Sunday, December 7:
Today was another great day! We went to a place called Kiholo Bay (Key-ho-lo). We walked along a dirt/lava path to the ocean. Along the way, we saw several wild goats! We hiked over some rough lava to the edge of the water. From there we waded through thigh-deep water, and then through another body of water that was (on ME) chest deep! The water was much deeper than any other time we have crossed. I guess the tide must have been in. We made it safely across and immediately found what we were looking for…giant sea turtles! I think they are one of the most magnificent animals ever created! They are so beautiful! The ones at Kiholo Bay come out of the water and bask in the sun. They turn completely white when they dry off. When they are in the water, they are dark brown or black in color. They must have been 2 or 3 feet in diameter. They were huge! We saw a few smaller ones too. It was so cool to see! I posted some pictures for you.
After we made our way back from seeing the turtles, we headed to Hapuna Beach (Ha-poo-na) to play in the water. This is a great beach for body surfing! The waves were really big at times, making the body surfing a blast! Jenna used her boogie board to ride the waves closer to shore. She did awesome! Jenna and Deena made a fabulous sand castle. I wish I would have taken a picture of it! I guess they will have to come back for another visit so they can build another sand castle!!
We had to hurry back from the beach so Jenna could shower and go to practice for the church Christmas program. While she was there, AJ, Rick and Deena went to the Kona Brew Pub so Rick and Deena could try some local brews and buy souvenir t-shirts. I waited at the house for Jenna to get home from rehearsal. When AJ, Rick and Deena came home, Deena showed me how to make a Thai dinner using fresh Ono and fresh Ahi (types of fish). It turned out great! It was so good!!
Monday, December 8:
AJ had to go back to work today and Jenna had to go to school, so I was terribly burdened with the job of taking Rick and Deena to the beach! It’s a tough job, but I think I lived up to the challenge! I took them to Kahalau Beach, the one we call “Turtle Beach.” It was kind of a cloudy day. The water was super high! Higher than I have ever seen it! There is a large lava rock area that we usually sit on to put our flippers on, but that was completely under water! I couldn’t believe it!! It was windy too, so the water was rough, but we went out snorkeling anyway. It was a little cloudy because the sand was stirred up since the water was so rough, but when you got out over the coral, it was awesome! I headed straight for the area where I found the turtle the last time. It was a little harder to find since the rock I use as my landmark was under water! I went in the general direction and it wasn’t long until I found him eating algae off of the bottom of the ocean!! It was so cool to see him!! I took some pictures with our underwater camera. I posted them for you. I went to find Rick and Deena. The water was so rough, I has a hard time swimming back to shore! I was getting tossed all over the place! I finally found Rick and I showed him where to find the turtle. When we got back to the spot, there were 2 turtles in the area!! It was so amazing!! I tried to take some pictures, but it was hard to get good ones because the water was so rough. I attempted to get some video too, but it didn’t turn out very well. I will try and put the video on my blog for you to see. But beware, you might get seasick! After a little while, I went to find Deena. It seemed like it took forever, but I finally found her! I took her to where Rick was, but the time we got there, one of the turtles had swum away. We all spent a lot of time watching the turtle eating off of the bottom. It was so neat to watch. I can’t remember exactly, but Deena read something about what the turtles eat…there are hundreds of kinds of algae, but the turtles only eat about 40 kinds! That really makes a person want to take care of the ocean! The turtles are so beautiful, graceful and fun to watch. I can’t imagine the oceans without them!!
Tuesday, December 9:
Today Rick and Deena went back to Seattle. Before I took them to the airport, we walked around Alli Drive for a while and had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. We sat on a rock wall and watched the ocean for a while too. It was nice. It was hard to see them go; we had such a great time with them! It was wonderful having visitors and we look forward to having more!!
Fastforward to Friday, December 19...We are getting ready to leave for Wisconsin in a few hours. We have been told that the weather has been bad. I have been praying that it gets better before we get there! I don't mind having snow; I just don't want to drive in it!! We will see many of you soon. I'll be back to blog after we get home. So, until then...aloha!
Hawaiian Sunset at Hapuna Beach
Friday, December 19, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Where does the time go??
WOW! I can't believe it has been so long since I have written! Time has been flying by! I haven't even told you about part 2 of Rick and Deena's visit. I will. I promise. It's too great not to tell you! But first I want to get you caught up on what's been going on.
I have been going into Jenna's classroom helping the kids make Christmas decorations. Each child made an ornament out of clay with their picture on it and decorated it with glitter. They turned out really cute. I actually stole the idea from Jenna's babysitter! Thanks Jeanette! We also made an "ojo de Dios," or "eye of God." The kids wrapped different colors of yard around popsicle sticks. This project was a little harder for the kids, but they turned out OK. Lastly, we made angels out of pinecones. It's kind of hard to find pinecones in Hawaii! As you can imagine, there just aren't very many pine trees around! One of the teachers had some from a different project that we used. The kids decorated the wings and drew faces on macademia nuts. This project ended up being mostly MY project because I had to use a hot glue gun to glue the wings and macademia nut heads on. Oh well, the kids enjoyed it and that's what matters most. I was in the classroom 3 days last week and twice this week (so far). Some of the projects took longer than expected, but the Christmas decorations will make nice gifts for the kid's parents.
We had our Christmas concert at our church on Sunday night. Jenna and the kids put on a really cute play. Jenna was a camel and an angel. She had 2 lines and did great! I was in the adult choir and we performed our songs too. It went pretty good. I think I could have done better, but I'm just not that good of a singer. Sometimes I have a hard time hitting the right note, especially when I want to join the sopranos! It was fun though and I would probably do it again.
Jenna's school Christmas program was Tuesday night. Each class sang songs and the girls that do hula performed too (which includes Jenna.) I was asked to make outfits for Jenna and 2 other girls. I borrowed a sewing machine from someone at school, but didn't get it until last Wednesday. I bought fabric, but then was told that I should use white sheets instead, so I didn't get started until Saturday. We both had rehearsal for our church Christmas program on Saturday and there was a Christmas parade that evening that we went to. I'll tell you more about that in a minute. I made 2 skirts on Saturday, but I didn't know the measurements of the girls I was making them for! I had an idea of how big they were, but I didn't have any numbers. The hula instructor gave me an idea of how much fabric to use, so I hoped that what I was making would fit the kids! Jenna had hula practice on Sunday afternoon and then we had our church program in the evening. I didn't get back to making outfits until about 9:30 Sunday night! I still had one skirt and 3 tops to make! I was up until about 2:45 working on them. When I went to bed I still had Jenna's shirt to make, but I figured I could make that on Monday. I needed to have all of the other ones finished by Monday so the hula instructor could hand them out to the girls. I found out Monday afternoon when I was in Jenna's classroom that all of the outfits fit! I was so relieved!! They weren't that hard, but it just took a while to do. I posted a picture of Jenna in her outfit. Anyway, all the kids did a great job at their school performance and the hula girls did great too!
We went to the Kona Christmas Parade on Saturday night. AJ said it was the first Christmas parade he has ever been where he could wear flip-flops! It was certainly odd. The parade was fun. There were some really cool floats! I posted a picture of a train. Jenna and her friend Enjolique made a haul on candy! Founately, she got a lot of candy canes which I am not crazy about, so I won't be eating too much!! It was strange seeing santa dressed like you would normally see him, while everyone else is wearing shorts and t-shirts! We were telling our friends about the Christmas parade in Darlington a few years ago when it was so bitterly cold. We have met so many people that cannot even fathom what that kind of weather would be like! I just tell them, "You don't want to know!" :)
We are in the process of planning our visit to Wisconsin. We will be there for 8 days and we will be spread between 3 towns. We will be busy, but we are really looking forward to seeing our family and friends. I've been told that the weather has been and is going to be bad! I don't mind having snow, I just don't want to drive from Chicago in it! Please pray that we have safe travels!
We had a huge rain storm go through the islands last week. It was so bad in Honolulu that there were flash flood warnings for the whole week. Many people in several different towns had severe damage to their homes - some lost everything. Fortunately we didn't get near as much rain on the Big Island. One day last week it rained for about 10 hours straight, but that was as bad as it got. It actually thundered for a while too, which is really unusual for Hawaii. The rain was snow on top of the mountain. For several days after the storm people were going up to the top of the mountain to bring snow down to build snowmen! I heard of at least 3 snowmen in the area and saw one myself. It was kind of odd to see, but it helped to make it feel a little more like Christmas! I'm sure they didn't last too long! After we get back from Wisconsin we are going to take Jenna up on the mountain with her boogie board and slide down the hills. It should be fun!
AJ had a very interesting adventure recently. He was on his way home from work one night when he saw a cow running down the highway! He said it was really hard to see the cow and cars were swerving to get out of it's way. He saw another truck chasing it, trying to keep it on the shoulder and not in the road. The driver of the truck was driving from the passenger's seat and had a lasso hanging out the window, trying to lasso the cow!! What was he going to do if he did get the lasso around it!? Did he think he was going to stop it?!? He probably would have gotten into an accident! Anyway, AJ helped chase the cow for a while, trying to get it off of the highway. After about a mile and a half, the cow finally ran down a side road and they lost it. We found out later it ran through our church's lawn before taking off down the road! I wonder where it is now??
There is going to be some big excitement in Hawaii this month. President-elect Barack Obama is coming "home" to Hawaii for a memorial service for his grandmother and a vacation before the inauguration in January. He will be on Oahu, where Honolulu is, so we won't have to deal with all of the traffic and hoopla that his visit will involve.
Well, I think that gets you up to date pretty well. I will tell you about the rest of Rick and Deena's stay before we leave for Wisconsin. I didn't want to make this any longer than I already have!! So, until next time...aloha!
I have been going into Jenna's classroom helping the kids make Christmas decorations. Each child made an ornament out of clay with their picture on it and decorated it with glitter. They turned out really cute. I actually stole the idea from Jenna's babysitter! Thanks Jeanette! We also made an "ojo de Dios," or "eye of God." The kids wrapped different colors of yard around popsicle sticks. This project was a little harder for the kids, but they turned out OK. Lastly, we made angels out of pinecones. It's kind of hard to find pinecones in Hawaii! As you can imagine, there just aren't very many pine trees around! One of the teachers had some from a different project that we used. The kids decorated the wings and drew faces on macademia nuts. This project ended up being mostly MY project because I had to use a hot glue gun to glue the wings and macademia nut heads on. Oh well, the kids enjoyed it and that's what matters most. I was in the classroom 3 days last week and twice this week (so far). Some of the projects took longer than expected, but the Christmas decorations will make nice gifts for the kid's parents.
We had our Christmas concert at our church on Sunday night. Jenna and the kids put on a really cute play. Jenna was a camel and an angel. She had 2 lines and did great! I was in the adult choir and we performed our songs too. It went pretty good. I think I could have done better, but I'm just not that good of a singer. Sometimes I have a hard time hitting the right note, especially when I want to join the sopranos! It was fun though and I would probably do it again.
Jenna's school Christmas program was Tuesday night. Each class sang songs and the girls that do hula performed too (which includes Jenna.) I was asked to make outfits for Jenna and 2 other girls. I borrowed a sewing machine from someone at school, but didn't get it until last Wednesday. I bought fabric, but then was told that I should use white sheets instead, so I didn't get started until Saturday. We both had rehearsal for our church Christmas program on Saturday and there was a Christmas parade that evening that we went to. I'll tell you more about that in a minute. I made 2 skirts on Saturday, but I didn't know the measurements of the girls I was making them for! I had an idea of how big they were, but I didn't have any numbers. The hula instructor gave me an idea of how much fabric to use, so I hoped that what I was making would fit the kids! Jenna had hula practice on Sunday afternoon and then we had our church program in the evening. I didn't get back to making outfits until about 9:30 Sunday night! I still had one skirt and 3 tops to make! I was up until about 2:45 working on them. When I went to bed I still had Jenna's shirt to make, but I figured I could make that on Monday. I needed to have all of the other ones finished by Monday so the hula instructor could hand them out to the girls. I found out Monday afternoon when I was in Jenna's classroom that all of the outfits fit! I was so relieved!! They weren't that hard, but it just took a while to do. I posted a picture of Jenna in her outfit. Anyway, all the kids did a great job at their school performance and the hula girls did great too!
We went to the Kona Christmas Parade on Saturday night. AJ said it was the first Christmas parade he has ever been where he could wear flip-flops! It was certainly odd. The parade was fun. There were some really cool floats! I posted a picture of a train. Jenna and her friend Enjolique made a haul on candy! Founately, she got a lot of candy canes which I am not crazy about, so I won't be eating too much!! It was strange seeing santa dressed like you would normally see him, while everyone else is wearing shorts and t-shirts! We were telling our friends about the Christmas parade in Darlington a few years ago when it was so bitterly cold. We have met so many people that cannot even fathom what that kind of weather would be like! I just tell them, "You don't want to know!" :)
We are in the process of planning our visit to Wisconsin. We will be there for 8 days and we will be spread between 3 towns. We will be busy, but we are really looking forward to seeing our family and friends. I've been told that the weather has been and is going to be bad! I don't mind having snow, I just don't want to drive from Chicago in it! Please pray that we have safe travels!
We had a huge rain storm go through the islands last week. It was so bad in Honolulu that there were flash flood warnings for the whole week. Many people in several different towns had severe damage to their homes - some lost everything. Fortunately we didn't get near as much rain on the Big Island. One day last week it rained for about 10 hours straight, but that was as bad as it got. It actually thundered for a while too, which is really unusual for Hawaii. The rain was snow on top of the mountain. For several days after the storm people were going up to the top of the mountain to bring snow down to build snowmen! I heard of at least 3 snowmen in the area and saw one myself. It was kind of odd to see, but it helped to make it feel a little more like Christmas! I'm sure they didn't last too long! After we get back from Wisconsin we are going to take Jenna up on the mountain with her boogie board and slide down the hills. It should be fun!
AJ had a very interesting adventure recently. He was on his way home from work one night when he saw a cow running down the highway! He said it was really hard to see the cow and cars were swerving to get out of it's way. He saw another truck chasing it, trying to keep it on the shoulder and not in the road. The driver of the truck was driving from the passenger's seat and had a lasso hanging out the window, trying to lasso the cow!! What was he going to do if he did get the lasso around it!? Did he think he was going to stop it?!? He probably would have gotten into an accident! Anyway, AJ helped chase the cow for a while, trying to get it off of the highway. After about a mile and a half, the cow finally ran down a side road and they lost it. We found out later it ran through our church's lawn before taking off down the road! I wonder where it is now??
There is going to be some big excitement in Hawaii this month. President-elect Barack Obama is coming "home" to Hawaii for a memorial service for his grandmother and a vacation before the inauguration in January. He will be on Oahu, where Honolulu is, so we won't have to deal with all of the traffic and hoopla that his visit will involve.
Well, I think that gets you up to date pretty well. I will tell you about the rest of Rick and Deena's stay before we leave for Wisconsin. I didn't want to make this any longer than I already have!! So, until next time...aloha!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Rick and Deena's Visit - Part 1
WOW! What a great 5 days! We had such a great time with AJ's sister and her husband! I reluctantly took them to the airport today. We were thinking about somehow missing the plane, but we thought we better not! I have so much to say about what we did. I'll tell you about the first few days and then finish it tomorrow. There are several pictures. Be sure to scroll down a long way to see them all!
Friday
I picked Deena and Rick up at the airport and then the three of us went and picked Jenna up from school. Deena and Rick got to get a quick glimpse of her school. We took a short drive down the main road through town which is by the ocean. The surf has been up lately, and the waves were HUGE! They were crashing on the beaches like mad! The beach that we call Turtle Beach was closed because it wasn’t safe to be out. Thankfully, by Saturday the surf had come down a bit. Jenna gave them a tour of the house and after a brief rest; we headed to AJ’s Christmas party for work. It was a lot of fun! I got to meet some more of AJ’s co-workers and Deena and Rick got to meet everyone! I think they had a good time. They fit in great! We had an awesome spread of food! Some of the girls that AJ works with made a traditional Hawaiian meal. It was like having our own personal luau. We had lau lau’s (rhymes with cow) and poi (rhymes with toy) which is made from the taro root. It’s not really very good, but I’m told it’s not too bad when it’s mixed with other food. Deena tried it mixed with some stir fry dish (I think). She said it was good. AJ said the poi was good only because she covered the taste of it! I'm told that poi tastes like wall paper paste, but how does anyone REALLY know what wall paper paste tastes like...? We had vegetable stir-fry, kalua pig, and rice. It was a great night. We went home with full bellies and went to sleep!
