Well, we made it through a busy, but wonderful weekend! As most of you know, my birthday was Sunday, the 15th, and our anniversary was Monday, the 16th. We started celebrating our anniversary LAST weekend! Jenna was invited to a birthday party, so AJ and I decided to go out for dinner. It was the first time since Valentine’s Day that he and I had gone out to eat by ourselves! We went to this small bar/diner near the ocean. It was very nice and the food was great! Jenna was invited to a birthday party again this past Friday, so we went out for dinner again. It was great! I love it when I don’t have to cook! We went to Ruth’s Chris Steak House, which is similar to Morton’s Steak House, if any of you are familiar with that. It’s a restaurant where you order the entrée, potato, vegetable, etc all separate. It can be quite expensive! When I made the reservation, they asked if it was an anniversary or birthday. I told them it was our anniversary, and then after I hung up, I thought…”Oh I should have told them it was BOTH!” Oh well. They were very attentive to us. Everyone that came to our table asked how “The Howery’s” were doing. We were given glasses of champagne at the beginning of our meal and chocolate covered strawberries at the end of our meal. I also got a rose. I saw someone get a piece of cake, so it must have been his birthday. I doubt they would have given us both!! We did tell them it was my birthday too, but I guess they only let you celebrate one thing at a time! It was a very nice evening. For my birthday, we went to the beach after church. We met some friends of ours and grilled burgers and hot dogs while the kids played in tide pools. It was a very relaxing afternoon. I told Jenna and AJ that all I wanted for my birthday was for them to complete the “job lists” that I gave both of them. They both did pretty good getting everything done. What a great gift! We both worked and I ended up being on call and worked until 7pm on our actual anniversary, so I’m glad that we celebrated the weeks before! We’ve been married 13 years for those of you who can’t remember. It’s gone by fast; it’s been trying at times; but overall, it’s been great!!!
Thank you everyone for all the cards, calls, and emails. You are all so loving! I appreciate everything very much! That’s all for now…until next time…aloha!
Hawaiian Sunset at Hapuna Beach
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Two months gone by...
I can't believe how fast time goes! I thought I better get another note posted before it has officially been two months since I wrote anything! I'm so sorry about my loooonnnnggg absence in writing. Believe me, I have thought about it many times, but thinking about it and actually DOING it are two VERY different things!!
Things have been quite crazy around here! My work schedule has been busier than usual the past 6 weeks. I usually work about 24-30hrs per week--48-60hrs per pay period. I had two pay periods in a row where I worked way over that! One pay period was 83hrs and the next was 93 hrs! I was exhausted, a little cranky and had a hard time finding the time to do anything else! Thankfully things have settled down a bit and the last two weeks have been better. I continue to try and be involved in activities in our church and help in Jenna's classroom once a week. It's challenging when my job consumes so much of my time, but I still try and continue all the other activities too...I guess that could contribute to the exhaustion! :-) Over all things are great and I really do love my job even if it is crazy busy and stressful at times!
AJ is also busy at work. As you may know, the bees here on the Big Island now have mites. It's a little parasite that attaches itself to the bee and weakens it. There have been mites on the Mainland for several years, but this is the first time they have been in Hawaii. It's causing a bit of anxiety for those who have never worked with bees with mites before, but AJ is handling it pretty well. The state of Hawaii has had some researchers from the Mainland over to do testing on hives on the Big Island, so Gus has learned a lot and AJ has been a reassuring voice of experience too. Of course, the mite causes more work, so Kona Queen is preparing for that. AJ and Gus and the other foreman are doing a lot of the leg work, but AJ is not worried. It will cause more work, but it shouldn't cause a decrease in production. AJ also recently bought a one-man outrigger canoe. He has taken it out in the ocean a couple of times. The last time the water was really rough! He said he had 3 foot waves he was trying to go through. He was a little worried that he might end up in Japan, but thankfully he was able to turn the canoe around and make it back safely!!
Miss Jenna continues to love school and is doing very well. We have parent-teacher conferences this week. I expect that she will do fine. I can't believe all that she is learning! She writes in cursive all the time now. She is learning multiplication, division, and just started long division with remainders!! I'm pretty sure I didn't learn all that in 3rd grade! You may have heard about "Furlough Fridays" here in Hawaii. In an effort to decrease the state deficit, the state decided to cut 17 days from the school calender this year. I think it is a terrible idea and a very poorly thought out solution! We're talking about the education of future leaders!! Hawaii is already at the bottom of the ranking for schools meeting educational standards for all the U.S.! Thankfully it only effects the public schools!! Jenna is getting a great education and I'm so thankful that we don't have to worry about missing so much school!
She just finished learning about New Zealand. The school had an event called International Day, where each class studied a country, prepared presentations and transformed their rooms into that country. It was pretty cool to see how each class decorated their rooms! Jenna's class had a volcano, a sheep farm and many other displays about New Zealand in their classroom. Jenna did her presentation on the sheep in New Zealand. She made a really cool display board and did a great job with her presentation to the class. All the kids in her class dressed like the Mowrey people of New Zealand. I've posted a few pictures of her, her presentation and some of her friends.
For Halloween, Jenna dressed up like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. She designed her outfit herself, with the exception of the red slippers that her Mama bought for her. I dressed up as the Scarecrow. We tried talking AJ into being the Tinman, but he didn't want to...it would have been very hot and probably uncomfortable. He took along his nerd glasses and teeth and was going to wear them, but he lost his teeth somewhere along the way! If any of you have seen his teeth, you know he didn't have many teeth to loose, so it was quite disappointing!! We had fun. It's very strange trick-or-treating when it's like summer out. We checked the weather in Darlington and figured it was about 45 degrees warmer here for trick-or-treating than it was there! Sorry, not trying to rub it in...just making an observation!!
Well, I have a lot more that I could say, but it's getting late and I need to get to bed. Just a reminder, the time difference is only 4 hours now, thanks to Daylight Savings Time. We plan to be in Wisconsin over Christmas. We're still working out the details of when and where we will be, but hopefully we will see many of you in about 7 weeks or so! Time flies, so it won't be long! I'll try and write again before then. So until next time...aloha!
Things have been quite crazy around here! My work schedule has been busier than usual the past 6 weeks. I usually work about 24-30hrs per week--48-60hrs per pay period. I had two pay periods in a row where I worked way over that! One pay period was 83hrs and the next was 93 hrs! I was exhausted, a little cranky and had a hard time finding the time to do anything else! Thankfully things have settled down a bit and the last two weeks have been better. I continue to try and be involved in activities in our church and help in Jenna's classroom once a week. It's challenging when my job consumes so much of my time, but I still try and continue all the other activities too...I guess that could contribute to the exhaustion! :-) Over all things are great and I really do love my job even if it is crazy busy and stressful at times!
AJ is also busy at work. As you may know, the bees here on the Big Island now have mites. It's a little parasite that attaches itself to the bee and weakens it. There have been mites on the Mainland for several years, but this is the first time they have been in Hawaii. It's causing a bit of anxiety for those who have never worked with bees with mites before, but AJ is handling it pretty well. The state of Hawaii has had some researchers from the Mainland over to do testing on hives on the Big Island, so Gus has learned a lot and AJ has been a reassuring voice of experience too. Of course, the mite causes more work, so Kona Queen is preparing for that. AJ and Gus and the other foreman are doing a lot of the leg work, but AJ is not worried. It will cause more work, but it shouldn't cause a decrease in production. AJ also recently bought a one-man outrigger canoe. He has taken it out in the ocean a couple of times. The last time the water was really rough! He said he had 3 foot waves he was trying to go through. He was a little worried that he might end up in Japan, but thankfully he was able to turn the canoe around and make it back safely!!
Miss Jenna continues to love school and is doing very well. We have parent-teacher conferences this week. I expect that she will do fine. I can't believe all that she is learning! She writes in cursive all the time now. She is learning multiplication, division, and just started long division with remainders!! I'm pretty sure I didn't learn all that in 3rd grade! You may have heard about "Furlough Fridays" here in Hawaii. In an effort to decrease the state deficit, the state decided to cut 17 days from the school calender this year. I think it is a terrible idea and a very poorly thought out solution! We're talking about the education of future leaders!! Hawaii is already at the bottom of the ranking for schools meeting educational standards for all the U.S.! Thankfully it only effects the public schools!! Jenna is getting a great education and I'm so thankful that we don't have to worry about missing so much school!
She just finished learning about New Zealand. The school had an event called International Day, where each class studied a country, prepared presentations and transformed their rooms into that country. It was pretty cool to see how each class decorated their rooms! Jenna's class had a volcano, a sheep farm and many other displays about New Zealand in their classroom. Jenna did her presentation on the sheep in New Zealand. She made a really cool display board and did a great job with her presentation to the class. All the kids in her class dressed like the Mowrey people of New Zealand. I've posted a few pictures of her, her presentation and some of her friends.
For Halloween, Jenna dressed up like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. She designed her outfit herself, with the exception of the red slippers that her Mama bought for her. I dressed up as the Scarecrow. We tried talking AJ into being the Tinman, but he didn't want to...it would have been very hot and probably uncomfortable. He took along his nerd glasses and teeth and was going to wear them, but he lost his teeth somewhere along the way! If any of you have seen his teeth, you know he didn't have many teeth to loose, so it was quite disappointing!! We had fun. It's very strange trick-or-treating when it's like summer out. We checked the weather in Darlington and figured it was about 45 degrees warmer here for trick-or-treating than it was there! Sorry, not trying to rub it in...just making an observation!!
Well, I have a lot more that I could say, but it's getting late and I need to get to bed. Just a reminder, the time difference is only 4 hours now, thanks to Daylight Savings Time. We plan to be in Wisconsin over Christmas. We're still working out the details of when and where we will be, but hopefully we will see many of you in about 7 weeks or so! Time flies, so it won't be long! I'll try and write again before then. So until next time...aloha!
Friday, September 4, 2009
ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!!
It is with great pleasure that we celebrate ONE YEAR of living in Hawaii!! The time has gone so fast! Sometimes it's hard to believe that we have been here this long already! On the other hand, it feels like we have always lived here. We are so comfortable here and we love it so much! Of course we miss our family and friends, but it amazes me to look back over the last year and a few months and see how the Lord has blessed us! From AJ getting the call to making the decision to emptying the house to packing and flying, it is really very amazing how everything fell into place! And in such a short time!!
We couldn't have done it without the guidance of the Lord and help from our families and friends! WOW! What an amazing adventure it was! AJ and I still working; trying to sort through everything we owned; deciding what to keep, what to sell, what to get rid of, what to take with us. Finding renters (which we scored big on!), deciding to leave the dogs behind (very sad time) DECISIONS! DECISIONS! DECISIONS! We were really sick of making decisions by the time we moved! Then throw in a fabulous trip to Seattle for a wedding (Yeah Karen and Issac!) and another fabulous trip to Disney (despite the hurricaine we endured!) You'd think we'd had enough! But oh no, we, apparently, are gluttons for punishment! We then had a two day garage sale AND THEN a two day party! Again THANK GOD for family and friends!! Those two ventures NEVER would have happened without their help!!
It was so hard to leave the house, the yard and the dogs. (And yes, the people too! I just mean the moment we left the driveway!) To me, it didn't seem real. It just felt like we were going on a vacation and we would be back. It didn't really hit me what had just happened until we landed in Honolulu. I remember that all of the sudden I just started crying. I looked at AJ and said, "What have we done?" I cried and he was so good to me. He assured me that everything would be alright. Of course I knew it would be, but I realized that I hadn't really taken the time to let it really sink in what we were doing. And when it did, WOW did it hit me! I suppose I was probably a LITTLE tired too! That might have had something to do with my emotions! But now, looking back, I can honestly say that is the only time I have questioned our decision to move. Of course I still miss everyone and sometimes I cope best by not thinking about the people and events that I am missing. We are slowly building friendships and memories here, which is the healthiest thing to do in my opinion. I praise God and thank Him for guiding us and paving the way here and making everything fall into place! What a blessing!!
OK. Now that I have babbled on forever, it's time for some thoughts from AJ and Jenna.
Jenna...My favorite thing about living in Hawaii is being able to go to the beach whenever I want (except when her parents say no or she has school...etc.) and making new friends. I also feel weird living on an Island in the middle of nowhere! I like to make sandcastles and tell people all I know about turtles. Turtles can get to be 100 years old. If they have a long tail, they are a male. If they have a short tail they are a female. It's pretty easy after you get to know it! I can also tell their age. And I forgot to mention how much I love to go to Captain Cook Monument and hopefully see Spinner Dolphins on the way! Aloha!! Oh, I forgot...I really miss all of you!!!
AJ...It's hard to believe that the time has gone so fast. It's hard to realize that time is getting away because we don't really experience changes in the seasons. We're happy that we have been able to build a life here with new friends and experiences. It's not that we have forgotten our other friends, it's just that we have made more friends. It's been great!
Each of us still comment that somedays it still hits us that "we LIVE in Hawaii!!" We are not just vacationing...WE ACTUALLY LIVE HERE!!! It's an amazing adventure and a true blessing. Come visit anytime...our doors are always open and you are always welcome! Until next time...aloha!
We couldn't have done it without the guidance of the Lord and help from our families and friends! WOW! What an amazing adventure it was! AJ and I still working; trying to sort through everything we owned; deciding what to keep, what to sell, what to get rid of, what to take with us. Finding renters (which we scored big on!), deciding to leave the dogs behind (very sad time) DECISIONS! DECISIONS! DECISIONS! We were really sick of making decisions by the time we moved! Then throw in a fabulous trip to Seattle for a wedding (Yeah Karen and Issac!) and another fabulous trip to Disney (despite the hurricaine we endured!) You'd think we'd had enough! But oh no, we, apparently, are gluttons for punishment! We then had a two day garage sale AND THEN a two day party! Again THANK GOD for family and friends!! Those two ventures NEVER would have happened without their help!!
