There's Swimming, Then There's Swimming With The Sharks

Monday April 28 we went to Turtle Bay Resort where we had a birthday party for Aaron Jones.  The kids loved swimming and going down the slide where Aaron or Chad would catch them at the bottom.

Aaron had this system going where Eli would go down first and put him on the rocks.  Then whoever was second, either Drew or Kali, he would put on his shoulders while he caught child number three.  Then he'd carry them all to do it all over again.  Drew is usually terrified of Aaron.  He's the epitome of the Hulk but as you can see here the water makes her forget all her fears.  We hope you had a fun birthday Aaron we sure did!

Tuesday April 29th the Stimmels and us went to Ala Moana mall.  After we had a delicious dinner at the Nordstrom Bistro Leah and I checked out the Coach store while the men took the kids to look at the fish in the Koi Ponds.  This is right where they were at when we met up with them.  Leah noticed that Adi was wet and then I noticed she was crying.  Apparently the kids where getting to close to the edge so Taylor and Kurtis told them that if they fell in sharks would eat them.  I think that made Drew more curious than afraid or maybe she wanted her friend knocked off because after they embedded this into their little minds Drew pushed Adi in.  Then poor little Ella thinking that her sister was going to be eaten by sharks and maybe her next, tried to claw her way out of Taylor's grasp as he reached in immediately after she fell and pulled Adi out.  Drew stood there in shock, with the other onlookers, at the chaos that she caused.  Poor Adi will be traumatized of those Koi ponds for the rest of her life because of Drew.  The guys got a pretty good kick out of the whole situation and may I say handled it very well.  When Kurt asked Drew if she pushed in Adi, which they obviously knew she did, Drew said, with her finger in her mouth, "No...no...umm, yep.  I pushed Adi in."  I asked her later why she pushed Adi in and she said that she wanted to see Adi swim with the fish.  I'm still so sorry Adi and at least she wasn't trying to feed you to the sharks, right?

Flight of The Conchords-Jenny

The Longest Post In History

Today we went to Lanikai Beach in Kailua.

Then we went back to my mom's house and swam in her pool.

Drew was being so brave and having fun jumping in the pool all by herself with her floaty around her.

Yes I cut my hair.

I promise she had fun doing this.

Then my sister Cherie went to prom.  Isn't she hot?  Her boyfriend Keenan was helping Kailua High school get to the OIA Championship baseball game while I took these pics.  They met up after, and went to Senior Prom fashionably late.

I love you Cherie!  I hope you had fun!

P90X

Before                            After

Before                     After

Before                     After

Before                         After

You know, I think these pictures explain themselves.  First of all I need to thank Taylor Stimmel for encouraging us to workout.  Kurt and I did the P90X workout in a test group for Taylor's senior project.  If he doesn't get an "A" I will personally go down to his teacher and make him change his grade.  Second I'm going to give myself a pat on the back for forcing Kurt to start this workout.  Look at his pictures!  Third I'm going to say thank you to Kurt for encouraging me to stick to it.  This workout is for 90 days and it would've been so easy for me to quit.  But Kurt wouldn't let me.  Then Finally what type of person would I be if I didn't thank Tony Horton.  You irritated us with your talking and counting when we were working our hardest.  We found out the hard way that it wasn't "Ab ripper 100 or 200."  And you made us do wall squats!  Tony, I hate you but I love you.  I forgot to ask Taylor for our statistics on our improvements but once I get the info I'll share it with everybody.  P90X baby!  Check it out at Beachbody.com or P90X.com.

      

                

I was going to do a whole new post on our stats but we're not sure how sick people are of hearing about P90X.  So I added it on to our original post.  If you wanted to know I hope you found it.

Noelle

Before After

Weight 95 90

Chest 25" 26"

Waist 28" 24.75"

Hips 30.5" 29.5"

L. Thigh 16" 17.5"

R. Thigh 17" 18"

L. Arm 9.5" 10"

R. Arm 9.5" 10"

Resting HR 91 80

Pushups 20 40

Toe Touch -1.5" -7.5"

Wall Squats 1 min. 15 sec. 3 min. 45 sec.

