15 August 2011

What I Learned Last Week

1) How to shoot these guns:


2) Back to school shopping is EXPENSIVE!  I don't know how my mom and dad let me get as much as they did when I was little.  I was so lucky to have the opportunities and upbringing I had.  Lucky in the sense that I had no real needs.  Unlucky because I was conditioned to think it necessary to live in a highly consumerist way.  BBBS gave us $50 to go back to school shopping.  Paige picked JC Penny because she doesn't get to shop there often.  We spent almost all of the money when we were there just on one pair of jeans, one shirt, and a package of sports bras!  I would have never expected that a pair of jeans in the kids section costs as much as they would in the adults size!

3) If you have bad tires, sooner or later you will need to replace them, whether you want to spend the money or not.  We got very lucky when someone left a beer bottle under the tire and we didn't get our tire slashed open then, but now they are so thin that a thorn from a tree branch has found its way into our tire.  We're going to have to spend the money to get new tires for the car.  Although I know we have the money, I was hoping we wouldn't have to spend the money until we have our BHA (Basic Housing Allowance) coming in so we would be able to pay our rent without a worry incase the military didn't get our pay rolling in right away.  Hopefully we will be able to replace the tires without dipping in to that savings!



Monday Medusozoa

White Spotted Jellyfish

  • These jellies are native to Austrailia and are fairly harmless to humans!
  • They filter sea water all day in hopes to absorb the nutrition from the tiny plankton. 
  • They can filter 13,000 gallons of sea water every day in search of their foods!

12 August 2011

Wedding Announcements

I haven't posted for a while (other than MilSpouse and Monday blogs) because I've been really busy!  After moving down here I've had my work cut out of me.  My days have been filled with taking my grandma to Arkansas for doctors visits or Branson for hair appointments, unpacking and repacking my things that I moved in to moms basement, trying to tie up any other loose ends that need to be taken care of, as well as the surprisingly large task of completing wedding announcements for our friends and family.  Although we are getting married in Hawaii and only inviting our parents and although we don't expect gifts or anything of the support, we thought it would be good to send a formal announcement of our engagement.  I thought it would be a good idea to make them all by hand.  This was a fun task to perform, however, I didn't expect it to take the amount of time that it did.  Even though I spent a lot of time on them and quite a bit more money than expected, I was very happy with the finished product.

outside of announcements with sunflower stamp

front of our announcements with our picture on the front

inside of our announcements
After the announcements were sent out I didn't even think about the fact that I might start hearing from the recipients.  I was so happy and overjoyed to hear from all of my friends receiving announcements and also my crazy amazing cousin down in Florida!  My friends are such amazing people and I feel so happy to have their support and love!  Even though many of them already knew about our engagement and wedding, and many of them had never met Levus before, they all offered support and congratulations!  Some asked what and where to send our gifts, which was very surprising and unexpected and one of my good friends (who also happens to have a blog out in the blogosphere) even sent me a picture of our wedding announcement on her fridge, which I feel is a huge honor!



I feel so lucky to have such wonderful friends that support Levus and me.  Because of my many moves and my friends moves I have been living many miles away from a lot of those friends for quite a while, but we have still managed to stayed in contact.  Knowing that my friends will be there for me no matter where in the world we end up living makes me feel a warm fuzzy inside that I didn't know was there.

On Tuesday Levus' family is coming from Kentucky to meet my mother and grandmother, and for the two weeks following we will be going on a road trip up to Wisconsin to meet most of their family and then back down to Kentucky to visit a bit longer before my wedding shower that my future mother-in-law is putting on for me.  I'm excited to be spending time with them and I'm excited to get the opportunity to meet so much of the family that has been so supportive of us so far!  I may not have the chance to get on here too often to update, but I will do my best as I have time!

Aloha! (I'm practicing... just one more month from next Friday till I'm back in Hawaii with my love!)

08 August 2011

Monday Medusozoa

Irukandji Jellyfish
  • The Irukandji is a very small jelly, but is still extremely venomous!
  • When first found by the scientist Dr. Jack Barnes in 1964, in order to prove that the fish was venoumous and causing the Irukandji syndrom that many people were falling sick from, he stung himself, the lifeguard and his son.  All became very sick from the syndrome (but lived).
  • These tiny creatures have been found all over the world and can cause symptoms including extreme muscle cramping and pain, nausea, headaches, and increased blood pressure!