It's May; one week down

Not sure what to blab about tonight. Just home, my honey is at work, still hate these nights. I am doing ok, just watching tv and going on Facebook. Currently watching Hustle & Flow - sad movie mang. Even if he ended up on the radio, you can't fully rise up while maintaining a 'hood mentality. That's just the truth.

We celebrated my boo's birthday on Thursday (and Friday). We ate lunch buffet at Makino Chaya and dinner at The Yardhouse. We napped, and he got to surf a little. I got him a watch and his favorite cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory. We extended our celebration by visiting his family last night, and watching a late showing of Iron Man 2. I generally really dislike seeing movies on opening day because I don't like crowds or waiting (lol) but occasionally I'll do it for my honey. It was kinda worth it, and not as bad as it could've been as far as crowds. Good sequel, not necessarily better than the first, like people have said. Not sure how I feel about Cheadle in the mix, but at least he's not racist. *cough*terrencehoward*cough*

As for American Idol, the last two eliminations have been long overdue. No one on the show has a "bad" voice, but Siobhan and Aaron are not artists in the way the winner of the show should be. Aaron is young; he's got skills and time to develop them. Siobhan can blow but she also would need time to diversify and develop. I'm still routing for Crystal and Lee the most. Casey is ok, but not quite star material. Mike will undoubtedly do something after the show...maybe an album...hopefully broadway.

Gotta get ready for bed soon so I'm rested for church. Last Sunday was awesome. We had missed two weeks in a row, and that never feels good. The message was great - about reading the Bible as a worship, not just discipline. Then the time with the kids was forced inside by rainy weather. We played a game inside and got to break into small groups, which is my favorite time. The other girl and I just kept all the girls in one group, rather than two, which I also like. The subject of demonic oppression via night terrors or even while just trying to sleep came up. Very interesting to see who has experienced it and who hasn't. There's fear in those who haven't experienced it, and almost an unhealthy ignorance about it from those who have. I hope it's something we can continue to dialogue about to educate each other and just make sure it's not dealt with alone for anyone.

Tomorrow is Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas! You are blessed and a blessing!

Still looking for my Turtle...

Feeling reflective

Just watched my DVR recording of Oprah's interview with Jay Leno, regarding the whole Conan O'Brien/Tonight Show thing. I have always been a bigger fan of Conan, and was really looking down at Jay Leno for what this whole thing appeared to be. After hearing his side on Oprah, I'd still choose Conan, but have a new appreciation for Leno's side too. I don't agree with all his choices, but the big picture moment for me is that NBC owns The Tonight Show, not Leno. He's a business man, and show business is not about feelings. Corporate strikes again; they call the shots, the people below them take the hits. Sucks for both of them, but I'll be watching Conan wherever he ends up - hopefully Fox.

Tonight we had a catamaran ride on the Ali'i Kai as a youth group activity with our church kids. Sadly, my honey couldn't go because of work. We tried to get him with us, but at the last minute they called him in for sure. The good thing about it was that I had to be outside of my comfort zone since he wasn't there by my side. I would rarely volunteer such a position, but I worked with it as best as I knew how. I'm just thankful I didn't get sea-sick. I have an average tolerance for the motion of the ocean, but you never know. The food was good though, and towards the end, there was much dancing. It was organized as part of the program for all the guests, so less pressure for everyone to just go with it and shake their booties. Really fun, and really cool to see most of the kids get down too. Plus, our team (Bus #2) won the chant/team spirit contest...because we're awesome.

What I love about working with youth is that moment where you realize that your presence does matter to them. Not that you should do it to feel good about yourself, but for me, I know often doubt that I'm making a difference or an impact. Those sparks of realization that they do know you care and they do value the time spent fuels me for the next times we meet. It doesn't have to be a deep connection, because seeds are small, but they can grow once they're planted.

**Happy New Year**

It's 2010! And obviously, the end of 2009 smacked me in the back of my head because I haven't made an entry since 11/16/09...yikes. So much has happened, but a here's a bullet-point update for now:

End of November

-Surfing small waves on south shores, prepared with snorkel gear in between sets.

-Watching big waves on North Shore (beaches closed at Waimea).

-Had Thanksgiving dinner with my boss and her family. I was so thankful she invited us and that J didn't end up having to work.

