some stuff...

Since I got some sort of stomach virus ON Michael's birthday, and he got the same thing two days later, his celebration dinner had to wait. So, last night we finally got all spiffed up...

(Ooh, too sexy!!)

and began the drive to a little town called Honoka'a.

Was a beautiful drive right at sunset...

Eating fire!

We went to a little Italian pizza place called Cafe Il Mondo.
(I know, it's a terrible picture, but I took it as we were leaving
through the open window of the moving car!)

Michael had met the owners at work a couple weeks ago and decided that's where he wanted to go for his birthday. It was excellent! He got lasagna (of course) and I got a Greek pizza...fabulous! It was a BYOW(wine) kinda place, so after we sat down, Michael walked across the street to the grocery store and found one bottle of Chianti...amazing! Because they were very busy when we first arrived, we chose to sit at the "bar" instead of wait for a table. It was actually a bar over-looking the dishwashing woman, and we had such a wonderful time talking to her...Violet, a retired school cafeteria worker, grandmother of five and great-grandmother of six(!) who is doing the job part-time just to get out. She was really such a joy to talk to in between eating and drinking. We had a thoroughly enjoyable evening!


This morning, after sleeping in a bit, we decided to watch our latest netflix movie, "Into the Wild." If any of you have seen it, you know the overload of emotions the end of the movie brought. Wow. Half-way through we were both thinking to ourselves how inspiring it was, and I even wrote down a couple quotes that really stuck out to me. At the end, however, I found myself crying and talking about all these different things the movie had brought up in me, most of which didn't even have to do with the idea or plot of the movie at all! It was very interesting and thought-provoking, and still inspiring. I definitely recommend seeing it, but consider yourself forewarned.


After the movie, we decided to drive up to Waimea before Michael had to go to work (at 1:30). We actually went because I thought there was this pumpkin patch/festival thing going on. After we got up there, however, we discovered it's not until tomorrow, but we decided to hang around for a bit anyway. We just walked around and found some beautiful things that I just happened to capture on film!

Perfectly-shaped tree with these beautiful red flower/leaves...

The flower parts up-close...

Crazy thistle-looking blossom...

My cute husband with the thistle-looking blossom... :)

Back home, this is right outside our condo building...
I guess it's Hawaii's version of changing leaves!

Speaking of changing leaves, the weather has definitely been changing over the past week or so. Certainly not cold, but a little cooler for sure, windy and grey mornings. It's been pretty grey all day today, I'm actually wearing one of the long-sleeved shirts I brought over with us for the first time since we've been here! It's interesting to see how the season is actually changing some.

One more thing, just to tell you how wonderful a husband I have...two days ago (Oct 23) Michael cooked an amazing dinner for me, and pretty much had it ready when I got home from work...Homemade meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn, and for dessert, brownies! He knew it would be a hard day for me; the 7th anniversary of my mom's death; so he made me some of my favorite comfort foods! I feel so blessed to have found such a caring, compassionate person to share my life with. I know I wrote a mushy love-note last week on his birthday, but I'm just bursting at the seams, and I'm not ashamed to admit to the world that I am in love with my husband!! <3

We hope you all are well and enjoying your lives on a daily basis. Would love to hear from you!

Daniel Thiebaut's

We had a great dinner last night! Good drinks, yummy food, and great atmosphere...

Here we are lookin' good!

Being sassy in some of my new clothes!

Aaahh...

Just some stuff...

• I celebrated my 29th birthday this past Wednesday. It felt pretty weird to not be around family and friends...kinda felt like just another day. We're going out to dinner tonight, though, to celebrate a little more properly. Here's to my last year in my 20's! Huzzah!
• We had a great time with Michael's family here in August. We tried to show them the stuff of Hawaii, and they seemed to all enjoy themselves as well! Although, Michael was a very sick boy the last few days of their stay...bad timing.
• I got to go to a conference/training for a program called Music Together in Oahu last weekend. It was totally awesome. We stayed at the same hotel the conference was in, and we had very looong days, but we were able to get out Saturday night and go to the mall...yeah for Old Navy and birthday money! I've come to appreciate the small things living on an island without every store at my immediate disposal. We went to dinner at a local place that night as well, and I got a piece of birthday mud pie...yumm! The actual training was really great, and I'm still processing a lot of it. I think I've come away with more personal things, than ideas to implement in my job, because I've realized how much I miss singing! And I mean really sing, not just in the car singing. We'll see where it all leads. If you're interested in learning more about Music Together, they have a great website.
  
• Speaking of work, I love my job! I'm getting to know my babies more and more each day, and I can see that they recognize me and are happy to see me and are trusting me more as well. The other teachers I work with are great too. On my birthday, instead of buying a cake for everyone to eat, they went to the healthfood store and bought me a huge yummy muffin, because they know me! It felt great being appreciated like that.
• Michael's job is going pretty good too. He is almost entirely working morning/day shifts which is awesome for us, so we can be together at nights now! There is a Kimo Bean in Kona, and his friend Jay just became the manager there. Michael is going to be working down there quite a bit from now on, which is also great for us to carpool together! He likes working down there as well.
• I'll post some pictures soon...we're pretty backed up! I don't even know which ones to put on first!
• "Yesterday is history, tomorrow's a mytery, today is a GIFT!" Enjoy your day...