Manoa Falls

This past Sunday we got the chance to go on a beautiful hike to Manoa Falls! It's about 15 minutes from our place... just a short 2 mile hike but it is well worth it!!

Our excitingly boring life!

It's been a while since I updated.  

Does anyone read this anyway?  Oh well...  I thoroughly enjoy reminiscing on my excitingly boring life anyway!

Living in Hawaii is great.  And dreadful.  It's a definite love/hate relationship.  It's just not something you can understand until you've actually lived here... 

Mike and I did some quick math today and figured out that it takes us longer to drive the 8 miles to and from work than it would someone driving northbound from Salt Lake City to Ogden during rush hour (that's 22 miles..) 

Many hours a day I am stuck in traffic, cursing 'this rock'

BUT everyday is an adventure, because I am with my best friend!  Even though there's some hard stuff and unique challenges we face, I have never been happier.  And I'm thankful for smokin' hot man who never ceases to make me laugh!

Here are a few little adventures as of late... 

For our 8 month anniversary, we went to Jose's Mexican Restaurant.  This is the only Mexican restaurant I have even seen on the island.  It wasn't Utah mexican, but it was still SO DELICIOUS.  Oh my goodness it's been a long while since we've gotten our fix of tasty Mexican. 

As you can see, Mike was... excited

Okay, let's be honest, I was too.

AND Mike surprised me with a set of knives for our kitchen.. and they are freakin SWEET.  I have been complaining because we only have these crappy knives and it takes me FOREVER to chop food with.  NOT ANYMORE!  I love that Mike pays attention to what I whine about and makes it better. :)

Since I had a brand new set of knives, I found a sweet stuffed green pepper recipe and got cookin!  It was pretty tasty if I do say so myself... 

I do love cooking!  One of my favorite things.

Oh, and a sad note of the week... my friend Kali is moving back to the mainland.. I will miss her! She was my visiting teacher and introduced me to MENCHIES (aka the best frozen yogurt place EVER)

As a going away party some of the girls in the ward got together and we went to the cheesecake factory.

I will miss Kali!!

Another fun adventure of the week was cooking hamburgers with my patient at work..

and burning the burgers...

and setting off the fire alarm... 

and panicking...

Luckily they are cool and we were all laughing!

My Hawaiian Grandma trying to save our dinner... 

Today Mike showed me a really cool beachy place.  Apparently it was where his work party was, which I couldn't go to because I was working.. lame.

Oh, and we saw a Navy sub going by! It was sick!

There you have it!  Everything happening in life. SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS! 

Only one week away!

Mele Kalikimaka!

Rise Up!

This weekend was incredible!

Despite getting off to a rough start Friday morning... car problems, figuring out transportation, minor meltdown... Things got a lot better for the weekend!  I made it to my patients house and was able to help her get ready.  She knows how much I love BYU football, and as I was leaving she said, "Oh yeah, enjoy the game!  I really hope BYU wins."  Her son (who happens to be a huge Hawaii Warriors fan) gave her the most traitorous (is that a word?  I think it should be a word.) look I have ever seen.  Oh I loved it!

I went to my next patients house after, and he was excited for me too.  He even saved me the sports section of the Honolulu paper because it had some spotlights with BYU players in it.  It made my day!

Friday night we went to a special fireside.  We made the long journey to Makakilo with Brooke, a cute girl in our ward!  We had fun chatting the whole way out there.

The fireside featured the BYU football team and Coach Mendenhall.  It's so crazy to think that that's how my football players are getting ready for the game the next day... by sharing their testimonies and how football has built them.  One of the linebackers (La'haina) sang, "I Heard Him Come."  He played the piano/sang at the same time and it was so beautiful - it was incredibly spiritual.

Funny post-fireside story... So the players sign autographs for 20 minutes after the fireside, right?  So I wanted to get my Y bag signed, but I didn't want some secondary who I didn't really know who they were to sign it.  So I went up to one of the players, and this is the conversation that ensued..

                                                      Me:  'Hey, is Heaps here?'
                                                      Player: 'Oh, Jake?  No he couldn't make it tonight.'
                                                      Me:  'Oh yeah? What about Nelson?'
                                                      Player: 'Riley couldn't be here either.'
                                                      Me: 'Oh dang.  Well thanks anyway.' ... walked off, leaving random
                                                              player with pen in hand...