Saturday
Today was a great day! We borrowed some kayaks from Gus and kayaked across the Kealakekua Bay to the Captain Cook monument. It’s about a mile across the Bay and thankfully the waters were pretty calm. We each had our own canoe, except for Jenna. She rode with AJ. It was a beautiful day! The sun was shining and the water was a clear, deep blue in areas where the water was really deep and it was a crystal clear turquoise in the shallower areas. It’s such a beautiful color…it’s hard to describe! We were blessed to see dolphins on the way across!! Jenna was so afraid before we left. She thought the dolphins might tip the canoe over or we might fall in or something. But after we saw the dolphins and she saw that she was safe in the canoe with AJ, she did great! The dolphins are so amazing to watch! They’re so graceful when they swim. They swim in pods and they move together as a group…AJ called it synchronized swimming…! He’s so funny! We could see them cresting out of the water and we could hear them blowing out air when they surfaced. It was so cool!! When we got to the monument, we went snorkeling. It was great!! I love snorkeling at the monument! It’s AJ’s and my favorite place to snorkel. The water is so clear and the fish and the coral are so colorful! AJ, Jenna, Deena and Rick all saw an eel in the rocks before we started snorkeling. I just saw its head. Thankfully it wasn’t too big! We could see yellow tang swimming in the water just standing on the rocks! There were so many of them!! Jenna didn’t snorkel; she just played in the shallow water and watched the yellow tang from shore. There were so many beautiful fish to see! I took some pictures that I posted. We got a new underwater camera and we were quite happy with how well the pictures turned out! I tried to get some pictures of the coral and how it slowly goes deeper in to the dark ocean. I hope you can see it clearly. Of course, a picture does not do justice how beautiful any of it is!! There are so many different types of fish…all different sizes and colors. How fun it must have been to create all of them!! After we snorkeled for a while, we walked on the lava rock along the shoreline. We watched the waves crashing on the shore. One wave crashed so hard on the shore that Jenna ran and hid behind Deena! The power of the water is always so amazing to me!! It was great! On the way back from the Bay we were blessed again with seeing the dolphins!! This time they were in a playful, show off kind of mood! We saw a few of them jump in the air and spin in the air. It was so cool to see! Several of them went very close to AJ and Jenna in their kayak. Jenna said they went right under her kayak! One was so close she thought she could touch it!! Jenna got to see them spinning. She thought it was very cool!! Deena had several come close to her too. It was so cool!! I could make this trip everyday! The dolphins are so beautiful! The ones that we saw are called “spinner dolphins.” They weigh about 175 pounds and are about 6 feet long. The dolphins that are in captivity are usually much larger. It was so cool to see the dolphins in their natural environment. They don’t seem to be too bothered by having kayaks around them. We saw some people snorkeling around them too. I can’t imagine that you would see too much because they swim so fast, they wouldn’t be around where you were snorkeling for very long! We watched them for a long time. I took some pictures, but unfortunately I couldn’t get any of them spinning in the air! Oh well. Maybe next time!
After kayaking, we went to the Place of Refuge. This is the beach that AJ and I got engaged at. It’s a pretty special beach for us. It's a great place to whale watch. We didn't see any whales today, but it was still great to watch the water. We played in tide pools and watched small fish swimming in the water and crabs crawling on the rocks. We had lunch at the beach and then toured the historical Hawaiian grounds at the park. It was neat to see. We saw some sea turtles laying on the beach and swimming in the water. I took a few pictures that I posted. They are so cool to see. We stopped at a coffee store on the way home. The coffee always smells so good! Why can't it taste as good...??
We went back to the house and had a great dinner of fresh fish and salad and watched the sunset from our lanai. It was a great evening! I'll finish the rest of the story tomorrow, so until then...aloha!
Friday
I picked Deena and Rick up at the airport and then the three of us went and picked Jenna up from school. Deena and Rick got to get a quick glimpse of her school. We took a short drive down the main road through town which is by the ocean. The surf has been up lately, and the waves were HUGE! They were crashing on the beaches like mad! The beach that we call Turtle Beach was closed because it wasn’t safe to be out. Thankfully, by Saturday the surf had come down a bit. Jenna gave them a tour of the house and after a brief rest; we headed to AJ’s Christmas party for work. It was a lot of fun! I got to meet some more of AJ’s co-workers and Deena and Rick got to meet everyone! I think they had a good time. They fit in great! We had an awesome spread of food! Some of the girls that AJ works with made a traditional Hawaiian meal. It was like having our own personal luau. We had lau lau’s (rhymes with cow) and poi (rhymes with toy) which is made from the taro root. It’s not really very good, but I’m told it’s not too bad when it’s mixed with other food. Deena tried it mixed with some stir fry dish (I think). She said it was good. AJ said the poi was good only because she covered the taste of it! I'm told that poi tastes like wall paper paste, but how does anyone REALLY know what wall paper paste tastes like...? We had vegetable stir-fry, kalua pig, and rice. It was a great night. We went home with full bellies and went to sleep!
Saturday
Today was a great day! We borrowed some kayaks from Gus and kayaked across the Kealakekua Bay to the Captain Cook monument. It’s about a mile across the Bay and thankfully the waters were pretty calm. We each had our own canoe, except for Jenna. She rode with AJ. It was a beautiful day! The sun was shining and the water was a clear, deep blue in areas where the water was really deep and it was a crystal clear turquoise in the shallower areas. It’s such a beautiful color…it’s hard to describe! We were blessed to see dolphins on the way across!! Jenna was so afraid before we left. She thought the dolphins might tip the canoe over or we might fall in or something. But after we saw the dolphins and she saw that she was safe in the canoe with AJ, she did great! The dolphins are so amazing to watch! They’re so graceful when they swim. They swim in pods and they move together as a group…AJ called it synchronized swimming…! He’s so funny! We could see them cresting out of the water and we could hear them blowing out air when they surfaced. It was so cool!! When we got to the monument, we went snorkeling. It was great!! I love snorkeling at the monument! It’s AJ’s and my favorite place to snorkel. The water is so clear and the fish and the coral are so colorful! AJ, Jenna, Deena and Rick all saw an eel in the rocks before we started snorkeling. I just saw its head. Thankfully it wasn’t too big! We could see yellow tang swimming in the water just standing on the rocks! There were so many of them!! Jenna didn’t snorkel; she just played in the shallow water and watched the yellow tang from shore. There were so many beautiful fish to see! I took some pictures that I posted. We got a new underwater camera and we were quite happy with how well the pictures turned out! I tried to get some pictures of the coral and how it slowly goes deeper in to the dark ocean. I hope you can see it clearly. Of course, a picture does not do justice how beautiful any of it is!! There are so many different types of fish…all different sizes and colors. How fun it must have been to create all of them!! After we snorkeled for a while, we walked on the lava rock along the shoreline. We watched the waves crashing on the shore. One wave crashed so hard on the shore that Jenna ran and hid behind Deena! The power of the water is always so amazing to me!! It was great! On the way back from the Bay we were blessed again with seeing the dolphins!! This time they were in a playful, show off kind of mood! We saw a few of them jump in the air and spin in the air. It was so cool to see! Several of them went very close to AJ and Jenna in their kayak. Jenna said they went right under her kayak! One was so close she thought she could touch it!! Jenna got to see them spinning. She thought it was very cool!! Deena had several come close to her too. It was so cool!! I could make this trip everyday! The dolphins are so beautiful! The ones that we saw are called “spinner dolphins.” They weigh about 175 pounds and are about 6 feet long. The dolphins that are in captivity are usually much larger. It was so cool to see the dolphins in their natural environment. They don’t seem to be too bothered by having kayaks around them. We saw some people snorkeling around them too. I can’t imagine that you would see too much because they swim so fast, they wouldn’t be around where you were snorkeling for very long! We watched them for a long time. I took some pictures, but unfortunately I couldn’t get any of them spinning in the air! Oh well. Maybe next time!
After kayaking, we went to the Place of Refuge. This is the beach that AJ and I got engaged at. It’s a pretty special beach for us. It's a great place to whale watch. We didn't see any whales today, but it was still great to watch the water. We played in tide pools and watched small fish swimming in the water and crabs crawling on the rocks. We had lunch at the beach and then toured the historical Hawaiian grounds at the park. It was neat to see. We saw some sea turtles laying on the beach and swimming in the water. I took a few pictures that I posted. They are so cool to see. We stopped at a coffee store on the way home. The coffee always smells so good! Why can't it taste as good...??
We went back to the house and had a great dinner of fresh fish and salad and watched the sunset from our lanai. It was a great evening! I'll finish the rest of the story tomorrow, so until then...aloha!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Mid-week entry!
Yes, it's shocking I know! It has only been 3 days since my last post and I'm doing it again!! I wanted to give you a few updates before our company arrives because I think I will have a lot to write about after they leave.
I have tried several times to get the videos of Jenna on my blog. I can't get the camcorder to put it on my computer, but I full expected that. I tried to put it on a DVD and then onto my computer, but I can't get that to work either! I'm a bit technologically challenged, so I'm sure it's possible; I just don't have the brain power to figure it out! If there is anyone out there that can help me, I would really appreciate it! I'm planning to bring the video home at Christmas, so those of you that I will be seeing will be able to see it if you are interested.
I did manage to get the webcam hooked up! It helps when you put the CD in and it tells you exactly what to do, or even better yet, it just does it all by its self!! I haven't tried it with anyone yet, but maybe sometime next week. I can't wait to see how it works!
I went into Jenna's classroom again today. We made homemade cards using stencils. It was fun. The kids made Christmas cards and birthday cards. Next week we are going to make Christmas tree ornaments and angels out of pinecones. It should be fun!
I was at Walmart the other day and I saw the strangest thing. I saw a Menonite family...not that Menonites are strange, but that I saw them in Hawaii! I guess in all the times I have been here, I have never seen them. Not that they can't choose to live in Hawaii, just like anyone else, it just seemed odd or out of place to me. Anyway...
Tomorrow night is AJ's work Christmas party. They are having a traditional Hawaiian meal with lou lous and a bunch of other stuff. If you remember reading way back in September, a lou lou(rhymes with cow) has pork, chicken or corned beef, seasoned with spiced salt and is wrapped in taro leaves, which are then wrapped in either tea or banana leaves. They are placed in a steamer and steamed all day. To eat it, you take off the tea leaves and eat the rest. Jenna really liked them the first time we had them, so she is excited to have them again.
Rick and Deena (AJ's sister from Seattle) are coming in tomorrow. We are excited to have them visit us! They will be going to the Christmas party with us, so I hope they like the lou lous! We have a busy weekend planned with them. I'm really looking forward to it! I'll write more later, so until then...aloha!
I have tried several times to get the videos of Jenna on my blog. I can't get the camcorder to put it on my computer, but I full expected that. I tried to put it on a DVD and then onto my computer, but I can't get that to work either! I'm a bit technologically challenged, so I'm sure it's possible; I just don't have the brain power to figure it out! If there is anyone out there that can help me, I would really appreciate it! I'm planning to bring the video home at Christmas, so those of you that I will be seeing will be able to see it if you are interested.
I did manage to get the webcam hooked up! It helps when you put the CD in and it tells you exactly what to do, or even better yet, it just does it all by its self!! I haven't tried it with anyone yet, but maybe sometime next week. I can't wait to see how it works!
I went into Jenna's classroom again today. We made homemade cards using stencils. It was fun. The kids made Christmas cards and birthday cards. Next week we are going to make Christmas tree ornaments and angels out of pinecones. It should be fun!
I was at Walmart the other day and I saw the strangest thing. I saw a Menonite family...not that Menonites are strange, but that I saw them in Hawaii! I guess in all the times I have been here, I have never seen them. Not that they can't choose to live in Hawaii, just like anyone else, it just seemed odd or out of place to me. Anyway...
Tomorrow night is AJ's work Christmas party. They are having a traditional Hawaiian meal with lou lous and a bunch of other stuff. If you remember reading way back in September, a lou lou(rhymes with cow) has pork, chicken or corned beef, seasoned with spiced salt and is wrapped in taro leaves, which are then wrapped in either tea or banana leaves. They are placed in a steamer and steamed all day. To eat it, you take off the tea leaves and eat the rest. Jenna really liked them the first time we had them, so she is excited to have them again.
Rick and Deena (AJ's sister from Seattle) are coming in tomorrow. We are excited to have them visit us! They will be going to the Christmas party with us, so I hope they like the lou lous! We have a busy weekend planned with them. I'm really looking forward to it! I'll write more later, so until then...aloha!
Monday, December 1, 2008
Time flies!
Well, another week has just flown by! I had every intention of writing in the middle of the week and it didn't happen again!! I'll try and remember back to everything that happened. I went into Jenna's class for her presentation and her play. She made an Indian necklace out of clay and wrote a little report about it. She did a great job presenting. She was one on the few students that I could actually hear when she spoke! I video taped it and took pictures. I will post the pictures. I have tried to figure out how to get the video on to my computer, but so far it hasn't worked. I'll keep trying because I would love for you to see what she has been up to!! She had 5 lines for the play. She did great. She kept trying to tell the other students to stand still and where to stand. She's such a little perfectionist sometimes! Maybe she has a career in directing in her future!
Thanksgiving Day was a fun day. We went to AJ's boss's house along with several of the other employees. It was fun getting to know the people that AJ works with. It's nice to be able to put a face to the names. I talked for a long time to a couple from South Africa. It was interesting hearing about their culture, how their visas work and how many places they have traveled and worked. The guy from Moldova that AJ worked with last Monday ended up have his appendix removed last week Tuesday! He started to not feel well Monday night and by Tuesday morning he was asking to go to the hospital. He had surgery Tuesday morning and was released on Thursday morning. He came to the Thanksgiving gathering at Gus's because he feels like these people are his family and he wanted to be with everyone! I couldn't believe that he felt well enough to be there! He ate a lot of food too!! I was hoping that it wouldn't make him sick! He left a few hours after we ate to take some pain medicine and get some rest. I hope he recovers quickly! We were able to talk to members of our families throughout the day. It was nice to catch up with everyone. I hope all of you had a very Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for in this country!!
On Saturday, Jenna's school had a fund-raising auction and dinner. We helped get all of the auction items from the school and to the building where everything was being held. There were over 500 items donated for the auction! It was quite the event! The auction was a silent auction that went on for 3 hours. We bought a few things. Jenna wanted this basket full of party supplies that she thought she could use for her birthday. She stood by that bid sheet for half the night making sure that no one outbid us. When someone upped the bid, she came running to me to make sure that I upped the bid too! She's so funny! There was entertainment going on all night. Jenna and the girls in her hula class put on a performance for the crowd. It was so good!! Jenna joined the class late, so she had only practiced the dance that they did about 5 times. She did really good! I video taped it and I really hope that I can get it posted for you! It's so cute!! I posted a few pictures until I can get the video on here for you.
We are very excited to announce that we will be having our first visitors to the Big Island this week! AJ's sister Deena and her husband Rick are coming in on Friday and will be here until Tuesday. We are planning to spend a lot of time at the beach snorkeling and laying on the beach. We plan to go kayaking too! We are all really looking forward to it!!!
AJ commented tonight that he heard a Christmas song on the radio today. He said that it seems very odd to hear Christmas songs when he's wearing a t-shirt and sweat is dripping from his brow! Time is just an illusion for all of us! It's hard to comprehend that it is December 1st!! AJ's co-worker from South Africa told him that their Christmas is in the summer so this is normal to him. AJ and I commented that we had never thought of that before...the seasons in South Africa are opposite of ours! The things you learn!!! Well, I think I have you caught up with everything. I can't guarantee that I will write anything for another week since we have visitors coming, but I'll try. So until next time...aloha!
Thanksgiving Day was a fun day. We went to AJ's boss's house along with several of the other employees. It was fun getting to know the people that AJ works with. It's nice to be able to put a face to the names. I talked for a long time to a couple from South Africa. It was interesting hearing about their culture, how their visas work and how many places they have traveled and worked. The guy from Moldova that AJ worked with last Monday ended up have his appendix removed last week Tuesday! He started to not feel well Monday night and by Tuesday morning he was asking to go to the hospital. He had surgery Tuesday morning and was released on Thursday morning. He came to the Thanksgiving gathering at Gus's because he feels like these people are his family and he wanted to be with everyone! I couldn't believe that he felt well enough to be there! He ate a lot of food too!! I was hoping that it wouldn't make him sick! He left a few hours after we ate to take some pain medicine and get some rest. I hope he recovers quickly! We were able to talk to members of our families throughout the day. It was nice to catch up with everyone. I hope all of you had a very Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for in this country!!
On Saturday, Jenna's school had a fund-raising auction and dinner. We helped get all of the auction items from the school and to the building where everything was being held. There were over 500 items donated for the auction! It was quite the event! The auction was a silent auction that went on for 3 hours. We bought a few things. Jenna wanted this basket full of party supplies that she thought she could use for her birthday. She stood by that bid sheet for half the night making sure that no one outbid us. When someone upped the bid, she came running to me to make sure that I upped the bid too! She's so funny! There was entertainment going on all night. Jenna and the girls in her hula class put on a performance for the crowd. It was so good!! Jenna joined the class late, so she had only practiced the dance that they did about 5 times. She did really good! I video taped it and I really hope that I can get it posted for you! It's so cute!! I posted a few pictures until I can get the video on here for you.
