Highlights and FAQ

So I started typing out a detailed log of our journey over here. Its ridiculously long (I'm only up to the ninth) and a lot of it is kinda a downer because of all the stress and things that went wrong. So I'm taking a break to make a happy and fun section called highlights and FAQ

FAQ

Have you found a place to live:

YES! Right now we are living in a little furnished apt/hotel in Aiea. About 8 mins east of Richard's Work

Starting March 1st we will be in our very own 1 bedroom Apartment in Waipahu north of the freeway in a neighborhood called Village Park. It is kind of pricey but it is perfect for us. Its in a very nice part of town in a gated community, very quiet, has a washer and dryer, and a little backyard/patio with grass :) Here's the outside:

Has Richard started work?

YES! Tonight is his first night. We have met several of the guys on his crew and they all seem like good people.

Has Abby found a job?

Not yet. I'm still trying to figure out if I can swing the free lance drafting job. If it doesnt work out. I'll start job hunting after we move into the apt.

What are your schedules?

Richard has Saturday Sunday off. He starts work at 5pm. We are going to try to go to bed soon after he gets home (around 2 or 3am) and be awake by noon or so the next day. Also We are 3 hours behind UT/AZ right now. 2 hours behind CA and 4 hours behind St Louis. So calling Richard between 12pm-4pm is good and calling me between 12pm-2am is good :)

Do you have a mailing address?

We are getting a PO box tomorrow. Call or text for the address.

Are you Sun Burnt?

YES! :( I almost got to answer this one no! We have been doing sooo good about getting sunscreen on and breaking up our time in the sun. We both had gotten a bit of color but no burns. Then today, after Richard left for work (he went in at 3 today for orientation), I walked to Safeway ( 1.1 miles each way. yea! good job me!) so we could have some food. I forgot to put on sunscreen so my arms, calves, feet, and even my toes are burnt :(

Are you loving it?

YES!! SOOO MUCH!! The weather has been awesome! We've had a ton of fun already. We have met some very nice and friendly people and are excited to do more and more!

Ok so here are the highlights from our 1st weekend here:

Friday we put a deposit on that great apartment and went swimming at the famous Waikiki beach!

Saturday was a great day! We checked in to a really nice hotel (our reservation at the other one had run out and they were full for the night). We got to go swimming in the Ocean! Richard's Work had a party and we got this awesome free food!

Sunday we got a WAY better breakfast at our nice new hotel then went on a drive by accident to the windward side of the island. We ate at a great local seafood shop called the Fresh Catch,

Then stopped at Hieea State Park (we'll have to go back with snorkel gear it has Oahu's barrier reef!)

There are feral chickens EVERYWHERE! and they really do cross the road just to get to the other side!

Then we went to hike the Aiea loop trail. We had to turn back after a little ways because I don't have proper foot wear yet. I need a new pair of sandal shoes soo bad! We still had a great time on the tiny part of the trail we did hike.

Then we went swimming in the ocean again! Its sooo salty at Waikiki because there are no major rivers or streams adding fresh water nearby. We walked around and window shopped in all the neat places along the waterfront and tried to stay up as late as possible to get Richard on the night shift schedule again.

Today we got to go out to lunch with Clint (a buddy of Eli's and mine from CA) and his wife and baby! It was super fun to catch up. He's been here for several years and knows where all of the best hikes, waterfalls, and beaches are! We're excited to hang out again soon.

BEST DAY EVER!

Things finally fell into place today!! Pretty much up until today everything was a big ball of frustration, confusion, stress and excitement. But now it all finally fell into place :) We will be staying at a hotel 1 more night. Then we will move into a temporary furnished place 'til March 1st when.. da da Da DA!!! We move into our cute little apt/home. So to celebrate we did a drive to the windward side, a lunch at a great little local fish place, a hike, and a swim in the ocean. I have a ton to write about but I'm pretty worn out so for tonight we'll just do a few preview pictures:

Landed!

WE ARE HERE!!!! YA!!! pictures to follow!

