Alive and kickin'

...and I'm HEALTHY!!!

Last November we applied for health insurance and were quite confident that we could obtain the highest rank of life insurance because of all the comments we get when we go to the doctor: ("What?! You don't smoke or drink?" "What?! You're not on any medications?" "What?! You don't have allergies? What?! You still have all ten fingers?" )

But my blood test results showed that I have very high cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Not being a red meat eater, hardly eating meat at all, and very few sweets, I was really surprised. I mentioned this to my mom who told me that my dad and all his brothers have high cholesterol. So then I became conscious of all the foods out there that have cholesterol, something I never cared about before. And each time I ate an egg or ice cream, I'd think, "This is going straight to my arteries!"

Well, I FINALLY got a second opinion last week. Again I got a comment from the doctor ("What?! You're not on cholesterol lowering drugs?!") I am totally healthy, with cholesterol and triglyceride levels way into the safe zones. It made me think the previous levels were the result of being pregnant or not being able to fast before the test was done.

Or maybe I should have followed my intuition better when the, like, bubble-blowing blood test girl, like, came over to our, like, house to, like take our blood. She seemed so sloppy with everything she did that in my mind I pictured her in the parking lot afterward, sifting through the blood-filled vials: "Hmm, let's see...let's put this vial here,...and this one there, and, Whoops! We'll just put this label on this one, and..."

First I'll Be a Mother

It's 10:00pm and I am so tired. Why am I still up blogging? Because I'm avoiding the mess in the house that accumulated in only a few short hours. If there is anyone out there that is able to maintain a clean home during the DAY and parent 3 kids PLEASE share your magic tricks with me!

I just spent a wonderful get away weekend at my favorite place, Haleiwa, at my inlaw's while they were on the big island. I took with me plenty of work to do. But all I got done was the folding of laundry-- 2 1/2 hours later!

I often find myself thinking about a poem my mom hung on her wall about a woman whose house was a mess but she was taking care of her kids. It ended, "I want to be a housewife, but first I'll be a mother." Personally, I'd rather be Nate's wife, but mothering is definitely taking priority over spray bottles and dusting. Well, at least during the day. (Why can't guests come over at 10:00 at night?!? (I mean besides this night.))

A Preview of What's to Come

For those of you who have been asking, "Wassup with no posts?!?" this one's for you. We have had a lot of things going on, and I feel like I am grappling for time with the same empty pursuit as trying to capture vapor in my hands. So, sorry, no posts.
Nate left to the mainland on business and took the computer, so I tried to post as many pictures as I could before it got packed away for 2 weeks. Then when I came to post, I realized the majority of them were sideways. So oh well. I'll add them later. Here's just a summary of some of what's been going on, the only order being the order in which I found the pictures. Kezia started soccer and is loving it! Grandma Burgoyne took her out to buy shoes and a ball. She insisted on a pink ball, and she found one! Can you believe this is her first pair of shoes?! Only in Hawaii.




Nate the super dad. Ivy is getting less and less fearful about the water. This is a time a Laniakea, I think after we went camping.


Speaking of being less fearful, Ivy actually ASKED to go out on the surfboard to "the big waves"(at least to a 3 year old) This is her first time I think. She went a second time and was even more courageous, asking to go again and again after riding the white water.

Ok, here's a picture of Ivy's second trip to "the big waves." Ivy has really been blossoming lately. Ever since she FINALLY got potty trained, she's more courageous to do things, has less tantrums, and has a WHOLE lot to say.


Kezia is now 5!! Can you believe it!? Wow. She is so grown up and she is such a sweet girl. How many kids ask their sister if she would like to open the biggest gifts for her? Really probably a whole lot. Kids are great, and I'm glad I have one with a big heart in my family. And now she's in kindergarten!

She insisted on a unicorn pinata for her birthday. I didn't see one in the pinata aisle, and as we were leaving, her eyes caught one on the top shelf on the corner. Here it is getting battered by a three year old. Poor thing.

Lost of loves for baby Elysse. Some of you know that Elysse has been my pain-in-the-neck baby, refusing to sleep for long periods of time and crying a lot for no apparent reason. I already felt like I was already going insane, and she just put me in the express lane to the asylum. So I thought, ok, I'll make it to the reunion in July and then other people can take care of her and I can relax a bit. But she thought it would be a funny trick (though highly appreciated) to calm down once we started our trip. So now I have family members saying, "What do you mean she's a hard baby? She seemed so mellow at the reunion!" If only you knew.... But, letting the past die, she is now a wonderful, cheerful, super curious seven month old. I think a big change in her temperment was her newfound ability to crawl, and now she's going everywhere, pulled like a magnet to small chokeables on the floor. She now has two bottom teeth and her hair is growing.
Ok, even though it's sideways, I had to include this one. Hee-hee! Embarrasingly, it brings back memories.

Ok, so besides that, Nate's been kicking out some really cool products online, one in particular that is doing rather well. He's in San Diego at the ASR trade show. If you want to check out his happenings, I just saw he posted some on his magazine website at www.supsurfmag.com. I just had my first day of Great Beginnings preschool, which I have been doing a lot of prepping for the last two weeks (and last two late nights). I am so grateful for my mother in law and all the times she watched the girls so I could meet my deadline. She is so great and an inspiration to me. So now that that's done, I just might post some more.

Swim lessons

Swimming lessons came to an end at the end of last month. It was so much fun to teach these keiki how to swim and see their excitement for accomplishing something that used to be scary and unknown to them. My favorite day was when all the girls in Kezia's class each rushed to me with something they had learned to do, like swim without floaties or put their face under water or such. I also added something this session: goal setting. It was cool to watch these kids make goals and really try to reach them. Kezia and Ivy (and all the kids) had a great time and learned a lot.

