The Swing and other adventures.

Hello everyone! Matt here! I've been asked to do the blog this week as Jessica has homework and wasn't able to work on it. Also, i have yet to procure a job so i'm, shall we say, not busy.

 It's been an interesting week for sure. Not a good deal of adventures but that is a good thing because we are finally starting to get in a swing of things. Life for us right now is as follows: Morning, we wake up early, I make breakfast while Jessica gets ready for school and does last minute adjustments on her homework(she is so diligent!). After she's showered, dressed, made up, and fed, we go to the bus stop across the street and wait for the bus to come, a pastime we find ourselves in more often than not. The buses are never on time and we thought we could count on that for a while, but one day we missed it because it came 10 minutes early. So now we cant count on lateness, on time, or earliness. So, we give early cushion and end up waiting for the always late (unless you plan on lateness) bus. Needless to say we do a lot of sunbathing on cement benches with graffiti on them. 

When the bus finally comes late, i kiss Jessica goodbye and head home to a day of cooking, cleaning, and begging for a job. I try to stay busy and ignore the ever calling beach just across the road from our little apartment. There is a 1'x 5' wooden swing hanging from a tree directly across from the end of our driveway that our landlord says she hung up years ago to be able to watch the water. We've enjoyed that immensely and have taken to having long talks while swinging and watching the suns last rays dance on the clouds in pinks and oranges. The swing may look like a wonderful thing, but let me tell you, it has its perils..  

One night last week, as we lazily swayed back and forth, listening to the soft waves caress the shore, Jessica just could not take the angle at which the swing was situated. With only a rope threaded through two holes on the sides of the swing, at times it can get angled too far forward or back and needs to be adjusted by leaning forward or back, being careful not to lean to far and have the board in turn tip too far. So begins the tale of danger. :) Now, apparently Jessica has many fond memories of leaning all the way back on swings of this sort and holding on only by her legs while the rest of her swings upside down. To accomplish this, she would hold very tightly to the swing supports and then lean all the way until her legs were on top. You get the picture. Anyways, with the opportunity before her, Jessica began sending mental signals to have me hold on to the ropes on my side the way she was, so she could tip the board all the way back and we could both swing happily upside down and enjoy the laugh riot of our lives. 

Unfortunately, i was tuned to the mental frequency of speaking and could not hear the inaudible messages being sent. So, all at once, Jessica throws herself backward and the swing tips me backwards, landing first my head, then my body, into the sand beneath us. What you see above is the sad state of my poor broken ego laying beneath the swing as Jessica takes a picture through her own personal laugh riot. The funniest thing about the whole ordeal was Jessica's utter confusion as to why i didn't get the mental signals to hold on so i wouldn't fall on my head. Ah, communication.  

This shows the view from the swing. I went out by the water and wrote something brilliant like "M & J." Our nights basically involve the same thing as my days accept Jessica is always faithfully in the bedroom doing homework. Now and then, i'll come in and check on her to make sure she know's I'm here and haven't died in the other room. :) And that's basically it. That's life right now. 

 One thing that is funny about the beach here is that Jessica and I consistently make the blunder of thinking we wont get our pants wet if we role them up. Sadly, inevitably, every time, there's that one wave we weren't ready for that was just too high and drenches the bottom of our pants, which is actually like a foot and a half of fabric rolled up so the pants are officially needing washing ASAP. Then, there's the sand. Man does that stuff stick to everything. We'll be walking 100 feet from the beach and glance in that direction and suddenly there will be sand on us. Somehow, it just appears like barnacles and stays until we scrub it off in the shower. It has been part of my goals as official house keeper to keep the house sand free but no matter how hard i vacuum or sweep, that stuff is somewhere in here... just sitting there...mocking me...

On a Saturday we decided to try a hike that begins up by the Temple in Laie. I was the one who set it up and was so excited because the hike boasts waterfalls! We began the hike right next to a property with signs that said "if you come on this land, you will be shot. No exceptions!!" Needless to say, we were a little uneasy knowing that if we tripped and one hand or foot went over the property line, we'd never see it again. We were so excited to finally get out and see the wildlife and beauty of Hawaii. Doesnt Jess look so cute and excited? 

Us on the hike. We eventually got to a dry river bed that we decided used to be the falls and got really muddy and bug bitten. We jogged back for exercise. Sorta disappointing but it was definitely a fun time with my sweetie. 

Living close to the beach, we see a lot of crabs. These little guys dig holes in the sand and run around on the beach all day. Some life eh? But they are kinda cute. Jessica has been relentless in her commands to dig one up and hold it for her so she can have a non-creepy vicarious adventure with wildlife. So far, i haven't done it for her as I've seen these guys move and know their potential for running up sleeves and into shorts. Those pincers are not for show. that's all i'm saying. So the other day, Jessica got a chance to take a few pictures of these beach dwelling neighbors of ours. I hope that's enough of an adventure for her. *shudder*

One last shot of the crabby neighbors. 

