Wedding Date!

We finally set our wedding date!! We're going to be married on Saturday, August 15th, 2009 and we are so excited!! It's cool because it's our anniversary already, so we won't have to memorize a new one. It's almost tempting to have it out here, but we wouldn't ask everyone to fork out the cash to fly out here. So it will be in Washington, possibly Portland, but we really don't have any ideas yet. I've already got my wedding gown...I picked it up from a thrift store, so it's dirty from having been worn, and some of the beading needs to be repaired and it's about a size too big. But I got it for $30, so I figure even all that won't add up to the price of a new dress. Plus I really like it. I'm going to buy my wedding ring soon too, just to get it done and make sure I get what I want. We've already started thinking about having our favorite local Seattle band, the Senate, play at our reception. That was Ben's idea, and it would be so cool.

In other news, we took Ali'i to the vet today to get the second of two shots for his heartworm treatment. I didn't have the heart to leave him overnight because I think they were just going to put him in a kennel until we came to pick him up the next day. Poor thing, he starts shaking like a leaf whenever we go in a car, because every time it's been to go to the vet. So he's been in a lot of pain I think because apparently the shot makes them really sore. We have to try to keep him calm for the next month then he goes back and they kill the baby worms. We asked for tranquilizers, but eventually decided against them because we had heard that pets can have adverse reactions and didn't want to keep him drugged up all the time. He's going to hate us, but it's like you tell your kids, it's for his own good.

I'm finally posting :)

Well I've finally gotten my act together and decided to post, and there is a lot to say! We've had some big changes lately, and one of them is that we got a dog!! We are so excited to have him as the newest member of our family and we love him so much...he's our little baby. His name is Ali'i, and he is a Pitbull/American Bulldog mix. He's four years old, and we got him from the Humane Society on March 27th. We think he's the best dog in the world. Our life with him has been very eventful so far. He is very independent and needs some obedience training because he is a dominant dog and will push us as far as we let him. We're softies, so we've pretty much been letting him get away with murder. He doesn't always come when we call him, and because of this, he got hit by a car a little over a week after we got him. It was really horrible; we were so scared. Long story short, he was okay, he just got some nasty road-rash on his back right foot. It's almost fully healed now though. Another misfortune is that he has heartworms, which he's going to get treated for on Monday, so we hope that goes well. We're going to leave him overnight, and I hope they are nice to him. :) We are looking forward to when he is recovered because he has been going nuts not being able to go out and play. We took him to the park a lot when we first got him, but he's not supposed to get too much exercise because it can exacerbate the heartworms, and after his treatment he can't go out and play for a while either because that can cause bad complications. He is a very high energy dog, so it's hard for him.

We also just moved into a new apartment on March 24th, which we like a lot more. I really didn't like living in Waikiki, but it was more convenient for Ben because that's where he works. We now live at the top of a hill in an area called Makiki. It's actually closer to the Spaghetti Factory, which is nice for me. It kind of sucks going up the hill every day when we come home, but we're thinking it will help get us in shape. The rent is a bit more expensive here, but it's pretty much to be expected for living in town. Honolulu is not a cheap place to live. Our place now is a lot nicer though. We aren't overrun by cockroaches here *knocks on wood*. The one thing that is kind of funny is that this place is very green. All the walls are seafoam green, the couch is forest green, the rugs in the bathroom are dark green, everything. But it's okay, we've gotten used to it. Plus, green is Ben's favorite color. :) We aren't completely settled in yet, but I'll post some pictures when it's a little more tidy.

Good news, I got a new job!! I'm so excited. It's in my field of study and it pays decent. About the same as Ben's job, which is funny because we made about the same hourly wage when we lived in Seattle too. The job is with a company called Hawaii Behavioral Health, which is sub-contracted by the Department of Education to provide services mostly for Autistic children but we also work with mentally retarded children sometimes. I am what is called a "paraprofessional" or "skills trainer" who works one-on-one with the child usually in a school setting to provide them with appropriate education and to work on life skills. So each paraprofessional is assigned to a case, and until I get a case, I'm just subbing for other paraprofessionals. So I can't quit at the Spaghetti Factory yet because I don't have enough guaranteed hours at HBH to get insurance. I've only worked with one kid so far, but it's been really awesome. A lot better than serving spaghetti to cheapskates, that's for sure. So I'm currently in the process of becoming something of an expert on Autism.

Ben has really gotten into motorcycles recently, so he's been trying to convince me that we should buy a motorcycle, which I wish we could afford. In the meantime, we've rented one for the day a couple of times and gone riding around the island. We have so much fun. We went on February 6th, and again on March 12th for Ben's birthday. It's great because Ben drives and I take pictures. Last time I think we came home with about 200 pictures. We are lucky because Ben's parents gave us a couple of helmets, so we didn't have to buy those. I just bought my jacket on our last trip so now we're both safe.