High Five for Friday: Sick

Glen and I have been battling this stupid sickness for months now. We would always get just the right amount of rest every night to keep it in submission, but we have succumbed in the past couple of days. And if we get sick again from going home next week like we usually do I am going to lose it! I don't know what I'm going to lose at this point, but I like to throw things away when I find myself alone for long periods of time. There's usually something important that comes up "lost" later and I remember my throw away party I had so much fun at. Pray for me.

Besides being sick and hating it, there were some really awesome things from this week and here are five:

1. On Saturday, it was Jaxon's (I have been babysitting him and his little sister since February) first soccer game! He's three-almost-four and loves soccer with his life half the time. Kids are weird that way. This day though, he was killing that soccer life. I mean, compared to me he's got nothing on soccer because he has such tiny legs he can't keep up. When compared to his three year old peers though! Man, this kid rocked their butts! Honestly, it almost felt disgusting to keep cheering for him -- although I managed to continue quite easily. The other two members of his team were shy and couldn't play because of the tear fest they really needed to get to on the sideline, so for the last half of the game (the whole of it lasted 20 minutes, tops) it was 1 against 2/3 and Jaxon the blue team won 4--1.

2. I had promised Jaxon I would go to his game if I was still around and I'm super glad it worked out. He was so stoked when he saw that I was there and the game was so hilarious! Every time he'd score a goal, he would come running up and ask to see the picture I took of him. Oh yeah, and he's really into taking pictures with weird faces right now, which really works for me.

3. After the game, Glen and I went Small Business Saturday shopping because American Express has this really cool deal where you get $10 back if you spend at least $10 with your card (just at three stores). And the Waiahole Poi Factory was listed on their website as a participant! Oh snap, we were excited!

Everyone's poi tastes are different, I understand that very clearly. This poi is very good tasting, but the thickness just wasn't for me that day. I like my poi pretty thick and this was on the watery side for me. For reference, I like when the poi can be picked up with a toothpick and this one was definitely spoon-necessary. The laulau was perfect though. Perfect.

 4. We went over to Waialua the other day and had fun exploring farmlands. We only got locked in once, but that was enough to send us packing for the day haha.

5. Glen is officially done with his undergraduate life now. Ha. He had to present his senior research before that could happen and he did it yesterday evening. There was delicious pizza accompanying a subject I know little about, so that was nice.

Hope I get off of the sick wagon soon. I'm banking on the off chance that serving in the temple tonight will bless me with health again. It's dang cold in there most nights though. So, probably not.

Aloha Friday.

High Five for Friday: Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving weekend! Our countdown has become real and scary to move home. We have a bunch of crap to sell/give away and Glen has an ever-heightening pile of papers to grade. I hope through everything though, we're able to spend time with friends and this beautiful place as much as possible just like this week.

Here are my five favorite things:

1. I met this guy on the beach and we had a moment after he sneezed himself awake. You know, if you really want to just get away from the beach crowds on a beautiful day on O'ahu, it isn't very hard at all. You just have to be the one who stays on the beach while it rains, or walk further than others are willing, or yell shark. That last one's usually not the preferred route.

2. On Monday night, our friend Rinki came over to teach us how to make chicken curry -- Northern India style. Her and her husband are from Calcutta and just moved here earlier this year for schooling. The curry was so delicious and we are so grateful for Rinki having enough patience for our billions of questions.

3. On Tuesday, we had our friends Amy and Josh come over to teach us how to make Thai food! Amy is half Thai and we are fully aware of our love for Thai food, so it really works out. We had four dishes: Pad Thai, Tom Kha Gai, Laab, and Chicken Sate. It was beautiful food and company. Thanks Amy and Josh!

4. Glen and his grapefruit.

5. Thanksgiving was a wonderful day filled with plenty of food. We have a full turkey left over; no joke, the whole thing was untouched because there was just too much food! We had our unofficial ward Thanksgiving on the lawn in front of our buildings and enjoyed the breezy day turn into a chilly night. And Glen was in a food coma on the grass with blankets covering him for a while after everyone started packing up.

