Isn't this the most beautiful water-color sky?
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These are the folks in the Registrar's office that I work with. Once a week we have a "huddle" to go over processes and then the full time ladies bring lunch. Front row: Tim, our only male student worker, me, Nicole, Abagail, Hannah, Lexi, Princess. Back row: Liana (from Mesa), Lizzy, Regina (Tongan) and full timers; Solate, Karess and Mayette. The students can only work 19 hours/week or it gets into student/foreign worker issues.
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Mowing the campus lawn brings out the egrets looking for bugs and worms. Beautiful day.
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On our bucket list while in Hawaii is to learn to play the Ukulele. Every Monday night before Family Home Evening there's a 45 minute lesson for those interested in learning. We're in the beginners group and now we know the C, F, and G7 chord. Surprising how many songs you can play with only three chords. Of course, the challenge is to sing along at the same time.
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Here we have a box jelly fish with a 3 foot long stinger that will wrap around your leg and deliver great pain. They are all over the shore on days with high surf. That's when you stay out of the water.
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Name this movie? I started violin lessons two years before coming on our mission. I knew if I didn't keep it up I'd lose everything I learned at home. I gave up my carry on luggage and brought my violin instead. It was so out of tune through the travel and climate change but Liana, in my office, tuned it for me and I've been practicing ever since. I only practice 15 minutes every morning after the neighbor missionaries have left for their assignment. I don't think I'm getting any better but at least I haven't lost what I've already learned. Our landlord family doesn't care and we can hear their children practicing the piano every day, so we're even. The movie?...Fiddler on the Roof!
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This is the view from our side bedroom window. Love our mountains. If you zoom in, you're looking through our screen windows.
This is the view from our back window. We are so lucky to get the trade winds coming off the mountains some days or off the ocean other days because we're on the second floor.
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This very patriotic truck was in front of us going home from work one day. We had to look it up to find it is the Tongan flag. Every nationality here is so proud of their country and very patriotic. Per Google, "the cross reflects the deep-rooted Christianity in Tonga, red represents the blood of Christ and His sacrifice, and white signifies purity.
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We have been assigned to attend Church in a married student ward. I started these burp cloths several years ago to give as gifts and then forgot about them. So I packed them along to give away to new moms and babies. We've had plenty of new babies so it's fun to give as gifts. I just crochet around the edges. We even have a senior sister missionary who is a retired labor and delivery nurse assigned on campus. She visits expecting moms several times before and after their delivery. Of course they all deliver in the local hospitals but she's there to answer the myriad of questions new moms may have through their pregnancies and after delivery. Remember most of these new moms are international students away from their families and any other support.
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Over Thanksgiving weekend we took our first tourist trip into Honolulu. Friday morning we climbed Diamond Head. A beautiful and easy climb with steep stairs and panoramic views. This is the top of the crater.
We have found there are WWII bunkers all over this island.
Spiral stairs up to the bunkers.
And more stairs.
A must see is the Pearl Harbor Memorial. This is the USS Arizona Memorial that rests on top of the sunken USS Arizona. It's a very sobering and reverent memorial to that fateful day and all who lost their lives. There are still pools of oil seeping from the wreckage.
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The high-end malls along Waikiki Beach are unbelievable. This outdoor mall with all the big name stores was built around these beautiful trees. It was a fun place to window shop with the Christmas lights.
This is the famous Waikiki Beach, a nippy and rainy day with Diamond Head in the background.
We continued to pack in activities this holiday rainy weekend. We found my uncle's headstone in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, a national cemetery located at Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu. James E. Freestone, Major in WWII, 1921-1987. He is my mother's older brother. We looked up Uncle Jame's name on 'Find a Grave' online and found the 5-digit number of the location of his headstone. Within just a few minutes we 'happened' to find his headstone out of 34,000 marked graves. I don't think it was a coincidence...
From the cemetery we went on to the BYU vs. Hawaii tailgate party and football game held at the stadium below. Good thing they won the game. This is Cosmo, their mascot all the way from Provo.
This is the Aloha Stadium where the big games are played, both college and high school play-offs. Notice the beautiful full rainbow, thus Hawaii is called the 'Rainbow State'.
While out early for a walk on a recent Sunday we found our Monk Seal sunbathing. There are signs saying if you see them on the beach to call a certain number so they can come rope the area off to keep folks away. We were the first to see this one and placed the call. The tides were high and she came right up to this house enjoying the sun and warm sand. They tag them to keep tabs on them.
