Wednesday, August 15, 2007
On Sunday, a brushfire started in the mountains between Waialua and Wahiawa (where we live). The fires jumped from one spot to another, creating huge cyclones of black smoke that danced around the pineapple fields. These pictures were taken just down the road from our place on Tuesday. All the firetrucks had to pass by our building. The first 15 were exciting...I am still recovering from a headache from the last 1091. Today is Wednesday and it seems like the worst is over. It appears they are just putting out the hot spots now.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Life is Goooooood...
Aloha!!
Today in church they talked about enjoying life right now, not waiting for happiness in the future, and it made me think I love life. And I love every day of living it.
Kezia got to join the end of Joy school last month. She has been so happy to be with friends and doing something besides staying at home. Yea!! Next week will be her last week, so this week I am going to try to sign her up for something during the summer. She is also in a hula halau. She is the youngest one and trying to understand the steps, but she loves it. I sit in the back of the class and she frequently turns around and gives me a "I am having so much fun!" grin.
Ivy has discovered the joy of hiding in cupboards. She loves it when our friend Addy comes over every weekend. We switch off babysitting with her parents, and it works out great because the girls are like the 3 Amigas.
I have been working on the newest edition of the real estate game and was excited to resubmit it. I got a lot of input and made a lot of improvements and I think it is really good. Now I am back (after a year) to concentrating on the house: painting the kitchen and patching up places where the girls tore the paint of walls, curtains, pictures, organization, etc. We are so grateful to have a home, but we really want to move back to the North Shore. I have learned one principle for life, and that is that if you take care of what you have, your lot will improve, but not until that time. So I am getting our house in best order as I can so we can move.
Nate has been working on the stand-up surfing magazine. Almost every day I hear him say, "today it will be up and running." I guess the more he works on it the more gliches he finds. He went to a surf contest yesterday for pictures and came back redder than a tomato. We recently hired an assistant for the real estate business. It is so nice to divvy up the workload.
We just had our seventh anniversary! We went to Sam Choy's restaurant in town and walked around Waikiki and got a massage from a "street performer" massage guy. I think both of our backs cracked 15 times. On our actual anniversary, Nate said he was going to make a nice dinner. But things came up and left him with no time. He left to go get things for the dinner, and came back with styrofoam containers from a Chinese fast food place and a frozen cheesecake. We set up the candles and Perrier and Martinelli's anyway. It was pretty nice.
Today in church they talked about enjoying life right now, not waiting for happiness in the future, and it made me think I love life. And I love every day of living it.
Kezia got to join the end of Joy school last month. She has been so happy to be with friends and doing something besides staying at home. Yea!! Next week will be her last week, so this week I am going to try to sign her up for something during the summer. She is also in a hula halau. She is the youngest one and trying to understand the steps, but she loves it. I sit in the back of the class and she frequently turns around and gives me a "I am having so much fun!" grin.
Ivy has discovered the joy of hiding in cupboards. She loves it when our friend Addy comes over every weekend. We switch off babysitting with her parents, and it works out great because the girls are like the 3 Amigas.
I have been working on the newest edition of the real estate game and was excited to resubmit it. I got a lot of input and made a lot of improvements and I think it is really good. Now I am back (after a year) to concentrating on the house: painting the kitchen and patching up places where the girls tore the paint of walls, curtains, pictures, organization, etc. We are so grateful to have a home, but we really want to move back to the North Shore. I have learned one principle for life, and that is that if you take care of what you have, your lot will improve, but not until that time. So I am getting our house in best order as I can so we can move.
Nate has been working on the stand-up surfing magazine. Almost every day I hear him say, "today it will be up and running." I guess the more he works on it the more gliches he finds. He went to a surf contest yesterday for pictures and came back redder than a tomato. We recently hired an assistant for the real estate business. It is so nice to divvy up the workload.
We just had our seventh anniversary! We went to Sam Choy's restaurant in town and walked around Waikiki and got a massage from a "street performer" massage guy. I think both of our backs cracked 15 times. On our actual anniversary, Nate said he was going to make a nice dinner. But things came up and left him with no time. He left to go get things for the dinner, and came back with styrofoam containers from a Chinese fast food place and a frozen cheesecake. We set up the candles and Perrier and Martinelli's anyway. It was pretty nice.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Life's a beach
Dear family and friends,
Aloha! It’s spring!!! Happy spring!