Aloha Friday

High Five for Friday on a Sunday

I was too busy napping at the beach or in business meetings this weekend, so I didn't get this done in time. So, I suppose what I'm really saying is life is good.

1. Being in a place of such diversity, it isn't very hard to find someone of a different culture who is willing to teach you about it. Prince is from Ghana, he was in a couple of my accounting classes nearing the end of my degree-getting days at BYUH. Him and our friend Shawn (who can be found here and is still single by the way) came over after church last Sunday and we cooked until way passed sundown. We learned how to cook Ghana-style Jollof rice and chicken. It was delicious and next-day-Jollof-rice is 10 times better if you can believe it. In true Ghana-style, you cook all of your food on the first night of the week and that's why our 25# bag of rice is now only half full. So amazing... we were afraid we wouldn't be able to use most of it before leaving. Two birds with one stone kind of deal. This is Shawn pretending like he did a single thing for this dinner haha. And Prince is behind him actually prepping and cooking.

2. I started decorating for Christmas. I know, it's completely shameful and so annoying, but I just had to. I was cutting out fall leaves and thinking about drawing some turkeys or maybe more leaves and just was not feeling it. Ya know? And then, we went to Walmart and bought Christmas lights... not even the white ones just straight up colors. You are not as surprised as I am, I can let you know that right now. It was so embarrassing when I put them up the next day too! And then, as I basked in their colorful light that night and all the nights after, I realized how happy I am about it. And then, I put up more decorations. Ah! But I am stalwart (so far) in not allowing Christmas music/movies to reign supreme. So, there's that.

3. We saw Interstellar on a mid-week date. Even though we had heard many favorable critiques on the film, low expectations always do a heart good. We were pleasantly surprised at how much we both liked it.

4. Last Saturday we went Leeward and had a wonderful day. I'll be posting about it a little later.

5. It was supposed to rain and thunderstorm pretty much all week and it didn't. Like not even for a minute, which is so weird. It was a little disappointing; we love both of those things, but it was mostly just amazing. I slept on beaches and played in the glorious rays of the day. It was a beautiful week.

Thanksgiving countdown is in four days. What the close!?

Aloha Sabbath :)

High Five for Friday: Beach Week

Happy day, it's Friday! We plan to have an amazing outing tomorrow, which I'm super stoked about! We've been talking about it for a while and have just never had the time or our brakes weren't working for like a month haha. We thought we could just ride it out until the end possibly, but the car just wouldn't stop sometimes, so we decided to take lil blue in for a check up. Hundreds of dollars later, we can stop again! Success. We're missing a hubcap, but what's that in comparison?

1. Our anniversary was last week Thursday, but we didn't have much time that day to celebrate. So, this is kind of from last week, but it's a big enough occasion to merit expanding into this week's gratefulness too. We went to Ted's for Garlic Shrimp and pie, which was a really good choice. It always is. Here, I kissed my chocolate haupia cream pie and that was a really good choice too.

2. DONOVIN! We stayed with our friends on Saturday, the Richardson's. I've mentioned them a couple times before (here and here). We hadn't seen them in such a long time! It was awesome to be with them again. It's weird how you get so adept to staying in your own area that it seems like such a crazy outing to go across the island (they live in town -- about a mile from Waikiki beach).
Here, Donovin is showing off one of his power stances in the middle of an epic toddler dance to looping music coming from the keyboard behind him (it was "looping" because he kept turning it back on after it had finally stopped haha).

Thanks David and Mandy for letting us take over your living room and feeding us amazing things! We love you guys :) Let's do it again soon, okay? Cool.

3. Like I mentioned in our anniversary post, we hadn't been to a beach in weeks because of work schedules. So, I kind of made up for it (if you can) by going to the beach almost every day this week. Even if it was just for a half hour I made the trip. It was beautiful and lovely and all the good words. This is from Waikiki the night we stayed at the Richardson's. It was a beautiful sunset.

