The Man of the House

With Husband gone, I have taken over the role of Mr. Fix It.

First, I changed the shower head in the bathroom, which was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Then, Mom and I built a grill. Not nearly as easy as the shower head, but we still got it done!

More recently, I tackled a much larger project: the car. You see, the AC in the car was broken. The first quote I got to fix it was $150. The second quote, which I got from the place on post, was only $39. Little did I know, the mechanic there thought he could pull one over on me because I'm a girl and would not actually be fixing the AC for that price. Even though I asked for confirmation of the work I was getting done, he only checked the AC for that $39. To actually fix it would be another $200. Naturally, I was not happy when I discovered he had flat out lied to me and I let him know it. I also let him know that I would be taking my business elsewhere. And that place was Checker.

After a phone call to my dad, I decided that I would just fix the AC myself. So one trip to Checker and $35 later, I found myself staring at the engine with absolutely no idea what I was looking for.

[my view]

So I googled it. After I knew what I was looking for, I spent the better part of the afternoon staring at the engine, trying to figure out where the mystery part was. And then I found it. Twenty minutes later, I was in the car, cold air blasting, on my way to Taco Bell for a celebratory taco.

I'm sure Husband never thought he would be coming home to a plumber, builder and mechanic!

I sure hope he knows how lucky he is to be married to a badass like me.

Hawaii House Pets

Since I've come back to the island, I have had quite a few uninvited house guests. It stared with the spiders. They like to creep in the corners of the apartment and scare the heck out of me at random intervals throughout the day. This morning, as I took a drink of my water bottle, I looked up and locked eyes with a monster of a spider. In my moment of pure fear, he seemed about the size of my palm, although looking back, he was probably a lot smaller. Thankfully, I've come to be very aware of where I keep the Raid and sprayed that mammoth of a spider. He immediately fell off the wall and did a death crawl into my favorite boots. After shaking him out and them crushing him with that same boot, the spider would just not die. So, I bravely picked him up and flushed him down the toilet.

With Hawaii roach situations, I am not nearly as calm or brave. Just last night, as I was sitting on the couch enjoying some chocolate covered macadamia nuts, the king of all roaches squeezed under the screen door and took a flying start for my face. Luckily, that Raid bottle was within arms length and I sprayed and sprayed until that roach was in a puddle of poison. With tears in my eyes and my heart pounding, I picked it up with a paper towel and tossed it out the door. For the rest of the night, I had to breathe through my shirt because the Raid stench was unbareable, but there was just no way I could keep the door open in case his roach buddies decided to avenge his death.

Not all Hawaii house pets treat me so badly, however. Just this afternoon, it seems I've finally adopted one that I can live with. Meet Derek:

My own personal dino! He lives in the side burner of the grill on the balcony, which is the only reason he is allowed to stay. He's the biggest lizard I've seen to date and for my sake, I hope it stays that way because he doesn't seem to be afraid of me at all.

He even let me take a close up! As long as he stays outside, I think we are going to be great friends. Maybe he can even help me with my bug problem...

Army Wife Style

You know you're a badass when you have camo band aids on your matching running blisters.

Husband would be so proud.

Grown-up Girl

Sometimes being a grown-up isn't fun at all. Like when I have to move 3,000 miles away from my home with only the essentials. As if that wasn't stressful enough, when I got here, I realized that the condo I rented was dirty and disappointing. Then I went to pick up the car and it wouldn't start. So I had to buy a new battery. While I was waiting for AAA to install it, I noticed that the tags were expired. I ended up having to pay for new tires and an alignment before I could get them renewed. Top all of that off with moving our stuff out of storage in the constant rain and the last week has been pretty hard.

Thankfully, I had Mom with me. She's the only reason I didn't have a full blown mental breakdown. She was absolutely amazing and helped me make the apartment feel like a home. She helped me pick out my pretty, new couch and even bought me a dining room table, rug, coffee table and vacuum. My apartment that started out as a disappointing mess ended up feeling a little bit like a home.

[Sorry for the crappy pictures]

Sadly, Mom had to go back home and now I'm forced to become a real grown-up girl and live on my own for a while. Some moments it doesn't seem so bad. Others, it feels absolutely impossible. Hopefully I survive.