hide yo kids, hide yo wives...

Today I started work again!  I went back to Ho'okele to be a home health aide.  I went in for orientation today, and met my first little old client.  It was fabulous.  

I also went into Hawaii Behavioral Health and got yet another step in the long process of getting hired there accomplished.  I think I am adjusting to island pace of things getting done because usually it would frustrate me if something took this long, but now I just.... kind of expect it I guess.  I am nervous about starting there, since I don't have much experience with working with special needs kids.  But I have a feeling I have things I need to learn in this job.  And that makes me excited.  

It feels so great to be back in the saddle again, I always get restless when I am not working.  Which might become a problem someday when we have kids... but we'll cross that bridge when we get there!

Other things that were great today...

-dinner with the missionaries at one of our favorite restaurants!!  It's a cute little Italian place and it's SOOO yummy. We really love the elders in this ward, they are awesome.  

-BYU vs Hawaii game!  47-0.  BYU.blew.them.out.of.the.water.  THAT'S the kind of game I like to see!  :)

-night hike with the Garrett's and Aubrey's up to the lighthouse in Waikiki!  It's called Makapu'u. absolutely gorgeous tonight with the full moon shining over the ocean.  Just a nice walk really.  It's all paved so baby Paisley even came in her little stroller!

Here is a crazy picture.  You get the idea.  We're hot, there's not a lot we can do about it.  : ) just kidding, just kidding!  But seriously.

Oh and one other thing I must express... I have a phobia of someone coming to rob our house while Mike is gone.  Mike has had to sit me down and logically explain to me that we live in a tower, no one is going to just rob us unless they were specifically targeting us, and we just aren't that high profile.  This is true, HOWEVER... I feel like someone could just repel down the building and rob, rape and pillage our place pretty easily.  He laughed.

No joke... this morning I about blew a lid when I saw this outside our window - 

Hide yo kids.  Hide yo wives, and hide yo husbands.

Some things.

Well it's been a little while since I blogged (other than my pay it forward challenge) and so I have lots of random things on my mind.

Married life is good.  Mike and I are thoroughly enjoying football season, and pleasantly surprised that he gets to be home for almost all of it due to some missions getting cancelled!  Yay!  Ah, football.  Bama is number one again and BYU is... well, they are figuring themselves out. haha.  We love to cheer for each others teams, and luckily, they are pretty much in different realms of existence so we can easily be fans of both!  

In case you were wondering who cheers for whom, let me clear it up with a picture that speaks 1000 words....

This is Mike's heisman move.  Love it.  Our friend Tausha does AWESOME photography and did a shoot for us, which we loved.  More pictures of that to come later! : ) 

Another thing we have been doing together is the roadshow for church!  Mike is a synchronized swimmer with a buch of the high priests... it's pretty hilarious to watch them do their dance in their awesome swimming swag! 

Oh, the roadshow... where to start... I get to sing in a little choir with 4 other ladies for my part, and we do a thirty second dance.  It's pretty great.  

So I'm actually pretty glad it will be done this Saturday because we have done about a million rehearsals.  But it has been good to get to know people in the ward that I would have never met otherwise (and get some good laughs at the same time).

Other than road show rehearsing and football watching we have been having some fun with our friends the Garretts & the Aubreys!! We have loved hanging out with these guys.  Sadly, the Garretts are getting ready to move this week ... the sad part of being in the military. :(  We will sure miss them and their sweet baby. 

School is going well... I am nearing the middle of the semester, and with that usually comes a lack of motivation.. So I am trying SUPER hard to stay focused on the end goal.  I am finding my favorite class to be Pathophysiology, or the study of disease.   Our bodies are so amazingly complex and to be healthy is such a huge blessing when there is SO MUCH that is going on all at once.  Biomedical Research is another class I enjoy - I'll have to dedicate another post to some of the things we are talking about in that class because it is so interesting.  

WORK.  Tomorrow.  I am going to be starting back at Ho'okele as a home health aid.  I am also starting another job as a skills trainer for Hawaii Behavioral Health.  I should be plenty busy here in the next little while. 

Well, that is all for now.  Looking forward to the BYU vs. HAWAII game tomorrow.  RISE AND SHOUT!

Pay it forward

Thanks for stopping by!  Here is a "Pay It Forward" challenge for anyone who wants to play!  I have been immensely grateful for people in my life who have served me in some small way... Enjoy!

The rules:

1. The first three people to comment on this post will receive a little gift - something personal from me to you. 

2. BUT in order to receive your present you have to play along.  Spread the love on your own blog (or facebook page) by promising to send a little special something to the first three people who comment on your post.

3. You get 72 hours to re-post or I'll move on to the next person. 

4. Please only comment if you are willing to pay it forward!

If you want to receive something unique from me in the mail and if you are willing to do the same for others, leave a comment below!

