Mama On The Move

Amusement

2012-02-01T21:14:00.001-06:00

Is it wrong of me to be amused by the fact that Ben's Spanish teacher is Japanese and his English teacher is Mexican?

A Plate of Dairy-Free Evilness

2012-01-28T01:06:00.005-06:00

This was Emily's fault.

She was surfing the internet and found a recipe she wanted to try called Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie 'n Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar. Well, of course she's allergic to all dairy, so we had to make some adjustments. And I really, really, really didn't want to go to the store, so we had to use what was in the house.

But first, Emily wanted a nap, so Ben and Katie actually ended up making the recipe because they didn't want to wait.

First, they made chocolate chip cookie dough from scratch. "From scratch" in our house means grinding wheat into flour first, but we used store bought eggs instead of going outside and chasing down some chickens. We used the recipe off a bag of regular chocolate chips.........

......but we substituted dairy-free chocolate chips and vegan butter. This particular recipe didn't call for milk, but we would have substituted almond milk if it had.

We spread the cookie dough in the bottom of the pan, then put a layer of Oreos on top. You will be amazed, I know I was, to hear that Oreos are dairy-free. That white stuff in the middle, which looks like it's made of cream or milk or something from a cow, is really just Crisco and sugar. The original recipe called for double stuff Oreos, but all I had on hand were golden single stuffed Oreos. Emily's imminent suicide over finding out she could no longer eat dairy was prevented when she found out she could still have Oreos. So I like to keep them on hand.

Now, here is another shocker: Many Duncan Hines mixes are dairy-free also. If you looked in my pantry right now, you would find four boxes of Duncan Hines brownie mix and one Duncan Hines cake mix. When a sugar craving comes on us, we have to make something that Emily can eat also, or it would just be mean. So here is something else I had on hand.

So we mixed up that there brownie batter and poured it over the top of the Oreos.

Then we covered that bad boy with tin foil and baked it at 350 for 25 minutes.

It was evil.

Blame Emily.

Kukaniloko Birthing Stones

2012-01-26T10:49:00.008-06:00

Located in Central Oahu, not far from Dole Plantation, the Royal Birthing Stones are one of the most historically significat sites on the island. Ben declined to accompany us as he didn't want to go "out in the middle of nowhere to look at a bunch of rocks."

The stones are easy to find but there are only three parking places and you have to walk a short distance down a dirt road to get to the entrance.

There are two large boulders at the entrance. Only the high chiefs, the expectant mother, and the women who would be assisting in the birth were allowed past this point.

This was considered to be a very spiritually strong area. It is eerily quiet and the air feels oddly dense when you are there. It's easy to see why the native Hawaiians felt that there was something different about this spot of land.

This site was first used for the birth of Kapawa, the son of a high ranking chief, in or around the 12th century. It was used for the births of royal children for seven centuries.

The expectant mother would be brought out to the center stone to give birth while surrounded by forty-eight chiefs pounding drums. After the birth, she and the child, still connected by the umbilical cord, would be carried to a nearby sacred heiau where the cord would be ceremoniously severed.

Lucky gal.

(Although this sounds really primitive to us, I have to point out that in the time of Henry the VIII, high-ranking women were shut up in a dark room with no outside air allowed in and a smokey fire burning for a full month before they gave birth in the same hot, dark room. And Marie Antoinette gave birth "in public" with so many people crammed into the room that it was impossible to move and the body heat made the room so hot that poor Marie fainted.)

There are a number of leis and fruits left as spiritual offerings around the site by visitors. Don't eat them.

After our visit to the site, I was researching through the powers of Google to get all the historical information I could find. Along with all the info I've already shared, I found a number of oddball stories about the site:

"As I turned back towards the stones I was suddenly hit with a rush of energy, like goosebumps only stronger, it rushed up my legs and filled the area of my abdomen, it was amazing and the energy stayed with me and I felt quite light and happy, almost spaced out. I meandered around the stones and touched a few, we sat on some but I did not feel any specific energy other than the tingling in the front of my legs and in my abdomen, it was as if I was grounded to the earth. I began to feel a very strong sense of peace and also security and connection like I have not felt before, it was pure magic and I enjoyed it immensely. There is no doubt in my mind or “being” that this was a very spiritual place indeed."
+++++++++++++++++++++
"we looked at the first set of stones the moved to the grove of trees and the cluster of rocks when something caught me eye… there was a man standing with a black hoodie or black hooded cape not moving facing the field behind a tree, I told my wife that something was wrong and we needed to leave soon… she took a few photos then the man turned to look at us, his eyes were crazy white looking out from under the hood he put his head down and turned back to face the field, then all at once he stepped out from behind the tree with his head down but eyes looking right at me and slowly moved in my direction with his arms held out to his side in a Christ type pose moving very slow… I told my wife we must go now and we turned and walked away. I did not want to seem like we were scared so I had my wife keep walking and I faked taking a photo in front of me with my phone but really was taking a photo over my shoulder to see where he was… he was gone!!!!"
++++++++++++++++++++++
"I started to step past the stones to enter the site and immediately a giant swarm of what I can only describe as gnats descended upon me. (I’ve seen these bugs swarming under tamarind trees and always assumed them to be gnats.) Anyway, I stepped back and was amazed to see a thick cloud of these insects swirling right in front of me next to one of the rocks. The swarm was about 8-10′ high and 6′ wide and not moving just hovering in place. I watched this for about 30 seconds and then, for some reason, I remembered that this is a sacred place and that I should take off my slippers. I took off my slippers and put them to the side in case someone came along and wanted to “borrow” them. I looked up and the cloud of bugs was gone. "
+++++++++++++++++++++
"Content that my experience here was over I began to leave when I heard a rustling in the tall grass surrounding the site. I looked at the area where I heard the sound coming from and then I saw a white hawaiian owl launch out from the tall grass which then flew no more than four feet above my head and dive bombed into the grass on the other side. This owl was massive and from the crouching position I had assumed to avoid it I felt my heart pounding. I thought to myself that this place is powerful. Then I heard the same rustling in the grass and the owl shot up a second time and flew in a half circle around the back of the site and right back into the same area it had just come from."
+++++++++++++++++++++
"As soon as we started up the path from the parking area, we both started feeling pressure in our solar plexus area. It intensified as we walked around the site. I started feeling extremely nauseous and was sure I would need to throw up – this was at the far side closest to Kole Kole Pass. My friend also felt nauseous, though hers dissolved much quicker than my own did."

I'm glad I didn't read any of those before we went, but now Ben wants to go because he would love to have a creepy experience. We did have our own odd little experience there, which I was fortunate enough to catch on video:

Glamour Bikes

2012-01-25T10:05:00.003-06:00

Katie got a new bike.

The poor kid had just barely gotten the hang of riding a bike when we moved here three years ago. Most of our bikes were mangled in the move. Kerry was deployed and I was overwhelmed with the move and repairing/replacing the bikes was low on my priority list.

So now, three years after she learned to ride a bike, we got her a new bike and she has learned to ride it again.

The only problem is.......it's pink. While Katie used to be the queen of pink, she has now moved into that territory of pink being a "little girl" color. And she does not want to be in that category. However, the bike was a fabulous price, and we advised her that it was this bike or no bike, as all the others were easily double the price of this one.

Fortunately, Emily came to the rescue with her massive pile of duct tape.

The girls set to work.........

.......and glammed up that bike. It's still got a good bit of pink, but it isn't completely pink and now it's also got pizzaz.

Then, once inspiration had struck, they grabbed Emily's bike..............

.......and gave it a face lift as well.

This actually used to be Ben's bike, but he's ridden it exactly twice in the two years he's had it and Emily loves to ride so it was passed on to her.

Now, he definitely won't ever want to ride it.

Update: Ben's Eye

2012-01-19T23:20:00.001-06:00

Ben had a follow up appointment today to check his eye. Amazingly, he woke up pain free and with almost normal vision. The eye doctor confirmed that he is healing very quickly and should only need antibiotics in the eye for two more days.

He's enjoying all the horrified attention he is receiving.

A Nail In The Eye

2012-01-18T21:47:00.004-06:00

Today, as I was dropping Ben off at the bus stop to go to class, he had a little accident. He has this cross necklace that he never, ever takes off. A while back the cord broke and the only brown cord I could find that would fit through the catch was a stretchy elastic cord. So today, he was brushing the dog hair off his shirt when his ring caught on the cross. As he looked down to see what his ring was caught on, the cross came loose, snapped back on the stretchy elastic cord and hit him right in the eye.

"Ow!" he was laughing as he rubbed his eye and told me what had happened. His eye was watering profusely.

"Are you okay?" I asked. "Let me look."

"No, I'm fine, it just hurt. There's my bus!" He headed off toward the bus as I drove off. I could see him still rubbing his eye.

Four hours later I got a phone call from him. "Mom, can you bring some eye drops when you pick me up? My eye is killing me! My Spanish teacher dismissed class fifteen minutes early because she said she just couldn't look at me any more. I tried to see the school nurse, but she wasn't in her office."

"But you said you were fine! You were laughing!"

"I'm a GUY mom! I'm not going to sit around whining about something hurting. I thought it would stop after a few minutes, but my eye is watering and my nose keeps running and everything is blurry."

Urgent Care Center, here we come.

I picked him up and we headed straight to the UCC. Amazingly, they took us back almost immediately. Ben had a great time talking about what he would do if he lost his eye and had to get a glass eye. "If someone ran into me from behind I could pop it out and act like they hit me hard enough to knock my eye out. At Halloween I could take it out and chase everybody with it!"

That's Ben, always looking at the bright side.

It actually didn't look too bad. His eye wasn't very red although it was watering a good bit. When they tested his vision though, he could see perfectly with his right eye (he read the bottom line of the eye chart) but with his left eye he could only read the third line and even then he missed some of the letters. His vision tested at 20/60.

The doctor came in and examined him thoroughly. I was fully expecting him to tell me that Ben had a light scratch in the corner of his eye. Instead, he drew a picture of an eye and drew two lines across the iris and pupil. "He has two lacerations across the cornea; a long one and a short one." Fortunately they should heal fairly quickly although it may take a few weeks for his vision to return to normal. For now, he has to stay in the dark and not move his eyes around a lot. And I have to squirt ointment in his eye every so often.

The doctor then put something in Ben's eye, turned off the lights, and pulled out a black light. The liquid he had put in Ben's eye glowed brightly. The doctor called in a nurse so that she could see the lacerations in Ben's eye under the black light.

"Oh cool," she said. "It's making the inside of his nose glow too!"

The Need For Speed!

2012-01-18T10:20:00.008-06:00

We've discovered something new here on the island.....

Speed.

There's a Podium Raceway over in Kapolei. On a very small island, with rather short roads, there are not many places where you can drive over 35 mph. It's actually exhilarating to get to the highway and go 55. We'll probably freak out when we get to the mainland and get on one of the stretches of highway where people drive 70 mph.

We definitely aren't going anywhere near that fast here, but because you are low to the ground, it feels like the Indie 500.

Katie is rather intimidated by the speed. She hunches down like a turtle and drives slower than the rest of us. I will be grateful for this when she is sixteen, I know. We all yell encouraging statements as we pass her. "You're doing great, Katie!" "You can go faster, Katie!" "Eat my dust, Katie!"

She has reason to be a tad nervous. The first time we went, she drove headfirst into a wall and got stuck. She couldn't remember how to back up, so they had to cut power to all of our cars while someone ran out on the track and pried her free.

This last time we went, I was trying to pass her, we bumped into each other, she spun sideways, drove headfirst into a wall and got stuck. She did remember how to back up, but still couldn't get free, so they had to cut power to all of our cars while someone ran on the track and pried her free. It's a learning experience.

Like a field trip.

I pretty much just pressed the gas pedal to the floor and only eased up on it when going around a sharp curve. I bumped into a few walls (and a Katie). The flag guy kept holding up a sign that said, "USE BRAKES". So I started using them. It's difficult to get used to using a left foot brake, when that is totally opposite of how a car works. My feet don't seem to work in tandem any more. However, I did discover that when going around a sharp curve, rather than letting up on the gas pedal (it's probably called a battery pedal, but que sera sera) I could step on the brake and do and awesome fishtail that didn't cut into my time.

They post your race times at the end, so you can see who won. It was me. Ben said, "How did you do that? I didn't think you were faster than me! It's because you knock the competition into the walls! Take out the little kid, MOM!"

Like I said, it's a learning experience.

When Sherry Met Ben

2012-01-14T01:59:00.002-06:00

Since this is Ben's senior year in high school, I have been going back through old baby photos and videos trying to find the best ones of him. We are finding so many things that we had forgotten about over the years. This particular video really tickled me when I saw it.

This is when my sister Sherry arrived to see Ben for the first time. He was twelve days old. Our parents were with us at the airport to pick her up. What tickles me so much is that she and I both center all our attention on Ben. We don't look at each other, we don't hug, we just have intense focus on the newest member of our family. Such is the power of a baby.

When I showed this video to Ben, I told him, "Look how we were so completely focused on you!"

"Yeah, what's up with that?" he responded. "Why did you stop?"

Shakespeare at the Library

2012-01-11T21:14:00.003-06:00

Emily asked me to take her to the library to get some of Shakespeare's works today. I keep telling her it's not normal to like poetry or Shakespeare, but what can I do? The girl is just weird that way. If she were in public school, she'd probably get the crap kicked out of her every day if she weren't so pretty.

Anyway, I wasn't sure if Shakespeare was kept on some special shelf reserved for nerds or if it would be in regular fiction, so Emily and I headed straight to the information desk and asked one of the volunteers.

"Um.....Shakespeare?" she asked me looking around the library as if hoping to spot it. "How do you spell that?" she finally asked as she decided to type it in on the computer.

I spelled it for her and she said, "Shakespeare.......that's like, who wrote it, right?"