It was so hard to leave the house, the yard and the dogs. (And yes, the people too! I just mean the moment we left the driveway!) To me, it didn't seem real. It just felt like we were going on a vacation and we would be back. It didn't really hit me what had just happened until we landed in Honolulu. I remember that all of the sudden I just started crying. I looked at AJ and said, "What have we done?" I cried and he was so good to me. He assured me that everything would be alright. Of course I knew it would be, but I realized that I hadn't really taken the time to let it really sink in what we were doing. And when it did, WOW did it hit me! I suppose I was probably a LITTLE tired too! That might have had something to do with my emotions! But now, looking back, I can honestly say that is the only time I have questioned our decision to move. Of course I still miss everyone and sometimes I cope best by not thinking about the people and events that I am missing. We are slowly building friendships and memories here, which is the healthiest thing to do in my opinion. I praise God and thank Him for guiding us and paving the way here and making everything fall into place! What a blessing!!
OK. Now that I have babbled on forever, it's time for some thoughts from AJ and Jenna.
Jenna...My favorite thing about living in Hawaii is being able to go to the beach whenever I want (except when her parents say no or she has school...etc.) and making new friends. I also feel weird living on an Island in the middle of nowhere! I like to make sandcastles and tell people all I know about turtles. Turtles can get to be 100 years old. If they have a long tail, they are a male. If they have a short tail they are a female. It's pretty easy after you get to know it! I can also tell their age. And I forgot to mention how much I love to go to Captain Cook Monument and hopefully see Spinner Dolphins on the way! Aloha!! Oh, I forgot...I really miss all of you!!!
AJ...It's hard to believe that the time has gone so fast. It's hard to realize that time is getting away because we don't really experience changes in the seasons. We're happy that we have been able to build a life here with new friends and experiences. It's not that we have forgotten our other friends, it's just that we have made more friends. It's been great!
Each of us still comment that somedays it still hits us that "we LIVE in Hawaii!!" We are not just vacationing...WE ACTUALLY LIVE HERE!!! It's an amazing adventure and a true blessing. Come visit anytime...our doors are always open and you are always welcome! Until next time...aloha!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Coming soon...
New pictures and an update about our adventures in Maui! Stay tuned! Until next time...aloha!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Summer Activities
I typed 3 pages on a Word document, but then couldn't get it to cut and paste into my blog! I was going crazy trying to figure it out, but with a little persistence and help from the Lord, here it is...our summer update! The summer is going by quickly! It always amazes me at how fast summer vacation goes! We have had a great summer so far, and we still have about a month to go. Jenna goes back to school on August 24. Since I haven’t done a very good job of blogging the past several months, I thought I would summarize our summer activities so far.
In early June, AJ’s Aunt Tudy and a friend of hers came for a visit. As usual it was great having guests! They were able to watch Jenna so we didn’t have to pay for a babysitter, which has become almost expensive as school itself! Although since we know the girls babysitting, I think we are getting a pretty good deal! AJ was able to get a little time off of work to spend some time with his aunt. We snorkeled, kayaked, gave them a tour of where AJ works, and tried new foods. It was great! Jenna was a great tour guide. I think Tudy and Rosie enjoyed spending time with her, but since they both either do not have kids or the kids are grown, they just about had their fill when they left!!
Jenna had Vacation Bible School for a week in June. It was an Australian theme and the logo had a boomerang on it. She had a great time learning about how we live “all comes back to Jesus.” She has 2 babysitters for the summer. One is 14 yrs old and I usually take Jenna to her house. She has 3 sisters, a brother and lots of animals! Jenna loves it there! The other sitter, Amber is 16 and has her license. It’s been so nice. She took Jenna to swimming lessons, to Petco, and to her dog agility training classes. Jenna enjoyed watching that! Amber also brings a craft project of some sort every day she comes. We have been very blessed with 2 great babysitters!!
A few weekends ago, AJ’s boss treated us to night’s stay at a fancy resort called The Kona Village. It is a resort that is supposed to be like “old Hawaii” with no TV or phones. The rooms, or hales (pronounced "holly", which is house in Hawaiian) are like straw huts from the outside but really nice on the inside. It was first class all the way! The pools were beautiful. We had a very short walk from our hale to one of the pools, so of course Jenna wanted to live there! We were also right next to the ocean. Gus managed to get Jenna out of the pool and into the ocean so I could swim and snorkel for a while. It was nice. AJ took an outrigger canoe out to see how similar or different it was from canoeing on rivers. He had to take a mandatory lesson before he was allowed to go out on his own. He learned a few things and did really good handling the canoe. Then he took out a one-man canoe by himself. He went out for about an hour. While he was out there, a pod of dolphins swam next to him. He said they were jumping in the air in front of him and swimming all around. He said it was pretty cool! I guess so!! I wish I could have been out there with him! I just love watching the dolphins swim and play! It was a short, quick stay but it was fun. It is usually very expensive, but since we live here we can get a “locals rate.” We think that we may go there again for some special occasion and stay a few nights--one night was not enough!!
The weekend after we went to Kona Village, I worked at Camp Erin. Camp Erin is a camp for kids that have lost a loved one. It is sponsored by hospice. I worked as a “big buddy,” or a camp counselor. I stayed in a tent with another Big Buddy and 4 girls, ages 5-7. We all slept on cots so just about every inch of the tent was filled! It was very interesting trying to get anything in and out of bags or walk in there. We had 2 small walkways; otherwise we just climbed over the cots. The camp was held at a ranch at about 6000 ft elevation. It was nice during the day, but it got cloudy, misty and cold at night. We had some rain, but not as much as last year I guess. One girl told me she could see her breath when she woke up in the morning last year! Thank God I was not there last year!!! Little Miss Wimpy would not have tolerated that very well!! I took AJ’s down sleeping bag and slept in sweatpants, 2 shirts and a hooded sweatshirt. I slept with the hood up the first night because it was cold! Overall, it was a really great experience!! I loved getting to know the girls and it was amazing to see how the kids bonded with and supported each other! Many of them had a parent, grandparent, brother, sister, or other relative die. They were all so brave and a real inspiration! It was an exhausting, but very rewarding weekend. I enjoyed it so much and I am looking forward to next year already!
Jenna just finished up with swimming lessons. We enrolled her in level 3 because I wasn’t sure how the classes compared to what she had taken in Darlington. She had taken level 3 last summer, so this was a refresher for her. She did really well. The instructor said that she was the best swimmer in the class! I guess it helped that she was familiar with the strokes learned. One of her instructors said that Jenna could maybe be on the Novice Swim Team. Jenna is excited about that. It involves a lot of practice and swim meets, so we have to really evaluate it before we commit to something like that.
AJ celebrated a birthday on July 24th. Jenna had a big surprise planned for him. She wanted to make him a meal. We made his favorite dish, Cheesy Potato Pork Chops. We also made rainbow jello and chocolate cupcakes. I had never made layered jello before, so it was an experiment from the start! We started making it 4 days before his birthday. We were able to make 2 layers a day, and by Friday, it was ready to go! Jenna and Amber (the babysitter) made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing and sprinkles on them. I hurried home from work and got the dinner in the oven. I got off a little later than I wanted, but thankfully AJ was working late that day too, so it worked out really good! Jenna made a menu and made his gifts too. I just bought him badly needed shorts!
Jenna had this big story all figured out about how we would get him to get ready and surprise him. When he got home from work, we asked him if he wanted to go to the Outback for his birthday. Of course he did, so he went to shower. When he came out, Jenna told him Amber had told her about this new restaurant in Kona called the Kona Diner. She wanted to try it out. He was hesitant and asked a bunch of questions, but agreed to go. Jenna told him we had to leave out through the lanai (deck). She was so excited, she could hardly contain herself! It was so cute! We walked out onto the lanai and she said, “Here it is!” She helped him to sit down and showed him the menu. She had written 2 choices—liver and onions and “the surprise special.” Of course AJ asked for the liver and onions. Jenna went into the kitchen and came back saying “I’m sorry. We’re all out of liver and onions.” (We had practiced that because I knew AJ would do that.) So he settled for the surprise special. He had asked earlier why the oven was on and told him I was making bread to take to church on Sunday (which I really did have to do-at some time anyway, just not at that moment!) I went in and dished up his meal and Jenna served him. Then AJ asked if we would like to join him. So we had a very nice dinner together. The jello turned out great and the cupcakes were really good too! After dinner we watched a movie together. It was a great evening! The only somewhat bad and scary thing about the whole surprise is that we learned that Jenna is VERY good at making up stories, and at keeping a straight face while telling the story!! I hope she doesn’t have a future of lying to her parents and making up stories about where she is going!! Oh, by the way, we took him the Outback on Saturday night and we enjoyed another nice meal!
Now that you are updated on our summer activities so far, I will tell you about our trip to Maui. Hopefully it won't take a month to get it posted! So, until next time...aloha!
In early June, AJ’s Aunt Tudy and a friend of hers came for a visit. As usual it was great having guests! They were able to watch Jenna so we didn’t have to pay for a babysitter, which has become almost expensive as school itself! Although since we know the girls babysitting, I think we are getting a pretty good deal! AJ was able to get a little time off of work to spend some time with his aunt. We snorkeled, kayaked, gave them a tour of where AJ works, and tried new foods. It was great! Jenna was a great tour guide. I think Tudy and Rosie enjoyed spending time with her, but since they both either do not have kids or the kids are grown, they just about had their fill when they left!!
Jenna had Vacation Bible School for a week in June. It was an Australian theme and the logo had a boomerang on it. She had a great time learning about how we live “all comes back to Jesus.” She has 2 babysitters for the summer. One is 14 yrs old and I usually take Jenna to her house. She has 3 sisters, a brother and lots of animals! Jenna loves it there! The other sitter, Amber is 16 and has her license. It’s been so nice. She took Jenna to swimming lessons, to Petco, and to her dog agility training classes. Jenna enjoyed watching that! Amber also brings a craft project of some sort every day she comes. We have been very blessed with 2 great babysitters!!
A few weekends ago, AJ’s boss treated us to night’s stay at a fancy resort called The Kona Village. It is a resort that is supposed to be like “old Hawaii” with no TV or phones. The rooms, or hales (pronounced "holly", which is house in Hawaiian) are like straw huts from the outside but really nice on the inside. It was first class all the way! The pools were beautiful. We had a very short walk from our hale to one of the pools, so of course Jenna wanted to live there! We were also right next to the ocean. Gus managed to get Jenna out of the pool and into the ocean so I could swim and snorkel for a while. It was nice. AJ took an outrigger canoe out to see how similar or different it was from canoeing on rivers. He had to take a mandatory lesson before he was allowed to go out on his own. He learned a few things and did really good handling the canoe. Then he took out a one-man canoe by himself. He went out for about an hour. While he was out there, a pod of dolphins swam next to him. He said they were jumping in the air in front of him and swimming all around. He said it was pretty cool! I guess so!! I wish I could have been out there with him! I just love watching the dolphins swim and play! It was a short, quick stay but it was fun. It is usually very expensive, but since we live here we can get a “locals rate.” We think that we may go there again for some special occasion and stay a few nights--one night was not enough!!
The weekend after we went to Kona Village, I worked at Camp Erin. Camp Erin is a camp for kids that have lost a loved one. It is sponsored by hospice. I worked as a “big buddy,” or a camp counselor. I stayed in a tent with another Big Buddy and 4 girls, ages 5-7. We all slept on cots so just about every inch of the tent was filled! It was very interesting trying to get anything in and out of bags or walk in there. We had 2 small walkways; otherwise we just climbed over the cots. The camp was held at a ranch at about 6000 ft elevation. It was nice during the day, but it got cloudy, misty and cold at night. We had some rain, but not as much as last year I guess. One girl told me she could see her breath when she woke up in the morning last year! Thank God I was not there last year!!! Little Miss Wimpy would not have tolerated that very well!! I took AJ’s down sleeping bag and slept in sweatpants, 2 shirts and a hooded sweatshirt. I slept with the hood up the first night because it was cold! Overall, it was a really great experience!! I loved getting to know the girls and it was amazing to see how the kids bonded with and supported each other! Many of them had a parent, grandparent, brother, sister, or other relative die. They were all so brave and a real inspiration! It was an exhausting, but very rewarding weekend. I enjoyed it so much and I am looking forward to next year already!
Jenna just finished up with swimming lessons. We enrolled her in level 3 because I wasn’t sure how the classes compared to what she had taken in Darlington. She had taken level 3 last summer, so this was a refresher for her. She did really well. The instructor said that she was the best swimmer in the class! I guess it helped that she was familiar with the strokes learned. One of her instructors said that Jenna could maybe be on the Novice Swim Team. Jenna is excited about that. It involves a lot of practice and swim meets, so we have to really evaluate it before we commit to something like that.
AJ celebrated a birthday on July 24th. Jenna had a big surprise planned for him. She wanted to make him a meal. We made his favorite dish, Cheesy Potato Pork Chops. We also made rainbow jello and chocolate cupcakes. I had never made layered jello before, so it was an experiment from the start! We started making it 4 days before his birthday. We were able to make 2 layers a day, and by Friday, it was ready to go! Jenna and Amber (the babysitter) made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing and sprinkles on them. I hurried home from work and got the dinner in the oven. I got off a little later than I wanted, but thankfully AJ was working late that day too, so it worked out really good! Jenna made a menu and made his gifts too. I just bought him badly needed shorts!
