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Vancouver 2010

It's not every day that the best athletes in the world compete just a half-day's drive from your house!  When an opportunity like that comes along, you take advantage of it.  So, on Tuesday, 16Feb10, we drove up to Vancouver and experienced the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

I bought the tickets for Tuesday's adventure way back in August 2009, and even then Vancouver was already in Phase III of their ticket sales which meant that there was not much left to choose from.  In fact, all that was left were tickets for the opening ceremony, closing ceremony, a couple of medal awarding ceremonies, and Finland vs. China in women's hockey!  The hockey game was 1/4 the cost of the opening and closing ceremonies, and who really wants to go to the Olympics just to watch medals handed out without seeing the actual events!?  So, we took the hockey tickets.  However, I had no choice in what seats I wanted or where they would be located in the stadium - you just took what they gave you.  In this way we eeked our way into the games without any clue of what we were getting ourselves into.  We were in it solely for the experiences.

As much as it would have been nice to spend a couple days up in Vancouver rather than rushing, we didn't want to spend a lot of money nor did we have time to be gone for multiple days.  So, we decided on the crazy idea of doing it all in a single day (and night).  Finding someone to watch the kids for the entire day and most of the night was a little problematic, but eventually Kathy was able to find someone to watch the boys in the morning (thanks, Karissa!) and then hand them off to the Cousers (thanks, Cousers!) for the afternoon/evening/night.  I think the transition happened around 3:00pm...shortly after we crossed the US/Canadian border and our cellphones quadrupled in usage costs!  Needless to say, we put our phones away and let them worry about exchanging the children.

We left the house around 8:45am and made it to the border around 2:00pm and then to the King George Skytrain terminal in Surrey, BC about half an hour later.  BC was allowing everyone with Olympic tickets to travel their public transportation system for free, which was really nice since pretty much the entire city was closed to private vehicles during the games.  Their public transportation was excellent - and that's coming from someone living in Portland!  Their trains were fast, clean, quiet, and very frequent (I think they were running twice as many trains and buses during the games than normal).  We parked at the King George terminal and took the Skytrain all the way to downtown Vancouver's waterfront area.  It is here that the Olympic torch, the Olympic Village, the giant Olympic superstore, the Olympic fan zone ("LiveCity"), the Olympic hockey stadium (BC Place), and the stadium where the opening/closing ceremonies took place are all located.  Since we had about 4 hours before our event started, we took to the streets and took in all the sights.

Vancouver BC is a beautiful city in its own right.  And the locals are extremely friendly!  We can't count the number of people we had conversations with - on the trains, in the bathrooms, on the streets, in the coffee shops, etc.  They were so nice we began to get suspicious that their government had paid all the citizens to be nice for those 2 weeks!  Also, half the residents of the city had volunteered to be "Smurfs" or people to whom visitors could ask questions or get help with directions.  They weren't paid, they didn't receive tickets to Olympic events, and they didn't even get their lodging or travel expenses paid for during those 2 weeks - all they got for volunteering was a baby blue Vancouver 2010 coat to wear while on the streets (thus "Smurfs").  We liked the idea - who better to ask for directions or help than the locals!

We were expecting when we went up there that the city and the Olympic experience would be cool and the the hockey game would be take-it-or-leave-it.  What we ended up getting was exactly the opposite.  First, as fun as it was being a part of the atmosphere, there were crowds and lines EVERYWHERE.  Everything we wanted to do/see just happened to be what 1000s of other people wanted to do/see.  We were part of the herd no matter what we did or where we went.  It put a damper on things.  Second, things were not as big, beautiful, or manicured as one might expect or see on TV.  Yes there were signs, murals, flags, posters, etc. all over the city, but in the end...it was still a regular working city!  Directly across the street from the Olympic Torch was a construction site, complete with sweaty guys in tank-tops and yellow hard hats, re-bar, and deafening jackhammers.  The Skytrain on the way down to the waterfront passed through the ghettos, industrial areas, and shipyards.  Oh, and did I mention the infamous chain-link fence surrounding the Olympic Torch!?  I'm not saying this as a knock to Vancouver or the Olympics, just to reveal that things are not always as pristine as they appear on TV, which we came to learn.  The Olympics were plopped into the middle of a perfectly regular working city and most things continued on around it.

