As we were reflecting, April usually isn't one of the twelve months you look forward to during the year. How come...
January: anticipating the new year and new beginnings, February: Valentine's Day and many family birthdays, April-? May- Graduations and summer break, June-August: SUMMER :), Sept/Oct: beautiful fall weather and changing of the seasons (on the mainland), November- Thanksgiving & December: Christmas, time with family and friends. April on the other hand is between Winter and Spring and is usually too cold, snowy, or rainy to really enjoy being outdoors. Besides the obvious fact that we don't deal with the cold or snowy weather anymore, we actually had a quite rainy month. BUT besides the rain, we had much more to look forward to.
Moving in to our NEW PLACE
Ahhhh... finally a kitchen!
...now I can be a real wife again.
Ben taking (and rocking) his MCAT after many months of of class and studying!
Surprising my family on a return trip home for graduation week. (We got 'em good. :) Thanks again Kim!
Brady made an excellent cake for Sunday dinner :)
And Ollie still remembering me after 3 years of joint custody and abandonment...
So it became official: I was taking him back to Hawaii with me, thus giving a whole new meaning to the phrase, "you lucky dog..."
Relaxing in his new home.
"Hawaii isn't too bad..."
AND
Running another half marathon!
It has definitely been a busy but good APRIL for the both of us! We look forward to coming home in just a few weeks from June 9-19 ish... dates are still tentative as we still don't have finalized work schedules for booking flights. We are hoping to do that this week.
We are looking forward to our return trip and to spending time with family, friends, wedding celebrations, boating, and possibly catching a Twins game.
This week is exciting as we get the keys to our new place Friday. Seems like its been a long time in the making but its here! We made it through Ben's MCAT prep and test (last week), work shifts, being involved with the youth group church service, and can now look forward to this change. Thinking about this move also makes us realize that we have lived in Hawaii for almost a year already! We can hardly believe it. To think our inital plans with our move here was to stay for a year or so seems so irrational looking back. We have been here for a while but feel like we have a lot more to experience before we can consider moving back.
We have other hawaiian islands to explore (Kauai, Maui, Lani), hikes to climb (Koko Head, and Stairway to Heaven- if we dare), and more unique eats to try. We have great "family" here and look forward to moving closer to them with this move. We are working on our "Hawaii Bucket List."
stair way to heaven hike
Ben looks forward to leaving in the morning for a 3 day concert event (called Cochella) in California with our cousin Brent. He will be gone for 6 days. He is looking forward to some relaxation and "man time" after his 4 months of class and studying. It is much deserved to say in the least.
I look forward to the simple things in life... a new full kitchen that I can start using this weekend to make regular meals. :) I literally cannot wait to make my famous beef and rice enchiladads, chicken and rice, and desserts. I may regret saying that some day but as of now, I am excited.
I'm also looking forward to running a half marathon this weekend. It's called the Wahine Divas Half Marathon. Wahine= women. This means it will be a 'women only' race. We are supposedly given feather boas during the race and a rose, champagne and cool medal at the finish. Runners dress up in tutus, crows, and full on pink gear. It should be a really fun race experience. I bought a shirt for this race. The front says: Half Marathon/Cuz its shorter and I'm Lazy like that... :) I am crossing my fingers it makes it to me in time for the race. I'm hoping to take and post pictures of the race, and get a personal best along the way.
So amongst trips, road races, work, moving, finding furnishings for the new place, and church we have a busy month left. But we are happy to be busy and be involved with all this. I guess this is what life is like without kids?!
Take Care,
Janell
PS. We are looking forward to coming home in June for a week for family time and weddings! :)
Howz it is a slang expression we have become very familiar with over the past few months. It's short for "how's it going", "how are things?" Used very often in our work settings. So with that bit of knowledge.. HOWZ IT?
How are things here? (Thanks for asking by the way :)...
Life = good
Work= good
Church= great
Friends= great
So it seems like I would have little to type about. But I can think of a few things...
First, As many of our family members already know, Ben is going on a mission trip to Africa for 2 weeks the beginning of August. He is going with the youth group he has been involved with as a "leader." It will be quite the trip and one LONG LONG flight- around 24hrs in the air I believe. Swaziland is the country he will be going to. They will be working in orphanages and helping families devastated with AIDS.
