My Sister!

I have a sister who is my best friend. You can't get a better friend than my sister Holly! She rocks.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SISTER!
I LOVE YOU.

What you can't see...

is my favorite beach in the photo above, in the title area.
We were taking a "road trip" to the North shore to find a sunny beach to play on and well, it rained a lot that day. As a result we were able to see many rainbows on our "trip."

I had Jack turn around (on that narrow winding road) so that I could take this photo. There were some tourists taking the same photo, but they were crazy, letting their young children stand on the other side of the guardrail. Oh my goodness: I didn't even let my kids get out of the car!

I love views like this. Someday I will get to go back down to this portion of Lumaha'i Beach.

Psalm 139

Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me,
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thoughts from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
you are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there was a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You knew it all.
You have enclosed me behind and before,
and laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, You are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I settle in the remotest part of the sea,
Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
and the light around me will be night,"
Even the darkness is not dark to You,
and the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to you.

For You formed my inward parts,
You wove me in my mother's womb.
I will give thanks to You,
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
and my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would out number the sand.
When I awake, I am still with You.

Thank you.

Untitled: more stuff I like (am thankful for)

sunshine
sand
warm ocean water
family
my kids
friends
sunscreen
aloe vera
picnic lunches
canvas chairs
warm beach towels
blue sky
blue ocean
monk seals
mountain views
igneous rocks
tiny shells
shave ice

--can you guess what we did today?

Sorry for the lavendar. I have a headache today (it is almost gone, for that I am thankful!) and so lavendar is supposed to help in that area, right? hahahah.

I have this friend who has deided to do short daily blogs rather than letting time go by and writing long blogs. I have been enjoying reading her daily posts. She is studying in Rome at the present and she has such adventures. Makes me almost envious because I love to travel and see new places. But I am truly not. I am having my own adventures and opportunities. Sometimes it doesn't seem so adventurous, since this is now "home" but there are days when I can truly appreciate the absolute beauty of this island. Then there are days when I wish roaches weren't part of the adventure! thankfully we haven't had one of those for awhile.

I am thankful that I have friends who keep in touch regularly. I have friends who miss me (and I miss them too). We are all in this big adventure of life in different areas of the world and the US and I am OK with it.

This is all sounding rather random. My apologies. I am going to go now because of the next thing I am super thankful for. BOTH. MY. KIDS. ARE. SLEEPING. oh yeah. It is nap time for me too.

Merci! Mahalo! Arigato!

I am still mulling over ideas in my head about the purpose for this blog. I am still using that freewebs page for family updates, but this spot keeps yelling at me to write.

I need to be consciously thankful. So. Here I am going to write about stuff I am thankful for. So why am I still mulling over this idea? Not sure of the format. Do I do "Favorite Things" or "Stuff I Like" or "For this I am grateful" or "I. Am. Thankful. For. (the following)." It really does make a difference. Not really. But yes. Because in my HEAD it is different and that is what matters. Right?

I have so much to be thankful for that I don't know where to begin. Just this evening I was watching a DVD that I am going to show to the youth at my church in preparation and as part of the 30 Hour Famine (partnering with NCM) we are participating in a couple weeks from now. It was hard not to cry! Kids who have absolutely nothing and I have food scrapings to send down my garbage disposal. 29,000 kids die EACH DAY do to hunger and malnutrition...

If you happen to stumble across this blog please take the time to follow the link to World Vision and check out their orginization and how you can make a difference in the life of a child: be it through sponsoring a child, or participating in the 30 Hour Famine. World Vision is a charity organization that I believe in. Do check out thier site for more information. There are two main issues that tug at my heart: kids who go hungry and kids who don't have education. WV addresses both needs and more.

So yeah. I am thankful for my God, family, food, a nice place to live (even with those bugs I always complain about), nice weather, etc!

Feel free to comment with what you are thankful for. It is healthy to be thankful. Take the first step and let me know what makes you say "thank you!"