Heavenly Father's Plan

Last night, Huston and I were babysitting our favorite kiddo's Jack(2) and Taylor(5) and now new to thier family is Chloe(1 month). Baby was fussy and kids wanted to walk to the temple, which is just what we did after we finished dinner. When we got to the temple two sisters took us through an exihibit in the visitor's center we had never seen before. It was called God's Plan.  The exhibit takes you through different stages of this families life as you watch a video and I was fightin back the tears almost the whole time.

The video begins by telling us why god created families. It states simply yet powerfully that he created them to help us feel like we belong. That statement hit home. I am apart of my family because I BELONG there. My parents, my brothers, and my sister and my husband are MY family members who give me a sense of belonging. I had never thought about that before. It made me miss my family...it is that time of year i seem to get extra homesick, but i did realize something...without my family I would be lost in this destructive earth. Without my kind and loving parents, without my siblings examples, and without my own family unit (my husband) I would be lost. They make me feel like I belong on this earth. I am truly grateful for that, and for the creation of family units. The big man upstairs sure knows what he is doing, and as I saw my husband trying to calm a squiggly baby, and two kids in my own arms, and as the sister missionaries asked these kiddos what they liked most about the video's... I saw a glimpse into our future, and felt comforted in knowing someday (my least favorite word) we will be parents, despite how crazy this earth life may get while they are here, and despite how big of a responsiblity parenthood really is....I was comforted.

I hope that our children who get sent to our family unit will always feel like they belong with US. Last night, I learned the importance of unity in a family, and the teachings of the gospel. For our children will learn the principles of the gospel in our Home. With that being said, I hope this saying stands true and strong in our family forever, and that saying is "As for me and my house, we will serve the lord."

Grey's Anatomy

I started to love the show when i was in college up at NAU. My roomie Jessica and I used to have marathons.

Anywho.. recently it started airing again. As did many of our favorite shows. I can hardley handle all the excitement.

anywho... most recent episode of Grey's Anatomy included this....

and at the end of the episode...She went through with the abortion.

Does not make any sense to me. None at ALL. purely SELFISH.

I was SO angry I literally may never watch the show again. Terminating a pregnancy is such a SELFISH thing to do. GAHH...and yes I did cry and maybe throw a pillow or two at the TV because i was so angry. There are so many people in the world who are actively trying to concieve and bring a child into thier families, and they are struggling with it. So many women have had trouble, yet it is the women in the world who do not wish to nor have any desire to concieve that actually do. Something is wrong with this picture.

Called to Serve

Elder Jenson Mikel Rainey was called to serve in the Santa Domingo Dominican Republic East mission Spanish Speaking and was asked to report to the MTC (Missionary Training Center) January 11, 2011.

That is sooner than i expected. I am so excited for my little brother. He was thrilled about his call, and I know he will be an awesome missionary. He is so lucky to get to learn Spanish. It will be so useful throughout his life. My husband, and his two brothers all learned weird languages that they hardley ever get to speak. Like German, Tagalog, and Greek.

Good Luck Little Brother. We love you SOOO much.

Mail.

Something exciting came in the mail today.

My Brother's Mission Call. He will be opening it tomorrow. Im a little anxious and cant believe its really here.

I think he will be happy wherever he goes.. Huston and I's guess consists of anywhere in the 50 states. We think he will stay in the US, but ya never know!

Yellow.

The color Yellow cheers me up. I love it. I may or may not be a little obsessed.

Im also a little obsessed with matching.

Just ordered these...

To match my computer bon-qui-qui.

Also.. Husband's Birthday is Oct. 5th.

First on his list is......

Shark Encounter
Yikes. not my idea of fun.

Dont know if ill be joining him or just funding it. haha

Fall Bug

... Its true. Its here. Fall. in every sense of the word..well.. as far as Hawaii goes. We dont get colored leaves or cooler weather, but its just that time of year. I can feel it.

Tonight I put out all of our decorations. Made tortilla soup and peach cobbler and burnt my pumpkin candle again. Yep.. this is happening.