We are very excited to announce that we will be having our first visitors to the Big Island this week! AJ's sister Deena and her husband Rick are coming in on Friday and will be here until Tuesday. We are planning to spend a lot of time at the beach snorkeling and laying on the beach. We plan to go kayaking too! We are all really looking forward to it!!!
AJ commented tonight that he heard a Christmas song on the radio today. He said that it seems very odd to hear Christmas songs when he's wearing a t-shirt and sweat is dripping from his brow! Time is just an illusion for all of us! It's hard to comprehend that it is December 1st!! AJ's co-worker from South Africa told him that their Christmas is in the summer so this is normal to him. AJ and I commented that we had never thought of that before...the seasons in South Africa are opposite of ours! The things you learn!!! Well, I think I have you caught up with everything. I can't guarantee that I will write anything for another week since we have visitors coming, but I'll try. So until next time...aloha!
Monday, November 24, 2008
Another week gone by!!
I can't believe that a whole week has passed again! I'm sorry for being so long in between posts! It seems like there is always something going on. I continue to go into Jenna's classroom to help with projects. She is studying American Indians right now. Last week I went in and showed the kids how to make Indian headbands. This week I showed the kids how to make necklaces from salad macaroni. I spray painted the macaroni purple and then the kids were able to use purple and white macaroni to make their necklaces. As usual, it was so fun! I just love going into her room. She has a project to make again like she did for Colonial Day. We decided not to make such an elaborate project this time. She decided to make a necklace out of clay. The necklace is made of "bear claws", "bones" and beads. She did a great job making it. I had to help her a little, but she did most of it. It so much faster and easier than her Colonial Day project!! She is in a play this week. We made her an Indian outfit from an old pillow case I bought at a garage sale. We dyed it brown and it actually turned out pretty good! She is going to wear her dress, the headband that she made and the necklace that she made. I'll take some pictures and post them. She has 5 lines. She is really nervous, but I think she will do great! I'm really hoping that she has her Dad's public speaking abilities and not mine!! I usually get so nervous, I get nauseous!I'm going to video tape it and try to post it. Hopefully I'll be able to figure it out.
Jenna is also in the Christmas program for school and for church. I'm not really sure what she is doing for school, but for church she is an animal and then an angel. The kids are singing a bunch of songs too. I'll tape it and try to post this too. I decided to join the Christmas choir this year...................................................................................................................................I was waiting for the laughter to subside! I'm really not a good singer, but I like to sing so I thought I would give it a try. My wonderful husband told me that if they don't like me, they can always ask me to leave! Thanks for the vote of confidence AJ!! I started off thinking I could sing soprano, but it was way too high for me. I'm singing alto now, which is much better! I find myself switching from alto to soprano sometimes, but it's getting better. I'm just glad I can be with a group. I would never attempt to sing by myself in front of a crowd! That would be really cruel!! I'm sure I would scare everyone away!
On Saturday of this past weekend we went to a fund-raising concert and dinner. It was to raise money to help take care of the beach that we call "Turtle Beach." This is the beach that I wrote about in my last post; the one I saw the turtle at. It was a really fun evening. They had a comedian perform several times. He was pretty good. There was a group of students from area high schools that played the drums. They were amazing! They used really big sticks and just did a phenomenal job! Jenna had her hands covering her ears the entire time. It was too loud for her. There was a trio of 2 guys and a girl that sang for a while, and then these two guys finished the concert. The two guys were from Honolulu and they were called Hapa (haw-paw). They were unbelieveable!! The one guy was a Hawaiian and he could sing so high is was amazing! Actually the guys from the other group could sing really high too. It was so amazing to see this big Hawaiian guy, looking big and tough and then to hear this high pitched voice come out of him! They could all sing much, much higher than I could ever dream of singing! The Hawaiian guy in the group Hapa sang this one song falsetto and when he was done his partner was joking that he was wearing really tight underware! It was pretty funny! The other guy in this group played the guitar like a mad man!! He pounded on those strings so hard and fast it was amazing that he could even get one note right! He played so intensely that you could see the veins and muscles sticking out from his neck! He actually did break a string at one point, but he changed it so fast that he hardly missed a beat! They were really, really, really good! I could have listened to them for a lot longer!
AJ continues to enjoy his work. Today he worked with a guy from South Africa and another guy from Mondova, which is near Russia. It's pretty cool for him to work with people from all over the world. He gets to learn about them and their culture, which he then shares with me and Jenna. On Thankgiving, Gus is having his employees over to his house for dinner. I'm looking forward to meeting all of the people that AJ talks about everyday. I think it will be fun to meet them and get to know them a little.
I promise I will try to post something a little more often. Jenna's play is Wednesday, so I'll try and figure out how to post it right away. So until next time...aloha!
Jenna is also in the Christmas program for school and for church. I'm not really sure what she is doing for school, but for church she is an animal and then an angel. The kids are singing a bunch of songs too. I'll tape it and try to post this too. I decided to join the Christmas choir this year...................................................................................................................................I was waiting for the laughter to subside! I'm really not a good singer, but I like to sing so I thought I would give it a try. My wonderful husband told me that if they don't like me, they can always ask me to leave! Thanks for the vote of confidence AJ!! I started off thinking I could sing soprano, but it was way too high for me. I'm singing alto now, which is much better! I find myself switching from alto to soprano sometimes, but it's getting better. I'm just glad I can be with a group. I would never attempt to sing by myself in front of a crowd! That would be really cruel!! I'm sure I would scare everyone away!
On Saturday of this past weekend we went to a fund-raising concert and dinner. It was to raise money to help take care of the beach that we call "Turtle Beach." This is the beach that I wrote about in my last post; the one I saw the turtle at. It was a really fun evening. They had a comedian perform several times. He was pretty good. There was a group of students from area high schools that played the drums. They were amazing! They used really big sticks and just did a phenomenal job! Jenna had her hands covering her ears the entire time. It was too loud for her. There was a trio of 2 guys and a girl that sang for a while, and then these two guys finished the concert. The two guys were from Honolulu and they were called Hapa (haw-paw). They were unbelieveable!! The one guy was a Hawaiian and he could sing so high is was amazing! Actually the guys from the other group could sing really high too. It was so amazing to see this big Hawaiian guy, looking big and tough and then to hear this high pitched voice come out of him! They could all sing much, much higher than I could ever dream of singing! The Hawaiian guy in the group Hapa sang this one song falsetto and when he was done his partner was joking that he was wearing really tight underware! It was pretty funny! The other guy in this group played the guitar like a mad man!! He pounded on those strings so hard and fast it was amazing that he could even get one note right! He played so intensely that you could see the veins and muscles sticking out from his neck! He actually did break a string at one point, but he changed it so fast that he hardly missed a beat! They were really, really, really good! I could have listened to them for a lot longer!
AJ continues to enjoy his work. Today he worked with a guy from South Africa and another guy from Mondova, which is near Russia. It's pretty cool for him to work with people from all over the world. He gets to learn about them and their culture, which he then shares with me and Jenna. On Thankgiving, Gus is having his employees over to his house for dinner. I'm looking forward to meeting all of the people that AJ talks about everyday. I think it will be fun to meet them and get to know them a little.
I promise I will try to post something a little more often. Jenna's play is Wednesday, so I'll try and figure out how to post it right away. So until next time...aloha!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
BIG Weekend!
It's so hard for me to believe that it is the middle of November! It certainly doesn't seem like it since we are not experiencing Wisconsin weather! Honestly, I don't miss the cold and snow! It's just hard to keep track of time when the weather doesn't change. A guy at church this morning told us that we can track the change of season by noticing which flowers are blooming. We'll have to learn about that I guess.
Well, for those of you who don't know, my birthday was Saturday and our 12 year anniversary was on Sunday. We had a very nice weekend. Jenna has been more excited about my birthday than me. She talked about it all week! She kept asking how many more days until Saturday. On Friday on the way to school, Jenna said to me, "Mom, you only have 24 more hours to be 36." Gee thanks for the reminder Jenna! On the way home from school, she asked how many more hours until Saturday. I said 9. She again reminded me how many hours I had left before I was older! She's so sweet!! On Saturday morning I went for a run. Last weekend I ran 4 miles and I felt pretty good, so I figured I should be able to run 5 miles this weekend. For some reason, I struggled a little after about 3 miles. I really wanted to quit, but I kept going and finished! I was telling AJ about it after I got back and he so lovingly said, "Well you ARE a year older now!" Isn't my family great! They're almost as bad as my friend Dave who is always harassing me about my age. You'll catch me in one month Dave! Yes, I know that I will aways be older, but I'll always be WISER too!! I was talking to my Dad a few days ago and I was telling him that I can't believe that I am going to be 37! How did that happen so fast?! I can't believe that I'm so close to 40...40! when I feel like I'm still 27! Oh well, I guess that's life. It's better than the alternative!
We decided to go to the beach for a while. Unfortuately we left in such a hurry that we forgot the sunscreen and towels! We weren't able to stay too long, but we had fun while we were there! We went snorkeling and it was amazing! AJ went out first and saw a huge sea turtle, but when I went out, I couldn't find it. I was so disappointed! I played with Jenna for a little while and then went back out in search of the turtle. This time I found it! It was so cool!! It was huge!! AJ thinks that it was about 2 1/2 feet long. I found it in a shallow area eating off of the rocks on the bottom of the ocean. It was so amazing to watch. I stayed for a long time just watching it move across the bottom of the ocean. It would ebb and flow with the movement of the tide. It was so graceful and used it's back flippers to push itself along the bottom. Once in a while it would come to the surface to get a breath of air. I could have stayed there for hours watching it! There were also a ton of fish swimming in the area. They were all so beautiful! They were all different sizes and colors. I saw a little black fish with white dots on it, which I think was a puffer fish. There were several black, yellow and white fish - the same colors, just in different patterns. There were multi-colored fish, black fish, and long, skinny silver fish, just to name a few. It was so cool. I just love snorkeling! My favorite thing that I saw that day (besides the turtle) was watching the sunlight reflect through the water. It was so amazing! I have been trying to think of how to describe it, but I just can't come up with the right words...it was like a stain glass window with the sun shining through on a bright, sunny day. It was like the sunlight was dancing on the rocks below in odd, asymmetical, square-like shapes. It was so beautiful. I really didn't want to leave, but AJ and Jenna were probably wondering what was taking me so long, so I thought I should head back to shore.
We were able to get Jenna to snorkel a little bit too. AJ held her and she laid across her boogie board so she could snorkel. She saw a few of the black and yellow fish. There were pretty close to her and she was getting scared they would touch her, so she wanted to go back to shore. We were happy with what she did. It's the most snorkeling she has done in water where she couldn't stand up. Hopefully she'll have a little more courage the next time she's out there.
We ran a few errands and then went out for dinner Saturday evening. It was really nice. AJ and Jenna bought me a flower lei made of plumaria flowers, which are my favorite. It was so pretty! I also got a new pair of sunglasses. My old pair were in really bad shape. Jenna bought me a small jewelry box made of shells and a key chain with a hula girl on it. It was very sweet!
We had a pretty quiet day for our anniversary. We went to church and took naps after lunch. We watched the Packers win and the Bears lose! That was a gift in itself! We were planning to go to a seafood buffet for dinner, but Jenna's friend called and invited her to go swimming, so we decided to postpone the buffet until Friday. Can you believe it's been 12 years already? Time goes so fast! I remember the day we got married. It was a very nice day for November in the midwest. It was 45 degrees! But by that night, it was raining really hard and the wind was blowing the rain horizontally! It was crazy! This is definately the warmest weather I've ever had for my birthday or anniversary! It was a very nice day. I'll write more tomorrow, so until then...aloha!
Well, for those of you who don't know, my birthday was Saturday and our 12 year anniversary was on Sunday. We had a very nice weekend. Jenna has been more excited about my birthday than me. She talked about it all week! She kept asking how many more days until Saturday. On Friday on the way to school, Jenna said to me, "Mom, you only have 24 more hours to be 36." Gee thanks for the reminder Jenna! On the way home from school, she asked how many more hours until Saturday. I said 9. She again reminded me how many hours I had left before I was older! She's so sweet!! On Saturday morning I went for a run. Last weekend I ran 4 miles and I felt pretty good, so I figured I should be able to run 5 miles this weekend. For some reason, I struggled a little after about 3 miles. I really wanted to quit, but I kept going and finished! I was telling AJ about it after I got back and he so lovingly said, "Well you ARE a year older now!" Isn't my family great! They're almost as bad as my friend Dave who is always harassing me about my age. You'll catch me in one month Dave! Yes, I know that I will aways be older, but I'll always be WISER too!! I was talking to my Dad a few days ago and I was telling him that I can't believe that I am going to be 37! How did that happen so fast?! I can't believe that I'm so close to 40...40! when I feel like I'm still 27! Oh well, I guess that's life. It's better than the alternative!
We decided to go to the beach for a while. Unfortuately we left in such a hurry that we forgot the sunscreen and towels! We weren't able to stay too long, but we had fun while we were there! We went snorkeling and it was amazing! AJ went out first and saw a huge sea turtle, but when I went out, I couldn't find it. I was so disappointed! I played with Jenna for a little while and then went back out in search of the turtle. This time I found it! It was so cool!! It was huge!! AJ thinks that it was about 2 1/2 feet long. I found it in a shallow area eating off of the rocks on the bottom of the ocean. It was so amazing to watch. I stayed for a long time just watching it move across the bottom of the ocean. It would ebb and flow with the movement of the tide. It was so graceful and used it's back flippers to push itself along the bottom. Once in a while it would come to the surface to get a breath of air. I could have stayed there for hours watching it! There were also a ton of fish swimming in the area. They were all so beautiful! They were all different sizes and colors. I saw a little black fish with white dots on it, which I think was a puffer fish. There were several black, yellow and white fish - the same colors, just in different patterns. There were multi-colored fish, black fish, and long, skinny silver fish, just to name a few. It was so cool. I just love snorkeling! My favorite thing that I saw that day (besides the turtle) was watching the sunlight reflect through the water. It was so amazing! I have been trying to think of how to describe it, but I just can't come up with the right words...it was like a stain glass window with the sun shining through on a bright, sunny day. It was like the sunlight was dancing on the rocks below in odd, asymmetical, square-like shapes. It was so beautiful. I really didn't want to leave, but AJ and Jenna were probably wondering what was taking me so long, so I thought I should head back to shore.
We were able to get Jenna to snorkel a little bit too. AJ held her and she laid across her boogie board so she could snorkel. She saw a few of the black and yellow fish. There were pretty close to her and she was getting scared they would touch her, so she wanted to go back to shore. We were happy with what she did. It's the most snorkeling she has done in water where she couldn't stand up. Hopefully she'll have a little more courage the next time she's out there.
We ran a few errands and then went out for dinner Saturday evening. It was really nice. AJ and Jenna bought me a flower lei made of plumaria flowers, which are my favorite. It was so pretty! I also got a new pair of sunglasses. My old pair were in really bad shape. Jenna bought me a small jewelry box made of shells and a key chain with a hula girl on it. It was very sweet!
We had a pretty quiet day for our anniversary. We went to church and took naps after lunch. We watched the Packers win and the Bears lose! That was a gift in itself! We were planning to go to a seafood buffet for dinner, but Jenna's friend called and invited her to go swimming, so we decided to postpone the buffet until Friday. Can you believe it's been 12 years already? Time goes so fast! I remember the day we got married. It was a very nice day for November in the midwest. It was 45 degrees! But by that night, it was raining really hard and the wind was blowing the rain horizontally! It was crazy! This is definately the warmest weather I've ever had for my birthday or anniversary! It was a very nice day. I'll write more tomorrow, so until then...aloha!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN!!
Today I am dedicating by blog post to my nephew Ben in Cuba City. He is 9 years old today! Happy Birthday Ben!! He and Jenna are good friends and we all miss him a lot! We look forward to seeing you at Christmas Ben! Have a great day!! We love you! Jenna is starting hula lessons tonight. Maybe she can teach you what she has learned when we see you in December! So until then...aloha!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Murder on the lanai!
Well, I can't believe that another week has gone by! Time goes so fast!! Time is confusing enough for me right now without it going so fast!! It's so hard for us to really know what time of year it is since we haven't experienced the seasons changing this year! I can't bellieve that it is the 10th of November already! Oh well! I guess there is nothing I can do about it!
In case you are wondering about my title today, allow me to explain. A few nights ago we were sitting on the lanai (deck, for those of you who don't remember) eating dinner. We were watching a little baby, brown gecko crawling across the rafters. It was small, maybe an inch or an inch and a half. We also saw a larger green gecko on the rafters. All of the sudden the baby gecko stopped moving. The green gecko was only a few inches away from it. He stopped moving too and just stared at the baby gecko. Then, in the blink of an eye, the green gecko snapped up the baby gecko in its mouth!! I couldn't believe it!!! I said (rather loudly) "He just ate it!" AJ said "Yes, and now all the neighbors know too." We have been told that the green geckos are agressive toward the brown ones, but I thought they just meant they chased them or something. I never would have guessed that they ATE them for dinner!! It makes me look at my little gecko friend from the marketplace a little differently! Poor little thing. Jenna is now on a mission to scare away the green geckos whenever a brown gecko is around!
