MAUI, part 1 of 2 {or maybe 3}

aloha friends!

i learned in maui that the meaning for "aloha" is "to share the sacred breath."   at one time the hawaiians would greet each other by standing forehead to forehead, sharing their breath.

wretched morning breath aside, i think this is an intimate and lovely display of hospitality.  it causes me to think of man's beginning, when God breathed life into adam's lungs~ that breath all mankind now shares.  how would our relationships differ if we greeted each other recognizing the Sacred Breath we share {only after you've run a toothbrush over your pearly whites, of course}?  just a thought.

maui was mauivelous! 
what a dream this was for michael and i, to be able to enjoy 9 days, sans kids, on a beautiful hawaiian island.
i am grateful for my little side job, in which every {spare} penny earned for a year went into an envelope designated for maui.  after almost 15 yrs of michael "bringing home the bacon" it was a treat for me to be able to give him an extravagant gift {he deserved it}.
we are also grateful to michael's parents, who gifted us with their timeshare in maui {mahalo, dennis & cindy}!

alright! enough chitchat, wanna see some pix?!?

 view from our room in kahana

kayak/snorkeling expedition at makena beach, 

where we saw giant sea turtles, tropical fish, touched an octupus, AND

where i was BRUTALLY ATTACKED... by our kayak.

{i had an awesome bruised lip for the remainder of the trip}. 
 i think you should know i am not adventurous. 
i dislike water-play {especially the ocean},  
i'm terrified of sharks {i blame steven spielberg}, and i DO NOT like to get my hair wet...
but what i dislike more is not living an adventure.
i had to talk myself into every adventure we took on this trip. i'm glad i did. 

shopping, eating, a movie, 
and taking in the sites in downtown lahaina.

yes, that is a REAL PARROT on the man's bike. 

the banyan tree in lahaina. 

this is one tree with 12 major trunks! 

amazing.

God's creativity has no bounds.

snorkeling at kaanapali beach

snorkeling at honolua bay 
{actually michael snorkeled, i found a cozy seat and read The Help. so good}

hawaiian/polynesian luau...

where yes i did go on stage an learn to hula!

i've wanted to learn to hula at a luau since 1970-something when
i watched the brady bunch  family learn to hula at a luau in hawaii!

we met the sweetest "just maui'd" fellow blogger and her new husband at the luau too!

pop over to her blog, say hi, and tell her denise sent you!

A hui hou! {until we meet again}

summer fun~ the supersentimentalsappy edition.

we are crossing things off our Summer Fun list,

and adding more fun to it

one FUN week at a time.

we've been in the valley visiting family and old friends.

our first top was a visit with my good friend jeff, his darling family,  

and
his car~

ginger!

the kids got their first convertible car ride in ginger. 

{jealous.  you might recall i have a bit of an old car obsession}

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next we visited and stayed with my sister, "toni bologna full of macaroni" 

{she lovvvvveeesss it when i call her that}.

the kids enjoyed playing with their younger cousins.

 {how DARLING are these pix i snapped of their family!}

we took our pvc pipes from home for some sprinkler fun at their casa.

my nephews were wowed by the sprinklers, especially when i brought out the shaving cream!

during our stay we to got to see the movie Cars with my nephews.

i get a kick out of watching the excitment of 

little people at the theater! 

getting to experience this with my nephews was a rare treat. 

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we mountain folks can only take so much of the valley and it's 104 temps.

so the kids and i escaped for a day and and took a little excursion to Pinecrest Lake 

{where it was 82 degrees. much better}.

there we tackled a 4.5 mile hike around the lake
followed by a bit of paddle-boating. 

as noah, emilie, josie, and i were leisurely paddeling around the lake 

noah looked at me and sweetly said , "this has been a good day."

i thought so too... a very good day. 

how i adore my kids and cherish all the memories we make together!

{is emilie tall or what !?! my premie is definitely not a premie anymore!}

 

as we headed back to the valley we made a pit-stop
 at JimTown Frosty for some ice cream!

my mom use to do this with my sister and i when we were young.

we HAD to stop.

it's tradition.

***********************************************************

during our valley visit i had the JOY! JOY! JOY! 

of visiting with my bf from jr. high, julie 

{or "j" as i refer to her}

 {"j" and i. our kids- our girls are now the same age we were when we met. crazy}

julie has lived on the other side of the world in virgina for 15yrs {blah}
{the other side of the world is a meany for stealing her}. 

if i'm lucky i get to see julie once a year {double blah}. 

this year i was lucky!

julie knows i am supersentimentalsappy.

so she wasn't at all surprised when i  drove through our old stomping grounds 

while blasting tunes from 1986.
"i wanna be a cowboy and you can be my cowgirl... 
yippee yippee yi, yippee yi yo yo."
{we are from the "cowboy capitol of the world" so this song is totally appropriate}

here we are at the old Oakdale Jr. High School
we met in 1986 in Mrs. Rowland's Music/Drama class. 

in 86' julie totally rocked the skater look
{her bangs were longer  post pictures}
while i attempted  to 

soar into jr. high popularity with my feathers

{obviously i failed}.
 

next we headed over to good ol' Oakdale High School.

