Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Thanks to Josh, who told me about Picasa, you can click the picture below and it will take you to my Hawaii 2007 album. *WARNING*- there are 57 bagillion pictures, and a lot of them are of my friends and me, which most of you probably aren't interested in but I promise there are a lot of scenery pics too, so take a deep breath, get comfy, and enjoy the show...

Oh wait, before you do...if you are interested in a trip to Hawaii, my friend, Anne, owns two condos on the the island of Molokai (between Oahu and Maui). Tima has stayed there before and said it was awesome. You can check it out for yourself here. Okay, now you can enjoy the show!

Just another day in paradise...

Aloha! I am back from my Hawaiian vacation extravaganza. TimaSue, Katrina, and I had so much fun together. I went through 1500 photos and picked out 40...but then realized that was still probably too many for a blog, so I will only post a few and then create an album this weekend, so consider this just a taste of the beauty of Oahu.

TimaSue, me, and Katrina outside of the luau (I ate poi and kaluha pig!) at the Polynesian Cultural CenterWe woke up at 4:30am to drive to Diamondhead Crater in attempt to hike up it to watch the sunrise. Well, we got to the entrance and it didn't open until 6am and sunrise was at 5:54 am. So we hiked it after the sunrise, but the view was still incredible. That's Honolulu and Waikiki Beach at the top.

We went to Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial. I don't think that requires any more description. This is Hanauma Bay. Yes, we went snorkeling in it and we did take underwater photos. They aren't developed yet.

We hiked Manoa Falls. This is one case where even Katrina's ubericiously cool camera (Canon SD800 IS) couldn't capture the awesomeness of this place. Only He could create such intricate beauty.

Once again up at 4:30am to drive up the east side of the island to capture a sunrise over water on our last day.

And we ended our last day with a spectacular sunset. That's Waikiki Beach and Waikiki Marina, respectively.

Remember folks, I have a lot more where this came from, including me climbing a palm tree, the mountains where Jurassic Park was filmed, a Whalfin (half false Orca, half bottlenose dolphin...scientists are mind-boggled), jellyfish, etc. I'll post a link this weekend. Mahalo and Enjoy!

Jana is ENGAGED!!!!

My traveling buddy and super good friend, Jana, is engaged. Yay!!! Scott proposed this afternoon (and she said yes, of course). Jana, I am so very happy for you. :)

Crawfish Alive!!!!

Well, actually they were alive before I got there. Thank goodness they were already boiled when I arrived otherwise, I would have had some issues. I was already a little squeamish...at first. I eventually managed to twist the body of a boiled crawfish in half and then pull the meat out of the back half of the body with my teeth. How's that for a nasty visual? Tasty, but it works better if you don't look at the crawfish throughout the process. I'm afraid it will blink at me, or wave it's claws.

My friends Paul and Christina hosted this in their backyard...in celebration of birthdays (Christina and Kristin's 25th, and Ed's) and Kristin's graduation with her Masters in Civil Engineering. Celebrate'n Texas style (well, with some Lousiana influence :) ).

Mmm...crawfish...

69 pounds of crawfish...this is the first half

Ahhh, don't eat me!

Get in my belly! Oh wait, you don't eat it like this?

Kristin and Debbie, shelling the leftovers for etouffee.

Singing happy birthday to the birthday people

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down. Kristin, Ed, Paul, and Christina.

Baby Shower

So there must be something in the water at church (or abundant blessings, whatever you want to call it :) ), but we have had a run of new babies lately. Today was Melissa L.'s shower, she's due at the end of the month. Heather put together a really special shower and Arzella graciously donated her house for all of us to invade.

Mama to be, Melissa, and new mama (last month) Daina

Third time mama (this past March), Collette, and second time mama (in July), Heather, chatting away. Look at the spread the ladies put together. The cake was awesome! Like, quadruple chocolate chocolate.

Invitations I made for the shower

Baby Kai (born March) and Baby Fiona (born April)

The two girls on the left, Corrine and Allyson, are in my Girls Group. Desiree is so awesome (her blog is linked- see Van Essen).

Amy and her daughters Emma and Ellenie. They are moving back to Midland in three weeks :(. We will miss them so much. Hmmm, can you say road trip?