Jenna had this big story all figured out about how we would get him to get ready and surprise him. When he got home from work, we asked him if he wanted to go to the Outback for his birthday. Of course he did, so he went to shower. When he came out, Jenna told him Amber had told her about this new restaurant in Kona called the Kona Diner. She wanted to try it out. He was hesitant and asked a bunch of questions, but agreed to go. Jenna told him we had to leave out through the lanai (deck). She was so excited, she could hardly contain herself! It was so cute! We walked out onto the lanai and she said, “Here it is!” She helped him to sit down and showed him the menu. She had written 2 choices—liver and onions and “the surprise special.” Of course AJ asked for the liver and onions. Jenna went into the kitchen and came back saying “I’m sorry. We’re all out of liver and onions.” (We had practiced that because I knew AJ would do that.) So he settled for the surprise special. He had asked earlier why the oven was on and told him I was making bread to take to church on Sunday (which I really did have to do-at some time anyway, just not at that moment!) I went in and dished up his meal and Jenna served him. Then AJ asked if we would like to join him. So we had a very nice dinner together. The jello turned out great and the cupcakes were really good too! After dinner we watched a movie together. It was a great evening! The only somewhat bad and scary thing about the whole surprise is that we learned that Jenna is VERY good at making up stories, and at keeping a straight face while telling the story!! I hope she doesn’t have a future of lying to her parents and making up stories about where she is going!! Oh, by the way, we took him the Outback on Saturday night and we enjoyed another nice meal!
Now that you are updated on our summer activities so far, I will tell you about our trip to Maui. Hopefully it won't take a month to get it posted! So, until next time...aloha!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Happy 4th of July!
Well, here I go again. It has been almost a month since I posted a message! I cannot believe how fast time goes!! Where did the month of June go?? I can't believe the 4th of July has come and gone already!! The 4th of July was our ten month "anniversary." It's been 10 months since we moved! Can you believe it??!! Again, I say, I cannot believe how fast time goes! It was one year ago on July 1 that Gus called AJ and offered him a full-time job. I remember sitting on the front porch of our house on July 4th talking to my sister about the offer and getting her advice on whether we should move or not. It feels like we had that conversation yesterday...AGAIN I say, I cannot believe how fast time goes!!!
We love it here and feel like God has really blessed us with this move. We have settled in and are enjoying all that the Islands have to offer. For the 4th of July, Jenna and I were in the parade. We helped decorate the Hospice van, walked in the parade and handed out candy. It was hot! but fun!! We actually left the parade early because we were going on a dinner cruise after the parade. We got on the boat at 6:30pm. We had a great dinner and there was a band and hula dancer. After dinner, we watched the fireworks from the boat. The fireworks were pretty good, but really short!! The fireworks for Canoe Fest are actually A LOT better!! We were surprised at how quickly they were over. We both said, "they can't be done." But...they were! We enjoyed it, but not sure we will spend the money to do it again. There were several people that I work with on the cruise too, so it was nice to get to know them better outside of work.
We have plans almost every weekend for the rest of July! That will really make the month go fast! Next weekend we are going to a "fancy-schmancy" hotel for a "manager's weekend" for Kona Queen. We will be staying at this remote, super fancy room on the beach at a really, really nice resort north of Kona. Gus treats his managers to a special get away each summer and he chose this fancy resort this year. It's something we would probably never spend the money on ourselves, so it will be fun to experience!
The following weekend is Camp Erin. Camp Erin is a grief camp for kids that have lost a loved one. The kids participate in all kinds of activities that help them deal with their grief and it allows them to be around other kids that have experienced the same thing. I'm going to be a camp counselor or "Cabin Big Buddy" as it is known. I will be at the camp from Friday until Sunday. AJ is coming up on Saturday to help with the archery activity. Jenna is allowed to come on Saturday too. She is going to help set up the obstacle course and games. I'm really looking forward to it. I think it will be a lot of fun and a great experience too!
The last weekend, we are flying to Maui for 4 days to check out the sights over there. We're not really sure what we are going to do, but the plans are in the works!
We had visitors in early June and are looking forward to our next visitors in August! I still have so much that I haven't told you. One of these days I am going to write a really long entry, just to fill you in! But...not tonight! It's late and I want to go to bed. So until next time...aloha!
We love it here and feel like God has really blessed us with this move. We have settled in and are enjoying all that the Islands have to offer. For the 4th of July, Jenna and I were in the parade. We helped decorate the Hospice van, walked in the parade and handed out candy. It was hot! but fun!! We actually left the parade early because we were going on a dinner cruise after the parade. We got on the boat at 6:30pm. We had a great dinner and there was a band and hula dancer. After dinner, we watched the fireworks from the boat. The fireworks were pretty good, but really short!! The fireworks for Canoe Fest are actually A LOT better!! We were surprised at how quickly they were over. We both said, "they can't be done." But...they were! We enjoyed it, but not sure we will spend the money to do it again. There were several people that I work with on the cruise too, so it was nice to get to know them better outside of work.
We have plans almost every weekend for the rest of July! That will really make the month go fast! Next weekend we are going to a "fancy-schmancy" hotel for a "manager's weekend" for Kona Queen. We will be staying at this remote, super fancy room on the beach at a really, really nice resort north of Kona. Gus treats his managers to a special get away each summer and he chose this fancy resort this year. It's something we would probably never spend the money on ourselves, so it will be fun to experience!
The following weekend is Camp Erin. Camp Erin is a grief camp for kids that have lost a loved one. The kids participate in all kinds of activities that help them deal with their grief and it allows them to be around other kids that have experienced the same thing. I'm going to be a camp counselor or "Cabin Big Buddy" as it is known. I will be at the camp from Friday until Sunday. AJ is coming up on Saturday to help with the archery activity. Jenna is allowed to come on Saturday too. She is going to help set up the obstacle course and games. I'm really looking forward to it. I think it will be a lot of fun and a great experience too!
The last weekend, we are flying to Maui for 4 days to check out the sights over there. We're not really sure what we are going to do, but the plans are in the works!
We had visitors in early June and are looking forward to our next visitors in August! I still have so much that I haven't told you. One of these days I am going to write a really long entry, just to fill you in! But...not tonight! It's late and I want to go to bed. So until next time...aloha!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Marleen's visit
I thought I better get you caught up on our last visitors stay before our next visitors arrive today! At the end of May, our friend Marleen and some of her family stayed with us. We had such a great time with them. They did a lot of touring on their own since AJ and I both work, but we were able to join them for some activities. I took them to a coffee store where we took a tour of a coffee factory and got to see how the coffee is grown, harvested, processed, and graded. It was very interesting! The manager is a friend of ours from church and he did a great job educating us on the history of coffee growing in Hawaii and the process of getting the coffee from the plant to your cup. It's a tour I recommend when you come to visit, if it is something that interests you.
We also went to the macademia nut factory. It was the first time that I had ever been there where you could actually watch people working! There is usually nothing going on. This time, we got to watch a man sorting good and bad mac nuts. The mac nuts came through a blower of sorts and fell onto a belt where the man sorted out bad nuts. It was kind of interesting to watch. There was also a machine that we could put a nut in and watch it get hulled. Of course, they had a shop where you could buy fresh macademia nuts...and chocolate covered nuts!! YYUUMMM!
We also went kayaking across the Bay and snorkeling at the Captain Cook Monument. The water was a little rough on the way over, but it was much calmer on the way back!! The kids did not have a lot of experience snorkeling, but they caught on fast and did great! Unfortunately we did not see any dolphins, but in nature you never know! Maybe next time!!
The weather was great the whole time they were here. It was sooooo clear!!! The winds were just right and the vog was gone for about 5 days!! It's the longest stretch of clear days, without vog that we can remember since we moved here! It was so beautiful! Marleen probably got tired of me saying, "I can't believe how clear it is!" I'm glad she's so patient with me!!
We had such a great time with them. As with everyone that visits, it's never enough time! It's nice to have a little taste of "home" once in a while. That's why we love visitors! It makes it seem like we're not so far away. We look forward to the next group...today!! I still have more to update you on, but that's all for today. Until next time...aloha!
We also went to the macademia nut factory. It was the first time that I had ever been there where you could actually watch people working! There is usually nothing going on. This time, we got to watch a man sorting good and bad mac nuts. The mac nuts came through a blower of sorts and fell onto a belt where the man sorted out bad nuts. It was kind of interesting to watch. There was also a machine that we could put a nut in and watch it get hulled. Of course, they had a shop where you could buy fresh macademia nuts...and chocolate covered nuts!! YYUUMMM!
We also went kayaking across the Bay and snorkeling at the Captain Cook Monument. The water was a little rough on the way over, but it was much calmer on the way back!! The kids did not have a lot of experience snorkeling, but they caught on fast and did great! Unfortunately we did not see any dolphins, but in nature you never know! Maybe next time!!
The weather was great the whole time they were here. It was sooooo clear!!! The winds were just right and the vog was gone for about 5 days!! It's the longest stretch of clear days, without vog that we can remember since we moved here! It was so beautiful! Marleen probably got tired of me saying, "I can't believe how clear it is!" I'm glad she's so patient with me!!
We had such a great time with them. As with everyone that visits, it's never enough time! It's nice to have a little taste of "home" once in a while. That's why we love visitors! It makes it seem like we're not so far away. We look forward to the next group...today!! I still have more to update you on, but that's all for today. Until next time...aloha!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Wow! Where does the time go?? I have so much to catch you up on! I don't think I am going to do it all tonight. I'm going to try and do a series of updates...we'll see how well that goes!
Jenna finished school on June 5. I was able to attend their "promotion ceremony" where each class sang a song and the teachers presented each student with an award. Jenna's award was for "Outstanding joyfulness and gentleness." Pretty fitting, I think! She's glad to be done, but she will miss her friends. We have a couple of high school girls lined up to watch her over the summer. One of them drives, so she will take Jenna to the beach, the library, swimming lessons, etc. The other girl doesn't drive, but she has 3 sisters that Jenna will be playing with, so I don't think she'll suffer too much!
Work for AJ continues to be busy, although he probably won't be working Saturdays anymore for a while! WooHoo!! Jenna and I are glad about that! We are going to try and do more things together through the summer. We went to the movie, "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" this weekend. It was OK; not as good as the first one. AJ is thinking about getting back into canoeing. He has been looking at canoes, trying to decide if he wants to buy one or not. His time is so limited that training would be difficult, so who knows what he will decide!
I continue to be very busy with work too. It seems like someone is always gone, so I am always covering someone's patients! My one co-worker is back, but another one will be gone for 3 weeks! Thankfully, I only have 2 extra patients this time, instead of four. I'm still getting more hours than what I was hired for, but I really can't complain. There aren't many nursing jobs available here right now!
We have more friends coming to visit this week. AJ's aunt and her friend arrive on Tuesday and leave on Saturday. A short stay, but it will be nice to see them. A good excuse to go to the beach, snoreling and kayaking!! It's a rough job, but somebody's got to do it!
Well, that's all for tonight. I have several other things to say, but I'm tired, so it will have to wait. I really hope that I can post again in a few days...we'll see what happens. Until next time...aloha!
Jenna finished school on June 5. I was able to attend their "promotion ceremony" where each class sang a song and the teachers presented each student with an award. Jenna's award was for "Outstanding joyfulness and gentleness." Pretty fitting, I think! She's glad to be done, but she will miss her friends. We have a couple of high school girls lined up to watch her over the summer. One of them drives, so she will take Jenna to the beach, the library, swimming lessons, etc. The other girl doesn't drive, but she has 3 sisters that Jenna will be playing with, so I don't think she'll suffer too much!
Work for AJ continues to be busy, although he probably won't be working Saturdays anymore for a while! WooHoo!! Jenna and I are glad about that! We are going to try and do more things together through the summer. We went to the movie, "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" this weekend. It was OK; not as good as the first one. AJ is thinking about getting back into canoeing. He has been looking at canoes, trying to decide if he wants to buy one or not. His time is so limited that training would be difficult, so who knows what he will decide!
I continue to be very busy with work too. It seems like someone is always gone, so I am always covering someone's patients! My one co-worker is back, but another one will be gone for 3 weeks! Thankfully, I only have 2 extra patients this time, instead of four. I'm still getting more hours than what I was hired for, but I really can't complain. There aren't many nursing jobs available here right now!
We have more friends coming to visit this week. AJ's aunt and her friend arrive on Tuesday and leave on Saturday. A short stay, but it will be nice to see them. A good excuse to go to the beach, snoreling and kayaking!! It's a rough job, but somebody's got to do it!
Well, that's all for tonight. I have several other things to say, but I'm tired, so it will have to wait. I really hope that I can post again in a few days...we'll see what happens. Until next time...aloha!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Whales in May??
Aloha! I was sitting in a staff meeting today when one of my co-workers said, "I just saw a whale!" It's very unusual to see the whales this time of year. They are usually back in Alaska by now. They are only in the Islands from Nov-March. We sat and watched the whales for several minutes. There was a mother humpback and her baby. It was so cool! It was like the mother was teaching the baby how to come up for air or breach. We would see the mother stick her head out of the water, then the baby would do it. The mother would slap her pectoral fin on the water, then the baby would do it. The mother did a full breach, but the baby didn't follow the Momma's lead. It was so cool to see them playing in the water! What a treat!
I have to send belated Happy Anniversary wishes to AJ's mother Karen and her husband Dave. Their anniversary was Monday. They celebrated 18 years--congratulations!! I also have to say Happy Belated Anniversary to my brother Al and his wife Laura! Their anniversary was yesterday--2 years already!! Where does the time go?? I can't believe it's been two years already! Jenna was just talking today about being a flowergirl "three times" she was telling her friend. What great memories we have of all those weddings!
Not much else new, so until next time...aloha!
I have to send belated Happy Anniversary wishes to AJ's mother Karen and her husband Dave. Their anniversary was Monday. They celebrated 18 years--congratulations!! I also have to say Happy Belated Anniversary to my brother Al and his wife Laura! Their anniversary was yesterday--2 years already!! Where does the time go?? I can't believe it's been two years already! Jenna was just talking today about being a flowergirl "three times" she was telling her friend. What great memories we have of all those weddings!
