Christmas...yes i know this post is late. :(

We didn't have a big Christmas here in Memphis, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't fun! :) Thursday night we had a big Christmas Eve meal and sat around singing Chritmas carols out of a book that Joel and Rushi printed up for us. We were going to walk around and carol but it was too rainy. :( Friday was sort of lazy day but that night Mic and my dad went out to find some boxes and found a ton of that wrapping stuff that pops and everyone had fun dancing on it! Alaina and Aubrey came out after that to spend a little time with us. Saturday was when most of the fun happened! All my sisters and their families were here plus Jerusha and her kids. Before they showed up, the kids sang some songs and recited a poem and we revealed to our secret people. It was fun because all the guys ended up having guys and all the ladies had ladies except Rushi had Tim. We did not do that on purpose either. :) Here are just a few pictures...

Dancing...

Christmas program...

Revealing people...

Micaiah bringing in a gift for his secret person. It was a bunch of boxes inside each other and a pair of earrings in a tiny box in the middle.

Cute niece...

Sibling pictures...

I can't wait to see what the new year brings!!! :)

Home for Christmas!!! :) :) :)

We waited for the loading of the plane to get done last night and since it had been delayed two hours, some people transfered from that flight to another that left sooner so there was room for all five of us standbys. The plane left around 9:50pm Phoenix time, 10:50pm Memphis time. He didn't give us assigned seats just told us to find an empty one. I ended up sitting next to this guy who wasn't like any of the other people I sat by on the ride to Hawaii. He actually talked to me and was nice and more than that...he smiled! :) It seemed like everyone on the plane was in a good mood, or it might have been that I was in a good mood! :) Towards the end of waiting for the plane, my mom and I were soooo tired that we were laughing at everything! It was great to be in a good mood again and have my stomach hurt. :) The guy I sat by wasn't that talkative but did talk when I asked him questions. He looked like he was in College and was studying some papers. Anyway, the ride was long but endurable. I just read my book the whole way and looked out the window. There was no going to sleep for me. We landed in Memphis at 1:15am this morning and Stephen came and picked us up. I was wearing flip flops, or slippers as the Hawaiians would say, and my toes were like on the verge of frost bite! They were literally really cold. They are used to weather in the 80s everyday not the high 20s. They warmed up though when we got in Stephen's truck and I put them up the the vent. Probably not the best idea but it helped. :) Not forty minutes later I was warm and covered in my bed!
I got up this morning around 10:45am to Autumn staring up at my bed with a humongous smile spread wide across her face! :) It is good to be home!!!!! :) :) :)

At the airport...

So I'm here in the airport right now waiting on my flight that has been delayed two hours! So we are here waiting...again! Airports are starting to feel like home away from home to us now. :(
We had a wonderful time at my cousin's. She was very hospitable!! She was always asking us if we wanted anything to eat or drink and giving us Christmas cookies and stuff. It was just awesome being there. Very refreshing for us. :) When they brought us back to airport we felt almost brand new. My mom was saying that she almost wished that we would miss the flight so we could stay and be with them more. I was like..."NO!!!" I have nothing against them but I've been away from home for forever and just want to be there asap!
Anyway, that's the newest on us. :) Thanks again for your prayers!!

Okay, my mom said I had to blog about our clothes...funny topic! :) So here we are, Monday night in the same clothes we were wearing since Friday morning. Whoa! This isn't exactly my type of first class traveling but it was necessary considering how our suitcases decided to take off with out us to Memphis on Friday. We did wash them Saturday afternoon and I blogged about that and how I wore my brothers shorts and shirt. :) Lucky for me, I don't stink! I was smart and put my deodorant and toothbrush and paste in my carry on bag!! :) My life right now is definitely an adventure but I guess I wouldn't mind if it were normal, or even boring...as long I am home! :)

Yes!! (and) No!!

