Goodbye Summer... {Super Harvest Moon}

{Image By Me}

Hello my loves!!!! I hope all of you're doing well and happy. This sounds like a broken record, but I've been CRAZY busy for the past two weeks, I barely sat in front of the computer.

Both of my daughters are in school now that I thought having all morning to myself would give me the freedom to blog all I want, but actually I have been busier than ever. Driving them to school, doing errands, picking them up and taking them to afterschool activities - oh my gosh I wish I could clone myself!!!!

My husband JT was home last week, so we're running around and doing all sorts of stuff together with the girls. Good news is that my husband will be able to commute between FL and NJ every two weeks now and he'll be going back and forth every weekend starting Christmas. We're very excited that he'll be part of our lives again very soon...

Today is the offical last day of Summer and the beginning of Fall. Also we're celebrating Super Harvest Moon. Apparently we don't get to see this beautiful phenomenon for years and years, so we all should go outside around 11pm and look at the moon. You can see Jupiter right below it. I did take a photo and can you see a tiny tiny dot - that's Jupiter...

I love space and looking at starts and moon. I talk about it time to time how looking at the sky makes me feel - it's like all the darkness and brights spots cleanse my body. There are so many possibilities out there in the space and I feel like I'm such a tiny existance... It totally amazes me.

Florida is still super HOT and I don't feel like Summer is fully gone, but I do feel the difference in the morning - air is cooler. I love summer and I'm a bit sad that Fall is arriving, but all the festivities are around the corner.... AND I have two more shifts left for my departure from work and my birthday soon. I'm very excited!!!

I can't wait to catch up with all of your blog!! xoxo

Beach, Frozen Yogurt & Rainbow...

{Image By Soapy}

Well, it's already Wednesday, but I hope you all had a great Lobor Day weekend! Did you guys do anything special - or did you go any place special???


My weekend with the girls was just laid back - nothing crazy, but really good one. Thank you very much. I took the girls to our favorite Lido Beach and also we celebrated the Grand Opening of our favorite yogurt joint "White Berry" that came really close to our home. The original store is in downtown which is about 20 minutes drive and the new store is a lot closer and it takes less than 10 minutes:)


While the store guy R prepares the yummy yogurt for us, Soapy looks up like a little girl - she looks like a big girl, but I think she looks like a two year old from looking at this photo. So cute. She couldn't wait for him to make her yogurt:)



I got the Original flavor with Kiwi and Ju Ju and Soapy got their favorite Green Tea flovor with Mochi and Chocolate Chip. Seriously, they are yummy.

Somehow, Soapy in this picture is ready to snort yogurt out of spoon. Funny. This was just a random picture and I didn't set her up to this.

Now that looks better Soapy!

Julia and Soapy love these canisters full of Fruit Loops & Trix.

{Image By Ju Ju}

I must admit, my girls are really cute!

The same day afternoon before yogurt, I took the girls to our favorite Lido beach. It was a perfect beach day because the beach was not crowded and it was really quiet. I hate when there are too many people and no parking. I was a bit surprised becausse it was Labor Day weekend afterall, but I guess we just picked the right day because my friend who went to the same beach the next day told me the beach was packed Zoo. Thank goodness, it wouldn't be as fun if we're there on Sunday instead of Saturday..

I feel tremendous happiness when I'm at the beach - it doesn't matter where or which one, I just feel at home. Maybe because I grew up in Hawaii surrounded by the ocean, but I can't think of my life without beach.....

It's surreal to know that the BP oil spill has stopped. Yes, the cleanup effort still continues and it will stay that way for many years to come, and I get nervous when I think of the effect of the spill, but I think we cleared the first obstacle to contain the oil. I was really nervous at first that we'd lose our beautiful beach. I'm so glad that we don't need to see tar-balls washing ashore, but I wonder if all the marine lives and eco-system will ever be the same. I just don't know..

Often times when I look at my girls, as much as hard to grasp the thoughts, I realize that my life is not my life anymore. My life is for my daughters - I live my life for them. I need to think of their life first before I think of mine. It's not an easy tast at times because I consider myself a free sprited individual who has done many selfish things. But we all need to grow up sometimes, right? And when I look at their smiles, it's all worth it.

