Happy 4th of July!

As I have mentioned in some of my last post hiking is one of our favorite things to do here in Hawaii. There are several reason why we enjoy it so much...1. IT IS FREE!!! This is a huge bonus for us here since everything is expensive and our funds are always running on the low side. 2. It is good exercise and fun at the same time. 3. It is beautiful. We have climbed tall mountains with a view, hiked in the wooded straight paths just enjoying the greenery and one of our favorite types of hike is a waterfall hike. We like to jog on the way and then jump in the cold water after we are nice and warm. There is a beautiful water fall hike in Pearl City where we live, Waimano Falls. Last week we brought my youngest brother Andrew and his friend Felix and my mom to this hike. The waterfall was way stronger than usual due to the rain. I will be posting pictures soon of that hike. Oh yea by the way they are all staying with us for almost a month on their summer vacation.

We have been wanting to do this one hike in particular pretty much ever since we first arrived on the island. It is called stairway to heaven or Haiku Stairs and it has that name for a very good reason....

It is almost 4000 steps up the side of the mountain. One of my previous post I showed some pictures from a hike called KoKo head and it is only 1000 steps and is a pretty intense hike so needless to say I was a little worried about all those steps.

Landry and I have been waiting for a good day when we were both off work with no plans and we really wanted to hike it with some friends. The more the merrier on this type of adventure. OH YEA...I forgot to mention this hike has been shut down and is illegal to hike. Which makes it a little more of an adventure. It is not dangerous, I have mostly just heard that there has been lots of complaints from the surrounding neighborhoods about the noise level so they closed it down. So you have to get to the trail before the security guard shows up.
So my brother Andrew, his friend felix, Justin Jones(a friend from church), Ron(one of my co-workers) and Landry and myself all met at the wal-mart parking lot last night at 1 am to go on this hike. Landry and I both worked yesterday and were planning on taking a nap before we met up, but my excitement kept me wide a wake.
We got to the trail around 1:30 and parked our car on the street in a neighborhood. Right when we got out of the car a lady yelled out her window....I am trying to sleep! So we quieted down and headed up the dark service road with our backpacks full of snacks and water and our head lamps on. We knew how to get to the service road but not how to find the stairs so we spent the first 45 minutes getting our legs nice and warmed up as we stumbled around in the dark looking for the trail.
We had heard that the guard gets there at 2am and we thought he was gonna be there and we weren't going to be able to go. But luckily no guard was there and the long hike began around 2:30 am. It was pitch black and I could only see the steps right in front of me with the light of my head lamp. The nice thing about this hike is there are rails on either side to help pull yourself up with. But of course in the middle of the night they were pretty wet and the steps were pretty slippery.

 

Some necessary, thug poses in one of the buildings we stopped in on the way up.

 

 We arrive at the top around 4:15 am and it was Cold and Windy. People had told me it was cold up there, but I just thought in my head yea cold for Hawaii is probably not really that cold, right? But they weren't joking it was cold and we were determined to wait at the top until the sun came up around 6 am to see the view. Landry had text Justin to tell him he might want to bring a long sleeve, but he didn't get the text so he wore shorts and short sleeves and he was freezing. The smartest member of our group was Ron, with two pair of socks and jeans and a long sleeve shirt and a jacket.
When the sun finally came up we could not see anything!!! We were so high up we were in a cloud and we had to climb down quite a bit to get a clear view.

The view finally started to show through the clouds.

Beautiful mountains above the H-3 highway.

The steps were really steep at some points.

Ron

Justin and Landry

Felix and Andy

Landry and Me

The Crew...

We came home and crashed half of the day and then we are headed out to see some fireworks tonight. Happy 4th of July.

