No, I haven't forgotten...

...that I have a blog. My life has just settled down so well into a fairly predictable routine that there's not much to write about. Life without the day-to-day inclusion of my kids and grandkids is much more interesting than living here. Life here has become so predictable that it could almost be described as boring. I know - bored?!?!?! in Hawaii?!?!?

Well, the house is finished. With the help of my fun buddy Robert we got all the drywall mudded taped and painted, moldings hung and walls sealed. The critter population inside the house has dropped to nearly zilch. Now I find myself having to be motivated to do more work since the necessities are done. Now I'm into the "projects". I just made some nest boxes under the house for the chickens to lay in should they decide to use them. I have to clean up the banana patch and do lots of other yard work (which is pretty grueling in the summer sun/heat). The folks want to continue on their raised garden project but the jungle has to be whacked back first.

I do have a nice social life, thankfully, since if I didn't I'd probably be pretty anxious to get home. But I have a single friend that shares my need for company. And then we have a few couples that always include us. At a recent time at a Mexican Train game at a posh hotel in Princeville one of the friends said that we're a clique. I guess that's about right. We do all associate with others too, though. I feel free to drop in on my friends, married or not, here on Kauai. The island lifestyle is much slower and relaxed so a drop in is usually welcome.

I don't have an income but my friends are all aware of my financial need and find little things for me to do for a few bucks here and there. I gave one some computer lessons. I do house-sitting. I sell my photos. Whatever.

A couple weeks back my 8th grand baby came into the world. Colson Thomas Vanderville was born to Dane and Chelsea in Arizona. Only the 2nd birth I missed, Shayne came early while I was visiting here 9 years ago. But Rach and I are planning a trip to see the new family member in October, already got tickets. I'll be visiting Auburn then so we'll just cram a quick trip in while I'm already there.

This week back home our family kitty of 17 years finally died. I'm sorry it fell on Keith's shoulders to take care of it. Thankfully I have 2 kids right on my street to go over and help him out. We're all gonna miss our sweet Cookie but she had a spoiled 18 years of life. I even held back from allowing any other cats into our home because of her tendency to be a victim. But now Keith is welcome to adopt a new kitty or two.

A fun thing I've been included in is being a tour guide and photographer for my friends' friends that come to visit. It seem I know our island better than my friends and enjoy the opportunity to shoot more of its beauty while I'm out on these ventures. Sometimes I get paid for my pictures of those friends. Something I could do as a business, hmmm.

My life is also involving spiritual activities moreso than it used to. That's a good thing. I'm getting out in service more, doing parts at meetings and helping with hall cleaning, etc. I even got on the list to do the cart work regularly! I get to sit beside a bike trail on the beach and smile and say hi to passers-by! What a workout!

It's not like nothing around here has happened. We lost a brother in March and he was put on ice til the family could all come over from Niihau about 3 weeks later. Then he was in an open casket. He looked awful. But Dad gave the talk and Eugene (the deceased's brother and dad's bible study) got to read out of the Hawaiian bible. There were so many pure Niihau Hawaiians, and they were like brick walls, they were huge! We had a new baby born, a newly married couple in the congregation and now have a new engaged couple. So lots of stuff going on but no one knows any of these people so the news in unimportant.

Mom's cat, Mr Cat I guess his name is, caught a bird recently and we all got on him, saved the bird and I thumped his nose. I think he now understands that we don't want those gifts any more. Instead now he's bringing in dead rats at night and leaving them in the middle of the kitchen floor. Dad then steps on them when he walks through the kitchen to go to the bathroom.

Mom got the cataracts removed from both eyes finally. She says she sees better than she's seen in years. When the latest eye heals she may not need glasses, at least not for now. Her health has sure turned for the better. Since their surgeries last fall they're both doing so well.

So I'll try to blog the big things. Maybe some interesting pictures. Maybe I'll make one about our beach antics. I actually got to try paddle boarding! I should share that! maybe...

Whoa!

A whole month without blogging! Well, it's mostly just day-to-day stuff going on so, yeah.

The work around the house is coming along nicely. The house is almost completely finished inside! Just gotta get a plumber in here somehow so that can get done and we can move on...

I have a nice group of crazies that I get to hang with at least one night a week. We have a moon party every full moon, so far the weather has cooperated. Once we had the event at one of their houses and it just wasn't the same. We're gonna stick with the beach for the moon risings. This time we had music, a fire pit and the usual finger food, wine and beer. There was a total of about 15 of us, including some visitors from the mainland.

