A tale for tomorrow

So I got my new computer. I'm very happy with my investment. I no longer have a desktoplaptop- can take it with me places without a plug and its brain isn't a 1000x slower than mine! We work well together so far. I'm excited to get things all synced up and running. Now I'll be able to post my adventre photos! I'll post and describe past stories tomorrow but for now, I'll just take care of today.

Today I received a really thoughtful care package from my Uncle Rick. He and I have always had a funky little brainwave connection. One time during our birthday month I sent him a hand drawn dragon fly card and he sent me a purple dragonfly necklace. It was completely unplanned and both of us were surprised by the coincidence. It was pretty awesome.
I walked up to my porch after yoga and smelled some coffee. At that moment, the smell triggered my thoughts "Shoot, I was supposed to pick up a bag in Makawao- I'm almost out!" I moved on and picked up the packages the postman had left on our porch. I saw that one was from my Uncle Rick!  I opened the package and sure enough, I found the source of the wonderful smell! Super freshly roasted French roast whole beans! AND "Meditation for Dummies"- perfect timing because I am about 20 pages from finishing the main book (of about 4) I've been reading. My uncles are all such a cool dudes. It really brought a smile to my face to know that he was thinking of me. I'm planning on a trip to Cali sometime in February or March to see him and my Uncle Jack. I've only flown through Cali so I'm super excited to explore with some long-time residents.

In other news: I spent some time roasting veggies today. Roasted root veggies were perfect on this cool Maui Fall day. Its really interesting observing the difference in weather- its definitely noticeable at night and in the morning. Afternoons aren't as obvious to me- but I think it has been 'cooler' during the day but not much.
Most of my evening was spent working on finishing the tissue paper 'stained glass' window. It looks so cool! I've never done something like that before and it was huge and really fun. Like all art projects I do, I had a general idea and a framework for the beginning. By the end, though, I just kinda let things come together and I really like how it turned out.

I really need to get some rest. Long days this week because the Kula Dad is outta town.

Aloha pumehana,

Betsy

Annotated Version of an Awersome Week

Funny things:

For the past few weeks, the three year old has been developing a plan for his future business venture. He plans to own a restaurant called "Fat Nuggets". He will serve all of his favorite foods: pizza, honey, cookies, hummus and avocado pasta and peanut butter sandwiches. Everything on the menu will be called 'fat nuggets'. I find this absolutely hilarious.

The five year old got kissed on the cheek for the first time. He is totally freaking out and really excited to have a play date with his 'girl friend'. I find this absolutely hilarious.

Baby started crawling. I was totally amazed and stoked to see this. He gets better at it everday.

Made the dankest pizza ever on Friday. Then went to a baby Friday pizza party in Makawowza.


In other news:

Worked al of full days and some 'overtime' working on a tissue paper stained glass window. Facetimed with Andrea, Livvy and DJ while workin' on it. Its really coming along and looks cool.

It was a really cloudy day today. Suz, Brad and I were planning on having a big hike day today. Instead I spent the night up at the farm, had coffee on the porch and watched the clouds come in. We went down to Lahaina to see if we could find some sunshine or have a lazy Lahaina day. We ended up watching crazy kiteboarders and wind surfers play in wind, waves and rain from the hot tub. Then, played another awesome game of Carcassone. I absolutely love having friends to play my favorite game with on Maui. It makes my heart smile.

I am tired and I have another big week ahead of me.

Aloha pumehana,

Betty

Cookies and Tattoos

Today was a wonderful day to be a nanny in Kula.

Our morning was again full of oatmeal and smiles. I love that the middle-dude loves to cook with me. He has made oatmeal every day with me for the past week. I know his secret though- he has a maaaaaajor sweet tooth. Everyday when we put the 'secret ingredients' brown sugar and maple sugar in he asks, "Cannnn I tryyyy???" I always let him try a speck of sugar and a drop of syrup but he always lets me know its, "to make sure its still good."

We balled it up on 4' basketball hoop before school. They are learning all about 'defense' and 'passing' right now. They think I'm a star- thank goodness for those years of high school SPORTZ.

I went to yoga and the dudes went to school. It was a great class- I love class with Trish. I always leave feeling happy, strong and clear headed.