 {we were attempting to get jumping pictures, but gravity wouldn't let us}

oh, the memories!

"there's fungus among us,"  homecomings, drama with mr. oksen, dance with ms. usher, 

crushes on boys, spiral perms, guess jeans, keds, tanning lotions that turned us orange,

sweet 16's, her pink vw bug, my red 65' ford falcon, 

Michael Damian Concert {Rock On}

catering on the weekends, Hume Lake,

 Gilmans, ice blocking, prom, graduation class of 91'...

it's hard to believe that was 20YEARS ago!!!

we still look 18 &
17, don't we?!?

 

i'd like to thank~

oil of olay, for helping me keep the "olay" in my "lower upper 30's,"

my hairdresser who hides my "crown of splendor,"

 my sunglasses which cover a multitude of sins wrinkles, 

and picnik's {where i edit my photos for blogville} 

airbrush, wrinkle remover, and insta-slim options

{your welcome, now you know all my little secrets}.

here's a flash back to 1989

with

Michael Damian's Rock On video

randomality

random + reality= randomality
caution: this post is a lot of random 
from my reality.
here i go...

we took emilie and noah to youth group this week for the first time.  youth group...for JR.HIGHERS!!!  michael and i deserve some sort of emmy for playing the part of grown-ups and taking our babies {who are officially 7th & 8th graders} to youth group!   we totally rocked our roles! we were calm, cool, collected...on the outside anyway.  on the inside we were all 

when did this happen!?!

and 

we're way too young to have jr. highers!

and

"AHHHHH!!!!'

and  

we were   i was thinking of cher's lyrics  
"if i could turn back time, if i could find a way." 

but the kids had no idea we were wigging out...i think.  we picked them up 3 hours later and  emilie was all, "that was awesome" and noah was like "it was coolawesious" {a combo of cool, awesome, and righteous. noah creates words.. i wonder where he gets it from}. so youth group was like totally tubular and we're like totally gonna take them back like next week like for sure {just getting in touch with my inner jr. higher from 1987}.

while the big kids {gasp} were doing their teenagery stuff we took josie to a farmer's market.  i thoroughly enjoy people watching, food smelling, and yogurtland {conveniently located near the farmer's market} eating. watching a man paint with is hands and feet was surprisingly moving and beautiful.  the farmer's market will most definitely be seeing us again.

my kids have been enjoying the Summer Fun list we created, that is when they're not watching something on netflix streamed through the wii {to the person who created netflix streamed through wii, THANK YOU!}  i guess i should have added the Dick Van Dyke Show  to our Summer Fun list.

a few summers ago i would have been all 'i'm a horrible mother for letting my kids watch t.v. and not be fully productive,' now i'm totally over feeling like a bad mother for letting my kids watch t.v.  i have too many other things to make me feel like a bad mother, Dick Van Dyke isn't one of them.

speaking of being a bad mother, guess whose kids have never had a slurpee or an iceee???  uh huh, mine.  yeah, i'm a total failure. however,  i like to make up for my failures in BIG ways.  i'm currently planning a 7/11 day on 7/11/11.  i know, i'm like totally coolerrific {cool+terrific}!  as of now the plans are to set the alarm for 7:11, go to a 7/11 and get slurpees, and do things in 7's, but what and when and how and where i do not know! i welcome  really need your suggestions.

i've mentioned a couple of times that michael and i are going to maui this summer.  i started working a little job from home a little over a year ago and decided right away that i wanted to spend every bit of the $ to take michael on a trip for our 15th anniversary.  he has worked two jobs for nearly our entire married life so that i could be a sahm.  he is awesome...actually he is "coolawesious."  i'm thrilled that i have the opportunity to give him a "honeymooniversary {honeymoon=anniversary}." 

so the verdict on my wiww post is in, and it is official NO ONE is a fan of the blue dress. i'm okay with that and am grateful for everyone's opinion.  let me say that i hate dresses.  i have tried on at least 40 dresses in hopes to find something fantabulous to wear in maui.  i see dresses that would have looked great on my pre-baby body... you know when things use to be where,well, they use to be.  i have had some altercations with a few dresses {no i don't mean alterations, it's altercations}.  they ticked me off so i punched them.  yes, the dresses. i punched them hard.  really.  they looked at me with that "you'll never look good in me" look so i hauled off and hit'em!!  apparently i have a mean streak and become violent towards clothing when i can't find something that fits me right. who knew?

