Life without Jason

Jason took off this morning to go back to Oahu. In some ways, I hope this week goes better than next week. In other ways, I can only hope it goes as well. Let me explain. On the day Jason left, I was taking out the trash and found the bag has leaked into the can so I had to double bag it and clean out the can. Then as we were playing outside, Anna had an accident that resulted in a bath. At the risk of being too gross, I'll share a funny story. She told me the poop just came out and she tried to push it back in. So considerate.

The next day is when the really fun stuff happened. I had a ton to do such that we were going to go to the store straight from Keiki Steps. As we were leaving the parking lot, I went to roll the window up and the front passenger side wouldn't go up. I had no idea why. Once I got to a place where I could pull over, I listened a little bit and thought it might be a motor problem. Well, I couldn't go to the store like this so I went home. I decided I would just tape plastic over the window, run my errands and talk to Jason about it later. So I got all the stuff and tried to tape the plastic and realized this is a two person job, especially with all the wind. I grabbed all the stuff, drove over to a friend's house and she held while I taped. Then we went on our errands from there with a little person who was tired and not happy about leaving her friends for the boring store.

Thursday morning, I took Jason's dad to work which isn't a big deal but I only had a half hour to get ready before he was ready to go. Fortunately, I had time to stop at Starbucks for hot chocolate and scones before going to Keiki Steps. While we were there I unthinkingly ordered a drink for myself but not one for Anna. Naturally, she was not ok with this so I just looped back around and got her a drink too. The girl working the window thought that was pretty funny. Side note, the cranberry scones at Starbucks are SO good! I'll have to fight the urge to go back for them regularly. Fortunately, the rest of that day went well.

So in those respects, our week without Jason last week was crazy. I had no idea Jason held our lives together so much. On the other hand, through all of this I was blessed to be calm, positive, quick thinking and pretty much just took things in stride. When I had to clean out the trash can, my thought was, "oh well some other things won't be happening today, lets play outside longer". In that respect, I can only hope this week goes as well.

Car update: On Saturday, Jason and his dad took the door apart and discovered the window cable had snapped. So they took the thing out and have ordered the part from the dealer. For now, they have propped the window up with a block of wood but have left the door taken apart. At least we don't have to deal with the loud plastic on the window. Naturally, this week we have to have our car's safety inspection. I hope they don't mind the opened up door.

Barns and Beaches

This is going to be my last post about our trip to California. Because of that, I'll add some stories that don't really match the pictures.

After the weather got nice, we spent a day at a barn and beach. The barn has a bunch of animals that you can feed. Here is Jason and Anna feeding some goats. She thought it was pretty fun.

One day, my mom and I were watching Say Yes to the Dress on TLC and my dad came in. He watched it for all of two minutes before walking out likening the experience to sticking his finger down his throat or poking out his eyes. We were a bit surprised at the visceral response he had to the show.

Then Anna found a friend. They played for a while and had a lot of fun chasing each other around in circles.

Meanwhile, Jason rested on the grass.

From there we went to the beach. The weather was nice but the water was cold. Anna and I ran down and got our feet wet. That was pretty much all we were interested in.

My mom told me about when Jason and I got married. I was 20 and apparently I looked pretty young. So much so that one of the ladies helping me get ready in the temple asked my mom how old I was. When she told her, the lady said I looked about 12.

Just before we left, my sister Hilary had a birthday party for her son. They went with a Hawaiian theme and it was fun listening to the Hawaiian music. It made me ready to come back to the island.

Funky Tree Friday - Easter edition

For Easter, I found a tree that perfectly captures the meaning of the holiday: death and new life.
This tree is up in Volcano National Park along one of the trails there. It's a tree that had somehow been knocked over. I guess the roots were still firmly in the ground though because the branches then became new trees.
And not just any trees. Here is a view of looking up along the branches. As you can see, they are full on, big trees. So it's kind of a funky set of trees but at the same time can give us hope about the good that can come of bad events.

Dancing....WithTheStars!

