Sun Shine and Rain

I don't really know where to start with this. It has been a long time since I have posted and so much has happened since November. I have been home from school since December and it is great being home but I miss Hawaii. I had a great last semester. I worked nearly 50 hours every week between my two jobs and managed to get good grades. I was not able to get my stomach issues figured out while I was there so I was not feeling my best but I had a good time hanging out with Anna on the weekends and relaxing on the beach. I was sad to leave at the end of the semester but I was also excited to come back home and be with my family and Tim.
After the holidays I started my internship at Child Protective Services. I was working 40 hours a week (for free) and had some school work that I had to do on line in order to get the credit for the class. I learned so much about my self and social work with CPS. Every day I learned something new and I discovered that I really do love working with children and I enjoyed the investigation part of CPS. Also I was able to really connect with the social workers in the CPS unit and they all thought that I was the best intern that they had had in a long time. I was really excited to hear that because I was working hard to learn everything I could from them and I was trying to be as helpful as possible. The supervisor really liked me as well and even said that I could have a job on her team as soon as the hiring freeze lifts off the department. I saw a lot of scary things working CPS. There are so many family here in Whatcom County that are struggling with mental illness, poverty and drug abuse. I never would have thought that it would be this bad here. Pretty naive of me to think that but there is so much that we don't see living in my middle class bubble. Over all it was a great learning experience and it is defiantly a job that I could see my self doing and enjoying. I worked with CPS for a total of 470 volunteer hours over three months.
My stomach, yep it gets a paragraph all to its self. In Hawaii the doctor could not come up with a solid reason for my symptoms so he prescribed me some antidepressants and said I had IBS caused by to much stress in my life. I guess he thought that moving away and going to school full time and working full time was to much for my body to handle and the antidepressants would help my colon function regularly. HA! I really did start laughing when he said that. He doesn't know much about my past obviously because I am not stressed out (I was living on the beach.. really) and being a serious athlete all my life my body has endured much more. Any ways I tried the medicine just to prove that he was wrong and it actually made everything worse. I took that for about two weeks and then decided that I was better without it. When I got home I made an appointment with GI here in Bellingham. I was so tired of dealing with this issue and feeling sick everyday that I decided to do whatever it took to get this stupid thing figured out. The doctors here decided that they needed to do a colonoscopy. The worst part about this was drinking that terrible nasty jug of goo that "cleans you out" it was a really fun 12 hours. They didn't find anything wrong with my colon and decided that I would need to have a cat scan done. So I did that and again the worst part was drinking the nasty goo that makes your insides glow. They didn't find anything wrong in that either. I was pretty sure they wouldn't because I don't think it is something that is physically wrong with me, I think I have some sort of bug that I caught in Haiti three years ago. After all these test I talked to my doctor about putting me back on the antibiotics that I was on for a few weeks last summer that made me feel great and normal. He agreed and said that long term on this particular antibiotic could kill whatever was in me. So I was on that medication for two months taking a pretty heavy dose three times a day. I have been feeling great! It started working about a week after I started taking it and I have been off the medication for about a month now and I still feel really good so hopefully I can be done with that. I don't want to say that I'm cured because I am still worried that it wont last but here's hoping that it does.
Home life! I have been living at home since mid December. When I moved out after high school three years ago all the rooms were rearranged and I no longer had one. Then after coming home after my first year away at school I used the old office as my bedroom but that has since been turned into the girls room. This year when I came home it was decided that I would be sharing the big bedroom with Kelsie. This has been working out pretty good. Kelsie and I get a long good and haven't had any real problems with sharing a room and a bed. We are both looking forward to Katie leaving for school though because one of us will get her room for a few months and I wont have to tell people that "yea I live at home and even better I share a room, bathroom and a bed with my 14 year old sister!" It has been nice being at home and a part of the family. Also having food that I don't have to buy is great too.
School! I officially graduated from college on April 9th 2011! Graduation was a lot of fun. It was great to see some of my old friends and teachers and to show my parents and Katie around the school and Laie. The graduation ceremony was really good and I was able to shake Elder Nelsons hand. It was also great to spend a week in Hawaii after being home in the rain for three months! I really hope that I will be able to go back there again soon. I really love the people there and I fell like I fit in really well. When I was showing my family around the area it was like I was showing them around my home, I would love to live there and work as a social worker there at least for a little while.
Now...
I am a 20 year old college graduate with my bachelors in social work, working the same summer job that I have had for the past two years; living at my parents (sharing a bed with my sister). I am not really sure what I next for me but I have a little bit of time to figure that out. I know that I will be going to graduate school in the near future but I don't know where yet, I will have to start that application process over in about a month. I'm thinking about applying to UW and UofU again and applying to UH because honestly who wouldn't want to go to school in Hawaii. I also need to look for a social work related job so that I have some field experience to put one my applications.
Tim :)
Long distance really isn't fun it makes the phone bill really expensive, luckily for me my parents still pay that one. When I was in Hawaii Tim and I texted constantly and we would spend hours talking on the phone whenever we could. We really got to know each other and I love talking with him. There where some days that we would talk for three hours and the time would go by so fast. It was great for me to have some one I could talk to about everything. I also loved getting to know him and hear his stories. I think that we got to know each other better being a part for that three months than we would have if we were together because we had to talk and learn how to communicate with each other. It was been great since I've been home. We hang out every day for at lest a few hours. Everyone in my family really likes Tim too and he loves my family which is a great plus. He also was baptized the last Saturday in February so that was super exciting as well. He has really taken to the church and I love having him there with me every week. We have been dating for ten months now. He is amazing.
Well that's all that I have for now. I will be bored at work so hopefully I will be able to blog more often even though there isn't much going on right now.