I went to Rainbow Park for lunch and wrote some letters. I was in great company- a Wishbone puppy dog visited me about a zillion times while I was there. His/her owner only called him back once and he was too cute to really be a bother. I miss my dog-friends- it was quite enjoyable to be licked and nuzzled. And he was a Wishbone dog so it was extra cool.

I came home and hung out the the baby dude for a bit. I super extra love playing with him these days- he is learning how to interact and it is so much fun. He giggles and smiles and laughs and grabs for things. Its kind of like playing with a kitten only he is a human so he makes baby human sounds instead of meowing. I LOVE HIM.

When the dudes got home the eldest son and his mama had to go to town so I got to hang out with the middle dude. He went to go take a nap with his daddio for about 20 seconds and then he came into the kitchen and asked if we could make chocolate chip cookies so they could be ready when his daddy woke up. So cute.

No brainer there: we made the cookies.

He basically did all the work- I just measured things and he poured it all together, mixed. It was absolutely necessary that he test a few of the chocolate chips 'to make sure they weren't rotten' and then found every spec of brown sugar that didn't make it into the bowl. He mixed and mixed until 'his hands were tired' and he needed a quick break. I was pretty impressed- he is only 3 1/2. He helped me scoop all of the cookie dough plops out and we giggled when we 'accidentally' made some massive cookies. Oooooops. It wasn't so accidental though, "Bets, I'm gonna make this one big. Loooook its a monnnster!!!"

I put some Emancipator while we were baking on because its great lyric-less chill soothing music to listen to with little ones. As SOON as I put it on he said, "Betsy, I like your music. I love this song." Success.

While the cookies baked we looked around the kitchen for things to do. Their kid-drawer had some tattoos. "Betsss, do you want a tattoo. Here look this ones a dinosaur!" I looked through the drawer and told him I'd let him put one on me if it wasn't on my face or somewhere really obvious. He suggested my lower back (HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!!!) but I told him I didn't really want a tattoo there. So we settled on a purple alien on my forearm.

Our cookies finished baking and I accidentally slid a few onto the oven door so we had to eat them up straight away, as soon as they cooled. They were absolutely delicious. His dad was so happy when he woke up. And I got to dance with the middle dude while I was cooking dinner- we were listening to some upbeat Elephant Revival at this point.

I made balsamic veggies and quinoa for dinner and it was good.

I'm tired and its time for bed.

Aloha Pumehana,

Betty Boo

Poli-Poli Cow!

This weekend was rad. Totally magotally rad.

On Saturday I had the morning off and I explored the gallery more thoroughly. It was the last day of the Taken By Wonder show and the fort was buzzing with people. When you first walk into the fort, there is a room with a piano and some lounge chairs and a penny fountain (no water) to your right. An incredible pianist who was visiting the fort was playing for almost the entire time I was there. I thanked him when he took a break- It was magical.

I crawled around and found rooms I hadn't even seen the first time I was there- climbed a cargo net and found a star gazing room. When I was downstairs I went under a bed and found an opening into an entirely open hidden room. I took pictures on my phone and I'm not sure yet how to put them on here- so cool! I spent time decoding lots of the messages- some were really inspiring and others told stories. The 'story' behind the artist's fort was that Hawaiian ancestors were the inhabitants- they left their story to take us by wonder. I loved it. I am going to try to upload the photos sometime this week.

