Running Away...Part Two--Hawaii

Me running away in my favorite way--reading a book

I am back from Hawaii and I have to say, my soul is mourning the loss of the ocean and tropical sunshine. I never understood the color aquamarine until I realized that water really IS that blue in Hawaii. I also never knew that you could do a handstand on a surfboard ("you" as in the amazing surfers we watched, not "you" as in me). Needless to say, there was a lot I didn't know until I learned to appreciate it in Hawaii.

It was great to run away for a couple of weeks again. Even better this time, I was with ALL of my family. You know you really love your family if you can get 15 people together, spend two weeks together, and NOT want to leave. If anything, this trip reminded me how much I really do love being around my family, and makes me want to have many more reunion vacations.

I'll spare you all the details of the trip (since most of you that read this were there!), but I'll share some pictures. I don't have very many because my family is full of really good photographers who took countless pictures...but I'm not one of them. Consequently, I have to wait until they send me the rest. I'll try to post more then. I will simply leave you with 5 words that brought much joy to my life during the last two weeks:

Manapua

Snorkeling

Hammocks

Shaved Ice (pretend like that's one word)

Plumeria

View from the house we stayed in on Sunset Beach, the best beach in the world!

Cliffs near Hanauma Bay

Ian's hippo mouth--a pretty close impersonation if you ask me

Flower in the botanical gardens of Waimea Valley

Sometimes Running Away is a Good Thing

Now, I realize that running away from your problems doesn't actually solve anything, but I submit that sometimes it can be a good thing to run away temporarily to rest up in preparation for dealing with problems, stress, and just life in general. A couple of weeks ago, I got just such an opportunity to run away to Island Park, Idaho with some great friends. It was exactly what I needed at the time. I believe it was truly providential that I was invited to go away for the weekend. It was such a blessing during a very frustrating week. 

Highlights of the weekend included the following:

Puppet shows with the taxidermy animals at the visitor's center.

Singing "Home on the Range" with arms around complete strangers at the Playmill theater prior to Oklahoma.

Hymn charades--and trying to guess hymns you've never heard of before.

Broadway sing-along for an hour on Sunday around the table.

Pillow fights with the boys at 1 o'clock in the morning (Sorry to Rachel's parents who were inevitably kept awake by our shenanigans).

Huddling in the corner because we thought the boys were going to attack us at 1:30 in the morning.

Realizing that the boys were not attacking, but they were presenting us with awards for the pillow fight at 1:32 in the morning.

Laughing about the whole immature, but oh-so-fun, situation until 2:00 in the morning.

So, long live vacations, silliness, good friends, and blessings of good memories.

Dance in the Rain...

One of my favorite quotes recently has been,

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain."

It seems to me that sometimes it's easy to look around and think about how hard or stressful life is. Really though, there is so much happiness to be found in every situation. This quote just makes me remember being a little girl, running out into a storm with an umbrella swinging, singing and puddle stomping. I think I should react to more things in life the way I did when I was seven.

While we're on the subject of good quotes, here are a few other good ones to think about:

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." ~Helen Keller

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens." ~Jimi Hendrix

"Everything is okay in the end, if it's not ok, then it's not the end." ~Unknown

Itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny RED polka dot...

Here is my newest splurge (The picture shows it in coral, but I got red with white polka-dot). I'm so excited about it that I just had to share. Since I'm headed to Hawaii in a few weeks (which is hard to believe in and of itself), I decided I needed a new bathing suit. I fell in love with this one on LandsEnd. They are just about the only place that I have found modest bathing suits of high quality that don't have huge tucans across the front. If you're ever in need, they are a great company and worth the cost.

P.S. - I learned that you can buy their suits at Sears and if they don't have the one you want, they will order it online for you through the store. They don't charge shipping and the products are sent directly to your house. Okay, sorry, I'm done sounding like their poster child.

The Countdown

Hooray for summer vacation! I only have 11 teaching days left before I bid a fond farewell to my students for this year. I'm not sure what they learned, but at least we all survived to try again next year.

Here are a few of my favorite things that I've learned this year from my students:

1) "Americans need to eat more VEGETARIANS."

2) Classrooms are a good place to practice skateboard moves, though necessarily without the skateboards.

3) Pencils lodged in the ceiling are more interesting than anything I could ever say.

4) All the frustrations of preparing for a student talent assembly pay off when you see them on stage and start to get teary-eyed as if they were your own children.

5) leap frog, doing the wave, and hula hooping are essential parts of a seventh grade education.

Those are just a few, and my brain feels too fuzzy to come up with more right now. I wonder what else they'll come up with before the year is over...

Chivalry is NOT dead!

This blog entry is dedicated to the men in my life who have proven that gentlemen still do exist in the world, even if sometimes they seem hard to find.

Let me explain.

For the last two months, the Elder's Quorum of my ward has been talking about "The Pineapple Activity"--a surprise activity that they had been planning for March 29. They were completely tight-lipped about the whole affair; so secret, in fact, that we girls were beginning to wonder if they actually had anything planned. The only thing they told us was, "Dress formally and don't be late!"

Unsure of what to expect from a bunch of 20-something-year-old guys, we curiously made our way to the church building at 6:30. Boy, were we surprised at what we found there! As we drove into the parking lot, we saw several guys standing on the curb. By the time we had parked, they were at our car, offering to escort us in to the building. They led us down a lighted pathway into the decorated cultural hall and seated us at beautifully set tables (complete with tablecloths that they ironed themselves). For the next hour and a half, we were waited on hand and foot--someone was always nearby offering us a refill of our glass, clearing a plate, or bringing one of the four courses of the meal! While we ate, they entertained us with songs, magic, juggling, ad even a barbershop quartet! Once dinner was completed and cleared away, each man asked a girl to dance and we spent the rest of the evening twirling around and being treated royally by the men of the group. I couldn't stop smiling (and neither could they)! To top it all off, the guys made each girl a small gift of this rose in a small seed pot. Yes, they MADE these themselves!

I could not believe how incredibly hard these guys worked to honor us for one night. They could ave done half as much and we would have been impressed. Instead, they blew us away with their efforts and chivalrous behavior. At the end of the night, a friend of mine commented, "I'm not sure if this was really a girls appreciation night, or if it was a night for the girls to realize how awesome these guys are so we appreciate them more." Too true.

Either way, it seemed to me that everyone involved had a good time at what the gentlemen aptly titled, "A Night to Remember."

My Love/Hate Relationship

I have a dilemma. I love finishing books, and I hate finishing books. I love the relief of a long-awaited resolution, of knowing that the problems are all worked out and that life is back to normal. But, that's exactly what I hate, too, because life is never really "back to normal." In life each story leads to another, changing us as we experience new things. I hate saying goodbye to characters, not knowing where their story will take them next. I'm not content to have only one piece of the puzzle; I want to see the whole picture of a human life. Yet, I suppose that is one of th wonders of literature. An author invites you into someone's life for awhile, and you just get a glimpse. Then, you're free to explore and conceive the rest of the life yourself; you can create realities sparked from the imagination held within the pages of a book. What a wonderful opportunity!

In honor of reading, here are some favorites that I've read in the last year or so.