Emily and I froze with pleasant expressions on our faces. I knew if we made eye contact with each other we would burst out laughing. "Yes," I replied, managing to keep my face straight. "That's who wrote it."

"Well, I don't see anything by him in fiction," she told me. "Maybe there's some in non-fiction?"

"I don't think he wrote any non-fiction," I told her. She eventually told us to wander around the fiction area and look under 'S'. We tried that for a bit and then eventually asked someone else who was able to direct us to the shelf in the Young Adult section where Shakespeare resides. Because teens love Shakespeare, you know.

To mine and Emily's credit, neither of us said a word about the library volunteer while we were still at the library. Neither of us even looked at each other the entire time we were there. But once we got out to the car, we finally made eye contact.

And we laughed.

Hiking Diamond Head - Or Not

2012-01-10T23:21:00.000-06:00

Kerry took two weeks off during December. We planned to have a staycation and do some of the things we haven't yet on the island. One of our top choices was to hike Diamond Head. It's one of the "musts" when you visit the island. We've been here three years and haven't done it yet. So we got up early one morning, full of plans to head down and scale that bad boy.

But we somehow wound up at the Hale Koa breakfast buffet instead.

Ah well. Que sera sera.

Hale Koa with Katie

2012-01-10T10:39:00.006-06:00

A year ago, I took Emily to Waikiki and we had a "girls only" weekend where we discussed the facts of life and the birds and the bees and all that.

Well, ever since, Katie has been champing at the bit to have her weekend with me. She's a couple of years younger than Emily was so I didn't quite get into the nitty gritty details the way I did with Emily, but we will cover all that in another year or so. I had planned to do this in January or February after the holidays, but at the beginning of December, the Hale Koa offered 50% off their rooms for kama'aina (people who live on the island) so I jumped at the chance to have a quick vacation in the middle of Christmas.

We hadn't been to the Hale Koa during Christmas before. It was fun to see all the decorations.

We forgot to make our gingerbread houses this year, but at least we got to see the big fancy ones!

The closest thing we get to snowmen.

We walked over to the Sheraton to see their sand sculpture. Last year they had three, but this year there was only the one. Darn economy.

We also went to the magic show at the Hale Koa and

Katie got a balloon animal shaped like an Angry Bird.

One of the things Katie wanted to do the most was to go on the Atlantis submarine ride.

When it came up out of the water, a rainbow was right above it,

like it was our own little pot of gold.

The other end of the rainbow was in Honolulu!

This was my third time on the submarine but it was Katie's first.

It's still really cool to see the sunken ships.

Like viewing the Titanic.

The other times that I've been on this ride, the submarine was packed full of people. You sit back to back with another row of people and if something is swimming past the windows on the other side, you don't get to see it. Too bad for you. On this particular trip however, there were only about ten of us and as critters were spotted on each side of the vessel, everyone would just climb over to the windows on the opposite side and look out of those portholes.

The other times I've been on this submarine, we've seen a good number of fish, but on this trip, we saw an amazing amount of fish. I really couldn't believe it. We saw a school of about twenty huge puffer fish. We saw turtles swimming instead of just laying around and we even saw a couple of sharks swim by! It was even better than I expected and a great ride for Katie!

Certain Key Phrases

2011-12-19T23:54:00.002-06:00

Kerry recently attended a briefing for Marines who will be deploying to Afghanistan. A small booklet was handed out containing handy phrases they might need to know in case they need to interact with the local populace. Included are the pronunciations in Pashtu for common sentences. The first page includes:

Do not move or the Marines will kill you.

A Marine will come to you and search you.

Do not move unless told to do so.

If you advance further, the Marines will kill you.

Stay away from the Marines.

If you advance any closer, we will be forced to use deadly force.

Marines will kill anyone who is a threat to us.

And at the bottom of the page, they learn to say:

The Marines are here to help you.

My Black Shirt

2011-12-18T11:03:00.002-06:00

I have a black shirt that I love. It's comfortable and I wear it a lot. But it hasn't come through the last few laundry cycles and I guessed it had probably wound up in someone else's drawer.

Emily was sitting at the computer when I came in the room and said, "Have you seen my favorite black shirt, I can't find it anywhere and...............are you wearing it?"

She looked down at herself and back up at me and said, "Oh yeah, I guess I am!"

"I've been looking for that everywhere!"

"Well, I'm glad you found it!"

Dance Recital 2011

2011-12-10T23:55:00.003-06:00

Ben and Katie were both in a dance recital last week. Katie takes hip-hop and Ben takes ballroom.

The ballroom dance was the Cha-Cha this year. He is dancing with his real life girlfriend, Noelle.

Ben has been taking ballroom for a couple of years now. Katie only just started hip-hop classes about six weeks ago. When she started the class, the other students had already started learning the recital dance and they had quite a head start on Katie. As soon as she learned about the recital, of course, she wanted to be in it. Baby likes a chance to shine. I was opposed to her jumping on the recital bandwagon. "There are only six classes before the recital, I don't know if that's enough time for you to learn the dance." She begged and pleaded, we discussed it with her teacher, and he said as long as she knew the dance, she could be in the recital. Thanks, teach!

Fortunately he had uploaded a video of the dance to you tube and Katie practiced it every day until she had it down pat. I've seen her do that dance every week at class and every day at home. She knew that dance better than most of the girls in class. But when she strolled out on stage, she was decidedly not doing the dance I'd seen so many times. Suddenly, her hips were swaying, her shoulders rolling, and she sashayed around that stage in a manner I had not seen before.

Note how even when the dance is over, she maintains that "I'm so cool" attitude. When the dancers left the stage, Kerry and I looked at each other, closed our mouths, and said, "What was THAT?"

When we found her after the recital, I mentioned that she seemed to be using a lot more hips and shoulders in her dance. "Right before we went out, our teacher said, 'Remember! Dance with attitude!' So I did!"

Thanks again, teach!

On the way home, we praised Katie greatly for the fact that she had learned the dance so quickly and knew it better than most of the girls on stage. We talked about how she had worked so hard and all that hard work had paid off.

Then, out of the corner of his mouth ventriloquist-style, Ben suddenly said, "You did a great job too, Ben!"

Oops! Sorry! You did do a great job Ben!

2011-12-10T12:01:00.002-06:00

Something about Ben's post-operative head gear seemed vaguely familiar to me.

Then when I went to the grocery store, I realized what it was!

Four Teeth Fewer Than Yesterday

2011-12-08T21:39:00.007-06:00

Ben had all four wisdom teeth removed today. They were impacted and had to come out, so we took a deep breath and did it.

Ben told us later he didn't even have time to get nervous. They had him breathe laughing gas first and he never even felt the IV go into his arm. He liked the fact that the laughing gas made his voice deeper. He said he asked them several times when they would knock him out. The next thing he knew, Kerry and I were in the room and it was all over.

He kept laughing when we first walked in the room. Several times he said, "I don't remember anything!" Then he would laugh. He suddenly patted himself all over. When I asked what he was doing, he said, "Just making sure I have everything." Then he laughed. He said something about his feet, but we couldn't understand him. Then he laughed. He tried talking a lot, but his mouth was full of gauze and we really had no idea what he was saying. We just laughed when he laughed, and he seemed pleased and mellow.

When he said he felt well enough to walk out under his own power, we started toward the door with him. He wobbled precariously close to the walls until Kerry and I each took him by the elbow and steered him in a straighter path.

When we got to the car, we asked him if he wanted to sit up front, or lay down in the back. "You mean I can't drive?"

He was still groggy when we got home, but they had ice packs on him as soon as the surgery was over, so swelling has been minimal.

We managed to get a video of him while he was still a little loopy.

Coal And Switches

2011-12-06T20:09:00.004-06:00

December is a very intense month for my kids. Packages are arriving in the mail on a nearly daily basis and they are aquiver with curiosity about what's in those boxes.

Today a box arrived, I opened it and checked the contents, then immediately closed it and headed off to hide it.

"Christmas presents?" Katie asked hopefully.

"It's just a box full of coal and switches," I told her.

She nodded her head toward Emily and told me wisely, "I knew she was going to get some."

My Loving Children

2011-12-03T10:49:00.005-06:00

I always hoped that my children would love and protect each other, but I've come to accept that most siblings simply can't resist picking on and competing with each other.

Katie was making a video of herself (we have millions of videos Katie has made of herself - and pictures too!) which was amusing enough in itself but then you hear Ben and Emily arguing in the background because Ben caught Emily taking a bite of a brownie which was made with real butter instead of the dairy free version I usually make.

For those of you who are immediately thinking how mean I am to make brownies that Emily wouldn't be allowed to eat, I didn't make them, Ben's girlfriend did because they wanted to cook together and he made a chicken casserole and she made brownies and I wonder if they were imagining that's what it would be like to be married because that's what I did when I made hot dogs for my college boyfriend and I thought it would be so much fun to cook for my husband one day and then when I'd been married for not too long, I realized that cooking every single day isn't a bit charming the way you think it is when you're playing house by making hot dogs in college.

Wait..... I think this post was supposed to be about the video. So here it is:

If you listen closely, you can hear Ben and Emily arguing in the background about her taking a brownie and he finally tells her he hopes she dies of eczema.

That's sibling love for you.

Question of the Day

2011-11-30T09:55:00.001-06:00

Katie: "If our food was still alive while it was in our stomachs, would it be able to read our thoughts?"

Where Do Deviled Eggs Come From?

2011-11-26T21:55:00.001-06:00

I made a giant platter of deviled eggs this year for Thanksgiving. We love them, and all the folks at our Thanksgiving get together were delighted to have them.

This morning Kerry mentioned that he only got two of them.

"I know, I wish we had more," I remarked. Then it dawned on me. "You know, we could make more. I don't know why we don't have them more often. I made that whole platter, it's not like we don't know where they come from."

"Yeah," Kerry said, "It's like we think the deviled egg bird has to fly in the house and lay deviled eggs on the counter!"

The stork has a new career apparently.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T12:38:00.003-06:00

Once again, we went to the mess hall for Thanksgiving. Although, nowadays it's called the DFAC. I like to go because I can get all the food I don't have room to make at home. I only have enough oven space to make ham or turkey and three casseroles (green bean, sweet potato, and corn bread). At the DFAC I can get all that plus fish, prime rib, kalua pig, and crab legs.

The kids always really enjoy this part of Thanksgiving, particularly for the crab legs. This year, we were some of the first people in the door and the crab legs were huge! By the time we left, the people coming through the line had crab legs about the size of a finger.

The carnage was terrible. But as a military family, we are used it.

Then we (I) strolled around and checked out all the decorations like the ice sculptures.....

....the sparkling cider table....

....the general overindulgence table....

....cool cakes....

....and chocolate sculptures. The decorations are always very impressive.....

....well, mostly.

Buying A Bass

2011-11-14T13:33:00.005-06:00

Emily has completed her acoustic guitar lessons. Her teacher informed her that there are really only a few things left that he can teach her and asked if she would like to start bass guitar lessons. She was very excited over the idea of a guitar which could be plugged into an amp with a volume control set to the "shatter windows" setting.

Her teacher had told us that the local music store sometimes has a package deal where they bundle the guitar and amp together for a discounted price. So, Emily and I headed over there on Saturday to see what sort of deal we could get. The store is closing and moving to a new location, so they are selling off a lot of their stock at discounted prices which we were hoping would benefit us.

As soon as we walked in, one of the store employees came over and asked us if we needed help.

"Yes," I told him. I explained that Emily was about to start bass guitar lessons and that we needed a bass and amp and that we had heard they sometimes had package deals for a beginners set.

"I'm sorry," he told us. "We no longer have any. We're moving the store and a lot of things have sold out already."

"Oh darn. Do you think you will get any more in when you get to your new location?"

"I don't think so," he told us.

Dad-gum-it. Where the heck am I going to get a bass guitar without spending a fortune, I wondered.

We then told the employee that we would take some new guitar strings and he trotted off to fetch them. While we were standing there waiting, another emplyee came up and said, "Did you find everything you needed today?"

"Well, no," I told him. "We were trying to find a beginners bass guitar and amp, but you don't have any."

He looked at me oddly, "Yes we do. They're right over here, and they are 30% off right now."

I pointed at the other employee and tattled, "He just told me you don't have any!"

The other employee looked at us and said, "She said she wanted a package."

Uh....hello. If I walk in saying I'm looking for a beginners bass guitar and amp and you are selling them for 30% off, don't get hung up on the word "package". I don't mind if they aren't all shrink wrapped together.

We did end up leaving the store with a bass guitar, an amp, a cable to hook the two together and a guitar case, all at 30% off despite the guy who couldn't see the forest because of all the trees.

Hiking to Lanikai Pillboxes

2011-11-11T15:47:00.013-06:00

Yesterday we went hiking to the Lanikai Pillboxes over on the windward side. I was assured that this one was much easier than the easy hike we had been on before. No handholds needed, no cliffs to climb while hanging on to a rope. That's my kind of hike.

We all gathered together to start our hike at five o'clock in the afternoon. Our main purpose in starting so late was to climb to the top and then watch the full moon rise. We've been waiting quite a while for a night when the weather was good, and when the moon was not already up, or only had a crescent showing.

Of course, once we were all ready to go, one of the teens who has been on this hike before mentioned, "Yeah, there's just a couple of parts where the trail is so narrow it's like, if you step too far to the right, you die. If you step too far to the left, you die."

What??

As it turns out, we weren't going to be hiking along a regular trail, but along a ridge. I wasn't pleased to be hearing this info. "Why are we taking our kids up to a place where they could take a wrong step and die?" I wanted to know.

I was assured that it really wasn't dangerous and that the teens were just dramatizing.

So off we went.

If you ever go, you should know there is no public parking lot for this hike. You have to park in a neighborhood, so be respectful of people's driveways and property.

