SHOW US YOUR LIFE FRIDAY - Favorite Vacation Spot

A girl who's blog I frequent has been doing this for many months and the topics are always fun and interesting to me so I finally decided I would hop on the "Show Us Your Life Friday" bandwagon.

This week's topic is "Favorite Vacation Spot." For a quick trip I love to go to Cincinatti, OH but my most favorite trip that I've been on was to Oahu, Hawaii. Maybe that's because I got engaged there or maybe it was just because it was fantastically beautiful in a way that I'd never before experienced. Whatever the reason, it's somewhere I am dying to visit again someday and so I suppose that makes it my favorite vacation spot.

Here's a shot when we were first arriving. The only unfortunate thing about these pictures is that I only had a video camera as a digital camera at the time and so they aren't of the highest quality, nor are they nearly bright and vivid enough to show all the true beauty.

Upon arrival, as is their custom, we were given beautiful live leis that smelled divine. Our hotel did not have an ocean view or even a good view (it was an alley) but that's what made it affordable for us. However it was right in the middle of Waikiki and a 2 block walk to the beach. Wonderful!

On our first full day we went on a submarine ride which was really interesting and beautiful with all the blue light filtering through. Later we went shopping and bought some Hawaiian attire to wear to the luau, as recommended to us by the locals. The luau we saw was fantastic and I would go again to the same one in a heartbeat.

It was a wednesday when we got engaged and really one of the most fun days of my life. We started out by renting a car to drive around the island. We got a convertible, something I highly recommend! It was the most beautiful drive. We stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation and went through the maze which was fun and really romantic. We went to the best pizza place I've ever been, Pizza Bob's. Then we went to Turtle Bay and saw my favorite animal ever, the sea turtle, swimming right there in nature. It was awesome. I mean, simply amazing. (The picture with the rocks is Tyler scouting for a big turtle. The encounter we video taped.) We went to Sunset Beach which is fantastically beautiful and the water couldn't have been more clear. After that was off to Pali Lookout for the proposal fiasco. Ha.

Pali Lookout is a beautiful mountain lookout that lets you see a great deal of the island. It's amazing and would've been super romantic had it not been for the unbelievable winds! Tyler kept trying to get me to stay a little longer but I kept telling him the wind was hurting me and so I started walking back down to the car. He looked awfully pouty and when I asked him what was wrong he said, "I just thought that would've been a really good place to propose." Ha. The parking lot worked just fine, too. Ha.

The rest of the experience was equally fantastic from walking Waikiki at night, to the dinner cruise, to souvenir shopping in the international market before we went home. I really can not wait til we have an opportunity to go back!

Pregnancy Parasite & Staying At Home

Can you believe people actually purchase these on the black market for a diet solution?!

It would appear that Charlie is a true parasite, which, frightens me when I think about delivering what's sure to be a 60 lb infant. At my last OB appointment, I'd lost another 2 pounds. It's not something that's detrimental by any means when you're as over weight as I am. In fact, the doctor says that I'll probably weigh less after I give birth than before I got pregnant. That would be excellent indeed, but I'm not really planning on that to happen. In my ever pessimistic mind, I keep waiting for the bottom to drop out...or "to expand" (terrible, i know).

A friend of mine recently had to write a blog about how she has to spend most of her day at work thanks to debts that must be paid back and at the expense of seeing her own child. This makes me very sad but it also reminds me to be very thankful. I'm so grateful every day that we are financially able to allow me to stay home with Jamie. Granted, by the time Charlie gets here, I wouldn't be able to work anyhow because of the cost of two children in daycare. There's just no way we could afford $300 a week with a daycare paycheck. Nevertheless, I could be working right now to make every last penny we could get before having two children. Thankfully, I don't have to.

Jamie is in quite an adorable stage right now and I'm very glad I get to relish in practically every second of it. I love when he picks up a book or magazine or picture and says, "Wa sat?!" (which is "What's that?!" for adults) and that I'm able to tell him or in the case of it being something he knows, turning it around and saying "I don't know. What is that?" I love when he looks at every dog and goes "oof oof ow ow!" which is really a dog woofing and a cat meowing together but hey, it's adorable. I love when he signs "All done" and pushes his plate away so I know he's finished eating. There are so many things changing and new stuff that he's learning about literally every single second that I'm so thankful to be sharing it with him while I have the time to focus all my attention on him. Maybe I'll feel differently when there are two to chase (because I know parents with more than one kid who stress staying at home) but for now I think this is a pretty amazing life and I promise to enjoy every minute I have with little Jamie before I miss it and he's big Jamie.

For those women out there who have to work to support their family, fear not. My mother worked overtime all the time and my brother and I were in daycare pretty much every day growing up. She and I couldn't have been closer! (except for that pesky preteen stage, of course. ha) When we go out to this day people say with such shock "You guys seem like best friends!" like it's unheard of that a mother and daughter would get along that well. So, it is truly possible to let your children know you adore them even if you have to spend most of your time at work. As long as you make the most of the time you do have with your children, they'll never notice that it's less than the time they spend at the nursery.