Mama On The Move

The homeschool prom went very well, if I do say so myself. I was on the planning committee and it turned out to be much better than I hoped. The food was fabulous. I'm not a fan of buffet food, but this was actually exceptional. We had a dance team come in and do a performance for the teens. Then they taught all the teens a simple swing dance. Everyone got to dance, no one was left sitting at a table alone. Ben has rhythm and loves to dance so he was quite in demand for the entire evening. Ben danced....... and danced........... and danced....... and danced.......... and danced. And then, being the typical non-traditional kids that homeschoolers are... ....they all danced in the rain in their suits and beautiful dresses.

All three of the kids are getting ready to perform in a play. It is taking over our lives and we have done little else except rehearsals, rehearsals, rehearsals. This is the cover of the program. Ben is an angel and the girl is a demon. I'll let you know how it goes.....

Kerry recently took a day off and we decided to check out the zoo here. We've been to zoos all over the country. Kerry is a zoo maniac. It's always one of the first things he wants to do when we move to a new place. "Let's go check out the zoo!" What he really means is, "Let's go to the reptile house!" We've all learned that when we get to the reptile house, we can just find a bench and wait while Kerry gazes in rapture at all the critters I would freak out over if they weren't behind glass. It actually works out well as we've learned to wait until everyone is hot and tired. The reptile house is cool and quiet and we can rest while Kerry communes with nature. He's very Dr. Doolittle-ish about reptiles. The Honolulu Zoo is small but well kept and very clean. I say it's small, but really it was a good size for a day's outing. When we went to the Omaha Zoo, we were practically sprinting by the end of the day trying to ...

I'm always amazed that we keep discovering new things here. You would think that on an island this size, we would have seen pretty much everything there is to see. We've been out to the Polynesian Cultural Center four times over the last couple of years, but we'd never seen the Ha - Breath of Life show. I'd heard it was very good, but for some reason we hadn't seen it. Well, last night was the second night of the 2011 World Fireknife Competition, and the top three competitors were going to be competing during the intermission of the Ha - Breath of Life show. Because we have annual passes to PCC we were able to go for free (always a plus). They do not allow videos or photography during the show, but I found a commercial of sorts on YouTube which I have embedded here for your viewing pleasure: The show was amazing! It featured all the various dance styles we usually see at a luau but also wove a story through it. It had the romance of a love story, the warm-fuzz...

Kerry, the kids and I went out to lunch on our anniversary. We were in separate cars, so when we left, Kerry and Ben went to his car, and the girls went in the van with me. I was still sitting in my parking space looking for the address of Emily's orthodontist in the GPS when someone backed into me. Fortunately, the man who hit me admitted it was his fault. I was parked after all, it could hardly have been my fault. But he could have said I was backing out and hit him. But he was honest, and his insurance will be taking care of everything. Katie was really excited to have been in an accident. She was hoping to go down to the police station and identify suspects in a line-up, but apparently that wasn't necessary.

It can't possibly have been twenty years. It seems like ten, tops. Look how skinny we were.... Kerry's groom's cake had little Army men fighting a mock battle. Our ring bearer asked us if he could take the army men home with him after the wedding. He's twenty-four now. I haven't seen my dress in twenty-years. It was the main guest of honor at the wedding. Everything revolved around the dress. It was more important than anything else. I think it is in my mother's attic. This is a picture of me and my sister at the reception. Her hair is naturally curly. She spent years straightening it. My hair is naturally straight. I've spent a small fortune on perms. I loved my earrings. They were beautiful. I loaned them to a friend for her wedding ten years ago and she lost one of them at the reception. We aren't friends any more. This was in the day before brides and grooms shoved their cake all over each other. We would have been signing divorce paper...

Okay, this was cool. Emily saw an ad to "design your own candy bar" and thought that would make an excellent gift for me. I am a true chocoholic. As long as I stay away from chocolate, I'm okay. But let me get one bite, one bite mind you , and I'm done for. I want more. And more. And more. And more. I am not a person who can take one or two bites of something chocolate and stop. Unless it's cheap waxy chocolate and then I have no problem stopping. I try. I do. I'll have one of those little mini-chocolate candy bars and think that I'll just have the one. But then it tastes so good, I think, "Well, I'll just have one more." Then I think, "Oooh. I haven't tried the ones with peanuts yet. I have to have at least one of each type." And before I know it, there is a pile of little candy wrappers and no chocolate. Thank goodness I don't feel this way about beer. But it truly gives me an idea of how an alcoholic fe...

"That holiday this week was called 'pico de gallo', right?" Katie asked me. "No, pico de gallo is what Aunty Lia makes for us to eat on chips," I responded. "Cinco de Mayo is the name of the holiday. 'Cinco' means 'five' in Spanish and 'Mayo' means 'May' in Spanish." "And 'mayo' means 'mayonnaise' in English," Ben added.

Did you know that the Declaration of Independence that you normally see - with the giant JOHN HANCOCK at the bottom - is not the original? I never knew this! When the original handwritten Declaration was completed on July 4th, 1776, it was immediately sent to the printing shop of John Dunlap. He printed off about 200 copies of this document which were then distributed throughout the thirteen colonies to spread the word of what the Continental Congress was trying to do - break free of England. It was only later - in August - that a ceremonial draft of the Declaration was created and actually signed by many of the men who wrote it. It actually took several years to get all fifty-six signatures. This is the copy which we normally see and which is now kept in the National Archives. The handwritten original was lost. The copies made by John Dunlap are now known as Dunlap Broadsides. Until 1984 only 24 copies of Dunlap Broadsides were known to exist. Around that time, someone bought...

We were able to attend a concert by the David Crowder Band recently when they played at the HIM conference. Ben and Emily headed right down into the "mosh pit" area with the camera. The picture above is the only one with even remotely discernible images. Why? Because all the people down in front of the stage were jumping up and down and screaming, and the camera doesn't take great pictures when it is being vigorously waved around. This is a video Emily took in between screaming and singing. It starts off dark, but after a few seconds you can see everyone bouncing. The entire building was shaking. Back where Katie and I were sitting, we could feel the floor vibrating beneath our feet. Katie became concerned that it might be about to collapse. The music was a little loud for her and she plugged her ears with her fingers so as not to be completely overwhelmed with sound. She really enjoyed the softer songs and would stand on her chair and sing along to ones she kn...

Katie was outside playing when she came running in with a frantic look on her face. "There's an injured bird in our yard! We have to help him!" I went outside with her to see. There was a young bird flopping around in the yard with one leg sticking out at a decidedly bizarre angle. Oh no. I have to tell you - I did not want to help this bird. I don't like birds. They are dirty critters who poop everywhere and have mites on them. I enjoy seeing other people's pet birds and I love seeing parrots in the zoo. But I don't have to feed or touch those birds so I don't mind them. But I did not want to take care of this one and definitely did not want it in my house. But there stood Katie with a shoebox and an absolute determination to help the dirty little thing. *sigh* I don't know many parents that can convince their kids, "He's better off if you just let him die. A neighborhood cat will eat him and it will be really quick. It's that...