We arrived at the Honolulu International Airport around 8:45pm last night. Amazingly, there was no humongous line to wait in to check in. :) I guess that was due to how early we got there. Anyway, everything pretty much went fine through the check in point and we even got my mom a wheel chair! She carried some bags on her lap while I carried the rest on my shoulders while pushing her. It was definately a faster way to do things. :) The security screening area was fine too. I didn't feel as rushed as last time but there was a guy at the end trying to take the totes that my things were in before I got my things out. :( We got to our gate about two hours early so we did some window shopping then sat around and I went through my pictures on the computer until it died. The plane started loading about an hour early but we had to sit and wait until everyone had boarded. Finally, after I went to the front desk two times and was sent back, they called me up and gave me two tickets. I was really happy and didn't look at them until we were walking to the plane. They both were first class tickets and right next to eachother!!! Wow! It was totally God! So we rode like queens all the way to Phoenix! When we got to Phoenix, around 7am, we went straight to out gate to check in then had some breakfast. So I guess we waited there for about two hours until they started to load and then another hour and several trips to the desk, before they told us that the plane was full. :( So here we were, stuck in Phoenix without another flight leaving for Memphis until seven tonight! We waited until about noon and then my cousin came and picked us up and brought us to her house. By this time my nerves were sooo shot there was like no recovering them! I got a smoothie and it wasn't good, my shoulders, back, everything hurt, my sickness was getting worse and I accumulated a cough! :(
So now here I am at my cousin's house on her computer blogging and checking my email. :) My mom is resting and that is where I'm heading in a few minutes. I like slept not at all last night on the way here. We watched two retarded movies and I read some. I tried to sleep but didn't do it longer than thirty minutes. I'm really tired. My mom had only three pain killers left last night and took one before we got on the plane and then I made her take another while we were wating for my cousin because she couldn't walk. She has one left for the ride home.
Thank you all for your prayers! Please keep praying that we make this flight tonight so we can be home for Christmas! :) Love and miss you all!!!

Day eighteen in Hawaii!!!

Hey guys, yes we are still here...in Hawaii! :) Obviously God has different plans for us here. Only He can see the bigger picture.

So the news for today is...we are going to try to fly home tonight! It might be a little easier than last time because we don't have any check in bags. I think we are going to try to get to the airport earlier too. Hopefully that way we will miss the big long lines that we hit on Friday.
The only thing we did today that was interesting was watch Aika for about nine hours. Other than that we did the normal...eat, slept a little when Aika did, sat around...that's about it. Oh yeah, we did some laundry. Now that was funny!! If only you would've seen me!! :) I was wearing a pair of Marshall's swim shorts and a t-shirt of his. Even I admit that I looked pretty funny! My mom laughed every time she looked at me. She tried to get a picture of me but, now way! I wasn't gonna fall for that. Plus she wanted me to blog and post the picture...nope!

Okay, so there really isn't anything to blog about today. I did take a couple pictures though so I might as well post them. :)

Aika is pointing to her nose...she actually said it when she did it too!! :) It was soo cute!!!

Our very sad Christmas tree. :( It is losing all its leaves and it isn't even Christmas yet... :(

Marshall going to work...

Behind the Teen Scene...

Visit Behind the Teen Scene

Change of plans...

We decided to not try to fly home tonight but tomorrow night. The plane should be emptier then. I don't know what we're going to do about not having any clothes but what we're wearing. I think Saki is going to bring something for me to wear tomorrow when she brings Aika over. Saki came over around dinner time because she heard we didn't make the flight. She was sooo excited!! She had told us a couple days ago that she would pray that we would be able to stay for Christmas! She was literally jumping up and down when she saw us! :) It was really sweet!!! I'm starting to get okay with being here now for however long God wants us to be here, but I'm not really okay with being here with out my luggage! :( I still can't get over the fact that we are still here and our luggage isn't.
Oh, when my dad went to pick up my bag, he found out that my mom's bag is in Phoenix but should be flown to Memphis tomorrow. That's great...for our baggage. Hey, at least we know where it is, right?