Mike was laughing so hard... He gave me so much crap all night about it.  Yeah, oops.. that was probably kinda mean.  Oh well, I'm sure he gets it all the time.

The game... wait, you want me to use WORDS to describe the game?

It was euphoric.  We had to leave our section and go sit with the Y fans because I'm sure some rabid Hawaiian fan would murder me for cheering so loud.  Oh how I loved seeing my boys dominate on the field!  What a way to end the season!

Aloha Stadium

Nice eyes-closed shot... :D

The Cougs getting ready to play

What a great way to end the season... 40-21.  Go Cougs!! 

It's the small things...

Three things that made my day:

The sunset last night

The Christmas corner in our house!  Tiny tree but it's just perfect!

The flower that my hubby got me... gerber daisy, my favorite!

Other good things include Alabama beating Auburn in the Iron Bowl.

Oh yes, Old Navy groupons that saved me $40!

Making Japanese origami with my patient at work.

Laughing so hard on Thanksgiving with my hubby that my sides hurt.

ORDERED A BRAND NEW SEWING MACHINE!  yay!

Just a few things to be grateful for.  It really is the small things!

...Forever is only the beginning ....

11.18.2011 ...

Breaking Dawn came out!

I really love the Twilight series...  I think it's the impossibility of the romance in that series.  I just love it.

Anyway... some ladies from the Makiki ward and I went to the midnight showing.  I thought I was a Twihard.. little did I know these ladies were just as into the series as I am!  Okay, probably a little more... :)

Rachelle, Me, and Chas

Sommer made the sweet veils so we could all dress up for the wedding... :D

Hanoni, Sommer, Kayli

We ate at Dave and Busters before and then headed over to the theaters.

The show was FANTASTIC!  I question the age appropriateness of some of the scenes between Bella and Edward... But overall it was a wonderful show!

LOVE IT! 

Work hard, play harder!

Even though my weekend is coming to a close... I am SO EXCITED!  Because there are so many good things to look forward to...

1.APEC (Asian Pacific Economic Conference) will be over this weekend, which means normal life can resume again! Yay!  We can have our town back.

2. BREAKING DAWN comes out this weekend!  Okay, maybe I am a huge geek but I love Twilight.  And, for your information, I'm totally Team Edward.

3. Monday Night Football tomorrow night!  Normally not a huge NFL fan, but Mike and I are having a date night to cheer on the Packers since they are undefeated.

4. Missionaries for dinner on Tuesday! Got a new Elder.Yum!

5. Zumba - my new little obsession. I love these workout classes!  Have a couple planned for the week. Gotta love getting good deals through base to go to these! :D

6. Going to start my CHRISTMAS shopping!! :)

... and in the more distant future ...

• Mario and Holly (some of our Arizona friends) are coming to the island so we can party like it's 1999! Oh, and we're going to the pro-bowl with them.  No big.
• BYU vs HAWAII! See ya later U of H.   Got tickets to the big showdown at Aloha Stadium in just a few short weeks.  Also planning on going to the traditional fireside the night before.  SO STOKED!
• Booked my best friends tickets for her trip down here too!!  FOR TWO WEEKS BABY!  Oh the fun that will be had.. (FEBRUARY) Welcome to the rainbow state Em-dawg! :P
• Parents / In-laws coming for a trip in March!  I'll go through the temple to get ready for our big sealing date in (hopefully) April!

Korihor

Wow, that's a creepy title for a blog post.

But I've been thinking a lot about the story of Korihor today.

Korihor went all over to many different people spreading the poisonous doctrine that there was no God, there was no Christ, to live for today, because there is no accountability.

There are several thoughts I have on this story.

1.  Mormon was inspired to include that entire account in the Book of Mormon, because it is a doctrine that is seen everywhere today.  Dress how you want, say what you want, love who you want, whenever you want, LIVE FOR TODAY.  It is sad to see people with brilliant minds have so much wasted potential.  And that's what is being taught to the rising generation.  The lack of morals is just... sad.