After a couple hours of sight-seeings we got back on the train and road out to the sight of our event, which was not in downtown but in Western Vancouver on the campus of the University of British Columbia.  In fact, the game (and many other Olympic events) was at UBC Thunderbird Stadium which is the school's stadium.  Since we had not yet bought our Olympic souvenirs for ourselves and everyone else, we stopped by the Olympic store in the stadium before the game started (our cash register-er was a fellow Oregonian who was just working up there for those 2 weeks!).  Then we showed our tickets to a Smurf and she led us down to our seats...down...down...down...all the way to the second row!  Like I said, this was purely luck of the draw, but we were 2 rows from the ice!  I could see the goalie's earrings through her mask, hear the grunts, and see the grimaces on the players' faces during the game!  Incredible!  There were quite a few Chinese fans and only slightly less Fins (Finish?  Finlanders?  Finnies?) all decked out in face-paint, hats, flags, etc.  However, the overwhelming majority of the stadium was filled with hauli people like us who were probably there for the same reason we were - those were the only tickets they could get!  Anyhow, to make a long story short, the game ended up really being a blast.  We really got into it!

When the game was over (about 9:15pm), we joined the ever-present herd and boarded the train and rode it for about 45 minutes down to King George terminal where our car was still parked.  We crossed the border into the US shortly before 11:00pm and raced along an empty middle-of-the-night I-5 back home.  We pulled into our driveway at almost exactly 4:00am - meaning we went from our seats in UBC Stadium to our driveway in under 7 hours (not bad for attending the Olympics)!  At home, the boys were sound asleep in their room and the Cousers were sound asleep (we assumed) in the guest room.  At some point in the morning the Cousers let themselves out and eventually the boys woke us up later in the morning.

Yes, it was a hectic day, and yes, it cost us a little bit of money, but like I said in the beginning, it really turned out to be an opportunity we just couldn't pass up.  It was a wonderful experience and made for a great story and great memories.  Pictures of our adventure can be found in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics photo album.

The Things We Missed

Wow!  Has it really been almost a month since our last post!?  Where has time gone?  Oh yes, I remember:

Way back in May when we were planning our giant summer trip across the country, Kathy and I jokingly said after looking at our schedule that we weren't going to get a break until Christmas standown.  Seven months later that turned out to be correct!  When I finished my Spring semester last May I took a summer class, then we were on the road for a month, then when we returned I had a couple more weeks of a second summer class I had started during our trip, and then the Fall semester started.  So these past 4 weeks during the holidays was the first real break we have taken in close to a year!  Perhaps needless to say, we tried our best to (finally!) do nothing for a while - and it was wonderful.

Koa is starting to become old enough to understand all things Christmas, which has made the season fun.  Anticipation for Christmas morning; eggnog; Christmas lights (Portland International Raceway & Peacock Lane); Christmas music; Rudolph, Frosty, and Santa movies (and of course Veggie Tale's Christmas movies!) are now standard fair.  But more importantly, he's now old enough that we can have somewhat legitimate conversations with him about Jesus, being thankful, and blessing others who have a need.  Along those lines we went as a family under bridges downtown and handed out food and coffee to homeless people, and when we could, we gave people standing at the street corners new socks or hand-warmers or ponchos from our car at red lights.  In fact, Koa gets upset now when we pass someone without giving them something or asking their name (hard to stop in an intersection when the light is green!).  Speaking of blessings, it was amazing to see how many gifts we had under the tree this Christmas.  Thanks to everyone for your letters, gifts, and cards - we are very touched by your thoughtfulness and generosity.  And we'll be sure to pass those blessings on to others whenever we can.

Since we didn't get any snow during the break and we were itching to get away for a while, we packed up the family and went on a two day trip between Christmas and New Year's Eve to Bend, OR.  It was about a 3.5 hour drive which should have been less if it wasn't for the snowy roads going through the Cascades and over Mt. Hood.  It was then that we discovered our snow-chains were back home in the garage!  Oops!  Needless to say, we were thankful for our 4-wheel drive and never ended up needing anything more (though we were sliding around quite a bit).  It snowed pretty hard while we were in Bend so our first day there we tried doing whatever sight-seeing we could, whatever walking around the little downtown area that we could, and whatever eating we could!  We ate at "Bend's Best Lunch" which was a Thai place and then got some coffee (Eggnog Chai for me!) at "Bend's Best Coffee House" which served Stumptown coffee.  Then in the evening it was on to the highlight of the trip for Koa - the hotel swimming pool!  This was the first time ever that he wanted to go in the (very cold) water all by himself and we were happy to let him.  Brrrr.  With his floaties on, he would swim from one end to the other, climb out on the ladder and go around to do it again.  We had to teach Caspian about the dangers of running by the pool.  Somehow that seemed a little amusing that we had to keep talking to our little 13 month old about running by the pool.  He also was very fascinated by the hot tub and would walk/run over to it and make the sign for "bath" and then walk/run back to the pool and just look at it like, "I don't have a sign for that."

