Vanessa graduation

Vanessa does a little dance after receiving her diploma. We were pretty close but most of her friends were up top. We all got together after the mad dash out of the stadium seating.

Graduation class of 2008 Radford High School

At the top me, dad, and Vanessa. Middle: Vanessa's friends from Surfing the Nations (tall guy with video cam filming for Surfing the Nations. Bottom: Mr. Stevens congratulating Vanessa after receiving her diploma (Radford's principal who is retiring this year).

All in all the graduation was a success. There is plenty of room since they hold it at Aloha Stadium. The event was at 6:00 pm so by 6:30 it was a cool 70 degrees. Perfect. I told my hubby it must be bad luck if it rains at your graduation in Hawaii. He asked why. "Well Einstein it never rains on the last week in May and it hasn't at the last 20 Radford graduations so if it does what do you think that means?"

About the beach toys? I really don't know. I always say "why are the graduates getting tubes," and my kids ask "well what did you get?" Not beach toys. I told my daughter that Darrian (my 4 year old) is going to really want to graduate when he sees all the beach toys you get. Another funny thing, the lei-ing, as they call it. I asked "why don't you call it presenting of the lei?" The response: too long. I think she ended up with at least 15, some flower, some candy, and some toiletries for Bali which her friend Mel made. These kids make leis out of anything. Who knew you could get a toiletry lei.

Lost

Entitlement

entitlement (plural entitlements)

1. the right to have something
2. something that one is entitled to (or believes that one is entitled to)

I was reading in Newsweek an article titled "The End of Entitlement." I was thinking that the cut backs I will have to make because of souring food and gas prices are really not cut backs at all. The article stated 70% of households have 2 or more cars, and a similar share have satellite or cable tv. 66% have high speed internet. And 42% already have a flat screen tv, Thirty years ago no one's parents had this kind of inventory. I thought "we have all this stuff." "Most of my friends have all this stuff." It's not like we didn't save for it, and it's not like it didn't take a lot of hard work and time, but I realized we really don't need all this stuff. Making sacrifices does not seem all that hard a pill to swallow when I realize that we own many things that were not even possible to own many years ago and in most parts of the world they don't own all of these things. I believe the belief that we are entitled to things is what makes most people fear high gas and food prices. Once we can get over the fact that these possessions are not entitlements then the rest comes easy. I'm thinking that maybe we are a bit spoiled in the US. Maybe this time of high prices is a good lesson from above not to take the things we are given or enabled to purchase for granted. Maybe the country that goes by "In God we Trust," should wake up and smell the coffee."

That's my speech, in case I ever decide to run for president.

Then Sings My Soul Saturday

I am a huge American Idol fan and an even huger Chris Daughtry fan (is huger even a word?) I thought I would post this video that Daughtry did in honor of our troops for Memorial Day.

PS Also check out Amy's tribute to Steven Curtis Chapman and his family. May God be with them in their time of need. You have to scroll down a few posts, but it is really nice.

Happy Birthday twice

Today is Vanessa's birthday she is 18. Last Saturday Damian turned 9. He is performing in the May Day celebration and has on a red shirt with the bandanna. Vanessa is in the same picture you have already seen, but one I like. If we could just get my easy share set up correctly I could order this from Kodak, but so far no luck. Anyway I just wanted to let them know Happy Birthday....X's 2.

Why would someone buy this?

Because they are a germaphobic, that's why. Can you believe I was thanking God for this the other day? I wonder what God thinks. Probably that something so strange would excite me. Like I said before I pray about a lot of things, mostly for family and friends and a little bit for me, but I also thank God for things during the day and this is one of them. I love the idea that this water smells like rain after it is processed and I love the idea that you can kill almost anything with it (or at least that is the claim), but most of all I love knowing that those little germs around are taking a beating. I own some really strange gadgets, but this by far is one of the strangest. My husband says "it supercharges water?" That's right, that's what I said. He doesn't believe it, but I will tell you that if you spray this on a cut the cut will heal withing 24 hours, and if you spray it on mold the mold will not only disappear, but not come back anytime soon. So maybe it doesn't work, but it sure does a great job of faking it. And yes, I thank God for giving this person the idea to invent this really cool product.

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!

I found this at Kimberly's blog A planting of the Lord and thought it so amazing that I had to post it for people out there who may have missed it. Please watch the whole 8 minutes or you might miss the awesome ending.

