Meet Lilikoi Cupcake (Lili) 11/28/2010
 Miss Lilikoi Cupcake at 10 weeks Meet our new puppy, Lilikoi Cupcake. Lilikoi is Hawaiian passionfruit. It was actually the filling that Nick and I had in our wedding cake when we got married here in Hawaii back in March. Since Lilikoi, who we just call Lili for short, is a purebred beagle, we thought a daintier name would be appropriate.  First meeting! My absolute favorite name was Charlotte, but we were really hoping for something that would have a Hawaiian influence, but that wouldn’t be hard to pronounce or be weird when we leave Hawaii. I think Lili was a good choice. Oh, and I’m obsessed with cupcakes.  Loves grass. I've loved beagles for a long time now. I think their eyeliner-ed eyes are adorable. I know they are loud, nose-driven dogs, but they have a reputation for being sweet and lovable and getting along well with children and other dogs. We wanted something smaller than Maggie (who is at about 45 lbs) and were looking at cocker spaniels, Cavalier King Charles and beagles. The first two tend to have long hair, and we thought it would be easier to stick with a shorter haired dog. Also, Maggie met a Cavalier King Charles one day at a dog walk and Maggie barely sniffed it before it went yipping off frightened. I couldn't have a prissy little dog like that. :)  Also loves stealing Big Sis' bed! Lili was born on September 2, 2010. We picked her up on Sunday, November 7, when we got back from our honeymoon. She was just under 10 weeks then. (We also got a new digital SLR camera just days before getting Lili- our slightly used Nikon D40, with which most of these pictures were taken.)  'What IS this thing that keeps bugging me?!' When we got our first dog, our black lab-border collie mix Maggie, she was already about 6 or 7 months old. We missed out on all the really young puppy phases- including crate training, house training, teething…all the fun stuff.  Don't let the innocent looks fool you! Puppy karma is catching up. We got off WAY too easily the first time. Lili is an adorable puppy. She has learned a lot in the last 3 weeks of having her but she is definitely a challenge. House training especially.  'I wanna be just like big sis!' But she has already picked up “Sit” and is working really well with “Stay.” When we would walk out of the room or go to bed the first week she would cry and whine and bark and howl. She is doing much better with her vocalization now. We also discovered that turning on a sound machine of waves and soft music keeps her relaxed and quiet the whole night. Thank God.  Sleepy time with Daddy! We do have fun when Lili falls asleep after a lot of playing. It's the equivalent of a drunk person passing out and people writing on his face with Sharpie. One night we took some fun pictures of a passed out Lili. Three pairs of sunglasses, a pair of shoes, a beer bottle, a hat, and even a rose in her mouth. Ahh, fun.  Cruel I know. But so much fun.  Just like daddy. Nick and I have been studying Cesar’s ways. Snagging moments to read his bookHow to Raise the Perfect Dog (perfect puppy training book if you are looking for one!) and watching Dog Whisperer every chance we get, we are definitely making progress. Having a puppy really does make you feel like you have a baby! I had no idea we got off so easily with raising Maggie, who is already a wonderful dog, but in comparison to the new pup is just the most well-behaved dog ever.  Me? NOT well behaved? Pfft. Maggie is being a great big sister. She was confused for a while as to what this little critter that kept trying to eat her ears is. We also learned quickly that we can’t give them treats that take a while to eat, like rawhides. Maggie is able to finish hers in minutes and Lili continues to chew them or loses interest, then Maggie goes after her food.  Getting used to the camera, I think.  Sisters! Maggie is getting much more used to Lili’s antics now. She lets Lili chew on her for a little while now. When playing fetch (Lili is learning to bring us the ball back too!) if Maggie gets to it first, often she will drop it in front of Lili so that Lili can have it or bring it back to us.  See- we share! It’s definitely been a challenging experience so far. But they do seem to care about each other already. I almost wish we could fast-forward to the already trained days but Lili is so adorable as a puppy and is already growing so quickly. I think she has already gained about 4 pounds since we got her! Wow.  Grass-muncher Another great thing about having Lili? If there were any cute fuzzy feelings about having children asap, they have dissipated rapidly. We want to enjoy our time with just our canine family hopefully for at least another 2 years. ;)  Kisses! PS. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Nick and I did. We stayed low-key, for fear of abadoning the dogs for too long. We spent the morning at the beach with Pineapple Juice/Ice Tea/Rum concoction, the spent the evening watching the puppies wrestle and eating some of our favorite foods: bacon wrapped bratwursts for Nick (his fave thing I make- bratwursts wrapped in bacon and coated with brown sugar and cayenne pepper), spaghetti and 5-cheese Texas Toast (which I never buy!), and pineapple cupcakes with citrus frosting- Yum! We also got our Christmas tree. I can't wait to show you all pictures after I decorate it. We're not going to be able to go home for the holidays this year, so it should be interesting to spend Christmas on a tropical island. Challenge accepted! Another blog update soon!  Add Comment Cute Puppy Photo of the Day :) 11/26/2010
