***Edit***

Thanks Tamara1221 for pointing out that it was Eddie RABBIT — not Eddie Money who sang that! I knew it was an Eddie with an object last name. I was on the right track!

Last night as we lay in bed, listening to the rain pound down steadily for the third day in the row, my husband wondered if he might need to paddle to work. He suggested he could take his surfboard and ride it down. I commented that going down would be relatively easy, but coming back up the hill several thousand feet in altitude from sea level, that might pose more difficulty  We began imaging possibilities. We ended up with him wake boarding up, towed by a local pick up or jeep.

Hopefully, that won’t be necessary.

The rain has stopped for time being. The sky however looks dark and unpromising. I love rain. Remember that old Eddie Money song… “I love a rainy night”? I do. Love the rain. Always have. Growing up in AZ the monsoon storms were amazing and exciting. These quiet, cool and dark rainy days are perfect for curling up with a book, and a hot cup of coffee. I love it!! Of course it’s spring break, so the girls aren’t that happy, since they had visions of lazy days playing in the waves and soaking up some sun. Now however they are indoors, hangin’ with friends and spending too much time on the computer and watching TV. I met a tourist from AZ the a week or so ago in Costco. He was sunburned (of course) and had biked down Haleakala, been on a whale watch, and been snorkeling. When I asked him how he had enjoyed his stay, he shrugged, and said it was “alright.”. It had rained too much for him, and he wished that we’d had better weather. This is our winter, and rain is our winter weather. You book your vacation for tropical winter, and you take your chances. You want pretty much guaranteed good weather and constant sunshine, plan for summer.

Oldest is having a “movie night” tonight. She invited about 10 teen agers over to watch movies and hang out. We are providing movies, a dy spot to sit, and earplugs for grownups. Oh, wait, that’s us.Oh boy am I excited. Can you tell?  Nah… just kidding. I’m actually really glad that my kids have friends, and that their friends enjoy coming over here. That’s what we all really want. Even if might be more difficult, more expensive, and much louder! Still, if she’s here, then I know where she is, if her friends are here, I know what they are like, and if they are in my house then I know what they are doing. And since I’m a pro, as discussed in previous posts, I like to know the situations I’m in!

I’m off to get things ready for the day…. my routine will include taking tylenol in advance, laying in a supply of earplug, cleaning my room and stocking it with food and supplies so that I have a place to go hide.

I’m going to post a few more pictures that I had for the topic patterns. I posted late that night, and some of the pictures I’d wanted to post, didn’t quite make it on. Have a good one!

* edited** I removed the pictures. I don’t know how long it takes to download my page with dial up, but I figured I’d remove some of the pics to make it easier.     

Question for the day:

What’s your favorite kind of weather??

**edited** removed pictures to reduce download time. 

This is my entry for the Photo Weekly Challenge hosted by wickedgoodgal. The topic is patterns. I have soooo…. many pictures for this as that is one of my big subjects. I love to look for patterns and snap shots of that stuff. I especially enjoy using Macro photography. I find that nature provides many interesting objects if we just look a little closer. Enjoy!

Landlord didn’t bring son to be home schooled today. No big deal, I was hoping for a day off anyway. He just called though and wants me to write up something to state what I’ve been covering with “W” so he can present it in court. <Heavy Sigh> Why do they do that?? They are totally inconsistent in this child’s education. (he’s been expelled since OCTOBER). Even while I’ve been home schooling him, he’s late almost every day, sometimes by as much as 1 hour! We don’t start till 9:30 (for him) for goodness sakes. You’d think mom or dad, whoever has him, could get him up, dressed and fed by then. They say he likes to sleep late. SOOOO??? Don’t we all??? Have him go to bed earlier if he’s that tired. Sounds like he needs an 8:30 bedtime then.

