Just Be....

Aloha All!

Well, I am currently on Fall Break and have absolutely no excuse for not updating my blog! So here I go...

The first quarter of the year has now been completed, and I am so far really enjoying teaching first grade. It helps that I have mostly all my same students from last year, so I got to bypass all that routine and ritual teaching part.

With the end of the first quarter comes ten wonderful (and much needed!) days off from school! And the best part??? I have absolutely nothing planned for the entire week. Yes, I have my regular commitments for church and youth group, and last week our community groups started so I am now a part of that. But other than that I have been getting a lot of much needed rest (I was sick the last two days of school!) and catching up on "lifey" things like cleaning and paying bills. (oh the joy)

So what I am doing today, now that I am about half way through my break? I am sitting in a Starbucks (yes, we have Starbucks here... two as a matter of fact!) drinking my coconut latte in a real mug (not those paper kind) and enjoying the day with my friend Megan. If you were to ask me what my favorite thing to do is I would have to say just this. Hanging out and just being. So much of my life is "doing".... It is nice just to be!

Monday Night Bliss...

It is Monday night, and Monday night for me here in Kona is family night. Family night consists of me, my roommate Chrissy, great food, and the tv!

For dinner we made grilled brats (yes, on an actually bbq! It's legit or nothing at all!) with grilled onions and some pillsbury bisquits. Mmmm mmmm. And we enjoyed our food with a couple of glasses (very small glasses!) of Clos Du Bois merlot.

This is a very special night in the realm of our family night because this week all of our shows return for the new season. "How I Met Your Mother" returns tonight which we are super stoked for! And tonight is the premiere of "Hawaii Five-O"! We are totally excited for that!

Tonight is going to be a great night!

Back on the Net!

Aloha one and all! I have not forgotten about you! For the past month and a half I have been without internet, but as of today I am officially back online! Yay!

I have had 29 days of school so far and we are only a couple quick weeks away from the end of the first quarter! Yikes! I am loving teaching first grade and I absolutely love having my same students from last year. I have five additional students this year and they are all great, super smart and very well behaved!

I get to teach social studies in first grade, which has been great so far. We celebrated statehood day in August and this month we are studying Johnny Appleseed. His birthday is on September 26th, which we will celebrate in class, so if anyone has any ideas on activities I could do, let me know!

Vote Today!

I found this contest on Facebook where you vote for your school to receive 500,000 dollars from Khols! Here is the link to vote!!!!

Jillian - the newest edition to the family

There are many reasons to come home for the summer. I get to see family and friends who I don't usually get to see. I get to experience many familiarities from my "growing up" years. And I get to put aside stresses and responsibilities for a month and be able to just "be". This summer, while enjoying all the above benefits of being back in RP, I have decided to take this time off to "get in shape".

Another "kickback" of being at home is that I get to experience and take part in first hand whatever healthy/diet/exercise plan my mom is currently going through. I think we have both finally found something that works. My mom is currently using meal plans created by TV's Jillian Michaels. Not only is the food good for you but it tastes good too! It is all light, fresh and delicious. I have also been working out everyday as well. And I feel great! I have decided to not weigh myself, which I think it doing wonders for my self-esteem. I have noticed a slight difference in the way I look, though not too much, yet! Like I said before though, I FEEL great!

Jillian even has her own dessert recipes! Before going to my friends Brian and Stephanie's house last night for dinner, I decided to try out Jillian's brownie recipe. Her recipe uses honey instead of sugar and applesause and olive oil instead of vegetable oil. They came out super light and fluffy. They tasted more "cakey" then "brownie-ey". Part of that may be because instead of baking them in a 8x8 pan I did my usual where I bake them in a mini muffin pan, so you get individual brownies! There wasn't a lot of "chocolatey" flavor to them and I could still taste the applesause a bit, but that should be an easy fix. Next time I will use less applesauce and more cocoa power! Yum yum!

out with the old, in with the new and then back again

As of yesterday I have officially lived in Hawai'i for two years. Yes! Two years! It seems like more than that I must admit. So what did I do to celebrate being a "kama'aina" for two full years now? I got a new phone number! Yes, I decided to due away with the old and bring on the new. I am no longer a part of the 707 crowd but am now with the 808 nation!

