Surprise Seattle!

Well now that pretty much everyone knows I'm here (well, anyone that would actually be reading my blog), I am long over due for a blogging blabber.

*SuRpRiSe* I got in on Thurs evening and have only begun to relax today. From my first stop until noon today I've been surprising people - some in person, some by phone. I know it's silly to visit so soon after leaving, but for real, I miss home.

family+friends+pets

Home = __________________________

location

Don't get it twisted; I love Hawai'i. There's not a lot that I don't like, but my heart♥ is truly in Seattle. This is something I'm realizing even more now that I'm back. I don't regret moving and I will enjoy my time in Hawai'i to the fullest, because it's an awesome place to live. I will miss the surf, sun, beaches, ocean, heat, and vibe for sure. It's just that those things don't replace what I've built here in my hometown.

It's been slightly challenging to get around without my own car of course, but I'm doing what I can while I'm here. Please pray for logistics and that I can get everything and everyone into my schedule. If I didn't hate being away from my husband so much I'd stay longer, but he's what's missing from my joy right now.

I'm loving time with my cat and parents at their new house. That's been sweeeeeet. I'll be helping them paint in the next day or two - a heavy task but I like to paint, I just hope we can get most of it done while I'm here. Their house looks so nice with new hardwood floors (installed via my bro!). Makes me more excited for when we'll come back and buy our house. Mmm-hm.

I'll be visiting the in-laws tomorrow, so I'm glad for that too. I miss them! I'm blessed with the kindest, most loving in-laws I could have asked for. It'll be nice to catch up in person and watch Wow-wow-wee like old times. Hehe...

Well I'll have many pics to post on my recap of this visit home. Stay tuned!

Sometimes I just have these nights where I won't go to sleep. Not that I'm not tired, but I just don't go to bed. I'll watch shows in the DVR that I've already watched. I'll play the same game (or 3) for hours. I'll multitask on the internet instead of being productive, like reading my books or cleaning up the apartment. Am I being too lazy to move my butt off the couch, to brush my teeth, and change for bed? I think that may be part of it...

So here I am on the couch...

Our couch isn't even that comfortable and yet I've sat here for most of the evening. And I believe that the only reason I'm actually venting this to you now is that I have some couch remorse and that I'm tired enough to ramble without thinking.

So yeah...good night...

P.S.

1) I got my new phone, myTouch: I liiike

2) I got yelled at by a jack@ss surfer: I don't like

3) The new fall season of SYTYCD started: mama like

Just singing

As I feel more and more settled here in my new home, I feel a stronger tug at my heart♥ to get outside of myself and occasionally even my marriage to seek God's purpose for me here. I felt a strong purpose in Seattle for working with youth, dancing with The Good Foot, and just growing in relationship with God and the people he put in my life to walk through it all with me.

Now that I'm far from those people and even those somewhat of a routine, it is a challenge to step out on my own. Of course my husband is a big part of anything I walk out, but in the end my walk with God and what He is calling me personally to is what I'm accountable for, and that is what I want to focus on again.

Sunday morning: wake up, pick up honey from work, visit The Original Pancake House for some (average) banana pancakes, then head to church down the street. We entered to the band and small congregation singing worship songs as usual, but I felt I should sit a pray before singing. I felt that tug even more to seek God's will for me in this city, and surrender my expectations. I stood up to sing and just felt inspired. The next song that came on spoke to me about the same thing in the chorus:

We must go, live to feed the hungry

Standing by the broken, we must go

Stepping forward, keep us from just singing

Move us into action, we must go

Fill us up and send us out

Fill us up and send us out

I was like, "Got it: go, action, don't just sing, do it." My eyes welled up thinking of those who are broken, and hungry - not just for food, but for purpose and love. Another song asks God to break our hearts for what breaks his, and praise Him because my heart♥ does ache.

Shame on me for just singing all this time...

The last weekend in August

My hubby had a surprise for me last Saturday and Sunday; he was gonna take me somewhere he'd gone before, but knew it would be a new experience for me.