We serve an awesome God

I want to thank all of my prayer warriors out there who prayed for my mom. Mom has come through her surgery better than expected. This is the song I love to play whenever the enemy is defeated once again. My kids will tell you I play it a lot, the neighbors will tell you this also. I always say if the neighborhood didn't know I was a Christian before they do now. This is the song that will be playing loud and clear today. My mom survived stage 4 breast cancer over 14 years ago, then she developed MDS due to damaged DNA from the chemo this past year. She was told it was only a 50% chance she would survive the intense chemo. She did. She went home finally after 60 days and once again returned to the hospital a few hours later, this time she survived an infection and when she was getting ready to come home this week fell and fractured her hip. Again she was told only a 50% chance of surviving surgery. She came through surgery and is recovering. Once again Satan has struck again and once again our God has defeated him. I don't know how long my mom has or how much time our savior is giving her, but I do know that he takes into account the power of prayer and I do know that where we gather together in prayer Jesus is there. So I want to thank all of you who prayed for mom and I want to thank Jesus once again for putting the enemy in his place. As my ministers wife always says "Satan does not stand around saying Oh goodie another blessing that's nice." No he is ready to take our faith away at a moments notice. So I do not expect this will be smooth sailing, but I do know that my savior is here and he is letting everyone know it. So enjoy this song by Hillsong and remember today in many places the enemy has been defeated.

Pray for mom please.

My mom was due to get out of the hospital this week and somehow she fell while getting out of bed and fractured her hip. Not to severe, but severe enough to need surgery. She has been feeling well but due to the fact that she has MDS and has just recovered from chemo and infection and all she is at risk in surgery. Please let our savior know to be with her throughout her surgery and hopefully her quick recovery. I just wanted to put this song up to remind us all that Jesus carries us even when we can't carry ourselves. I know he will be carrying my mom through her surgery when she will be too weak to carry herself.

Happy Mother's Day

I just wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to my mom, my sister, my daughter, and all my blog friends out there. I hope everyone is having a nice day. I thought this was the cutest picture. Even back in the day mothers had to multi task. My mom is still in the hospital but is doing much better and hopefully will come home soon. She can't be here, but she knows we are thinking about her. I pray that Jesus will heal her and bring her home where she belongs. She is an awesome mom and I am lucky to have her. Who else would move furniture at 5 am in the morning so I could paint my room the 10,000 th time?

This song really brings to light the need for Jesus on days when he seems so far away or when times make it seem that he isn't close by. In times of trouble, pain, or need this song reminds me of grabbing on to a piece of the savior and never letting go. Just "one touch" physical or spiritual" and hang on the Lord will not let go and his warmth will surround you. His loving touch can be felt physically if we hang on to him.

Princess kai'lie and winter

Here she is at the zoo with with the proof on her face that she had enjoyed her watermelon.

Winter?

1. The usually coldest season of the year, occurring between autumn and spring, extending in the Northern Hemisphere from the winter solstice to the vernal equinox, and popularly considered to be constituted by December, January, and February.
2. A year as expressed through the recurrence of the winter season.
3. A period of time characterized by coldness, misery, barrenness, or death.

adj.
My daughter was laughing while she was here and when I asked what that was all about she said "every time you say winter it makes me laugh. What do you people call winter?" Okay so maybe it is hot and sunny all year, but we have winter. If you spend 7 months out of the year in 85 degree weather then the other 3-5 months in 70 degrees then that's winter. Just ask my car. When I go out to the bus stop in the morning in Dec. my windows have frost on them. Yah frost. Of course an hour later it's 75 and sunny and every kid dressed in sweatshirts and jackets has now shed them for t-shirts and shorts. Do you all know what 70 degrees feels like when you spend most of your time baking on the beach at a hot 85? Just ask my kids who were at the beach and when the sun went down were saying "I'm freezing," Okay maybe freezing is a bit much, but I had goose bumps. Probably the easiest way to define winter in Hawaii is : when the kids are in school it's winter, when they are out it's summer. There that's it. Winter-Summer, or at least that's what we tell ourselves.

sporadic blogging

This is the reason my blogging has been a little sporadic. My daughter and her family have come to visit. Here are some of the pictures. I will post a few more soon. Top picture Cesar and the boys, Jr. Damian, Julian, and Darrian. Cesar is my son in law. 2 nd picture from the top the boys under a tree at the Honolulu zoo, 3rd picture Jr., Damian and Cesar, 4th picture baby Reilyn, 5th picture Jr. and Reilyn. More to come.

On another note please pray for my mom who after 60 days in the hospital came home for one day and went right back in.