By the way, I ran to "white berry" again during a lunch break yesterday. I got Green Tea with Blackberries. It was soo declious - I can honestly have this frozen yogurt every single day.

After I finished working, I went to pick up my daughters at their grandparents house. My boss and his wife are in Seattle for a mini vacay, so I had to close the salon which was my first experience. I got to be the boss for the day which was not bad, but three more weeks, and I'm free!

On the way home from my in laws, I spotted a rainbown - We get ton of afternoon-evening thunderstorms and this happened right before the storm. Can you see the blue sky and the rain clouds next to each other? I had to stop and take pictures because it's so unusual to see a rainbow. It was really pretty!

I often dream of walking over a rainbow - how fun and beautiful experience would that be???

A Night Like This....

{Image By Me}

I finally did it, everyone! I gave the notice to my boss that I am leaving my job at the end of this month! Oh my goodness, you have no idea how hard it was for me to do this... My last day of work will be exactly two years from the day I started two years ago. It's been an interestig journey. I talked about my very first day at the job here and here.

I think I've learned a lot from my receptionist job. We have over 3600 clients in our system, of which 2500 are active. I can honestly say we're the busiest salon in our town. I was fortunate enough to meet many different clients and I befriended with several of them personally. I also have encountered numerous "Are you fricking kidding me??" incidents which have taught me how not to behave... Seriously, there are many crazy people out there, my friends!

Anyway, I had thought about quittig since the winter of last year. Both of my girls had complained that I was never home or didn't do stuff together. I was working five days a week including Friday and Saturday. When JT left to work in NJ, I was able to change my shifts to only in the morning, so that I could pick up my daughter from school. But the truth is, I was exhausted. I know there are mothers who are working for a lot more complicated job, but dealing with demanding clients and boss ad hearing them yapping pretty much drained all my energy. I really was exhausted.

JT and I had talked about it for a long time and one of the options was to keep the job and to see if I could keep working the two days shift only on Mondays and Tuesdays. But the reality is our salon gets ridiculously busy during fall/winter and spring, they need two receptionists on Fridays ad Saturdays, which I can't work any longer, espcially JT's being gone. Also, we don't get any special days off except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, which totally sucks. So my mind was totally set for leaving the job.

But it had taken almost five months for me to tell my boss that I want to quit. Seriously, it was like my boss could read my mind. I go to work every morning thinking, "Today is the day I'm going to tell him.." - but as soon as I open the door, my boss greets me with smile and he acts so kind towards me. If he was an a-hole, then it would be so much easier to quit, you know? Anyway, the other day, he had a last minute cancelation and he was eating lunch in the break room. JT was telling me that I had to give him a notice, so that he could find a replacement before the season starts. I went to the break room and walked in and tried to find the right timing, but I could't say it, so I left. Then 10 minutes later, I did the same thing. Again, I couldn't pull myself to say it to his face. Now the third time, he looked up. I knew, that was it. I had to tell him.

I told him I had to tell him something. When he looked my face, he thought something terrible happened to me. He was all worried and told me to have seat. I explained to him how I loved working for him and his wife, but I wouldn't be able to give my hours to schedule that the salon needs. I told him, "It's from my heaviest heart that I need to quit...." Oh boy, he was in shock. Seriously, he didn't see it coming. He was very understading and he said, "That's okay. I'm a business owner, so I know people come and go.." But he was totally in shock. He wasn't angry or anything, just disappointed. Then I had to tell his wife, but forget it. She just said, "Don't say that..." and wouldn't listen to me.

After giving him the notice, we had another client who has MS. Her condition is getting worse every time we see her. I help my boss with her chair and stuff, and while I was helping, my boss, said, "Oh my god Maki, what am I going to do????" and he had tears in his eyes. "It's so hard to find a decent girl who is willing to do all the work for me..." I felt horrible about it. But there's nothing I can do.

My spirits have been really good. My heavy weight is off my shoulder. My girls are so ecstatic as well. I get to drive them to school or pick them up, and I can take them to park and play with them - all the things I haven't been able to do because of my current job, I will be able to do it soon..

I took the pictures above while walking around the lake with my girls this evening. The view from my condo - sunset always beautiful and I felt such peace withing myself today. I think I can start a new life doing all the things I love - painting ad being a mother to my girls.

Have a lovely weekend my sweetness... xoxoxo