Welcome back...

Wow, I guess I needed that 2 month break to get acclimated to my work commute or something!  I'm definitely going back to my goal of posting at least 2 times per month now that we're settled!  Let's play some catch up now...

My last post detailed my love of snorkeling in Hawaii, but I am proud to announce that I have a new favorite hobby: DIVING! Michael and I both got our SCUBA certification:

Us with our instructor and our class mates right after we passed our open water dive at electric beach.

It was an intense class and VERY time consuming! For a whole week, we had to go to class after work from 6-10pm. There were three days of class room instruction and two days pool instruction doing skills. Then, on Saturday and Sunday, we had to do an open water ocean swim and assessment from 7am-12pm both days. It was exhausting! But in the end, we had so much fun and Michael and I were glad that we completed the whole thing.

We ended up going diving with our relator and his friend the next weekend! Here are some pictures of diving at Sharks Cove (sharks cove was awesome by the way because there are lots of underwater caves to explore)!

It was WAY fun! And it just amplified my love of the water and exploring! We can't wait to go again... now we just have to commit and invest in our own gear :)

The cove of sharks

Wow, waaaayyyy overdue for an update!  I'm really trying to keep up with this blog, not only for people I share it with, but for myself!  I want to remember all of the cool things we do.

So here's another one for the books :)

I've fallen in love with snorkeling... Michael has always loved it, but it's really all new to me.  I'm not a great diver or swimmer, but I've taken to it and now there is no turning back!  We go snorkeling at least once every weekend and I've gotten so much better--I owe it all to Michael though.  He's really awesome in the water and I'm grateful that he was especially patient with me (so out of character! haha) while I was learning!  Needless to say, we invested some money into buying nice gear (notice all of mine is pink and Michael's is gamecock colors hehe) for our excursions.  We also splurged (happy birthday to me) on a nice underwater camera-- TOTALLY worth it!

Anyways, Shark's cove is the BEST place to snorkel (well, that we've found so far)!  It's located on the north shore near Wiamea Bay:

We've also gone to Hanauma Bay, Electric Beach, Lanakai, Three Tables and Chun's Beach to snorkel-- but I'll have to write another post about those :)

We were very lucky when we went to sharks cove on this particular day because we got to swim with a Hawaiian Monk Seal!  There are only 1,400 of them in the whole world!  We saw lots of cool fish and sea turtles too.

I'm pretty sure we did this all during Memorial Day weekend because I had time to make this little video... check it out:

shark's cove snorkeling

So, there is a little update of some stuff we've been doing lately... more to come soon!

We found a HOME!

Hey everyone!

It's back to work for this nurse... for those of you that don't know, I'm going from working in a NICU at Bethesda Naval, to being a clinic nurse at Pearl Harbor.  Big Huge CHANGE.  So, I haven't posted for a while because I've been balancing learning my job during the week and enjoying the island on the weekend!  5 day work weeks are new to me :)

More importantly, our home search has ended (we hope at least-- barring nothing goes terribly wrong)!  We actively went house hunting one day a few weeks ago with our realtor.  It was fairly easy for us since we had been researching and already picked the area where we wanted to live.  We saw a total of 4 houses and I was completely sold on the second one we saw!!

The house is in Kailua, which is an awesome location for both of us in relation to our work commutes.  This is very important to us since Michael and I will be working on opposite sides of the island and both despise traffic (I think Michael develops mild rage disorder when he gets stuck on the H1-- Hawaii's rush hour can compare to I-95 South traffic for all of you east coasters).  Also, the house is in a BEAUTIFUL location.  It's close to the most beautiful beaches on the windward side of the island.  It's also only a few blocks away from amazing restaurants and cute little boutiques.  Oh, and did I mention that there is a WHOLE FOODS just 5 min down the road... and a frozen yogurt bar!?!

So, long story short, we put an offer on the house of our dreams, and the sellers ACCEPTED!  Now, we are in escrow and it's just a lot of paper work and emails until settlement.  It's a waiting game and I'm so anxious to move out of this HOTEL (around the first week of June *cross fingers*)!  30+ days in a small hotel room is not ideal for our first dabble with cohabitation.  But, we are still incredibly happy and feeling blessed everyday that we are here :)

Here are some pictures of the house... I can't wait to start decorating!!

Ooops, the pictures loaded in the wrong order!  Oh well, you guys get the idea.  So that's the house!  It's 3BR and 2BATH.... once we get settled, we're expecting visits!

Aloha!

It's been a long road...

Hello my friends! I am finally posting from my hotel room at the Hale Koa (a military exclusive hotel/resort) in Waikiki!

It was a hectic last week in Bethesda with checking out and moving all of my stuff out of my apartment...



