April Updates

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. 

Look forward to seeing all of you again soon,

Janell

we're movin' on up...

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! :)