Our second day in Bend we set out to do what we went there for - play in the snow!  There are a couple sledding hills along the way to the top of Mt. Bachelor (Bend sits at the base of this mountain) which we heard were very good, so after brunch at a great local restaurant we bought ourselves a couple of cheap plastic sleds and a $3 day pass and off we went!  Getting up to our sledding spot was tricky without snow-chains, but eventually we made it to Wanoga Snow Park and began suiting up.  Since we didn't have any snow clothes of our own, all four of us were either decked out in boots, coats, and pants we borrowed from friends or found a couple days before at a thrift store!  Koa had never worn so many clothes at one time in his life and so he acted like he was being eaten alive.  In fact, he and Kathy had to sit in the car for a couple minutes and watch Caspian and I sled by ourselves while he calmed down and realized that not playing was worse than being bundled up.  Once he finally escaped the car and began playing, he was fine.  Caspian looked like Ralphie's little brother Randy who couldn't put his arms down - he could have been going on a deep sea expedition or to the moon and worn a smaller suit!  To make a long story short, we all had a blast and ended up sledding for much longer than Kathy and I anticipated.  Each time down the hill, Koa would get braver and start from a little higher up.  By the end he was going down the hill by himself!

We took a different route on our way home from Bend, this time to the south through Sisters and then Salem, which should have been about an hour longer than the way we took getting to Bend.  However, this route through the Cascades was apparently less popular because the roads were much slicker and less plowed.  Our drive was long, slow, and tedious until we finally made it to Salem and I-5.  We got home late from our great little trip, ate some dinner and put the boys to bed.  You can see pictures of our Christmas break in the Christmas 2009 photo album.

So now we come to today - my first day back to school for the Spring semester.  This semester I'm taking "Romans" (the next Greek class in which we translate, diagram, and exegete the book in Greek), "Advanced Church Growth," "Christian Theology II", an independent study with one of my professors called "Intercultural Ministry Project", and "Pastoral Internship II."  12 credits which is full-time, but still 4 credits less than a standard load!  I think this is going to be a really interesting semester.

KeikiTweets

23:17 Caspian has a new game. He catches the ball and then runs until I tackle him. Oh, I guess that's football. Whatever it is, it's adorable!

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KeikiTweets

15:45 What are the chances that you will actually have two children in the same family who LoVE cauliflower?

16:04 What R the chances the 2 most stubborn people under age 4 are in the same family? The same that the 2 most stubborn over age 4 would marry?

16:10 Caspian now says, outside, all pau, up, bye-bye and octopus (but the C, T and P are always rearranged and never the same way twice.)

16:12 Caspian now throws and catches a ball! Yay!

KeikiTweets automatically posted via LoudTwitter

Thanksgiving with Family and Other Updates

I am so grateful to have my Internet connection back thanks to my father-in-law!  But I shouldn't get ahead of myself...there is much to report before that happened!  When we left The People hanging we were planning to have our two week check up and Caspian's circumcision on the same day.  Well, at the check up we discovered that our little chunk is even chunkier!  He had already gained a whole pound from his birth weight (so more than a pound since he had lost a little) and was up to 9 lbs. 9 ozs.  What can I say, he's a good eater!

Then we had the circumcision appointment.  All I can say about that is that we were totally unprepared!  When Koa had his done, the doctor wheeled him out of our room and when I went to try to find them I couldn't.  When they brought him back he was asleep and he slept for several hours afterward.  It didn't seem like a very big deal for him.We had the procedure explained to us back then, and then again on the day Caspian was having it done and we thought we understood what was going to happen.  We didn't!  If we had, I don't know that we would have had it done!  My advice to those who are going to have it done no matter what is that you just live in ignorance and send your boy with a doctor you trust and DON'T WATCH!!  From what I now understand (after talking to a few people since that day) it depends a lot on the doctor.  Maybe Dr. Ed is not the guy for this job...