2. When Korihor was brought before the chief judge, Alma, he gave a wonderful solution in the way to respond to this mindset.  BEAR TESTIMONY.  Look around us.  The stars in the sky, the waves of the sea, the brilliant colors in the sunset... all testify of a Master Creator.  We do not need to be ashamed of the gospel of Christ... because it is TRUE.

3. I find it interesting to note the people that brought Korihor before the chief judge were the people of Ammon.  The Nephites didn't turn Korihor in... they merely turned him away, and then just a few years later Korihor's beliefs started sneaking into their lives.  They became prideful, thanking God that they were better than everyone else, casting out the poor, and denying the Christ.  Perhaps the people of Ammon, since they had repented of their Korihor-like beliefs, realized the danger that was behind that lifestyle.  This account is a wonderful testimony of the Atonement... when you have truly repented of your sin, you realize the danger in anytthing that may lead you back into that lifestyle, or into that sin.


Anyway.  Just a few thoughts.

Life's A Beach!

So, for our six month anniversary, I splurged and bought some sweet snorkeling gear!

Okay, well some of it was sweet and some of it was cheap as heck... 

We have now attempted going snorkeling THREE times.  But, I am freaking scared as heck.

Let me explain. 

Attempt # 1 - We drove about an hour and a half to the North Shore.  Turtle Bay - when we got there it was POURING.  Although we did get to see some HUGE waves, so it was still worth it.  No snorkeling for us, though.

Attempt #2 - Hanauma Bay.  I about peed my pants!  The water was so shallow over the coral and I could feel it scraping against my tummy ... I felt like sea urchins were going to get me the entire time!  Also, this is when Mike went into rage mode because his snorkel kept filling up with water and choking him out... 

So, since I was scared as could be and he still wanted to keep snorkeling, I surrendered my gear and sat and enjoyed watching the waves roll in.  Still a beautiful beach!

The dark areas are where the coral is RIGHT below you.  Enough to give me a panic attack! :D

Getting all ready to go play in the water!

The sweet gear!  The fins and my mask/snorkel worked great!

Attempt # 3 -  Bellows Beach.  There was nothing to see there, because the waves are waaaaay too big and also the water is murky.  But we sure had fun with our boogie board and body surfing today!

This is my new "happy place."  It is SO BEAUTIFUL here!

After a fun afternoon splashin' in the water!

Mmmm Hmmm.. I like that view.

Anyway, slowly but surely I am becoming less and less afraid of the water!  Probably by the end of our 3 year stint here I'll be a regular fish! :D

Tagged - I'm it!

One of my best friends just tagged me in this cute little survey.  I thought it was fun.. and just when I thought I knew everything about her.. turns out I don't! 


Enjoy!

Three joys:
1. My hubby - who can make me laugh every day!
2. Hard work - because when I don't have it, I'm definitely not joyful!
3. Dr. Pepper -- as seen being enjoyed below by an anorexic Dr. Pepper model
 

Three fears:
1. Being by myself at night!
2. Seeing people eat yogurt with a fork... I seriously HATE it.  Maybe fear isn't the right word. whatever, it's going on this survey.
3. Me or someone that I love getting cancer or something... That's always been a huge fear of mine.

Three goals
1. Get sealed in the temple
2. Finish my bachelors and eventually get an RN!
3. Run in a half marathon

Three current collections/obsessions
1.24
2.Hunger Games - Money.in.the.bank.
3.BYU Football.  Rise and Shout!

Three random surprising facts about myself
1. I have a weird obsession with popping zits.
2. I love to cook.
3. When I eat bread I get the hiccups.  Every time.

I am supposed to tag 5 more people. So I choose
1. Emilie Vidrine
2. Elissa Mulder
3. Katie Bastian
4. Morgan Poll
5.Lindsea Garside

Our First Visitors!

This past week we were so lucky to have my cousins, Nate and Marilinda Hales, come out and visit us!!

 

Marilinda took our pictures for our "sealing announcements."  It would be the equivalent of getting our engagement pictures done.. if we weren't already married.. Yeah, that was confusing.  Also, we took some sweet shots of me in my wedding dress at the Laie Temple and the BEACH!

Anyway, besides taking some awesome pictures, we had a total blast with them.