March was a great month for us. The first half I was really able to relax after all the hard work during the first part of the year. I relished in the moments where I didn’t have any pressing obligations.
In the middle of March Nate and I left for the mainland for a conference. We left the girls behind to stay with friends and Grandma and Grandpa. Nate and I stayed with my sister Tauna and her husband Chris while we attended a real estate conference. It was excellent, like all the ones we have attended. We learned so much and got pumped to start integrating our new knowledge into our business. It was a lot of fun to be with Tauna and Chris, too. Nate went back after the conference and I stayed for a sister’s reunion in Arizona.
All my sisters, sister-in-laws and my mom were there. We all stayed in my aunt’s cabin in the beautiful mountains in Arizona. It was great to be with everyone, chat and play games. I loved going running in the mornings with my sister in law amidst the pine trees and mist. And playing pool and air hockey and ping pong. And making smoothies in the morning. It was so cool to see my sister Cheri’s ice cream shop! There was a line of people ready to order ice cream, and the people who already received their frozen indulgences were whispering comments like, “This is the best ice cream I’ve ever had!” Go Cheri and Braden!
By the end, I really missed Nate and our two girls. It was too long without them. My plane was to take off at 9:00am Monday morning. When I arrived at the airport, they were looking for volunteers for a flight that would arrive at 9:00pm that night with a $400 voucher. I thought about it for half a heartbeat and said no. At the gate they were still requesting volunteers, but I wanted to spend the day with my family, not in the airport. Finally they were looking for one more. So after I checked in vain to see if they could get me on an earlier flight, I said I could go, if they increased the benefits to me. In the end, I ended up getting a round-trip ticket, a $200 voucher, a food voucher, and a flight on a much better airline that got me in just 4 hours later. Then I got a $25 voucher for picking up my luggage at the airport instead of them delivering it to me. The things you get from just asking….Not bad, not bad…
Our ward has split, which means we are now in a ward the size of a branch. I am back in the Primary as the first counselor, which will be a lot of fun. Nate is the Young Men’s president.
Aloha! It’s spring!!! Happy spring!
March was a great month for us. The first half I was really able to relax after all the hard work during the first part of the year. I relished in the moments where I didn’t have any pressing obligations.
In the middle of March Nate and I left for the mainland for a conference. We left the girls behind to stay with friends and Grandma and Grandpa. Nate and I stayed with my sister Tauna and her husband Chris while we attended a real estate conference. It was excellent, like all the ones we have attended. We learned so much and got pumped to start integrating our new knowledge into our business. It was a lot of fun to be with Tauna and Chris, too. Nate went back after the conference and I stayed for a sister’s reunion in Arizona.
All my sisters, sister-in-laws and my mom were there. We all stayed in my aunt’s cabin in the beautiful mountains in Arizona. It was great to be with everyone, chat and play games. I loved going running in the mornings with my sister in law amidst the pine trees and mist. And playing pool and air hockey and ping pong. And making smoothies in the morning. It was so cool to see my sister Cheri’s ice cream shop! There was a line of people ready to order ice cream, and the people who already received their frozen indulgences were whispering comments like, “This is the best ice cream I’ve ever had!” Go Cheri and Braden!
By the end, I really missed Nate and our two girls. It was too long without them. My plane was to take off at 9:00am Monday morning. When I arrived at the airport, they were looking for volunteers for a flight that would arrive at 9:00pm that night with a $400 voucher. I thought about it for half a heartbeat and said no. At the gate they were still requesting volunteers, but I wanted to spend the day with my family, not in the airport. Finally they were looking for one more. So after I checked in vain to see if they could get me on an earlier flight, I said I could go, if they increased the benefits to me. In the end, I ended up getting a round-trip ticket, a $200 voucher, a food voucher, and a flight on a much better airline that got me in just 4 hours later. Then I got a $25 voucher for picking up my luggage at the airport instead of them delivering it to me. The things you get from just asking….Not bad, not bad…
Our ward has split, which means we are now in a ward the size of a branch. I am back in the Primary as the first counselor, which will be a lot of fun. Nate is the Young Men’s president.
