Ooops...

I have been a real slacker and not updated this blog is such a long time! And so it turns out I HAD blogged a couple of more entries, but I saved them and did not publish them. I think I was wanting uploading photos with them and I didn't. Oh well...

I feel like I experienced so much in Hawaii and totally skiped so much of it by not updating the blog. I have every intention of mentioning those moments, not only so that you may read them... but also for me, I love reflecting and writing down my memories so that I never forget the small details of my life.

Moving to Hawaii was a fun adventure and it will be something I will always remember. Some people ask me why I decided to return to Texas after living in paradise and the answer is easy for me, my family. I have to admit I am not the kind of person that ever got homesick when I went off to college at the age of 17. And beside the couple of months I was at home during the summer, I've gotten used to living on my own and being independent. But after a couple of months of being in paradise surrounded by such glorious mountains and sky blue water... I did in fact become homesick. It sort of surprised me, but at the same time I enjoyed the fact that my heart is so connected to those that I love, that I ached being far from them. It was odd just knowing that I was seperated so far from all my loved ones by this massive but beautiful body of water. It saddened me when I couldn't just get up and drive a couple of hours to go see my family. I suppose not having the option was the tough part. But after I got a job and was busy working in the school again, I suppose I didn't have as much time to devote to thinking about it. I hate to sound so whiny and childish, no fear, I eventually got over it and realized I needed to enjoy this adventure. So, that is exactly what I did!

Of course I could not have done it on my own, my spontaneous partner was the one that made all the puzzle pieces fit. He was so amazing, making sure that when I got there... it was all ready for me. Of course when did he ever think he would have the chance to live in Hawaii and have such a willing girlfriend to be at his side and share it with him. I don't regret anything about Hawaii but now my boyfriend is "homesick" ... and really wishes he could live there forever. I think it is lovely, but Texas will forever be my home. After all, home is where the heart is.

Snorkeling Adventures (once again, forgot to post it)

I have decided that I need to take advantage of my time in Hawaii, so if that means going out alone and exploring without Nathan, than I need to do that. So, I decided I was going to go to Hanauma Bay which is THE place to go snorkeling here on Oahu. This place has an address so I can add it to my GPS system so... it's perfect. I think I'm scared of getting lost, hence why I don't like to just go out and explore but I'm slowly starting to get over this. Anyways, so I went there with my beach bag in hand, snorkel gear, and straw laying mat. I find a spot, lay down and after a while decide I am going to go snorkel. I loved just seeing all these amazing fish swimming all around me. But for whatever reason my mask wasn't sealing well because I changed the strap to it and water kept leaking in. So I had to keep clearing my mask several times while I was in the water. Trying not to step on the coral below me and trying to fix my masks while floating is kind of difficult I found out. Anyways, I decided to go to the shallow end one of the times to adjust my mask and this time I decided to step on the sand as this was much easier. I put my mask back on and look down to the water to see that to the side of me is a rock with an EEL just starring at me. This freaked me out at first as I could have easily stepped on this eel because it was so close to me. That would have not been a good situation... yikes. After way too many times of having to adjust my mask and getting irritated, I decided to clear it one last time. Well, this last time did end up being the last time because I lost one of my contact in the water! Anyone who knows me well, I am sooo blind without my contacts. Luckily, I only lost one or else there is no way I could have driven, like NO WAY. So, I swam back and drove back with only one contact in my eye. I made it back... after much panic.

Birthday Part II

So the day before my birthday we went to that wonderful luau but my birthday was not over. Nathan had something else planned which of course was another surprise because Nathan just loves surprises. I had mentioned to Nathan about this restaurant in Waikiki that has a large aquarium that I wanted to go to. He decided to get in contact with my cousin and her husband and their new baby boy to join us. He knew being away from my family had been tough on me so he decided that having some family around for my birthday would put a smile on my face, which it did.