I forgot to tell you that I saw the first whale of the season last weekend! When we went to the "Movie-star beach," I was standing in the water watching Jenna try and "surf" on her boogie board, I saw a humpback whale breech!! A breech is when the whale jumps out of the water and lands on its back and makes a huge splash. It was so cool to see. This one was completely out of the water! The humpback whales come down from Alaska from about November-March to mate and have their babies. It was November 1 when I saw it, so I guess they are right on time! Those of you coming to visit this winter will likely see whales too!
We had parent-teacher conferences for Jenna last week. She did very well. The curriculum is a little harder this year, so she has had to work a little harder than usual. She got all A's!! She got a ribbon for getting on the "Superior Honor Roll." There are a few areas that she needs to work on, but overall, she is doing great! We are very proud of her. She doesn't have school tomorrow for Veteran's Day. She is starting a unit on Indians. I am planning to go in again and show the kids how to make Indian headbands and necklaces. It should be fun. I really enjoy doing that.
Things are still going good for AJ. He enjoys his work and based on what he tells me about some of the other guys that thought they deserved his job, he was definately the best choice! Some days are rather challenging, but overall, he likes it a lot! That's it for today, so until next time...aloha!
In case you are wondering about my title today, allow me to explain. A few nights ago we were sitting on the lanai (deck, for those of you who don't remember) eating dinner. We were watching a little baby, brown gecko crawling across the rafters. It was small, maybe an inch or an inch and a half. We also saw a larger green gecko on the rafters. All of the sudden the baby gecko stopped moving. The green gecko was only a few inches away from it. He stopped moving too and just stared at the baby gecko. Then, in the blink of an eye, the green gecko snapped up the baby gecko in its mouth!! I couldn't believe it!!! I said (rather loudly) "He just ate it!" AJ said "Yes, and now all the neighbors know too." We have been told that the green geckos are agressive toward the brown ones, but I thought they just meant they chased them or something. I never would have guessed that they ATE them for dinner!! It makes me look at my little gecko friend from the marketplace a little differently! Poor little thing. Jenna is now on a mission to scare away the green geckos whenever a brown gecko is around!
I forgot to tell you that I saw the first whale of the season last weekend! When we went to the "Movie-star beach," I was standing in the water watching Jenna try and "surf" on her boogie board, I saw a humpback whale breech!! A breech is when the whale jumps out of the water and lands on its back and makes a huge splash. It was so cool to see. This one was completely out of the water! The humpback whales come down from Alaska from about November-March to mate and have their babies. It was November 1 when I saw it, so I guess they are right on time! Those of you coming to visit this winter will likely see whales too!
We had parent-teacher conferences for Jenna last week. She did very well. The curriculum is a little harder this year, so she has had to work a little harder than usual. She got all A's!! She got a ribbon for getting on the "Superior Honor Roll." There are a few areas that she needs to work on, but overall, she is doing great! We are very proud of her. She doesn't have school tomorrow for Veteran's Day. She is starting a unit on Indians. I am planning to go in again and show the kids how to make Indian headbands and necklaces. It should be fun. I really enjoy doing that.
Things are still going good for AJ. He enjoys his work and based on what he tells me about some of the other guys that thought they deserved his job, he was definately the best choice! Some days are rather challenging, but overall, he likes it a lot! That's it for today, so until next time...aloha!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
2 months already!
I can't believe that it has been two months since we got on that plane and started this adventure! It actually seems like we have been here a lot longer than that. Things have gone so well with getting everything together and getting settled in; it just feels like we've always been here. I feel very blessed that we had the opportunity to come over here so many times in the past. It has really made the transition easy and made this feel like "home" very quickly. Of course we still miss everyone in Wisconsin, but we plan to be home for Christmas and we hope to have visitors here on a regular basis! (hint, hint!)
Jenna didn't have school today due to the election. She painted the head board that AJ made for her bed. We plan to cover it with fabric and stuff it with fluff. I'll post some pictures of it when we get it done. I've posted some more pictures of Jenna and her friends from school. Some of the pictures are from Colonial Day and one is from halloween. As for the election, no matter the outcome, it is an historic event. I pray that the new president will lead this county with honesty and integrity. He will have a big job ahead of him!!
In Hawaii the elected positions are a little different than on the mainland. Each island is a county, so there are 4 counties in the state of Hawaii (some of the islands have one elected official for 2 or 3 islands). Each island has a mayor. There is not a mayor for each town or city...the mayor is the mayor for the entire county! That is a little odd to me, but that's how it works over here. The towns have city councils that help make decisions, but there aren't near as many elected officials as most other states. You may not care to know any of this, but I thought it was kind of interesting...
That's all I know today, so until next time...aloha!
Jenna didn't have school today due to the election. She painted the head board that AJ made for her bed. We plan to cover it with fabric and stuff it with fluff. I'll post some pictures of it when we get it done. I've posted some more pictures of Jenna and her friends from school. Some of the pictures are from Colonial Day and one is from halloween. As for the election, no matter the outcome, it is an historic event. I pray that the new president will lead this county with honesty and integrity. He will have a big job ahead of him!!
In Hawaii the elected positions are a little different than on the mainland. Each island is a county, so there are 4 counties in the state of Hawaii (some of the islands have one elected official for 2 or 3 islands). Each island has a mayor. There is not a mayor for each town or city...the mayor is the mayor for the entire county! That is a little odd to me, but that's how it works over here. The towns have city councils that help make decisions, but there aren't near as many elected officials as most other states. You may not care to know any of this, but I thought it was kind of interesting...
That's all I know today, so until next time...aloha!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Busy, busy week!!
Well, again I have to apologize for my long absence in writing! Last week was really busy! I was at Jenna's school every day helping with the activities for Colonial Day. The whole school participates in this week. The theme this year was Celebrate America. Each class chose a time period in American history to study and prepare a presentation for the rest of the school. They have different activities all week. I went in on Monday and showed the kids how to make marbles out of clay; on Tuesday I helped the kids with painting projects; on Wednesday I helped the kids make homemade butter and then I set up the display of the colonial shops that I have been working on. I posted some pictues of my feeble attempt and of Jenna's final product. Thursday was the day that Jenna's class presented their projects to their class and parents. Jenna showed her kitchen that she has been working on. She did a great job presenting to the class! Her class had a traditional colonial meal with stew, pot pie, corn bread, fruit, pumpkin pie and chess pie (custard pie.) On Friday, each class presented their time period to the school. They did presentations on the playground in front of the entire school and parents. After the presentations, each class went from class to class to see the individual presentations by the students. The kids presented their projects to kindergarden through 5th grade. They all did a great job! It was really fun to help out all week. I've enjoyed getting to know the kids, parents and teachers. When I helped in Jenna's class in Wisconsin, the kids always called me Mrs. Howery. In Hawaii, everyone is called Auntie or Uncle, whether you are related or not. So all of Jenna's classmates call me "Auntie Lynn," or just "Auntie." It was kind of strange at first, but it's kind of neat too.
As you know Friday was Halloween. This was the first Halloween that I have ever experienced that it wasn't cold, snowing, raining or absolutely miserable! Jenna could wear her costume and not have to wear her winter coat over or under it! She wore her Little Mermaid outfit that we she got at Disney in August. I'll attach some pictures of her. It was really nice to be able to trick-or-treat and not worry about the weather. Sorry. I'm not trying to rub it in! I know how bad it can be. I thought that it wasn't supposed to be too bad though...how was it? Instead of going around the neighborhood, we went to an organized event at the old airport. It was called "Candy Land." It was like a fair. They had rides and games and food, except everything was free! She got candy as prizes. It was fun for her and we didn't have to walk all over. She didn't get as much candy as she would have, but that's OK, because AJ and I usually eat most of it anyway!!
Saturday we went to the beach that we call the "movie star beach." We went snorkeling and made sand castles. It was fun. We haven't been to the beach for a several weeks...poor Jenna was going through withdrawal!!
We had our first snow in Hawaii last weekend! It snowed on top of Mauna Kea, the biggest mountain here on the island. It's been so cloudy here lately that's hard to see the top of the mountain, so we can't see the snow anyway. It's strange to think of it snowing in Hawaii! AJ remembers a time when he was here when they actually had to close roads near the top of Mauna Kea because of white-out conditions! Very strange!
Jenna has been wanting me to tell you about a van that we see almost every day on the way to school. It's a very colorful van...think 70's peace symbol...the whole van is colored all different colors. It's very easy to pick out and Jenna thinks that it is really cool.
Well, I think that brings us up to date. So, until next time...aloha!
As you know Friday was Halloween. This was the first Halloween that I have ever experienced that it wasn't cold, snowing, raining or absolutely miserable! Jenna could wear her costume and not have to wear her winter coat over or under it! She wore her Little Mermaid outfit that we she got at Disney in August. I'll attach some pictures of her. It was really nice to be able to trick-or-treat and not worry about the weather. Sorry. I'm not trying to rub it in! I know how bad it can be. I thought that it wasn't supposed to be too bad though...how was it? Instead of going around the neighborhood, we went to an organized event at the old airport. It was called "Candy Land." It was like a fair. They had rides and games and food, except everything was free! She got candy as prizes. It was fun for her and we didn't have to walk all over. She didn't get as much candy as she would have, but that's OK, because AJ and I usually eat most of it anyway!!
Saturday we went to the beach that we call the "movie star beach." We went snorkeling and made sand castles. It was fun. We haven't been to the beach for a several weeks...poor Jenna was going through withdrawal!!
We had our first snow in Hawaii last weekend! It snowed on top of Mauna Kea, the biggest mountain here on the island. It's been so cloudy here lately that's hard to see the top of the mountain, so we can't see the snow anyway. It's strange to think of it snowing in Hawaii! AJ remembers a time when he was here when they actually had to close roads near the top of Mauna Kea because of white-out conditions! Very strange!
Jenna has been wanting me to tell you about a van that we see almost every day on the way to school. It's a very colorful van...think 70's peace symbol...the whole van is colored all different colors. It's very easy to pick out and Jenna thinks that it is really cool.
Well, I think that brings us up to date. So, until next time...aloha!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Gone too long!
Hello! I'm sorry for the delay in posting a blog. To be very honest, I have been lazy and have not felt like doing it! But since it has been a few days, I will probably have more to say!
Of course, the most exciting news to report since I last posted is that we now have internet, TV and local phone service at our HOUSE!! Yeah!! We were quite excited for that to happen. Unfortunately, the Packers had a bye so I didn't get to see them play, but oh well. There's always next week! I will miss my little gecko friend at the marketplace, but I guess I can go and visit him when I want. I took some pictures of him drinking water off of my water bottle. He was licking the condensation from the outside of my bottle! It was pretty cool to see! I tried to get a few pictures of him peering over the top of the laptop, but of course he wouldn't stay still long enough! Camera shy, I guess! I mentioned in my last blog that I was going to post pictures of the chameleon too, but he wasn't at church this week, so guess I'll try next time.
We have had a few nights of rain here lately. The rain brings out the slugs and the snails. We had a really big snail slowly making it's way across our driveway on Saturday. Jenna and I watched it for quite a while. You could see it move, even though it took forever! It was eating grass...you could actually see the grass moving while it was eating it! We took some pictures of it that I posted. Hope you find it as interesting as Jenna and I did!
Jenna's project is almost finished. We have just a few things left to glue in place. We were going to put a roof on her kitchen and make a door to look through, like a diorama, but we decided that it would be too hard to see everything. And I personally think that things look so cute that we want to make sure that peoeple can see everything clearly! I am working on a "town." I am making 3 stores out of cardboard that are supposed to represent what sort of businesses were around during colonial days. I have put my project off until this past weekend and it needs to be set up on Wednesday afternoon, so I am sure that mine will not be as cute as Jenna's! She and I painted the walls of the stores on Sunday, which she loved because she got to get all covered in paint AND she got to play in the water!! So much fun!
AJ did not get to go deep sea fishing. The person he was going to go with was not able to borrow the boat from his friend. He will have other opportunities, so he was OK with it. Instead, he built a headboard for Jenna's bed. We are going to cover it with fabric and stuff it with that fluffy filling you put in pillows. She's looking forward to that. AJ also built racks to hold our bikes, and he put together the grill that we bought. We have been looking at grills and they were on clearance at Lowe's so we decided to get one. When AJ first starting looking at grills about a month ago, he came home and said that it was very strange to seek lawn mowers and Christmas trees out at the same time!!
I got a letter from the state Board of Nursing saying that I could practice in the state of Hawaii. I haven't recieved my actual license yet, but this will suffice until it arrives. I'm working on updating my resume, even though there aren't too many jobs out there right now. It might be too late to get the job for working at flu clinics, but I am still going to send my resume and see what happens.
I'm going into Jenna's classroom this afternoon to make marbles out of clay. As you know, her class has been learning about colonial days. They talked a little about the toys that the children of that day played with and how most of the toys were made by hand because they didn't have toy stores to go to. Last week I went in and taught the kids how to make dolls out of spoons and fabric, today I am making the marbles and on Wednesday I am going in to help the teacher show the kids how to make butter. I think it will be a lot of fun. I really enjoy working in the classroom and getting to know the kids in her class. I'll let you know how it goes. I better get working on my town, so until next time...aloha!
Of course, the most exciting news to report since I last posted is that we now have internet, TV and local phone service at our HOUSE!! Yeah!! We were quite excited for that to happen. Unfortunately, the Packers had a bye so I didn't get to see them play, but oh well. There's always next week! I will miss my little gecko friend at the marketplace, but I guess I can go and visit him when I want. I took some pictures of him drinking water off of my water bottle. He was licking the condensation from the outside of my bottle! It was pretty cool to see! I tried to get a few pictures of him peering over the top of the laptop, but of course he wouldn't stay still long enough! Camera shy, I guess! I mentioned in my last blog that I was going to post pictures of the chameleon too, but he wasn't at church this week, so guess I'll try next time.
We have had a few nights of rain here lately. The rain brings out the slugs and the snails. We had a really big snail slowly making it's way across our driveway on Saturday. Jenna and I watched it for quite a while. You could see it move, even though it took forever! It was eating grass...you could actually see the grass moving while it was eating it! We took some pictures of it that I posted. Hope you find it as interesting as Jenna and I did!
Jenna's project is almost finished. We have just a few things left to glue in place. We were going to put a roof on her kitchen and make a door to look through, like a diorama, but we decided that it would be too hard to see everything. And I personally think that things look so cute that we want to make sure that peoeple can see everything clearly! I am working on a "town." I am making 3 stores out of cardboard that are supposed to represent what sort of businesses were around during colonial days. I have put my project off until this past weekend and it needs to be set up on Wednesday afternoon, so I am sure that mine will not be as cute as Jenna's! She and I painted the walls of the stores on Sunday, which she loved because she got to get all covered in paint AND she got to play in the water!! So much fun!
AJ did not get to go deep sea fishing. The person he was going to go with was not able to borrow the boat from his friend. He will have other opportunities, so he was OK with it. Instead, he built a headboard for Jenna's bed. We are going to cover it with fabric and stuff it with that fluffy filling you put in pillows. She's looking forward to that. AJ also built racks to hold our bikes, and he put together the grill that we bought. We have been looking at grills and they were on clearance at Lowe's so we decided to get one. When AJ first starting looking at grills about a month ago, he came home and said that it was very strange to seek lawn mowers and Christmas trees out at the same time!!
I got a letter from the state Board of Nursing saying that I could practice in the state of Hawaii. I haven't recieved my actual license yet, but this will suffice until it arrives. I'm working on updating my resume, even though there aren't too many jobs out there right now. It might be too late to get the job for working at flu clinics, but I am still going to send my resume and see what happens.
I'm going into Jenna's classroom this afternoon to make marbles out of clay. As you know, her class has been learning about colonial days. They talked a little about the toys that the children of that day played with and how most of the toys were made by hand because they didn't have toy stores to go to. Last week I went in and taught the kids how to make dolls out of spoons and fabric, today I am making the marbles and on Wednesday I am going in to help the teacher show the kids how to make butter. I think it will be a lot of fun. I really enjoy working in the classroom and getting to know the kids in her class. I'll let you know how it goes. I better get working on my town, so until next time...aloha!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Just another day
I know that I have pretty boring lately, but there is really nothing exciting going on! I still have nothing of any significance to report. Jenna has been busy working on her Colonial Day project. Her focus is food and clothing of the colonists. She has been making pumpkins, apples, corn and Johnny cakes (like pancakes or corn bread) out of clay. She is very grateful to her friend Ellie P. for showing her how to make things out of clay. She made a really cute pig. It has a little snout, and the legs are very realistic. I'll attempt to take a picure of it and it I'll post it if it turns out. We made a fireplace and a table with popsicle sticks. I didn't want to attempt to make people, especially with my artisic abilities. We just found pictures of people in colonial day clothes and cut them out. We glued sticks to the back of them so they will stand up. I think it will turn our pretty cute. I'm excited to see the final product!
