December Part II

Today is my brother John's birthday. I was just thinking that there should be some sort of birthday exchange program. Anyone born in December automatically could be assigned a random birthday in any other month. Maybe a drawing out of a hat, or such. It would be a world a bit easier, one of those minor improvements that would make everyone happy.

Last night was my Ed. class final, so I'm done with school for the year. But of course, next year comes awfully quick. Those classes will both be on-line, so I won't have to commute in to town a couple of days every week.

Yesterday was the big Christmas pageant. It was pretty cute for the parents, but Charlie suffered agonies of boredom. I figure it's good for him to have to suffer through it a couple of times before he's one of the kindergartners having to stand up and sing. That will really make him suffer! After the pageant Charlie went home with my Mom and I went to Emi's class room. There I was the glue-gun queen, putting sea shells onto Popsicle stick stars. The kids were making ornaments and I always like to help out with the crafts. The different personalities are so interesting, and how different kids approach their creative work is enjoyable to see. There are the tidy kids with the alternating little shiny stars pasted on to the ends of their ornaments. There are the impulsive kids with one giant sea shell pasted on to one part of the ornament, coming up to me over and over again as the ornament evolves. There are the carefully planned out kids who bring up a bunch of things for me to glue, all carefully thought out and arranged. There is Emi, with her three dimensional art work and her photo proudly displayed atop a huge bead that is glued firmly to the center of the star.

Today is also chore day, our Friday morning work. Since Emi has furlough Fridays she is home from school and she gets to help out. She vacuums the carpets and scrubs the sinks in the bathroom, and usually dusts and sweeps her room. Today she is also gathering a couple of bouquets. Charlie takes out the garbage, picks up the yard, and cleans his room. I always have to check under his bed. That's his bank- he deposits anything extra under there and always seems surprised when Mom or Dad finds his stash.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Well, it certainly is the most exciting. Emi is constantly on: making projects, writing letters, drawing pictures.... She wears herself out, not to mention the rest of us. Aaron and I have to make it a priority to help her slow down a bit or else she ends up in a frenzy of non-motion. Spinning, excited, expending energy, but going nowhere. Structure and direction are highly important for her. She certainly sets the tone for the rest of us. My goal is to get most of my own Christmas shopping done so that when school lets out next week we can focus on a few projects (fudge making is high up there on the list) and a few out-door activities.

Charlie is also excited, but when you have Emi as a big sister average kid excitement seems tame. His excitement manifests in him laying on the floor, making sound effects as he flies his Tinker Toy space-ships on some inter-galactic mission. This morning he made a "space rocket", as he called it, out of the vacuum cleaner parts. He's laying on the floor under the coffee table having some great adventure. He loves the dogs and they figure in on the adventures. Old Lenny, who Charlie announced is his favorite dog, is a patient, long suffering mountain which is climbed and battled over. Lenny lays there, seeming to enjoy the attention, but occasionally he'll slowly stand up and wander away when it all gets to be a bit much.

Being that we live on an island, we get our Christmas tree early. It's hard to find a tropical tree, there are some gorgeous Norfolk Pines but they grow slowly and aren't a big piece of the market. Shipments of trees come mostly from Oregon and this year the companies that order trees ordered less than last year. This practically ensures a shortage of trees and, sure enough, Christmas trees are sold out already. It puts pressure on a person to get a tree early. They go on sale the day after Thanksgiving! We feel like we really hold out since we wait until December!

Aaron is off in Oahu visiting his Dad this weekend. Chris and Deanna are there since Deanna is running the Honolulu Marathon. Last weekend I was in Oahu with Special Olympics, which was fun but a long, hard weekend of work. It started at 4 a.m. on Saturday and ended at 6 p.m. on a Sunday with a six hour window of time for sleeping in between.

I had the last test for my computer class last week. I can already feel my brain forgetting all about Access and certain Excel functions. I'm done with everything in my Education course except a 'final reflection.' It'll be a couple of hours on the 17th. I have been reviewing a bit but that class is pretty much over as well. It was intensive but there was a lot that I learned and overall it was something I really enjoyed.