Not much else new, so until next time...aloha!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!
Happy Mother's Day to all the Mommy's out there reading this! What a selfless, challenging and rewarding job we have been blessed with!! It was a nice relaxing day at our house. AJ had to work for a few hours this morning while Jenna and I went to church. After lunch Jenna and I did a little shopping. We were thinking about going to the beach, but ended up going for a bike ride on a trail near our house. It was great to get some exercise.
I had the brilliant idea of having crab legs for dinner tonight. We haven't had crab legs in a long time and they were on sale at the grocery store, so I thought we would splurge and have a nice dinner for Mother's Day. Well, as great as the idea was, I didn't think the whole idea through too thoroughly!! I started unwrapping the packages and I suddenly realized that I didn't know for sure how to make them! AJ wasn't sure either. I figured I just needed to boil them for a while, so that's what I did. They looked great! Then AJ asked me how we were going to crack them open...oh yeah...I didn't think of that either!! So my resourceful husband went to the garage to get a pliers! I wasn't too sure I wanted to use pliers on my crab legs, but what choice did I have?! I managed to open most of them with my hands and a fork, but I ended up cutting by thumb twice! I finally gave in and used the pliers for a few of them. They were soooo good!! It's been so long since we have had crab legs...even using a pliers didn't dampen the enjoyment of eating them!
We didn't make it to the library to get Jenna's picture, but hopefully sometime this week we can. I found out on Friday that one of my co-workers is taking the next three weeks off for personal reasons, so I will be covering 4 of her patients. So much for getting a break!! Oh well, I don't think it will be quite as stressful as the last time. Not too much more to report, so until next time...aloha!
I had the brilliant idea of having crab legs for dinner tonight. We haven't had crab legs in a long time and they were on sale at the grocery store, so I thought we would splurge and have a nice dinner for Mother's Day. Well, as great as the idea was, I didn't think the whole idea through too thoroughly!! I started unwrapping the packages and I suddenly realized that I didn't know for sure how to make them! AJ wasn't sure either. I figured I just needed to boil them for a while, so that's what I did. They looked great! Then AJ asked me how we were going to crack them open...oh yeah...I didn't think of that either!! So my resourceful husband went to the garage to get a pliers! I wasn't too sure I wanted to use pliers on my crab legs, but what choice did I have?! I managed to open most of them with my hands and a fork, but I ended up cutting by thumb twice! I finally gave in and used the pliers for a few of them. They were soooo good!! It's been so long since we have had crab legs...even using a pliers didn't dampen the enjoyment of eating them!
We didn't make it to the library to get Jenna's picture, but hopefully sometime this week we can. I found out on Friday that one of my co-workers is taking the next three weeks off for personal reasons, so I will be covering 4 of her patients. So much for getting a break!! Oh well, I don't think it will be quite as stressful as the last time. Not too much more to report, so until next time...aloha!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
My How Time Flies!!
Hello?? I wonder if anyone still checks this blog?? It's been so long since I've posted that I imagine a few of you have given up checking!! I can't believe how fast time goes! I often think of writing and all of us often say, "We'll have to put that on the blog." But, alas, time goes on and I don't take the time to do it. It saddens me a bit because there are so many things that I want to share with all of you, but there just doesn't seem to be time to fit it in! I will try and capture the events of the last month.
First of all, an update on my last entry. Remember I felt an earthquake? Well, it registered a 5.1! I was told that at the hospital, which is about 6-8miles from where we live, things were really shaking and moving! That must have been scary for the patients!
Can you believe we just had our 8 month anniversary of living in Hawaii?? 8 months already!! I can't believe how fast it has gone! We are loving it and still adjusting to the vastly different changes of season (from what we are used to)! There wasn't much of a difference from fall to winter to spring. I have noticed a few different things blooming, but other than that, it is very difficult to really know what time of year it is!! We have loved having visitors and are looking forward to friends coming at the end of May. And possibly some more this summer.
The vog has been really bad lately. We haven't been able to see the horizon for several days. About 2 weeks ago, we had a stretch of about 5 days where it was crystal clear! It was so awesome!! You could actually see where the sky ended and the ocean began. It was like a veil had been lifted off of the entire landscape! I love it when it's like that. It seems like those days are so far and in between.
AJ has been doing good. Keeping busy at work as usual. The weather has caused some problems for them. We had so much rain for several weeks in a row that it caused the queens to not be able to mate. That slowed everything down and caused A LOT more work!! Thankfully, things have straightened out a bit and things are back on schedule. He had a Saturday off 2 weeks ago and we took advantage of it and spent the day together as a family. We drove up to the top of Mauna Kea (about 14,000ft) and got out of the truck briefly to take a few picutes. There was still a little snow and it was REALLY, REALLY windy!! Jenna hated it! She didn't want to get out of the truck, but she did long enough for a few pictures. I've posted a few. After that, we drove to Hilo on the oposite side of the island as us. We went to the zoo. It is supposed to be a "rainforest zoo." It wasn't the biggest or best zoo I have ever been to, but it was free and it was fun to see the different animals. Jenna's favorite thing to see was the peacock. There were several of them just walking all over the grounds. We got to see a couple of them with their plumbs all open and puffed up. It was so beautiful! They really do strut around back and forth and in circles as if to make sure everyone can see how beautiful they are!! It was cool to see! I attempted to post some pictures. I'm not sure how good they will turn out. We drove home from Hilo the north route. It was a nice day with no rain, which is unusual for Hilo. We were able to see all of the beautiful valleys full of Japanese tulip trees, which are these huge trees with orange flowers on them. They are very beautiful!! When Karen and Dave were here, we drove home this way, but the weather was awful and we couldn't see anything! I guess they will just have to come back so they can see it themselves!
I have been very busy with work. One of my co-workers was gone for 3 weeks so I had to pick up 3 of her patients. I already had a full caseload myself, so adding hers on top of it was super, super stressful. I had to take more call too, since she was gone. One night, I was answering the phone until about midnight before I finally went to bed. Then I got called out at 3am to a patients home because he had died. I ended up staying there until about 5:30. By the time I got home, I just stayed up since I had to take Jenna to school, and work that day anyway! I was pretty tired the next two days after that! Thankfully, my days/nights on call haven't been quite that busy since! My co-worker is back and things have settled down a lot for me, making things much more bearable. About 2 weeks ago, I was in the car ready to take Jenna and our neighbor to school and my car wouldn't start! The battery had died! AJ had already gone to work. All I could think of to do was to call my neighbors to see if I could borrow one of their cars. They have about 4, so I figured I could maybe borrow ONE of them! Since they were both already gone to work, all they had available to me was a stick shift, which I am not very good with, or a Corvette convertible!!! Soooo, I ended up driving the Corvette!!! Can you believe it?!?! I was so nervous! I had to squeeze the 2 girls into the front so I could take them to school--no car seats and only one seatbelt. I was so afraid I was going to crash it sometime during the day! I just kept praying that I would be safe! I had to keep explaining to my patients and co-workers all day that it was NOT my car! I didn't want any of them thinking I make lots and lots of money! I was so glad when that day was finally over!! AJ put a new battery in for me and thank God, everything has been fine ever since!
Miss Jenna continues to love school. She sometimes seems like she is struggling with certain concepts, but then she does great on all of her tests. We are very proud of her! She is becoming quite the little artist! They had a contest at school about celebrating libraries. Each child had to draw a picture illustrating their favorite book. Jenna chose the book, "Marvin Wanted More." It's about a sheep who wanted to be bigger, so he kept eating and eating and eating until he ate the whole world! Parents were not allowed to help the child at all, which worked great for us because this project happened to be going on when AJ and I were both swamped at work and didn't have as much time to help her with homework. She did the whole drawing herself and it turned out terrific! Yes, I realize that I am a little biased, but that's my job! :-) She won FIRST place in her class!! Her poster is currently being displayed at the local library! I am hoping that we can go to the library on Saturday so I can get some pictures of her with her poster. When I do, I will post them on my blog.
She loves hula and continues to improve. The school put on a program for May Day, or as it is known in Hawaii, "Lei Day." Each class sang songs in Hawaiian. It was so beautiful! I couldn't understand anything they were saying, but it was so beautiful to listen to! Jenna's hula class did a dance. I tried to video it, but it didn't work too well. I wasn't in the right place so I couldn't see very well. I will try and post some of it, if I can figure out how to do it.
Last Saturday I was on call and AJ had to work for just a few hours in the morning. After he was finished working, he and Jenna went off on an adventure. They kayaked across the Bay and went snorkeling. She did so great! She is becoming such a good snorkeler! Her confidence is really growing and she is able to snorkel right along with us. AJ took some really cute pictures of her that I've posted.
I think I have finally gotten you caught up again with the happenings of our lives. I will really, really try hard to make the entries more often. Time just gets away so quickly!! So, until next time...aloha!
First of all, an update on my last entry. Remember I felt an earthquake? Well, it registered a 5.1! I was told that at the hospital, which is about 6-8miles from where we live, things were really shaking and moving! That must have been scary for the patients!
Can you believe we just had our 8 month anniversary of living in Hawaii?? 8 months already!! I can't believe how fast it has gone! We are loving it and still adjusting to the vastly different changes of season (from what we are used to)! There wasn't much of a difference from fall to winter to spring. I have noticed a few different things blooming, but other than that, it is very difficult to really know what time of year it is!! We have loved having visitors and are looking forward to friends coming at the end of May. And possibly some more this summer.
The vog has been really bad lately. We haven't been able to see the horizon for several days. About 2 weeks ago, we had a stretch of about 5 days where it was crystal clear! It was so awesome!! You could actually see where the sky ended and the ocean began. It was like a veil had been lifted off of the entire landscape! I love it when it's like that. It seems like those days are so far and in between.
AJ has been doing good. Keeping busy at work as usual. The weather has caused some problems for them. We had so much rain for several weeks in a row that it caused the queens to not be able to mate. That slowed everything down and caused A LOT more work!! Thankfully, things have straightened out a bit and things are back on schedule. He had a Saturday off 2 weeks ago and we took advantage of it and spent the day together as a family. We drove up to the top of Mauna Kea (about 14,000ft) and got out of the truck briefly to take a few picutes. There was still a little snow and it was REALLY, REALLY windy!! Jenna hated it! She didn't want to get out of the truck, but she did long enough for a few pictures. I've posted a few. After that, we drove to Hilo on the oposite side of the island as us. We went to the zoo. It is supposed to be a "rainforest zoo." It wasn't the biggest or best zoo I have ever been to, but it was free and it was fun to see the different animals. Jenna's favorite thing to see was the peacock. There were several of them just walking all over the grounds. We got to see a couple of them with their plumbs all open and puffed up. It was so beautiful! They really do strut around back and forth and in circles as if to make sure everyone can see how beautiful they are!! It was cool to see! I attempted to post some pictures. I'm not sure how good they will turn out. We drove home from Hilo the north route. It was a nice day with no rain, which is unusual for Hilo. We were able to see all of the beautiful valleys full of Japanese tulip trees, which are these huge trees with orange flowers on them. They are very beautiful!! When Karen and Dave were here, we drove home this way, but the weather was awful and we couldn't see anything! I guess they will just have to come back so they can see it themselves!
I have been very busy with work. One of my co-workers was gone for 3 weeks so I had to pick up 3 of her patients. I already had a full caseload myself, so adding hers on top of it was super, super stressful. I had to take more call too, since she was gone. One night, I was answering the phone until about midnight before I finally went to bed. Then I got called out at 3am to a patients home because he had died. I ended up staying there until about 5:30. By the time I got home, I just stayed up since I had to take Jenna to school, and work that day anyway! I was pretty tired the next two days after that! Thankfully, my days/nights on call haven't been quite that busy since! My co-worker is back and things have settled down a lot for me, making things much more bearable. About 2 weeks ago, I was in the car ready to take Jenna and our neighbor to school and my car wouldn't start! The battery had died! AJ had already gone to work. All I could think of to do was to call my neighbors to see if I could borrow one of their cars. They have about 4, so I figured I could maybe borrow ONE of them! Since they were both already gone to work, all they had available to me was a stick shift, which I am not very good with, or a Corvette convertible!!! Soooo, I ended up driving the Corvette!!! Can you believe it?!?! I was so nervous! I had to squeeze the 2 girls into the front so I could take them to school--no car seats and only one seatbelt. I was so afraid I was going to crash it sometime during the day! I just kept praying that I would be safe! I had to keep explaining to my patients and co-workers all day that it was NOT my car! I didn't want any of them thinking I make lots and lots of money! I was so glad when that day was finally over!! AJ put a new battery in for me and thank God, everything has been fine ever since!
Miss Jenna continues to love school. She sometimes seems like she is struggling with certain concepts, but then she does great on all of her tests. We are very proud of her! She is becoming quite the little artist! They had a contest at school about celebrating libraries. Each child had to draw a picture illustrating their favorite book. Jenna chose the book, "Marvin Wanted More." It's about a sheep who wanted to be bigger, so he kept eating and eating and eating until he ate the whole world! Parents were not allowed to help the child at all, which worked great for us because this project happened to be going on when AJ and I were both swamped at work and didn't have as much time to help her with homework. She did the whole drawing herself and it turned out terrific! Yes, I realize that I am a little biased, but that's my job! :-) She won FIRST place in her class!! Her poster is currently being displayed at the local library! I am hoping that we can go to the library on Saturday so I can get some pictures of her with her poster. When I do, I will post them on my blog.