This, That and The Other..

This:

Is the cliff that I jumped off last Saturday! Its the spitting caves in Kilua. It's about a 65ft cliff if you jump from the top which I did. It's called the spitting caves because under the cliff is a big cave and when the waves come in the pressure builds and lots of water comes spiting back out. It was really cool but you had to time your jump with the waves so you don't get sucked into the cave or sprayed by all the water shooting out. It was a really fun. It was a super nice day and there were a lot of people there watching and jumping. I was the only girl to jump from the top though. If you want to see a video you can watch it on my facebook page.

That:
Hospital visits! Almost as fun as cliff jumping.. not! So my stomach has been bothering me for a long time and I'm trying to figure out what is wrong so I cannot feel sick and tired all day everyday. I visited the GI specialist last week Tuesday, Its about an hour drive to get there and luckily I had a friend drive me. Then the doctor decided that we needed to do a EDG scope. Ya really exciting I know. That's what I did Wednesday morning. I woke up early caught the bus which took about two hours and was admitted to the windward surgery center. They but me under and took a sample of my small intestine lucky for me this scope went in through my mouth.. not the other end. Over all it wasn't to bad, I was kinda scared because I was all by my self but the doctors were nice and after The procedure they let me take a nap because it was going to be a while till my friend could come to pick me up. I was just planning on riding the bus back but since I was under they wont let you leave alone.. Jake and Erica came to pick me up and everything was fine. I have an other appointment for an other test tomorrow. I have to be there at 8am which means catching the 6am bus in the morning. Not really looking forward to that but I'm also going to get my results from last weeks test.
The Other:
Would be school and work. Classes are going pretty good. I finished my jogging class because it was only half a semester, so that ended last week. I'm glad to be done with that because it means I will be getting more than 5 hours of sleep at night, but I don't know when I'm going to have time to run but that really isn't o much of a problem because I never feel good enough or have energy to go running anyway. That hopefully will change once I get my stomach issues figured out. Anyway back to school. Midterms are this week. I only have one so it's not a big deal. My hardest class is my new testament class! Its like intense biblical history! Its good though. My social work classes are both easy and my on line class is pretty much just a wast of time.
I'm still working at McDonald's. I normally work about 36 hours a week, I like it most days. There are a lot of cool people that work there and I like to be busy and not just sitting at home and I defiantly need the money so it works out pretty good.
Well that's all for now
Aloha!

Aloha!

OK so I'm going to give this blog thing another try now that summer is over, the girls are home and I am back in school.
quick recap:
Last winter semester I didn't post at all. With the earthquake and the uncertainty with the girls I could barley focus on getting done the things I had to. I worked at McDonald's and as the Social work tutor so I was busy. After the girls made it home safe and sound I was able to have fun with my friends again and the semester was really good. I had a lot of fun Saturdays at the beach.
This summer I worked for Victoria San Juan Cruises again. It was a good job and it was great being able to walk right back into it. I had a great summer spending time with avrie and destina as well as the rest of the family. We also had cousin's aunts, uncles and friends visiting all summer which was great!