The weather has been decently cool. I've even worked outside during the day without sweating! That's saying a lot! And last week the nights dropped into the upper 50s, we had to add another layer and warmer pjs to our sleep routine. we also had a couple storms that flew through. One lasted only a couple hours, while the folks were in town and I was home alone. Yeah, we had buckets of rain but it was the wind that was impressive! The gusts were downright scary!

The folks are all healed from their surgeries. They both accomplished what they were meant to. The only thing that didn't work out was that Dad managed to get shingles just as he was healing. That isn't going away as quickly as his recuperation went!

We sure have a lot of power outages here! 1/1 our power went out just after midnight and was out for about 5 hours while we slept. The strange thing was that the WHOLE island went out!

We had the best baby shower ever last weekend. It was mostly done by the dad and granddad! We played games but it wasn't the typical gaggy baby shower games. We all sat and ate and then our tables were our teams and we played games as teams. Our table came in 2nd nearly every time! We would win funny money and after the games were done we had (click the link!) an auction for prizes! That way we got what we wanted, not just what we won!

So now it's whale season, I only saw a splash so far. But Rach is coming in a month and we'll hopefully go on a whale watching trip! I hope it's as good as the one I did last year, that was superb!

At this rate I guess it's safe to say: "See you next month!"

Synchronized Surgeries!

This sure has been a busy couple weeks! First Mary's visit and the convention and all the house-sitting and airport shuttling. Then the folks both managed to get their long-needed surgeries, which had to be done on Oahu, scheduled simultaneously!

I dropped them at the airport early Monday morning. Once on Oahu dad's classmate, Arthur, picked them up and shuttled them to mom's hospital, Straub. She had her pacemaker installed without any problems and immediately after she could feel a difference - instead of dragging around with a pulse in the 40's she was more energetic and alert with a more normal pulse in the 60's.

Dad has a bunch of funny stories regarding his prostate surgery that was performed at Queen's hospital, 4 or 5 blocks from Mom's hospital. One that was particularly entertaining involved the test he had to have to determine that he truly needed the surgery that was schedule for the next day. He was told it was going to be an ultrasound - NOT!!! It was a tube that was inserted that showed the enlarged prostate and blocked urethra and the full bladder behind all that, not quite the simple ultrasound he was expecting!

Apparently they were quite the couple at the airport. They both had to be pushed around in wheelchairs so they had a captive audience. Mom is usually the one cracking jokes and being a little too open with the details but this time it was more Dad! But everyone seemed interested and got a big kick out of it, they even shared the stories with other airport personnel so they had a forewarning about the couple at gate 59!

So now that they both got their fixes we'll see how things go, hopefully we'll see some improvement for a while...

"Free" Day

Without the parents at home, anyway...

So, what did I do?






I washed all the noni juice containers

Did a load of dishes










Did a load of laundry (that includes hanging it!)

Painted half the kitchen ceiling and caulked a crack in the plywood

Painted some of the strips that will go on the kitchen ceiling

Filled 10 noni juice bottles

And now - - - - 


It's time for a BEER!



Oh yeah - I wrote this blog!

Mr. Mason...

...Vanderville, that is! Yep, grandbaby #6 entered the world this past Thursday morning just before 4 AM.

Nothing about the labor and delivery was easy, it was long and hard. 32 hours total with 3 of those hours pushing and a couple of them sleeping to prepare for the next round of pushing. The midwife was at the end of her abilities and suggesting a c-section. But first she suggested they consult with a doctor.

In walks this very large, butch woman, with a short, chunky haircut, Dr. Jolly! She was totally no-nonsense. The first thing she did was remove some of the membrane that was blocking access to the baby's head. Then she managed to turn the baby as Chelsea pushed and it worked! He was born! I just think it's mildly ironic that the midwife was heading for a c-section and then the doctor managed to get it done natural.

Chelsea said that nurses and midwives that visited after the birth all gave her kudos for getting the deed done. Good job, Chelsea!

Little Mason weighed 7 lbs 11.5 oz and was 20.5 inches long. Just a nice size. He had an understandably cone-shaped head that seems to already be gone after only a couple days.

So the family's home now, finally able to get some sleep and working on the whole nursing thing.

But don't blink! He'll be a year old just that fast!

Next up - grandbaby #7!

Hey, Look! A Mustang!

That became our mantra while on Kauai.

The mantra began when, last year, Rick noticed so many mustangs being rented by the tourists, and many of them convertibles. It begins to be funny once you notice, in tourist areas it's like nearly every third car is a mustang!

This year I had a different partner for my annual trip to work on my parents' house on Kauai - my "darter", Rachyl! And being that this was her first trip I got to be tour guide once again! Yay! When I go just to work I don't get to enjoy the island, but a partner is an good excuse for a few lazy days.