She loves hula and continues to improve. The school put on a program for May Day, or as it is known in Hawaii, "Lei Day." Each class sang songs in Hawaiian. It was so beautiful! I couldn't understand anything they were saying, but it was so beautiful to listen to! Jenna's hula class did a dance. I tried to video it, but it didn't work too well. I wasn't in the right place so I couldn't see very well. I will try and post some of it, if I can figure out how to do it.
Last Saturday I was on call and AJ had to work for just a few hours in the morning. After he was finished working, he and Jenna went off on an adventure. They kayaked across the Bay and went snorkeling. She did so great! She is becoming such a good snorkeler! Her confidence is really growing and she is able to snorkel right along with us. AJ took some really cute pictures of her that I've posted.
I think I have finally gotten you caught up again with the happenings of our lives. I will really, really try hard to make the entries more often. Time just gets away so quickly!! So, until next time...aloha!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
EARTHQUAKE!!
I felt an earthquake today!! It was just after lunch. I was sitting on the couch doing some charting on my work computer, when all of the sudden I felt the floor vibrating! I could see the TV moving and my laptop moving too! It only lasted a few seconds, but it was kind of weird to experience. I know it's nothing compared to earthquakes else where in the U.S., but it was cool to me! Apparently there are earthquakes all the time in Hawaii. We just don't feel most of them. At the volcano visitor's center, they have several seismometers set up monitoring earthquakes all over the Island. It's pretty interesting to learn about.
I can hear one of the neighbors mowing their lawn...Anyway, that all for now, so until next time...aloha!
I can hear one of the neighbors mowing their lawn...Anyway, that all for now, so until next time...aloha!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
HAPPY EASTER!!
Well, it's time for a new entry after a lllooonnnngg absence! This is a long overdue update, so it will likely be very long...be prepared!
Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus...what a glorious day!! We had a very nice, quiet day. We got up early-4:30am-and got ready to go to an all community service called the "Sonrise Service." It started at 6am down at the old airport. It was such a great service! There was lots of singing-in English and Hawaiian-, hula dancers, a "human video" put on by a youth group, and 3 short sermons, one in which all the children got to go up front and be involved in the sermon. Each child got a frisbee with the words "yes He can" written on it, to remind them that Jesus can do anything for them in their lives. It was a very cool service!! After this service, we went to our church for breakfast and then had our Easter service. It was very good as well. On Friday night we had a Good Friday service. AJ ran the sound booth and I sang a duet. Yes, I know..."you sang, Lynn???" Yes, I did. I'm not sure why I agreed to it since I'm not a very good singer and I get so nervous!! But, it actually went OK. The pastor's wife sang with me and she is very good.
Jenna went to an Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning and got a bunch of candy. She put her name in for a door prize and actually won a prize!! She won a huge box kite with Disney Princesses on it! She was so excited! AJ and I got her a shave ice machine for Easter. She loves shave ice and always wants to buy one whenever we are at a certain beach. Now she can make her own. She learned how to make a "steamer," a hot, flavored milk drink when our friends from Iowa were here. Now she knows how to make hot and cold drinks...she's just a regular little barista!!
We were home from church today by 10:30am and we were tired! AJ and I took naps while Jenna found the rest of the Easter eggs and bagged up all of her candy. After we all woke up we went snorkeling for a while. Once again, we were blessed to see several fish and turtles. Jenna is pretty much independent in snorkeling now. She has improved so much in the last two weeks! It's amazing!! She wears her life jacket and goes wherever she wants. She used to hang on to one of us or lay on our back...not any more! She swims confidently and FAST!! She moves both of her legs together like a mermaid and she can really swim fast! She's so cute when she sees a big fish...she tries to talk through her snorkel! Her favorite fish to find are the puffer fish and the state fish, which she has proudly learned how to pronouce--humuhumunukunukuapua'a--pronouned "hoo-moo-hoo-moo-noo-koo-noo-koo-ah-poo-ah-ah." She likes to see how fast she can say it. She can ususally say it faster than both AJ and me!
She continues to love hula. She has improved a lot since Christmas! It's so fun to watch her. She was in a performance about a month ago and I was amazed at how much better she is! I will attempt to attach the video to this blog entry, but if it doesn't work, I will try something else and let you know what the link is. She has just finished up 3rd quarter at school and she continues to do well. AJ and I are proud to say that she made the honor roll again! We are so blessed that she catches on easily! I think she has inherited her Daddy's brain for math-thank God! She loves math! She also loves to read, which I am thrilled about! I love to read too. She has improved so much with her reading since the beginning of the year! It's such a blessing!
AJ was able to get a little time off to go into Jenna's classroom and talk to her class about honeybees. He did a great job and the kids were so interested! He brought an observation hive along for the kids to see. They loved it!! They were all leaning on their desks trying to get as close as possible! They were able to get up and see the hive up close. AJ pointed out the queen bee for them. Of course, Jenna was right there, sharing her knowledge as well. I've posted some pictures.
AJ continues to be very busy at work. He has been working 6 days a week almost every week since the beginning of the year. Every time he thinks that maybe he will be off on a Saturday, something happens during the week that causes them to need to work. The weather has been part of the problem. It's been really rainy, not only this past week, but this whole winter in general! It's really frustrating. Winter is usually a dry time of year, but this year has been unusually wet! Fortunately, they have still been able to keep up their production of queen bees, so I guess they can tolerate a little bad weather.
Work for me has been good too. We have been really busy lately too. I'm still working around 30 hours a week instead of the 20 I was hired to work. I'm still able to get into Jenna's classroom, so working extra is tolerable. I have been given more patients to manage on my own, and it has proved to be a bit challenging. Taking care of the patients is the easy part, dealing with families and other people is the hard part!! Thankfully I work with wonderful people who are very supportive and don't mind me calling with all sorts of questions! I have been taking call through the night and one weekend day so far. Thankfully, it has not been too bad. So far, I have been able to handle everything that came up!
We had a great time with AJ's Mom and her husband. Their time here went sooo fast!! They did a lot of sightseeing on their own and took Jenna with them several days while she was on Spring Break. It worked great and we were so grateful that they could watch her for us! A couple of days that I was off, I went with them sightseeing. One day we went to Hilo, on the other side of the Island. We went across the Saddle Road, the road that goes in between two of the mountains-Mauna Loa (maw-naw low ah) and Mauna Kea (maw-naw kay ah). We drove up to the visitors center at Mauna Kea and could see snow on the top of the mountain. We couldn't go up to the top because we didn't have a 4WD vehicle. It was cool driving up as far as we did! We drove through clouds and it was really hard to see for a little while, and then all of the sudden we were above the clouds! The visitors center is at 9000 ft. It was interesting to see. It had been a long time since I had been there. The Saddle Road used to be really, really rough, but they have been re-doing the road and it is actually quite nice now! We drove past the barracks where Karen's husband Dave stayed while he was stationed in Hawaii 50 year ago. That was cool to see too!
After we left the mountain, we went to Hilo to see the waterfalls. We saw Rainbow Falls and Akaka Falls. It was raining or misting the whole time, so we got a little wet, but overall it was great! It had been raining a lot in Hilo and the falls were bigger than the last time I was there. I've posted a few pictures. We drove home going north over the Island and got to see the tropical rain forests, but it was raining so hard that we really couldn't see much at all!! Oh well...no rain, no rainbows...that's what Jenna and I always say! One good thing about the rain is that it occasionally clears the vog out of the air! When this happens, the sky is so clear and you can actually see a distinct line where the sky and ocean meet. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is when it always so voggy! It's like someone lifted a veil and everything is CRYSTAL CLEAR!! It's soooo beautiful! I've posted a picture of a great sunset after the rain. We don't get see that very often any more.
We took Karen and Dave to the beach a couple of days. We saw several sea turtles and Karen even learned how to snorkel! She did great! The day we were snorkeling with them, AJ, Jenna, Karen and I were standing in the water getting ready to snorkel and a big turtle swam RIGHT IN BETWEEN AJ and me!!! I had to move or it probably would have swam right into me! Jenna was so excited to see one that close up! We also took them to a luau. It was one that we hadn't been to before and we thought it was great! The food was fantastic! AJ bought his Mom a flower lei...he's so sweet! We had such a great time with them...it was hard to see them go!
We have adjusted again to life without visitors. We are expecting our next visitors in May. We are looking forward to entertaining again. We love sharing our home and our life here in Hawaii! We have been blessed beyond measure and we are so thankful!! I'll try not to be so long in between posts! Until next time...aloha!
Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus...what a glorious day!! We had a very nice, quiet day. We got up early-4:30am-and got ready to go to an all community service called the "Sonrise Service." It started at 6am down at the old airport. It was such a great service! There was lots of singing-in English and Hawaiian-, hula dancers, a "human video" put on by a youth group, and 3 short sermons, one in which all the children got to go up front and be involved in the sermon. Each child got a frisbee with the words "yes He can" written on it, to remind them that Jesus can do anything for them in their lives. It was a very cool service!! After this service, we went to our church for breakfast and then had our Easter service. It was very good as well. On Friday night we had a Good Friday service. AJ ran the sound booth and I sang a duet. Yes, I know..."you sang, Lynn???" Yes, I did. I'm not sure why I agreed to it since I'm not a very good singer and I get so nervous!! But, it actually went OK. The pastor's wife sang with me and she is very good.
Jenna went to an Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning and got a bunch of candy. She put her name in for a door prize and actually won a prize!! She won a huge box kite with Disney Princesses on it! She was so excited! AJ and I got her a shave ice machine for Easter. She loves shave ice and always wants to buy one whenever we are at a certain beach. Now she can make her own. She learned how to make a "steamer," a hot, flavored milk drink when our friends from Iowa were here. Now she knows how to make hot and cold drinks...she's just a regular little barista!!
We were home from church today by 10:30am and we were tired! AJ and I took naps while Jenna found the rest of the Easter eggs and bagged up all of her candy. After we all woke up we went snorkeling for a while. Once again, we were blessed to see several fish and turtles. Jenna is pretty much independent in snorkeling now. She has improved so much in the last two weeks! It's amazing!! She wears her life jacket and goes wherever she wants. She used to hang on to one of us or lay on our back...not any more! She swims confidently and FAST!! She moves both of her legs together like a mermaid and she can really swim fast! She's so cute when she sees a big fish...she tries to talk through her snorkel! Her favorite fish to find are the puffer fish and the state fish, which she has proudly learned how to pronouce--humuhumunukunukuapua'a--pronouned "hoo-moo-hoo-moo-noo-koo-noo-koo-ah-poo-ah-ah." She likes to see how fast she can say it. She can ususally say it faster than both AJ and me!
She continues to love hula. She has improved a lot since Christmas! It's so fun to watch her. She was in a performance about a month ago and I was amazed at how much better she is! I will attempt to attach the video to this blog entry, but if it doesn't work, I will try something else and let you know what the link is. She has just finished up 3rd quarter at school and she continues to do well. AJ and I are proud to say that she made the honor roll again! We are so blessed that she catches on easily! I think she has inherited her Daddy's brain for math-thank God! She loves math! She also loves to read, which I am thrilled about! I love to read too. She has improved so much with her reading since the beginning of the year! It's such a blessing!
AJ was able to get a little time off to go into Jenna's classroom and talk to her class about honeybees. He did a great job and the kids were so interested! He brought an observation hive along for the kids to see. They loved it!! They were all leaning on their desks trying to get as close as possible! They were able to get up and see the hive up close. AJ pointed out the queen bee for them. Of course, Jenna was right there, sharing her knowledge as well. I've posted some pictures.
AJ continues to be very busy at work. He has been working 6 days a week almost every week since the beginning of the year. Every time he thinks that maybe he will be off on a Saturday, something happens during the week that causes them to need to work. The weather has been part of the problem. It's been really rainy, not only this past week, but this whole winter in general! It's really frustrating. Winter is usually a dry time of year, but this year has been unusually wet! Fortunately, they have still been able to keep up their production of queen bees, so I guess they can tolerate a little bad weather.
Work for me has been good too. We have been really busy lately too. I'm still working around 30 hours a week instead of the 20 I was hired to work. I'm still able to get into Jenna's classroom, so working extra is tolerable. I have been given more patients to manage on my own, and it has proved to be a bit challenging. Taking care of the patients is the easy part, dealing with families and other people is the hard part!! Thankfully I work with wonderful people who are very supportive and don't mind me calling with all sorts of questions! I have been taking call through the night and one weekend day so far. Thankfully, it has not been too bad. So far, I have been able to handle everything that came up!
We had a great time with AJ's Mom and her husband. Their time here went sooo fast!! They did a lot of sightseeing on their own and took Jenna with them several days while she was on Spring Break. It worked great and we were so grateful that they could watch her for us! A couple of days that I was off, I went with them sightseeing. One day we went to Hilo, on the other side of the Island. We went across the Saddle Road, the road that goes in between two of the mountains-Mauna Loa (maw-naw low ah) and Mauna Kea (maw-naw kay ah). We drove up to the visitors center at Mauna Kea and could see snow on the top of the mountain. We couldn't go up to the top because we didn't have a 4WD vehicle. It was cool driving up as far as we did! We drove through clouds and it was really hard to see for a little while, and then all of the sudden we were above the clouds! The visitors center is at 9000 ft. It was interesting to see. It had been a long time since I had been there. The Saddle Road used to be really, really rough, but they have been re-doing the road and it is actually quite nice now! We drove past the barracks where Karen's husband Dave stayed while he was stationed in Hawaii 50 year ago. That was cool to see too!