Being back at school is great. I am now a senior so this is my last semester of classes as I will be doing my internship next semester back home in Bellingham. I am living in a house right on the beach with three other girls and I love it! It is so much better than living on campus. Classes are going good so far. I'm only taking 12 credits because I don't need to take any more, one of those classes is online and the another is a 6am jogging class. Yes 6am! Its so early but its only on Monday and Wednesday and it has been really nice getting up early and I feel more productive until about 9pm when I'm just about ready to go to bed. During the summer I was doing Bikram Yoga three or four times a week and I really loved it. Unfortunately there isn't a studio here so I have been running on the beach everyday. It is really hard specially when the sand is loose or soft but it is a good workout and it feels great when I finish!
I am working two jobs again for this semester. I am the social work tutor again and I work 18 hours a week for that and then I will also be working at McDonald's again starting next week. It will be good to be busy, hopefully I will be able to stay on top of everything. I work better under pressure though so I think I will be fine.
Upon returning to school I had the opportunity to stay in a hostel at Wiema Bay. It was a great adventure and I loved the feeling of Independence. Many things have changed since I was last here, in terms of the person that I am as well as my friends. Haley is going on her mission soon and is not here and Austin is now going to school in Provo. They where my two closest friends last year and them not being here has been hard and different. Also Jake and Erica are now married. I am really happy for them they are so cute together but It has changed to dynamics of our friendships but that is to be expected and I understand. Anna and I are still good, both of us stay busy with school and work so we don't see each other as often.
I have also come to the realization that all of my true best friends are at home. I am really missing my family. We grew closer this summer. I miss playing with avrie. She is the cutest child on the face of this earth! She is so funny and It makes me sad to think that I am missing out on her for the time that I am here. Destina is such an amazing little girl. I really feel that I was able to connect to her and build trust between us this summer and I hope she knows that I love her so much! Katie and Kelsie where my best friends this summer. They have both turned into awesome young women and we always have so much fun together, goofing off and being silly.
I am going to do my best to enjoy my last few months here in Hawaii but I can honestly say that I will be glad to go home when the end of the semester comes.
There is also a boy... His name is Tim. We worked together all summer and started hanging out at the very end of July. We spent time together every day until I left. He is awesome and I miss him a lot too. We talk and text everyday, pretty much in a long distance relationship which is hard but we both really like each other and I like to think that we will make it through the next 85 days! Now I'm off to enjoy the Beach (my new backyard)! I will have pictures for my next post.
ALOHA

Laie to Haleiwa

Tuesday December 15, 2009

Today is the day before finals. I have one final on Wednesday and one on Thursday but I really didn't need to do a lot of studying for them, and I didn't have to work! My friend Jessica and I decided to take a bike ride from Laie which is where we live to Haleiwa which is the closest big town.
We left at ten in the morning, our first stop was our secret beach. We don't know the actual name of the beach but we call it secret beach because not many people know where it is. When we arrived there we saw a ton of big trailers and trucks. Then this guy in a security uniform came up to us and said, "You can't be here" and we were like what's going on, we come here all the time. And then he was like "I'm not authorized to tell you but you have to leave." We were little confused and finally he told us that they are filming for the TV show Lost! It was really cool! We didn't get to meet anyone but still they were filming on our beach!
We continued on to Pipeline where they were holding the final day of the Pipeline Masters Competition! It was Amazing!!! The Pipeline masters is the oldest surf competition in the world and is said to have some of the most dangerous waves on earth! There were so many people there watching the best surfers in the world! Most of the people looked liked they were on vacation and Jess and I could not get over the fact that we just road our bikes there!
We stayed and watched for about three hours, it was a perfect day! The waves were huge, the surfing was awesome, and the people watching was pretty good too!
After the competition ended we continued on past waimea bay and on to Haleiwa!
We got some Matsumotos shaved ice and met up with one of Jess's friends that works at the bakery in Haleiwa. Then we started the long bike ride back. We stopped at Sunset Beach for a short rest and saw some really hot gay guys, and some awesome surf.
We made it back to Laie at 8 pm! It was a really long fun day. It total we did 35.32 miles on old school huffy bikes! It was a great way to end an amazing first semester at BYU-Hawaii.

