Friday, June 25, 2010

Home, Sweet Sweet Home!

This is our neighborhood...



and we live in this house...



and we can walk to this...


and enjoy many of these...


Visitors Welcome!



Thursday, June 3, 2010

Where does the time go?


I can't believe that we have been here for a month already! Over a month! We have less than 3 months left... and my heart hurts to even think of leaving here. I love it here.... I love hearing
the birds in the morning, smelling the flowers on the breeze mingling with the scent of the sea, the beauty all around! Being here has made my heart sing!


Last week we had some amazing adventures. For our date, we went to the Dole Plantation with
our friends, Liv and Ryan. We raced each other through the maze... they beat us by like 20
minutes (but if you ask them, they would say 30 mintues... but we have the time stamps to
verify). After a delicious cup of Pineapple Whip, Steve and I went on a tour aboard the
Pineapple Express. It's amazing to hear fun little facts about the pinapple industry. Like...
pineapple is not native to Hawaii. It is believed that a ship carrying pineapple from South America crashed on Hawaii and that's how it got here!




Saturday, we were able to get into PPC for a good deal. (When you are out knocking doors, you tend to make a lot of friends with connections.) So we drove up to the North Shore and enjoyed an evening of culture. After the show, we went down with Amber and Brady, our other friends, and started taking pictures with the cast. Then, one of the directors grabbed a mic and started talking to the cast about some special guests from Utah. I look over and saw Sherri Dew! I couldn't believe it! I was so giddy! Steve finally convinced me to go up and get my picture with
her. So I did!

On Sunday we went to our ward, got a seat and heard a very familiar voice two rows behind us. Sure enough, we turn around and there was Lloyd Newell sitting there with his whole family. We couldn't believe it! Now Steve was the giddy one!

The following Tuesday we both had rough days at work so we did a night on the town and tried Sushi again. Steve is a big fan, but me... not so much. But Steve has a wife that loves him so very much that we went to Genke Sushi. I tried a deep fried spicy roll and I loved it! I have
determined that as long as it's warm or hot... then I don't mind it.

Wednesday we got up and went snorkeling with Team Canada (the sales guys that transferred here from Canada) and had a blast! We went just off Electric Beach. Apparently, the power plant heats up a bunch of water to spin the turbines and then they pump the warm water back out to sea. We were out there swimming around where the water comes out. I loved it because it was so warm! The guys had fun swimming down and then being pushed out by the water being pumped out. I tried but it killed my ears. Maybe by the end of the summer I'll have that mastered!


On Friday, the boss was in town and he treated the company to a do. We all went up to the
North Shore and we played at Waimae Bay. Small world that it is, one of our co-workers flew his girlfriend out for a couple of weeks... This girlfriend turns out to be my friend Tarah that I worked with a few years back! Such a small world!

Guys played a bunch of rounds of 500 on the sand and in the water and then we all got together and played Ultimate Frisbee. It was so much fun running around with everyone in the sand! Once we all were tired and sore from playing that we went cliff jumping. There's a pretty famous rock there that kinda just sits on the beach that is a very popular jumping spot. Steve and I were supposed to jump at the same time... but Steve's legs didn't jump when he told them to. I came up out of the water to see Steve go in!

The highlight of our week was Friday evening... Todd took us all skydiving! And I tell you, it was A-MAY-ZING!!!! We were one of the later groups so we were getting pretty excited as we watched all of our friends and co-workers come in and tell us how awesome it was. Our turn was up and Steve's instructor came and harness him up. The other two guys got harnessed up. And we waited. Soon, we hear, "Alright. Let's go!" I'm standing there, no harness, no instructor, and no shoes (I had just sent up my shoes with a girl that forgot hers... She was on her way down). Just then, this guy runs in, passes us all, runs in the back room, and comes out dressed in a jump suit, wearing a helmet. He goes over to the list and with a very heavy accent, calls my
name. Needless to say, I started having my doubts at that point. I harnessed up and we ran over to the plane and boarded.


Steve had a blast with his instructor! They all were joking around. The two guys we were with were joking with their instructors. Soon we reach, 10,000 ft and open the door. My instructor and I inched toward the door, I tell Steve that I love him and we were off. IT was overcast at the moment so we were speedily approaching the clouds. But the time I finally adjusted to the fact that I'm falling 120 mph towards the clouds AND the ground beneath them, it was pretty enjoyable! We past through the clouds (it's cold in the clouds by the way), we got on the others side and pull the cord. I tell you, that harness hurts! But I'm grateful that it's there! The view was incredible! The sun was near setting and it was cutting through the clouds over the ocean. you could see the coral in the ocean and we even caught the end of a polo match. It was just so beautiful! I looked around for Steve and saw a parachute corkscrewing. I knew that it was Steve. My instructor and I floated around for a while and came in last! Of course Steve was there with a big ol' hug and kiss for me. (Steve later told me that when I jumped out of the plane, his thought was "Now I have to jump to get that girl back!")

Steve has had a few rough weeks this past month, but this week provided a turn and he was able to squeeze in a couple sales. He feels that he has his mojo back and he's pretty stoked for this next week. I have been so proud of him and how hard he has worked.

Stay tuned for this weeks adventures! Love you all!


PS. I got to drive a Mustang Convertible on Saturday! (with Amber and Liv)