So after our arrival, our lunch at Costco with the folks, picking up supplies at Walmart and Safeway we hung around the house for most of the rest of the day. Nearer sunset I became antsy and decided Rach and I should check out a couple local sights. So we drove into Kilauea to check out the lighthouse overlook and then a quick trip to a new favorite of mine, Kahili beach. By the time we walked down to the water Rach was pretty much worn out so we went back to the folks' and vegged.

Rach was there for a total of 9 1/2 days and we managed to fit a lot into those days. We had a nice time, although the heat was extreme, it's the hottest year I've experienced since my first visit back on '04. Poor Rach learned about life in Hawaii in some of the worst weather conditions! Fortunately our car had really good air conditioning and the folks even turned on their AC from time to time.

Most of the sights were repeats of those I've seen in the past but whenever possible we did something slightly different. Like Polihale Beach. Instead of turning right at the big tree, we headed left toward the Queen's pond. It's a a shallow pond with a sandy bottom surrounded by a protective reef, the only safe place to swim in that stretch of beach. We had planned to watch the sun set there at Polihale, like I've done a couple times before. But we got there a little early, ate our dinner and had to turn away from the water so as to not get blasted by the sun as it was going down. It wasn't very enjoyable, so we got back in the car and headed back toward civilization. We were driving along the highway and noticed a truck turn down a dirt road toward the ocean so I pulled over to see what was out there. There were a few cars and a big tent, it was an unmarked beach park. So I flipped a quick yooey (sp?) and we parked. There was a group of young folks doing some jumping photos, they seemed to be having fun. We walked down the beach past them and waited for the sunset, which would be much sooner since we killed some time driving. It turned out to be an amazing place to shoot one of the most perfect sunsets I've seen on Kauai. There were just enough clouds and Lehua Island, off the coast of Niihau, was the perfect subject to have in the foreground! Thanks for mixing things up Rach, it was perfect!

One afternoon we tried to get a parking spot in Princeville to go to the Queen's bath (apparently Queen Emma liked the water...) and found the 10 or so parking spots filled and at least 3 cars just waiting for a spot to open up. So I decided we could come back another day, earlier in the day so as to possibly find parking easier. So that's what we did and it turned out to be - by far - the BESTEST visit I've ever had there! We parked (a huge feat in and of itself!), the lava rocks we had to walk over were not sizzling, the pond was clear, warm and nearly devoid of visitors! After we got our fill of snorkeling and fish viewing we sat for a while and watched the sea turtles a few yards down the rocks toward the trail.

Mom's chicken gang is healthier, happier and more beautiful than I've ever seen and her tomcat, NMC (not my cat) or Chester or Ono or She (since mom insists on calling him a her) was at least as lovable as last year, if not moreso. He made a bird mess nearly daily, thank goodness the dove supply appears to be virtually endless.

We saw so much: Makauwahi cave, Shipwreck beach, Ke'e beach, Waimea pier, Waimea canyon, Kalalau valley, Opaekaa and Wailua falls, Salt Pond beach, Ahukini pier, Ninini and Kilauea lighthouses, Hanalei Bay & pier, the park at the end of Kuamoo Road. We ate lunch, sat in the water and watched the oama fishers at Anini Beach, watched the sun rise at Aliiomanu park and went to the Smith's Luau. We had a breakfast at Kountry Kitchen and a dinner at Hanalei Gourmet. And had our traditional dinner at Duke's on Rach's last day...

We did manage to squeeze in some work at the folks' house. We got the supplies for a bookshelf, mudded, taped, painted the wall behind it, then built, installed and filled it. It came out beautiful and now they want them built all over that whole wall! We also cleaned up the garden on the front of their house. After Rach left I had a couple large projects and lots of little ones. I set up an outdoor sink, table and cabinet for mom to be able to work at while seated and on the cool side of the house, so cleaning and bottling their noni juice will be easier. And there was a new desk for dad waiting to be put in place and the completion of the corner where the bookshelf went so well that I suggested that, while we were tearing up dad's corner anyway, maybe I could get the drywall hung, mudded, taped and painted all simultaneously. It really displaced dad for a few days but I think, in the long run, he's happy we got it done. Now he has the nicest spot in the house!

The best big surprise for me was the impossible luck of getting an empty seat next to me on the flight home for the third time, seat 9E was empty, I was in 9F, and a beautiful, clear night to see Seattle from the air. For a time now I'll be going back more often, it's time their house was done, it's been 9 years already!

Another Big Job Done!

