School Shooting ...

today there was a horribly shooting in CT ... at an elementary school!! 

A 24 year old went into the same school that his mother taught ... armed with about 4 loaded guns and a bullet proof vest and just shot any and everything.  He ended up killing about 27 people ... 20 little ones were all killed.  Not sure who else was shot and injured because of it.  Teachers locked children in there rooms and just tried their best to keep everyone safe.  Little ones were saying that they don't want to die and they just want to make it to Christmas.

While reading this all i could do was sit here and think of Kekoa.  He is in elementary school himself ... 1st grade.  Would he know what to do?  Would he do it?  Would he be safe in school?  Would his teachers try and help him?  Would Kekoa feel and be guided by the spirit and follow it? 

I know that I just ranted about bullies and I know that I always talk about his behavior being a problem and something that we try and work on daily ... but i never would have thought that I had to prepare/talk to him about shootings/bombs or anything of that level of danger in school. 

The shootings were just a horrible moment in time ... and I only hope that those families will soon find comfort and peace knowing that they will see their families again. 

looking back on 2012

The end of the year is quickly approaching ... and it's really just unbelievable.  There were many things that happened in 2012 for us ... and we will hopefully have such an adventure for 2013. 

Kekoa has truly grown so much this year.  As i was looking at some baby pictures, he is no longer that baby anymore.  Even though he is my "baby" he is truly a big boy.  He is growing into his independent self so quickly.  But there are still moments of my "baby" still there.  We had signed him up for Soccer this year and Tommie was the coach.  It was fun to see Tommie teach children what he loves to play and see them get excited about what he was teaching them.  Kekoa though would run up and down the field chasing his shadow, seeing how fast he can run, and just having a ball.  Sadly his great times would be no where near the ball!  : ) Soccer has been checked off ... let's try and find another sport he might be a little more interested in. 
He is doing amazingly well in school.  Math he excels in beautifully, reading and writing we have a little trouble with.  I've noticed that he knows what's happening, but since he is wanting to be 1st done he just rushes through it all. That's why I think he struggles with reading and writing.  That takes patience and time, which he clearly thinks is being wasted on unnecessary things.
He is such a loving and caring little boy.  His teacher has informed me that there have been a few new kids that year and Kekoa is always the first to befriend them and make/help them feel welcomed.  He is amazing with little ones, making sure that he is gently and loving with them.  He is my little "make love not war" baby! :)  He is also very aware and compassionate with older people ... ie Tommie and I.  He is always checking, make sure that you're ok, that you're near by for him, that you know that he loves you and "do you love me?" When he wants to be he is the best snuggle bug. 
Next year our little baby will be 7, Sept 2013 he'll be going into the 2nd grade ... he really is growing up so quickly and now that he isn't wanting "mommy" as much i don't want it to happen too fast.

Tommie has had such an active and busy year.  In March when he and I went to Costa Rica to celebrate the marriage of our 2 friends ... Graham and Donna Barker ... he proposed to me!  : )  Since March to September it was a crazy time of wedding planning/staying organized in the house/ me moving into the house and still tending to just daily life.  Those 6 month flew by and our wedding was just wonderful. 
At the restaurant he has been super busy.  With being the owner life never really stops or slows down for you.  Bill and him have had a few bumps here and there but their partnership and business has really flourished due to good communications between each other and wanting whats best for the business. 
They lost their general manager, Matt maybe some time in July/Aug because he was going to start a restaurant of his own.  The timing for Tommie was a little rough ... a month before our wedding.  Tommie had to put in more time at the restaurant on top of crunch time with our wedding.  We were a little insane there for a bit ... but luckily Bill and him were able to pull it together and agree on a new step ... hiring a manager.  They hired Jimmy.  He has been with them for a long time, and has been a great waiter ... and they saw great potential in him and promoted him! 
They also had an employee .. Kara ... who had been at Cafe Mezz for 10 years.  He planned a special surprise party for her and invited all of her loyal customers and at the same time was able to make some profit off of it.  He also took pictures of her, framed it and had the employees sign it.  Then come that night they presented it to her ... and she was beyond thrilled and surprised by it all. 
And as always, as the end of the year come closer and closer the restaurant gets busier and busier.  He is there more and longer.  We don't get to see him as much due to the busyness of it all ... but it's all because he's working hard for our family!

