PARTY TIME??

I don't feel like I had a party, but according to these ice bags .... I had a party last night. I have been a little tougher on my body this week than it is used to. (probably since Honu training) I thought I would be good to it and give my legs an ice bath last night..... it did feel really good. I was just missing the pizza and beer that Maggs likes to have with her ice bath :-)

So, since I have been a "blogger" I have learned some things from everything that I read. I read that some athletes use ice bath, hot bath..... so I tried it 2x. If you have any feedback on what you do for recovery, your comments are welcome. After the baths, I put on the compression tights and went to La-La Land for the night.

I slept so hard that when I woke up, I thought that I had slept past my alarm and I was wondering what day it was. LUCKY TODAY IS FRIDAY!!! That give me a little more of a happy boost. Today, my hamstrings, quads, and glutes feel sore but I am hoping that by tomorrow morning they are ready to race! I am totally nervous about Part 1 of the BOCA STAGE RACE........ the OLOMANA ROAD RACE!! I am just going to get there early in the morning, warm up for 45mins on the trainer and give it my all to hang on to the ladies!!

I know that atleast the Time Trial will be ok, I am only racing myself during that one :-)

Well, right before I wanted to post this blog I found out that I MADE CHIEF!! I am currently a Chief Select. My life totally changes today but I am happy about that. I will be very busy for the next 6 weeks or so until my "pinning" on Sept 16th. I am hoping to be able to participate in some events, but I will see what my schedule allows. Thanks for all of your well wishes and good luck.

I AM STOKED!!

Anticipation!!!

Aloha everyone, this is a very crazy week for me. It is the last week that I have to anticipate the results for the Navy Chief Petty Officer selections. I am eligible this year for the 2nd time and I am eagerly awaiting the results.

I have been in the Navy for a total of 11 years and 7 months. I went to boot camp in December of 1997 as an E-1 (the lowest possible rank). I am currently an E-6 (First Class Petty Officer) and making Chief (E-7) will be one of the biggest milestones of my career.

To give you a little info on what is looked at for this type of promotion, I will start by explaining the previous promotion ladder.

From E-1 to E-3 all you have to do is be in for a certain amount of time, not get in any trouble and request to get advanced and that happens automatically. To make E-4 through E-6 you have to take a Navy Advancement Exam that test you on your job specific knowledge and also on Navy Wide knowledge from Uniform Regulations to Navy History to First Aid/CPR and Damage Control or Firefighting...... lots of info!!

Now, you do not get advanced just because you do good on your test. There has to be room in the Navy and your specific job for advancement. Sometimes that doesn't pan out as it should because at times, there are more people in higher ranks than the Navy's budget is set. This makes it hard for junior sailors to advance and they have to set a certain "multiple or score"

This is all so confusing, I know :-)

To get selected as a Chief you have to first take a Navy test and then if you do well enough you are what they call "BOARD ELIGIBLE". I you get this far then you have to submit a package. What the Board reviews is your last 5 years of service. Your performance evaluations are reviewed and anything in the past 5 years that you have done or failed to do can help you or hurt you.

I have had 8 years of duty on ships so that is good, I am missing a very important role of Leading Petty Officer at Sea so I am thinking this might hurt me a little bit. I have continuously been involved in the commands that I am at and involved in the community which is important. I do not have tons of college complete and this could hurt me, and I haven't been ranked against peers in the past 2 years so we will see the outcome.

If I do not get selected for promotion I have plenty of things that will keep me busy so I will not have time to be bummed for to long.

I need to take my English 1302 :-) and complete alot of training for Air Intercept Control Catch-up qualifications (which I am currently working on) I also want to do a little island hopping.

The DICK EVANS MEMORIAL ROAD RACE (112 miles) is on SEPT 6th and I will be training for that race. The following day Sept 7th is the WAIKIKI ROUGHWATER SWIM (2.4 miles) and I want to train more for that.

Also, There is another LAVAMAN Triathlon on the Big Island the following weekend Sept 13th and I would love to go and participate in that with my friends. These events are things that I don't know if I will be able to particpate in if I am busy with Chief "Induction" which is totally fine. I will be happy either way, it is just the anticipation that is killing me.

Maui

I headed out to Maui with Chris on Thursday morning for a little fun away from home. Chris had some ocean surveying to accomplish with his peeps on Maui and I was along for the fun. Thursday morning we immediately hit Krispy Kreme for a fresh doughnut. Chris claims their apple fritters taste the same as Safeway, but I am all about the doughnuts myself :-)

Next we hit up the Zipline, Chris has been wanting to do this for some time now. It was fun to be in the woods for a bit.
After the Zipline, I was ready for the Lavender Farm. Yes, call me an old lady..... I love this kind of stuff. As you know, I love flowers and ones that smell amazing and have many uses are even better. This farm grows many many different types of Lavender and during our little walking tour, I got to smell the difference of about 7 types. I never knew that each type had a distinct smell and different particular uses.