Here is Hoping my Head doesn't fall off!

Well the Call came in today. We are leaving for Hawaii! Our last day in Utah will be Feb 4th!!! I'm soooooooo excited and overwhelmed! If I talk to you on the phone or in person and seem a little "tweaky" just tell me to try and calm down lol. Love you all! the next post should be coming from Oahu!

WOW

I've been searching the internet for pictures to describe my emotions to the fact that more than likely on Feb 6th we will be out of the house and moving to Hawaii!

Really?! We're moving to Hawaii?!

OH MY GOODNESS!! GOODBYE WINTER-Y HOLE OF MISERY I'M MOVING TO HAWAII!

Oh my goodness... I have to pack up the whole house, buy plain tickets, order a shipping crate, get someone to move the car, sell the truck, ship the turtle etc, etc... in less than 3 weeks! eeeeeeeeee

Wait ...It's almost guaranteed we have the job. We don't know for sure you have the job...When will we know?

The HR representative is in an out of town training for the rest of the week?

AHAHHAHAGHGGHAHHAHA! I'm ONLY most LIKELY moving to Hawaii!!!! OF COURSE I'M OK!!! AGHAHAHAGHAHH!!!

Chill man Chill... things always work out, lets do what we can til we have more information..

Hawaii's going to be AMAZING!

All Right! Look at how much I got packed tonight... this is going to be fine...

Ahh ahhh... I forgot about the laundry room... What are we going to do with all this stuff!!!

So there is a small wedge of my life for the last week.

Yep its a roller coaster and a half!

We did find out that Richard wont have to leave earlier than me so he can help me pack up the house. And we found out the pay rate, and we should be getting the representative in Hawaii's info tomorrow. Eli is going to help me sell the truck. I have just about everything else set up and waiting on the go ahead. Whew!

Oh and next week I'm going in to interview for that free lance drafting position:

On a side note. I wasn't planning on using baby faces, But that's just how it worked out. I guess they are just better at expressing emotion. Funny. Oh and these twins were just too cute so I wanted to put them in too.

Baby Shower

I'm throwing my friend a baby shower. She and I worked at the daycare together and had matching The Very Hungry Caterpillar T-shirts and were in love with everything Eric Carle!

Here are the invites:

(I'm Proud I did it)

I have a bunch of other really cute ideas for decorations, activities, etc. I'll keep you posted :)

More Excitement!

I've needed a new camera for a while now. Mine has survived 6 years of loving, but intense abuse - including a dunk in a river. Well, Costco put their camera's on sale and I got the very last Nikon s6100 for $80 off!!!

It has a touch screen, that I LOVE!

Richard made an awesome spider ring and I tried to photograph it with my old camera.. and well it was just sad. But check this out:

This camera does a great job me thinks :)

Also in MUCH more exciting news. We got a call from HR today saying that they may be able to transfer Richard to Hawaii next month! AHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. We don't know anything more than that so I'm trying not to be to expectant BUT at the same time if I only have a month to plan a cross ocean move I kinda want to get going on it. I'll keep you all posted.

BEST WEEKEND EVER!!!!

About 8 months ago I signed up for one of those "Get local stuff 50% off or more in your inbox" email things. Its called Living Social Daily Deals. It has been so much fun, and has given Richard and I a lot of new experiences for a price we feel happy paying. Recently I used it to get us 2 tickets to the home show. We almost didn't go because there was a HUGE snow storm the night before.

Ya we had to shovel... starting to not love our giant driveway so much.

However the snowplows actually do there job here in Bountiful so the roads were clear and we decided we'd go. It was SOOOO much fun. Sometimes while I'm stuck down here in my little basement I forget how much I love architecture. This totally renewed my desire to be an Architect. I can hardly wait to get back to my education!

I got to talk with some of the SolaTube sales reps and installers. These products are one of my favorite innovations and it was awesome to talk to the people who sell and work with them. They can run these things over 30 feet! If you haven't heard of them GO to their website and check them out. They have totally improved their defuse features to make them MUCH more aesthetically pleasing.