4.  Yoga at the beach is such an awesome experience as long as I'm alone. I don't like when people are there because I feel like I'm either ruining their experience because it's hard not to look at someone while they practice yoga, or I'm ruining my experience by doing poses that are the most discrete. Rough life, I know. It really is a struggle for me though. 

I really was completely alone here. Excepting the two surfers that paddled out to the furthest break (they were like specs), I was not in human contact for hours. Plus, it's a beautiful beach with plenty of cute birds. To spread the icing all over this delicious dessert of a day, I fell asleep in corpse pose next to this patch of grass/weeds. (Glen wasn't here because he teaches all day on Thursdays)

5. I had a conversation with a friend about many things yesterday, but also about just one. We talked about girls, marriage, the temple, remembrance, righteousness; we got a little deep because a lot of the time it's necessary and we're too afraid of drowning to even start it. Even with all of the topics we touched on, we were talking wholly about what he should be doing. It's different for all of us, but we all end up at the same place even though we take our own path. It was a really good conversation and I'm glad I started it.

Hope this next week is even better than this past one.

Aloha Friday!

High Five for Friday: Catching Up

Friday (okay, I know it's Saturday... but just rewind a bit for me here)! How I have longed for this week to come with anticipation surpassing dressing as a burrito on Halloween and entering Chipotle with a smug smirk. Tuesday was election day and we barely made it to the polls because of all the other crap super things I had to accomplish. My boss left for the Philippines to pick up his son who was there on a mission; that left me with a lot of to-do's and a single sentence of instruction: You can do this, I'm trusting you. yay. Wait, was that supposed to tell me something about how I should be doing all the things you told me to in the next 42 hours because I didn't catch that part?
I must have dosed off for the other part of that conversation, but it all got done anyway. Maybe not the way people expected or probably even wanted... but we didn't win anyway (too soon?).
After that campaign was no more, I realized just how much other crap super stuff I had to do for one of my other jobs. In short, I still have some of it to do and now I'm procrastinating. Thrilling, I know.

Anyway, here are five things I'm grateful for this week:

1. My husband of five years. Read it and weep. We turned five Thursday. After a long work day for Glen, we went to Ted's and ate too much food while discussing the highlights of this passed year.

2. I haven't used my phone this little for months. I love not using phones, it's probably one of my favorite pastimes; it's so obnoxious to need your phone with you at all times. Plus, that's just not me (ask Glen about it... he's sure to get heated over my phone never being with me the first year or two of marriage haha). I just want to be with whoever I'm with even when it's just me (let's be honest, especially when it's just me).

3. I've been sniffling for a month because of lack of sleep and probably other things, who knows? Now, I finally have time to just get healthy again. I love sleep health.

4. Marinda (my sisterIL) and Bruce's (my brothah) baby, Bronson was healthy enough to take home! I gave an emotional testimony about it in church last Sunday (embarrassing, obviously). How Bruce has always been such a great father-figure to me especially in times that I was less than good. I turned my life around mostly because of him and I'll always be grateful for it (not to dis all the other much needed help I received in any way because I'm grateful for that too).

5. We're going to town today to hang out with friends!

Thanks for rewinding with me, you can go back to what your clock/calendar tells you is the truth.

Aloha Friday on a Saturday!

High Five for Friday: Death on Two Legs

Can I just sleep the rest of this year? Just until Thanksgiving? Yeah, I know, hibernation isn't a human thing. Honestly though, this campaign is going to kill someone. This is the finale, folks. The last week has hit like a twister in June and it is ugly. But it also means that this is almost over; voting ends Tuesday and it is high time my reading hobby kicked back in.

To the end of this week and the beginning of the end, here are my high-fives from this week:

1. My boss and his wife are hilarious, kind, generous, on-the-go people. They have maybe gotten five hours of sleep since August; I'm pretty sure they have chronic delirium at this point too, which really just works for me. I love and will miss them dearly come this December's departure.

