We Bought a Lizard

I think we all look forward to buying the big newspaper stuffed with all the black Friday ads and sitting at the table or on the floor and browsing through each add. We see things we need, things we want and things we only dream of. Well this year my husband was looking through the ads and found one from PetSmart. On the front page it said "Bearded Dragons 50% off!" 

Tyler has wanted a lizard since he was a kid, his dad had one when he was little but it had a sudden death ad they never replaced it. So Tyler could not pass up this bargain. Now most people buy socks or technology items on black Friday. Not us. We were at PetSmart around 8 in the morning to buy a bearded dragon. 

At first I was not sure I wanted a lizard, some of them look really creepy! But the beardies won my heart and now we have a third member to our non human children clan.

Now onto the name of our lizard. Tyler says he wants a dragon but since that is not possible we got him a bearded dragon. We both love the movie How To Train Your Dragon and the main dragon Toothless.  So Toothless it is! We aren't sure if Toothless is a boy or a girl yet and you can't tell until they are bigger but whatever it is I think Toothless id a great name.

And here he/she is! Toothless is about 6 inches long but very little considering his tail is more than half his size :) It is going to be a fun adventure watching this little guy grow up and have his personality come out. Welcome to the family Toothless!

Making Candles From Left Over Wax

I have been collecting wax from my pillar candles that burn out but still have wax left over for a few months. I love to burn candles, I have a few going almost every day. Yesterday I decided to make some candles with my left over wax and small glass containers I have. The small containers came from tiny candles I got from Ross and the bigger ones I picked up at a yard sale empty. 

First I started by cleaning out the containers and drying them.

Then I picked off the sticker on the bottom of the wax and cut out as much of the left over wick as I could.

To melt the wax I used a pot that I will NOT use for cooking. It is hard to get all the wax off of the pot and I do not want waxy food

I turned the burner on very low. If you melt the wax on to high of a setting the wax will start to evaporate like it would if you were burning the candle. Low and slow is the way to go :)

As the wax was melting I prepped my candle making station. I laid down tin foil in case I spilled and space out the containers. I bought wax coated wicks that come with the medal thingy on the bottom. I placed the wicks in the containers and waited for the wax to finish melting.

After I poured some wax in I let it set for awhile. At first I tried to fill the whole thing on the first go but that caused the wick to move around or lift off of the bottom. Also I found that the wax will sink in in the middle. I do not know why but the sides ended up much higher than the middle. So my solution to this is to fill the container in layers.

As you can see I spilled some wax. But the tine foiled saved me. I let the wax cool and I was able to peel the wax off.

If you let it cool all the way it comes off really easily.

Now I can put it back in the pot and melt it.

One last little trick I discovered is to dip the medal part of the wick in melted wax and then place it in the center of your container. This will help keep the wick from floating up and around as you pour in the melted wax.

And here are some of the candles I made :) For less than 3 dollars for 12 wicks I am a happy crafter. Next time I will try buying a spool of wick and the medal thingies and making my own wax covered wicks. 

Star Trek at The Monterey Bay Aquarium

As I was schmoozing with a man who was tracking the otters on the Monterey Bay the other day, he told me about how the decks over looking the bay were used as a whale pool in the movie "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home." As soon as he said Star Treck was here I wondered if my dad had seen the movie he was talking about. Today I was flipping through the channels on tv and the movie was playing! So here I am watching the movie and finding more information about the cast coming to the aquarium and filming.

  Here is are some pictures of the aquarium in the movie and how the aquarium really looks. They added water to reach the deck, in the background is a San Francisco skyline and the whales are not real. But it looks realistic.
  I found a clip (http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/video/video_popup_timeline_high_txt.asp?video=5_timeline) of the cast at the aquarium and Spock was walking around in his make up and ears admiring the exhibits. :) I wonder why I have never heard about the movie at the aquarium before. I think they should have a small exhibit with pictures of the actors here or even clips of them in the aquarium. Not only would you get sea life fans but you would get star trek fans! As I am watching the movie it is really cool to see how much they filmed in the aquarium and if anything has changed. Since I started about a quarter of the way through and it has commercials I think I should try to find it on netflix and watch the whole movie :)

Anne Hathaway in My Backyard

(photo from popsugar.com)

Anne has tied the knot, and the festivities were only 30 miles from house! Big Sur is where Anne had her wedding. I have never been to Big Sure but from what I have heard and read it is very lovely. There is camping from tent to luxury cabin, art galleries, gift shops and wedding locations.
 I was watching one of the popular celebrity news shows and I heard Anne got married this weekend. Then when I heard it was at Big Sur I knew that was near by. So I googled it. From my apartment to Big Sur it was 30 miles :) It feels really cool to know a movie star ( one I actually like) was 30 miles from me. California is becoming more and more eventful. I wonder what will happen next :)

Here is a link to an article on Hathaway and Shulman's wedding. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20633276,00.html

Does This Apartment Make Me Look Fat?

  Moving to Monterey has been wonderful! But when my jeans start to get to tight and shirts are showing pudge that I didn't used to have, it is past the time to start doing something about it.
  Here in Monterey I do not do nearly as much walking as I used to when I was in Albany and going to college. I would park my car further out so I would have to walk farther to get to class and about 9 hours a week I was running around with toddlers. I felt healthy and pretty good about my body.
  Now that I am in Monterey my house is very tiny so walking from the kitchen to the bathroom or living room feels like ten steps. I try to get out and walk 2 or 3 times a week but I hate the walk back up the hill so sometimes I talk myself out of going anywhere.
  Well all my laziness has ended up in a 15 pound weight gain. Ugh, and it is depressing. So I am more determined now than I have ever been to loose weight. I am heavier than I have ever been and that in not ok. The only time I want to gain weight again is if I am having a baby, which I am not.

