impossible to count

sometimes i miss mom in so many ways it's impossible to count.

YIPPPEEEE

Yippee Doodle DAY!!!!


I'm on VACATION!!!! :D :D :D

sweater heaven

Woo Hoo!!!! It was in the 60's last night!!! YEAAAAHHH!!!!

And I wore a SWEATER today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YEEEE HAWWWW!!!!! :D :D :D

forgot you blog!

whoopsie! forgot to be blogging again! :) hee hee...think i'm just not made to be a blogger.

Happy Birthday Daddio!

Happy 65th Dad! :)
This is one of my favorite pictures of him when we went snowshoeing on Mt. Rainier. (click for a close up to see his smile) :)

Ryan Immortalized

Ryan is immortalized in Google Map. :) He's on the street view!!!

We've been waiting for months for his appearance...(he texted me as soon as the google map car drove by...hee hee...)

check him out: http://maps.google.com/maps


If you're not familiar with Street View, it's Google Maps version of letting you walk around certain cities in the world.

To see Ryan:

Put in our address: 4995 Waa Street, Honolulu Hawaii

Zoom in close (click the plus sign on the right, or scroll with your turny mouse thing)

Then click the yellow man on the left side of the map.
(sometimes you just click on him, sometimes you need to drag him to the street in front of our house)

VOILA! There he is!! :)

hee hee...move forward and back, and around the house and he's practically in every shot!! Funnier is that in the east side Poola shots, it's a different time frame, that's him in his car following the camera, but you can tell it's a different time, cause he's in a diff shirt. (that was after he texted me the Google Map car drove by him, and I texted him back FOLLOW IT!) hee hee....wait till you see us on the Burke Gilman!!! (but that's another story)

Granny's thoughts on TV

Stopped by to see Granny today. She was watching Tyra. :) Said Oprah was boring, and Tyra was more interesting today because they were giving away all this 'useless junk'.

After Tyra was over and we were flipping channels... we started talking about the shows she's been watching:

Granny: What's wrong with all these shows these days? All these young kids doing bad things!
Stacy: Yeah, that's pretty much all the programs.
Granny: Yeah, last night I was watching this show and this guys goes and shoots up the whole place! Then his wife comes home and she's yelling at him, but then later she's kissing him! All these people misbehaving! None of the kids are gonna know how to act right anymore.
...(then later flipping thru channels) Hoo Boy! and see?! Look at them kissing in public. Everybody has to kiss in public! Especially on that CW channel.

hee hee hee...I love my grandmother.

Happy Birthday Granny!!

Granny turned 96 yesterday!! This is how our conversation went.

stacy: YAY!!! Happy Birthday, Granny!!!
granny: Why? I'm not happy!

hee hee hee...she was joking though and gave me a hug and a smile.

Real Weekend

It's so great to have REAL weekends again! (weekends that aren't completely booked and scheduled out)

Saturday went to the golf range to try out my new clubs, came home and made D & R (dad and ryan) chicken salad sandwiches with walnuts and celery, relaxed, made curry for dinner, then watched Transformers 2 with yummy popcorn.

Woke up at 10am today, ran errands, picked up Diamond Head Grill for lunch and now doing some serious R&R to get ready for Monday morning. :)

I love real weekends!

Happy Halloween

Cecily = Cat in the Hat

Stacy = Stacy in Seattle

We put real effort into our costumes. Hee hee hee...but we were together and that's what counts. (and makes for a wonderful birthday)

Nothing Better

There is simply nothing better in the world than family. :)

Especially having my WHOLE family together for my birthday! Thanks Cec. I can't tell you how wonderful it's been having you back.

Wa'a Disney

I don't care if this is the Wa'a Street version of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty or Enchanted. I don't appreciate baby geckos, roaches and honeyswarming ants coming out to greet me in the morning.

sick at work

it's much easier to be at work sick as a dog when you like what you do.

a surprise iced mocha on your desk doesn't hurt either. :)

2nd day = house arrest

Okay maybe not house arrest, but a second day of not leaving the house when the reason is cramps and a sudden cold is not so much fun.