This time it was the school library inventory!  I mentioned it in a previous blog but now it's done and it's a relief!  Actually, we all enjoyed it a lot.  The four workers - Danette, a 40ish mother of 3, Kelly, a 53 year old grandma and wife of a disabled husband (so she works 3 jobs), Anita, a 60-something grandma and author of devotional books and myself - all were the right kind of person for this job.  We're all self-motivated and detail-minded.  We all got a lot of satisfaction from doing a good job and seeing the final result.  The libraries ranged from just short of 13,000 to 26,000 items and we accounted for at least 98.5% of those items every time.  Each school was completed in 2 days.  We started in early February, took one week off for mid-winter break and just this week did our final school, the one right here in my neighborhood, Lake View.  

So on Tuesday I was able to see one of my grandsons, Hunter, as his preschool class had their library time...

We managed to wear out our little scanners, they're not used to the intense and constant use and most needed some repair by the time we were done.  And our bodies are sure relieved to be done - they'll be needing some repair as well! (all the shelves sit on the floor so at least 1/3 of the time we were down on our behinds or at least bent over...)

So I got another little chunk of extra money.  This time to pay for my trip to Kauai, get my mom's sweet 16 ring repaired and, I think, maybe a new laptop!  

The Evolution of a Photographer

I've always been interested in photography. I remember as a teen living on Alakoko St wanting to take a picture of "fire and ice". I didn't know how I could do it so I don't think I ever even attempted it. All we had were instamatic-type cameras and I think I must have realized that that type of camera just wouldn't do the job. I know I wanted to do it in the dark, have the fire shining through the ice, or something like that.

Eventually I got myself a 35mm camera from a pawn shop and took Rachyl's senior pictures for High School. I was finally able to play with a camera. But in the same limited way that everyone could during the film camera era. It was a cheap camera and had a limited life with my gang. 

So in about 2000 I took the kids on a trip to the coast, hiked the entire Dungeness spit and visited the lighthouse at the end. I borrowed my Mom's 35mm camera and was so excited about the pictures I hoped I was getting. I recall having to reload the camera with film as we picnicked at the lighthouse. On the way back to the mainland I took lots of pictures. At one point I accidentally left the camera sitting on a piece of driftwood and Dane and I had to hike back at least 1/2 mile to retrieve it! Then, later that evening, after having the kids pretend to be scaling a cliff face while I lay on the ground to make it look like they were quite a bit above my head, then sunset shots and Keith taking pictures of a slug it suddenly occurred to me that we should be running out of film. I always had a hard time reading the film indicator numbers. Turns out that when I inserted the film it never caught on the wind-up spindle. I got NO shots of our visit to the lighthouse, the long trek back, the kids "climbing" the cliff and the sunset. Agh! 

The next year I was introduced to digital photography via another borrowed camera for a trip to Yellowstone. I was thrilled to be able to take tons of pictures and not have to worry about processing costs! It was not a great camera and my inexperience got even more in my way and some of the most important shots got bungled. 

I, again, bought a used camera, this time off ebay. I chose an Olympus because that's what Mom's camera was and it took great pictures. It was a 2 megapixel digital camera but I enjoyed the freedom of shooting a whole day's worth of shots and then only need to upload them to my computer to be able to view them. And EDIT them! Picture It was awesome! 

When I was preparing to head to Hawaii for the first time in 30 years I had the funds to buy myself something brand new so I got the same kind that a co-worker had bought and fallen in love with, a Canon Powershot. He was right, the camera was perfection! On our last day in Hawaii I drowned it under a waterfall and had to go back to my Olympus. But the pictures were safe on my parents' computer and on the memory card. 

That's about the time that people started commenting on my pictures. I overheard a person in line behind me at the store raving about the nice pictures, she had been peeking over my shoulder. Then a friend's relative told me they should be post cards or calendar shots. Hmm... 

A couple years later I decided to splurge the big bucks on a brand new DSLR and a class. 

I went kinda overboard with my photography, I loved it so much! And then Rick and I had that in common so it was even easier to overindulge. 

Right now we're in a bit of a slump. We had a downer autumn. But my family keeps me shooting, I've become the family photographer. I get requests for maternity, newborn, engagement, anniversary, etc.

I particularly enjoy shooting "outside the box", in this case meaning not your average poses and scenery. I had an idea for my granddaughters, I wanted an old-fashioned tea party shot. Rach and I got together to do it and it came out PERFECT!! 

Rick and I had been toying with the idea of joining a photo club and finally did when he signed on with Boeing, we joined their club that meets on Wednesday evenings. We've been going for about the last 6 weeks. 