As for me ... the year was a hectic one.  After getting proposed to and coming off of that high ... I went into full wedding planning mode.  Quickly found and ordered my dress ... and the shop was just wonderful!!!  They helped me 1 get a dress that would come in to me on time.  2 helped me modify it to be modest and still look stunning. 3 were just wonderful in the whole wedding planning process.  After finding a dress my aunt in hawaii (Aunty Aurie) worked her magical hands and made me a veil that was just the picture perfect of what I wanted.  She also then made jewelry for all my girls ... floating gold pearl and matching earrings!!  And my other wonderful aunt ... (Aunty Diedra) flew them all over to me with her!  It was wonderful to have my 2 aunts who were there for my during my trying year there for me both physically there and spiritually there!  : ) My parents ... who I always knew they were great ... proved again how truly wonderful they are.  They helped not only pay for a lot of things for our wedding ... opened their hearts and house to our extended family ... (Aunty Jacqui, Aunty Juana and Uncle Charlie) and helped BIG time with every other little detail in the wedding.  I also had my 2 cousins ... (Nohea and Koali) fly out as well and stand with me!  They day did go by really fast and I wish I could relive it all ... but I only want to relive it all with my family by my side!
After getting married and enjoying our first family vacation together in Disney World Orlando ... Tommie and I have been actively trying to organize our home.  With all my personal belongings coming over ... yes I still have a basement full of things in my parents house, all our wedding gifts and planning, ON TOP OF birthdays we celebrated Oct to Dec .... school starting in Sept for Kekoa ... and all 3 major holiday back to back to back ... we have just found out that I'm pregnant!!!!! 
I feel like we are almost at the top of our ginormous mess and we keep getting knocked back down ... and not necessarily by a mess but more of an activity that comes first.  This pregnancy has been a challenge already.  I haven't been feeling well and my engery level has been shot down so fast.  I feel so old and such the party pooper when it comes to things only cause I just can't handle any more.  I am in bed by 10 ... 11 at the latest and could honestly sleep for forevers!!!  I am hoping that once I pass my 4 month mark my energy will come back and I will be able to be super mom and clean the house and get it all organized to our liking and IN TIME for when baby comes!!

So here's looking at you 2013 ... I hope that you're a much more promising year for our family!

Tommie

This past weekend our little family was separated from each other for just over 48 hours.  Tommie is the best man in an upcoming weeking and had to do his best man duties ... : ) so Kekoa and I spent Saturday and Sunday with my family.  We went to PA to the railroads and little shopping center.  Afterwards we went and saw Rise of the Guardians ... which this was Kekoa's 2nd time watching it and he loved it.   It was so fun to spend time with the family and just enjoy each other. 

But the time apart made me realize that i have the best husband in the world.  He and i may not always see eye to eye ... and despite all of our many many differences and views on things ... he is the best thing that has ever happened to me. 

He has been such a blessing in my life ... makes me laugh every time, comforts me whenever i need it, whether I need it or i just want to be in his arms.  Has a good head on his shoulders that helps him in his business which in turn helps our family.  He has such a big and generous heart to any and everyone that he finds that "needs".  Much bigger than mine and he kicks me off my high horse to help me remember and realize that i'm not the only person on this world that needs to be needed. 

He is an amazing father to our son.  Kekoa truly lights up at the site of his father, because not only is he his daddy but his best friend and his buddy to play with any and every time he needs a playmate.  Kekoa has such a blast with him and Tommie back with Kekoa.  And they are great with each other cause Kekoa wants to be just like his daddy and Tommie has the heart and spirit of a child. 

Bully

We have a Bully ... and it's not a nice one.  And for as much as i have heard about them out there ... i never really thought that it would happen.  You're children .. what do you have/do that can and be bullied about. 