On Wednesday of that week, my parents came to visit.  They drove up from Colorado and stayed with us until Friday.  It was really nice to have them here and Koa had a ball playing with them the whole time they were here.  When they came they brought with them a cooler full of meat (beef, elk and deer) and had intended to bring a freezer that had been in my grandma's house.  The freezer thing didn't work out, so they bought one when they got here and we put it out in the garage.  Now we have plenty of meat to last us for a while.  I am so excited to have a freezer full of good quality meat!  It's a small freezer, but there is still plenty of room for us to be able to buy some good quality chickens from the co-op we have recently joined! 

My dad also bought a pole saw to help trim our cherry tree (he was needing to get one for himself anyway, so it worked out for him to get it here and take it back with him) in hopes that it will produce a little better this next summer.  Unfortunately the tree is just so big that he wasn't able to do as much as he would have liked to do.  Koa was quite enthralled with that whole process and came up with his own pole saw (stick) which he calls his "rank".

Dad brought his knife sharpening stone with him and sharpened all of my knives for me which was wonderful!  The stone I have is of poor quality, so it takes forever to sharpen on it and in addition to that, I am just not as good at it as he is, so it would take me a long time anyway.  Now I have wonderfully sharp knives!

Koa had a great time playing with Papa and Grandma and they were such a big help while they were here, (I think it is the only time I have actually been caught up on my household chores since Caspian was born!) but they only got to be here for a couple of days!  They had planned to drive from here to Illinois to be with my sister, Becky, and her family for Thanksgiving and Tyler's promotion ceremony for the Air Force.  Unfortunately, the day they were leaving I ended up getting mastitis, an infection in the breast.  I thought it was just a plugged milk duct, so I could not figure out why I felt so very bad, but I was a complete disaster.  It was a good thing my parents were still here because I think the kids would have been neglected if they hadn't been!  They left a little after noon and I laid down to take a nap, but couldn't sleep.  I finally figured out that afternoon that I had a 103 degree fever and that explained why my whole body felt so very bad! 

I was supposed to pick up our first order from our co-op that day and almost missed the drop off completely, but was rescued by a concerted effort of Wes and Jessi and my new friend, Michele.  I was very thankful for that!

Due to the fever and the fact that I also ended up with diarrhea before it was all said and done, I woke up to feed Caspian in the night (Sunday morning) and had no milk to feed him.  I don't know if there is any worse feeling in the world than knowing you have a very hungry baby and nothing to feed him.  So, that night I spent a great deal of time praying and in the kitchen making myself some Mother's Milk tea with coconut oil in it (for the calories and to kick my metabolism into gear) and eating anything I could find to eat quickly.  Fortunately Caspian eventually went to sleep and didn't wake up for three hours and when he did I had PLENTY of milk to feed him!  

We all got up and dragged ourselves to church wondering along the way if we really should, but hating to miss a chance to meet with our church family!  By Sunday night Zak and I both were totally wiped out with a cold!  So we drank some ginger tea, took our colloidal silver and went to bed early.  We woke up feeling much much better!  Monday afternoon Zak's parents flew in from Virginia and the next party started! 

We spent the next week being spoiled and entertained by Stimple and Tutu!  What a blessing it is to be close enough to actually have family visit for the holidays!  And what a blessing to have a father-in-law who is a computer guru!  Thanks, Fred! 

Tuesday morning I got up with Zak and started making breakfast for all of us.  As I was cutting up an apple to put in some oatmeal I learned an important lesson in using sharp knives when you are just barely awake!  I nearly lopped off the end of my wedding ring finger!  I gave Zak a start as he was getting out of the shower and I was rushing in the bathroom to clean it.  He helped me bandage it up enough to stop the bleeding and I went back to making breakfast.  When I had time a little later I got out the super glue and glued my finger back together.  Zak thought this was ludicrous.  I think his exact question was, "You won't even drink water out of plastic bottles, but you put caustic chemicals on an open wound?"  He has a good point, but I figured I didn't have the time or budget to go sit in the emergency room and I certainly was not going to take a newborn baby to an emergency room with me, so I figured this was the next best thing!  (Update:  My finger actually looks pretty good and is almost completely healed with the exception of some numbness and I figure that will get better with time!)

Thursday was Thanksgiving and we had a full day of cooking and eating!  We got up early to start cooking and then went to breakfast with Stimple and Tutu and then out to Dignity Village to visit and provide meals for the residents.  Several members of our church family live out there and it was nice to spend some time with them for the holiday.  Stimple and Tutu got a tour of the village and seemed to enjoy their visit, as well.

