Manly, Girly, and Nerdy

 Fab 5 on Friday

 January 18th Edition

1.  (This is the Girly part) New Organizational Item: THE SPICE STACK.  Rated 5 stars by me.  If you don't have one, get one.  It's amazing how much space it opened up in my cupboard AND how I can find things so much easier now.

2.  This is the "nerdy" part.  I will leave it up to you to decide who is the bigger nerd of the family.  We both definitely have different nerd-styles. 
Books we've been reading:   
Mark just finished the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.  It's a book made up of excerpts from his journals.  Mark learned a lot from the book and has given me the reader's digest version each day when he gets home from work, which I'm grateful for...both the shortened version part and the learning cool things about Dr. Franklin part--he really is an interesting and brilliant guy!  Mark has enjoyed listening to that on  his commute.   
Lacey--I just finished listening to Harry Potter 4 the other day.  So intense.  It makes me want to get #5 right now and start on it.   It somehow makes me feel a little bit better to listen and do my chores at the same time rather than sit and read but I do find myself just standing there not really doing much but listening at the intense times. :) I'm also in the middle of The Great and the Terrible, a series by Chris Stewart.  I read the first book and now I'm dying to read the second!  This is one of the negatives of living outside of Utah where the Mormon books are not so so abundant.  Our local library is working on getting it for me through Inter-library loan....but the first book took them a good two months.  We'll see if I can wait that long. 
Jax has really taken a liking to the Farm Animals pop up book that Aunt Anneleise gave him for Christmas.  He requests that one almost every time now (even above Freight Train). :)  I should probably find him more pop up books. 

Mark and I hope to read a few books together this year.  We started on Seven Tipping Points That Saved the World on our drive to Arizona but we haven't managed to finish it together yet.   Now that you know both of our nerd styles, any suggestions would be appreciated.  Is there a way to combine Harry and Ben Franklin?  :/  I'm thinking Historical Fiction might be our best route. 

3.  "Quack, Quack" the ducky towel has brought on new sounds from the little guy!  "Cua, cua, cua" is what we hear from him when he's ready to get out of the tubber.  He loves that specific towel.  It both makes me laugh and wonder.  He's catching on to more than I realize.  I better watch myself! 

4.  We (by we, I mean Mark) are doing some yard work around here.  It's typical yard cleanup...raking leaves, trimming trees, and composting in the garden box.  We now are proud owners of a real chainsaw.  It reminds me of Mulan [in her 'man' voice] "Uhh... I mean, uh, sorry you had to see that, but you know how it is when you get those, uh, manly urges, and you just gotta kill somethin'... fix things, uh, cook outdoors.."

Chainsawing definitely qualifies as one of those manly urge things, right?    

 

Disclaimer: This pic isn't of the new grande chainsaw.  It's the daintier one we already had for smaller branches. Just FYI.

P.S.  Doesn't Jax look like a little man in this picture??  He's growing up so fast.  He really enjoys being with Mark when he's doing his outdoor projects. Father-son bonding time :)

5.  We love FRIDAYS!!!!  Don't you?  Mark has every other Friday off because he's working a flex-schedule where he works an hour extra on the other days.  We have really enjoyed it.  Today is one of those off-Fridays!  YAY!  More chainsawing! :)

Resolution

How long does a typical new year's resolution last?  From a probably not that credible website, it says one third are broken by the end of January and 80% overall.  Hmmm.....we'll see how long this one lasts.  I'm trying out a new thing with my blog, thanks to my sis.  In hopes to capture more of daily life, I am commiting to doing a Fab Five Friday post each week starting today.  Maybe I'll be better about journaling our lives....or maybe I'll be one of the 80%.

FAB FIVE FRIDAY

1.  Jax took his first steps this past week!   YAY!  He still prefers crawling as his main mode of transportation but we know he CAN walk when he feels like it!  :)  He has also started doing a little yoga.  Check out this downward facing dog pose...

2. We got our furniture back!  Yay!  During the move, a few of our furniture items were a little bit damaged.  A company picked up our stuff, fixed it, and brought it back to us looking brand new!  I was very impressed with their quality of work--especially on our dining room table.  We weren't as impressed with the amount of time it took.  We've lived here since the beginning of September.  Oh well.  C'est la vie. 

3.  We tried out a new restaurant.  "Dough" has all sorts of authentic Italian dishes to choose from.  We ordered a mozzarella, basil, and fresh tomato appetizer that came with yummy toasted homemade bread.  They make their cheese in the restaurant and they have fresh ingredients from local-ish farms.  I know this dip doesn't look that appetizing because we scarfed it before I remembered to take a pic.  I enjoyed it.  Mark thought it was okay.  We also ordered a triple pork pizza.  Mark loves the meaty pizzas and since I picked the appetizer, the main course was his choice.  It was delicious.  Their crust is really good.  If we go there again, I think I want to try one of their salads.  They looked really good too.  (Is it sad that my longest post is about a restaurant/food?)  Jax was happy when they gave him pizza dough to play with while we waited for our food.  Cool, huh?

