Warrior Dash! {March 24th}

The evening after Alexis left I felt like I had been hit by a truck. My body completely shut down on me, I got a fever, cough, stuffed up nose, the chills, etc. The only other obligation I had before the Warrior Dash was to take homecoming photos for a super nice (now friend) army wife on the other side of the island. That was Thursday, so I slept all Tuesday evening and all of Wednesday. I didn't sleep Wednesday night =/ but their pictures turned out wonderful... I slept all Thursday evening and Friday... lots of sleeping, absolutely NO exercising. Which is why come Friday night & Saturday morning I was a bit nervous about the 5k Warrior Dash!

We made our shirts the night before. Our inspiration was the M&Ms Super Bowl commercial...

We had a lot of pre-race fun... goofing off, having people laugh at our team shirts. =)

Then our 1:30pm race time rolled around and we were off to become WARRIORS!

Post race were were covered in mud, so we did what any normal person would do- jumped into the lake!

After getting as much mud off as the lake would allow we chowed down.

The "professional" shots.

Most of these pictures came from Jennifer, she was far more brave than I was taking her camera along for the race. I was mainly just focused on finishing... I jogged really slow the entire time while they walked then ran, walked then ran, and we all finished about the same!

My official stats were as follows:

• Race time- 44:15.75
• 14:39min mile
• 3,425 out of 7,992
• 498 out of 1,825 females ages 20-29

Not too bad for being sick and not training properly for the prior 2wks!

Alexis' Visit: Likeke Falls

Tuesday was Lex's last morning we got up early so we could hike to Likeke Falls near the Pali. Unlike the trip Quinn, my parents, and I took to the same falls we only went down the wrong path a couple of times and didn't wander miles out of the way, haha. The weather was beautiful and the hike very peaceful minus the mosquitoes that showed up on the way back down.

On the way back to the house we stopped at Agnes' Portuguese Bake Shop for some delicious Malassadas, then headed back to the house so Lex could shower and pack up all her goodies. It was a busy but fun week with my sister!

Alexis' Visit: Hale Koa Luau

Monday around 4pm we left the house, unfortunately the Pali was closed so we had to take the longer route into Waikiki via the H-3. Then traffic in Honolulu was dreadful, I mean dreadful... there was construction everywhere we drove and thousands of cars backed up. We were late. Plain and simple. We argued...but we got there. Lucky for us we only ended up missing the "pre-luau entertainment" and not all of it. We got to see the tree climbing occur, listen to the band, and got front row seats to watch them pull the pig out of the imu.

There was a USAA table set-up offering a chance at a $100 gift card to the Army-Airforce Exchange if you filled out a sheet and had an account with them. Our car insurance is through them, so even though the box was stuffed full of entries, I figured... why not?! ANNND OUT OF ALL THOSE PEOPLE--- I WON! Then after that I was randomly chosen to be an example sarong model/hula dancer, it was hilarious... Lex got some good photos.

The food was tasty, I was really happy they had all of the "staple" Hawaiian luau items for Lex to try... kalua pig, huli-huli chicken, mahi, fried banana, pineapple, poi, and rice. Dessert consisted of haupia pudding and coconut cake- delicious!

The show was very entertaining and it didn't seem as long and drawn out as some of the other luau's I've been to. The fire dancers were extremely impressive seeing as they were only 11 & 12yrs old!

The end of the luau had me in tears, literally... they had veterans from each war stand, then they had spouses and children stand, finally everyone stood to honor the troops past, present, and future. There were candles on the table and we were to hold one up if we knew someone who had passed away... I held mine for Jeremiah, it's crazy to think that this October will mark 7yrs. The song was Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA."

This is definitely my favorite luau so far... but I could be biased.

Alexis' Visit: Lanikai Beach

Monday morning Lex and I headed out to Hanauma Bay, unfortunately we were turned away due to a full parking lot- very sad! So we drove back towards Lanikai Beach, stopping off at the blowhole look out first... we managed to get a self-portrait with the water shooting out! Talk about timing.

After we arrived at Lanikai we went snorkeling right away, it was a lot of fun! We also ran into some Marines who had just got back from Afghanistan, I found out they were part of the Lucky Red Lions Helicopter Squadron, sadly the ones that suffered the terrible loss via the helicopter crash ... Lex threw around the frisbee with them and I talked to one who had been divorced while deployed. I will never understand women like that, such a terrible thing to do to someone who is thousands of miles away with next to no say or communication... it makes my heart hurt how so many people throw marriage away like it's worth nothing just because they can't handle themselves alone. Like they can just go out and find another "soul-mate." Ugh...

BUT, Alexis and I had a great morning and afternoon despite the disappointment about Hanauma Bay. We headed home around 2:45 to get ready for our luau that evening!