So i'd say all around there's been more adventures that we thought. So often these days i just am taken aback by the wonderful blessing it is of living here in such a beautiful warm state for the time being. We live our lives in relative happiness and are very much enjoying our new home here. There is so much to be thankful for and we love it all!

Bringing in the New Year

Aloha!  We have now been in Hawaii for just over 2 weeks.  When we first got here we stayed in a hotel for a couple of days.  During that time we got to celebrate New Years!  Since we wouldn't have fit into the crazy party atmosphere of the Waikiki restaurants we just hung out in our hotel room.  

Last year Matt made a new years resolution to not drink soda for an entire year.  He has done an awesome job and made it through all of 2011 without drinking soda.  I joined in on the resolution in May, so it had been  a while since soda had been inside either of us.  We decided that on new years eve we would buy a Dr. Pepper and that would be our midnight celebration.

Here is Matt holding a Bottle of Dr. Pepper, the first in a year.  He was pretty excited to take a drink!

Happy New Year!  Turns out that he didn't miss soda as much as he thought he would.  We had bought two bottles and it took us three days to drink them.  After going for so long without drinking anything with carbonation it hits you pretty hard.  I would venture to say that we are more or less permanently off soda, we will probably have an occasional bottle now and then.  Turns out new years resolutions can actually change your life.  

New Years Day was a Sunday, that means church!  Matt and I jumped online and found out where the nearest chapel was and what time it started.  It wasn't too far away and the first meeting didn't start until 10:00am so we got up on Sunday morning and walked over to where Google Maps said it would be.  We came to realize that Google Maps is more or less an estimation.  After wandering around for a while we found the chapel.  It was actually a tabernacle, and the whole church has a courtyard in the middle.  It was really neat.  Hawaii is definitely a different kind of place than I am used to.  There was a reflection pool in the front and beautiful trees and flowers everywhere!  I was amazed.  No wonder people call it Paradise.  

I am standing in front of the reflection pool, there is a of Christ on the outer wall.  It was BEAUTIFUL!!  There was such a neat spirit about it too.  There is a sad turn to the story; we arrived at about 9:30, because we were worried we wouldn't be able to find it or that it would take longer to get there.  Apparently because it was the first Sunday and new years day the meetings were different.  Everyone was meeting together at 8:00.  We got there just as the meeting was ending, the only one of the day.  Even though we missed church it was worth seeing how awesome the place is.  

Those typical "Hawaii Flowers" that you see everywhere on jewelry and stuff are Real!  At the church we found the trees they grow on.  There were tons!  

I could get used to this look, just Sayin. 

This is another tree that was out front.  Talk about a huge tree.  They are very unique because they just start out as a normal size tree and then as they grow they send down vines from the branches and the vines end up touching the ground and attaching to it, making the trunk super thick and creating pillars all around it.  The canopy is HUGE so the pillars come down to help reinforce it.  Crazy.  They are really neat.  By the way, if you couldn't tell, that is me standing by the tree just to give you an idea of the size.  I think it is safe to say the trunk is about 12 feet in diameter. 

After the attempted church situation we hung out at the hotel for a while until we got sick of it.  Next stop, the Beach!  Right before sunset we took a stroll down to the beach and walked along the water.  

You can't see it very well in this picture, but the sun was actually setting and it looked Amazing.  Also - the beaches in Waikiki are packed!  Every time we went close to them there were swarms of people.  

Isn't it Pretty :)  The mixture of the waves, the water, the sand... it's Awesome.  

Fast forward a few days - - - We found an apartment!  It is about 3 miles from BYU-H and has a ton of particulars that we were hoping to find; for example, we are on the waiting list for BYU housing and hope to be accepted either this summer or for the fall semester but because of that we did not want to have to sign a year lease.  The apartment we found didn't require any kind of lease, so as soon as we are accepted we will be able to move in! 

One day while we were headed home we were walking along the beach and saw something laying there.  It was a Seal!  Really neat to see one laying so close to us.  Except there was a lady (one of our neighbors) who was standing there being the watch guard, she was a little crazy and yelled at us for getting to close and whatnot.  She ended up staying out there for a good majority of the day just watching and making sure no one was bugging the seal.  

The Picture is not that good because I had a lady freaking out... but this is the gist of it.  

The First day of School!  I felt like I was in 4th grade again.  I have not worn a backpack for so long, but there is no way I am carrying some kind of shoulder bag with that much weight in it.  It was a great first day and a perfect start to the semester!  The spirit at BYU-H is awesome, I can feel that there is so much good there, and we are able to be apart of it!

Our apartment is along the main road that loops around Oahu.  The beach is literally across the street from where we live.  If you go out our front door and run for about 15 seconds you will be in the ocean.  Matt is enjoying the sand and the water at the beginning of sunset.  This truly is a beautiful place. We are enjoying it so much and feel so good about where we are and the fact that we are here.  Can't wait to see what else is waiting for us!

Welcome to Volume II of the Wonderful Life of Matt & Jessica. This little blog represents a new stage of life and new adventures that are yet to be had. I invite you to join us on our journey as we uncover and experience what this world has to offer. Hand in Hand we go forth, as we enjoy the journey.