But I'm finally here with my husband! He has been here for the past 3 weeks and already knows the traffic patterns and how to get around, which is nice because my sense of direction is non existent.

After meeting up with my navy sponsor at the airport and checking in with my work, Michael and I fought Honolulu traffic and arrived in Waikiki where we will be staying for the whole week :) We think alike too because the first thing we did was head to the barefoot bar downstairs!




This past weekend, we took advantage of the weather and tried paddle boarding on Waikiki beach. I will post pictures of that once we get better at standing on the boards haha. We also explored the north shore a bit and swam around Waimea Bay.






After swimming, Michael took me to a little tiki stand on the side of the road to get a "surf bowl" which is a blend of frozen acai berries topped with bananas, granola, coconut flakes and honey. It was so g o o d!!! Perfect refuel after playing in the north shore surf!







After getting filled up with amazing surf bowls, we headed to meet up with some friends and watch a polo match!




From someone who knows nothing about polo, it was actually really fun to watch! The games aren't that long actually (7min quarters) and the real fun is in the tailgating! There are people dressed up and lining the field with tents and grills! There are also food stands and there was even a bar to buy mixed drinks and beer. It was a fun experience!

Have I mentioned that we've also been eating like kings around Waikiki? We don't have a kitchen or any big supermarkets close to us, so we've been having fun going out to dinner and feasting every night! Here are some snapshots of the food we've been having (lots of Japanese!). Also, Michael absolutely despises it when I take pictures of food, so these few shots were fought for!












I'll post s'more later ;)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Kalia Rd,Honolulu,United States

Easter weekend thoughts

So my Easter weekend was pretty awesome! I got to snuggle and have girl time with my lady friends! Amanda, Erynn and Theresa have been my home girls since high school and I miss them everyday! It's nice though, we're scattered all over the DMV (dc, Maryland and Virginia), but we all congregate to Fredericksburg for holidays because our families still live there.




Girl time! And congratulations to Erynn who is Newley engaged to her long time man friend David! They are the coolest couple I know!
The actual holiday, Sunday, was uneventful because I got called into work, Womp! Perks of being a military nurse! I got to see some family after my shift though, so I was grateful for that.



My dad with my baby cousins... Wait, when did they grow up!? Ahh, so sad for all that I'm going to miss while I'm away for 3 years!

So, that was my last weekend on the east coast! Get ready for some cooler and more exciting posts in the near future! 8 more days, woot!!

The verdict: Yummy!

As promised, here is the paleo pumpkin muffin recipe!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond flour/meal
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup almond butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and blend well.
3. Coat muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray (or use paper liners) and divide batter among six cups.
4. Bake for 32-35 minutes or until muffins are cooked all the way through.
5. Allow to cool before serving.

(source)

This recipe is from one of my favorite food blogs, Carrots 'n' Cake.  This is one of the first blogs I started reading.  She is a crossfit woman and posts lots of yummy healthy recipes.  

They were okay... I'm definitely not a big muffin fan in the first place, but if I were craving one, these would be a much healthier option!  Very nutty :)  

Even a caveman can do it...

Goodmorning!

Have any of you thought about trying the Paleo diet?  Michael did Crossfit a lot while he was living in Tacoma Washington stationed at Ft. Lewis.  He raved about it!  If you want to know more about the workout, here is the website.  Basically, there is a work out of the day (WOD) and you go to a crossfit gym and do the workout in a group.  The workouts last only 15-25 min, but it's high intensity!  The workouts can consist of anything really including lifting things, running, flipping tires, pushups, weighted squats, dead lifts, pull ups, ect. I can't really get more detailed than that... I'm not a crossfitter (yet!).

(source)

So along with crossfit, they promote a diet called the Paleo diet.  Simply put, it's a caveman diet.  If a caveman can't eat it, you cant.  Soooo-- no bread, grains, oils, dairy, legumes and LOTS of whole foods like fruits, veggies, meats, almonds.

(source)

Anyways!  Michael and I are going to attempt to do the caveman thing when we are together again, settled, and plugged into a crossfit gym!  Can't wait for lots of grilling of meats and veggies every night :) Speaking of my husband...

He left for HAWAII on Monday!  He is currently on the island and exploring!  He has the whole week of, so I've been getting pictures like this

and this...

Yeah.  Did I mention that it was 37 degrees yesterday morning here in Bethesda?  It's pure TORTURE hearing all of these things that he is doing out there by himself!!  I miss him SO much and I just wish we could both be out there exploring together... oh well, soon enough right?  2.5 more weeks :) :) :)

SO, back to paleo.  I'm attempting to make some paleo friendly muffins this morning since I have some time.  Here are the ingredients:

I'll be back later with the review and recipe.  Hope you're starting your day right as well!  Until next time, Aloha :)

<3 Mika