One of my teacher’s has give us no grades at all. Last week she sent out a notice saying we would receive grades by mid week, end of the week at the latest. Exactly how end of the week do you think she means? I consider Friday the end of the school week. Do you think she’s waiting till midnight to post grades? Why is she doing this?? I understand the challenge to get grades out on time, but we have had most of our work turned in for 3 .. yes count them 3 weeks now. No Grades at all. None on the papers which were submitted at the beginning of the month, none of the final exam which was submitted over a week ago. Actually, no grades of any kind for the entire class. I have no idea of how she will grade me. She keeps telling me I’m doing fine, but I really just want to see the grade. Her idea of fine, and mine might be totally different. I’ve e mailed her twice now, no response. I think she’s intentionally trying to drive me over the edge.

My husband’s unit is having a barbecue today. Unfortunately they are having it at Kalama park, and we don’t like it there. It’s not very family friendly. There’s no close beach access, and when you walk to the beach that’s available, it’s full of lava rock and coral so you better have water shoes or stay at the shoreline. Their is a nice playground, but as the park is smack downtown and home to a skate park, it’s frequently full of older kids who are rough, crude, and frequently involved in drugs and gangs… not so conducive to little toddler play. In addition, there is a large homeless population that hangs out there, which while often not threatening, is a little creepy and prevents me from letting my teenage daughters and their friends roam unsupervised. (Safety first). Why do they have it there?? Well… quite a few of the officers, including the Commander and the Program director, are big into volleyball and sports and the one thing that Kalama does have is two very nice sand volleyball courts with nets. So… Kalama it is, but not for me, not today.

Instead I’ll be watching W, while the his folks are in court. Which means…… he’ll play outside with youngest dd and friend, and I’ll watch some netflixs I haven’t had time to watch yet so I can send them on back.

I’m off to get that write up done.

What bugs you that people do?

 Today was tiring. Last night Silver_Fangz made rice crispy treats to take to school and sell. She sold all of them by her 3rd period of the day. BEfORE  lunch even! She called wanting us to make more and bring them to school. HAH! I don’t think so!! I had to go shopping for brownie supplies and make brownies for her meeting this afternoon. I also had to get regular shopping stuff… that involved a trip to Costco. Don’t you love stores that only have things in drum sizes. How can you go wrong with a 50 lb brick of cheese. Yeah. I need that. What I did need in industrial sizes, they didn’t have. I need about a truckload of rice crispies, and a vat or two of marshmallows. Hey if Silver_Fangz can make 10-15 dollars a day hawking sticky cereal bars that goes a long way to help defray the cost of this trip. She’s earned about 700.00 dollars so far. She still has a long way to go. But in the end it will be ohh so worth it!!

I can’t believe she’s going overseas by herself. That’s kind of scary… I mean I trust her, but hey… I’m a mom!! That’s my job… to worry. The rest of my job is to nag. Oh some where in there I cuddle, kiss boo-boos, read bedtime stories, provide a shoulder to cry, encourage, badger, teach, support, inspire, and spend an awful lot of time cleaning up after them. But primarily, I worry and nag. I’m really good at both. Hey… I’m a pro.

Not every one can be a professional…. and it takes a lot of training. I had to pass Puking at 3:00 am 101, Playdoh Removal 112, and the dreaded How to deal with Excuses 201. That was a tough one, you have to have your child get good grades in school while dealing with I forgot, I lost it, I don’t know how, I’m too tired, I don’t remember how, and It’s just the teacher, she hates me. In addition, I had to learn how to cook with one hand, balance the checkbook with the other, and keep track of my little ones, herding them with my feet. After many selfless hours, and years of hard work, I finally attained pro status. Which doesn’t mean I get paid more, or earn more recognition. But, rather that I am now capable of doing twice the work, with half the materials, in half the time, and everyone will look at me and say…Can you get me a drink?

Like I said.. I’m a pro.

More home schooling fun. Woot.

