81 Days Until Reef's Debut.

I still have no desire for clothes, I just can't help it...it's hot hot hot. I've been utterly blessed to have my mommy here making me breakfast and helping me clean. The woman came for light surgery [they removed skin cancer from her face, poor mama] and hasn't sat down since- she's wild.

The Hotbots: Apocalyptic Views

Missing my sister is something that happens on the daily. I found these hiding in the deep dark vault of my computer. In case you were wondering, I wouldn't be able to kill my sister if she was infected during zombie apocalypse. Also, I've been having post apocalyptic nightmares on the nightly recently- talk about weird preggo dreams.

BABY LUAU for PO'OKELA!!!

Tonight we took a trip a block down the road for our friends Augie & Jen son's first year birthday party luau-CHEEEHOOOO!!!!!! Making it to the age of 1 is HUGE in Hawaiian culture....HUUUUGE. Back in the days of the ancient Hawaiians, although food and water were quite plentiful, most babies did not make it to 1 year. So, when they did it was a big bash of food, music, hula, and a gooood time! I didn't take my camera (i'm feeling really yuck today) but I snagged some photos with my phone ;) I've said it a million times but I love Hawai'i.

The Photos: Zach with the centerpiece, a photo of Po'okele on fake koa wood with a hollow poi pounder & tea leaf lei
The Ono (delicious) Food! Laulau, rice, kalua pig & cabbage, squid luau, poke, lomilomim salmon, & Potatoe mac salad- heaven, simply heaven
Red Ginger
PO'OKELE!!! with Uncle Matt..poor Pookele was tiiiiired.
Tent
Bird of Paradise flowers

***OMG there was also a HUGE jumpy castle thing in the back for all the lil babes...I wanted to play in it BAD..it had 2 different levels!!!

27 weeks 3 Days & Sweaty

The bigger I get the hotter it gets. I hate wearing clothes at this point, luckily I live in Hawai'i and walking around in a bikini is totally acceptable!

                Messy room and preggo belly                                                   Belly                                                                           no makeup....no glow lol                                                            

Valley Of The Temples

I took a mental break on Sunday. No cleaning, no working, no nuthin. I drove to the other side of the island and spent the morning at Byodo-In Valley Of The Temples Memorial Park. It was quiet and beautiful. Every single memorial/grave had an amazing array of flowers set on it. People were out there having lunch and commemorating their loved ones who had passed...I know it's weird but it wasn't at all somber feeling but light and vibrant- they were celebrating, it was great.

I decided to take the old road home and drive along the eastern coast of Oahu. I hit Waiahole, Waikana, Kaawa, Punaluu, Hau'ula, Laie, Kahuku, and all through The North Shore. It reminded me of The Big Island and I felt at home. These places are where the old farmers live, the people who have been cultivating this island for generations, it's beautiful. When King Kamehameha (the king who united the Hawaiian Islands) would go off to war, this is where he would hide his family...deep in these valleys...his lineage is still there to this day.

My dad was worried when I decided to stop about every few miles to take photos and talk to people. There's still racial hostility in Hawaii and although my dad is as brown as can be I am well, white looking. I never understood race until I was about thirteen. My mom and dad were not white and brown they were my mom and dad and we lived in Hawaii, pretty simple (at least I thought). Anywho, I met some people who were actually from South Kona on the Big Island, it was fun to talk story with them and I had nothing to worry about :)

Here are some pics of Byodo-In...I will upload more as soon as I get them edited!!

I totally creeped on this family.

Steppin(ed) Out at 27 Weeks

Cardigan: so old I have no idea where it came from
Top: F21
Pencil Skirt: Old Navy
Shoes: totally not in the shot but they're leopard print madden pumps
hair accessory: hand made by my best friend for my bachelorette party

Saturday was 50's Cosmic Bowling Night for the swim team...I wasn't too jazzed on going (spent all day in bed saturday..literally...all day). But, it ended up being super fun and I won an hour long massage!

After I saw this photo I asked my husband "is my belly really that big?!" and he just laughed. Guess I'm getting rounder by the day.