For me it was a bit discouraging. They have a judging and then a critiquing session for all the weekly entries. Well, my stuff was all getting judged basically mediocre. While I don't consider myself an outstanding photographer I also didn't think my work was "mediocre". Last night was print night, meaning that our pictures were to be printed and presented on some kind of mat. I chose my picture for the night but also decided to include a copy of my little Tea Party granddaughters' picture since I had it available, I had printed new copies for the moms since the first ones came out rather dark. Well, my chosen shot again came in at a mediocre score but my Tea Party girls was a big hit! I was shocked and thrilled! They told me I should be a portrait photographer, if I wasn't already. 

So, wow! I'm happy to finally have some recognition from other photographers. Only problem is: from here it's all downhill...

The Blog Void

Yeah, I haven't blogged in a while... What can I say?

I was working full time, as I mentioned in a previous blog. I didn't know just how badly I didn't want to work full time. It actually put me in a depression. When I was single and working full time I had weekends and evenings to do as I pleased in social and spiritual pursuits. Then I flip-flopped and had my weekdays for those same pursuits. But when I became employed full-time and married my weekends were spent with THAT GUY. You know, Rick? He's not causing the problem, it's just the whole "being married" thing.

So now the job is done and I have the time to get back to all these other things I spend my part-time employment free time doing. Working on photography things, family things, I can get back to spiritual things, etc.

While it wasn't what I wanted to do I'm glad I had that time working. I was able to earn some of the money we needed for what Rick wanted to give his daughter as a college graduation gift - a trip to Europe!

So since ending my job at the Auburn bus barn office I've done a little babysitting, gathered some materials for my next family photo session involving 2 little grand-daughters, put together a 2013 calendar and bought the tickets for our upcoming trip. Once the tickets were purchased and finding out that the country we're visiting is having a huge tourism year planned (no doubt to boost their economy) I've been busy looking up places to visit and sights to see so I can plan out a route (we'll be doing a ROAD TRIP!!!) so I can reserve rooms and special tours or dinners or whatnot. Our trip is planned for June and some of these things are already selling out, believe it or not!

As yet we've not told Sarah where we're going so I'm not free to share that in any vaguely public forum. But Rick will be spilling the beans soon so I'll be able to share. Stay tuned!

December 15 was a big day that deserves mention. There were 3 events. 2 were both of our parents' anniversaries. My parents celebrated their 50th and as much as I wanted to be there with some of my family I just couldn't handle the huge price tag on the December trip-to-Hawaii tickets! So we couldn't be there... Bummer. Well, we did help them get here for Dane's wedding in February so we shoulda just celebrated then!

For Rick's parents' anniversary we decided to buy them a new goof-proof computer that, as yet, hasn't become everything we've wished it to be. His mom would like to be able to use the computer and internet. But there were various factors in the way of that happening and we didn't know about all of them. We knew that his dad has a tendency to mess up the computer by accident, by doing simple things like not realizing he's holding the mouse button down and dragging things around. So the new computer fixed those issues. But it turns out that they also have a DSL modem that's about 45 years old. Try as we might we just can't get the internet to work properly. So today Rick ordered them a new modem as well. Hopefully all will be well ...

And last but certainly not least is that Shirley got baptized as a JW! I know that doesn't mean a lot to many of you but for Shirley that's a huge step! Those of us who are now her spiritual brothers and sisters are thrilled for her! Good going Shirley!

Catch-up Blog #3

Let's see, what's next? Ah... 

Family Day

I had a different kind of party planned this year.  I've seen twinkle lights set up in the yard as a ceiling over a nicely set table and decided that that's what I wanted to do this year.  That and I wanted to have a better meal and some nice gifts for everyone.  

Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad, eh?

The decorations looked great.  And the weather was unusually cooperative for a holiday weekend in the Seattle area!  Then I had help making up a 4 course Italian meal (American style Italian, that is...) which included Zuppa Toscana made by Shirley, then Caesar salad provided by Rachyl, I made manicotti, both a spinach and sausage type.  And lastly Dane and Chelsea brought 2 flavors of tiramisu.  Dale and Denny and Heather added the breadsticks and garlic bread that helped top off the meal.  We were all stuffed and had lots of left overs!  Oh yes, and wine, some nice Zinfandel wine from a box but served in decanters!

But the gifts didn't happen.  Understandable considering that my household was currently totally unemployed.  Kevin's and Rachyl's households did get me gifts, bless their little hearts!  But I was unable to reciprocate.

We managed to cram in a quick photo session that turned out well.  We used the picture frame idea and nearly every family did it differently:

We had a mysterious photobomber sneak in and out without anyone's noticing...

So, not 100% what I wanted from a party but very nice nonetheless.