Another Miracle

We have had so many miracles happen to us while being here. We found a place to live, we found a car, we are making friends and a lot of other small ones. The small ones are just as important to me because it shows me over and over again, that God does love me and my family and wants us to be happy.

Curly has been dying to go to school for the last several months and Ditte  and I were so excited to have Curly and my nephew go to little Scorpie pre-school back in California starting in October. Well that plan changed, obviously since a 5 hour plan ride twice a week was out of the question. Ever since we have been in Hawaii Curly has been asking when she is going to school. And at the beginning of our move it made me sad because I didn't know.

One evening after dropping Haans off at school, I took the girls down to our favorite beach to cool off from the heat of the day. I always try and plant my stuff near another family with little kids so my girls have someone to torment, I mean play, with. We sat next to a family with a little girl and of course our girls started playing and fighting together. Come to find out, we were both LDS. Ellen was in the ward that met after my ward and she new another girl I had met.

Long story short, Ellen invited me to join her home school pre-school group with 3 other moms. My ward had a few groups already doing home school pre-school, but they were all full so I was overjoyed in being invited to theirs. Curly was really excited too!

 This is her first day of pre-school.

Last week for our first field trip we went to the fire station and they got to see a firemen's outfit, shoot some water, climb in the firetruck and try on a helmet. It was short and perfect for our short attention span little kids. 

I was so proud my girls were so brave!

I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who listens to even the small pleas of help. I know he will listen to the big ones, like finding Haans a job. I just need to stay patient and have faith. The other amazing miracle that has come out of this pre-school group is that I have new friends. Something I wanted so badly. We have gotten together for play dates and park days as well and I am so grateful for their friendship. Who knew that a "chance" meeting on the beach would lead to some answered prayers? Well I know He did!

Honolulu Driving and Parking

Driving and parking here is crazy!!!! I said this in one of my earlier posts, but it seems as if the roads were an afterthought. And now the city isn't quite sure how to fix the problem and so they improvise. It does help that most Hawaiians are extremely relaxed and kind drivers. For example, our street is not wide enough to have two lanes of traffic and accommodate street parking. So everyone, I am not sure if its a written or a courtesy rule, parks on one side of the road so that cars can still get down the street.

On the street adjacent to us, the street is barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other with all the parked cars are on one side. So when we go down that street, we, or the other driver, moves in between parked cars so the other car can pass with no problem.

Then there is some main roads where during rush hour, a group of cone experts come and place cones down every morning and afternoon. (http://archives.starbulletin.com/1999/08/24/news/story4.html)  In the afternoon, I think it's around 3:30 and then they're picked up around 6:30. At least near me, they put cones down on one side of the road, to "widen" the other side. So if it is a 6 lane road, 3 lanes on one side and 3 lanes on the other side. Between those hours it becomes 4 and 2. Also during rush hour those same city workers will put cones up so you can't turn left. And for me where I live, I need to turn left to get to the beach. So I have to go way around so I can turn right to go to our favorite beach. Which leads to my next point.

There is a constant lack of left hand turn lanes. Because again the streets are not wide enough for the amount of cars that pass by, so there are many times, no left hand turn lanes. For example, a 4 lane road, 2 lanes for each direction, will not have a left turn lane so the person that has to turn left just turns on his blinker and waits till he can turn left. That sometimes leads to a huge pile up in left lane as this one person is waiting or oncoming traffic to stop so he can turn left. So if you are thinking, fine, I'll just drive in the right lane and avoid the left turn lane problems Well, without warning, the right lane can turn into a parking lane and you have to suddenly get over because between during certain hours, on different streets, people can park on the street, yes even busy streets.

And there are a lot of one way streets. I am so grateful for our smartphone's GPS because it calculates those one way streets, so even if it looks like it is taking me the wrong way, I follow it because it knows better than me. Although I did get my first ticket last week for using my GPS on my phone, because Hawaii is a "hands-free" state. We'll see if I can fight and win it! I hope, I hope, I hope!

Parking here is crazy!! They are tiny parking stalls and a lot of parallel parking (something I defiantly need to improve upon). Every day Haans and I are grateful we got a SMALL SUV. We can not imagine driving around in anything much bigger. Though there are plenty of people driving bigger cars, Haans and I are grateful ours is small.