Kekoa has a little boy on his bus ... his seat partner.  And he is the worst.  A bunch of kids were talking and saying/asking what are some bad words.  The S (shut up ... stupid) are bad words ... the P is a bad word.  And my boy ... P, what p word?  and they spelt it for him ... and he says in a question Poop? The bus kids went crazy and the told on him saying that he said a bad word.  Kekoa was confused ... poop isn't a bad word ... and i didn't say it to anyone ... why am i getting into trouble.  I had to explain to him that even though Poop isn't a bad word, it's not a good word to be saying. 

He then asked me is "I cup" a bad word.  No ... ok is spelling it bad?  At first i didn't get it ... but if you spell out the word ... i-c-u-p ... ugh.  I remember this when I was younger and this was one of the funniest things to ever hear someone say.  But naturally now that i'm older ... how stupid is that.  Wellp Kekoa slept it and everyone laughed at him.  I asked him ... why did you spell it ... and he said because the little boy said that if I don't then he'll tell the bus driver.  I had to explain to him that 1 he doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to and 2 the little boy can go and tell the bus driver because there is nothing wrong or bad about you not wanting to spell that word.  And there would be nothing the little boy or bus driver could do to punish Kekoa.

It's been a little stressfull over the last few days, but Kekoa and I have been praying that he has a good time on the bus and that the little boy will leave him only and or that Kekoa will have the courage to say "I don't want to" to him the next time.

sanely six ... ?

Kekoa has recently become one of those children that you wonder ... "what happened?" over night. 

He has become soo sassy lately with no hesitation with talking or snapping back.  He has been holding the "1 minute" finger up when i tell him to do or go somewhere.  when i tell him that he shouldn't he has no hesitation giving me a response justifying his reason why he can/should be able to do. when he still doesn't get his way he then mumbles under his breath.

and it has now gotten to a point where my patience has and is tested to it's fullest and i can't stand it.  i understand that he may get distracted and is scatter brained and can't focus ... but it's hard when it happens so often enough and i have repeated myself over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. 

tommie and i have tried many different ... new ... try again the old ... found something new ... things that we have ran out of ideas, we have not given up but are close to giving into yelling.  we are still just sternly talking to him, taking things away, adjusting the amount of food that is on the plate, talking more. 

i feel like all i need is about a week to 2 weeks with him only and just re-train him back to what we know to be right.  i just wish that others that are with him are able to help him keep and maintain what we have taught him and not allow him to do and be like he is.

After Math from Sandy

so we really lucked out ... these are all pictures from New York and New Jersey where they were hit much worse than I was.  I happily had a power outage for a day and a half.  The house was FREEZing cold and we were able to borrow my parents generator (they didn't lose power) but other than that we were fine. 

Others weren't as lucky as we were ...

Once again ... even though nothing "bad" happened to me, I was happy we were prepared

"B" prepared

Hurricane Sandy is coming up our coast and what am i doing ... panicing!! 

first thoughts ...
we're going to lose power ... we need a generator
my stove will go out ... we need gas for the grill
candles ... lighters
flashlights .. batteries
kekoa ... ugh .... he needs toys, homework, toys things to keep him occupied
i'm fine ... as long as i can tend to kekoa we'll be fine

and as i'm going through my mental list I realize ... we're fine. 

I have been so prepared for months/years with my emergency bags and i have been preparing even now to make sure that i'm always up to date.  I just have to make sure that my bags are really packed and ready to go ... but i am so happy that i am packed and ready for any kind of emergencies. 