Also, the first third of this hike is fairly strenuous. Bring a water bottle that you don't have to hold in your hand. There are a lot of places where you really have to scramble up some steep inclines covered in loose gravel and grab on to branches to help hoist yourself along. But I really didn't find any of it to be so difficult that I wished I hadn't come.

About the time you start breathing hard, you reach a really good spot to stop and take in the view of the Mokulua Islands. It is a phenomenal view of the windward coast and I am not kidding. It was like looking at a postcard.

When you see this view, you want to stop and get your breath back.

Because the trail is about to get steep again.

As you climb higher and higher the view just gets better and better. The sunset was reflecting off the ocean making the water look rosy.

This is one of the areas where if you go left you die, if you go right you die. It's not very wide, but at least it isn't a sheer drop off a cliff on either side. It is incredibly windy when you get to these areas though. If you ever go, wear a jacket. I actually got an ear ache from the wind.

We could also see the town of Kailua below us.

We could see the sun setting as we were hiking, and it was a great view.

The "pillboxes" are actually two bunkers left over from World War II. You can climb down inside of them or just sit on the roof of one.

This is the view from the first pillbox. We didn't climb up on this one, but headed up higher to the second one and climbed up on top of it.

The view from the rooftop was fabulous.

The view inside the bunker was fabulous in a different way.

We all sat on the rooftop and watched the lights come on in the town below us as we waited for the moon to rise.

We watched it come up over the Mokulua Islands. It was full and bright and rose a lot faster than you would think.

We stayed up there for quite a while just talking and trying to keep warm. Then we all pulled out our flashlights and headed back down.

Now, what I call a strenuous but not horrible hike on the way up in the daylight, is a whole different story on the way down in the dark. Katie promptly dropped her flashlight and broke it so we had less light from the start. We lost sight of the trail several times in the dark. Those steep places with loose gravel are extremely difficult to navigate in the dark while holding a flashlight. There was one steep section where I would cling to one little tree on the side of the path, then aim for the next little tree on the path to stop my forward motion by grabbing on to it. Then I would pick out another little tree further down and start over again. This required changing my flashlight from hand to hand depending on what side of the trail the next tree was on. I think I did fairly well as I only fell three times - doing a very impressive split on one incline. I took some skin off my palms and my forearm, bruised my behind on some gravel, and jammed most of my fingers on my right hand.

If you ever go, bring Bactine.

Emily, Who Is Good At Everything

2011-11-08T14:14:00.002-06:00

I was buying groceries today when my phone beeped indicating a new voicemail. I don't get a good signal in the store so my phone never rings but will occasionally take a message for me.

The voicemail from Emily went something like this, "Hi mom...I love you and you are the best mother in the world! I just want to remind you that I've never made less than an 'A' in my life and I'm a very dedicated student. I'm also good at sports and really good at the guitar. I'm thrifty and I save most of my babysitting money, just like you've taught me."

At that point, my phone had decided it didn't want to be my secretary any longer and it cut her off. I assumed that she was probably trying to butter me up into buying candy or something while I was at the store, and I laughed to myself. But since I had no signal, I couldn't call to confirm what it was she wanted, and I promptly forgot about it in the excitement of discovering some unexpected coupons on a shelf.

Then I got home and found this taped to the front door:

That's not a good sign.

Once inside I was bombarded with a houseful of smoke and the tale of how Emily was cooking bacon and she turned away just long enough to butter her toast. And the bacon burned up completely in just those few seconds.

Well, let me tell you, that is the last time I buy the extra fast cooking bacon!

Namie

2011-11-07T02:41:00.002-06:00

When you go to Starbucks, they ask your name and write it on your cup when you order. Apparently, I don't pronounce "Amy" clearly enough.

When I got my drink, I thought, "Who on earth would think that my parents would name me 'Namie'"?

Then someone pointed out to me that the barrista was probably writing my name on my cup and thinking, "Who on earth would name their kid 'Namie'"?

Milk Jug Ghosts

2011-10-31T11:36:00.003-05:00

I saw this idea on a craft site and thought it would be fun (and easy) to do for Halloween.

We each took an empty milk jug, drew a ghost face on it, and put battery operated tea lights in it. I thought they were really cute, and I love how each member of my family put their own spin theirs.

But Ben told me we just look like we are too poor to afford a pumpkin!

Powderpuff Football

2011-10-25T03:11:00.006-05:00

Kerry's unit had a Powderpuff football game this week. That's where the women play flag football. I was asked if I would like to play.

No, I would not.

I did go watch, but I have no desire to break a knee or throw my back out. Let the younger women participate.

Besides, I really just go to look at the cheerleaders.

Jumping around in their short skirts and combat boots....

It takes a secure man to wear a kilt!

Karma Chameleon

2011-10-22T00:39:00.002-05:00

I know this doesn't even look real, but this is an actual chameleon that one of the kids at church found in the bushes today. He was not particularly pleased to be shown about the inside of the building and rolled his eyes at all of us a lot. Now, I'm going to be completely freaked out that there might be more of those bad boys around here somewhere.

Camping (The Girly Way)

2011-10-20T12:26:00.009-05:00

We went camping on the North Shore. Our friends at church have been renting this same house for one weekend a year for seventeen years. It's right on the beach and we have bathrooms and a kitchen. There are also bedrooms, but I don't think anyone actually used them. The yard is big enough for all of us to set up our tents.

Our own personal Taj Mahal had a great ocean view. We brought the air mattresses with us because the last time I slept on the ground I could barely move the next day. Cots or air mattresses are not optional if you want me to stay.

Which is kind of funny, because I didn't spend Friday night out there. I went to see "The Phantom of the Opera" with some friends and left for the campsite Saturday morning.

So it was just Kerry and the kids.

Except Kerry had to go in to work at 1:00 in the morning and didn't get back out to the camp until 5:00 Saturday morning.

So it was just the kids.

And Ben and Emily decided to sleep on the beach.

So it was just Katie on the two queen-size air mattresses in the tent.

Fortunately, Kerry has the ability to rise on two hours of sleep and make breakfast for thirty people.

It was phenomenal. He is the master of dutch oven cooking. It was truly the best meal we had while we were there.

The teens all ate in the back of a truck because it makes food taste better, dontacha know.

They spent a lot of time in the ocean which also counted as bathing,

Played a ton of volleyball,

And made s'mores over the campfire while someone played praise songs on a guitar.

We had our own little church service Sunday morning since we were all missing church.

Not a bad way to vacation (if I didn't have to load everything up again and then clean and wash it all when we got home).

Heading Out To Camp

2011-10-19T12:35:00.004-05:00

We went camping last weekend with a group of about thirty people from our church. Each family signed up to take care of making one specific meal. We joined together with another family to make breakfast Saturday morning and Kerry volunteered to take on dessert for Saturday night. Each family also signed up to bring paper goods which we would all share.

I spent the day gathering......

...two water coolers, two air mattresses, paper towels, toilet paper, coffee cups, water cups, tin foil, flashlights, the tent, a ground cover, blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, sunscreen, bug spray, beach toys, beach towels, folding chairs, a pop up tent to act as a covered porch in case of rain or excessive sunshine, light jackets because it's getting chilly at night, Emily's guitar....

...charcoal, lighters, a big metal fire pit, ingredients to make breakfast casserole for the entire group, ingredients to make dessert for the entire group, dairy-free food for Emily, and snacks for my family packed into two coolers because it wouldn't all fit in one.

Plus, each of us packed a backpack with our clothes and swimsuits.

(The dogs know when they see all this stuff that someone is leaving and they give us looks of betrayal all day.)

Once I had everything gathered together and Kerry got home to help load it into the vehicles, I gestured at everything and said, "This is like moving. I'm honestly not sure I think camping is worth it."

Kerry responded, "Ben and I go camping once a month and we take every single thing we need on our backs. This," he gestured at the piles of gear, "is not camping!"

Fashion Plate

2011-10-19T12:27:00.003-05:00

This is Katie's favorite favorite pair of pajamas.

She refuses to admit that she might have outgrown them, even though she can barely squeeze into them and the top and bottom won't stay touching unless she constantly tugs on them.

I'm not sure why she added the fur-topped socks to this particular ensemble unless it was just to add some pizzaz.

Ringo's Happy Place

2011-10-13T12:07:00.002-05:00

A sunny spot is a happy place.

*Yawn*

How To Get Things From Your Mother

2011-10-12T12:24:00.003-05:00

Last night after dinner, I was cleaning up the kitchen. Emily walked in and said, "You need to go do something else. I'll clean the kitchen."

"What?" I was completely baffled. Usually I don't get help unless I specifically ask for it.

"God was just really tapping me on the shoulder and saying, 'You should not be sitting here playing solitaire while your mother is cleaning up'. So go sit down and watch television or something, I'll clean up."

I looked over at Ben who was still glued to a computer. "What about you, Ben? Is God telling you to get off the computer and do something?"

"Nope," Ben replied. "God is very pleased with me already. Emily probably just wants something, but she doesn't want to tell you yet. Tomorrow she's going to ask you to buy her something."

"And I'll buy it for her too."

Teen Scream

2011-10-06T12:07:00.002-05:00

Last night around 9:00, I took Rigger out for his last walk of the day. We were standing in the front yard in the dark when two teenaged girls walked out of the house across the street. One of the girls lives there and one must have been a new friend. Rigger of course stopped and watched them walk out, as he is always interested in what is going on in the neighborhood. The two girls walked out to the center of the street at which point the new girl spotted Rigger, screamed bloody murder, took a step backwards, fell, and then curled up in the middle of the street and laughed for two minutes straight.

Rigger, when she screamed, skittered backwards a few feet himself before he realized he wasn't in any immediate danger.

The teen girl's mother had come outside to find out what the commotion was all about. She looked over at me and called, "I think you startled her."

Yes, well she quite startled the heck out of us as well.

YMCA

2011-10-04T01:56:00.003-05:00

Not too long ago, we threw a birthday party with a 70's theme for one of the moms in our group. They asked some of the men to dress up like The Village People and do "YMCA" as a surprise for everyone. Guess who was asked to dress up as the soldier??

This actually happened a few months ago, but it took a while for me to convince someone to let me use the video on the blog!

My Schedule for Monday

2011-10-03T03:07:00.003-05:00

9:00 Dentist

10:30 Take Ben to bus stop

12:30 Take Emily to speech class

1:30 Pick Ben up at bus stop

2:30 Pick Emily up from speech class

4:00 Take Katie to dance class

5:00 Ballroom dancing for Ben and Emily

7:00 Sign language class.

Somewhere in there, I have to actually homeschool the kids, cook, clean, and maybe breathe. Also, I'm in charge of writing a play for our co-op to perform, and teaching a speech class and a class on Ancient Mesopotamia that I have to prep for sometime this week.

This is why I barely have time to write on the blog.

* as a side note, Emily hates speech class again.

PCC Ice Cream Run

2011-09-26T20:45:00.000-05:00

When you go see the Breath of Life show at the Polynesian Cultural Center, they sell ice cream at intermission. The best part of that (besides the ice cream) is watching the guys bring it in.

They run down a flight of stairs with a heavy tray of ice cream.

For some reason, I could watch this over and over. You have to wonder if any of them ever trip and just tumble down those steps with all that ice cream.

Cookie Map of Egypt

2011-09-25T01:48:00.003-05:00

Katie is studying ancient Egyptian history right now and in the interest of making it more "hands-on" for her, we've joined a co-op at our church. We've been part of the co-op for a long time, but we've not done history with them until now.

I was in charge of this week's craft project so I had all the kids make maps of ancient Egypt out of cookie dough. Katie and I made one at home for practice, then we made one again at co-op so the pictures look different as I used some photographs from each session.

Each child started out with one full tube of sugar cookie dough. They pressed each one out into a 10x6 inch rectangle as if it were clay or play dough.

We used toothpicks to outline where we wanted land formations to be. Then we outlined the Mediterranean Sea with a blue gel.

And filled it in with blue icing.

We used Twizzlers to outline the Red Sea. Although the Red Sea isn't actually red, there is a seasonal algae there which is red in color. I thought the Twizzlers outline might help all the kids remember that that's the Red Sea as opposed to some other body of water.

After filling in the Red Sea with blue icing, we drew the Nile River with blue gel icing including the Nile Delta in lower Egypt. Then we discussed how the Nile River flooded every year and we used blue sprinkles to show the flooding of the Nile.

Of course when the Nile floods, it waters everything along the edges, so we then used green sprinkles to represent the crop growth after the floods.

Next, we used some gold sprinkles to represent the Western Desert and the Libyan Desert.

We used peanut butter flavored chips to represent pyramids. I didn't have any sprinkles which could have represented crops growing, so some of the kids just used stars because they are colorful like flowers. And really, wouldn't we all grow stars if we could?

Amazingly, a neighbor had given me some cow shaped sprinkles a while back and we used those to represent the Egyptian cattle which would have thrived along the Nile.

(I don't know why that previous sentence decided to do it's own thing as far as color and linking go, but I can't get it to change and who am I to thwart the desires of the alphabet to be flamboyant?)

We used a Hershey's kiss for Mt Sinai. One of the kids came up with the idea of putting a teddy bear shaped sprinkle on top to represent Moses. One of the younger kids wanted to know if I had any sprinkles in the shape of the Ten Commandments. Then another child came up with the idea of parting the Red Sea with a finger. All the other kids followed suit. They are so creative!

The result is a massive amount of sugar.

The topography of Egypt will change when you bake it, but that makes it even more fun.

Then you can eat it and by the time you wake up from that sugar coma,

it will be time to study ancient China!

Just Something To Pass The Time

2011-09-24T03:14:00.004-05:00

The kids learned this routine a couple of years ago.

Apparently it's still entertaining!

