January 26 - 31, 2010 - I think I like clumping my days together ;)

So I played around a bit with some of the frames on my cell phone camera...it would be a lot more fun if it would let you use them at a printable resolution, but no, they are micro. like...176x144. not even postage stamp printable. Sigh. It still works great to send photos of silly things to Mindy for color inspiration :) And the Bossa Nova mangosteen blend was YUMMY!! That was Tuesday, January 26th of 2010.

Wednesday evening at church we had a mock Bible Quiz so the quizzers could show the rest of the church what they are doing in "Bible Quizzing." These kids are AMAZING!! Niki & Alaina both "quizzed out," during their teams' turns, quizzing out means they answered their limit of questions correctly and didn't get to answer anymore to make it fair so the other kids would get a chance to answer.

Thursday, I worked a little at Gino's & Sandy took the girls with her to the beach. They were taking Uncle Alan who came down from the big city to visit. It was COLD when I got there, and the girls were all soaked...and Kayla still didn't want to leave :( Abby and Ruby couldn't wait to leave and I had a laugh about how we always get tsunami warnings and when we get the *tsunami* it's like 1 to 3 feet high, however when we get a *high surf* advisory, we get giant (10, 20, even higher) foot waves - one right after another, not one big wave, hundreds of BIG waves - and they usually destroy parts of Sunset Beach as shown here. Apparently, some people chose not to heed the warning and went to beaches and lookouts anyhow, and some of those were actually knocked down by the giant waves, from the observatory at Shore Acres where you would normally think you were relatively safe from the high surf, and had injuries substantial enough to seek medical treatment. CRAZY!! Ten years ago, I might have ignored the warnings too, but one day, driving out to Shore Acres, I realized just how easily the entire road could be washed out in the low spots...leaving one who happened to be beyond that point STUCK until someone figured out how to get them back.

I finally got around to scanning all of my goodies from my trip to Oahu. This was one of my favorite postcards and I wanted to put it into my scrapbook...so it had to be scanned :D I like the old style and the soft colors and the rounded colors :)

Saturday, I saw this cool sign at Ross...not cool necessarily because it's a nice sign...but the idea is cool. Photo of something average like grass with a keyword. I like it :)

I also found this photo of our poor cat on Abby's memory card from Saturday. Poor Cat. I'm telling you, the faster she runs, the better off she ends up being. She really enjoys being outside most of the time...no one can get to her and mess with her program out there. She can run about, wander, hunt, come and go at will and not be bothered with constant mauling.



We had 2 baptisms this morning at church, Zion being one of them - new and exciting things are going to happen in Zion's life - and I am SOOOO happy and excited for him!! What an awesome family God has blessed him with :D What an awesome way to end January :)

Friday, January 15, 2010

Alrighty folks, there is a COSCO on Oahu. We couldn't stop to eat at the many, many little authentic *mom & pop* type trailers of authentic, local food, it scared Kadi, they probably aren't safe...(right. like they could get much worse than my own kitchen at home). So we had lunch at COSCO folks. Same food they sell at every Cosco I have ever been to. Comforting...yet somehow just not...well...exotic enough for vacay lunch.

We bought some mini cheesecakes and other foods Phil liked to snack on once inside and we planned his "reenlistment party" for the evening, with Apples to Apples of course.




We SAW these mochi and sent the photo to Dad and did not buy any. Dad would have bought at least one box, probaby 2. He loves mochi.

Then Kadi dropped Kortni & I off at Hanauma Bay so we could snorkel. We bought new bathing suits at Cosco (they are under our clothes, you didn't want us to frighten children off of the beach did you?) Most of our photos here are with reusable, 35mm, underwater cameras and I haven't scanned any of my prints yet. We'll get around to that eventually. We saw mahi mahi, and schools of convict something fish (black and white striped) and urchins and coral and we had a FANTASTIC time - got back to the beach to find that Kadi had been calling and texting repeatedly...as if we were going to hang out on the beach next to our phones at Hanauma? ARE YOU CRAZY?? Phil was scheduled to pick us up at 4:30ish... We didn't have time to go back in, but we had been in the water over 2 hours :D This is a MUST DO event if you are on Oahu, even if you have to rent gear. It's SO worth it (even if the locals think it's cold this time of year).

Then we have Mike. Apparently the ONLY photo I took at the *party,* during the evening time. We had yummy mini cheesecakes and eventually got around to the Apples to Apples. Phil won...I think. I know I didn't win :( Eh, whatever :D

January 14, 2010 - Phil's Reenlistment, Bowling...stuff

Sgt. Spatz reenlisted in the Marines. Beautiful day, rather short ceremony. Kadi got a certificate for being a wonderful and supportive wife.

After Phil's reenlistment ceremony, we went to lunch at Pinky's because he got the rest of the day off. Then some shopping on base, grocery type shopping. Then a quick stop at a beach I remember from my last trip, because of the "Chinaman's hat" sticking up from the water (even found a book about this beach, which is why I know they call it Chinaman's Hat).  There happened to be para-sailors there too. Two that were having trouble lifting off and one flying around. AND I found a coconut...that someone's dog apparently tried to cart off while I was down at the rest area, Kadi & Kortni didn't let the dog have it lol.

We went bowling on base Thursday night, and finished the evening at home playing Apples to Apples (oh wait, there was a brief stop at Kailua Palace to karaoke).