More of the local wildlife. Our neighbor, Brian, the guy with all the dogs, brought this one home on Sunday morning. He hunts them for the state. He said this one was about 60 lbs, medium size. Brian said they are better tasting than the commercial pigs because they are all 'natural', no additives. He said he loses a couple dogs every year to the pigs. The dogs take them down and he goes in with the knife. Enough said...
Another unbelievable sunrise.
On Thanksgiving Day we were treated to a wonderful, traditional meal by Junior Ah You. You may not know him. He's a local that played football with and graduated from Kahuku High School, the only high school on the North Shore. He played at ASU the same time as Danny White and then spent 12 years in the Canadian Football League. Every year he and his family put on a feast for the Senior Missionaries and the homeless folks around town. He also has a couple of food trucks in town and is a big caterer. Delicious meal but sadly no leftovers.
Have you heard of VOG? This is volcanic smog coming from the erupting Kilauea volcano on the Big Island since 1983. It gets on everything. I have to use wipes every few weeks on our window screens to wash the vog off of them. Otherwise the tiny screen holes are blocked with the black vog and you don't get any breeze coming in. Vog and the salty air are a menace to cars, windows and even your glasses. I had a terrible cough after we arrived that lasted for weeks. I was told it was from the vog. It causes a lot of respiratory problems.
There have been a myriad of wonderful musical events the past two weeks. The semester is almost over and there are lots of programs. Of course we like anything free and we try to attend them all. There has been something going on 2-3 nights a week and we just want to experience everything the campus has to offer. So we have been to a Japanese play, a Broadway Revue of musicals, Evening of Concertos, Street Band Concert (along with real garbage cans, wonderful), Salsa Orchestra, Concert Choir, Orchestra, Shaka Steel & Polynesian Drum Ensemble, Piano Majors Recital, and the University Chorale. We have our own little Grady Gammage on campus.
When you go out for a walk around here you always carry a walking stick or golf club...for the dogs and/or wild pigs. EVERYONE has a dog and a sign BEWARE OF DOG!
Whenever BYU plays a football game away, they always put on a Sunday evening Devotional. While they were here for the game mentioned above, they held a Devotional in the Cannon Center which is similar to the Marriott Center on a smaller level. Our Stake President, a Vice President on Campus, asked me to play the organ for the opening and closing songs. It was kind of fun. The speaker was Reno Mahe and his wife. He's one of the assistant coaches that played in the NFL, and his wife, who is 6-2, was an all American volleyball player at BYU. You may recall they lost their 3 year old last year in a tragic accident. They related football and family and how they survived the tragedy.
Have you heard of VOG? This is volcanic smog coming from the erupting Kilauea volcano on the Big Island since 1983. It gets on everything. I have to use wipes every few weeks on our window screens to wash the vog off of them. Otherwise the tiny screen holes are blocked with the black vog and you don't get any breeze coming in. Vog and the salty air are a menace to cars, windows and even your glasses. I had a terrible cough after we arrived that lasted for weeks. I was told it was from the vog. It causes a lot of respiratory problems.
There have been a myriad of wonderful musical events the past two weeks. The semester is almost over and there are lots of programs. Of course we like anything free and we try to attend them all. There has been something going on 2-3 nights a week and we just want to experience everything the campus has to offer. So we have been to a Japanese play, a Broadway Revue of musicals, Evening of Concertos, Street Band Concert (along with real garbage cans, wonderful), Salsa Orchestra, Concert Choir, Orchestra, Shaka Steel & Polynesian Drum Ensemble, Piano Majors Recital, and the University Chorale. We have our own little Grady Gammage on campus.
When you go out for a walk around here you always carry a walking stick or golf club...for the dogs and/or wild pigs. EVERYONE has a dog and a sign BEWARE OF DOG!
Whenever BYU plays a football game away, they always put on a Sunday evening Devotional. While they were here for the game mentioned above, they held a Devotional in the Cannon Center which is similar to the Marriott Center on a smaller level. Our Stake President, a Vice President on Campus, asked me to play the organ for the opening and closing songs. It was kind of fun. The speaker was Reno Mahe and his wife. He's one of the assistant coaches that played in the NFL, and his wife, who is 6-2, was an all American volleyball player at BYU. You may recall they lost their 3 year old last year in a tragic accident. They related football and family and how they survived the tragedy.
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