After being away for two years I find myself, in a way, coming full circle to where I left off. Well, when it comes to work anyway. My first and only year of teaching in California I taught first grade and it was wonderful. After two years of teaching Kindergarten I will be going back this next year to teaching first grade. Yay me! Not only that but I will be teaching my Kindergarteners from last year! They are a wonderful class and we have so much fun together. For the most part they are pretty well behaved, so I have totally lucked out!

Spring Break 2010!!!

Last night I got back from the most relaxing yet incredibly packed Spring Vacation! It all began in LA where my BFF/Roommate Chrissy and I met up with my brother. We went to In N Out for a late (very late!) dinner and then off to Casey's (not KC's, which is what I thought it was...) Tavern for a very, very late "adult" drink. It was a pretty cool place and we were there til about 130am when it closed! The next day we hung out with my brother at the mall and then went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory! Yum! And while we were having dinner an old man came up to me and asked if I was Selma Hayek's sister! Ha! That totally made my already amazing day!

After dinner my brother took up to the Queen Mary where we were staying for the night, and we all had a drink up at the bar at the front of the boat. The next morning Chrissy and I awoke in our amazing room in the Queen Mary and were served breakfast in bed! It was fabulous! After we got ready for the day we explored the Queen Mary museum a bit and then headed off to our cruise ship "Paradise"!

The first full day of our crusie we were at Catalina Island. We found a cute coffee shop/ sake bar (ha!) and had coffee before strolling along town. We then decided to rent a golf cart and drive around the island and then we finished our day with some fantastic fish and chips!

The next day we were in Ensanada and had a fabulous time there as well! We ended up going to La Bufadora (the blowhole) and the open market there. We bought some cool things and had amazing churros! Our tour guide was amazing too! His name was Rigo and he was hilarious!

The next and final day of the cruise we were at sea the whole day and pretty much just laid out in the sun the whole afternoon. We also went to the dining room 3 times that day and had sit down meals for each meal that day! So I had eggs benedict for breakfast, a burger for lunch and veal for dinner. I also finished my book "The Congo" that I had been reading during the trip.

The next day we got off the cruise ship back in Long Beach and met up with Chrissy's friend Matt. He took us to Santa Monica and we walked along the coast and into town. Chrissy and I went to LUSH (yay!) and then we went to this place for lunch where I had some amazing tacos!
Matt then dropped us off at our hotel and Chrissy and I crashed for the rest of the night.

The next day when we checked in at the airport we weren't given any seat assignments so we went to the counter by our gate to ask if it would be at all possible for us to sit next to each other. Well, the flight was completelly OVERBOOKED and they were offering 250 dollar vouchers if you gave up your seat and flew the next day. Chrissy was contemplating it and I might have too if I didn't have to get back to work on Monday. They even announced a later flight into Honolulu that we said we were willing to take since we knew that people were on their way for vacation and weren't likely to give up their seats, but then we wouldn't be able to make our connecting flight to Kona and would have to stay the night in Oahu. Well, after pretty much everyone had boarded the plane, the lady at the counter came up to us and gave us our tickets.... and they were for first class! She said she never does this, and we said praise you Jesus! So we got to fly back to Hawaii in first class and we even got to sit next to each other! What a perfect way to end and seemingly perfect trip!

March Madness!