Initially, Ben asked me if I would like to go with as they needed more "leaders." I thought about it and thought "its okay, you can go. I don't even know the youth group or leaders." I was just making excuses. Some times its hard to get outside of your comfort zone. A few weeks later, I was invited by youth pastor Drew to come as a "medical personnel" on the trip. He told me "if we have a nurse on the trip, it gives parents peace of mind." I began thinking about it, praying about it, and even attended the first "orientation" session. I began meeting the youth and could see how God could use me.
I was really excited about this amazing opportunity but unfortunately this would not last long. I found out that work was very stingy with my vacation days. Because I am a part of the HNA (Hawaii nurses association = UNION), time off is granted via "seniority" therefore, I was not granted time off for the mission trip. I was very disappointed and asked "Why not me, GOD!??" I am willing to go where you want to send me... I decided to stop questioning His plan and just realize that now is not my time. Since then, I have accepted it and began to support my husband and help him prepare for this life changing experience. I am very excited for him and to see/hear all about his experiences in Africa.
Another exciting bit of information= we are moving to a new place in April! Our contract at our cottage comes up the end of April so we began looking for a place that better suited us. We found a Townhouse in the town of Mililani. Yes we are giving up our 1/2 mile jaunt from the beach, but we will be in a more residential area, centrally located on the island. 30 minutes from everything essentially. North Shore, Work (for both of us), beach, church... This upgrade also means a full kitchen (yeah! no more toaster oven meals), garage, private lanai, two bedrooms/two bathrooms (to better host family and friends when they visit), washer/dryer in the unit, dishwasher (I have been married almost 4 years and this will be my first one :) I can hardly wait), closer to our friends, and one of the best perks... (drum roll please...) It's OLLIE friendly. I feel like I am going to be spoiled BIG TIME by moving into this nice place. Of course, there has to be a few negatives, right? Those would be a longer commute to church/work for Ben and its unfurnished. So we will have to scrounge up a few things such as a mattress, bar stools, etc but we will get it settled before anyone plans to visit. Below is a picture of what the outside looks like. Trust me more pictures will come once we get the keys!
So the next few weeks are exciting for the Christians. We will be moving, decorating/filling our new place (not with children), getting paper work/Ollie ready for the flight over, and anticipate our return home in June!
Thanks for being a faithful reader, even if I am not the most faithful writer :)
Some things in life will always live vividly in your memory. For the three of us, we will never forget where we were when we first got word of the Tsunami Warning that evening this March.
Brady was able to join in on the excitement as it was the last night before he went home. Brady and I were downtown Waikiki, walking down the main strip and checking out shops on the way. Ben met up with us at 9pm after his class was finished. We were just walking around and stopped in the Margaritaville shop. They had a live feed of a band playing in the restaurant upstairs. Suddenly they stopped playing. They said "some of us live on the beach and with the tsunami warning, we have to cut the performance short." I thought it was part of the "show".
We (Brady and I) didn't think much of it. Ben on the other hand was more concerned and began looking up the warning on his phone. We were soon told that the warning it wasn't a joke. Fear was yet to be instilled in us. We started walking back to our cars, about 1/2 mile away and it wasn't until then that we began to notice people leaving the once busy strip. The street performers, side walk shops, and tourists were suddenly packing up and scattering in all directions. Brady and I were yet to really be worried about this Tsunami excitement while Ben had a nervous look on his face. What was a Tsunami anyway? Were we actually in danger?
According to my good friend Wikipedia, A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, usually an ocean. It wasn't until the moment we got into our cars and turned on the radio, that the reality of it all hit me. Every radio station was talking about the tsunami that was to hit Oahu at 3:00am. They were getting hundreds of thousands calling in, concerned about if their house was in the "evacuation zone." Evacuation zone?! What is that all about. What was supposed to be a quick 20-30 minute ride home turned into a stressful, 1.5 hr ordeal. People were fleeing from the coastlines to the middle of the island, and traffic was horrible. Everyone was trying to leave at the same time. To make matters worse, there was road construction blocking our "quick way to the interstate" and our cell phones were not working due to the system being overloaded with calls. (Thanks AT&T :) We had two separate cars and were trying to call eachother to find another way home. But our calls weren't going through. Nonetheless, we made it home, unscathed around 11:15pm.
