anyone out there?

Tonight I did something I rarely do. And by rarely, I mean probably 17 times ever. 17 because that's how many places I've lived in my short life.

I cleaned under my bed. Not that there's junk and dirt and spiders underneath. None of that. There are a few cool rolls of wrapping paper with Rosie the Riveter printed all over, old photos and painting supplies, but the more you shove under there, the more it all gets pushed to the middle - then before you know it Rosie's head is peering out from under your bedskirt.

I found the old iBook collecting dust. It hasn't turned on in about a year. But I pulled it out, and I know I heard the Holy Spirit tell me to command it to come to life.

"Come to life."

And it did right then. And here I am typing on it.

I have a big piece of butcher paper up on my wall and at the top I wrote: I will see the impossible become possible before my very eyes!

And I did tonight.
Isn't that a cool story?

Labor Day Weekend

Friday Night:
Ashley's 16th Birthday Party!!




















Saturday Night:
After spending all day in bed with a migraine, Connie, one of my fav's, stole me away to the pedestrian overpass by our house to watch the sunset. Amazing.




















Sunday:
Golden Gardens with Heather
Another sunset! I love love love living here!!






















Monday:
Fairhaven, WA
A group of us celebrated Connie and Christy's birthday.
I found my dream man.
















Then the girls moved in on him. He wasn't real enough for me anyway.

Manzanita

Heather, Jill and I left town again - this time for the Oregon Coast. We took a long weekend to play. Good times...

Lake Melakwa

Hi everyone - I know I've been gone from my blog foorrreeeeeevvvvveeer, which has been sad for me. My lovely iBook decided to blow a fuse or something and it's not turning on. Which is sad too.

But what's not sad it the latest hiking adventure I went on. And it was definately an adventure. It was beau-ti-ful! It was myself, Jill, and Heather. First of all, we saw a bear. It attacked me! Just kidding, it was one ridge over, just hangin out in some grass, probably eating some berries or some small woodland creature. And we made our way through a ton of snow (looked like an avalanche!), and we actually didn't make it to Lake Melakwa because we decided we'd rather not die falling through the snow to the river below and live to face the bear. :) Kind of a toss up, I know.

Anyway, life is good. Life is busy. Summer's here! Sort of. It's raining today, but I'm looking forward to a ton more hikes!

Please comment - I'd like to know I'm still loved in blog-world.

R.I.P.

Let's all have a moment of silence for my Apple G4.

the night of "the shank"

My most favorite sound in the whole world is my sisters laugh. If you've never heard it, you really need to. Not only is it the most out of control, contagious belly laugh you've ever heard, but it has special meaning for me. When somebody who used to not laugh a lot, suddenly starts to ALL THE TIME, it's pretty amazing.





Heather and I went to Jills place last night and Heather made us a feast.
- Lamb shank, marinated in a red wine & onion sauce
- basmati rice, with cilantro and other herb goodness
- greek cucumber riata

Jill supplied the wine, I supplied the fresh flowers and bread. And PERFECTION supplied the laughs.



I love to laugh. Laughter is truly the best medicine. There's been a lot of laughter in my life lately, and it's gotten me through some potentially tough days.

waiting the storm out.

sitting at home.
instant messaging Jen from across the kitchen table.
waiting for Garlic Jims to get here.
listening to Mat Kearney.
daydreaming about Hawaii.
wishing it would snow...a lot.
laughing at Jen's comments.

Psalm 44:1

God is bedrock under my feet, the castle in which I live, my rescuing knight.

Mele Kalikie Maka = Merry Christmas in Hawaiian = our trip was way too much fun

So. Christy, Jen and I bolted out of town for 9 days once the musical was over. We went to Lanai for awhile, then Maui for 3 days. It pretty much rocked any vacation I've ever had (seeing I've never been on a real vacation like this before - and no, work doesn't count). I posted way too many pictures, because it was difficult to pick through all 283. So I chose the ones that would best describe our time, although there's no way to describe the relaxation and beauty and "friend time" we experienced.




We just landed in Lanai and I was so pumped that we all ran around in circles and jumped around. (This is where my Superwoman powers kicked in.)






This is Manele Bay, the beach we hung out at most of our time in Lanai. We body surfed (tried, anyway), snorkeled (again, we tried), and got tan!






Jen and Christy got famous with their body surfing skills. They're legends among the locals.





We hung out at the Four Seasons resort a lot too. This is the view from the pool area.





One morning we got up at 5:30am, and 4x4'd to the top of the island where we watched the sun rise over Maui.





It was perfect.





All the main roads are lined with these pine trees. They aren't indigenous to Lanai, but someone brought them in, in order to get more rain on the island and add to the water table. On this road there was this one pine tree someone had decorated with ornaments. An enigma.





Our last full day on Lanai, we tried to go surfing. After driving about an hour on the roughest dirt roads you can imagine, a tree had fallen in the way & we couldn't go any further. So we turned around and went to Shipwreck Beach instead.





Enter Shipwreck Beach. The real, live shipwreck is in the background. The arrow is there to direct teams from that reality show "Amazing Race". Apparently they were filming an episode that weekend.





On Saturday we took the ferry over to Maui, and made the windy drive up to Hana. Once we got up in the higher altitudes, it began to rain sideways. We stopped at a roadside market to get some coffee & fresh fruit, and stretch our legs.





The sign speaks for itself. And we didn't stay away.





These blow holes are amazing. We walked out onto the rocks and stood right next to where these huge waves break against the rock. At some points the wave would break and would splash 100' up in the air, all the while we're only like 3 feet away. The wind would (usually) blow the wave right past us. It was such a rush to feel the power of the water. The last wave the came drenched us.





This is the landscape at the Seven Sacred Pools.





We rented a condo in Hana. Our bedroom door opened up to a big deck that overlooked the ocean and a black sand beach.





Near the end of our trip, we came down the mountain and stayed at the Westin in Kaanapali. The Cline's were there, and it was so cool to spend time with them. This is our last night in Hawaii.



Merry Christmas, everyone!