So, we went to the Oceanarium Restaurant and sat next to the aquarium. It was so awesome to just see all these fish and rays swimming around. We enjoyed the scrumptious buffet. Then towards the end of our meal, a kid with scuba gear goes inside the aquarium holding a sign saying "Happy Birthday Bambina" and comes towards the table and leaves the sign there. Nathan always calls me Bambina so it obviously was prearranged, it was sweet. Then, our waiter comes over with a small crew to sing me Happy Birthday. He reads the sign confused as to what my name was and told him my name was Natalie. But even then... the serenade was funny because he could hardly pronounce my name, it was cute. Anyways, I got a cute cupcake and blew a candle for my 24th birthday!

Guess what? (oops I forgot to post this, it's old)

I've been job searching for something more dependable than the aiding position. It was not really working out as I had only been called a couple of times. So I was in search to find a job that would be full time. If I only knew how difficult it would be to find one. I was checking monster.com, hawaiijobsondemand.com, careerbuilder.com, the Honolulu advertiser, craigslist on a daily basis, several times a day... I submitted many resumes and nothing. I finally got a couple of call backs from two company's, this small alarm company needing an office clerk and Macy's had a cosmetic sales position. Having to go to therapy like 3 times a day, I was not able to do the office position because I wouldn't be able to go to therapy which was not an option. I decided to pursue the Macy's position. It was a long interviewing process, I had a 3 interviews for it total and in the end they offered me the position. I was so relieved... I was going to have a job, FINALLY.

As I was heading out of the door of the apartment to head to Macy's to sign all my official paperwork, I get a call. The call was from the vice principal of the school that I had done my aiding at. He told me that they had a long term substitute kindergarten position open and that they would love if I could take it. It wouldn't start till Oct 14th and would go on till December. I did not know what to say because if I took this job I would obviously have to wait even LONGER to start up. But subbing pays more and I wouldn't have to give up my weekends and work late at the mall. But I was nervous, I had an appointment to fill out my paperwork for Macy's but I am on the phone with the vice principal and I don't know what to do. So, I text Nathan and told him what was going on and he told me to go with the substitute job because it paid a lot more. At the time I was so nervous I couldn't do any calculations. So, while I headed to Macy's to sign paperwork I ended up having to politely turn down the position and decided to accept the substitute position instead.



It's going to be different going into a classroom that was not set up by me so I don't REALLY know where things are and since every school is different the"taking over" will be challenging because Texas and Hawaii have different assessments and curriculum. So, this is going to be challenging but I hope that it works out well.



I decided to purchase my ticket to head back and I will be heading back to Texas January 14th. I know I initially wanted to live in Hawaii for a year but things worked out a little differently then planned. I was not planning on not being able to find a job for months and being stressed about finances. It's definitely been an experience to say the least and I can say I lived in Hawaii and came here with only 2 suit cases and tried to experience Hawaii as much as possible. So, while I was hoping that Hawaii would become my home, it never did... because it is true, home is where the heart is... and so much of my heart is in Texas. But regardless I don't regret this adventure at all I think Hawaii is gorgeous and while most people get to experience it for a week, I will be able to REALLY live and experience Hawaii for over 6 months... now that's how you EXPERIENCE Hawai'i.

