First day of public school went well. She had no problem with any of her classes.  Matter of fact her Math teacher is suggesting she move to the  Advanced Math class. (he he he he). Course Squirt scared the crap out of me.

Yesterday talking about starting school she mentioned she was nervous. Being the mom, I took this as my cue to help her prepare. I asked the standard Psych question “What’s the worst that could happen?” Thinking she would talk about missing class, getting lost or not making any friends — the usually teen fears. Nope.

“Somebody could beat the crap out of me….JUST Because.”  — I laughed and told her that was highly unlikely!

I dropped her off this morning and watched as she determinedly walked up the path, shoulders back, back straight, chin up, never looking back. (At this point I admit I shed a tear or two for my courageous daughter and seeing my baby march off to face public school).

We planned where I would pick her up and I showed up at the appointed time.  10 minutes after school gets out, I start getting concerned. I call her cell, but it’s still off. 15 minutes since school got out, most the kids are gone, Squirt is no where to be seen. I call her cell again, nope still off. 18 minutes…call again, nope. Getting worried now…. I start thinking… OMG — someone did beat her up, that’s why she’s not here! 23 after, I’ve called her cell several more times. I try Silver_Fangz, maybe she’s heard from her. She answers and I ask “Have you heard from your sister? She didn’t show up after school.”

Silver_Fangz … uh yeah, she’s right here with me!
Me: WHAT!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? I”M GOING TO KILL HER! SHE ALMOST GAVE ME HEART FAILURE!!!!
Squirt: I’m sorry! I forgot you were going to pick me up, I rode the bus. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry! (repeat ad nauseam)
Me: Grrrrrr…………………

But it all worked out and she had a good day. Hooray! Tomorrow is Halloween — I never put our decorations…(bad mom).  Everybody have a great Halloween!l

It  is the Xterra 10K Makena Scramble. What’s a Scramble?
Scram·ble (intransitive verb)

Definition: To clamber over rough terrain; to move uninhibited; to
travel, go, locomote in a disorderly fashion; to free yourself from the
ordinary and run wild!

Basically, it’s a 10 K run on  Xterraroids.

In their own words:
Runners begin with an ascent up the south slope of Haleakala into
the desert-like environment; all the while, the hot temperature
enlightens racers why it is named “House of the Sun”.  After a pass
though Cactus Alley, competitors are treated to a run on the white
sands of Makena Beach, famed as one of the most beautiful beaches in
the world. 

The course continues through the “spooky” forest
adorned with kiawe thorns and leads to a striking black sand beach, but
beware, because the final leg is ornamented with grapefruit-sized
cobblestones and lava rocks that are infamous for grabbing and twisting
unsuspecting ankles

.

So, what’s the point of my little discourse on the 10K Xterra Scramble? Hubby and some of his friends went out yesterday and tried to kill themselves with this “little” run. Actually they had a great time while I and another wife hung out on the beach relaxing. We made up to the finish line to snap some pictures and welcome the returning warriors!

I’m very proud of hubby — not so bad for a guy in his late forties!!

Then we came home and started moving the fridges. We have two, one that we take everywhere because we love it so much, and the crappy one the landlord has in the house. Well the crappy one started doing an extra crappy job. I got tired of throwing food away because it kept spoiling so I asked hubby to switch them. Cost of living is high enough here without throwing away milk, cheese and other misc. food stuffs and having to replace them regularly.

Why hubby choose yesterday to do this heavy duty menial task — no clue. But it’s done. We cleaned both fridges out thoroughly, and got rid of all the food that needed to be disposed of. Boy did hubby sleep well!

So did I. It’s been a busy week. Had MAJOR problems with the charter school (That’s a whole nother blog — I almost had an aneurysm dealing with them), but Squirt starts normal school tomorrow anyway.  She’s excited and nervous. I think she’ll be just fine. The real bummer is on Friday afternoon a home-school mom called, she had heard about Squirt through a mutual homeschool friend and had some questions for me. Her daughter is small for her age, 13, and thinking about going to same Intermediate school Squirt will be at. If we had hooked up 2 years ago, Squirt would have had a friend that was her age, home-schooled, and liked many of the things that she does……aaaarrrrrghhh.

Murphy’s Law right?
We have another busy day today, so I’m off to catch up and comment and then to get ready to go.

Question of the day:

Sports with a side of extreme or hold the extreme please?

Today started off as the usual fare. Get up, drink coffee, start school work, drink coffee…..