2. We recently discovered the amazing taste of the Country Burger at Seven Brothers and will never turn back on it. It's the vegetarian option and is heavenly. The amount of avocado on it is illegal in Arkansas (not only because it's a huge amount, but because Arkansas is an idiot). We ate it three times this week.

3. Glen had some gross really neat experiences at the ER this week, which I'm hoping he'll start posting about soon so we don't forget them #hintnudgewink

4. We went to Fiji Market earlier today for lunch and got the pumpkin curry plate. So tasty! We took it to T-Bay and watched the waves because nothing. You don't need a reason to do that. It was my first time at a beach in two weeks. This campaign really needs to be done.

5. We just bought ice cream like two minutes ago. Super Fudge Brownie -- whatchoo know 'bout dat?

Oh, and Happy Halloween everybody + happy birthday to A.J./Uncle Herb tomorrow :) Love you both mucho.

Aloha Friday.

High Five for Friday: My Glen

This is a very special Aloha Friday, one that came with haste because of our busier schedules these days. And while today is a HF4F post, it's a bit different because today is.

Glen has been and ever will be my best friend, my companion, my happiness. He has been in my life for a long time, I'm not sure anyone knows the real answer to that, but we'll go with our usual one -- we have known each other since he was 12. He has always laughed, joked, and been goofy; I think and I hope to the heavens that those things will never stop and that I will always cherish them.

This Friday is special because today is Glen's birthday. Not only that, but the last time his birthday was on a Friday was the first time I gave him a birthday present. He was out on a group date all day, which translated into a Harry Potter marathon for me because my brother went on that date too. They were pretty much the only people I hung out with at the time. When quoting line-for-line became a little too embarrassing (only for the lack of audience), I decided to make Glen a present.
I ended up drawing a picture of us from a night he had worn his fake moustache to institute and we went home afterwards and took silly photos together. It was my "I like-like you" gift; so adorable I can hardly stand it.
So, obviously that date didn't lead to anything because I'm Mrs. Gray. Did the drawing tip him over the edge? Probably not. Did I give him an awesome 'like-like you' gift, duh.
And even though we can't find that drawing any longer and the fake moustache was mysteriously thrown away lost in the space-time continuum, I know that it doesn't matter. We are happy, healthy, in love, and filled with hope for our tomorrow. He gives my lungs breath and my smile meaning; there is no denying it.

With that super sappy introduction, here's some more in the form of high fives:

1. Glen always supports me, no matter the cost or time or effort. He is the spark that lights the fire of my hopes and dreams. I would have never finished college without him encouraging me and pushing me to go for it.

2. Glen is science to me. I don't foresee that changing. I am not really sure why I like this so much yet. It's just awesome that we're so not alike in that way, I suppose. He tells me how things work and I tell him Harry Potter facts. It's fun.

3. Glen has some serious brain activity going on. At first I thought it was annoying how he could get an A with D effort when I was teetering on B/B- with word-for-word lecture notes. As time went on and we moved into major classes, we stopped taking academic courses together and my jealousy subsided. Now, I appreciate the fact that he was free to help me or just spend time with me during what would have been hectic semesters for any normal-brained human.It made our experience in Hawai'i sweeter.

4. Glen is a man of service. On his birthday (today), we woke up early so I could drop him off at the hospital to volunteer in the ER. We have some down time right now, relaxing and making our Halloween costumes together, and in a little bit we'll go over to the temple to volunteer there until night falls and the day is over.

5. Glen loves me. Like a ton. He is forever trying to make me happy and my days brighter. There is no greater high five than love from my husband.

Aloha Friday and the happiest of birthdays to my Glen.

High Five for Friday

We just got home from the La'ie Temple... so let's make this quick! Here's my five:

1. We saw Meet The Mormons at the last showing last Saturday. It was a really touching, great film. We really enjoyed it; plus, La'ie Palms Cinemas has thee best popcorn evahh. Let's say it together: real butter. Mmmm. Yeah, it sounds amazing too.