In & Outs 24 70

Kurtis

Before After

Weight 230 195

Chest 44" 41.75"

Waist 43.75" 36.5"

Hips 43.5" 36.5"

L. Thigh 21.25" 21"

R. Thigh 23" 21.75"

L. Arm 14" 14"

R. 15" 14.25"

Resting HR 79 66

Pushups 18 42

Toe Touch +1 -5.5

Wall Squats 1 min. 3 min. 30 sec.

In & Outs 50 108

"Britney? I thought you said his name was Brody?"

So... I'm a little worried about Brody.  I think he's been hanging out with girls too much; his sister in particular.  Brody found Drew's head band and put it on his head.  Every time it fell off he put it back on.  I was actually really surprised that he knew to put it on his head.  Brody, Britney or whatever you call him, he's still darn cute to me!

Up date:  For those of you who didn't know, when Kurt was in NY Brody fell and hit his lip on the corner of a dresser drawer.  I though he had just bit his lip, but after some investigation I realized he bit though his lip.  I'll spare you the gory details.  I took him to the ER where I learned it's a very common thing to happen to toddlers.  Apparently I was being an overly concerned mom, so the nurse told me in more words or less.  The mouth heals so quickly that it would be more of a pain to get stitches.  It was more of a puncture wound than a slice.  I could have put a stud in it and have him a lip ring.  The good news is that it's totally healed.  He has a cute red Indiana Jones scar but when you touch it there's a weird princess and the pea feel to it.  You know like there's a rock in his lip?  Well I guess the nurse was right.  I was just over reacting.  So unless your child's bleeding out the eye's there's no reason to get worked up over nothing.

Giada's Family Dinners: Lasagna Rolls, Serves 6

Sauce

 2 T unsalted butter

4 t flour

1 1/4 C Whole Milk

1/4 t salt

1/8 t pepper

pinch of nutmeg

Lasagna 

1 (15-ounce) container whole-milk ricotta cheese

1 (10-ounce) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed really dry

1 C plus 2 T parmesan cheese

3 oz thinly sliced prosciutto, chopped

1 egg, lightly beaten

3/4 t salt, plus more for pasta

1/2 t pepper

12 dried lasagna noodles

butter, for baking dish

2 cups good marinara sauce

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

To make the sauce

Melt the butter in a medium, heavy saucepan over medium-low heat.  Add the flour and cook for 3 min., whisking continuously.  Whisk in the milk.  Increase the heat to medium-high.  Whisk the sauce until it comes to a simmer and is thick and smooth, about 3 min.  Whisk the salt, pepper, and nutmeg into the cream sauce.

To make the lasagna

In a medium bowl, stir together the ricotta, spinach, 1 cup of parmesan cheese, prosciutto, egg, the 3/4 t salt, and pepper until blended.

Bring a very large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.  Ass the lasagna noodles and cook until just tender but still firm to the bite, stirring frequently to prevent the noodles from sticking together.  Drain.  Arrange the noodles in a singe layer on a baking sheet to prevent them from sticking.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.  Butter a 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish.  Spread the cream sauce over the bottom of the prepared dish.

Lay out 4 lasagna noodles on a work surface, then spread about 3 T of the ricotta mixture evenly over each noodle.  Roll the noodles up and arrange the rolls, seam sides down and not touching one another, atop the cream sauce.  Repeat with the remaining noodles and ricotta mixture.  Spoon 1 cup of the marinara sauce over the lasagna rolls then sprinkle with the mozzarella and remaining 2 T of parmesan cheese.  Cover the dish tightly with foil.  Bake until rolls are heated through and the sauce bubbles, about 20 min.  Uncover and bake until the cheese on top is golden, about 1 min longer.  Let stand for 10 min.

Meanwhile, heat the reaming marinara sauce in a small, heavy saucepan over medium heat until hot.  Transfer the sauce to a sauceboat and serve alongside.

Making Conversation

Cause I still love to wash in your old bathwater

Love to think that you couldn't love another

Share a toothbrush... you're my kind of man

-No Doubt

I just bought a new Cross-Action Power Oral-B electric toothbrush.  I also bought one for Kurt to prevent him from using mine.  I've caught Kurt using my toothbrush once and I was so mad!   