Then as par for a Wednesday — diaster struck. OK, OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration….. ALRIGHT!!! It’s totally dramatized for effect. At any rate, Squirt had a major problem with one of her classes. AGAIN. Another new teachers, who changed everything around and then had a fit when the kids didn’t pick up on it right away. She literally wrote them an email screaming at them. SHE WROTE THE ENTIRE EMAIL LIKE THIS. What are we?? 12? Nope.. not me. There was a bunch of other stuff too. I helped Squirt out and we completed her work for today. Wrote the teacher a scathing email — Alright!Alright!! It wasn’t scathing, but it was harsh! I actually did well holding my tongue. Even hubby was impressed!

The end result was………………(drumroll please)…………….

Squirt is returning to public school…..

GASP!

I’m not sure what I’m going to do. We went down to the local jr. high to talk to them, and she wanted to enroll. Said she’d been thinking about it for awhile. So we did it. She hasn’t attended an in seat school since 2nd grade (she’s in 7th now). I’m kinda freakin’ out. I’m worried about how she’ll handle the schedule, the repetitive tasks, the loud classrooms and the decidedly racist (against non-hawaiians) atmosphere. I hope she’s OK. We met the 7th grade counselor, and the At-Risk counselor is one of the chaperons from Silver_Fangz People to People trip. She saw us and showed Squirt where her office was and told her to come see her whenever she had a problem. She’s so sweet.

So I guess the big question is: What am I going to do with myself all day — ALONE?

Hmmmmm………

I guess that’s not as big a question as I thought….I can think of all kinds of things to do…..

What about you…..any suggestions?

Sorry it’s been so long. I have managed to hop on and read and comment some, but writing a new entry required more time than I’ve had. Silver_Fangz is slowly getting better…. and the cultures came back negative…so we’ll see. We had company over Saturday night for dinner. Hubby made BBQ Brisket — and for those fortunate few who have had the pleasure of tasting hubby’s brisket i know that you are right now rushing to get a napkin to wipe of the drool running from lips.  Let’s just say that at one time he was considering 1) opening his own BBQ stand and 2) bottling and selling his BBQ sauce — which is tangy if you like that kind it’s the best!

In addition to all the fun previously discussed I’ve read like 6 chapters in various text books, completed 3 assignments and made replies to others assignments.  Fun huh? Whoooeeee! Everybody Parteeee….

Saturday on the way home from the gym for me, mall for SF we decided that there was a secret society The Order of Pissing Annette Off. They meet in the middle of parking lots, blocking the thorough fare, while chatting to people standing outside. If you try to pass them, they start going, only to stop again and get on the cell phone. As a moral principal, they refuse to use their blinkers. We believe they are all genetically connected to hubby. They are also the same people who go 10 miles UNDER the speed limit while gawking out the side window — until you go to pass them at which time they will race ahead at 100 mph in order to be first (frontitis).  Matter of fact, one of these Member of  OPAO evidently wanted to get in my lane last night (I had no idea of his desire, because of his refusal to turn on a blinker). At the first light he was too slow to cut me off after stopping for the red. The second light, he decided that he WOULD be in front and in order to accomplish this he decided it was best if he started before the light even turned green. He completely ran the light. I graciously let him go first.

Luckily — I had recognized the signs and knew he was OPAO — I just ignored him and carried on.

What is it about a blinker that causes people to react so negatively?? Here people with blinkers on are usually let in. They really do (mostly) drive with Aloha here….. but guess what, if I have NO clue you want in, I’m probably not going to make room.  My hubby does it all the time…..drives along in the wrong lane from where we need to be, muttering that “if someone will just let me in”…. I always suggest (very sweetly of course) that he turn on his blinker so they would have A CLUE!!!!

So…are you a member of OPAO????

*edit*
Got this from sunnycligurl’s site. She requested that it be posted on your own site, so here it is!

First here is the link to find your own weird holiday Bizarre Holidays

My holiday is: Flitch Day. What on EARTH is Flitch day you may ask?? (ME too!) Here’s what they have to say:
An old custom from yesteryear developed into the holiday of
Flitch Day. Bacon was given to any married couple who could prove they
had lived in harmony and fidelity for one year. Very few “took home the
bacon”.

Silver_Fangz is sick — again!! Started with a sore throat Monday, and then yesterday her ears starting hurting again. I had already gotten her an appointment she goes this morning. Wish us luck. Poor thing, she was so upset when her ears started hurting. She’s so tired of being sick. Add to that the drama of being 15 and in a rocky relationship, and you get how her month is going –.