Yesterday I went to yoga in the morning and then met up with Susu and Brad. We sat down and discussed where we wanted to hike and decided to go somewhere none of us had ever been before. We ended up hiking up behind Suzy's place to Poli-Poli state park.
It was a freakin' righteous hike. It was the perfect hike to follow the "taken by wonder" gallery experience. I am still entirely blissed out by the dose of wonder I experienced seeing so many 'firsts'. We walked through a ranch and embodied the mountain goat lifestyle, bounding up the steep Haleakala mountainside. We saw some native Hawaiian trees and feasted our eyes on the view of the West Maui Mountains behind us. After some time, we arrived at a eucalyptus forest. We continued hiking up through the aroma therapy forest- and were 'on the fence' about where to head next. So, we continued up the fence, and eventually between to fences, and then over a fence into Poli Poli State Park.
Shortly after arriving into the State Park, the forest population changed from eucalyptus to a different hardwood. Brad noticed something ahead and thought it might be a cliff. But nope, it wasn't a cliff; it was just a redwood. The forest changed again to be majestically massive Red Wood trees. HOLY POLI-POLI SMOKES. I am a full on tree-lovin', nature admirin', hike-appreciatin' kind of girl and I have never encountered a red wood before and I was in absolute awe. Absolute blissful, star-eyed, humbled, gnomified awe. I was a few paces behind Su-Su and Brad and was stunned by how tiny they looked. Just tiiiiny. Those trees are freakin' massive! Coolest. Place. EVER. OH MY GOD.
Suz knew about an abandon ranger cabin near the edge of the state park, so we set off to find it. We did. It was really cool. The front porch was gone but you could get in through the back. It was mostly safe and mostly stable but not all the way- we ventured in anyway and saw a bunch of new and old booze bottles- Jameson, Seirra nevada, cheap whiskey, some local brews, some PBRs and more all stacked up on the wall above the front door of the cabin. So, we shared the two beers we brought with us and put them up on the wall too. It felt like we accomplished something when those went up. It felt good haha.
We snacked on some punkin' seeds, sharp cheddar cheese and fresh guava outside of the cabin before we continued on to admire more red woods. Damn. The energy of that forest was just magical. I can't think of any other word.
We hiked around for a bit more and then embarked on our return journey. We took a different way back and found our way back to the ranch. Said hello to some goats and observed some potential (scary) mudslide business. There is a lonnnnnnnnnng story that could go along with that comment- pertaining to invasive trees, logging and pastures but I won't go into it because I don't know enough about it to rant. But in short, there definitely is evidence of mudslides and there is definitely a lot of crappy invasive Waddle trees. It doesn't seem so good.
We ran into a teacher from the Waldorf school on the way back down the road to where we parked. She was looking for her runaway pup and had jussst found him. It was good to see her and the car. We were all pretty beat so after a quick convo we headed back down the mountain to get some food at the Kula Bistro. We got delicious dinner- well deserved house salad and pasta after a epic hike. We topped it off with a slice of some of the best German chocolate cake I've ever had and then headed back to Suzy's to play a quick game of Carcassonne.
Neither Suz or Brad had ever played Carcassonne so it was fun to introduce the game and strategies. They both crushed it for their first time and I think we're all excited to play again when we aren't totally beat from an awesome hike day.

Today was cool I played with the baby boy a lot. We went on a walk. He is such an outside-guy. I feel like he just thrives on the energy of Maui- I'm not kidding 80% of the time if you just take him outside when he is fussy he calms and smiles just looking at trees and grass. He loves nature and he is only 6 months old. Its awesome. When we got back from our walk we played on the floor for a little bit- I was waving a silk scarf over his head and he was totally lovin' it. There is nothing better than the full body baby smile. I played a little bit of calm, chill Emancipator for him and he loved it. Great relaxin' on the floor music.

I went to yoga and then came home. I was planning on writings some pen pals but I think I'll just call it an early night and go to Rainbow park to write him tomorrow. Seems like a good yoga/lunch break plan :)

I am so grateful for everything and everyone in my life. I feel so lucky to be where I am and know all of the wonderful people I do. Sometimes its hard to believe that this is real life. Living my life with so much aloha. Mahalo, universe.

Aloha pumehana,

Bets

Pen Palz Again

I printed a bunch of pictures so I'm spending some time writing little notes to pen pals. I love receiving notes back in the mail- I send notes to friends just about every other day. Today I got a note from my friend Daphna and my long-time pen pal Grams AND the day-after-you-get-your-diploma-PAY-US-loan-packet from MSU! I was most excited about my letters from Daph and Grams. Grams included a packet of sparkley bird stickers for me and the dudes! When I showed the three year old just before bedtime, he wanted to put the stickers on his jammies. We told him it'd be better to wait until morning so he could put it on paper or his shirt- it was fun to see him so excited about the stickers from my Grams, though. She'll be happy to hear they were a 'hit'.

Lets see, what else did I do on this fine day?

