Aren't they just some of the cutest kids?  Even with their faces painted all up.  Well, most of you know that I hate grocery shopping.  I can put it off and off and off until it can't be put off anymore and then I will have to

get so much stuff.  Well, that was the case yesterday.  It had to be done.  The girls were at their friends house and Hunter went with me.  After we were done though, he proceeded to tell everyone just how much I spent on groceries.  I mean everyone.  Nothing is kept secret when a six year old is around.  Well, after I was done, I decided that I was too tired to cook and since Jeremy was out-of-town, I decided we were going out to dinner.  Now some of you might know of "Mellow Mushroom".  If you don't, you are missing out.  It is a great pizza place and I know my pizza.  On Monday nights here in Huntsville, AL...Kids eat free, so off we went.  They had free face painting so the kids insisted and I said go to it.  This is what the outcome was.  We have a fairy queen, a black widow, and a tiger.  Like I said at the beginning....aren't they just the cutest kids??

Another Time Out that started with a big "Crash"

I attended yet another "Time Out for Women".  I love to go.  I would really like to go to Women's Conference at BYU, but I am a little far at the moment so instead, when it is available, I have been so blessed to attend "Time Out for Women".  This time it was in Nashville, TN.  Nashville is about 75 miles north of us, so not too far to go.  My friend Marie and I were suppose to go in Atlanta together back in October, but I needed to attend the funeral of my sweet little niece and so I missed going with Marie.  When the opprotunity came to go to Nashville this year, we both got the OK from the husbands and headed off.  Marie had asked another friend to come along as well and the three of us had a great time. 

Most of you know that Jeremy goes out of town a lot.  Because of this, he accumulates a lot of hotel points.  So we were blessed to stay in the Renissance Marriott which was connected to the convention center that Time Out was being held at.  Very convienent.  I parked in the garage, got my bag out of the back seat, shut the hatch down, and "CRASH!!!!"  My back window shattered into a thousand pieces.  Now let me explain something to you.  I have had this SUV for about 2 weeks.  I was not excited to not only hear this loud crash, but to also see my window in thousands of peices on the garage floor.  All three of us were silent for maybe 30 sec, but it seemed more like 5 min.  It sounded like someone shot through my window.  I had no idea what to do.  I called Jeremy, he called Honda, took all my stuff out of the car, and checked into the hotel room.  After we got some dinner, I went back to the car and reparked it in a stall backed up to a wall so hopefully nobody would know I had no back window. 

Now it is a little hard to see that there really is no window, but it is very much opened.  Here is some of the glass inside the car, the rest was on the floor.  Well, hopefully Honda will take full responsibility and fix it.  I think it most definately was a defect on their part.  I will take it in tomorrow and I hope they give me a car to drive, 'cause Jeremy is in Jacksonville and I will be carless during Spring Break. 

Funny Story:  A few weeks ago one evening, I had come down with a bad case of flu.  Achy body, cold chills, it was aweful.  I had been crying, wishing for my mother like a little four year old at which time Jeremy had given me a blessing.  Well I guess all my crying worried Hunter.  The next morning I was all better.  Hunter had said this to me:  "Mommy, I thought you were going to die last night and so I prayed that you would get better and not die and Heavenly Father answered my prayer"  Sweet right?  Well today I was telling Hunter that hopefully I will get a car so we can do some stuff this week so I said, "Pray for a car."  Hunter said, "Like when I prayed that you wouldn't die?"  Kids have so much faith.  We can truly learn from them. 

Well after all the boom and crash, we acturally had a pretty good weekend.  I hardly thought of my car, except when it was brought up from time to time.  Here are some hilights of the weekend.



This is Marie Kilpatrick, Karen Bagley, and me getting ready for the evening talks and performances.  Now I had never really met Karen before, but I enjoyed being around her.  I found her very fun to be around and I hope we can continue to keep in contact.  I had seen her every week and didn't even know what a great person she was.  We are both in the nursery in our wards and as I am leaving, she is coming in.  Small world, right?  