This has been a fun yet tiring week of school... and it was only 4 days! Tuesday was Dr. Seuss Day (March 2nd is his birthday) so we did all Dr. Seuss stuff all day long. I was actually dreading it before hand, but after I got everything prepped for it the day before I was really looking forward to it. We started off our day by reading the story "Horton Hatches an Egg". At the end of the story the egg hatches and it is an "elephant bird". So, I had the kids create their own two animal animals. They had to think of two animals and put them together and then write what it was called. The kids had a lot of fun with it. For reading time I let the kids read the Dr. Seuss books that they brought or they could borrow mine if they didn't have.
The day before I had read the story of the Butter Battle Book so before they went out for recess they got to have bread and butter for snack, and choose where they wanted their bread. Most picked to eat it with the butter on top but some at it (or at least atttempted to) on the bottom. And other just folded their bread in half and ate it in the middle!
When they came back from recess we made Cat in the Hat hats and then they got to wear them to lunch. And at the end of the day they got to read Dr. Seuss books to the Kindergarteners next door to us and then we all watched the Cat and the Hat movie. It was a super fun day, but once I got home I realized how tired I was, and then I had to go to youth group!
The following day was Girls' Day, which was super fun too, though the kids were a bit crazy! For writing time they had to write about a girl that they know (7 of them picked me!) And later we made fans. They colored flowers on them first with crayon and then watercolored over it. They girls got to eat lunch with me in the classroom and then decided they wanted to make up a fan dance! So I helped them come up with something and they practiced it a few times and when the boys came back form lunch they performed it for them. A couple of days before I made mochi (for the first time!) which is this Japanese snack/dessert that is made with sugar and rice flour and has this kind of sticky, solid yet mushy texture, and I gave it to the kids when they left for the day.
So that was what a lot of my energy was spent on this week, and now I hav them weekend to recoup!

Camp Erdman

This weekend I went with my youth group to Camp Erdman on North Shore Oahu. It is located at the same place where they film the "Others" for LOST. It was pretty cool.
We all arrived at the airport in Kona at 6am on Friday (public school kids/teacher (me!) had furlough, private school kids/teacher had to ditch school the day. We arrived in Oahu a little after 9am and from there went to lunch at Teddy's Bigger Burger. It was soooo good!!!! After that we went ice skating, and were there for three hours! It took me a while to defrost afterwards!

We finally got to camp later that afternoon and the good times continued. After our "session" (where I did the music and the talking!) we played games ( the boys played a game where they pelted each other with a ball, and the girls played cards... all in the same room!!!) and after that we all went back to our cabins and totally crashed!

The next day was filled with even more fun activities! We went hiking, swimming, played trashcan ball, did the rock wall, and the girls even played a prank on the boys! We took all their stuff and put it above their bathrooms in their cabin and then put their mattresses IN the bathrooms so that the room looked totally bare!

That night after dinner we had another 'session' and then we had our bonfire, and it was amazing! We had smores and some of the boys tried to see how many warheads they could do at once. The record was 4! It was hilarious!

The next day after we left camp we went to Kailua BeachWalk and had lunch and from there we went to the beach. When we left the beach we finally made our way to the airport and made our way home!

It was an awesome weekend and I had a great time hanging out with the kids and all the other leaders. I am quite sore and tired today, but it was worth it!

P.S. If you want to see pics from Saturday you can go to the Ignite FB site and see the pictures there!

One packed week!

This week has been pretty busy thus far, and there is no sign of it slowing down! Yesterday in class we started procedural writing (how-to writing) We made cinnamon popcorn in class and then after recess we wrote out the steps on how to make it. The kids did amazing! I was so proud of them! The days was packed with lots of other hands on activities, and by lunch time I had hit the wall. I was dead tired and still had another hour and a half left! By the time I got home I was done for the day.

Today was much like yesterday, except that we made peanut butter sandwiches instead. For some reason the kids were more rowdy today, but I ended the day less tired, which is good because i have youth group tonight!

Tomorrow we are going to made hearts out of paper and then write the steps on how to do that. Tomorrow night our school is having our first RAP session, which is a read aloud program. The kids come with their families and there are read alouds and pizza and prizes. So tomorrow is going to be another loooong day, seeing as how I won't be done until 8.

Thursday will just be a regular day (thank goodness!) but Friday morning I leave with my youth group to go to a camp on Oahu! I am leading worship and speaking on Friday night! So not only do I have all this school stuff going on this week, but I have to prep for that too! I am really excited for this weekend though, and it will be a good chance to get to know the kids more.