Heather and Mikaela chowing down

This is my buddy, Katherine. I took her and her big sister Sarah to Build a Bear awhile ago and they helped me build a bear (Morris Alexander). They also got to pick out an outfit for their bears, since it was near their birthdays. I take Morris over there to play with Lily the Flamingo (Katherine is a die-hard flamingo fan...she can even do a flamingo walk!)

Becky, Brenda, Mrs. Mudd, and Irma, trading stories

I just love this group of ladies (and the rest that couldn't make it too, of course!). I am so blessed to attend a church where I can honestly call these people my family.

The Importance of Being...

Freedom!!!! In the words of Mel Gibson (representing my namesake of course), I am no longer confined to my cubby hole of a kitchen, wedged between my miniscule pantry and my refridgerator, dishonestly "borrowing" internet service from some kind soul know only to me as "linksys". I am now a bonefied patron of Time Warner Cable (just the internet...I still refuse to buy cable).

So this evening I had the pleasure of attending a production of "The Importance of Being Earnest" featuring two of my friends' siblings, Scott and Shelley.

I had read the play back in high school but forgot how completely hilarious it is! So clever, so insulting. The witty reparte is Gilmore-esqe...strangely so...anyways, I enjoyed it enormously and am always constantly amazed at the stellar job God did at creating our brains. Storing huge amounts of data (scripts to a play, attitude determination info, etc), it never ceases to astound me what it can store (although I think mine would be much better off without the lyrics to "Ice Ice Baby" and the oodles of Greek letters that one learns when math DOESN'T use numbers anymore). I am still diligently working on my scripture memory to replace (or at least rewire) some of my wasted brain space. 2 Cor 5:21 " For our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, that through him we might become t he righteousness of God". My next one is 1 Cor 15:3-4...I'm not going to type it...go look it up....that's all folks!

Holy Bikini Batman!

Can you believe it!? Not only do I now own a very pretty new laptop (Dell Inspiron E1505...with all the bells and whistles as a friend put it so eloquently), but yes, folks, mark your calendars...I have started a blog! Can I tell you how excited I am!? (I'm excited).

Road Trip!

This past weekend I traveled 955 miles to Kearney, Nebraska to see my cousin Sean get married. 14 hours in a car! By myself! Actually, the ride up wasn't bad at all, thanks to lots of music (people probably thought I was psycho, dancing in my car, but when you got Barlow Girls and the soundtrack from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, you just gotta dance). Don't worry, I also listened to ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin, Casting Crowns, Todd Agnew...and listen to a book on CD that my friends Josh and Lisa loaned me. T0 be honest, I think it was the excitement of getting to see family I haven't seen in 6 years and meet some family for the first time (like my Grandpa's brothers and sisters) that kept me wide-eyed and bushy tailed. I had such a wonderful time! I hope to return in September 2008 for our family reunion (never been to one of those). I've also informed my Dad that I am dragging him along, after all, it's his family. I've got a bonanza of pictures to show you. Enjoy! (And Kansas is very very flat...it's almost concave!)



Here's Uncle Scott taking a look at the VERY high water level in his new lake. He and Laurie just bought 3 acres. It rained a ton the night before (I slept through it all!). Technically he owns half the lake. I asked him, straight-faced, if he was going to put a fence up in the middle. I received a dirty look for my efforts :).



Scott and Laurie's house. Super cute, great interior (with a basement). Homey, homey, homey.



Here's the patio on the side of the house (Aaron's the dude standing...giving me a look...must run in the family). This was taken on Sunday after a BBQ (which I invited all of my great aunts and uncles too, and then called my aunt to make sure it was okay...she is so gracious!)

Here's the reason for going to Nebraska: Sean and Heather...aren't they cute!?

Rehearsing...

The rehearshal dinner was at this great bakery/coffee shop/sandwich plate. Sean and I both mistakenly took a lot of the mustard...which cleared your sinuses out really well. That's Aaron in the foreground.

Congratulations!

Grandpa and Grandma Wallace and me...we had to be there 3 hours before the wedding for pictures. Made for some good photo oppotunities for those not in the wedding.

It was a fun wedding. I've got a bagillion more pictures, but I think you all get the jist.

Jack, Grandpa, Jim, Chuck, Ruth , and Norma

I asked Grandpa when the last time was that he had a birthday with his siblings. He said when he was 11years old. Imagine that, 64 years later celebrating with them again. Happy Birthday!

So all in all, a fantastic trip. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to have this super fun family, even though I don't get to see them very much (or ever!). What an awesome gift!