This one is my new favorite

Also if you remember the post about the AWESOME SteamPunk goggles Richard makes you may have noticed that they have real glass lenses.

We have been having a glass shop custom cut those for us... and well they haven't been cheap. Plus it can take over a week to get them. NOT ANYMORE! We found this amazing little tool called 'The Amazing Tile and Glass Cutter' The sales rep cut us one of the circles in under 1 min! We got it and 'The Amazing Tungsen Rod Saw" for only 30 bucks with a lifetime warranty on the glass cutter! Hooray!

BUT SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST...

There were several home designers there. One of which had a great video playing of their fly throughs, still shots, and other AMAZING renderings of their designs. It looked like it had been modeled in Revit (the same software I used for my tiny homes project) but the rendering was WAY better than anything Revit can usually generate. I started talking to one of the guys at the booth about what softwares they were using. One thing led to another and next thing I know I'm talking to the owner of the company about interviewing for a Free Lance Drafting Job!! AAAAHHHHH!!!!! I would work from home and get paid by the job. I was sooo excited I almost Spontaneously Combusted! The company is Walker Home Design. My job would be taking hand draftings and making 3D models of them in Revit. (I totally rock at this, and have been doing it forever!) Plus since I work from home and would just use a file sharing provider via the internet... This job could move with me to Hawaii!

I'll know more after we set up an interview and will keep you all posted.

This might be

THE BEST YEAR OF ALL TIME!!!

PROOF!

I have always been of the persuasion that inanimate objects are NOT inanimate at all. Dryers are hungry beasts who like to eat socks. Tupperware lids take off with the wrong size container. And many objects just get a thrill by moving positions while you sleep and watching you pull your hair out the next morning trying to locate them. Well now ladies and gentlemen.... I HAVE PROOF. And it goes far beyond just being animate -- apparently they have feelings too. I have, for the last 4 years, had blue and red balls on my Christmas tree. Yet, this year as I was taking down the Christmas tree I discovered a purple ball :O

All I can figure is that some little red ball fell in love with a little blue ball and nature took care of the rest. Here is a picture of their little family lol:

Latest creation

This is a medallion Richard and I made :) We can't decide whether to keep it, give it, or sell it... I love it.

Richard's Birthday.

I will do a Christmas Post later but first. Richard's Birthday is Dec 15th, But today he got a belated gift from his sister Amber. She told me about it this summer and I actually managed to keep the secret all this time :) Here is the box can you guess what it is?

Its a Vintage Stellar Microscope!

Needless to say he loves it!

I can't find much information on it. Even on the Vast World Wide Web :o

Here is the yellowing insert:

Oh and this made me laugh:

The seller threw in this little aluminum nick nack... Anyone know what it is?

Hint: I used to use one all the time.

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Its an Eraser Guide for hand drafting lol!

I am a princess :)

If you have been following for awhile, or have known me awhile you will know that fitting a stereotype is not my style. I'm a peculiar yin-yang between Tom Boy and Girly Girl. I have many pictures from when I was little all dolled up in a beautiful dress, matched with freshly torn tights, a messy face, and grubby hands showing off my latest reptile catch! It didn't take long for my mom discover it was best to have me wear a pair of jeans under my 'ball gowns.'

Today was a bit of a repeat of that. Between helping our gecko 'Barbie' shed and doing laundry I was busy making these:

Here is the website if you want to make a custom princess of your own :)

http://www.dolldivine.com/princess-maker.php

Christmas is Coming

Living in the City during Christmas is icky. Being surrounded by all the corporate greed can really ruin it for me. The "Christmas Push" started even earlier this year. They had the products out before Halloween even! Then as soon as Thanksgiving hits people go NUTS! The stores and roads fill to bursting with frantic and rude people. I hate even going out for grocery shopping. This year I was so put off by the whole thing I decided I was going to skip Christmas all together. No nativity, no tree, no goodies, no stockings... Nothing! I had become a total Grinch.