I wonder if, when they are my age, they will be sitting around saying, "Remember that thing we used to do with the cups? How did that go? Does anyone remember?"

Speech Class

2011-09-23T05:29:00.001-05:00

I signed Emily up for a speech class. I didn't ask her if she wanted to do it. As her teacher and principal, I deemed it was requirement and signed her up. A large number of her friends are signed up for the same class so I knew she wouldn't just be walking into a room full of strangers. Emily doesn't like new experiences, so it's always best to have her go along with people she knows if you want her to try something.

So, she groused all the way to speech class about how she didn't want to do it. I reminded her that it's a requirement and that at least she would have friends in the class. She continued to grumble.

When we arrived, she bounced in to sit with her friends. I was only able to stay for a little while as I had to take my sister to the airport. I did stay long enough to hear the announcer say that the teens are required to sign up for at least two speeches but no more than five.

When Emily got home later in the day, she laughingly mentioned that she had signed up for five speeches before the end of the year.

"Wow," I said. "Maybe you should reconsider that. This is your first year and you don't want to get overwhelmed." We talked about the possibility of her dropping at least one of the speeches.

Later in the week, my sister called and asked how Emily liked her speech class after she had grumbled about it so much.

"Oh she really liked it!" I told her.

"I did not!" Emily snarled.

"But...you signed up for five speeches! You were really excited about it when you got home!"

"I don't know what I was thinking! I do not like speech class! I never said I liked it!"

"Sorry, I thought you did," I told Emily. "She didn't like it after all," I told my sister.

The second week, I picked Emily up after speech class. I asked her, "Did you drop any of the speeches?"

"No," she growled from the back seat.

"Why not?"

She muttered something under her breath and then laughed.

"What?" I asked her.

She literally growled some words out, there was no way I could understand her.

"What?" I asked again.

"Because I like speech class!" she laughed. "I don't want to give up any of my speeches!"

That's what I thought! HA!

Queen Emma's Summer Palace

2011-09-22T07:03:00.003-05:00

We recently visited Queen Emma's Summer Palace in Honolulu. If you are expecting a "palace", you will be disappointed. It's a nice house but not particularly palatial. If you think of it as Queen Emma's Summer Cottage, you'll enjoy it more because it will meet your expectations.

Queen Emma was the wife of King Kamehameha IV. Their only child, Prince Albert, died at age four, and King Kamehameha IV died a year later. It's a sad story.

The home was used by the royal family in the mid-1800's. Today it holds artifacts from that time period. Some of the furnishings and memorabilia actually belonged to Queen Emma.

Unfortunately, no photography is allowed inside, so I didn't take any pictures. I did, however, find some images on the internet which I am copying here. Don't sue me, please. I did try to buy postcards in the gift shop, but they didn't have any.

This photo is of the parlor.

Queen Emma acquired this baby grand piano later in her life while traveling through Europe.

This was Queen Emma's bed which is made of koa wood. It stands next to Prince Albert's koa four poster crib which was made by master craftsman Wilhelm Fischer.

The three tiered sideboard was built in Berlin at the request of Prince Albert of England and given as a wedding gift to the Hawaiian royals. This is in the Edinburgh Room.

The cradle in this picture, also made by Wilhelm Fischer, was commissioned by the king and queen at the birth of Prince Albert and is regarded as a state treasure. It is hard to tell from this picture, but from the side it looked somewhat like a turtle shell.

At the bottom of the picture is a child's bathtub which was a gift of the Chinese emperor.

Byodo-In Temple

2011-09-21T08:42:00.003-05:00

Over on the windward side of the island is a cemetery called The Valley of Temples. The cemetery is divided into Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, and Shinto areas. But the real draw, right at the foot of the Ko'olau Mountains, is the Byodo-In Temple.

This temple was built in 1968 to commemorate one hundred years of Japanese workers living in Hawaii. It is a replica of an 11th century Buddhist temple in Uji, Japan.

This temple has been featured in the television shows "Lost", "Magnum P.I." and "Hawaii 5-0", I believe. I've never seen any of those shows, so I can't swear to it, but I've heard it's so.

Here's an interesting fact: this temple was built entirely without the use of nails just like the temple it is modeled after.

Before you get to the temple is a large "peace bell". We could hear the sound of the bell every so often as it was rung by visitors. Fortunately it has a very soft tone, despite it's size. It wouldn't have been very peaceful to have a loud clanging GONG clamoring every few minutes. The sign by the bell says, "An offering and ringing of the bell brings happiness, the blessings of Buddha, and a long life to the ringer of the bell. It is customarily rung before one enters the temple to spread the eternal teachings of Buddha."

I thought the temple would be huge inside, with lots of rooms to explore. But it is actually just this one room with the statue of Buddha in it. There's actually very little room to even walk around the Buddha.

I'm taking the description of the Buddha statue directly from the web site:

The Buddha is thought to be the largest figure carved outside of Japan. Towering more than 9 feet, the immense figure is an original work of art carved by the famous Japanese sculptor, Masuzo Inui. When the carving was completed, it was covered with cloth and painted with three applications of gold lacquer. Gold leaf was later applied over the lacquer finish. Around the Buddha are 52 smaller sculptures depicting Boddhisattvas (enlightened beings) floating on clouds, dancing, and playing musical instruments. The hall and all the artistry it reflects are regarded as representing the essence of the culture of the Fujiwara aristocracy.

The Hall is popularly known as Hoo-do, or the Phoenix Hall, because a pair of the legendary birds of good omen and of Chinese origin is seen perched on both ends of the roof with their wings spread and ready to fly away. The hall containing two wings reflects stability as well as artistic beauty.

There was a huge black swan swimming around in the ponds. It reminded me of the time when we lived in Texas and a swan tried to eat our chihuahua.

Don't let that whole "majestic beauty" thing fool you.

Swans are mean.

There were several waterfalls and grottos as well as a meditation pavilion. Everything was very quiet and peaceful.

Except for one little boy who kept screaming "Fish! Fish! Mama! Look at the FISH!"

This area around the temples looked like shrines or graves, but I haven't been able to find much information on it. Many of them had offerings of food and flowers. One even had cans of soda and beer!

Running Like A Hamster

2011-09-17T21:39:00.003-05:00

Sometimes, you think you know every inch of an island, and then you stumble across something you haven't seen before.

For us, the concept of getting inside a clear plastic bubble and running like a hamster (except on water) was a novel idea.

First you get inside a deflated plastic bubble. Then a girl blows up your bubble with a leaf blower.

Then you walk inside your bubble up a ramp, and into a wading pool.....

.....where you immediately fall down.

Then everyone laughs at you while you try to figure out how to stand, walk, and run again.

It was like watching my kids be toddlers all over again.

Ben said his legs hurt the next day like he'd done thousands of squats. Trying to walk on water is more difficult than you'd think! Gives the glutes a good workout!

Ben was the only one who managed to stay standing. He was also able to run a bit. But then the girls figured out that if they flung themselves bodily in the floor of the bubble, they could create a wave which would immediately knock him down and that put and end to that.

We laughed and laughed. You'd think it would only be fun if you are inside the bubble, but let me tell you, it is a riot to watch.

I like this photo because it's looks like Emily is being pulled into some sort of vortex.

It must have been fun, because that is a look of pure glee, right there.

And while normally, a picture is worth a thousand words, in this case, only a video will do.....

Snorkeling at Sharks Cove

2011-09-16T23:02:00.006-05:00

My sister Sherry came to visit recently and we took her snorkeling at Shark's Cove on the North Shore.

That makes us sound brave, doesn't it? Snorkeling with sharks.

Fortunately there weren't any sharks. I would have come screaming out of that water if there were. Even though they say if you don't bother the sharks, they won't bother you, I'm not taking any chances. I've seen "Jaws", I know what I know.

Sharks Cove is made up of two very different areas. There is a very open area where lots of scuba divers head out into the ocean and the brave snorkelers go. Conceivably, there could be some sharks over there. See how it opens up into the ocean? Looks like a big candy jar to sharks.

Full of candy with a soft, chewy center.

Just kidding.

Maybe.

The other portion of Shark's Cove is rocky as all get out. You definitely want to wear reef walkers, or you'll be staggering around all those rocks as you try to wade out to a good snorkeling spot. Those rocks hurt, and there is no getting around them.

As you get a little further out, you'll find areas close to the wall where the water is well over your head and the fish are swimming by the gazillions. I've snorkeled in a lot of places, but I don't think I've ever seen as many fish as I did the day we went to Shark's Cove. It really was incredible. You can just float face down and watch the fish until someone jumps in and hauls you out because they think you've perished. It's very relaxing.

Like most places near the ocean, you do have to use caution. I found this video on YouTube (it's not mine). I can't tell for sure if it's Shark's Cove, but it looks like it is to me.

Be safe. Don't turn your back on the ocean.

But go snorkeling here. You won't regret it.

Dolphin Swim

2011-09-15T22:46:00.001-05:00

Emily was able to go on a Dolphin Encounter for her birthday two years ago and Katie had asked to be able to do it for her birthday ever since. Since we all really wanted to do it, we decided to just make it a full family event and take all five of us on the dolphin swim.

For this activity we chose Dolphin Quest at the Kahala Hotel and Resort. We had a great time there with Emily's swim and wanted to have the same wonderful experience!

We got to watch the trainers feed the dolphins and give them a quick checkup.

The dolphins looked like they were have a blast just playing with each other before we even got in the water.

The trainers were wonderful. They told us about each dolphin and how each of them has a different personality. We learned about the feeding and care of dolphins as well (so I can count this as an educational field trip, right?).

We were able to have a lot of contact time with the dolphins. We were able to pet them, hug them, and kiss them. We raced one (he took it easy on us) and also participated in a splashing war (he won).

The trainer showed us the signals to use to get them to do tricks and we got to see some great flips and twirls!

This was a fabulous family adventure and definitely something I can check off my bucket list!

Just Dance

2011-09-15T14:06:00.004-05:00

Katie got a cool new game for her birthday called "Just Dance". You have to follow the moves on the screen in time to the music. My hammy family is having a great time with this one!

This was one of the first attempts.

Even Kerry joins in when it's more like karate than dancing!

The show stopper.

And Now She's Eleven

2011-09-13T23:55:00.004-05:00

Well, she's gone and done it.

Katie turned eleven.

I thought eleven scoops of ice cream would be plenty, but no. Apparently thirty scoops is the going thing for birthday parties. They also served a giant goblet of hot fudge that everyone was able to drizzle over their scoops. We also had a "chocolate decadence" birthday cake. I was quite happy to fill up all her birthday guests with sugar.

None of them were coming home with us afterward.

Katie got a mask from my sister. She had really wanted this mask and was so excited to get it, she wore it for the rest of her party.

Even as she received more and more bling, the mask was still the central focus.

I think I need to keep her away from Las Vegas.

Funnel Cloud

2011-09-08T01:46:00.003-05:00

We were heading back home from Honolulu today when Katie said, "Look at that cloud, it almost looks like a tornado!"

I looked, and my heart skipped a beat. It did look very tornado-like. And it was close.

In the quick glances I could take while still trying to actually drive, I could see it was really an unusual cloud formation rather than a tornado. But I was concerned that maybe it was forming into a tornado and so I was feeling a little unnerved by it and just wanted to get home.

Katie got the camera and tried to get a picture of it, but it was set to "video" instead of "photo" so we got a quick video of it as we were driving home.

Luckily, it didn't turn into anything worse but it did make the news. If it had touched the ground, it would have become a tornado.

Yikes.

PCC Luau

2011-09-04T10:07:00.000-05:00

We had some family members visit us recently and we took them to all of the fun places on the island. The one thing I haven't done before though, was the Polynesian Cultural Center Luau.

We've been to PCC many times, I've blogged about it before and we've been to the HA Breath of Life show several times and loved it just as much each time we go.

But we'd never eaten at the luau before so we decided to try it.

First of all we were late, we were waiting to ride in the canoe and it was a longer wait than we expected, so we were one of the last groups to be seated. They led us to a table in the rear, but the view was still very good. The tables are tiered so you aren't trying to see over people's heads. Rather than bring you plates of food as they do at the Hale Koa luau, there are four buffet tables set up. The servers dismiss the tables to go to the buffet line so there isn't a huge log jam of people waiting to get to the food. Because we were one of the rear tables, we were also one of the last to be dismissed to the buffet.

I noticed some dancers come out on the stage, but we were heading to the buffet line so, I didn't get to see them.

Once we reached the food, I noticed the salad was all gone. A server came by and announced, "There is more salad on the next buffet line. Feel free to head to the next buffet table to get your salad." So we continued on through the line. The food was standard luau - pig, fish, chicken, poi, lomi-lomi salmon, poke, fresh fruit, etc. As we continued through the line, we were told, "There is more pineapple on the next buffet, you can get more over there. There are more rolls on the next buffet, feel free to fill your plates over there." I believe there were four items missing off of our buffet that we had to get off of the next buffet.

As we sat back down at our table, I registered that several acts of dancers had been performing on the stage. I think I saw a group of male dancers, a group of female dancers, some children dancing, and some kids with poi balls. As we were filling our plates, eating, asking for refills, and talking, I honestly missed most of the entertainment.

We noticed they were shutting down the buffet line almost as soon as we were through it, so we asked the waiter if we were not able to get a second serving. He advised us that one of the buffet lines would be kept open while the others were cleaned off.

All in all, I didn't love this luau. I also didn't hate it. The food was very tasty, and the service was great. I just wasn't a fan of going through the buffet line (although I'm sure it is more efficient for the servers to not be tied up delivering people's plates to them) and having to go to a separate line to be able to finish filling our plates was a mild inconvenience, not a major annoyance. I also missed most of the dancing because it was going on during the buffet line. What I saw of the dancing was just nice, it wasn't dramatic like what you see earlier in the day during the canoe pageant.

