Merry Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas everyone. It is Christmas night and the boys are in heaven with all their new stuff, and Jeff and I are content in having spent a wonderful day with all our children and grandchildren. Texas had its first white Christmas ever, and with the exception of icy roads, it has been one of the most beautifully memorable Christmas' ever!

Have a safe and happy new year!

Thanksgiving, Birthday and concert pictures

Merry Christmas/ Happy Belated Thanksgiving

We had a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner, just us with Miranda and her family. Jeff and I actually worked as team in the kitchen, of course it helped having a huge kitchen where we didn't bump into each other. Miranda and David moved into their home the first week of Dec and we celebrated Skye's 10th b-day...wow my final baby is 10! We put all our Christmas decoration up following thanksgiving and we are all set for the big day. I think this will be the boys biggest year, and I mean that in the literal sense, I am wrapping some big boxes! I updated some pics to the right, and one is of Skyler had his Choir concert. I was kind of shocked when he asked to join, he has always been rough and tumble, but he truly loves to sing! He goes to practice every week and the choir put on an exceptional performance singing 5 songs! Way to go Skye! Chase has been taking art lessons every week and he is so gifted. Miranda has an awesome career she loves, wonderful husband, beautiful children and a new home. I couldn't be more proud of my children! I started watching the lil' one 2 weeks ago, and she came to me in the beginning stages of potty training, and I am proud to say with the help of mom, dad, and great=grandparents she is almost completely trained. Way to go Devon!

Happy holidays to all my family and friends ~ stay safe, healthy and warm~
We love you all!

Happy Halloween

This is my alltime favorite time of the year and my favorite holiday. I always got a kick out of haunted houses and scary movies, still do as a fact. This year Jeff got to spend halloween with us for the first time in forever, and he even wore a costume and posed outside our front door holding the candy! He was Angel of Death or something...and he scared the beejesus out of a few kids last night..lol! Devon went trick or treating with her uncles Chase & Skye and she had a blast. We have settled into our corner of the world quite nicely and every night we go to bed with a sigh of contentment for living the good life.

I had two losses last month, my stepfather Archie and my step-grandmother passed away in the same week. I flew to my mom's at the beach and spent 4 days with my family, the first time we have all been together in about 5 years. It was a sad occassion but it felt great to see everyone.

Miranda and David have found a house and as fate would have it it is only 4 blocks from our house. Wow, we certainly got lucky there!

Birthday shout-out was for my stepfather Archie who unfortunately passed away right before his 89th birthday, but knowing him he had one helluva party in the afterlife.

Jeff and I celebrated our 12th year of marriage, and I think we finally got a handle on how it works! Thank god we stuck it out to reach this point. We love everyone and wish everyone well.

Halloween 2009

Autumntime

Autumn in texas isn't really any different than spring in texas, things are still in bloom, the weather is unpredictible and generally warm to hot. We do not get to see the leaves change to gem-like colors and feel a slight brisk to the air, so to those of you who live in areas where autumn is evident...enjoy!

September is such a full calendar month, so if I forget any shout-outs Iam truly sorry!
Katelyn Renee Croucher turned 1 on August 28th :)
Devon Alyssa Barhydt turned 3 on September 3rd :)
A heartfelt prayer is being said around the world for those lost souls of 9/11/01
Jimmy Brown turns 47 on September 12th ~ Happy Birthday Bro :)~
David & Miranda Barhydt celebrate their 4th anniversary on Sept. 24th
David Barhydt turns 28 on September 30th :)

"Princess Bling-Bling" turns 3

Hello, Texas we have arrived

It has been an incredibly long summer, but we are finally moved into our home in McKinney, Tx. We spent the time since leaving Hawaii travelling, visiting family/friends and living out of suitcases for 2 months...but in the end it was all worth it! We have a beautiful home with a swimming pool that I use everyday, te boys are in top ten rated schools in the state, I see my daughter/son-in-law and grandkids every weekend, lfe is good!

Over the summer we went to Baden, Pa, where Jeff's parents live and celebrated Jeff's retirement and the 4th of July. Our awesome friends the Crouchers drove up from Maryland and spent the weekend with us. All of Jeff's relatives and friends of the family showed up to celebrate. The boys and I spent the rest of the month driving to Maryland to stay at Pam & Scott's house, then joining up with my brother Jimmy, we ventured down to Virginia to see our grandmother who just turned 94, and finally to North Carolina's outer banks to stay with our mother and do some serious fishing for the weekend. After dropping my brother off in Maryland, we drove back to Pa dropped off rental car and flew down to Florida to stay with my sister Tish. We had an awesome time and the boys got to experience fishing near and sometimes for gators.