In a sense it makes me really homesick, but i LOVE the feel of the holidays approaching. Makes Hawaii kind of feel like an actual home.

Is it too early for Christmas music????

Its the Simple Things...

Last night I was in class till 8:15pm. Late much? dont care. It is my sewing class, therefore investing my time in something i surely don't mind doing, Plus Huston works evenings now anyways, so i see it as i am keeping myself busy. 

Anywho.. Husband picked me up from class and we went to the volleyball game. It is something we truly enjoy doing together is supporting our local Sea-siders. The team rocked it, and won, we were late so we were not there long, but afterwards we were both starving. 

Taco Bell seemed to sound the most satisfying, so there we went. I know most of you are thinking Taco Bell?? why would they chose there? .. FYI... where else??? We live in Laie, Hawaii which is a really really really small town. Its like the ONLY place to go.

After chowin down on some grub, we sat and visited. After about ten minutes I said..."are you ready to go?" because we were both done eating. Huston's response was awesome. He said..."Nope, i want to sit right here and pretend like we are on our first date again and talk for hours. If we go home, technology will get in the way." 

He was right.. If were to go home, we would probably turn on the television or get on our computers and work on homework. We both made a goal to get better at this, because at that point we realized that we rely too much on technology. We definitely enjoyed talking and pretending like we were on our first date though. 

It was a much needed evening out, and time spent TOGETHER. Its definitely the simple things in life that bring us the most joy. 

Sweet Sounds of a Choir

Should'nt a choir sound like this????



not like this?????

Basically ... We cringe. We play music just to fall asleep, and slowly but surely we are realizing that possibly its not the right time in our lives to have a screaming baby.

Literally ... Every night or at least two or three times a day, we will hear a baby scream. And once one baby screams...the other three decide to chime in as well. Literally(All surrounding houses near us have newborns). Its like a domino effect. Baby choir, on cue without a doubt.

I think its Heavenly Father's way to make me feel better about not being able to conceive thus far, or teach us a lesson about parenting. Who knows, all we know is that .. its LOUD. To the point where i sometimes worry. I hope people do not worry about my children, and I hope my children do not belt out cries like these ever so sweet asian babies know how to. Dont get me wrong.. a baby can cry...and we could handle it. But its OFTEN and for a very long time. Like hours on end. Is that normal?

Rewards

Foodland-Our local grocery store, has a Rewards program just like most grocery stores. If you spend up to $250 on your local account you recieve a "reward." Recently Foodland has teamed up with Hawaiian Miles and now, instead of using your coupon reward for the "FREE" item you may exchange the coupon for $200 miles.

Needless to say we had been saving our last two rewards for air miles.

As we went to Foodland last night to rent a movie,( Huston got me a chick flick by the way, and that never happens, Im one lucky girl) We saw the reward....

and just what do you think we did?
Like fatties we exchanged the rewards we had been saving for miles, and took the ice cream.
Doesnt get much better than that! Free Ice Cream is not easy to come by!

What we ended up with:

I cant wait for Christmas when i can start finding this in stores:



Fall is in the Air.

I can just feel it. Huston claims fall doesnt start until October, however I disagree. I can just feel it. Even though in Hawaii we dont get the weather or the leaves changing.. which i truly miss, I can still feel it.

There is something about this time of year that just changes. Every smell, every meal, every evening, The air seems more crisp, and it starts to get darker faster, and in our case it is even starting to cool down finally. We got a little of the breeze back in the air.

Last night, in honor of celebrating the start of fall, I burnt our pumkin candle Huston's aunt Co got us for Christmas last year. Truthfully, i have been burning it all year, but it totally meant more last night. We also found a limited edition of Dreyer's ice cream(love those) and the flavor was pumkin. It tasted just like pumkin pie. It was SO good, and Huston admitted finally that it could be fall, which means i can start pulling out my decorations and give our blog a make-over!!!

Welcome Fall. We embrace you fully!

