A Proud Moment

Today we took our Laie Elementary 6th grade students to The Egineering Expo at the University of Hawai'i. We met the students at 6:30am in the morning and made arrangements with parents to help transport them down to UH. The students were excited and had high hopes of doing their best and maybe coming home with the experience. They were the only elementary school there the rest were intermediate schools, but they diligently worked in the different stations to show the spectators what they could do.
The Bridge Building team had a chance to take a picture with Pamela Young from KITV news. One of our students had an interview and appeared on the news. The RollerCoaster team was able to work together and come up with a design to take a marble on a ride landing in a cup. They had oak tag, chopsticks, tape, and scissors to create a roller coaster. The Solar Car team was the team that came away with a reward to take home. Who would have thought that are little Laie students would come away as 1st place winners...
Yes it was hard for us to believe at the time, but these little sixth graders were mighty mature critcal thinkers, and team players. They worked so well together to build the solar car and then held their composure as the raced their cars, ignoring the taunting and cheering from others around them. The students consisently won race after race, without a lot of pride they were mainly relieved. Finally the champioship race. there were two teams and casually our team raced and came away as the winners. They walked away in amazement, not shouting or cheering, but they were humbled they learned that doing your best and working together as a team does pay off...I am so proud of all of them. This is why teaching is the best job for me, to witness the results of hard work paying off. Congratulation Solar Car Team...you created a moment in Laie Elementary history.

Star Gazer

It was a clear night last night and Kaden was admiring the brightness of the stars. He wanted to lie down outside and just stare at the stars all night. The images of the stars were so clear, not a cloud in sight, it was as if we could just reach up and touch them. It was a surreal moment as we stopped to admire the constellations of the stars.
Imagine if we just paused and took time out of our busy schedules to look through the eyes of a child, and marvel over the beauties they see. We sure would appreciate how blessed and lucky we are to live in this world that our Heavenly Father created for us...

Little Laughing Hana!

I have joy in listening and watching little Kahana give out a hearty, loud, laugh that doesn't stop. Don't you notice that the simple things make a child laugh? Today it was the curtains, hiding in and popping out of the curtains than seeing us on the otherside. Again and again he is amusing us and himself. A little energetic monkey...says his sister. I'm glad we have little ones to help us enjoy the simple things in life...

The Fish is Back in the Pool

Mikayla was overjoyed today to go back into the pool. The BYUH pool has been closed for over a month and the Kahuku Swim Team has had to practice on dry land or at the beach. Mikayla expressed gratitude for the chance to swim in the pool instead of swimming against the strong waves.
Last Saturday was her first JV tournament and the team scored 4th place overall. Pretty good for not having a pool to practice in. I'm very proud of a daughter who enjoys her talent of swimming and sticks to a sport she loves...GO Kayla!

A Historical Moment

It was a wonderful day, a day that will always be remembered. A momentous historical event, the innaugaration of our first African-American president. I viewed the ceremonies on tv before work, I made my class watch tidbits at work, and I watched it after work. Many thoughts and feelings overpowered me, Pres. Obama's words were that of hope, change, comfort, and excitment for what the future holds in store for each one of us. I told my class that Pres. Obama's dream came true and that all of you here can one day reach your dream even if your dream is to be President of the United States of America. And for this one day when I saw people united from around the world to listen to President Obama I felt proud to be a citizen of the United States of America...where love and unity have no boundaries.

The Evil Nut

January 19, 2009
Today started off to be a lovely day, and I took a walk. Then I came in contact with the Evil Nut, I told my family to take a picture of this nut, but they just laughed at me. If you grew up in Laie around the PCC parkinglot is where I was walking, there is the home of the evil nut.
Why do I call this nut evil? On my walk I was listening very intently to my neighbor's housing dilema and this nut convinently slipped its way under my shoe, as soon as I knew it I met with the asphalt. Yes I ate it! I now have a sprained ankle and have to deal with staying off my foot. I have so much to do, I have to go to work tomorrow, I guess it's just my turn in our family to have a trial. There ends the story of the Evil Nut. Sorry nut for blaming you...

January 17, 2009
I'm still familiarizing myself with the blogger. Today is a gorgeous day in Hawai'i, the weather is perfect and it's a good time to go outside and do something. I am rewarding myself after doing a days worth of chores to go out with some dear friends. We have been planning a girls night out for awhile and the day is finally here. It's going to be fun. Aloha!

January 16, 2009
Well I just fiqured out how to start being a "Blogger", at least I played around by clicking here and there and this is what I got. It's pretty cool the 21st century of journal writing. I still have to learn how to get pictures on here. I guess the next step is purchasing a digital cameral and then downloading so I'm told. Maybe my computer savy sister-in-law can help me in that area.

Today is the ending of an unusual weather advisory that didn't happened like the weatherman predicted. Better safe then sorry though when schools were asked to be closed. I enjoyed my time catching up on my grading and doing some neglected housework. I'm also nursing two sons back to good health. I tell you nowadays good health is essential to having your days running smoothly.