Saturday, August 30, 2014

Saturday Smiles

Every Saturday, I'm going to try and post five things that made me smile during the week. Often I find myself getting caught up in the small stuff but this year I'm making an effort to be conscious of it. This year is about being happy and finding happiness even in the small things! Want to join me? Go ahead and post your Saturday Smiles!

1. Getting Paid!
2. Three day weekends.
3. The Sunday Newspaper ads.
4. Planning vacations.
5. Beezy. Always Beezy!

What's making you smile?

Friday, August 29, 2014

Five on Friday

It's been awhile since I did a Five on Friday. So this week I'm going to capture some outcomes on my thoughts...
 
1. How I react when anyone gives Beezy a hard time...
 
 2. How I felt when people started learning I got a new job...
 
 3. How Beezy reacts when he sees a spider...

4. My behavior when eating In N Out after working all day...

5. How I react when someone knocks on the door un-expectantly...

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Green Sand Beach

I saved this post about Hawaii till the end. Visiting Green Sand Beach was probably our favorite thing we did on the big island.

When we set out that morning we had plans to make our way to the Volcanoes. Our plan was to swing by Green Sand Beach, Black Sand Beach and end our day at the volcanoes. When we started getting close to the turn off for Green Sand we realized it was going to be further out from the main road than we originally thought but since we were already that far out we decided to make the trip. Thirty minutes later we got to the end of the road but there was no beach. We could see the waves and the shore from really far away but we couldn't see a way down to it. It was still very far. We get out of the car and a girl came up to us asking us if we were trying to get to Green Sand Beach. When we told her yes she explained it to us.


To get to the actual green sand you have to go off road. That's the only way to make the 3 mile trek down to the sand besides walking. Umm... what?! That's three miles away? We could see it was far but we didn't realize it was that far. She said it would be 30.00 for both of us to be taken down to the beach. I was pretty iffy about it. It seemed a little sketchy and I hadn't seen anything about this online (I'm all about research). I could tell that Beezy really wanted to do it. So we paid her in cash and loaded up with another couple (whom we didn't know but had also forked over 30 bucks) and started making our way over the very rough terrain down to the beach.

I may be from West Virginia but I have never been on an ATV nor have I ever been off roading. So this was a new experience. Since there was 5 of us with the driver, Beezy road shot gun and I was in the back with the stranger couple. The driver told it would take about 20 minutes to get down to the beach. The road that the locals have made is deep and very steep. They've basically carved it out and if you don't have 4 wheel drive and know the terrain then more than likely you'll be asking one of them for help later in the day. After what felt like an eternity of bumpy terrain we made it to the beach. Or at least what we thought was the beach.



You see when you get delivered to Green Sand Beach you're actually being delivered to the top of the beach. To access the actual sand you have to climb down the rock face into the cove where the beach lies. This would have been a great thing to know before hand since I was wearing flip flops, carrying a purse and my expensive DSLR camera. But you know what... we came all that way. So climb down is what we did. It was totally worth it. I was pretty nervous once we started going down because it was very steep.

When we made it to the bottom we had to look back up to see the progress of climbing down! You can see other people at the top so you can get an idea of how steep the incline really is...
Of course we had to check out those green sand flecks. In my mind I thought it was going to be more green but you could definitely see the green sand inside of all of the grains.



 The waves at Green Sand are really strong. A few brave swimmers were indulging in the water but the locals were warning them that the waves are severely strong and can carry you out to sea quickly. Our guide was telling us that a young guy died here last year because he underestimated the current and strength. The guide said a lot of people use the buddy system when going into the water.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

The Lava Lava Beach Club


The Lava Lava Beach Club in Waikoloa was so good it deserves it's own post. This restaurant was conveniently located right beside our hotel at another resort, the Marriott. Beezy had read hundreds of reviews before we left for the island and he really wanted to try this place out. We had heard it had not just great food but amazing views. The reviews weren't lying.
 

Our table was right on the beach. When I say we were on the beach I mean it. The sand was our floor about 10 feet away was the water. The Club had more traditional seating but obviously it was further away from the beach. The club also didn't have a dress code. We saw some people in their bathing suits for dinner while other guests were dressed nice. We had just came from touring the beaches and volcanoes so we were casually dressed and fit right in with the crowd. I was starving so we got an appetizer.

The shrimp was by far the best 16.00 shrimp I had ever had. We got really lucky and our visit coincided with the sunset. We arrived just in time to watch it. We noticed that in Hawaii the sun sets really quickly so if you aren't ready then you could miss it. I would say the sun actually set on the horizon and disappeared completely within 3 minutes. We were shocked at how fast it happened!
 You can tell it's escaping...
You can tell we were racing the sun for this photo...

Our bellies were growling with hunger so when our main courses arrived we were so excited! Beezy got a bacon burger with fries.