2. Words cannot express the joy and peace that comes to my soul from being at the beach.

3. We took care of my boss's mother-in-law. Everyone calls her Grandma, she loves singing songs about CA (my kind of sing-along partner) and Popcorn Popping. She really made me feel super grateful for the things that I have and remember. She has Alzheimer's and asks you the same questions every 30 seconds. During this picture, she felt really uncomfortable that some weird stranger was trying to take a picture of us. She kept asking me who it was when we had already been sitting with her for about 10 minutes before Glen went outside. Oh, and she eats ice cream... that's it. Go big or go home, you know what I'm saying?

4. We bought some camera stuff and we are way stoked on it! This was taken with a new filter we got that's supposed to be really good for black & white photography. So far, I'm pretty happy with it.

5. We made an awesome video for our friend's birthday. I would show it, but it's still a secret for now. Soon though, very soon. I love it. Anyway, during the filming this beautiful sunset unravelled before our eyes and we just admired it until it was gone. You might think it's fake and I would encourage your doubt because look at it. Some serious nature right there.

Hope your week was filled with goodness too! Also, it's Glen's birthday next Friday... and mine next Sunday... Ah!

Aloha

High Five for Friday: Ideal

While my weeks are always filled with the mundane like work and laundry, there is just so much more that really brings life to my soul. I can already feel this HF4F thing lifting my spirit and love. Every night I think about my day while drifting between awake and asleep and gratitude sweeps over me for all the good that's in my life. I love it.

With that, my high fives for this week:

1. General Conference was awesome. I mean, it usually is, but this time it was just something else. Half-way through, Glen and I were excitedly planning our best reading/re-watching times together. Nerd alert.

2. Oh, and I made this during the viewing (like I said I was going to, oh snap). We're in Halloween territory, people. 2014 is in it's last quarter. Insane!

3. Glen's colleague (hahaha I really wanted to say that for some reason) recommended reading this book. When Glen brought the borrowed book home, I thought to myself why would anyone publish a book telling me how to make an atomic bomb? Also, why would anyone publish a book telling me how to make an atomic bomb!?! I completely forgot about it put a pin in it and shelved it. On a hammock outing, I shoved it in my backpack resolving to at least see what the ingredients were. Upon reading the first page, a swift realization came to me that it was not making, but the making. Words, huh? Anyway, a copy is on its way from Nebraska or something because it's that good.

4. I may have procured a job actually using my degree. I already work for the owner in a different capacity, but he likes me a lot (mostly because I'm Samoan -- we fist bump like every 20 minutes because we have an ancestor in common; it's hilarious) so he wants me to do more stuff for him. Mo' money, mo' money, or something like that.

5. Much of my week has been filled with this... let's just put everything on repeat for a while.

Seriously, if anyone has a repeat button I'm calling upon your good favor to just do me a solid.

Aloha

High Five for Friday: Busy, Busy

Aloha! This week, a lot of things fell apart for me and my new job as an executive secretary to a campaign manager here in Hawai'i. Truthfully, it was agonizing to see so many different lines on my to-do list increase into pages of to-do's. It all culminated yesterday afternoon for about five hours. So, my week went extremely slow and super fast all at once. There was no time and too little time because I really just didn't want to deal with any of it and knew that I had to anyway.

Through it all, here are my five "high-fives" from the week that is thankfully behind me now:

1. We unintentionally saw the Blue Angels in Honolulu last Saturday! We were winding down our practice for the flash mob I've been coordinating/co-teaching in town and this crazy noise started shaking the building! That may be an exaggeration, but it was slightly terrifying. We all went outside after the initial fear subsided and gathered in the parking lot to wave stupidly because obviously they look for people in random parking lots squealing excitedly over the experience. Duh.

2. Almost all of that stuff that blew up in my face this week was solved by the sweet, sweet support and service of others! I love the willingness of others to help in times of need even when it costs them time, money and effort! It is extremely humbling to see the answers of prayers come so quickly -- even though it felt like ages while I was stewing in the mess.