The kids are playing Operation right now: Emi went to our neighbor's house for a Yard Sale and came home with a whole collection of things. She bought a gold and jewel studded belt, a couple action figures for Charlie (she has them hidden away for part of a Christmas gift, along with a whoopee cushion), a kitty figurine, and a little flower snow globe.

I'm off to take Sparky on a run. Lenny is too old. He gets shorter walks around the neighborhood and comes home to sleep afterwards.

December

Ah yes, the most exciting month. That is, the most exciting month if Emi is any indication. The girl turns into a radio that is always on and always happy. We put a few Christmas lights up on the front of the house and that was it: the switch was thrown and she found her excitement to be uncontainable. The nice thing is that she's a happy kid and even though she's not a Santa believer, she is a Santa pretender. Meaning she both likes to pretend that there is a Santa and she likes to BE Santa. She is making her list of what to get everyone and she has already asked for: baseball mitts, Wii games, and most recently, golf clubs. What? Golf clubs?! Our neighbor boys play golf with their Dad and Emi took a few swings last night and now she wants a club. I find that pretty funny.

Our Thanksgiving was nice and calm. We skipped the holiday routine, deciding to save it for Christmas. We're going to host a big family Christmas feast and so for Thanksgiving we just headed to the beach with a few ham sandwiches. We went to Hapuna and it was the sort of day when everything was just perfect. There was a light cloud cover so we didn't fry. There were waves, but kid sized waves. There was a breeze but it was a light, on-shore breeze so we didn't get sand-blasted. And then, as if the stars aligned, the people who remembered their shovels (we forgot ours) left the beach early and left their huge hole, which Emi and Charlie promptly moved into. Emi gleefully made 'candy' sand-balls, and Charlie made bombs. The kids also invented their newest boogie board game. Emi would catch the wave, ride in towards Charlie, and he would do a running tackle and ride in the rest of the way on her back. It was pretty funny.

Last night we took on a new family member. Lenny. He's a old dog whose owners moved to the mainland today and couldn't take him with them. He's nearly ten years old and he's a lot bigger than I had thought he'd be. He's very calm and very sweet. Charlie, the dog whisperer of the family, is in heaven. Lenny, however, is rather pathetic. He's settling in, but he's waiting. He walks to the front door and gazes out, expecting someone to come and make his world right again. He doesn't really make much noise but occasionally a little whine will be there way in the back of his throat, almost under his breath. Poor old guy. Right now he is looking at me with his cloudy, brown eyes with his ears cocked into a question. He's also breathing on me and he could use a tooth brush. His fur isn't stinky, but his mouth sure is! Time for doggy breath mints to enter into the picture.

Rainy Sunday.

What to do on a rainy Sunday? Try and burn some wet wood! It didn't ever light, but the trying was fun. Emi's taking a sick day, resting, watching some Yellow Submarine (a favorite of hers) and napping a bit. All that excitement of visiting Grandparents means she needs a recovery day. She takes to bed, takes an ibuprofen, and puts on the eye mask until the head ache clears up. She gets a bit dramatic like that, and we're all used to it around here.

This picture of Grandma Judy, Grandpa Bill, and the kids was taken last week at one of the beach park/lagoons we have in Hilo.

Mid-November

It's Saturday evening, and after fifteen inches of rain in the past 2 1/2 days, it has finally stopped raining! Talk about some serious wet. I went down to the beach early, as is my Saturday habit, and went into a stormy ocean. There was a Great Frigate bird overhead, and rain coming down in buckets. After a couple of hours a flash of lightening got me scrambling to shore and then I actually saw a bolt of lightening a couple of miles in the distance. I don't see lightening bolts often, and I don't like being in water when I DO see them!

