From sea to shining sea

An island, an island, an island. It is really just an island in the middle of a big, big, ocean. You can drive around the whole island in about 3 to 4 hours depending on the traffic and that is going about 35 miles an hour. A great big tsunami could wipe us all away. If I stop to think about it, it can be scary. We have the Lord looking out for us and so far it has happened so I don't suppose it will while I am here but it is a humbling thought. We are just a little dot in the ocean and I suppose that the whole earth is just a little dot in a great big universe. I am glad he love's us and doesn't just smash us like little ants that we step on without even know it. Here is a little critter that we found crawling around the other day. We wiped him out with some Raid.We don't have snakes but these ugly critters almost make up for them. I certainly don't want to step on one.
We caught one in Jan that was much bigger than this one but I didn't get a picture of it.


P-Day again. It comes around fast every week and we have to keep busy because all the P-days will be behind us and it will be time to go home. Last week a new sister arrived at our hale. Her name is Linda Sherwood. She is from Arizona. Yesterday the Sisters had a beach party and we brought sandwiches and other goodies. We stayed after and swam at the beach.
Linda is the one on the right and of course Raeola and Polly. While we were at the beach there was entertainment. I guess if you just watch the people you can call that entertainment but this was special. Moana showed up and also the redneck cruise ship made its debut. They came to stay at the redneck bed and breakfast that I saw a few weeks ago.

 MOANA 

Redneck cruise ship.

 Bed and Breakfast

Aghhhhh. Life is great on the island.😳

A few weeks back we took off to Kailua, (yes, on P-day) and visited the beach that one of the magazines voted best on the island. It was very nice but I like the one across the street from our house just as well. While there we ate dinner with two of my favorite presidents. Clinton and Obama. What a coincidence meeting them there.
OOPs! She cut Obama off. I promise he was there. So sad. 😥
We were at Buzz's. I would go back there, again. 

Life at the office is always interesting. Today signed the PEPSI contract. 😷 Now if I want a drink I have to go all the way to McDonald's for a coke. They had to hog tie me to get me into this pepsi t-shirt but I gave in and yes, they make me do the pepsi orders everyday. I know I will live to regret it.
 Celebrate, Celebrate!

Odds and ends in Hawaii

Life is settling down and now I am getting used to the day to day living and it is getting to be more of a routine. Get up, go to work, come home, do what needs to be done, go to bed, etc. I am still enjoy being here and thankful for the opportunity I have to serve.
Here is a picture of the mountains behind the city of Hauula behind the fish taco place. This is a place where many of the couple missionaries live. They live right on the ocean. The landscape is so unusual. I don't know if I would like to be the home right under the way it rains. They must have ways to divert the water around their homes. I don't see many mountain climbers or repellers here but there must be some. It looks perfect for repelling. 

This next picture is one of the papaya tree next to the warehouse where I work. One day I happened to notice the little flowers growing out of the trunk instead of the leaves. Then I noticed how the fruit was growing. I had never seen fruit grow quite like this.
 Misi brought in some papaya soup one day at work. I thought it was so very good. It had tapioca in it and tasted like a pudding to me. I loved it and tried to replicate it. I put in too much tapioca and it was not good. I will leave the papaya soup to Misi.

























P-day this week brought a trip to the west side or leeward side of the island. This is where they are building a the expensive resorts and where the Disney resort is located. There are four lagoons behind the resorts and the lagoons don't have the waves like the north beaches. They are protected by the rocks and make it a very quite place for a nice swim and play area for the keike. Here is a picture of the smallest one. Each lagoon has its own name and are very pretty. For me I like the windward side of the island. 

Here are some different flowers that I have not seen before. This one is a type of plumeria but it looked so  dainty and delicate. 

My "Hale sisters" don't like to walk with me. I am too slow as I always dottle along looking and taking pictures of flowers. I guess I got this from Angie. I wish my pictures looked as beautiful as hers.

New Adventures in Paradise

This was a slow week in paradise. Most of the time it was just plain hot and muggy but where you are  it also looked very hot. It is summer, what can we expect? I don't know but by the sounds of things you are having an extremely hot summer in UT.  Thank heaven for the evenings and the cool breezes whether they are mountain or ocean breezes. The are both welcome.
The most exciting thing that happened this week at the PCC is the Cook Island delegation made an appearance at the PCC. I have heard of the Cook Islands but don't know much about them. The PCC made room for them and their show began. It was a beautiful, cultural show and was enjoyed by many locals and tourists. My favorite was the men's dance and the young girl who came out and showed us a traditional dance. They were all amazing and gave a spectacular performance.
This is one of the drummers and the MC for the performance. Love the traditional costuming. Next came the young women's group. and last came this young girl with her beautiful costuming and the dancing was so amazing.


She was probably about 12 years old.
  Then the finale and we all give thanks to our Great Redemer.

