Everyday is Valentines!

Valentines Day is a really great holiday to celebrate the most meaningful relationships in our lives.  

It's a great reminder to tell your significant other that you are grateful for them, and appreciate all they do in your life.  

But as I was thinking about it, I feel like Mike really treats me like every day is Valentines, and I am so happy about that. 

Love is when you wake up your wife with a kiss, regardless of stinky morning breath.  

Love is when you go set an alarm on your phone to remind you to read your scriptures together everyday. 

Love is telling your wife that she is adorable when she cries, so you don't mind her emotional freak outs. 

Love is turning off the halo game so you can play a much less exciting game of Skipbo. 

Love is driving an hour through traffic to get Orange Grove to get fro yo for the one with a craving, even when you don't want any yourself.  

Love is making an "emergency panic attack" kit for your wife to take to work. 

Love is writing little notes on the dry erase board for the other to find as a surprise.

Love is changing the lightbulbs or doing the wash without being asked. 

Love is laughing together everyday, so hard that sometimes your sides ache. 

Love is treating each other like every day is Valentines. 

I love you, Mike! 

tender mercies

Yesterday I had a pretty crazy experience ... 

I had taken some youth up to Laie for a KEY conference thing, and just spent an hour sitting in an incredible devotional with them.  I love being around the youth and spending time with them always makes me feel uplifted - we have some super strong youth in our ward. 

Anyway, I was driving home on Kam highway (the one lane part around all the curves) and when I looked behind me I saw a Prius weaving between lanes.  He sped up right on my bumper, so naturally I sped up to get away.  

He continued to catch up to me and I was watching him closely for a mile or so.  Finally, I just got the feeling to pull off to the side of the road and let him pass me.  

If you know me, I rarely stop to let people pass... I am usually the one passing people myself. 

As soon as I pulled over I heard a huge bang and saw the Prius go FLYING through the air, to land on it's roof upside down where my car had been only moments before.  

I started crying and said a prayer of gratitude that I was able to get out of the way in time.   

I am thankful for the tender mercies of the Lord - the promptings from the Spirit that show us that God is watching over us.  

Tied Together Dinner

This Wednesday was our "tied-together" dinner for mutual. 

It was so fun to watch the youth be zip tied together and learn to work together as a team to try and eat their spaghetti dinner!

Smiles all around... Love the youth in the Moanalua ward!

{heart attack}

I have to say, I do believe I have the best calling in the whole wide church!  I just love working with the young women here in the Moanalua 1st ward.  I have to say being able to spend time with these girls has blessed my life a lot more than it is likely to have blessed their's.  Regardless, I am so thankful for this opportunity!  

Tonight for mutual we went heart attacking to some of the girls in our ward.  This involved a lot of being sneaky, and I have a real hard time with being sneaky.  

Nonetheless, our young women did GREAT and we managed to escape without being caught!  

Here are a few snapshots of our wonderful girls!  

Serena getting ready for action

The lovely Nanu, Anais, Sarai, and Teyana

Kortney and Ashley just before we doorbell ditched all the hearts

Reyna our champion doorbell ringer, the bravest of us all!

Unbeknownst to me my car was being heart attacked as we were driving!

The whole group!  

5 Happy Things

1.  Saturday morning service...  This month our ward is in charge of chapel cleaning.  To be honest, prior to this ward I can count the times I have attended chapel cleaning Saturdays on less than one hand, if you know what I mean.  But, we have challenged the young women to do it, thus I have attended.  I had a rather enjoyable time with sweet Serena and Rachel cleaning the sacrament trays and other various parts of the chapel.  

2.  Shave Ice...  I cannot overemphasize the role that shave ice plays in my life at this time.  I realize this will not always be readily available to me, and therefore find it necessary to travel exorbitant miles to attain this sweet nectar of the Gods as often as possible.  You may think I am being melodramatic... if you are thinking that... you must not have had the pleasure of tasting this wonderful creation and you should start planning your trip to Hawaii right away.  

3.  Mike and I also stumbled across this gem in an art gallery on the north shore, and this made me particularly happy in my heart for some reason.  The painting is called "Obama the Great" and the artist has tried to present this to Obama when the President was here vacationing.  Unfortunately, Secret Service would not allow him to give this wonderful gift. Somebody really needs to let Obama know about this, because let's be honest... if somebody painted you as a bomb Hawaiian warrior you would totally want to know about it.  

4.  Trying out all the Mexican Restaurants we can find on this rock is also something that makes me really happy.  I think it's because it reminds me of Ogden.  Saturday we tried Cholo's.  Seriously.  Cholo's.  I love it.  

5.  Last but not least, our friends the Aubrey's.  We had the BEST golf date ever (really I don't like golf at all, but it was still fun because we managed to make our own rules because that's how we roll).  Pretty sure we have some great friends here on the island!

{another four}

Welp, Mike re-enlisted this past Friday.  We are in it four the next four years, which will put Mike at twelve years.  That, my friends, means we are in it for the long haul!  Which is just fine with me.  :)