorry for myself, and lonely and just out of the blue blue, the phone rang. THANKS!! I know you felt you should call me and it was very appreciated and very very timely.

So my question to you is: What are some of your bandaids?

I wish mine were running or drinking lots of water or skipping!

Though I do have to say I tend to use writing and walking as some other band aids. Speaking of which we are off to walk to the post office.

Pay It Forward: "Winners"

So only four of you wanted to participate in the Pay it Forward. And since the rules were to pay it forward to three people, I couldn't leave one out.



So Sheri, Vanessa, Cheryl and Erika, please email me with your mailing addresses and your gift will be on its way.

corrinesim at yahoo dot com k :)

Having a bad day?

Poor little T-Rex, talk about a bad day.

As Bee was leaving for school this morning he decided to try and sneak out the door with her. She didn't notice him, and the door shut on his poor little fingers.

Somebody, spilt ice on the floor in the kitchen, melting and well when he went running into the kitchen he fell flat on his back.

He tried to climb on a folding chair in the kitchen, when it closed on him smashing his little foot.

Two thought it would be funny to use his back as a dart board, and throw pencils at his back. None stuck in thank heavens but left two small welts on his back.

When running around by the pool he missed a few steps off the patio and caught himself with his face, his poor nose bled pretty hard, and the strawberry on his forehead is pretty bad as well.

Not that all that wasn't enough, a few days ago, G-Man decided to take a pizza out of the oven, after asked to wait for me, and T-Rex put his hand in the oven, and burnt his inner wrist severely, and burnt the outside of his arm as well.

I think that is all for today....and that is a lot for such a little guy. He is asleep now, otherwise I'd take the picture of the poor beat up kid. I tried earlier, but the batteries were dead in it.

UPDATE: Batteries charged and here is his poor nose the next day. His forehead mark doesn't show up very well...and i didn't get the mark on his foot.

Another Wordless Wednesday: Corrine and Eric- goofballs!

Wordless Wednesday; Day at the Beach

We Love the PCC

We love the PCC (Polynesian Cultural Center). Yesterday for Labor Day we went there, well after Eric worked from 5-1 and I locked myself in my room for a few hours while the kids drove me crazy ( but who wants to hear that, and I don't think it was a few hours, because G-man learned how to use a credit card to unlock doors--thanks Dad (their Dad)) Anyway so around 2 we headed to the other side of the island for some PCC fun!

We got there in time to see the IMAX Coral Reef, beautiful pictures, but a little too much save the world stuff, not that I am not all about saving the environment because I am most days, but sometimes I like to just watch a movie with out feeling like I need to bicycle every where and never touch anything made of plastic again. Anyway the film was pretty cool. T-Rex lasted all of maybe five minutes so Eric took him walking. Two wanted to leave half way through but I made her stick it out. Sorry those sitting behind us.

After the IMAX we went to the YUMMY Luau!! Tasty. Though after G-Man and Bee saw the Emo (cooked Pig) they swore off ever eating meat again. So instead they enjoyed the kids buffet of dinosaur chicken nuggets. I didn't explain to them that those once were live animals because I needed them to consume something. Oh and we were seated right on the front so we could enjoy the performance, and after it TWO, BEE and T-Rex danced for the audience as well.

Between the Luau and the Night show, we had free reign of the park and went around taking pictures at different places. The kids didn't want to stop taking pictures, I won't bore you with all of them.

We then got to go to the night show and we were on the front row. It was awesome being on the front row, because we could watch the dancers' expressions and notice them giggle or something when they or someone next to them goofed up a little.

It was a great end to a day that I thought was never going to end, and then ended up being awesome.