What's going on with us individually:
(This is a continuation from the last post)
KEZIA is getting curious about words and reading. She has partially memorized some books and often she reads them to herself or to Ivy. She still thinks she’s a dog “Dancy the Dog” to be precise (“and Ivy’s Sister Dog and Mommy’s Mama Dog and Daddy’s Dingy Dog”). One time we were at Grandma’s for dinner. Grandma was serving chocolate cake and said to Kezia that puppies cannot eat cake. We thought we might witness at transformation from dog to girl, but instead Kezia thought about it for a bit and then said, “This puppy can!!” Since our creation of a height chart, Kezia has been so proud of how tall she is. She is growing so quickly- 2 inches in two months. Kezia got into Joy School, a home-based preschool that is based more on ways to find joy in life than academics, and she is loving it.
IVY is talking more and more. She is still into beauty and fashion, sporting socks, hats, and dressing like a ghost. She likes to brush my hair, usually forming rats’ nests in certain sections and then look at me in the face and ask, “You look pretty?” We went to an Easter party last Friday. The kids waiting in great anticipation for the Easter Bunny to come hoping their way. As soon as the big, tall, white bunny came hoping toward the kids with his larger-than-life smile, Ivy started pulling me away with a look of fear on her face. “No Easter bunny! No Easter bunny!!” Could you imagine how she must have felt, thinking that was a real bunny?!? Here’s a funny story: One morning I asked Ivy how she had slept. “Good”, she quickly responded. I remembered she had slept with her stuffed cheetah and asked how Cheetah had slept, expecting her to give me the same answer. Her eyes shifted as she thought about it for a moment, then laid her body out on the couch with one arm above and one on her belly. “Like this”, she said.
NATE and I are loving life. Nate has been itching to ride bigger waves with his stand-up board, and on the way to a hike with Nate’s mom, we stopped by the beach and saw Nate over at Avalanche, a surfing break known for its size. He got to surf that break with just a few guys, including Bonga Perkins, one of the world’s best surfers. If you want to check him out surfing, go to www.hawaiianswell.com. Go to Surfing Galleries then to 3-30-07(it says something about Avalanche and Bonga). Go to the second page of pics. His pics start at #3396.
I (HEIDI) am so grateful for my health. From Thursday through Monday I was sick. And I think it was longer than that, a sickness that came and went since February. I thought I had a kidney infection. On Saturday I decided to go to the ER after reading about the danger of not getting medical care for a kidney infection and seeing I had the symptoms of a severe one. My tests came out ok, but, having had one before, I believe I was probably on the tail end of one. Anyway, here’s the cool thing: We had just gotten health insurance and I had been praying that we would be alright during the time we did not have insurance (with a bit of nervousness that all the sicknesses and injuries would be postponed until we did have insurance). When I went into the ER, I thought we had had insurance since April 1st, but when I got back home from the hospital, Nate said he read the card and it said our benefits started that day! Wow-I am so grateful I hadn’t ignorantly gone in sooner only to be shocked by a huge bill!!
After a looooooong debate about what to do about our kids' schooling (the schooling options here are below par), I have decided to go ahead with starting a Montessori school. If anyone knows anyone who has taken on such an endeavor, whether Montessori or not, will you please let me know? Thanks. And wish me luck.
We just heard of two friends who had close ones pass away. It makes me sad for them, and at the same time, grateful for one more day with people I love.
I have a list of favorites from this past month that I’d like to recommend:
1. A favorite new recipe: Lettuce Boats: Having come across this use of greenery due to lack of tortillas, we have found this to be good with falafels as well as burritos! For falafels, Use a whole leaf of Romaine lettuce, the kind that is curved on all sides and resembles a boat. Top with wheat berries (or rice, but the darker the rice the better), falafel, cucumber, and sour cream or yogurt. Kids like it too because they’re eating boats!
2. A new favorite audiobook: Secrets of the Millionare Mind. Not just for inspiring millionaires, this audiobook dishes out a lot of good, practical ideas for everyone who wants to be successful at whatever they do.
3. A new favorite movie: Einstein’s Big Idea by Nova. It’s really good, despite some cheesy drama. It’s probably not your Saturday night thriller; It’s a documentary about how E=MC2 came about, and all the minds that helped create it before Einstein. It moved me about the power of a persistent mind, and what E=MC2 really means.
Have a wonderful month!
Love, the family Kezia wished had fur and tails
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