We just had a nice family visit: Aaron's Mom and step-Dad came and stayed for a little over a week. We were on vacation time, all except Emi who still had to go to school. But being that Hawaii now has the shortest school year in the nation (thanks to furlough days, budget crunch, and a govenor who thought it was a good budget solution) Emi only had three days of school in that week's span. All the more time for exploring waterfalls, shopping with the Grands, and getting all that attention! Charlie got both Grandparents playing way more "Go Fish" than anyone but a 4 year old can stand.

Post-Halloween

Phew, it's always a relief to have Halloween over. Facilitating and managing excitement both. This is our picture of our haunted house. A ghostly little face, hoovering over that very scary Cyclops. It's almost proof of apparitions. In the very least, it's proof that Charlie is a little monster. And he HAS been a monster, as he comes into his own as a big kid who prefers settling things the old fashioned way. He hasn't evolved out of the duel/showdown mentality and while he no longer dares try such tactics on his parents, his sister often is victim to the old one-two. Of course, he's usually the victim of mosquito like pestering of his big sister. She has a way of hoovering around and making irritating noises right when he wants to take a minute to focus on something.

Aaron's birthday is this week, and the kids are very excited about Grandma Judy and Grandpa Bill coming for a visit! It'll be a nice week, and I'm sure busy for all of us. We are planning to stay in Puna and enjoy the time with family.

End of October

I can't believe it's been nearly three weeks since I posted anything. Time has a way of getting away. I think I've made that complaint before, ever since giving birth to a fast-forward daughter! We're in the height of Halloween excitement. We've actually been in the height of excitement for the past couple of weeks, ever since the kids decided on costumes. Charlie, frugal and sensible, decided on the typical white sheet ghost. Being that I had an old, white sheet, it all came together pretty quickly. Emi, on the other hand, first decided to be an angel and was saving her allowance for some feathery, white wings she saw. Of course the wings were sold out a week later, so now she has decided to be a vampire. It's a vampire with an Emi twist. I'll post pictures when the big day arrives.

This week is spirit week at school, so the excitement continues to build. Today was green day. Tomorrow is mismatch day. That sort of thing. I spent the morning at the beach- Monday is my day to get a bit of time off during the day. My brother watches Charlie, I get to surf, and this evening is Aaron's card night. He is playing with a group he put together in town and I think it has been a lot of fun for him.

We're easing into our 'winter' here. It still gets hot when the sun is out, but we've had more rain and the evenings are starting to cool down. We have the windows closed occasionally at night, and the fans are off more. It's always a relief. We had a hot summer and the cooler evening are nice. But being that this is Hawaii, winter means we only have to mow the lawn every ten days or two weeks before it's all over-grown, and we don't have to go out quite as often to beat back the jungle!

I haven't taken any new pictures, but I will this coming weekend and post a few.

More Fall Break

It was actually pouring rain at our house but I packed the kids into the car, along with three friends, and we headed down for a morning of tide-pooling and swimming. It's often clear at the beach, because the prevailing wind blows the clouds up the mountain. The kids discovered sea urchins and they actually picked up the spiny, poky things. That's more than I ever wanted to do! Charlie likes to pick up sea cucumbers and squeeze them, which makes the salt water squirt out of them. Like living squirt guns, with a bit of a gross-out factor when you are following along behind your big sister and her friends.

I find that when Emi is off of school time moves at Emi speed, which is constantly fast, busy, and full of movement. There is no down time and activities are a must. Today we'll head somewhere- a park or the beach or maybe the pool. It's sunny, which is nice since last night it rained torrents. A bit of clear weather helps dry out the damp that comes with the rain- it's hot enough that we leave the windows open.

just a quick catch-up

Well, Emi ended up being pretty sick the week after the fair. She missed the entire week of school and I got a bit worried about dehydration but she pulled through. That week was a haze of illness and way too many movies.

This is our fall break, being that we're on a year-round school schedule. This means that I'm busy with play dates and having friends over. It's only Monday and I'm already exhausted! Hours and hours at the beach, then hours and hours of feeding kids and I'm done. Seriously, I think I just ended up feeding kids for the last four hours of the afternoon and then again all evening. Amazing. But the kids are asleep, the house is quiet, and I'm ready to start some homework. Ahh, the joy of an on-line class!