Lookie What I can do...January 12 & 13 in ONE post

We hit Windward Mall. I found a junk store...aka, the kind with inexpensive Asian foods that I love, and I found Korean Style Nori on sale for $0.95/3pk - tasty. YES, I bought one that I am not opening for RUBY! I also found gen mai cha for $8/lb, but didn't buy any because I just bought 2# back home. We did the crazy photo booth thing, and it's REALLY small in there. Then it was off to Spencer's to buy stuff for Kortni's bachelorette party. The front of Spencer's is full of  cool socks, tights, hats, bags...the back of Spencer's was moderatlely frightening. 
Bad photo, but it's a Kermit stocking cap folks, yes, they sell stocking caps on island. Crazy isn't it? I am not sure why they do this, but I saw them all over.




I found a photo of myself marking the ladies room at Windward, and a Hello Kitty store (yes, I thought of Patricia, NO, I did not buy the very expensive, I LOVE NERDS bag, even though it was so totally cute!! The party store had the most disturbing poster I have seen in quite a while hanging in the window. Yes, they put purplish hair on that child and made her look...like a freakish leprechaun - eerie. Sorry folks, that's just a bit too much, she looks FIVE...just not cool.

After the mall, off to Chinatown. I like Chinatown, it doesn't scare me. Marines are not supposed to visit Chinatown because of the crime related to it, but we were on a mission. We needed mangosteen and to eat something at Pho 97 where Randy & Loan said we should have noodles. We didn't have time for noodles as we were on a schedule, but we did grab some spring roll type things that I like, one veggie, one pork, and they were YUMMY!!!


After that, it was off to Duke's Waikiki, then to the open air market and Kortni and I didn't just find this cool waterfall with Koi pond, we also found 7 for $20 t-shirts!!

I will finish later :D OKAY - the 25th is officially LATER!!
Kadi kept us busy...very busy. Pics from the 13th...

We went to North Shore...we did not buy any overpriced drinks in frighteningly carved monkey coconuts. I think it was supposed to be a monkey.


There were tomatoes in my coconut milk based clam chowder - folks, I'm all for exotic foods, but this chowder was just flat WEIRD!! and gave me stomach cramps.

Then walking through shops (apparently we didn't come to go to any beach or see the water, surfers, etc...we came to North Shore to eat at that surfer tourist restaurant and walk through shops). I liked this piece of artwork...cuz it's 3D - it has cool stuff on it, and fish and it's my favorite colors :D

You weren't supposed to take photos at this crazy...art gallery? I'm not exactly sure what it is, but it looked like an art club/gallery/hippie fest. After several photos I came across a sign in the ground that requested "NO PHOTOS." Yeah. whatever.

We went to beaches with high surf, strong current warnings. Didn't make them any less beautiful :D it did make us less beautiful as high winds blew our hair all about :D

FISHING!! Oh yeah, It's Monday, January 11, 2010

So our day begins. We got up at - 3:30/4 AM? I dunno, I straggled. Doesn't take me long to dress like a fisherwoman. It was still dark, and me in my long sleeves and leggings under my skirt...I was roasting before we even got out of the house. Our charter boat left from the Hickman Air Force Base. Civilians can also take this charter, as Sonny, the Captain, can sponsor them onto the base, but we had Phil. Kadi, Kortni and Phil NAPPED on our way out. Can you believe that - the most exciting fishing adventure ever, and they were napping. I can't nap. I am too full of curiousity, wonder, questions, and awe. The sky was beautiful, the sliver of the moon was beautiful, the water was beautiful. It was all amazing and wonderful. I have selected a handful of photos from today, because we took lots, and we don't need them all to tell you about the events :) Phil caught the first fish, an *ono,* and apparently mainlanders call them "wahoo." My turn was next and I caught a mahi mahi (I like mahi mahi, and they're pretty). The long skinny fish is Phil's ono. My mahi mahi was big...until Kortni got hers on board...and hers was bigger than mine. Then, Kadi put us all to shame, on her turn at the real, her mahi mahi was like 20 pounds and close to 3 feet long. Then we kind of just cruised around for a while, trolling, but catching nothing. 

We saw TONS of whales (yeah, no clue about what kind). Jumping whales, diving whales, whale spouts, awesome whales. We also saw beautiful water, birds diving for fish, sailboats and shoreline. I love it, I really think I could live aboard (especially since sailboats are quieter and that's what we'd live on).




 Kyle & Neil were our deckhands, and today was Neil's first day. Kyle has been on the boat for almost 4 years, and Sonny helped him to earn his Captain's License! Next month, Kyle will be leaving for Astoria, Oregon, where he's been sponsored to attend the Maritime Academy for their 2 year program to learn more about the sea and piloting larger craft! He is a very nice young man, and it's really exciting for me to have met him and hear him share his love of the ocean - and know that someone has invested in his education so that he will have a rock solid career doing something he loves, with enough education to make a decent living at it.
The flags on the rigging were put up as we were running in, they are to indicate what sort of fish we caught, the larger or more numerous fish being the highest flag. Kyle added that those flags were going to be flown at half mast because they were also coming back dead...


At the end of it all, we came home to package fish and cook up some dinner (which, by the way , was AMAZING and DELICIOUS). Kadi and Phil cleaned up and packaged all of the fish that we weren't going to eat today so it could be frozen...and packed into the freezer so we can take it home to Dad. 

While Phil was packaging the fish, I noticed that a perfectly upside down version of him was reflecting in the ball/knob handle of the cake platter display, so I took a photo of that too :D

My Dad only called...I dunno, about 20 times probably, altogether...during this fishing trip, to see how we were doing - He was probably the MOST excited person involved in the trip, and he didn't even get to be on the boat :(  THANK YOU DAD for an awesome day of fishing, the opportunity to meet Sonny, Neil and Kyle - that last one, btw, we're bringing to Kortni's wedding :D