This week, we had American week. So all of the dances were to patriotic songs and there was a whole lot of red, white and blue. Ironically, there were several sambas which was a but funny as it's a Brazilian dance but it worked. I like the theme weeks. They kind of fit all of the dances together so they're more like parts of a cohesive whole. Plus, they tend to reign in some of the excessive sexiness. More often then not, the rumbas this season have been more sweet than sultry. It's nice to be able to watch a rumba without feeling like I'm peeking in a bedroom window.

Here are some of the dances that jumped out at me:

Romeo and Chelsea: He was so cute in his little tux. Between that and the music, I kept thinking of Fred Astaire. Watching him dance just makes me smile.

Hines and Kym: I like Hines and think it's funny that his cheering section has those yellow towel thingys. Costume wise, I think dress whites are sharp but Kym's fringe ensemble seemed a bit (or a lot) much. His rumba was sweet and I was really impressed by his hips.

Kirstie and Maks: John Travolta cracks me up and their dance cracked me up. Seriously, an American flag on his side with leather pants? Hilarious. Personality wise, they could be my favorite couple.

Chelsea and Mark: Samba pants crack me up, they look so fun to wear. Chelsea really knows how to move her body. I've often wondered about the celebrities who can't wiggle their hips (the women anyway). That's pretty much how I dance. They (Chelsea and Mark that is) look like they have a lot of fun with their dances and it's great to watch.

I haven't seen the results yet so let me just say, I think I'm done with Kendra and Petra. Either of them could go and I would be ok with that.

Woo Hoo?

Jason got a job. (Yeah!) It's in Honolulu. (Fun!) It's only part time. (Bummer) It should become full time soon. (Shwewsh) We have no idea when. (Annoying) When it does, we will be moving there. (Exciting and Sad) In the meantime, Jason is commuting so he will fly up there for three days then fly back. (Boo!)

As you can see, we are experiencing a whole range of emotions.

A Day at the Park

One day in CA when it had stopped raining we all went to the park.

This park was put in a few years ago and I'm always amazed at how fun it is. It was definitely not here when I was in school.

Anna didn't really like the merry go round when it got going. I'm kind of surprised there is one since they are usually considered not safe. A friend told us of a time when he was little and got stuck under the old merry go round at this park (it was much bigger). Apparently they aren't safe.

Wanting to go down together.

Never mind. It looks a lot steeper from up here. She never would go down that slide. She's discovering fear which I guess is a good thing but can be a bit annoying.

The monkey bars are ok though.

Jason trying to keep himself off the ground.

Facing off.

It was great to get out of the house and play.

Trip to California

About a week ago we got back from a trip to California. We went because my little brother got sealed in the Oakland temple (woo hoo!) and ended up staying for three weeks. We had a lot of fun and were sad, and slightly surprised that it went by so fast, when it was time to go home.

Here's a rundown of what we did:

The sealing. Here they are leaving the temple. Talk about a couple of fun people. To read more about it, check out my sister's blog.

Froze to death in the rain. Story: as we were driving up to Oakland, it was raining really hard and the car we were borrowing needed new windshield wipers. We stopped to buy new ones but did not know how to take the old ones off, it didn't have a little release lever like ours does. By the time we figured out that you just push it off, our fingers were so numb we could only get it off with the help of a screwdriver.

Played at the park and visited the beach. Posts to come because we actually remembered our camera for these ones.

Jason and Dave put recessed lighting into Hilary and Dave's kitchen. Hilary and I chatted. It looks awesome but we didn't seem to take any pictures. I'll put a link to Hilary's blog when she posts about it.

We helped Jason's sister pack up for her move to Texas. It was a late night but we were able to get her off and she got there safely. We were bummed that we couldn't spend more time with her but on the plus side, she gave me her Kohl's cash and I bought a bunch of new jewelry.

I got my hair cut. I was able to get it from Kristen's neighbor (who is awesome) through a silent auction to raise money for girls' camp. That day I had Kristen and Hilary take my picture since it will never look that cute again.

Anna getting ready to race in Grandma's apron as a dress.

Anna had a ball playing with her cousins and other grandparents. It took a couple of days for Anna to really warm up to my parents and grandpa but by the time we left, they were her good friends. She even got to be good friends with Grandpa's nurse Crystal.