Another week gone by!!

I can't believe that a whole week has passed again! I'm sorry for being so long in between posts! It seems like there is always something going on. I continue to go into Jenna's classroom to help with projects. She is studying American Indians right now. Last week I went in and showed the kids how to make Indian headbands. This week I showed the kids how to make necklaces from salad macaroni. I spray painted the macaroni purple and then the kids were able to use purple and white macaroni to make their necklaces. As usual, it was so fun! I just love going into her room. She has a project to make again like she did for Colonial Day. We decided not to make such an elaborate project this time. She decided to make a necklace out of clay. The necklace is made of "bear claws", "bones" and beads. She did a great job making it. I had to help her a little, but she did most of it. It so much faster and easier than her Colonial Day project!! She is in a play this week. We made her an Indian outfit from an old pillow case I bought at a garage sale. We dyed it brown and it actually turned out pretty good! She is going to wear her dress, the headband that she made and the necklace that she made. I'll take some pictures and post them. She has 5 lines. She is really nervous, but I think she will do great! I'm really hoping that she has her Dad's public speaking abilities and not mine!! I usually get so nervous, I get nauseous!I'm going to video tape it and try to post it. Hopefully I'll be able to figure it out.

Jenna is also in the Christmas program for school and for church. I'm not really sure what she is doing for school, but for church she is an animal and then an angel. The kids are singing a bunch of songs too. I'll tape it and try to post this too. I decided to join the Christmas choir this year...................................................................................................................................I was waiting for the laughter to subside! I'm really not a good singer, but I like to sing so I thought I would give it a try. My wonderful husband told me that if they don't like me, they can always ask me to leave! Thanks for the vote of confidence AJ!! I started off thinking I could sing soprano, but it was way too high for me. I'm singing alto now, which is much better! I find myself switching from alto to soprano sometimes, but it's getting better. I'm just glad I can be with a group. I would never attempt to sing by myself in front of a crowd! That would be really cruel!! I'm sure I would scare everyone away!

On Saturday of this past weekend we went to a fund-raising concert and dinner. It was to raise money to help take care of the beach that we call "Turtle Beach." This is the beach that I wrote about in my last post; the one I saw the turtle at. It was a really fun evening. They had a comedian perform several times. He was pretty good. There was a group of students from area high schools that played the drums. They were amazing! They used really big sticks and just did a phenomenal job! Jenna had her hands covering her ears the entire time. It was too loud for her. There was a trio of 2 guys and a girl that sang for a while, and then these two guys finished the concert. The two guys were from Honolulu and they were called Hapa (haw-paw). They were unbelieveable!! The one guy was a Hawaiian and he could sing so high is was amazing! Actually the guys from the other group could sing really high too. It was so amazing to see this big Hawaiian guy, looking big and tough and then to hear this high pitched voice come out of him! They could all sing much, much higher than I could ever dream of singing! The Hawaiian guy in the group Hapa sang this one song falsetto and when he was done his partner was joking that he was wearing really tight underware! It was pretty funny! The other guy in this group played the guitar like a mad man!! He pounded on those strings so hard and fast it was amazing that he could even get one note right! He played so intensely that you could see the veins and muscles sticking out from his neck! He actually did break a string at one point, but he changed it so fast that he hardly missed a beat! They were really, really, really good! I could have listened to them for a lot longer!

AJ continues to enjoy his work. Today he worked with a guy from South Africa and another guy from Mondova, which is near Russia. It's pretty cool for him to work with people from all over the world. He gets to learn about them and their culture, which he then shares with me and Jenna. On Thankgiving, Gus is having his employees over to his house for dinner. I'm looking forward to meeting all of the people that AJ talks about everyday. I think it will be fun to meet them and get to know them a little.

I promise I will try to post something a little more often. Jenna's play is Wednesday, so I'll try and figure out how to post it right away. So until next time...aloha!

BIG Weekend!

It's so hard for me to believe that it is the middle of November! It certainly doesn't seem like it since we are not experiencing Wisconsin weather! Honestly, I don't miss the cold and snow! It's just hard to keep track of time when the weather doesn't change. A guy at church this morning told us that we can track the change of season by noticing which flowers are blooming. We'll have to learn about that I guess.

