Saturday, August 18, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Aloha!
My, it's been a couple of months...I guess the biggest news is that we are expecting a baby in February. The girls are really excited and love to give the baby "squishies", or hugs, and kisses. Ivy says, "After my birthday, the baby comes out." Last week as I was leaving to go to a doctor's appointment, Kezia asked if I was coming home with the baby. I had to disappoint her with another 5 months of waiting. Speaking of Kezia, her 4 year birthday is next Tuesday! She is quite excited and wants to make sure we serve ice cream in a cup. Ivy is being potty-trained... We'll see how long my patience lasts this time around...
Nate is doing well. We have a studio attached to our condo. Our tenants just moved out and we decided to take advantage of the extra room, so Nate moved his office over. It has been GREAT!!! Nate has the privacy and quietness he needs, the kids and I can be noisier, we can reclaim our bedroom now, which used to be his office, and Nate comes home from work now, which I think makes a difference--work isn't always calling. Although for him, he loves what he does. He can work over 12 hours a day and enjoys it, so that's good. Of course, that doesn't happen all the time, but I am glad he likes what he does. It's a good thing too, because there is a lot to do with several businesses going on, our top ones being the real estate and www.supsurfmag.com. Nate is just finishing up an e-book on how to stand-up paddle surf to add to his website. Nate surfed his first contest in July. He didn't advance, but it was still fun.
I am doing well, too. I am happy to have my bedroom back. I am enjoying this time when the girls entertain each other so well. It is a lot easier than having a child too young to interact with other kids. I guess somewhere in my heart it's too easy, cause here I go again. This pregnancy has been real cruisy-- only a couple days of prego yuckiness. The only thing is I feel much bigger than how I should be at this point, but oh well. Oh yea, and my larger-than-life belly button decided to poke out the first month instead of the last month. Fun. The first two weeks of August I taught Kezia and some of her friends how to swim. I really enjoyed teaching them. I love teaching people swimming and surfing. I guess it is something in the water. Speaking of surfing, I have been trying out Nate's stand up board, since I know I cannot lay on my stomach for much longer. The last week I paddled far out from shore and from one bay to the next, and the whole way, except for parts that were too deep, I could clearly see the coral and reef below. It was beautiful. I have also been swimming in the ocean. Swimming in the ocean has much more pleasant surprises than swimming in the public pool (ew! A floating hairball!) It's cool to see fish swim by right near you.
We were on the mainland for 3 weeks between June and July. We had a wonderful time. Erica, Nate's sister, kindly watched our girls while Nate and I went to a great business meeting in Dallas, Texas. Then we stayed with his sister and her family for a couple of days, which included a gorgeous hike in Big Trees national park where we got to experience the grandeur of the redwood trees. We also got to tease our love for rock climbing! Then we went to Utah to visit family and friends and to go to the last of the extended Hicken family reunions. We got to reconnect with friends we haven't seen in a while. It was a great trip with a big surprise: All my sisters are pregnant as well! Although we all knew about Tauna and Janae, Kerri and Cheri and I revealed our news when we were all together. We were all really surprised. (No, it was not planned ;) Erica, Nate's sister is due the same time I am as well. Must be something in the air.
Well, that's about it. Kezia said something funny tonight. We decided to spend the night at Nate's parents' house while they were out of town. As we got to the door, Kezia said, "Mom, let's say a prayer." I asked why and she said, "So the door will open." I suggested we try the KEY first, and she said, "Ok, maybe that will work." She was pretty happy when it did.
My, it's been a couple of months...I guess the biggest news is that we are expecting a baby in February. The girls are really excited and love to give the baby "squishies", or hugs, and kisses. Ivy says, "After my birthday, the baby comes out." Last week as I was leaving to go to a doctor's appointment, Kezia asked if I was coming home with the baby. I had to disappoint her with another 5 months of waiting. Speaking of Kezia, her 4 year birthday is next Tuesday! She is quite excited and wants to make sure we serve ice cream in a cup. Ivy is being potty-trained... We'll see how long my patience lasts this time around...
Nate is doing well. We have a studio attached to our condo. Our tenants just moved out and we decided to take advantage of the extra room, so Nate moved his office over. It has been GREAT!!! Nate has the privacy and quietness he needs, the kids and I can be noisier, we can reclaim our bedroom now, which used to be his office, and Nate comes home from work now, which I think makes a difference--work isn't always calling. Although for him, he loves what he does. He can work over 12 hours a day and enjoys it, so that's good. Of course, that doesn't happen all the time, but I am glad he likes what he does. It's a good thing too, because there is a lot to do with several businesses going on, our top ones being the real estate and www.supsurfmag.com. Nate is just finishing up an e-book on how to stand-up paddle surf to add to his website. Nate surfed his first contest in July. He didn't advance, but it was still fun.
I am doing well, too. I am happy to have my bedroom back. I am enjoying this time when the girls entertain each other so well. It is a lot easier than having a child too young to interact with other kids. I guess somewhere in my heart it's too easy, cause here I go again. This pregnancy has been real cruisy-- only a couple days of prego yuckiness. The only thing is I feel much bigger than how I should be at this point, but oh well. Oh yea, and my larger-than-life belly button decided to poke out the first month instead of the last month. Fun. The first two weeks of August I taught Kezia and some of her friends how to swim. I really enjoyed teaching them. I love teaching people swimming and surfing. I guess it is something in the water. Speaking of surfing, I have been trying out Nate's stand up board, since I know I cannot lay on my stomach for much longer. The last week I paddled far out from shore and from one bay to the next, and the whole way, except for parts that were too deep, I could clearly see the coral and reef below. It was beautiful. I have also been swimming in the ocean. Swimming in the ocean has much more pleasant surprises than swimming in the public pool (ew! A floating hairball!) It's cool to see fish swim by right near you.
We were on the mainland for 3 weeks between June and July. We had a wonderful time. Erica, Nate's sister, kindly watched our girls while Nate and I went to a great business meeting in Dallas, Texas. Then we stayed with his sister and her family for a couple of days, which included a gorgeous hike in Big Trees national park where we got to experience the grandeur of the redwood trees. We also got to tease our love for rock climbing! Then we went to Utah to visit family and friends and to go to the last of the extended Hicken family reunions. We got to reconnect with friends we haven't seen in a while. It was a great trip with a big surprise: All my sisters are pregnant as well! Although we all knew about Tauna and Janae, Kerri and Cheri and I revealed our news when we were all together. We were all really surprised. (No, it was not planned ;) Erica, Nate's sister is due the same time I am as well. Must be something in the air.
Well, that's about it. Kezia said something funny tonight. We decided to spend the night at Nate's parents' house while they were out of town. As we got to the door, Kezia said, "Mom, let's say a prayer." I asked why and she said, "So the door will open." I suggested we try the KEY first, and she said, "Ok, maybe that will work." She was pretty happy when it did.
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.
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