AJ is hoping to go fishing on Saturday. He went one other time when he was working over here and caught a pretty big one. He's hoping to get something even bigger this time! I hope he does too...we'll have fresh fish to eat!! Yum!
We get internet, TV, and phone hooked up Friday morning. I can't wait! It will be so great to just get on the internet whenever I want instead of trying to remember everything I want to look up or check out when I get here. We will be getting a local phone number so I will let you know what it is. You can still call us on our cell phones if you want. I know nothing else today. So, until next time...aloha!
AJ is hoping to go fishing on Saturday. He went one other time when he was working over here and caught a pretty big one. He's hoping to get something even bigger this time! I hope he does too...we'll have fresh fish to eat!! Yum!
We get internet, TV, and phone hooked up Friday morning. I can't wait! It will be so great to just get on the internet whenever I want instead of trying to remember everything I want to look up or check out when I get here. We will be getting a local phone number so I will let you know what it is. You can still call us on our cell phones if you want. I know nothing else today. So, until next time...aloha!
Monday, October 20, 2008
The Weekend
We had a pretty quiet weekend. I went to garage sales on Saturday morning and got a bookcase for Jenna and a desk for us. Now I can finish setting up the "office." We don't really have an office. It will just be an area in the basement, but it will be nice to get all of that kind of stuff organized and out of the boxes.
Sunday after church some of the kids found a Jackson Cameleon on one of the trees. They picked it up and started playing with it. It was pretty cool to see. It looked like a triceratops in a way. I'll bring my camera with me next week and I'll post a few pictures. They put it on me because I was wearing a brown shirt. They wanted to see if it would change colors. It crawled around to my back so I couldn't see if it changed colors or not. I was OK with it being on me as long as it didn't get near my face or on my skin, which it didn't, thank goodness!!
In the afternoon we went to the movie "Beverly Hills Chihuahua." It was pretty cute. Not a movie that AJ and I would have picked out, but Jenna really liked it! Anyway, pretty boring today. We get internet hooked up on Friday!! WOO-HOO!! We are pretty excited about that. Internet at the house...that will make things easier! We'll finally have TV too...maybe we can catch up on what's happening in the world! So, until next time...aloha!
Sunday after church some of the kids found a Jackson Cameleon on one of the trees. They picked it up and started playing with it. It was pretty cool to see. It looked like a triceratops in a way. I'll bring my camera with me next week and I'll post a few pictures. They put it on me because I was wearing a brown shirt. They wanted to see if it would change colors. It crawled around to my back so I couldn't see if it changed colors or not. I was OK with it being on me as long as it didn't get near my face or on my skin, which it didn't, thank goodness!!
In the afternoon we went to the movie "Beverly Hills Chihuahua." It was pretty cute. Not a movie that AJ and I would have picked out, but Jenna really liked it! Anyway, pretty boring today. We get internet hooked up on Friday!! WOO-HOO!! We are pretty excited about that. Internet at the house...that will make things easier! We'll finally have TV too...maybe we can catch up on what's happening in the world! So, until next time...aloha!
Friday, October 17, 2008
More pix
Not much to report on today. Things have been going good. Jenna is enjoying school. She is studying Colonial America right now. She has a big project that she is working on that's due at the end of the month. She had lots of different options for a project, but she chose to do hers on food and clothes of colonial times. She has been busy making a kitchen scene out of popcicle sticks and clay. She's pretty excited about it!
AJ was invited to go deep sea fishing with one of his co-workers next weekend. He's looking forward to that. I finally got everything together that I needed to get my Hawaii nursing license. Hopefully I will get it soon. There have been ads in the paper for nurses to work at flu clinics. I'd love to do that.
I've attached a few more pictures today. One of our house. One of the first sunset from our lanai (deck), and a few more of Jenna. That's all for now. Until next time...aloha!
AJ was invited to go deep sea fishing with one of his co-workers next weekend. He's looking forward to that. I finally got everything together that I needed to get my Hawaii nursing license. Hopefully I will get it soon. There have been ads in the paper for nurses to work at flu clinics. I'd love to do that.
I've attached a few more pictures today. One of our house. One of the first sunset from our lanai (deck), and a few more of Jenna. That's all for now. Until next time...aloha!
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Mahalo Party
Well, the Mahalo Party on Monday night was another great experience! We had to wait in line about half an hour to get in the gate, but it was well worth it! We each got a big fanny pack that says Ironman Triathlon on it and we put our names in for the raffle drawing. They gave away some really cool prizes. The top items were 3 bikes, really nice bikes that triathletes use. They also gave away exercise equipment… 2 stationary bikes and a stepper. They gave away tons of smaller prizes too. Of course, we didn’t win anything!! The lady sitting next to me won twice! Oh well. There’s always next year I guess!
When we first got there we were fed a really awesome meal. There was salad, corn, sweet and sour chicken, kaluha pig, roast beef, lasagna, buns, about 5 different desserts and water, Gatorade, pop, and beer to drink. We ate pretty good! While we ate there was a program to thank everyone for volunteering at the event. All the different chairmen of all the different areas that put together the Ironman spoke and thanked their workers.
The man that was the top finisher for the Big Island spoke and thanked everyone for their help. And then, much to my surprise and delight, the top male and female winners overall got up and spoke! I was just really amazed that these professional athletes took the time to thank us personally for what we did. Chrissie Wellington of Great Britain and Craig Alexander of Australia were both very appreciative of the volunteers. I posted some pictures of them. They may look a little grainy because I took pictures of them on the jumbo tron since they were too far away to get a better picture.
The other speaker was a father whose son had Cerebral Palsy. The son had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck during delivery and he had brain damage. The doctors told the family that he would not survive. The family was determined to make his life as normal as possible. They thought that he was able to understand things, he just couldn’t speak. They bought him a computer and he began to communicate with them. He finished high school and college and now he lives by himself in an apartment. When he was a young boy, he and his father participated in a race for a local charity. The father ran and pushed his son in a wheelchair. The son told his father after the race that it was the first time that he didn’t feel handicapped. So they kept entering races and eventually started doing triathlons. They showed footage of the two of them in last year’s Ironman. It sent chills down me to see the love, dedication, and hard work that this father went through for his son. He pulled him in a rubber raft during the 2.4 mile swim; he had a seat put on the front of his bike and the son sat there during the 112 mile bike, and he pushed his son in a wheelchair for the 26.2 mile run!! It was so amazing so see!! They finished the race in something like 15 hours…unbelievable!! This father and son team was inducted into the Ironman Hall of Fame.
They also showed video taken during the race of various athletes biking or running. I was wrong when I said the oldest participant was 66. On the video, they interviewed a 71-year old and a 75-year old!!! They asked the 75-year old what his secret to long life was and he simply said, ”Well, I take care of myself and do things like this,” meaning participating in an Ironman!! WOW!! That’s amazing!! I really have no excuses for not getting out there and doing SOMETHING!! I know that at least one of these men finished because they showed it on the video. Pretty cool, huh?
The Ironman Triathlon will be aired on NBC on December 13. We have seen it in the past and it is always very well done. They usually tell the story of a few people and then follow them throughout the race. And of course they follow the professionals that are expected to do well. I really like the stories of the Average Joes. Those are the stories that are so inspiring! Well, that’s all for now. Until next time…aloha!
When we first got there we were fed a really awesome meal. There was salad, corn, sweet and sour chicken, kaluha pig, roast beef, lasagna, buns, about 5 different desserts and water, Gatorade, pop, and beer to drink. We ate pretty good! While we ate there was a program to thank everyone for volunteering at the event. All the different chairmen of all the different areas that put together the Ironman spoke and thanked their workers.
The man that was the top finisher for the Big Island spoke and thanked everyone for their help. And then, much to my surprise and delight, the top male and female winners overall got up and spoke! I was just really amazed that these professional athletes took the time to thank us personally for what we did. Chrissie Wellington of Great Britain and Craig Alexander of Australia were both very appreciative of the volunteers. I posted some pictures of them. They may look a little grainy because I took pictures of them on the jumbo tron since they were too far away to get a better picture.
The other speaker was a father whose son had Cerebral Palsy. The son had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck during delivery and he had brain damage. The doctors told the family that he would not survive. The family was determined to make his life as normal as possible. They thought that he was able to understand things, he just couldn’t speak. They bought him a computer and he began to communicate with them. He finished high school and college and now he lives by himself in an apartment. When he was a young boy, he and his father participated in a race for a local charity. The father ran and pushed his son in a wheelchair. The son told his father after the race that it was the first time that he didn’t feel handicapped. So they kept entering races and eventually started doing triathlons. They showed footage of the two of them in last year’s Ironman. It sent chills down me to see the love, dedication, and hard work that this father went through for his son. He pulled him in a rubber raft during the 2.4 mile swim; he had a seat put on the front of his bike and the son sat there during the 112 mile bike, and he pushed his son in a wheelchair for the 26.2 mile run!! It was so amazing so see!! They finished the race in something like 15 hours…unbelievable!! This father and son team was inducted into the Ironman Hall of Fame.
They also showed video taken during the race of various athletes biking or running. I was wrong when I said the oldest participant was 66. On the video, they interviewed a 71-year old and a 75-year old!!! They asked the 75-year old what his secret to long life was and he simply said, ”Well, I take care of myself and do things like this,” meaning participating in an Ironman!! WOW!! That’s amazing!! I really have no excuses for not getting out there and doing SOMETHING!! I know that at least one of these men finished because they showed it on the video. Pretty cool, huh?
The Ironman Triathlon will be aired on NBC on December 13. We have seen it in the past and it is always very well done. They usually tell the story of a few people and then follow them throughout the race. And of course they follow the professionals that are expected to do well. I really like the stories of the Average Joes. Those are the stories that are so inspiring! Well, that’s all for now. Until next time…aloha!
Monday, October 13, 2008
WHAT A DAY!!
Wow! What a day! What an adventure! I don’t even know where to begin telling you about working at the Ironman Triathlon!! I guess the best place to start is to give you some information about the Ironman. The Ironman Triathlon consists of a 2.4-mile swim in the ocean, a 112-mile bike ride along the Kona coast, and a 26.2-mile run (a marathon). The Ironman Triathlon held here in Kona is considered the world championship of Ironman competitions throughout the world. The athletes participating have to qualify to even be here. There are a few spots available for local athletes that don’t qualify at another triathlon around the world. In May, they have what they call a half-ironman, or “Tinman,” as I’ve heard it called. I’ve also heard that it is called “Honu,” which means turtle in Hawaiian. There is also a lottery system where, I think, names are drawn and people then have to prove that they deserve a spot on the field.
There are all sorts of athletes that participate…professionals that do triathlons for a living, and just “regular” people who like the idea of competition. There were people of all ages and athletic abilities in the race on Saturday. It was so amazing to see! Of course there were the professionals, who were chiseled and looked like they were out for a leisurely jog (well, OK, not all of them), and then there were the average Joes that weren’t in as great of shape. The oldest person in the race was a 66 year old man from Kona. He finished the race in 15 hours, 36 minutes and 21 seconds. It was his first time participating in an Ironman! Can you imagine??!! One day at the age of 66 deciding to participate in one of the world’s most difficult sporting events?? At age 66?! That just amazes me! There was a 62 year old man participating in his 11th Ironman! That’s unbelievable!! There were plenty of “older” women participating too. It was so inspiring to see all of these people with all different abilities running or walking past us. The youngest participant was an 18 year old man that finished in 14 hours, 6 minutes, and 51 seconds.
In the days before the race the local newspaper was printing articles about athletes to “watch.” One that I thought was very interesting was a 32 year old man that was hit by on car when he was riding his bike at age 12. He broke his clavicle (collar bone) and his right arm has been paralyzed ever since. He started running cross country when he was in junior high. He loved the sport and started running races and eventually started doing triathlons. He has worked with trainers to learn how to swim and bike with one arm. He straps the arm to his body when he runs and swims, and when he bikes he straps it to his bike. We saw him when he ran through our aide station. It was yet another amazing sight to see! He finished with a time of 13 hours, 7 minutes and 21 seconds…can you imagine?... doing ALL of that with ONE arm?!
We also saw a number of men in wheelchairs participating. They not only have no use of their legs, but they have to use their arms for the entire race! I’m told they don’t get an extra help for the swim, so I’m not sure how they do that. But then they have to do the 112-mile bike and the 26.4 mile run pushing the wheels on their wheelchairs! I also saw at least 2 men with a prosthesis for a leg. They ran like nothing was any different about them. That’s what I think is so cool about all of these athletes. They don’t let anything get in the way of their dreams. They don’t feel sorry for themselves and the situation they may be in. They just compete. And they do well. It’s so cool!
There were people participating from 49 different countries and 45 states. I saw a couple of people wearing Wisconsin shirts so we had to cheer them on nice and loud!! The top male finisher was from Australia. He finished the race in 8 hours, 17 minutes and 34 seconds. He was in 11th place at the start of the run and he managed to pass all of those people to come in first place! That is amazing to me…after swimming 2.4 miles and biking for 112 miles…to still have the energy left to pass people on the run. He got 2nd place last year. The top female finisher was from England. She also won last year. She finished in 9 hours, 6 minutes and 23 seconds, a little less than 11 minutes behind the women’s record for the race. She lost 10 minutes during the biking part because she got a flat tire and the air canisters that she had with her wouldn’t work. One of her teammates stopped and gave her the one she had. If she hadn’t had trouble with her tire, she could have possible broke the record! The overall record to break is 8 hours, 4 minutes and some seconds (I can’t remember.) I can’t imagine completing the race in a little over 8 hours!
The athletes have 17 hours to finish the race. If they don’t get to the transition sites by a certain time, they are disqualified. There were 1808 triathletes that began the race. 1636 people finished. One of the top professionals that was expected to do well (He got 1st last year) had to drop out during the bike part. He had a gear cable break on his bike and the technicians told him it would take 20 minutes to fix. That’s a lot of time to make up in a race like this.
One of the things that make this race so difficult, besides the obvious difficulty of the length and endurance needed to complete it, is the elements. The race is stated at 6:45am in order for the athletes to get some of the race done before it gets too hot. They have to be done by midnight or they are disqualified. The articles in the paper this year stated that the ocean was really choppy. I know how hard it is to try and swim in choppy waters! It’s not only exhausting, but for weak swimmers like me, it’s scary! The top professionals finished the swim in about 50-55 minutes. Most of the amateurs did it in 1-2 hours. I can’t imagine swimming in choppy ocean water for 2 hours! I’d probably drown! After they survived the swim, they had to get on their bikes and pedal up the Kona coast, 112 miles to a town called Hawi. The Kona coast is known for having BIG hills to climb and for being REALLY, REALLY windy!! I guess this year was exceptionally windy. The articles in the paper stated that people were getting blown over by the wind! Even the professionals said the wind made the bike more challenging. AND THEN, after enduring the bike, they have to run a marathon!!! I ran a half marathon in May, and I was so happy to be done! I can’t imagine running a full marathon AFTER doing the swim and bike! I know I’ve said it a hundred times, but these people are AMAZING! On top of all of this, the temperature reached as high as 108 degrees during the day. I think between the direct sun beating on them and the black top absorbing heat, the temperatures really go up fast!
Working at the aide station was so rewarding. It was so neat to see all of the athletes running past. A number of them, professionals and amateurs, were walking by this point, but they were not going to quit! There was all so appreciative of our help. We had water, Gatorade, cola or coke (depending on what country you are from :-) ), ice, oranges, bananas, power bars or gel and pretzels and crackers available for the athletes. They would come running by yelling what they wanted and grab it in mid-stride. Most of them even thanked us! I wouldn’t even be able to talk at this point much less thank someone for giving me a cup of water! Toward the end, some of the athletes were even throwing their own garbage away! They usually just throw it on the ground so they can keep running.
We had a few athletes that didn’t look so good when they stopped at our station. One guy had to sit down and he looked really bad. I thought he was going to pass out. One of the helpers at our station put ice on him and put cool, damp towels on him to cool him off while we were waiting for the medical crew to come. I was getting a little nervous because it was taking them forever to get there and this guy didn’t look so good. But when they did get there, he was able to walk to the van. I’m not sure what happened to him, but I presume they took him to the hospital for fluids. We also had a lady who walked through that didn’t look so good, but I couldn’t get her to stop. I don’t think she spoke English, so she may not have understood what I was saying. I hope she was OK. Early on in the race, one of the professionals came running through and must have been over-heating. He stuck his head right in one of the barrels of ice water we were using to cool the drinks! I got a few pictures of that. Hopefully I will be able to post them for you.
We were signed up to work a 4-hour shift, but ended up being there for about 8. We just really enjoyed what we were doing and Jenna was having a ball. She started handing out ice. She thought it was really cool when the athletes would take her ice. AJ got some good pictures of one of the top guys taking ice from Jenna. Later in the day, she was handing out sponges. The athletes use these to squeeze cold water on themselves to cool off. Those of you who know Jenna well know that she LOVES water and will take any opportunity she has to get wet! She was “holding” sponges in her t-shirt to hand out as people ran by, and of course she got soaked! One of the athletes running by was going to take a sponge from one of the volunteers, but he said “no I want to get it from her!” and he pointed to Jenna. She was thrilled! I wasn’t there to witness it, but she was pretty excited! I didn’t get any pictures of her handing our sponges because I was busy at my station, but I did get a few of her “after-the-fact.” I’ll try and post them too.
