Pay back

I have a good calling in my singles ward over here in Hawaii. I was called just two weeks after I arrived to be the Enrichment Night Leader (now known as Relief society night coordinator). It’s certainly not the hardest calling, but it still takes a good amount of effort and planning. Well tuesday night was relief society night for the month of February and I planned an activity that I thought would be great. We were going to make little bags of candy with encouraging notes tied to them saying things like “Jesus loves you”, “I love you”, “You are special”, etc, and send them to an orphanage in Burundi, Africa (I’m part of the African club... they have connections).

Anywho, during the past couple weeks I have made a few trips to Wal Mart and food land to buy chocolate, take back chocolate, buy non perishable candy, buy little bags and ties, get all the card stock and cut them into 100 pieces and hole punch everyone of them and buy a bunch of pens. Finally I was all ready for the night and I went around to a few of the floors on my house a couple minutes before, making sure all the girls remembered it was relief society night and I got a few promising moans and questionable looks. I started my journey down to campus a little late, so I was expecting a fairly large group to be waiting for me seeing as I was the one who had all the supplies and instructions. We have 110 girls in our relief society.... there were 4 girls waiting for me on a bench. We waited a little longer and one more girl showed up, but notta one after that. Not even anyone from the presidency showed up. Awesome. The girls that did come were really sweet however, and we had a good time and got everything done which mostly the point of the night, but it still hurt to not have that support... and I still went home and cried. haha. Now I’m not saying I’m mad or disappointed in anyone, I’ve certainly done my share of “studying” and “spending time with family” when it came time for meetings or activities I was supposed to go to, and I understand that it’s midterms week and a lot of girls might not have even heard about it! All I’m saying is it was a real good slap in the face and really put in perspective how important it is to show support and attend your meetings whenever possible. This was not the biggest activity ever planned, but there was a lot of thought, time and energy put into it (which is probably my fault-I tend to think I can do everything on my own and not have any help) so it would have been nice to have some support. At least the kiddies in Africa will be happy :) Maybe next month....

Love Day

I know it's like a week and a half past Valentines day, but im'ma post about it anyway :) Valentines Day has always been one of my very favorite holidays... not just because of all the candy and cookies you get, or the cool Spider-man and Hello Kitty Valentines, or even the cute pink white and red clothing you get to wear! I love Valentines day because it's a day you get to express your love to everyone!! I think it's sad when people get depressed on V-day because they don't have a special lover, but hey... who said you needed a boyfriend or girlfriend to be happy and spread da love??? Share it with your family and friends!! I mean if you have a special someone, even better, but don't let it ruin the fun if you don't. Maybe I just think this way because that's how I was raised. My mom always made Valentines Day super fun for us by decorating our doors, baking heart shaped sugar cookies, and doorbell ditching goodies randomly throughout the day. My dad always got us girls flowers or balloons and it was just a fun, special day where we got to express our love to each other!


This year, seeing as I am very far from home, Valentines day was a little different. My mom still managed to send some love my way and gave me this awesome package!



The weekend was full of lots of fun too. It started off Friday night at the Sea
sider Basketball game with my friends Meagan and Alisha.

After the game Kaitlin and I went to the Latino Club Valentines party and I totally reached down deep to my Latino roots (I'm sure they're there some where) and danced the night away.

They were gonna take us to Honolulu to a Latino club because we were so legit... but the car broke down. Sad day :(

The next morning we met up with some friends and went on a hike to some springs. The hike was fun and the pond place even had a rope swing to jump in with!

(Sorry the pictures are mini...)

After the hike Kaitlin and I went with Kilie and Huston to Waimea Bay and then got shaved ice at the famous Matsumotos... Soooo good!!