Nah… really I love it. We’ve just been kind of slacking in that department since I was so swamped with finals. We’re playing “put your nose to the grindstone” now. I also did some shopping for microscopes. We need a good one, I’m tired of these cheap things we get with science kits or that the charter school has. Please!! You could see things better with a flashlight and a magnifier! Some things we don’t really want under a microscope. I won’t even begin to list those. You know you can buy prepared slides of anthrax? Doesn’t that seem…. dangerous? Obviously it’s been neutralized or whatever, but still, kind of scary. Wonder what else you can buy slides of…. plutonium???

Silver_Fangz found a Jackson Chameleon on the way home from school. She opted to not keep him (whew!). So he is now happily living in the trees behind our house. I am relieved mostly because I dread feeding reptiles. We had a tarantula for awhile in AZ (we caught it in our front yard, oh goodie.). The worst part was feeding the dang thing. I didn’t mind the tarantula — but I HATE crickets. Yuck!!! I know, I know….. there is something wrong with this picture. Don’t mind big hairy spiders, but can’t stand the little jumping crickets. All I can say is….. EWWW… makes me shudder to think about it.

We have had a menagerie of critters come through our house. At one point we had: 7 fish, 1 lizard, 1 tarantula, 1 cockatiel, 1 crawfish, 1 guinea pig, 2 gerbils, 2 cats, and 1 dog and about 20 tadpoles/frogs. Boy, was that fun. —- NOT! Several moves later (one to a remote — ok, semi-remote island) we are down to 2 dogs and 1 cat. 1 of the dogs is being fostered by my folks as the vet felt she was too old and fragile to make the journey and do the quarantine and kennel stay. She is 14, that’s pretty old, especially for a bigger dog. The cat and dog we have now are locals. Hawaiian natives.

Still waiting on my grades. Patience, is not one of my strong suits. Heck, it’s not even one of my weak suits — I just don’t have any. If they don’t give me my grades soon I’m going to lose my mind (what little I have left after this last semester). Especially since I’m kind of anal about my grades. For instance last semester I received an A with 94% in one class, I was ticked at myself for not redoing an assignment and giving myself a higher %. Why?? I don’t know! An A is an A right? I guess I just have to admit it. I’m slightly unhinged.

Ok enough time wasting — I’m off to clean up the house and start on some other chores. Have a great evening everyone!

Question for the day: What’s the most exotic / favorite pet you’ve had??

 Last week when we went to church our usual priest was back. We’ve had visiting priests for awhile now. I really like Father Joe though. He is Philippine. He has quite a strong accent and we sometimes have to work very hard to understand him. Our last priest (also a Father Joe… hmmm) was Vietnamese and VERY hard to understand. Because of this, I have learned to listen very closely and to focus on the message rather than the messenger.

The homily last week was very moving. Father always gives strong homilies, even if we have to work to understand them. He discussed how like the disciples we all have events that transfigure us. Mountaintop experiences. He challenged us to examine these experiences. He then reminded us that not all of our experiences were Mountaintop transfiguring experiences but that life is lived on a variety of levels. The hills of monotony, where we go to work every day, have dinner, clean house, take care of the regular day to day needs. The Valleys of disappointment, despair and tragedy, where we deal with the circumstances that exist in our life, good and bad. and the Plains of quiet reflection, solitude, prayer and meditation. He encouraged us to live on all the levels, not just looking for mountaintop experiences, but recognize that time spent on all the other planes allows us to achieve those mountaintop experiences.

I am not doing his words justice, but I have been thinking about them this week. In one of my classes we have been discussing the concept of peace. It goes deeper than that though, we are looking not just at the absence of violence, but the presence of social justice. It’s deep stuff. I guess that’s why I’m not in a very funny mood right now. Instead I feel kind of retrospective.