However, if you are in Hawaii, a day at PCC is absolutely not to be missed, and you MUST see the Breath of Life show (I'm not kidding) and if you want a luau, it's right there and you need to eat. I just didn't feel that the experience was as fabulous as it could have been.

The best part (for me) were the smoothies served in a hollowed out pineapple. That was awesome (although we ordered the non-alcoholic Pina Colada flavor and Katie thought it was gross).

And Now, We're on a Radio Station's Web Site!

2011-08-21T12:17:00.005-05:00

The views of our video on YouTube jumped by several thousand views a day since it was on CNN and HLN. This morning, I got a message saying it was now "as seen on KISS COUNTRY 93.7".

I have a famous dog.

Riding TheBus

2011-08-20T08:12:00.000-05:00

TheBus is the primary means of public transportation on the island. With gas high as a cat's back, it makes much more sense to ride TheBus than it does to drive your car. We have never used TheBus and decided we really ought to figure it out. With that in mind, we took a field trip with our friends to go ride TheBus into Honolulu and back. We have friends who know how TheBus works so I went to them to ask all my questions - "Do you use tokens or money?" "Do you pay the bus driver or put it in a machine?" "How do you know which bus to get on?"

Then we went out and promptly did everything wrong.

We got to the bus stop a little early, but our bus arrived early as well. Because I was unsure exactly how this worked, I assumed the bus would wait until its scheduled departure time so that no one would miss their ride to work.

That is incorrect.

Our friends were pulling up as the bus started to pull away (five minutes early) and we all had to run waving at the bus to make it stop and wait for us. This apparently makes bus drivers grumpy (for the record, we were not the only ones running for TheBus).

You do not pay the driver, you put your money in the machine while the driver stares straight ahead and ignores you when you say hello. Have exact change. (I'm not kidding - have exact change.) The fare was $2.50 for me, $1.25 for each kid. You use money, not tokens. It can take bills, not just change.

We sat right up front not realizing that those seats are saved for the elderly or handicapped. Apparently you are allowed to sit in them if they are open, but if someone gets on who needs them, you are required to give up your seat, which is as it should be. I told my kids that if a senior citizen or handicapped person got on, we'd better be the first ones up offering our seats. Manners are manners.

I saw a sign up near the ceiling which shows all the things not to do on TheBus. I noticed that it said no eating or drinking on TheBus. Because Ben will be taking TheBus a lot this year, I pointed out the sign to him so that he doesn't grab a drink on his way to TheBus one day.

"Look," I told him, "It says you shouldn't drink on TheBus."

"Yeah, it says you shouldn't urinate on TheBus either," he replied.

There was also a sign warning not to hug the driver.

Our friends, before we noticed the sign about no drinking, were passing a water bottle back and forth. Drivers get grumpier about this. We weren't trying to break rules, just honestly didn't see the sign at first.

As we got closer to our destination we noticed people getting on and getting a pink transfer ticket. While we were stopped, Lisa asked the driver about the tickets and he wouldn't look at her but grumpily replied something none of us could understand.

We realized we might be able to use those tickets to go back home without paying a separate fare for the ride so we each (all seven of us) asked for one as we got off. We realized after reading the ticket that you are supposed to ask for one as you get on TheBus. Our driver really didn't like us by that time.

The transfer allows you to ride without paying again if it is within two hours of boarding TheBus. Which was great for us as we were just turning around and heading back home.

While we had been able to sit on the way to Honolulu, we had to stand on the ride back home. That bus was full. An elderly couple got on TheBus at one stop and the driver announced, "We have two senior citizens who need seats." I wish we had had seats because we would have given them up immediately. As it was, no one else offered their seats. There were already quite a few senior citizens in the reserved seats, but there was also a man younger than me, as well as a woman with bright orange hair, bright orange lips, and bright orange nails with her ten-year old son (both of whom would have done well to burn off a few extra calories by standing rather than sitting) who did not offer up their seats.

Lisa asked the kids who were with us, "If an elderly person gets on TheBus, what should you do?"

"Um...get off TheBus?" one of them answered.

"NO. Just offer them your seat!" She also mentioned that they should offer seats to any female or anyone who looks like they might like to sit. Right on!

So our first bus ride was informational. We learned what not to do, but we learned what to do in the process. Now, if necessary we can get around as needed for a lot less than the cost of driving ourselves!

Kailua Beach

2011-08-19T11:54:00.004-05:00

Last week, we actually went to a beach I've never been to before.

This is Kailua Beach, over on the Windward side of the island (that means the west side if you don't know). The water of there was an amazing shade of turquoise. It's very very blue in most places - before we moved here, I thought all pictures of Hawaii were photoshopped because I'd only seen east coast beaches and the water is never that blue.

There was a little island not to far out. Ben and two friends decided to swim out to it. I wasn't a fan of this plan because I figured it was farther away than it looked. I didn't want them to get halfway there and realize it was too far. But they insisted, and they did it. After they made it back, they did admit that it had been farther than they thought. But the closest Ben would get to saying it was difficult was when he said, "I'm going to sleep well tonight!"

A short squall ran over us soon after we got there. As is typical in Hawaii, we all just sat through it, but covered up our towels and cameras with the boogie boards. It only lasted about five minutes and then it was gone. But then we were all cold, so we had to wrap our towel around us until we warmed up a bit. It was probably in the upper 70's on the beach in Hawaii, and we were all cold. Our blood has thinned and we can't handle temperature change anymore. Wherever we move next, we're going to either freeze or roast most of the time.

We're going to die of exposure when they ship us off this island.

Ringo Takes A Nap

2011-08-18T12:24:00.004-05:00

We're on CNN!

2011-08-17T11:36:00.002-05:00

Kerry logged in to Facebook yesterday and had a message from a friend saying, "Hey I saw you and your dogs on CNN!" He had taken a picture of his TV with Kerry and the dogs on the screen. Wow! Who knew?? Our video is on YouTube and anyone can use videos from YouTube so they didn't need to ask - and I don't mind - but I do wish they had let us know so we could tell people to watch. Luckily because we are six hours behind the friend who advised us about it, we were able to tune in and catch it.

They are right near the end of the segment, and only a small bit of our video is in it, but hey, I'm not complaining!

Fortunately, YouTube has an "insight" feature where I can see how people are finding our video to watch. I've often found that our video has been shared on other blogs or news sites. It's been embedded on sites where all the stories were written in Japanese or Russian (I think). Luckily, it doesn't require knowing English to understand what's happening in our video.

I'm really proud of this video. We have great dogs and seeing how much it meant to them when Kerry came home still touches my heart when I see it. I love for this to be shared on television shows, YouTube, and Facebook so others can share what was a very special moment for all of us.

Mahalo!

Bikini Babes

2011-08-13T00:44:00.002-05:00

We were walking down the beach today and these two women in string bikinis walked past us.

Once we were out of ear-shot, Ben said, "Did you see those two old ladies in bikinis???"

"Old ladies?" I said, astounded. "They looked like they were in their mid-twenties!"

"I thought they looked at least thirty!" Ben replied.

Old Spice

2011-08-11T12:15:00.003-05:00

We were rambling about the other day and we stopped in a store to pick up a few things. Ben mentioned that he needed deodorant and trotted off to find some. He came back with Old Spice Deodorant which is not a brand I've bought him before.

"What made you choose that one?" I asked.

"Their commercials are hilarious," he told me.

Ah. Always my top priority in choosing products - the amount of humor in the commercial.

He showed me the deodorant. He had chosen "Matterhorn" scent which claims to smell like "Ice, Wind, and Freedom". The description reads like so:

The actual Matterhorn is comparable to one thing on this planet: Old Spice Matterhorn. Here is what they have in common: 1) Both smell as fresh and crisp as snow. 2) Both can be found in cold regions. The actual Matterhorn is in the Alps. Old Spice Matterhorn is in drugstores and supermarkets, which always seem to be freezing for some reason. 3) Both have peaks. The Matterhorn’s is 14,692 ft. Old Spice Matterhorn’s elevation stands at 6 in. when fully extended. To our knowledge, no man has stood atop its mighty peak.

I have to agree, I probably would have been intrigued enough to buy that too. And it does smell really good. Every so often Ben will lift his arm, take a deep whiff of his armpit and say, "AH! That smells like freedom!"

After that episode, when he mentioned that he needed soap, I picked up some Old Spice Bodywash for him. I knew he would like it because of its awesome description:

Scrub three levels of shame away. There are three known levels of dirt and odor. There’s thermospheric odor, which can be detected by those in close proximity to you, such as subway riders or your fellow tank commander. Next is stratospheric odor that only you can smell. Finally, microscopic beings that live on your body emit dirt and odor before laying their horrible eggs into your skin and spawning an unholy ecosystem. High Endurance Body Wash helps get rid of all this.
• Cleansing rinse cleans you, makes you feel refreshed.
• Manly scent forces your body to smell great, even when it doesn’t want to.
• Lather chokeslams dirt and odor away.

Mountain Climbing Injury

2011-08-05T02:42:00.003-05:00

Today's post ends like this:

Let me assure you, it doesn't get worse than this. This is as bad as it gets. So if you're squeamish, frankly, you've already seen the worst part, you should be able to handle the rest.

I'm letting Ben tell the story in his own words today:

"Camp Wainae is in the middle of the mountains, so there are many interesting places to hike and climb. One of the more popular hiking trails leads up a mountain overlooking our camp. Many of the counselors take the kids up this trail, as it is a safe and easy hike.... mostly.... The thing is, we usually end the hike before it gets rough to keep the kids safe but we don't always have kids with us. The trail is made up of four small mountains which are connected to each other. We always take the kids to the peak of the fourth mountain and then head back down, but there is another mountain range beyond that. At the end of the week, all of the children left and the leaders stayed at the camp to hang out for one more night. We decided to hike up the mountain, since a lot of us hadn't been to the fourth peak. The hike to the top was pretty uninteresting, as nothing happened other than walking and chatting.

Once we reached the top of the mountain, the eight of us sat down to enjoy the view of the island, and as we were looking around, we could see the other mountain range right next to us. We thought we might as well check it out to see if it was climbable. There was just one problem.... The mountains weren't connected. The only way to get to the next mountain was to get down from the fourth peak, which involved climbing down ninety degree cliffs.

We decided to go back down the mountain and go to sleep knowing we had made a safe decision.....Nah! Just kidding! We're teenagers, we don't make wise choices.

We scaled the cliff.

The 20 foot cliff.

That crumbles as you grab onto it.

And has small hand holds.

And sharp rocks at the bottom.

We decided to send Yolanda first since she was the lightest and least likely to break the rocks,
and then we sent Alana just to be sure. After they made it down safely (limber Asians...) I began to climb down. When I was about half way down a very hard object hit me on the top of the head.

My first thought was that Josh had kicked me, and I was about to release a barrage of unkind words, when my face started to feel wet. I looked down and saw a fist size rock rolling down the mountain, and then saw a whole lot of red (blood stings when it gets in your eyes, by the way). There was liquid coming down my face like I was in the shower. I began feeling dizzy and knew I couldn't hold on, so I dropped 10 feet and made a perfect landing like a ninja. It turns out Josh had broken a rock off as he was climbing and it fell directly into me head. Josh then panicked and climbed back up, while Alana and Yolanda checked out my head. We couldn't tell how bad it was, but I was bleeding profusely, so we assumed it was bad. So I did what any man would do. "Grab the camera!!!". Karese climbed down with the camera and took a picture for memory's sake. Unfortunately I had mopped up most of the blood with my shirt, so we didn't get an accurate portrayal of my agony and sacrifice. We decided that everyone else should go back down the mountain instead of climbing down the cliff, and after much complaining from Travis, our other half went back down. The four of us had to finish climbing down the mountain and find a trail around, since we were definitely not climbing back up that cliff. We climbed down more cliffs until we reached a dry river bed, and then followed it until we reached a creek, which lead to our camp site.

After an hour of walking, we made it back safely. I got my wound cleaned up, and then went to sleep. Ah, danger....how I love it..."

Katie's First Pedicure

2011-07-27T20:27:00.002-05:00

While Ben and Emily were at camp, Katie and I spent a lot of time doing things together, just the two of us. Being the youngest, she's rarely had time alone with one person. She usually has to share us with her siblings. So I tried to do things with her that we wouldn't normally do.

I took her for her first pedicure. She giggled a lot. Apparently it tickled her toes.

We ate lunch in a local restaurant and tried on the silly hats they have there.

Katie tried on LOTS of hats.

And we saw a dinosaur exhibit.

We also played board games, went to the beach, shopped, made cupcakes, went kayaking, made s'mores over a bonfire, ate at her favorite Thai restaurant (and Starbucks, and McDonalds, and Subway, and Dairy Queen, and a sushi restaurant where she would only order french fries), saw Hoodwinked Too at the theatre, played video games, and had play dates with several friends.

She's happy and I'm exhausted!

Emily's New Do Part 2

2011-07-21T13:51:00.003-05:00

Emily got a short sassy haircut again.

She's actually trying to grow it out, but in order for it to grow out evenly, it had to be cut shorter to get rid of all the layers.

Sleek. Smooth. Sassy. Short. (The hair, not the girl - she's taller than I am.)

I think she likes it.

Kerry's Throne

2011-07-18T22:56:00.005-05:00

Kerry has a new job and a new office. I went with him to move all of his personal items to his new digs. His new office came with a fancy chair.

I told him it looks like a throne.

King Kerry

He says he likes the sound of that.

TB Tests

2011-07-17T22:54:00.004-05:00

All three of my progeny had to have TB tests this week. The phlebotomist drew smiley faces on their arms with the nose as the injection site. He kept calling Katie "Kat" and we all smirked at each other every time he did. I have no idea why he thought we call her "Kat".