Well, for those of you who don't know, my birthday was Saturday and our 12 year anniversary was on Sunday. We had a very nice weekend. Jenna has been more excited about my birthday than me. She talked about it all week! She kept asking how many more days until Saturday. On Friday on the way to school, Jenna said to me, "Mom, you only have 24 more hours to be 36." Gee thanks for the reminder Jenna! On the way home from school, she asked how many more hours until Saturday. I said 9. She again reminded me how many hours I had left before I was older! She's so sweet!! On Saturday morning I went for a run. Last weekend I ran 4 miles and I felt pretty good, so I figured I should be able to run 5 miles this weekend. For some reason, I struggled a little after about 3 miles. I really wanted to quit, but I kept going and finished! I was telling AJ about it after I got back and he so lovingly said, "Well you ARE a year older now!" Isn't my family great! They're almost as bad as my friend Dave who is always harassing me about my age. You'll catch me in one month Dave! Yes, I know that I will aways be older, but I'll always be WISER too!! I was talking to my Dad a few days ago and I was telling him that I can't believe that I am going to be 37! How did that happen so fast?! I can't believe that I'm so close to 40...40! when I feel like I'm still 27! Oh well, I guess that's life. It's better than the alternative!

We decided to go to the beach for a while. Unfortuately we left in such a hurry that we forgot the sunscreen and towels! We weren't able to stay too long, but we had fun while we were there! We went snorkeling and it was amazing! AJ went out first and saw a huge sea turtle, but when I went out, I couldn't find it. I was so disappointed! I played with Jenna for a little while and then went back out in search of the turtle. This time I found it! It was so cool!! It was huge!! AJ thinks that it was about 2 1/2 feet long. I found it in a shallow area eating off of the rocks on the bottom of the ocean. It was so amazing to watch. I stayed for a long time just watching it move across the bottom of the ocean. It would ebb and flow with the movement of the tide. It was so graceful and used it's back flippers to push itself along the bottom. Once in a while it would come to the surface to get a breath of air. I could have stayed there for hours watching it! There were also a ton of fish swimming in the area. They were all so beautiful! They were all different sizes and colors. I saw a little black fish with white dots on it, which I think was a puffer fish. There were several black, yellow and white fish - the same colors, just in different patterns. There were multi-colored fish, black fish, and long, skinny silver fish, just to name a few. It was so cool. I just love snorkeling! My favorite thing that I saw that day (besides the turtle) was watching the sunlight reflect through the water. It was so amazing! I have been trying to think of how to describe it, but I just can't come up with the right words...it was like a stain glass window with the sun shining through on a bright, sunny day. It was like the sunlight was dancing on the rocks below in odd, asymmetical, square-like shapes. It was so beautiful. I really didn't want to leave, but AJ and Jenna were probably wondering what was taking me so long, so I thought I should head back to shore.

We were able to get Jenna to snorkel a little bit too. AJ held her and she laid across her boogie board so she could snorkel. She saw a few of the black and yellow fish. There were pretty close to her and she was getting scared they would touch her, so she wanted to go back to shore. We were happy with what she did. It's the most snorkeling she has done in water where she couldn't stand up. Hopefully she'll have a little more courage the next time she's out there.

We ran a few errands and then went out for dinner Saturday evening. It was really nice. AJ and Jenna bought me a flower lei made of plumaria flowers, which are my favorite. It was so pretty! I also got a new pair of sunglasses. My old pair were in really bad shape. Jenna bought me a small jewelry box made of shells and a key chain with a hula girl on it. It was very sweet!

We had a pretty quiet day for our anniversary. We went to church and took naps after lunch. We watched the Packers win and the Bears lose! That was a gift in itself! We were planning to go to a seafood buffet for dinner, but Jenna's friend called and invited her to go swimming, so we decided to postpone the buffet until Friday. Can you believe it's been 12 years already? Time goes so fast! I remember the day we got married. It was a very nice day for November in the midwest. It was 45 degrees! But by that night, it was raining really hard and the wind was blowing the rain horizontally! It was crazy! This is definately the warmest weather I've ever had for my birthday or anniversary! It was a very nice day. I'll write more tomorrow, so until then...aloha!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN!!

Today I am dedicating by blog post to my nephew Ben in Cuba City. He is 9 years old today! Happy Birthday Ben!! He and Jenna are good friends and we all miss him a lot! We look forward to seeing you at Christmas Ben! Have a great day!! We love you! Jenna is starting hula lessons tonight. Maybe she can teach you what she has learned when we see you in December! So until then...aloha!

Murder on the lanai!

Well, I can't believe that another week has gone by! Time goes so fast!! Time is confusing enough for me right now without it going so fast!! It's so hard for us to really know what time of year it is since we haven't experienced the seasons changing this year! I can't bellieve that it is the 10th of November already! Oh well! I guess there is nothing I can do about it!