After we left there we came back to the house and Tutu and I finished assembling/cooking the dishes we were providing (cranberry salad, candied yams, apple pie and green salad) for our Thanksgiving meal with the Clarks.  We headed over there and enjoyed a lovely evening with more of our church family until I was passed out on the couch and everyone else was stumped by 80's Trivial Pursuit.   

On Friday we were treated to a day at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry by Stimple and Tutu and were all totally over-stimulated by all the activities that go on there!  It is a really neat and educational place.  Koa hated to leave when the time came.  While we were in one section all about health and wellness I needed to feed Caspian, so I found a bench to sit on and proceeded to feed him.  As I was sitting there, I realized I was sitting right in the middle of the "Conception to Infancy" display and the signage next to me was explaining how healthy breastfeeding is for a baby.  One guy looked at me and then turned to his wife and said, "You're gonna' love this display.  It's very life-like!"  

When we finished at OMSI we had planned to go to Nightstrike again.  We really wanted Zak's parents to be able to experience this awesome ministry.  However, when we got to the church, no one was there.  They had taken the night off.  We never even thought to check the website to make sure they were serving that night.  That was especially a bummer because we had planned our whole day around it.  We were thinking about going out to the coast, but decided to stay closer to home so we could go to Nightstrike.  We will have to save that for next time, I guess.

Friday we got to take Stimple and Tutu to Mt. Hood.  We started out the journey just driving up the Columbia River Gorge and visiting Multnomah Falls.  Then we drove up and had dinner at the Timberline lodge.  It was a really nice afternoon.  It stayed clear just long enough to have a beautiful view of the peak when we got there and then the clouds rolled in.  It was incredibly cold when we arrived, but warmed up a touch with the cloud cover.  Koa and I ventured outside for a spell and he got to have his very first snowball fight first with me and then with another two year old.  The other little boy, Charlie, wasn't wearing any gloves, though, and wasn't terribly interested in making snowballs.  However, he was more than happy to react dramatically when Koa struck him with a snowball.  So, it was a great symbiotic relationship as Koa got to practice his new-found skill and the little boy just stood there and screamed.  Ironically, Charlie's family spent several years living on Kaua'i and just moved here a couple of years ago.  So, his dad was giving me tips on how to survive the winters here without becoming depressed.

On Sunday we got to introduce Zak's parents to our church family at Agape.  That was kind of like finally getting to introduce two friends that you've had for a while but they have never met.  I think it was a good experience for all involved and we look forward to many more meetings!

We spent the rest of Sunday visiting Portland, the city.  We perused Saturday Market and Powell's Bookstore and visited Pioneer Courthouse Square.  It was a nice visit since Zak and I haven't even had a chance to do that since we've been here.  We go downtown for church every Sunday, but we always have to hurry back home for Zak to work on school.  It was nice to get to show him around a bit, as well.  We got to have dinner together again at what we have affectionately named Pink Thai upon Tutu's request. 

That night we said good bye to Stimple and Tutu (or Fred and Regina--do they even have real first names any more?) since they were flying out the next morning.  The kids were wiped out that night and we had major melt-downs from each of them.  That's how you know you've really milked the vacation!  It was sad to see them go, but hopefully the visits will be closer together now that we are at least all on the mainland!

We all slept in on Monday...

Holy Moly (Part 4)

This has been an especially exciting (and humbling) last couple days filled with all sorts of big news items.  First of all, on August 29th we sold our house in Hawaii!

Aloha Halekohana.

We've been in escrow for the past month, which is always an anxious couple weeks, but we made it all the way through and closed on Friday, the 29th.  It was a bit of a pain constantly being emailed paperwork to sign, printing it out, signing it, scanning it, then emailing it back, but that's what we get for doing it long distance I guess!  A couple things to praise God for: Zak read somewhere that the average length of time a house is on the market in Hawaii is 163.7 days (about 5.5 months).  Ours was on the market for around 60 days (and 30 of that was in escrow!).  We sold it at full asking price ($295,000) which is pretty amazing in today's buyer's market.  We sold it at literally the perfect time - if we closed less than a month earlier we would have been charged a $3000 pre-payment penalty, and if we closed 2 weeks later our ARM would have adjusted and increased our mortgage by $400 a month (from $1550 to $1950)!  Finally, we actually made money on the house (a whopping $580)!  This is significant because we were only trying to break even considering how far home prices have fallen nationally.  The fact that we bought a house 3 years ago when prices were crazy high and sold it last week after values have plummeted but still came out in the black is a miracle!  Right up until the last minute we thought we were going to have to write a $1000 check to make up the difference in escrow.  Praise God that we don't have to make those mortgage payments anymore.  This is just one of many examples of the signs we've seen over the past month or two that God wants us to be here in the Northwest.