Then I got this from my Yoga studio:

This is the time of year where we all seem to get so stressed out.....all in the name of celebrating. Doesn't make sense, right? Most of us turn our senses off in order to handle the crowds, deadlines and anxiety that the season brings. With the craziness of the recent weather, it's an especially stressful beginning. It's easy to get caught up in the idea that when Christmas is over, then you can relax. But I discovered something profound a couple of years ago when my parents died. There is another way....

I've told my family that Christmas needs to be chill, and whatever causes too much stress needs to go. House lights? optional... Tree? optional.... Baking cookies for the neighbors? optional. I want these things to happen, but not just because we always do it, but because it's beautiful in the moment. It's time to be happy during Christmas, not just on Christmas. If it's not working for us we postpone it or decide if it's something that works for us this year.

In Sanskrit there is a word, Desha ( daa-sha), that means right place or the term Sadha Desha which means a place to reclaim that which is divine in us. Understanding Desha can help us reclaim the spirit of the season. Instead of turning our senses off, turn them up! and then listen to the answers.

Is this the right environment for me to be in? Is this space enhancing my ability to enjoy the season or is it creating stress? Do I realize the true nature of who I am? or does my holiday rely on others being happy with what I give them? Can I recognize what is beautiful and sacred within me so the "perfect, meaningful gift" isn't so significant?

Re-evaluate what really works for you. And then have a happy season, not just a happy day!

Joyous Noel,

Corena Hammer

It helped me remember I DO like Christmas. I just like Christmas on my terms. The first is which is Christmas starts midway into December. Just like it did my entire childhood. We would always start the celebrations a week or two after Ben's Birthday (Dec 1st). Happy with my new approach to the season I started out by buying some tangerines and eggnog. Then on Saturday Richard and I had a fun time at his work's Holiday Party. And Finally tonight I tidied up the house, put on some Celtic Christmas Music and had the most wonderful time decorating for Christmas! I have a red berry wreath (leftover from the party) on the door, the Nativity set up, Lights in the window, the Tree out of the box and fluffed. And when Richard gets home we will decorate it together :) Here is a sneak peak:

So no matter what Holiday you find yourself celebrating this December I hope you can have a happy season and not just a happy day.

THE STORM!

Yep that title gets all Caps! I don't really feel like saying much about it other than we got EXTREMELY lucky! Other than the entire neighborhood's leaves piling up in our entry and driveway (10 lawn and leaf bags and 2 trashcans worth), a 16 hour power outage, and the internet being down for 3 days we had no real catastrophes. And with hurricane strength winds, tons of our neighbors sustained some serious damage. The neighborhood has really come together though and things are looking better. Here are some pictures but they really don't do it justice:

Ya, we had to dig our way out with a snow shovel lol!

The Cemetery was heartbreaking, almost 3 out of 4 tree's were down

This is one of the cart keepers at WalMart!

Here is a gallery:

http://desne.ws/sjuYW7

http://www.standard.net/slideshows/2011/12/01/high-winds-cause-damage-all-over-northern-utah

Happy Thanksgiving :)

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Eli's apartment this year (he has a dishwasher lol). The smallest turkey I could find was a 14 pounder! This was my second Thanksgiving cooking a real turkey. We use a modified version of Alton Brown's Thanksgiving Turkey. It turned out AWESOME!

Other than with the over-sized turkey we had a smaller feast than usual Baker spread. It was just Eli, Richard, and Myself, However, each of us put a serious dent on the food. We had my Deluxe Mashed Potatoes (a spin off of Mama's twice baked potatoes) we made them extra decedent this time by using whipping cream in place of milk! I also made Gravy from the turkey drippings, Apple Pie (with Baker Orchard apples!) and Pumpkin Pie. Eli provided lovely Hawaiian Rolls, Bacon and Cheese Green Beans, plus several varieties of Martinelli's. Richard made his Brownie Pumpkin Cheesecake.

Everything was spectacular! And though poor Eli barely made it til 7 or 8pm when it was all finally ready, we all had a lovely time.