On the other hand....who knew that drinking expired frozen orange juice could be so comforting, and make you feel so much better...when you know it's something your Mom bought....like it's her way of telling me she's still here.

Nothing to do Saturday

Nothing to do Saturdays are glorious.

For the first time in probably... well...longer than I can remember. I didn't leave the house at all today. Pure bliss.

Made one more dent in going through Mom's things, cleaned, cooked and read. I could definitely get used to these 3 day furlough weekends.

Giving It Another Go

Okay. Since I've had complaints about not maintaining my blog, I've decided to give it another go! But with me being lazy, tired, overworked, underpaid...am gonna modify my blog so it's manageable and write only super super short entries.

Like this one.

The end.




hee hee....see?! short. Sweet! Manageable. At least I'm back online right?

Happy Birthday Mom. Miss you.

A week in the PNW

What's does it mean to be in Seattle for 7 days?

Delicious Double Baked Almond Croissants and Rich Strong Lattes at Bakery Nouveau.

Beautiful Sunsets from Cecily's porch.




Mariner's games...



with sunseting and views of the Space Needle.





Running in a 5K for something you believe in and in memory of someone you love.




Seeing friends that you miss dearly.



Going to stores that suit you.




Watering gardens where actual vegetables grow.

Walking through a peaceful Japanese Garden with a highly entertaining friend.






Being in the same city as my sister.


:) The short version of my fabulous week. (sorry Mai, didn't think to whip out my camera when I was with you and Haole, you too Mer and E) ;)

Views of Seattle...

...from the floral perspective. 

So like my mother, I'm now hooked on plants, florals, landscaping...I used to laugh and wonder how mom could be so interested in the flowers at Disneyland when so many more interesting things were around us. And now I understand. Here are some of those that I appreciated around Seattle. ;)

Irate Parent

Whew, had SUCH an irate parent today in my office, it probably makes the top 2 confrontations I've delt with. To the point where the office staff was contemplating calling the police! And I had staff members coming up to me through out the rest of the day asking if I was okay, asking how I could stay so calm, saying they would've just left the room, or cried, or yelled back....and couldn't believe that I could hold my own with someone over twice my size. :) Hee hee...3 people even said 'congratulations'.

So out of a really really contentious and bad situation, at least I scored some points. ;)

Just wish it were Friday...

Google Map

The Google Car is in HAWAII!!!! ;) :D

AUGGHH!!! If you see it call me or text right away, maybe I can head it off and be a permit fixture in Google Map!!!

http://www.starbulletin.com/business/20090419_Oh_snap_Google_hits_town.html

(need a lesson? don't know what i'm talking about? Cec just showed me this REALLY awesome new trick to google map - it's the street view, you can literally walk along ANY street in the world - okay, not the world, the US, Japan, UK, France...anyway, other European places and look up, look down, look left, look right, walk down the street, turn the corner, etc., etc., It's like BEING there!!! I strolled down my favorite street in Japan just yesterday!) ;)

Allie - you should try this. Seriously, you could probably stroll past your apartment in Paris.

The Counter

Big Hamburger = BIG Tummy!!!! :) :D

Here's my dinner tonight! Grilled onions, roasted red peppers, fried chiles, black bean and corn salsa with southwestern sauce. Oh yeah, and provlone cheese...all on a 1/3 lb burger. (their smallest size) MMmmmmmmm.....good.

one more step

cec and i took one more big step today...(altho she's in seattle, and she really started over winter break when she was here) ;)

we're cleaning out mom's office. i'll post more pictures of mom's eclectic taste, artistic style and sense of humor later...but for now, here's some proof of just how organized she really was...