The next big news is that Zak has finally started seminary.  He had orientation on August 22nd where he registered for his classes, bought his textbooks, got his ID and intranet access, and took a pre-seminary Bible exam to be compared to another exam he takes 3 years from now to see how much he learned while at Multnomah.  Last Tuesday (August 26th) was his first day of classes.  Zak is taking 5 classes (totaling 16 credit hours) this semester.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays he has "Genesis through Song of Solomon" and "Acts & the Pauline Epistles."  On Wednesdays and Fridays he has "Christian Theology 1," "Principles of Spiritual Formation," and "Principles of Inductive Bible Study."  Yikes!  He didn't do much in class the first week other than introductions and going over all the syllabi, but he says after seeing all his assignments he's going to be very busy for the next couple months (and probably years).  Fortunately all of his professors stressed the importance not of getting straight A's, but of growing spiritually and deepening relationships with God and each other.  To that end, we've already been to a professor's house 3 times and to 5 different student functions - just in the first 2 weeks!  We find it comforting to know that grades are Multnomah's #2 priority after our spiritual well-being.

Still on the topic of Multnomah Biblical Seminary, on Thursday (September 4th) Zak became his graduate class' Student Body President!  What a shock that was to all of us!  During orientation a sign-up sheet was posted where students could volunteer for any of the 10 positions on this year's Student Body Cabinet.  Zak eventually signed up to be considered for the position of Married Students Representative since no one else had volunteered for it after a couple days.  Imagine his (and then my) surprise when a couple days later one of his professors came up to him before class and asked that he consider and pray about being this year's President, even though others had actually signed up for it!  So we took some time, prayed about it, talked it over with some people, tried to figure out why God would bring this opportunity along, and in the end decided that any chance to grow through serving others is a good one (it certainly won't hurt his resume and Commissioning Application either!).  So, all day last Saturday (September 6th) he and the rest of the cabinet went on a retreat (that Zak had to put together) to build relationships and to create goals, a mission statement, and a verse for the class.  One of Zak's "relationship building exercises" was the game Lap Stack.  I guess there's no better way to get to know a stranger than by sitting on his/her lap for a while!  Zak's secondary duties as President will be to facilitate weekly cabinet meetings, meet weekly with the Dean of Students (the same professor who asked him to be on the cabinet), ensure the rest of the cabinet members are doing their jobs, and represent his class when all the class Presidents from the college and seminary get together to organize Multnomah University activities.  However, Zak's primary responsibility will be to serve and care for the other members of the cabinet as they serve and care for the class.  It's another Small Group ministry!  Our minds are boggled by how every little experience seems to prepare us for the next step in God's plan!  Who would have thought it!

But the story of God's provision in our lives these past couple months doesn't end there!  Three days ago during our Sunday morning worship services Zak (and family) were brought to the front and blessed as the new Recovery Groups Minister for the Agape Church of Christ.  Yep, Agape hired Zak to be a part-time minister while we're here attending MBS!  He will be responsible for (get this!) overseeing all of Agape's forthcoming Recovery Groups.  Isn't it amazing how God prepares us with past experiences for future ministry!?  Our church is going to launch groups which provide safe places for people to support each other as they experience problems with different kinds of abuse, addiction, depression, and infidelity.  From now until January leaders will be trained to facilitate each of the different kinds of Recovery Groups, and then next year the ministry will launch.  Please thank God for giving Zak a job with a church family that we love, and ask Him to bless our future endeavors in Agape's Recovery Groups Ministry.

Busy Week of Fun

Last week was so busy I didn't get to blog about it, but we had lots of fun.  Last weekend started with a congregational farewell party.  We have so many people leaving from the Pearl Harbor Ohana this year that it is going to be quite a transitional time for us.  Some of you may may be interested to know that Phil and Sandy (Preacher and wife) are leaving this Fall.  Our congregation has already formed a preacher search committee to find their replacement, so pray for them.  Before the Terrys exit the country for England most of the rest of the church will also be leaving!  Likely they'll be replaced by new faces as the Summer always brings a great influx of new military families.