Any ideas on what to be for Halloween? So far my idea consists of the cute minions from "Dispicable Me"??
This would be easy to replicate!

Marry Poppins

Or

The couple from "UP"



Someday( theres that word again) We will be back to the mainland where the weather drops to cold and the leaves change to beautiful yellow and orange colors, but until then, my little candle will do just fine.

Intercultural Peacebuilding

There is a certification available to us at this university and basically it is mediation. Kind of like when you were in Elementary school and there was a "Peer Mediation" program. Probably not exactly the same, but you get the point.

Its good material. I have attended one workshop and become pretty interested. I will probably be adding this certification to my education in the near future and I am really excited about it. The program goes hand in hand with my major and it will look great on a resume and is very worthy of time.

Now all i have to find out is if it will extend our stay in Hawaii. I do not think it will, however i would like to know if i could weasel it into my courses in order to finish by December 2012 because we have been set on that graduation date forever, and Im pretty sure i am ready to be done.

I guess I am just getting excited because my classes are finally my major and I am learning more about what i am going to be doing the rest of my life aside from being mommy. The more i learn, the more I am so grateful I was lead in this direction. I am supposed to be a Social Worker. (Im still pretty interested in being a teacher as well, but someday I could possibly get certification for that as well if I decide its needed)

what is the point?

Whoever invented the textbook industry is probably really rich and a walking genius. But i just do not get the point. Education is EXPENSIVE in the first place, why must we "indulge" by also purchasing 10 textbooks at $100-$200 each.( i may be exaggerating that) but its expensive. Ever heard of one or the other people? If school is expensive in the first place, then why not have textbooks be cheap to help out the students!? Or if textbooks were expensive then why not give a little on the schooling part!? (im not complaining because i myself, am attending a very cheap school, and by God's loving hand and blessings our eduction is all payed for by grants.) however... if that blessing did not exist i would be SH** outta luck, and uneducated.

I know there are many other options like renting textbooks, but what good does that do me? I do not want to pay 1/2 the price to rent the book for 100 days. If im going to be spending any money im going to want OWNERSHIP.

Anyways that is my little rant today because i went to the bookstore to buy a book which was labeled the same price as the online label, however .. the book rang up to be $30 more dollars than labeled. Apparently it was too good to be true. Online shopping here i come. I just hope I find a place that will ship decently priced to Hawaii.

Is it too much to ask??? haha

Oh and one more thing.. the husband has a crappy work schedule this term. I am by all means very grateful for his job because it pays our rent, but so far he has never had to work a crappy shift until this semester. I guess a whole year with a perfect schedule had to catch up with him sooner of later. Im just complaining because we are avid date nighters...and it does not look like date night is happening Friday or Saturday night this weekend. Looks like ill be hanging with him in the office, or alone in my bed watchin a movie. Awesome! TGIF!

First Day of School

Today... was the first day of Fall semester. Our week and half break came and went already...

 I cant believe Huston has completed two full years at BYU-H and that I have completed ONE. Time flies, however Hawaii has been the perfect place to be, and where we are SUPPOSED to be. I have fought and argued with myself multiple times on that one, but its true, and has literally required every cent of my Faith in being here.

Anyway... my assessment of the semester is that it is going to be quite a load of work.

However I am really going to enjoy it. I am finally taking classes I will enjoy. It is my first semester of actually taking classes that apply to my major. I find studying Social Work extremely interesting and am pretty excited to engage in learning more about it. I am also taking a sewing class, and a D&C class. Doctrine and Covenants was my favorite year of seminary so I am looking forward to studying it again, Huston is also taking the second section of D&C so we will probably be making that our area of study for the next few months. We both are pretty excited because we feel re-vamped and ready to set some new goals for our little family and looking forward to General Conference coming up.

The start of a new semester is always like New years. I love it because you get the chance to start over, and re-assess yourself. Its fun to re-organize and make new goals sometimes.

On a fun note.. my little brother Jenson....is waiting for his mission call. WTF??? Time goes way too fast. My baby brother.. is going to be leaving on a mission?? Man... I know he will be amazing and cant wait to see where he will go. He is one of my dearest friends and I know I will enjoy writing him letters!!!!