Dead Man's Bones

Dead Man's Bones is by far one of my favorite bands of all time. Their sound is so unique it can't be compared to anything else. They made this short film a few months ago and it's just absolutely beautiful. Look up their music...you won't regret it I promise :)

Pa Pa Power

poop on a stick

Yesterday was total crap. I just have to admit it. I think its something in the humid air, or it's just a lot of emotions blowing up simultaneously. Either way, it was no good. It finally happened...my husband and I both lost our cool and decided to battle royale for a good hour over the phone while I drove to work [talk about timing]. I guess it was things we both needed to hear and say, things we'd been holding on our chest to stay polite- there was nothing polite about our conversation [if that's what you could call it] at all. By the end of it he was fine and I was a wreck, one of the many ways we differ...it takes me hours or days to get over things...it takes him a few minutes, which is a good thing because if it took both of us a long time well..I don't even want to know what would happen. I really took this one hard. We're both putting so much effort in but in ways that keep missing the mark...I'm finally almost over everything today- thank god & have been just focusing on everything rad about Zach that I love.

In other news, Jordan is back from his trip to the big island and the dogs are well...really needy lately and super rambunctious. I can't even take our dingdong boxer out to pee anymore because he keeps trying to play and jump on my belly....we ended up on the ground yesterday, luckily i caught myself before my belly reached the grass.

my needy boxer:: the boys are becoming wine-o's::nap time::brie being a brat & ignoring me in her kennel

This is the life...

I finally took myself to the beach and just chilled out, had lunch, & did some nice calming meditation (I've been a hormonal psycho lately, my poor husband).

The raddest thing happened while I was sitting in the sun..Reef decided to swim up under my belly button and press himself right up against my skin...I mean this kid was trying hard to get the warmth from the sun that was comin' down on my belly. Usually, if he swims up there, he'll be there for a max for 20 seconds and then go hide again but he just chilled there until I got in the ocean- so cool. This kid is already made for the beach.

I love this song. It's by some awesome local artists and well, it's exactly how I feel about my life in Hawai'i Nei.

Rough Wet Road

Last night was a rough three hours of coaching. It poured thick, hard, wet rain yesterday afternoon/night at the pool. Just about every single swimmer showed up and I was coaching by myself. I got sopping wet and my joints were just ka-poot by the time i got home.

BUT the kids did flipping awesome and we had a lot of fun- they love it when myself or the other coaches suffer a little while they swim hard lol.

Anywho, I went home and ate soup, took a delicious bath...and by delicious I mean I ate ice cream while soaking...I also realized my belly was now big enough to balance my bowl of ice cream on, it was epic.

8 Weeks to a better me: Week 2

So, I don't know how I missed this last week but the lovely Danielle of Sometimes Sweet has this awesome project going on right now and I can't help but join in. Each week she has people guest post on a topic with three goals for that week. Big or Small, doesn't matter.

Now, holding myself accountable and dieing to make some sizable changes I'm going to attempt in this challenge as well! I mean, honestly, aren't we all constantly bettering ourselves in one way or another?

This Weeks Topic: Health & Fitness [cringe].

My fitness has been up down and all around since my pregnancy. For a while I couldn't keep my heart rate under 140 for the life of me and had to just lay low. But, I'm back to sustaining a normal-ish heart rate and am able to do light workouts woohoo! [now if i would just do them].

1. Swim a mile or two at least three times this week- I coach every day but am really good at finding excuses not to go to the pool early and workout (for shame I tell you).

2. Integrate a short meditation into my daily grind - helps calm the insanity.

3. REALLY stick to my low salt dietness of 1500mg/day (if you're anything like me you're super good at cheating on these kinds of diets >.<)

Check out the guest posts and all the positivity!

DROP DEAD DELICIOUS

Alright...there's no light way to say this- I'M IN LOVE WITH A SUMMER COUSCOUS SALAD.

Photo From: Sprinkles of Parsley

This is the first thing I've eaten my entire pregnancy that tastes like heaven...seriously, heaven. This recipe comes from the brilliant mind of Chelsea from Sprinkles of Parsley [the girl is utter genius when it comes to delicious home made goodness].

She actually guest posted this recipe at Simply Scratch, another fabulous food-blog-oh-heaven.

If you're into good home made recipes [and I mean, aside from how much time you have, who isn't?!] go check these ladies out!

