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. :)

Next time, I'll tell you about how I met a mermaid. No really. ;)

Today is day 53 of deployment. I guess everyone goes through their ups and downs during deployment. The whole first month I wanted to hang out with the other wives and be away from my house as much as possible.

The last 2 or 3 weeks I have been a hermit. This should partially be blamed on Netflix streaming video though which I finally got to work. I've been watching Lost (had never seen it before) from the beginning. I started about 2 weeks ago and I will probably be done season 3 by this weekend. Plus it's an even more amazing show when I recognize places from the island in the shots. I want to shout, "Silly Jack. There's no smoke monster at Kualoa Ranch." :)

Anyway, after a great night's sleep and getting to sleep in today a teeny bit (lately I've been doing these early online trainings at work that have me getting up at 4:45am!) I woke up to the best email ever.

I had emailed our videographer from the wedding to see if he could do a shorter version of the practically 2 hour dvd he had sent me. He took amazing shots but the dvd was ALL the raw footage which repeated shot after shot. We fast forwarded through most of it when Nick and I first watched it.

Anyway, our amazing photographer Philip Lemoine (highly recommend!) put together this little diddy for me. And made my whole day.

Thought you might like to see it too. :)

I recently started working for a non-profit organization in Honolulu and I really love it. I love feeling like I'm helping a greater good. But when I heard about the Walk coming up next weekend for a different organization I really wanted to walk in it.

Autism effects so many children- according to the CDC it effects 1 in every 80 to 1 in every 240 children. Personally I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like to find out your child has autism, and to know that life could be drastically different for them and for you for the rest of your lives. I believe in supporting anything that can be done to help research and hopefully find a cure.
Even though I'm getting a late start with the Walk (it's next Saturday, June 12th) I set a goal of $200 and I'm really hoping to make it.

If anyone can help, I would appreciate it. You can donate directly online (tax deductible!) or you can mail in a check and it even lets you download a form to do so. ANY amount would help it. I appreciate your time and support so much!

Donate here (or sign up to walk with me!):
http://www.walknowforautismspeaks.org/hawaii/smiller

Mahalo nui loa! (Thank you very much!)