I started a tissue-paper stained glass project on a large octagon window over the front door. I'm really excited about it- I'll post some pictures as it comes along. Just started planning and measuring out the pattern. It should be pretty cool. So far I have an 8-sided star with a flower in the center. We've already picked out all the colors and the Kula Mama is really excited so I'm hoping all goes well. My uncle George used to do stained glass, so I'll be channeling his talents when I really get going.

I hung out with the babe a lot today. I love just watching him grow. Its fascinating. So fun to see all the 'new' faces and sounds he comes up with everyday. Today he was all about sticking out his tounge and many variations on the sound /g/. The /g/ was sometimes incorporated into a 'gah', other times strung into a sentence of /g/'s and EVEN mixed into a growl/giggle. We laid out in the yard for a bit just looking at the trees and grass- his favorite pastime.

I made my first 'disappointing' pizza in a while today. It still tasted good but the dough was too warm and sticky, the pizza peel too wet and my hands not steady enough. It turned into a stretched pizza. The second pizza was perfect though, and that was the 'adult' pizza. When the younger brother mentioned something about the funky shape of his pizza slice, the older brother giggled and he said, "Its just as good as its gonna get tonight. Its the best we could do!" Haha! They had helped me make the dough and the eldest helped me sauce/cheese the zza. Too funny!

I've got to get to bed! Yoga bright and early then I'm headed to the beach and the Taken by Wonder art installation again so I can explore without little dudes.

Aloha pumehana!

Bets

HALLOWEEN

I've been quite busy these past few days. Very industrious: I've been writing a lot of pen pals, painting and getting my new phone all situated (which is now in business, finally)

Just a quick recap of the past few days before I hit the hay.

Yesterday the Kula Mama, the dudes and I went to this INCREDIBLE art installation at the University in Kahalui. It was titled "Taken By Wonder" (http://mauiarts.org/index.html?p=3) It is this MASSIVE fort all made of the coolest stuff. I'm going back on Saturday to explore by myself and take some pictures. I'll explain more then.

The dudes have been very excited about Halloweek. We've had spooky oatmeal (oatmeal with spooky (normal) brown sugar and maple syrup) and they've made ghosts to hang around the house. They were stoked this morning when they realized they got to dress up at school.

I stayed home and passed out candy- but we didn't have many trick-or-treaters so I painted some birthday cards for teachers at school.

I'm really tired, I can't even pretend I can write this in a flowing and comprehensive way right now. I got my diploma from MSU in the mail today. I can officially say that I've graduated and that means no one can give me deadlines on writing projects. Not even my blog : ) : )

Halloween was so much fun! I love living with little guys during holidays. They feed and feed off of my excitement- its the best.

Aloha pumehana

bets

Appreciation

Man, I am so thankful to have a full time job right now. I finally got the nerve up to complete my 'exit counseling' last night and found out that the suggested amount I pay per month (to pay off my loans in 10 years) would be a full weeks pay. Holllly smokes. I think I'm going to apply for an alternate payment plan but I have to figure that out. I have declared November "BUY NOTHING" month so my planned investment for a computer has been bumped back. But no worries! I can hobble along with this battery-less-laptop buddy of mine, we've been pals since I was 18.

Everyday I am grateful. Really, I couldn't been in a better situation. I'm fed, sheltered, hugged and entertained with kid-humor daily. I have a healthy body and I can do the things that make me happy. I can practice yoga daily and go to the beach at least once a week. There is literally nothing to complain about in my life. 

Last night I put a baby to sleep without even using a bottle. He was so tired I just rocked him and he fell right asleep in my arms during our staring contest. There is really nothing better than holding a little babe when they fall into a deep slumber. The little squirmy body relaxes and they snuggle up and stare up at you with sleepy eyes and say their last little coos and thennnnnn they're out. I just love that.

Today I played football with the three year old dude, he totally won. He knows all the 'rules' and my 'tickle downs' just couldn't stop his countless touch downs.

This is a really random post and I had more to say I think but I'm pretty tired. I'm working extra this week so I'm a little scatter brained. 

All snapchat and facetime users: be prepared. FRIDAY is the arrival of my new phone. Can't wait to get in touch with your FACES

Aloha pumehana,

bets