Then Sings My Soul Saturdays - Hillsong

I went to church a few weeks ago and got to hear Christine Caine from Hillsong United speak. All I can say is she was amazing. Most people know she can sing, but many people do not know what an awesome speaker she is. The pastor from one of our churches on The big island knows Hillsong and have people from Australia come and speak for us so we were lucky to have Christine. The music was amazing and Christine sang with our church and that really was something. The church was packed. Well over 1000 people. Me and my daughter had the best time. We met some nice people too. Here is a song from Hillsong that I love and you can see Christine in the shirt that has the flowing sleeves making her look like a bird. That was about the only way to explain who she is. Anyway I hope you all enjoy the song.

Gone but hopefully not forgotten

I just wanted to let everyone know that I was informed by housing about two weeks ago that we would be moving to new housing a few blocks away. Within 3 days we were being packed and moved. When I got to the new house I had called to have my phone and DSL switched over here. The phone company then informed me that there was a problem with the line. After 3 engineers and the contractor for this post came out to check these lines they finally let me know that I could no longer receive DSL and had to call the other company for internet and phone. Finally a few days ago I got up and running. After about 2 weeks without internet I am back online. Now I won't be getting my regular phone until May 15th because we have to change to digital phone for a land line. Thank God for cell phones. Well I hope to be posting more often now. I also have my daughter here with her husband and 3 kids so we have been quite busy. I hope to have time to check out all my favorite bloggers out there this week. I hope you are all doing well.

Surfing The Nations Feeding The Hungry

This is the organization that my daughter belongs to, the one she will meet in Bali after East Timor. I just wanted to share this video to show you all how important this non-profit is to Hawaii. Uncle Tom and Aunt Cindy are amazing Christian people. God Bless them and their surfing ministry.

Idol Gives Back - Teri Hatcher - Before He Cheats

I thought this was a great skit and I really enjoyed it. I didn't know Teri could sing and Mike playing guitar, not too bad.

Why?

Today when we got in the van to take my daughter to the commissary, where she works, she turned around and looked at my 4 year old and said "you're not riding your bike so why are you wearing your helmet?" I said "Oh, he wears it sometimes." Vanessa said "You're not going in are you?" "Of course I'm going in, why?" "Because he is wearing his bike helmet." "I know, I just told you sometimes he does that." "Why?" "What do you mean why?" "Why does he wear his helmet to the store sometimes?" "Maybe he thinks he is going to fall out of the basket onto his head. You know shopping carts aren't safe. Remember the time I ran over your finger with one at Ft. Sill?" "Yes, so you see it wouldn't of mattered if I was wearing a helmet." "Well maybe you should of been wearing boxing gloves." We pulled up to the store and she said to let her out in front. "Why, I told you I'm going in so I'm going to park." She said "that's ok, I don't want to walk in with the weird kid wearing his bicycle helmet in the shopping cart." "Just tell them your weird mom thinks it's not safe to go shopping without your safety equipment." "just let me out in front." So Vanessa went into work and 5 minutes later we were passing her register when my 4 year old, wearing his helmet, called out loudly "hi Vanessa." Of course she waved because even though she didn't want anyone to know it was her weird brother wearing the helmet it would be worse if the kid with the helmet yelled "hi Vanessa" 25 times just to get her attention.

Miracle Monday

Miracle Monday

Today my miracle is a small one, but one I still consider miraculous. About a month ago I had taken some Sudafed PE which cause me to faint in the middle of the night. I got up to go to the bathroom about 2 hours after taking the medicine and after I got up to go back to bed I fainted. If you saw my bathroom, which is very small, about 5 ft by 7ft, you would know the chances of me not hitting the sink, the toilet, the shower step, the doorknob are just about nil. The fact that my husband was woken from a deep sleep, and that my son across the hall was also awoken and came running in, explains just how loud I hit the floor. It wasn't until the next day when I told the doctor what had happened that he asked which part of my body hit the floor first. I told him I didn't know. After I got off the phone I went to my bathroom mirror to scan my body for a bruise or any painful area. When I couldn't find any I started to look at my head and press all over it so I could see where I might have hit that, again nothing. I had no bruises, no sore spots, no bumps, no anything. I realized someone from above must of been helping me out. I assume God possibly sent some angels to make sure that I was not harmed. I remember waking up with my cheek pressed against the soft lambswool carpet I have in there and I remember my hands being in the prayer position right next to the same place. The way I usually fall asleep, not the way you land when you faint. My husband was calling my name and I guess this is why I woke up, otherwise I think I might have just slept there comfortably. All in all I still don't know what to make of this and either does my hubby, my doctor, or anyone else I tell. Whats the odds of falling in a room, 5X7, surrounded by porcelain and hitting absolutely no part of my body? I'd say probably nil.