The Blessing of Friendship

   A year and a half ago I married an amazing man whose personality is very opposite of mine in many ways. Landry is one of the most friendly, outgoing people I know. On the other hand I have a rather introverted personality. If we were both put into a big room of strangers, I would feel very uncomfortable and maybe meet one new friend to make the time pass. Where as Landry would come out knowing everyone's name and something about each person and he would love getting to know new people. So I am figuring out that God had more than one reason he matched us together. God knew I like to stay in my comfortable bubble and not reach out BUT that is not possible being married to Landry. At church Landry always goes to the front to talk with whoever goes forward whether he knows them or not and whether the church has 100 members or 1200. I always think in my head someone else will go,because it makes me uncomfortable which is a really bad Christian attitude. Luckily for me that attitude has been broken over and over again as Landry drags me to the front. I have learned from him that it is NOT about ME! Who cares how I feel it is about making other people feel loved and cared about.
   Since moving to Hawaii God smashed my bubble. We came here knowing no one but each other and if we wanted to make friends I had to reach out. It was not hard here though as I have said before the church we attend is so welcoming and loving to new comers. Since it is a mainly military congregation and is use to lots of turnover. Some of our friends, Justin and Sarah Jones, just left last week and they really taught me how to be a friend. They invited us over for dinner right after we met and it made me feel instantly closer to them. While I was looking for a job I had a lot of alone time on my hands. Every week Sarah would text me and invite me to hang out with her and her 1 year old daughter or a group of moms that get together and it made me feel included and took my mind off of finding a job. She taught me how to open up and let people in. I have learned a lot about how to be a friend in the last 5 months. You can be a friend to someone no matter what your differences are. I have learned a lot from people of different ages than me, women with kids and different backgrounds.
  
 Last week Caleb and Heather Kersey came to visit us and we had so much fun reuniting with them. I lived with Heather for a little while and Landry and Caleb have been friends since college. We have a lot of fun hanging out with them as a couple. We had so much fun showing them around and catching up on whats been going on with them since we left Nashville. After they left last Sunday in church I was reflecting in my head and thanking God so much for their friendship. I thought what a great gift from God friendship really is.

So here are some things I am learning about being a friend:

*Stepping out of your comfort zone to make new friends is really worth the risk.
*You never know how much your friendship will mean to someone.
*You get more back than you put in usually.
*I need to think less about how I feel and more about how others feel.
*Opening up your home to people is a great way to break down barriers and to make everyone feel comfortable.
*I am so thankful God gave me a husband that shows me how to be a friend daily.

Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

The New Girl

I have been really bad about keeping my blog up to date, though I often think of things in my head to write down they seem to never make it out of my brain and onto the page. We have now lived in Hawaii 4 months and it is starting to feel less like an adventurous, vacation and more like where we live and work. Speaking of work after this week I will have been working at my new job for a month. I finally got a job as a tailor for Men's Warehouse. Moving here I knew it would be a big lifestyle change, but I didn't think about how much I would have to change. I have been outside my comfort zone way more than I thought I could handle before moving here. Starting my job as the "new girl" reminded me of how uncomfortable it is to starting out in a new place. You feel like everyone is watching you, especially in my field where they are making sure you can actually do your job right and not mess up someone's clothing. It is stressful trying to make a good impression and let people see your true self. But I am so thankful to be done interviewing and job searching since that is probably my least favorite thing to do and we are so grateful to have a second income to help out with the high cost of living here. I am learning that good relationships are so important in the work place. If you can learn to care about the people you work with it makes the day so much better and even when you feel like your job is meaningless the people make it worth while. I definitely experienced this in my last job. Me and my co-worker, Gloria became best friends over the 2 years we worked together. We had several differences....she is around the age of my mom, she is from another country and English is her second language, we have different religions and backgrounds, but I learned so much from her. She taught me an amazing amount about sewing, but more importantly she taught me how to work hard and she always wanted to push me to be better. I miss her so much, especially starting a new sewing job. I am praying that I can be a friend to my coworkers and we can help each other out when working gets hard.

Now to the good stuff...my off days with my husband!! A couple weeks ago we went to this place called Shark's Cove on the north shore.

It is a really good place for snorkeling. You climb down a rocky area and into the shallow water. Then when you swim out it opens up and is about 10 feet deep and crystal clear with tons of beautiful fish.

A pretty nice place to catch some rays:)!