It is Laie Days this month and they have been celebrating all month with different activities. Saturday "P-day" brought a Hukelau to Hukelau beach and also some of the senior missionaries wanted to take a walk out to Chinaman's hat. I tried to make both but they changed the Hukelau to the same time as the walk out to Chinaman's Hat and the tide was low so it was then or maybe not at all. I chose to walk out to Chinaman's Hat and do the Hukelau next year. It was an adventure to say the least and not an easy walk for some of us Senior Sisters but we did it and I hope not to have to do it again. (BEEN THERE-DONE THAT).  Yes, it was worth it.
I think it would be easier to swim out with our boogie boards than it was to walk it. I made it to the island, got out of the water and had various cuts, scrapes and slashes from the coral. Thanks to my sweet daughter for leaving her shoes for me to use or I would not have made it. One of the couples said that I looked like I had been through a war. I didn't notice them until I got out of the water.

I didn't take my phone out to the island but some of the others did. I will post more pictures as they come. It was probably 3/4 of a mile out to the "Hat". This is Cathy Hanrahan (Georgia), me, (I am the short one😅) and Whitney Kelson (Oregon, UT).

Last week after I got home from "THE HAT" I left my shoes outside to dry. During the week I picked them up to clean them off before I put them away. They had sand all over them. I shook them off and turned them over. this is what I found. The coral had ripped right through my shoes and took off big chunks. I was wondering how I got the cut on the bottom of my foot. Just saying. No one else said anything about their shoes but, then again, I really haven't asked. It was an adventure.

Hello, hello and goodbye, goodbye!

This week we said goodbye to one of our "Hale Sistahs." Sister Cecily Nelson left to go back to the great state of Utah. She will be missed but in her place we welcomed Sister Judy Knord. We had many good times with Sister Nelson. She was across the hall and shared a bathroom with me. I think she is glad to get back to Utah with her family and friends. You can see by the many Lei's that she was well thought of.

We went to Pounder's Restaurant for a goodbye celebration and coming out into the evening air we thought we had been transported to another planet. It was a beautiful evening. I always knew that Hawaii was a special place. 😯

P-day happened again this week and so off we went to visit Queen Emma's Summer Palace. We did all of our homework, time, day place. It is open everyday 9 to 4. "Shurley" my google person said that we were all ready to go so we went, we arrived. Yes we did! We pulled in the drive and the sign said open everyday 9 to 4. The sign next to it said closed. HUH! We got out and walked around and found a Daughter of Hawaii Pioneers walking around. She said they were closed today because of tree trimming and they were not to let us in. Well it wasn't crowded but we didn't get to see the inside. She gave us free tickets to come back another time. We took a tour of the grounds. They were very beautiful.


Sister Knord is on the right. She is our new "Hale Sister." This was her welcome to Hawaii, tour.

This is the ultimate tree house. If you closely in back of me the tree limbs wind around and around. If I were 60 years younger I would have lived in this fairy land.





























I thought I had seen every type of flower in Hawaii by now. Guess what? I found several that I have never seen before and I saw my first orchid's in the wild. They were so beautiful and I am sorry that these pictures don't do them justice.
           

This is the biggest hibiscus that I have ever seen.

More beautiful flowers: These were growing out of the trunk of a tree.      

Some pretty orchids:

    

       

        

       

Next on our agenda was "The Bishop's Museum"  It was amazing to learn more of the history of Hawaii but it is so big it will take us two or three visits to see it all.

I.       

And after a day of traveling to the big city where is the best place to end up?

HOME!!!!!!!

Another week, another surprise :)

Just like Santa Claus, the anniversary fairy knows just where to find me. Thurs. June 29 2017 would have been my 50th wedding anniversary. It started out like any other day and ended with a few surprises. I went to work as usual but around noon time Misi and I was invited to go to lunch with a vender (Fran). She works for Armstrong foods and she invites Misi for a working lunch every so often. We met with Chef Felix at Pounders and had a very nice lunch.
After a delicious lunch we went back to the office and this is what we saw as soon as we opened the door. I wondered who had died.  😵 It was a real surprise when I found out it was for me. I tried to find out where it came from but the warehouse said that the delivery company said that it was "top secret" as to where it came from. No names, they were instructed to give no information at all. 😺  Mo, our receiver, tried to dig deeper and say she couldn't take it but they wouldn't budge and kept telling her they had strict instructions not to reveal anything. It took two people to get it upstairs to the office.

It was so beautiful. Thank you so much for the beautiful surprise on my 50th.

I know they come every year but this was very unexpected and was even over the top for a 50th anniversary.  I have more pictures below.

        

  

Later that evening I was able to go to the temple and celebrate my anniversary by giving to someone else. It was a wonderful day but a little emotional. I would loved to have celebrated it with my husband, family and friends but we have all eternity to celebrate with each other.

Saturday was the day to celebrate birthdays. We have two birthdays in our hale this week. Two hale sistah's with birthdays. Polly and Raeola's birthdays in one week so off we went to Lei, Lei's at Turtle Bay to celebrate. It was our P-Day again and that is when all the fun happens. Here we are, the best missionaries in Laie, (ha! ha!) food and all. The food was scrumptious. YUM! YUM!

After an excellent lunch in Hawaii what should you do but take a walk on the beach and Turtle Bay has a beautiful beach. The pictures don't do it justice. Can't wait to go again and walk some more.