After we left the mountain, we went to Hilo to see the waterfalls. We saw Rainbow Falls and Akaka Falls. It was raining or misting the whole time, so we got a little wet, but overall it was great! It had been raining a lot in Hilo and the falls were bigger than the last time I was there. I've posted a few pictures. We drove home going north over the Island and got to see the tropical rain forests, but it was raining so hard that we really couldn't see much at all!! Oh well...no rain, no rainbows...that's what Jenna and I always say! One good thing about the rain is that it occasionally clears the vog out of the air! When this happens, the sky is so clear and you can actually see a distinct line where the sky and ocean meet. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is when it always so voggy! It's like someone lifted a veil and everything is CRYSTAL CLEAR!! It's soooo beautiful! I've posted a picture of a great sunset after the rain. We don't get see that very often any more.
We took Karen and Dave to the beach a couple of days. We saw several sea turtles and Karen even learned how to snorkel! She did great! The day we were snorkeling with them, AJ, Jenna, Karen and I were standing in the water getting ready to snorkel and a big turtle swam RIGHT IN BETWEEN AJ and me!!! I had to move or it probably would have swam right into me! Jenna was so excited to see one that close up! We also took them to a luau. It was one that we hadn't been to before and we thought it was great! The food was fantastic! AJ bought his Mom a flower lei...he's so sweet! We had such a great time with them...it was hard to see them go!
We have adjusted again to life without visitors. We are expecting our next visitors in May. We are looking forward to entertaining again. We love sharing our home and our life here in Hawaii! We have been blessed beyond measure and we are so thankful!! I'll try not to be so long in between posts! Until next time...aloha!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Karen & Dave
Aloha! It's been a while again since I have blogged. I'm so sorry! It's been busy I guess. AJ's Mom and her husband are here now. It's been so great having them here! Jenna is on Spring Break next week and they are going to watch her for us. That is going to be great for all of them. They have been enjoying their time here so far.
Today we went to Jenna's favorite beach. Jenna and Karen played in the sand. Karen buried Jenna in the sand and of course she loved that! Karen learned how to snorkel. We saw about 4 turtles sunning themselves on the beach and several in the water. I never get tired of seeing the turtles! The whales put on a great show today! There were several of them flapping their pectoral fins and some of them breached several times in a row!! Unfortunately, I was sleeping on the beach and missed the whole thing!!! AJ said he tried to wake me, but I didn't hear him calling my name! Oh well. Thank God we live here...I have more chances to see them! I'm glad that Karen and Dave were able to see them.
Tomorrow after church we are going to one of our favorite beaches to go snorkeling. I hope that Karen does OK...there are so many beautiful fish to see there! She did great learning today-she's a natural! Sunday night we are going to a luau. That should be fun!
On Monday, Karen and Dave are planning to go to the Volcano. I'm off on Tuesday, so we are going to go Mauna Kea to see the snow on the mountain. Then we are going to go to Hilo to see the waterfalls. I'm looking forward to it! It's been 4 years since I have seen that side of the Island. I'll try and keep you posted on our adventures. Until next time...aloha!
Today we went to Jenna's favorite beach. Jenna and Karen played in the sand. Karen buried Jenna in the sand and of course she loved that! Karen learned how to snorkel. We saw about 4 turtles sunning themselves on the beach and several in the water. I never get tired of seeing the turtles! The whales put on a great show today! There were several of them flapping their pectoral fins and some of them breached several times in a row!! Unfortunately, I was sleeping on the beach and missed the whole thing!!! AJ said he tried to wake me, but I didn't hear him calling my name! Oh well. Thank God we live here...I have more chances to see them! I'm glad that Karen and Dave were able to see them.
Tomorrow after church we are going to one of our favorite beaches to go snorkeling. I hope that Karen does OK...there are so many beautiful fish to see there! She did great learning today-she's a natural! Sunday night we are going to a luau. That should be fun!
On Monday, Karen and Dave are planning to go to the Volcano. I'm off on Tuesday, so we are going to go Mauna Kea to see the snow on the mountain. Then we are going to go to Hilo to see the waterfalls. I'm looking forward to it! It's been 4 years since I have seen that side of the Island. I'll try and keep you posted on our adventures. Until next time...aloha!
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Jenna's Presentation!!
Hey, guess what!!?? I think I got Jenna's video to finally work! Praise God! Actually, my friend Julie helped me. I would have never figured it out on my own! I think if you just click on this link, it will bring to the page.
You will have to click on the title "Jenna's Presentation." Hopefully it will work. Please let me know either way. I apologize that I missed the first few sentences. (I was taking pictures of chickens, remember?!) She is explaining that her project is titled, "Can a Paperclip Float in the Air by Itself?" She says that she used magnets and how she set up her experiment. The video starts with her saying how she did the experiment. AJ and I are very proud to say that out of 12 kids her class that did science projects (the other 2 chose to do a history project), Jenna got 2nd place!! She got a nice big, red ribbon! She was so excited to tell us, she just squealed with delight! I posted a picture of her with her ribbon. I'm sorry to brag about it, but we are so proud of her and happy for her! I'm a little surprised that she was able to do so well, because we did the whole thing in such a hurry! She had her picture in the paper and a listing of all of the kids who won. I put the link to the local paper below if you care to look at it. Go to www.westhawaiitoday.com and in the search box enter "school and local." The article should come up.
OK, one more bit of bragging. Another school project that they had was for the Lions Club. The kids had to draw a picture using the title "Sight is Beautiful." Jenna drew a cute picture of a beach scene. She drew a palm tree, a hula girl, a crab, and a sandcastle. She got third place in her class. We were so happy for her! I posted pictures of that too.
Well, enough of that for today! Sorry for the lag in posting again! Life gets so busy sometimes! I will try not to have such a long time in between posts. Until next time...aloha!
You will have to click on the title "Jenna's Presentation." Hopefully it will work. Please let me know either way. I apologize that I missed the first few sentences. (I was taking pictures of chickens, remember?!) She is explaining that her project is titled, "Can a Paperclip Float in the Air by Itself?" She says that she used magnets and how she set up her experiment. The video starts with her saying how she did the experiment. AJ and I are very proud to say that out of 12 kids her class that did science projects (the other 2 chose to do a history project), Jenna got 2nd place!! She got a nice big, red ribbon! She was so excited to tell us, she just squealed with delight! I posted a picture of her with her ribbon. I'm sorry to brag about it, but we are so proud of her and happy for her! I'm a little surprised that she was able to do so well, because we did the whole thing in such a hurry! She had her picture in the paper and a listing of all of the kids who won. I put the link to the local paper below if you care to look at it. Go to www.westhawaiitoday.com and in the search box enter "school and local." The article should come up.
OK, one more bit of bragging. Another school project that they had was for the Lions Club. The kids had to draw a picture using the title "Sight is Beautiful." Jenna drew a cute picture of a beach scene. She drew a palm tree, a hula girl, a crab, and a sandcastle. She got third place in her class. We were so happy for her! I posted pictures of that too.
Well, enough of that for today! Sorry for the lag in posting again! Life gets so busy sometimes! I will try not to have such a long time in between posts. Until next time...aloha!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Daylight Savings Time
It seems early, but Daylight Savings Time is upon us again. That means it is a FIVE hour time difference from the midwest now! It might make it a bit more complicated to call each other, but it will work out. I guess we'll have to be more aware of the time.
The weather here has been really rainy lately. We've had rain for several days in a row and the forcast is for 3 more days for sure. The average rainfall for Kona in the month of March is 1-1/2 inches and we have easily reached that already! The one nice thing about rain on a Sunday afternoon is that is makes good napping weather! I fell asleep this afternoon and AJ, Jenna and some friends of ours went to the beach to go body surfing - in the rain! I woke up and the house was totally silent. All I could hear was the soft hush of rain hitting the covering over our lanai. It was so relaxing! I think God sends rain on Sundays so we can rest and observe the Sabbath! I certainly did my best today! I slept for 2 hours...it was great!
It's been raining so much in Hilo (the opposite side of the Island from us) that they have had mud slides and road closings! AJ said they got 7-1/2 inches of rain in one day this past week. There is a ton of new snow on the mountain. AJ and some friends were going to go to the summit today to see the observatories and play in the snow, but the road to the summit was closed due to snow and ice! The ranger said it will probably be closed tomorrow too! That's so weird to think of in Hawaii!!
I'm still trying to get Jenna's presentation to upload to my blog, but unfortunately I'm afraid that I will not be able to get it to work. I'm so bummed because she did such a great job and I wanted to share it with you! I will keep trying. So, until next time...aloha!
The weather here has been really rainy lately. We've had rain for several days in a row and the forcast is for 3 more days for sure. The average rainfall for Kona in the month of March is 1-1/2 inches and we have easily reached that already! The one nice thing about rain on a Sunday afternoon is that is makes good napping weather! I fell asleep this afternoon and AJ, Jenna and some friends of ours went to the beach to go body surfing - in the rain! I woke up and the house was totally silent. All I could hear was the soft hush of rain hitting the covering over our lanai. It was so relaxing! I think God sends rain on Sundays so we can rest and observe the Sabbath! I certainly did my best today! I slept for 2 hours...it was great!
It's been raining so much in Hilo (the opposite side of the Island from us) that they have had mud slides and road closings! AJ said they got 7-1/2 inches of rain in one day this past week. There is a ton of new snow on the mountain. AJ and some friends were going to go to the summit today to see the observatories and play in the snow, but the road to the summit was closed due to snow and ice! The ranger said it will probably be closed tomorrow too! That's so weird to think of in Hawaii!!
I'm still trying to get Jenna's presentation to upload to my blog, but unfortunately I'm afraid that I will not be able to get it to work. I'm so bummed because she did such a great job and I wanted to share it with you! I will keep trying. So, until next time...aloha!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Jenna's Science Fair project
Today at Jenna's school, they had a Science Fair. Each of the kids had to do a project and present it to the 3rd grade students and 3 judges. Jenna chose to do her project on magnets. She had to have a purpose, hypothosis, experiment (materials and steps in the experiment), results and summary. AJ and I thought this project was a little much to ask of a 2nd grader...it would be more appropriate for Jr High! The kids were supposed to do most of it themselves with little parental help. Jenna did do most of it herself. I guided her and gave her some direction. AJ was great with helping her with the presentation part of it. She asked the question...Can a paperclip float in the air by itself? She taped a string to a phone book and tied the other end of the string to a paperclip. Then she used the magnets to pull the paperclip into the air. She could pull the magnet away from the paperclip about 1 1/2 inches before the paperclip fell. We tried several magnets and measured the distance between the paperclip and the magnet. It was a lot of fun. She did her class presentation today. She did a really great job!! The teacher had a microphone for the kids, but didn't have it on for the first few kids. Fortunately she thought to check it right before Jenna started, so she got to use the mircophone. You could hear her a lot better that the other kids!
I taped it and posted it for you to watch. I apologize that I missed the first few sentences of her presentation. I had the camera in the wrong mode! I dropped her off at school and then parked and waited for the presentations to start since it was only an hour later. While I was waiting I saw a mother hen and her chicks in the parking lot. I took a picture of them and forgot to put the camera back into video mode!! Jenna started her presention and I realized that I wasn't taping. I still got most of it. You just miss her saying her name and what her project is about. You might need to turn the volume up all the way on your computer because it is kind of hard to hear. I could hear her really well in the classroom, but I guess the camera didn't pick the sound up very well. I hope you enjoy it!! I'll let you know if she gets a ribbon or something. Until next time...aloha!
I taped it and posted it for you to watch. I apologize that I missed the first few sentences of her presentation. I had the camera in the wrong mode! I dropped her off at school and then parked and waited for the presentations to start since it was only an hour later. While I was waiting I saw a mother hen and her chicks in the parking lot. I took a picture of them and forgot to put the camera back into video mode!! Jenna started her presention and I realized that I wasn't taping. I still got most of it. You just miss her saying her name and what her project is about. You might need to turn the volume up all the way on your computer because it is kind of hard to hear. I could hear her really well in the classroom, but I guess the camera didn't pick the sound up very well. I hope you enjoy it!! I'll let you know if she gets a ribbon or something. Until next time...aloha!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
6 MONTH ANNIVERSARY!
Can you believe we have lived in Hawaii for 6 months already?! Sometimes I can't believe it! The time has gone so fast, yet in a way it feels like we have always lived here. We love it here and have become so comfortable with our life. We're looking forward to exploring the islands more and learning as much as we can. We never know when this adventure may end!
We have enjoyed having visitors and look forward to seeing more of you here in the future! See you soon! Until next time...aloha!
We have enjoyed having visitors and look forward to seeing more of you here in the future! See you soon! Until next time...aloha!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Too busy!!
I can't believe how fast time goes! We have been really busy lately! We have had more visitors the past few weeks. We have visitors for the next little while too. We love having visitors but it changes our routine a bit!
AJ is still busy at work. Things are not slowing down like we thought it would. He is still working 6 days a week, 10-12 hours. I'll be so glad when things slow down for him!! He will too!
My job has been going great, but I have also been working more than I thought I would! I was hired to work 20 hours per week, but it has been more like 30 hours. One of my co-workers was gone last week, so I covered most of her patients. She is still going to be gone this week, so I will see her patients again. I am still supposed to be on orientation, but I have been on my own for the past two weeks. I know I can always call if I need help, so I guess it's OK.
I feel bad for our visitors because we have both been working so much, we have hardly seen them! Thankfully they have been understanding! We took some time last weekend and went to the beach. We saw 15 turtles on the beach! I've posted a few pictures.
Jenna is doing great! She loves having visitors and always wants to be the one to give them a tour of the house. She spent all day Saturday working on a project for the Science Fair at school this week. She did an experiment using magnets. She did a great job. It turned out pretty good! She has a pet fish now. It is a male betta that she named Rainbow. She loves her fish! She had a couple of sea snails that we brought home from the beach a few weeks ago, but they didn't last too long. I guess we should have left them in the ocean!!
Well, that's about it and I'm tired, so I'm going to sign off for now. So, until next time...aloha!
AJ is still busy at work. Things are not slowing down like we thought it would. He is still working 6 days a week, 10-12 hours. I'll be so glad when things slow down for him!! He will too!
My job has been going great, but I have also been working more than I thought I would! I was hired to work 20 hours per week, but it has been more like 30 hours. One of my co-workers was gone last week, so I covered most of her patients. She is still going to be gone this week, so I will see her patients again. I am still supposed to be on orientation, but I have been on my own for the past two weeks. I know I can always call if I need help, so I guess it's OK.
I feel bad for our visitors because we have both been working so much, we have hardly seen them! Thankfully they have been understanding! We took some time last weekend and went to the beach. We saw 15 turtles on the beach! I've posted a few pictures.
Jenna is doing great! She loves having visitors and always wants to be the one to give them a tour of the house. She spent all day Saturday working on a project for the Science Fair at school this week. She did an experiment using magnets. She did a great job. It turned out pretty good! She has a pet fish now. It is a male betta that she named Rainbow. She loves her fish! She had a couple of sea snails that we brought home from the beach a few weeks ago, but they didn't last too long. I guess we should have left them in the ocean!!
Well, that's about it and I'm tired, so I'm going to sign off for now. So, until next time...aloha!
Friday, February 13, 2009
Weather, work and more friends!
Well, another week has flown by! I can't believe how fast the time goes! In my last post, a friend of ours, a former resident of Hawaii, reminded me that winter is the dry season and summer is the wet season in Hawaii. While I did know that, I think Mother Nature is a bit confused! We have had a lot of rain lately! Some of the roads up the mountain from us have had to be closed due to flash flooding. Jenna and I saw sides of roads filled with water Friday on the way home from school. On Tuesday of this week, the road to the top of Mauna Kea (ma-naw kay-a) was closed because of snow! Also this week, there was a TORNADO on Oahu!! That is very, very rare as far as I know! There was some great footage on the news and quite a bit of damage! I guess you never know what kind of weather you might get over here! Kind of reminds me of the midwest! :-)
I have just completed my second week of work and things are going very well. I have been seeing a few patients on my own and I am beginning to feel comfortable with the computer system. Next week I will go with a different nurse and meet a whole different set of patients. I think I am going to be given "my own" patient (vs. sharing with another nurse) next week too so I can learn how to manage all aspects of their care by myself. I think it will be OK. Learning the policies and procedures is the hard part and hopefully being more on my own will help with that process.
AJ continues to be busy with Kona Queen, although he hasn't been working quite as long most days. He has been able to be home on the weekends, which is nice and he gets home a little earlier in the evening. We can dinner together as a family again!
Jenna is doing great in school. She made the honor roll again for 2nd quarter. We're very proud of her. She works very hard. She has started to go to the after school program now that I am working. She likes it. She has been able to get most of her homework done before I pick her up. That is a huge help!! She continues to take hula lessons and she likes that a lot.
We had a great time with our friends Dick and Jody. It was so great to have them here!! It worked out great and I think they had a good time. We went to a luau last Friday night. That was great! Last Saturday we went to South Point, the Black Sand Beach and the volcano. We saw several turtles at Black Sand Beach. We only had to walk about 3/4 of a mile to see the volcanic activity. There was a huge plume of smoke rising into the sky. The lava was flowing right into the ocean and occasionally you could see red hot lava flying into the air! It was quite a sight! I've posted some pictures of this too. On Sunday, we went kayaking across the Bay to the Captain Cook Monument to go snorkeling. The dolpohins were out in full force and they put on a fantastic show for us!! There were several pods of 10-20 dolphins (at least) swimming very close to us. They were jumping in the air, doing flips, spinning in the air, and slapping their tails against the water! It was SO COOL!!! I tried to get pictures, but it's hard to know when they are going to jump! AJ tried to get a few underwater pictures. They turned out OK. I posted the best ones. I never tire of seeing the dolphins! It is my favorite thing to do in Hawaii. After the dolphin show, we had the pleasure of seeing all of the beautiful fish while we snorkeled! What a treat! After we got back from snorkeling, we went to the beach and cooked burgers on the grill. We were hoping to see a few whales, but...no luck! Oh well, we had aleady had a fantastic day!!
We were sad to see Dick and Jody leave us on Thursday. We were very happy that they could come and spend some time with us! We have more visitors coming to see us in the next few weeks. Some for a night or two and some a little longer. We look forward to everyone's arrival! We are praying for safe flights and good weather!! That's the latest update, so until next time...aloha!
I have just completed my second week of work and things are going very well. I have been seeing a few patients on my own and I am beginning to feel comfortable with the computer system. Next week I will go with a different nurse and meet a whole different set of patients. I think I am going to be given "my own" patient (vs. sharing with another nurse) next week too so I can learn how to manage all aspects of their care by myself. I think it will be OK. Learning the policies and procedures is the hard part and hopefully being more on my own will help with that process.
AJ continues to be busy with Kona Queen, although he hasn't been working quite as long most days. He has been able to be home on the weekends, which is nice and he gets home a little earlier in the evening. We can dinner together as a family again!
Jenna is doing great in school. She made the honor roll again for 2nd quarter. We're very proud of her. She works very hard. She has started to go to the after school program now that I am working. She likes it. She has been able to get most of her homework done before I pick her up. That is a huge help!! She continues to take hula lessons and she likes that a lot.
We had a great time with our friends Dick and Jody. It was so great to have them here!! It worked out great and I think they had a good time. We went to a luau last Friday night. That was great! Last Saturday we went to South Point, the Black Sand Beach and the volcano. We saw several turtles at Black Sand Beach. We only had to walk about 3/4 of a mile to see the volcanic activity. There was a huge plume of smoke rising into the sky. The lava was flowing right into the ocean and occasionally you could see red hot lava flying into the air! It was quite a sight! I've posted some pictures of this too. On Sunday, we went kayaking across the Bay to the Captain Cook Monument to go snorkeling. The dolpohins were out in full force and they put on a fantastic show for us!! There were several pods of 10-20 dolphins (at least) swimming very close to us. They were jumping in the air, doing flips, spinning in the air, and slapping their tails against the water! It was SO COOL!!! I tried to get pictures, but it's hard to know when they are going to jump! AJ tried to get a few underwater pictures. They turned out OK. I posted the best ones. I never tire of seeing the dolphins! It is my favorite thing to do in Hawaii. After the dolphin show, we had the pleasure of seeing all of the beautiful fish while we snorkeled! What a treat! After we got back from snorkeling, we went to the beach and cooked burgers on the grill. We were hoping to see a few whales, but...no luck! Oh well, we had aleady had a fantastic day!!
We were sad to see Dick and Jody leave us on Thursday. We were very happy that they could come and spend some time with us! We have more visitors coming to see us in the next few weeks. Some for a night or two and some a little longer. We look forward to everyone's arrival! We are praying for safe flights and good weather!! That's the latest update, so until next time...aloha!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Work, weather & friends
I have officially worked 2 days plus a few extra hours. On Monday, I just did paperwork and orientation stuff. Not as boring as I thought it would be. There was another gal that started the same day as me. She is also an RN that will be working per diem (as needed). She and I are the same age and have a lot in common. We hit it off right away! It will be fun to work with her...hopefully I will be able to see her once we are done with orientation. On Wednesday, I met again with the nursing supervisor and went over policies and hospice Medicare criteria. That was a little dry. Thankfully I had heard most of it before at the Health Department, so it wasn't all foreign! After meeting with the supervisor, we went to a staff meeting where we did chart audits. Not a fun job at all! But it helps me to see what needs to be done. Then we attended another meeting! This one was with the whole team (nurses, CNAs, social worker, counselor, and MD) We discussed how the patients are doing and what needs they have. That was pretty interesting. Another nurse and I left this meeting early to go and admit a patient. That was a good experience. The process is basically the same as what I did in Darlington. I just have to learn their paperwork. They do most of their charting on computer, so I have to learn that program too. I was supposed to be off today (Thursday) but I went in for a couple of hours so that I could see how to enter all of the data into the computer and see how to finish the admission paperwork. Tomorrow I am going on 2 visits with a nurse and then I am going on two visits by myself! That's pretty quick, but I think I am comfortable with the visits. The paperwork and computer will be the biggest challenge.
We have our first visitors of 2009 here now. Dick and Jody Tuescher are here for 9 days. They have been pretty much on their own since they got here since I started working this week, but I think they are having fun. Last night we took them to Huggos on the Rocks, the restaurant by the water that we like to go to. Friday night we are going to a luau, Saturday to Volcano and Sunday kayaking and snorkeling. It should be fun! I'm looking forward to going to Volcano. We haven't been there yet since we moved and I'm curious to see what the lava is doing. When we were here in 2007, the lava was running on top of the ground and we were able to hike to it. We got some really great pictures! I hope we are as lucky this time!
I'm going to talk about the weather now, so if you don't want to hear about it, quit reading now!! As you are well aware, it is winter. Winter in Hawaii is hardly winter! The ocean gets quite a bit rougher and it rains a bit more, but that's about it. If you ask someone who has lived here for a while, especially those who have lived here all their life, it gets darn right cold in the winter!! AJ and I have laughed several times seeing how people react to the weather! It might get down to 66 or 68 degrees at night, maybe even 62 farther up the mountain, but that's about as cold as it gets. You'd think it was 30 the way people dress over here! I have seen so many people wearing sweaters, coats, sweatshirts, and even stocking caps in the morning!! It's so funny to us! These people have no idea what cold weather really is! Actually some people have said to us, "How do you live in that kind of weather?" When I tell people that I am from WI, sometimes all they say is ooohhhh. Like they feel sorry for me or something! It's pretty funny. Anyway, I hope winter is being a little nicer to all of you enduring it! We'll try and send some warm weather that way!!
That's the latest update. I'll let you know how work is going and how our weekend went next week. So until next time...aloha!
We have our first visitors of 2009 here now. Dick and Jody Tuescher are here for 9 days. They have been pretty much on their own since they got here since I started working this week, but I think they are having fun. Last night we took them to Huggos on the Rocks, the restaurant by the water that we like to go to. Friday night we are going to a luau, Saturday to Volcano and Sunday kayaking and snorkeling. It should be fun! I'm looking forward to going to Volcano. We haven't been there yet since we moved and I'm curious to see what the lava is doing. When we were here in 2007, the lava was running on top of the ground and we were able to hike to it. We got some really great pictures! I hope we are as lucky this time!
I'm going to talk about the weather now, so if you don't want to hear about it, quit reading now!! As you are well aware, it is winter. Winter in Hawaii is hardly winter! The ocean gets quite a bit rougher and it rains a bit more, but that's about it. If you ask someone who has lived here for a while, especially those who have lived here all their life, it gets darn right cold in the winter!! AJ and I have laughed several times seeing how people react to the weather! It might get down to 66 or 68 degrees at night, maybe even 62 farther up the mountain, but that's about as cold as it gets. You'd think it was 30 the way people dress over here! I have seen so many people wearing sweaters, coats, sweatshirts, and even stocking caps in the morning!! It's so funny to us! These people have no idea what cold weather really is! Actually some people have said to us, "How do you live in that kind of weather?" When I tell people that I am from WI, sometimes all they say is ooohhhh. Like they feel sorry for me or something! It's pretty funny. Anyway, I hope winter is being a little nicer to all of you enduring it! We'll try and send some warm weather that way!!
That's the latest update. I'll let you know how work is going and how our weekend went next week. So until next time...aloha!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
GOOD NEWS!!
I got the job!!! I was notified yesterday that I was hired. I'm so happy! The job is with Hospice of Kona. It will be a part time job. I will be responsible for case managing 4 or 5 patients. I start on Monday, Feb. 2. I'm really looking forward to working with Hospice. I was able to work in Hospice a little when I worked at the Health Departmetn and I really liked it. I have heard wonderful things about this organization, so I am happy to be a part of it.
The other really great thing about this job is that because it is part time, I will still be able to go into Jenna's classroom and help with projects. I went in today to help and the next two weeks will be Valentine's Day projects. It should be fun!
That's all I know for now. I will keep you posted on how the job is going. So, until next time...aloha!
The other really great thing about this job is that because it is part time, I will still be able to go into Jenna's classroom and help with projects. I went in today to help and the next two weeks will be Valentine's Day projects. It should be fun!
That's all I know for now. I will keep you posted on how the job is going. So, until next time...aloha!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
No word yet!
Hello! I'm sorry that it has been a while since I have written. There hasn't been too much to report. I'm still waiting to hear from Hospice of Kona. I thought that I would hear last week since I told them when I interviewed that they could contact my references and do a background check. I even offered to sign the paperwork, but the gal that interviewed me wanted to wait to talk to the director. I guess I can understand that. So last week on Tuesday I got an email asking me to sign for permission to do a background check. It wouldn't work online so I had to print it off and fax it back to them on Wednesday. On Thursday, I got another email asking for permission to contact my former employers. I had to print that off and sign it and AJ faxed that back on Friday! So, now it's Wednesday again and I am still waiting to hear from them! I know that they are busy, but I really thought that I would know by now! I am learning that things operate a little slower in Hawaii!! That's not all bad...I think we could all use a slower pace sometimes!