I got the short stack of pork ribs. I thought the meal came with fries but apparently not. I also loved their presentation on the cute plates.

The sun was gone but was still giving us some great color on the horizon. It was also about this time that the restaurant started lighting their tiki torches and setting their fire pits a blaze.

When in Hawaii... you order dessert. We went with vanilla ice cream covered with a chocolate chip cookie.
 And of course our personal fire pit...

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

August Ipsy

It's finally arrived! My August Ipsy bag is here!
 
If you don't know what Ipsy is you are missing out! It's a monthly subscription box that send your 4-6 beauty products every month. Each box is filled with great samples of make up, skin care items, nail products etc. in a cute little bag. It all comes right to your doorstop for 10 dollars and that includes shipping. This month I felt like the August bag was never going to get here! This month's theme was Beauty Schooled. Since this was the second fall that I've been with Ipsy I knew that it would have a school like theme to it. This month's bag was a pencil shaped orange and white polka dot bag filled with 5 products. Let's dive right in...

1. Urban Decay Perversion Mascara.
2. Coastal Scents Forever Blush: Fresh & Elegant.
3. Dr. Brandt Pores No More Primer.

4. Absolute New York You're the Balm: Grape.

5. Lord & Berry Eye Liner: Black Silk Kohl.

The Pros: I loved the bag that everything came in. Super cute and sturdy. I also loved the Urban Decay Mascara. Great brand and always a great product. I also love that they gave me the flavor grape for the lip balm. Dr. Brandt pore primer. I love a good primer!

The Cons: The sample blush. Super flimsy packaging and the tiniest blush samples ever. The mascara pencil is smaller than my pinky. I mean really it's probably worth a dollar if that. While I love that they gave me a grape flavor lip balm, I DO NOT use lip products. RARELY will I ever put anything on my lips. Maybe twice a year. They give me fever blisters. I have sensitive lips people. Come on Ipsy. Stop sending me these. I thought we had an understanding two bags ago.

So sign up! Let me know what you get! Tell me which products you love and which one's you'll be passing on to a friend. Get your best friend to sign up, if you don't love something you can swap it with her!

Monday, August 25, 2014

Weekend Review

Last Monday, I left my old job. I wasn't sad at all. I'll miss a handful of the people and will remain in contact with them but besides that.... I won't miss it. It was a toxic, negative place and I'm glad to have a great new job. However, the great people who I will remain in contact with got me a cake to say goodbye!
It was a carrot cake with butter cream frosting. I think they got me a carrot cake as an inside joke because I use to bring baby carrots and eat them at my desk. I kept saying I was going to turn into a bunny because I was eating so many carrots. They also got me some really nice cards and signed them. They were also very generous and gifted me a Cheesecake Factory gift card. I used that on Friday and Beezy and I ate for free! It as good too!

So I did my last day at my old job on Monday and Tuesday morning I was starting my new job. No rest in between! So far so great! The people have been really nice, I'm starting to learn a few things about how to do my actual job and the best part... I have my own desk! At my last job, I had to share a desk with people. So when I wasn't there other people sat there, used the computer, moved things around etc. Not this time! I've got my own space and can put my own photos down, order supplies etc. So far I've only personalized it by bringing in two frames but next week I'm bringing in more! I'm going to organize that whole cube. I even have a window view.

As for the rest of the weekend, I tried to relax and we moved the last of Beezy's things out of his apartment. Woohoo!

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Saturday Smiles

Every Saturday, I'm going to try and post five things that made me smile during the week. Often I find myself getting caught up in the small stuff but this year I'm making an effort to be conscious of it. This year is about being happy and finding happiness even in the small things! Want to join me? Go ahead and post your Saturday Smiles!

1. My new desk at work.
2. My mom and Beezy supporting me.
3. Not having to wear a uniform to work anymore.
4. Thinking about the holidays!
5. Skyping with my mom.

What's making you smile?

Friday, August 22, 2014

Volcano


The last big activity that Beezy and I did in Hawaii was make a trip to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

We made the three hour drive from our resort to see some lava! Sadly, on the big island the only real way to see lava flow is at night and by helicopter. We did however see the steam vents. We got to see craters of the volcanoes and tons of lava rock.
 We were surprised to see how deep the craters really are in person.
 The lava rock has tons of grooves and designs in them due to the lava cooling naturally.

We also took the time to walk through some of the vegetation. We thought this tree looked like an elephant...
 


It's crazy how all this vegetation use to be covered in hot lava and how it's regrown since the direction of the lava flow changed. It's changed frequently but has been pretty steady since the 1980s. We also took the time to walk through the lava tubes.

 It was a little creepy to be inside and to think that hot lava use to flow inside of these tubes.


If you get a chance to go there do it! We had friends that stayed until dark and they said they could see a little bit of lava flow once it got dark. They couldn't get really close to it obviously but they enjoyed it. Next time, I'm down for doing the helicopter ride!