4.   Jax got his first haircut and mom fulfilled a dream in the meantime!  I've had an inner desire to be a hair stylist since before High School and now this dream is coming true.  Unfortunately, my little cuteness is my lab rat....a cute lab rat.  :) 

5.  Meet Mrs. Smarty Phone.... It's my first time with a smart phone and I LOVE it.  It's purple and I have a pink case coming soon in the mail because unfortunately, this baby has been dropped three times in the short amount of time I've had her.  I just put some grocery shopping aps on there that I'm excited to try out.  We also did a video chat via Tango with Gma Cindy so that's a cool feature too. The possibilities are endless.   Mark downloaded an ap last night--"Texas Monthly BBQ" ha!  He WOULD download that!  :)

P.S. I'm still working on Hawaii Posts.  Scroll down so that you don't miss them!  Or...don't scroll down if you don't care that much .  Ha ha!  :) 

Fast ProteCTion 2013

Hello Friends!  I don't know how many of you are out there reading my blog.  For me, it's my place to journal our family and our happenings.  But.....just in case there are some readers...I wanted to share something with you. 

My friend has asked everyone she knows to do a special fast for the safety of our children in schools this year on 1/14/13.  Her son will be going to Kindergarten this year so the news of the school shooting really hit close to home for her.  She has created a blog to help explain and further this cause.  It is inspiring.  Please check it out:  http://fastprotection2013.blogspot.com/

Let's do what we can to protect our dear children. 

2013....whaaaa???

Did 2013 sort of sneak up on anyone else?  Every year in my journal I seem to write a post in January that starts with "Another year has flown by..."

We rang in the new year by staying at home--just the three of us.  It was nice!  Mark grilled steak and we had a delicious steak and potato dinner.  We then had a dance party with our favorite songs from high school/middle school searched on youtube.  I got a little distracted and we started off with a little One Direction.  I couldn't help myself.  By Mark's request, we did "Time of Your Life."  We then rocked out to a little Brittney Spears and NSYNC.  The music videos really had me laughing!  Were they really that cheesy when I thought they were so cool??  :)  I tried to get my hubby to participate in a "whoever does the best interpretive dance with Jax gets a prize" activity but I was the only one who participated. :( I guess I won the gold on that one--Jax was an airplane for most of the song ;)  Jax loves music and loves to bounce his head to the beat....the little cutie pattooty!

We played some games after the babe went to sleep.  The Newlywed game--hilarious.  We also played good ol' classic checkers.  I really stunk it up!  We had a lot of fun together.  Next year I need to drop something from my balcony like they do in NYC.  The canoe club (aka I'm a fit retired person who wants to chat and row on the ocean in Hawaii with other cool people like myself) drops a coconut at midnight New York time on New Year's eve.  I thought that sounded fun and creative.  I'll have to adapt it to fit my Texan needs for next year.  Let me know if you have any grand ideas.  

HERE'S TO ANOTHER WONDERFUL YEAR!  

MAY WE MAKE IT BETTER THAN THE LAST!    

Mele Kalikimaka

 Christmas Cereal Box Jenga (created by Mark--he's watching from the counter top over there on the right hand side)

 Christmas time is just GREAT!  It was wonderful opening gifts, doing the Nativity, and eating a delicious (and fancy) breakfast created by Geo, Kimi, and Benj.

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We went on this beautiful hike in the afternoon.  I don't think I've ever been on a hike on Christmas Day.  It was fun!  I liked how everyone was saying "Merry Christmas" on the trail as we passed.  I wish there was a jolly greeting we could say to strangers all year round.  :)  

The boys jumped in from the cliffs above the waterfalls. 

 

 

The Whole Cole Clan 

right before we left for the airport--we had to snap a last minute photo.

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This was our last view as we drove from Kimi's driveway to the airport.....awwww!

 

It was such an UNFORGETTABLE trip!

Christmas Eve on the Beach

 Mom and I were in charge of Christmas Eve dinner.  It was so much fun to be joined up with her on this because she has great ideas and gets really excited about it!  We talked about the dinner and what we should have I don't know how many times before and during the vacation.  It ended up turning out wonderfully!  On the menu: Creamy dutch oven potatoes (nice job Gpa Ed!), grilled teriyaki chicken and shrimp (nice job Handsome Mark!), garlic bread, cooked veggie mix, and "spiked" with Sprite POG to drink.  I hope I'm not forgetting something.