Wednesday Night Mutual

Tonight a friend of mine invited me to attend her wards wednesday night mutual. She serves in the Young Women's in her ward and we had a great time.

There is literally only about 4 girls in the program because its a student ward, but it was really fun. It brought back so many memories and reminded me what a crucial age that was in my life and how important it is for these girls to stay strong. It made me grateful for my amazing leaders and friends who helped me through such a awkward time in my life.

Tonight we did a fashion show out of just random pieces of scrap material and the outfit had to fit church standards. It was pretty fun to see how creative the girls got. At first i just wanted to watch and not participate because i was kind of tired, but i knew that if i did not engage it would send the girls the wrong message. I was just being shy too because i did not know the girls very well, but I ended up getting partnered up with a sweet sister and having a good time. I participated and enjoyed getting to know these girls fragile spirits.

I cant wait to serve in Young Women's someday. Hopefully i get the opportunity!

Banana Bread Contest

We took Candi to Kahuku Grill which is one of our favorite places to eat. BOMB food. literally. Its kind of one of those hole in the wall places that you find, but the food is fresh and extremely flavorful. We have never been disappointed.

Anywho.. my favorite treat from there is banana, coconut, chocolate chip bread. When its warm, they serve it with ice cream.AMAZING. literally. and we were going to order some, only they were OUT. Can you believe that? They really have some nerve. haha


Since they were out of pure heaven in my mouth, Candi and I decided to take matters into our own hands and make our own that night and have a contest. We had fun teasing each other, but because the woman has i dont know... 20-30 years of baking on me, she pretty much won! Her bread was pretty dang good and moist and she used mac nut chocolate chips. It was more cake like. Mine was more bread like and i used regular choco chips.

They were both pretty good, but in my opinion she won and neither of our breads tasted at all like Kahuku Grill's, but it was still fun to try to imitate! Now my kitchen is full of bread we didnt finish eating. Looks like i'll be giving away, hopefully the neighbors like banana bread. We decided next time we attempt the imitation bread we would add a little cinimon and use 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 white sugar. Also instead of all butter use 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening. If you dont bake you probably dont know what im talking about, but anyways.... it was fun to have a good little healthy competition with my mother in law.

Oh and i forgot the best part. We stuffed our faces with warm banana bread and Haupia ice cream. For those of you who are unfamiliar with haupia, it is coconut in Hawaiian. Amazing ice cream with some awesome banana bread. YUM.

Poor Huston. He was really in a bind as the judge! Ha

About One Year ago...

One of my favorite things to do lately is compare time... I am always thinking, what were we doing this time last year, and its pretty fun to remember and come up with things. I need to be better at documenting what i remember so i dont forget. Anywho...

One year ago this week I found out I did not make the volleyball team and was left to take the classes i worked so hard to register for. ( I also lost close to ten pounds that week because of all the exercise my body was doing.)

One year ago.. i was 10 probably 15 pounds lighter. Dont worry im working on it.

One year ago I began my first semester of school after taking almost a 2 year break. Oops. I guess Heavenly Father really knows what he is doing and Huston and I were supposed to move to Hawaii for more than just Huston's education. Apparently it was for me too.

One year ago our nephew Milo was born. Where did time go?

One year ago, we started our garden. It got abandoned somewhere between the start of Winter semester last year after we came home from Gilbert. We actually might try to start it up again to be more efficient with the cost of certain foods.

I cant believe it is September already. Time is going by way too fast. Literally, however we are definately looking forward to all of the holidays coming up. Its the best time of year, and even though we dont get FALL weather, I will still be decorating and baking and burning fall candles to get us in the mood.

Sept. 11

Today is a day worldwide known for a huge american tragedy. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families who lost loved ones in time of that awful crisis.