This is Merrilee Boyack with Marie.  She just loves her and I thought these were the cutest pictures.  She looks like a person in heaven meeting someone who has been a great influence. 

This is Mary Ellen Edmunds.  It was fun to hear her.  She is someone I remember my mom talking about all the time. 

This is Mariama Kallon.  I heard her speak at Time Out in Plano, TX.  I wanted to get a picture with her then, but didn't get a chance.  She has an amaizing story and a huge amount of faith and hope.  She grew up in Africa in a place called Sierra Leone, while they were in a war.  Her parents were killed, and she watched her sister get her arms and legs chopped off and came very close in losing her own life.  She had no more family, but somehow she found the gospel.  I love to listen to her speak.  If you ever get a chance, look her up.  She has a heartbreaking, but wonderful story to tell.

After the evening talks finished, we felt like some dessert.  We went to the place called Mortons.  Very classy.  I mean the waiter even had a special tool to sweep the crumbs off the table.  He called it his "zambonie". 

The rest of the weekend was just as great.  I loved Hilary Weeks like always, heard some great talks, and took some great thoughts home with me.  Will I do it again?  Most likely.  We even made it home with no window in the back.  Poor Karen had to endure the wind, but she was exhausted and hardly noticed.  Jeremy and I put some plastic on it because we heard it will probobly rain, but hopefully I can get it to Honda before any rain hits.  Of course, I can't see through the back now so if you are driving near me, you might want to move away. 

(OK, so my spell check is not working, so if I have tons of spelling errors, I am so sorry and please remember that I never claimed to be a genius.  I mean, I was a kindergarten teacher.  How many words do I really need to know how to spell?  Let's just call it inventive spelling and leave it at that.)

Ice, Ice, Baby...

Last week, Jeremy and the kids went to a hockey game.  The girls had gotten free tickets from school for reaching their AR goal ( program at school about how many books you read and comprehension by taking a test on the books that you read)  Jeremy decided it would be fun to take them.  So he bought him and Hunter tickets and they all went.  I have to say that the kids were very excited.  More then I thought they would be.  Some might wonder why I didn't go too.  Well, besides the fact that the only sports I like to watch are tennis and basketball, don't ya think that it is good for the kids to spend some good quality time with their dad?  That's what I thought.

So, I guess it happened to be "kid's night" the night they went.  The first 1000 kids got a jersey.  Fun, right??  Well, they made it.  They each have a hockey Jersey that is way to big, but great to go to bed in them and that is exactly what they do. 

Jeremy tells me that they all really liked the game.  He said though that Emilee loved it the most.  She screamed and yelled and screamed some more, and of course was jumping up and down the whole night. That's my Emilee.  She always has been my screamer.  It would have been a sight to see.  I can imagine it though. 

I guess these are the mascots.  I was told their names, but I couldn't begin to tell you what they are.  What I do know is that the kids couldn't get enough of them.  

So, I guess our team lost.  The score was 2 to 1.  Oh well.  I asked the kids if they wanted to go again and they all said yes.  Jeremy has also been watching a lot of monster truck shows on TV with the kids.  Again, not my thing, but I guess all three kids like it and so he wants to take them to a monster truck show.  Of course Emilee is way excited.  What is my husband doing to my sweet little girls?? 

Hawaii---Last Days

All good things must come to an end.  Though I think Jeremy was glad.  He worked 10 hour days while I played. (Though isn't that how it should be??)  Our airplane wasn't leaving until Saturday evening so we had planned to rent a car and go to the other side of the island and just drive around and see what we could see.  We wanted to see North Shore, look at some falls, see the temple, and just look at the scenery of Oahu.   

 Before we left for Hawaii, we thought on that last day we might attend a session at the temple.  There just wasn't enough time, but we did go visit, walk around the grounds, and check out the visitor center.  We chatted with the sister missionaries for a bit and learned some neat things about this temple. I love this statue of Lehi and Joseph.  I pretty much love all these kinds of statues, but I really liked this one.   A few days before, Jeremy had to do some work on the big island and he was right near the temple there so he walked around it as well, took some pictures of it and some of the water shores.  (He said, because of the still active volcano, the shore is mostly lava rock.  Not suitable beach like, but still pretty.  He took pics of that to.  They are down below.)

