First 3 Days of Big Island Trip

Click on the picture below to be directed to some pictures from the first 3 days of our trip. It was a fun trip, but it didn't "feel" like Hawaii in a lot of ways.

I am not able to post as much as I'd like to between work, housework, errands, etc. This week began the Summer quarter. I teach a day class twice a week of Job Readiness ESL for refugees and some immigrants, and I teach a night class twice a week for "regular" adult ESL. I'm enjoying my schedule so far. Of course, I'd like to work less during the summer, but Ryan is taking 4 classes and is busy, so I might as well stay busy too. At least we have August to look forward to. We'll have about a month off together to do some exploring around Washington.

We're enjoying salad, snap peas, a few strawberries, and spinach from our garden right now. We have some baby zucchini and tomatoes starting to show. I've been adding some summer blooming flowers to the yard also to give some color. I'm still trying to get the house back in order and finish unpacking from our trip to Hawaii.

That's about the short and sweet of it. I'm going to head out now and enjoy this sunny Saturday while Ryan stays in and does homework.

Big Island 1

We're Back

We had a great time in Hawaii (despite some frustrations about our last accomodations). I will make a few videos of pictures when I have a chance and post those along with some pics. For now, I realized that I hadn't put any pictures from our end of the quarter class potluck from a couple of weeks ago. I put them on facebook, but not here. So here is a picture of my class with students from Burma (refugee to Thailand), Bhutan (but have been in refugee camps in Nepal), Ukraine, Russia, Iraq, Yap (Micronesia), Marshall Islands (also Micronesia), and not pictured are Burundi, Congo, and Somalia. I start back to work tomorrow.

Yesterday, we went to a local art festival and met up with some friends there. We are really thankful to have some believing friends here that we "mesh" with. After the art festival, we went to our friends' house for dinner and a game of Settlers. Thanks Carli and Landon for a fun time yesterday!

Stay tuned for Big Island videos!

May in Review

I'm quite behind on blogging since it always takes me way too long, but I'll try to cover a few highlights from the past few weeks. On May 9th, I officially graduated from Cornerstone University with a Masters in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). I didn't fly to Michigan for the graduation. I'd rather save the money for vacation somewhere like Hawaii. Speaking of...we're headed there in about two weeks!! Yippee!!!

We are headed to the Big Island this time. We've explored Maui and Kauai together, so we wanted to go somewhere new. Even though I was on the Big Island many years ago, it will be much different getting to explore hikes and waterfalls that my family wasn't much into but Ryan and I are. We got a great deal on flights since 1) the prices are lower in June and 2) we have a $50 companion ticket. We also got great deals on the condos we'll be staying in on each side of the island. I'll post more about that after we return.

For a mini-graduation celebration, Ryan took me down to watch the sunset along with some chocolate and champagne. Here are some of the sunset pictures from that evening.


Two weekends ago I went to a women's retreat with my church. I only went for one day since I was still recovering from the Swine Flu (yep....I am an official CDC case). It was nice to get to chat with other women, but I wish I would have had more time and energy to visit with others. I spent a good chunk of the free time resting by the lake since I was still feeling a bit under the weather. Don't worry, I was supposed to be past the contagious stage.

The retreat was up by Mount Rainier though we were mostly in the woods.

Memorial Day weekend, we went for a hike out I-90. The drive was gorgeous!! When we got there, the road had been washed out about 2 miles from the trail head. That wasn't on the national forest trail conditions page that I'd checked. : / Ryan thought we should use our GPS and try a short cut. The short cut was probably point to point shorter, but it was straight uphill. I was pooped after just that part. Soon after we got to the trail head, people told us that there was snow further up and you couldn't continue because you'd sink up to your thighs. We had hoped to get to two lakes and some nice mountain overlooks. We just saw the woods and turned around with the snow news.

We decided to go to Bellevue Botanical Gardens afterwards to enjoy the (free) gardens.

The rhodies are out, almost all in bloom now.

After church on Sunday, we went to the Folklife Festival in Seattle. I'd never seen so many people in one place in Washington before!! You'd think I was in L.A. This festival was about music and dance from America and countries around the world. There was the full gamot of people including the typical Washington hippies.

Dancing: Square, Native American (I didn't hear which tribe.), tap, hippie, and hula.

The two pics on the right are from the same band. I wish I would have taken a video. There were a few other people with homemade instruments like the saw the girl is playing. They were pretty neat.

I've been trying to pray and meditate more on being less fearful and trusting and loving God with my heart, soul, mind, and strength. God has been reminding me that "my life" is not mine. I have been created for Him (Colossians 1:16). I think it's easy to say that I want God's will in my life.....but whatever that may be?? His will may be something that brings great pain to me--losing my husband, a child with severe medical needs, etc.--but if it will bring Him glory, then I want to really be willing to receive it. I'm not quite there. These are just some thoughts I've been reading and praying about. I can get too stressed about the day to day, and I'm trying to be heavenly focused and keep the right perspective.

Next Thursday will be my last day of Spring quarter teaching. Then I have a two week break--partially in Hawaii!! : D I'm not 100% sure what I'll be teaching this summer yet. It depends on the budget. I may continue teaching full-time to the refugee class that I've been teaching this quarter, or I'll be teaching just two nights a week for regular ESL. I'd like the two nights a week for the summer, but I have a feeling that I'll be working full-time again.

So now it's back to lesson planning and getting ready for all of the end of the quarter testing and grading.

Random Spring Pics

Here is a hodge-podge of pictures from various outings in the past few weeks. These first two are of a park about 20 minutes south of our house called Carkeek Park.

Yesterday, I was up in Mount Vernon for a few hours visiting my mom for her birthday. We went to a nursery for some plants. Afterwards, I had about 15 minutes at a tulip field to get a few shots in before they are all gone. Since I now live about an hour away from the tulips, I wasn't able to get out and take a lot pictures of the fields like I usually have.

I don't know who the little boy is. He was just too cute!

Christianson's Nursery--Mount Vernon. Hopefully you can enjoy the next few pictures even if you aren't "into plants".

This was from a walk last Friday. We are exploring different "parks" nearby. This "park" turned out to be a swamp area. It was still a peaceful walk, and we enjoyed the geese.

Mom and I spotted these little donkeys as we were leaving the tulip fields. Do you see the baby one? He's so fuzzy. There were so many other animals out in "the flats" of M.V.--sheep, llamas, horses, cows, etc. I miss being in less populated areas and having more nature nearby.

UW Business Competition

Ryan had a recent business competition at the U. There were about 30 teams there presenting their business proposals to business professionals. Ryan and his business partner got a lot of good advice and had a fun time sharing about their cell phone recycling plan. Nice work Ryan!