Carpe Dive

My husband has an awesome scuba diving blog...It'll be updated with more and more photos soon, especially since he got a new camera! Go check out Carpe Dive even if you aren't into scuba diving it's got some rad ocean-tastic-ness!

rain::hotmamas::childbirthing classes::

The weather has been yuck yuck yuck...BUT it was perfect for a Mother's Day nice long sleep in while Zach finished up his advanced open water diver course- so awesome. Once he got home we watched Pretty In Pink and The Breakfast Club and just chilled & got all cabin fever loopy. We headed down to the beach for a bit when it stopped raining and it was dark and beautiful.

On another note- Happy Mother's Day to all of you hot mama's and future hot mama's. I hope you had a fabulous day!

Also- I'm trying to schedule child birthing classes since I'm STILL having nightmares. Anyone have suggestions or what their favorite class(es) are/were?! I'm looking for all of the input I can get.

Thank You's

Zach and I have been receiving some crazy awesome gifts for Reef the last few weeks and I've been bumming around doing everything but making Thank You cards.

I spent all day designing little robots in paint because well, its the only program I have on my laptop. Unfortunately my paper cutter is broken and I went extremely OCD. I made one with scissors but it came out epically terrible...

puppy love

Today was spent at Tripler Army Hospital visiting an ol' friend...Pretty speechless today, just one of those kind of days.

But...I did wake up to a puppy passed out in the bed..I sleep so terrible at night that after Zach leaves at 5:30am I pass out, and when I sleep..I sleep hard and can't feel the dogs jump up on the bed, gotta love the memory foam mattress.

And yes...I'm completely obsessed with my dogs...I know, I know...

Why I love my swimmers #789

Coach Joyce "Lil C you have to streamline on your back as SOON as you push off, not when you float up...You want to be like a..rrrrrocket!!"

Lil C "But Rockets have engines, I don't have engines"

Coach Joyce "That's why you have to use your feet and your fins! Those are your manual engines!"

Lil C "But Coach Joyce, rockets have THREE engines"

Coach Joyce "[insert pause] that's why we tell you to kick extra hard, you only get TWO."

I was schooled on rockets by a seven year old today...but, in the end, telling him to streamline like a rocket gave him the correct visual because he was flying through the water!

Random photo of a Honu (green sea turtle) that Zach took on his most recent dive at Three Tables on the North Shore of Oahu.

kissing eels

I've been doing beach patrol since I found out Reef was going to be debuting in August but Zach still dives about every weekend and is training to do his Advanced Open Water and Rescue Diver certifications this weekend [can't lie, i'm slightly jealous just because the rescue diver test seems epically fun...I mean, navigating underwater, recovering a diver, swimming them back to shore while removing their gear and doing cpr?! HECK YES...I love doing open water rescues...can't help it, its the beach lifeguard in me].

In remembrance of my epically awesome diving days....here's a youtube of us in Kona at Manta Heaven diving with Manta Rays and Frank The Eel...at about 16 seconds he decides to make out with me...its awesome. He's really docile and I've been lucky enough to dive with him since I was 15 :)

Happy Monday...

Say Whaaaaat?!

Yep, "I'm sorry" are the words coming out of my mouth most these past 72 hours. I hate to say it people but I'm finally getting SUPER hormonal...just ask Zach. I freaked out for about three hours last night until I realized that I was completely being a witch. WOW. I hope it's normal to be this crazy when you're preggo and to cry as much as I do. My husband is seriously being so gracious and patient. I keep praying that these nasty mood swings disappear along with my throbbing back and legs.

Here's a little from our weekend (you know, when I wasn't yelling at Zach & crying).

1: the doooogs got a new king size floofy bed
2: delicious grinds at loco moco
3:ewa sunshine
4:home depot
5: preggo joyce super exhausted being tortured at home depot
6: boy scout makahiki [we helped get kids stoked on scuba]
7:early am sunshine
8: huge belly
9: Diesel diesel diesel 

In other news:

as all of you, I'm sure, have heard Osama Bin Laden is finally dead and gone. I can't help but feel extremely relieved. It also really makes me feel like the last few years and Zach's deployment and all that we've been through has not been in vain.

Zach in Iraq.

What can I say...

It's been a rough few days. And this song by 1997 aka The Sevens pretty much sums it up for me.