There are a bunch of little shallow pools of water that we walked around in and you could see the fish swimming around your feet. 

In florida, we always seem to find starfish, but here we have never seen one so I was really excited that we found this little guy. I looked online on how to preserve it. We soaked it in alcohol for 2 days and then you are supposed to bleach it white, but it turned out to be a pretty orangish red color so I decided to keep it natural.

Then we found the most beautiful tree swing on the other side of the water. You can swing and look out at the beautiful ocean so cool!

Okay okay the last picture of the day....I LOVE TURTLES! Everytime I see one I go crazy and make Landry dive down and try to get a picture with me beside it haha!

 

ALOHA!! 

Aloha!

  We live for Landry's off days here in Hawaii. Landry works crazy retail hours, which include late nights sometimes and pretty much every weekend since those are his best hours to get sells. When we lived in Nashville I went part time after we had been married a couple months just so we could actually see each other during the day. It was one of the best decisions we made. I worked 10 less hours a week but we gained so much more time together. We tried to plan it and get almost every off day off together. So pretty much all week long we would plan as to what we were going to do on our off day.
It is the same way here, but our adventures are a little more exciting! I am currently still unemployed which is another story for another blog coming soon, but that means I am counting down all the time for the next day that Landry is off with me!
  Last Thursday was Landry's day off and we took surf lessons!!! We absolutely loved it!!! We bought a groupon for a two hour lesson but somehow they accidentally over booked it. There was supposed to be 4 people with the 1 instructor but we ended up having 6. So 2 people were gonna have to wait on the beach for an hour and a half and then go. Landry and I gladly volunteered! We surely didn't mind sitting on the beach on a beautiful, sunny day and plus that meant a private lesson. Which normally would be outrageously expensive here, but we only paid 35 bucks for 2 hours(man do we love groupons). The instructor holds the back of your board and tells you when to start paddling and when to stand up and also gives you a huge push which really helps out. But we were just catching a wave paddling back in and catching another one over and over again since it was just the two of us. I am afraid this whole surfing thing could be addicting. Do I really need to get a job here?? Unfortunately, yes! We are planning on renting some surf boards next week and giving it a go on our own. The rentals are only around 7-10 dollars an hour so its not too bad.
  So, what else has been going on in our lives?? Well we have now been here almost two months which is a little crazy. But it is starting to feel more like home. We have a bunch of miss match furniture all donated to us from people at church, which is a huge answered prayer. We really didn't want to buy a bunch of furniture that we are gonna have to try to sell before we leave and lose a bunch of money on probably. But God has continually been faithful to us! We did buy two pieces of furniture from salvation army, a desk for my sewing machine and craft supplies. Which I am currently painting bright, beachy colors to hide the ugliness haha. Also we got a tv last week, we still don't have cable but we just have been streaming netflix which is good enough for us. So our tiny 515 square foot apartment is not fancy by any means, but it is home. We are taking things day by day and trying to enjoy the simple life. No kids, no house, no huge responsibilities just the two of us enjoying each other and enjoying life.
  Another new thing for us is helping with the youth group at our church here. Most of our friends know that Landry had an interview with a church in Columbia, TN about 6 months ago for a youth ministry position. Obviously it didn't work out for us, but our pray was for whatever God wanted to happen to happen. So we were dissapointed but we knew God's plan is always better than our plan. Then we began praying hard for this Hawaii thing to work out and when it did we knew God's plans were way different than what we thought they were going to be in Columbia. As I have said before the church we attend here is 95% military families. Which also means it is continually changing families move every couple of years and new families come. Well along with that Elders, Deacons and other vital members have to move and be replaced. A lot of people from church are leaving this summer and new positions are needing to be filled. So we have been asked to start helping with the youth group now and if things go good take it over this summer. God is so good. His plans are ALWAYS better than ours. It is so difficult to see when you want your plan and you want it now. But I trust in him and I know that he always leads me to where he needs me to be in his time. He has proven this to me time and time again yet still my faith is weak and sometimes I try to do things on my own.

