Another day in the life

Today was the primary program. All the songs are the same as they are all over the world, the kids grin and get nervous for their parts just like they do all over the world but there are a few differences here in Hawaii from the rest of the world.
The kids sat up front from the start of the meeting, including sacrament time. When we first arrived and the kids and I went to sit up front, the primary leaders gave us all a handmade, multi-colored yarn lei -blue, red and yellow. All the kids and teachers were supposed to "be in whites" (a white top and dark pants or long skirts). The contrast of the leis with the white looked very nice and Hawaiian. I was amazed at how good the sunbeams were for the whole time before the program even started.
All, (okay most) of the primary kids had their parts memorized- NOT something that happens in other places anymore- and did so well!
After the meeting the bishop invited the whole primary to his house for lunch right after church. I tried to imagine our previous bishop handling that with over 1/3 of the ward being primary aged kids.
There were about 60 people at his house where all the adults (bishopric, leaders) served all the kids first. It was really nice and the kids loved the attention and to feel appreciated. Justin volunteered us in bishopric meeting to bring fettuccine alfredo. Bishop didn't even know what that was. He does now. hehehe

To totally change the subject, we finally got ourselves a ceiling fan yesterday along with some deck chairs and a BBQ. Definitely all necessities. After watching our electric bill sky rocket and then remain the same despite our other efforts, we decided to try a fan and keep the A/C down more often. We'll see if it helps. Justin is now trying to put up the fan with the help of three little girls.... "daddy can I help?" I'm counting down the minutes until he says "okay, that's it, everybody leave me alone.... go make some cookies or something!"
I think he just asked Haley for a wire connector.....he was surprised that she handed him the right thing... maybe this will work after all.

Family pictures

Saturday we got our family pictures done for the first time ever. Yes, I said the first time EVER! We went to the Moana Lua Gardens and met with a photographer. After she took some of the family, we had the girls put on fairy skirts and wings and she took some pictures of them as fairies. Lilly and Bella's room will be a fairy room and I didn't want just any picture in there, so we'll take one of all the girls and frame it. The photographer got the best picture of Addie..... its worthy of an Anne Geddes.
As soon as she puts them on her website and gives me the password, you can check them out. Let me know if you want to see them.
Addie loved looking at the digital pictures in the camera after the lady had taken some of her, and ALL the girls loved twirling around in their fairy skirts and dancing around on the grass barefoot. It was a fun time whether the pictures turn out or not. Justin might say otherwise- he thought it'd be a ten minute process. LOL
While we were there, the photographer gave me the best compliment ever. She said, 'its really nice to see a ten year old that's not obsessed." I asked her what she meant and she told me that most young girls she works with are obsessed over Hannah Montana or other similar things. She said our girls seemed to not be so worldly. That was a really nice comment that makes all the daily grind seem worthwhile.

New word for the week

V-O-G
Vog= a fog like inversion caused by volcanic dust drifting over from the Big Island.
Yes, a real word.

FHE

Monday night we were invited to the Bishops house for FHE and dinner (because there's always food at functions here). We had the typical spaghetti with the addition of rice on the side (a given out here), and bread. The Bishop and and one of his counselors asked Justin if he wanted some fish with his meal. He said "sure... I'll have some fish!" They served it up just like that...... a fish. Luckily for Justin, it was cooked! We asked what the name of the fish was but like usual, they spoke so quickly and softly its hard to repeat, and especially write what they said it was- but we were told they are hard to catch here. The fish was served with a coconut milk and some bread fruit, neither of which Justin could finish and settled on finishing the fish. Well..... he thought he finished his fish until he looked over at Bishop who was sucking out the eye balls and eating the whole head and everything else besides the bones. We're talking EVERYTHING! There wasn't much on his plate when he was done.
YUM YUM!
For dessert we had s'mores and learned how to roast marshmallows it Bishops way.... start it on fire, wait for it to get black, blow out the fire. Haley seemed to particularly like this method. I tried to teach Bishop the "Rocky Mountain Way" by slowly roasting mine as if it were on a spit, but to no avail- everyone seemed to prefer his method.
YUM!
For dessert number two (yes, I said two) we had cake and ice cream for someones birthday. I'm not sure if it was then or at the pasta with rice part that I remembered what I said just before we moved here. It was something along these lines,
"I'm going to loose weight once we move and stop going to all these family functions with all this good food."
UMMM.... WRONG!
So much for looking like the Beckhams! I'm thinking Kristy Alley and Brudda IZ are more like it.

Our FHE lesson was really good with a fun activity. It was a "great time" as Rachel would say.

A loss in the family, I feel better and LABOR DAY

So, I lost the diamond out of my wedding ring. Sad, huh? I scoured the house top to bottom. I vacuumed one room at a time and then sifted through the dirt. I cleaned out the car- detailed it really.... I swept up the garage, I looked in the lint collector of the dryer and I'm thinking its at the beach somewhere. Maybe someone will find a diamond in their oyster instead of a pearl! The only place I haven't looked is in the sink traps. (whatever the goose neck things under the sink are called). I'm still having a little hope.
For those of you that don't know, I had a bad couple days last week and had to get some time to myself. I dropped the kids off with Megan and went to get my hair done. What does a bad day, a mom out of steam and a beauty salon equal??? You guessed it...... a drastic change!!! I love drastic, don't you? My hair is no longer light like the rest of my family.... it is DARK, DARK, DARK!!! I don't think it was this dark last time. I sat down in the chair and saw a picture by the mirror and told the hair stylist I wanted mine like that. It has some red in it too. I wasn't sure at first if I liked it, but now that its done its initial fading, I've decided I like how it looks. After I left the salon, I decided.... I feel better. That's all I needed, just a break and time to myself.

For Labor Day we went to check out the Pali Lookout. Originally we thought it was a short hike with a good island view, but when we got there we discovered that its really just a parking lot with a 40 foot walk to the lookout itself. The girls were a little disappointed we didn't get to hike at all but the view was amazing and even the drive there was really pretty. The roads were lined with dense foliage (a good word for the day) and trees with hanging vines. It almost reminded me of a drive in the canyon... almost. On our way back, I made Justin pull over so we could swing from the vines. It was too irresistible. The kids had a great time, even Addie kept saying "Addie turn, Addie turn" wanting more and more. If only I had my cheetah outfit Laura gave me.....hmmmm.... Tarzan and Jane.
Later we bought some stuff to play baseball and kickball and went and spent time at the park with friends, then we went home to run in the sprinklers while dinner cooked and ended the night with a movie. I can't remember the name of it, and would really rather not, it was NOT worth the time we spent watching it.
I told Justin that had to be one of my favorite holidays ever. We had a great time and it was relaxing and we did something out of the norm. FUN!

In home school we are finishing a unit about taking care of our bodies inside and out. Justin and I considered taking the girls to the Bodies Revealed exhibit. I want to go bad, but I'm not sure how the girls would handle it. One or two of them would think it was cool, and the others would maybe have bad dreams or think it was gross. The exhibit is only here until October 31. I told Justin we should go for Halloween.... wouldn't that be awesome!!! Creepy!