Katie's looked like it was winking and Ben's had a bloody nose.

They all turned out to be TB free.

Rigger Finds A Stick

2011-07-16T22:52:00.000-05:00

Emily's Official Party

2011-07-15T22:17:00.005-05:00

Although we took Emily to dinner and gave her a camera on her actual birthday, her party wasn't until the weekend. We tagged on Katie's idea and also had a spa party for Emily's group of friends. They played with each other's hair, painted their nails, and waxed and waxed and waxed their hands. I've never seen girls so thrilled with a hand waxer. They used up all the plastic bags which cover the wax once it's on your hand. Then they left those same plastic bags lying all over my living room floor.

Katie gathered up all the wax after it was used and molded it into a giant brain.

On of the guests coiffed Emily's hair into a whale spout. I think twenty years from now she's going to look at this pictures and say, "WHY was I wearing my hair like that?!?!"

Actually I don't think it will take twenty years.

Katie got to live out her life's dream by giving a dozen or so pedicures.

Kerry went ahead and cut the cake before we could sing to her or put candles on it, but he did a quick repair and covered the slice so it looked okay in the pictures once he realized it.

Emily totally cheated on the candles. She used a plate to fan out the candles at the same time she was blowing on them.

The girls then descended on the kitchen and stripped it bare of all food supplies like a hoard of locusts. I used to be prepared for Ben's parties because the boys would eat their weight in pizza. But let me tell you, these girls would have given any group of teen boys a run for their money on inhaling dinner.

Spa Party

2011-07-14T22:41:00.003-05:00

Katie decided she wanted to throw a "spa party" for some friends who are moving off the island. Bless her girlie little heart, she researched every possibility of things we could do and laid out a floor plan of who would be where doing what throughout the entire party. She planned homemade facials of honey and oatmeal or cucumber and yogurt, manicures, pedicures, foot massages, and handwaxing. We purchased scented lotions, sugar scrubs, headbands, and nail polishes. Katie goes all out (with my money) when she plans a party.

As a special treat, one of Emily's friends came over and offered to do face-painting on the girls. Almost every girl chose the same pattern of flowers. I had thought for sure someone would choose butterflies or rainbows.

One of the girls chose to have a panda and a penguin painted on her arms. Very cute and it matched her tee shirt!

Katie went back and had a necklace painted on as well. It lasted for days!

Katie particularly enjoyed giving everyone pedicures and foot massages. She says she thinks she's found her calling in life.

I was really hoping she would aim a little higher and go to college but I know I can't have everything.

Death of a Pickle

2011-07-14T00:33:00.002-05:00

I've written before about our love of pickles. It's not natural. I know. I'm aware. But it still just is a fact of life around here.

So you can imagine the anguish when, while carrying in the groceries, one of the bags split completely open.......

.....and the jar of pickles shattered in the street.

Katie actually suggested that maybe we could wash the pickles off and they would be okay. She clearly didn't foresee the complications of me trying to explain to the police why I fed my children pickles with crushed glass in them.

Emily's 14th Birthday

2011-07-08T12:13:00.002-05:00

Emily is now 14. Of course, this always inspires memories for me and Kerry of what we were doing 14 years ago. Emily arrived in a hurry. I was only at the hospital for a couple of hours and a nurse asked came in and asked how I was doing. I told her I was starting to feel the need to push. The nurse took a peek and said, "Honey, don't push! The baby is right there!" She made a quick phone call and the room filled up with nurses and assorted folk scurrying around and setting up. The doctor walked in the room, held his arms straight out, a nurse whipped a surgical gown on to him, another one snapped on his gloves, he leaned over, caught Emily and held her up. He was in the room less than a minute before she arrived. I'm telling you, that girl saw light and she ran for it.

This is her today, fourteen years later. She and Ben are actually staying on the other side of the island this week so we drove out there to pick them up and take them to a Mongolian BBQ for dinner. Five of their friends joined us. Emily will have her official celebration once she is back home, but this was good for now. I forgot the camera, so all I have are a few blurry cell phone pictures to mark the occasion.

But we gave her a camera of her very own while we were there, so that will make up for it.

No Snakes In Hawaii!

2011-07-06T12:08:00.004-05:00

One of my favorite, favorite, favorite things about Hawaii is that there are NO snakes here. (Actually, that isn't quite true. There is a tiny "snake" with a forked tongue and scales, but it's a little smaller than an earthworm and most people aren't even aware that it's a snake so no one treats it like a snake.) We hike through a lot of grassy areas and rainforest areas and it's nice to know nothing is going to come slithering up at us unexpectedly.

Until now.

Birthday Gifts

2011-07-06T02:25:00.004-05:00

There is a boy on our street who is having a birthday next week. He's going to be nine. It's been a while since I've had a nine year old boy so when I saw him outside today, I decided to ask him what sort of toys he is interested in.

"Hey, Milo, what do you want for your birthday? Do you like Legos? Bionicles? Nerf guns?"

He wrinkled his nose in a "you're gross" kind of way and said, "No. Not really." He thought hard for a minute and then offered, "I'd really like an iPod."

Yeah, that's going to happen.

Watching The Paint Dry

2011-06-21T15:22:00.006-05:00

The outside of our house is being painted today. I'm not sure why. I didn't request it. I was just given a notice on Thursday: Your house is scheduled for painting; move your stuff indoors.

So today, a bunch of men showed up and fenced off the house with orange webbing.They trimmed all the hedges, then they papered over every window. It was like being in a cave.

The dogs were not pleased.

There were strange men surrounding our house looking through the windows and the dogs first tried to eat them through the glass then they cowered at my feet under the computer desk. After talking soothingly to them for an hour, I finally got them to settle down but they still couldn't totally relax.

Ringo was willing to partially lie down, but he was poised like the sphinx on full alert.

Rigger crashed on his side and started snoring, secure in the knowledge that Ringo and I would protect him from whatever was out there.

Ah, the security of youth.

Eventually, Ringo started whining to use the bathroom. I put his leash on, we shot out of the house past the workers, he watered the grass, and we headed straight back inside. Of course, Rigger was waiting at the door. If one dog goes out, the other one goes out. Them's the rules and Rigger knows it.

I snapped Rigger's leash on, made sure none of the workers were nearby and opened the door. Rigger saw the paper covering the screen door and backpedaled through the living room in terror. I tried to convince him to go outside but he was having none of that. A full bladder was not a bother as long as he didn't have to go near the paper.

A little while later, he started whining to go out again. He doesn't have much memory. I snapped his leash on him, opened the door, and tried not to get drug through the house as he ran away from the paper again.

Another hour passed, and he wanted to try again. I attached his leash, and leaned out the door. One of the workers was standing by the sidewalk. He was wearing a hard hat. Hard hats are a no-no around Rigger. "Would you mind moving?" I asked the man. "My dog is scared of hard hats, and I've got to get him outside to use the bathroom." The man looked at me like I was daft, but he obligingly moved.

Too late. Rigger had already spotted him. I tried to pull Rigger out the door but he promptly sat down and I nearly pulled his collar over his head. "Katie! Go get me a piece of pepperoni!" I called. Katie came with the pepperoni and tossed it to me. Rigger smelled it as it went overhead and decided the piece of pepperoni might just be worth the terror of passing the paper. He was halfway out the door when he suddenly changed his mind again and tried to retreat into the house. I held my ground, afraid that if I didn't get him outside, he would eventually just pee forty gallons or urine in the house somewhere. I looked around and spotted another hard-hat worker bemusedly watching me tug-of-war with the giant dog in the doorway.

"I'm sorry, but he's afraid of your hat. Could you back up a little?"

"He's afraid of my hat?"

"Yes," I explained. "He doesn't like hats, coats, backpacks, anything with wheels, or anything that has been moved out of its usual place. Could you just go hide for a minute?"

The nice man went around the corner and and I heard several men burst into laughter as he told them the story. I finally managed to coax Rigger out into the yard with the piece of pepperoni. He fled outside the temporary fencing and peed in the neighbor's yard.

It took all I could do to convince him to come back into our yard. There were large black garbage bags of hedge clippings sitting around which didn't help Rigger's confidence. I finally made it to the porch and he flattened himself against the steps like he was afraid of an air raid until I could get the door open. Once he made it through the front door, I had to chase him down to get the leash off of him.

I may never get him to leave the house again.

Navy Ship Arrives

2011-06-20T17:17:00.002-05:00

Today we were on Hickam AFB and realized that a Navy ship was coming into Pearl Harbor.

We pulled into an area where we could get a good view of the ship as it came closer.......

...and closer....

....and closer!

All the sailors were dressed in their whites and were standing at attention all along the sides of the ship. The people on shore were waving and calling out the names of particular sailors they were there to see. It was quite exciting to see them arrive!

At Camp

2011-06-17T11:58:00.004-05:00

Ben and Emily will come home from missionary training camp today! It will be good to see them again although they start their Bible clubs on Monday so they will be busy all summer.

Fortunately, someone on Facebook posted photos from camp so I'm able to see a little bit of what they've been doing. Because this is Ben's third year, I pretty much know their routines, but it's still nice to actually see them doing their work.

Emily's first club. She's wearing the yellow shirt designating her first-year status.

Blowing up a beach ball. I remember this game from last year. There are questions written all over the ball. The kids all toss the ball around and when you catch it, you look at the question under your right thumb and answer it for everyone. It's a way of getting to know more about each other.

Ben's white "this is my third year" tee-shirt.

Something about this tree invites people to pose in it. Emily's hiding in the leaves up there.

Class time!

The teens have a lot of quiet time in which to study or reflect on verses. The landscape around the camp is dotted with individual teens looking for a quiet place to work.

Of course, while scrolling through the photos, I spotted Ben's quiet place.

Yep, That's My Son

2011-06-13T11:02:00.003-05:00

Katie and I got to go visit Ben and Emily at camp for family day. Emily had missed Katie and spent a lot of time talking with her and playing with her. Katie was thrilled to be missed.

That's Emily's bunk on top. She had hung her beach towel from the rafters so it would dry.

This is how Ben gets to his bed. He climbs up on a neighbors bunk......

....crawls across the beams in the ceiling.......

....all the way to his mattress, which he has hoisted into the rafters.

Papa'iloa Beach

2011-06-09T22:33:00.001-05:00

Who knew?

We have friends who are staying in a house right on Papa'iloa Beach on the North Shore. This beach is in a private, residential area. All beaches in Hawaii are public, but because this one is in a neighborhood, it's not as popular because there is no public parking. So there aren't usually very many people there except for the folks who live there.

You can walk to it from further down at any time though. It isn't restricted.

The kids enjoy it because there is a big sand dune they can sled down on their boogie boards.

It's a very pretty, quiet beach. Three young sea turtles were swimming just off the shore.

At this time of year, there are just enough waves on the north shore for boogie boarding in the shallow areas.

Everyone got a chance to go paddle in the kayak.

But the thing that makes this beach so noteworthy is that a number of episodes of the television show "Lost" were filmed here. I have never seen "Lost", so was completely unaware of how exciting this beach is.

One of the times we were walking down this beach, we saw a small wedding taking place. Now I wonder if the bride and groom were big fans of the show and wanted to be able to show all their friends that they were married on the "Lost" beach.

Christian Camp

2011-06-09T10:52:00.003-05:00

Ben and Emily have gone to camp.

It is a beautiful area to camp in .

They have group cabins and bunk beds. Ben is going to have a blast. Emily is not going to get enough sleep.

I only had my cell phone with me, not the camera, but there is a sailboat sitting out there in the water at the end of what used to be a dock.

I don't remember ever going to an away-camp. Possibly I did and I've just forgotten. It wouldn't be the first time I've forgotten something.

I do remember that my sister went to camp and got to spend the night and our mother bought her Pearl Drops Tooth Polish which was quite the glamorous tooth paste and I coveted it.

It's funny that I remember nothing else about her camp experience except her toothpaste!

A Very Merry Unbirthday

2011-06-06T02:07:00.012-05:00

Ben turned seventeen this weekend.

He's now at that age where he's too old (says he) for birthday parties. He did not want a cake, he did not want a party, and he absolutely did not want anyone to sing to him. He finally agreed to have a few friends over for an ice cream cake (no candles) but told them not to bring presents and he insisted on opening his presents from us before anyone got here.

Just for the record, I still want everyone to throw me a party on my birthday and I want presents and lots of them.

Katie drew a book for him which is about a girl with a magic flute which magically makes a birthday cake for him. He promptly tossed it aside in a big brotherly fashion. I thought it was adorable and I'm saving it for later. He'll appreciate it more when he's forty or so. I'll give it back to him then.

Emily crocheted a birthday cake. That girl is all kinds of talented. I can't even crochet a string.

Ben has a really quirky sense of humor so we always try to get him a few oddball things. He's a pickle fiend (all my kids are) so we found him some pickle flavored mints and pickle flavored dental floss. I know you all are going to run right out and try to find some for yourselves. It's available on Amazon.com.

You're welcome.

Because he is a bacon fiend, we also found him a wallet which looks like it is made of raw bacon. We gave him bacon scented soap last year but he said it just made him sticky.

I asked the girls to wrap Ben's gifts. They thought it would be amusing to wrap one of them in ten layers of colored duct tape.

He had to unwrap each layer a little at a time.

He unwound and unwrapped. Unwound and unwrapped.

And while the girls were greatly amused, I could tell by the expression on his face that their joy was completely wasted on him.

His new tee-shirt pretty much summed up his feelings about the entire event.

New Worship Team Member!

2011-06-04T10:30:00.003-05:00

Emily got her first chance to play guitar in public! She joined the worship team for a Sunday morning service!

Homeschool Prom

2011-05-29T21:41:00.005-05:00

The homeschool prom went very well, if I do say so myself. I was on the planning committee and it turned out to be much better than I hoped.