  In goes the Insanity dvd each day from now on and we will see how much I loose :) It is hard to do the whole dvd but I just do what I can and I try keep moving by jogging in place if some of the exercises get crazy hard.
  So I shall keep you posted with the numbers and how I am doing at working out. :)

Kayaking on Monterey Bay

Todays adventure, kayaking! And oh my was it an adventure. :) Tyler was so wonderful to take me, I thought it would be easy and loads of fun. Well I was in for a surprise. First the kayak was much heavier that I thought it would be, they look so light (we had a double kayak). Second, trying to sync my paddling with Tyler was so hard. I was in the front because I am lighter so Tyler was supposed to follow my paddling, I was all over the place. :) Then you are supposed to go straight. Our kayake had a habit of going left. . . towards the beach. Oh well :) Once we got a mile out the waves weren't as strong, it was more swells than wave.
 So a mile out is really a mile down the shore line, we had a limit of where we could paddle and you can't go to far out in the sea but you can paddle about two miles down the shore line. Anyway, a mile down the shore is where the kelp forest starts. I have to confess it was creepy. Kelp growing up to the surface and you can't see all the way down because the water is not clear. It gave me the heebies geebies that something would pop out of no where and I would freak out and tip over! I just really do  not like deep water, even the deep end of a pool freaks me out thanks to my second grade teacher reading a story about a shark escaping an aquarium and coming in a pool from the vent in the deep end!

 Once we got to the Aquarium we saw so many otters. There are about 20 otters that live by the aquarium. Today they were not all together in a raft. A raft is a large amount of kelp on the surface that the otters float in :) Even thought they were not together we saw to mommy otters and their pups! Sooo adorable! At one point a mommy was eating something, probably a crab and she had her pup next to her in a raft of kelp so it wouldn't float away. She finished her grab and then dived down for another one, her pup was so cute just floating there waiting for it's mommy. Trivia about otter pups, they can not sink! Their fur is too fluffy for them to sink :) So they are completely safe being on the surface as the mom dives for food :)
 On our way back to the kayak rental, we saw seals! They were cute but kinda freaked me out. They are VERY curious and can get close to kayakers. One followed us for a little bit, I was not thrilled. I was worried it would scare me or bump our kayak! But we made it back with no problems :)
  All in all I did have a great time. It was hard to paddle against the current/waves but it was amazing to see the otters!

Our Street :)

           So this is the top of our hill :) We live two blocks down which is still a half mile from the water. The street would go much higher up but the Presidio of Monterey is funny shaped and cuts roads off. If you ever get on the Presidio (military escort needed) they have wonderful views of the bay. The football field is the best one I have seen so far.

And here is our corner. We live in the two story building in apartment 1 :) I have one window where I can see the bay. In that window I have my cute and tiny herb garden. So its fun to check out the weather on the bay and see my plants growing.

The Open Sea Exhibit, probably the most calming exhibit in the aquarium.

Here my shoes took me around the aquarium and we made a visit to the Open Sea Exhibit. In this exhibit there are hammer head sharks, GIANT tuna, sardines (hundreds), two massive sea turtles and a large ray (not sure what type). The exhibit has a 90 foot long window. Standing up close to the window and looking down in the tank you can see the sardines circling the bottom as the play a game of follow the leader and the hammer head shark slowly curves back and forth disturbing this game and causing the fish to scatter. When you stand close to the window you can't help but reach out and touch it, almost like you should be able to stick your hand through to the other side. I love how dark the room is so all you see is the tank which has a eerie but at the same time beautiful darkness, with a few light beams from above. I choose to sit above in the balcony. Here you can see the whole tank and watch all animal swimming. Also you can see the reactions of people when a shark swims by :)

Where My Shoes Take Me

So these are my new walking shoes! They are bright orange and I think they just might glow in the dark ;) Now that I live in Monterey I do more walking than driving. Tyler does all the driving for two reasons. 1.) I can not drive stick shift and 2.) This is California, a tourist town in California. So I do not drive :) I walk.

Cannery Row is a half mile from my house and the aquarium is a mile from my house. I walk down to Cannery Row a few times a week to sit at the beach and visit my sweet bat rays at the aquarium.  

Visiting the bat rays it the highlight of my walking adventures. The only down side is my back can get sore from leaning over the petting pool for 2, 3, 4 hours. So I stretch when I get home. Strange I know, but I love the rays and I could be there all day.

I am God Strong

I was a wife for 7 months before Tyler left for boot camp. The day he left it finally felt real, I am a military wife. While Tyler was gone to boot camp I  had some hard days and I missed him a lot. But him being gone for 3 months really made me lean on God and my family. I could not have gotten through the boot camp phase if I had not read "God Strong: A Military Wife's Spiritual Survival Guide." Every time I picked up the book what I read was exactly what I needed at that moment. I learned that I could not do it alone, I needed God and he was right there waiting for me to realize it :) Reading the book empowered me so much! I worked so hard on my school work because I wanted to do well and I wanted Tyler to be proud of me and know that I was doing ok while he was gone. That term I earned the best grades I have ever gotten in college, EVER! I was able to pay the bills and I had never paid bills before. I had to quit my job so I could stay on top of my schooling and I was worried I would run out of money before Tyler came back. But I trusted God to provide and I don't know how he did but I was able to have money left over after the 3 months past. Which is really strange because when I laid it all out before Tyler left I should have been at zero. Its sad that it takes a huge life change for people to finally realize that God is all they need but I am so glad I chose him :) I am God Strong and proud of it.

Thank you Tasha Stresemann for sending me the book :)

Found my long lost blog!

Well I found my blog! Let's see if I can remember how I got here so I can update it more often :)