Hopefully the doc can fix her up. As for the relationship, I think she’s working really hard at it, but a lot of damage has been done. Not sure if it’s salvagable. I just wish she could have some fun without all the drama day in and day out.

When I was 15 I didn’t have this kind of drama. Course I only had one guy I really cared enough about to get upset over and he didn’t do drama either. Worked out well. OK – he did a little drama, nothing terribly major though.

Then maybe again,  it might have something to do with the haze that surrounded me back then…..hmmmm……………….

I’ve been finding damage from the earthquake…. little things, molding coming off windows, my pantry separated and the shelves don’t “fit” anymore, the top of my banister on my lanai separated…. jeesh. Glad I don’t have to fix all this stuff!

This is a picture from the flooding on Monday — but to tell you the truth, coming from AZ and experience Monsoon flooding every year, this doesn’t really look like flooding.

This…however, looks like flooding!

So instead of complaining, I’m going to send some thoughts and prayers to those worse off than us…. like those folks in Houston.

Well…Silver_Fangz just came home from school (she made it an 1 1/2– not good) so I’m of to take care of her. Then I have 500 words to write, and about 8 chapters to read from three different text books, so I probably won’t be back on today. I’ll try to update and let you know how the Dr. appt went. 

What about you guys?? Drama or calm relationships?

So I’ve been begging for  rain. We’ve been under water restrictions, while living in paradise my lawn is yucky and brown.

I’ve been waiting and waiting.

So it came….. and came……. and came, just down in buckets. We had flash flooding, road closures etc.

I was ready to get an ark ready and start loading it. I have two cats, hubby has 2 bmws, we have 2 TVs oh yeah…and 2 kids. At least with an ark I could get home….. After yesterday with the earthquake and power outage I was just like…. great!

I don’t really have anything to talk about. I wanted to thank everyone on for thinking of me. That’s so sweet of everyone!!! Awwww……. I feel so special.

We’ve been watching the kitten play. Fun stuff…. it’s some sort of pathetic example of my life that I can sit around for the evening being entertained by the antics of a kitten.

On David Letterman they are forcing adorable dogs to put on hideous hair pieces……..it should be considered animal cruelty. They can cost up to $1000s of dollars – the wigs not the dogs.  This lady is seriously deranged. What person would buy a wig for a dog??? And what kind of seriously sick person would think of inventing them????
I hope this pug bites her, or at the very least poops on Dave’s desk. Now that would be entertaining!

I’m very frightened….. much like the chiauaua now sitting on the desk.

Would you buy a wig for a dog?

You may have heard on the news that we experienced  “Twin Quakes” this morning starting at 7:08. The first quake was a 6.5 and lasted what felt like almost a minute. The second one a few minutes later (which we originally thought was an aftershock) was a 5.9.  It was quite short lived. The power went out with the first quake. It was off for 3 hours.  We weren’t able to get any news at all for the first  1/2 hour to hour.  It took along time to get some information, and it’s still sketchy. For instance we know that the quake hit of f the  west coast of the island of Hawaii,  and that they were the hardest hit. We heard that here  on Maui  experienced asphalt waves in parking lots. We know power is off pretty much state wide, but I heard on the radio that  Lanai escaped  with their power intact. Outbound flights state wide are canceled, but they are letting in inbound flights that must come in.

Fun huh?

I was laying in bed when the walls, windows and furniture was shaking like crazy. We got out of the house (our house is built on stilts, not the ideal location for an earthquake). We had some standing fans fall over, stuff came out of cupboards, and pictures are all crooked. And while we were frightened and concerned, we are unhurt and we suffered no damaged. Here on Maui we had rock slides, Hana Highway is closed due to these rock slides. They are requesting that all island people stay at home and off the roads, and stay off the phones leaving the lines clear for emergency use.

More info is coming in slowly and I’ll keep you up-to-date.

A hui hoy!

Yesterday was Hubby’s birthday. Many of you have heard me talk about my hubby many times. Sometimes in frustration, sometimes in  anger (although rarely) but always with love. You have heard our story of how we met. You have heard me talk about him being a late bloomer. You’ve seen pictures of our amazing trip to Lanai where we celebrated our 20th anniversary, and at all times you’ve known he’s my best friend. He encourages me, supports me,  pushes me and when occasion demands it –  snaps me out of it. He’s there for the sad, bad and glad times and for the dreams which he sometimes has to pay for.. He’s almost always good natured, cheerful smiling and friendly. He’s gregarious and loves to talk  (my dad says if you ask him the time he’ll tell you how to build a watch).  He is dearly loved by all of us here and by family and friends alike.