I also found out a good friend is struggling with a variety of difficult problems, health, family and emotional. I wish I could do more than I am, and will have to consider how to accomplish that. My sister too is struggling with relationships and doing the single mom thing. Hubby was gone for a year and I almost lost it. I don’t know how my friend and my sister are hanging in there. I wish them only good things. How do you help those that you are far away from? Let them know you are there and you care. Long distance support is nice, but when it comes down to it, you just want someone to take you out for ice cream and coffee and escape for awhile. Well, I do. What do you guys think? Any good suggestions out there?

ok, didn’t care for how the pictures turned out, so I’m just going to post one or two a day. So many pictures… so little time.

I have been trying to spend some time scrapbooking as well. I’m reading a couple of books, and studying for final exams. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time in my day for housework……. ::grin:: Darn it!

edited  *** removed pictures so those with dial up don’t have to wait forever for the site to load *****

King Protea, Bottlebrush, and Black Rose (I think) from the Lavendar farm.

On sunday we went to the 5:30 pm mass, as usual (the Life Teen Choir is a big draw, we all love music and when the music is so good, and the message is divine, how can we resist?). Unfortuantely, my youngest dd was not in attendance. Not becuase she had special permission to skip church, but because the people we trusted to taker her out to a movie failed to bring her home in time. This actually, really ticked me off.

They left the house at 9:30 am. The plan was to go to friend’s house and hang out untill time to catch the early movie. Squirt left with her father’s admoinshment to be home NO LATER than 4:45 so we could get to church on time. Friend’s mom (who is somewhat lacking in the discipline arena) calls to confirm plans with the promise to have her back about 3:00.  So how is it that at 4:55 when we left they were still unaccounted for???? No phone call, “gee I’m sorry I failed to return your child as promised”, or, “Sorry we’re late, but we are all fine”, no… “I know we’re 2 hours overdue, but just want to reassure you everything is ok”.  I call the house and leave several messages and my cell phone number. I curse myself for not getting Squirt her own cell phone so I can track her down like a stalker parent. I curse friend’s mom for being so predictably unreliable.

Driving down the highway at 5:05 we see them pass us headed home. I’m ticked. I call our house to leave a message and discover I’ve left the fax machine enabled. I wait patiently for them to call me like an self-respecting adult would. No call.

5:25 we are pulling into church. They have been home about 15 minutes or more. No call. Fine… I’LL CALL! Friend’s mom answers the phone. She is sickly sweet….. “oh we just this minute got home”…..I’m unimpressed….”can I talk to Squirt please”…. she hems and haws and finally goes to get her, then she gets back on the line… “I bet you guys have already left huh? (GEE, what a genius!) I’m sorry, things we just so…. bad well you wouldn’t believe it” — I reply… “Can I please talk to Squirt”. I’m not happy with her and don’t want to soothe her guilty feelings right now. Squirt finally gets on the line, I give her instructions and sign off.

Later that evening when we’ve returned home I get the story. Friend’s mom spent over 1 hour trying to make her 7 year old daughter get in the car. 7yo was running around the parking lot, kicking mom and throwing a tantrum cause she wanted to go see the bunnies in the pet store. After mom let her do that she threw a tantrum, running around, kicking mom becuase she wanted to get a book from the book store, and buy a fish. It took the mom, 17 yo son, and two 12yo’s over an hour to get this kid in the car.

My question… what the heck is mom going to do when daughter is 16, doing drugs and throwing a tantrum in the store because mom won’t buy her the latest … whatever… she feels she needs/deserves. Mom I think is headed towards a very unpleasant situation. All of her kids are similar. This is the same mom that I told you the daughter pushed her when they got into a fight (the 12yo) and she got 2 days restriciton, new clothes, new bedroom furniture and her room cleaned by mom out of it. My daughter would still be looking for the rest of her teeth. (Exaggeration — don’t panic, I’m not an abusive mom). But lets just say the only benefit my daughter would have gotten out of that would have been a renewed sense of respect and a stern lesson on manners.

I know, everyone’s parenting styles are different. But what are we creating by ignoring the need for self discipline, self restraint, respect and manners? What do you guys think?