Carnival Weekend

Ahh, the carnival. It's been the entire focus for the past week, ever since the kids saw in the paper that it would be in Hilo this weekend. Every day Charlie would ask "Is this the fair day?" We went yesterday evening, which was perfect. The afternoon crowd had thinned out and the evening crowd hadn't arrived so the kids didn't have to wait in line but went from one ride to the next. Within an hour we were done with rides. We looked at the few displays, rode the Ferris Wheel at dusk, and headed home. Perfect. The carnival has to be the fastest way to burn money that I know of, but it's sure fun to watch the kids' expressions! It was funny when Emi and Charlie got on the bumper cars. Emi couldn't figure the thing out and Charlie had to explain how to drive. We heard him saying, "Press the pedal, Emi!" I've read those articles of five year old kids taking the family car for a drive and I used to wonder how a kid could figure out how to do something like that. Now that I have Charlie I don't have to wonder. I keep my keys in my purse and tell him that he can't drive until he has a driver's license.

The week went quickly. Aaron's truck was fixed, which was good. One car, two jobs, and rural living isn't exactly practical. I had my first on-line meeting for my education class, which was interesting. The students in the class are mostly in the Hawaiian Islands, but one woman is teaching English in South Korea. It makes the world seem awfully small to show up for 'class' and end up conversing with someone in Korea.

It has been a busy couple of weeks for me. My computer class takes me in to Hilo twice a week, which ends up taking the entire day once we do the commute, have lunch, do an errand or two, and then hurry home in time to pick Emi up from school. I also have discovered that I don't much care for computer science 101. It'll be handy to know the software I'll be using, but all the labs have me analysis sales data and creating memos and charts. Not something I like to do! There is a reason that I wasn't a business major. I am really enjoying my education class, though. It's about childhood development and education, and I'm focusing more on adolescents since I am working towards a teaching certification in secondary ed. It's amazing how many high school teachers I had that could have used this course!

As for the kids, Emi got sent home from school last Friday and was sick for a day and a half, and Charlie caught the same thing yesterday. He's better now but unfortunately woke up at the crack of dawn. It's a trade-off we make: either he wakes up at two or three a.m. and crawls into bed with us and then "sleeps in" until six thirty or seven, or else he sleeps in his own bed and wakes up at first light. I mean that gray, not-time-to-wake-up first light. Frankly, I like it better when he crawls into bed with us. Not just because of the extra hour of sleep but because I like being up before the kids for at least fifteen minutes. A nice, quiet cup of black tea and a few minutes to read the paper makes me pretty happy in the mornings. Funny how kids make you appreciate those things.

Yesterday Emi had to come with me while I worked with Jericho. Aaron's truck is in the shop with a bad clutch, and Aaron stayed home with Charlie. Jericho had Special Olympics and three hours in a bowling alley got a bit long, but afterwards we went to Border's and it just happened that we made it for their story-hour. It was perfect. Jericho and I sat and read magazines and Emi got to make butterfly wings, have some face paint, get a strawberry smoothie from the coffee shop, and she even found a book to spend her allowance on. It's one that she could read with a huge amount of effort so I told her I would read it aloud to her. I think I'll survive, but it's one of the books that's written in a hurry for undiscriminating children but it certainly has a pretty cover of a mermaid horse all done with airbrush and sparkles. We had been reading the Wizard of Oz books, after Jericho passed on his collection to Emi.

Today we will be having a picnic at Emi's school. One of her classmate's parents are helping throw a social event just for the kids in her class and their families. We'll have to hope that the clouds clear up! This week when I went into volunteer in her class I had one student talk to me about how his best friend died this past summer. His friend was killed in a horrible motorcycle/auto accident that killed a young boy and his father. The father was a client of Aaron's. Last week a little girl in Hilo was killed by her mom's boyfriend, and Emi told me it was her desk-mate's cousin that was killed. The community here is small enough and families are big enough that these sorts of events really have a huge impact. It's hard for me to hear about this sort of violence, especially as I see my own kids grow up and watch the kids in Emi's class. They are all so interesting and great and full of energy. Teachers have a lot put upon them, and we're lucky that Emi ended up with such a great teacher.