Poll...

In case you haven't noticed, I put a picture under the title of this blog at the top. I don't know what I think of it yet so if you could, please let me know what your opinion is of it, good or bad, I'll except both. You can do this by leaving a comment. I plan on changing the picture every so often depending what my life is like. For example, if it is snowing, I'll put up a picture of snow, if it is Christmas time, I'll put up a Christmasy picture.

Thx

Day seventeen.....in Hawaii!!!

Well, we're still here in Hawaii...with out our luggage! :( We don't know if it was sent ahead of us to Memphis or kept back in Hawaii. All this morning I've been on the phone trying to get a hold of somebody at the airport and on the computer trying to track the luggage. At the moment I'm on hold and they said I'll be on hold for about three hundred and something minutes! :( It's only been thirty-two minutes so far. So, let me fill you in on the events of last night. We got to the airport a little bit after 9:30pm and stood in line for about thirty minutes waiting to check in. Then it took forever for the people to give us tickets because we were on standby and not scheduled for this flight. My mom was in pain so I ended up carrying my camera bag, my mom's laptop, my carry on bag, my mom's purse, out jackets, and dragging both suitcases!! One suitcase is missing a wheel so it was a pain and a half to drag. My shoulders are still killing me from carrying all the bags for so long! It was very difficult to bend down to get our IDs out of our purses and make sure everything didn't fall. From the check in point, we went to the security screening area. I was flying trying to unpack the laptop, take off my shoes, take the liquids out of the bags, put everything in the totes, and make sure I was not making anyone wait on me. From there it was a forever walk that lasted even longer because my mom can't walk fast, to get to our gate. When we finally arrived at the gate, everyone had pretty much finished loading and all we could do was wait to see if there were any empty seats. After thirty minutes the lady finally told us that there wasn't any open seats but we could try to fit on the plane that left twenty minutes after that one. So we walked over to the next gate and did what we do best...we waited another thirty minutes only to find that that plane was full too! The lady ended up scheduling us for the nineteenth, today. So tonight we are going to do it all over again!! Except this time I'm getting my mom a wheel chair so she doesn't have to walk so far and isn't in a lot of pain. I don't know what time it was that Marshall picked us up or we got home, I was just depressed and very tired. On top of all that, I'm starting to come down with some sort of sickness! I haven't been feeling good for the past couple days but being at the airport last night didn't help.

Please, please pray that we get on the plane tonight!!! I'm not interested in staying until Christmas and then trying to come home on Christmas day, but if that is God's plan for us, we will find joy in it. For some reason God didn't want us to go on the flight last night and I have to be okay with that. It just seems like my whole world is crashing in! Maybe it's just that I'm a girl and very emotional. I don't know, but things don't seem to be going good with me. It is probably God trying to stretch me and teach me new things. It is just hard to have a positive outlook on things when I've already let it get under my skin.
This is hilarious because I would never have thought that I would think of myself as 'stuck' in Hawaii! Anyone else in my spot here would be in heaven. :) Believe me, we are not staying here on purpose and I'm sure when we get home and all this is over, I'll wish I were in Hawaii!! :) :)

We really miss everyone and can't wait to be home again!


12:30pm--I just got off the phone with a guy from the baggage claim in the Memphis airport. He said that they have my bag but not my mom's. My dad is going to go down there sometime today to pick mine up and try to locate my mom's. So...we're in Hawaii with only the clothes on our backs, maybe until Christmas, and no food in the fridge!! :( I feel like a homeless person, except I have a home. I did put my toothbrush and brush in my carry on bag so I have those, but that's not enough to live off of for a week.
When we were in the line to check in last night, the thought did cross my mind about packing an outfit in my carry on, but it didn't go any deeper than that. I guess I'm gonna have to learn to listen to those passing thoughts. :)

Day sixteen in Hawaii!!! :) :) :)

This post concludes my last day of being in Hawaii. I have very mixed feelings about going home tonight but I think my feelings about goming home are stronger than my feelings about staying.