In case you are wondering about my title today, allow me to explain. A few nights ago we were sitting on the lanai (deck, for those of you who don't remember) eating dinner. We were watching a little baby, brown gecko crawling across the rafters. It was small, maybe an inch or an inch and a half. We also saw a larger green gecko on the rafters. All of the sudden the baby gecko stopped moving. The green gecko was only a few inches away from it. He stopped moving too and just stared at the baby gecko. Then, in the blink of an eye, the green gecko snapped up the baby gecko in its mouth!! I couldn't believe it!!! I said (rather loudly) "He just ate it!" AJ said "Yes, and now all the neighbors know too." We have been told that the green geckos are agressive toward the brown ones, but I thought they just meant they chased them or something. I never would have guessed that they ATE them for dinner!! It makes me look at my little gecko friend from the marketplace a little differently! Poor little thing. Jenna is now on a mission to scare away the green geckos whenever a brown gecko is around!

I forgot to tell you that I saw the first whale of the season last weekend! When we went to the "Movie-star beach," I was standing in the water watching Jenna try and "surf" on her boogie board, I saw a humpback whale breech!! A breech is when the whale jumps out of the water and lands on its back and makes a huge splash. It was so cool to see. This one was completely out of the water! The humpback whales come down from Alaska from about November-March to mate and have their babies. It was November 1 when I saw it, so I guess they are right on time! Those of you coming to visit this winter will likely see whales too!

We had parent-teacher conferences for Jenna last week. She did very well. The curriculum is a little harder this year, so she has had to work a little harder than usual. She got all A's!! She got a ribbon for getting on the "Superior Honor Roll." There are a few areas that she needs to work on, but overall, she is doing great! We are very proud of her. She doesn't have school tomorrow for Veteran's Day. She is starting a unit on Indians. I am planning to go in again and show the kids how to make Indian headbands and necklaces. It should be fun. I really enjoy doing that.

Things are still going good for AJ. He enjoys his work and based on what he tells me about some of the other guys that thought they deserved his job, he was definately the best choice! Some days are rather challenging, but overall, he likes it a lot! That's it for today, so until next time...aloha!

2 months already!

I can't believe that it has been two months since we got on that plane and started this adventure! It actually seems like we have been here a lot longer than that. Things have gone so well with getting everything together and getting settled in; it just feels like we've always been here. I feel very blessed that we had the opportunity to come over here so many times in the past. It has really made the transition easy and made this feel like "home" very quickly. Of course we still miss everyone in Wisconsin, but we plan to be home for Christmas and we hope to have visitors here on a regular basis! (hint, hint!)

Jenna didn't have school today due to the election. She painted the head board that AJ made for her bed. We plan to cover it with fabric and stuff it with fluff. I'll post some pictures of it when we get it done. I've posted some more pictures of Jenna and her friends from school. Some of the pictures are from Colonial Day and one is from halloween. As for the election, no matter the outcome, it is an historic event. I pray that the new president will lead this county with honesty and integrity. He will have a big job ahead of him!!

In Hawaii the elected positions are a little different than on the mainland. Each island is a county, so there are 4 counties in the state of Hawaii (some of the islands have one elected official for 2 or 3 islands). Each island has a mayor. There is not a mayor for each town or city...the mayor is the mayor for the entire county! That is a little odd to me, but that's how it works over here. The towns have city councils that help make decisions, but there aren't near as many elected officials as most other states. You may not care to know any of this, but I thought it was kind of interesting...

That's all I know today, so until next time...aloha!

Busy, busy week!!

Well, again I have to apologize for my long absence in writing! Last week was really busy! I was at Jenna's school every day helping with the activities for Colonial Day. The whole school participates in this week. The theme this year was Celebrate America. Each class chose a time period in American history to study and prepare a presentation for the rest of the school. They have different activities all week. I went in on Monday and showed the kids how to make marbles out of clay; on Tuesday I helped the kids with painting projects; on Wednesday I helped the kids make homemade butter and then I set up the display of the colonial shops that I have been working on. I posted some pictues of my feeble attempt and of Jenna's final product. Thursday was the day that Jenna's class presented their projects to their class and parents. Jenna showed her kitchen that she has been working on. She did a great job presenting to the class! Her class had a traditional colonial meal with stew, pot pie, corn bread, fruit, pumpkin pie and chess pie (custard pie.) On Friday, each class presented their time period to the school. They did presentations on the playground in front of the entire school and parents. After the presentations, each class went from class to class to see the individual presentations by the students. The kids presented their projects to kindergarden through 5th grade. They all did a great job! It was really fun to help out all week. I've enjoyed getting to know the kids, parents and teachers. When I helped in Jenna's class in Wisconsin, the kids always called me Mrs. Howery. In Hawaii, everyone is called Auntie or Uncle, whether you are related or not. So all of Jenna's classmates call me "Auntie Lynn," or just "Auntie." It was kind of strange at first, but it's kind of neat too.