Well, that is it for now! Aloha!

Here today, gone toMaui...

This last weekend I was in Maui and it was much needed! My roommate Chrissy and I and our friend Doug left Friday evening and had a relaxing night in Maui. The next day we went to Lahaina and shopped (well, Chrissy and I shopped, and Doug waited outside). It was such a wonderful day of no stress and good times. That evening we met up with our friend Marrissa who lives in Maui and we all had dinner together at Stellablues. The next day was the Maui Oceanfront Marathon, which was the whole purpose of the trip (besides shopping!) We got up at 430am and took Doug to the start in Wailea. After we saw him off, Chrissy and I went back to bed! We woke up a couple of hours later and drove to Lahaina. We were expecting to have plenty time there to see Doug cross the finish, but he ran faster than we expected and barely made it there in time! His time was 3hr28min! And he came in 8th place overall! We were so proud of him! After hanging around for a couple of hours we made our way back to Kihei and packed up and headed to the airport. It was a great weekend!

The next couple of weeks...

Report cards go home tomorrow, so as I sit by my computer waiting for the pages to print I think this would be an opportune time to give you all an update!

A couple of friends and myself are leaving for Maui on Friday, and I am VERY exctied about that! One of them is running in the marathon there, and the other two of us are going to cheer him on! It will be nice to go back to Maui, even though I was just there back in September. The last time I was there my friend and I tried to go to this Indian food restaraunt, but it was being remodeled. Hopefully now it is open and we can go eat there! I am also looking forward to hanging out in Lahaina and going to the LUSH store while our friend is running the race.

In a couple more weeks I will be going to Oahu with my youth group for a weekend long retreat. I am really looking for to that too. I am still leading worship at the youth group and I will be doing it at the retreat as well. So within 2 weeks I will be on three different islands! Very exciting!

School has been going well, though I can't believe this is only my thrid week back since vacaction... it feels like much longer. I have a great group of kids that I work with and as frustrating as they can be at times, they are also very entertaining. For example, one of my boys drew in his journal all these little squiggles and scribbles. I thought they looked like the writing from the cube on transformers so I asked him what it was. He said it was from transformers and that it was in his mind! Ha! Man, I love my job sometimes.

Furlough Fun?

Today is yet another furlough Friday and not only that it is also the start of a four day weekend. My day has been very productive so far... I have already done one load of laundry and finished writing comments for all my report cards... and it isn't even 11am yet! I also have some "homework" of my own that I have will probably work on today. I started taking a PD (professional development) course yesterday, so I have a few chapters to read and a reflection to write.
My roommates and some friends are going to Mauna Kea tomorrow, and for a short bit I was thinking about going with them, but I have decided to take a miss because I have had a cold all week, and I really don't think being in the cold is a good idea! I don't mind missing out though, because now I can play bass this weekend at church, which in my opinion is way more fun :)

Quick Update

It was made apparent to me a couple weeks ago that the last time that I posted a blog was at the beginning of the school year. So, I figured that it is more than over due for an update!
I just got back from Christmas vacation on Saturday, I had spent the previous 2 weeks in RoPo visting the fam. I have plenty of pictures of all my adventures over the two weeks that I have posted on facebook is you are interested on seeing any.
I am currently living in a house with 3 other girls, who are all teachers themselves. They however are private school teachers, so I don't work with any of them.
I just got myself a Wii yesterday with some gift cards I got for Christmas. I took the Wii fitness test and my age is 73! You can only take it once a day, so you can guess what the first thing I am going to do when I get home is, huh!
I also got a new car a couple of months ago. My lumina died on me :( plus the ac didn't work any more, so it was time to get something a little bit more appropriate for Hawaii living! I got a 2004 Toyota Prius, and I love it! The AC is amazing, among other things!
Well, that's a quick update of the last semester. Hopefully this following semester I will keep it up better!