After we got home and showered, me Kaitlin and our friend Meagan headed down to campus to an annual event BYUH holds called Food Fest. This is really a neat experience (especially for me because it involves tons of FOOD!!) Basically all the different culture clubs bake a bunch of different food from their countries and each person buys tickets and then goes around to all the booths and trades tickets for food! I got this yummy chicken curry stuff from Tahiti, a pork shishkabob from China, and this delicious strawberry-marshmellow shishkabob drizzled in chocolate sauce from Japan! I was in HEAVEN!!
After Food Fest we hopped in the car with some friends and drove to a little place called Kava Roots (has the BEST Acai bowls) for Open Mic. They hold open mic. every saturday night and it's just a night where people go up and share their musical talents. Most instruments are provided and anyone can go up and do their thang. Our friends played some awesome songs and totally got in with the owners and everyone loved them. I loved it because it was just the epitomy of Hawaii. Sitting on couches, drinking Kava (well... not the byu kids of course ha) and listening to chill island musicians. So good. I recorded a little bit of one of the songs, this is basically Hawaii in a nutshell.






Awesome.




Sunday morning we woke up and went to Kilie and Huston's ward to hear them speak. They did awesome!! Their talks were on love (of course) and different ways we can give "Valentines" to the Lord, like serving others, being selfless and showing love to everyone around us. It was a great way to start of the Love Day!!

After church we went to their house and made heart shaped sugar cookies!! It was so much fun and they turned out DELICIOUS (besides the frosting that Huston preferred to call a "glaze" haha).

That night we got invited to go camping on a beach way on the other side of the island and in the morning try to snorkel with dolphins!! I was pretty dang excited... but something inside me is always a little doubtful when it comes to big things like swimming with dolphins when no payment is involved. I thought it would be fun anyway so we drove out there with Kilie and Huston. The drive out was loooong, but we had fun listening to Kilie sing every word of "baby got back", and getting lost and pulled over was pretty cool too haha.

We made a campfire, roasted some marshmellows and finally snuggled in our "beds" to try and get some sleep.

Group Spoonaaage!!! Love these guys :)

About 45 minutes after I fell asleep, we were awakened by a couple of cops telling us we had to leave on account of it wasn't safe because hobos hide and steal stuff, and the locals like to stab hales (white people) around these parts of town. Awesome. So we drove all the way back home. It turns out my gut instinct was right and we wouldn't have been able to swim with dolphins anyway.

The next morning was Presidents day so I FINALLY got to sleep in! Kaitlin went on another hike that morning, and after I woke up, Kilie, Huston, Brad and I went to the beach. We actually got in the water this time and body surfed! It was sooo much fun!! Such a good day :)

(Kaitlin wasn't there so sorry no pictures :/ haha)

That night we had a mini girls night and went down the street to the Laie theatre to see Valentines Day. I thought it was really cute and we had a good time.

We wore socks and soffees. It was cool.

And that was my lovely Valentines weekend! I hope you all had an awesome day full of love and happiness, cause I sure as heck did!! :D Maybe next year I'll have a lover of my very own...

The Goof-Troop

When I was a sophomore in high school I joined the Badminton team with three of my best friends, Natalli Smith (Ellsworth), Megynn Caffall and Donelle Porter. Any of you readers who know the four of us (or any of us for that matter) know we aren't your average kind of girl. We average about 2 showers a week, and I'm pretty sure each of us have an acute case of A.D.H.D. Anywho... Our Badminton coach gave us a name one day that stuck pretty hard, and that name was The Goof-Troop. (Unfortunately I only have my lap top which doesn't have all my old pictures, so there are none of us all together in badminton, but smash these together and you got the crew)

In August of 2009, we lost Natalli to a worthy apponent named Jacob.

And today, on February 12, 2010.... another one bites the dust. That's right, Donelle Vivian Porter is no longer Donelle Vivian Porter, but rather Donelle Vivian Clare. The bandit this time, a young man named Caleb. Besides the fact I am losing yet another one of my best friends, I am SOOOO stinkin happy for her! She has been SUCH an amazing friend through the years and I am thrilled that she found such and Awesome guy to spend the rest of eternity with! Sadly... due to the fact that I am a million miles away and plane tickets are a million dollars I can't be there :( I've been so bummed all day today so I've been having friends send me texts and picture messages updating me every step of the way. I even tried to go to the reception via skype! haha...that didn't work out. None the less, I am so grateful for Donelle and the amazing example of love and kindness she is and now the example she and her new hubby are!

They are the cutest couple ever by the way. So here's to Donelle, Donatello, Don Juan Triumphant, or whatever you wanna call her... Hope your day was the BEST! I love you!!!!

Looks like we're the only ones left Meg... but it shouldn't be long with looks like these eh???