Question:  Do you share your toothbrush with your husband?

Inmates and Tranquilizers

My little prisoners.

Drew fell asleep with a cheetoh half eaten in her mouth.  Thirty minutes after I took this picture she woke up ate it and fell back asleep.  Those are Kurt's kids for yah.

I Saw A Shooting Star...

  My dream car.  Volvo S60R.  Hmm...

Resemblance?

These are pictures of Drew and Brody both at their one year birthday.  Drew has more feminine eyes and a "Strong" chin (my mothers maiden name) but besides that I've never realized how much they look alike.  Of course I'm always the person who gets it wrong and thinks the child looks like the person they least resemble.  

What do you think?

Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday Leah!

We love you and hope you had a wonderful birthday.

Drama Queen

Lately we've been pushing really hard to get Drew to dress herself.  Usually she begs us to do it for her and then she gets so mad when we make her.  We're not being cruel, she can do it she just wants us to.  This time I was willing to help her because it was a funky shirt, but she didn't want me to even touch her.  I started laughing at how it turned out.  So I got the camera to take pictures.  She got so mad.  "IT'S NOT FUNNY," she screamed at me.

Then she took a swing a me.  I guess I deserved it.  

Dieting, or Starving, Your Call

So I was reading a book the other day called Ines of My Soul.  I was bored out of my mind.  I got to page 79 and realized, Yah know, I don't have to keep reading.  It wasn't nearly as hard for me to put it down as I thought It would be.  I've only done it one other time and Moby Dick still lurks at me from the bookshelf.  I hate not finishing a book.  I needed to find one that would put Ines from my mind.  Rebecca, Desiree, Falling Leaves, Saving Fish From Drowning, and a couple more that my mom lent me were suggesting themselves to me.  Then I got a whiff of Twilight.  No, I told myself.  This would be the third time I've read it.  Try something new.  I searched over the other books again, but Twilight smelled so tantalizing.  So I picked it up at 7:30 am and didn't put New Moon down till 3:00 am.  Let me tell you, it's my new diet.  It lasts give or take a week, usually take, and you read non stop.  Of course you stop to get the kids dressed, fed, and play with them, thats the exercise part.  But you don't eat for the most part.  Nope. When you're not reading, you're thinking about it to much to feel any hunger pains.  You do get a little dizzy when you stand up, but it will pass.  I swear, it's the fastest way to shed the pounds.

What is wrong with me?  I thought the anxiety, of what happens next would be nil since I've read it before.  It's exactly the same; Like a present on Christmas.  It's almost better because I'm paying attention to the finer details.  Things I missed the first time because I was in too much of a rush to find out what happened next.  Plus since I've read it before I can actually put it down and take care of my family.  Something I was totally incapable of doing last time.  Please someone diagnose me!

A Pink Occasion

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BREANA!

I know sorry about the bad pictures.  The other ones had one too many person in it!  We hope you have a wonderful birthday.  We really want to be there with you to celebrate the occasion, but seeing as we can't, we can't wait to see you in a couple of weeks!  Wow, 20!  You're getting old Bre Bre.  We love you!

So Close

Thursday April 10th we went to Kurt's TESOL Grad Dinner.

I cannot believe the end is almost here.  Kurt is officially done with school this month although we aren't leaving till summer.  Right now it looks like we're moving to Korea so Kurt can teach English there.  It's not official, we haven't signed a contract yet, but we're actually negotiating as we speak and we are applying for passports for the kids.  So we are looking to live in Korea 1 - 2 years depending on how I, Noelle, am liking it.  Then after that, hopefully we'd have saved up enough money and gotten enough teaching experience to get Kurt into Grad school.  I'm still in awe that the end is almost here.  Kurt will be the first child and grandchild in his family to graduate from college.  Congrats are in order to Rene for getting accepted into nursing school.  1 out of only 20 applicants to get accepted.  Way to go Kurty and Rene!  We love and miss you Neighbor.

 

Papa Smurf

Have you ever wondered what happened to the Smurfs?

They moved to our backyard.

I kinda went crazy with those mushrooms.  Then I had some fun with my camera and computer.  I really missed them.