Once we got home, we looked online and noticed we were right outside of the "evacuation zone". We figured we would be close, considering we live a 1/2 mile from the beach. When we turned on the TV, fear really began to set in. Seeing Japanese towns get swallowed up by the water and the water cyclone taking out boats, cars, houses will forever live in my memory. That cannot happen here, can it?!
It was just about that time that our friends Brandon and Sheena texted us to make sure we were okay and that we were more than willing to spend the night at their house (which is in the center of the island, Mililani). Thankfully, Brady's phone was working so I called Sheena back and we began packing. Brandon and Sheena were so gracious to open their house to us as they just arrived back home at 9pm that night from a week long vacation. Inspite of the jet lag, no food in the house, dirty laundry, and just wanting to rest they invited us over. Thanks for being SUCH great friends and hosts :)
Packing. You cannot imagine how odd it feels to pack your "stuff" in two bags and have to "choose" what is important and what's not? What will stay and what will come with? We didn't know if the water would reach our cottage and possibly carry away our earthly possessions. We packed necessities and were told to prepare for possible power outages for days. Food (dry cereal, bread, fruit) was a necessity. We also packed a few change of clothes, back account information/check books, Bible, and brother Brady. The golf clubs, desktop computer, and bikes stayed.
We didn't sleep more than an hour or two that night. Our eyes stayed fixed to the TV as we watched the tsunami play out. We were expected to get the most damage of all the islands (along with Kauai). But when it was all said and done, there was minimal damage on our island. The Big Island (near Kona) got the most damage. The water crept into a shopping centers and caused a lot of damage to boats in the harbors.
We were so thankful to see the tides rise and fall and not much more happen than that! God kept us safe! He was our SHELTER.
Here is a video of what we were watching. It was hard to see what was coming since this was happening in the middle of the night. When we saw the water recede, we held our breath as we were scared of the big wave would follow. Thankfully it did not!
As Brady said that night, "this was not on my list of things to do" :) He always knows how to keep the mood light.
Hope all is well back home!
Have more updates on life, but will post them separately.
Take Care- Janell
PS. Once again, we have the 5 hr time difference between Hawaii and Central time after daylight savings was observed on the mainland but not here in Hawaii. I'm not especially thrilled about this as it makes it harder to call home/plan Skype dates with the family.
Ben and I have just started a new bible study with our small group called Experiencing God by Blackaby. It has been a humbling and eye opening experience and we are only two weeks into the study so far. It has allowed for alot of self-reflection and examination of our relationships with God.
Some major points that have stood out to us are:
- We always ask God for a detailed map of our lives. We say, "Lord, if You could just tell me where I am heading, then I will be able to set my course (or GPS :) and go." When actually we just need to follow God one day at a time. We are to walk by faith and not by sight. -- Much easier said than done, by the way.
-We are to daily search out God and find where he is working and go there. Whether it is at our work, church, community, in our families/friendships...ANYWHERE!
This last point makes me think of one of my most favorite songs:
Chris Tomlin's: I will follow you.
With our past move and this recent Bible study, we can see what God has us doing here in Hawaii. We were scared and excited all at the same time for the big move. We were unsure as to what we would be doing and how things would work out so many miles from home. We asked so many questions: When would Janell get a job and where? Where would we we live? How can we afford to live in Hawaii? Are we going to find any friends? What church will we go to? Will we be able to live this far away from all of our family and friends?
I tried to plan out all these things to help with the move: I applied for dozens of jobs, and searched hundreds of apartment listings. Nonetheless, all my plans fell through. It's our nature to try to plan ahead, right? We want to be prepared. But looking back, all the things I tried to line up, failed. It was a hard lesson to learn but once we had faith that God would provide, HE did. God quickly provided for our needs in a much bigger way than we could have ever known we needed. Seeing this happen first hand in our lives helps us realize that no matter where we end up next, God is already working to prepare us for that place. Our God is an Awesome God!
I just want to challenge everyone this week to really search out God (ex. at work, Church, in your family), and pray for an open heart to follow HIM wherever he may need you. God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Don't have excuses like Moses who said, "God, I cannot speak like my brother Aaron" rather say "I am ready for where you want to send me, I will follow you!"
Where could God be sending you? Will you be ready to go where He needs you?