 Waimea Falls is more like a park with many different trails to hike.  If we would have had more time, I would have liked to hike more of the trails, but the falls were very nice.  I also would have liked to hike other falls that were farther away, but that will have to be saved for another time.  (I might be putting my hopes up on that one.)  We saw all the people swimming around them and thought that our kids would really have liked to do that.

 So many people, including the lady that Jeremy was working with for the week, had told us to go to the Dole Plantation.  We couldn't figure out what the big deal of that would be.  Well, we had a little time before we had to go to the airport and it was on the way, so we decided to stop.  You can ride the pineapple express and go through the largest maze, but all those things like everything else cost and we just didn't feel like spending the money on it.  You could look around the grounds though and drive by all the pineapples and purchase the most yummiest pineapple ice cream.  It tasted it a little like sherbet, but very creamy. 

I never thought I would be able to go to Hawaii.  I always wanted to.  I remember when I was little, my parents went with my brother and sister-in-law.  I begged to go and when they got back, I begged for us all to go again.  My dad had brought back this coconut bank and said we shall save money for us to go.  Well.  I am 38 and I think if he found that bank it would still be empty.  Funny though, Megan begged just like me and those pineapples that you eat ice cream out of, they are banks as well.  Guess what??  I told her the same thing.  LOL!  I don't know if we will ever be able to go back.  I would really like to see some of the other islands.  I have heard such wonderful things about them.  Maybe someday.  In the meantime, I will be grateful for this trip and glad I enjoyed it like I did.

Palaces, Luaus, and volcanos

 I love to take tours with anything to do with history.  This was one of my favorite days in Hawaii.  Hawaii is the only state in the U.S. where you can find a palace.  Before Hawaii became a state, it was controlled by kings and queens.  The "Summer Palace" was more like a home, but the Iolani Palace was very beautiful.  I loved the woodwork in the palace and it was just a neat tour to take. 

How can you go to Hawaii and not attend a Luau?  They had lots of activities before dinner.  You could get tattoos, make leis and headbands, learn to hula dance, and even watch a Samoan climb a coconut tree.  The food wasn't bad and I did enjoy the seaweed more then I thought I would.  The show was great and like the Polynesian Cultural Center, I really enjoyed the fire dancers. 

Ahh, Diamond Head!  This was a beautiful day.  Diamond Head had been closed all week and finally opened the day before we had to fly home.  It was crowded, but it was a great hike.  Nothing too bad, but very enjoyable until you got to the cave.  Normally I guess it only takes a few minutes to get through the cave, but because there were so many people, we were stuck in the cave for about 30 minutes.  Now I have never felt clausterphobic, but I did in this cave.  It was so small for the amount of people that were in it, it felt like a sauna, and I had serious doubts about going on.  I decided I had gone this far, I needed to go the rest.  I stuck it out and it was way worth it.  The view was amazing.  Definitely a great experience. 

Polynesian Cultural Center --Laie Hawaii

This was the day I was waiting for.  I was so excited.  I had heard so many good things about the cultural center and couldn't wait to go.  Well, it started raining hard the night before and the next day it was pouring.  How unfair!  I wasn't going to let some rain ruin my day, so I bought an umbrella, took my rain jacket, and waited for my bus.  The rain was off and on through out the day, but I had a great tour guide that did his best to keep us out of the rain and helped us to have a great experience.  I loved the shows, I loved the hands on activities, the food was fantastic, and I thought our Samoa guide was excellent. 

