Tsunami

Friday night I was at work. At around 9pm, one of our co-workers informed us that Chile had an earthquake and that there was a tsunami advisory. Not being too alarmed by this, I though I'd better let Randy know, just in case. I texted him and tuned into the news. At about midnight, the advisory was bumped up to a warning. This seemed like it was for real now. The news was saying that the tsunami would hit us at about 11:15am. The sirens were set to go off at 6am. I wasn't too worried because we live on a hill, away from the evacuation zones. At one point, we did call our boss to let her know what was going on. All night, we received calls from employees to the hospital making sure we knew what was going on. At 3am, my mother-in-law called inviting us to come and sit out the tsunami at her house. I called my husband and let him know. We made the decision to stay put. We didn't want to risk getting stuck on the road, since half the drive was along the coast. My sister-in-law later called with the same invitation. I would have loved to go hang out with family, but my husband was right. We needed to just stay put. As my shift was nearing it's end, our disaster team came in. We had a meeting, discussing what needs to be done. It was interesting to be a part of that. Our biggest concern was making sure we weren't inundated with people. When I was done at the hospital, Randy picked me up. On the hospital grounds were people who had evacuated there, BBQing on the lawn, having a good old time. Only in Kahuku. LOL! I got home, and my husband had filled all the coolers we had with water. I actually felt better knowing that. I showered and crashed. Yup. I slept right through all the tsunami excitement. I awoke to find that one of our home teachers had dropped off MRE's for our family. I felt so "taken care of". If this experience wasn't enough of a motivator to get my 72hr kits ready, I don't know what will. I've got a good start. Wish me luck.

Kahuku Songfest 2010 Champions

Leigh is at the very left, 4th one from the top. The Intermediate grades competed against all the high school grades and won!!

GREAT ALOHA RUN!

I started training for this race in September. This race was 8.15 miles, the longest run I have ever done. When I first got into running, 5k's (3.1 miles) were the only races I was interested in. Short and simple. The Great Aloha Run is a race my sister-in-law does every year. She encouraged me to do it. I thought about it and said why not. I made a goal to be able to run 10 miles before the race. With the help of friends who trained for it as well, I was able to hit that goal. I ran, by myself between 5:30am and 7:30am in the rain that morning I hit 10 miles. Yes, I was very sore!

In order to get to the race on time, my friends and I had to be up somewhere during the 3 o'clock hour to get ready and leave at 4am. It was so fun to do it with friends! Going to the bathroom was such an issue. We were nervous about needing to go during the race. We used the bathroom at the stadium parking lot and at Safeway after the shuttle dropped us off. There were soooooo many people. I think it is estimated that about 22,000 people usually run this race. When we were at the starting line, you could definitely feel the energy of everyone ready to tackle the 8.15 miles of road ahead of us.

Reality set in during the 1st mile that maybe I wouldn't hit my goal. My new goal was just to run the whole race. When I saw the 8 mile marker, I was so happy to see the end in sight. I had run the whole race and was happy to finish.

I was hot and tired, but glad to be done.

The girls!!! Everyone did awesome!! Jen Hippolite, Me, U'i Kaitoku, and LeeAnn Akina at the bottom.
Randy and the kids were there to see me finish. Yay! I did it.

Later, I looked up my time online and saw I did it in 1:32 hr. I actually surprised myself. I felt like I had run slower than that. I was happy, but the competitive side kicked in and I thought, "Awh man! I could have run a little faster to make time!" Oh well, there's always next year.

All of us ladies had so much fun, there's talk now of a half-marathon in June. I'll keep you posted.

Valentine's Weekend

Valentine's seemed like it lasted all weekend (not that I'm complaining).

We started off on Thursday (Feb. 11th) with Kahuku Elementary's traditional Sweetheart Luncheon. The kids, as well as Randy and I were excited to have lunch together. The kids gave their requests for their special lunches. I think because I had worked the night before, the younger ones were a little worried I would forget. No worries ---- mommy pulled through! The kids were excited to have lunch with us. It was cute because the younger ones just wanted to be with us the whole time.

Micah showing his toy he got with his Happy Meal.

Kara and Randy.

Tyler and Mom. Yes, I am awake in this picture.

Saturday evening, Randy and I went out to dinner for Valentine's. On the way, we stopped at the Neil Blaisdell to pick up my race packet for the Great Aloha Run on Monday. It was great to go somewhere nice, eat good food, talk about all that's going on with our little family. Of course I don't have pictures of the evening. We went to P.F. Chang's. It did make me miss AZ while we were eating there. We went all out with dinner. We had appetizers, main course and desert. I was stuffed! We definitely went home with happy tummies.

Sunday, Randy gave me a book called "Confessions of an Unbalanced Woman". LOL! Randy thought it would be a cute book to give me. It is really funny. I am enjoying it! I gave Randy "Kung-Fu Panda". I know, funny, huh. He really likes that DVD. We all watched it in the afternoon. We were supposed have done secret Valentine's, but it didn't work out that way. So we had the kids get up and say nice things about the person they picked and we had to guess. They seemed to have fun with that. I think next year we will do something a little different.

Happy Valentine's!!

. . . and on this farm he had some Chickens! E- I - E - I - O!

We finally cracked! We have not just one but TWO chicks in our possession! Every year, Kara's teacher brings eggs to school for the kids to hatch in the incubator they have in her classroom. Once they are hatched, if the kids want, they may take one home.

Well, when the day came, we hemmmed and hawwwwed about it. After speaking with the teacher, she informed me that when the chicks get big, we could bring them back and she would let them loose on her farm that they have. With that in mind, I conferred with Randy and we decided WHY NOT!

We went originally to get one chick. There were two left. A female and male. Kara wanted the male. We walked out there, only to be chased down by her teacher. She asked if we wouldn't mind taking the other chick because she was crying. Aaawwwwh! I figured what's one more. So we went back and got the female.


We went to Ace Hardware, picked up some chickenwire, and I built a mini-chicken-coop for our chickens. We put it on the side of our house. When it rains. We put the chicks under our house.



Kara's been very good about taking care of them. Every morning she gets up, gives them water and chicken-feed. After school, she does the same thing. All the kids have been having fun with these new additions. At night if it seems extra cold, and also to quiet the chicks, Kara will throw a blanket over the cage. They are cute because they huddle up together to keep themselves warm.

Oh yeah, in case you're wondering, their names are Mandy (the hen) and Manapua (the rooster).

Latterdaysports.com

This is a BIG reason why I haven't blogged for a while. My husband and I have started a website. I know some of you know this already, but I figured I should blog about it. It has been an interesting experience. If any of you have visited the website and are wondering ----- yes, my husband and I do the interviews. They've been over the phone. Randy did one in person. This has definitely been something that has put me outside of my comfort level. I'm a little more comfortable doing the interviews, but I still get a complex once I put the phone down. Randy is a little more comfortable with it, I guess because it's sports, which is something he loves to talk about. The interviews are just a small portion of what happens before being able to post the stories. There's the initial contacting of the person, getting permission for photos, approval of transcripts, etc. The interviews are interesting though. Hearing people's stories. Even if you're not a sports fan ---- there are neat testimonies borne through all this.

Check it out: latterdaysports.com