The food was fabulous. I'm not a fan of buffet food, but this was actually exceptional.

We had a dance team come in and do a performance for the teens. Then they taught all the teens a simple swing dance. Everyone got to dance, no one was left sitting at a table alone.

Ben has rhythm and loves to dance so he was quite in demand for the entire evening.

Ben danced.......

and danced...........

and danced.......

and danced..........

and danced. And then, being the typical non-traditional kids that homeschoolers are...

....they all danced in the rain in their suits and beautiful dresses.

The Play

2011-05-26T06:38:00.000-05:00

All three of the kids are getting ready to perform in a play. It is taking over our lives and we have done little else except rehearsals, rehearsals, rehearsals.

This is the cover of the program. Ben is an angel and the girl is a demon.

I'll let you know how it goes.....

The Honolulu Zoo

2011-05-21T11:38:00.005-05:00

Kerry recently took a day off and we decided to check out the zoo here. We've been to zoos all over the country. Kerry is a zoo maniac. It's always one of the first things he wants to do when we move to a new place. "Let's go check out the zoo!" What he really means is, "Let's go to the reptile house!" We've all learned that when we get to the reptile house, we can just find a bench and wait while Kerry gazes in rapture at all the critters I would freak out over if they weren't behind glass. It actually works out well as we've learned to wait until everyone is hot and tired. The reptile house is cool and quiet and we can rest while Kerry communes with nature. He's very Dr. Doolittle-ish about reptiles.

The Honolulu Zoo is small but well kept and very clean. I say it's small, but really it was a good size for a day's outing. When we went to the Omaha Zoo, we were practically sprinting by the end of the day trying to make it to most of the exhibits. At the Honolulu Zoo, we didn't have to rush and we still got to see almost everything.

Katie suddenly looked older that day which I didn't like at all.

I made a collage of some of the animals we saw rather than putting a dozen different photos on here. We did see all the animals and these photos are all taken by us. Be glad I'm not posting the three videos someone took of a turtle walking. Or the dozen or so photos Emily took of leaves and flowers. I recently bought her an SD card of her own so I wouldn't have to sort through dozens of artistic photos when browsing through my camera.

We really enjoyed this zoo. We were able to get close enough to the animals to get a good view of most of them. The peacock was a hoot. He was in full "show-off" mode and the little female he was trying to impress wouldn't even look at him. The kids always enjoy the monkeys (the orangutan was HUGE!). My favorite is always the elephant. I don't know why, but I love the elephants. The same way we have to wait for Kerry at the reptile house, everyone has to wait for me at the elephants. They are just so cool.

My favorite tee-shirt in the gift shop.

The 2011 World Fireknife Competition

2011-05-14T13:54:00.004-05:00

I'm always amazed that we keep discovering new things here. You would think that on an island this size, we would have seen pretty much everything there is to see. We've been out to the Polynesian Cultural Center four times over the last couple of years, but we'd never seen the Ha - Breath of Life show. I'd heard it was very good, but for some reason we hadn't seen it.

Well, last night was the second night of the 2011 World Fireknife Competition, and the top three competitors were going to be competing during the intermission of the Ha - Breath of Life show. Because we have annual passes to PCC we were able to go for free (always a plus).

They do not allow videos or photography during the show, but I found a commercial of sorts on YouTube which I have embedded here for your viewing pleasure:

The show was amazing! It featured all the various dance styles we usually see at a luau but also wove a story through it. It had the romance of a love story, the warm-fuzzies of a family story, the excitement of a tribal war, the humor of watching someone learn to walk through fire without setting their grass skirt on fire, and the drama of life and death. The scenery was gorgeous and dramatic and the music had us shimmying in our seats. I can't believe we didn't go see this before now!

During intermission, they brought out the top three finalists of the World Fireknife Competition. I believe they said that there had been twenty-one competitors originally. The top three were performing last night, and again tonight, and one will be chosen as the winner. Of the three remaining competitors one was from American Samoa, one was from Orlando, Florida, and one was a local fellow from Laie. These fellows were amazing! They would take the fire and stroke it across their chests and legs. They would hold the stick with their feet, with the flames touching their feet. They each twirled two fireknives at a time, and one of them added a third!

I did take some videos, but because of the low light, my videos are not terribly clear. So once again, thanks to YouTube, I found a video of last year's winner for you to see how phenomenal these men are. He even touches the flames to his tongue, and then uses the flames on his tongue to light the other end of his fireknife.

Crunch!

2011-05-13T12:14:00.002-05:00

Kerry, the kids and I went out to lunch on our anniversary. We were in separate cars, so when we left, Kerry and Ben went to his car, and the girls went in the van with me. I was still sitting in my parking space looking for the address of Emily's orthodontist in the GPS when someone backed into me.

Fortunately, the man who hit me admitted it was his fault. I was parked after all, it could hardly have been my fault. But he could have said I was backing out and hit him. But he was honest, and his insurance will be taking care of everything.

Katie was really excited to have been in an accident. She was hoping to go down to the police station and identify suspects in a line-up, but apparently that wasn't necessary.

Twenty Years Go By In A Blink

2011-05-11T11:36:00.004-05:00

It can't possibly have been twenty years. It seems like ten, tops.

Look how skinny we were....

Kerry's groom's cake had little Army men fighting a mock battle. Our ring bearer asked us if he could take the army men home with him after the wedding. He's twenty-four now.

I haven't seen my dress in twenty-years. It was the main guest of honor at the wedding. Everything revolved around the dress. It was more important than anything else. I think it is in my mother's attic.

This is a picture of me and my sister at the reception. Her hair is naturally curly. She spent years straightening it. My hair is naturally straight. I've spent a small fortune on perms.

I loved my earrings. They were beautiful. I loaned them to a friend for her wedding ten years ago and she lost one of them at the reception.

We aren't friends any more.

This was in the day before brides and grooms shoved their cake all over each other. We would have been signing divorce papers the following Monday if that had happened back in my day.

It's difficult to see my wedding ring but I loved it too. It was a pear-shaped sapphire surrounded by diamonds. Kerry had it in his hand when he was down on one knee proposing to me and he put it on my finger in the church at our wedding.

Katie flushed it down the toilet when she was a year and half old.

Everything from that day that was so important at the time - the dress, the ring, the earrings - it's all gone now.

But the marriage is what lasted and really, that was the most important part.

A Gift For The Chocoholic In Your Life

2011-05-10T14:10:00.006-05:00

Okay, this was cool.

Emily saw an ad to "design your own candy bar" and thought that would make an excellent gift for me. I am a true chocoholic. As long as I stay away from chocolate, I'm okay. But let me get one bite, one bite mind you, and I'm done for. I want more. And more. And more. And more. I am not a person who can take one or two bites of something chocolate and stop. Unless it's cheap waxy chocolate and then I have no problem stopping.

I try. I do. I'll have one of those little mini-chocolate candy bars and think that I'll just have the one. But then it tastes so good, I think, "Well, I'll just have one more." Then I think, "Oooh. I haven't tried the ones with peanuts yet. I have to have at least one of each type." And before I know it, there is a pile of little candy wrappers and no chocolate.

Thank goodness I don't feel this way about beer.

But it truly gives me an idea of how an alcoholic feels. You think you can go back to having just a little. But every little bit lowers your resistance for the next little bit. Next thing you know, you've gone overboard again. If I were addicted to alcohol, I would would have to never, ever, ever have even a drop if I wanted to have a normal life. Luckily, a chocolate addiction does not make me wake up in a gutter or abuse my kids. Actually, quite the opposite. I'm probably much more pleasant to be around when I've had chocolate which is why the kids banded together and ordered me my own personalized chocolate for Mother's Day.

They ordered this from Chocri. Isn't it beautiful? Isn't it the most precious thing you've ever seen in your life? I wish I had gone to a professional photographer with this and had a portrait made of it wrapped in a baby blanket. I could have hung it up right next to the baby pictures of my kids.

Maybe even a little higher than them.

They chose for me a layer of milk chocolate, and a layer of white chocolate with bourbon vanilla mixed in. It was then topped with macadamia nuts and caramel chocolate drops.

My kids really love me.

Maybe I will hang their photos higher after all.....

But unfortunately, it didn't last long enough to make it into the car, much less to a photography studio.

Ah well. If I get any more, I won't eat it so fast.

And this time, I mean it!

Cinco de Mayo

2011-05-07T12:07:00.002-05:00

"That holiday this week was called 'pico de gallo', right?" Katie asked me.

"No, pico de gallo is what Aunty Lia makes for us to eat on chips," I responded. "Cinco de Mayo is the name of the holiday. 'Cinco' means 'five' in Spanish and 'Mayo' means 'May' in Spanish."

"And 'mayo' means 'mayonnaise' in English," Ben added.

The Declaration of Independence Hits the Road

2011-05-05T21:07:00.000-05:00

Did you know that the Declaration of Independence that you normally see - with the giant JOHN HANCOCK at the bottom - is not the original? I never knew this!

When the original handwritten Declaration was completed on July 4th, 1776, it was immediately sent to the printing shop of John Dunlap. He printed off about 200 copies of this document which were then distributed throughout the thirteen colonies to spread the word of what the Continental Congress was trying to do - break free of England. It was only later - in August - that a ceremonial draft of the Declaration was created and actually signed by many of the men who wrote it. It actually took several years to get all fifty-six signatures. This is the copy which we normally see and which is now kept in the National Archives. The handwritten original was lost.

The copies made by John Dunlap are now known as Dunlap Broadsides. Until 1984 only 24 copies of Dunlap Broadsides were known to exist. Around that time, someone bought a painting at a flea market for four dollars. Later on while inspecting a tear in the backing of the painting, the purchaser discovered an original Dunlap Broadside tucked in behind the paper.

I would have said, "Oh look, someone tucked one of those fake Declarations you can buy in DC gift shops back here." And I probably would have tossed it out. That may be what happened to the other 175 copies of it.

Fortunately, the person who discovered it had more sense than I do and thought to have it appraised.

In 2000, Norman Lear bought it for just over eight million dollars. That's eight million dollars. Not a bad little profit for a $4 flea market purchase.

This particular Dunlap Broadside is now traveling the country. It came to Pearl Harbor for a couple of days and we decided to go see it.

Pretty cool to see a copy of the Declaration of Independence that is actually older than the one with all the signatures.

While there we watched a video starring Reese Witherspoon which explained all the pertinent info about the history of the Dunlap Broadside.

I like her. She's smart. And pretty. And she doesn't pose naked.

There was also a video of many famous actors reading the Declaration of Independence. I don't know when this was filmed, but it must have been a long time ago. Mel Gibson and Michael Douglas both have brown hair. And I don't even recognize some of the people in it, although clearly they must have been famous considering the company they are in.

My kids found the entire experience profoundly boring but they enjoyed getting to talk to their friends who were also dragged there.

But one day they will be dragging their children to see fascinating bits of history.

And I will be vindicated!

David Crowder Band

2011-05-04T21:57:00.001-05:00

We were able to attend a concert by the David Crowder Band recently when they played at the HIM conference. Ben and Emily headed right down into the "mosh pit" area with the camera. The picture above is the only one with even remotely discernible images. Why? Because all the people down in front of the stage were jumping up and down and screaming, and the camera doesn't take great pictures when it is being vigorously waved around.

This is a video Emily took in between screaming and singing. It starts off dark, but after a few seconds you can see everyone bouncing. The entire building was shaking. Back where Katie and I were sitting, we could feel the floor vibrating beneath our feet. Katie became concerned that it might be about to collapse. The music was a little loud for her and she plugged her ears with her fingers so as not to be completely overwhelmed with sound. She really enjoyed the softer songs and would stand on her chair and sing along to ones she knew.

Ben and Emily clearly weren't bothered by the volume. They both came home hoarse from screaming and singing.

If you haven't heard the David Crowder Band, you should. They are a Christian Modern Rock band and have some really good songs! Check these out:

How He Loves Us

O Praise Him

Forever and Ever Etc.

Henry Wingrunner

2011-05-03T14:57:00.000-05:00

Katie was outside playing when she came running in with a frantic look on her face. "There's an injured bird in our yard! We have to help him!"

I went outside with her to see. There was a young bird flopping around in the yard with one leg sticking out at a decidedly bizarre angle.

Oh no.

I have to tell you - I did not want to help this bird. I don't like birds. They are dirty critters who poop everywhere and have mites on them. I enjoy seeing other people's pet birds and I love seeing parrots in the zoo. But I don't have to feed or touch those birds so I don't mind them. But I did not want to take care of this one and definitely did not want it in my house.

But there stood Katie with a shoebox and an absolute determination to help the dirty little thing.

*sigh*

I don't know many parents that can convince their kids, "He's better off if you just let him die. A neighborhood cat will eat him and it will be really quick. It's that whole circle of life thing. The cat has to eat too!"

So, I got some gardening gloves and picked up the bird and put him in the shoe box and brought him inside my house. I'd better have an extra star in my crown when I get to heaven for that.

We already have a bird nest that we found in the yard a while back, so we put it in the box with him where he promptly ignored it. After some quick research on line, we fed him some sugar water through a straw and contacted a local wild bird rehabilitation center. They advised me that they did not have enough staff to help the bird, but that if we wanted to bring the bird in and let them examine it, they could show us how to feed it and give us all the supplies to take care of it and also set its leg so it could heal properly.

So Katie and I set off to meet up with a bird lady who supplied us with a bird cage, bird food, feeding syringes and instructions on how to feed him properly. We learned that he was a baby Brazillian Cardinal and that there was no way to tell if he was a male or female but we just assumed he was male from the beginning. The bird lady warned Katie that there was no way to tell yet if he had internal injuries and that there was a strong possibility he might not survive. Katie said she understood but that we had to do everything we could to help him.