trying to organize

So married life has been ... fun ... :) and we are all trying to adjust to everything.  Like living together, or the fact that I had previously taken over the basement as the wedding room/my craft room and now it's a mess. or the biggest one right now ... the fact that the house isn't big enough for all of my things.  Luckily there is a 2 car garage in the backyard (weird set up i know) that we have store most of it but still ... I have soooooo much stuff and I don't think Tommie knew or realized how much I had. 
I have half the closet upstairs plus about 12 drawers and that's still not enough room.  And poor Tommie has been already "kicked" out and having to use other closests around the house and still all my clothes aren't out.  I have half of my clothes in the basement on the floor ... I still have SOOOO many shoes left over that i'm tryin to go through.  I'm also trying to start the habit of packing my summer clothes during the winter and vice versa.  But then the new dilemma is where to put those stored boxes of summer/winter clothes? 
But the organization has begun and Tommie has been wonderful.  He and his dad built shelves (i forgot to take pictures) in the garage and they look great!!!  i'm so excited and it's given me motivation to really clean up.  They are big storage shelves, I now have to go and buy containers to store all our stuff in. 
THEN after it's all cleaned up we can open our wedding gifts (haha ... yes we haven't opened them yet) and organize that!!! ahahaha ... never ending!

Hopefully we won't be growing out of our new house too soon!  :)

Welcome Koukoulis Ohana

I'd like to give a big ALOHA and YASSAS to any and everyone!  The Koukoulis Ohana has finally become offical!!  So to just give a little background about us and how we become the Koukoulis Ohana ...

Meet Tommie ...

I actually find him starting off our post very appropriate because today is his birthday!!! 10-12-12.  Happy Birthday Tommie. 

Tommie is the son of Tom and Tina Koukoulis

He is the oldest twin, his sister being Andonia

He has a half older sister Annie - which from her he has 2 nephews (Christo & Julienne) and a niece (Ava)

He has a step brother Alex from his Dad's current marriage

He co-owns a very well to do restaurant in Severna Park - Cafe Mezzanotte

He is a hard worker, always going-going-going, he always has a smile on his face and a welcoming hug to greet any and everyone with, he is full of love and compassion for everyone - especially his family and he is a wonderful man to our family. 

Meet Pohai ...

Pohai is the daughter of Raul and Sani Braun

She is the oldest of 4 - Fuzzy, Isabel and Manoa

She works at her dad's insurance office - State Farm

She is a hard worker, can go and go but not quite as much as Tommie can, very protective of her loved ones and anyone that is close to her, has 20 million great craft ideas but has a hard time finishing them,

So here is the story (brief) of how these 2 met. 

High school classmates of Fallston High School 2002.  You actually would have never put us together in school too.  He was the A student in all the AP and Honor classes HOWEVER he was also the one who would lite off fireworks or stink bombs in the stairwells, come late to school and throw the best parties on the weekend EVER.  She was the average student who was friends with everyone and worked every day and every weekend because she had just discovered that "if I work hard I am rewarded".  We met at a mutual friends house where she was actually crushing on Tommie.  But Tommie wasn't feeling it and started to make moves on Pohai. Fast foward a few months and now we're dating ... fast foward a year and we broke up cause we had different goals ... fast foward a few months and we're back together and our love for each other still going strong ... fast foward a few months to almost a few years differences crept back up again, Pohai in Hawaii - Tommie in Maryland and we find out we're pregnant ...come April 2006 Kekoa entered this world and our hearts ... fast forward and a whirl wind of this and that, add a dash of drama for your mama, and a sprinkle of craziness covered in we're still in love with each other and Tommie proposed to Pohai in Costa Rica in March of 2012.  We woke up early for a sun rise walk on the beach, breakfast on the beach, just really he and I as we watched the world come to life.  And as we were gazing on the ocean view Tommie got down on one knee and presented me with a ring and as me to marry him.  Naturally I said yes.  Fast forward  6 months and on Sept 8, 2012 we said I DO and became the Koukoulis Ohana. 

Meet Kekoa ..

came to us on April 8, 2006

born in Kailua Hawaii

he has been a joy and blessing in our lives from the moment he entered our hearts.

he is an active boy (just like his father) and is always so full of love followed by hugs and kisses

he loves his mom and dad and is DYING for a little sibling



So there you have it ... all of us all typed up.  Enjoy this blog as we journey forward together as an Ohana!