Monday: Pick-Me-Up

Fall in Hawaii is very similar to fall in Southern Arizona... you don't get an actual physical season change (although come Halloween in AZ I was usually in a sweater, it was around 60* ...and winter was 40s-60s) but rather bits and pieces.

Today I ran into this on base, the sun shining through the red leaves still on the tree was stunning:

It was fun to see...esp. after living on the east coast for the past two falls.

Baked Goods Galore!

My husband's battalion has been in full volunteer, care package, and fundraising mode within the past week! We've made "kiddie care packages" for the little ones with a parent who is deployed, next month we'll be doing it for the single deployed marines in the unit. Tomorrow we'll be holding a huge rummage/bake sale to raise funds for our unit's ball... knowing this was coming up we made sure to have a "donate" box near by at all times while unpacking our household goods. It's amazing the amount of stuff we collect along the way that we don't actually need/doesn't hold sentimental value. Today I dropped an overflowing box off at the FRO's office then came home for a baking palooza while waiting on maintenance workers (which could be a post on it's own...).

The results of my day of baking:

• Sugar Cookie Bites
• Strawberry & Cream Cheese Muffins
• Blueberry Muffins
• Gluten Free Brown Rice Krispie Treats

Hungry yet? 

Birthdays & Teal Fingers

It's always interesting "celebrating" your family's birthdays, anniversaries, holiday's etc... when you can't physically be there in person. Luckily the post office and technology makes it a bit easier. This week my sister and our nephew celebrated their birthday's. My sister is in her early 20s and I've been there for almost all of her other birthday's, she even flew out to Maryland to celebrate her 21st with us and her best friend who happens to attend the Naval Academy. Our nephew is turning 3yrs old, so both of them won't really remember or care that we missed them. I guess it's just the knowledge that we did. The packages I made were normal looking on the outside (don't want to draw any attention!) but explosions of color on the inside! Each gift was wrapped and surrounded by multi-colored tissue paper, accompanied by a homemade card. My sister thanked me for hers, I'm waiting to hear from my sister-in-law whether or not our nephew enjoyed his gift.

How do you go about celebrating the holidays with family/friends afar?

 

To bring a little color into my life I painted my nails a funky teal color... my husband hasn't decided if he likes it, but the color makes me happy! (ignore my terrible painting skills, haha)


It's been a week of good news from friends:

• New jobs
• Pregnancy
• Possible visits during my husband's deployment (!!!)
• Passing the NCLEX
• New pets

I always love hearing good news from my friends, it makes me happy to see them happy!

How are you guys doing this week?

Just throwing this out there...

I'm still looking for one last donation for my giveaway, please click the image below for more info: