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!