As you know Friday was Halloween. This was the first Halloween that I have ever experienced that it wasn't cold, snowing, raining or absolutely miserable! Jenna could wear her costume and not have to wear her winter coat over or under it! She wore her Little Mermaid outfit that we she got at Disney in August. I'll attach some pictures of her. It was really nice to be able to trick-or-treat and not worry about the weather. Sorry. I'm not trying to rub it in! I know how bad it can be. I thought that it wasn't supposed to be too bad though...how was it? Instead of going around the neighborhood, we went to an organized event at the old airport. It was called "Candy Land." It was like a fair. They had rides and games and food, except everything was free! She got candy as prizes. It was fun for her and we didn't have to walk all over. She didn't get as much candy as she would have, but that's OK, because AJ and I usually eat most of it anyway!!

Saturday we went to the beach that we call the "movie star beach." We went snorkeling and made sand castles. It was fun. We haven't been to the beach for a several weeks...poor Jenna was going through withdrawal!!

We had our first snow in Hawaii last weekend! It snowed on top of Mauna Kea, the biggest mountain here on the island. It's been so cloudy here lately that's hard to see the top of the mountain, so we can't see the snow anyway. It's strange to think of it snowing in Hawaii! AJ remembers a time when he was here when they actually had to close roads near the top of Mauna Kea because of white-out conditions! Very strange!

Jenna has been wanting me to tell you about a van that we see almost every day on the way to school. It's a very colorful van...think 70's peace symbol...the whole van is colored all different colors. It's very easy to pick out and Jenna thinks that it is really cool.

Well, I think that brings us up to date. So, until next time...aloha!

Gone too long!

Hello! I'm sorry for the delay in posting a blog. To be very honest, I have been lazy and have not felt like doing it! But since it has been a few days, I will probably have more to say!

Of course, the most exciting news to report since I last posted is that we now have internet, TV and local phone service at our HOUSE!! Yeah!! We were quite excited for that to happen. Unfortunately, the Packers had a bye so I didn't get to see them play, but oh well. There's always next week! I will miss my little gecko friend at the marketplace, but I guess I can go and visit him when I want. I took some pictures of him drinking water off of my water bottle. He was licking the condensation from the outside of my bottle! It was pretty cool to see! I tried to get a few pictures of him peering over the top of the laptop, but of course he wouldn't stay still long enough! Camera shy, I guess! I mentioned in my last blog that I was going to post pictures of the chameleon too, but he wasn't at church this week, so guess I'll try next time.

We have had a few nights of rain here lately. The rain brings out the slugs and the snails. We had a really big snail slowly making it's way across our driveway on Saturday. Jenna and I watched it for quite a while. You could see it move, even though it took forever! It was eating grass...you could actually see the grass moving while it was eating it! We took some pictures of it that I posted. Hope you find it as interesting as Jenna and I did!

Jenna's project is almost finished. We have just a few things left to glue in place. We were going to put a roof on her kitchen and make a door to look through, like a diorama, but we decided that it would be too hard to see everything. And I personally think that things look so cute that we want to make sure that peoeple can see everything clearly! I am working on a "town." I am making 3 stores out of cardboard that are supposed to represent what sort of businesses were around during colonial days. I have put my project off until this past weekend and it needs to be set up on Wednesday afternoon, so I am sure that mine will not be as cute as Jenna's! She and I painted the walls of the stores on Sunday, which she loved because she got to get all covered in paint AND she got to play in the water!! So much fun!

AJ did not get to go deep sea fishing. The person he was going to go with was not able to borrow the boat from his friend. He will have other opportunities, so he was OK with it. Instead, he built a headboard for Jenna's bed. We are going to cover it with fabric and stuff it with that fluffy filling you put in pillows. She's looking forward to that. AJ also built racks to hold our bikes, and he put together the grill that we bought. We have been looking at grills and they were on clearance at Lowe's so we decided to get one. When AJ first starting looking at grills about a month ago, he came home and said that it was very strange to seek lawn mowers and Christmas trees out at the same time!!

I got a letter from the state Board of Nursing saying that I could practice in the state of Hawaii. I haven't recieved my actual license yet, but this will suffice until it arrives. I'm working on updating my resume, even though there aren't too many jobs out there right now. It might be too late to get the job for working at flu clinics, but I am still going to send my resume and see what happens.

I'm going into Jenna's classroom this afternoon to make marbles out of clay. As you know, her class has been learning about colonial days. They talked a little about the toys that the children of that day played with and how most of the toys were made by hand because they didn't have toy stores to go to. Last week I went in and taught the kids how to make dolls out of spoons and fabric, today I am making the marbles and on Wednesday I am going in to help the teacher show the kids how to make butter. I think it will be a lot of fun. I really enjoy working in the classroom and getting to know the kids in her class. I'll let you know how it goes. I better get working on my town, so until next time...aloha!