Alexis' Visit - Eat Out Kailua

On Saturday morning Lex and I went to a vendor and craft fair on base where we got some awesome new nail adhesives, then headed to one of my and Quinn's friends 2nd birthday party for their daughter. That evening we met up with Billy and attended "Eat Out Kailua." We enjoyed some yummy tacos from Maria Bonita's then some delicious frozen drinks from the Cafe Truck. They each got a Kona Mocha Frappuccino while I sipped on a Frozen Dark Hot Chocolate- delicious!

We were suppose to meet up with Devin for the St. Patrick's Day Block Party but our information was a bit mixed and we ended up in Waikiki where the party was actually in Downtown. So we went shopping in the 3-story Forever 21, watch the street entertainers (this brother duo, 14yrs old & 11yrs old were amazing!), and bought some street art. It was a nice lower key night... more my style. Lex was a bit bummed we didn't hit up the block party...

Alexis' Visit - Outrigger Canoeing

Of Friday we had signed up to go outrigger canoeing on base at the 11:30am slot. The cool thing about going through the MCCS was it was only $2 each for a 30min excursion (we ended up catching some awesome waves so Wink - our steersman - decided we would keep going for an 10 extra minutes).

Lex and I were placed in the "power seats" and my seat was also a seat for "counter balancing" and a "bailing" seat... it was quite interesting! We had a Marine helicopter fly over us and we caught three long waves! After our paddle session we laid out on the beach and soaked up the sun that had finally come out =)

Alexis' Visit - Pearl Harbor & North Shore

Thursday Lex and I headed to Pearl Harbor, a must-see for everyone who visits. We were pretty fortunate to get a tour of the USS Arizona only 1hr after arriving! Before our tour we wandered around looking at all the informational plaques, the missiles/torpedoes, and submarine/anti-aircraft static displays. We also scarfed down some hotdogs and meandered thru the gift shops. Waiting in line for the movie that plays before the boat tour we were a bit appalled at the number of people who threw their plastic bottles into the trash can when the big blue recycling bin was sitting directly next to it-and I mean touching! The park ranger did tell us that they have maintenance workers go through the trash to remove the bottles (ewww!) in order to get the money from the recycling for the park. But the principle of it still irked us.

After our time at Pearl Harbor we hopped back into the car and headed north to the Dole Plantation! Once we arrived our first order of business was to get a "Dole Whip!" After enjoying the delicious pineapple soft-serve we wandered around the plantation taking photos.

We stayed until the plantation closed and headed up to Haleiwa to wander the shops then we drove further north to Kahuku to find a beach to eat our picnic dinner and watch the sunset.

It was a long, fun, eventful day!

Alexis' Visit - SUP & Waikiki Night

Wednesday morning we headed down to the Aloha Swap Meet for the mandatory go-around for reasonably priced souvenirs. After we purchased our homemade soaps, bamboo chimes, surf signs, macadamia nuts, and li hing mui pineapple we decided to head down to Waikiki since it was sunny and we were already on that side of the island!

Halfway through our day on the beach I remembered my buddy from ASU (Devin) was in town and said the friends he was staying with lived right in downtown... two hours and two phone calls later we were walking a couple blocks to their condo for grilled steaks on the deck! After dinner we headed out for a night on the town!  

Christians and Marriage

Sometimes this deployment sucks.
Sunday was one of those days.

It was cloudy & gloomy... still, it'd been 9 days since I had truly seen the sun. I hit the snooze button one too many times and finally rolled out of bed with 10min to get ready before I had to rush out of the house in an attempt to be on time for church. I walked in during the second worship song not feeling so hot. I saw a couple of ladies from retreat sitting- all with their husbands...

I sang, but I didn't feel like I was truly into it. I listened to the prayer, watched the announcements, wrote down my prayer requests, and gave my tithe. Then Pastor Carl got up to speak...

The topic - Christians and Marriages.
My first thought, "Quinn should be here."
My second thought, "I better take really good notes."

By the time we got through the sermon and started praying (for the people who walked to the front of the alter for specific relationship prayer) the tears had started... they continued through the ending worship song.

I just wanted to be able to talk to Quinn about the sermon, to talk to him about life in general.
I miss my best friend.

Hopefully when he gets the sermon CD in the mail like 3wks from now we can e-mail each other our notes and the parts that stuck out to us, as well as things we think we need to work on.

We're halfway through (maybe-the military changes things often)... lots of stuff to do before he gets back!

{FYI- my church has all the sermons available to stream online or to download for free onto your iPhone/iPad/iPod. The current series in 1 Corinthians has been really good. I listen to Pastor Carl, others may like his dad, Ralph's, style of preaching better}

Hail, in Hawaii?

I didn't post this yesterday because I wanted to be able to get all the news stories linked up for you... this was one rocking storm!