Pre-Christmas December:

-Billabong Girls' Surf Camp, Maui...that's a loaded one that I'll save for another time for a full explanation. Long story short, had a good time staying at The Ritz, meeting awesome women who surf, made some friends, surfed the most beautiful spot so far Honolua Bay.

-Returned from my trip to a house full of guests: 2 friends, 1 sister-in-law.

-Multiple santa hat surf sessions. :)

Christmas!

-Weird to be away from family during this holiday; I'm not a fan. But we had a good Christmas and God reminded me of just how important I am to Him through the little things.

-Spent Christmas Eve with J's family and Christmas day just the two of us after opening presents via webcam with my parents.

-A santa surf session until the sun went down, of course.

New apartment :(

-We just moved right before the end of December, because we were hoping to save a little and get a place that let's us bring our 5 surfboards inside. Too bad we got a place that turns out to have quite a bit of roaches. Currently we are trying to get out of our lease (after 3 days).

New Year's Eve

-J worked, so I went to Nanang's on my own until my friend came by to hang. (Funny story is that we graduated same high school same year, and ran into each other here about a month ago - small world.) Kalihi is bananas on New Years and it was awesome!

TODAY

-Went to church and I needed it! I'm feeling very discouraged because of our living situation. I woke up very negative. The youth pastor preached since our regular pastor was out sick and it was a timely message for both J and I - God just knows! :) Then had a good time with the youth, very refreshing as usual. I ask anyone who got to the end of this entry to join me in praying for another place to live and that our landlord will give us minimal hassle to get out of the lease we just signed. There is already a potential location that would be extremely ideal, but we're waiting to hear back if it's even available for rent.

Please, oh please, I hope, I hope...

Connections

So we're being integrated into working with the youth groups at church. I'm excited and a lil nervous for these next steps and putting my heart into this new church community. God is opening doors and hearts and it feels good. It will be a new experience for me and my husband to get involved together as well - good stuff! The youth (jr. high/high school) program is a little unstructured at this time but the leaders are lining up curriculum and activities for the coming year, and I'm blessed to be a part of it.

We're even getting to know a few surfers around town too, just cuz we all surf and always welcome a companion with which to do so. Glad to see familiar faces out in the line up too sometimes. The swells are up even in the south right now since there are mighty winds so we went out yesterday and it was a rough session but always worth it.

I'm trying to get mentally prepared for the surf camp next month. I've sent my booking form and payment in full so there's no turning back now. I just need my plane ticket and to make my packing list and I'll be set. (Except for the part where I'll be missing my hubby a lot.) I feel like I'm at the level I wanted to be at before the surf camp and I just hope I can really take advantage of the time, waves and teaching I'll be getting over in Maui. This should be a once in a lifetime experience.

Speaking of once in a lifetime experiences...I swam with dolphins at Sea Life Park. Not free swimming but hung out in the tank and exchanged kisses with a big ol' dolphin, then they give you a ride across the pool. SO FUN. There was a turtle habitat and a penguin habitat as well - my faves. My boo surprised me with that adventure. He's the best.

Good night world...

Little steps & Bad dreams

I woke up at 4:00am on my day off because I had a bad dream. Bad dreams, of the demonic kind, are not strangers to me. I've had a few that left me terrified to sleep for months at a time. The past few nights I've had bothersome dreams and weird dreams, but tonight was straight up scary. Long story short, my friend was being distant because she was being possessed - yeah, no good. So I woke myself up, and started reading my bible and praying out loud. That is the best way to recover from a nightmare. God does not ignore your request for His presence, and demons tremble at the name of Jesus.

I've been meaning to write about more progress with church and just our lives here in Hawai'i. I received a call about serving in the youth ministries at church since I filled out a card indicating that is my interest. It sounds like there is a need to someone to step in, and it makes me excited but scared at the same time. I know God has me here for a reason, but subconsciously I've been scared to fulfill that purpose. Have you ever been hesitant to take those first steps because you know it's a commitment and it's gonna be big? This is an occasional pattern in my life. Even if it's gonna be great, if it's gonna be big, I may take longer to dive in. And this isn't necessarily discernment, but more often out of fear. I'm growing.

I'll be meeting with the youth pastor next Sunday for more details and to begin getting involved. This week we'll be meeting with the worship leader and maybe his wife to hang and talk story. Hopefully we'll be joining their small group on Wednesdays as well. I'm excited to be moving forward in our walk together and our church; it's a new experience for us to share.

