Hawaii Living

This summer we have been trying to get out a little more and seeing and doing what the island has to offer. During the semesters, this seems hardly possible. But that past few months we get a week every month where we can only work part-time. So we try to take advantage of the extra time to play tourist a little bit.

One of the first places we visited was Waimea Falls. Its a beautiful walk (not really a hike) through a paved path of living plants from around the world. A living plant museum of sorts. Many of the plants are endangered but native to Hawaii, and there are many exotic plants from all over the world, like I said. The most memorable plant to me was the Mindanao Eucalyptus. Not only because it originates from the Philippines, where I served my mission, but because its bark peels off to reveal various colors underneath. It looks as though someone dumped a bunch of colors of paint from the top of the tree and they mixed beautifully as they ran down. I never saw these on my mission by the way. Here is what it looks like:

And here is some other pics of David and I on our "hike" to falls, and then at the falls themselves. Small falls, yet nice. I took a little dip, even though they were closed. We then caught a ride back with the lifeguards in their truck haha. They gave us little roses folded from leaves.

After our walk at Waimea Falls, we drove across the street to take a dip at my fave beach on the island, Waimea Bay. It started to pour on us, so we didn't stay long but we did manage to take this awesome pic of a rainbow and there is David in the background.

Our next adventure took us to the Macademia Nut Farm. On our way we like to sing and take pictures like this of ourselves.

The Mac farm was funner than expected....there was a little polynesian demonstration that was similar to the Samoan village at the Polynesian Culteral Center, complete with coconut sampling and fire made from the husks. We then boarded a little ghetto bus that took us around the farm, viewing areas that are famous scenes used in many films. There was even a little boat ride. The best part was sampling the fruit. The driver even chopped some sugar cane for us, and I chewed on that for a while, surprised how really sweet it was. The REALLY best part was the macademia nut sampling. If I would have known they had free sampling I would have dropped in there a way long time ago. Here are some pics of us sampling some of the fruit.

One afternoon we took ourselves around the bend to Kuhuku to take a little gander at the Turtle Bay Resort. Its a nice place to imagine yourselves staying, and to take a few pics, as follows.

Another place we have always heard about but never took time to visit was Temple Valley. I had no idea what was there. I was surprised to find a beautiful Buddhist temple hidden in the hills of the valley. It is interesting to note that it was built using no nails!

Before you enter the temple, you are supposed to ring this bell for good luck.

One day we found ourselves exploring the east coast of the island, starting from Kailua and through Makapu'u Point, Haunama Bay, and then to town. Here are some awesome pics we took,

And us in the car again...

Our Story

Today is our half-way mark of one year since being married. In light of this special occasion, I attempt to outline our story, David and I, and how we came to be.

When people ask where we met, we always say that we met in class, in Biology 265 Molecular Biology to be more specific in the fall semester of 2010 (so romantic, I know). This is true, although we also had a Doctrine and Covenants class together at that time also. However, the first time we talked was in Bio 265 lab, and now I will elaborate.

As much as it might sound extremely cheesy or cliche, I liked David the moment I laid my little hazel eyes on him, and no joke, I said to myself... that is the guy I can really see myself with. But can you believe, even though we pretty much sat at the same table the entire semester, we never really said anything to eachother?

UNTIL one day near the end of the semester, in lab as mentioned, David asked me a question about our lab. Naturally, I lit up, and ensured to display my best smile. I think it worked. ;)

Well, we clicked, as friends of course. The unfortunate part it seemed is that both of us were dating other people at that time. I can specifically remember one awkward moment where both of us was with our other significant person standing outside Hale 1 (the girl's dorm, where all the couples stand around to say goodbye for the night) and I thought to myself....this is totally wrong! I should be with David, not this guy. And he should be with me, not her!

There was honestly no jealousy going on here, just a knowledge that I was supposed to be with David. But how could that happen? Even if I made myself single, who's to say he wouldn't end up with that other girl anyways?

It seemed unlikely, but I just KNEW I had to at least give it a try. And if I do say so myself, I was quite courageous to make myself single and available, and wait with great patience to see if what I thought was right was really right. There were times when I was doubtful and almost sure I was totally crazy. I mean, who waits for a guy who is already committed to someone else? A crazy person! But I just KNEW I had to do it.

And so I waited.

And waited.

And after displaying the patience of Job for several months, I finally started to receive confirmations that maybe I wasn't so crazy after all. There were many bumps along the road, from the time that we finally expressed that we both felt the same way until we married. And those things will be a story for some other day...

But for now...I just have to say that after six months of marriage, I have received confirmations time and time again that David is the person I know I am supposed to be with, and I am so grateful for him and everything that he does for me. He supports me, encourages me, and sacrifices for my happiness. We will soon be parents, and I cannot wait to see David play the role as father, as I know he will be an amazing one.

I love you DAVID JOEL MEJIA. Happy 6 months!!

Hormones

Estrogen, progesterone, relaxin, hCg, testosterone just to name a few...oh the woes of being a woman! And a pregnant one at that. Are they all really necessary? Really?

They make me cramp, they make me break out, they make me hairy, they make me throw up, they make me more sleepy yet don't allow me to sleep well, they make my boobs bigger (please no! Anything but that!) and worst of all...they make me CRY.

I know it gets old using the whole hormone excuse every time I get emotional about something, but really, are a woman's hormones ever really normal? Are they ever just a flat line like a man's? Nope. The norm is a constant cycle of death. And if you do anything to change that...it's just worse. Go on the pill....hormonal changes.... Go off the pill...more changes. Get pregnant...experience the ultimate power of hormone changes!

All I have to say is that well, I guess there is a whole lotta good that comes from all these strange things happening in my body and I guess Heavenly Father was pretty smart to make out bodies pretty much work like magic, but when I meet him I might just have to ask him if there really wasn't any other way?

Because only heaven knows why.

Quesadilla

Today I did something I haven't done in a loooong time. Yep, I made myself a cheese quesadilla. And I am gonna tell you all about it. Why? Well first of all because a friend told me to write about my deep thoughts, and right now this cheese quesadilla is all that is on my mind. Secondly, I promised a friend ;) I would write a post. So here it is.

The last time I remember making a cheese quesadilla I think was when I was a freshman in high school.  I think that is what I usually made. Because in New Mexico two things you always have handy are tortillas, and cheese. You also always have some green chile stashed somewhere. So since I lived around the corner from the high school I would always go home for lunch a grill a nice, crispy green chile cheese quesadilla.

Now I live in Hawaii. And all that time between my high school years and now, I haven't really lived in a cook-a-quesadilla-whenever-you-want-friendly kinda place. College = Cafeteria. Philippines = NO REAL CHEESE and NO TORTILLAS. Hawaii = you can buy cheese and tortillas, but it will only cost you one of your arms so its better to just buy rice and a good ol' box of "frozen chicken thighs for frying" and use your imagination to make the chicken taste different each time you cook it.

But LUCKILY, now, I am pregnant.

And that means I have cravings for food I have not had in a long time, and a repulsive disgust for any food I have been eating the past six months. It also means I get to be a little spoiled. We would normally NEVER buy tortillas and cheese here, especially because David hates tortillas and cheese (how could it be? I wonder this every day) so I prefer that we buy something we both like (until now!)

So yes, I enjoyed very much my quesadilla, although it was lacking green chile (a whole other impossibility in Hawaii). And I look forward to the future of other forgotten foods from my past that I am sure I will be remembering sometime in the next couple months.