I’m sorry to be so long-winded today! I could go on a long time about this. It was such a great experience!! We will definitely be volunteering again next year! Tonight there is an appreciation dinner for all of the volunteers. I’m looking forward to seeing all of the people that we worked with. It’s called a “mahalo for your kokua” party, which means “thank-you for your help.” Kokua (pronounced like it looks, ko-ku-a) means help or service in Hawaiian. We got t-shirts that say “kokua crew” on them. Pretty cool. I’ll tell you all about the party tomorrow. Hopefully you’ll be done reading this post by then! :-) Until next time…aloha!
There are all sorts of athletes that participate…professionals that do triathlons for a living, and just “regular” people who like the idea of competition. There were people of all ages and athletic abilities in the race on Saturday. It was so amazing to see! Of course there were the professionals, who were chiseled and looked like they were out for a leisurely jog (well, OK, not all of them), and then there were the average Joes that weren’t in as great of shape. The oldest person in the race was a 66 year old man from Kona. He finished the race in 15 hours, 36 minutes and 21 seconds. It was his first time participating in an Ironman! Can you imagine??!! One day at the age of 66 deciding to participate in one of the world’s most difficult sporting events?? At age 66?! That just amazes me! There was a 62 year old man participating in his 11th Ironman! That’s unbelievable!! There were plenty of “older” women participating too. It was so inspiring to see all of these people with all different abilities running or walking past us. The youngest participant was an 18 year old man that finished in 14 hours, 6 minutes, and 51 seconds.
In the days before the race the local newspaper was printing articles about athletes to “watch.” One that I thought was very interesting was a 32 year old man that was hit by on car when he was riding his bike at age 12. He broke his clavicle (collar bone) and his right arm has been paralyzed ever since. He started running cross country when he was in junior high. He loved the sport and started running races and eventually started doing triathlons. He has worked with trainers to learn how to swim and bike with one arm. He straps the arm to his body when he runs and swims, and when he bikes he straps it to his bike. We saw him when he ran through our aide station. It was yet another amazing sight to see! He finished with a time of 13 hours, 7 minutes and 21 seconds…can you imagine?... doing ALL of that with ONE arm?!
We also saw a number of men in wheelchairs participating. They not only have no use of their legs, but they have to use their arms for the entire race! I’m told they don’t get an extra help for the swim, so I’m not sure how they do that. But then they have to do the 112-mile bike and the 26.4 mile run pushing the wheels on their wheelchairs! I also saw at least 2 men with a prosthesis for a leg. They ran like nothing was any different about them. That’s what I think is so cool about all of these athletes. They don’t let anything get in the way of their dreams. They don’t feel sorry for themselves and the situation they may be in. They just compete. And they do well. It’s so cool!
There were people participating from 49 different countries and 45 states. I saw a couple of people wearing Wisconsin shirts so we had to cheer them on nice and loud!! The top male finisher was from Australia. He finished the race in 8 hours, 17 minutes and 34 seconds. He was in 11th place at the start of the run and he managed to pass all of those people to come in first place! That is amazing to me…after swimming 2.4 miles and biking for 112 miles…to still have the energy left to pass people on the run. He got 2nd place last year. The top female finisher was from England. She also won last year. She finished in 9 hours, 6 minutes and 23 seconds, a little less than 11 minutes behind the women’s record for the race. She lost 10 minutes during the biking part because she got a flat tire and the air canisters that she had with her wouldn’t work. One of her teammates stopped and gave her the one she had. If she hadn’t had trouble with her tire, she could have possible broke the record! The overall record to break is 8 hours, 4 minutes and some seconds (I can’t remember.) I can’t imagine completing the race in a little over 8 hours!
The athletes have 17 hours to finish the race. If they don’t get to the transition sites by a certain time, they are disqualified. There were 1808 triathletes that began the race. 1636 people finished. One of the top professionals that was expected to do well (He got 1st last year) had to drop out during the bike part. He had a gear cable break on his bike and the technicians told him it would take 20 minutes to fix. That’s a lot of time to make up in a race like this.
One of the things that make this race so difficult, besides the obvious difficulty of the length and endurance needed to complete it, is the elements. The race is stated at 6:45am in order for the athletes to get some of the race done before it gets too hot. They have to be done by midnight or they are disqualified. The articles in the paper this year stated that the ocean was really choppy. I know how hard it is to try and swim in choppy waters! It’s not only exhausting, but for weak swimmers like me, it’s scary! The top professionals finished the swim in about 50-55 minutes. Most of the amateurs did it in 1-2 hours. I can’t imagine swimming in choppy ocean water for 2 hours! I’d probably drown! After they survived the swim, they had to get on their bikes and pedal up the Kona coast, 112 miles to a town called Hawi. The Kona coast is known for having BIG hills to climb and for being REALLY, REALLY windy!! I guess this year was exceptionally windy. The articles in the paper stated that people were getting blown over by the wind! Even the professionals said the wind made the bike more challenging. AND THEN, after enduring the bike, they have to run a marathon!!! I ran a half marathon in May, and I was so happy to be done! I can’t imagine running a full marathon AFTER doing the swim and bike! I know I’ve said it a hundred times, but these people are AMAZING! On top of all of this, the temperature reached as high as 108 degrees during the day. I think between the direct sun beating on them and the black top absorbing heat, the temperatures really go up fast!
Working at the aide station was so rewarding. It was so neat to see all of the athletes running past. A number of them, professionals and amateurs, were walking by this point, but they were not going to quit! There was all so appreciative of our help. We had water, Gatorade, cola or coke (depending on what country you are from :-) ), ice, oranges, bananas, power bars or gel and pretzels and crackers available for the athletes. They would come running by yelling what they wanted and grab it in mid-stride. Most of them even thanked us! I wouldn’t even be able to talk at this point much less thank someone for giving me a cup of water! Toward the end, some of the athletes were even throwing their own garbage away! They usually just throw it on the ground so they can keep running.
We had a few athletes that didn’t look so good when they stopped at our station. One guy had to sit down and he looked really bad. I thought he was going to pass out. One of the helpers at our station put ice on him and put cool, damp towels on him to cool him off while we were waiting for the medical crew to come. I was getting a little nervous because it was taking them forever to get there and this guy didn’t look so good. But when they did get there, he was able to walk to the van. I’m not sure what happened to him, but I presume they took him to the hospital for fluids. We also had a lady who walked through that didn’t look so good, but I couldn’t get her to stop. I don’t think she spoke English, so she may not have understood what I was saying. I hope she was OK. Early on in the race, one of the professionals came running through and must have been over-heating. He stuck his head right in one of the barrels of ice water we were using to cool the drinks! I got a few pictures of that. Hopefully I will be able to post them for you.
We were signed up to work a 4-hour shift, but ended up being there for about 8. We just really enjoyed what we were doing and Jenna was having a ball. She started handing out ice. She thought it was really cool when the athletes would take her ice. AJ got some good pictures of one of the top guys taking ice from Jenna. Later in the day, she was handing out sponges. The athletes use these to squeeze cold water on themselves to cool off. Those of you who know Jenna well know that she LOVES water and will take any opportunity she has to get wet! She was “holding” sponges in her t-shirt to hand out as people ran by, and of course she got soaked! One of the athletes running by was going to take a sponge from one of the volunteers, but he said “no I want to get it from her!” and he pointed to Jenna. She was thrilled! I wasn’t there to witness it, but she was pretty excited! I didn’t get any pictures of her handing our sponges because I was busy at my station, but I did get a few of her “after-the-fact.” I’ll try and post them too.
I’m sorry to be so long-winded today! I could go on a long time about this. It was such a great experience!! We will definitely be volunteering again next year! Tonight there is an appreciation dinner for all of the volunteers. I’m looking forward to seeing all of the people that we worked with. It’s called a “mahalo for your kokua” party, which means “thank-you for your help.” Kokua (pronounced like it looks, ko-ku-a) means help or service in Hawaiian. We got t-shirts that say “kokua crew” on them. Pretty cool. I’ll tell you all about the party tomorrow. Hopefully you’ll be done reading this post by then! :-) Until next time…aloha!
Friday, October 10, 2008
Hawaii 101
I've decided that I will attempt to teach you some things about Hawaii as I learn them. Hopefully it will reinforce my learning and help you learn new things too. Today I will start with the Hawaiin language. Now, I have NOT mastered the Hawaiian language and I doubt that I ever will. I still have a lot to learn, but here are a few things I have learned. There are only 13 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet. The vowels don't sound the same as ours do. I meant to bring my Hawaiian dictionary with me to the internet cafe with me today, but I forgot it, so I will have to tell you what sounds the vowels make another time.
Aloha means "hello" and "goodbye". Mahalo (pronouced ma-haw-low) means "thank you." Keike (pronounced kay-key) means "child." In hawaii, they don't refer to a deck as a "deck." It's called a lanai (pronounced lan-eye.) We have pretty quickly adapted to calling a deck a lanai. We sit on the lanai and have dinner every night. It's great! It's cooler out there than in the house and we have a pretty good view of the ocean too! Most houses over here have a living space underneath or sometimes behind the main part of the house. In Wisconsin we might call that an apartment or a basement. In Hawaii, they call in an ohana (pronounced pretty much like it looks, o-ha-na.) Appetizers are called pu-pu's (pronounced poo-poo). I'm not sure if I spelled that one right.
That's all for today. I know a few more, but I don't know how to spell most of them. I'll write more when I have my book with me.
Not much new to report on. I got a massage from Sandy yesterday. It was great! I also found a chiropractor. In talking with him, I learned that he is into canoeing. He is interested in getting together with AJ sometime to paddle. AJ was just talking about getting wanting to get back into canoeing (sorry if I keep spelling that word wrong. It's a strange one!) so it's cool that I met someone interested in canoeing too! He is doing good. Work has been good too. He is adjusting to his role as foreman pretty well. We are all looking forward to working at the Ironman tomorrow. I probably won't write since the road to this internet cafe will be closed for the race. I'll try to get her on Sunday, otherwise it will be on Monday. So until next time...aloha!
Aloha means "hello" and "goodbye". Mahalo (pronouced ma-haw-low) means "thank you." Keike (pronounced kay-key) means "child." In hawaii, they don't refer to a deck as a "deck." It's called a lanai (pronounced lan-eye.) We have pretty quickly adapted to calling a deck a lanai. We sit on the lanai and have dinner every night. It's great! It's cooler out there than in the house and we have a pretty good view of the ocean too! Most houses over here have a living space underneath or sometimes behind the main part of the house. In Wisconsin we might call that an apartment or a basement. In Hawaii, they call in an ohana (pronounced pretty much like it looks, o-ha-na.) Appetizers are called pu-pu's (pronounced poo-poo). I'm not sure if I spelled that one right.
That's all for today. I know a few more, but I don't know how to spell most of them. I'll write more when I have my book with me.
Not much new to report on. I got a massage from Sandy yesterday. It was great! I also found a chiropractor. In talking with him, I learned that he is into canoeing. He is interested in getting together with AJ sometime to paddle. AJ was just talking about getting wanting to get back into canoeing (sorry if I keep spelling that word wrong. It's a strange one!) so it's cool that I met someone interested in canoeing too! He is doing good. Work has been good too. He is adjusting to his role as foreman pretty well. We are all looking forward to working at the Ironman tomorrow. I probably won't write since the road to this internet cafe will be closed for the race. I'll try to get her on Sunday, otherwise it will be on Monday. So until next time...aloha!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
This-n-That
Well, yesterday I accomplished quite a bit. I finally finished emptying boxes in our bedroom and bathroom. I can actually see the floor in the bedroom! Woo-hoo!! I think I finally have the kitchen set up like I want it. I still have cupboard space left, but I have vowed that I will NOT fill it up!! We do not need as much stuff as we had at our old house. I'm trying really hard to just have the basis with no extras. It's becoming more appearant to me that all the "stuff" we have is really not that important...my relationships with the Lord and my family and friends are FAR more important!! Afterall, we can't take it with us, right? I already have things in mind that I should sell at a garage sale. Sad, I know. It was hard to know exactly what we would want or need when we were packing. Now that we are here, I realize that there are things that are not as important to me as I thought they were. But I guess that's one of many things that I will learn on this adventure! I'm ready to learn more Lord! Bring it on!
Jenna reminded me that I forgot to mention one more thing for her. We had a green gecko in the house the other day. This WILL happen when you are here, but don't worry they don't get too close to you. They are generally afraid of you and run if you get close. Actually, they are usually high up on the wall or ceiling. Anyway, this particular gecko chose to come close to the ground and Jenna started chasing it, trying catch it. She almost did! She caught it by it's tail and the tail came off! This is normal and is a defense mechanism for geckos. If they are being chased by a predator, they will loose their tail and the tail keeps wiggling. This supposedly makes the predator go after the tail while the gecko gets away. Of course, our soft hearted little Jenna felt terrible! But when I explained to her that she didn't hurt the gecko, she was OK. We have seen the gecko around outside since then and the tail is starting to grow back. Jenna refers to him as the "tail-less gecko." I hope we get to see him around until the entire tail grows back!
I have another Jenna-ism I need to share with you. She is such a hoot. Sometimes she really cracks me up!! Since the election is getting close, the supporters of all the candidates are standing along side the road again waving at everyone as they drive by. This drives Jenna crazy! She calls them the "annoyings." The other day when we were driving to school, she suddenly goes, "OOOH NO!!" I was like, What's wrong?! She said "The annoyings are back!" I just starting laughing! I don't know where she comes up with these things!! You know, she's only 7, but she knows a lot about the election. Well, at least more than I would think a 7 year old would know. She knows who the presidential candidates are and she knows that no matter what the outcome is, this will be an historic election for our country. I'm sure I didn't pay any attention to any of that when I was 7!!
Well, I think that's all for today. I hope that everthing is going great for you. I miss you and I miss this time of year in Wisconsin. Fall is my favorite time of year. Please run through the leaves for me and Jenna. Make sure you find some really dry, noisy ones. Those are the best, and mine and Jenna's favorites!
Well, OK! One more thing! I'm sitting at this outdoor internet cafe and I usually have a gecko that crawls around the table and down the umbrella post. Once in a while he looks at me over the top of the laptop. I took a few pictures with my cell phone, so if I can figure out to get them onto my computer, I will post a few on my blog. Today, he was sitting on the umbrerlla post and a tiny little bug, like a gnat, sat on the post too. Well, that bug ended up being breakfast for the gecko! He just stuck out his little tongue really fast and "zap!" the little bug was gone! Pretty cool to see actually. This gecko is very friendly...he is hanging around a lot longer today than normal. When you come and visit, I will bring you here and hopefully you can meet him. I'll have to bring Jenna down to see him and she can name him. She'd probably like that. OK. I'm done this time, so until next time...aloha!
Jenna reminded me that I forgot to mention one more thing for her. We had a green gecko in the house the other day. This WILL happen when you are here, but don't worry they don't get too close to you. They are generally afraid of you and run if you get close. Actually, they are usually high up on the wall or ceiling. Anyway, this particular gecko chose to come close to the ground and Jenna started chasing it, trying catch it. She almost did! She caught it by it's tail and the tail came off! This is normal and is a defense mechanism for geckos. If they are being chased by a predator, they will loose their tail and the tail keeps wiggling. This supposedly makes the predator go after the tail while the gecko gets away. Of course, our soft hearted little Jenna felt terrible! But when I explained to her that she didn't hurt the gecko, she was OK. We have seen the gecko around outside since then and the tail is starting to grow back. Jenna refers to him as the "tail-less gecko." I hope we get to see him around until the entire tail grows back!
I have another Jenna-ism I need to share with you. She is such a hoot. Sometimes she really cracks me up!! Since the election is getting close, the supporters of all the candidates are standing along side the road again waving at everyone as they drive by. This drives Jenna crazy! She calls them the "annoyings." The other day when we were driving to school, she suddenly goes, "OOOH NO!!" I was like, What's wrong?! She said "The annoyings are back!" I just starting laughing! I don't know where she comes up with these things!! You know, she's only 7, but she knows a lot about the election. Well, at least more than I would think a 7 year old would know. She knows who the presidential candidates are and she knows that no matter what the outcome is, this will be an historic election for our country. I'm sure I didn't pay any attention to any of that when I was 7!!
Well, I think that's all for today. I hope that everthing is going great for you. I miss you and I miss this time of year in Wisconsin. Fall is my favorite time of year. Please run through the leaves for me and Jenna. Make sure you find some really dry, noisy ones. Those are the best, and mine and Jenna's favorites!