Before I finish up I wanted to say that the new pictures (top four on the side and the one above) are from a hike we did a couple of weekends ago. It's a family favorite, a two mile hike in to a small beach. The beach fronts an estate, so it isn't exactly a private little spot when you get there, but it's very pretty and the kids love it. There is a marsh on the estate and the entire area is a Nene goose sanctuary, so we always end up seeing a couple of geese flying overhead or wandering in the grass. The marsh is formed from a cold-spring that flows into the ocean in a couple of places and it goes under the sand in spots and forms these little bubbling areas of quick sand. It isn't dangerous, as the sand is only about a foot deep, and there is solid lava underneath. The kids love it. Charlie is enamoured with quick sand and loves to just go and sink in and then use the wet sand to paint his entire body. He likes to pretend he is stuck and then emerging as some sort of monster. He loves monsters, especially alien monsters, and wet sand is a perfect medium for the imagination.

It's a rainy Saturday morning in Puna, the kids are playing some computer (and getting along!) while Aaron is outside doing some yard-work. I woke up early this morning and went down to the beach but the wind was blowing hard and the surf was small, so I went to the tide pools and took a swim instead. It was nice, a quiet, lonely swim with coral and fish and a rather large zebra eel that hid when I swam by. Eels are always a bit exciting to see for some reason, maybe because they look so much like snakes.

I finished my first week of classes: an Education course and a computer science course that is a pre-req for the next education class I'll need to take. The education courses are all on-line, so most of the work will be done from the couch.

Thursday was open-house night at Emi's school and she had fun with that. Mostly because the playground was available, and then there were the cookies and fruit punch.

These pictures are from last weekend, when we went to the other side for a night and spent Sunday at Beach 69, right past Hapuna. It's a great place for the kids because of the sand and shade, and there is snorkeling right next to the beach. Emi spent hours with the mask and fins on, chasing fish around the rocks. Charlie even put on his goggles, but he's a bit more cautious and once the water looks like it might be over his head he wants to head back to the shore.

Thursday Morning

We're almost at the end of the third week of school (already!) and life has fallen into its school-pattern. Charlie and I keep busy in the day with projects and chores and then some sort of outing. Yesterday we went to the bank, lunch, and then the humane society. The boy loves to pet the dogs, puppies, and kittens. We can easily spend a half-hour sitting in the cat area, Charlie delighted with the kittens that climb onto his lap. He's an animal lover and his confident, gentle way with the kittens mean that they are quite happy to have him visit. Our afternoons have been busy with lots of play-time. The neighbor boys moved back from Idaho, where they were for nearly a year, and suddenly the kids are having hours-long games of tag, kick-the-can, and pretty much any game that includes running. They all end up sweaty and happy.

I've on-line a lot lately, getting signed up and ready for school myself. I'll be in UH Hilo's teaching certification program. I'm looking forward to taking a couple of courses this fall. I've also been going in to Emi's class a couple of days a week, continuing volunteering there. I really like her teacher and I love meeting all the kids in her class.

I'm off to take a walk with Sparky. We finally got a bit of a break from the intense, muggy heat we've had the past few weeks. It's a bit overcast today but the cooler air is a relief! We don't get heat waves that dry us out (at least not very often!), instead we get heat waves that come in on a flood of moist air so that the outside world seems way too much like a sauna. The pavement, in the mornings, doesn't dry out from the night-time dew. It simply steams for a good hour or two. This is, of course, why our side of the island is so lush!

Welcome to our blog-

I thought this would be a good way to keep in touch, to let everyone know the ins and outs of life here in Hawaii. With two kids things have a way of moving faster than I do and even though I love to stay in touch with family and friends in an immediate way, sometimes a second best just has to do. I've had a couple of friends set up blogs and I love having the updates, to know what is happening in their lives. I hope this can serve the same purpose for all of you.