Now comment on this and go make someone else's life better today! 

Through Their Eyes

A few days ago Jana & Greg flew out to the island with the boys.

What a treat to have them here.  This was Quincy & Collin's first time in a plane.  Their first time at the beach too... and they are on CLOUD NINE!

They LOVED Bellows as their first beach!  Boogie boarding was their favorite.

Uncle Mike teaching them how to catch a wave!

Quincy even let us bury him in the sand!

A little beach buttcrack was enjoyed by all... 

And some serious sand castle building was attempted... The boys have yet to grasp the concept of building their castle away from where the tide would roll in and immediately destroy it.  But they were quite innovative in their ways of trying to stop it... 

Sisters! 

Mike taking a rest on the boogie boards!

The boys came to church with us!  This is how much Quincy loved our primary class -

Haha!! At this point there was some serious exhaustion going on here.  Either that or our lesson was boring.  

The boys were dying to get pineapple ice cream at the Dole Plantation and do the Pineapple maze!  We had fun racing through the maze to try and find all the items on the checklist!

Collin kept finding little secret cheater pathways to get through to find the clues faster... these small gaps were significantly more difficult for Jana and I to fit through but we made it! 

Finally... the long awaited pineapple sherbet arrived... 

And it was enjoyed by all!! 

Some Hibiscus flowers I saw at the plantation.. I just love these flowers.  They are so beautiful. 

Today we spent a lot of time at Hickam Beach renting Kayaks!! Mike and I went on one kayak with Collin in the middle and Jana & Greg took Quincy... We watched for crabs along the rocks and enjoyed paddling by the runway there at Hickam Beach!

The boys were ready to jump right into the water!! 

These were their Hawaiian Warrior poses... 

We were lucky enough to even see a Navy submarine surface!  After awhile we were ready to come back in and get some sunbathing in -

We enjoyed having Mike here one last day before he left tonight for the Big Island for work.  We are all really sad that he had to leave in the middle of this vacation : ( He is the life of the party! 

Love this man!

We have had a ball having the boys and it has been especially refreshing to see the island lifestyle through their eyes.  

August - Month in Numbers

Here is my month in numbers for August...it has been such a wonderful month!

3 ... the number of guests we had stay at our house for a one week get away!  Sweet Katie, DeeAura, and Bethany were all such fun house guests and we enjoyed having them here.  Katie and I used to work together for Ken Garff- we were part of the Keys to Success program which gave away cars to lucky high school students across northern Utah.  SUCH a great program to have a chance to be a part of!  Anyway, here is a photo of Katie and I at the swap meet!

7 - the number of cups Mike & I painted as a fun crafty family night.  We have been wanting to do something crafty lately and when I saw this project on Pinterest I knew it was the one!  (By the way, we did have a set of 8 cups, but I broke one.  Fail.)

4 - and you'll hate me for this one... But FOUR is the number of beautiful beaches we were blessed to spend time at in August.  I absolutely love being at the beach.  When people tell me they couldn't live on Hawaii because it's a small island and they would get island fever I just stare at them in confusion.  There are many reasons to not want to live in Hawaii I can assure you, but feeling "trapped" is surely not one of them.  Nothing is more freeing than standing on the beach and staring out into the vast ocean.  It is a truly amazing experience.

Barbers Point for Mike's work party

Enjoying a sunset in Waikiki.  We went to meet a co-worker of Mike's for his Birthday and he was celebrating on Waikiki Beach.  It was an AMAZING sunset!

  "When I admire the wonder of the sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of my Creator." -Ghandi

A romantic night with my best friend at Bellows Beach.  The water was PERFECT (and believe me, Mike won't get in the water if it's less than the temperature of his bathwater... that big baby!)  We had a blast boogie boarding and being on the beach together.  

And finally, Hickam Beach!  These are two of my favorite ladies ... Rachel and Tasha!  We are about to hit the waves on our paddleboards.  We took turns, Mike and Parker stayed back with baby Paisley and then once we came in the boys hit the surf!  Great times, and an absolutely GORGEOUS day!  

30 -The number of toes that got pampered for a wonderful girls day out together! Tasha, Rachel and I went to get pedicures downtown. 

28 - 6 The score of the first BYU game of the season!  Yes, the cougars met Washington State for their first game and blew them out of the water!  It was such a fun game to watch, I have been so excited for football season to start, and it is finally upon us!  It is like Christmas to me.  Spending Saturday watching games is just about my dream day.  GO MORMON COUGARS!  Oh, and roll tide. That's for Mike : ) 

There you go, my month in numbers!  We are just trying to live every day to it's fullest and get the most out of life.  That's what were here for. : )