Nate's 'Trip Advisor' app was pretty much the coolest thing ever.  It definitely knew a lot more about Hawaii than we did!  Which is kind of sad, since we live here. 

We did all sorts of fun things, including a trip to the Polynesian Cultural Center, hikes to Diamond Head and Manoa Falls, discovering Malsadas at Leonard's Bakery, eating in Waikiki, and renting a cabin on Bellows Beach. 

Not to mention just good company and fun memories!

Hiking Diamond Head

The staircase that NEVER ends... 

On our way to the beautiful Manoa Falls

Okay, it's kind of more of a trickle right now.. But still, pretty breathtaking!

Nate and Mar reminded me ... one of the best parts of living in Hawaii is sitting on our balcony and enjoying this every night. Just enjoying the simple pleasures of everyday!!

...Memory Lane...

Yo Em-dawg!

You are my best friend!  And when I was organizing photos tonight I came across some GEMS (to be said like Dave Hunsaker).  I thought you might enjoy them. :)  MISS YOU.

 I just love the expression you went with in this photo.  Remember this is at that party at Chelsea Bingham's where we became "domesticated" because we made those pizzas? 

 This is dedicated to all the jeeping times.  aka, the times that I almost peed because you are to crazy and I was too scared. I need to go to CHURCH! :P

The 25th Street Bathtub

 This is cuz we're hot, this is cuz we're hot... We hot cuz we fly, you ain't cuz you not... This is why this is why...

I don't remember even taking this.. But I dedicate it to all the Honda Days we had. Enough said.

This is dedicated to all the skipped Sunday School lessons with Del Taco Churros... Sinner!

:D

Look how organized this parking is!  THE CHURCH IS TRUE!

I posted this only because your licking a penis shaped cookie.  And that makes me laugh.

The BEST fortune cookies ever.  I love love love these!

What happens on Muscle Beach... gets posted in this memory blog.  LOL "WHY AM I SMILING?"

I <3 YOU!!

Go Cards!

So, we had a Sa-weet trip to Arizona for Dan & Krystal's wedding! Read about the wedding here if you haven't yet.  It was awesome.

But, aside from the wedding, we also got to hang out with Mike's awesome friends, Mario & Holly.  

Oh yeah, and their baby Max.  He's a stud.

Oh he was so stinkin cute, and he LOVED Mike's bald head.  Maybe more than I do.  Which is a lot.

Anyway, I really enjoyed staying with Mario & Holly.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was when Mike and Mario went golfing and me and Holly got pedicures... because I really love having girl time!  And I haven't had a pedicure in FOREVER.

Another fun night was getting to see the first half of the Globe vs. Miami football game... Before we got rained out and almost struck by lightning!!  Unfortunately, Miami (Mario's alma mater) lost... But it was still a fun game.

At the game!

We also ate out at Claim Jumpers as a celebration with Dan & Krystal a couple nights before the wedding.  There were tons of friends there as well, and some pasta that was definitely cooked in waaaaaay too much wine and I think I caught a buzz... :P

Behold, the awesome quality of the iPhone 3g camera phone.

Also, Krystal & I look like midgets in this picture.

Going to the Arizona Cardinals game was one of the sweetest things ever!!  

This is their stadium... it's the bomb.com 

So we had to park far away and take a bus to the stadium, where security was HIGH since it was 9/11.

This is my SUPER SEXY man!

At this point I realized that all the hershey's kisses I had stolen from the wedding as a treat to eat during the game had melted in my purse... to make a huge chocolate blob of keys, wallet, checkbook, earrings, chapstick, etc... It was SO GROSS.  

Phoenix is too hot. 

And... SO IS THIS JERSEY!

In honor of BYU Alumni, Max Hall. Hopefully he recovers and the Cards pick him back up again!  Go Max!

After the game, Mike is bursting with pride because the Panthers lost... and Cam Newton (Auburn's old QB) is now the Panther's QB and Mike just really really really wanted to see him lose.  A lot.

And Mario, with his souvenir cup.  We got Cotton Candy, Hot Dogs, Sodas... It was great.

Arizona was AWESOME!  It was fun to see Mike's old friends and make them my new ones! :)

And I finally have an NFL team now - GO CARDS!