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!