Today is also my grandmother's birthday. Jean Gillespie. She is no longer with us, but i miss her. She was one funny gal, and one of my best buddies. I loved spending time with my grandmother, we would visit and laugh. Ill never forget when she left us, because i was in the room when she decided to leave. The veil was so thin, and it was a pretty neat experience. I love you Jean. When i think of you, I always smile.

Today is also the day... two years ago that Huston doomed his eternity by getting down on one knee and asking me to be his wife. :) Where does time go? It doesnt seem like two years ago. Im so glad Huston asked me to marry him. I never could have imagined a happier life. He simply makes me happy, and I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for allowing us to cross paths and become eternal companions.
I cant believe we are coming up on our TWO year anniversary and still poor and going to school, but we both wouldnt trade this time in our lives for anything. We have learned so much and grown up alot. I look forward to what our future has in store for us. Taking it one day at a time, i look forward to spending the rest of my life with this man next to my side. I love you Babe!

much needed R&R

Can i just tell you how amazing it has been to be able to RELAX?? for a whole week! Monday-Friday. No work-no school- no where to be-nothing due-nothing to be done.

AMAZING and much needed.

Huston and I both have not had a break since we started Winter Semester in January. Well I did get to go home in May, but besides that... Nothing. No time off. If we didnt have school, we both had to work.

This week off was MUCH needed and very much taken advantage of. We sure did enjoy having Candi here, and going to Kauai. Even though its only 20 minutes away from Oahu, it was a much needed mini vacation.

I guess you could say we are re-vamped for Fall semester to begin on Wednesday, but we really are not.

We wish we had more time off. At least we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. After Fall, we will both only need to complete 2 semesters and 2 terms. December 2012 could not come any faster. So ready to be done with school.

Kauai

My mother-in-law has been on the island visiting for the week. She has been to Oahu multiple times, and last minute said to us.. how about we go to Kauai or Maui for a few days since you guys have off work WTF?? really!? ... We have been dying to island hop since we got here.
After deciding on Kauai and much searching on priceline we found a good deal on flights, a cheap hotel(more like nice apartment that was bigger than our own) and car rental, then we were off to the island. Sadly our flight to Kauai  was shorter than our drive to the airport. Haha

We traveled cheap. When we arrived we went to wal-mart and costco and got food to pack lunches and eat breakfast and dinner at nights, and plenty of hydration. The original plan was to camp and we are very glad we did not do so. Something about a bed to sleep in, and a goods night's rest sounding better than being grumpy on vacation.

Our first day we ran a few errands, checked in our hotel, rested a bit and went on a drive around the island to explore. It is seriously BREATHTAKING. The island is BEAUTIFUL!

Day two we explored the west side of the island. pretty ugly, but went to Waimea Canyon and it was amazing. Alot like the grand canyon in Az only alot greener. We were supposed to hike, but decided to explore more of the island.

Day three we hiked the first 2 miles of the Na Pali Coast. It is normally an 11 mile hike in, and 11 miles out. The first 4 miles are to a waterfall, but we decided to just explore the amazing beach at 2 miles so we could have more time to see what else the island had to offer. Plus, after two miles we were ready to be done. Na Pali coast is the most beautiful thing i have ever seen and by far the best hike i have ever done.
After Na-Pali we decided to head to queen's bath which is supposed to be a really cool place to swim however the TIDE was way too high, so we just watched the waves hit rocks and a partial sunset instead.

Na Pali Coastline

(Queen's Bath)

Our last day on the island we went water fall searching and saw two amazing ones. Wailua falls, and another one i dont know the name of. They were just accessable from the side of the road. We spent most of the day looking for things to do because it was raining so obviously the beach thing was out, and we were going home this day. We ended up just stopping at all the little shops and enjoying some window shopping.

(Opeke somthing falls)

Wailua Falls

not sure the name of this one. :)

Thanks Candi for a wonderful trip. it was amazing to get to see another island. Kauai is pretty small in comparison to Oahu, but has a very different feel to it. The final conclusion we came to was that Oahu has better beaches, but Kauai has AMAZING scenery full of lush green EVERYTHING.