Tracie Hendershot is moving on to Vancouver, WA, right across the river from Portland, along with some of our good friends, the Cousers who are also headed for Portland.  So, if we do end up going there, we will be in great company!  At the farewell party the person announcing where everyone was moving to thought we were all joking that so many of us were moving away to the same place together!  We are still waiting on the news of when we'll get to Portland, but hopefully it'll be this year instead of next.

Sunday evening we decided on a somewhat impromptu camping trip.  We talked (Uncle) Wes and (Auntie) Jessi into joining us on our adventure and headed for Bellows.  We decided it was not going to be a frugal camping trip because we were not really prepared to pack all the food and necessities for cooking on our impromptu trip.  Besides, there are several places in Kailua that we have never had a chance in which to dine because it is just too far to drive (and we are obviously too local based on that last statement!).  So, we invited our anti-camping friends (Brad and Rebecca) to join us for dinner after we had set up the camp-site and went for a nice dinner at Formaggio.  Then we headed back to the campsite and sat on the beach in the moonlight, visiting and enjoying the sound of the surf!  Aaaahhh some of the things we will miss....

I have to just make a note here that local folks really know how to camp here!!  It was absolutely incredible to see the set-up that most of these families had for a holiday weekend.  Some had their own portable toilets (like full-on out-houses!) and showers.  One family had a HUGE screen set up and were watching Hawaiian music videos!  It's a good thing Hawaiian music is basically soothing or that would have been terribly annoying!  I decided that most of these people use more electricity when they go camping (via generators) than if they had stayed home for the weekend!  The camp ground was filled to over-flowing!  I guess no one cares about permits on a holiday weekend because there were tents set up well beyond the boundaries!

In the morning we woke up and headed back into Kailua for breakfast at Boots and Kimo's for some wonderful banana pancakes with this incredible mac nut sauce!  If you know me and breakfast, you probably know that I am pretty critical of pancakes since I think I make some pretty fine ones myself and rarely ever think you can get anything close to homemade in a restaurant, but these were fantastic!  The omelets were good, too, but nothing to rave about. 

After some fun at the beach, some lunch, a nap in our tents, and some tennis, we headed back into town for some Maui Tacos (Yum!), Starbucks and ice cream.  We finally headed home about 8 PM.  We milked that holiday!  Since we have been trying to live on a more limited budget and only take out a certain amount of cash to spend each week on all food and incidentals we really had to scrimp and save this week after eating out for almost every meal on the weekend.  We actually did very well and were still able to have friends over for dinner at least two nights, I think!  I was pretty pleased by that! 

The rest of the week was equally busy.  We have some friends who are having some marital problems right now and are also in the middle of a forced move (Navy renovations) so we spent some time visiting with them for encouragement and also helping them move.  Between Zak and I, we've visited with them and helped pack/move stuff on 3 different days this week.

Zak also started a SCUBA diving class to get certified as an Open Water Diver through PADI.  His best friend (Brad) just completed his Divemaster certification which enables him to teach the SCUBA certification course, so he's teaching Zak one-on-one.  Needless to say, Zak's getting through the material much faster than he would in a regular class (today Brad and Zak were at the pool for about 4 hours knocking out a couple days worth of instruction!) and he also got a fantastic deal on price!  They're hoping he'll be done and certified by next weekend (now they need to make some dives in the ocean).  The only real bummer is that I can't do it with him since I'm pregnant.  I will have to be satisfied with snorkeling a bit longer!  Zak has really wanted to get certified for a very long time and it's definitely a little over-due since we may be leaving Hawaii very soon, so we're glad he gets to do it now and hopefully be able to do a little diving before we leave!

I have lots of fun little Koa tid-bits, but I will have to make that a separate post since this one is a marathon post!  

Name That Tune!

Remember that game show back in the day?  Well, we have a game for you.  Click on the picture to see if you can guess what the sound is.  A surprise will be awarded to the person with the first right answer!

Well, He's Two...

...in attitude and all.  It was almost like someone had told Koa that when he became two all of his answers should be "no" and he should be fussy and stubborn about every possible thing.  I was a bit concerned at first, but then I realized he was about on schedule for his routine of "checking to make sure all the rules still apply".  This usually happens about every six weeks and as long as we stick to our guns and don't give any slack we pass through it without too much stress.  This time it lasted several days, but we made it through and now our (mostly) sweet boy is back for another six weeks or so. 

