Fun Times in HI Before NC

Eve and I decided to take today to go to our local water park. She had a summer pass last year and begged us to go, but we never did. She went several times with a friend and with her Summer Fun program though and loved it. I decided that today was her day for us to go. I'm actually really gearing up to miss her this summer, so I'm pretty much doing whatever she wants right now.

We got there and rode a few rides and ate lunch and then it started raining. Eve was initially operating under the 'we're already wet' premise, but then went with the 'I want to sit under a tree and wait for it to pass' premise. I didn't love the later option, but when she decides that's what she's doing, that's it. I have NO idea where she gets that (must be her Dad). :) After the rain passed rather quickly, we rode some more rides and I actually convinced her to get on a really big slide with a huge inner tube and she LOVED it. We had an awesome day hanging out.

She finished the 2nd grade with fabulous progress and since CRH will be in Vegas for work over her birthday, we decided to take her out to dinner tonight to celebrate these things and give her birthday presents to her from us. We ate a fantastic dinner at Leonardo's at Turtle Bay and walked around just after sunset on the grounds. It was a fantastic end to a fantastic day! She and CRH leave tomorrow night and I leave the following night for NC.


Aloha for now...

Bragging Rights

Eve Hart came home today with her test scores for Math and Reading this year and we are super proud parents! At the beginning of the year, she was testing at a 2.4 grade level for Math. She finished the year testing at a 4.4 (in MATH!). In Reading, she came into the year testing at a 3.9 and went up to a 4.8! We are very pleased with her progress and we're thinking that maybe we were a little too hard on her teacher because clearly she's learned a lot this year! She'll be getting a lovely end of the year gift.

My grades were slightly less awesome. I took 18 credits this semester and I'm an "A" student. I had all "A"s last semester and I have all "A"s this semester, except for one class. I got a "B-" and I'm pissed. The professor (who I loved until this week) gave me all "A"s until my final, which he thought was a "D-". I'll own it wasn't my best work, but it damn sure was NOT a "D-". I even had a co-worker read over it objectively before I told him I'd already received my grade and he thought it was far greater than "D-" level as well. I'm not going to challenge it because this is a small island and this professor is a professional in the community with a lot of connections and I've heard that he holds grudges, but I am going to bitch about it to anyone that will listen. :) In the end, I still came out with a "B-" and ultimately no one has ever asked me about my GPA (thankfully).

Go Away Rain, You're Making Me Insane

I have had enough of the crazy winter type storms going on here in Hawaii right now. I do not know (or care for that matter) why they are occurring, but they are driving me batshit crazy (literally). I laid around last weekend all couped up and did pretty much nothing. It was a little bit fabulous, but I'm starting to go stir crazy. I'm finished with school and since I'm in between practicum sites right now, I have an immense amount of free time. I've forgotten what to do with free time.

Today I was able to go sit on the beach and catch a little bit of sunshine (2 hours worth) before it starting thundering and raining again. Those were a delightful 2 hours though! When I came home from the beach, where I'd been reading Food, Inc., it inspired me to start a new blog, A Southern Girl's Transformation to Vegetarian. Here's the link http://southerngirlvegetarian.blogspot.com/. Yes, I'm bored enough right now that I started a new blog! Although, I'm pretty serious about changing the way I eat and I thought being all public about it might push the motivation level up a few notches.

After I completed that task, I totally cleaned out Eve's room, organized her drawers, cleaned out my room, organized the Wii games and DVDs, and cleaned the hell out of the kitchen. I seriously need the rain to stop or I need to find an indoor hobby that will occupy my time and make me less crazy.

Hula Performance, Seals, and The End of The Semester

Omg, I can finally breathe again now that school (and 18 credit hours) is over for the semester. I won't have my final grades for a few weeks, but I know I have an "A" in 2 of my 6 classes. I suspect I have an "A" in 2 others. I know I have an "I" in one because I'm between practicums and my research class is totally up in the air. I'm hoping for a "B". I'm actually finding myself a little bored though with the free time and the immense amount of rain we've been having.

Yesterday was a fun day, despite the craptacular weather. I mean it has seriously been raining lately, like thunderstorm kind of raining. Anyway, Eve's annual hula performance was yesterday so we headed to Kaaawa hoping the rain would hold off for her to dance. It mostly held off and the kids were adorable as usual. We're taking next semester off from hula because I have Tuesday night classes and with CRH's new schedule it's almost impossible to get her there on time. I hope we pick it back up in January, but we shall see.

On the way to the ranch where she performed, we stopped at Sunset Beach. Pretty much all week long, monk seals have been coming up on the beach there. Last Sunday, I noticed 2 and yesterday there were 2 as well. We stopped to seal stalk and take pictures. We got a good laugh over the tourist telling his family that the seal probably wasn't sleeping. We assured him that they were in fact sleeping and not dead as he suspected.

Another weird random thing that occurred was on the way to hula, we stopped in Laie for CRH to climb a plumeria tree to get the flowers for her hair. As he is literally up in the tree, a guy walks by carrying a chicken under his arm and asked if we could give him a ride. I'd like to point out that they way I was parked, he had no clue which direction we were going.

Today has been a totally laid back Mother's Day. I picked Eve up around lunchtime from my friend, Khristy's house and we have hung around the house all day doing absolutely nothing because of the rain but as my mother pointed out, it's nice to be able to do that sometimes! Eve gave me the coolest gift ever, one I'm sure to have until I'm in the home. Her class published "All About Me" books for the year that were bound and are the cutest things ever. I LOVE it! It reminded me of a quilt that my grandmother made for me when I was a little girl out of my drawings. It is quite a keepsake!