Beauty and the beastie

Originally uploaded by fd.

John Watson’s photos and endearing stories of fatherhood makes me want to have children.

Although I cannot honestly say that motherhood has been a keen desire of my heart since I was a litle girl, as I browsed through John’s Flickr Photostream, it hit me like an epiphany. The tender beauty of childhood and the joy that comes with raising and nurturing a child of your own.

John even captures some not-so-blissful moments like a shot of his son’s tearful terrible two’s fit. But even those are precious.

I’m not naturally the maternal type, but if God would give me a chance, I would sure do my darnedest to be the best mom I could possibly be. If I could be half as good as my own mother or my mother-in-law are, then I’d be in great shape.

Perhaps this is the year to really start trying. After all, we’re not getting any younger and we all know that you need all the energy you can get to keep up with those little ones.

Last night, I attended my first class since April when I went on a self-imposed hiatus to allow myself some time to deal with other more pressing issues in my life such as welcoming Hubby home after 1 year in Iraq, purchasing a home, moving, and dealing with my Mother’s illness.

A recap of the past 5 months:

Hubby is back, safe and of sound mind, heart and spirit. He re-acclimated himself into island life without missing a beat and transitioned from soldier to civilian literally overnight.

The home purchase was truly a test of faith and a showing of God’s grace and provision in our lives.

The subsequent move was not without its travails, but we survived relatively unscathed.

Mom is doing well. I do believe that she is a walking miracle. No pain from the 2 surgeries (mastectomy and inplantation of a mediport) and she is tolerating the chemotherapy amazingly well.

With all of these issues resolved, I figured that it was time to get myself back in class. Yesterday was the beginning of the last 7 months of my college career (hopefully) and I hope they go by quickly. Continue Reading »

WANTED: HANDYMAN for installation of ceiling fans and air conditioner (window unit).

Do you have a handyman (or handywoman, for that matter) that you count on to do your basic home repairs or improvements? Before I delve into the uncharted territory that is the Yellow Pages, I’d love to get a recommendation from someone who already has experience with a trusted contractor.

And by the way, the contractor needs to be able to work in the Central Oahu area.

If you have any recommendations, please leave a comment or drop me an e-mail at donna [at] champuru [dot] com. (Yes, that’s “dot-com”. I haven’t set up my dot-net address yet.) Mahalo!

Next Tuesday marks my first day back in school after a heavenly 3-month hiatus. I am SO not looking forward to it.

Gone is my zeal for school. Suffering from a major case of Senioritis, I just want to get it over with. 6 more classes on my schedule. None of them pertain to my area of study since I’ve already finished my coursework. Now I’m just resigned to taking those bogus classes needed to complete the required number of credits to obtain my degree.

Perhaps I’m suffering from a cumulative fatigue, amassed from years of going 120 mph in a 55 mph zone. Maybe it’s just laziness. I just don’t feel motivated to spend 4 hours in a classroom after a 8-hour work day, reading material I am not even remotely interested in, studying, writing papers, meeting with a study group, preparing projects and making presentations. Even more distressing than all of that is having to be the “new kid” in class after class, waiting to see whether a kind-hearted study group will adopt me. It’s like grade school and being the last kid to be picked for the dodge ball teams.

This weekend, I will focus on realigning my negative attitude toward school. I’d like to start this endeavor on the right foot and it won’t happen with a negative outlook. Any thoughts on how to help me “get happy” about going back to school?

Have you ever had one of those mornings when every outfit you pulled out of the closet looked absolutely dreadful when placed on your body? Have you slipped into your favorite pair of “fat pants” and found that they fit snugly around the arse and accentuated your pooch enough to convince you that you might be 4-months pregnant? Well, that was my morning.

Although I’d like to convince myself that my brand new dryer is the culprit that is shrinking my clothes down a size, I must be honest with myself and admit that I’m starting to pack the pounds back on. Continue Reading »

Safety First

Originally uploaded by Champuru.

Okay, maybe not “hazardous” per se, but definitely stinky.

This afternoon, we donned masks for a short period while a burning ballast in the building was located and replaced. It never fails, whenever a flourescent light goes on the fritz, it’s always in a location where our A/C duct can suck up the fumes and pipe it directly into our office.

Today, instead of evacuating to the cafeteria, which isn’t necessarily a bad idea, we found some dust masks (leftover from the Anthrax scare) and wore them. Wearing a mask in an office environment can make for interesting conversation starters — and of course, photo ops.

The cows have come home. Hubby signed up for MySpace tonight.

I don’t think my previous musings about it was really what sold him on the idea. Actually, a few of his close Army buddies have sites and blogs hosted on MySpace. It would be only appropriate to keep the gang together, even online.

Remaining true to his oath of anonymity, he doesn’t list his real name anywhere and even posted a picture of a Japanese superhero (not Kikaida) on his profile. Being the possessive doting wife that I am, I gave him strict supervision input on his profile. If I could have indicated “MARRIED” in ALL CAPS and boldface, I probably would have. Nevertheless, Hubby is a man of integrity that I never have to worry about. He even wrote a nice blurb about being married to a “wonderful Okinawan girl” without me having to twist his arm - much.

All kidding aside, it’s quite exciting to see the Hubby getting his feet wet on the Internet. Next step: KikaidaHubby.com!