 Lili at 12 weeks- full blog post coming soon! More Homecoming Pictures! 11/16/2010
Nothing Ventured 08/23/2010
"For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else." -Ralph Waldo Emerson As I was at work today, I realized that I said "ya'll" to my new co-worker just 5 minutes shy of explaining how to pronounce "E Komo Mai" (Welcome in Hawaiian) and talking about my growing up in Baltimore. Then on the ride home today, my iPhone music shuffle picked up a previously abandoned Muse song added to my collection years ago by an ex-boyfriend I haven't talked to in forever. I was never into Muse. At all. And suddenly I liked this song. And the others from its album. It got me thinking about how I've changed in the almost 7 months since I've moved to Hawaii. I decided my list was long enough to warrant being written down (and laughed at). So here it is: Things I’ve Lost since Hawaii:
I couldn’t be a more happily married woman. Unless Nick was home from deployment but I’m taking one day at a time. And twice in the past two weeks I have had comments from two different people that couldn’t believe my age. Not that I’m old by any means but it was nice they thought I was a college kid. Enough reflections. I need to go race my dog around the block. Aloha! ;) Visitors! 07/21/2010
Oh my goodness! Things have been super busy lately!  Cruising the coast My sister and niece came to visit me on Saturday. It got off to a rocky start since they were actually supposed to have gotten in on Friday but became stuck in LA overnight and were able to get a standby Saturday morning. It was such a bummer to miss out on basically a day since they were so exhausted from the two days and 35 hours worth of traveling. We managed to have a great day beach day at Ko Olina on Sunday followed by a luau on Sunday night at Paradise Cove at Ko Olina...kind of cheesy but fun nonetheless. And yummy drinks.  Me- and sissy in the background I had to work all day Monday due to a quarterly board meeting as well as having two of our chapter employees in from LA visiting so there was a lot to be done. But I have the rest of the week off and am already having a blast. I can't wait to post all of the pictures on here later this week! In the meanwhile, follow me on Twitter as I update on all the places I'm going and I'll post pictures frequently too! It feels so good to be at the beach in paradise. :) Eddie 06/26/2010
I've neglected to tell you about my friend Eddie who popped in and out of my life not that long ago. He appeared to me while I was watering my garden. Eddie is a 4 inch lizard. :) I found Eddie hanging out on my Hawaiian Chili Pepper plant having a good ol' time. He didn't seem the least bit perturbed when I grabbed my new camera and got as close as 5 inches away from him at times. He even let me pet him- though I don't think he liked it much.  I was so excited that something as cool as Eddie would wonder into my yard. I named him after Eddie Aikau, who is a Hawaiian legend. (Good local story you should know about if you ever visit Hawaii and see the "Eddie Would Go" bumper stickers. Kind of a Hawaii-ism.)  After posting a few pictures on Facebook, a know-it-all friend of mine (hey, I'm thankful, Rick- I really am!) identified Eddie as a female Jackson Chameleon. (Ooops..Sorry for naming you a guys' name, Eddie.)  Apparently, although Jackson chameleons aren't native here, they have been introduced and you can find them here. People sell them online across the country for about $75 and you can find them on Craigslist here and in local pet stores for about $25- when people I guess are mean enough to pick them up from the ground & take them.  I didn't want to take Eddie- I looked up directions for keeping shim, but it was way too much work. So instead, I just took a lot of pictures of him as he explored my chili pepper and tomato plant and hung out in my yard for about 2 1/2 days. It was fun waking up in the morning and seeing the little guy making his journey across the jungle of my yard. I was sad when he finally left but it was a fun little brightening to my day(s) while he was here. Plus I got the picture below. And this is now one of my top pictures I have ever taken in my life. :)  How can this not make you smile? :) Next time, I'll tell you about how I met a mermaid. No really. ;) | BEACH BLOG
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