He loves to surf, SCUBA, Golf, hike and most of all play with his babies — no, not the girls (although he loves them to distraction) his 2 BMW M3s. He tinkers with them, builds models of them and races them. He’s in car clubs, M3 clubs and BMW clubs. The UPS man is a regular around here and almost always he is delivering some new part that hubby saw on Ebay or through his E30 online group that was “such a good deal”. Once when one of his cars broke down and he was explaining what was wrong he claimed “luckily I have one of ______ (insert random part name here) in stock”. Yikes!! IN STOCK?? Yep. And that’s from a part time perspective with the limitations of being away from the mainland. To say I’m concerned about this when we return would be an understatemet. At one time in CA I had 4 sets (that 4 each set) of tires and rims stacked up in my carport. That’s not including the 2 sets that were on the cars. We would have made Jeff Foxxworthy proud. You might be a redneck if……………….. you have extra tires stacked up around your house…just in case!

 

There’s that beautful smile!

His track baby the Silver BMW

Pictures of two of his “other” favorite activities

He rebuilt his Red Baby’s engine himself… fun stuff!

Hubby with both his babies

Happy Birthday Honey! I love you!

Took the kids to the mall to buy B-day gifts for their dad. Also took along a couple of Silver_Fangz friends and she met up with more there. I think I mentioned before that her and her friends are great kids…. almost without exception, but they are kind of scary looking. Let’s just say they fit right in at Hot Topic and places like that. They have strange hairstyles, weird colored hair, body piercing, and dress in primarily black with leather accents. They are rambunctious and rowdy but generally well behaved (for high school teens in a group).

What amazed me is the looks they got. Now, I usually get lots of looks anyway — after all I’m a Haole (pronounced howl ee) and my children are blond headed, obviously not Hawaiian, and they don’t fit the typical hippie/surfer model either. So, we normally do get some eyeballing.

This kids got actual stares and dirty looks. I was really surprised. People went out of their way to show their disapproval. Now, I can understand if they were cussing, drinking, smoking etc. But they weren’t doing any of that. They were cutting up and laughing — but nothing I would disapprove of. Sad ~ closed minded people miss out on sooo much!

When I told my xanga story, I got quite a few comments about how I spy on my kids and other didn’t need to because they just talk to theirs etc. It really kind of bothered me. To be judged like that. For those that have been reading for awhile, they know my daughter got me onto xanga and even did my first couple of layouts. They know my daughters both tell me just about everything. I won’t say everything, because I’m realistic. My oldest willingly shows me her myspace and lets me read her IMs.  If you have a teenager and you think they tell you everything, you forgot what it was like to be a teen. My daughters feel comfortable telling just about everything and I’m grateful. But, I’m not going to count on that as a primary method for guiding them through their teen years.

What would you think about a teen who:

Always did her chores

Made straight A’s — National Honor Society,. Professional Internship Program, Junior Achievers

Came home by curfew every night

You approved of her friends

Participated in Extracurricular activities like Marching Band

Was agreeable, never argued, and did what she was told?

When I was 9 I started smoking. By 10 I was drinking and smoking pot. By 16 I was a full blown drug addict who had experimented with a variety of drugs and had a daily drinking habit. I was beginning to experiment with more dangerous drugs when my world came apart. My parents were completely oblivious the entire time. Why?? Because I was the teen in the above example. They didn’t know anything was wrong until I started coming home (by curfew) too drunk to maintain in front of them. I knew all the tricks. My parents saw one side ~ the side I wanted them to see. They knew the friends I wanted them to know. They knew what I wanted them to know. My whole life was a lie.

I never want to look back and think “Why didn’t I know what was going on”. I may not always know….but I’ll always know that I made every effort to “TRULY” know what my children are doing, so that I can help them and guide them through this difficult time.

They have plenty of friends…. although I love the fact that I get along fantastically with my daughters, I am their mother. Not their bud. I feel if I have done my job parenting them properly through their teen years, that they will at some times hate me. I’m ok with that. It’s not a popularity contest.

OK – My little rant is over — alright, alright, it was a long rant. But none the less…it’s done now!!! Sorry to burden you, but it was really bothering me! One of the disadvantages to this method of communication, is sometimes you don’t come across as you would in person. I wrote my story tongue-in-cheek and it was taken literally. Also, in an online format you expose yourself to that type of criticism. The rest is worth it though…. don’t you think?

Opinions??? Comments???? Questions??? Suggestions???