After some spectacular Curry and Gelato in Paia town, we headed to the Ho'okipa Beach for a quick swim/play. The water was so refreshing with lots of fishys to look at and of course this huge SWAMP THING of moving seaweed that was creepy...

OFF TO HANA WE GO.... Weeeeeeeee!!!!

I spent the first day riding my bike and was just so happy. It was my 1 year anniversary of riding my bike (ORBEA) so I spent some quality time with her on the road :-)

This brown cow was making sure the highway was safe for my travels, he was a nice road guard. I am just happy that he didn't decide to charge at me while I was taking photos of him. When I was little, I would tease the cows that lived near my home and they got me back by scaring the shit out of me by charging at me.... Ahhh... the good ole days of being a little kid :-)

At every bridge this is what I had to deal with, not to bad I just had to really slow and be careful not to get stuck in a rut (if you know what I mean??)

Here is the rental house that we stayed in for the two nights, it was so cozy and right across the field from the beautiful ocean.

I went on the 4 mile hike in the National Park that goes back to the 400ft waterfall. I got to take a few self portraits to share with you.

Lei Stands at the Airport

Aloha, Yes here we go with flowers again! I wanted to share what the stands at the airport look like. Since I am a lover of flowers... it is entertaining to me.

This topic comes up today since I will be going to the airport in a little bit to pick up the Royal New Zealand Navy's Sailor of the Year and his wife. They are arriving for a tour of the Navy's History here in Hawaii, we (Commander Pacific Fleet Headquarters) sponsor this visit as we do our Pacific Fleet Sailor of the Year Finalist.

Here are some shots of the women that work all day to create the beautiful Leis that you see on folks that are arriving to the islands, celebrating birthdays or any other special occasion.

Here is a picture of my brother while him and I were waiting on my dad at the airport when he arrived for his vacation. Brent had picked the cool green lei because him and my dad are Moto-X Kawasaki freeks and I picked the other one because of the wonderful smelling white flowers.

I wish that I could put a scratch and sniff button on your screen and share the wonderful smells that come along with some of the flowers here. Ahhhh... the things that I love about Hawaii :-)

I also have a blog of Pearl Harbor pictures that I would like to share, I will save that for another day. Have a GREAT SUNDAY!!!

My new toy :-)

I have great news... I got my first brand new bike yesterday!! Isn't she a beauty??? I have been shopping for this bike for a while now. If you didn't know, I HATE SHOPPING! I would rather do a long ride or long run instead of shop and honestly I feel much better after a good long workout. I feel exhausted and sleepy after shopping, I was told yesterday in class by my instructor that I was not a "typical woman" whatever the heck that means. Maybe he just hasn't been around any fun girls lately :-)

I got to take her for a spin this morning in the rain and harsh winds by myself and enjoyed some quite time on the road. It felt nice and I look forward to more rides......

Here is a real picture of my new toy!!

So for the past week, I have been in AIC Training (AIR INTERCEPT CONTROLLER).

This is one of my jobs in the Navy and I am attending training to get back up to speed on the current tactics and communication formats. I truly love being in the Navy, I am very excited to get back to the operational/tactical job that I love but I really will miss being at home every night and having every weekend to play (boy have the last 2 1/2 years been nice)

This weekend my friend Allison is headed to Napa, California to compete in the VINEMAN Ironman 70.3 She is going to do awesome :-)

For the past month or longer I have been riding with her on the long weekend rides and it has been really fun. Last weekend I got in 70 miles and the weekend before Allison put in 107 and Chris and I got a 95 mile ride in. I sure didn't expect that, I was just along for fun and it ended up that I made the whole way. Chris had initially planned on riding about 20 miles or so and you see how that turned out. Here is a picture of us on the "Windward Side" overlooking Chris' place of work "Coconut Island" Not a bad office huh? This picture doesn't do it justice, it was such a beautiful darn day :-)

Our journey started in town and we headed out to Kualoa Ranch for the turnaround and here is shot of the mountains as we were cruzin by.....

This is the side of the island that I live on. I am hoping to leave from my house tomorrow for a nice ride.

Below here is what you jersey looks like after you have finished 6 hours on the bike :-) Nice and Salty