Honu House

Holy cow, we are in 2021. Who would have thought. I started this list in 2015 around my 34th birthday. I thought it would be fun to review and see how far I made it on the list. My 40th will be here in a few months! Looking down the list - I didn't do very well. Maybe I'll bring this list into my 40's and try to complete more of it by the time I turn 50!  Adventure | Travel ✔       Experience the Disney Flower Festival ... DONE 2.       Snorkel around the world ✔       Belize ... DONE May 2017 o      Great Barrier Reef 3.       Visit at least one new location each year ✔       Visit a winery ... DONE Nov 2015 (SPT Trip) 5.       See a Broadway Play in New York City 6.       See the leaves change colors in New England 7.       See the Northern Lights 8.    ...

So I took a bit of a break from the blog…well, no more! I'm going to get back to posting! I am hoping to enhance my photography skills and would like to post some of my work here to share as well as document our busy (but mostly boring) lives! I saw the idea of creating a bucket list with a specific deadline a while back. I’ve played with the idea for a while and since April is my “birthday month,” I figured I’d create my own 40 x 40 list! 40 things I'd like to accomplish by the time I turn 40. That gives me 6 years to check everything off my list! With your help, my family and friends, I think I can do it! Here is my list of 40 Things To Do Before I Turn 40…. but really just live. Live for today, forgive yesterday, and be grateful for tomorrow. Adventure | Travel 1.      Experience the Disney Flower Festival 2.      Snorkel around the world o     Belize o     Great Barrier Reef 3.   ...

I'm selling AVON! Please let anyone you know looking for great AVON production known that I'm now selling AVON. We don't even have to be in the same town. You can order online by going to my direct site: http://youravon.com/cdimauro ! AVON is currently offering free shipping. Enter Coupon: "NOSHADOW" at checkout - but hurry, offer expires midnight 2/2/2013. Shop my AVON store! : Here's a sneak peak at some of the latest products available at Avon. Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions - cassiesellsavon13@gmail.com

This has turned out to be a fairly busy summer. First we started out with a crazy road trip to Pittsburgh, PA and back. The weekend we got home was the Olympic Swim Trials so of course we went to some of that, and during all of this the Welsh Family has been in Nebraska and spent some time with us at our house. If you want to see visually what all we've been up to, click on the pictures below for more photos!!! Road Trip 2012 Our road trip was just 7 nights (8 days) and we went a total of 2,165 miles. We went from Omaha, NE to Princeton, IL after work on day 1. Day 2 we got to Pittsburgh, PA. We ended up hanging out in Pittsburgh for a few days visiting family! Day 5 we started driving again - we left after lunch  and got to Cleveland, OH where we spent the night. Had a lovely dinner at Lola Bistro (a Michael Symon Restaurnt) and it was delicious! Day 6, took us to the Columbus (Ohio) Zoo, and then to Indianapolis, IN for the night. We didn't spend any time in Indianapoli...

My brother, sister, sister-in-law, nephew and I all participated in the Color Run this past weekend. I've posted photos....feel free to take a look. Just click on the picture below for more!!! It was a HOT day in Omaha - we all finished, but it sure would have been nice to have had more water stations throughout the course. I know I was exhausted and overheated by the end of the 5k Fun Run! Thanks for pushing me guys!!!

Earlier this summer we took a trip down to Miami and the Florida Keys! We had a nice time away from home, even though it rained most of our trip. But - a rainy day at the beach is better than any day at home and at the office! I had to remind myself of that a few times. However, with the rain, we took advantage of some things that we may not have if we had had the expected sunny warm Miami weather! We went to the Miami Seaquarium, to the mall, a state park, the turtle hospital, dolphin research center, and much more! To see some pictures from our trip click on the photo below! This was a busy trip - in one week we stayed in 3 different hotels, in 4 different room. YIKES! Our longest stay in one room was for 3 nights, the rest were just 1 or 2 nights. We also did a lot of driving - correction - LOU did a lot of driving! I did a lot of navagating and programming the cell phone GPS! When we arrived in Miami on April 28th, it was overcast and 70 degrees. I couldn't believe it. It ...

I saw this video on one of the many blogs I follow ( The Fitness Cheerleader ). This video makes me want to go out and do something - right now! It proves that just a little bit of work goes a long way. I think I may now try a little yoga at home to enhance everything else that I've been doing. Not only is this video motivational, but it also caused me to tear up a bit watching his journey and struggles.

I started this post last summer. Just noticed it wasn't published. So this is all stuff that was done during the Summer of 2011. We've been a little busy around the house this summer. We finally got some mulch around the trees in the back yard. Mom came over one weekend and we dug up all the hosta's from in front of the house and divided and replanted them around the plum tree. Before Before Before This is what I'm hoping it will look like next year. I'm hoping to take the grass that I planted in the planters in the back yard and put them in front by the railling.