Well, OK! One more thing! I'm sitting at this outdoor internet cafe and I usually have a gecko that crawls around the table and down the umbrella post. Once in a while he looks at me over the top of the laptop. I took a few pictures with my cell phone, so if I can figure out to get them onto my computer, I will post a few on my blog. Today, he was sitting on the umbrerlla post and a tiny little bug, like a gnat, sat on the post too. Well, that bug ended up being breakfast for the gecko! He just stuck out his little tongue really fast and "zap!" the little bug was gone! Pretty cool to see actually. This gecko is very friendly...he is hanging around a lot longer today than normal. When you come and visit, I will bring you here and hopefully you can meet him. I'll have to bring Jenna down to see him and she can name him. She'd probably like that. OK. I'm done this time, so until next time...aloha!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Jenna's turn
Hello! I'm sorry again that it has been a few days since I've written. It's so hard to not have the internet available whenever I want! It is sometimes a challenge to get to the internet cafe to write something. I called again yesterday about having them come sooner to get everything hooked up, but unfortunately they can't. How did we ever survive before the internet??!?!
I guess not having TV or internet is not all bad...I have been "fortunate" enough to miss out on the Packers getting beat. We get the newspaper occasionally, but for some reason, they don't talk much about the Packers! Hard to believe, I know!! Oh well, the season is young. You never know what might happen.
Jenna has been asking me to write about a few things for her, so I hope I remember everything. When we were still staying at Gus and Sandy's house, we saw a preying mantis on the steps one day. It was pretty cool to see. Jenna said that it looked like it was praying and that's why they call it a "praying" mantis! I thought that was pretty cute. That same day when we were driving to school, we had a gecko on the windshield of my car. It ran to the top of the car, so I don't know what happened to it, but we had a lot of fun pretending to be the gecko...saying what we thought if would say, telling it to hang on, etc...
At our house we have porch covered with a tarp like material that sometimes catches rain. The birds like to walk on this tarp and take a "bath" in the pools of water that collect on it. It's pretty funny to watch the birds walk on it and flap their wings and flutter about in the water. All you can see when they walk is their feet...it's like a perfect impression of a bird footprint above you. They fan our their tails and flap them into the water. It's hard to explain, but when you come to visit, we'll show you!
We also saw a cat walking around in the neighbor's yard. The next time we looked, which was only a minute or less, the cat was on top of the house, walking along the very top of the house! Jenna thought that was so cool! We haven't seen it do that since.
This Saturday is the Ironman Triathlon. AJ, Jenna and I are volunteering at one of the aide stations to hand out water and food. I am really looking forward to it! I think it will be really cool to see all of the athletes and everything that happens at a competition like this. I'll keep you posted. Well, that all for today. I have to go get Jenna from school. By the way, she still loves school and is doing great! She said her favorite thing about school is that she gets to pray during the day! How cool is that?! It doesn't get any better than that! Praise God!! Until next time...aloha!
I guess not having TV or internet is not all bad...I have been "fortunate" enough to miss out on the Packers getting beat. We get the newspaper occasionally, but for some reason, they don't talk much about the Packers! Hard to believe, I know!! Oh well, the season is young. You never know what might happen.
Jenna has been asking me to write about a few things for her, so I hope I remember everything. When we were still staying at Gus and Sandy's house, we saw a preying mantis on the steps one day. It was pretty cool to see. Jenna said that it looked like it was praying and that's why they call it a "praying" mantis! I thought that was pretty cute. That same day when we were driving to school, we had a gecko on the windshield of my car. It ran to the top of the car, so I don't know what happened to it, but we had a lot of fun pretending to be the gecko...saying what we thought if would say, telling it to hang on, etc...
At our house we have porch covered with a tarp like material that sometimes catches rain. The birds like to walk on this tarp and take a "bath" in the pools of water that collect on it. It's pretty funny to watch the birds walk on it and flap their wings and flutter about in the water. All you can see when they walk is their feet...it's like a perfect impression of a bird footprint above you. They fan our their tails and flap them into the water. It's hard to explain, but when you come to visit, we'll show you!
We also saw a cat walking around in the neighbor's yard. The next time we looked, which was only a minute or less, the cat was on top of the house, walking along the very top of the house! Jenna thought that was so cool! We haven't seen it do that since.
This Saturday is the Ironman Triathlon. AJ, Jenna and I are volunteering at one of the aide stations to hand out water and food. I am really looking forward to it! I think it will be really cool to see all of the athletes and everything that happens at a competition like this. I'll keep you posted. Well, that all for today. I have to go get Jenna from school. By the way, she still loves school and is doing great! She said her favorite thing about school is that she gets to pray during the day! How cool is that?! It doesn't get any better than that! Praise God!! Until next time...aloha!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Past few days
Hello! I finally have a few minutes to sit down and write something! We moved into our house on Wednesday, Oct. 1. I moved everything from Gus and Sandy house while AJ was at work. I was driving AJ's truck and I had it packed full to the top! He got this soft cover, like a topper, with his truck and I had stuff piled to the top of that. His truck has an extended cab and I had that full and the passengers seat full! I'm not sure how we accumulated so much in three weeks, but somehow we did! Most of it was suitcases. I also had 4 patio chairs in the truck Sandy and I had to work pretty hard to get them in, but we did it! I met with the realtor in the afternoon to go over the final paperwork and we were offically in the house! We were so excited! I emptied the truck so Jenna would have a place to sit when I picked her up from school. Then she and I went to Walmart to pick up a few things. When AJ got off work, he meet me at the house to unload the mattress. 4 guys from our church came over and AJ and they went and picked up the furniture from the people we bought everthing from. When they got back there were 2 people from AJs work that helped unload it all and carry it into the house. We had it all done in less than 2 hours. It was great! We worked those guys pretty hard. The only way to get into our house is to go up a long flight of stairs. So everything they carried, they had to go up the stairs. I felt bad for them, but I fed them pizza, pop and water. Hopefully that made up for something!
The day before we moved, I called and had the electricity and water switched to our name. I also tried to have the cable and internet set up. Things work pretty slow over here, but I didn't realize just HOW slow it is! The cable comapny can't send someone over to hook up the cable and internet until Oct 24!! I couldn't believe it! If I had known that I would have called 3 weeks ago! So, I may only be writing about everyother day. I will try to do it more often, but I'll see how it goes. Things should settle down now that we are mostly moved it to the house.
This morning I went to garage sales to see if I could find Jenna a dresser and a few other household items. I wanted to get things like an iron, vaccum cleaner and lamps without having to buy all new. I did quite well! I found a lot of stuff at the first place I went and things were being sold pretty cheap. I even bought a coffee maker for when we have visitors. AJ and I don't drink coffee, but we wanted to have some available for those of you who do. I'm told the pure Kona coffee is good, but pretty strong. The guy that helps Gus with his coffee grove gave us some, so it's ready and waiting for you to come and visit! I have to tell you about my crazy morning. I had been our garage-saleing (sp?) since about 6:45am. I was trying to find a dresser for Jenna so I kept stopping at everyone I came to. I started about 45 minutes away from our house and ended up about 10 minutes from our house (Thank God!) At the last house that I stopped at I found a 2 lamps, one for Jenna's room and one for the guest room. I'm not sure what I did, but when I was putting them into the trunk somehow I dropped my keys into the trunk without realizing it and, yes, you guessed it! I shut the door and locked my keys in the trunk! I thought that I had unlocked the car so I was going to pop the trunk from inside the car, but no, that was locked too! So I had to call AJ to come and get me. I just had a spare key made, but with the move from Gus's, I had no idea where it was. So after AJ picked me up we went home so I could look for the key. Fortunately, I found it quickly, so back we went to get my car. But, the key would only open the door of the car and not the trunk. The lever to open the trunk would not work either! I couldn't believe it! So I called a lock smith, but he wasn't going to be available until 5pm. It was about noon at this time. He suggested that I go to the Toyota dealer have have a master key made. The other key that I had was appearently just a vallet key, so it will only open the doors. Anyway, he made me a key, but said that it looked like it was the same one that I had and he wasn't sure that it would work. We thought we would try it, but figured we would probably have to call a lock smith to open it. We tried the day and it wouldn't open the trunk either, but it did make a sound like it was turning something inside. We tried the latch inside the car and it worked! Yippee!! I was so happy! This whole process took about 2 hours!! Not exactly how I planned for my day to turn out, but oh well. It worked out in the end. I took a chance and stopped at one more sale on my way home and I found a dresser for Jenna! I didn't lock the door this time! :)
Well, I have more that I could say, but it's getting pretty long and I have been gone from the house for a while, so until next time...aloha!
The day before we moved, I called and had the electricity and water switched to our name. I also tried to have the cable and internet set up. Things work pretty slow over here, but I didn't realize just HOW slow it is! The cable comapny can't send someone over to hook up the cable and internet until Oct 24!! I couldn't believe it! If I had known that I would have called 3 weeks ago! So, I may only be writing about everyother day. I will try to do it more often, but I'll see how it goes. Things should settle down now that we are mostly moved it to the house.
This morning I went to garage sales to see if I could find Jenna a dresser and a few other household items. I wanted to get things like an iron, vaccum cleaner and lamps without having to buy all new. I did quite well! I found a lot of stuff at the first place I went and things were being sold pretty cheap. I even bought a coffee maker for when we have visitors. AJ and I don't drink coffee, but we wanted to have some available for those of you who do. I'm told the pure Kona coffee is good, but pretty strong. The guy that helps Gus with his coffee grove gave us some, so it's ready and waiting for you to come and visit! I have to tell you about my crazy morning. I had been our garage-saleing (sp?) since about 6:45am. I was trying to find a dresser for Jenna so I kept stopping at everyone I came to. I started about 45 minutes away from our house and ended up about 10 minutes from our house (Thank God!) At the last house that I stopped at I found a 2 lamps, one for Jenna's room and one for the guest room. I'm not sure what I did, but when I was putting them into the trunk somehow I dropped my keys into the trunk without realizing it and, yes, you guessed it! I shut the door and locked my keys in the trunk! I thought that I had unlocked the car so I was going to pop the trunk from inside the car, but no, that was locked too! So I had to call AJ to come and get me. I just had a spare key made, but with the move from Gus's, I had no idea where it was. So after AJ picked me up we went home so I could look for the key. Fortunately, I found it quickly, so back we went to get my car. But, the key would only open the door of the car and not the trunk. The lever to open the trunk would not work either! I couldn't believe it! So I called a lock smith, but he wasn't going to be available until 5pm. It was about noon at this time. He suggested that I go to the Toyota dealer have have a master key made. The other key that I had was appearently just a vallet key, so it will only open the doors. Anyway, he made me a key, but said that it looked like it was the same one that I had and he wasn't sure that it would work. We thought we would try it, but figured we would probably have to call a lock smith to open it. We tried the day and it wouldn't open the trunk either, but it did make a sound like it was turning something inside. We tried the latch inside the car and it worked! Yippee!! I was so happy! This whole process took about 2 hours!! Not exactly how I planned for my day to turn out, but oh well. It worked out in the end. I took a chance and stopped at one more sale on my way home and I found a dresser for Jenna! I didn't lock the door this time! :)
Well, I have more that I could say, but it's getting pretty long and I have been gone from the house for a while, so until next time...aloha!
Friday, October 3, 2008
Technical Difficulties
OK, I know that it has again been too many days since I've written anything significant, but I don't have access to the internet at our house yet. I'm short on time today, so I can't write too much. I'm planning to spend some time at the internet cafe tomorrow, so I PROMISE that I will write more! But I cannot be responsible for people falling asleep because I write a book and bore people to death! :) Until next time...aloha!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Short note
Short note today. Out shipment finally arrived!! We are so excited! We plan to move into the house tomorrow afternoon and evening. I'll write more either tomorrow if I have time or on Thursday. Too tired tonight. Until next time...aloha!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Weekend activities
Well, this proved to be a very successful weekend. On Saturday we went to this couple's house where I found the bedroom set and I showed AJ the rest of their furniture. We decided to buy pretty much everything they had! We bought their oak dining room set, which has a table with 2 leaves, 6 chairs and a hutch. It's very beautiful! We also got the couch that I talked about in the last post, and the entertainment center and TV. It felt kind of strange to be buying so many things at one time! But we think that we got a good deal on everything. I'm excited to get it all set up in the house. We are planning to move things Wednesday evening. I meet with the realtor on Wednesday afternoon to do the walk through. Then we will have the keys and officially have a home of our own! YEAH!! Don't get me wrong. Gus and Sandy have been terrific! But it will just be nice to have our own space and get things organized instead of the way we are currently living. Just a few more days...
Today was a pretty quiet day. We were able to see most the Packer game before we left for church. Unfortunately, they couldn't pull off the win. Oh well, there's always next time. The one bright spot of the day was that the Cowboys lost! And the Bears tried really hard to lose, but unfortunately they have a lot of luck or something. Again, there's always next ttime! We were done watching football by early evening. It's kind of nice to have the games done and still have time left in the day.
Jenna helped pick coffee yesterday. She thought that was pretty cool. AJ straped a little bucket to her waist and she went off picking like crazy! Today she helped AJ and Gus wash their work trucks. She was in her swimming suit and was in charge of the hose. As you can imagine, she was soaking wet and she loved every minute of it! Then she got to sit in the hot tub. She has it made here! She will probably really miss it when we move into our own place. We can always visit I guess. Well, that's all for now, so until next time...aloha!
Today was a pretty quiet day. We were able to see most the Packer game before we left for church. Unfortunately, they couldn't pull off the win. Oh well, there's always next time. The one bright spot of the day was that the Cowboys lost! And the Bears tried really hard to lose, but unfortunately they have a lot of luck or something. Again, there's always next ttime! We were done watching football by early evening. It's kind of nice to have the games done and still have time left in the day.
Jenna helped pick coffee yesterday. She thought that was pretty cool. AJ straped a little bucket to her waist and she went off picking like crazy! Today she helped AJ and Gus wash their work trucks. She was in her swimming suit and was in charge of the hose. As you can imagine, she was soaking wet and she loved every minute of it! Then she got to sit in the hot tub. She has it made here! She will probably really miss it when we move into our own place. We can always visit I guess. Well, that's all for now, so until next time...aloha!
Friday, September 26, 2008
I'm back!
Yes, I realize that I have been MIA for a few days. I'm back and ready to give you the latest news! Some days have not been too exciting so I didn't have much to write. Who wants to hear about me paying bills, shopping at Walmart (Sorry, S. S. Not a lot of choices!) or cleaning?? Sounds pretty boring to me! Gus and Sandy came home last night, so we were up late visiting with them. It was great to see them! I spent most of the day yesterday cleaning. OK, I know I just said I wasn't going to tell you about me cleaning, but I did MAJOR cleaning yesterday! We had our stuff EVERYWHERE!! We have been living out of suitcases and we had food piled on counters and papers piled on the tables and the counters. We had totally taken over Gus and Sandy's house and I wanted it to look like we were never there. I cleaned just about everything in every room. Jenna and AJ thought it looked good, so I guess I did OK. Thanks Mom, for the lessons! :) We moved all of our stuff to the bedroom in their lower level. Now I REALLY can't find anything! Oh well, just a few more days. We get to move into the house on Wednesday. Hopefully we will have things set up enough to sleep there.
In addition to cleaning, I did some furniture shopping yesterday too. I have been checking Craig's List - there are a lot of things posted on Craig's List! I even found job postings. Yeah, I know...Duh Lynn! Those of you familiar with Craig's List probably think I'm an idiot, but I've never really had a need to check it out before. Anyway, I found a lot of really great furniture. After I picked Jenna up from school, we stopped at this house to look at a bedroom set. It was beautiful! It's made of mahagony and bamboo. The couple is moving to Arizona and it just doesnt fit in with the decor there. But, it's perfect for the tropics! It's a 5 piece set and it will fit nicely in our bedroom. The bed is a queen and it comes with the mattress, box spring and comforter and pillows. It was priced better than anything else that we have looked at, and it was much better quality. While I was there, I looked at a dining room set made of solid oak. We could probably get by without a dining room set since we have the patio furniture, but they have it so reasonably priced that we decided to get that too. They also have this really cool couch. I'm not sure what you call it, but it's like a sectional, except that it comes apart and you can have a couch and 2 chairs if you want or you can have one big piece. It also has compartments in it that can go in between the sections. It's hard to explain, but it's pretty cool. We're thinking about getting that too. A lot, I know! But our whole house could be furnished from this one place! It will save a lot of time looking and we don't have to get up early tomorrow to try and beat the crowds! I think the people would sell us the house if we wanted to buy it! Sorry, not yet! So now we just need to line up help to move everything to our house...hopefully on Wednesday evening! I'm so anxious to get moved in! I can't wait to get everything organized. It's getting a little old living out of a suitcase. When we moved our stuff out of the upstairs of Gus and Sandy's house, we didn't have a lot of boxes so a lot of stuff is in plastic grocery bags. It's not fun at all trying to find things!!