Then we had to drive off to meet the lady who was going to set his leg. Once she saw him though, she realized his bones had already fused back together. She said he looked like he was about three weeks old and his leg had probably been injured at birth. She said he would eventually need surgery and that she knew a vet who would give us a discount if he knew we were working with the rehabilitation group.

Ugh. Now I not only had a bird I didn't want in the first place, but he needed surgery. Double Ugh.

We brought him home and Katie tried to think of awesome names for him like "Feathered Wonder Bird" or "Rhapsody Sonata". I just started calling him Henry. Eventually Katie settled on "Wingrunner" but I had already gotten used to calling him Henry, so Wingrunner wound up being his surname.

With all the supplies we were given, we came home and fed him. I thought he might refuse to eat but turns out he was quite happy to accept the syringe as a substitute mother.

I half expected to find him keeled over in the bottom of the cage the next morning, but he was rested and hungry when I got up to check on him. We took great care of him and was eating well and flapping his wings like he might eventually really try to fly.

We set him outside on our back table during the day so he could be in the sun and fresh air. Then the coolest thing happened: his parents came to see him. We were watching from the window as a male and female Brazilian Cardinal first sat on our roof and chattered down at him. He excitedly chirped back. Then the father came and sat right on top of the cage and they had quite a conversation. The father kept cocking his head to the side as if trying to figure out how on earth his son had gotten into this contraption. I was considering moving him to an open top box so that his parents might possibly continue feeding him. But you never know, sometimes a parent will kill an injured child and we'd gotten attached to Henry in just a few short days. I didn't want to let him get pecked to death.

I was still mulling over the possibility of allowing a parental visit when a little dog we were babysitting jumped up on the table, knocked the cage over, and killed Henry before anyone even knew what had happened. It was over in a blink.

We were crushed. It's hard to get mad at a dog for being a dog. I felt guilty for not realizing the dog had the ability to jump up on the table. I felt guilty for setting the cage outside. I felt guilty because I was the one who let the little dog out there in the first place. I felt guilty because I hadn't wanted Henry at first.

I didn't feel guilty that I wasn't going to have to pay for surgery.

We had a nice little funeral for Henry and marked his grave with a flat rock which had been in our yard for some time. Katie handled it fairly well after her first initial desire to murder the dog. She had been well prepped that Henry might not survive and wasn't as upset as she usually would have been. She hates to see anything suffer or die.

Now she's convinced that Henry is flying around in heaven and that he knows we were trying to help him. And when we get to heaven he will come and sit on our shoulders and sing to us.

Dance Recital

2011-04-30T20:40:00.002-05:00

Ben and Emily's dance recital was this morning. Ben is in the black "leather" jacket on the far left. Emily wasn't on the stage in the beginning, but she is in polka dots when she comes out. Why, oh why, can't they put my kids on the same portion of the stage so I can video them both at once. I was able to video him or her most of the time although occasionally I got each of them at the far end of the screen at the same time. I ordered an official video of the performance, so hopefully I'll have a better copy in a few weeks.

The Sound of a Brain Sizzle

2011-04-26T03:30:00.002-05:00

Katie really, really struggles with math. And I totally understand. She is me in a smaller package. I never understood math, I got left behind somewhere in the early years and always struggled to catch up. Math is just a foreign language to some of us. We can make the translation, but it takes a long time.

I still don't know my times tables. I'm sharing this with you and no one else.

Katie really doesn't retain information from math unless she has performed the same function 318 times. For the past several weeks she's been learning how to multiply fractions. Every day we have the same conversations over and over because she can not remember how this process works. She can never remember if she's supposed to cross multiply or multiply straight across. She can never remember how to reduce an improper fraction or how to turn a mixed number into an improper fraction. She had recently mastered long division, but learning to multiply fractions knocked all the division out of her head. Now, when she gets a problem involving fractions correct, she will invariably completely mess up her division problems.

Because this is such a frustration for her, she will need to eat, pee, poop, walk the dog, get something out of her room, eat again, sharpen her pencil, go see what Ben is laughing at, ask me a question about the moon, and pee again during her math lesson. Anything to keep from moving on to the next problem.

Today, after struggling with the first half of her math lesson, something clicked and she suddenly raced through the rest of her math sheet, didn't miss one single problem, and stayed focused the entire time.

"Wow!" I exclaimed in delight. "What happened to you?"

"I don't know," she replied with a grin. "All the sudden my brain went POP! •*¨*•.¸¸ Fizz!¸¸.•*¨*• Turn, turn, turn, and I just understood it!"

Kerry Comes Home

2011-04-23T12:16:00.002-05:00

Kerry got back from a month in the Philippines last night.

The dogs seemed happy. I don't know though, it's hard to tell.

Big Honkin' Snail

2011-04-15T12:45:00.007-05:00

Remember the Big Honkin' Snail who does laps around our house?

He's now got a "special friend". Time will tell if this is a lasting relationship. I usually see the Big Honkin' Snail about every six months. He'll be in the backyard by the trashcans, or he'll be by the front door near the steps.

I think he's training for a marathon.

The New Sofa

2011-04-14T15:57:00.009-05:00

Our next door neighbors moved back to the mainland last week. Whenever friends move, we are always given items their movers won't pack. Usually it's cleaning supplies. Sometimes we get items from the freezer.

This time we got a leather sofa and chair. They were moving to a smaller house and didn't want to take it with them and didn't want to fool with trying to sell it.

Ringo loves the sofa like it's the mother he never knew.

He will walk past the sofa and rub his face against it, then turn around and rub his face against it again. He'll nuzzle the thing like it's his own personal baby.

And it practically is.

Storming The Beach!

2011-04-14T09:36:00.001-05:00

If you are a homeschooler, and you live near a beach, there is only one way to help your students understand trench warfare.......

.....take them to the beach to dig trenches and fight World War III.

We took everyone out and let the young folks with strong backs dig the trenches;

Fortified the walls with boogie boards;

Trained the youngsters in how to use weapons;

And sacrificed our youth for the good of the revolution!

If you got shot, you could come back to life completely healed if your team mates could drag you back into the trenches.

Kerry very romantically tried to rescue me after I had been killed, but he was unfortunately also killed before he could drag my dead body back to safety.

Ben proved to be quite adept at violence.

I think he may have decided to become a terrorist.

After college, of course.

I took a water balloon right to the face and was unable to convince anyone that I hadn't really been hit as the evidence was still stuck to my head.

Viva la revolucion!

The carnage was terrible!

And glorious!

Next we practiced storming the beach. We came in on our boogie boards and noodles. The enemy was waiting for us.

The battle raged for hours.

It was a glorious day to die!

And I broke a nail.

Hawaii Ocean Rafting

2011-04-11T10:59:00.000-05:00

And last but not least, our absolute favorite activity on Maui - a whale watching trip with Hawaii Ocean Rafting.

There are some really big boats that go out on the whale watching tours, but after reading the reviews, I felt that a small, fast boat would be more entertaining for the kids

Boy, was I right. The kids were able to straddle the pontoons on the boat and ride it like a horse. They were bounced up in the air and tossed around and they had an absolute blast!

We circled the island of Lanai on our tour. We stopped in three different places to snorkel and saw several shipwrecks on the beaches.

There were all sorts of amazing sights.

This rock formation looked like a castle. We saw another one that looked like a bear and also watched a blowhole spout.

There were sea caves we were able to go right up to, but not inside.

But the coolest part was watching whales (we saw LOTS!)......

.....and a pod of dolphins which ran along beside us for a bit! So cool!!

The Old Fort

2011-04-09T21:58:00.001-05:00

This is what remains of the old fort in Lahaina. It was built in 1827 to protect the town from angry sailors. Apparently, the Rev. William Richards who was a missionary in Lahaina, converted the natives to Christianity and then told all the ladies they should no longer go out to the whaling ships and, ahem, entertain the sailors. The ladies were coming back from the ships with pretty beads and nasty diseases. One of the ship's captains fired a cannon at Rev. Richard's house in retaliation. No one was hurt but the royals at the time felt that a fort was needed to help protect the townspeople from any further incidents.

The fort covered nearly an acre and was constructed of coral bricks. Visitors to Lahaina remarked that the fort seemed more for show than for protection and that it was primarily used for firing gun salutes on the king's birthday. It was torn down in the 1850's and the blocks were used to build the town's first prison.

Better to lock them up than to just block them out!

Lahaina, Maui

2011-04-05T21:13:00.000-05:00

Lahaina is a beautiful little town on west Maui. It has a very quaint feel with a little bohemian vibe mixed in for fun.

There were lots of cool shops. I could have shopped all day if it wouldn't have caused Ben and Kerry to drown themselves in the nearest puddle.

There's even a mystery sailboat wrecked just off shore. Ask anyone in the town about it and you will get stories ranging from "someone wanted a tax write off" to "drug smugglers hide there".

The whole town is full of the most interesting sights.

You never know what you might see.

Nakalele Blowhole

2011-04-04T20:57:00.000-05:00

While on Maui, we drove north to the Nakalele Blowhole.

The view from up there is gorgeous.

We found a great little rock shelf where we could sit and watch the blowhole.

We didn't get too close. There was a cross nearby which I'm assuming was placed there because someone died. I know at the blowhole on Maui, there have been several deaths, usually because people get too close.

We stayed at a safe distance but watched others walk right up and look straight down into the hole. This is not Old Faithful, you never know when it's going to blow.

But there's no way to make it idiot proof.

The Melting Pot

2011-04-02T21:57:00.000-05:00

Kerry and I love The Melting Pot restaurant. We went to one in Florida when we were dating. Then we went to one in Virginia when we had small children and I was petrified they would burn themselves. A pot of boiling oil in the middle of the dining table is just not a good situation with young kids. We've never lived near one again. Then, while on Maui, we happened to spot a sign for the Melting Pot while we were riding down the street. We immediately abandoned all plans for the evening and made reservations to eat there.

This was easily the best meal we had on Maui. And the most expensive. Immediately after eating there we cancelled our plans to go to the circus because we had blown our circus budget on this one meal.

But, oh, was it good.

The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant. They start off by bringing you a double boiler and putting it on a burner which is right in the middle of your table. We picked a spinach-artichoke cheese dip and a fancy French cheese with a carafe of wine poured in it. Emily of course, could not eat the cheese dips because of her dairy allergy. But she happily noshed on the fruits and veggies which the rest of us were dipping into the pots.

I shouldn't have looked at this picture. Now I'm craving cauliflower dipped in that fancy cheese.

The plates are ultra cool. There are all these little compartments in case you are OCD about your food touching.

After the cheese was consumed, we had two pots of boiling oil and broth bestowed upon our table. Our entree consisted of bits of beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, lobster, duck, and probably several other things I'm completely forgetting. Scallops. There may have been scallops.

We each got three skewers with a different colored handle and were able to cook our meats in each pot and then dunk them in various sauces and then fight over who took your duck while trying to skewer the last shrimp before anyone else claimed it. Battling for your food helps build up an appetite and add a level of excitement not usually found in a family dinner.

Kerry was just as happy as a man can be.

Then, dessert. Oh, dessert was heavenly. Our fabulous waitress actually managed to scrounge up a dairy free pot of chocolate so Emily could participate. The rest of us had the yin and yang chocolate which was a glorious mixture of dark and white chocolate. We had fruit, marshmallows, and pound cake to dunk in it. Unfortunately, we polished it off rather quickly and tried to dive into Emily's soy chocolate. She viciously used her skewer to fend us off.

Who knew she could fence like that?

You do have to be very cautious if your kids get hold of the skewers.

Or you may find yourself impaled and dunked in chocolate before you know it.

Bubba Gump

2011-03-30T06:56:00.000-05:00

Ben had to watch the movie "Forrest Gump" this year as part of his 20th Century History program. While we were in Maui, we spotted a "Bubba Gump Shrimp Co." restaurant and decided to try it out.

The food was good, not fabulous. The sunset was phenomenal. The gift shop was hilarious.

We asked for a dairy free menu for Emily before we were seated. They only had two dairy free items and then after we were seated we found out that they no longer made one of the two items and Emily hated the other dish and wouldn't order it.

We let the kids each pick a souvenir while we were on Maui and Ben picked the red tee-shirt with famous sayings from the movie.

Silly me, I thought he'd pick something that would remind him of the sharks or the whales or the scuba diving or the boat ride. Instead he's got a shirt that says "Stupid is as stupid does".

Ah well, he's happy.

Swimming With Sharks!

2011-03-29T10:56:00.001-05:00

One of the coolest things we were able to do on Maui took place at the Maui Ocean Center. It's a very neat aquarium with lots of fish and displays (and a REALLY great gift shop).

But the best thing about it was...........

Kerry and Ben got to scuba dive in the shark tank.

Here's Kerry right next to a sting ray.

Look at all the white tip sharks! Kerry and Ben got to swim into a little cave farther back in the tank. There were some sharks who stay in there and swim through the scuba diver's bubbles as they go up. It makes the sharks "drunk" and they tip over and fall to the bottom. One landed on Ben's head!

Ben with his brethren, the hammerheads.

Kerry with a giant puffer fish. They took raw squid in with them to feed to the fish. The puffer is well aware that all scuba divers come with snacks and she is greedy! They had been warned ahead of time that she would nibble at their fingers trying to get food. Ben got so aggravated with her, he would put his hand on her head and gently push her backwards, trying to make her leave him alone.

The girls and I were able to stand at the viewing windows and watch. You have to be scuba certified in order to go in the tank, and Katie was absolutely beside herself that she couldn't go in there as well.

This was easily some of the best money we spent while on vacation. It's pricey but well worth it. When scuba diving in the ocean, it's often murky and difficult to see well. You also never know if you're going to see any cool sea critters or not. In the aquarium, you are guaranteed to see sharks, rays, and a huge variety of fish. Makes me wish I could have gone in too!