where did february go?

2/5 i went on another of lole's field trips to DOLE PLANTATION, a place i've never been in all my 20+ years here. the weather has been windy and cold lately, and it all started this day. we went on a cute little train ride, sampled pineapple, and went through the world's largest maze. the pineapple was scrumptious! did you know that a light rinsing before eating helps take away that acidic taste? i don't know how i never knew that! anyway, the maze was aMAZE-ing and it helped so much that it was overcast and windy instead of hot and bothery. yah, "bothery". haha! me and my niece jaz got through half of the mazes, but we couldn't finish the rest because we only had an hour in there. we all had a blast.

2/8 i fell in love with laie chop suey after this day. i have never been as big a fan as i am now because bo has a way of making me LOOVE foods that i usually don't. now, i will do cartwheels for their honey walnut shrimp and our must have roast duck, s&s pork, and hot buns. sometimes we'll order like 5 entrees just for the four of us (me bo and the kids) but we make sure to eat errrrrrrrryfing!

2/12 valentines day has never really been celebrated much in our home (something i hope to remedy in the future), so i'm glad that at least lole got to celebrate at school that friday. they had a special party, a jumper, treats and vday activities from their teachers and exchanged goodies with her friends. i don't know about you guys, but this day is way cooler now then when i was a kid. on the real vday, lole came home after church and mentioned what a great day she had. then she reached up to the sky and said "happy valentiMes day Jesus!"

2/15 a family friend invited us to come and watch EDDIE GRIFFIN live @ the waikiki shell. i thought it would be nice since i've never been to a comedy show aside from the local acts like augie t. plus, i sort of enjoyed eddie's first season of "Going for Broke". on the day of, we ran into our good friends (who are more like sisters) and bo thought to invite them so we could all cruise town. secretly i thought it was a bad idea, considering i wasn't sure what it would be like. we took his little sister with us too and that was another mistake because eddie's opening material ended up being just what i had feared...too explicit for 2 returned missionaries and 1 preparing to be one. the girls walked out and cruised waikiki instead. it was embarassing and bo and i should've left too, but stayed out of courtesy to our friends that invited us. aside from the nasty stuff, he was actually pretty dang funny.

2/27 bo and i planned weeks ahead to make it out to ROOTS ROCKAZ in haleiwa to support our laie peeps. details withheld, bo and i had a fight, and after a plethora (yes, plethora) of swear words, i took my husband with me anyway, and forgave him anyway, although not right away. i was still very angry at the club, UNTIL my cousin johnny sang the first lines of beres hammond's "they gonna talk". ♫ some things were meant to be, so why not let it be...and stop worryin' about it ♫ thanks to roots rockaz soothing reggae music, i built my bridge and GOT OVER IT.

2/28 so the night of the roots rockaz performance, we got news (while dancing) that there was a TSUNAMI alert and that it was to arrive around 11 the next morning. by the time we got home around 4am, the gas line was hella long and people were already waiting outside of foodland to buy supplies. i came home and packed my family's necessities and went to sleep. as soon as our things were in the car the next morning, we drove around looking for higher ground. rather than go to the very crowded mauka chapel, temple grounds, kahuku elem, and gunstock ranch, we went up kahuku farm roads to what seemed like the highest hill ever. i slept atop that rocky mountain, after watching the waters proved uneventful. still, i'm grateful that our tsunami ended up being a few meters (or maybe it was centimeters)...whatever the case, thank you God!

there's nothing like the threat of a natural disaster to make you stop complaining about your life, because in an instant everything that matters most to you could be taken away. february came and went as quickly as the tsunami threat did, but they both stayed long enough to remind me that life is too short to not constantly give, feel, and be loved.