My New Obsession

I can admit that I did not get my mom's good cookin' trait. My brother did, but I didn't... isn't that sad? Anyways, I have been really trying to cook since I moved to Hawaii because going out to eat is so expensive. Although I hate to admit this... Nathan is actually quite the chef and he cooks for us most days. When I cook it's like an experiment of a recipe I found. He doesn't need a book of recipes, he's like every person with cooking skills... they have this common sense of cooking and toss a little of this, a tad bit of that, and know exactly how long it should cook and the result is awesome. I don't have that... at all. But I figure if I need to start somewhere, that cookbooks are a good option.
I probably will have to use cookbooks for the rest of my life because I can see myself leaving out an ingredient if I go by memory alone. BUT... I have found the greatest recipe website EVER! So, now I don't think I'll have the impulse of going out and buying recipe books. I have a collection of cook books, some that I've never even made one recipe from. I just love to BUY the cookbooks with the intentions that it will have awesome recipes that I can make, then I store it in the cabinet with such delight and then... never use them. WELL, since I've come to Hawaii I have made quite a few. Just to show you a bit of my cookbook purchasing habit, I moved to Hawaii June 23rd. When I arrived at our condo, I had TWO cookbooks waiting for me that I ordered from amazon, since then I have purchased 3 MORE. So, I have 5 cookbooks that I have added to my collection in a matter of less than 2 1/2 months, not including the many that I have in Texas. I also have an obsession with amazon.com , I can spend HOURS just browsing and reading reviews on all kinds of books and CDs. But I can proudly say that I HAVE been using these cook books and that I've made several great meals.
Well, I might reduce my cookbook purchases, that's if I don't just stop completely. I found this website http://www.recipezaar.com/ it is AWESOME. People upload their very favorite recipes on here and then regular people like you and me go and make it for themselves then go back to the website and write a review on it and say how many stars they give it, and leave comments on any additions, subtractions, or substitutions they made and how it taste. I am so excited about this because it is a plethora of recipes. I mean you can type in chicken and get THOUSANDS of recipes with just chicken recipes. Then I usually type in what I want to search. I typed "tuna" to see all that came up and then I hit sort by: RATINGS. That means they will give you the recipes in order of the ones that got the best reviews to the least. THEN... I discovered that people actually upload their own cookbook with their favorite recipes. For example, for people that actually are really great at cooking and have recipes that have been passed down to them or has great recipes from their mother-in laws, neighbors, co-workers... you name it, they put the recipes under their own cookbook and you can view their personal cookbook of their favorite recipes. I can't rave enough about this website. The only problem is that I spend hours looking at it and saving the recipes but then don't get up to go buy the groceries to make it, haha. But today I am, I have saved quite a few of the ones I want to try and now it is time to try them. I just wanted to share this website because it's awesome and it's like getting thousands of cookbooks for FREE. You can get a membership that let's you save your favorite on their website let's you add notes to those recipes and things like that, but for now I'll go for the free and have access to all the recipes. So, try it out and see what you think! I made a Weight Watcher's Key Lime Pie recipe this week and it was delicious... so they have all kinds of recipes there!

New Haircut

I was getting tired of having the same ol' look but still wanted my length so I decided that maybe getting bangs would give me a new look without having to do something drastic. Well, I love it! I got side swept bangs with long layers. It's funny because anyone who knows me, knows that I put no effort into my hair. But now I have bangs that I have to straighten every day, but obviously it's not a big deal but it's funny because that's as much effort as I put into my hair. However, maybe this is a baby step to me using a bit of more products and playing with my hair some.

I was so nervous in trying to find a stylist to cut my hair. My mom as yall know is the one that always cuts my hair. Last summer when I went to Italy was the first time some other person had cut my hair besides my Mom. I googled forever trying to find a stylist and read reviews, I didn't really have much luck. I decided to hit up the mall... I know that sounds scary to get a hair cut in the mall but actually it turned out great.

Sexy huh?

I had a really bad feeling something was not right when I woke up the following morning and my neck hurt in every direction. I was really hoping that I didn't have "whiplash" and just happened to be sore. I decided that me not being able to turn my head or look down without sending a shocking pain was not normal. So I decided to go to a chiropractor and get it checked out. Well, to my dismay I indeed did have whiplash. After I dislocated my shoulder over 2 years ago and leaving it untreated for so long and still suffering because I didn't catch it early on, I refuse to do the same with my neck which is much more sensitive. So, I am having to go to the chiropractor on a daily basis for right now (hopefully this doesn't last long). The chiropractor showed me the X-rays and there are 2 slips on two of my disk that slip more when I look downward but still apparent when looking in all directions. So, I have been instructed to put an icepack on it and take it easy, and wear this attractive neck brace. I know things could have been a lot worse but gosh... this really ... is more that annoying!