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!
Hawaiian Sunset at Hapuna Beach
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
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!
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