after i cooled off i returned to another fancy department store to try on strapless bras {note- there is Godiva chocolate on the sales counter between the lingerie and swimsuit department... a woman thought of that for sure. i'm just say'n} i hate strapless bras more than dresses... needless to say i was escorted out of that department store by the security guard my husband.

mu husband hates my attitude after i've tried on 40 lame dresses and stupid strapless bras {he should have bought me some of that Godiva chocolate if he wanted my attitude to improve. i'm just say'n, again}.

thankfully my girls don't have anger management issues when it comes to clothing.  in fact they are quiet the opposite. they turned their room into a "dress-up room" today.

aren't they adorablative {adorable+ creative}!

when i grow up i am going to be just like my girls {i hope}.

maybe i should wear a hoe-down dress in maui?

after church on sunday we had a few errands to run, then grabbed lunch at IN-N-OUT.  while we were there vans and buses loaded with teenagers swarmed the place!  being the shy gal that i am i quickly approached the teens to find out where they were headed...HUME LAKE!  {i was rescued at Hume Lake 23 yrs ago}  IN-N-OUT burgers and HUME LAKE makes me ALL KINDS OF HAPPY! {note to self eat at IN-N-OUT and encounter Hume Lake bound campers when dress and bra shopping}.  my husband and kids weren't at all surprised when i walked up to the Hume Lake bound folks and shared my birth-story.

{hymn}   

"i love to tell the story, 

'twill be my theme in glory, 

to tell the old, old story, 

of jesus and his love."  

 

 do you love to tell the story? 

so that about sums up my randomality, for this week anyway.

what randomness is happening in your life?
please tell me so i can live vicariously through you!  

proactive

a couple of years ago i read the following words on a favorite blog, 

and i have never. forgotten. them.

"if i'm not proactive

i'm reactive

and that can be very unattractive." 

can i just get a resounding "amen!' on that one. 

i've memorized these words and recited them to myself in countless situations...

and ESPECIALLY

when it comes to motherhood.

something that always brings out my reactive and unattractive self is 

the  summer "i'm boreds"

i have spent too many summers with the "i'm boreds"

lingering around here, pestering me. 

frankly, i have little tolerance for them, 

and zero tolerance for the me that surfaces at their arrival. 

creating the summer fun list was me being PROACTIVE! 

and it has 100%

90% helped alleviate 

the "i'm boreds."

YEAH!!!!!

my kids have commented a number of times that they are having a "fun summer!!"

this makes me SO. HAPPY! 

let's be honest the saying 

"when mama's happy everybody's  happy." 

 goes both ways...

because

"when everybody's {i.e. the kids} happy, mama's happy!" 

here's a bit of what's been checked off our list thus far

Camp-In

2 nights of tents in the living room, s'more popcorn, and movies. 

{2 days of mrs. o.c.d. practicing "letting go" while living with a camp-site in the house}

PVC Pipe Sprinklers

 less than $20 for pvc pipe and attachment pieces 

providing HOURS of creating and recreating 

sprinkler mazes!!
this was $ well spent.

Croquet

1000 piece puzzle with Root Beer Floats at it's completion

{they finished the puzzle in 2 days... 2 days of peace and quiet for me}.

Photography Lessons

Sewing

How are you proactive, so your not reactive, and then very unattractive?

"Nachooooooooo"

thank you to gina, from not so random stuff

for inspiring us to add a Nacho Libre night

to our Summer Fun list!

on the menu: nachos & corn-on-the-cob, of course!

 

Nacho Libre quotes:

"it is true. i am Nacho. maybe you have seen me on tv. NACHOOOOOOOOOO!"

"underneath the robe you find a man. underneath the man you find his nucleus."

"you are crassssy."

 "they don't think i know a buttload of crap about the gospel, but i do. ok?" 

"i know it is fun to wrestle. a nice pile-drive to the face; or a punch to the face; 

but you cannot do it because it is in the Bible not to wrestle your neighbor."

"I don't want to get paid to lose. I wanna whin!"

 

what better item can one wear to a "nacho libre night" then a red cape with a big "N" on it! 

 nacho: "hug hug kiss kiss hug hug big kiss little hug kiss kiss little kiss."

this movie is rated PG. it is NOT suitable for all children.

{thank you to chad & sarah markley for introducing us to Nacho}.