dear prudence

the sun is up, the sky is blue

it's beautiful and so are you

fixing a hole

Remember when I said that we were finally out of the rainy season? Well, apparently I jinxed us. We had been having such good weather! And then suddenly, yesterday, was the most rain I'd ever seen in my life! It rained for basically 24 hours straight. Coming home from church, there was at least a foot of water rushing down the road. Rivers, puddles and ponds sprouted up everywhere. A couple classrooms at school got flooded. As well as a grocery store down the road. Of course, it doesn't help that the elevation of Laie is literally 3 ft above sea level. To give you a little taste of just how much water there was, here are a few pictures of our yard. The left was taken today after things dried up a bit (although the air has still been extremely muggy), right was yesterday:



Hopefully this was the last big storm before we can really enjoy the good weather. (knock on wood)

i want to tell you

My mom.

What can I say that hasn't been echoed by thousands, perhaps millions of children throughout the ages? Probably nothing. So, on the chance of sounding cliche, here I go:

I have the best mom in the world. Literally. The best. She takes such good care of me, even now that I guess I'm an adult and I've moved away from home. She supports me and encourages me to always do my best. She sends me really great packages and extremely witty texts. She slays me with her wittiness. Sometimes we talk on the phone for hours. She edits my papers for me, she makes me my favorite foods whenever I come home. She's made me a bunny cake for the majority of my birthdays. Even my 20th.

I know there is absolutely nothing I could ever do to pay her back for all she's done for me. I love you so much, mom.

Happy Mother's Day!

with a little help from my friends

Watched this movie with the roomies last night. Yes, it is a Christian movie and luckily our dvd player had the subtitles on so we got to enjoy reading the lyrics of the seemingly "hardcore" rock songs that actually ended up being about things like love and Christ and soft hearts--things like that. I know, I know. It sounds pretty cheesy. But it was actually a really really fun movie. I would definitely recommend watching it. We were cracking up the whole time it was so hilarious! And wait, isn't that Rufio? Yes. Yes it is.

I especially loved watching it and spending time with Alyssa and Jessica. We just wish Rebecca could be here too.

from me to you

To the woman who is not my mother, but is my sister and also a mother and awesome and who deserves a blog post:

Rachelle.

I have so much respect for this gal. As a person, a mother and a woman. She is so incredible. She graduated college at 21, then was finishing up her Master's two years later, while teaching a math class at BYU and being pregnant. She is a math genius--I never would've gotten through high school math without her. She's also the best mom to her two boys. I love her so much and I want to be just like her when I grow up.

Happy Mother's Day, Rachelle!

here comes the sun

Ginger. Always so classy.

Contrary to popular belief, Hawaii actually does have different seasons: rainy and not rainy. We're just now coming out of the rainy season (thank goodness) and moving into what I like to refer to as the sweaty season. Here comes the sun, sand, ocean, fans turned on high, open windows, surfboards, sunscreen, tan lines, sunglasses, bus rides, rain forest hikes, bike rides, good books, veggie burgers...

Oh. And maybe the occasional homework assignment as well.

a beginning

so.great.

my fingers are snappin.

from a window

Never have I been afraid of lightning/thunder. Until last night. Last night was the most spectacular storm I have ever witnessed. There was a little bit of thunder and lightning throughout the evening, and it was raining here and there, but the show really started at about 1:45 am. Jess and I were asleep upstairs when we awoke to the biggest house-rattling BOOM I have ever experienced. We both sat up in bed and looked at each other, groggy and confused, but clearly frightened. We looked out the window to see the rain pouring buckets and rivers flowing down the road in front of our house. I'm pretty sure lightning must have struck our house because the flashes of lightning were so blindingly bright and a couple of the crashes of thunder were at the exact same time as the lightning. We had to plug our ears it was so loud and I couldn't even look at the lightning because of its brightness--my eyes instinctively shut every time it flashed. It really was incredible. I'd never seen anything like it and I couldn't fall asleep for about a half hour because of all the light and noise. Finally, the thunder became more distant as the lightning moved further and further away so we could finally get back to sleep. But really. I never knew thunder could be that scary.

sweet little sixteen

This is my, ahem, little sister Lauren. She turned 16 last month and her first prom was last weekend. Wait, what?! Prom? 16? Dating? Driving? No more braces? My little sister? When people ask me how old she is, I still have to catch myself because I instinctively want to answer 14. However, Lauren is not 14 anymore. not.at.all.

Lauren is in high school and gets all As. She's a dancer and every time I watch her perform, it takes my breath away. She is one of the most determined people I know and never stops until a project is finished and perfected. We called her "Mini Martha" when she was little because she was so creative and was always making little crafts or decorations. You know when you feel like you can't ever wear really fashionable things because you could never pull it off? Lauren is the opposite of that. She can pull anything off with style and ease. Lauren and I like to watch Disney Channel together and sometimes we text each other hilarious quotes from those shows. She is one of the most righteous people I know and has always been such a good example to me. She just got her Young Womanhood Recognition award and I know she worked really hard for that so I'm so proud of her. Lauren is a very thoughtful shopper and will only buy a piece of clothing after careful consideration, unlike some other people (like me) who will buy anything anytime. But that way, she just ends up with clothes she really really likes. I love hanging out with her because she's not afraid to act like a kid sometimes. Which is really fun when we're jumping on the tramp or getting really excited for Santa to come on Christmas Eve. Kelsey and I used to get so bugged when we were little and Lauren would want to watch us play barbies. So one time, Lauren sneaked into the barbie room before us and hid in the closet with a box of cereal so she could watch us without us getting mad. We did end up getting mad when we found her, but I think that's so funny now. She has the biggest, most beautiful eyes out of anyone in our family, and I'm really jealous of that. Sometimes she'll buy her shoes a half size up from her actual foot size so I can share with her. We used to read books together all the time, with me reading out loud to her, and sometimes we still do it, just for fun. When we were little, we could entertain ourselves for hours playing make-believe games like the one where we were servants in a castle and lived on the stairs. We would literally just sit on the stairs and do nothing, but somehow it was a game to us. Lauren is one of the coolest people I know and seriously has about 100000 friends. Really. 100000.

Sometimes she drives me crazy, but mainly I just love her because she's awesome. It seems like she's all grown up, and yet she has the rest of her life ahead of her. And I know she can do anything she wants, and she will be so good at it.

Love you, Laur. Happy birthday!