Not only did she have her beads labeled in little drawers on her desk, she also had them organized by color, type and material in containers on her shelves, then within that she had the descriptions, prices and what bead shows she got them from! (Like Cincinnati '00)

Our biggest step after letting go of them emotionally was getting her beads to someone who would appreciate them...and as soon as I opened Mom's first container, I knew who to call (well 2 people actually, unfortunately Mer is in Seattle)... so while Cec and I will be selling a few of her beads at Wendy's craft fair next month, we were really really excited that Allie is into jewelry making and was really excited about the prospect of Mom's beads...in fact you should have seen her face light up when she walked into Mom's room tonight. :) Cec and I might not have the 'eye' that Mom had, but Allie has it in heaps and bounds, and it makes it so much easier letting her things go knowing that this would make Mom happy.

cupcakes

MMMmmmmMMmmmmm CuuuppppCaaakkkee... !!!! :)

There's nothing a yummy yummy red velvet cupcake from Cake Couture can't fix. ;) Especially when it's left on the kitchen counter for you as a surprise from your husband.

which makes me remember - i should qualify it wasn't really a HOUSE full of maggots (yes, that would be slightly more embarassing). It was a CLOSET of maggots that had just begun to infiltrate our towels. Blame it on our old dead visitor in the attic. BLECH.

wow...

wow...really not a good start to the week. house full of maggots, and as we're cleaning get a call and a really close friend of mom and dad has passed away...sat on the ground of the kitchen and cried...kind of amazing how you feel so much grief for someone else, but then it feels like it's happening to you all over again too...good thing ryan's a good husband. he sat with me for a while, and the cleaned up all the rest of the maggots while i went outside and talked with mom.

mainland-i-fied

Yeah!!! Nordstrom, 60 degree weather, Whole Foods, and now Target (pronounced Tarjay, with french accent). We're a totally MAINLANDiFIED Hawaii?!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!! :) :D :D

hmm...now if only Anthropologie and Paper Source would open here...guess I gotta have SOME reason to visit Seattle though, right? ;) hee hee...

whatever

Seattle might have had another stupid couple inches of snow, but I have 60 degrees in Hawaii for the 3rd night in a row!!! :) Bring out the Flannel PJs!!! :) :D

easier

It's easier missing mom when you know others miss her too....and easier when you have good family.

hard

moving on can be hard...

singing

I was half way through a song while driving today, before I realized that I was singing loudly. Top of my lungs loudly. The way I used to in the shower, the way I used to while cleaning or on the way home from work, the way I used to when Mom was around. It's been a long time since I've sung loudly, and it feels good.

when the shoe fits

I can't explain how good it felt being back in Seattle again. Even if for 3 days. I fit there...being with Cec, seeing my friends. My friends are like old shoes. ;) There's no pretense, no facade, no fluff or pomp and circumstance, they get me, they know me, they miss me, I fit. And when tears come to their eyes with surprise happiness, you know your loved for who you are...and I miss that. It was nice being back. 

presidential inspiration

I'm not all that hip to current events, I'm not all that patriotic and I'm really not all that political. But I woke up every 15-30 minutes beginning at 3am this morning with one of those feelings of what a momentus day this would be (actually similar to the feeling I get the morning I leave on a trip) actually got out of bed at 4:45 to start watching the inauguration and had to tear myself away late for work at 6:45 long enough to see him desend the stairs.

I'm fearful of the pedestal millions have placed him on and he's only served a half day of his presidency and I'm not saying he's going to miraculously change the world in a heartbeat...but I can't help it.

Obama inspires me. He makes me feel good about our country again. He moves me...and good lord is it nice to have a president who can speak clearly, sincerly, logicaly and with real words.

Happy New President Day. Lift every voice and sing...

Hawaii Snow Day

Hawaii Snow Days are the best! I don't think a single tree even lost a leaf over here, although maybe my hair did swish around my face once while outside. Oh yes, and it did rain for maybe 5 minutes around noon....boy what a serious storm! I bet they're real glad they canceled school today! :)

It's 2009...the holidays are over and Cec is back in snowy Seattle....and as I sit here in the quiet of the kitchen, I can't explain how much I would just like to hear Mom's voice and see her once more.

Happy 2009!!

May you have peace, love and happiness the whole year through. Happy 2009.