More on Hawaii

So I didn't get lost. I found my way home. I even navigated us to several touristy spots like Pearl Harbor, which I now know you can't go to because it is still a naval base, and the USS Arizona, which you can. Anyway here are some pictures. I took 170 pictures, so if you think this is a lot, you should take a look at my memory card.

The view from our balcony. We were on the North Shore of Oa'hu, which is always windy, and why they have such good surfing. I'm quoting the guide book.

The famous waves of the North Shore.Katelynn eating pineapple at the Dole plantation. It is as sweet as candy. We also had pineapple macadamia nut cheesecake on a pineapple upsidedown cake crust. Nope. I wasn't thinking of anyone but myself that day.
By the temple. We were really dumb and didn't get any actual pictures of the temple.
The drive along the east shore is all like this and right next to the ocean. It's the long way from Turtle Bay to Waikiki but it's worth it.Katelynn learning the hula at the Polynesian Cultural Center.
Tahitian dancers at the PCC.
Katelynn was the only one of us to actually do the poi balls right at the New Zealand village at the PCC.

I am leaning on a tree, not because I want to look good for a photo but because the Polynesian Cultural Center is a lot like Disneyland, without the rides. There's a lot of walking on cement, and you will get sunburned and your feet will get tired. But the villages each have shows where you sit down, and then at the end of the day they feed you. And they have a great show. And there's people who dance with fire, so, plus.

This was in the Samoan village. Five guys RAN up the tree to get cocnuts. BTW, in Samoa, the men do all the cooking. I'm moving to Samoa.

The Pig! The luau was spectacular. The pork was greak. The fruity drinks were fun. We sang along to Hawaiin songs. Everything was wonderful. Except the poi. Katelynn is 18. She likes to do hair. I was her victim. She said it wasn't curly enough if I wanted to go to the prom. Whew! Disaster averted!

Okay, Diamond Head is this old volcano that your supposed to climb if you go to Hawaii, like you visit the Statue of Liberty if you go to New York. I made it as far as the second staircase.

Here's the story. Imagine the trail to Timpanogas Cave. Long, hard, paved, but doable. And always up. Then, add a staircase like the one at BYU by the Smith Field House. After 30 minutes of hard walking, now you have to do a lot of stairs. Still doable. Then you go through this tunnel, and there are exactly 100 more stairs, but it's like the guy who was building the trail got bored of switchbacks. These things go straight up. I quit. No view is worth it. So I sent my camera with Katelynn who took these pictures from the top of Diamond Head. So I'm a hypocrite, but this is supposed to be the best view of Waikiki beach.

This is the trail before the stairs. This was the easy part. After this, Katelynn wanted to go shopping for three hours in Waikiki. To have that energy again.
USS Arizona Memorial. I really liked these pictures. The sky is very pretty.

Vacation Photos

It is 1:00 Salt Lake time, which means it's 9:00 Hawaii time. So I'll just post some photos now. I'll blog tomorrow. The cute 18 year old in my niece, Katelynn. I'm the other one with long hair and a sunburn. Her mom is my sister Kathi. She's in the picture at Diamond Head.

This is Katelynn, very enthusiastic about snorkeling. I had to tell her that unless you want to look really silly, you put that stuff on after your suit, and after you're in the water. We did have fun watching people try to walk in the sand with their flippers.

The three of us at diamond head. I think this is the only picture of all three of us. Notice Katelynn hiked in flipflops, the wierdo.

Katelynn at the Luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Katelynn playing in the ocean by the temple.

Katelynn and me outside the Polynesian Cultural Center,

by the ocean. Everything is by the ocean.

Hawaii!

On Sunday, My sister Kathi, my gorgeous neice Katelynn, and I are leaving on a jet plane . . .
We're going to Hawaii!
That was what Katelynn wanted for her graduation gift (along with tuition to the Y for the next 4 to 6 years). And the dear sweet girl asked if her favorite aunt would like to come.

Seriously, she really asked if I wanted to go with her.

My sister Kathi is one of four nutty daughters in our family. It is a sad statement when I say that my sister Erin is probably the most levelheaded out of the four of us girls. Come on guys, you know we're all a little crazy. The Happy, Fun kind. (Rob is just sad that I said it first).
And when my wonderfully crazy sister Kathi planned this vacation, she planned a car rental.
Now I have been on several vacations with my just-as-crazy cousin Autumn, where we rented a car. We learned early on there are two things I should not be allowed to do:
1) Drive in unfamiliar cities
2) Navigate in unfamiliar cities

I like to say I'm there for morale.

Kathi wants me to get us from the airport in Honolulu to our hotel on the other side of Oahu. I told Erin, she laughed. I told Autumn, she cried. So I bought a map.

When do they teach map reading in school? I teach fourth grade and we don't learn about this kind of map. I can recognize roads, but shouldn't I be able to see exits and stuff? Or like the pioneers, do we make our own for those who will come behind?

I have actually called people in Hawaii and they all tell me the same two things.
You can't get lost on the freeways in Oahu and some place great to eat.

That's what my dad used to say about the freeways in California. (But not a great place to eat part)

Maybe we'll just keep driving and driving. I now have a very long list of restaurants to visit, and we're bound to make it back to the airport sooner or later. We'll stop and eat, or stop and swim.
It's an island. I doubt even I could navigate us into the ocean.

Erin, and Autumn, I heard that.