Thanksgiving in Kauai

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Wednesday November 25, 2009
We left for the airport in Bennie this morning at 6 am. We arrived at the airport just fine and got to our terminal about an hour before our flight left. We had some spare time so we did some yoga! It was very relaxing and was a great way to prepare for our week of adventure! We arrived in Kauai at about ten we had to wait at the airport while Jake went and picked up our mini van that we named Vinny The Venture Van!
Once we got all our stuff loaded into Vinny we headed to Wal-mart to pick up sleeping bag and some food supplies. After Wal-mart we headed up to the north side of the island. We stopped at a farmers market that had lots of cute Hawaiian and hippy stuff. Then we went to Wailua Falls! It was huge and amazing! we put our suits on and took this trail that you have to know right where it is in order to find it. We hiked right down to the falls and went behind it! It was crazy! So much power and beauty and we were right in the middle of it. It was a great first stop on the trip. Then we stopped at this awesome surfing spot because the guys had to get out and watch! It was cool there were amazing waves and some really good surfers.
We went to this out of the way beach to do some exploring. We had to cross a river that went into the ocean in order to get the beach. It was a beautiful place. It was a totally natural beach that was right up against this hillside. There was this really big area that the trees hung over the beach and created a way cool over hang. We decided to camp there because it was really pretty and out of the way. We named our little corner of paradise Pirates Cove!
We had a great evening setting up camp, telling stories and jokes,and roasting marshmallows and hot dogs. Then night time came! It started to rain so we moved all of our tents and forts and combined them to make the super-fortress! Then it started to rain and rain and then poor and pretty soon we were right in the middle of a down poor! It was a crazy storm and our super-fortress turned out to be not so super! We got soaked! The tent was definitely not water proof, it was totally useless! We all huddled under the one tarp that was keeping most of the water out but all of our stuff and clothes were pretty wet. I totally felt like I was on survivor! It was so crazy!
Thursday:
In the morning it was still raining really hard and we decided to get out of there before it got any worse. Jake went out to see if the river was cross-able and to see if we would be able to get our stuff out. The river did get higher and the current was a lot stronger but we made it across. We hauled all of our stuff in big garbage bags holding them over our head. We had to load all of our wet stuff in to Vinny! It was still raining pretty hard too so we had to get in the van wet! We drove to a little camp site that wasn't too far away to put some dry cloths on and rinsed off the best we could. Then we stopped at the gas station to get some hot chocolate because we were all freezing and had about a twenty minute drive to the nearest town. The hot chocolate machine wasn't very good and some of us ( not me) only got hot water and they drank it anyway because they were so cold and still wet! Then our next goal was to find a laundry mat so we could dry all of our stuff! We had to do five loads in the big driers and it took about an hour. We used this time to brush our teeth and wash our faces in the water hook up outside. We were quit the secne. We also met another group if bum backpackers that got rained out and were drying there stuff too! Haley and I then went to the Burger King that was right across the parking lot to get a big box to put our really dirty and wet tents and tarp in so they wouldn't get the rest of our now dry stuff all wet again. It was my idea because I was in charge of packing the car.
After we got all our stuff packed and we were cleaned up a little we went to Kalae's house to say hi. He is Haley and Bart's friend from school and he said that we should stop by to say so we did. He told us where there was a really big water fall that we had to see. It was cool but you couldn't get close to it and it was really muddy water because of all the rain. We called it the muddy falls. Then it was lunch time, we didn't really have a game plan yet so we decided that a nice little picnic in the pizza hut parking lot would be a great place to eat and decide our next move! We looked like true bums! We even got really funny looks form this lady with an eye patch that was wandering around the dumpster.
Our nest stop was a town called Pupo. That is where a lot of the resorts and really nice beaches are. There is also this really big cliff that the guys wanted to jump off. I would have done it but it was a really long swim back to shore and the waves were pretty big. It was fun to watch them and we went swimming in one of the really nice swimming pools that was right off the beach. We started looking for the hot tubs but apparently the workers noticed that we didn't belong and they kicked us out!
That's when we met up with one of Austins really good friends from home that was spending Thanksgiving in Kauai with his family. We got to use the hot tub at their resort and then they fed us this amazing Thanksgiving dinner! It was way more than any of us were expecting! There was turkey and ham and rolls and jello and pie! They were so nice. We didn't stay too long after dinner because it was dark and we had to set up camp. The beach that we went to was about forty minutes away. It was a beautiful beach and we just slept under the stars. Luckily the rain had stopped and we stayed nice and dry.
Friday:
Today we hiked Waimea Canyon. We stopped at some of the view points to take pictures. It is so pretty! Its like the grand canyon but in Hawaii! It took us about two hours to hike in. At the end of the trial there are two water falls. One that looks like a giant X, we climbed up through the bushes to get on top of it. Then we went to the other water fall, that was the main water fall in the cannon. It was huge! So high and we were right on top of it! we even laid out in the sun for a little bit on some of the rocks that are right before the drop off! It was ridiculous! I felt like I was on top of the world!
After we hiked back to the car we drove farther up to the best view point of the Na'Pali coast. We jumped over the big brick wall and had lunch in the best picnic place in the world! It was the most beautiful place I've ever seen. We were higher than some of the clouds!
After lunch we made our way to the longest beach in Hawaii! It was a pretty long drive and we had to do some off roading, we weren't sure if Vinny was going to make it but he did. We played on the beach of the rest of the afternoon and then set up camp. Dr. man (aka one of Jake's friends) came to camp with us and he brought Costco pizza with him! It was awesome! It was cold so I tried to warm mine up over the fire by putting it on a 2x4 that we found, it didn't really work to well but I received a bum point for the effort. Let me explain bum points. All week we were living like bums so for each act that was "bum like" we awarded that person a bum point! Things like peeing in the woods, changing in public places, drinking hot water that was suppose to be hot chocolate, sharing toothpaste,and brushes, not showering for four days, washing your hair in the river, warming up pizza on a 2x4, using a hot tub as a bath and some others! It was great.
Anyway, this beach that we stayed on the last night was totally amazing possibly the most beautiful place on the earth. It went on for miles and there was nobody there but us! We watched the sun set over Nihue. Then we decided to wake up at 3:17 to watch the moon set. It was unreal! It looked like a small whitish sun set at night!Then the sky was still pretty light because there were so many stars! I never thought that camping could be this cool, only on Kauai I guess!
Saturday:
We slept in a little bit and enjoyed the morning on the beach. Then we packed up camp and headed back to the nearest town to get some breakfast. We got some fruit and donuts from the super market and again had a little picnic in a parking lot. (bum point for all) then the girls went across the street to the gas station to "clean up" in the bathroom. We were starting to look a little dirty ha! Then we went to Keystone beach. This place was wicked cool. It use to be an old dump site. There is a beach, blue water, black lava flow, and garbage! It was cool garbage like super old rusted motors and train parts, and a ton of broken glass. It was pretty neat to see. We wandered around there for a while then made our way through the jungle to this little cove that again was beautiful and deserted! It was a really nice little beach/swimming area. After that we wondered into a really old cemetery on our way back to Vinny. It was pretty neat to see all the old Hawaiian names, the oldest person that we found was born in 1852.
For our last stop we went to this super amazing river that became a water fall into a pond called Kipu falls. It was like heaven! We had to really hike through the jungle (when I say jungle it's like ten feet tall grass everywhere) to get there. It was so cool. My favorite spot on the trip! We climbed across to the middle of the river and jumped off the water fall, then there was this massive tree that had a rope swing tied to it and you swing on it into the big pond! It was so much fun! I did it five times. We hung out here till it was nearly dark, but before we left we washed our hair in the river! It felt so good to rinse off in clean, non-salt water.
For our victory dinner we went to NO.1 chines food. It was a little place that we had seen a few times and decided it would be a good cheap victory dinner. It was really good! Then we cleaned up the car and headed to Wal-mart to kill some time before the airport. We tried on Mumus and got some post cards. And finally it was off to the airport.
It was a great trip and probably one of the best experiences I've ever had!

