Adventure 13: ANY DAY NOW!!! Kombucha, Babies, Bucket Lists, and More...

This is my "professional" waddling stance... ;)

Side shot!  38 weeks preggers.

Any day now Reise Danielle Hattori can make her appearance into this world.  At 38 weeks, I still don’t feel as pregnant as I think I should, although waddling has definitely become inevitable.  Many people have told me that towards the end of my term I would be so uncomfortable and miserable that I'd be anxious to have her out of me... This is still not the case somehow.  

A few great joys this past week have been:

This is not my picture... But I forgot my phone and camera.
This is the hike up to the cross... You can see all the cows
that create all the fun "stuff" for the dogs, although they
were out of the pasture that day for our hike.

Hiking: Yesterday we hiked up to The Cross with the dogs.  If I were to have brought my camera, you would see pictures on here of Koa, (the rotty), with masses of cow dung in his mouth and teeth as he's so special that he seems to find it as delicious as I find chocolate to be.  And as for Lono, well he's not much better… Although he doesn't eat it, he rolls on his back in it until he’s good and brown because he seems to find it as fragrant and wonderful as I find fresh picked gardenias to be.  From the top of the cross, you get an incredible view of all of Hana town.  Literally, you can see our post office, gas station, the general store, the place where we took our pottery class, the bay where I like to paddle, the dump, the bank, and even where our house is if the trees didn’t shield it.  I was completely slow, winded, and waddly climbing the hill up but it felt amazing, and when we were done with our hike and back home, you can bet that both our boys got a bath and their teeth brushed. 

Jun paddling out at Hamoa Beach... I love paddling here!

Surfing:  Still in an effort to deny how pregnant I really am, this past week we have gone to the beach nearly every day to SUP and I’ve even, (very safely and on nice minor waves), been giving SUP surfing a whirl and am having so much fun!  I’ll try to remember to GoPro it before the little one arrives as I'm sure she'd get a kick out of it later on in life.  So my freckles are out and the belly is a golden egg and, minus the 8 hours I've spent on the phone dealing with Turbotax and our internet provider, life really is good.  I just don’t believe we’re about to have a baby… Can someone please get this through my head?!

Mail from our cousins... Such a SWEET Valentine's Day
surprise!  I have heard time and time again that "Sophie the
Giraffe" was a must have but I couldn't find her on island.
Michelle and Ben mailed us the things that helped a lot in
Ella's first year, plus a picture of Ella, who is an absolutel
doll and a wonderful addition to our family fridge photos. :)

Mail:  You see, I understand Blues Clues and the whole "We Just Got a Letter" song because I sheepishly admit that I LITERALLY sing that exact song in my head every time I get something in the mail.  Two things arrived yesterday: a package from my cousins Michelle, Ben, and baby Ella, (see above), and a SCOBY, (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast)... It sounds scientific, and I guess in a way, it kind of is!  It is the last thing I needed for… (read next...)

Ready to start my scary brewing endeavor.  I used a combo of
black and green tea, organic cane turbinado sugar, a scoby,
distilled vinegar, and I even sewed a top for the porcelain
brew container out of an old t-shirt.

Kombucha Making:  I LOVE Kombucha tea and its benefits but have refrained from drinking it while preggo, as it gives you this really groovy sensation that I wasn't sure how it might affect the bun in the oven.  Now that the end of my pregnancy is near, I’ve decided to try to make it right in our own home and cut costs majorly, as it’s easily $6 a bottle for this booming health beverage.  If you've never heard of it, you can read about the benefits of drinking kombucha tea by clicking HERE.  To make it you have to do a whole “fermenting” process with regulated temperature, airflow, and adding in that funky looking SCOBY, (which looks like a cross between a mushroom and a jellyfish).  Then, after it has properly fermented, you bottle it in glass jars with fruit or whatever flavorings you want and let delicious carbonation happen and “Wa-Lah”, amazing komucha straight off the tap from my continuous brewing system… Or atleast I hope “Wah Lah”, as this is my first rodeo and it’s all a 7 day waiting game at this point.  If I am successful, however, I will be able to unpin one more thing off my vision board/bucket board.... Which leads me to...

Unpinning the Potter... Been there done that now... WOOHOO!
Next will be the Kombucha hopefully... Then maybe beer
brewing???  Or a trip to Molokai maybe???  Sigh...

Vision Board/ Bucket Board Ceremonious Unpinning:  February 13th our pottery class came to an end for us, (the others still have 4 more classes, but we didn't want to risk her coming and us being unable to attend).  I officially made two ramekins, a bowl, and a drunken cup.  (Drunken cup would be the lop-sided excuse of a cup that might just look good if you've had a few too many to drink out of it).  Jun created a whole kitchen set I think including vases, mugs, a milk jug type thing, and multiple bowls.  Only a few of our pieces will make it to the kiln to be fired as the studio was not completely set up when we started class and a lot dried out before the trimming step.  Oh well though, because I learned ceramics and I really enjoyed it!  Any unpinning off the bucket/vision board is a HUGE DEAL, as my visions and dreams are NEVER small to me.  Can you imagine the day when I unpin the Appalachian Trail???

The brothers drying out on the porch after their cow
doo-doo baths and tooth brushings.  Koa was literally
laying across Lono's whole body.  He doesn't realize
he's a big cow/dog/seal/buffalo/meatball/bear.

Our Boys:  I know by now you know that we love our dogs and may even be sick of them... but as the "any day now" anticipation of Reise's arrival really exists, I find myself spoiling the boys as often as possible because I'm just not sure what life is going to be like when the baby girl comes and, well, they deserve it.  Not a day goes by where I don't laugh to near tears at something sweet or silly they do.  They really are two of a kind... We are incredibly lucky dog owners, and they are incredibly lucky human havers.  (I just made that last part up... which I'm guessing you may have realized)...

Continuing on with the pooches, Koa has a serious
cuddling problem and LOVES Lono to pieces.  I always
joke that Koa is Lono's dog and Lono is our dog. :)

Lono's always trying to find the sun rays from the windows
because he's a sunbathing kind of dude.  It makes for
interesting lighting for a photo-op.

I actually took a nap this day... True story.  Another
true story is that when I snapped this photo of me and
"my pillow", (or pillow thief depending on how you
look at it), he was passed out SNORING ferociously.

A peak at my dreams... Click to enlarge.  This would be my
vision/bucket board that is a constant work in progress.  From
surfing Indonesia, to hang-gliding in Brazil, to hand throwing
noodles, to a multitude of hikes ranging from 500 to 2,000
miles in length, I love to stare at this board and dream things
into reality and anticipate the day I can unpluck a pin or two.

Working his magic on the throwing wheel...  :)

Spoiled rotten I say!  And his legs are always spread...
ALWAYS...  Absolutely no manners this guy...

See Sentence Below...

And you never know what the next adventure may be... Considering that our internet upgrade has proven to make the internet not work properly, Adventure 14 could be a baby introduction and that rear view mirror might just show an occupied seat!

Hugs and Lots of Aloha,

Danielle (Q.B.)

P.S. I love it when you stop by and say "Hi"... or give your opinions, or tell me if you're a kombucha fan, or let me know what's on your vision board/bucket list...  :)