You will find pictures in the brand new 2 year old photo album of Koa going ice skating for the very first time.  I was a bit concerned when we left Stroller Strides and started towards the skating rink that day since Koa had been in his mood for a day or two already (i.e. yelling "no" at anyone who told him happy birthday!)  I just wasn't sure it was going to be much of a success.  I even called Zak to see if he had any reason to opt out.  He said, "We've already planned it, let's just do it."  So we trudged on...  When we got to the Ice Palace I got Koa's skates and started putting them on and he was very excited to get to wear "boots" (he was considerably less affectionate about his long pants, however), so I thought that was a good sign.  When he was all laced up I set him down on the floor (and my toe while I was still wearing slippers!  OUCH!) and he immediately started to scream.  He was not interested in that unbalanced feeling!  He didn't want anything to do with standing up, but he also was not interested in sitting down.  At this point I was pretty certain the day was a wash!

When Zak got there he took Koa for a minute while I got my skates on and took a twirl (HA!) on the ice to get my bearings.  Oh, my goodness!  Ice skating is so much harder than I remember it being!  At this point I had very bad mental images of me falling on top of my poor, unhappy, two year old son on his birthday!  There was no way this was going to be a successful day.  I should probably have hung up the skates right there and then.  But, no, I took Koa from Zak and headed for the ice.  I set him down immediately inside the rink and his feet started flailing and I was doing everything I could to maintain my balance and all I hear is....giggling?  I couldn't believe my ears!  Koa thought it was so funny to be completely off balance apparently.  So we spent the next hour or so being just that--off-balance!  It took me a while to figure out just how to help Koa along so that it wasn't killing my back, but once we got it figured out we had a ton of fun!  We didn't even have any uncontrolled falls.  The only times we both ended up down on the ice was by choice.  Zak ended up playing photographer this time, but I'm pretty sure we will be doing this again some day soon and then the tables will turn!  Koa has been asking for "states" every since that day.  We will have videos sometime soon.  You will have to bug Zak about that.

We finished that part of the day off with lunch which was pizza with Daddy and Uncle Brad and then I ran Koa ragged at Costco and took him home and put him to bed.  After his nap we played for a while and then opened presents from Stimple and Tutu and had dinner.  After dinner we took him to Baskin Robbins and let him get his very own scoop of chocolate ice cream which he insisted on eating with the tester spoon instead of the real spoon.  You will have to imagine the mess--we didn't take the camera!  It was pretty late already so I'm sure we looked like terrible parents taking our two year old to get ice cream at 9 PM.  Oh well!

We had intended to do a dinner with friends or something as a low-key party for him, but this week has just been so crazy with other activities that we just could not seem to fit it in the schedule.  I think he had a pretty good day anyway.   

Mele Kalikimaka!

Merry Christmas!  We hope you all had as fun a day as we did!  And what a day it was!  Can you believe that Koa actually slept in on Christmas?  Of all the days...  He is usually like clock-work and wakes up at 7:00 AM sharp (especially if it is a day we could possibly sleep in), but Tuesday he didn't wake up until after 8:00.  We would normally be happy to let him sleep in but we were having a whole group of people over for brunch at 10:00, so we had to open presents pretty quickly after he finally woke up.

We got up and opened some presents and cleaned up that mess just in time to start another one.  We had about 12 or so people here for brunch, so I made batter for pumpkin waffles and blueberry waffles and we set up a DIY waffle station.  I also made cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs, bacon and spiced cider.  Other people brought sausage, fruit and drink.  It was quite a spread and we were very full by the time we were pau.  We all sat around and chatted for a while and then busted out Cranium for a rousing game!  It wouldn't be a party without food and Cranium!

Everyone left around 3:00 and we did some minor clean up and then busted out the toys.  I guess this is just the way it goes when you have a child, but I'm pretty sure we had the most fun watching Koa open and play with his toys.  He was actually pretty uninterested in the whole Christmas/Santa/presents thing in general.  This entire week (or however long we've had gifts under the tree) he has not cared about them one bit.  He hasn't really even been all that enthralled with the tree.  Once he realized that he was not allowed to throw the "balls" on the tree he lost interest pretty quickly.  However, after we started opening gifts he got pretty excited about a couple of his presents.  The vast majority of his presents were books, and we had to stave off reading each one as we opened them.  He also got quite a few Signing Time DVDs, a couple Singing Bible Scripture CDs, some mini John Deere tractors and the best for last, a little laptop.  One of the funniest things that day was when I asked him if he wanted to take his lap top to the potty with him (his dream come true!  He made up his own sign for laptop a couple of weeks ago and has been asking to use a laptop when he is doing his business).  He actually ran to the bathroom pulling his pants down along the way!