The best part of the meal was something Mom talked about for MONTHS before the vacation.  I had to tease her about it because she brought it up so many times to me on the phone before the trip.  However, I had to eat my words after eating this dessert.  It was better than she even talked it up to be!  Always remember "MOTHER knows BEST."  :)  Get a load of this--Ooey gooey double chocolate brownie topped with peppermint ice cream, homemade chocolate sauce, real whip cream, and shaved candy canes.  Boom Baby! 

 Feel free to contact me if you'd like to get this same towel on the head look.  I will help you out. ;)

I had everyone in the family do an open mouth full of whip cream.  Every body did it!  Us Coles...we're such party animals. ha ha ;)

 I already wrote about one of my top moments being boogie boarding with the sibs all at the same time.  I just thought I'd give it Honorable Mention one more time.

It was just THE BEST spending Christmas Eve at the beach.  Ugh!  Everything about it was just perfect and so different from any Christmas Eve we've had.  My one complaint would be that it seemed like the day slipped by a little bit too fast.  :)  

My Favorite Hawaii Moments

Some of my personal favorite moments from our trip to Hawaii:

1.  Boogie-boarding with all of my sibs at the same time.  We have such a great time together!  Greg was awarding score points for both ride quality and "style" as he put it.  :)  We were making up names for our 'style' points like they did at the surfing competition (which was also off the hook!).  Boogie-boarding is always one of my favorite Hawaii activities but it was particularly fun this time to be with my siblings.  Shout out to Kimi for boogie-ing with the prego-belly.  So hard core.   

2.  Singing "Oh, the Zebra and the Burro Can Be Friends" with Benji on the ride from Kona to Hilo.  So we randomly saw a zebra and a donkey together in a pen and Benj randomly breaks out this new song to the tune of Farmer and the Cowman from Oklahoma.  Ok, let's face it, everyone likes to pretend like they're 11 years old again sometimes (right?).  I was on a roll.  It was driving Mark and everyone else in our car a little crazy...ha ha.  Both of us sang and talked so annoyingly.  Benji and I thought we were so funny but no one else in the van seemed to think we were that funny...hmm...  I guess there's where the 11 years old thing comes in to play again.  The song also reminded us of our Children's sociable days.  I sang "The Farmer and the Cowman Should be Friends" with Heath and Scott one year.  Good, good, times.  And let's not forget Benji's munchkin hairdo when we did The Wizard of Oz...classic!  I wish I had a picture of that to put it into the blog!  Our van was definitely the party van but we did have a few issues with it.  The men had to stop a few times and take a look at it. 

3.  Going Parasailing with the Love of My Life!  (sigh)  It was really cool to be floating up there overlooking the ocean, mountains, seeing the temple from up there, etc.  Geo even saw a whale breach when he was up there.  It was my first time Parasailing and I would highly recommend it.  You'd think it would be jerky and windy up there but it's not. 

 

I like this pic because you can see Mark in my glasses. Artsy, eh?

 
4.  When the guy who was a little too serious about his job hooked up Kimi's life saving fanny pack before we went on our helicopter volcano tour.  There were even children in the group and she was the only one who got "help" from the dude.  ha ha.  We were laughing pretty hard about it.  The helicopter tour itself was AWESOME.  I'm so glad I did it!  I was stoked to find out that my assigned seat was in the front center right by the pilot!!!  It made my day. I took about a billion pics of when we were up in the air but the pictures just don't do it justice.  It was 500 times better in real life.  Moral of the story: There's only so much you can capture on camera and life is always better when you're living it in the moment, up close, and personal. 

5. Playing "Name the Moment on the Trip" charades and Christmas Song Pictionary at Kimi's house.  There  were many funny moments acted out by some stellar actors. :)  Our favorite was mom acting out the hippopotamus for Christmas. We all laughed and laughed.

6.  Watching this little cutie have the time of his life playing in the sand!  Jax seriously could have spent all day every day at the beach, just like his daddy!  I threw in a few bonus pics of him with uncle Benj and cousin Austin.  It was great for the fam to get to know Jax a little bit better.  He loved all of the attention.  :)

7.  When we walked into our cabin at Kona and Benji and Chris were going all out doing the hula shirtless to extremely loud Hawaiian music on the radio welcoming us into our shared house. I couldn't stop laughing!  If you ask me, my brothers are the funniest guys on the face of the planet.  There were so many times when we all were just laughing so hard!

8.  Hearing "O Holy Night" sung live at the PCC on the canoe ride and listening to the choir sing in the Christmas program at church.  The spirit really touched me both of those times.  I love how Polys can sing like it ain't no thang.  The music in church was amazing!  Do you think if I adopted a Poly kid that he/she would be able to sing awesomely or is it more in the culture?  Nurture vs Nature.....it's been a debate forever, eh?  


I have so much more Hawaii stuff to post about!  I'll have to stop here for now.  There were many, many great times!  Stay tuned...