AJ has continued to be very busy at work. Hopefully this will be the last week of really long days. He actually had last Saturday off! Jenna and I were really happy about that! AJ wanted to do something so we decided to go explore a place called the Wiapi'o Valley (why-pee-o). It's a place in the northern part of the Island. There is a lookout over the valley and you can see along the coast for a long way! It's very beautiful! It was a little cloudy when we were there, but that's normal this time of year. Also, it rains a lot in this part of the Island, so we were actually lucky that we didn't get rained on! You can go down into the valley, but only if you walk or have 4-wheel drive. The road is at a 25% grade! It drops 900 feet in less than a mile! We took AJ's truck down VERY slowly!! It was ok, but a little scary. The road is not very wide and in places there is only room for one vehicle at a time, so they have "wide spots" in the road for you to pull over and let the trucks coming up the hill go first. Very interesting! Once you get to the bottom there is a really rough road to drive on to get to the beach. It's a black sand beach and the area is very pretty. Since it is winter, the ocean is really rough and the waves were huge! It's fun to watch them come crashing into shore. Jenna had a ball playing in the sand! She found a big stick that she used to write her name in the sand make a trail for me to follow. After we played in the sand for a while, we drove back into the valley. Again, the road was very rough and it had about 4 stream crossings to go through. I've posted a few pictures of how deep the water was. When you get back far enough into the valley there are HUGE, beautiful waterfalls!! The biggest one is 1450 feet, with 1200 feet of it being free falling! There are trails that you can take to hike back to the waterfall. That is something that we want to do in the future. Anyone that comes to visit and wants to do something adventurous and "non-tourist-y," this is for you! There are actually several places to hike in this valley. One of the other ones that we are interested in would probably take most of the day and we would camp overnight. Jenna is not big enough for this hike yet, so we will wait a couple of years.
Jenna is doing great! She has been invited to a couple of birthday parties. Both of the places had pools, so she got to swim for a whole day at both parties! She loved that! She is doing great in school. I have been fortunate enough to be able to go into her classroom on Thursday afternoons to help with art projects. I think that I will be able to continue doing this after I start working too. I think the job will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday with an occasional weekend on call. That's if I get hired, of course!! I hope to hear soon, so I will let you know! So, until next time...aloha!
AJ has continued to be very busy at work. Hopefully this will be the last week of really long days. He actually had last Saturday off! Jenna and I were really happy about that! AJ wanted to do something so we decided to go explore a place called the Wiapi'o Valley (why-pee-o). It's a place in the northern part of the Island. There is a lookout over the valley and you can see along the coast for a long way! It's very beautiful! It was a little cloudy when we were there, but that's normal this time of year. Also, it rains a lot in this part of the Island, so we were actually lucky that we didn't get rained on! You can go down into the valley, but only if you walk or have 4-wheel drive. The road is at a 25% grade! It drops 900 feet in less than a mile! We took AJ's truck down VERY slowly!! It was ok, but a little scary. The road is not very wide and in places there is only room for one vehicle at a time, so they have "wide spots" in the road for you to pull over and let the trucks coming up the hill go first. Very interesting! Once you get to the bottom there is a really rough road to drive on to get to the beach. It's a black sand beach and the area is very pretty. Since it is winter, the ocean is really rough and the waves were huge! It's fun to watch them come crashing into shore. Jenna had a ball playing in the sand! She found a big stick that she used to write her name in the sand make a trail for me to follow. After we played in the sand for a while, we drove back into the valley. Again, the road was very rough and it had about 4 stream crossings to go through. I've posted a few pictures of how deep the water was. When you get back far enough into the valley there are HUGE, beautiful waterfalls!! The biggest one is 1450 feet, with 1200 feet of it being free falling! There are trails that you can take to hike back to the waterfall. That is something that we want to do in the future. Anyone that comes to visit and wants to do something adventurous and "non-tourist-y," this is for you! There are actually several places to hike in this valley. One of the other ones that we are interested in would probably take most of the day and we would camp overnight. Jenna is not big enough for this hike yet, so we will wait a couple of years.
Jenna is doing great! She has been invited to a couple of birthday parties. Both of the places had pools, so she got to swim for a whole day at both parties! She loved that! She is doing great in school. I have been fortunate enough to be able to go into her classroom on Thursday afternoons to help with art projects. I think that I will be able to continue doing this after I start working too. I think the job will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday with an occasional weekend on call. That's if I get hired, of course!! I hope to hear soon, so I will let you know! So, until next time...aloha!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Still waiting
Hello! I had a second interview with Hospice of Kona, the company I am hopefully going to start working for soon. I interviewed on Friday afternoon and I think it went well. They are now checking references and doing a background check on me. That should all turn out OK (at least I hope it does!) :-) I am hoping to get a call this week one way or the other. I will hopefully start working next week. I'm excited about it! I liked working in hospice when I was at the Health Department. I find it very rewarding.
The big storm that I told you about in the last post never came. If you remember, all of the schools on Oahu, Kauai, Maui, and Lanai were cancelled because of this big storm that was predicted. They were expecting winds up to 60mph, but I think the worst it got was 40mph. I guess winds at 70mph are "lower hurricane force" winds. So the kids got a 4-day weekend because they didn't have school today either in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. day.
AJ continues to be very busy, working very long days, six days a week. This is the busiest time of the year. Hopefully things will start to slow down in a couple of weeks.
That's all that's new for now, so until next time...aloha!
The big storm that I told you about in the last post never came. If you remember, all of the schools on Oahu, Kauai, Maui, and Lanai were cancelled because of this big storm that was predicted. They were expecting winds up to 60mph, but I think the worst it got was 40mph. I guess winds at 70mph are "lower hurricane force" winds. So the kids got a 4-day weekend because they didn't have school today either in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. day.
AJ continues to be very busy, working very long days, six days a week. This is the busiest time of the year. Hopefully things will start to slow down in a couple of weeks.
That's all that's new for now, so until next time...aloha!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Jenna's 8th Birthday and MORE
I'm baaaaack!! Yes, I know...finally!!! We have been busy, but honestly, I just haven't felt like taking the time to write. I needed a little break, I guess. Well, because I've taken so much time off, I have a lot to say so be prepared! On January 6 our little Jenna turned 8 years old!! I can't believe it!! Time goes sooooo fast!! We had a great day. She invited 2 friends over and I took them to the beach. They had lunch, played in the water and played in the sand. They had a great time. I've posted a few pictures. Her two friends are Enjolique (0n-jo-leek) and Eunjean (oon-jean). She had to pick the two girls with the most difficult names to pronounce! :-) I kept getting them mixed up all day! We stayed at the beach for several hours and then headed back to the house. It was also Sandy's birthday (Gus's wife). We had planned to have dinner with Gus and Sandy so that the "birthday sisters" could celebrate together. Sandy's parents were in town and so was a friend of Gus's, so they all came too! We ended up with 7 adults and 3 kids for dinner. It was kind of busy, but it all worked out great. Jenna kept telling me all day that it didn't feel like her birthday, but I think by the time she opened her gifts and had birthday cake, it felt like her birthday. She said she had a great day! Mission accomplished! She is such a blessing to us! She is a great kid (I'm a little biased, I know, but I'm the Mom, I can do that!) :-)
Last Sunday we had a nasty storm blow through (nothing like the midwest is getting, I realize that, but humor me here, OK?) We were watching it come across the ocean. You could actually see the line of rain. All of the sudden the winds picked up and it started pouring down rain!! Thank goodness we were still home! We were just getting ready to leave for church when the storm hit. We were able to get all of the windows shut before everything got wet. We moved the patio furniture on the lanai (deck) against the house, and good thing because the wind blew the rain half way across it!! I heard later that the winds at the airport were about 33 miles per hour! There were trees and branches and leaves everywhere! There was some flash flooding too I guess. Some people actually missed church because it was "too bad" to go out! AJ and I thought that was kind of funny! If they only knew how bad a "winter storm" could really be!! We were told that this was a winter storm for Hawaii. I can handle a little wind and rain! But, I guess when it rains really hard there can be mud slides and flash flooding, so people stay home to make sure everything is OK. On top of the mountain (Mauna Kea) they got 6 inches of snow. They actually had to close the roads leading up to the mountain. Now that's something you don't hear of too often in Hawaii!!
While we were watching the storm on the ocean, we could see whales coming out of the water and slapping their flippers on the water. We could see them with the "naked" eye, but we could see them a lot better with the biloculars. It was pretty cool to see!
AJ has been really busy at work. They are busy starting the process of filling the 26,000 little hives for raising queen bees. He has been gone at least 12+ hours a day, and working Saturdays too. Fortunately this process will last only a couple more weeks. After that, he should be back to regular hours. Jenna and I will be glad to have him back with us for dinner at night!
I have good news! I have applied for a position as a Hospice nurse and have had one interview. I think it went really well. I have another interview on Friday afternoon. Hopefully after that I will be offered the job! It would be part time. I really hope that I get it. It sounds like a great company.
AJ and I are watching the news right now. There is more bad weather on the way! They are talking about winds from 30-50 miles per hour with wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour!! They have already cancelled school on the entire islands of Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and Lani'i!! The Big Island is supposedly going to be OK. I hope so! The waves have been crashing really hard lately! We can easily hear them from our house.
Hawaii switched to digital TV today. It sounds like everything went OK. I'm glad the switch is over. I'm getting tired of hearing about it!! Well, I think I have finally gotten everyone up to date. I'm sorry again for the delay. I'll try to write sooner the next time, so until then...aloha!
Last Sunday we had a nasty storm blow through (nothing like the midwest is getting, I realize that, but humor me here, OK?) We were watching it come across the ocean. You could actually see the line of rain. All of the sudden the winds picked up and it started pouring down rain!! Thank goodness we were still home! We were just getting ready to leave for church when the storm hit. We were able to get all of the windows shut before everything got wet. We moved the patio furniture on the lanai (deck) against the house, and good thing because the wind blew the rain half way across it!! I heard later that the winds at the airport were about 33 miles per hour! There were trees and branches and leaves everywhere! There was some flash flooding too I guess. Some people actually missed church because it was "too bad" to go out! AJ and I thought that was kind of funny! If they only knew how bad a "winter storm" could really be!! We were told that this was a winter storm for Hawaii. I can handle a little wind and rain! But, I guess when it rains really hard there can be mud slides and flash flooding, so people stay home to make sure everything is OK. On top of the mountain (Mauna Kea) they got 6 inches of snow. They actually had to close the roads leading up to the mountain. Now that's something you don't hear of too often in Hawaii!!
While we were watching the storm on the ocean, we could see whales coming out of the water and slapping their flippers on the water. We could see them with the "naked" eye, but we could see them a lot better with the biloculars. It was pretty cool to see!
AJ has been really busy at work. They are busy starting the process of filling the 26,000 little hives for raising queen bees. He has been gone at least 12+ hours a day, and working Saturdays too. Fortunately this process will last only a couple more weeks. After that, he should be back to regular hours. Jenna and I will be glad to have him back with us for dinner at night!
I have good news! I have applied for a position as a Hospice nurse and have had one interview. I think it went really well. I have another interview on Friday afternoon. Hopefully after that I will be offered the job! It would be part time. I really hope that I get it. It sounds like a great company.
AJ and I are watching the news right now. There is more bad weather on the way! They are talking about winds from 30-50 miles per hour with wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour!! They have already cancelled school on the entire islands of Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and Lani'i!! The Big Island is supposedly going to be OK. I hope so! The waves have been crashing really hard lately! We can easily hear them from our house.
Hawaii switched to digital TV today. It sounds like everything went OK. I'm glad the switch is over. I'm getting tired of hearing about it!! Well, I think I have finally gotten everyone up to date. I'm sorry again for the delay. I'll try to write sooner the next time, so until then...aloha!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and are getting the new year off to a good start! We had a great time in Wisconsin over Christmas. The time went way too fast but we really enjoyed seeing so many people. The weather of course, was typically Wisconsin weather. We saw everything from above zero to below zero to nasty wind chills, to rain, ice, fog, and sunshine!! It was crazy! We certainly don't miss that kind of weather! We have different kinds of weather to aware of in Hawaii. Believe it or not, it's not always sunny! Shocking, I know! Hawaii has had a lot of rain lately, causing severe flooding and mud slides. Fortunately, it has not affected us as much as the islands north of us. While we were in Wisconsin there was a power outage on Oahu (where Honolulu is) that lasted anywhere from 6-17 hours! The whole island was affected! Barack Obama happened to be in Honolulu at the time, vacationing with his family. He was offered a generator, but declined.
Speaking of Obama, our realtor was telling me about someone she knows who was visiting Honolulu. This gal was walking on the beach when all of the sudden these guys in black suits, black shoes (in the sand!) and dark sunglasses came up and told her she needed to turn around. Appearently, she was getting too close to where Obama and his family were playing on the beach!! You'd think the Secret Service would try and disguise themselves a little better! Or at least wear something a little more relaxing! They are on the beach afterall!!
We had a very boring, relaxing New Years Eve. We were still a little jet lagged, so we were pretty tired. Jenna wanted to stay up until midnight so bad! But she only made it until 9:00. The night before she and AJ were both alseep by 7:00! We're on track much better now!
We are in the process on planning Jenna's birthday. She has big plans and AJ and I are trying to downsize those plans a bit! Gus's wife Sandy has the same birthday as Jenna, so we will probably do something with them. Jenna likes getting together with her "birthday sister." I'll let you know what we end up doing, so until next time...aloha!
Speaking of Obama, our realtor was telling me about someone she knows who was visiting Honolulu. This gal was walking on the beach when all of the sudden these guys in black suits, black shoes (in the sand!) and dark sunglasses came up and told her she needed to turn around. Appearently, she was getting too close to where Obama and his family were playing on the beach!! You'd think the Secret Service would try and disguise themselves a little better! Or at least wear something a little more relaxing! They are on the beach afterall!!
We had a very boring, relaxing New Years Eve. We were still a little jet lagged, so we were pretty tired. Jenna wanted to stay up until midnight so bad! But she only made it until 9:00. The night before she and AJ were both alseep by 7:00! We're on track much better now!
We are in the process on planning Jenna's birthday. She has big plans and AJ and I are trying to downsize those plans a bit! Gus's wife Sandy has the same birthday as Jenna, so we will probably do something with them. Jenna likes getting together with her "birthday sister." I'll let you know what we end up doing, so until next time...aloha!
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