{Friday}
At 3am I woke up to pounding rain and howling wind... so I rushed around the house closing my windows... once I laid back down the rain lulled me quickly back to sleep. 5am rolls around and all I remember is thinking someone was shooting a strobe light through my bedroom window, curtains or not, my room was flashing every 1-4 seconds. Weirdest lightning I'd ever seen, but I rolled over and shut my eyes trying to go back to sleep before I had to get up for work. Not 10min later did I hear tink-tink-tink TINK-TINK-TINK TINK-TINK-TINK! If my sleepy state my initial thought was the 30-60mph wind was ripping my solar panel off the roof. I tried to look out my bedroom window but it was essentially a waterfall, so I wandered downstairs only to find HAIL! I ended up getting pieces as big as large marbles or kumquats, friends not 1/2mi away ended up getting golf ball size. So I ran back upstairs for my camera and ended up getting soaked in my PJs for some pictures.

Top Left- the storm literally swirled over base for about 2.5hrs!
Bottom Left- The white on the ground is hail.
Top Right- The backyard area ended up completely flooded (this is halfway thru the storm)
Bottom Right- HAIL! I didn't get the biggest pieces because these ones hurt hitting my head...

 I also took a couple videos:

I ended up not being able to go to work until 11am, two hours later than normal, because the base ended up needing to close down due to extreme flooding near the gates and in the neighborhoods! It was nice though, since I had been woken up so early I took a nap until I got word that I could leave base. Later that night I found out there had been a waterspout-tornado just down the road at Lanikai Beach then into Enchanted Lakes. So flooding, hail, waterspouts, tornado, and waterfalls! What a crazy day.


Here are some news links:

• Washington Post
• Associated Press
• MSNBC
• Storm Slideshow

Moku is 2mo old!

I barely managed to squeeze his booty in that cup and snap the photo... To say he was not a fan may be an understatement. Regardless of the fight he put up, it sure shows how much he's grown in the month since I brought him home!

{his birthday is actually January 6th... so I'm a little late getting this posted...}

L.O.V.E. {Women'sRetreat}

Before I sat down to write this re-cap of "camp" aka: The Women of Hope's 2012 Retreat, I felt anxiety creeping up on me... tightness in my chest, shakiness, general panic. It doesn't happen often anymore, I have only taken my medication a few times since returning to Hawaii from Arizona and those instances all had an event occurring the next day that I had a huge part in or that I invested money/time into. So... I prayer walked my home, rebuking the devil and requesting Guardian Angels from my Heavenly Father. I sang worship songs while Moku ate a carrot in my lap before I put him to bed. I also grabbed the CD they gave us as we left the retreat and popped it into my computer... my computer made the most terrible noises I've heard from it so far and I had to hold the CD drive still for the disc to burn, but it was worth it... my bedroom is now full of beautiful, positive, uplifting music. I'm beginning to calm down and will continue to pray that I overcome this!

Onto the actual topic of this post. My church's Women's Retreat. The theme of the retreat this year was L.O.V.E. - Lovely, Overcoming, Victorious, Eternal. There were some amazing lessons and breakout sessions, as well as general bonding time and team skits. It is hard to believe the last time I "went to camp" I was a counselor for youth and not an attendee myself, sometimes it amazes me that I am, indeed, 25yrs old!

Top Left - Our encouragement envelopes. These hung for the duration of camp, we were to pray and give encouraging words to the other ladies. I ended up getting 8 notes, while I made 10 friendship bracelets that I randomly placed in envelopes.
Top Right- Amazing waterfalls on the way to camp, sometimes it blows my mind that I actually LIVE here.
Bottom Left- Worship on night #1
Bottom Right- "Miner Rose"... she's an amazing woman, 2x cancer survivor, marine wife, entrepreneur!

Top Left- "The Brave Girls" that actually went swimming without sun, haha. Adrien, Yvette, Korynne and I!
Top Right- View from the lodge.
Bottom Left- Our honu friend, there were actually two laying on the beach but I missed them running back for my camera
Bottom Right- View from my cabin!

Top Left- My rice krispie treat of epic proportions! Hey, they said to bring snacks for sharing...
Top Right- Rose cleaning out the bin to pre-soak our shirts before tie-dying!
Bottom Left- The tie-dying extravaganza!!!
Bottom Right- Our program and beautiful hand-stamped "L.O.V.E." bracelets!

Someone captured our team doing our skit... water ballet featuring Hugh Jackman (me, hence the Wolverine claws!)

This will not be a weekend that I will easily forget. The worship songs struck a literal cord with my heart. Kanani's breakout session on "Sacred Romance" further emphasized the importance of marriage/sex in God's creation and how the Lord desires the same type of love. We are to "walk as a bride" at all times since God, our groom has chosen us to be His bride. That's quite crazy to think about! We are loved, filled, and called women. We can overcome through seeing and being seen, surrendering our lives, taking a stand, and believing and attacking. To be victorious we must bring the issue to the light, open our mouths, hold onto our friends, and choose faith rather than circumventing the process. Finally we are eternal women and we must always remain alert, use adversity to our advantage, and truly be alive in Christ! If you would like more notes and scripture on any of the things I typed about, please do not hesitate to ask me!

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

~Ephesians 3:16-19