Thursday, July 31, 2008

School's In


After just 6 short weeks of summer, we are walking back to School.


We were excited to find that both Sydney and Emily ended up with our #1 top teacher picks!


Sydney was not so excited about the photo-shoot. Mom. Please, this is embarrassing me... Notice the star lei she is wearing? She learned how to make those last week, and gave that one to her teacher. Sydney is so crafty!


Emily, on the other hand, wasn't afraid to smile for me.


John doesn't start school 'til late next week, but he's got the morning routine down!


Happy Back to School Day!


Most of the Hawaii schools do a year round kind of thing. We get about 2 weeks off for fall break, 3 weeks off at Christmas, 2 weeks off for Spring Break, and 6 weeks in the summer. I guess that works, especially since it is always beautiful and summer-like in Hawaii, so why not take a few weeks off throughout the year?

Even though our summer felt way too short, back to school time is still totally exciting. Walking down to check out the class lists + sharpening pencils + buying new slippah's for school = Fun!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

High School


Wait a minute. Did you say high school?


Are you sure?


You can't be old enough to be in high school already.


Oh. I guess you are!

Have a great day!


Get to class!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Monday Random

I have a cold. My nose is stuffy and my ear aches. And I keep sneezing. Blech.

School starts tomorrow. Eeeek! This short summer thing isn't my favorite.

Remember when I couldn't decide about John and school? We did decide to go ahead and register him for Kindergarten, and he's so excited. He has a backpack and new shoes and he's ready to go.

Did I ever tell you I had a sea urchin spine in my foot? Back when Hannah was doing her dive class in early July, I kicked a sea urchin at the beach (accidentally) and one of it's pokies ended up in my toe. It was like the size of a piece of broken pencil led, and I couldn't get it out. I was told to leave it alone as it would soon just dissolve, but it's been almost a month and it wasn't dissolving. Is this grossing you out? It's gone now. Last night I got it out with a needle. I'm so glad to have my toe back. I was afraid it would sprout and I would start looking like a character from Pirates of the Caribbean with sea urchins and crustaceans growing on me....

That was gross.

I don't know when Nathan's coming home from Iraq and I'm not really allowed to ask, but I started cleaning out closets this weekend! The pantry looks fabulous! Now if I could just find a dress....

I told John he had to eat 4 bites of his chicken before he could have more bread, since he is 4 years old. He told me, "Wow, you are going to have to eat an hundred bites, mom!" ouch....

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Bad Dream

It's been a while since I had a bad dream about Nathan.

But, early this morning I had one of those bad bad dreams. I don't remember the whole dream, and I don't wanna write about all of it and jinx myself or something, but it ended with me trying to decide if it would be better to move with the kids to California near his family, or Oregon near mine. (which is a tiny bit odd since I don't have a whole lotta family in Oregon)

and then I heard a knock on the door.

The knock woke me up from my bad dream and I stayed in bed until I heard another knock to be sure I wasn't still dreaming.

at 5:45am.

That's just the kind of thing to stop my heart.

and make me wish I wore attractive jammies to bed last night.

But I scrambled to find my glasses and my robe. I made it to the door and looked out the peep hole......

...and it was just a neighbor kid offering Hannah a ride to cross country practice, not a few men in uniform. Whew!


note to Nathan: come home soon!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Monday, July 21, 2008

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly at Camp

I really had a wonderful time at camp. I loved it. Even though I was stressed right up through the drive there, that feeling of angst went away as soon as we got to camp and started setting up. I had a great time, and I think most of the girls did, too.

This year's camp was different than anything I have ever experienced, either as a leader or as a girl myself. It was a ward YW camp, not a stake camp. So all the planning and set up and cooking and activities and supplies and equipment was up to us. With just two of us really doing the work, it was tough. It didn't help that one of us was out of town for half the summer and the other of us' husband is gone. But we did great, if I do say so myself.


The Good:

Bellows was the perfect place to stay. The beach was beautiful, the camp area was shady and grassy, and it felt very safe. Some beach areas in Hawaii don't feel as safe, but I was able to sleep well - and that is extremely rare and important to me. Remember me yelling for dad to save my life in the middle of the night on Mt. Adams? yeah. that kind of thing still happens to me... but not this year!

Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay was so fun. You should go there if you come visit Oahu. But if you are coming with a group, do yourself a favor and don't mention that little fact to the ticket people. They have crazy rules about groups there. I should add that to my bad list, but it turned out good in the end.

The hike to Maunawili Falls gets an A+. A week before camp, we set up a compass treasure hunt along the trail to the falls. The girls followed the clues along the trail, collecting little star beads in the YW colors. Brilliant. Swimming in the pool at the foot of the falls was cool. The girls jumped off the rocks into the water. I did not. The hike seemed to be the girls' favorite thing about camp.
Watching the sun rise in the East. Wow.