All I knew was that we were headed towards the North Shore. I was super excited until I realized that there was no SD card in my camera! Nooooooooo! So we stopped in Hale'iwa town to pick up our 2GB of memory to capture the days events.

[Pic, top: famous Hale'iwa sign / Pic, below: cop on an ATV on thefamous Hale'iwa bridge]

Hale'iwa was busy as ever with tourists. And the roads seemed a little backed up, but we attributed it to tourism and slowly made our way to our goal destination...Waimea Valley.

This is where you can walk through about a kilometer of preserved Hawaiian native plants. There are rare birds, and at the end of the hike you get to see Waimea Falls. Here are some of the pics we took along the way...

We didn't swim because the falls was low, and the water seemed a little stale murkier than he remembered, so maybe next time. It was a nice hike; flat, not too long both-ways, not too crowded. We didn't get to see the endangered bird that lives there, the 'alae 'ua (Hawaiian moorhen), but we saw that pekake (peacock) and chickens of course, and a few others. The highlight of course was waiting for hubby to walk all the way back to the falls to find the car keys - oh boy.

On our way back, we stopped in Hale'iwa again for some dinner at Cholo's Mexican Restaurant. It was either that or the Thai food truck, which I'll have to wait for. I was craving some goooood Mexican food for sure. The were out of tamales, so I got fish tacos (ahi). It can be hit or miss with fish tacos, but they were loaded, very yummy. Plus, they had a few hot sauces I had never tried. Some burned, some didn't, but it was all good. We checked out a little surf museum and several surf shops, then headed to Sunset Beach Park to watch...the sunset. (haha)

We were shocked to see the swells happening - it's still summer! Not sure why, but there were freak swells crackin' and we watched for at least an hour, until the sun was gone. We don't even have a rack on our car to bring the boards, but we wished were good enough to surf there in the first place...someday! That will be one of our goals while living here.

The sunset was gorgeous, but the ending was a bit stifled by some clouds on the horizon, as usual. Still got some great pics and even some with surfer silhouettes - nice.

One last look...

...and then we headed home.

That was Saturday. Here is Sunday; more simple, but still awesome:

Went to our new church, met a couple people that seemed interested in actually seeing us to say hi again some other time (I dunno, just got that vibe). Then we went grocery shopping and got all the goods at Safeway. Had some good eats at home, then took a nap. THEN we got ready to go SURFING. Geared up with board shorts and SPF 85, we grabbed our boards and headed to Waikiki. We were ready to go! But the waves were not. It was completely flat!!

We didn't let the moment go: we bought some extra cheap goggles and paddled out to do some "diving" and look at the reef and fishes just off shore. That was a lot of fun. When the waves aren't coming in so constant, you can see everything down there. Just FYI, we did find Nemo. (wakka wakka)

Some waves started to pick up (about 2-footers), since the tide comes in right after sunset. So as the sun was setting, we joined the dedicated surfers who had been out for hours catching what they could. I caught a lot of those little waves and stood up every time with the pink and orange sky behind me.

To satisfy our newly grown appetites, we grabbed some dinner at the burger joint my boss also owns, called Teddy's Bigger Burgers in Waikiki. Heard it was really good, even back in Washington, but we put them to the test ourselves and boy did they passed. Really really good burgers; we'll be back for sure! Of all the burgers we've had here so far, Teddy's has been the best by far.

We decided to walk around the block since my honey at a double 9-oz patty burger - yeah, yikes. We stopped at a part of the beach where Indiana Jones was playing at an outdoor theater screen. So awesome! Wasn't a fan of the movie, but it was cool to sit in the sand under the stars and moon with all those people, just watchin' a movie. Then we rented one on our own, and it was all a perfect end to a perfect day.

Corny, I know. And much longer than I thought it would be! It was like two full days of being on a date with my husband; we don't get a lot of those opportunities, but now we'll be looking for them.