This was started right after our 4th of July BBQ last year. It never got published...so here it is... We had our first annual July 4th BBQ & Fireworks this year. I'd have to say it was a success. Both sides of our family were able to be with us! If you click on the photo below you will be taken to our Picasa Web Album. Enjoy!!!

I just realized it's been an aweful long time since I've posted to our blog. Well...to say that we haven't had much going on that was really "note-worthy" would be true. It's been the same ol' routine activities. Well, that is until this past weekend. Over the last year or so Mr. L and I have purchased a couple of prints from Tom Mangelsen . I have to admit we LOVE his work. If we could afford it financially and time off from work, we would take advantage of some of his safari trips. So back to this weekend, Mangelsen's Images of Nature had a private collectors event where we would have the opportunity to meet Tom Mangelsen and Dr. Jane Goodall . The event was held at Mangelsen's Downtown Omaha Images of Nature Gallery and was arranged to help sponsor Dr. Goodall's work. Well, during the evening - which was just fabluous. Great hors d'oeuvres, some wine, we even ran into some friends. Below are some photos we took during the event. ...

I recently stumbled across this blog. I really enjoy her site and tips. She makes cleaning/organizing sound so easy and fun. She has this “tutorial” on “ How to have a {fake} immaculate house ”…quite interesting.  Have fun!

WOW...I'm so SLOW and behind. We took a family vacation to Walt Disney World in November. There were 12 of us total. Seven adults and 5 children - 7, 5, 5, 3 & 3. We had our hands full, but we also had a great time. We have so many wonderful memories from this trip and can't wait to go again. If you click on the photo below you will be taken to our Picasa Web Album full of pictures from this trip! Enjoy!!!

I can't believe boot camp is finally done! It was a long 8 weeks, but looking at my pictures and the numbers, I'm really excited. I lost a total of 10 pounds off the scale, but with that I also gained 6 pounds of muscle! I've already started to notice that some of my clothes are getting big! YAY!!! I'm really excited to continue down this road and to get myself into even better shape. If you want to read more or see the progress head over to " My Get Fit Trip "

I love this pumpkin...maybe I'll have to try this this year.

So I had actually forgotten I'd started this list. It's time for me to revisit and provide a status update! Let's see how much I've accomplished or what I need to finish yet! Finish hanging up all the pictures, prints and shelves in the house - we've been here for 9 months now...I think it's time! Not quite done, but we have hung up more. We have a bit to go still... Finish getting all the "stuff" from our parents houses...again we've been in our house for 9 months! I don't think we've worked on this at all...YIKES, better get working :-) Work on getting into better physical condition Workout 3-4 days a week Just started a boot camp, so I can say I'm now doing this, at least for the next 8 weeks! Eat healthier - meaning less fast food! Definately working on this, even before my boot camp started we were doing better. It helps even more that the boot camp came with a meal plan so that's really keeping me on track. ...

I started a boot camp last night...go check out my " fit trip " blog for my daily recount of how I'm doing!!! Here's a brief recap of last night...but for more information go check out my other blog!!! The class went well. I was one of four newbies in the class and if I say so myself, I did pretty well. JT (our instructor) only had to come over to correct my form or call me out a couple of times - so I feel good about that. Today's class was done more of a circut style - stability balls with kettle bells (chest presses, arm curls, sholder press, etc.) and steps with medicine ball (quick jumps, pounding the medicine ball to the ground, etc.). Yes I was nervous, I was scared, but I'm glad I did it. Looking back - I think I even had a little fun...I was ready to lose my lunch towards the end...but I didn't. I will go back tomorrow with a little less hesitation. Plyometrics here I come!!!

We took a mini vacation in August and decided to head to Branson, MO. We hear a lot of people around here that vacation there and neither of us had been down. So what better time! Here are a few pictures from our vacation...  On the Duck Tour  Table Rock Dam & Table Rock Lake On top of the Table Rock Dam  Another photo of the Table Rock Dam - funny story, our Duck driver commented that normally the dam is dry. But this year they had to release 15,000 cfs, and they were worried about the amount of water being released & how much it was causing the ground to vibrate. 15,000 cfs - that's what Galvins Point Dam releases on a normal basis. This year Galvins Point released record amounts at 160,000 cfs - and caused severe flooding in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.  We visited the Titantic   Here's our room at the Big Cedar Lodge - located on part of the Table Rock Lake. I just have to say, this lake is HUGE!!! We loved t...