Now this is what I call cute!

The girls outside in the yard today. Cali was helping dig up rocks, and Kawena was occupying herself on the playground. These pictures were taken with my iphone. Pretty cool, huh?

Before and After

Looking towards the road.

Looking towards the house.

Terry built up the foundation of the rock wall, and I put the last foot and a half on the top. The plants that will form the hedge are mock orange; should grow in, in about 3 years. We also planted 8 trees:

• Tangerine
• 2 types of Oranges
• Kumquat
• Lime
• Mulberry
• Avocado
• Fig
  
  Terry looked up a non engine mower today, as another contribution to help save the environment. We started our compost, and Terry is building the enclosure with scrap wood left over from some of the demo on the house.
  The girls are having the time of their lives on the new front yard park - which although is a lot of material, will save lots of gas from driving back and forth in to town for park outings. And with gas at $4.10 a gallon, this thing will pay for itself in no time! :)
  

Yes, We Can.

Now you're all caught up!

2007 in a nutshell:

Buy home in Hawai'i to flip.

Change mind, keep house, and move home to Hawai'i from Washington.

Stay in Honoka'a for a month 'til house is liveable.


Renovate house.




Celebrate 5 wonderful years of wedding bliss (well, ok...mostly).

Keala helps build resort operation from the ground up.

Terry quits union to start Handyman/Carpentry business.

Terry - 26.

Kawena - 3.

Calista - 8.

Cali enters 3rd grade (WAH!).

Keala - 25.

Granny & Papa's 60th wedding anniversary party.

Buy a Prius, get solar, go organic.

Back to WA to clean up the rest of our things there.

Camp at Convention.

Have wonderful Christmas.

Ring in the New year.

2008 thus far:

Find out 2006 Prius is a stolen vehicle - get replacement 2008.

Celebrate 6 years of wedding bliss (and again, mostly..).

2008 Prius gets vandalized while at Makalawena (still waiting for it to be totally fixed).

Terry gets contract - hires 3 employees (ok - 2 officially, since Kale is one of them).

Keala goes to part time to have more time with the Keiki.

Washington to visit Arnall's for Spring Break.

Continue renovating, overhaul yard.
Tutu moves to Puna.
Papa moves to Kukuihaele.
Grandma Sue moves to Hawai'i.

Remaining 2008 plans:
Calista in to Parker (maybe - depends on her final decision).
Incorporate "greenovation" into Kamana Contractors services offered.
Finish house - yard - begin addition (going up one floor, hopefully).
Get off the grid.
Finish orchard - hedge planting - tree privacy fence.
Back to Washington.
Convention.
Holidays.

It's been a wonderful 2008 so far! :)

P.S. I am posting pictures sporadically, to make this a picture update as well. I'll continue to put them up, so check back! Love to love ya! :)

Mom! I'm ready!

Kawena's new helmet and pads for when she rides around on her Dora bike (thanks Uncle Josh). Of course, what that actually means is that Mommy pushes the bike along while Kawena runs up and down the road in a helmet/knee/elbow pads. Yes, all the neighbors wonder what I feed her - not only because she's so silly, but because she has reached 48 pounds. :) More to love!

Snap back to reality, oh there goes gravity, here comes insanity!

I normally don't find it necessary to quote Eminem, but today's blog title popped in to my mind immediately.

Glad to be home, in the warm weather.

On Sunday, when we went to go pick up Grandma Sue from the airport (she is officially a resident of Kamuela, HI), Cali remembered AFTER we arrived there that she wanted to get a lei to welcome Grandma - what a sweetie; couldn't she have remembered this while we were at Costco and 2 orchid leis are only $13 bucks?? Luckily Mom's bags were taking a while to conveyor belt out, so she and Terry went back to wait at the baggage claim, while unbeknownst to them, I drove 5 minutes up the road to a place that I remembered sold leis. I bought my brother, Josh, all his graduation leis from there and hoped they were still open.

So, there is a little sign on the side of the road that simply states, Plumeria Leis -->. I follow the signs to a driveway of a home. Is this right? I want to buy leis and I'm driving up someone's driveway. Yup - all the signs point there. I arrive at the end of the driveway, where a simple cardboard sign is taped to a retired drink cooler - Plumeria Leis Here. I park & walk towards the unmanned refrigerator. The family is home, sitting at a table with the sliding glass door open. They wave hello and greet me without budging. In the refrigerator there are fragrant plumeria leis and a cardboard box with 10's, 5's, 1's and some change. Yes, unmanned money. Pay for your leis and make your own change. I select the plumeria lei with pink plumeria intervals - $5 for one lei - put my $10 in and take my $5 change. I shut the door, waiting for someone to come out and make sure I paid. No one comes, so I walk back towards the car and wave good-bye. "Aloha!” they say, not rising from the table. At that point my hearts bursts with another realization that I love living in Hawaii.

Grandma is settling in nicely – did all my laundry and kept Kawena happy. She’s so thrilled to be here, and I’m glad to have her! Cali was late for school today, since we all overslept. "We" spent a few hours yesterday finishing a mobile project - I swear teachers assign these projects so that parents can get craft time in every so often - and it turned out nicely. Terry is back in to swing of work - "Commander in Chief" at Hali'i Kai, and is happy that things are settling down.

Work is crazy, nothing new. Can't wait to get all caught up and organized. My colleague/assistant gave her notice today; but everything has happened for a reason. She has committed herself to sticking around for at least the next 3 weeks while we get settled in to our new space. I love what she has helped me with thus far, and wish her nothing but the best.

Hope all is well there! Love and miss you, Washingtonians!

Spring Break 2008 - Yes, we left Hawaii to freeze in Washington!

Aloha!
I bet you have given up all hope that I would ever post to my blog ever again, but in typical Keala fashion, here I am!
We enjoyed our vacation to Washington for Spring Break (yes-we left Hawaii to freeze our brown behinds in the great WA-we're crazy people). The girls and I cam up first and brought Uncle Noah with us; Terry joined us a week later. We had lots of time to relax, Kawena got sick, and it was too cold to want to go anywhere (even though we made it out to Family Fun Center, Seattle, Bellevue, and Oregon).
Sorry we missed you Jess - things got too crazy and I didn't call (you can kick me the next time we are there, which won't be too far away).
Enjoy some pics from our visit. I'll post more after I get over this jet lag. ;-P

Oh, I love these trees...amazing.
And these flowers, can't even compare.
Jayleen & Cali - my daredevils.
Ranier in her glory.

Seattle through the eyes of a "Ferry Boat" (in Kawena's words).
Sisters!
Ooooh..it's freezing!
Cousins...oh how I miss them already.
All it takes is one silly idea and they all get crazy!