You generally have to pay a meter if you park on the side of the busy roads, so I have gotten use to carrying quarters around just for parking Also there are a lot of parking structures. Walmart and Sam's Club for example got to together and Walmart is on the 1st floor and Sam's club is on the 2nd floor and their stores are attached to their parking structure, so depending what store you want to go to, you park accordingly. I went to Ross today and it has a parking structure that is shared with an apartment complex, so I had to get my parking voucher stamped so I could prove I was in Ross and not have to pay.

So morale of this blog: there are a lot of unwritten and written driving rules. Haans and I are trying quickly to learn them all. But like I said at the beginning, luckily most Hawaiian drivers are kind and relaxed drivers. If you are trying to get out of a parking lot and onto a busy street, drivers usually let you in. If you have to merge quickly (because all of a sudden your lane turns into street parking), drivers will let you in. If you accidently bump another's car, well "Aloha, it's fine", it just adds to my collection of other dents. (We say this our first week at church. One church member ran into another member's car and they both looked at the dent and said, "OK," and continued on) So naturally there are a bunch of cars with nice dents and scratches on them. And if you are buying a car here, watch out for comments like, "a little cosmetic damage." It just might mean the whole side was side swiped by another car.

But don't let this blog scare you from driving in Honolulu. Just be a weary and a cautious driver while here! And besides after reading this post, you'll know more than you did before. Aloha

THE Mall

We finally ventured over to the Ala Moana Mall on Friday to see what it was about! WOW this is the mall of malls, at least that I have every visited. It is just down from Waikiki beach.For one thing, it is huge, 4 levels, has 290+ shops, several ponds with floating lily pads, a stage for the live Hawaiian dancer performances and the annual Meadow Gold Healthy Baby Contest, and it has a lot of BIG name stores. Someone told us that a lot of Asians will come to Hawaii with empty suitcases just so they can fill them with all the shopping they plan on doing.

We visited the Disney store, of course, and Curly kept asking if it was her birthday yet because she wanted one of everything. Poor girl, I really don't think we will get you the $80 Cinderella wedding dress! They had this miniature castle in there with a magic mirror. When you held a princess scepter up to it, the princess appeared.

On our way to the Disney Store we passed by Gucci, Channel, Dior, and other big name brands. I smiled as I saw an employee in a very nice suit standing at the door of one of these stores. I think his whole job is to look nice and open and close the door. We grabbed the mall's magazine on our way out and I was glancing through it tonight. It was adverstising different purses and boots and outfits at the different stores. Forever 21, Guess, Nieman Marcus, Gymboree, Gucci and others. I came across these treasuries to put on my wish list:

Victoria Equestrian Flat Crocodile Riding Boot

Gucci from Gucci

brown crocodile

Made in Italy

adjustable bridle inspired strap detail

hidden elastic insert on side

back zip

.6" heel

$17,950.00

      Only $18,000 for boots!

Lady Dior Bag, black tweed with necklace  $6,800



Neiman Marcus Piazza Semoione sweater $835


But let's not overlook this beauty.


Bally - Bi color dress with Peplum Waist and Asymmetrical Hem (price upon request)

I couldn't even find the price online, so it must be cheap!!

But back to the mall. It was crowded but fun and we barely got to see the 2nd level before the girls got tired.   It was a fun stop!

Geckos

Before moving to Hawaii, I was warned of all the cockroaches here. I had my fair share of run ins with cockroaches on my mission in Argentina, so I wasn't exactly excited to meet them here in Hawaii.  But amazingly, I didn't see my first one till a few days after we moved in and it wasn't even in my house. It was big, yuck, but at least not it my house. What I do see all over the place are geckos! There are tiny ones, and a bit bigger ones, but I luckily haven't seen any HUGE ones. I couldn't figure out on the internet what kind ours are, but I have since learned that I am extremely grateful for the geckos. They eat the cockroaches!!!!

Can you see this one?

Of course the day I wanted to take their pictures, they were all sleeping! Here is Curly and Lou Who trying to help my hunt for them. They usually are all over our patio, but run when they see us coming.

I did have an experience, two weeks ago, with a gecko that freaked me out. We keep our doors open all day to get the nice ocean cross breeze and a small gecko wandered into the house. I found him crawling behind the oven, I tried to get him out with a broom, but lost him. I didn't see him the rest of the day, so I figured he found his way out. The next morning, I went to clean up a spill from the girls and grabbed the wash rag on the faucet of the sink and out popped the gecko. It FREAKED me out. What was it doing in the wash rag? Sorry buddy, thank you for eating the cockroaches and I would rather have you in my house any day, but don't jump out and scare me!