All the packing is done and we are just waiting for the time to pass. I think Brody is going to take us to the airport around 9pm. We are still on standby for this flight so that means we may or may not be flying out tonight. If there is still room on the plane after everybody has boarded, then we can fly, but if there isn't, Marshall is going to pick us up on his way home from work tonight and we will try to fly again Sunday night. Please pray that we get seats tonight! We are really homesick!!

This is how my mom looks today! She is doing so much better and almost everything on her own.

Day fifteen in Hawaii!!! :) :) :)

Last night I actually set the alarm on my mom's phone for 7:30am so I got up on time to start the day and good thing too because Saki came over around 9:30am to see if I wanted to go shopping with her at the mall. It is hard for her to do Christmas shopping with Aika because she gets into everything and doesn't want to be held or be in the stroller. I was following her around in one store to make sure she didn't get into anything but gave up on that and just held her whether she liked it or not throughout the other stores. Saki was looking for a shirt for Brody for Christmas and some little things for Aika and whatever else she saw and I just had to get a few things for my mom before we left. We left the house at 10am and didn't get home until 3pm. We ended up going to Waikiki to a Quicksilver store so she could look more but they didn't have what they said they had at the other store. Since we were in Waikiki, we went to an ABC store and out to eat in the Ala Moana mall. It is the biggest open air mall in United States and has the second largest Sears. The parking was horrific! We drove around for like forever trying to find a place to park. We ate at Island Burgers. It was okay. I ordered a Hawaiian burger. It was pretty good but I didn't really enjoy how much teriyaki sauce they put on it. I ate half and put the other half in a to go box for my mom to eat later. All the way home Saki talked to me about how she can make us stay longer to watch Aika while she works. She has been loving us watching her and doesn't want to see us go. :( Hearing her talk the way she did, despite how much i want to come home, made me want to stay longer. She is very desperate for a babysitter! Anyway, I had a really good day with her! :) :) On the way home, Saki stopped by a place and bought some Malasadas, Hawaiian donuts, for us to eat. They were really good!! :) :)

So after shopping with her, I went out back behind the house and took some pictures of the greenery just so I could post some pictures on this blog because I've been getting complaints about how I'm not posting enough pictures. So, Ayala, here are some for you. They aren't like amazing, but they are pictures. :)

My mother is putting her sitting stillness to a use...this is a picture her finishing a paper chain that she started yesterday.

Sorry it has taken me so long to post pictures of Marhsall's house. Today I was sort of in a picture taking mood so I took a ton.

This is a picture of the front of his house as you drive up...

Here is the side of his house and a beautiful view!...

This is the back...

Marshall and his dogs after I finished cutting his hair.

Ayala, here's for u...

Marshall picked bananas off a tree in his yard today. A couple were ripe and were really good!!

Christmas in Hawaii...

Marshall decorated the tree more today. Here is the almost end result...

Well, that's all the pictures for today. I hope I posted enough! :) Tomorrow night I fly home so don't know when I'll get on to blog. I might just do some little blog and a couple last minute pictures and then blog again about the flight home after I'm all rested up. When I get home I will not have as much time as I've had here to blog and be on the computer so I probably won't blog everyday.

Day fourteen in Hawaii!!! Happy Birthday Rushi!!! :) :) I love and miss u tons!! :)