SKY DIVING VIDEO!!

SKY DIVING!

This Saturday me and three of my best friends signed our lives away and jumped out of a plane! It was AMAZING!!! We have been talking about doing it for a few weeks now and we did it. We had to sign like ten pages of paperwork saying that we understand that this is extremely dangerous and may result in serious injury or death! HA apparently they didn't want to get sued! Then we got all harnesses on and our jump instructors told us what we had to do (Which isn't much) then we took some fun pictures. The plane ride up was really fun and such an amazing view. Haley and Erica were pretty scared but I was just excited! We jumped from 12,000 feet and we free fell for about two minutes at 120 miles per hour! it was crazy! Then the chute opened and it was like falling in slow motion. My instructor let me control the chute for a little while, that was really cool! The view on the way down was the prettiest thing I've ever seen in my life! Then we landed. And I am still alive!

We all got certificates for completing our first tandem jump! Our hair looks like we just jumped out of a plane! SO FUN! I can't wait to do it again!!
The video was taken by a random instructor that went on the jump with us just for fun, I think he liked Haley the best lol.

Also the reason I haven't posted for so long is that I have been working a lot! I work at McDonald's for those of you who don't already know. Its pretty fun. I like the people that I work with and I like working there for the most part. I really only dislike it when I have to clean the bathrooms, kinda nasty. Its a good short term job, and I can get way more hours there than I would working on campus!
My next adventure is spending thanksgiving in Kauai!
Until next time! :) leave comments!