3. Today, a flash mob for the campaign I'm working on occurred on the streets of Honolulu and I coordinated it... I couldn't decide whether to throw-up or laugh. Both will probably happen by the end of this freaking campaign and I mean that in the most loving way (I think).

4. I ate escargot today. For real, Glen and I both did. We attended a campaign fundraiser dinner because my boss and his wife couldn't make it and sent us in their stead. It was a fancy place... we're talking four dollar-signs on Yelp, Waikiki shoreline, no choice but valet kind of event. Anyway, we took one of everything, as you do, and this beautiful, dark, creamy hors d'oeuvre went into my mouth dripping in delicious sauce. I told Glen to eat one because it was good. A little while later, a waiter comes around offering escargot to people and I quickly said to myself that's disgusting and turned my back on him. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be that beautiful, dark, creamy thing I said was good minutes before. I almost threw up and then ate another one.

5. General Conference is this weekend!! That's kind of amazing, right? Half of an entire year has passed since Spring's gathering and I can't believe it yet. I'm sure it'll hit me when I'm 68, but until then, I'm peeing my pants because I don't have enough time to stop for a potty break. Ah.

Have a great General Conference weekend, I'll be making goodies, making Halloween decorations, composing emails, cleaning our apartment and doing laundry while observing because I don't have time to just do one thing. I'll probably make it to the end of this year, there are only a couple doubts :)

And this (again) is from The Lauren Elizabeth's blog.

A hui hou

High Five for Friday: The Beginning

"High Five for Friday" is from The Lauren Elizabeth. It's a really cute blog that I've followed for a while along with her sister's: The Small Things Blog. They're adorable and I'm not sure why I love them so much; I just do haha. It's kind of awkward to love someone I don't actually know... but also cool, I think. It may be that it's just creepy, I can't ever decide. Either way, it's not stopping.

Anyway, HF4F is a list of five things that you're grateful for, looking forward to, excited about, or whatever from the last week. It's a little reminder that what I have is good. It's easy to think there's nothing to be grateful for if you never look back to see it all and how it worked out. This is me trying to do better. And besides that, my weeks have seriously been flying by -- I feel like I need to take a couple seconds to reflect now and again.

1. We haven't been able to go hammocking ('ham mocking' is a suggested spelling correction for this... yeah, that too, I guess) for a while because something mysterious happened to the ropes it came with. Glen looked up what he could make to fix this problem and found whoopie slings! They're amazing and Glen's even more amazing for making them! After, he confessed to loving projects and I confessed to loving that (I think that's a classic category 5 resolution).

2. I successfully taught a ballroom full of people a dance that I was taught only two weeks ago. Mind you, the moves are simple and the music isn't too fast. Still, it's the small stuff and me overcoming my natural desire to go to the back of the room and teach the kids how to really play tag.

3. I started learning French again. I took a beginner's class at FCC like four years ago and I just never went anywhere with it after. I've felt annoyed with it because I've learned parts of several languages (Spanish, French, Marshallese, Hawaiian) and never waded through any of them long enough to actually get by. Hopefully I can change that soon.

4. Since I don't have a regular job, the day of the week is really a mystery to me until it's brought to my attention. I remembered it's Friday by myself this week though! That might not seem like it's worthy of being one of the five things and that might be true.

5. Every Friday night, we go to Seven Brothers to end our date night because I'm currently working for the owner (in a different capacity -- campaign, not restaurant) and he's Samoan. Which isn't obviously translated this way by much of the world, but means we get fed. Whenever, whatever we're doing -- you better believe food is either there or on its way no matter how full you say you are. I enjoy this unforeseen plus to my employment status change a few weeks ago.

And that's that. Life is weird, all the to-dos and forgotten stuff worry my brain almost constantly. I feel like this small list of remembrance of the good will encourage a larger change in my daily attitude.

I love life and sometimes I forget it; I hope this helps.

Aloha Friday!