Chillin (I mean steaming) in the hot tub with the swimmers (minus the 2 boys who weren't there that day)

Life moves quickly. It's up to us to slow it down.

And speaking of, we saw the coolest thing in our parking lot the other day: a huge, fat caterpillar that was 4 inches long and a good 1/2 inch across! It was a white lined hornworm that would turn into a sphinx moth -- you know, one of those huge moths bigger than your face. Here's a little video the kiddies might enjoy.

An Empty Wheelchair

The Empty Wheelchair

Last Tuesday there was a man who was pushed in a wheelchair to the beach. He watched the waves. I took my board and went out to enjoy the waves. As I was out there, I saw him again, this time on a board. The man was almost completely paralyzed. He was on a special board and his friend was pushing him into the waves. Each time he caught a wave, his friend whispered, "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

So grateful for Elysse

Lately Nate and I have been falling asleep exhausted before we even mean to. On Tuesday night Nate fell asleep with his contacts still in. He woke up in a lot of pain and took them out. He spent the day doctoring his eye and hoped it would be better by the next morning. But I woke up at about 5 am the next morning to watch Nate pacing up and down the hall like a mad man with his hand over his eye. Just watching him made your eyes hurt. He had been up since 4am in terrible shooting pain. The doctor's office didn't open til 9am. Nate said it could have been months til it opened and it wouldn't have seemed longer.

The doctor couldn't see him til 11:20, so we dropped Kezia and Ivy off at a friend's and put a sleepy Elysse in the backseat and drove off to Walmart. I found a parking spot in the sun and thought, "oh well, there's nothing in the car that'll need shade" and Nate and I went to the doctor's. We filled out the paperwork, got his eyes airblasted, and waited to see the doctor. And then it hit me: ELYSSE!!! Omigoodness, with the older girls at our friends and our concern for Nate's eye, I totally forgot her!!! And now it was at least 10 minutes later in a car in the sun!!

I dashed out of there so fast. I could hear a baby crying in the distance and my first thought was someone got her out and now they're calling CFS to convict me. The crying continued as I got closer to the car, so then I thought she must be screaming in the car. But as I yanked open the car door, I found a quiet, drowsy, sweaty little girl. (I am thinking (hoping) the drowsy part was because she had just woken up). Although I had gotten the stroller out, I didn't put her in it. I held her close all the way back to the store. I am so, so, so grateful for the Holy Ghost and that she is ok. Since the girls were at a friend's, the thought was in my head that the girls were gone and it was just Nate and I. Once we returned to the car later, it was hot enough that we would have probably lost her had I not remembered earlier.

So now both my parenting nightmares have come true: 1. locking my children in the car without a key and 2. forgetting a quiet baby in the car. And both times have turned out alright.


And what about Nate? He had an abrasion on his eye, probably due to pulling off a layer of eye skin while rubbing his eye with a dry contact in it. He is fine now.

My very happy birthday

I have entered into my last year of young-hood. Yep, as of June 29th, I am now 29. As I am writing this, I realized now that it was my golden birthday, 29 on the 29th. I remember thinking of that when I was younger and thinking it won't be for a looooong time. Hmm....Next year I will be old. Or at least my age will be. Or perhaps I will adopt my friend's advice and be "forever 29"

I had a wonderful birthday. I loved all the phone calls and cards from people I love. It makes me feel great to think that people think of me!

Three people especially did great things for me on my birthday that made it really nice. First of all, Kay, Nate's mom, watched Kezia and Ivy over night Friday night and it was great to have a break. Saturday morning Nate and I dropped Elysse off at her house and had a great paddle down the river. Nate finally finished the paddle he gave me for Christmas, and it works great! Not bad for a first try.

We began at Three Tables and paddled all the way to Haleiwa, about a 5 mile distance. We stopped at a beach for lunch and a snorkel, and once we got back on our boards, the wind had switched direction and the water was choppy, testing our will to get to the end. In all, it took us 5 hours to get to the shore, a lot longer than we were anticipating. It has been a while since I have been in water, which is where I feel most at peace, and it's been a while since Nate and I have had time together, so spending that much time in the water with my best friend was a great birthday celebration.

But that wasn't all. Kezia made sure of that. Since the beginning of May, Kezia has been compiling gift bags in the corner of her room full of paper gifts for me. Every day she has asked me how many more days until my birthday. Sunday morning she presented me with all the gifts. I pulled out math equations and words spelled on paper, collages, pictures of women from a magazine ("because (I) would like them") a bracelet made from a magazine picture, a paper fan, clips of black construction paper, and a birthday crown. How cool is that?



But it didn't end there. Unknown to me, she had a whole birthday celebration planned. After I unwrapped my gifts, she said, "Well, since you don't have a pinata, we'll just have to make one." Soon she was back with paper bags filled with toys from around the house and a golf club. It was pretty funny to see Kezia try to protect her face while holding the pinata for Ivy to swing at. Then it was Ivy's turn to hold a bag. She held it right next to her chest and said, "Ok, Kezia, hit it!" Thankfully, Kezia, the wiser one, showed her how to hold it to the side.

Ivy taking a swing at the brown bag pinata

Then we had a pony ride down the hall on the golf club. And then we performed hula hoop tricks. What a great daughter (and daughters) I have.

The girls spent the day again with Grandma, who gave me a beautiful, homemade plumeria lei. That evening we went back to her house for a classic Burgoyne feast with a classic chocolate cake with too many hot candles on top.



And the evening ended with a luxurious foot massage by Nate.

Yes, I had a great birthday.