My day started out with sleeping in until 10:45am! It felt really good. When I did get up, my day was pretty much like yesterday except I didn't have Aika at all. :( After our really, really late breakfast, or early lunch, my mom did some reading then went back to bed after taking some pain killers. She woke me up at 1:50am because she was in a lot of pain even when she didn't move. Yesterday was her slow down on pain meds day and she paid for it last night. Today she was smarter and has been taking them every six hours like she is supposed to. :) I ended up doing something that required energy today; I ran on a treadmill that Marshall's roommate has in her room!! I only did it for thirty minutes but when I got done sweat was pouring off me in the bucket fulls! I had just gotten dressed for the day and had to get re-dressed and rinse off because my clothes were soaking wet. Again I didn't think when I packed to come here and didn't bring any clothes to workout in. :( So a little later on today, after my mom got a shower and the cleaning was done, I went to Safeway, a grocery store, with Marshall to buy some food for three more nights of dinner, tonight, Thursday night, and Friday night. My dad called today wondering when we are coming home. I looked up flights for Friday night and found one. I think we might be taking it but I'm not too sure about it yet. I emailed my dad about it and I'm still waiting for a response.

While I was making dinner, Marshall went out back to cut down a 'Christmas' Guava tree for his house. He went into town last night to buy one but all the ones that were shipped over have been sold out and they are waiting for more to come in. He brought it in and set it up and put some lights on it. My mom is making a paper chain to decorate it and Marshall's roommate is going to buy some ornaments tomorrow. I'll get more pictures of it after it is all decorated.

I have to get off now.

Hopefully tomorrow I have something more interesting to say.

Day thirteen in Hawaii!!! (we miss u auntie ariel!!)

Another day in Hawaii...same old same old, except today was actually a good day! :) :)

My mom decided to see how long she could go without taking any pain medications. The last time she took them was at six this morning. She is in pain only when she moves. She started walking and doing everything else on her own today, only she still needs help getting in and out of bed. She is trying to make goals for the day so we can get home sooner. She fulfilled her goal for today! Her next goal is to be able to sit down for a long time since she is going to be sitting for ten hours in the plane. She didn't sleep as much today as yesterday probably because of the meds. Pretty much all in all she's doing much better.

My day was pretty busy today. It started out good! Basically I cleaned the house, helped my mom when she needed me, helped Marshall, made the meals, did the dishes, took a little walk around the house, and watched Aika for about five and a half hours. :) Marshall came home about ten thirty this morning with a cut on his head. He had been putting in fence posts across the street and somehow managed to get hurt. It wasn't bad though. Not a big gash or cut. It was like he took off a couple layers of skin in a roughly one inch by one inch square on top of his head. I cleaned it up and put some salve on it then he rested for a couple hours. He is fine now. He actually is on a date right now. :) My mom tried to convince him to bring her back to the house to meet us but Marshall wasn't too keen on the idea...go figure. :) So I've been very busy doing just about everything around here. :) It's actually been great because the busier I am the less time I have to think about how bored I am and how much I miss everyone! :)

Today I've had my hands quite full. Aika is a high maintenance kid! She is always looking for something to do and if you don't provide anything for her she will literally turn your house inside out! Between throwing everything on the floor, chasing the cats, spreading crumbs around the house and trying to get on the computer she always has me on my toes!!! :) It is  hard to watch her when I can't take her outside really and when there are no toys in the house. I have to stay in or right by the house so if my mom needs me, I'm just a holler away. :) Today I did take Aika on a little walk, although I did all the walking, behind the house to a hill and then to the gate out front and back to the house. It was hot and the sun was shining all his rays on us! I was sweating after that short ten minute walk. Aika ended up falling asleep half way through and then slept for almost two hours on the couch. I absolutely love watching Aika!! I think tomorrow Saki is going to bring her over for a little bit too!! :)
I heard from Ayala yesterday that when Micaiah got back to Memphis he slept for like twelve hours then when he got up the next morning, he came out of his room in his swim shorts!! :) It was around thirty degrees outside too!! He was so used to just wearing swim clothes all day in Hawaii!!! My dad and Mic were really in shock after being used to the high seventy weather of Hawaii and going into the low thirty degrees. That's one thing I'm not looking forward to... :(

Hopefully my mom will be able to fly home in a couple days!! Please pray for her!

Well, I have to go for now. I miss you all soooo much!! :(