Saying Goodbye to Hawaii

Aloha friends/family,
Sorry for the delay but wanted to know our destination before I gave my final goodbye to Hawaii! Jeff has been hired by King Aerospace in Dallas, Tx. We are flying out of Hawaii on the 11th of June, arriving at DFW on the 12th. We are homeless until August 1st where we will be moving into a lease home in Frisco. We will continue to lease out our home in Fort Worth and eventually sell it, as the commute would be way too much. For those I told we would have a pool in the backyard, I apologize, the AHole owner decided to raise amount of rent after we applied, Jiffy sayed "Hell No", so we found another house that has community pool. The boys and I will be travelling down the east coast during the month of July. Jiffy (hopefully) will fly into Pa to join us for the 4th of July weekend for his retirement party.

Hawaii has been many things for me in these past 3 years, and I cannot honestly say I regret it, but I am truly happy to be going home! Hawaiins are true thrill seekers living on the edge. From the die hard surfers, surfing when the "No surfing flags" are up to a no helmet law, so seeing a motorcycle go flying past you at 80+ MPH not wearing a helmet is a common occurance. You will also see many trucks pass you with whole families lounging in the back, as seen in the picture with the 3 HUGE Hawaiins riding in chairs, all scarfing food! On the island they have very large, very creepy looking centipedes so the locals keep chickens in their yards to eat them, well sometimes these chickens venture onto roads and highways as seen in picture below taken on the Pali. Then there is my alltime favorite, of the dog sporting better sunglasses than I have, that was taken New Year's day at the lighthouse hike. The views here are amazing, and we have tons of pictures and memories.

Hawaiian words:
Aloha ~ hello, goodbye & endearment
Mahalo ~ thank you
'Ohana ~ family
Keiki ~ child
'Ilio ~ dog
Honu ~ sea turtle
Hale ~ house
Moana ~ ocean
Kai ~ sea
Hana ~ to work
Haole ~ white people - foreigners
pupule ~ crazy
Ono ~ delicious
Lu ' au ~ hawaiian feast
Honi ~ kiss
Kane ~ man
Wahine ~ woman
Wikiwiki ~ quick/fast
Lolo ~ stupid

Birthday shout-outs go to Jiffy , my brother-in-law Ron and myself.
~Aloha~ See ya soon!

The good, the bad and the WTF...Hawaii

Happy Easter

Whew! It's April already! I would love to say time is flying for me, but I'd be lying. We still do not know where we are going and I'm sorry to say it is stressing my poor husband out. I wish I could wave a wand and give him the job, and location of his dreams, but of course I can't. He starts his terminal leave the end of this month and will be looking nonstop for a position for us. We truly want to move close to family, may it be Texas or back to Maryland, yes we are still considering Maryland. The boys are easy, they will go anywhere as long as it's off this island. I don't know if our negativity towards Hawaii rubbed off on them or they truly hate it as much as us, but it will be a move we all want!!!! I just want to begin our summer where I can load the boys up and hit the road to visiting everyone (hopefully), if not a half-way point where people can come visit us.

Birthday shout -outs go to Pam (my BFF) she is a beautiful 30 something! Most importantly my baby girl turns 23 on the 24th, everyone sing "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU". And last but not least my dad has a birthday at the end of the month, dad I truly do not know how young you are, but that's ok.....Happy Birthday!

Springtime

March has brought us an early spring, with very unusual weather in paradise. It has been soupy clouds for about six months, so you never know when or if the sun will shine through. Chase competed in Kaiser at the beginning of the month and did the best he could, but was against some seriously tough 5th graders, he had fun and was cheered on by his peers. Jeff flew to Dallas and interviewed for a company that does military contracts in the area my husband is trained (my bullshit way of saying "not sure what he does") their home base is Dallas, but Jeff interviewed for either El Paso, Tx or Ardmore, Ok. We will know our outcome next month. The boys are on spring break. We went to diamond Head over the weekend, and it was a refreshingly easy hike, with beautiful views of Wikiki. We probably wont do much more this spring, as we are watching every penny for retirement. Maddie finally got the shock collar we have been threatening, and I think we see it as more of entertainment than training (we are probably going to hell for it). I am sure most of ya'll has seen Chase and his extremely long hair, something he was proud of. The rule in our home is, you can grow your hair as long as you like as long as it is washed and combed everyday...... Chase pushed the limit! Three days of not combing his hair resulted in long hair no more!!!!!!

Birthday shout-outs go to my nephew Josh who turned 23, and Austin Croucher who turned 12.

2009 Mokapu Fitness Team - Skyler

2009 Mokapu Fitness Team - Chase