Alright, a picture update. I’m trying a new technique so we’ll see how this works. Here’s a breakdown on what your seeing. (click on it to enlarge)

Starting from top and working clockwise:

My dad going out for his introductory dive with our favorite dive instructor.. Rachel (bundle!) — she nicknamed Silver_fangz the unidiver… you figure that one out, but trust me, it’s not good. This is a red sand beach, it is red from the iron in lava — it’s actually rusting!  A great big turtle that hubby and the girls met on their dive and swam with for a little while. This picture is hard to see in this size but it turned out great, you can see the marbling in his shell and everything. This is Waimoku falls, the end of a long trail 4 miles through mud and jungle. Here is some bamboo forest, they have made a boardwalk because it’s so thick the ground never dries out. This is Waihee falls — this is one of two swinging bridges they we had to cross.

I have a ton of more pictures, I’m thinking I’ll start posting one or two or day with my regular posts. I’m off to take Squirt to State mandated testing — whoo hoo.

Oh BTW: my professor gave me 25/25 on my PPT and asked my permission to show it to his other assessment class at UH. Cool huh?

Well it’s been a long time.  I’ve been soooo busy, but I got it all done. Have final this week and next — and then a few days off. Whew!! I’m really looking forward to a break.

This one course has been kicking my hiney. An assessment class. It’s nothing by tests, tests, and more tests. Jeesh, like that’s what we all want, to learn about tests all day right???

I spent three solid days glued to the computer, typing furiously, stopping only to eat and … well you know….

In the end I had a blurry, bloodshot eyes with permanetly scarred retina from the glow of the computer screen. I have bed sores on my butt from spending three days in a computer chair. The chair was midly comfortable the first day, moderately uncomfortable the second day, and designed by the Marques de Sade on the third day. In addition my fingers are disfigured and I can only hope that some day, some day, I’ll be able to straighten them out again. My head was throbbing, my throat was dry from lack of hydration and my ears were ringing. (ok, that’s my choice — I love listening to loud music while I work, it helps me to think).

I spent a day (or two) vegging out, drinking lots of water and taking Tylenol every 4-6 hours. I’m just about recovered.

Ok, I know, I know — who am I kidding, I asked for this and if I want my masters degree than I have to suck it up right!!! Besides, I brought this on myself by not keeping on top of my work instead of goofing off with my folks!  But none the less….. I felt like I needed to try to garner some sympathy by listing my woes.

Did it work??

I can come up with more…………. you should have seen the condition of the house!! Just that was more than enough to make me cry.

Alright…. enough from the poor pathetic me….. (do you feel sad for me yet?). I just wanted to say hello to everyone.

Oh I did want to let you guys know some things that have been happening around here. First for those of you who may not have heard we have been having tons of flooding. Course most all of it is on O’ahu and Kuai. We have been very fortunate here. O’ahu has had tons problems, including a recent result of the saturated grounds and the high winds… a telephone pole was pulled down creating a dominio effect pulling down 11 others. In addition to that disaster, an air ambulance crashed into a local car dealership here. The pilot and 2  paramedics lost their lives. Cars exploded and burned, it’s so sad to drive by and see the scorced buildings and burnt up cars and know that something truly terrible happened there. We are about to get more rain…. great. just what we need.

Ok, I’m off, keep us all in your thoughts, we don’t want to float any further away then we are! Take  care all!

later!

I’ve been up since 5:30 this morning… oops, nope that yesterday morning now! Working on my school work that I fell dismally behind in while my folks were here. I miss them already. Now… I have to go to bed and try to refresh my mush brain. I have been researching, writing a PLEP, an IEP and the beginings of a paper in APA format. I have to finish the paper, complete and educational eval, create a 15 slide power point, and write another 10 page paper.

The final assignment is due by Sunday, so I expect to make a real entry and comments on Monday. Until then, everyone have a great week end!

Sizzle, Sizzle…………  

This is my brain on education………….

Any questions??