My prayer today is a prayer for trust and greater faith in my Creator. He created all things and has a purpose for my life. Most days I feel clueless as to what his plan for me is, especially as a struggle to find the job I want here. I pray that I can completely trust that he has a plan for me. Lord, help me to remember that it is less about me and more about you!
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know that plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for GOOD and not for evil, to give you a FUTURE and a HOPE.
Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who LOVE GOD ALL THINGS Work Together for GOOD.

Koko Crater Railway Trail

Our first of many mountains to climb was Koko crater it is an interesting hike because of the history behind it. You climb up old railroad tracks that where used in World War II. It was a very strenuous hike at one point it feels like you are just climbing straight up. At around the half way point Landry said, "next time I think we should come up it twice to get in better shape." I looked at him like he was a crazy man. Half way up I wasn't sure if I could keep going I sat down and got up real quick and felt so dizzy I thought I was gonna fall backwards down the mountain. Needless to say I should have probably started out with the beginner hike. I am so excited to be able to enjoy the outdoors year round here. What a blessing to be able to use God's creations to exercise. We are looking to buy a good trail map and going to try to hike all that we can while we are here. So any visitors get ready for a guided tour!:)

The view from the top as always was defiantly worth the hike up. We went back down the same way we came up, but a lady from church told me that you can hike around the crater on the back side, so we will have to try that next time!

Officially Residents.

The long search is over! One week seemed like a month of searching. We are now living in a high rise on the 14th floor right behind Landry's work. God is so good. Our very first day on the island we went by Verizon to look at the area and see if we saw any near by apartments. I saw two big twin towers directly behind it and said that's it Landry those would be perfect. We drove up to them and got in the security gate somehow and went into the lobby. The office manager told us first of all he is surprised we made it past security and second of all you have to find an individuals or a company to rent the apartments from. So we found a guy(Randy) on craig's list renting one out. We called him and set an appointment up to come take a look at it. We liked it but it was a little more than we wanted to spend and it was our first place to look at. We looked at 2 more places and at the end of the day we tried to call him and he didn't answer nor did he answer the following days phone calls or text. Two days later he text Landry and said he was trying to make a decision on who he wanted to rent it out to. That's how it goes here when you find one you want and tell them they say thank you I have to show some more people and then I will make a decision. There are so many people trying to rent places here because its so expensive to buy that the renters actually just choose who they want based on who they like the most, stability, money, etc... Which is great for them, but stressful for renters. So for a whole week we kept going to appointments and either waiting to here back, getting denied, or not liking the area. Which was getting old and frustrating plus we are in  beautiful Hawaii and not working yet so all we want to do is go to the beach or do something fun. Landry kept joking everyday saying I know old Randy is gonna call us back. It was the one we wanted most. Some we found were cuter but just far away from work and since we only have one car here location is key. Finally on Monday Randy text us and said he was renting it out to some other people and we were sad. But we kept looking for other apartments in the same building and we put in a couple more applications in for other places that were pretty far away but we liked how they looked and the area. The next day Randy called and said the people he rented it to had some bad situation happen and they can't rent it and offered it to us. Crazy we of course said yes and met up yesterday morning and moved in! The apartment we saw and wanted from day one God gave to us! Walking distance to Landry's work, huge windows all around with a perfect view of Pearl Harbor on one side and mountains on the other and a washer and dryer which is rare here! Last night at church in our class our teacher said, do you thank God when you ask him for something or after he gives you an answer? Philippians 4:6,7  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with THANKSGIVING let your requests be known to God. And the peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. This is a verse I've read and heard several times but I always just thought it meant to not worry but instead to pray and God will give you peace. But our teacher pointed out that when we pray and ask God for something we should go ahead and thank him not wait for a result. We know God will provide for us what we need and thanking him in advance shows our faith and trust in him. I normally do not pray this way. As we were looking for apartments I kept praying to find one but I waited till he answered to say a prayer of thanksgiving. Today I pray that I can have a stronger faith that God will provide and I can praise him daily for what he has blessed me with today and what he will bless me with in the future.