My new place

I moved out of my old apartment and into a fancy remodeled one right after school got out. In fact, the last day of school was a half day, and I came home and started moving right away. I moved that half day. That was a Thursday.
I moved all day Friday. That's when I moved most of my stuff.
That's also when I moved my mattress and boxsprings and learned that there are some things you should not do alone.
On Saturday my cousin Autumn came to help with the bigger things, along with my room mate's 72 year old father.
Yep. Four girls and a senior citizen.
We had been waiting for this apartment to be ready for 5 weeks. There wasn't a firm date as to when we could move in. The smart person would have started packing all the nonessential stuff right away. We went for ice cream.
Then one day our land lord calls up and says, "Are ya packed? You can move in this weekend."
So we had what my room mate calls a southern move. I call it a Mormon move. Basically, you throw things together in no particular order and worry about it when you unpack. I got three rubbermaid containers and I would fill them up with stuff, walk them over to the new place, empty them in a pile, and then go back for more. One of my room mates just barely got the last of her stuff out yesterday, after our lanlord came over to tell her they were ready to remodel over there and needed it clean.
So check out the pictures. These were taken about two weeks after the move. I'm impressed we did it.

So, I mentioned how many DVD's I have . . . here they are! They filled this book case. You can't see it here, but it is almost ceiling to floor, and the VHS are double deep on a shelf. Holy Crap! I think all three of us were a little shocked as I kept unpacking and unpacking and unpacking.

My room. And my new T.V. Notice I changed the pictures on the wall. The medeival stuff was getting a little tired.

My room . . . enough books? Another moving tip . . . books should not be packed in those big rubbermaid tubs. My back still hurts.

My room; notice that I now have real curtains, not a blanket tacked to the wall. My room mates say this is nicer.
My garden; I hate gardening. But Mom helped. Well, she helped shop for stuff and then told me where to put the stuff. She can't get down and garden like she wishes she could. Like I wish she could. The marigolds aren't blooming in this picture, but they are now. All the bushy greenery was there when we moved in. It's lavender, thyme, and sage. It smells so good out there in the mornings! Holly, can you see the bunny on the rock?

Lavender . . . it's blooming and really pretty now!

I'll send pictures of the kitchen when there aren't dirty dishes out on the counter!

My crazy life, My crazy family, My crazy friends

I have epilepsy.
Don't freak out. I am not possessed by any evil spirits.
Erin, shut up. You too, Jennie.
Anyway, occasionally I have what we named "break throughs" when I was pretty little. It's just when the seizures and the meds don't work together and I have seizures for several hours, always at night. That's usually a good thing, because I don't miss work. The negative is that I don't sleep. And I have to take extra meds. So I am a little groggy in the morning. This happened last night.

So here's the problem (the seizures aren't the problem?!)
My family and friends are nuts.
They can't decide whether to make light of a pretty tough situation for everyone to handle, or to be serious and try and help. Since none of them are certified neurologists, mostly they worry a lot, which can be fairly amusing (when viewed in hind sight)

Here are some things my family and friends have chosen to do in the past, as well as last night:

My little sister, Erin, used to make me laugh right before I started having a seizure. I can't control what my face does during a seizure. The result was pretty gruesome.
Love ya Erin!

My room mate Jennie stayed up all night with me. It was a very sweet thought, but she slept in our arm chair. Now I have a cranky room mate. Next time, you take the couch.

My older sister Kathi stayed up, in case I needed her. She wasn't at the house with me, but she stayed up. Just several cell phone calls away (she doesn't wake up on the first call)

My mom stayed up all night too. She called me every half hour. Remember, I'm having seizures . . . answering a phone can be difficult. Then after they stopped, we talked for awhile about something else she was concerned about. I don't really remember. I just had seizures for several hours. I dozed through most of her conversation.

The people around me are crazy. Seriously.

But you know, Erin has also spent hours rubbing my back trying to relax those muscles. Jennie did that last night too. My dad used to do that before he died.

Dad and I used to talk about all sorts of things while I had seizures. He was trying to keep my mind off of what was happening, but I learned more about him and the church during those nights than in any Sunday School class. I miss that.

My family and friends are awesome. Wacko, but awesome.

And this morning, they're all late for work. And cranky.
I wonder what mom wanted last night.

Thanks you guys

Oh what do you do in the summer time?

Hey family and friends! Congratulate me, I've got a blog, I'm caught up with the times!

Okay. So I teach school. From September to June, all teachers are dreaming of summer and what we will do when we don't have to get up and go to work. And then, after two weeks, we're looking around asking, what now?

Maybe it's different if you're married with kids. Maybe you ask after four weeks. But I only have two room mates and we all take care of our own messes pretty much. Even so, in the summer I realize I have a little more time on my hands than they do, so I do a little more than my share of the chores. It's fair. They take care of me during my nervous breakdowns when we're having our standardized tests.

But now I am looking at my clean kitchen, my clean bathroom, my clean livingroom, and I'm thinking "what now?" In the last 5 weeks since school got out I have accomplished the following:

• moved to a new apartment (by myself)
• helped my room mates move to our new apartment
• planted a garden (why? I dislike gardening)
• moved the computer to our new apartment
• got lab work done that my doc's been askig for since last fall
• went to the doctor's
• read a little more than 3,000 pages in said 5 weeks
• learned how to make a virgin pina colata and strwberry daquiri
• threw a party and made said drinks
• cleaned up from party without a vacuum
• visited the book store 7 times

Yes. I am bored. To tears. Happily, I will be going to Hawaii on the 20th. My cousin is spending her vacation doing a Pioneer Trek. Dressed in Pioneer clothing. I may be bored but I'm not that bored.