The evening ended with a show called, "The Breath of Life".  This went through all the Polynesian islands and showed us the things which made each island unique but similar as well.  It ended with fire dancers from Samoa and it left me speechless.  Well, as I said before it had rained off and on through out the day.  When the show was over and I left the covered theater, I had seen how much it had been raining.  As I made my way to the bus, I had to walk through water up past my ankles.  The bus was suppose to bring us back to the hotel by 11 pm.  Well, we were stuck before the bridge back.  We couldn't go forward or backward and the rain was raining even harder.  Water was up to the knees of the firemen as they helped cars get off the bridge.  Finally after a few hours, we were able to pass.  I finally got to the hotel about 1:30 am.  It was a long exhausting day, but even with all the drama of the rain, it was well worth it.   

The beach and more......

Below is where we stayed at.  We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.  Now, you may have seen this hotel on TV if you ever watch shows that are set in Honolulu or Waikiki.  You usually notice it as the big tower with the very large rainbow on it.  The Hilton probably has about 5 towers.  We actually stayed in the Rainbow tower.  It was a very nice hotel, except the bed was not so good.  I woke up every morning between 3 - 4 am.  I thought at first that maybe it was the time change that was affecting me so much, though that might have been some of it, the bed was just not comfortable.  Besides that, I was very happy with our hotel.  The people were nice, it was right on the beach, and there was lots to see from it.  We had a very nice view of the beach which you can see from the pictures that I have added.

Before Jeremy had to work, he was able to get a few activities in.  One evening we decided to go on a Sunset Cruise.  Now we have been on these kind of cruises before, but each one we go on is very different.  This one was a buffet and it had some entertainment on it.  Kind of like a mini luau.  We were hoping to spot some whales before it got too dark, but not a single one did we see.(This time of year is suppose to be big to see whales, but we never saw one.)

The first day Jeremy went to work, it was kind of a rainy, windy, gloomy day.  I was hoping to hang out at the beach a bit, (which I did the day before)but it just wasn't a beach day.  I decided to go to downtown Waikiki and hang out at the shops.  I did go on the beach for a bit, but just to look around.  It was not a day for sun.  I liked all the shops down there.  They were fun to look at.  The rain held out for most of the day, but on my way back to the hotel, I got caught in it.  By the time I got back though, Jeremy got back just in time to go to dinner.

Hawaii--Island of Oahu

Jeremy has to travel a lot for work.  Most of the time, he travels around the southern states such as, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi.  He often volunteers for places that nobody wants to go, like St. Louis, Missouri in the winter.  Other times he has to go to places like Texas, Philadelphia, Virginia, and once he even had to go to LA for a bit.  I sometimes go with him.  Not too often, but every once in awhile I do.  Well, this time it was Hawaii.  Wow!  Now isn't that something??  Well, I just couldn't let him suffer in the tropics by himself.  I had to go with him.  We went ahead and went a few days earlier so Jeremy could see some sights before he had to work.  Then I was off by myself, enjoying the warmth of the island.  So, while everyone in Alabama was shoveling the snow, I was reading a book on the beach. 

I had a good time.  And even though Jeremy had to work most of the time, I think he had some fun as well.  So the next few posts, I thought I would put in some things that I got to see and do.  I even learned a few things and that is always good when you go on vacation. 

Jeremy loves to go to swap meets or flea markets.  I hate them, but I figured since Jeremy only had a few days, I wouldn't fight him too much on this and we would go to Oahu's largest swap meet.  Great right.  I go all the way to Hawaii to attend a swap meet.  Well, it wasn't the kind of swap meet that Jeremy likes.  It was all the souvenir things that you can buy in Waikiki but tons cheaper.  So, I had a good time, but Jeremy was a little disappointed.  What was cool though about where this swap meet was is that it was very close to Pearl Harbor, so we got to go.  We learned some things about why the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and we also were able to see the USS Arizona underneath the water.  It was a time to pander and to contimplate.  As I listened to the movie before we went to the memorial, I thought how we are still fighting the same fight just with someone else.  It was a very humbling experience.

I am not always one to take pictures of too many landscapes and such.  I often like to have people in my pictures, but I found myself in awe of all the different forms of nature to be seen.  I couldn't help myself, but snap pictures of all the interesting plants and animals.  Here are some of the things that I took pictures of.  Through the next few posts I will put more of the beautiful forms of nature that I saw.