Catching crabs on the beach after dark.

Singing silly songs around the campfire. This is a secret that I have wanted to save as a surprise for when Nathan comes home, but I have to write it here, so if you are reading this, Nathan, cover your eyes. For fun this summer, Hannah's piano teacher taught her how to play the guitar and she took a little break from piano. Hannah is a genius and picked up chords in like a day. Watching Hannah play guitar by the campfire with all the girls singing along was so cool. (The day we got home from camp we had to rush over to the Haleiwa Arts Festival so Hannah could perform with a girl band. She played guitar and sang her little heart out. I'm hoping someone will email me some photos of that so I can blog about it properly.) Anywho, the campfire songs were great. You never know if the girls will go along with your ideas, and I was a little nervous that there would be some 'tude about singing, but I was wrong....the singing was fun!

Having the best babysitter ever taking care of my little kids. Cammie was a dream come true. She doesn't believe in television, and my kids were in craft heaven all week. They love her and are dreaming of the next time she gets to babysit.


The Bad:

Bellows is a military area and to stay there with a bunch of non-military people was complicated. I had to gather a load of information and fax it to the security people a few days before camp. Unfortunately my fax was lost and it took 4 trips to the gate (15 minutes from camp) to sponsor people on, and 4 more trips to the security office to get it all taken care of. Grrrr.

Planning and buying and organizing all the food is a daunting task. It is so hard to know how much food to buy. This year was easier than last year, as I made an awesome spreadsheet last year, but it was still hard. And though we did a better job this year splitting up the cooking between years, I had a hard time letting that task go. It didn't help that I seemed to be the only person who was capable of looking through the coolers and boxes to find the different ingredients.

A giant centipede in the middle of the night. Eeek!


The Ugly:

One of our leaders was a little bit left-over happy. She just could not let the leftovers go. That made for some ice chest challenges. Peach cobbler rewarmed and served for 3 days...Gha.

Girl trouble on the mini-golf coarse. I was having a fabulous time swinging the club when all H.E. Double Hockey Sticks broke loose. One girl called another girl a mean name, that girl started to have a panic attack, no one would take the blame or apologize....oh the drama. All the drama made our YW leader have a bit of a break down, too, which was surprising. What would camp be without the drama, though?

The bites on my belly. On about day two of camp I started to notice a couple of bites on my belly. When we got home and I saw myself in the mirror I almost started crying. I look like I have a bad case of the chicken pox. I'm told to keep cortisone cream handy and they should go away in a week to ten days (I hope it's gone before Nathan comes home...maybe you shouldn't read that part, either, Nathan.)

I heart YW camp!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Girls Camp

Confession: I don't actually want to go to camp.

We are heading out tomorrow and I am already feeling frazzled.

But, I'm sure it will be great fun.

Here's our schedule:

Day One:

Set up at Bellows at about 3pm.

Go swim at the beach until dinner and campfire.

Walk back to the beach and look at the stars. Find the Big Dipper and the North Star. Hunt for crabs.


Day Two:

Watch the sunrise.

Go to Hanauma Bay to snorkel. Identify some fish.

Go back to camp and play at the beach. Maybe some noodle surfing!

After dinner, play miniature golf.


Day Three:

Hike to Maunawili Falls. Jump off the rocks and swim in the pool.

Go back to camp and swim some more at the beach.

Roast marshmallows over the campfire.


Day Four:

Pack up.

Go home.

Hug and Kiss Sydney, Emily, and John.

Shower.




See ya Saturday!

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

SCUBA

Last week Hannah took a SCUBA class. Now she is an actual certified PADI diver. Go Hannah!











Sunday, July 06, 2008

Happy Birthday to Me!


My birthday wish:





I have a feeling that wish will come true in the next month or so.

la la la!

happy birthday to me...

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Busy Week

I am having pretty much the busiest week of my life. I need a list to get me through Thursday:

Make a list
Get up early
Run
Hannah to Cross Country
Start washing all the sheets
Hannah picked up
Get addresses of deployed guys in our ward
Mail packages to those guys
Call Bro Lee about the t-shirts for camp
Keep washing sheets
Make car appointment
Gather library stuff
Go to the library
Don't forget to take reading program pages
Go to the Commisary
Go to my afternoon class
Make beds
Make sure my babysitter is still coming
Fix a good dinner
Tidy up
Take Hannah to her SCUBA class
Take pictures of Hannah in her gear
Get home late and hope the little kids are already in bed
whew!