Well, I better try and get some more sleep...

I really should be sleeping

I am scheduled to work at 5:30am, which is only 5.5 hours from now, which actually means I have a chance of getting 4.5 hours of sleep at the most at this point. I can't sleep when my husband isn't here. I hate night shifts! It's getting worse for me, trying to sleep and failing until the wee hours of the morning. Not simply because I miss him, but because of course I'm less secure when he's not sleeping next to me, and I really can't explain what other trouble it causes me. I just can't go to sleep until I'm super tired and I knock out hard. Sucks.

And in these wee hours I think and think and think...

I miss home (Seattle). I miss my cat, my family, my friends. I miss my favorite restaurants. I miss my sweat pants and thick blankets. I miss dancing on Wednesday nights, and rehearsing last minute for fun performances. I miss early Saturday meetings & bible studies that always run later than they're supposed to.

I try to deny these things. I can't. I don't want to be ungrateful for the life I have here. I mean, I live in a place that some people wait their whole lives to spend a week or retire here. There's sun, surf, beaches, ocean, palm trees, entertainment, culture. I will miss it when we go back, but home is home, and home is Seattle.

But while I'm here I should be savoring it and diving in. I got the beach and surf part down. And I'm tasting the best of O'ahu I'm sure. I need accountability to get involved in my church, community and some sort of dance scene.

Oh boy, now let's try and sleep...

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.

First Aloha Blog Post!

Wow, I finally got this going! I'll include many pics here & videos sometimes too. This blog is mostly intended to keep people back home updated with as much as I can post. In no way do I want this to replace personal messages or phone calls or webcam chats or etc. I value my Seattle family and as much as possible, I don't want distance to keep us from growing together.

Where to start...

I arrived Saturday 7/18/09, greeted aloha style with leis by my husband and RJ (his lil cousin). We stayed at his Uncle's that night so I could say hi to family. The next day is when I was first introduced to our new living space in Waikiki - a condo we're renting on the 27th floor of a building overlooking the Ala Wai Canal with views of the ocean [Above 2 pics: view of Waikiki, canal at sunset]. My honey picked a great building, very secure and it even has a parking garage and pool. *Thanks babe! ;)

We're settled now in our condo, which catches so much Hawaiian breeze that we don't need aircon. Various pics of our place are on my FB mobile albums uploads.

I am loving the temp and the beach. Most people know that I have issues retaining body heat, but that's not usually a problem here. I admit to wearing sweatshirts a few times a week, but hey, wutyugonnado?

[ Pic: 1st rainbow I saw since I moved here :)]

We've been attending New Hope O'ahu for the past couple weeks - a very large multi-campus church. The services are great but we're not set on staying yet. Searching and praying for a church that doesn't necessarily have to be smaller but very inviting and where we feel that call and welcome to serve.

We're keeping in touch with family in Seattle and making time for family here when we can. We even can pick fresh mangos from Uncle's tree! [Pic to the right] On 7/20 we celebrated J's Grandma's 81st birthday! [Pic above left] She seriously has more energy than me.

So now I'm looking for a part-time job with a flexible schedule (limited Sunday hrs, off by 5 always). I'm blessed to be able to stand pretty firm in that request since my husband has a good career. Praise 'im! I did get hired at as a barista at an impromptu interview on my BiRtHdAy [Pics below], however, as I spent time orienting for a full shift, this overbearing corporate coffee may clash with my liberal coffee culture lifestyle. This is another prayer point of course. 

 

[Pics: Waikiki fireworks, Fort Mall store, a collections of bday love, dinner at Todai]
 

Overall, adjusting to life here hasn't been too abrupt, except for not having my dearest family and friends and cat directly at my side. I'm trying to send a few postcards out every week so make sure I have your address so I don't skip you! :) I can see that making new friends and connections is going to take time, and a big thank you to those who have been referring me to people they know. I really appreciate that and will take the time to get in touch hopefully starting this coming week (or maybe after I get a job for sure). One other thing I'm lacking is daaaaancing. I'm getting exercise swimming, walking, trying to surf, and little home toning workouts but y'all know I gots t'dance!

Well it's real late now. Say ALOHA to Stitch! He's my homie and will be accompanying me in many pics.

♥AH HUI HOU♥