*update: I have been informed while there are geckos here, the ones the inhabit our yard are lizards. Sorry! Still grateful they eat the cockroaches!

Good thing they are young

I finally finished organizing the girl's room. I'd love to do more with decorating, but at least it is organized and toys and shoes have a home. The rest of my house, may not be so organized, but at least I have 1 room down. Our cottage came with a full-size bed, and when we first moved in, though small for Haans and I (we had just downsized from a California King sized bed), we were extremely grateful. We were able to buy from a friend of a friend a nice queen-sized mattress for us and since we didn't want the full sized bed to go to waste, we decided it would be Curly's new bed and guest bed. My parents are coming in two weeks... super exciting!!! I was a little sad to realize my little baby Curly was going to sleep in a huge bed, but she was very excited. To help her, since she has to give up her bed to guests and sleep on a folded up sleeping bag (oh to have a young back again) we decided to get her fun new sheets. So what is Curly's favorite thing right now? Disney Princesses! She is in heaven with her new sheets. And we talked it up how a "BIG" girl behaves in order to sleep on a big bed with princess sheets. We put a rolled up beach towel on the edge to help buffer any falls, we hope. Lou Who has even been really excited, I think because she sees how excited Curly is.

                                                The new purple be-dazzled toy box/ottoman!

And what does Lou Who get to sleep in? A pack-n-play.   :(   No new sheets, just a blanket! That first night I felt really bad putting Curly to bed in a nice big bed with new sheets and Lou Who in a pack-n-play. It made me hope that Lou Who doesn't think I love her any less. But from the pictures it kind of seems like Curly is the favorite child. Good thing they are both young!! Surely they don't think that new sheets constitute favorite daughter status! We hope that in a few months we can upgrade dear Lou Who to something other than a pack-n-play. But I am not quite ready to give up the confinement of the pack-n-play. Again, good thing they are young. Plus, being young means that cookie dough makes EVERYTHING better, shoot it makes EVERYTHING better for me too!

                                             Sleep tight my little angels!

Tour Guides Part II

We finished up being Aunt Jackie and Justin's amateur tour guides. We had so much fun with them. We had two WILD nights of playing different games. You'll have to ask Justin if "no" spelled backwards is a word. He is going to do well in college, for sure!

Yep, this is the score from our Five Crowns game!

On Monday we decided to tour the island for the whole day. Our first stop was at Hanauma Bay and it is an awesome beach. A little crowded and you have to pay to get in, but good snorkeling.

My girls crack me up. They are so cute and fun.....most of the time. When they are screaming like possessed banshees....not so much!

Sorry dad, no sleeping on my watch!

The girls adore Justin. Good thing he will be on the same island as us. 

 Thank you Terrie for these adorable swim suit covers. They love getting their "Minnies" on!

Then we drove up to the North Side of the island and because it was pretty crowded at all the famous surfing spots we just glanced at them as we drove by, besides the waves were pretty small. I am excited to see the ginormous waves in December. We did stop and wait in a 30 minute line for the famous Motsumoto shaved ice and ice cream. It was a fun treat!

We also saw the Laie temple and a brief look at BYU's campus. We also stopped at the "goat island." If you look at a map, apparently it is in the shape of a goat. Um, sure! You can swim out to it or even walk when the tide is low enough.

 On Wednesday we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. It really is a fun "park" and the evening show is really good. For those who haven't been, you walk around to the different "islands" and they each have about a 20 min show. You can also participate in different activities at each island.

We went to New Zealand first, in honor of Uncle Leslie. of course.

 The Samoan show was hysterical. He talked about how the Samoan men do all the cooking! He had so many jokes. We also got to see another guy climb a coconut tree.

 Waiting for the canoe parade. It was hot, so bring a hat, or two!

 The guys steering the canoes were amazingly talented.

Curly was super excited to ride the canoes.

 Haans and Curly were practicing spear throwing in Tonga.

 Waiting for the Luau to begin.

During the evening show, Curly would periodically cry and when I asked her what was wrong, she told me she wanted to go up there and dance. So at the end of the show she decided to meet one of the dancers. Here she is practicing her Shaka.

 Good job Curly, got it that time!

 And this is how we ended the day! Yep we left the lights on!