I'm sitting at an outdoor internet cafe right now, and I have to tell you about the scenery! First of all there are pigeons everywhere. They don't bother you, they just walk around looking for food. There are also a few chickens and roosters walking around. There are vendors here with their stands of whatever they are selling. A lot of them bring their dogs with them. Most of them are on leashes, but there are a few that are running loose. This one dog that just runs crazy when he gets here (I've been here before and have seen him do it) starting chasing the roosters! The poor thing was running as fast as it could and was flapping it's wings trying to get away. The dog chased it all the way across the yard until the rooster ran under a table. It was pretty funny to watch! I wonder how many roosters the dog gets in a year?? Appearently not very many since there are chickens and roosters everywhere! Jenna was telling me the other day that there are chickens on the playground at school everyday! I just about hit a turkey with my car yesterday on my way to school. I told Jenna I would have cooked it up for supper if I would have hit it! She liked that idea! I didn't!
Well, I'm really long winded today! I've either bored you to sleep or have gotten you up to date. Either way, that's all for now. So until next time...aloha!
In addition to cleaning, I did some furniture shopping yesterday too. I have been checking Craig's List - there are a lot of things posted on Craig's List! I even found job postings. Yeah, I know...Duh Lynn! Those of you familiar with Craig's List probably think I'm an idiot, but I've never really had a need to check it out before. Anyway, I found a lot of really great furniture. After I picked Jenna up from school, we stopped at this house to look at a bedroom set. It was beautiful! It's made of mahagony and bamboo. The couple is moving to Arizona and it just doesnt fit in with the decor there. But, it's perfect for the tropics! It's a 5 piece set and it will fit nicely in our bedroom. The bed is a queen and it comes with the mattress, box spring and comforter and pillows. It was priced better than anything else that we have looked at, and it was much better quality. While I was there, I looked at a dining room set made of solid oak. We could probably get by without a dining room set since we have the patio furniture, but they have it so reasonably priced that we decided to get that too. They also have this really cool couch. I'm not sure what you call it, but it's like a sectional, except that it comes apart and you can have a couch and 2 chairs if you want or you can have one big piece. It also has compartments in it that can go in between the sections. It's hard to explain, but it's pretty cool. We're thinking about getting that too. A lot, I know! But our whole house could be furnished from this one place! It will save a lot of time looking and we don't have to get up early tomorrow to try and beat the crowds! I think the people would sell us the house if we wanted to buy it! Sorry, not yet! So now we just need to line up help to move everything to our house...hopefully on Wednesday evening! I'm so anxious to get moved in! I can't wait to get everything organized. It's getting a little old living out of a suitcase. When we moved our stuff out of the upstairs of Gus and Sandy's house, we didn't have a lot of boxes so a lot of stuff is in plastic grocery bags. It's not fun at all trying to find things!!
I'm sitting at an outdoor internet cafe right now, and I have to tell you about the scenery! First of all there are pigeons everywhere. They don't bother you, they just walk around looking for food. There are also a few chickens and roosters walking around. There are vendors here with their stands of whatever they are selling. A lot of them bring their dogs with them. Most of them are on leashes, but there are a few that are running loose. This one dog that just runs crazy when he gets here (I've been here before and have seen him do it) starting chasing the roosters! The poor thing was running as fast as it could and was flapping it's wings trying to get away. The dog chased it all the way across the yard until the rooster ran under a table. It was pretty funny to watch! I wonder how many roosters the dog gets in a year?? Appearently not very many since there are chickens and roosters everywhere! Jenna was telling me the other day that there are chickens on the playground at school everyday! I just about hit a turkey with my car yesterday on my way to school. I told Jenna I would have cooked it up for supper if I would have hit it! She liked that idea! I didn't!
Well, I'm really long winded today! I've either bored you to sleep or have gotten you up to date. Either way, that's all for now. So until next time...aloha!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Monday and Tuesday
Well, you know that you are out of shape when you only walk 2 days and you're stiff when you get up after being in the car for half an hour. Pathetic! I haven't even tried to run yet! Just walking up and down these hills is tiring! I don't know how those athletes can do the triathlon! They are truly amazing...obviously a gift from God! I called about being a volunteer for the Ironman and was told to sign up online. I did, but I haven't heard anything from them yet.
The last couple of days haven't been too exciting. I've spent some time researching car and renters insurance. AJ is looking at buying a truck, so we've looked at a few of them. His boss will be back from vacation this week, so we will need to give the truck back. We've found a couple that he likes, so hopefully we will have something by the end of the week.
Today AJ went to Hilo, a city on the other side of the island. He had a meeting for work. Within the past 6 months or so, beekeepers have discovered mites on the bees in Honolulu (on a different island). Recently, mites were found in bee hives in Hilo. This is a big deal because before this, there have never been mites in Hawaii. Mites are a parasite-type pest that can get on the bee. It feeds on the bee and eventually it can cause the bee to die. There are treatments available to kill the mites, but the people in Hawaii are not real familar with this because they haven't had to use it before. I may not have my information exactly correct on the mites, but AJ is in bed so I can't ask him. I'll let you know if I need to correct anything. Anyway, part of the reason he was hired over here is because of his experience with working with mites. He mostly listened to what people had to say at this meeting but he also offered his opinion. I think that he will become more involved with the treatment and control of the mites if it becomes a problem on the Big Island. I think that's pretty cool! In my very biased opinion, I think he is the perfect man for the job!! :)
Ok everybody...I need your help!! I spent a little time online today looking for a webcam. I didn't realize how MANY there are to choose from!! Is anyone familar with webcams? What is a good brand? How many megapixels should I get? What specs should I be looking for? I really have no idea what I'm looking for, so if anyone has any ideas, I would be open to them! Thanks! I look forward to your opinions. Until next time...aloha!
The last couple of days haven't been too exciting. I've spent some time researching car and renters insurance. AJ is looking at buying a truck, so we've looked at a few of them. His boss will be back from vacation this week, so we will need to give the truck back. We've found a couple that he likes, so hopefully we will have something by the end of the week.
Today AJ went to Hilo, a city on the other side of the island. He had a meeting for work. Within the past 6 months or so, beekeepers have discovered mites on the bees in Honolulu (on a different island). Recently, mites were found in bee hives in Hilo. This is a big deal because before this, there have never been mites in Hawaii. Mites are a parasite-type pest that can get on the bee. It feeds on the bee and eventually it can cause the bee to die. There are treatments available to kill the mites, but the people in Hawaii are not real familar with this because they haven't had to use it before. I may not have my information exactly correct on the mites, but AJ is in bed so I can't ask him. I'll let you know if I need to correct anything. Anyway, part of the reason he was hired over here is because of his experience with working with mites. He mostly listened to what people had to say at this meeting but he also offered his opinion. I think that he will become more involved with the treatment and control of the mites if it becomes a problem on the Big Island. I think that's pretty cool! In my very biased opinion, I think he is the perfect man for the job!! :)
Ok everybody...I need your help!! I spent a little time online today looking for a webcam. I didn't realize how MANY there are to choose from!! Is anyone familar with webcams? What is a good brand? How many megapixels should I get? What specs should I be looking for? I really have no idea what I'm looking for, so if anyone has any ideas, I would be open to them! Thanks! I look forward to your opinions. Until next time...aloha!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
This Weekend
This weekend we got a little more accomplished. We went to a few sales on Saturday morning. We bought a patio set. It was in great condition and it was very reasonable. We thought we got an early start, but we learned that if we want to get a chance at any big furniture, like living room or bedroom furniture, we need to be arriving at 6:30 or 7am or else everything will be gone. So we will try again next week. We went to a fruniture store and found a bedroom set that we liked. We put a down payment on it that we can get back if we want to. We want to look at more sales before we buy anything new. So, hopefully we will find something next weekend.
This afternoon we went to a beach. I can't remember the name; it was the first time that we had been to this beach. Jenna and I called it "the airplane beach" because it was just north of the airport and we had airplanes flying above us the whole time we were there. It was actually pretty cool to see. Because the planes were getting ready to land, they were really close to the ground. I saw one plane that said "Hawaiian Airlines" on the side of it. It had a light burned out on the wing! The beach was nice. It had a really long beach of pretty nice sand; not as nice as some other beaches I've seen, but OK. It was windy today, so the water was kind of rough. We weren't able to go snorkeling, but Jenna and AJ built a sand castle. It started to rain about mid-afternoon, so we had to leave. Jenna was pretty disappointed about that. Hopefully we can try another beach next weekend and hopefully we can stay longer. The beach is about 1.5 miles off of the road (actually 1.6 to be exact. AJ checked it). The road is not paved and it is VERY, VERY, VERY rough!!! We had a truck with 4-wheel drive, thank goodness or I'm not sure we would have made parts of it. It took us 15 minutes to drive the 1.6 miles to the beach! I told AJ I would give the beach one more chance, but I'm not sure the drive is worth it! It's a quiet beach, so that is one advantage! There aren't too many people willing to drive their vehicles on the road. We did see a few tourists on the road though...hopefully they don't hurt their rental cars too much!
Well, tomorrow Jenna begins her second week of school. I'm so grateful that she likes it! Today at church she saw one of her classmates. They were both pretty excited to see each other. Her name is Angelic. Jenna said that Angelic was the first new friend she made in Hawaii. Before we moved Jenna said to AJ and me, "I wonder who my first new friend in Hawaii will be?" Now we know! What a blessing!!
Well, I'm going to go to bed. I'm going to get up early and walk in the morning. I haven't done any form of exercise since I finished the triathlon at the end of July. (Well OK, I guess I have run once since then!) I'm feeling really out of shape and I don't think that I could run right now. I need to get back into exercise mode again. As you know, Hawaii is basically a mountain...an island still being formed by the volcano. Because of this, the roads are either UP or DOWN. There are very few, if any, flat roads! I'm not kidding. It's tough to walk, much less run on these roads! When we move into our house, there will be a road by the ocean that is relatively flat. A lot of runners and bikers use this road and I plan to join them as soon as I can run a little way without dying!
The world championship for the Ironman Triathlon is held in Hawaii in October. I'm thinking about doing it! No, I'm kidding of course!! I am thinking about volunteering to help in some way. I'm calling tomorrow to see where I might be needed. I'll give you the scoop later. Right now, I'm going to bed, so until next time...aloha!
This afternoon we went to a beach. I can't remember the name; it was the first time that we had been to this beach. Jenna and I called it "the airplane beach" because it was just north of the airport and we had airplanes flying above us the whole time we were there. It was actually pretty cool to see. Because the planes were getting ready to land, they were really close to the ground. I saw one plane that said "Hawaiian Airlines" on the side of it. It had a light burned out on the wing! The beach was nice. It had a really long beach of pretty nice sand; not as nice as some other beaches I've seen, but OK. It was windy today, so the water was kind of rough. We weren't able to go snorkeling, but Jenna and AJ built a sand castle. It started to rain about mid-afternoon, so we had to leave. Jenna was pretty disappointed about that. Hopefully we can try another beach next weekend and hopefully we can stay longer. The beach is about 1.5 miles off of the road (actually 1.6 to be exact. AJ checked it). The road is not paved and it is VERY, VERY, VERY rough!!! We had a truck with 4-wheel drive, thank goodness or I'm not sure we would have made parts of it. It took us 15 minutes to drive the 1.6 miles to the beach! I told AJ I would give the beach one more chance, but I'm not sure the drive is worth it! It's a quiet beach, so that is one advantage! There aren't too many people willing to drive their vehicles on the road. We did see a few tourists on the road though...hopefully they don't hurt their rental cars too much!
Well, tomorrow Jenna begins her second week of school. I'm so grateful that she likes it! Today at church she saw one of her classmates. They were both pretty excited to see each other. Her name is Angelic. Jenna said that Angelic was the first new friend she made in Hawaii. Before we moved Jenna said to AJ and me, "I wonder who my first new friend in Hawaii will be?" Now we know! What a blessing!!
Well, I'm going to go to bed. I'm going to get up early and walk in the morning. I haven't done any form of exercise since I finished the triathlon at the end of July. (Well OK, I guess I have run once since then!) I'm feeling really out of shape and I don't think that I could run right now. I need to get back into exercise mode again. As you know, Hawaii is basically a mountain...an island still being formed by the volcano. Because of this, the roads are either UP or DOWN. There are very few, if any, flat roads! I'm not kidding. It's tough to walk, much less run on these roads! When we move into our house, there will be a road by the ocean that is relatively flat. A lot of runners and bikers use this road and I plan to join them as soon as I can run a little way without dying!
The world championship for the Ironman Triathlon is held in Hawaii in October. I'm thinking about doing it! No, I'm kidding of course!! I am thinking about volunteering to help in some way. I'm calling tomorrow to see where I might be needed. I'll give you the scoop later. Right now, I'm going to bed, so until next time...aloha!
Friday, September 19, 2008
Sales and Huggos
Today I went to garage sales. I found a few things for the kitchen, some TV trays and a bed for Jenna. I thought it was a futon, but it doesn't fold up to a couch, so I'm not sure how the lady could call it a futon, but oh well! I also got sheets for her bed and a lamp. Tomorrow we are getting an early start and hope to find living room furniture and a bed for AJ and I. It's pouring down rain here right now. I hope it's done by morning. It will be no fun looking for stuff in the rain! Tonight we ate dinner in town at a restaurant called Huggos. It was a nice place to eat. We sat outside under huge umbrellas and the "floor" was all sand. There was live entertainment - a guy playing the guitar and singing Hawaiian songs and a Hawaiian lady doing hula dances. It was pretty cool! We decided that this is definately a place that we will take people when they come to visit. Jenna finished her first week of school. She absolutely loves it! We are so happy about that. Her teacher told me that Jenna is fitting in nicely. What an answer to prayer!! Praise God! Well, that's all I know for now, so until next time...aloha!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Politics and Wheel of Fortune
What do politics and the Wheel of Fortune have in common? Well, nothing. But they have both been active on the Big Island. The Wheel of Fortune crew was here this week taping a week's worth of shows that will air in February. I knew they were going to be here and I was hoping to get to a taping, but I forget exactly when they were coming and when I found out, I was too late. I learned that Pat and Vanna and the crew were taping the shows on Monday and Tuesday of this week. They were at a resort just north of Kona. It was the same resort that Gus and Sandy got married at 3 years ago, and AJ, Jenna and I were here for it. It would have been cool to see the show live. Oh well! Maybe next time. As for politics, supporters have an interesting way of campaigning here in Hawaii. In the morning while people are driving to work, supporters of the candidate stand along side of the road with signs and wave at everyone passing by. It's not only in the morning, sometimes they are out there during the day and in the evening too. Jenna says she is tired of seeing those people everyday! Parent's night at her school was cancelled for tonight. One of the teacher's husband is in the hospital in Oahu, so parents night was rescheduled. I'm thinking about going to some sales tomorrow, and we are going on Saturday for sure. Please pray for success! Until next time...aloha!
Not much to report on today. I found a little shop that has gently used furniture, household items, and clothes. There was some really nice stuff there and I found a few things that I liked. The owner gets new things in every week, so I might be checking it out frequently, just to see what's available. I also was able to go to the house to take pictures and measure the rooms. We hope to go shopping for furniture this weekend at some estate sales. I was having a hard time knowing what to get for furniture because I couldn't exactly remember what the rooms looked like. It should be a little easier now. I will email pictures when we get settled into the house. Jenna really likes school, but she is still adjusting. She is very tired after school! Tomorrow night is parent's night. We get to visit the school and see what she has been doing. Of course, we only have this week to look at, but it will be nice to talk to her teacher and meet some of the other parents. Well, I'm ready for bed, so until next time...aloha!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
vog vs. fog
Today I went furniture shopping. Not a very fun job! I don't know my way around very well so I waste a lot of time and gas trying to find things. It's very frustrating!! I don't really know what we want either, so that doesn't make things any easier. We're going to go to some sales this weekend. Hopefully we can find some nice stuff for not a lot of money. That will probably be a challenge! It was hot today...upper 80's. It was a little clearer today than the past few days. It has been really voggy. Vog is kind of like fog in that it makes it look cloudy and visibility is reduced. Vog is the result of gases that are released from the volcano that mix with water vapor and very small particles, primarily sulfur compounds and sulfur dioxide. The sulfur dioxide can be a health concern. It can cause burning of the eyes, coughing, difficulty breathing, and a feeling of chest tightness. I'm not an expert on vog. I just know it's been in the news a lot lately because there have been air quality warnings out. In fact, I'm getting all the info I'm sharing with you from a brochure that AJ picked up at the fair on Saturday. It says that the further away you are from the volcano, the less likely you are to have any problems, (which seems obvious) but the sulfur dioxide can still be in the air. We are pretty far from the volcano where we live. I haven't noticed any problems with any of us. We haven't been down to see the volcano yet. The last time we were here the lava was running on top of the ground (instead of under the ground), so I'm anxious to see what it's doing now! We may wait to see the emissions from the volcano decrease, or I guess we could wear a mask if we felt it was necessary. Well, not much more to say. Jenna had another great day at school! She really likes it and I'm so thankful for that. She gets out early tomorrow. She'll probably want to go to the beach! It's been all of 5 days since we've been there. She is such a deprived child!! Well, until next time...aloha!
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